A/N: Werewolf The Forsaken and all related names are copyright white wolf
Modified some stuff around the vampire encounter. It felt a little too one sided before. It is still one sided, but that's the point of it, actually.
CHAPTER IV: Picking up the pace
It's been a couple weeks since I last wrote something down here. I guess I only write when I'm feeling bad, and those last weeks have been pretty fun, so I had nothing.
Yeah, my definition of fun involves being daily beaten by someone twice my size. Go figure. But these training routines have helped me get back to my former, sharp self. Hell, I'd even say I'm stronger and I know I have built a lot of endurance in these last few weeks. I even gained weight!
I'm a tiny, skinny, wiry girl, I don't want to spend the rest of my life looking like an anorexic midget model.
But, my concerns about appearance aside, something interesting happened yesterday and I decided to write it down. It's Saturday today, so yesterday was Friday, and it started like all Fridays start over here: morning appeasing rituals to the protector spirit of the ranch, then breakfast, then a quick hunt for catching the lunch, then butchering the catch of the day, cooking it, and it's lunchtime. Hunting is done in wolf form, to hone our senses, and not everyone does it every day, but Irrakas, werewolves of the New Moon, like me usually get saddled with hunting most of time. Not that I'm complaining about it.
So, I managed to save a hindquarter of this deer I ran down for my new friends, and we were sharing it, all sat on one of the large wooden tables in the eating hall. Four Fangs, the shaman of the group, had cooked it using some different herb mix, so it tasted quite novel, if a little strong for my taste, but I guess that's because I like raw meat.
So, we were talking about food, and hunting and whatnot, when Night's Voice, our half-moon, just calls the group's attention and says:
"Hey, girls, listen up. I've been talking with elder Sundered Earth, and I managed to convince her to let us leave this joint today for some fun in town."
Thunder snorted, but she seemed to like the idea:
"Heh, what did you do? Polished her boots with your tongue?"
"Almost." Voice managed a wicked grin. "I promised her we would clean the stables and the slaughterhouse this Sunday."
"Voice, screw you." Shibata's wisdom is always sound.
"Okay, I think the real question is: where are we going?" Thunder chimed in again before it became an insult fest.
"Well, there's this night club at the edge of town. Shady business, lots of mean mannered people, but the kind of place no one would care about us. They also have this mean band playing old school rock'n roll."
"Sounds fun" Four Fangs was the first to say, her mouth still full of deer meat. "I could use a good night of dancing."
"I'm in too." Of course Thunder was in, she is a gibbous moon, they all love music.
"Someone has to watch over you whelps." That was Shibata's way of saying she wanted in.
Then they all turned to me. I'm not surprised Voice was the one asking the question, it was her idea after all:
"So, what about you, Snake Eyes?"
When I get drunk, I do stupid stuff. I lose all sense of self-respect or restrain, and become little more than a gloomy, angry and lusty beast. I couldn't bring myself to risk ruining their fun with one of my stupid drunken rampages:
"No. I can't dance."
Bad liar. I'm not a stellar dancer, but once you learn how to fight, learning how to dance is not that hard. Anyways, Thunder saw right through it:
"Yeah, right. Well, you can hang at the bar with Shibata, so she won't feel lonely while we have fun." She jabbed at the Japanese with her elbow, prompting her to complete:
"I could use company, yes."
"Come on, girl" Four Fangs looked like a barbarian, with her short, rugged hair, face tattoos and a half-eaten bone in her hands. "What are you going to do tonight? Lock yourself in your room and wallow in self pity? That's not healthy. You're coming with us even if Thunder has to drag you all the way to from here to town."
"Heh, I could do that." Thunder smiled. I'm starting to think she likes to beat me. "So, thingy, what say you? Easy way or hard way?"
I didn't really want to, but I also didn't have anything better to do. Plus, maybe I really needed some contact with humans. So I accepted, in an admittedly awkward way that I'm not writing down here. Suffice to say, we did go out that night.
We used a car loaned from the lodge, and Four Fangs was driving. I didn't know what to wear, so I went with jeans pants, short, sleeveless shirt and my short leather jacket over it. I also kept a knife hidden in my boots, just in case. I always have a knife hidden in my boots, that's why I wear boots actually.
The farm we live on is about two hours away from this town. I don't know the name of it, and by the time we got there I was too busy trying to undo a braid someone did on my hair to notice the plaque with the town's name. The nightclub did look nice, though, it was a tall, black building in the corner of a street. The front doors where painted black and the place's name, The Black Rose, was written in big red neon letters above it. We parked the car on this lot on the lower street, behind the club. A lamppost was malfunctioning near the parking lot, but if some idiot decided to rob us, we could track him down fairly easy.
