Things were looking up. Sure, it wasn't easy - a few times during the night, Oz's thoughts had wandered lustfully to a redheaded vixen of a schoolgirl he once knew, or predatorily to images of another woman's blonde hair in his muzzle. But he'd been able to deal with those urges, accept that they were a part of his thinking for now and let them go. No physical changes had taken place. Definitely a good night, and now the pressure was easing as dawn began to peek through the curtains of Ellie's living room. He was extinguishing some incense and collecting some herbs he'd scattered in a circle around himself when he heard a loud thump in the bathroom. Actually Ellie had been oddly quiet in there all night...
Oz walked over to the bathroom door and knocked. "You okay in there?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, just getting up," answered a naked Eleanor, looking at her blood-smeared face in the mirror.
Oz nodded, then realized she couldn't see that through the door and said, "hey um, whenever you're ready I wouldn't mind a turn in the bathroom. It's been a long night." With no response but the sound of the shower turning on and cloth rustling, Oz undid the outside lock and turned to go sit on the couch and cross his legs when he noticed something and sniffed the air with a puzzled look on his face. "You sure you're ok?"
Ellie opened the door and the scent of blood was even stronger, mixed with the musk of werewolf and the sweat of her now human, and very naked body in the doorway. There was rage and... something else in her eyes. She'd reverted form, but the wolf was still there, gleaming through her pale blue eyes. "I said I was fine, just how closely do you want to check?"
Oz backed off, pretty sure that their human-to-human relationship hadn't reached the naked in the bathroom stage and let her get back to her shower.
*******************************
It wasn't really cold as September mornings go, but Jo shivered as she watched the two step through the window of her apartment onto the fire escape for breakfast. The beast had left such a trail of bloody pawprints and frightened pedestrians in its path, it hadn't been hard to catch up in time to see the beast climbing that same fire escape. "So," she said aloud to herself, "which one of you is the murderous little fucker who killed those two last night?"
Teach chuckled in the back where he was re-filing thier ammunition and leaned forward to look up at the two. With his head between the seats nearly touching her, she could feel his heat radiating against the skin of her arm, tingling across her chest. He hadn't shown any anger at her for apparently failing to prepare thier silver bullets well enough. He'd just started working them into proper shape when they'd settled into stakeout mode in the van. It seemed like he couldn't show her any emotion. Not even anger.
"Well, my money's on the girl. You've seen male werewolfs; you can usually... tell." And there it was. The man could be opening a discussion that included talking about sex - at least they could discuss *another* guy's dick - but he skirted around it. No embarrasment, it just wasn't a topic between them. "Of course, this all begs the question of how one of them could survive if the other's a were."
"You think it's both of them?" she asked, trying to push aside her other thoughts in the face of what he was suggesting.
"I dunno really. I'm sure we were only tracking the one last night. Another must have been pretty quiet about terrorizing the neighbors if it got out. Maybe he lives in another apartment and just stopped over for breakfast?"
"Speaking of..."
***
Jo was just coming out of a nasty little place called Tom's Diner with some breakfast to-go when she saw the two suspected weres headed straight at her. After a glance at the van to see that Teach was watching them and getting ready to pull out into traffic, though facing the wrong way, she turned in the direction they were headed and walked slowly in front of them.
They passed her but it wasn't long before they stopped and the girl pulled out some keys to unlock a bookshop. 'So, you work at an occult bookshop. Cozy little place for a demon dog to spend her days,' thought Jo, turning away to see Teach pull up beside her in the van.
"I'll stick around here and keep an eye on the girl. You see where the guy goes and let me know if you find anything." Teach pulled out left and parked in a public lot across the street.
The two seemed to be having some kind of awkward discussion, but Jo couldn't really make out what it was about. They were both saying "sorry" and something about an audition. The girl seemed especially sorry and maybe embarrased about something. Standing there trying to look non-suspiciously like she was waiting for the guy in the van to come over and meet her she couldn't get much more.
The guy never went into the bookshop, he stood at the door for a few moments then headed off down the street. After letting him get about a 3/4 block head-start, Jo followed. When he turned down a side street she sped up a bit and just barely caught sight of him turning left into the back parking lot of a nightclub.
Creeping alongside the building, trying to stay unnoticed, Jo saw the guy pull an electric guitar out of his van, lock the door and head in through the back of the club.
