Present day New Orleans
Remi sat on the edge of the bed and lit a cigarette, taking a deep drag he run a hand through his hair. He looked down at the slim, white cylinder in between his fingers; he didn't know why he smoked. It did nothing for him, couldn't harm him so there was no real thrill like there would be for humans, who were putting their lives on the line with these things. He had no real feeling about them whatsoever; it just gave his hands something to do when they were otherwise unoccupied. Remi picked up the half empty bottle of Jack Daniels and took a quick swig; it was a similar situation with human drink. The girl behind him groaned, and Remi blew out a sigh with a stream of smoke. Taking one last pull on it he stubbed it out on the ashtray on her bedside table and got up and started to dress. The song Crazy Bitch was blaring from her speakers in her living room and Remi wondered vaguely how she was sleeping through it. He bent to pick up his shirt.
"Are you leaving?" So she wasn't sleeping through it.
Remi flicked a quick look over his shoulder and saw that she was laying down, her body looking used and limp but her eyes were open. Remi didn't try to remember her name; he knew he wouldn't be able to.
"Yeah," was all he said before slipping the white t-shirt over his head and looked around the untidy room for his jacket. The girl got up her movements languid, partly from how much she had drank - Remi's were senses detected the copious amounts of alcohol and a dash of coke in her system as soon as he hit the club earlier that night - and mostly because of how well he had used her body. It had literally been the scratching of a biological itch, but even as Remi let his eyes look over the girl he felt contempt for her. No matter how much of a looker she was. And this girl was pretty, long platinum blond hair - dyed but what's real these days - huge breasts, pouty mouth, slim willowy body, and willing smile. Thick as a plank but then, with the exception of his mother and sister and Sera, most females were.
"I'm kinda sore at the moment," the girl announced and Remi grimaced with disgust, the girl took this as one of sympathy and nodded agreement. "Yeah, I know, you are really good in bed. Anyway, I could do something else for you if your still -"
The girl made to get upon her knees but Remi stepped away from her and the girl looked mildly confused, but then that could just be the effects of all the substances in her body. He spotted his jacket and picking it up, headed for the door.
"Am I gonna see you again?" she asked, sitting on the bed, Remi looked back at her, he stopped his lip curling in a sneer, he shook his head then headed straight out of the building.
Once out on the street that was a little cooler then inside her apartment, Remi thought longingly of his own bed. He had been edgy when he'd left Sanctuary earlier that night, or last night, Remi corrected himself, as it was nine o clock Friday night when he left and now four o clock Saturday morning. He'd been full of energy and frustration that he had taken out in a fight at the club he was at and on the human woman's body. Not that she had complained. And now he felt empty, drained. But not in a good way. Remi stood for a moment watching the dawn break among the clouds, the scent of the Mississippi was brought in on the morning breeze. Ah, home.
Nothing could compare to the mornings in New Orleans, he loved this city, loved its life. Sure, it was full of crime and it had its shadier side but when you were top of the food chain - when it came to humans so to speak - that shadier side was nothing. In fact a quarter of the Sanctuary business thrived on that darker side of existence. His life was one, long never ending party in the dark, it had been so for so many centuries that at times Remi wasn't sure where half of it had gone, he had no memories of endless droves of women, of money and luxury, all he had was the knowledge that it had been there and it was there now. Obviously there were the memories of his family, of happy times, of memorable fights even, but where was the rest? He should have accumulated more then family memories in the length of time he had been alive.
The way he figured was that he was just plain spoilt, very little mattered to him except his family first of all, then himself and this city. Everything else could get blown to hell for all Remi cared. But for someone who had lived in a life in the depths of night, whose family rarely roused during the day, Remi found it odd that he imprinted on his brain the pictures of sunrise. The sunrise over the Mississippi; over the buildings of the French Quarter; over the Brabo fountain and the Grand'Place in Brussels. He had vivid memories of so many.
Why had he so many memories of things as inconsequential as sunrise and not of his life, not of the parties and women? He needed something to change in his life, needed a mile stone to make him wake up from this void he was in and realise he was living and not just drifting. That the colour he saw were not dull and the women were not vacant, that life and passion all around him were real. He was stuck in a stupor and couldn't get out of it and Remi was afraid that more life would pass him by and he wouldn't comprehend how magnificent it all was.
The way he was taught was that things came in threes. Good luck, bad luck, change, it all came in threes.
One: was finding out that Aimee was messing around with a two bit wolf. Two: was Dev, Remi grinned, finding his mate. What was number three? Was the third his change? He hoped so; he truly, truly hoped so.
Breaking out of his thoughts, Remi was prepared to flash himself home when the scent of a foe drifted into his path, turning around Remi found himself cornered by four Arcadians; his mouth broke into an evil grin.
