Okay, so I know I said that I'd be writing Night World fics and no NCIS fics for a while but that just isn't really happening, so what I've decided is to try something new, a cross-over between them both however it will be more just references to the Night World Series rather than a proper cross-over which is another reason why this fic will be under the NCIS category instead of the cross-over section. It is not necessary to have read Night World to understand this fic, but here are a few pointers if you haven't read it yet. Hunter Redfern is the most powerful vampire that ever existed apart from Maya – who was the first vampire and Hunter is her son. Old souls, live many different lives and when they die they get reborn. I know that I have been absolutely terrible with updates but it is hard when you have a full time job and are studying. I also wanted to make this a belated birthday gift to myself and also to my readers (9th of December), so I hope that you like it. I will manage to get around to updating one day. Don't forget to review! Oh and this is very AU but give it a chance and let me know whether you like it or not! And Jenny in my opinion is OOC for the first chapter but you might not think so much... I don't know.
Jenny opened her eyes, the summer sunshine had filtered in her bedroom through the dark curtains that she had up. She grimaced when she saw the red neon numbers on her bedside table alarm clock. She rubbed her face with her hands gently, she was tired, last night's kill had drained her, he was more powerful than she initially thought. She stretched herself out as if she was trying to touch the end of her bed, and with her finger tips, she was touching the wall behind her bed frame. She'd taken a good blow to her stomach but she was wearing a bullet proof vest so it has taken majority of the impact but she good feel a slight soreness to it. She was prepared though, she always was, they didn't call her a vampire huntress for nothing. She generally worked alone, she hated it more than anything when someone was watching over her shoulder, it always made her uneasy and it pissed her off, it seemed to give her a feeling of paranoia and Jenny hated paranoid people with a passion. This would have to be the first time that she hadn't woken up from a nightmare that had her waking up in cold sweat and not to mention screaming her head off.
She rolled over to the other side of her bed and stretched, she'd have to get up, she was already late, she should get to work and locate her next vampire victim, her specialty was torturing vampires that wanted to kill more than anything, most of them were either Hunter Redfern's boys or they were rogue vampires. Either way, she hated them all with a passion and there was nothing that could happen that would ever change that, or so she thought, she was unaware that the next few weeks would change her life forever. Deciding that she should get up, she gathered the covers and threw them to the end of her bed, she walked into the inter-connecting bathroom.
She never ate breakfast unless it was coffee and she occasionally had the odd muffin to go with it. She went to brush her teeth, she had a thing about brushing her teeth, three times a day and there were no exceptions. She picked up the tube of toothpaste and her tooth brush but this was what startled her the most. There was a note bound to the bristle brush part of her toothbrush, it was bound with a single rubber band. She looked at it oddly, why the hell would there be a note on her toothbrush?! Jenny unbound the note, it was rolled around the bristle brush, she unravelled it and read it to herself. 'Dead before seventeen, beware.' Her seventeenth birthday was next month and there was more than a short list of people who wanted her dead. But what scared the living hell out of her the most was that the note was in her own hand writing.
She glanced at herself in the mirror, her fiery red hair was in waves, her birthmark was on the right side of her nose, not on her nose exactly but close to, it slanted diagonally across her right cheekbone. It was a pale pinkish colour, it looked as if someone has gently ran blush along it. Jenny had had it removed by laser, twice and both times, it came back. She opened up her mirror to get her hairbrush when three pieces of scrap papers fell out and onto the bench area. She picked them up and read them to herself, the first one read 'The cycle can be broken.', the next one read 'He's coming.' And finally the last one read 'Remember the huntress within, DO NOT throw this note away. May – you know what happens then.' The last note troubled her the most, what could all of this mean? Then Jenny was sure of it, she was slowly and surely going insane. But that conclusion however, did not explain the notes in her own handwriting.
She had to call in the expert and in this situation, this meant no other than her best friend, Kara Jayne. Deciding to at least brush her teeth and get dressed before going out in public, she got herself organised. After brushing her teeth, running a brush through her hair and she threw on a pair of black skinny jeans and black singlet with a red belt around her mid-riff with a pair of red heels, she hid her usual choice of everyday weapons, three knives, one silver, one wood and the other was a dagger. She looked in the mirror, making sure that she looked presentable and then she grabbed her hand-bag, keys and phone before locking up her apartment and getting in her car to go and see Kara.