Night's Voice led the line to the club's entrance. You had to show your I.D. to the big guy in at the door so he would give you a card that allowed entrance and kept track of your orders. The normal deal. When we entered the place, it was about half past nine, so it was picking the pace of the night.
I can't say I liked it. Right at the entrance I bumped into this airheaded chick who was laughing out really loud. She yelled some bad word at me, but I just growled back at her and she backed off. Really nice way to start a night.
And I should remind myself sarcasm doesn't come off very well when it's written.
Anyways, most of the night was uneventful. We found ourselves a table, ordered some snacks and drinks and sat down until the music built up to a point where you could dance to it. So, three of the girls went to the dancing floor, leaving me and Shibata sitting on the table, drinking and looking grim. Thunder actually tried to make me stand up and dance, but I couldn't be arsed to do it.
I drank a couple beers. That's really funny, because generally if I drink more than one can I start getting drunk already. Yesterday I didn't. It felt like I could down as much as I wanted and still I would not get drunk. Didn't try to test that theory, though, so I kept to the beer bottles and just a few of them.
It wasn't really boring. Watching people dance and listening to music is quite nice, and Shibata might not be the talkative type, but at least she doesn't make stupid questions like Thunder does. All in all, not a bad night.
They danced from ten to midnight, nonstop. Whenever the band wanted to take a break Thunder or Fangs would start the crowd up and demand more. I'm pretty sure they were using gifts to make the people follow them, because once even I got this weird urge to head to the dance floor and start dancing. By midnight, every person in that club was dead tired and sweating like a pig, well, except for me and Shibata.
Thunder's face and hair were matted with sweat, and she smelled really strongly of it, I think it was because of the perfume she used, it didn't mix well with body odor. Not that the other two were any better. Okay, Night's Voice was better, because her curly hair didn't absorb liquid like the others, so she didn't look so wet.
They looked really thirsty as they sat down with us. As Fangs called the waitress for more drinks, Thunder actually grabbed the last beer bottle from my hands and downed it. Blonde seems to have no sense of personal space.
They talked about music and the people on the dance floor. I didn't pay attention. There was this smell, a very strong one, flooding my nostrils. I think the smell of sweat and liquor masqueraded it a little, because I couldn't put my finger on it until I saw him talking to a girl two tables across ours.
He was tall, well dressed in an expensive shirt and custom pants, raven hair combed back in a style reminiscent of some movie character from a time before I was even born. He was a vampire, I was sure about it. Not just the way he smelled, but the way he carried himself, elegant, good manners, with a dash of gallantry and flamboyant just enough so it would be charming instead of gross. Yeah, a vampire. I know them, I hate them, but I couldn't care less about him.
If it was my choice, I'd stalk him and gut him when nobody was looking. But it wasn't my choice, we weren't there for a hunt, we were there for some dancing and drinking. The bastard was doing his thing, but I would be in the wrong if I did anything about it.
I noticed Thunder was eyeing him too. She was doing it in a much more subtle way, but I know how to notice this type of behavior. When he stood up and pulled the girl he was talking by the hand, Thunder just stood up and made a beeline for them. The girl was this pale skinned brunette, her hair was dyed to a deep black and she was wearing a black vinyl dress, your standard pseudo-gothic.
When Thunder pulled her by the shoulder and kissed her, it all got a little bit weird. The girl stood still for a moment, blinked and seemed confused. Our blonde whispered something on her ear and nodded in the direction of the vampire, who looked as indignant as any guy whose 'catch' of the day just got swooped off his greedy hands.
The girl left hurriedly, and Thunder returned to us with her trademark smug smirk splattered over her face.
"Some bloodsucker is not having his meal today." She chuckled.
The vampire left too, but I could see him head to the bar and leave trough the backdoor. Not a good sign, but Shibata expressed my thoughts better:
"Yeah, and now you just put us on his crosshairs."
To say things got tense is to put it mildly. We couldn't leave right now or it would call unwanted attention, but if we stayed too long we risked falling into whatever trap that vampire was surely setting up for us. I decided for a midterm between both:
"Okay, it's half past midnight now. We wait until half past one. By that time there will be little movement on the streets, but the people won't be leaving the place yet. If they try something, we'll see it coming."
"Sounds like a plan." Voice gestured with her bottle to make the conversation seem casual. "But why 'they'?"
"I doubt there's only one of them here. If we're lucky, he was just passing and we won't see him again. Since I doubt this kind of luck, I'd say this is a feeding ground and we just put ourselves on the highest place of the menu."
"Whoa, you sound like you know them so much."
