Knock Knock
Fisk stopped, quickly slipping the katana under the pillow. Nate sniffed the air...wyrm, no mistaking that scent. How had he missed it before?
"We've got company."
Fisk caught the tone in Nate's voice, and without a word, slowly stepped towards the door.
Knock Knock Knock!
They didn't sound like they were going to wait for very long. Morgan looked up in shock as a scream, quickly cut off, filtered in from out side. It must have been the receptionist. Nate looked back, "Morgan, stay back, this is going to get dangerous."
Whether she was going to listen to Nate or not was to remain a mystery, because at that point, the door burst inward under a heavy battering. Nemida took a quick count, Armani suits, five of them. Stinking of Wyrm, each and every one of them. Fisk was the first to react, "What the fuck are you doing here?"
The first one, the one Nate had seen in the bar, Rex or something, responded, "I told you, I'm here for the action."
"Morgan, run," Nate said.
Rex laughed, looking at Morgan, who by this time was completely lost, "Oh don't worry, we'll take care of her as soon as we're finished with you!"
Breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Nate stepped directly between Rex and Morgan. In the end, it proved to be unnecessary, as Rex turned back towards Fisk, changing as he did so. The expensive Armani suit melted away as Rex grew. Irregular patches of black, mangy hair burst from his boil-ridden flesh. Without hesitation, the Black Spiral took a swipe at Fisk with a hand that had now morphed into a fetid, deformed claw. Fisk changed as well, into a much healthier looking werewolf, catching the swinging forearm before it sliced him in half and responding with a swipe of his own. Rex leaned back, wrenching himself out of Fisk's grasp, then before Fisk had a chance to react, swiped upward, catching him with a glancing blow beneath the chin.
Nate closed his eyes, briefly concentrating. It was his turn to metamorph now. The perpetually worn sunglasses seemed to melt into his face as his height increased by a factor of nearly a meter. The unnaturally white hair that extended to his neck now spread, covering the now crinoid body with a thick, white pelt. The eyes, still dangerously calm, turned so red they almost appeared to glow. Morgan backed up in shock, still trying to work out what had just happened.
Things began to move faster now. As Fisk and Rex continued to claw each other, two of the remaining four Armani suits at the door pulled out pistols and began firing wildly into the room. Breathe, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Nate managed to remain calm, ducking and diving to the side as bullets hissed through the space he occupied a second before. Reaching the bed, his claw shot under the pillow, grabbing the katana hidden beneath. The fourth Armani suit began to change, rushing into the room, directly at Morgan.
Nate growled, unsheathing the silver blade, preparing to cut the running Spiral down before it could reach Morgan. He was stopped as Rex was thrown into him by Fisk. Growling, Nate turned to eviscerate Rex, only to see Rex duck, and feel Fisk's claws graze his cheek as the latter missed the former. Breath in through the nose, out through the mouth. Nate ignored the fallen Rex, leaving him to Fisk, and turned back towards Morgan. Over the sound of the erratically aimed gunfire, the sound of a Jeep pulling up could faintly be heard. The gunmen at the door turned their attention outside, presumably firing at the Jeep.
Morgan, having been pinned to the other bed by the Spiral Dancer, now exploded, literally. Changing in seconds from a small-ish human to nine-foot tall, furred, killing-machine in the space of a second, she through the other werewolf off her. The Black Spiral tried to pick himself off the floor, dazed at the sudden turn of events. He never saw the calculated sweep of the katana Nate held. The silver blade bit deep, the crinoid fell, and did not rise again. Fisk, meanwhile, had dug his claws into the fallen Rex, and proceeded to remove a large part of the fallen Spiral's innards. Nate turned towards the door, two Armani suits left to worry about, so long as the now frenzied Morgan didn't inadvertantly attack him or Fisk.
Two quickly became one as Seras, in hispo form, leapt over the smaller one, planting a set of razor-sharp fangs into the groin of the taller of the two. The smaller turned his weapons towards Saras. Nate, seeing the danger, got ready to whip the katana at the gunman. It turned out to be unnecessary. Morgan, seeing a target to attack, proceeded to leap out the door, ripping the arms of the second gunman out of their sockets. Howling in rage, she continued to dismantle his body, piece by piece, succumbing to the Rage-inspired bloodlust. Nate did what he could to repress a smile.
Looking about the room, Nate took a quick account of what had just happened. Fisk stood over the body of Rex, watching Morgan in shock. Though blood seeped from several slash wounds, Fisk seemed alright. Morgan didn't appear to be injured from being tackled to the bed by the Spiral that now lay at Nate's feet, nearly sliced in half. Nate himself was unscathed. The mauled bodies of four Black Spiral Dancers lay on the blood-steaked floor. Four. Nate paused, "Where's the fif..."
Ka-thunk!
The sound echoed from the woods across the street. That was not a good noise. Without thinking, Nate jumped out the nearest available window. Fisk was already running out the door, the look on his face suggesting that this wasn't the first time he'd heard this noise. Morgan, already outside, was following Seras, who was up and sprinting madly away from the motel room.
Boom!
The room exploded, literally. Nate saw the quickly dispersing smoke-trail that led from the room to the woods. A rocket launcher? The fifth Armani suit, that would be it. Time seemed to slow down as Nate took account of the new situation. Fisk sprinted towards the woods, towards the source of the vapor trail. This was only half-seen by Nate, though, as the midday sun glared unforgivingly on his sensitive eyes. Seras, Nate saw, was with Morgan, trying her best to calm the frenzied werewolf down. Another body lay on the gravel outside, near the yellow Jeep. Thelvin. Two bullet holes hissed angrily in his chest as he tried to push himself back up.
Ka-thunk!
Another smoke trail sprang from the woods, and the room next to Fisk's exploded. Fisk, by this time, and reached the other side of the street. A short scream, rapidly cut off, could be heard from the woods. Nate ran towards the fallen Thelvin. Placing his hands over the wounds, he began concentrating. The air about them appeared to shimmer for a second, and when Nate pulled his claws away, the wounds had stopped bleeding.
Something gnawed at the back of Nate's mind. What was it? Something that happened back at the pub. That's where he saw Rex, right? No, that wasn't it. An hour later, as Nate drove a commandeered black Mercedes, a Mercedes that literally swam with Wyrm-scent, down the freeway, following the yellow Jeep, and the first of the Mercedes that held the rest of his newfound pack, the answer finally came to Nate. In the ear of his memory, Nate heard the voice of the bartender, "Yeah, he came here yesterday, never seen 'im 'round here afore though."
Hot on the heels of this was the mocking voice of Rex, "Ah come here for th'action. Y'kin find action anywhere, ef ye know where t'look!"
Nate narrowed his eyes. That was a bit too much of a coincedence for him. Black Spirals come to a disregarded little town in northern Wisconsin a mere day before these three, Fisk, Seras, and Thelvin, arrive, on orders from some 'Damon' figure, to pick up Nate and Morgan. Perhaps Nate's tribemates had warned this 'Damon' person ahead of time of Nate's arrival, that wasn't too much of a reach. And perhaps Morgan was being watched, in anticipation of her first change. That was reasonably likely as well. But what of the Spirals? There could be little doubt about it, they had come specifically to prevent this new pack from forming.
Nate snorted. Such a pity, he was hoping to complete his own mission without interference from the Wyrm. He still hadn't had a chance to thank the Black Spiral Dancers for saving his life so many years earlier.