Geoffrey wasn't sure why it felt so wrong to just sit there and watch, why it made him feel like some kind of voyeur as he saw the doctor drop the body back to the ground. He'd seen other leeches feed before, it was rather unavoidable in his line of work, but for some reason it felt like something completely different now. McCullum saw the tremors in the doctor's hands as he let the body drop to the ground, the same tremors and delight that he'd felt himself earlier that very night. He just barely managed to dart away as the other man looked up in the direction of his hiding spot. Reid didn't call out so either he didn't care or he hadn't noticed the hunter in the deepest shadows. Geoffrey sighed, looking down at his own claw-tipped fingers, focusing and trying to get them to ease up but something about what he'd just seen had him wanting to join into the fray. He really hadn't meant to seek the doctor out, not after he'd turned down the man's offer to help. What did he know? It was becoming painfully obvious that Reid had little idea what was going on around him and even less idea how the supernatural world really operated. How much could he really help?
So why did the hunter find himself following him? Geoffrey was half certain it was because he wanted to do everything in his power not to go back to base right now and gathering intelligence was better than thinking about how much he wanted to sink his teeth into the nearest shadowy body that he could just barely sense. The other half still wanted to blame Reid for what happened, somehow, even if that made no sense. If he followed the doctor maybe he'd be able to settle that to bed, and learn something without swallowing his pride. At first it had been incredibly boring, the man had returned to his family home that Geoffrey had found when he'd first been digging up dirt, or trying to, when he'd been investigating the pandemic. He had been surprised to find at the time that Reid still had family alive, and that he was still trying to keep up those connections. Most leeches cut ties with their mortal family immediately, if they had any left, not go and check in on their elderly mother and butler whenever they could. So he milled about outside for a time on a nearby rooftop, looking at the house and if he really focused, he was able to make out the shapes of those inside moving or sleeping. The doctor was fainter than the rest, but that shadowy outline pulled on the hunter more than the others, perhaps it was becuase he knew the doctor better. Some of their research denoted that leeches seemed to like to betray and consume those closest to them before any others. Geoffrey had never hoped he was wrong so desperately in his life.
After leaving the house Jonathan had led him to the graveyard where he'd witnessed the whole bloody fight and had to dig his claws into the stone to not leap in and take part in the mess. He hadn't seen the doctor fight like that before, all wild claws and shadows. When they'd fought in the attic it had been controlled, and even the end of the fight with Doris Fletcher had been a neat cut of the sword, nothing to expose the brutality that he saw with the Vulcod just now… something to keep note of, he told himself like he was doing reconnaisance and not just being nosy. He kept following Jonathan, hoping to find something else out but the other man simple returned home, sneaking back in the way he'd left and left Geoffrey sitting outside, wondering what to do with himself now.
He was still feeling like he needed to fight something, or someone, and he didn't feel comfortable going back to base just yet, the men could still recognize something in him that he wasn't ready for yet. He knew it was coming, this charade couldn't hold up forever, there would be something that would slip up, but despite knowing that turning himself over was in everyone's best interest, he just wasn't ready for that yet.
Instead he stalked around the city, flitting around from rooftop to rooftop like a ghost, managing to work himself into a right foul mood that likely would have any of his captains steering clear of him. Worse yet there were no Skal rifling through trash or through corpses to go after, nothing. Nothing at all. It was as though the city itself was determined to piss him off. He growled at nothing in particular and slammed a fist into a rotting side of a building, the sound broke off into a snarl when all that accomplished was get splintered, moldy wood under his coat sleeve. There was a startled noise from somewhere inside the building and Geoffrey tried blinking his vision into the strange muted colors that would tell him if the occupants were living or dead. He was surprised and frustrated when nothing showed itself to him. He nearly jumped out of his skin when something touched his leg. The hunter glanced down and noticed a mangy looking tabby cat give him a scratchy 'mrumph' and sit down to clean its face. It was covered in grime and its fur was matted and smelled terrible, likely why Geoffrey hadn't noticed it mixed in with the other smells of rot in the building.
