Heart of the Beast
Part Six: Twelfth Night




Janus covered her lips with lipstick, her limousine heading for the Russian theater. Little known to her that someone was stalking her--someone with a dark purpose. He leapt from building to building with superhuman speed, his green eyes staring down at the limousine, letting his Auspex do the walking. He leapt over a tall building and took his spot on a smaller building below. Near that building was the theater where in bright lights were the words 'Romanaski Theater presents Twelfth Night starring Basara Leonhart'. The stalker's green eyes lit up in morbid delight, but he looked up to see another figure on the roof of the theater. He groaned and spoke a few colorful German words.

Janus got out of the limousine and continued on her way, then saw Tanaka standing there at the foyer, watching her. Very unnerved by this, the Toreador walked down the hallway passed Tanaka. In her head, she heard Tanaka speak. //You angered more than a Khan beauty, you blood-sucking slut.//

Janus turned around, only to find Tanaka had vanished without a trace. "..."



*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



"This will be so sweet! I'm finally gonna get intimate with Basara!" Ross gloated for an hour in his dressing room. "I'm the almighty Duke Orsino while Basara plays Lady Viola!!"

"You're not gonna be Orsino... not if I have anything to say about it."

"Who's there?" The actor turned around, only to have a hand in his face. Brad's glaring midnight eyes stared into his.

"Sleep."

Ross fell asleep, his script fell from his hand. Brad put on the outfit and pasted a mustache under his chin. Breathing a sigh of relief, Brad disposed of the sleeping Ross in the closet and locked the door.

"What else am I forgetting? Oh! The script!" Brad picked up the script and activated his psionic powers, giving the script a once-over. "Ooooooohhhh... I just realized how MUCH I hated Shakespeare..."

The new director, a female director barged in. "Yo! Ross!! You're on in three minutes!"

"Okay." Brad nodded and gave the script another once-over.



*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



"F-fang!!!"

Yugo ran as far as he could, spotting a human boy running off. Instinct told him to follow him, Yugo followed, unsure of what to call the boy. He was whapped in the face with a collar, looking at it while running, he realized immediately who it was.

"FANG!!!!" Yugo ran after him, soon realizing that he was catching up. The boy turned around, revealing his beautiful golden eyes, sparkling with soft tears. Yugo slowly grabbed the boy's arm, jolting the boy from his stride. Looking at the boy up close, Yugo saw the boy had short brown hair, red and black vest-like coat, faded black jeans and a black collar. The boy was barefoot and his feet appeared cut by glass, Yugo saw specks of blood behind them. He hefted the boy into his arms, but the teenager struggled to get out of Yugo's grasp.

"Easy, Fang. I won't hurt you, I'm not angry."

Carrying Fang to his apartment, Fang's struggling was more futile and less full-hearted. Opening the door, Yugo unbuttoned Fang's shirt, seeing his body covered in dirt and mud. "You need a bath."

Fang jumped out of his seat and ran for the door, Yugo grabbed the teenager's arm and slung him over the shoulder. As Fang stuggled, Yugo was carrying him to the bathroom. Fang yelped and yiped and whined and pouted, but the persistant Yugo put him in the bathtub and pulled off all his clothes.

"This is for your own good."

"WHINE!!!!" Fang watched the rushing water fill in the bathtub and the suds of the soap consume the scrub brush in Yugo's hand.

"I'm gonna make you all nice and clean!" Yugo grinned and scrubbed Fang's hair, getting all the dirt, tangles and fleas out. Fang let the young man scrub his body with the brush, it actually felt good to his skin.

"So were you born a boy or were you born a wolf?" Yugo asked between switching body parts.

"Bow?" Fang tipped his head to the side, then sighed. "I was born a boy."

"Why the dog act?" The wolf zoanthrope asked softly, the brush still in his hand.

"Because..." Fang hugged his knees and looked at the water sadly. "I had some brushings-against with a mage."

"M-mage?"

"Yes. Garou and Mages don't get along at all. My pack picked a fight with this young man... he looked like a college student... but he was so powerful that we all didn't see it coming. I turned into a wolf to escape but the mage's mental blast injured my paw."

"...that's when I found you."

"Hai. The bad part was, the man had a symbol on his neck. Any real supernatural would pick up what that symbol was... but we all blatently ignored it and decided since he was a mage, he deserved to die."

"Symbol?"

"The Amethyst Cross... it's the holy symbol of the Exemplar of Concordia. Only the Exemplar is ordained to wear the Cross of Concordia...."

"This Exemplar... what'd he look like?"

"He was very handsome... he looked a lot like James Marsden with black hair. He wore a black shirt and pants... his eyes... they reminded me of what I'd see when I looked in the nighttime sky."

"I know who that is."

"Y-you do?"

"Yeah. He's this really weird guy who works in the Golden Tiger Restaraunt. All the girls are crazy for him and he frequently goes to the theatrical school for some odd reason although he never really goes there for acting lessions."

"I see..."

Yugo nodded and then folded his arms. "You went toe-to-toe with this guy and expected to live?"

"I know, I'm sorry."

"It's alright. As long as you don't do that again, you should be fine."

"I hope so."




-Continued-