"Why do you fight me over this cop, Kai? What makes him so special that you would go against your pack in order to aid him?"

She couldn't help it, she snorted a weary laugh. "What makes you think it has anything to do with Peter?"

"Peter," he echoed the name back to her with significant emphasis. "You fought us once to save his life. He and Paul Blaisdell would both be dead already were it not for your interference. Tell me Kai, have you developed a soft spot for this human?"

She didn't reply with the obvious, now who's being foolish, but she couldn't keep herself from thinking it. "Are you really so blind to have missed noticing the attempts to stop your hunts before all of this? Did it truly take direct confrontation before you realized I was working against you on them?" She saw the muscle in his jaw jump as he bit down on his anger, but his response was surprisingly calm.

"I suppose your actions must be blunt if you are going to plot against me so poorly that your moves go unnoticed as well as without result. You stopped nothing. You did not even hinder my hunts."

"And yet here we are."

** kftlc ** tsotb ** kftlc ** tsotb **

Her calling had worked. Now she just had to figure out what precisely she'd called and try to bind it before it got carried away. Kai couldn't have foreseen that it would choose someone to inhabit; couldn't have foreseen that the person would be a cop; couldn't have foreseen that it would be a cop that Bauchan was going to hunt, either. But that was the problem with callings: they were hard to direct, and she'd known that when she'd chosen to perform it.

Stopping Bauchan was worth it. Putting an end to all the hunts was worthy of any effort she could provide. It shouldn't matter that one clueless police officer got caught up in the aftermath of her calling. It did matter though. It had to, or else she wasn't any better than Bauchan.

An Ancestor was what she had expected to get. An entity with whom she could reason. She'd planned carefully to avoid getting a hardcore killer, which would have only compounded her problem.

It really was remarkable. In truth, she shouldn't have had the skill to call forth what she had, but that was life, wasn't it? A random falling of all the things that shouldn't happen, happening. But no, it wasn't only the skill she should have lacked in this calling. It was the power. She really didn't have the necessary strength to bring one of the old ones back.

But it was back.

** kftlc ** tsotb ** kftlc ** tsotb **

He'd been watching in silence as the dark-haired individual in front of him blatantly sniffed the air, dark-fire gaze constantly roving the city below. Searching, which was obvious, but Kermit didn't know what he could possibly be trying to see in the mottled star-pattern of lights that marked the city beneath them.

Peter didn't like heights. Clearly whoever was running things at the moment didn't have the same phobia, as he crouched on the building's edge like an impassive gargoyle. The familiar features were as immobile as if they'd truly been carved in stone, which only added to the imagery playing in Kermit's mind.

"What the hell is going on?"

The dark head cocked ever so slightly to one side, in a manner reminiscent of canine curiosity, before the man to whom it belonged replied without bothering to tear his gaze from the cityscape, "Hunting."

Kermit couldn't help the weary snort that escaped him, "Not that I don't understand the impulse to hunt this son-of-a-bitch down, but you have more pressing issues right now."

In a voice barren of all emotion, cold and severe as the arctic tundra itself, an answer came forth, "If you had not interfered, the hunt would already be over. Until it is done, it remains the issue."

"What about the rest of the family? They're grieving right now and you just left them. They need Peter there. You selfish -" Kermit didn't even have time to inhale before he found himself some twenty meters from his previous location, shoved against the solid wall of the roof entrance with hands twisted in the material of his jacket and pressing him roughly into the hard surface. Gone was the passionless mask on his friend's face, replaced by an icy fury that seemed to leech the oxygen from the very air, making it impossible to draw in another breath.

"Do not presume to lecture me on proper methods of dealing with this situation. I have existed far longer than you can conceive of and will exist long after your corpse lay rotting within the ground. The pack-killer would be worm-food if you had not interfered. The only reason you yet live is that you are pack to mine."

Kermit's brain took a moment to process that; the straight-forward realization of who'd had really just spoken stunned him. He'd known this influence existed probably as soon as it had taken up residence within his friend. He'd felt its taint upon the link that Peter had somehow forged with him, but for all that knowing it was the first time he looked at his friend's physical form, listened to his voice, and saw and heard only the entity. Everything familiar was gone, and in its place something new had set up shop.

Or really old, if the… shit, what was he supposed to call it?

"What are you?" He managed the words in spite of the crucial oxygen still being denied him. There was a slight loosening of those inhumanly strong fingers, and although they hadn't physically been responsible for his inability to properly breathe, Kermit found himself able to draw breath once more. It was as if the physical act of fingers loosening caused the air to respond in kind, though it remained chill enough for the newly exhaled air to remain visible.

