Author's Note: Wow, that last chapter was long, huh? ::eyes bulge:: Um… sorry? Wait, people are supposed to like long chapters, so I'm going to retract that apology, and grin instead grins:: Hope it was to your liking… as with this one. It's not too short either XD Whoo.
Mrs. Mina Harker: I am trying to develop the Quattuor more; give them more layers. I don't want them to be 2D characters, so I'm glad you like Falx's continuing development, as slight as it might be.
funyun You'll have to wait and see regarding the Tom/Falx/Anise thing. Still in the works; the end is a ways off yet XD Thanks, regarding Mina. It's harder to keep her in character in present settings. Yay! You like Lacertus! Then again, the only one of my Quattuor creations I snarl at myself is Gladius… I'm too fond O.o Bad me. But I'm glad you like him for the reason you stated.
Marcus Lazarus: Heh. You couldn't be more right about Exuro and the Tom situation. And as to that fourth party… you've already seen them ;)
queerquailGlad you like! Thanks!
Ceru S: Thanks for the comment about the twists. I do try to ram them in there, without overly-complicating things. Heh. It's good that I can surprise you as well… surprised myself with that inner development regarding Exuro. I hadn't planned it, and then it just came out… I shouldn't confess stuff like that XD And that will develop. Thanks very much for your kind words, and here's the new chapter. Hope you enjoy it.
Drakena: Thanks very much, and here's the update. (Loved the art)
Silversnow: Whee! Fights indeed. And no you're not; don't worry. They're all creations of my own mind, mwahahaha! XD
Thanks to everyone, and here's the new part of Eternal Midnight…
CHAPTER SEVEN: A WORLD FULL OF KILLING
He had slept for less than five hours, and steam poured up from the hot water that flowed in the shower as he simply stood beneath its flow, eyes closed, the aches in his muscles slowly seeping away and leaving his body. Water dripped from his hair as it dangled down his face, his head bowed, chin almost touching to his chest as he tried to sort through his chaotic mind.
"Not so secret now…"
His head jerked with the unwanted memory, and he hissed almost, gritting his teeth, even as he was assaulted again, his palm pressing firmly against the tiles in front of him as it flashed.
"I don't want you to go… I never want to be near those things… they're dangerous…" Her face, smiling at him… tears… her brown eyes shining. "I don't want to see you hurt…"
He panted with the attack on his mind, and leaned his forehead against the cool wall, trying to force them away.
Running… lightning… pain… gunfire. "Exuro…" An injection… "You and your bitch…" A gunshot… "Sawyer… Tom…"
"Agent Tom Sawyer…"
He threw himself away from the wall, but stopped himself before he fell back through the cubicle, panting, his eyes flying open, panicked and afraid of the memories and images assailing him. He slammed off the shower, and quickly exited the cubicle, grabbing a towel and robe, and throwing them on quickly. He was out of the bathroom before he knew what he was doing…
… And almost walked right into Falx. Why was she standing so close to the bathroom?
"Exuro…?"
He looked into her blue eyes, trying to hide his emotions from his own gaze… the shock at what had just happened to him. It was getting so much worse… he couldn't stop them as much as he had been able to before, in the past.
"Are you all right?" Her hand ran up to stroke down his damp face.
Answer… he had to answer her. If not, her concerns would double, and he didn't need that added tension right now. "I'm fine."
"I know you…" she whispered, and brought her lips to his in a brief, but passionate kiss. "Tell me what's wrong…"
He knew she wasn't in the habit of saying please, but had she been, she would have said it then… and she would have been pleading. She was worried about him.
"Falx," he began rather tenderly, and returned her affectionate stroke of the cheek, as his hair dripped down his face, "I'm all right… I'll be fine. It's just a headache."
Falx and Exuro stood face to face for a long time, looking into each other's eyes, before she snaked her arms around his neck, despite it being drenched with water, like the rest of his body, and kissed him again, almost longingly. After that, she eased herself away, and left him in the room, so he could dress.
As soon as she was gone, he closed his eyes, and drew in a long breath, sitting heavily on the bed, and running his hands through his hair.
"Agent Tom Sawyer…"
"So tell me what you know."
Dmitri turned his head from the long table as Ezekiel spoke the words, and regarded the three new arrivals with interest, curiosity, and caution. He did not know them… it seemed that Mina Harker knew the male vampire, but not these other two who had accompanied him. One seemed to be his lover, a vampire female named Illyria, a woman of very few words, but with such expressive eyes. The other, a werewolf named Zariel. He had expressed briefly and somewhat quietly that they address him so, and ignore his given name of John.