"Don't think that's helping you much bud." he told the feline. It just looked at him with what felt strangely like pity and continued the gesture, swiping the dirty paw over its ear again and again. The hunter just scoffed, and turned on his heel, about to walk away before pausing and turning back.
"How come you aren't afraid of me?" he knew that most animals fled from leeches, something about the way they smelled or something, but this one just sat there watching him passively. He started to reach forward, curious if it would let him touch it but it just stood up and wandered away in a slow amble, tail flicking from side to side. Not afraid, but clearly not inclined to be handled either.
"Fine, fine, have it your way." he waved a hand and turned back toward the street. The hunter was surprised to realize that he wasn't nearly as angry as he had been when he'd swung at the building.
"Mood's worse than some of the lasses…" he grumbled, shaking his head and trying not to think about how wrong that implied some of their research was. That leeches had no feelings and here he was, having his mood swing back and forth faster than he could keep up. It wasn't a good feeling, realizing that he might be wrong so he shoved it out of his mind for the moment. Instead he started walking back toward headquarters, keeping to the streets this time instead of going to the rooftops, better not to risk getting spotted that way when he was closer to his men. His senses allowed him to wander around the patrols that were closer, that was something that they'd have to do better about, trying to cover their own tracks, that would help them not only sneak up on leeches, but it would keep the law from stopping them in suspect of being a gang on such a frequent basis. There were only so many cops they could bribe and bring into their world. So many of them just weren't willing to believe, no matter how many torn apart corpses they saw.
The pair of guards mulling around outside started as he rounded the corner, quickly snuffing the smokes that they had been hunched around. Geoffrey had to blink once before the color started to seep back in. He didn't like how it wasn't so much the hunger knotting his belly, but how warm they were that called to him. He just wanted to feel the warmth spread through him again, instead he grit his teeth and just nodded to them as he made his way in the building. He didn't realize just how much he was focused on ignoring the warmth in their bodies until one of them grabbed his shoulder and he spun, perhaps a hair too quickly as the shorter man jumped at his expression.
"Sir?" The man said, Walter, McCullum realized belatedly, one of the veterans, who had joined after the war, had a massive smoking habit but was always happy to share with others, which was why most just let it slide. McCullum took a deep breath, that was probably a mistake as the cold air from outside ripped down his throat.
"Yes?" he managed to keep the growl from his voice but it was a near thing. Walter raised a brow but didn't say anything.
"Everyone's just been wondering where you been? You just fuckin' vanished, Lloyds' been worried sick and Ross is going to drive himself to sickness frettin' back and forth. We just wanted to make sure that you… uh weren't hurt?" Walter trailed off like it was a question, he was eyeing him up and down but his expression seemed more concerned than suspicious. Geoffrey wrinkled his nose at the smell of cheap cigarettes that Walter preferred but responded.
"I'm fine, you think you coulda waited until I was in the door until you decided that you needed to interrogate me? Getting over sickness but I needed a walk on the town before I pulled a gun on Ross and his incessant nannying." the leader said, stepping further in the door and pulling his coat from his shoulders. He was just glad that in his desperation and hunger leaving the building that he'd remembered to grab it. It usually lived up in his room but he wanted to get the feeling of warmth on his skin now that he was indoors. Walter let out a raucous laugh, very nearly tossing his head back, something that McCullum was appreciative that he didn't, he was having a hard enough time keeping his eyes from his throat.
"All right, all right, well will we see some more of you tonight? The crew checking out the firing range is been missin' you." Walter said. Geoffrey paused, if he was going to pull this off long enough to bring a successor on and train them up, he couldn't be shirking his other duties.
