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Bad Moon Rising (PM for invite)

Mara took note of Dana's warbrobe change as they ran; she picked up the pace from a jog to a run once the younger vampire seemed content with the changes she'd made. The park wasn't far; already they were close to the grounds. A narrow strip of woodland spat them out across the baseball diamond; Mara ran across the turf without a thought and over the parking lot beyond. Amir wasn't here. He would be further in.

They crossed the second parking lot and Mara saw a familiar car pulling up. She skidded to a halt, waiting impatiently for Bao to emerge, dancing from foot to foot.

Brig Jameson 14 years ago
Brig and Hammer separately were mean sonofabitches, but as a team they were perfect. He, too, smelled the blood and silver stench rising from the vampire who knowingly flashed his fangs. Immediately Hammer took point and Brig circled to cover its flanks. It was a dance they had done so many times its precision was like clockwork. The Alpha entered the scene and created a distraction for the two, so Brig and Hammer did what they did best.

The three wolves converged onto the vampire, jaws open, madness filling their cups to the brim.
Oringo Ramsey 14 years ago
The pained cry of another stopped Ringo short, listening for a moment, and then turning in that direction, careful to stay downwind. The first of the corpses appeared, making him skid to a halt. It confused him for a moment, seeing this naked and torn body, covered in its own blood. He rolled it over, onto its back and look into its face.

Vyusher R'asa. Kin.

It hurt him, much to his surprise, to recognize the face. One of the few he took time to even notice while at the pack's home in the city, making his presence known to the Alpha. A sister, even.

The growls and distinct jaws snapping filtered over to him from nearby, but the pain he was feeling held him for a moment longer before the rest of his shadows caught up to him, circling the dead pack member.

Loners, though they may be, but an act against the pack would not, could not, go unnoticed, and finally Ringo let Luna's love bathe him, changing him swiftly to his wolf form. Together, the 13 shadows moved downwind to the fight, the shadows letting their pack leader break off to take point.
Mara 14 years ago
Mara was hardly shocked to see Dana's little cloud of fog tagging along with Bao. In many long years she'd seen equally as many abilities. That Dana was an ethereal gave her comfort; at least there would be no harm done to her unless she were to materialize and do something foolish.

Opening her senses, she attuned herself to the sounds, smells, and tastes of the night around them. Using her perception required enough concentration that she left Bao and Dana to their devices; Bao knew her capabilities and Dana appeared to be following Bao. They would remain together. A low howl sounded in the distance; Mara veered them toward it, picking up her pace to a run, her enhanced agility combined with her perception allowing her to move through the forest, unhindered and silent, at top speed.

As they covered the acres of the preserve as quickly as possible, Mara steered them away from the numerous predators in their paths. Perhaps the wolves could smell them, but Mara, using all her abilities, could return the favor. She didn't want a fight right now. She wanted to find Amir. Her normally slow heart beat a faster pattern in her chest as she heard a sharp bark and another after it.

She turned them that way. The smell of blood was in the air, thick, coppery, and abundant. She tasted it in her nose, on her tongue.


"He's near," she whispered to Bao, knowing he would hear her.
Nikhila 14 years ago
Nikhila had been happy enough to lope along with Xeph, even though neither of them apparently understood what they were hunting. It didn't really matter right then.

Lily's cry of pain had stirred them all to action though. It was human, the one thing she had ever asked of Xeph was to keep her from killing innocents if he could help it. But as Hammer and Brig circled it, and Xeph then charged into the fray Nikhila realized it couldn't possibly be human, that it was only human shaped.

Even if he hadn't hurt Lily, even if he hadn't been a threat she wouldn't have trusted him in the slightest. What she saw around this thing was frightening, death, anger fear, she couldn't see a single positive energy around him, and they were -thick-. Her hackles raised, she bared her teeth and growled. More than anything, she wanted to help with the attack. But the three males were more than a force to be reckoned with. She'd wait until she was certain to be of some help and not a hindrance.

Instead, she made her way to Lily's side and gently nosed her still form, trying to see if she could be of assistance. Lily was still alive and Nikhila took up a defensive stance over their pack mate. That... carrion, for that was the only word she could think of, couldn't be out here alone. No one hunted alone.
Bao 14 years ago
Bao was unsurprised to see Dana embrace one of her ablities, and was thankful she had at least that much sense. It allowed him to worry less about her and give more attention to fining Amir and following Mara. He wasn't about to be separated from her, the odds of all four of them getting out of her as individuals was not high. No, tonight they had to work together.

