"Stay on your guard. While you're one of the better shifters I've seen fight, I wasn't kidding when I said these vampires were trained to kill. It's their job to beat our kind into submission, and they are very good at it."
"Don't give me that look. They wouldn't be alive for this nonsense to occur if they weren't. Never fear, though, I do happen to be better at it. I trained them, and I trained you, to do the exact same thing; take on the guard... and win. While you might not have your pack, you do have one thing to work in your favor. The majority of the vampires within these walls have never seen one of your kind, or any other breed, for that matter. They live in the fantasy that all there is, is us, because that's all they have ever been exposed to. While our arrival will not be that much of a surprise because I'm not making it one, your presence will be. Use their shock at your appearance to replace the backup of your pack."
"When we split up at the end of the hall, follow your nose. I've had Alec leave you a clear trail to follow to the main chamber. If Aro and the other two are still in one piece, that's where they will have taken up refuge. Take down anyone that gets in your way. Unless you want a world wide war with our kind, those three must be protected. Do you understand?"
It hadn't taken more than a dip of Paul's head for Demetri to take a half step back before planting his foot in the center of the double doors that separated them from the war that already raged inside the Volturi stronghold. While there was no part of the shifter that understood why anyone would want to protect Aro knowing he did about the jackass, if making sure he stayed somewhat alive was necessary, Paul would do what he could.
The head of the Guard took off, Paul hot on his heels, while Felix split off with them just inside the entrance. There weren't many obstacles out that far from the middle of the palace where Demetri was positive the three kings were hiding, and had been proven right when anyone they did cross paths with, with the intent to attack, skidded to a stop at the sight of a wolf coming right for them. Stunned so stupid, in fact, they momentarily forgot about their pissed off boss. Over two millennia of experience had their heads removed and left to float to the floor as dust when it was crushed between Demetri's hands.
When the fork in the road came into view, Demetri grunted at the sight of the black fog, speaking out loud without really thinking about it. "I meant a scent trail, you fucking idiot." It had never been tested to find out one way or the other if vampiric gifts worked on the shifters or not, but it was very well known they worked on Demetri, so he couldn't even adjust his plans to take the path Alec laid for the wolf and send the wolf the longer way to the main chamber.
With little more than a good luck from the vampire who took the path to the right, Paul hesitated for a moment at the darkened corridor he was told to take before his motto of 'fuck it, let's see what happens' kicked in and he braced himself before he went left and into the darkness.
While he sneezed hard enough to almost hit his nose on the ground, he didn't slow, and instead picked up the pace. He didn't know how long this path he was taking was, or how many corpses he was going to run into on the way. It was also a much smaller hallway than the last one he was in, there being barely enough space for him to turn if someone came up behind him, if he even could.
He made two turns before he was shocked into a halt himself. Twenty feet away from him was a vampire that looked like it was fighting the darkness itself. It was growling, snarling, its arms swinging at nothing. Having no idea the hall wasn't dark because of a lack of light, or anything at all about vampire gifts in general, Paul backed himself up a couple of feet, debating whether or not he was going to continue and not just turn tail and get the fuck out of there, but knowing he had to finish what was started if he was going to get his imprint back, Paul pulled his lips from his fangs and darted forward again, doing as little work as he could to get rid of the insane vampire.
He just bit off the poor bastard's head and continued on as if he didn't.
Seven more times he would come across the same scene, and each time he did the same thing, before he finally saw a set of doors at the end of the fifth turn he took. With each fall of his paws, he could hear more of the yelling going on on the other side of the doors, and, once again giving a moment's thought to what he was doing, he once again said Fuck It, dropped his nose, and rammed the top of is head into the seal of the doors with so much force, they broke from the hinges, the wood exploding, and giving himself one hell of a grand entrance.
Alec had chosen to lead the wolf down the hall that led to the back of the main chamber for him to enter behind the dias, giving him about thirty feet to catch his breath if necessary, though if it was, Paul didn't take it. What he did instead was bare his teeth, put everything into his hind legs, and in three strides, leapt over the thrones in his way, and land in a crouch five feet at the base of the steps on the other side.