"The sarge made us read The Art of War. I hate them, so I know them. That way I can kill them better. Which makes me think I should really have foreseen this was a vampire feeding ground, it looks just like one. I must be getting sloppy"
"Heh, I didn't know you where the reading type..."
Thunder sure knows how to change the subject. Soon enough we were talking about books and stories and movies and TV shows and we almost forgot we should be leaving soon. Shibata was kind enough to remember us.
So we left at ten to two, after paying our bills and Voice even said goodbye to this cute boy she had danced with. We walked down the street to the parking lot really fast, we didn't even chat on the way, everyone was with hunter mode turned on.
We didn't really need it. The bloodsucking bastard was waiting for us right by our car. He and seven of his palls. By their smell, only three of them where vampires, the other five where those stupid humans who drink vampire blood and think they're supermen. What surprised me was Night's Voice trying to talk things out:
"Okay, listen, we're sorry one of ours busted your feeding today. She's just dumb, okay? We'll just pretend this never happened, leave and you'll never see us again."
The humans drew weapons, most of them silenced submachine guns, not that dangerous, but they had numbers. The three vampires where apparently unarmed, but looks can deceive. The one Thunder had provoked seemed to be their leader, great.
"Well, now we got an impasse, fleabags. I see five of you and I can agree that fighting would not be beneficial to any of us. But this dumb blonde, as you say yourself, has spited me in my own feeding ground. Surrender her to me, and the rest of you may leave."
That was one of those moments where you see he was trying to make us fight. You don't ask a werewolf to abandon a comrade. We don't do that. We may be killers, robbers, and even vandals, but traitors we are not.
"Thunder, can you do that scary cahalith war form thing?" I whispered to her.
"I'm Luna's silver champion." She whispered back, smiling.
"Cool. Shibata, with us. Everyone, war form, the three of us take the leeches down. Voice and Fangs get their thralls. We have what? Twenty seconds before someone calls the police?" Whispering all that really fast was not easy.
"We'll make it in ten." Shibata grinned wickedly.
"On my mark, then..." I whispered back. By then the vampires were on to us. They knew we were planning something, but they didn't know what. I raised my hands and took a step forward, slow and unthreatening. I lowered my voice tone, purring the words out like I've seen Moonbiter do a lot of times.
"Look, sire, we are sorry. But leaving a mate behind is not something we do. Can't we talk this out? I'm sure a man like you could use five healthy females..."
It was a ruse, just so I could cover a little more of the distance between us. The thing with vampires, you see, is that they're social predators. They're ruthless, ambitious and bold, but only with their minds. The few of them who use their bodies are beasts shunned by their own society. So, when fighting a vampire, the best thing to do is get physical and do it fast, so they can't entrance you with their mind tricks.
So we got physical. All together, following Thunder's war howl, we charged. Screw that vampire and his goons, he shouldn't have threatened one of ours. As we launched ourselves on them and they unloaded their weapons on us, our clothes tore apart and our bodies grew. Skin shed to give way to thick fur, muscles burst to make themselves stronger and bones snapped into new places as we became the beasts we all have in our hearts.
I love to use the war form. It hurts when you transform, but it's the best pain there is. My mind becomes clear in its rage, and even if I can't reason much, everything makes sense. And doing it together with tribe mates is that much more rewarding. The war form is the wolf man form, the raging, slavering beast everyone thinks when they hear the word 'werewolf'. Sharp fangs and claws, skin thick enough to stop bullets and strength to rend a man in two in a single swipe. We rarely use it, and some of us don't like it. As for me, I relish the opportunity to loosen my inner beast on someone who deserves it.
Thunder's fur shined silver in the moonlight, and her howls spurred us into a greater battle frenzy that allowed us to ignore their puny bullets and tear them apart. Shibata's claws confirmed my theory that she was some sort of devil, every swipe she took rend flesh and exposed broken bones. The humans where scared shitless by our ferocious assault, and the bloodsuckers where actually surprised we went for their throats.
The real winning move was having Shibata and Thunder charge behind me. Shibata is a Rahu, a warrior of Luna. When a Rahu uses his war form, you can't control his mind, you can't leash his rage or deceive him with tricks. You have to face him. And Thunder is a cahalith, a lore keeper, yeah, but if you ever heard about the skalds of nordic lore you will you know that lore keeper doesn't mean whiny musician. When a cahalith transforms, enemies around him fly into a panic state, even more than common humans when they see one of us.
So, with the three of us charging down on him, the vampire leader couldn't focus his powers into the weaker members of the pack. He was too busy trying to understand why the beast in front of him wouldn't obey his command. He and the other two bloodsuckers did put up a fight, tough, they were just caught unprepared. We had to use every ounce of strength and mystical gifts of Luna we had to overpower them before they could mount a decent reaction or call for backup.
