Chapter 16 - Hunting the Hunted

Vicki hummed happily to herself in the shower of the precinct locker room after seeing Henry in

Mike's office and thinking how much pleasure and comfort it brought to both of them. His passion for her ran deeper than the physical contact. It was as if he needed to breath in her soul each and every day, to drink down her essence with her blood and to mold their individual bodies into one with each joining. It was heady stuff and hard to imagine now how she had resisted his advances for so long.

Stepping out to get dressed in a fresh pair of navy blue maternity pants and shirt Vicki ran into Kate Lam coming into the shower herself. There was a moment of awkwardness on the part of both women as it had taken less than three hours for it to have become common knowledge that Vicki and Mike had arrived together. Then the emergency dispatcher had also leaked the highly confidential information that if Vicki Nelsen needed to be found immediately at night then they were to contact Mike Celluci's apartment.

Mike had of course gone ballistic on the dispatchers ass and the poor guy was now cowering out of sight in the lunch room eating donuts to sooth his shattered nerves.

Kate embarrassed but deciding that if they were going to work together they needed to make an effort decided to tell Vicki a funny little story she had heard that morning.

"Did you hear animal services got a call last night out side of a nightclub 'Dead something'. Apparently, get this, they found a dead wolf outside in the car park! Here in the middle of Toronto"

Vicki turned slowly to Kate trying to keep an interested polite look on her face.

"What did they do with it?" she asked.

"It was sent it off to then veterinarian at the Toronto Zoo for tests" she replied.

Vicki walked out of the womens change room running straight into Mikes chest not watching where she was going.

"Is this where you hang out Mike?" asked Vicki laughing pointing out to the womens locker rooms.

"Hey I've put out so many fires today about my personal life I'm surprised my ass isn't on fire" he said laughing at Vicki and glad that all seemed to be well between her and the Duke.

"Mike", said Vicki becoming serious, "Kate just told me they found a wolf outside of the club we were at last night, dead. Its been taken to the zoo and I think we should get hold of it before they run too many tests and find anything hinky."

"If you can take care of that Vicki that would be great", said Mike sounding defeated.

"What's wrong?" asked Vicki concerned and hoping it had nothing to do with the mornings drama.

"They found our third missing girl, deceased, throat torn out covered in fleas and bites, the parents have just come in and I'm going to met them" he sighed hating this part of his job the most, a small part of him glad he didn't have a daughter to worry about going out into the night. Hell it had been hard enough on him keeping Vicki safe all last year when she was so determined to save the world singlehanded.

"Well at least her parents will know, that other poor girl who I assume died as a wolf will never get closure" she finished giving Mike a brief hug and scowled over his shoulder at Dave who walked off smiling back them.

"I'm carrying a gun now Dave" she yelled at Daves rapidly retreating laughing back.

...Werewolf...

The grey haired man stood outside the building, wrapped in his black coat hiding his handsome features away from prying eyes. Most mistook him for a much older man, the change to Were had forced his once black hair to turn to grey within months as his body was eaten up by the animal within, burning his life force.

He stared up at the Police building, willing it to give up its secrets. The nightwalker had just left, in daylight. He was confused and angry at the confusion within his part animal brain. The nightwalkers smell was all around here. He would wait, he would follow any who carried his scent, bait was always an important part of the hunt.

First though, first he needed more pack, the females were drawn to his sexual energy which radiated from the beast, it was easy to draw them in, not so easy to turn them.

...One Week Later...

Mike called the precinct meeting to order looking gravely around at his fellow officers, he wished he could have kept Vicki away from the meeting but there were already so many rumors about the two of them since she moved over to his place. He couldn't favour her, he would just keep her as far away from the most dangerous parts.

"Listen up people, the third girl this week was taken, this is now officially our top priority, we have descriptions from all three clubs of a grey haired man approaching each of the victims. Here is a composit sketch and I want everybody hitting the beat, going to every bar and club in town till we nail this bastard"

Mike looked over at his Vicki, knowing she understood the dangers and hoping she would keep to her promise to stay out of it.

To further insure her safety he recruited Agent Bruce Foster who had just returned to be her partner. He knew that the CIA agent with his arsnel of 'toys' was probably the best choice. What he wasn't sure of was what Henry's reaction would be.