I parked my car a half mile away from the apartment building, the
address messaged to Vergil while I stripped my clothes. In the dark
of an alleyway as best I could, not exactly a subtle action in the
middle of the city even at night in the rain, clothes tossed lazily
into my backseat. Lord sat up, front paws against the window watching
me do so while Barbie stood against a nearby wall.
Neither speaking up even as I explained, “Vergil will be here to
get Lord, he has a spare key for my car; don’t know if he’ll take
it. Barbie, you can go with him or try and follow me or… how does
the ghost thing work?”
“Complicated.”
“Everything about this is,” I muttered, rubbing my eye while I
looked around to make sure I’d gotten everything. Only my eyepatch
briefly forgotten as I slid it off and tossed it inside as well,
hands shaking a little as I told them, “wish me luck.”
A final look around to make sure no one was watching the random
nudist woman in the night, stepping farther back into the alleyway in
case anyone did start coming down the street, I began my
transformation. Spine cracking and launching me onto all fours while
I felt it start to lengthen into a tail, muscles burning and melting
on the bone, my eye blinking once to see the world as a wolf while my
other twisted on itself trying to become something it couldn’t.
My nails growing in length, thicker, sharper, harder, the bones of my
arms and legs breaking and twisting onto themselves just to heal
right after as they compressed tighter and tighter; calluses
spreading across my hands into soft pads. Every crack left in my ribs
and arm screaming in pain while they lengthened and compressed in on
themselves. My body hair growing longer, thicker, heavy fur across
toughening skin. Jaw dislocating, stretching, relocating, and
repeating until it had formed a long muzzle.
Everything becoming solid once more with a blessed clarity that
launched me into a howl despite myself. What fear I had for the idea
I was warning prey, risking someone investigating, put aside by the
feeling that this was a hunt.
Besides that, any half-one who came looking after the noise would not
find a wolf here.
I had been trained as well on four legs as I had two, and it only
took a few testing steps to remember my balance before I could launch
into a full sprint. Out of the alley, down the sidewalk and towards
the building, all pain in my side and foreleg ignored as I made my
way to the familiar parking lot.
Only slowing as I reached the door, a few truck still being loaded
with bodies while a cleaning crew worked. No one noticing me while I
stalked the dark, auburn fur creeping in the shadows between lights
while I sniffed at the ground. Oil, muck, the stink of the river, a
thousand footfalls of a thousand people, and blood of course.
Blood I was looking for, fresh on the air, a few specks washed away
by the rain barely visible to even me. The normal scents of a Purist
behind it, and confirming my target as I marked out its path.
Twisting around on itself, trying to avoid people while transforming
themselves — the slow process of most werewolves not trained well
as me — I nearly followed it back to the front door before
realizing my error.
Rain not helping, the scent growing harder to track by the minute,
though most of what was easily washed away had at least already done
so. Scents already long ago dulled covered worse and worse as more
mud and filth came over them. Only the fact I could still smell the
blood at the core of it keeping me from completely losing the scent
while the smells of a hundred thousand people’s life in the city
threatened to wash over the streets.
This had been so much easier in the forests and small towns I used to
haunt, and I hated the fact I knew that. I hated the fact they were
making me do this, I couldn’t just have a normal fucking night.
I hated the fact I could feel my heart starting to race and my
movements grow frantic.
The space between each sniff shorter and shorter, my pace quickening
as I longed to follow the trail, eye wide as I scanned the city. Near
dead in this section this late, I did my best to keep a little
distance from the few half-ones who walked the night and was rewarded
for it. For as large as a wolf was compared to most dogs, you gave a
street’s distance in the night and most people thought you a stray.
Maybe they’d call animal control or take a blurry video, I was sure
at least one couple stopped and pointed me out, but no one would ever
arrive to find me. By the time they did I would either be blocks away
again or have already found my prey, and I was ready for either.
The trail weaving between buildings, jumping over the railing of a
parking garage and cutting through to drop down into another
alleyway. Its weaving attempts at hiding turning to a desperately
straight path, over fences and cutting through areas still rather
busy with half-ones.
The blood carrying me into a cemetery, the woman stopping under a
tree for some time before carrying on with her scent dulled. Her
wounds somehow closed, harder to track somewhere so well trodden,
though her smell too well burned into me at this point to lose her.
Even as she did her best to navigate tombs and tombstones, slipped
and fell down a hill, her blood briefly fresh where she smacked her
head on one and laid a moment from the indent in the mud.
The spot making me realize just how far I’d gone; too for them to
have made the journey on two legs the first time, or at least done so
without reason. They’d been dressed when they’d shown up at the
apartment, they would have had to driven or been dropped off. Likely
their car in the parking lot, though if it wasn’t…
It’d explain a Purist running deeper
into the city if they had a safe house set up nearby.