Sure, he locked the door, but Jo knew how to break into cars before she knew how to drive one. "First things first," Teach had said. "You learn how to get inside, then you learn what to do once you're there."
The exterior pant-job suggested it, but the van's interior made it clear: this guy was weird. Deep-pile shag carpeting on the floor, what she could only think of as 'tapestries' on the walls, a bookshelf, candles... shackles? Yup, two pairs of shackles, chained together, with a tether bolted to the floor. Either the guy was serious about his bondage or this van was set up to hold a werewolf.
Surprisingly, the shackles were clean: no fur there. The contents of the bookshelf were more illuminating.
A yearbook that looked like it had been pulled out of a bonfire showed that Daniel Osborne (apparently nicknamed "Oz") was a 1998 graduate of Sunnydale High in California - and a guy with some strangely named friends. Buffy? Xander? Cordy? Must be a California thing. And apparently he had been more than "friends" with a girl named Willow. Well, all this was interesting, but '98 was ancient history.
There were other books on the shelf, next to "A Rhythm Guitar God's Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment" sat a dog-eared copy of "Beowulf". Hmmm... Jo had never read it, but even misspelled, it did have wolf in the title. Some very old-looking books on various mythical creatures, heavy on the shapeshifting, filled other sections. More pictures of Oz, his band, and his friends. One odd photo showed a blonde girl Jo recognized as "Buffy" from the yearbook with a guy who's reflection wasn't showing in the mirror beside them. Odd trick, that. But down among the store of herbs in the bottom shelf of the bookcase was the jackpot: a little zip-lock bag of coarse grey fur.
Jo got out of the van with her prize, relocked the door and went to check on "Oz". The place was still locked up at this time of the morning, but she could see him on the stage with a guy holding a bass guitar jamming on some straight old fashioned blues riff. The bassline was thick but low and she could feel the pain of the strings on Oz's guitar when he sent it up into a wail. 'Huh,' she thought. 'The beast can actually play.'
***
Teach wasn't startled when she flung the side door of the van open after circling around to come up on him from behind. Sometimes it seemed like nothing really affected him. He just asked, "Find anything interesting?"
"You could say that." She shook her little baggie of fur. "Time to break out the chemistry set to be sure."
It didn't take long to verify that it was, in fact werewolf fur. Just simmer a little wolfsbane, dip a strand and see if it suddenly turns white and brittle. Verifying that it was male was a bit more complicated. DNA testing would have worked of course, but that was well beyond their little Econoline setup. There are however some distinctive acidity differences between male and female were's that were entirely within their ability.
Oz walked over to the bathroom door and knocked. "You okay in there?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, just getting up," answered a naked Eleanor, looking at her blood-smeared face in the mirror.
Oz nodded, then realized she couldn't see that through the door and said, "hey um, whenever you're ready I wouldn't mind a turn in the bathroom. It's been a long night." With no response but the sound of the shower turning on and cloth rustling, Oz undid the outside lock and turned to go sit on the couch and cross his legs when he noticed something and sniffed the air with a puzzled look on his face. "You sure you're ok?"
Ellie opened the door and the scent of blood was even stronger, mixed with the musk of werewolf and the sweat of her now human, and very naked body in the doorway. There was rage and... something else in her eyes. She'd reverted form, but the wolf was still there, gleaming through her pale blue eyes. "I said I was fine, just how closely do you want to check?"
Oz backed off, pretty sure that their human-to-human relationship hadn't reached the naked in the bathroom stage and let her get back to her shower.
*******************************
It wasn't really cold as September mornings go, but Jo shivered as she watched the two step through the window of her apartment onto the fire escape for breakfast. The beast had left such a trail of bloody pawprints and frightened pedestrians in its path, it hadn't been hard to catch up in time to see the beast climbing that same fire escape. "So," she said aloud to herself, "which one of you is the murderous little fucker who killed those two last night?"
Teach chuckled in the back where he was re-filing thier ammunition and leaned forward to look up at the two. With his head between the seats nearly touching her, she could feel his heat radiating against the skin of her arm, tingling across her chest. He hadn't shown any anger at her for apparently failing to prepare thier silver bullets well enough. He'd just started working them into proper shape when they'd settled into stakeout mode in the van. It seemed like he couldn't show her any emotion. Not even anger.
"Well, my money's on the girl. You've seen male werewolfs; you can usually... tell." And there it was. The man could be opening a discussion that included talking about sex - at least they could discuss *another* guy's dick - but he skirted around it. No embarrasment, it just wasn't a topic between them. "Of course, this all begs the question of how one of them could survive if the other's a were."