It was fast, it was brutal, it was ugly. When he realized he couldn't mind control us in that state, the vampire leader actually went for some sort of blood sorcery that I seldom see. He charred my chest with some kind of hellish fire, but I couldn't care less at the moment. I can't say why, but I felt even more rage at him than I normally do. I could hear my voice in my head "You don't touch MY friend!" It roared. I roared.
By the time the fighting was over the parking lot was bathed in blood and gore. We were drenched in it, and I would have liked the smell if not for the rotting stench emanating from the vampires. We laughed in relief and euphoria when we noticed it was over and no one had seen it. Yeah, there would be talking about it, but a slaughter like that wouldn't even make it to the news. It rarely does because the cops don't want to scary the populace. Brazil is like that.
We had cuts and bullet holes everywhere, especially Shibata, Thunder and me, because we took the bloodsuckers head on. Shibata even had a silver knife lodged in her thigh. Silver hurts like hell and doesn't regenerate easily, but if you are going to face a werewolf, a knife might not be enough. Adrenaline and rage are good anesthetics, and while a wound like that would be a pain in the ass to recover from, it wouldn't have stopped her while in war form.
That was when we noticed we were all buck naked. Turning into a two meters plus tall beast tends to shred clothing, and now we all looked like crazed sadistic nudists. Well, except Four Fangs, as she was still dressed:
"Lemme guess, you girls forgot the rite of pants?"
The rite of pants is the nickname we give to this special ritual that allows us to bind a piece of clothing to our spirit, allowing it to change with us or vanish completely according to the situation. Most of our battle gear has this rite applied on, but our casual outfits? Only the shaman would remember to do it.
"Damn. Those where my lucky panties!" It takes a really sick person to make a joke like that when she is covered in blood and riddled with bullet holes. I guess I'm starting to like Night's Voice a little bit.
"Good thing I was driving then. Or else we would be diving into guts looking for the car keys..." Four Fangs called us back to reality and had us get into the car really fast. We had to close all the door's windows, so the darkened glass would give us some cover in the night. Well, until some cop stopped the car, then we would be arrested in a very awkward way.
Night's Voice got to ride shotgun, with me, Shibata and Thunder on the back. It smelled of blood, sweat and booze in that car, and we could all feel our hearts pumping madly and our nostrils dilated with predatory intent. Shibata kept to herself, and I had to sit on my hands or I would start to lick the blood on them. Thunder, sat between me and the Japanese, didn't help any of it.
She held her arms open, hands resting behind her head. She beamed. Deep down, all of us felt the same rush, the same euphoria of not only releasing our beastly sides, but also scoring a relatively easy victory on enemies who are usually not easy prey. All of us felt that way, but only Thunder would openly admit it. She even offered to help pull out the bullets from our wounds. They would come off eventually, but if we ripped them out the wounds would heal faster.
I let her work on my backside. Someone found a first aid set on the car, so she could use a pair of medical pliers to make the process faster and less bloody and painful. It wasn't painful at all, to be honest. It reminded me of Thunder talking about adrenaline rushes. I guess I was so pumped up I didn't feel a thing, because today I woke up with my back trying to kill the rest of my body.
It was a weird trip back to the farm, especially after we left the town and the girls started to loosen up. Soon we were talking about the fight, and joking about our lost clothing. Then I remembered I had lost more than clothes back there:
"Damn! I lost a knife."
"So what? Buy a new one." Voice shrugged.
"It's not that simple. Most of my knifes are either gifts or rare models, so losing one always feels bad."
Thunder reached out and hugged me with one arm while the other one gave a light jab to my ribs. She felt so big and warm again I almost didn't notice we were naked.
"Okay, since you where a quick little thingy today, I guess we can give you a new knife."
"I can do that." Shibata said. "Here" She ripped the silver dagger from her thigh and handed it to me, still slick with blood. I took it, and realized I had nowhere to hold it for now.
I left the knife resting under the passenger's seat. I guess I'm not as sharp as I used to be, because that little fight got me really tired. Or maybe it was the beer, I'm never been a strong drinker. Anyways, I ended up falling asleep before we got back to the farm. I woke up today, cleaned up and on my bed. I wonder who gave me a bath, and why I had this taste of blood in my mouth.
Well, at least it was a somewhat good night. No, I don't count starting a fight and ending up naked and covered in blood as a good thing. Winning said fight was good, though. And I never slept better, my bed never felt so warm and my mind never felt so clear. Yeah, good night.