"We'll see if Ross approves extra time in the cold." the commander said with a smirk. Walter grinned back and patted him on the shoulder, perhaps a bit too familiarly but Geoffrey wasn't in the mood to give the man a dressing down about it.
Geoffrey just barely made it upstairs and hung his coat and was disarming himself before Lloyd came barging in, irritation a nearly palpable cloud around him. The hunter wondered if he was actually able to smell it on the other man and that's what he was clueing in to in addition to his expression.
"Sir I thought we just talked about this." Lloyd said, sitting down without waiting for permission, not that the man had ever stood for that degree of decorum. Geoffrey just raised a brow and didn't stop what he was doing, instead just waiting for the lecture that was sure to come.
"We just talked about the unexpected cropping up, about naming someone, about pulling them under your wing so they can learn the ropes before it's a matter of sink or swim, because you sure as all hell aren't going to be able to shunt that on me, I will bring you back from the dead to resume the responsibility yourself if you do that to me." the older man slapped his notebook down on the desk to accent his point. Geoffrey carefully set down each of his weapons in their usual locations and sat down to unlace his boots. Once they were set aside he looked back up at his captain, whose expression was warring between irritation and bemusement.
"Am I really that predictable?" he asked with a sigh.
Geoffrey grinned.
"Sometimes it's better just to let you finish, you always found more to rant about when I interrupt you." the hunter said, standing again and gesturing at the basin on the dresser. "Do you mind?"
Lloyd flapped a hand arbitrarily. "Don't let me and my reasonable lectures interrupt your beauty routine."
Geoffrey his his smile in the splash of room temperature water against his face, scrubbing at his cheeks and the scruff that he'd need to shave tomorrow evening, he'd done his best to try to clean himself up after the Skal he'd hunted down earlier but better to make sure of it now. Once he dried his face on the towel and hung it back over the nail in the wall he turned back to the captain.
"I know that when it comes to keepin' track of me, it's not helpful, but I really was just on a walk, I needed the air."
"Fully armed?"
"Do I look fool enough to go out onto the streets and not carry?" Geoffrey paused for a second and then glared at Lloyd as he opened his mouth. "On second thought don't answer that. When I left it was far too early for anything to have crawled out of their hideyholes, I just needed to get out of this building and feel the wind on my face, same as before, didn't do anything brash but I needed to just… be me and not a leader to someone else, I'm sure you understand."
Lloyd's face fell a bit, and he nodded.
"You could always join in with some of the men, there's always a bunch looking to goof off."
"It's not the same when you're in charge of them and you know it." the Leader shook his head. "I was going to spend the rest of my evening at the firing range." he paused to give a bit of a cheeky grin. "If that's okay with mother Ross."
That at least earned a snort out of the old man.
"I think I can manage to convince him," Lloyd said, "it'll do them good to see you out there after your bout with the flu, who knows maybe some of the other captains will be there and you can start to narrow down your choices."
"You just have to make a chore out of everything don't you?" Geoffrey said with a sigh, picking his seldom used pistol back up and neatly holstering it on his hip. He much preferred his small crossbow, but the extra practice wasn't going to hurt him.
"It comes with the handbook of being an old man." Lloyd said, gesturing for the leader to follow him. "Don't forget to get something from the kitchens before it all gets eaten."
"I stopped by Patty's, she hadn't sold out before I got there." McCullum said smoothly, hoping that Lloyd would buy the lie.
"Next time you're trying to make excuses for vanishin' start with that, even me and my chores can understand a hankering for greasy street food." The older man grumbled as they made their way back down the stairs. "Next time grab me something, I'm not above delicious bribes."
Geoffrey gave a ghost of a laugh and patted the man on the shoulder as he passed to go out of the building and toward the storage building that served both for their scant storage and as a makeshift firing range and training area. It wasn't as though the Guard had many places to spread out but this was one of the few. They were technically not the owners of the building, but they kept it from falling into disrepair and the coppers more or less left them alone about it and the sounds coming from it.