It wasn't a long drive there, ten minutes at the most but traffic was pretty quiet, quieter than the usual. Jenny parked her car on the drive-way of Kara's house before getting out of her car and locking it up and going into the house. Jenny placed her things on the door way table before going into the living room. Kara was sitting there watching the latest season of Heroes, Jenny barely watched any television, she'd rather do more productive thing with her time. "Hey Jenny." Greeted Kara.
"Hey Kara, how are you?" Jenny greeted back.
"Oh you know, the usual." Replied Kara and Jenny sat down next to Kara on the main living room couch, it was a soft synthetic leather, the texture of it felt beautiful when Jenny sat down on it.
"That bad huh?" asked Jenny,
"Worse," stated Kara which in turn made Jenny smile,
"So what's your ish? You've never been good at small talk." Said Kara, she always got straight down to the issue at hand. Jenny decided to skip the feelings of being followed or people wanting to kill her since it was an everyday occurrence, but she decided to be more like her best friend and get straight down to the point. "I've been having dreams..." she started off.
"Most people do." Said Kara which made Jenny smile in embarrassment.
"Dreams about the apocalypse, the end of the world, dying, killing, the fight between good and evil." Jenny explained, when Kara didn't say anything, Jenny continued "I've been finding these notes too."
"Notes?" Kara asked for verification and Jenny slowly nodded her head as if she was still coming to terms with it herself and in some ways, she was. Jenny suddenly had an idea of brilliance, she pulled out four scraps of paper and handed them to her friend. Kara took them and read them, once she had finished, she looked up at Jenny as if this was a big joke. "These are in your handwriting," she said with a smile, Jenny had nearly gotten her, Kara nearly fell for it until she realised that Jenny was just messing around or so she thought, she was waiting for the other shoe to drop but it didn't seem to come. "I didn't write them," Jenny stated firmly.
"But they're in your handwriting," Kara argued,
"I admit that they are in my handwriting but I didn't write them." Said Jenny dryly, how could Kara not believe her?!
"Oh..." said Kara with realisation, "You don't remember writing them." She concluded.
"I don't remember because I didn't write them, they're all... Well... Ridiculous and don't make any sense at all." Argued Jenny. Kara looked again at the notes, 'Dead before seventeen,' and 'May – You know what happens then.' Troubled Kara the most, Jenny was seventeen next month and coincidently, it also just so happened that next month was May. Then suddenly the doorbell rang, "Back in a sec." Said Kara as she got up and ran to the other side of the house. It was in that moment when Jenny was alone by herself in the living room, that the window across the room, exploded.
Jenny was on her feet in an instant, her awareness was on a high, her understanding of the entire situation however remained fragmented. She simply couldn't take the entire situation in at once, it was too bizarre to be normal, it had to all be supernatural. At first, the first thing she thought of was a vampire before she realised that this was simply not their style, her next thought was of a bomb but if it was bomb, it would of had the whole house burnt and shattered in pieces, not just a window.
The explosion was that loud that it led her to believe it was a bomb or a vampire because of their incredible strength. Then Jenny realised that something had come in the window, that it had come flying through the glass, and whatever the heck it was, was now in the room with her now, crouching among the shards of broken up glass from the window pane. Even then, she still couldn't identify in her mind what the hell this thing was, she was on alert though.
It was too incongruous; her mind refused to recognise the shape immediately. Something that was fairly big, something that was very dark, it had a body like a dog's but set higher, with longer legs and of course to add to it, yellow eyes. It was a wolf, a werewolf was in the room with her. It was a gorgeous creature, comparing to vampires that she had to always deal with on an everyday basis anyway. She didn't mind werewolves though, in fact she quite liked them. This wolf was muscular and rangy, it had dark fur all over except for the white streak across its throat, it was in an odd sort of shape, it looked more like a tattoo of some kind but it wasn't exactly like she had a clear view of it.