"You ask that question as though you would truly comprehend its answer," and with that the being dropped its hand from Kermit altogether, moving once more with that economic grace that so marked the personality. No movement was wasted in the precise approach to, and short leap back up onto, the ledge of the short wall on the roof, where it melted down into a crouch once more.

** kftlc ** tsotb ** kftlc ** tsotb **

It was more difficult to locate this time. The height should have given an advantage to seeking out the trail but failed to do so. There seemed to be an energy hovering in the air that made the paths murky and mingled. Like dyes cast into the water only they didn't combine, exactly, rather they seemed to break apart and spread out, like the frayed ends of a rope. One path turning into a thousand paths, interspersed with the thousand paths of another. As such, each individual path remained perceptible to its mind, and yet woven over far too great an area so that it remained unable to pinpoint a precise location. Instead it was left with only a generalized place which simply was not acceptable.

To cover the whole area would take too long. Had its true form been available maybe that would have been a different story, but as it was it was met with some very real human limitations. When it had first realized these constraints in searching it had again sought to break free from the fragile body encasing part of its essence, but that had been no more successful than previous attempts had been. For whatever reason it was bound to the human. Something like this shouldn't have been possible. Even with as small a portion of itself that was currently here, it should have been able to draw away from a given host.

Gathering the rest of its self as it filtered through, after doing so, would have taken longer with no secure and absolute body of location in which to collect, but such a thing would have been possible. Should have been possible.

But it was stuck. Only it wasn't just that it was trapped inside a mortal casing, but it could feel as its own essence slowly mingled with that of Peter, not precisely becoming one but certainly becoming tangled: some places blurred out entirely. Already it wasn't certain if Peter would survive when it had fully collected itself here and then departed this form.

It ought not care, really. Humans died. That was what they did. And yet Peter was pack now, regardless of why, and that made it care.

Annoying damn cop.

The small burst of emotion caused a pause within it as that was a reminder of another problem. It was beginning to behave erratically. With emotions rather than logic, and that was not it. Prolonged exposure to Peter was causing the human's nature to filter into its own, fusing so seamlessly together that sometimes it couldn't even immediately remember what its own true nature was in reference to what they together now were. After countless years of existence and now it was having an identity crisis…

There was no more a patient hunter than it, and yet it knew without having to consider, that Peter would be pacing and talking and probably crying, given the circumstances. If it stopped and listened to the silent presence shut down by grief, it was almost certain it could feel the tears drowning out an all too-familiar and almost loved voice.

** kftlc ** tsotb ** kftlc ** tsotb **

Kai was alive. Bauchan had left her there, unharmed, without really understanding why. It wasn't mercy. Creatures such as he didn't acknowledge those concepts, perhaps couldn't truly understand them. Mercy was a human thing, not an animal thing, and Bauchan was wolf. Perhaps he simply agreed with her assessment that his cop was going to come after them both, although what made her think that Peter Caine would bother with her was beyond his ability to fathom. She hadn't done anything, afterall.

But Kai had always been strange. It could have been a feeling she'd had, or perhaps she'd seen something that told her as much. He couldn't possibly know the depth of her abilities; she'd never been big on sharing. In fact it was those very abilities that he attributed her traitorous turn to: they'd always seemed to make her less wolf than those around her.

A head shake followed: an attempt to clear his mind of the pointless thoughts. He'd killed the sister of his prey in order to gain all of Peter's focus, annoyed at the split in the man's attention. Well, he'd certainly garnered that focus, only now he wasn't so certain that had been a good idea. He wasn't even sure why he had done it, truly, because it fell so far outside of the norm of his usual actions. Bauchan was a wolf. He was clever and subtle and he never set it up so that his prey would be the one searching him out. Peter wasn't meant to be the one hunting him, attacking him, forcing Bauchan into the defensive role. That wasn't the way this worked, but he'd done it anyway and now he wasn't sure how to deal with the fallout.

