Wings of Blood and Cruelty
A Hemlock Grove fanfic by Glamoured By-Eric
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.-Friedrich Nietzsche
Chapter 18 - Blood Stained
To avoid the stop lights, Roman sped down the back road past the Rumancek trailer on the way to Destiny's. Roman wasn't feeling very talkative due to his temporary speech impediment, so they rode together in companionable silence.
Roman looked ahead and saw headlights shining part way down the hill at the right side of the road. As he slowed down, looking toward the scene, Peter shouted, "Look out!"
Slamming on the brakes, Roman saw what had Peter shouting. It was the vargulf or whatever it was now, and it was on all fours in the middle of the road.
As Roman came to a complete stop, Peter's head hit the windshield, knocking him unconscious, and as he slumped backwards again at the suddenness of the stop, his head lolling to the side of his own shoulder.
The werewolf snarled at the car, stood up on it's hind legs, raised it's head to the sky and howled. The sound made the hairs on Roman's neck and arms stand up. It lowered it's head again and started forward on the hind legs until it was standing up against Roman's red car.
As it leaned forward to place it's paws on the hood of the car, Roman suddenly remembered that the huge double-sided weapon was still behind the seat in his car. First things first though, he thought, pulling out his Altoid tin and opening it. He removed and opened a small ziplock bag of white powder, got a little on his index finger and inhaled it quickly. He followed by placing the index finger in his mouth, rubbing the rest along his teeth to get a little, white courage and then placed the container on the dash.
The werewolf watched this with great interest then slowly used one of it's claws to scratch the hood, essentially calling Roman out. Roman glowered at the creature, grabbed the weapon from behind his seat, opened his car door and got out.
"Get your dirty pawth off my fucking car!" he lisped angrily, brandishing the two-sided, long axe. "I jutht had it detailed."
Roman rounded the front of the car, feeling confidence as he gripped the handle in both hands though it was probably the effects of the cocaine. As the creature focused all it's attention on Roman, Roman swung the axe at the creature's head with the broad side of the weapon. A resounding crack filled the air as he hit the creature across the jaw and snapped it's head to the side.
The creature looked back in surprise and sniffed the air, recoiling a bit as it got his scent.
Roman bared his fangs at the creature and snarled, finally getting a whiff of the blood that covered part of it's fur. "That'th right bitch. I'm not ethactly human any more. I am the dragon like my grandfather before me. We cannot be killed in battle. 'If you prick uth, do we not bleed... if you wrong uth, do we not revenge.' Yeth, we do bleed but we don't die a true death. You, however, can die. Do you with to die thith night?"
Roman realized he was rambling when his stomach began to growl from the metallic sweetness of the blood he was smelling from the creature or from the person in the car down the side of the road. When the cramps hit him, he went weak in the knees, doubled over, slamming the weapon down on the road and groaning. Seeing an advantage, the creature moved toward Roman.
Dr. Johann Pryce was just coming back from the restricted area where he had checked on his Ouroborus project. It always calmed him when he went for a visit and talked to his subject much as he had talked with Shelley before she disappeared.
"Dr. Pryce. Just the man I was looking for."
Pryce closed his eyes briefly and then turned around, plastering his standard visage on his face as he greeted Mr. Bishop. "Mr. Bishop, how nice of you to visit us. I didn't expect to see you here. It is rather past business hours."
They shook hands. "Well, yes, that is true. I felt it was fortuitous that I drop by tonight since I'd heard a rumor that you were going to meet with young Mr. Godfrey tomorrow."
"Really? I thought that was a private matter between Roman and myself. How ever did you hear of it?"
"Oh well," said Bishop, laughing lightly. "I suppose the Lord still works in mysterious ways."
"Perhaps but wiretapping is still illegal in this state."
Bishop got serious, all pretense of joviality gone, and said, "I would like to attend that meeting. I want to meet young Godfrey. Make it happen. We also require the use of the twentieth through the twenty-third floors for some research projects that my people will be working on. The large cages on the twenty-first floor will be particularly helpful. Our own facility was breached not long ago, and we need to change locations."
"What types of research did you have in mind?" asked Pryce.
"Nothing illegal, I assure you. Just some testing of non-human subjects. We'll fund the projects ourselves. We just need the space to do the research."