This wolf was looking at her fixedly, with an almost human expression. She knew that wolves didn't attack people bit that was your average and ordinary wolves, not were-wolves. And all the time her conscious mind was thinking this, something deeper within her was making her move. It made her back up slowly, never taking her eyes off of the great creature, that was until of course she felt herself back up into the great bookcase that Kara's mother loved. There's something you need to get, a voice in her mind was whispering to her, it wasn't exactly another person per say but it wasn't her own mental voice either. It was a voice like a dark cold wind; it made her shiver involuntary, she was a vampire huntress and she was scared of a little werewolf. Okay so it wasn't that little. Something you saw on the shelf earlier, it said to her. In an impossibly graceful motion , from eight feet away, the wolf jumped.
There was no time to be scared even though Jenny rarely ever got scared and when she did, she always was lucky enough to suppress her emotions, something that her father taught her before he was murdered by a famous vampire by the name of La Grenouille. Jenny saw a bushy black arc coming towards her and then she slammed into the bookcase. For a while after that, everything was simply chaos. Books and knick-knacks that belonged to Kara and her mom went flying across the room in all directions as well as falling down around her. She was trying to get her balance, she hadn't exactly worn the most appropriate choice in footwear. She was trying to push the heaviness of a black furry body away from her. The wolf was falling back, than jumping again at her as she twisted sideways to get away. And the strangest thing was that she actually was getting away or at least evading the worst of the wolf's lunges, which all seemed to be aimed at knocking her to the floor. Her body was moving purely on instinct, she was in battle mode but she had never fought a werewolf before, she had no clue what-so-ever on how to get herself out of this situation.
She didn't feel sure of herself and so instinctive for long, her confusion had taken over. And wolf seemed to know it somehow. Its eyes glowed eerily giving Jenny a not so good feeling in the bottom of her stomach. They were such strange eyes, more intense and more savage than even a vampires, she knew in that instant that werewolves were more dangerous than she would of suspected. She saw it draw its legs beneath it. Move – now, the mysterious new part of her mind told her as it snapped. Jenny moved. The wolf hit the bookcase with an incredible force and Jenny was thankful that she listened to the voice. And then the bookcase itself was falling.
Jenny flung herself sideways and out of harm's way, just in time to avoid being crushed to death. The bookcase fell with an unholy noise directly in front of the door. Trapped, the dark cool voice in Jenny's mind noted analytically. No exit anymore, except the window. "Jenny? Jenny?" It was Kara's voice just outside the room.
The door flew open, a whole of four inches, It was jammed against the fallen over bookcase. "God! What on Earth is going on in there? Jenny? Jenny!" She sounded panicked now, banging uselessly against the blockage. Don't think about her, the new part of Jenny's mind said sharply, but Jenny couldn't help it. Kara sounded so desperate, a trait that Kara didn't have. Jenny opened her mouth to shout back at her, her concentration broken.
A perfect opportunity that would and could not be missed. The wolf lunged. This time, Jenny didn't move fast enough. A terrible weight smashed into her and she was falling, flying. She landed hard, her head colliding with the floorboards. It hurt, there was no doubt about it but Jenny couldn't think about the pain. Even as she felt it, everything was greying out. Her vision went sparkling, her mind soared away from the pain of which she was again thankful. A strange thought flickered through her head though. I'm dead now, it's over again. Oh, Isis, Goddess of Life, guide me to the other world...
"Jenny! Jenny! What's going on in there?" Kara's voice came to her in a frantic motion yet it came to her quite dimly all the same.
Jenny's vision cleared and the bizarre thoughts that seemed to be racing through her head has ceased. She wasn't soaring in a sparkling emptiness and she apparently wasn't dead. She was lying on the floor with a book's sharp corner in the small of her back and a wolf was on her chest. Even in the midst of her terror, she felt a strange appalled fascination. She'd never in her life seen a wild animal this close before. She could see the white-tipped guard hairs standing erect on its face and neck; she could see the saliva that was glistening on the wolf's red lolling tongue, it was not an appealing sight. She could smell its breath – humid and hot, vaguely like a dog's but much wilder.
And then there was also the fact that she couldn't move. The wolf was as long as she was tall and it weighed a lot more than what she did. Pinned beneath it, she felt utterly helpless, if only she was better prepared, wolves weren't her profession, if it was a herd of vampire however, they would of all been dead with her mark embedded on their forehead. All she could do was lay there, there was nothing that she could do, she was only human after all. Her eyes closed involuntary as she felt the cold wetness of the wolf's nose that brushed up against her cheek. It was far from an affectionate gesture. The wolf was nudging the strands of hair that had fallen over her face during the quick events that had happened.
