Derek was waiting patiently for the banshee's return. Like a mannequin, he sat still on the fire escape staircase, his eyes facing forward to the opposite wall, and listened intently to his surroundings.
He didn't know how much time had passed when he heard the ding of the elevator, announcing that its doors would open on this level. The werewolf's whole body was immediately on alert and he silently rised from his position. To make sure that it was indeed the banshee and not some hotel employee, he cracked open the fire door and peeked outside.
His nostrils flared as the murky smell of other werewolves wafted towards him. With a sense of foreboding, he watched as a large pack, lead by the barfooted woman and the pair of twins, marched towards the suite.
„You think this is a good idea, Kali?", one of the brothers asked her in a low voice.
The female werewolf looked determined. „Ennis has a bigger force at the opera, ready to seize the banshee in case we can't find the box here. If Deucalion wants the stones so badly, he'll have to come and give us back our pack members in exchange for them. If the blind bastard did anything to Jennifer-" She stopped herself, taking a calming breath, before she turned back to the task at hand. „Well, we're gonna make sure his life will be hell." She gave him a wicked grin before she gently knocked against the door and waited for an answer patiently.
„Yes", shouted a male voice from inside.
„Champagne for the banshee."
Martin's assistant opened the door, his features full of boredom. His expression directly changed into panic, when the woman shot out her arm and took hold of his throat. With outstanding strenght, she lifted the man and threw him backwards into the suite.
With a calm strut, she entered after him, followed by the rest of her pack.
Derek could hear shouting and the firing of guns, and his muscles strained with the great need to protect washing over him. His whole body acted on instinct as he jumped through the door and into the suite.
The man lay unmoving at the oposite wall, a large stream of blood rushing out of the back of his head. Another person was slumped on the ground in the middle of the room, her face sliced to an unrecognizable state, but her blonde, curly hair revealed her identity to Derek. A small gun, the right size to easily fit into a purse, lay close to her, but it had obviously been no help. Normal bullets couldn't stop a werewolf, even less a whole pack. Around their victims, the werewolves rifled through drawers and trunks, trashing the whole suite in their hasted search.
„I have found it!", declared one of them, holding a heavy case ornated with detailed wood carvings, the same moment that Derek burst inside, fueled with anger.
The pack turned towards him in shock, unmobile for a second. He used their surprise to his advantage and quickly took out the closest werewolf by headbanging him. A loud crunch could be heard as his nose was shattered into pieces and blood began to pour out of it over his face. In slow motion, he dropped to his knees and then fell over onto the ground.
The woman took the wooden box out of her henchman's hands and barked at the pack.
„Get him!"
Awaking at once from their rigour, the other wolves set upon him, snarling their sharp teeth. Derek felt his own teeth lengthening in response, his claws growing out and his face turning into wolfish features. He kicked the first opponent out of his way, another one being knocked down as the werewolf flew against him and burried him under his weight. The next one tried to slash at him, but Derek took hold of his wrist, before the sharp claws could reach his face. Under the sound of the wolf's scream, he twisted his arm around and forced him to his knees. In a fluent motion, he thrust his leg backwards, kicking away another werewolf that tried to tackle him from behind, and then pushed his knee forward again, banging it brutaly into the kneeling wolf's head and leaving his jaw hanging in an unnatural angle.
The werewolf that had wanted to attack Derek's back was coming at him again. He pulled out a ridiculously big knife from a sheat attached to his leg. When the sharp steel catched the reflection of Derek's red glowing alpha eyes, it looked as though the blade had already been coated with blood before it even had sliced through flesh.