The faint clangs and the occasional report from a gun greeted him as he opened the door, glad that someone had decided that tonight was worth lighting the heater for. He couldn't bring himself to reprimand anyone for it when he was resisting shivering himself. There was a pause when he entered the building and most of the men turned to look at who entered. The pause was longer than if anyone else had come in but eventually they all went back to what they were doing. It didn't escape his attention that most of the backs were straighter than they had been and there was more focus and less talking. McCullum wandered over to the first makeshift workshop that had initially been temporary but that had been five years ago and he made a mental note to ask if there was anything else that they needed to work in the area. The last thing they needed was for the entire building to burn down because they didn't have proper storage facilities. Vincent was hunched over something working meticulously on the internals of something that Geoffrey couldn't quite see. He knew the man was aware of him but didn't want to interrupt, waiting for Vincent to raise his head and acknowledge him. There was a click, a suppressed cuss and then Vincent looked up at him, squinting briefly as his eyes likely readjusted to the distance.
"Thank you sir, what can I do for you?" he asked, setting down the tools that he'd been working with, one of them notably bent in a shape that it wasn't supposed to be in.
"Just making the rounds Vincent, what are you working on?"
The man sighed heavily and shot the pile of parts a rather venomous glare. "I was working on refurbishing one of the flamethrowers, but the dratted thing just does not want to cooperate."
Geoffrey didn't say that perhaps that that was in their best interest, fuel was hard to come by and getting the cops to turn the other way when arson was, accidentally, involved was even harder. But that would just serve to frustrate the already frustrated man even more so.
"Maybe take a break, get some air, spar a bit, your hand to hand could always use some more work." he said, a teasing note in his voice. He took a step back from the expected hand swiped in his direction, laughing. Vincent made a show of grumbling at him some more but didn't actually have any heat behind it, eventually breaking into a grin himself.
"It's good to see you around sir, 'specially after your fight." the man piled up the remaining pieces of the flamethrower and set them off to the side where they shouldn't be lost and stood, giving McCullum a warm clap on the shoulder. Geoffrey just hoped that he didn't notice how cold he was, or that he'd chalk it up to the temperature outside.
"It's good to be back here." he said, trying not to think about how much the statement made his stomach sink. He didn't like the feeling of lying to his men but… he wasn't ready yet to give up the ghost and let them have at him. Instead he moved along, watching some of the other men working on bits of things, inventory, tuning up the sparse selection of weapons that they did have. There had been an influx with every batch of soldiers that came home. Some of them joined up, others were happy to offload anything they still had by chance or theft to someone who wasn't going to ask too many questions. They didn't have much coin to spare at the best of times but McCullum would prefer to have weapons than coin any day of the week.
At the other end of the building many men were practicing their firing or showing others how to do so. The leader paused for a moment to just watch, not all of the captains were out in the field, some of them were here, teaching and coaching. He took them all in, trying to start a ranking in his head of who he was going to start coaching under his wing as his replacement. He needed to do that before he left, and there was no doubt that he was going to have to leave, he couldn't keep up this charade forever, even if it seemed like his men were blind to the differences that marked him as other.
In the building was Matthews, he was young but had good heart, in the house tonight because while he was still getting over the 'flu he didn't want to be away for too long. As soon as Ross had cleared him to be around people again he was out here since Geoffrey and Lloyd sure as hell weren't going to allow him out on patrol. He was a good teacher, gentle, perhaps too much so, there was a benefit to gentle teachings but Geoffrey knew as well as any of them that it was a cruel fight they faced out there. On the opposite of Matthews was Hodge, giving pointers to two men wrestling on the ground. Geoffrey was startled to realize that if he concentrated he could make out what they were saying.