It was using its muzzle like a hand to push her hair to the side. Jenny wanted it to stop but she knew deep down that she was the only one to stop this, she just didn't know how. Now the cold nose was moving across her cheekbone and to her nose. Its sniffing was loud in Jenny's ear. The wolf seemed to be smelling her, tasting her, and looking at her all at once. No. Not looking at me. Looking at my birthmark. It was another one of those ridiculous and impossible thoughts and it snapped into a place like the last piece of a puzzle that was deep inside of her. Irrational as it was, Jenny was absolutely certain that it was true.
And it set off that cool wind voice in her mind again. Reach out, the voice whispered, quiet and businesslike. Feel around you. The weapon has to be there somewhere. You saw it on the bookcase. Find it! The wolf stopped on its explorations, seeming satisfied for whatever reasons. It lifted its head...... And laughed. Really laughed. It was one of the most eeriest and frightening sounds that Jenny had ever seen and heard.
The big mouth opened, panting, showing teeth, and the yellow eyes blazed with hot bestial triumph. Hurry, hurry! Jenny's eyes were helplessly fixated on the sharp white teeth ten inches away from her face, but her hand was creeping out, feeling along the smooth pine floorboards. Her fingers glided along books, over the feathery texture of a fern and then over something that was square, cold and faced with glass. The wolf didn't seem to notice anything different.
Its lips were pulling back farther and farther. Not laughing anymore. Jenny could see its short front teeth and its long curving canines. She could see its forehead wrinkling and she could feel its body vibrate in a low and vicious growl. The sound of absolute savagery. The cool wind voice had completely taken over Jenny's mind now, it was telling her in detail what would happen next if she was just going to stand idly by and continue acting the way she was.
The wolf would sink its teeth into her throat and then shake her, tearing skin and ripping through her muscles and ripping them off, limb by limb. Her blood would spray like a fountain. It would fill her severed windpipe, her lungs and her mouth. She would die gasping, choking, maybe even drowning before she bled out. Except.... She had silver in her hand. A silver picture frame. Kill it, the cool voice whispered. You've got the right weapon. Hit it dead in the eye with a corner. Drive silver into its brain. Jenny's ordinary mind didn't even try to figure out how a picture frame could be the perfect weapon for killing a werewolf. But faint and faraway, there came a voice. A different voice, it was still in her head and if she didn't know better, she would of sworn that she had just driven herself to insanity but this had to be real, the pain hurt too much for it to be a dream. Like the cool wind voice, it wasn't hers, but it wasn't someone's that she knew either. It was a crystal clear voice that seemed to sparkle in jewelled colours as it spoke. You are not an animal killer Jenny, you are a vampire huntress, they are two different things. You petition against animal cruelty, you wouldn't harm an animal. I don't kill or harm any animals, vampires were different, Jenny thought slowly, in agreement with the voice.
Then you're going to die, the cool voice reminded her brutally, it cut through the crystal voice, a hundred decibels louder. Because this animal won't stop until either its dead or you are. There's no other way to deal with these creatures. Then it happened.
The wolf's mouth opened. In a lightning-fast move, it darted for her throat. Jenny didn't think, she didn't have to. She brought the picture frame up and slammed it hard into the side of its head. Not into the eye as she was instructed, but into its ear. She felt the impact of it, hard metal against sensitive flesh, it would of hurt more than her hitting her head against the floorboards and that hurt. The wolf gave a yelping squeal as it staggered sideways, shaking its head and hitting its face with a forepaw.
Its weight was off her and for an instant, and an instant was all she needed. Her body moved without her conscious direction, sliding from under the wolf, twisting and jumping to her feet. She kept her strong grasp on the picture frame, she had a gut feeling that she'd be needing it again, soon. Now. Look around! The bookcase – no, you can't move it. The window! Go for the window. But the wolf had stopped shaking its head. Even as Jenny started across the room, it turned and saw her. In one flowing, bushy leap it pit itself between her and the window.
Then it stood staring at her, every hair on its body was bristling. Its teeth were bared and its ears were upright, and its eyes glared with pure hatred and menace. She'd pissed off the wolf a little too much. It's going to spring, Jenny realised. Before she could form a single thought that didn't have panic in it. The wolf sprang.