The idea driving me on as I was near sprinting after her trail, a few
muddy footprints making the task easier. Only as I was approaching
the opposite edge of the cemetery another scent on the air caught my
attention.
A brief runaround, head low in the night, eye scanning the world, no
one else nearby I could see or smell. Only a whiff of silver on the
air holding me in place until I located the source in a broken chunk
of tombstone blown off by a bullet.
Richmond, much as I hated to admit it the idea of drunk teens
shooting guns in a cemetery wasn’t out of the question, but there
wasn’t a good excuse for it to smell like silver. The letters were
carved, no obvious metal detailing, which likely meant…
The Lady’s men claimed they lost track of the woman, maybe someone
else was on the trail.
My movements a little slower for a time, trying to identify any
common scents along the trail that told me how many were chasing her.
Only starting to formulate an answer when I was getting out of the
cemetery and came across the first of the bodies.
Ambushed, bite marks in his ankle and more in his neck, at least
three in wolf form ready to attack, the one I was chasing probably
still turned back to human. No friends with him, likely in the back
of a chase, more bullets marking stones, a gun left discarded, no one
caring about a half-one left to rot in the field.
They’d been in wolf form, the bites were too small and the kill too
clean for anything else, though I still couldn’t believe they’d
just left him in the field. Even in the Purists we mutilated the
bodies more, made sure they were hidden until the worst of the rot
took hold, hid what we could about who attacked. This was a
coordinated attack, genuinely a little impressive, with little in the
way of wasted strikes or wounds, and yet they didn’t bother hiding
it.
He’d also been attacked chasing someone away from the
apartment, which was making me question how many werewolves one
hunting pack needed. This was bordering on a Covenant of Purists
showing up, even if some stayed back, which I didn’t really think I
could take in a fight unless I got lucky and surprised them.
Even then I’d probably need to be an idiot to risk it.
Not like I was backing out now at this point though, and I continued
on following the trail while it was still a little fresh. A new
sprinkling of blood farther down the path refreshing the scent a
little, making it almost child’s play to follow out of the cemetery
and back into the city. Across a few more streets, the woman not even
bothering to tend to her new wounds, and towards a large brick
building.
Around the side into the alleyway, a large metal door there marked
with a splattering of bloody hand prints half-streaked by the rain.
Good enough sign for me as I continued to circle the building, head
low, pressed as tight to the bricks I could with ears raised and nose
working hard against the rain.
Multiple scents around the building, most of them Purist, a few other
bits and pieces of half-ones around it. Silver on the air, could have
seen that coming, barely hidden by old machines and rust stinking it
all.
Someone was screaming through a gag inside; the wheezing cry of
someone with one lung deflated. My paws silently carrying me up a
stack of rotting boxes, threatening to give out under my weight,
where I could look through the broken panels that spotted glass long
ago covered in too much grime to see through.
The inside of the building dimly lit by a small trash fire in the
middle of a large room, enough for my wolf eye to see those inside.
Two wolves pacing a circle around a man tied up on the ground, a
woman with short messily cut dark red hair sat on a chair nearby, a
man sat at her side finishing a few rough stitches.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Her nude body a bloody mess covering Purist tattoos, a bloody knife
nearby next to a few white hot silver bullets already turning to
liquid on the concrete floor. Eyes not leaving the man in front of
her until she finally leaned back and told the man beside her, “take
out his fucking gag.”
The man didn’t speak as he moved, feet tripping over each other as
he ran up to pull the gag out and let the man speak. An oil soaked
rag tossed into the fire with the trash as their prisoner coughed and
spat repeatedly onto the concrete.
Whoever they captured not waiting to be questioned before he
half-yelled, “look! You know, my bad, I think I got the wrong
wolf!”
“I think you got multiple,” the woman seeming to lead them
admitted, giving a laugh that made her wince in pain, “look, I was
expecting a fight from Hunter’s traitor bitch, but I didn’t go
into this expecting her to have every hunter in the city staying
nearby. I didn’t know better, I’d assume this was an ambush, so
you care to explain yourself at all?”
The man they’d captured grumbling while he twisted on the floor,
struggling against his bonds before he managed to sit up and admit
with a wheezing voice, “not a hunter, we got hired to kill the same
girl I’m pretty sure. I got a picture of her, told she might look
like a red wolf. Me and my partner — my partner and I —
were on our way to a location we got fed from our contractor when I
saw a red wolf running around the city. I mean, I knew about the
fucking werewolves but like… okay I figured you were rare, don’t
know a lot of red heads, blame me there. I wasn’t expecting to run
into a whole pack of you.”