Anise stood beside him as he sipped his coffee, only drinking the beverage to give him something to do as Mina stood near the window, pensively staring out of it. The two vampires stood close, but with the sword-wielding male pacing a little. Zariel stood on the other side of the table, glancing curiously over at the two fellow lycanthropes.
Dmitri supposed, after travelling with two vampires for who knew how long, it would get rather lonesome, with werewolves instinctively being pack creatures. They needed company of their own kind… not that of vampires, as much as Dmitri liked Mina Harker, she would never replace Lei Cheung in his heart and mind as a third member of their little pack.
"We know who they are, what they do, and for the most part, how they do it," Mina responded.
Dmitri could almost taste the tension between Mina and Ezekiel, but he couldn't place what it was or had been between them in the past. Whatever it was, Dmitri had the feeling it hadn't been a pleasant end.
"You've gotta give me more than that, Mina… I can't figure out much from a few notes and some photos, can I?" Ezekiel was pacing up beside Zariel now, and the werewolf regarded the vampire with respect and a warmth becoming a good friend. "Tell me what you know."
Mina turned from the window, regarded Illyria for a moment, and then walked over to the table. Dmitri – and no doubt Anise – saw her roll her eyes, as she came up beside them, bringing out a file from the collection spread over the table. She removed its contents, four clipped documents, and set them down in a line in front of Ezekiel. Illyria moved over and stood on the other side of her lover.
"Gladius – omega male of the pack. He's strong, ruthless… and insane."
"His lupine form?" Ezekiel asked, eyeing the file, and studying the photo. Mina reached over and opened the document, removing an image of a beast from within.
"Quadruped," she revealed. "Three and a half to four feet in height, mostly incapable of upright movement. One of the smaller two of the four."
Ezekiel nodded, prompting continuation.
"Lacertus – old omega, moved up in the line in the last seventy years. Confident, cunning and… rather mischievous. One of the youngest of the four. Werewolf form is quadruped for the most part, but he can walk upright in slow movements. Similar to Gladius, but faster, and less coat. Shorter on four legs, at about three feet."
Ezekiel nodded, studying the photos of the human and lupine forms very carefully, passing them to Illyria and Zariel in turn.
"Falx…" Mina paused, and breathed in deeply. "Alpha female. Vicious, determined and very dangerous. Her werewolf form is tall, about seven feet, give or take an inch or two. Very canine in the head, with prominent talons, and a mane of hair around the head. From what we've seen, strictly bipedal; incapable of quadruped. Watch out for her. She's lethal, especially if the safety of her mate is threatened…"
Ezekiel looked up from the comparison photos for the forms of Falx, and his blue eyes narrowed. "And her mate?"
Dmitri saw the trouble Mina had – as well as Anise, even simply watching – in bringing up the final member. But it was with determination that she did so, standing up straight, setting her shoulders.
"Exuro," Mina began, offering the file photo to Ezekiel and his two companions. "The last of the Quattuor to be turned, but now the alpha male. He challenged the old alpha, Gladius, and nearly tore out his eye in the combat, winning his position, and Falx in doing so. He was… once a very close friend of mine… of ours, by the name of Thomas Sawyer, a detective for the American Secret Service. He was turned in a struggle over a century ago, and in a conspiracy amongst the government of this country, he was brainwashed, along with the other three, and became Exuro. We failed to get him back… and he… killed one of our own."
Ezekiel nodded slowly, listening intently, and Dmitri thought he saw compassion in the cool eyes.
"His werewolf form… is like nothing we've ever seen. Black haired, at least eight feet tall, silver eyes, insanely powerful, with a mind for the kill. He's built for power, but with both bipedal and quadruped travel at his capability, he can use speed to his advantage as well. He's determined as well, extremely protective of his pack, intelligent and has a mind for strategy."
"Silver eyes?" Zariel asked, his voice rather smooth, American, but almost lilted somewhat gently.
Mina nodded.
Zariel cocked his head as if this was strange to him, and Anise and Dmitri exchanged gazes. As he lay down the files, Ezekiel commented, "Well there's something you don't see every day."
"Why are you acting as though it's an oddity?"
