Snow Days! Don't you love them? I'm so productive when I'm snowed in and have nothing but my computer to keep me company. Granted this is Saturday but yesterday is when I wrote most of this so…yeah : ) Here goes nothing….
Blood or Chocolate: A New Generation, Part 1
Chapter 3. The Killer
"Baby, baby wake-up," I woke to the sound of Gabriel's voice and the feel of him shaking me awake.
"Come on Viv, its our run, I know its early but you got to wake up."
Early? I opened blurry eyes to see the alarm clock reading three o' clock. Three o' clock? We'd only been asleep for four hours! But we had to do it, it was our responsibility, our turn.
"Vivian." He said one more time.
"I'm up," I grumbled grabbing clothes and flip-flops to change into when the run was over. I left them on the edge of the grounds, just outside of the woods, moving further into the growth to shiver into fur form, the fierce familiar ache soothing me awake.
I turned when I did not hear Gabriel do the same. He was nonchalantly leaning against a tree watching me, oblivious to the cool morning air that should be freezing his bare body. I shot him a look that clearly said "What?" Frustrated not for the first time that this form prevented speech.
"Sometimes I just like watching you," He growled. I attempted to roll my wolfish eyes though not sure I succeeded I jumped on him, knocking him to the ground, mock growling fiercely. He had gotten me up this early to do a job, so we had better do it.
"Feisty in the morning are we?" Gabriel smirked before I allowed him to push me off, "Well I guess we should get to work."
I ran off without him moving to take the smaller run through the mountain trails leaving him to take the one around the valley.
Despite all the fuss I was putting up for waking so early a run like this was actually soothing. Lately all my runs had been tainted with a sense of urgency because of the situation. But a morning run lacked that. It was easier to relax and open my senses to the wilderness, to just run for the sheer enjoyment like I believe our ancestors did-so long ago in the woods of France. I bet being awarded this pleasure wasn't something they violated and used to destroy and harm others of their own with. It was just something they had they reveled in. Letting the joy of the crunch of bones and withering of the transformation overpower the senses until they heard even the minutest sound in the woods they made their home…
Maybe it was my fantasizing mind of hearing all the noises around but I suddenly heard a noise, a noise that didn't fit with the wood sounds of a forest's inhabitants rising for the day. It was a crunch of sorts-a crack of bone almost.
I ran towards the sound, letting my senses lead me to the disturbance.
That's when I saw it. I loup-garou of no significant size, maybe a little smaller than me but not by much. It was smearing its muzzle in the blood of its kill. A human.
I ran towards the murderer taking it down and clamping my fangs over its throat. It fought, ripping its hind legs into my gut. But I didn't let go, this was the creature that was causing all our troubles this time around and it was not getting by with its life intact. My claws dug into my opponents back. The human moaned. It was still alive? I loosened my hold-distracted. That's when I made my mistake, instead of moving to gain a better defensive position my prey detached itself from my clutches and fled.
What could I do? I could go after it and possibly catch the killer again, but that would mean leaving this human defenseless for some other animal to pick off or for it to die here alone. And didn't that go against everything I had ever thought since moving to this place where humans were loving and accepting to everyone who passed into its limits? Wasn't that letting the part of my nature that was a monster take over? No, I would stay here.
I let out a howl for my pack to here. A loud cry that called them to me. Hopefully Gabriel wasn't too far away that he wouldn't hear it. I then began to approach the human. It was a female, a teenager maybe seventeen years old, she was sobbing and crying out for me not to come any closer. The look of fear in her eyes was almost unbearable, reminding me of another human who was not so deserving of my concern. But this girl had reason to believe I would kill her. Wasn't it a law of nature that animals competed over food? Didn't I look dangerous? If not more deadly than her original attacker?
I tried to look as harmless as possible considering the differences in my appearance that made me a little more frightening than the common wolf. My larger bigger stance as one, not including the long limbs, strong paws with claws extended from the fight, fangs bared, yes I was a frightening creature to behold. I could see that.
Putting my tail between my legs and flattening my ears I assumed a subordinate appearance, I could not exchange this form for skin, not yet. Not when my senses were on high alert and a killer was in smelling range. But I had to get close enough to the human girl to assess the damage.