I really wasn’t having a quiet night no matter what happened while
I was visiting Arthur was I? Though…
Well, all things considered, Percy probably had an easier time
dealing with the werewolves than he would have with someone using
guns. For all wrong with the Purists, they taught werewolves we were
above using human weapons, and I didn’t trust a mercenary to not
just shoot first.
The woman honestly looking more confused than anything at that as she
looked around and asked, “was I supposed to fucking queue in then?
Three my people got stabbed by one guy, some girl dressed like Red
Riding Hood shows up and shoots the rest of us and nearly kills me-”
“Ah fuck, Red beat me there?”
“You have a fucking group chat or something?! How was I supposed to
plan this out!”
“Privately hosted forum, some of us have a Discord but we keep work
stuff off there,” the man admitted a little too calmly. Only after
a long moment of uncomfortable silence adding on, “me and Red play
TF2 every now and then with some the others, it’s a whole thing.”
The silence that followed even longer until the woman finally
announced, “just fucking eat him.”
One of the wolves lurched forward and bit at the man’s leg, the
second grabbing his shoulder while I considered what to do only a
moment. What thoughts of he was about to try killing me and
probably Percy won out by the anger of her coming there in the
first place and wondering what I could get out of him alive.
Two in wolf form, one injured, they’d be relatively surprised…
This was a terrible idea.
My body crouched low, I let the transformation start taking hold and
leapt forward as I felt the first of the muscle building on my frame.
Boxes smashing below me, weight too much, my front legs through the
window while my hind legs smacked into the brick wall. Every eye in
the room on me while I continued to force my body into its hybrid
form, bones cracking and muscles growing while paws turning to clawed
hands dragged me fully into the building.
The crack of my body crashing into the ground enough to send a shock
wave of pain through my side and right arm. My instincts bringing me
to all fours before I could even process the pain of it, crouched
low, back to the wall while I let out a warning growl and took in the
sight before me.
Two wolves before me, one starting a slow shift into their hybrid
form, the woman on her feet but not trying to transform and her
companion starting his own. A slow process for one not trained as
well as me, and an opening I wasn’t about to let slip.
My body launched forward, teeth finding the throat of the wolf
attempting to transform, blood spurting in my mouth as I dragged them
into the air and bit down. Bones snapping under my teeth, a yelping
whine filling the air, my claws reaching up to grip them and-
My right arm stopped short, something in the bone and muscle refusing
to move more than halfway up. The ever struggle of holding hybrid
form a chord keeping whatever injury was keeping it from properly
healing just yet.
One claw still enough to grip the wolf around the waist, dig my teeth
in deeper, and rip as hard as I could. Meat and bone tearing,
straining, pulling under my grip until something popped and I let the
wolf drop to the ground. Not really caring if they died just yet,
that could be fixed later, but knowing they were at least too wounded
to fight for now.
The wolf was crouched low, trying to pretend it wasn’t cowering
with the weakest growl I’d ever heard. The man trying to turn into
his hybrid form most of the way there, his body easily tackled with
my full force as I tried ending this before the woman joined in or
the wolf became a threat.
His throat ripped, claws digging into his stomach, and he tried to
make his own assault back. The feeling of teeth digging into my
chest, claws into my back, until I sunk my fangs deep as I could in
one shoulder and managed to barely pin him with my right hand on his
chest. Bones grinding on teeth, one arm pinned half in the air and
his own fangs struggling to reach me, my free arm digging into the
weak flesh of a stomach still trying to grow thick fur.
Organs and muscle twisting and turning around my claws and arm, still
trying to transform, whatever I could ripped out done so. The feeling
of something pouncing on the back of me only vaguely felt alongside
the feeling of a wolf’s teeth failing to clear through fur and
skin. Bites too weak, too fearful, like they didn’t even know how
to properly hunt while I ignored the claws in my chest and continued
tossing guts and organs behind me. The taste of a prey’s blood on
my tongue and meat in my hands too beautiful to care even when it
felt like either caused a proper wound.
One beating muscle gripped in my hands, wrenched free with hardly a
struggle and held free with a growl. The form under me finally
growing still, the urge to rip my teeth into the flesh, let his soul
be gone for good forced back with a chucking of the meat into the
fire. My eye drawing up to where the woman had been and-
Gone, a door nearby wide open and the remaining wolf and I seeming to
realize the fact at the same time.
The wolf not even bothering to try for a fight, the thing falling
over itself to get out of the building while I let myself relax. My
form immediately starting the process back to wolf, shifted towards
human with a small push while I let myself go still on the ground.
Breath panting, the feeling of having held a single muscle for
several minutes coming over my entire body as I regained my
composure. A few deep gashes across my chest, bite marks on the back
of my neck, bleeding lightly though beginning the process of closing.
