Chapter 14: Perimeter
Damn Sam for his interruption. He was hard as a rock right now, standing with Daiane between him and Bella's truck. She was still a little breathless as she stares up at him, her lips damp and a little swollen for their kiss. Her eyes were large and eager, he could see her nipple under her shirt, little buds just underneath. His mouth watered for them, but Sam says, "We're take Bella to Emily's now, meet up with Jared and Quil by the lumber mill."
God damn you Sam, he knew he shouldn't be mad at Sam, it was the bloodsucker fault and maybe Balla's, but he wanted to kill someone so much right now for taking him away from Daiane. Daiane strokes gentle at his neck, her soft fingertip caressing the veins in his neck. He closes his eyes revel in her touch. She did the same thing earlier at the picnic, he didn't know why she did it then but now he understood, she was helping him this his control. She said shifter didn't like being touched on their neck, but he liked her hands on him, anywhere.
He hears Sam walk away. She had offered to run the perimeter with him, and he wasn't going to turn her down, not after watching her in action last week. He touches her neck gently watching her reaction, he wanted to test a theory really quick. She eyes go wide in shock for a moment before she relaxes, and a purr comes from her throat, she was happy. She liked it too, but he had a feeling that it was only because he was the one touching her, if it was anyone else, he felt like she would fight back at the touch. But she leaned into his touch, like he did hers.
He leans down to her lips, ready to kiss her again. But she moves away and out of his reach, saying, "We should get going."
Why did she have to run from him all the time, he could tell that she was attracted to him. What they just did next to Bella's truck conformed that, but why did she push him away and put him in the friend zone. But she was right, they needed to go a deal with this vampire, so he just nods and runs off with her behind him to a place they can phase and speed into the woods.
Quil and Jared are waiting for them when they get to the lumber mill in wolf form, they pace around looking restless as Daiane and he run out of the woods to meet them.
'I counted 3 maybe 4,' Quil says.
'No, I think it was only 2 but we will go with your number,' Jared says. 'We don't want to miss any of them.'
'Where were they last,' Paul asks, as he moves to them.
'Not sure,' Jared says, 'somewhere near here. But we only smelled them, and the redhead distracted us.'
'What is the redhead doing,' Paul asks. 'Where are these other vampires coming from?' How was she bringing all these vampires here and convincing them to follow her? Did she have that many friends, like the vamp with the dreads?
Daiane sits on her hinds watching them, not interrupting, as he realizes that she can't hear anything they were saying and has no idea what they are walking into. He walks over to her, and barks then looks around for a place that she could use to phase back so he could tell her. But they needed to leave fast and didn't have much time to dress and talk, not that he wouldn't mind seeing her naked, but he knew he would get distracted. Not to mention that he didn't want Quil and Jared to see her like that.
She looks at him and taps her paw down three times and then snips her teeth, like a hiss almost. It sounded like a hiss a vampire would make. And then he understood, three vampires. She scented three vampires on their run here, he smelled their stench too but was unsure how many.
'Daiane says there are three,' he tells the others.
'Wait why can't we hear her,' Quil asks.
'I didn't hear her, but she made herself clear,' he says. But the next moment he wasn't so sure as she lays down and whines on the ground like a defenseless cat, then back up and roars. That he didn't understand and stare at her, he tilts his head to the side telling her he didn't understand. She looks down and make a series of clicks and growling noises, he really wished he could understand her shifter language.
She doesn't try again and takes off into the woods. 'What did she say?' Quil asks.
'No idea,' he says.
'We don't have time for this. We have vampires to hunt,' Jared says.
They run off after her, catching up with her quickly. She stops a few times sniffing the ground and the surrounding area, he can smell what she must, vampires. Their scents mingle together but he smells three distinct scents. He moves next to her sniffing the ground where she was, brushing his fur up against hers. He can smell her too, a soft lilac scent.
'She's really good at tracking isn't she,' Quil says.
'Yeah, she's like a bloodhound,' Jared says, laugher in his voice, 'shouldn't we be the bloodhounds?'
'She's amazing right?' he says.
'She's nothing compared to Kim,' Jared says.
'She not as cute as Claire,' Quil says.
He annoyingly leases out at them for that, not meaning to hurt them but just to show his annoyance at their words. Daiane growls and looks at them disapprovingly as she turns to follow the scent.
'Oooo, someone's in hot water now,' Jared teases.
'Someone's in a Howl of a lot of trouble,' Quil says.
'Quil, stop with the terrible dad jokes,' Paul says, 'Claire not here.' Quil had taken to puns and the worst dad jokes possible after making Claire laugh so hard with one about werewolves.
'Shut up man,' Quil says sourly.
They follow the scent to a small crop of trees, at was a grouping of pine with a strong smell. It makes it hard to track in here, the scent of the pines strong, and the vampire only passed through very quickly, not leaving much behind.
Daiane turns to them and jerks her head up to the trees. She looks at them and clicks again softly putting her ears down on her head. When it's clear they don't understand she nips at his ear and looks to their left, to the south.
He listens and hears fast footsteps to their left and the wind of something moving very quickly. He looks at the others and crouches low. 'Listen,' he tells Quil and Jared, they soon follow suit. She tips his head and tilts her head up to the trees again, trying to tell him something. He could tell they were both getting a little annoyed by the language barrier.
She jumps and climbs into the trees quickly and effortlessly. That was what she was trying to tell him, she was going to attack from above, while they attacked below.
