Second chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own LXG


It took them nearly half an hour to even get close to the creature that had been Skinner earlier that night. They were forced to keep to the dark alley ways of London whilst their invisible friend had had free reign in the well-lit streets and so it took them some time to be able to catch up to him.

Hyde came to a stop in one of the darker streets and peered around a corner.

"He's hunting now," he said to Sawyer who ran up softly to him. Sawyer took a moment to catch his breath.

"How do you know?" he asked between little pants.

"I smell his focus, his want. He aches for the feel of red flesh between his teeth, the fear of the prey, the thrill of the hunt." Hyde turns and grins at him, wide and daring.

"Well, let's cut his hunt a little short," Sawyer said, not responding to the smile, "Skinner is a spy not a hunter and I think he'll take exception to changing his profession."

Hyde smiled slyly at him and then crept carefully down the alley, muscle bunching n anticipation. Sawyer crossed to the other side of the alley and crept down after him looking for any signs an invisible werewolf might leave. He kept his ears pricked too. Hearing was the best sense to use when searching for Skinner. A werewolf had claws, he should hear them on the cobblestones.

There was a slight scraping sound and both sawyer and Hyde froze while they tried to pinpoint the origin. Hyde did so first. He cocked his head and then looked up. In another second, he had bounded onto the roof. There was a scattering of tile both from his landing and from something else.

"Shit!" Sawyer said and ran down the alley after them both. He turned two corners after them and came to a dead end. He hissed a curse, backed up and ran towards the wall and jumped. He caught hold of the top of the wall on the first try and hauled himself up.

He stood there and looked wildly around but saw no sight of Hyde or the werewolf he was chasing. He huffed and sprang from the top of the wall onto a roof in the general direction they'd been going in last.

There was familiar roar a few minutes later and then a bone chilling howl, that made all the hair on the back of Tom's neck stand up. It also came due west of where he was heading. Tom changed directions immediately.

He spent the next fifteen minutes running over roofs being guided by sound alone. Hyde and Skinner made terrible sounds that echoed down the dark alleyways and reverberated between the narrow walls.

Tom heard the far-off shouts of the Night Watch and picked up the speed determined to reach the two battling friends before some innocent policeman got eviscerated for his trouble.

He had nearly reached them both when they reappeared back on the roofs. The moon peeked out from the clouds that she'd been hiding behind for most of the night, turning the world silver-cast and eerie.

Hyde was a dark shadow, something out of a nightmare, with the wild hunt in his eyes, the sheer power in his form, the smooth easy way in which he moved, the strange ways of his locomotion. Skinner was a ghost. There was nothing to mark his passage save the roof tiles being throw up under his paws. He was also moving at a rapid pace with what appeared to be an easy loping stride.

Sawyer applied his hunter's eyes to the motion of the displaced roof tiles and soon was able to visualize the form of his friend as he ran across the roofs. When he was close enough, he jerked sharply to a stop, took careful aim, breathing in slow and sure and then squeezed the trigger.

The shot hit just in front of Skinner. Skinner stopped, rearing to stop from the sudden shot and Hyde leapt. He hit skinner and they both rolled over and over the roofs until they went over the edge.

Sawyer was already in motion. It took him long, too long to reach the spot where they'd gone over but when he arrived it was to find a tired looking Jekyll sitting on the ground, his hand appearing to hover in the air as it rested on something Sawyer could not see.

"You alright Doc?" Sawyer asked.

Jekyll nodded wearily. "But I'm not sure about him. He's breathing though and he's still a wolf but he's been hurt. Those tiles are sharp."

"No kidding," said sawyer. He slung his rifle onto his back and then jumped the distance to the ground. Up close he could see that Skinner had indeed been hurt but it didn't seem serious. Jelly too bore some cuts and bruises but like Skinner's they were not serious.

"Alright Doc," said Sawyer. "Let's get you both off the street before the Watch gets us all."

"Back to the Nautilus?" Jekyll asked.

"No," said Tom, "Meena's there. We can't risk it."

"Right," said Jekyll, "What do you propose then?"

"Do you have any hidey holes left behind?" Tom asked him.

Jekyll blinked for a moment and then focused. "Maybe," he said after a moment, "I know a place. It's an upstairs apartment. They used to let me stay there."

Sawyer bit his lip as he turned the idea around. "I don't want them to be in danger."

"They live next to the apartment, not under it. Underneath is a store," Jekyll explained.

"Alright," said Tom, "Let's get going." The sound of running feet heading their way made them both look up. "Sooner rather than later," Sawyer added and Jekyll nodded in agreement.


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