But it never reached her, something else came soaring through the window and knocked it off course. This time, Jenny's eyes and brain identified the creature all at once. Another wolf! My God, what is going on?! The new animal however was a grey-brown, smaller than the black wolf and not as striking. Its legs looked as if they were amazingly delicate, twined with veins and sinews like a racehorse's. A female, something faraway in Jenny's mind said with a dreamlike certainty. Both wolves had recovered their balance now and they were on their feet, bristling.
The room smelled like a zoo. And now I'm really going to die, Jenny thought to herself, one wolf was hard enough as it was but now another one? She was a goner. She was still clutching the picture frame in her hand, but she knew that there was no chance at all of fighting both wolves at once, they'd both end up tearing her to shreds. Her heart was pounding and it actually shook her body, it was pounding that hard, not to mention the ringing that was in her ears. The female wolf was staring at her with eyes that were more amber than yellow, less creepy and eerie.
Jenny stared back, she was mesmerized, waiting for it to make its move. The wolf held the gaze for another moment, as if it was studying Jenny's face. The right side in particular. Her nose and also partially her cheek. Then she turned her back to Jenny and faced the black wolf, it then snarled. Protecting me, Jenny thought to herself, she was truly stunned. It was unbelievable – but she was past the point of disbelief at this point. She had stepped out of her ordinary life and into a tale that was full of almost-human wolves. She knew in that moment that she preferred vampires even though she hated them, they were better than werewolves. The entire world had gone crazy and all she could do was try to deal with each moment as it came. She rarely ever sat on the sidelines but today was an exception, she supposed. They're going to fight, the cool voice in Jenny's mind started again. As soon as they're into it, run for the window as fast as you can.
At that moment, everything had erupted into bedlam. The grey wolf had launched itself at the black wolf. The room echoed with the sound of snarling and of teeth clicking together. As both wolves snapped again and again, Jenny couldn't make out what was happening. It was a blurred chaos. The wolves did a series of leaps, darting and ducking all the same, but it was far different from anything she had ever witnessed, terrifying. It was like the worst fight imaginable between animals, like the feeding frenzy of sharks or piranha's, both animals seemed to have just gone berserk. Suddenly there was a yelp of pain, blood welled up on the females grey flank. She's too small, Jenny thought. Too light. She doesn't have a chance.
Help her, the crystal voice whispered. It was an insane suggestion but what else could she do? Jenny couldn't even imagine herself going in between them, a snarling whirlwind. But somehow she found herself moving anyway. Placing herself behind the grey wolf. It didn't matter that she didn't believe that she was doing it, or that she had no idea how to team up with a wolf in fighting another wolf. She was there and she was holding the silver frame high. The black wolf pulled away from the fight to stare at her. And there they stood, all three of them panting.
Jenny with fear and the wolves with exertion. They were frozen like a tableau in the middle of a wrecked and destroyed living room, all looking at each other tensely. The black wolf on one side, his eyes shining with single-minded menace. The grey wolf on the other, blood manning her coat. Bits of fur floating away from her. And Jenny right behind her, holding up a silver picture frame in a slightly shaken hand but steady. Jenny's ears were filled with the deep reverberating sound of growling.
And then deafening report that cut through the room like a knife. A gunshot. The black wolf and staggered. Jenny's senses were in overdrive and she was also so focused on what was going on in the room that it was a shock to realised there was anything going on outside it. She was however, dimly aware that Kara's yells had stopped some time ago, but of course she hadn't even given a moment's thought to think of what that meant. Now, with adrenaline racing through her veins, she heard Kara's voice.
"Jenny! Get out of the way!" The shout was tense, much like the atmosphere was in the room before Kara interrupted it. The shout was also edged with other emotions, fear, anger and determination. It came from the opposite side of the room, from the darkness outside of the window. Jenny hadn't even realised the clouds that had rolled in. Kara was there at the broken window with a gun, she had a license for it at least. She was aiming for the general direction of the wolves and if she fired again, she might hit either one of them. Her face was pale and she looked very shaken up, her hand was shaking. "Get into a corner!" The gun bobbed nervously. Then Jenny heard herself say, "Don't shoot!" then she said after it "Don't hit the grey one." Kara's aim wouldn't ever let her down, she classified shooting as her hobby. Another shot went off and for an instant, Jenny couldn't see where the bullet had gone and she wondered wildly if she had been shot but she had serious doubts that Kara would ever shoot her.
