A/N: Finally, my basis picture for Jacques Beauvais in on the net! I know it took me aaaaages, and he's not in this for much longer, but check it out... let me know what you think :D It's a bit of a blah picture, but I saw it, and was like "JACQUES!". Anyway, thanks for the reviews, guys. This is getting tense now, can you feel it?
She stopped at once, startled and afraid, and stared into Tom's slightly widened eyes as he took in the sight of her. He looked a bit of a mess now after this ordeal, bloody and bruised, and more tousled than usual. It was a marvel he could see through the curtain of hair.
Anise turned to face him properly, her body in line with his, and she cocked her head. If he was going to shoot her, then so be it. She was ready... wasn't she? Did she really want to die?
It was either death or this existence... suddenly she wasn't so sure.
She was about to speak when she caught something in the corner of her eye through the doorway.
Bleeding and aching all over, Jacques pulled himself around the corner, his strength already rebuilding to its previous level, and his focus returning to him. That boy had certainly caused some damage, but luckily, it was all starting to repair itself now.
Growling sinisterly, Jacques let his yellow eyes cast about in the gloom of the dimly lit corridor, and caught sight of an open doorway. He picked out two figures inside, and smiled grimly with satisfaction.
Maybe this wasn't turning out to be so terrible after all... what was a little pain when this was the reward?
He charged, launching himself into the room before the stupid girl could utter a sound to announce his presence.
Tom was becoming all too familiar with the floors in this damn place, as something barrelled into him from behind, stunning him, making him ache all over again. He rested his head against the floor, wincing and breathing heavily as he tried to steady himself enough to regain his footing.
It was Jacques... it had to be. Who else could it be? Anise had let out a small cry when Tom was hit, but did not move otherwise, even as the fingers entwined themselves in his blonde hair, pulling his head up roughly. He stifled a cry.
"Well," Jacques panted, "isn't this interesting? Here we have a perfect oppurtunity to finish what was started." Tom wondered whether his eyes were still stinging... he hoped so.
Anise spoke, but it was not in English. Jacques replied similarly, and Tom wished they would just change back to a language he could understand. He knew very well what the topic of conversation was, and was desperate to hear what they were saying.
Jacques pulled his head to one side as he shouted something, and Tom winced with the pain of it. The man had taken a tight hold of Tom's right arm as well now, making it near impossible for him to move.
As he waited for something to happen, or for an oppurtunity to try and escape -again-, Tom listened, wishing he understood French.
Jacques and Anise faced one another off in the small room that had served as the latter's quarters for nearly two years. He looked beyond livid, shaking with rage, but still able to string sentences together as he held Tom in a vice grip.
"I won't do it, Jacques, and you know that. You've known that all along." Anise stood up to him now, no longer afraid.
Jacques scowled at her. "You will do what you were commanded to do."
"No I will not," Anise growled back at him. "I won't follow your orders anymore. Can't you see? It's over, Jacques... everything is in ruins around you and you still strive to do this one thing for that pathetic excuse of a man."
Jacques snarled at her. "If you won't do this, Anise, you will have to watch me do it instead." He tugged Tom's head violently to one side for emphasis. "Would you rather that happened?"
Anise stared at him; breathing rapidly now for fear that he would actually go through with his threat. If there was anything worse than her own existence, it was the knowledge that Jacques had been the reason for her change. He loved forcing it upon others, and they usually ended up cruel and insane like him. Anise didn't want that at all.
"You wouldn't dare..."
"Wouldn't I? If you go ahead with your duty, then I will not have to, and you can do whatever you like... kill yourself for all I care." Jacques wasn't joking... the sincerity on his face was frightening.
"I won't... I can't."
Tom looked into her eyes, and she felt her heart racing uncontrollably, her breathing quickened even more to the point of struggling. Jacques was going to do it. She couldn't let him. He would probably kill Tom... he wasn't himself, he was wounded and crazed.
Anise could not let him do this to anyone, let alone Tom. Not anymore. She had to stop him.
He had tried to prize himself free of Jacques' unbelievably tight grip to no avail, and the fingers kept twining more viciously in his hair. He still couldn't understand a word they were saying heatedly to one another, but he had no doubt that they were discussing what they had been planning to do before the League had interrupted.