Had Peter simply been human this would have merely been an interesting twist to an already exciting hunt, but Bauchan was beginning to understand that there was no merely about Peter… and Peter wasn't just human. There was wolf lingering within his bloodline, somewhere, but it was diluted enough that until recently Peter hadn't even been aware of it. Nobody had. Bauchan was more than a match for someone so barely touched by wolf. It was the other that made Bauchan doubt. He didn't know what that was because it wasn't human and it most certainly wasn't wolf. It had felt ancient and cold and he could still hear the whisper of fear in the back of his thoughts if he listened: an instinctual understanding that, as wolf as he was, he couldn't comprehend the meaning of. Death, his mind told him. Peter Caine was death, and yet there had been no trace of it when he had first met the cop. Nothing to hint at this latent power, which could only mean it came from elsewhere. That it wasn't Peter, but something else. Kai's involvement made more sense now. What lengths had she gone to in order to stop the hunts? Exactly what had she brought here and…

How was he meant to combat something other?

** kftlc ** tsotb ** kftlc ** tsotb **

There it was. Curling around the city like stray wisps of smoke, the essence had spread out, but it had a lock now. Without a backward glance, it gathered his muscles beneath and leapt from the building's rooftop, ignoring the startled shout behind it. Moments later it landed in a controlled crouch, numerous stories down from where it had jumped. It could feel the aftershocks pulsating through the length of his body, human beings not meant for drops of even a fraction of that, but it gathered itself together and brushed away the strain, and took off after the scent. Everything of its being was focused on its prey, so intensely that nothing else really existed beyond: track - find - kill. It helped that Peter and it were in agreement upon this course of action. Distant as Peter had become, just a quiet presence in the mind of the creature they were together now becoming, it mattered that he wanted this too. The shadows clung to it, as it raced along the streets unseen.

Nobody ever saw death coming.

Slowing up a moment, it paused. The pack-killer had recently been to the park, to the bench that was now in front of it, and not long ago. It could feel an abrupt rise of emotions, but kept the tide of feelings at bay through sheer strength of will. If those emotions crested, they would overwhelm a being that had no experience in dealing with such matters. A full body shudder ran over it, an attempt to shake off such trivial matters. It was getting more difficult for it to do as the hours wore on - as it closed in on the pack-killer and the endgame.

A breeze wafted by, bringing with a stronger breath of the long searched for scent. So very close now, and it moved to close the distance. Soon, soon blood would be theirs to claim.

kftlc ** tsotb ** kftlc ** tsotb **

Nobody could have missed its coming. A wave of pure chilling desire that washed over those before it. Bauchan was reasonably certain that even a human could have felt it, even if they couldn't have understand its objective. It desired blood. Death. He could understand that, having wanted to claim both numerous times from his prey, only this time he understood he was the prey. That this was the culmination of events that he had put into motion months ago when he first hired the group of mercenaries to come into Myanmar. What was meant to be a hunt in the forests turned into something much larger than he could have ever anticipated. If he was capable of thinking in terms of mistakes, he might have acknowledged a few along the way, but he wasn't and all he could think of was the coming fight.

Shape shifting without thought, so ingrained was the ability, orange eyes narrowed in anticipation as he stilled his body. Waiting. Live or die, he'd do it as a wolf.

Senses so much sharper in this state, he still didn't hear when Peter arrived. One moment there was nothing but the chill in the air, and the next the unmistakable form of his enemy was before him. There wasn't time for banter, even had he been in human guise, for as soon as he became aware of the presence it was already in motion.

He caught the blur of movement, and felt pain explode along his body as he crashed into the trunk of a tree. Without a second spared for clearing thoughts, he felt metal bite into his flank and smelt the metallic tinge in the air that told of fresh blood. Growling he lashed out with claws, twisting his limber form to meet the threat with the addition of teeth. Sharp canines clamped down hard on flesh as they met the hand wielding the knife.

** kftlc ** tsotb ** kftlc ** tsotb **

A soft hiss was the only acknowledgement that it seemed to give the wound before it raised his other arm and jammed the hand up under the wolf's throat in an attempt to loosen the hold of teeth on his hand. The strength behind the muscles went beyond this human's limitations, and it used every ounce of that power to press into the wolf's trachea.

Hate. The word screamed inside its thoughts as the expressed emotion poured over mental banks and flooded over it. Hate. Hate. Hate. They hated this creature. This wolf that dared to take their sister. Their pack. They wanted it dead.

Fingers dug deeply into wolf flesh in return, through fur and hide, the unrelenting grip piercing like teeth into his throat. Blood welled up under the assault; warm and wet it ran over human skin in rivulets.

The whine of pain from Bauchan drew a sharp, unpleasant smile from it. It would kill this creature. Would teach the pack-killer what true death was… the hold loosened momentarily, as with another shake of his head, it tried to beat back the still rushing emotions. It felt something pulling within the mind, trying to take control or gain attention, it wasn't sure. It couldn't allow this now, not when they were so close to justice.