But then she saw the black wolf was lurching backwards and blood dripped from its neck. Steel won't kill it, the wind voice hissed at her. You're only making it more angry... But the black wolf was swinging its head to look with blazing eyes from Jenny with the picture frame to Kara with her gun and then to the grey wolf with her teeth. The grey wolf snarled and just then, Jenny had never seen an animal look closer to being smug. "One more shot..." Kara breathed. "While it's cornered..." Ears flat, the black wolf turned toward the only other window in the room. It launched into a vaulting leap straight toward the unbroken glass. There was a shattering crash as it went through. Glass fragments went flying everywhere and it made a sort of tinkling sound. Jenny stared dizzily at the curtains swirling first outside, then inside the room, then her head snapped around to look at the grey wolf. Amber eyes met hers directly, it was such a human stare... and definitely the look of an equal.
Almost the look of a friend. Then the grey wolf twisted and loped for the newly broken window. Two steps and a leap – she was through. From somewhere outside there came a long drawn-out howl of anger and defiance. It was fading, as if the wolf as moving away and then there was silence. Jenny shut her eyes, her knees were literally feeling as if they were about to buckle. But she made herself move to the window, glass grating her heels as she stared onto the quiet street. She let out a deep breath and sagged against the window. The silver picture frame fell to the floor. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Kara was climbing through the other window. She tripped on a waste basket through the other side of the room, the she was beside her best friend. Kara grabbed for Jenny shoulders, trying to look her over.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just, wow." She was numb, was what she was. She felt dazed and fragmented like the glass everywhere that covered the entire room. Kara blinked at her,
"Um... You have some particular fondness about grey wolves that I should now about or something?"
Jenny shook her head, she didn't trust her own voice just yet and how on Earth would she explain everything anyway? They stared at each other for the moment, and then, simultaneously, they both sank to the floor, squatting among the shard of glass, breathing hard. Kara's long dark brown hair was a tangled mess, her eyes were large and they looked a little full of regret but Kara said nothing. Kara twisted her neck to stare at the wreckage. The overturned bookcase, the scattered books, the knick-knacks that were also as scattered as the books, the two broken windows, the glass fragments, the bullet hole, the flecks of blood, and the tufts of wolf hair that still drifted across the floorboards. Jenny then said faintly as she somehow managed to remember in the midst of everything that had happened, "So who was at the door?" Kara blinked twice before answering,
"Nobody. Nobody was at the door." Kara added almost dreamily. "I wonder if wolves can ring doorbells?"
"What?" Kara turned and looked straight at her.
"Has it ever occurred to you that you may not be so crazy and paranoid after all? I mean, look at your profession, what if something is really coming and is out to get you?" blurted out Kara. Jenny laughed,
"Oh very funny." she whispered.
"Seriously Jen! I mean – " Kara gestured around the room, she half laughed. Kara looked punch-drunk. "I mean, you said something bad was going to happen and something did." Kara looked at her with wondering speculation. "You really did know, didn't you?" Jenny glared at her best friend, Kara was the one who was meant to be guiding her away from the path of insanity and craziness, Kara was meant to help her find balance and a logical solution.
"Are you crazy? Who are you and what have you done with Kara-Jayne?" Kara said nothing, Jenny said nothing. Jenny was trying to forget almost too many things at once: the new part of her mind that whispered strategies to her, the wolves with human eyes, the silver picture frame. She had no idea of what all of these thing added up to, it was more than strange and she wasn't sure if she even wanted to know. She just wanted to get back to her own routine, hunting down vampires and keeping it simple. Kara cleared her throat, she was still looking out of the window. Her voice was uncertain, "Jenny, there's got to be an explanation for all of this, rational or not. But, if the notes are true, then we have to figure out what type locked away secret is in your head and it has to be before something worse happens."
Love it? Hate it? I know it's quite confusing to begin with. But let me know your thoughts, the next chapter will be featuring Gibbs and Tony. I hope you liked this chapter and I'll get the next chapter up soon.