"The way I see it, they protected the townspeople first." Red looks up at Barret.
"I am aware. But our motto, is to never let any of them slip from our grasp." The leader scowled.
"And we don't have to fight!" Zack glared.
"He's right!" Aerith nods. "We don't have to fight them."
"So you taking their side!? The hell we supposed to do, forget that two of our own is traveling with a blood sucker! And what the hell happened to Vincent? Am I supposed to forget about him, too?"
"Last we saw of him he was alive." Sephiroth answers.
"Tch. A likely story." Barret didn't believe him.
"He speaks the truth! In my rage I tried to kill him! But Sephiroth held me back to spare him. Vincent likely didn't return out of hurt pride." Cloud defended.
"Why the hell would ya kill him for?"
"He was intent on killing my mate! This is why I said stay away! I won't hold back even for you lot." He gripped the handle of First Tsurugi tighter. Zack's grip on his shoulder increased in pressure.
"Easy..." The older werewolf tried to calm Cloud.
This made Barret pause. He considered all of the options. Then he looked at his team one by one. Barret understood them well. They will still follow his lead. However he would return with either a lot of them dead or everyone in tears. Either way meant a heartbreak.
"... Fine. We take them off the list. But if I ever, and I mean EVER find out that blood sucker has gone insane, then I'm first in line to take him down. Are we clear?" Barret couldn't believe his own words.
"Crystal." Sephiroth agreed.
"Avalanche out. C'mon guys. Let's go check on the citizens." Barret turned to leave. Slowly the others followed his lead. The last to move was Aerith. She actually took a few steps forward, making the her fellow hunters pause.
"Aerith!" Tifa tried to reach out to her.
"You better take good care of Cloud!" She glared at the vampire, undeterred from the cold fury of his gaze. For his part Cloud blushes as he places First Tsurugi on his back.
"That's my girl." Zack mutters to himself.
"And you mister! You got some explaining to do once Sephiroth releases you from his service!" Aerith turned to the dark haired werewolf, who backs up arms raised.
"Okay, okay. Sorry? Please foprgive me?" He nervously laughs.
"Hmm...this time." She smiled.
As Zack breathed a sigh of relief, Aerith turned to follow her friends. It was then it clicked in Cloud's head. He turns to his mentor with shock.
"She's your - "
"Yeah, yeah. Don't say it." Zack shushed him.
"She certainly has you wrapped around her finger." Sephiroth comments.
This time Zack couldn't hide the blush on his cheeks.
"Let's go to the mansion. We leave tomorrow night."
"But isn't that riskier?"
"The fighting took much of the night. Unless one of you feels up to driving?" Sephiroth eyed them. Both werewolves paused, for they were exhausted from this night.
"See? We rest for now and leave tomorrow night."
xXx
The next night however was a different kind of nightmare. As they were leaving the outskirts of the now ruined town, they were approached. Cloud and Zack smelled them and knew they were hunters. This time different from the group they previously joined.
"Heads up. Stay quiet back there. Lemme do the talking." Zack slowed the truck down as the group of hunters in their own vehicle approached to his left.
"Howdy! Did you catch anything?" Someone yelled.
"Transporting on empty tonight. Just delivering this beauty to her new home." Zack greeted with ease.
"You alone?" Someone inquired, and alarm bells rang in Cloud's head. He sensed his inner wolf stir.
"Yeah, told you it's empty in here." Zack caught on.
"See, I think you lying." Suddenly the hunters had the truck surrounded. "We were given the description of three suspected vampires that helped wipe out the werewolf pack last night. You happen match one of them."
Shit. Before Cloud could even draw his weapon Sephiroth beat him to it. He calculated where one of the hunters stood outside the van and pierced through the metal. A horrible scream filled the air. And just like that the hunter fell to the ground.
In a flash there was instant chaos. Sephiroth cut his way out of the truck and began his onslaught against the hunters. He allowed no room for error. In the same instance Cloud and Zack scrambled to defend themselves.
Protect mate! The inner beast snarled.
Cloud moved so he was back to back with Sephiroth. Together they moved in percect harmony against a number of opponents. The pair were in perfectly synchronized.
Then Cloud heard a click from the distance. One of the hunters used guns! He looked around to search for that specific hunter. He caught sight of them on top of the hunters vehicle, aiming straight for Sephiroth.
Cloud grabs his mate and twirls them around to get out of range. A shot echoed in the air. And suddenly Cloud felt numb all over and his legs gave out.
"Cloud?" Sephiroth caught him, lowering them to the ground.
He couldn't breathe. Panic set in as he felt his vest grow wet. Cloud stares up into Sephiroth's eyes. They were really pretty tonight. He tried to reach up to cup that handsome face in a poor attempt to being reassuring to the concern in that gaze.
In the distance Zack howls. His inner beast burst through for control and he didn't fight back. And suddenly screams filled the air as the large werewolf killed the hunters off one by one. They were specialized with vampires and little to no experience with werewolves, apparently.
When the hunters were done for the beast knelt before Sephiroth, whining. The vampire looks up just as Cloud loses consciousness. In his eyes burned a fury that had no bounds. Zack bowed his head.
"From this point forward you are free from my service. I thank you for being my friend." A black wing sprang out of his right shoulder. In an instance Sephiroth and Cloud were gone.
Once they were somewhere private and safe only did Sephiroth land. He immediately set to work and bit down on a paling neck. He felt the pulse waver as his venom began to spread. Sephiroth moved away and bit down on his wrist and brought it to Cloud's lips.