"You lost, girls?" Remi asked, his tone acidic. One of the Arcadians, the youngest Remi surmised, looked shiftily at the others. "Not going to answer?"
Remi chuckled, he could use a fight. Throwing off his jacket, Remi grinned malevolently, he gave a small, cocky movement with his hands; a signal of eagerness and taunting.
There was silence. No one moved. A slight shifting of the breeze ruffled the hair on Remi's head and neck. Suddenly the Arcadian's attacked in unison, running at Remi drawing knives from their pockets.
"Cowards!" Remi roared before shifting into his bear form, which was his base form and incidentally his strongest form. The massive strength of the Katagaria bear was phenomenal, he was ruthless and cruel in his fighting, his confidence in his ability to kick their asses back to Timbuktu was apparent in the way he moved. His expertise as a fighter was more daring than skilful, yet that could not detract from the obvious competence that Remi displayed.
One of the Arcadian's drew the knife down his back, laying open the skin, Remi felt the warm liquid of the blood from the wound then the actual pain, but the cowardice of the act caused his temper (that could go off like a roman candle) to fly into overdrive. Remi was blinded by rage and it sent him lunging forward at the Arcadian in front of him, the Arcadian side stepped the clumsily initiated attack and Remi bit the dust. The weight of someone on his back sent him bucking and fighting for all he was worth, knowing they had him in a very precarious fighting position.
"Hurry up, Rex!" a voice shouted from behind, Remi swung around and clamped his jaws on to the first thing he sensed in his presence. Someone screamed out and cursed, in the form of the bear Remi was grinning in satisfaction. He wrenched his head back and heard and felt the breaking of bones under his jaw and teeth.
"Let go, you son of a bitch!"
"Rex, move your ass!"
The hands that had been gripping and pulling his fur viciously, gave a final tug, when Remi refused to leg go of whatever guy he had at his mercy, he felt fingers dig into his back wound. Agony erupted through the injured area and down the rest of his back causing him to rear up in pain and roar. The roar was short lived. A suffocating pressure pressed on to his throat and he felt something snapping behind his head catching his fur painfully. On reflex a Were may have used magic but Remi was quick enough to register the danger of any magic near a metriazo collar, rather than panic Remi shrugged it off as a minor disadvantage. So adapt was he at fighting that he merely worked with the new tightness about his throat, he spun around and made ready to jump and tear into the nearest Arcadian, he had steadfastly refused to pick on the young weak looking one. Remi was the first one to admit he was a bastard, but the guy was weak and young, huddled away from the fighting. A sudden ache developed in his right thigh, Remi looked around to see a dart poking from his fur and in seconds, the world tilted out from underneath him, he thrashed his heavy paws at them trying desperately to escape, then everything went black.
*******************************
One Year Later
Lucille Renn paused before entering the deserted fun fair and eyed the place warily. In a few nights time the place would be saturated in the smells of cotton candy, popcorn and toffee apples. Garishly bright lights would be whirring so fast before your eyes they would make you just as dizzy as the thrill rides. Lucille always found the lights to be like that you would find atop of police cars. The sounds of teenagers, families and kids would mix until the screeches from girls would make your ears bleed and the puking from the boys would become common place behind the shouts of mothers and cries of babies. The carnival would commence the true start of summer in New Orleans.
As it was, the site was at the moment barren and chilling, it presented a foreboding sight against the backdrop of the early steel grey sky that chased after dawn and preceded the glory of gold skies. The Ferris wheel silhouette stood like some sort of mutant creature from space and the spinning cups waited dormant for their masters to make them move. It was a frightening thing to behold a place that is designed for noise and light and laughter should be so quiet and cold looking.
The owners and engineers of the carnival had intended for it to have a Romany Gypsy theme. Artificial caravans and wagons were set up, horseless though they wouldn't be at the carnival, to host fortune tellers, belly dancers, snake charmers and an assortment of other acts. It was unorthodox so it raised eyebrows; it was different so it drew attention and crowds.
Lucille shivered and hugged herself even though the night was humid, she was aware that walking through a deserted area of New Orleans was highly irregular for a young woman, not to mention dangerous. She feared the consequences of her actions. Her body had a heightened awareness of everything around her, every noise and sensation, but that was exactly what she wanted. It kept the dreams at bay. Putting herself on the line like this, risking life and limb and soul made her focus on staying alive rather then being caught in the dreams.