Is this justice?

The question was silent, existing only within the realm of thought, but the presence was unmistakable.

We need this. The pack-killer deserves this!

There was no reply to the outburst, and though it clenched his jaw in irritation, it gave no other signs of the inner turmoil as drew the hand back that had been tearing into the wolf and punched into the delicate muzzle with all the force it could gather.

The wolf let go.

With a hacking snarl, the beast attempted to rise. Animal eyes brimming with pain and anger, never leaving the ever-shifting dark fire gaze that didn't belong to the cop he'd hunted so gleefully, for all that they rested within his face.

It rose, too. Watching the wolf while drawing the injured hand protectively into the shelter of his body. It felt that ache, keenly now, along with deep gouges ripped into various points across his body caused by raking claws. And that was wrong, because it shouldn't be able to feel all of this pain: the hurt from the wound; the still frayed nerves and muscles that had protested movement ever since it leapt from the roof of the building; the emotions that just wouldn't settle back into their banks and cease their unrelenting pounding on its being as they tried to break its shields. It wasn't meant to feel. It didn't feel, yet none of it would go away.

It wanted it all to stop and tried its best to ignore the internal assault as it darted quickly forward, knife still held but mostly useless as the numbed fingers wouldn't respond to its bidding. The damage to the nerves and overall trauma to the hand made it impossible to even unclench the fist to drop the weapon.

** kftlc ** tsotb ** kftlc ** tsotb **

The movement didn't escape the wolf's notice and, crouched low to gather muscles, he sprang with all the power still possessed. Landing first away from Peter, before pushing off the ground once more and solidly connecting with the man's back. Peter hadn't been able turn quickly enough, seeming distracted, and the impact sent them both into the dirt. Bauchan could feel the cracking in the vulnerable body beneath him as his weight settled on top, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth in a facsimile of a grin.

Bauchan moved, his intent to get a better angle on the back of the neck presented to him, and hind legs slid off the body and onto the ground. As he went to bite, Peter rolled sideways. His good hand came up to meet the descending jaws, catching Bauchan under the muzzle once more, and pressing up to keep the lethal teeth away. At the same time his legs were curling up toward his torso, so that when the rolling motion stopped, the bulk of Bauchan's body was kept at bay by the feet pressed into his chest even as legs bent further toward Peter's body. Moments later the bending ceased as Peter pushed back and away with inhuman strength and very human learned muscle control. Using the distance created and the momentum from the action itself, Peter gained his feet and straightened.

With an angry snarl, Bauchan ran at him before darting away. He kept up the game for a short time, seeking to wear his prey down. Peter had slowed some, no doubt from injuries sustained, and Bauchan used that to get behind him and jump. Though agile yet, he was unable to completely adapt for a sudden shift in Peter's direction. Claws still managed to tear into clothing and skin, but only superficially, as Peter's body ducked into a forward roll. Bauchan landed and turned with staggering speed, and launched himself again at his enemy. Claws were set into the vulnerable and briefly exposed back.

The too tempting target may have been a calculated ruse, for all that Bauchan could tell, because even as he was landing Peter moved again. Nails had just begun to dent skin as Peter came out of his roll, body sinuously shifting as the arm with the injured hand came backward forcefully and the serrated teeth of the knife bit hard. Stretched out as Bauchan was, due to his leap forward, the knife burrowed into the area where front leg met soft under-body and lodged there.

The sharp yelp as pain flared wasn't capable of being quieted and, unable to get a strong purchase in the body beneath him, Bauchan's momentum carried him forward and he landed in an ungraceful heap. Though only peripherally aware of it, he could hear the soft gasps of breath from Peter that indicated he wasn't faring much better.

Bauchan tried to reach under with his teeth and tear the knife free, but was unable to do so. Both the serrated edges of the blade and a general pain-induced inability to contort his body, prevented it. As he lay there, trying to catch his breath, he couldn't help but wonder if the area of the knife's connection had been intentional.

That was twice now that he'd been stabbed in what amounted to the same location, though in two different forms, by the same weapon. He huffed a breath out - half grim amusement, half exasperation.

The amusement didn't last long.

A/N Wow. Finally updated. Not sure the two-and-a-half year wait was worth it though. About the first half was done way back before the last chapter was posted. I really don't think I even know what's going on in this fic anymore. Hope it makes sense. Also, I hope the weird pronoun usage doesn't throw too many people - there is a reason its written like that.