"You have to use your hips,"
"Bu-"
"I don't care if you like it a bit too much Luke, whether you like it or not is not the point, the point is that if you find yourself in a full on tussle with a leech you can get out with your throat intact. If you're more scared of gettin' a bit riled up you might want to reassess your priorities." Hodge pointed out, demonstrating the motion before sitting back down on the barrel that he had been on top of before. The pair on the ground went back at it, with a bit more gusto this time despite their protestations. Geoffrey paused, vision flickering for a second as both men's hearts kicked up in their eager attempts to best one another. He was about to take a step forward, to chase down the bright red when there was a sound like cannonfire next to him. He started hard and was shocked out of the hunger, looking for the source of the sound. The man who Matthews had been instructing smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry about that sir, I thought you knew I was about to fire."
Geoffrey waved him off and Matthews came over after patting the rookie on the shoulder and giving him a quick pointer.
"He's getting better." Matthews said with a bright grin, Geoffrey turned and gave him a skeptical eye.
"He's a terrible shot kid." McCullum sighed.
"But better than he was a week ago!"
The leader shook his head "He's got sharp eyes and keen sense, put him on lookout and have him distinguish the leeches from the common thugs. He'll do far better at that and with a stake in his hand he may well make a fine guardsmen, but keep at this and we'll just be wasting ammo."
Matthews looked a bit disappointed but nodded. Geoffrey knew that he had wanted to feel validated in his efforts but he needed to know when something was a lost cause…
"Still, not for lack of trying on your part, yer a fine teacher but let's find someone who's a better student yeah?" He relented, Matthews laughed and then paused to cough a bit, Geoffrey could still smell the sick in the spit he caught on his sleeve. He wondered if the kid was going to relapse back into sickness, if he wasn't quite as well as he wanted everyone to believe he was. "Go get some rest, we're not going to solve all the worlds' problems in a night." McCullum said gently. Matthews gave him a look like he was about to protest.
"You need to get better before you can help, it's okay." he insisted, fixing the kid with a glare in hopes that it would finally get through his thick skull that he wasn't helping anyone by getting them sick.
"Fine…" Matthews grabbed his coat and slowly started back in the direction of the main building. Geoffrey sighed, shaking his head, for a moment though it felt so normal, trying to keep up with what everyone was up to, trying to guide them in the right direction, giving a couple harsh truths if need be… He watched Mathews go for a second, the door closing gently behind him, before turning and heading for Hodge. He didn't like to find that several men were staring at him, he raised a brow at turned in a circle
"What are you all looking at?" He gave a half hearted glare and the rest of the room went back to moving and making noise and working on what they'd been working on. The pair that had been wrestling were back to sniping at one another about who knows what and Hodge had paused to take a drink out of the glass he had set off to the side.
"What can I do for you boss?" He asked, setting it down and leaning back casually, he gestured to the bench next to him and Geoffrey took the opportunity to sit.
"Just keeping up, catching up after being sick, you know how it goes." he shrugged, looking across the room.
"Of course, I would say thank you for telling Matthews to take it easy, but are you feeling better yourself sir?" Hodge asked, looking a little closer at him. Geoffrey felt a little uncomfortable, he was certain that if any of them looked too close they would know, they would find out.
"Yeah, I'm fine, takes more than a fight and some flu to knock me down." he laughed a little, hoping that it would take the edge off of things.
"If you say so, but I would also caution you to take your own advice." Hodge paused for a long, long moment, looking around the room almost conspiratorially before leaning in toward him. Geoffrey could smell the stew from dinner that Hodge had eaten and even worse, the blood pounding just behind a bandage that was wrapped somewhere in the vicinity of his arm.
"Some of the men were taking bets you know." Hodge said and McCullum had to pause to recalibrate what was being said in the conversation.
"Oh?"
"On whether you were going to come back from that fight." the captain was looking down at the cup that was full of the dreadful coffee that the man preferred over the tea was brewed in vast quantities in headquarters.