Tom could feel Jacques' hot breath against his neck, and it wasn't particularly pleasant. He hoped Anise was planning something, and fast... something that included getting the maniac away from him.
That was when they suddenly stopped using French, whether by accident or not, Tom didn't hazard to guess, but Jacques yelled, "Do it!"
"I can't! I won't!" was Anise's shouted reply, and she closed her eyes tightly.
"Do it, Anise!"
The rage on her face was unmistakable, and he had never seen so much raw emotion explode out of her, as she practically screamed, "No!"
Jacques growled bestially down Tom's ear, and then gripped him even tighter, if such a thing was possible. It was painful, and Tom knew very well what the man was planning to do, so he struggled anyway, trying to strike out at Jacques with little success.
He was getting closer, Tom could feel it, and he clamped his eyes closed, waiting for it to happen, helpless to prevent it himself.
"No!" Anise screamed again, as Jacques' fangs almost grazed Tom's neck. Her mind raced for something to do to stop him, and unable to fight the urge she leapt forward, and wrenched her hands into Jacques' arm and neck, heaving him off the ground as best she could, using all her strength to throw him bodily through the air and away.
Tom heard her scream, and then felt the force grab at Jacques', tearing him off the ground. The man's grip on Tom was so tight of course, that when he lifted off the ground, so did the American.
Being on the ground floor, Anise's quarters had an impressive double glass panelled door, and Jacques and Tom were thrown into it, and subsequently through it in a shower of wood and glass.
Tom gave a cry as something scratched his lower arm, and he prayed it wasn't Jacques, even as they slammed into the ground on the other side, the werewolf sprawling down the stone steps nearby. Tom rolled with the landing as he had trained himself to do, aching all over and in a moderate state of shock as to what had just happened.
Jacques had landed at the foot of the stairs roughly, and was growling like an enraged animal, which was what he in fact resembled. He was sprouting hair and claws again now, eyes blazing with anger, fangs elongating and face stretching.
Tom looked to his arm quickly, only mildly relieved to see a piece of glass there. He pulled it out without hesitation, gasping at the stinging. He looked back to Jacques, who was pressing towards him now with urgency.
Tom pushed himself backwards, hands trying to avoid the glass that had been scattered all over the floor, and tried to pull himself to his feet, even as Jacques reached the top of the steps, bellowing at him as if he were to blame for the previous incident.
He loomed over Tom now, all fangs and fury, raising a clawed arm to strike, snarling madly at him. His eyes were alight with malice and longing, and his maw opened wide.
As Tom's back brushed up against the broken doorframe, with Jacques' hands reaching for him eerily, something exploded out of the opening above him, barrelling bodily into the other creature and dragging him down the steps into the ground again.
"What the..." Tom mumbled, scrambling to his knees and shaking his hair from his eyes.
There, picking herself up in the garden in front of him was Anise, panting and dishevelled. Jacques was gaining his footing again some few feet away. Anise's head turned to Tom's, and he sucked in a breath at her appearance.
Her hair was wild, her eyes glowing that menacing yellow he had seen in others before. Her hands were lengthening and stretching even as they stared at one another, and her face began to contort. She was starting to look less and less like Anise Delacroix, and more like one of those... things. A werewolf.
"Go!" she shouted at him curtly, eyes burning into him even from where she stood.
Tom looked to Jacques, even as he lunged for Anise, and he was upon her before he could utter a warning. He was so confused he didn't know what to do... first she had lulled him into a false sense of security, all shy and nervous; then she had betrayed him, delivering him to Evans so they could complete some sort of multi-national collection of werewolf spies or something of the sort; and now she had saved his life. He didn't know what to think. His head began to pound.
"Go, Tom!"
He saw her lash out at Jacques, talons catching him across the chest. She had almost completed her change now, and barely resembled the woman he had let himself fall for.
As if on instinct, he pulled his pistols from their holsters, and then froze. They had come so close together now, slashing and rolling around with such frenzy that he couldn't tell them apart.
Cursing loudly, he re-holstered them and ran back into the mansion, reclaiming his rifle once again, and moving on before the victor of the combat could come after him.