With wild motions he tried to slash at Derek without giving him a chance to come closer to him. Derek danced backwards and sidestepped every swipe. In a trice, the werewolf changed the pattern of his movements, trying to catch Derek by surprise, and thrust the knife forward. Derek could feel the tip of the knife cutting into his skin right above his heart, but before it could sink any deeper into his chest, he had grasped the blade in a firm hold. He could feel the metal slicing through his fingers' flesh and scratching against the bones, still he kept his grip tight around it. The other werewolf's eyes turned as big as saucers as Derek used all his strength to pull the knife out of his torso and turn it aroud towards his enemy. The werewolf gasped from the exertion of trying to gain back control over his weapon, but Derek was stronger. Steadily, it was turned back, until the tip pointed upwards from right beneath the man's jaw. In a fast move, Derek slammed his knee up against the knife's butt and it shot straight through the soft underside of the werewolf's jaw until the tip came back out at the top of his head, splashing a red spray up into the air.
The moment the werewolf hit the ground, a pair of twins came at Derek, attacking him from different sides. Moving swiftly, he dodged their fists then took hold of one twins shoulder and pulled him around a circle to throw him against his brother. The two staggered back until they catched their footing. They shared a quick look before they groped each others shoulders and began to grunt in exertion as they began to push into each other. Derek watched staggered as the two werwolves merged together and grew into a bigger one.
With a sly smile on his lips the wolf of the fusioned twins looked down at Derek, who suddenly felt very small in comparison. Without effort, he lifted the smaller werewolf and tossed him through the suite. The coffee table crashed under Derek's weight as he landed heavily on top of it. He shook off the pain and jumped at the giant man again, his actions to fast for the large werewolf, and managed to strike a punch against his abdomen. Unaffected, the werewolf blinked down at Derek, then lifted his large fist and connected it with Derek's face. He immediately went down, but quickly rolled over and kicked at his opponents legs. The werewolf fell over like a logged down tree. Without halting, Derek grabbed a floor lamp and broke off the upper half, before he took hold of the metal rod and rammed the broken end through the twins' joined chest, pinning their huge form to the ground. Screaming in anguish, they grasped the metal rod and tried to pull it out, but Derek had already turned towards a large wardrobe and pushed it over, letting the heavy piece of furniture fall on top of the giant werewolf with a loud bluster.
Derek's shoulders heaved as he straightened up again. He briskly turned around when he heard the last werewolf behind him making a move.
With a sigh, the barefooted woman set the box aside on the ground and stalked towards him. She cranked her neck and, with the grinding sound of bones rearranging, her face turned from human to werewolf. Still pumped up with adrenaline, he charged at her with a loud growl. The female alpha skilfully avoided his punches and ducked down. Spinning around, she skipped from one leg to the other, kicking one foot after the other at Derek's torso and slashing his shirt and the underlying skin deeply with her long nails.
The werewolf stumbled backwards, one hand held against his aching chest as his grey tee shirt darkened with blood. Kali's eyes glistened at the sight of his distress and she showed him her sharp teeth through a predatory grin.
In a flash, she was upon him again. This time, he was prepared for her attack and the moment she lifted her leg, he went down to on knee, captured her calf over his shoulder and promptly stood up again. Loosing her balance, the woman clunked onto her back, but before Derek could make use of his upper hand, she had raised her other leg over his shoulder and squeezed his head between her tighs.
Derek's face turned red with the struggle to breath and his eyes started to bulge. He couldn't move forward nor backward and no matter how deep he pushed his claws into the the woman's flesh, she didn't let go. She laughed as she strained her muscles even more, linking her legs behind his head, and tightened her grip on Derek's neck.
The werewolf became desperate, his heart beating as fast as a small insects wings, pumping his blood rapidly through his veins. A deep ache formed in his bones, duller than the sharp piercing slices on his chest and more prominent. He felt how his skeleton began to break apart and grew back together again in a different shape. His claws pulled out of the woman's tighs as his shoulder drew tightly together, preventing him from holding his arms at this distinct angle, and his hands turned into big paws. His muscles in his neck grew stronger and his face extended into a big muzzle as all his senses sharpened and hit his mind with new informations, like the stinging smell of the woman's loathing or the rapid flattering of the carotid artery on her neck.
