Ali was dragged into the main room again. The same table was there, still stained with her blood, and she almost felt the contents of her stomach rise back up. The urge to plead with Antonio rose up, but she wasn't that far gone. Not yet, anyway. He threw her violently to the ground, and she caught herself on her arms before her face hit the concrete, making the claw marks there sting sharply. "Boys!" He called, and each brother appeared in the room, all five circling her. He went back to sit languidly on the table, glaring at her. He raised his hand to the brothers, and they looked surprised, and looked back down at her.

"I think I'm going to restart the Hernandez line with her. But I don't know if she's flexible enough to sate me. So let's see how far she can bend."

The brothers growled low and she whimpered again, trying to skitter back. But before another hand touched her, one of the boys had dropped to the floor, his head lolling sickeningly far to the side, over the broken bones of his neck. Another went down, but the last two flashed back to Antonio's side before they fell too, looking for their attacker.

A leopard stalked into the room, his growl low and furious, threatening a painful death to anyone who came near him. Antonio smiled and got up, waving his arms open in a false welcome. "Angelos. Glad to see you came. A little late, but better late than never." He said, casting a look to Ali, curled up shaking and broken on the floor. A full throated roar ripped violently from Angel's throat, and his voice whispered through Ali's mind.

~I've got a plan Ali. I'm gonna get you out of this.~

Her shoulders shook with silent sobs, and he took another step forward, pacing in front of the three remaining Hernandez brothers. "Three on one, Angelos. We're going to tear you up. But first," He stalked over to Ali and yanked her to her feet by her hair, and grabbed her hand, showing her mated palm to Angel, who flashed back human with a horrified look on his face. Tears rolled down her cheeks freely, and she managed to speak, ashamed of the hoarseness of her voice. "Please, just kill me." She begged, her eyes not leaving Angel. She'd rather he do it than any of the brothers.

He only growled, and she felt herself shoved to the side as Antonio flashed leopard in time with Angel and the two males leapt at each other. But instead of meeting with teeth to throats, Angel had aimed for somewhere below Antonio, and slid on the concrete until he was next to Ali, and sank his teeth into her throat instead.

There was a split second of pure relief; he'd done it. But that relief was short lived as pain exploded through her body like an electrical pulse. She screamed and fell to the ground, wondering why Angel had left her to die like this.

She heard roars and snarls in the background, but the pain was so overwhelming that she couldn't even figure out who was winning. The pain began to subside, and she realized hands were holding her again, and an unfamiliar part of her called out for blood, and suddenly she wasn't herself. She was a leopard, smaller than the others, but definitely leopard. Whoever was holding her let go in alarm, and shifted to leopard as well, but the animal that was suddenly a part of her mind had already pushed her to lunge for his throat. She knew as intimately as Ali did the affronts he'd paid to her, and the leopard wanted blood. And knew how to get it, apparently. Before whichever brother she was attacking could even respond, her leopard had sunk her teeth deep into his throat. He clawed at her, but compared to the other marks on her, she wasn't fazed, and her leopard even less so as he tried to slice at her past thick fur to less avail. Compared to the effect his claws had had on bare human skin, she almost wanted to laugh at his attempt to injure her now. She held on, waiting until his movement had completely ceased before letting go, and turned with the metallic taste of blood on her tongue and in her nose to face the battle raging behind her. Two on one, it wasn't hard to figure out which one was Angel. She scented the difference between Angel and Antonio, and leapt for the last brother, tackling him clean out of the fighting, leaving Angel facing off with Antonio alone. She'd like to be the one to kill him, but she had a feeling Angel needed to get it out of his system as badly as she did.

So she contented herself with ripping apart the brother she had beneath her paws. He was better skilled, and it took her a while, but eventually her and her leopard's vengeance was satisfied, and the brother lay dead under her. She didn't stop once he stopped moving, though. Her thoughts went blurry, and her vision went red with bloodlust as she tore at him repeatedly, tearing open his hide and shredding it. Her rage blocked out all reasonable, coherent thought until one voice brought her back to reality, slowly.

"Ali! Ali stop he's dead!"

She couldn't stop. She wanted to, the human side of her did. The human side heard Angel calling to her, but could only watch in morbid fascination as her leopard half continued to maul the already unrecognizable body under her claws. A hand touched her flank, and she spun, crouching over the body protectively. Her leopard didn't want anyone else in on her kill, and Ali watched through a stranger's eyes as Angel crouched a few paces away from the body, reaching a hesitant hand to her. "Squiregirl, I know you're in there. I know it's tough, coming back from bloodlust, but I know you can do it. They're all dead. You're safe now."

Her leopard was slowly calming down, his deep, rough baritone soothing her feline. Eventually, at Ali's urging, she left the body and crouched low, creeping over to Angel and whining deep in her throat. Angel sat next to her, stroking a hand through her fur calmly, soothing her further. She didn't really know how long it took for her to regain control, but eventually her leopard backed off and offered Ali the chance to change. She did so, almost surprised to find herself human again, crouched naked on the floor. Clothes almost immediately covered her, not the sexy clothes from the bar, simple linen pants and a tee shirt, and Angel had jumped back to a crouch, looking- of all weird things- nervous as his hand hovered just out of range of touching her. "Squiregirl? You ok?"

She realized he didn't want to touch her, and why. With newer, more pronounced senses, she could smell exactly how deeply imbedded into her skin the Hernandez brothers were. They might be dead, but they'd laid a claim to her she wouldn't soon rid herself of. "I'm sorry," she muttered despairingly, leaping up to run from the room. She needed out. The blood was too strong, the memories too clear. She could feel the hands on her, she could taste the blood, and she didn't even make it past the door before she emptied her stomach, a hand holding her up against the wall. Tears fell as she dry heaved- when was the last time she'd eaten? How long had it been since her torture had started?- making her throat scratchier and harsher than it'd already been.

Then Angel's scent was back, and a towel was being offered in her peripheral. "Ali," she hated herself for the way that simple utterance affected her. "I don't know what to do, I- can I touch you?"

A fleeting thought that it wasn't that he hated her now, but that he didn't want to further damage her occurred and she took the towel to wipe her mouth and turned to collapse into Angel's arms.

There was a commotion behind him, and he turned to see Colt, Stefan- the Katagari Leopard Regis, and a group of Strati behind them, surveying the damage done. Colt looked around until his eyes landed on Angel and Ali, and he sighed in relief. ~You ok?~

Angel could only shake his head, looking back down at Ali who was still crying against his chest. He watched Colt take in the scents, both Ali's new leopard scent and the heavy lingering smell of sex and pain and fear in the room he and Stefan were in the middle of. The Strati started cleaning up the bodies as Stefan came over to Angel. But all he saw was horror that etched across Colt's face, and he knew Colt understood. He stopped Stefan and spoke to him softly, and with a nod in Angel's direction, Stefan and the Strati disappeared. Colt came over, and spoke low to Angel.

"I talked to Leo, he and Ali's family are pretty riled up. I told them we'd get her back and call them later. We should get her back to Sanctuary, keep her there for a while until she's ok."

"Will she ever be ok, Colt?" He asked, not expecting any sort of real answer. He lowered his head to Ali, stroking a hand through her hair protectively. "Squiregirl, we're taking you back to Sanc. I'm gonna watch out for you for a couple days." She nodded against his chest and he and Colt flashed back to the bar with her.