His body lengthwise along the steps, the only sound in the room was the growl from Paul. He however, didn't move a muscle, not knowing who was friend or foe in this particular situation, and not wanting to mistake one for the other. This shit was stupid enough, and he didn't want to make it worse.
Behind him was gasped 'impossible', but no one had time to respond to it before the doors on the other side gave way to a swarm of bodies, making the growl from the wolf grow in volume when the question of who was who was answered. The fifteen bodies inside were there to protect, but the unknown number that flooded the room when the doors broke open were clearly not.
Alec, who was in the room, looked over his shoulder at the shifter, his lips pressed together, and locked his eyes on Paul's. More time seemed to pass than what did before Alec gave him a nod. "Good Luck, Cub." And he was gone, diving into the fight that came to him for the first time in his life.
Quick to make his own game plan, Paul decided to let the vampires deal with the majority of their own, and he would hang back to deal with anyone that got past what was clearly the only line of defense. Besides, they knew better than he did what they own were capable of, and he wasn't exactly what one would consider in top form. If he didn't have to do anything, or much of anything, that's exactly what he planned to do.
And that's exactly what he did... no more, no less.
He didn't just stand there, he did move around, but never got more than ten feet from the dias, not entirely sure the three that were watching from the top could defend themselves and also not sure he could double back fast enough to keep them in one piece if someone got past him.
What he didn't know, what no one knew, was in the rafters above their heads, Demetri and Felix watched the goings on, cataloging who was on which side before they were going to get involved. Demetri had absolutely no intention of dropping to the floor until he knew every last guard that sentenced themselves to death, but that changed when the line of vampires were finally overwhelmed. Deciding at that point everyone in the room but the wolf, the twins, and the Masters were expendable, Demetri looked at Felix as he stood from his hiding place and, with little more than a quarked brow, dropped like a bomb to the floor below, breaking the marble floors, and landing in a crouch two feet to the right of Paul, he own teeth bared.
His voice shrouded in a snarl, Demetri snapped his teeth. "Daddy's home."
While several skidded into a scramble to back away from the prize of the vampire world, most did not, and with a smirk on his lips, Demetri lunged forward, Felix to one side, Paul to the other, and the real fight began.
While Felix had experience fighting alongside a shifter, Demetri did not, but no one would know he was nothing but a bystander during the wolf's crash course with how easily the two flowed together. It was a tit for tat, the tracker knocking a former guard away from Paul and Paul taking a bite out of one that tried to go at Demetri from behind.
Three had gotten Demetri to his back, and Paul was right there, diving through them and taking them to the ground. Paul had even allowed Demetri to use his nose and the power in his neck to launch him over the sea of bodies when a few of the opposition got past Felix and too close to the dias for comfort. Likewise, when Paul became surrounded, Demetri actually killed Corin because he stood between him and the wolf.
There were no friends here, so far as Demetri was concerned.
He landed in the ring of vampires just in time to sacrifice his arm to the teeth of some faceless guard that was aiming for Paul's neck, using the fact the stupid bastard locked his jaw to his advantage, swinging the body around and knocking others away from the quickly tiring wolf. He, however, was not fast enough to prevent someone else from sinking their teeth into Paul's hind leg.
The sound of shocked pain from the wolf stole the last of the color from Demetri's eyes. His lips pulling all he way back to completely expose the his teeth, and a dark, deep, low grow sounding in his chest, Demetri grabbed the back of the neck of the vampire that was still attached to his arm, ripped himself free, leaving a divot in his own stone skin, while locking his black eyes on the vampire that was now frozen solid.
Whether or not the yearling thought Demetri was trying to get to the wolf to kill it or not, whether it thought he was on the right side after being told all they need to do was get rid of the Master's or not, whether it thought nothing at all was all irrelevant in that moment. In that moment, all rationality left Demetri's own thought process, the three days he spent preventing the wolf's death from vampire venom flooding his memories, and the countless times he almost lost the fight, the tracker moved without realizing it, acted without comprehension. He had no idea what he was doing, or who he was doing it to.