After what felt like several minutes pushing myself to stumbling
feet, gripping the near unmoving form next to me and dragging them to
the fire. Body thrown onto the pyre, a strangling noise escaping them
while I stood there a moment realizing how little I actually felt at
the sight. Not even properly contemplating finding silver to speed
things along in the thirty seconds it took for the noises to stop and
the fire to finalize two dozen wounds that would have been mortal to
a half-one.
They’d gotten Hunter killed, they’d led him to his death, they
would have killed me.
I could care about if I deserved more of the same when I wasn’t
lamenting not being able to rip the last two Purists apart. When I
wasn’t fucking thinking I should have called for backup, surrounded
the place and made sure none of them escaped. Ate every single one of
their hearts and made sure I never had to see them again in the-
“I feel like I should thank you, but might be a little bit of a
faux pas at the moment,” the man on the ground said, sounding
surprisingly calm for what he’d just witnessed and the wounds on
his body, “know you probably overheard the… well, everything,
but I’m a man of my word, you untie me I’ll tell them I’m
not taking the contract. Be a bit of a dick move for me to try
collecting on that now, no?”
I nodded, already moving to look at the ropes binding him before I
stopped. One hand moving from the ropes, up his spine, to grip the
back of his neck while I made my thumb’s nail lengthen a little and
asked him, “who hired you?”
A long silence, a short, “Fuck,” from his lips, and he admitted,
“I can’t tell you that, I’ll get killed if I betray a client.
Look, you let me go though I’ll-”
I slammed him forward, his head smacking into the concrete floor and
the ease of the movement surprising even me. His head bouncing, a
slow bleeding gash appearing across his forehead as he yelled, “look!
I can’t tell you, we met for dinner at some hotel room and he gave
me your address! Is that enough-”
A twist of my thumb and he went silent, not yet breaking the flesh
but threatening to as I leaned down for a growl. Ready to make my
point known, tell him his ultimatum, tell him he was dying if he
didn’t, and only stopping as I got my first good smell of him.
Silver, gun oil, blood, cheap fast food, his car’s air filter was
long due a change, the scents of a mortal, and below all that…
I laughed, a twisted little noise as I rose back to my feet and told
him, “I know who hired you.”
“So you’ll let me go?”
I shrugged, ready to tell him I might as well before another thought
creeped its way into the back of my head. A sigh escaping my lips as
I admitted, “I’m going to ask Red what to do with you, because I
honestly don’t know if I can trust your word there.”
He laughed at that, a defeated little laugh but a laugh all the same,
and he shook his head as he started defending himself, “look, Red
and I, we had a thing like ten years ago, girl, I’m fucked you ask
her. I mean, we’re still friends, but like… look, I didn’t know
she was her sister, you know? I can’t get blamed for that, I just-”
“Later, you got a phone on you?” I asked, already digging through
the mans pockets and finding one. A smile crossing my lips as I
looked it over, “password? I can call 911 if you prefer that.”
He shook his head, his smile at least a little humored there as he
admitted, “not after that job last year, passwords a U shape, start
on the top right.”
I did as he said, unlocking the phone and scrolling through the
contacts for a long minute until I found a long list of six numbers
labeled Red. Ringing through each until one answered with the
woman asking, “Sully that you? You better not be drunk again, I’m-”
“It’s Mary, found this guy while tracking down those werewolves,”
I admitted, looking at the door of the warehouse and getting a sense
of where we were, “I’ll send you like, a screenshot of where we
are from the maps app? I don’t know how else to do it, but can you
bring me a change of clothes and give me a ride, I’ll explain
everything on the way.”
Red laughed at that at least, “yeah, sure, they just finished
packing your room up so I’ll just bring your suit case. I take it
this toy’s for Marty, want me to have that sent to the house with
them?”
“Please, I’ll talk to you in a little bit, I owe you,” I
muttered, hanging up and quickly sending the screenshot and closest
address listed. The man at this point looking like he was trying to
get comfortable on the ground while I paced the floor.
Alright, found out jack shit about why the Purists decided to attack
me, I’d gotten another guy down though and had a good idea of who
hired them. I’d gone a little feral, killed two werewolves and-
Someone groaned, and it took just one look at the man laid out at me
feet to realize it hadn’t been him. My eye tracing along the ground
until I spotted a crumpled form on the ground nearby, the wolf I’d
near ripped in half back in human form. His movements stiff, barely a
crawl but a crawl all the same as he struggled on all fours across
the room.
A sigh escaping my throat while I walked along beside him, one foot
on his shoulder pushing him on his back. My line already starting,
“alright, I need you to tell my why-”
Stopped only as I saw his face.