"I would say that that would be a ridiculous thing to bet on, but… I can't say I blame any of them." McCullum laughed. "I don't approve, but you get me a cut of the winnings, I'd say I can let it slide." he nudged Hodge. Hodge paused and McCullum raised a brow at him. "What side did you come down on?" he asked.
"Oh I bet on the you'd be in the hospital for a week, give or take, crew. There were bets that you'd win, some that that fight would be your last, and some that Reid was going to take you prisoner and we'd have to rescue you."
McCullum threw the captain a flat look, the other man held it for just a second and then laughed. "Okay I made that last one up. Just wanted to see if you'd buy it. Nah, Lloyd found us out and it didn't seem like so much fun when you got sick." Hodge shrugged
"So thrilled that Ross couldn't keep that one under wraps." Geoffrey grumbled, kicking a pebble along the floor.
"Not like it's easy to keep anything a secret around here, we've made a job of finding them out and eradicating something that's secret from the world." Hodge said. His leader tried not to think about the secret that we was keeping from all of them right now.
"Yeah, well, I'm glad I made it out of there."
"Me too boss." they both sat quietly watching the goings on for a few minutes before Hodge said something else
"Was there anything else you needed?"
"Would you be okay with joining up with my patrol tomorrow? There's been a decline of Skals in the past days, but that just means the meaner ones are sticking out like a sore thumb, I want to take a few of them down. Thin the herd."
"Wouldn't miss it sir." Hodge said, then he raised his voice. "You hear that? We're riding with the big guns tomorrow!" the two who had clearly now been trying to eavesdrop snapped to attention and then swiftly went back to making fun of each other. Hodge looked back at him and rolled his eyes and they both stifled a laugh.
-Face your Fears-
Geoffrey eventually made it back to his room and lay down, the feeling of the sun's rays like a heavy blanket on his back, dragging him down into unconsciousness. He barely managed to flop face first onto his bed before falling under.
He came to all at once, trying to shake the remains of a dream out of his head, this was the third time he'd dreamt of horses, which was far more than he had in… well ever since he could remember.
"I swear if this is some little known leech power…" he ran a hand through his hair and yawned. He could feel the hunger starting to tear up his insides and knew he was going to have to find his way out to hunt before patrols started. He opened the curtains just enough to check what time it was outside, full dark. McCullum sighed, while the full… day's sleep was probably good for him… it was limiting his working time.
He quickly got himself pulled together and opened the door, finding that someone, probably Ross, had set a plate outside his door with food and a full mug of tea. It smelled like it had been there for some time and the hunter found himself raising it to his lips and taking a sip before he considered it. It was oversteeped and bitter and clashed with the hunger that snarled in his belly. He nearly choked and then spat the tea back into the mug, wrestling with his sudden rising gorge.
"Fuck…" he grumbled, setting the mug down heavily on the desk and breathing out of his nose. Damned habitual motions. That was something that was going to keep biting him in the ass wasn't it? Once he no longer felt that he was going to attempt to turn his stomach inside out he dumped the remainder of the tea out of the window, quickly followed by the beans that were turning into a small coagulated pile in the bowl. He was glad that at the very least it didn't look all that appetizing either, even if he would have been able to eat it. The not being able to eat with the men thing was going to become a problem quickly. Once they no longer bought the excuse of getting over an illness he was going to have to figure something out. For the moment though…
Despite it being full dark there were still a good number of men milling about. The first patrols that went out at dusk to catch anything that was trying to scurry out early weren't back just yet and the other, fuller patrols hadn't gone out. Ross was in the infirmary, working to patch someone back up and Geoffrey had to stop at the door when his vision dipped into greys. He could see the blood in bright reds staining the cloth that the medic had used to stop the bleeding and where it was still leaking out of the young man on the cot. Worse yet he could smell it, even standing outside the room, over the alcohol and the sweat of other bodies and it had just the right amount of bite of metallic in the air to have his mouth flooding with saliva. A hand, much too warm, clapped down on his shoulder and he nearly jumped out his own skin.