"You think it's both of them?" she asked, trying to push aside her other thoughts in the face of what he was suggesting.
"I dunno really. I'm sure we were only tracking the one last night. Another must have been pretty quiet about terrorizing the neighbors if it got out. Maybe he lives in another apartment and just stopped over for breakfast?"
"Speaking of..."
***
Jo was just coming out of a nasty little place called Tom's Diner with some breakfast to-go when she saw the two suspected weres headed straight at her. After a glance at the van to see that Teach was watching them and getting ready to pull out into traffic, though facing the wrong way, she turned in the direction they were headed and walked slowly in front of them.
They passed her but it wasn't long before they stopped and the girl pulled out some keys to unlock a bookshop. 'So, you work at an occult bookshop. Cozy little place for a demon dog to spend her days,' thought Jo, turning away to see Teach pull up beside her in the van.
"I'll stick around here and keep an eye on the girl. You see where the guy goes and let me know if you find anything." Teach pulled out left and parked in a public lot across the street.
The two seemed to be having some kind of awkward discussion, but Jo couldn't really make out what it was about. They were both saying "sorry" and something about an audition. The girl seemed especially sorry and maybe embarrased about something. Standing there trying to look non-suspiciously like she was waiting for the guy in the van to come over and meet her she couldn't get much more.
The guy never went into the bookshop, he stood at the door for a few moments then headed off down the street. After letting him get about a 3/4 block head-start, Jo followed. When he turned down a side street she sped up a bit and just barely caught sight of him turning left into the back parking lot of a nightclub.
Creeping alongside the building, trying to stay unnoticed, Jo saw the guy pull an electric guitar out of his van, lock the door and head in through the back of the club.
Sure, he locked the door, but Jo knew how to break into cars before she knew how to drive one. "First things first," Teach had said. "You learn how to get inside, then you learn what to do once you're there."
The exterior pant-job suggested it, but the van's interior made it clear: this guy was weird. Deep-pile shag carpeting on the floor, what she could only think of as 'tapestries' on the walls, a bookshelf, candles... shackles? Yup, two pairs of shackles, chained together, with a tether bolted to the floor. Either the guy was serious about his bondage or this van was set up to hold a werewolf.
Surprisingly, the shackles were clean: no fur there. The contents of the bookshelf were more illuminating.
A yearbook that looked like it had been pulled out of a bonfire showed that Daniel Osborne (apparently nicknamed "Oz") was a 1998 graduate of Sunnydale High in California - and a guy with some strangely named friends. Buffy? Xander? Cordy? Must be a California thing. And apparently he had been more than "friends" with a girl named Willow. Well, all this was interesting, but '98 was ancient history.
There were other books on the shelf, next to "A Rhythm Guitar God's Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment" sat a dog-eared copy of "Beowulf". Hmmm... Jo had never read it, but even misspelled, it did have wolf in the title. Some very old-looking books on various mythical creatures, heavy on the shapeshifting, filled other sections. More pictures of Oz, his band, and his friends. One odd photo showed a blonde girl Jo recognized as "Buffy" from the yearbook with a guy who's reflection wasn't showing in the mirror beside them. Odd trick, that. But down among the store of herbs in the bottom shelf of the bookcase was the jackpot: a little zip-lock bag of coarse grey fur.
Jo got out of the van with her prize, relocked the door and went to check on "Oz". The place was still locked up at this time of the morning, but she could see him on the stage with a guy holding a bass guitar jamming on some straight old fashioned blues riff. The bassline was thick but low and she could feel the pain of the strings on Oz's guitar when he sent it up into a wail. 'Huh,' she thought. 'The beast can actually play.'
***
Teach wasn't startled when she flung the side door of the van open after circling around to come up on him from behind. Sometimes it seemed like nothing really affected him. He just asked, "Find anything interesting?"
"You could say that." She shook her little baggie of fur. "Time to break out the chemistry set to be sure."
It didn't take long to verify that it was, in fact werewolf fur. Just simmer a little wolfsbane, dip a strand and see if it suddenly turns white and brittle. Verifying that it was male was a bit more complicated. DNA testing would have worked of course, but that was well beyond their little Econoline setup. There are however some distinctive acidity differences between male and female were's that were entirely within their ability.