A/N: sorry for the horribly long time it took me to update, the document server was down on my account. ENjoY!

Nari Streeter

Chapter Sixteen: Inferno

Nari banked, turning tight circles around a Lego display of the Empire State Building, the pipe in her hand covering in a fine layer of blood. She scanned the crowd below her, desperately searching for any hint of Wolf's white pelt.

Parents, kids, staff, everywhere…everyone was just…panicking.

Nari gritted her teeth. She felt like shouting…like screaming at all of them. She was not a freak. She was not different from them. She felt like them, she bled like them, she cried like them…she loved just like them. So why the hell were they screaming so hard?

Wolf pounded squarely between her shoulders, his boots planting into her spine, snapping her head back and sending her racing toward the floor. Nari rolled out from under him, catching herself at the last moment and spiraling back to the ceiling, the tips of her wings just skimming the tiled floor.

Wolf landed hard on a shelf-top directly below her, crouching low and baring his teeth in a vicious snarl. His slender body twisted and bent in a way that was almost…poetry. Nari blinked in surprised, only now realizing that Wolf was nothing like the other Eraser's she had seen.

He was quicker. His morph had been smoother. It's like he was an entirely different breed.

With a twisted grin, Wolf snatched up a metal box from the shelf, curling his arm back and throwing it as hard as he could. The box was a blur against the still-clustering crowd of shoppers below, spinning wildly through the air like a bullet.

Nari sucked her wings tight against her back, dropping like a rock. The box grazed her shoulder, snapping against the bone and slamming through the ceiling. Nari glanced up at the fist-sized hole the box had left in the plaster, the stars just barely visible through the splintered ceiling beams.

Nari bit her lip.

This was going to be a lot harder than she thought.

Nickoli tried his best to keep up.

Max was a lot quicker than she looked. Her wings a blur against the midnight sky as the three of them cut tight circles over New York. Fang was a silent shadow several feet below them, his black wings glazed with highlights of blue in the darkness.

At first, Max had refused that any of her flock go to AFO Schmidt with Nickoli besides herself. Iggy fell into a moody silence while Nudge argued loudly, but in the end, what Max said always became an unspoken law…a law that didn't apply to Fang. He had simply followed them without a word, despite Max's sour glare.

A cold breeze cut through Nickoli's jacket, making him shiver as the stars winked quietly above them. Without the noise of the traffic, it was so much easier to just coast and think. Nickoli closed his eyes, trying to find any hint of where Nari would have gone in the conversations they'd had.

Max stared at him expectantly.

"Her dreams were always unclear," Nickoli shouted above the whipping wind, "never directly to the point. We went to Garden Taverns and the Library…but it seemed like we were always several months late. It's like…she was dreaming of a past that wasn't her own."

"Where else did you go?" Max asked, her eyes sweeping over the ground.

Nickoli shut his eyes again, "Garden Taverns, the Library, and old hotel, the subways tunnels…and a Cathedral. Saint Patrick's. We stayed there for a while before moving on."

Fang glided up beside them, "It sound like they've been a lot of places we have."

Max shrugged, "Every place except one."

They both smiled.

"AFO Schmidt"

Nari slammed her fist through the poorly fabricated wall, just missing Wolf's slender muzzle by inches. He spun away, angling himself above her and diving down with his jaws split open. Nari dodged away, dancing circles in the air below him.

The store had all but cleared out by now. Every panicking customer spilling out the doors like water crashing through a floodgate. Only a few brave employees remained, their heads ducked under counters as they screamed into the store phones at whoever was on the other line. Nari gritted her teeth so hard her jaw ached. The last thing this fight needed was a bunch of police with guns.

Wolf snatched at her neck, his steely fingers tightening across her windpipe as he drove her back into the wall. The plaster crumpled beneath her weight, giving way to the layer of pipes criss-crossing through the store. A low hissing filled the air. Nari's stomach dropped.

They had hit the gas line.

Wolf slammed her into the wall again, the pipe spinning from her fingers and clattering to the floor below. His clenched teeth were inches from her face, his hot breath making her eyes water.

"I hope Max screams when she dies," Wolf breathed, tracing his finger lightly across her jaw, "I love the way people scream just before their light burns out."

Rage boiled beneath Nari breastbone.

Wolf had ruined everything. Pandora's sweet face…crashing beneath a torrent of waves, the water around her stained with blood. Her tiny figure spiraling down into the black water…to a place where Nari would never see her again. She thought back to Nickoli, the way he looked at her when he asked the one question she didn't have the answer to.

Do you believe in God?

Nari's vision narrowed, Wolf's yellow eyes pouring tears as he pressed her harder against the wall, his claws digging beneath her skin. If there was a God…could he ever be this cruel?

Nari screamed, lashing out blindly.

Wolf's grip slackened, and then disappeared.

Nari slid to the floor, sucking in several sharp breaths before stumbling back to her feet. Ready for whatever Wolf had to throw at her.

He was standing several feet away, a look of confusion washing across his lamp-yellow eyes. He glanced down at his hand, covered with slick blood…his own blood. The confusion turned to horror as he jerked his head up to look at Nari, his muzzle smashed ruthlessly back into his head.

The bone cutting straight through to the brain.

Wolf slowly sank to his knees, his breath ragged as his face slowly re-formed. The hair pulling back, his eyes washing to gray…the blood continuously pouring from his nose and mouth.

Nari's stomach churned, bitter tears choking her throat.

She'd killed him.

"Nari," Wolf whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks as the floor around him was bathed in a puddle of crimson, "I-I…didn't want it to be…like this…" He fell back, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his shoulders ridged as he faced the ceiling.

Nari hesitated; her heart pounding as she carefully picked her way next to him, her pants soaking up the blood as she knelt. Wolf's eyes flickered to her, flooded with fear. Nari shook her head, "I'm sorry."

He smiled, shaking his head.

His face was next to hers in a blur, his lips brushing over her cheek as he grinned. Cocky. Confident. Simply…Wolf.

"No," he whispered, running his hand behind her neck, "it's me, Nari. It's me who should be apologizing…for killing you."

Nari glanced down at the spot in her chest where she could feel a faint pressure. The metal pipe from the subway tunnel glinted up at her, angled upward to slip perfectly under her ribs. She ran her fingers through the thick blood collecting over Wolf's white-knuckle grip on the rod, a grim smile spreading across her face.

"So that's it," she mused, the coldness from the pipe spreading across her chest.

"Yeah," Wolf muttered, his eyes dimming, "that's it…"

"Just for the record," Nari muttered, watching as Wolf slid back to the floor, "I never loved you."

Wolf smiled, watching quietly as their blood mixed on the floor, "I know," he breathed, running his fingers through the puddle.

"I know…"