"This is highly irregular, Mr. Bishop. However, now that you are a part of this corporation, I suppose that we'll need to make some... occasional adjustments. We are not using those floors at the moment. I'll tell security that you'll be taking over those floors and to expect your subjects and equipment. I hope to see regular reports on your progress."
"Just as I'd hope to see regular reports on your Ouroborus project. I think we understand each other, don't we, Dr. Pryce?"
"Yes, I believe we do, Mr. Bishop. Now if you'll excuse me, I have financial records to go over before tomorrow's meeting. I believe you know the way out."
Tom Sworn cringed as, through the eyes of the creature, he attacked the woman in the car and tore open the front of her throat, both enjoying and repulsed by the flesh and blood moving down his throat. Before he could do more, he heard a vehicle coming and went up to the road to investigate, standing in the middle of the road like he had with the woman's car and hoping for another snack.
When he saw Roman get out of the car, he cringed and wished he could help him.
Peter woke up and tried to focus but found there was blood in one of his eyes. He pulled up his t-shirt and used it to mop clear the blood from his face. Looking up again, he saw Roman facing down the creature and opened the door to hear, "Do you with to die thith night?"
When he saw Roman double over and fall to the ground, he got out of the car and yelled, "Hey! Fuck face! Over here."
As the creature's attention turned to him and moved to come toward him, Peter muttered, "Oh shit!"
"Roman, get up," he commanded as he rounded the back of the car with the creature right behind him. But Roman was gone. Peter saw him walking down the hill toward the wrecked car. "Shit!"
The weapon was on the ground where Roman had left it. Peter snatched it up and turned to face the creature that had once been his friend Christina.
"Christina," he said. "I know you are still in there somewhere. You have to stop this."
The creature stopped and cocked it's head to the side, assessing him with her green eyes, then moved toward him again. Peter used the end of the weapon as a battering ram and pushed her back away from him. The sharp point of the axe between the two blades pierced the creature's skin, and she howled in pain as smoke rose from where the point had penetrated her furred torso.
"Roman!" Peter bellowed. "What the hell are you doing, man?"
It took the creature a moment to recover from the pain. When it did, the eyes flashed as it swung a claw angrily at Peter which he parried with the axe though the force of the blow sent him staggering back and nearly caused him to lose the weapon.
"Roman!" he shouted again. "I could use some help here."
Peter, backing away as the creature advanced on him, felt abandoned by Roman and believed he was going to die. He muttered something in Romanian and swung the axe.
Howling, the creature staggered back, holding her arm where the axe had cut her other arm as, again, smoke rose from the wound. Unbelieving, the creature backed even further away and then turned and moved away, leaving the road for the trees to the left of the road.
Peter heaved a sigh of relief, then went to locate Roman. Moving down the embankment, Peter let momentum carry his feet down the hill toward the wreck. The lights were on outside and inside the car, and Peter saw Roman leaned over the woman. As he got closer, he realized that Roman was feeding on her.
He stood there in shock as he watched his friend sucking on the open neck of the victim of the creature. He knew as a werewolf he shouldn't feel queasy at the sight, but all the same, he felt that burger they had brought him in the interrogation room shift in his gut uncomfortably. It was the slurping sound that was nearly his undoing.
Peter backed up a bit as he knew from his experience as a wolf that you didn't interrupt another animal when it was feeding especially where blood was involved. He glanced behind him when he heard the creature howl from a distance and was relieved that it wasn't circling around to come back for another attack. He kept a vigilant watch anyway while Roman fed.
"Roman," Peter called softly. When Roman didn't answer, he called again slightly louder, "Roman."
Roman slowly raised his head and turned to look at Peter. Blood was running down his chin onto his shirt. His eyes were rather glazed over with pure ecstasy from the blood he'd ingested. His fangs were elongated even farther than Peter had ever seen them before. They looked almost reptilian. When Roman's now red eyes focused on Peter and the blood on Peter's shirt. He hissed at Peter and lunged at him, pinning him to the ground as he fell on top of him. He opened his mouth wide, his fangs protruding even further and swooped in to sink them into Peter's neck.
AN:
The music for the closing credits would be UNKLE: Bloodstain.
Roman's quote is taken from Act III, scene I of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare.