My heart pounds in my ears as I run through the streets, bright sun beating down on my head, sweat soaking my shirt, leather jacket feeling heavier than ever, ducking around a corner into an alleyway hoping to find the one thing I need to escape the crinos bastet chasing me. She's freaking huge! And fast, so damned fast. Now I understand why they call it their 'war form'. She's all snarling fang and fur and claws dripping with blood—my blood.
If I wanted to, I could turn and face this werecheetah, become a being of pure light as bright as the sun, burn her ass to ash as if she were a vampire in daylight, but I don't want to, she's a friend of mine, and its not her fault she's out of control. The moon is a harsh mistress, and just because you can't see it easily, doesn't mean the moon isn't out, doesn't make it any less full. Oh no, its there, you can just see the palest hint of it. The moon can be a real bitch sometimes.
And so I run.
She's gaining on me. I just barely avoid her grabbing me and I feel the swipe down my spine, shredding the leather jacket's back which saves my own flesh from being sliced like lunch meat. I dive head first into the one thing I need, the thing that can save my sorry hide: the shadow of the building next to the one I was just running past when I turned into the alley.
Now one might think that diving head first into a shadow would result in splitting your head wide open on the pavement and spilling gray matter every where. Normally you'd be correct, fortunately for me, diving into a shadow is like a person moving from one room to another. Why? Because just as I can become a being of light, I can also become a being of shadow, and diving into a shadow is like breathing air out against a fan, there's some tension, but it all blends together as air. Ok enough with the similes already.
From my place in the shadow I see my friend barreling towards the back of the alley, because unlike me she can't just come to a complete stop. I want to calm her down, but with the moon in its fullest, the only thing I can really do to her is attempt to knock her out and let her sleep it off. Unfortunately, my sleeping potion is also now as intangible as I am, so I can't pluck it out of the many pockets that line the inside of my jacket and toss it at her. Tossing it at her wouldn't have worked anyway, its not a contact potion like some of my poison are. I suppose I could use my telekenesis on her, attempt to trip her, but that would just piss her off more if she stumbled, I would have to hit her far harder than I want to in order to knock her out. I am very effectively impotent to help her in this situation, and if she gets her claws on me, she will probably quite literally try to pull my arm off and beat me to death with it.
Just as I am pondering how best to help my friend, fate answers the call in the form of her crashing head long into the back wall and knocking herself out cold. Ohhhh that's gonna hurt in the morning. Fate can be a real bitch too.
I head towards her through the shadows, she's at the very back of the alley where its darkest, so its easy to get to her. "Ok, lets get you back home." I mumble to myself since she's down for the count. Becoming partially solid again I put a hand on her ankle, keeping well away from her head, and start to pull her into the shadows with me. This is a far harder prospect than it sounds. I have to expend a lot of energy to move people and animals through, and I have to be quick, because while I can live in a shadow forever, they still have to breathe. Think of it like swimming in a pool, you can do it, but you have to come up for air sometimes. And I'm back to the similes again.
Once I pull her in, the shadows encasing her in a warm blanket of protection, I concentrate quickly on her own home, specifically her bedroom closet, its going to be a mess because she's huge right now, but its the only place I know for a fact there will be a shadow for us to land in. Well, there and under the bed, but can you imagine me trying to put a nine feet tall and at least three feet wide werecheetah under a bed with a eight inch clearance from the floor? No, knocking things over in her closet is a far better idea. Fortunately for us both, she lives within range of my shadow walking skills, we've tested it in the past. Technically I can go anywhere by myself with just a thought and the expending of energy, I don't need to breathe inside a shadow because I am one, but with a passenger I can only go as far as they can hold their breath if we were moving from point A to point B as the crow flies. Learning that took a lot of trial and error. So many poor frogs gave their lives till I realized why they were dying when I brought us out the other side. RIP Kermits one through twenty-four.
Thump, SMASH, ker-thump-thump-thump, crunch.
That was the sound that accompanied our materialization in her closet. Who keeps that many shoe boxes stacked up in the middle of the closet anyway? And please tell me that crunch was not anything valuable.
As I lug her out of the closet and towards her bed, I can't help thinking I need to get the hell out of this city. Its fun and all, but its completely inhabited by shape shifters of various breeds. Wolf, cheetah, coyote, lion, dingo, even a sheep. Who ever heard of a were-sheep? But she's here. She's a sheep-shifter. Get it? Shape shifter sheep... sheep-shifter?
Yes, I amuse myself.
Back to my previous thought, this is a shifter city, its one of the rare ones, a haven of sorts. Normally the different species stay away from each other, especially the felines who don't tend to like pack mentality. But for those needing a safe place, this city has become known as the safest place for shifters and friends of shifters, which is why I came here in the first place. I had needed a place to heal after... well that's a story for a later time. Suffice it to say I am a friend of the shifters for nearly fifty years, so they let me in even though I am not one of them.
What am I?
I am Fae. No not like Tinkerbell. I don't get itty bitty, I won't die if you say you don't believe in fairies, you can't clap me back to life if I do die. Think of me more like a Lord of the Rings elf, with a twist. If you've ever heard of the stories of the Unseelie sidhe, that's me. They say we are evil, it's not true, we just have a different take on things than the Seelie. Don't think of it in terms of 'Good and Evil', think of it in terms of 'Aristocracy and the Common Man'. If you are a King you're going to think that the ways of the common person are horrible and possibly wicked. I assure you that is far from the truth. The Unseelie just do what needs to be done, even if we have to get down and dirty to get it done.
After a struggle to try to get the unconscious giant cat on her bed, and failing, what is she? 600? 700 pounds like this? I gave up and put her on the floor between her closet and bed, grabbed her pillows and comforter and set her up nice and cozy where she was. I'm strong, but 500 pounds is around my max, and out cold like this she's dead weight. Maaaayyybe I could have done it before shadow walking with her, but no way in hell could I do it after. So once she was taken care of I sat down on the foot of her bed to watch her and make plans for what to do next. That's when the wave of utter exhaustion hit me and I joined her in unconsciousness.
Hours later the sun gad gone down, the moon had risen the rest of the way, and gone back down again apparently, because I woke up at dawn with the sensation of my face being licked. As it turns out Rowena had woken up after she moon had set again, gotten cleaned up, dressed and was now cleaning my cheek with a wet wash cloth. "Hey sleepy head." She said as she noticed my breathing change to a more wakeful state. "Looks like I got you huh? Was it bad?"
Opening my eyes one at a time I looked at her and laughed, "Nah, a love scratch... you've done worse in the throes of passion." That smart answer got me punched in the arm. "Seriously though, you know unless its cold iron I'll heal from almost anything." She may have hit me, but she looked relieved.
"Good. I'm sorr-" She began but I shut her up with a kiss on the lips, a fast one just to shock her out of apologizing yet again for something out of her control.
"I'm fine, you know I wont even scar. I barely felt it." I reassured her. "You don't live the kind of life I have and still feel a little scratch."
Shaking her head she began to argue, "It wasn't a little scratch, there was blood all over my—"
"—It
was a scratch to me, maybe not to others, but to me it was minor ok?" I
interrupted her, I wasn't going to allow her to feel guilty over this.
She bobbed her head in a nod and turned away, "You have that meeting to get to don't you? Howl at the Moon Café?"
Grunting I nodded, "Yeah, that wolf who bought the sleeping potion for his insomniac sister said he was interested in what else I had for him... might be able to sell the potions at the pharmacy."
"Breakfast before then?"
"Sure."
I went into her bathroom to make sure I looked presentable, as presentable as I could having slept in clothes I'd sweat and bled in. I tried to tame my long purple hair with her brush and stole an elastic band to pull it back with from her collection, but I was still unhappy with the results. I should probably take a shower and change my clothes, but my stomach was now growling so I gave up and threw up a glamour to make myself all nicely pressed clothes and pretty looking.
"That's cheating Curt," Rowena snarked.
I flashed her my most enigmatic smile, "Yes, yes it is."
When we got to the cafe I grabbed my normal spot in the corner with my back to the wall, giving myself the best view of both entry points. The waitress came over with two a coffee and a hot chocolate; our usual beverage choices.
"You want the usual honey?" She asked Rowena who nodded and sipped the bitter beverage without milk or sugar. When she looked at me I was inspecting the hot chocolate, watching the marshmallows melt. "And you?"
I nodded as well. "Yes, but Swiss cheese today." Without writing our order down the waitress headed out to the kitchen.
While I observed the slow demise of the white fluffy masses, Rowena asked me, "What if he wants your other skills?"
"That's fine too, but I think its gotten around by now that I refuse contracts on innocent people after that idiot Massey wanted me to take out his mistresses husband and I told his wife about his affair for lying to me. So hopefully if it is for my other skills it will be someone who truly deserves it."
After three hours, a delicious breakfast and one long conversation with the werewolf I was to meet with, I was completely convinced my target was, in fact, an incredible waste of human flesh that needed to shuffle off this mortal coil.
I get told a lot of stories by people who want me to murder who ever it is they think did them wrong, and most of the time I talk them down, make them see the light and move on, at times I feel like I'm more therapist than hit-man, but every now and again a client comes along that is the real deal. I may be an assassin, but I have principals damn it; never kill the innocent, make suffer those who made others suffer, kill the killers. And the wolf told me a heart wrenching story.
The reason his sister had insomnia and needed a sleeping potion that would ensure she didn't dream, and the reason they moved to the shifter safe haven at all, was this man, this completely contemptible despicable man who broke her. She'd been the mother of two, mated to what sounded like a wonderful man, and this piece of shit killed her husband, raped her and left her for dead, then killed the two children. She only survived because her brother came home while she was bleeding out. He grabbed her and ran for this city and has been trying to help her recover ever since, but she wasn't doing well, and now they wanted revenge.
I agreed and packed my bags, not knowing when I'd return, or even if I would, because I wasn't exactly sure where this guy was and I had been wanting to leave the city anyway. I'd have to hunt him down the old fashioned way because I didn't have more than a name, a photograph and a general region to look in. I took everything I'd need, my toxin and herbalist kits and cauldrons, clothes; although I took the time to sew back up the slices in my jacket before I left. It's been through a lot with me, this jacket, and I wouldn't let it remain in tatters for long. It had so many stitches from being cut up I am surprised it didn't disintegrate. Once the task was done, I kissed Rowena good bye and headed out into the world to begin the hunt for my prey. He didn't know it yet, but his days were numbered.
And this is where my story begins.