Lucille moved past one of the empty cages and heard a growling noise; she jumped and almost fell on her ass. A bear was in the cage. A fully fledged, real, live, shit in the woods bear was laying in the cage. Lucille moved a little closer, the bear cast a look of pure loathing before closing his eyes on her, she felt her heart clench. The poor thing was in terrible shape. It's fur was matted, dirty and congealed with blood from old and new wounds, white scars criss-crossed his muzzle and over one eye. The smell from the cage was a bad one, Lucille grimaced but chanced leaning closer so she could get a better look at the poor things condition and scowled. She despised this type of cruelty, to a defenceless animal that couldn't defend itself against the powers of a human; Lucille felt righteous indignation boil her insides. A great animal lover and a champion for the underdogs and victims, Lucille wanted nothing more then to find the man or woman who put this poor bear in this condition and beat the crap out of them, then slap a law suit on their asses. They had no idea! None of them!
To be beaten and abused and locked away in cage, how would they like it if someone did that to them, while they were unable to fight back.
Dark clouds swirled in her mind threatening to drag Lucille back into her world of nightmares, she closed her eyes tight and abruptly turned her head as if it were act of some sort of defiance, she would not give in to them.
The bear opened his eyes suddenly and cocked his head; his eyes were intense, looking at her strangely as if he could feel her anger, as if he knew the thoughts flashing through her mind. The dejected air of hopeless sadness and anger left him and for once he was alert. Lucille moved a little bit closer, feeling her skin rise with goose bumps at being near such an animal that could turn at any moment. And with good reason, how could the poor thing ever trust a human again after what he must have endured. Lucille squinted at a lovely silver collar around his neck, it was so tight the poor thing had cut himself trying to claw it off; Lucille raised a shaky hand and wrapped it around the cold iron bars of the cage.
"I know exactly how you feel," Lucille muttered, feeling a kinship with this animal more then she had with any other human being in the world and that included her three best friends. Tears fell unbidden down her cheeks, hot and fast, they drove tracks through her make up and fell with surprising weight on her wrist and to the dry ground. Wiping angrily at them Lucille drew in a determined breath and looked at the cage door, stepping up to it Lucille examined the pitiful lock and frowned. Surely they would need a better lock to cage and contain such a ferocious and powerful creature as the bear, and when Lucille thought about it the bear in that cage was uncommonly huge. A fervent animal lover like herself and obsessive animal planet viewer could recognise abnormally huge when she saw it, it gave her pause. Then she caught his eyes again and saw the raw pleading there, she shook off her misgivings and bent to the lock. A girl with her extensive education could without question break such an inadequate lock, Lucille listened intently for the telltale click, she heard it and paused, her breath quickening. Lucille gripped the door and flung it open, running away from it as she did, in case the bear was hungry for human meat.
When she had run a few yards and could not hear the heavy panting of a hungry bear, she looked back and saw the bear still sitting in the cage giving her a 'duh!' stare. Lucille hastened back still keeping vigil in case someone stumbled on her freeing the captive; she peeked in and the bear moved, as if on purpose, for her to see the long steel chain he was restrained by. Lucille growled a little, that explained the flimsy lock. Throwing caution into the winds and gathering courage from somewhere, Lucille stepped into the cage that was decorated from the outside to look like a gypsy wagon. The inside was small and far too cramped for such a large animal, her anger surged once more making her even bolder and more daring, the smell intensified enough to make her choke and her eyes water. Unsure of herself Lucille began to kneel slowly, as if to put her at her ease the bear slid down on its belly in a submissive position.
"You're really smart, aren't you?" Lucille muttered, reaching her shaky hands out so she could examine the chain, the bear didn't even wince but she felt as if he were urging her to move faster. The sky was beginning to turn gold and pink although it caused fear to make her jittery, Lucille could at least see the chain better.
"Okay, don't worry, Beau," she soothed, feeling around his neck for some way to unclasp it, it seem to run under the silver collar. "Everything is going to be fine."
Lucille tugged on the silver collar, the bear didn't wince, she tugged harder and the bear moved forward, Lucille knew instinctively it was only to give her more access to his neck. He recognised that she was no threat to him, that she was in fact there to help him and he appreciated it by not making her breakfast. Lucille found a deep groove cut into the collar, no doubt made by those unbelievably sharp claws, she worked on that part of it, feeling it give more and more, until finally with a crack, it broke from the bears neck and they both slumped with exhaustion.
The bear wasted little time getting up and starting for the door, before he did, however, he turned and licked her wrist where her tears had fallen and dried. Lucille smiled and run a not so steady hand over the bears back; he grunted and descended the steps in a slow, plodding way. On the ground he set off at a fast run that surprised Lucille, bears she had always expected to be clumsy, this one was agile as it made its way far from his prison. Lucille moved out of the cage and breathed deeply in the fresh air, her nightmares were at bay … for now.