"It pretty much is," Ezekiel told Anise, looking at her pointedly as he spread out the files to consider them more fully. "At least in our experience. You get your reds, your black, green, orange, yellow, brown… silver… we've never seen that one before."
"It's not important," Mina stated impatiently. "It doesn't make him any different to other werewolves, does it? He's not any more powerful for it, is he?"
After a moment, Ezekiel shook his head of spiked hair, narrowing his eyes with the consideration. "Just a visual oddity, that's all."
"Exactly. Not important." Mina was acting very oddly towards Ezekiel, Dmitri noticed, and his instinctual curiosity kicked in then, but being a very private person himself, he knew to respect that in others. "What do you propose we do?"
"Surveillance… and not just with cameras," Ezekiel responded. "We have experience with tracking packs."
"This is not just any pack," Dmitri said carefully. "These are deadly assassins… the top in their trade, and for very good reason."
Ezekiel's smile was confident, even a little cocky. "We know what we're doing…"
Lacertus looked up from his horizontal place on the couch as a figure loomed over him, leaning down to take the remote in her hand, and switch off the TV, which had simply been playing music videos. He cocked a brow curiously, and propped himself up on an elbow, looking to Falx inquisitively. Something was bothering her… that much was evident in the mere way she sat on the edge of the coffee table, facing him, but not meeting his gaze.
Where was her confidence? Where was the intent alpha female he had gotten to know and admire over the past century? She seemed to be waning, trapped in her own thoughts… and he wasn't so sure he liked it.
"Falx?" he asked quietly, and sat up properly to face her, tossing a black lock from his brow.
The fiery haired lupa cocked her head for a moment, considered the foot of the couch, and then met his gaze. "I'm worried about Exuro. I know you are too. I'm not the only one who's noticed his behaviour…"
Well that's comforting… I thought I was imagining things. Lacertus slowly nodded in acknowledgement and agreement to her claim. "Yeah," he muttered, hearing the slow strumming from the bedroom the two alphas shared. Exuro was playing his guitar, a steady and melancholy rhythm emerging from within. He was confused and concerned by it. Exuro was – by nature and record – a cold and ruthless killer…
"He… doesn't tell me what is wrong, but I've heard him muttering in his sleep, Lacertus," Falx divulged, and the young werewolf heard more worry in her tone than he had ever heard in their long past together… it stirred discomfort from within him. He did not like it… not one bit.
"He's hallucinating… in the shower this morning, I heard him from outside. Gasping… his heavy breathing. I could sense his panic!" She shook her head, fiery locks of blonde-streaked hair toppling around her beautiful face as she diverted her icy gaze. "This is wrong… something is so very wrong with him. I don't like it, and I want him back…" She was speaking as though she were close to losing him, and that concerned Lacertus more than he thought it would.
"What can we do?" he asked, a hint of his pessimism in his gentle voice. "You know better than anyone that he won't listen… he won't let us help him. He denies it when he sees us looking at him with concern. He acts as though there's nothing wrong."
"And if he doesn't snap out of it, he could get himself killed."
Lacertus stared at Falx pointedly, and she back at him. They locked gazes intensely, but not in conflict. He remembered a time when he had feared her… but not now. She was to be respected, yes… but he need not fear her, so long as he did not defy or insult her.
"He's strong, Falx… and he's smart," he said carefully. "He knows how to take care of himself, and he always has. When danger's near, you've seen how he is… nothing else matters, apart from protecting us, and himself, and getting the job done. There's a reason he's alpha male now, despite joining last, Falx… think about it."
"It doesn't stop me worrying about him, Lacertus," Falx retaliated. "He's my mate, my lover… without him… what am I? He gives me strength, and I can't lose that."
Sighing lightly, he bowed his youthful head for a moment, and when his brown eyes rose, they were filled with a rare compassion, as he reached out, setting a hand supportively on her knee. "You won't…"
Not long after the talk between Falx and Lacertus, a call had come in about a gang in the centre of the city disrupting routines and relations and life in general. They were to be exterminated, and for the right price, the Quattuor were the team for the job. Fifteen million… people were certainly getting the right idea about funding the assassins these days. No one dared to risk underpayment, and everyone knew the price. They parted with it willingly, if they were serious about getting rid of their problems.
There was a storm coming… he could feel it in the air. He stood atop a building very similar to the one from a few nights ago, when they had eradicated the clan of vampires, shortly before he had run into Harker. His green eyes cast out over the city as his duster billowed… and he waited. Lacertus was going to give him a signal when he had attracted the gang's attention and lured them. Not that they needed to. They knew their haunts as it was, and could easily strike there.
Sighing, he closed his eyes for a moment… and it happened again, causing him to waver only slightly, balling a fist as flashes blinded him internally. He winced.
"And the boy becomes a man… perhaps a leader of men…"
"And women…"
"Sawyer!" Flame, fear… burning.
"May this new century be yours, son…"
A gunshot… sniping. The falling of a body on the snow.
"… As the last one was mine."
Faces… a doctor, a scientist, a thief, a vampire, a hunter…
Screams, coming from his pinned victim. An ornate sword was snapped from the waist, and a harpoon gun rolled away.
"Oh god…"
"Take the wheel…"
A racing car, driving hazardously through a collapse.
"He'll live to fight another day…"
As he gasped and panted, the visions fading away like water through a crack, his fist unclenched, loosening, as his hair lifted from his brow for a moment, his eyes still closed… and a single tear escaped, tumbling down his cheek.
He opened his eyes quickly, breathing heavily, shaking his head to try and force away the horrible sensation of sorrow, loss and discomfort. Something was wrong… horribly wrong.
There was a glint from below that he almost missed, and he cursed himself for doing so. At once, he threw himself from the building, landing in a crouch at the bottom of the alley, joined by Falx and Gladius on each flank from the shadows at once. Without pausing even for a breath or a glance at his two companions, he headed forward, even as Lacertus agilely leapt in from a balcony above, rolling in the air, and coming in to walk behind Exuro.
As a unit, they paced out of the shadows, practically melting from them. Exuro glanced once left and right, and his fellow werewolves did the same as they emerged. It wasn't long before gunfire erupted around the area near to them, and immediately, they threw themselves to seemingly preordained positions in the alley network. Falx went low, and Lacertus leapt high, using his agility and spryness to do so. His hands gripped the metal railing of an apartment fire escape, and he hoisted over it without difficulty. His pistols were torn out of his jacket, and he let off three shots in retaliation. Gladius had thrown himself back into the shadows from which they had emerged, and his two guns were held near his shoulders in preparation.
Falx crouched tidily, like a feline almost, behind a garbage dumpster, and snapped her pistols out of her duster, cocking them and readying them, looking across the alley to see her mate with his back flat against the stone wall, making no move to bring out his weapons.
"Exuro…"
He ignored her, but not intending to be rude or cruel. He even met her gaze to signal her, seeing her slight hesitation, before she nodded, and positioned her guns, ready to fire out bullets when she emerged.
After a few seconds, and with a growl erupting from his mouth, Exuro launched himself out of his concealment, ducking and weaving down the wide alley, as bullets exploded into the trash around him, slamming the concrete beneath and around him, and the walls were chipped as the guns blazed. The distraction worked perfectly, and with his lupine agility, he avoided injury, even as the three other members of the Quattuor let rip with return fire that immediately succeeded in downing five members of the gang.
They obviously hadn't counted on heightened senses from their opponents, and Exuro leapt upward, flipping himself off a lamppost above, and ploughed down into a man below, his boot pinning his chest, as he reached down with a hand. His fangs brushed against his tongue and lips, and giving in partially, he let some of his upper body transform, but not enough to tear or ruin his clothing. His face changed entirely, and the head of the human was lost to the terrifying visage and maw of the werewolf. He roared, and lifted the man, gripping his teeth around the neck and head… and tearing.
Changing back even as he let go, he spat out the blood, disgusted by it for the drugs it carried, and shook his head, growling savagely as he saw figures retreating, their guns at their sides. One turned to see Exuro's eyes glint silver briefly, and let off a shot.
Exuro angled his body, but the bullet grazed his right thigh. Giving a snarl, he glared down the alley after the offender, who seemed to realise their mistake, and the coward took off as fast as his legs would carry him.
Not fast enough, Exuro thought without realising, and gave chase, hearing Falx call out to him from behind. His legs pumped as he ran, unhindered by the slight injury that was already healing in his right leg. It would be gone within the half hour. He quietened his growls when he realised he was nearing their scents, and knew they planned to ambush him. Grinning slightly, he heaved himself off the ground, tucking his legs up slightly as he headed forward and down, towards the floor again. He rolled along swiftly, hearing the gunfire rocket over where his head and shoulders would have been, and its subsequent halting when they realised their misses.