"Sir?" Hodge looked at him with worry in his eyes. Geoffrey blinked a couple more times, color slowly leaking back into his vision.
"Are you okay?" the captain continued, looking closer at him, and McCullum was certain for a moment that this was going to be it, the moment that everything came crashing down, just because he couldn't keep a lid on it for one night. How pathetic was that? For some reason his hunger addled brain just brought up the image of Reid with that Skal in his grip, he swallowed stiffly.
"Yes. Sorry about that, tea still hasn't quite kicked in." he rubbed the back of his neck, and did everything he could not to look in the direction of the glorious… wonderful… He looked to the door. "Your group ready to go out?" he asked instead.
"Sure… sir, if you're not feeling quite up to it…"
"I'm good, nothing some fresh air and a bit of a fight can't fix." he said, walking away from the temptation before it could get the better of him. He pulled his coat over his shoulders and started checking his crossbow, the familiar motion helping to ground him in the real, instead of the hunger that he was determined to keep under wraps until he could go off and handle it later.
"If you're sure." Hodge said hesitantly, though he followed his leader to the door, making a subtle motion to his underlings. The part of McCullum that wasn't trying to pull himself together was impressed at how well the pair from last night and a couple others joined up with them with nary a word between them.
"Of course I am, are you?" he asked, the shock of the cold air pulling him to attention better than anything else could. He resisted the urge to shiver, at least there wouldn't need to be any excuses for how cold he was…
"Of course."
The first couple of hours were quiet, only the occasional false alarm of hooligans too stupid or too drunk to not be in or the few bits of wild animals that had adapted to the tough streets of London. Imogen got off a good shot on a Skal and it was dead before it even hit the ground, he gave the girl a solid pat on the back for that, getting a grim smile back. He was learning that she and her brother didn't like the violence, but their hatred outweighed it. The pair from last night, Zachary and Bernie, did like it but they both had a healthy fear for every bump that wasn't expected around them.
Geoffrey thought it was going to be a slow night until they ventured into a more decrepit portion of the sewers and all of a sudden there were too many of them. They must've found a nest, or somewhere where bodies had washed up and half a dozen Skal and a Vulkod had gathered to pick through the remains. Regardless, they'd managed to fend off most of them, but the Vulkod that had turned up had only gotten clipped and had retreated to try to lick its wounds.
"Go." McCullum commanded to others, jerking his head in the direction of the way they'd come as he flicked the blood from his sword. He wasn't going to think about how he'd rather lick it from the blade, he couldn't.
"Sir!" Imogen started, she had Will leaning heavily on her but she readied her weapon anyway.
"Go, take your brother and go, that's an order, I have this. The others will cover your retreat." he ground out before continuing to follow the scent of the beast's blood as it sang to him from the tunnels. The sound of splashing behind him told him they'd gone. He grinned and continued his hunt, there wasn't far for the beast to run.
He gripped the hilt of his sword tighter, feeling the shadows rush up his arms as he did, claws pricking at the leather on the hilt. The hunter could see it just ahead, hear its snuffling around and the unevenness of its gait. He was about to pounce forward when there was the sound of thunder and he whirled to see that Hodge had followed him. There wasn't time to think, the Vulkod, hit and now angry was moving forward and he moved into its space to fend it off.
"What are you doing?!" he demanded of the captain between strikes
"Are you fucking crazy sir? You can't take a Vulkod on your own!" Hodge was reloading for another shot, doing his best to stay out of range.
"Don't tell me what I can't -" Geoffrey didn't get to finish his statement when the Vulkod shadow stepped around his guard and made a beeline for Hodge. The commander didn't even pause to consider it, just moved, shoving the captain out of the way.
He saw the claws through his stomach before his mind caught up and brought the pain to his attention. Once again there was the sound of thunder much too close and the spray of sweet nectar against the back of neck…