Jared takes the lead as Quil move over to the left to flank them. They were running parallel to their path as they run by, unaware of the predators stoking them. Three vampires, two men and one woman run pass them on the forest floor. They run alongside them, watching them, analyzing their every move. Jared noticing that the woman is the leader of this small group as the blonde hair man was new to this as he falls to the ground a few times, as he trips on the underbrush.
Quil makes a near fatal error as he moves to close, and the vampire notice him. One the men leaps at him, looking like he will tackle Quil to the ground. But a black jaguar falls from above, pouncing on top of the vampire. She tears into the vampire, killing it and protecting Quil at the same time. From his position he sees the woman move to attack her, he was too far away to stop her, thankfully Quil leaps at her knocking her back so Daiane can finish the other vampire.
Jared and Paul join the fight as they reach the group, he takes down the inexperience blonde guy quickly. Tearing him to pieces as Jared and Quil tag team the woman. All three are destroyed in less than 5 minutes.
They stare at each other, a little unsure what to do now, this was the first time any of them took down a vampire without Sam around directing them. Daiane comes over with pieces of a vampire in her mouth and drops it with the other vampire. She looks at them and turns to get the rest.
'Ummm,' Quil says.
'Pick up the pieces and make a pile,' Jared says as commandingly as possible. 'We have to burn them.'
Paul gets the one he took down, carrying the pieces in him mouth and dropping them in the pile. This vampire was young from the look of him, maybe around his early 20s. He was caucasian with a gray hoodie and jeans on, he looked like a lot of city kids, his clothes were dirty, torn and ripped. He was thin to, like he didn't eat as much as he should have, he wonders who this kid was before he was turned into a bloodsucking vamp.
They phase back and dress, Daiane walks straight up to the pile and starting the fire quickly, like she has done this a thousand times before. He goes to stand by Daiane watching the bloodsucker burn, it wasn't as satisfying as they all made it out to be. Why did they have to look so human? It made it hard to justify.
Quil stand over by Jared looking a like more green around the gills as he stares at the burning pieces of vampire. He understood what he was going through, he himself had a hard time the first time, looking at the burning body pieces, it was hard to not see them as human. Jared holds himself tall and stares angrily at the flames, he was second-in-command after all.
"Quil is this your first time," Daiane ask breaking the silents. Quil nods, still staring at the burning vampires. "You did well then, these were very young vampires, I would say no more than a few weeks old."
"Young vampires?" Jared asks.
"Yes, very young," she says, crouching down and throwing a small piece of vampire they missed into the flames. "Young vampires are stronger than the older ones."
"Oh," Quil says, looking more uncomfortable and starts to turn away to hind his unease.
Daiane stands up and says, never taking her eyes off the flames, "Quil don't feel bad about what you just did. I know it can be hard. But if you must feel something for these vampires, pity them."
Quil looks at her, eyes serious and unreadable. "Pity them, Quil. They may not have asked for this or maybe they did. But never forget, however they became vampires doesn't matter in the end, they would have gone on to murder humans justifying it as survival," Daiane says, no emotion in her voice. "Eventually they would reach a point that they can no longer justify it to themselves and when they do they come seeking our kind to do what they are either too weak to do or to selfish to do and push it on us." She pauses letting her words linger in the air. "They come to us seeking their death, after a lifetime of death. These ones just didn't have the chance to inflects centuries of death before finding us."
What she said rang true to all of them, they were shifters and they were here to kill vampires. It may be a hard job sometimes but it was a necessary job to protect humans. The flames die down and the four of them walk through the woods looking for anymore pieces and things they may have missed. Quil still looks a little distressed by the whole business. Paul steps up to him, he wasn't sure what he should say to make this easier for him. They all have gone through this in their own way. His first one was the vampire, Laurent who came here to kill Bella for Victoria. It was hard for all of them, Laurent was Jared's, Jake's and Leah's first too. Leah and Jake had thrown up afterwards, he couldn't say he didn't feel the same thing, but he stayed strong and keeping the contents of the stomach down. Quil was strong too, and he was alone now in a way, they had popped their cherries so to speak together but Quil was the only newbie here.
He looks over at Daiane searching through the brushes about 25 yards away. She was beautiful and strong, he did everything he did for her, to protect her and his people. Then he looks at Quil and he knew what Quil needed.
"Quil," Paul says, grabbing his shoulder, "We can take care of it from here. I think it would be a good idea for you to go see Claire." Quil looks up at him in shock and then down shaking his head, mumbling something about not wanting her to see him look this. "She won't, you need to remember that we do this, not for ourselves, but for them. You are doing this to protect her. What if that vampire came close to Claire's home?" Quil growls and Paul knew what he was thinking, no way would that vampire came near his imprint. "Go see Claire," Paul continues, "She's should be getting out of daycare soon." Quil's sad eyes look up at him again, grateful for his understanding. Quil runs off to the woods to see Claire.
They finish their search and Jared tell them that they need to check the whole perimeter. Paul nods and Daiane walks behind a tree to phase. Jared asks offhandedly where Quil went, Paul answers honestly that he told him to go see Claire. Jared understands that this was hard on Quil, and nods in return, he would have made the same decision.
They don't encounter anymore vampires and after meeting up with Sam again and informing him of the vampires they killed in the woods and were. Daiane goes back to Charlie's house as he and Jared go to Sue's house to debrief the council.