He ceased his roll sharply, and snapped up onto one knee, ripping his pistols out of his duster as he did so, aiming one out in each direction without even looking, and letting off the bullets from within in rapid succession. Their cries satisfied his lust for carnage, and when he released the tension on the triggers, three bodies had fallen to the ground. They were dead, and with a sneer, he stood to his full height, even as lightning ripped apart the dark heavens like a savage flare, forking across the heavy clouds. He looked up at it, hearing gunfire from back in the alley network as the fight was finished off, even as the sound was drowned out by the deep, groaning rumble of rolling thunder.
Exuro sighed, glancing once more to the bodies of the deceased gang members, ejecting the empty clips from his Colts, before replacing them, reloading them from his belt on the way, all in one smooth, subconscious action.
He turned to head back into the alley, lightning flashing and flaring again, unaware – shockingly enough – of his audience.
Exuro's audience consisted of three observant figures on a rooftop, eyes narrowed and keen in the darkness and raging of the turbulent storm overhead. They watched him head back into the shadows once again, before Ezekiel gave a nod of his head to John Zariel, one that the werewolf returned quickly.
Using the strength in his legs, he bowed them, and launched himself across the distance from one building to the next. He hit the rooftop at a run, spryly leaping another, and another, glancing secretively over the tops of the buildings to keep an eye on the object of his pursuit.
It wasn't long before the alpha male – with his potent smell of power, Zariel noticed – met up with the other three in his pack. They exchanged brief words that Zariel subconsciously and automatically catalogued for later reference and sharing with his team mates, and he watched them discreetly from over the top of the building closest to them.
Suddenly, the blue eyes of the alpha female – Falx – turned upward, but Zariel swiftly rolled himself backwards with the agility of a cat in a fall, landing in a very low crouch, barely above the ground more than a few inches, his head low, and his breathing all but ceased as he waited… listened… poised and prepared.
After a few uncertain and silent moments, he peered back over his perch to see the two lower wolves – Gladius and Lacertus – had headed off. Falx and Exuro had remained to share a heated, but brief kiss. They did not gaze upward again, even as thunder boomed and cracked like cannon fire, deafening. Zariel refused to react, even with the blinding lightning that lit up everything over the city, illuminating the rooftops for him perfectly, even as the alpha pair headed off after their companions.
Zariel stayed with them, thanking his personal training with Ezekiel for his stealth. The two had tracked each other and sparred almost religiously for close on twelve years, and it was no surprise they knew one another's every trait and habit, and used those to relate to others. They had learned from the behaviour of – respectively – vampire and werewolf, and applied that to their tracking of other targets. Their experiences with one another were – as Zariel liked to think – invaluable. They had been friends for close on thirty years now, after Ezekiel had hunted Zariel. Back then, Zariel's lycanthropy – to him – had been new… mostly. He hadn't been long out of his siring, and he had still been growing accustomed to his new abilities and self. Ezekiel had – in an odd moment of sincerity and compassion towards one that he didn't know – taken pity on the juvenile werewolf, and had spared him, in return for his services in finding another. Zariel had willingly parted with his knowledge, and had aided in the completion of an important task for the vampire. They had gotten to know one another, learned each other's secrets, and for ten years, they had been quite the achieving pair.
And then had come Illyria. She was quite a character, but she and Zariel had little in the way of contact. They were polite, and they were companions, but after twenty years, their only real relation was in their work. He knew very little about her, other than she had captured his friend's heart, and the two were – in their own way – engaged… even married, some would call it. The rings symbolised the union anyway, regardless of ritual.
The Quattuor – Mina had explained their name, though Zariel wondered on the obsession with Latin – had reached their vehicle, a somewhat battered black and silver soft-top Lotus, and he watched them climb in. Exuro – naturally, as he had expected – claimed the wheel, with his mate at his side, the two lower wolves in the back. He took note of the bullet holes in the chassis, and remembered to tell the others. Apparently, someone had taken a hit attempt at these guys already… though Zariel found himself doubting those attackers were still alive.
They drove away, and as the distance between the observer and the observed grew, he rose out of his predatory crouch, even as the rain started to drip down from above. He blinked slowly, and turned to head back to Ezekiel and Illyria, to tell them what he had seen, what they had learned, and how this would help them.
All in all, not a bad hunt…