A Drop Of Blood
First Moon: Death Light
October 2, 2001
She heard it first.
Heard the news before the others did...and so they blamed her.
A flesh was dead.
Killed.
And all signs point to wolf.
The cops called it murder...said it was a new serial killer on the loose and warned everyone to stay in after nightfall.
They knew different.
It was wolf.
The teenage boy's body was ripped apart from his neck to his navel...torn apart...his insides torn out...and the pack knew that only wolf can cause that damage...
...and only wolf had the taste for human flesh and human blood...
It could be a new wolf...a loner wolf from far away that caused this trouble...and they all wanted to believe that...because if it wasn't...that meant someone of the pack 'fell from grace' as they politely put it...that would mean a wolf from the pack gained a taste for flesh...and that meant suspicion was going to tear the pack apart...
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"Okay, okay, everyone quiet! Now!" the young wolf shouted and silence immediately enveloped the room. Akane looked at him and scowled...she always resented that about him...about how he could just command something and everyone would be his lapdog and do it for him...resented the fact that she'll never have that kind of respect from the pack...
"Now, I'm sure we all know about the recent wolf attacks lately and all harbor doubts, but we must all remember that our pack's strength is based on trust. Our trust for each other. We must calm down and not become hysterical over this!" Ranma said, his voice being carried loud and clear across the expanse of the large room.
"We agree with Ranma, we can not let these recent attacks break our pack!" one of the pack Elders' shouted out. Akane looked at the leader again, both hating and admiring him for his strength. *How can be so strong? So sure?* she wondered. She used to admire that about him but now...now she hated the fact that the Great Strong Leader Ranma was so perfect. *Why couldn't he just be...be...human!* she thought. *But of course that isn't possible...not for the Perfect Leader...*
"But what if it really is one of us?!" a woman shouted hysterically, clutching her wolfling to her chest. It was a rare sight to see a woman holding a baby wolf to her chest. *Cammie...* Akane thought. Cammie was 6 years older then Akane and they rarely spoke... but Akane knew her name and everything about her. That was what was so wonderful and annoying about the pack...everyone knew everything about everyone else.
Before Ranma could reply, a snicker came from the shadows, "Wonder which one of us has a family history of flesh-addiction."
Akane saw Ranma suck in a breath and his dark eyes blaze with an intensity only she could see. She knew he was angry...very angry...but it didn't matter...all that mattered was the pain that erupted in her chest at the reminder of what she was. A half-breed. An outsider.
"Ukyo, you have nothing to base this on so I suggest you don't spout out accusations to frighten the pack," Ranma hissed through his teeth and everyone saw the wolf glint in his eyes and the way he kept opening and closing his hands. They all knew he was angry now. Ranma was always patient with everything but one attack at the half-breed Akane and...well...they didn't like to think of that too much.
A girl in dark brown dress slinked from the shadows and grinned maliciously at Akane, "Let's just ask little Miss. Half-Breed over here. We all know about Soun's 'fall from grace' and how these things can be passed to the next generation. We also know that Kasumi and Nabiki don't have this taste for human flesh...but Akane's different." Ukyo circled around the nervous half-breed and licked her lips as if going in for the kill.
"Why don't you tell us where you were the night that boy had been killed Akane. I happen to know you weren't at home. Mind telling us exactly where you were or too afraid to admit your guilty?" Ukyo gave a thing smile and stared straight into Akane's eyes.
Akane turned stricken eyes to meet Ranmas'. *Tell them...tell them where you were...* she could hear his eyes begging to her.
"I...I..." she started but what could she say? That she had snuck out to go to a party with a group of humans? That she defied her elders just because a cute boy named Ryoga Hibiki asked her to a party? That she got so drunk that she passed out and couldn't remember what happened? That she woke up in her bed...her sheets covered in a blood not her own?
"She was with me," Ranma spoke out and Akane looked up at him. *You don't always have to save me!* she shouted at him in her mind before running out of the room.