The girl was trembling from head to toe. Shredded of her pants her pale legs laid bare in the cool morning air. There was a large chunk torn from her thigh. It looked like whoever it was had tried to maul her limb for limb but had not gotten very far. She had other bite marks too. On her arms, and a particularly lethal looking one on her shoulder that was bleeding much too freely for my comfort. I knew I had to wait until someone from the pack came to take her before I did anything, going after the wolf and finding Gabriel were at the top of the list. But for now I would stand guard over this bleeding frightened human.
I did not have to wait long Philip came loping into view as a human, clothed but in a rushed manner. His shirt was on inside out and his pants were unzipped. He wasn't wearing any shoes. He didn't look like he had run very far. Despite myself suspicious thoughts crossed my head even though of course I knew what the Carver twins looked like in their fur and I trusted Philip, my friend, implicitly.
"Oh Sweet Moon!" Philip rushed to the girl the minute he broke through to the clearing and saw the situation.
"Are you alright?" He asked the girl who nodded before turning her wide eyes back to me waiting on the edge of the scene. "It's okay, she's good. You're safe." Philip lifted the girl up into his arms, "Go ahead and do what you have to, I'll take her back to the inn."
With a nod of my head I ran away, towards the trail of blood left by the killer. No sooner than the trail had started it stopped. At the bank of a river. There were no signs of crossing-the trail didn't pick up on the other side. So that meant the culprit had either swam upstream-wounded-or let the current drift it downstream to wherever it was hiding from us. My ears picked up a thundering approach and Gabriel's strong musk before he was beside me. I loosened my body willing it to change form, as simple as breathing normally but difficult today when my adrenaline was pumping so hard.
His eyes asked me all the questions. "I was running when I came up on the wolf that's been attacking all these humans, it was just a bit but not much smaller than me, I couldn't get a sex, I was distracted, but it looked wild and smelled like the scent we've been picking up, definitely a loup-garou from this area I think. The girl it was attacking is still alive. Philip is taking her back to the inn. One of us should go get Jacque and…well not Charlotte this one likes going for the gut." I glanced done at the gashes on my flat abdomen that were bleeding only gently now. "The other should follow it downriver."
Gabriel nodded for me to go back towards town so I did, not wanting to waste any more time. Gabriel could handle himself with something that size no problem.
I found my clothes on the edge of the grounds. I could see from here, on perimeter of the woods, that a large amount of the pack had realized the situation and had flocked to the inn for some sort of instruction only to find Philip there with a dying human girl. But I had to find Jacque and let him know what was happening before I approached anyone.
Quickly I put on my clothes and sandals. I ran for the nearest pack vehicle knowing it would be unlocked and the keys would be on the dashboard for anyone who needed it. The pack really didn't have separate vehicles apart from Bucky's Tahoe. It didn't make sense when we shared the inn and the accumulative wealth of each other. Bucky was only different because he had bought his own when we were divided in Maryland. And of course Gabriel had his motorcycle.
As I sped down main street I saw loup-garou from Jacque's pack getting out of their homes and businesses, they must have heard my call earlier. But I only stopped when I reached Jacque and Charlotte's house.
"Vivian, what is it?" Jacque was at the door when he heard the car in the driveway.
"Didn't you hear me call earlier? I ran into the killer on my patrol this morning. We have the girl it was trying to kill at the inn. Gabriel's following it downstream Francis Brook right now."
Jacque listened to this news quietly, not exploding like I expected him to before nodding and running towards the woods. "Where's Charlie?" I asked as I moved to go along with him.
"In the bathroom." Jacque peeled off his shirt. "She's been in there since three this morning and she won't come out or let me in, morning sickness is the worst," Jacque paused at the edge of the woods to drop his pants and step out of his shoes. "You should stay here. Someone has to organize the packs, tell them what's going on and how they can help."
I was about to protest, I wanted to be apart of this too, but he was right. Someone had to instruct the packs. I turned back to the house just as he disappeared into the forest a large form of red-brown fur.
"Where's Jacque going?" Charlie came out of the house wiping her mouth with a wet cloth.
"To find the killer."
So what do you think Philip was up to? Will they find the killer today? Is the girl okay? What's everyone else going to do? Any other questions? Speculations? Anything? Review, tell me what you think, melissaturkey :D