With sudden fear in her eyes, the woman looked up at the giant black wolf on top of her. Her legs weren't strong enough to hold him back as the werewolf pushed his hind legs back against the ground and darted forwards. With a fierce growl, he closed his jaw around her neck and sank his teeth into the soft flesh.
Warm blood filled his mouth and an overwhelming metallic taste drowned his senses. Within a blink of an eye, his rage had dissipated and all he could feel was the woman's mortal agony. Aghast, the wolf let go of his victim. Kali clutched her hand around her injured neck, red liquid running through her long, thin fingers. Powerless, her look had lost its wolfish features and had turned back into a soft, human face distorted with anguish.
Derek winced and backed away from the gasping woman. Trying to choke down his guilty conscience, he turned away from her to examine the crested box.
He stood over the case and sniffed it, about to change back to be able to open it with human hands, when his ears pricked up at the sudden sound of a cane tapping against the ground in an irregular rhythm.
Putting a protective paw over the box, Derek fixated his sight on the entrance. He snarled when a man stepped slowly into view, dark tinted glasses on his nose and a white cane in his hand. He paused in the doorway, his face turned straight forward instead of slightly down in Derek's direction and for a moment the werewolf wondered if the blind man had taken notice of him.
„My compliments, little pup", the man suddenly spoke up. „Thank you for doing the dirty work. I couldn't have done a better job." He dropped his cane, grasped behind his back and pulled out a fully-automatic gun. With his heightened senses, Derek could smell the wolfsbane inside the bullets despite the distance. With his free hand, the man pulled off his glasses, exposing red scarred eyes that fixated Derek directly. „Now, back away from the stones."
Weighing his possibilities, the wolf made no move. He looked at the man and suddenly felt the tension shift. His connection to the fourth dimension pulled at him from the inside, forcing him to take his black paw back off the box and slowly step back.
A muscle in the man's arm flinched, but before his finger could pull the trigger, Derek had bolted to the side. Next to him, bullets shot into the ground where he stood a mere second ago. Without thinking, he took a running jump onto a bureau and leaped up into an air vent in the ceiling.
His claws scratched into the metal as he awkwardly tried to pull his whole body into the vent. Beneath him, he could hear the man cursing under his breath, followed by another round of bullets being shot. Derek howled in pain as one of the wolfsbane bullets pierced through his left hind leg.
Finally, he managed to completely disappear inside the vent. He struggled forward to escape the line of fire, but his clumsy crawling resounded through the ventilation shaft and immediately the man had redirected his aim to Derek's new position. The missiles fired through the ceiling, leaving little holes that let faint light into the shaft. Crouching, the wolf tried to dodge them. He soothed his breathing and slowed down his pounding heart to make as little noise as possible.
The shooting paused and he could hear the man stomping through the room. Without a warning, he fired his gun again, emptying his ammo clip into the whole of the ceiling. Derek tried to make himself as small a target as possible and winced as another bullet grazed his flank.
The empty weapon clattered onto the floor as the man flinged it carelessly to the side. Derek could hear him moving to the still wheezing woman lying in her own puddle of blood, and silently tried to peer through a bullet hole down into the room.
„Kali", the man huffed as he wrenched her hands away from her throat to take a look at her injury.
Her spitefull eyes followed him as he sat back up and grabbed the box.
„All of this trouble and what did it get you? You should have done what I told you without questioning it."
He calmly picked up his cane and turned to leave. He paused and sticked some kind of small, grey box with buttons against the door. After pressing some of them, red digits started to glow and slowly counted down.
The man threw another look over his shoulder back at Kali.
„Oh, before I forget to mention it. Jennifer is already dead. When you see her again in a few minutes, tell her I said hello."
Laughing quietly to himself, he left the suite, the sound of his cane tapping along the floor filling the room until he was too far away to be heard anymore.