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"Dammit Akane, what happened that night?" he asked her and she could tell he was trying to control his frustration and anger. *Tell him nothing happened. Tlel him Ukyo was lying* but she knew that she could never lie to Ranma about something as serious as this because he could always see through her.
"I...I don't know, Ranma. I snuck out to go to a party..and then...I don't know what happened," she replied truthfully and for once Akane was afraid. Everyone knew that once you tasted human flesh, you can never ever go back. That's what happened to her father.
Ranma looked at her and he saw the flicker again, the silver flicker that made Akane's eyes more feral...more wolf...and he shuddered at the thought that she would fail what she was about to...or is...experiencing.
"Akane, listen," he said, grabbing her face so that their eyes met. Suddenly, he stopped being here best friend and was the fearless leader once again, "You can not tell anyone about this. We'll figure out what happened but until we did, we have to keep this quiet or the pack might get hysterical." Maybe it was wrong of her...selfish even...but you only got to be 16 and get away with being selfish once.
She yanked away from him, "Stop telling me what to do, Ranma. Just...just leave me the hell alone!" and with that she was gone.
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She ran...and she ran...but in her mind...he was always there. Telling her to stop running...to come back and face her problems...That was another thing she resented him for... maturing faster then she had. Ranma was always the serious one...the one that was always too patient with her and too understanding. *He's not liek this with the others. Why can't he just treat me like the others?!*
The moon had risen and she stopped to look down at herself. \
She was a wolf again.
A beautiful, silver wolf under the Moonlight.
And she hated it.
Looking up, she saw the close-mouthed, smiling face of the Moon. Ah, the Great Moon. The Wolf's Mother and Protector.
Wolves hated the sun, hated it's warmth and it's radiance. They loved the Moon... loved it's darkness and soothing coolness. That was where the big difference lay between a wolf and a human.
And Akane was an eclipse.
Not sun nor Moon.
Not human nor wolf.
There...she felt it again...the pull the Moon was giving her...the one she had been feeling for weeks now...ever since that moment in the cave with Ranma...
...and she answered it's call with one of her own...
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The dream was always the same for her...nightmare really...
...there would always be a human boy that she particularly hated. One of the popular kids that always wore Gap and had a perky, cheerleader girlfriend. He hung out with the other popular kids at lunch and he would look at her with disgust tinged with lust in his eyes. He wanted her...she knew...but he was also disgusted at her because she was one of the 'damned' as they put them. It was funny...really...to see the human pity her. She pitied him. She liked her kind...they were always so much better...
Ranma.
She had loved him for a long time now. The great leader that everyone adored and respected. She had loved him for a long time now. And what a great leader he was... strong, powerful, handsome, dynamic...everything she could possibly want...
...but he didn't want her...
...he wanted that pathetic half-breed brat...
And in the nightmare she would always see the popular boy again and she would always lead him to a motel. She would show Ranma that she was better then that half-breed. She'll show them all that she was better.
So she slept with the boy...
...and she knew he loathed her but she didn't care...
...she was going to show them all...
But she made a mistake...let her guard down...turned into her original form by mistake and the boy w as disgusted. He screamed and looked at her with fear and disgust in his eyes...she didn't want that...
...she hadn't meant to kill him that first time...
...really, she didn't...
...weak humans...couldn't even take a few blows...
And she meant to bury him...she did...but the smell of his fresh, warm blood was so tempting she had to try and see...
...and his blood tasted better then she had thought...better then anything she had tasted before...more addictive then any of the drugs she tried...it was...it was feeling as though you were being given a whole new soul...
...and she couldn't stop...
Of course that was when she would wake from her nightmare, only to discover that it wasn't a nightmare...
...that it really had happened...
...that she had the carcass of a dead human boy buried in her backyard...
And that was when she would go hunting again.
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Author's Notes: Okay, so this was really short and somewhat dark but believe me it's going to get even darker so I don't suggest anyone weak of heart to continue reading. Like Jim Carry said, "Don't enter my mind...you'll get hurt..."