And he didn't care.
Anyone stupid enough to get anywhere near him that didn't smell like a corpse that was left out to bake in the sun for a week deserved whatever happened to them.
The complete release of the demon within the Tracker brought the chaos to a complete standstill. Some were still poised mid attack. Others just stared in horrified fascination as the five vampires within three feet of the wolf exploded into nothing but dust as Demetri vanished before their eyes. No one saw him move. No one saw how he killed those particular vampires.
And no one wanted to.
When Demetri did reappear, it was between everyone present and the now downed shifter that was licking at his leg, trying to put out the fire under his fur. There was nothing in his eyes, the inky depth void of anything resembling the vampire they knew. All they saw looking back at them was the Devil himself, who was out for revenge, and didn't care who he had to go through to get it.
Another noise came from the wolf that was clearly just as irritated as it was of pain, pulling Demetri's attention over his shoulder. A slow smirk pulled at the vampire's lips, his theory proved right when the smell of the shifter remained the same. A deep chuckle left his throat, a growl covering his voice as he finally spoke. "Yeah... it hurts like a mother fucker, but you'll be fine this time."
*X*
The amount of dust in the air from broken vampire bodies made Paul sneeze, but as he looked around at the twitching limbs, piles being made of those that fell, he glanced at the tracker, watching as he barked out orders at the few that remained in one piece. However. from the look still in the tracker's black eyes, it didn't appear he was fully ready to stop ripping bodies apart.
But, the wolf just sat off to the side, his tongue hanging out of the side of his muzzle as he tried to catch his breath. He had no idea how many vampires were shredded, but the amount of rock and limbs told him it was a lot. If he cared more about the death of that particular race, he might have been interested in counting. But as it stood, even one dying made the world a better place, and wiping out as many as were just destroyed was only a good thing, really.
Not really all there himself having had his head crack off the ground more than once, and his hind leg still bothering him, he didn't notice when one of the three he just spent however long protecting in his own way came barreling towards him until, out of nowhere, there was a resounded crack that bounced off the walls, drawing him back to his body. Jolting to his feet, Paul backed up a few feet to put some distance between him and Demetri, who he thought was on the other side of the room, and the drooling vampire that was missing his nose as he growled and snarled.
Looking down his nose at Caius, knowing exactly what was in his head, cocked a brow at him. "That is how you repay someone for saving your ass? Remind me to never fucking do it again."
Voice sounding different without a nose, Caius yelled back as he pointed to Paul. "That Child of the Moon must..."
From behind him, Aro scoffed. "Silence, Caius. There is no moonlight, therefore logic says that is not a werewolf." Shifting his eyes to Paul himself, the ruler of the vampires clasped his hands together behind his back. "It's a shapeshifter. Very much a different creature." Looking back to his brother, he smirked. "And one you owe your life to. Wouldn't that be Karmic justice? If he were a were, of course? Owing your life to a creature you thought you eradicated? Pity he's not, hmm?"
Turning his attention to the wolf in question, Aro moved towards him, moving his hands from behind him to in front of him, having no desire to find out just hard Demetri can actually hit. "And I can only assume you're the reason Demetri has finally returned, and that your human is around here somewhere." Freezing at the sound that came from his own guard, Aro looked to the still pissed off tracker. "Relax, I mean neither them any harm, Demetri. I am simply trying to ascertain just how much is actually owed to what is meant to be our food and our sworn enemy."
Crossing his arms to keep his hands out of Aro's reach, Demetri flashed his teeth with a grin. "Far more than you will ever have the ability to ever repay."
Not even giving the change of Demetri's position a second thought, Aro shifted his eyes briefly to the wolf, before lifting a shoulder in a shrug and turning away. "Fair enough. The remaining guards can take care of cleaning up this mess from here." Pausing and turning half way back, Aro clicked his tongue. "Take your pets home, Demetri. That is... if you believe you still can."