Unable to completely keep up with his sibling, Bao still did not let her get far ahead of them while remaining silent. Even with out the perception some of their kind had he could smell the blood. He should have thought to bring something of Amir's. He would be able to track his maker, but it was too late for that now.

Bao gradually let his more civilized trappings fall away. He would prefer to avoid a fight, but suspected that would be impossible. And if that was the case, he wouldn't both disguising his nature. Wolves were very rarely impressed by lawyers. He nodded to Mara.

They didn't often fight together, enough that they understood how the other worked and would be able to function as a team. But how much trouble was Amir in? If he was handling this himself... Bao grimaced. They need more information.
Dana 14 years ago
It was strange to be a small cloud of mist and still feel as though she had body parts. But it was not a worry she had time for, as she let her senses flash out into the night.

Following Bao, was simply not enough for her. Noise, scent, color, texture, taste, all assaulted her and it took a moment of sorting to understand it all. Then suddenly the sweet copper/salt scent/taste of blood washed over her. Her predator's brain registered it first, and she knew that that blood would lead her to Amir.

Mara's whispered proclamation came as no surprise, Dana pushed forward and raced along the forest halfway between Mara and Bao. Anxious to get to Amir, but not wanting to leave the safety of his children.
Amir 14 years ago
Amir laughed as a familiar wolf with mismatched eyes came hurtling over the ledge at him. It figured. He hadn't actually planned to run into Xephier tonight, but who could say what was going to happen? Moon madness apparently overrode the layers of Command he'd placed on the Alpha and Xephier was going to take advantage of it.

He knew the other two wolves would be closing in, but Xephier was the immediate threat. Amir spun and twisted, ducking out of the way of Xephier's lunge. The enormous wolf still knocked him back several steps, catching him on the shoulder. His kilij was knocked out of the way but he came around with his left hand in time to score a minor cut on Xephier's flank with the tanto.

Amir crouched and balanced up, waiting for the next attack. He didn't have time to consider the outcome here; victory was his only option. Death wasn't too appealing.
Xeph 14 years ago
Xeph bit into the jackal's shoulder and followed it up with the weight of his entire body, knocking the smaller vampire back. He twisted, feeling a searing heat on his right leg, and landed in the dirt between Nikhila and Lily, and the vampire. Beyond the vampire, Brig and Hammer were ready.

There was no urge to lose his shape... the vampire wasn't armed with silver weaponry. The silver must be elsewhere on his person; they could all smell it. Wary, he prowled in a half circle behind the vampire, darting in to harry him with his teeth, distracting him to allow Bring and Hammer the opportunity to attack.
Brig Jameson 14 years ago
The silver was pungent in his nose and everywhere. As much as he wanted to tear the vampire apart with his teeth, the fear of coming into contact with silver was a bigger problem. Xeph managed a bite without contact with the silver, so Hammer barreled into the filth with his huge shoulders, instead of his teeth, trying to knock the vampire off balance with his weight.

Brig redirected his lunge to compensate for Hammer knocking the vampire off balance and came down neatly onto the elbow joint of its left arm. He waited for the taste of silver but it was nothing but rock hard skin and fresh blood. Brig shook his head back and forth in hopes of tearing it off when the vampire parried with the blade in same hand, shallowly slicing across the left side of his chest up to his shoulder. Instinctively Brig clamped down harder and then shook the vampire back away from him.

All this happened in seconds, just long enough to try and confuse the vampire, and apparently long enough for another wolf to appear. Black with gray points, another large were wolf entered the fight, but it was debatable which side this wolf was on.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ringo of the Vyusher R'asa growled and snapped his jaws at the fight.
Iov Hammerthynn 14 years ago
Ringo's appearance in the park was...inconvenient, to say the least. The black with gray tipped werewolf came racing into the clearing, aggressively exerting dominance as well as rage at their direction. Hammer was unsure of Ringo's allegiance since it was not above the Vyusher R'asa to side with whoever had more money than with obvious loyalties. It wouldn't matter, now with Brig and Hammer together.

Hammer watched as Brig attacked the vampire, sustaining damage, not near enough to even stop his cousin, but enraging him even further. Brig could hold his own, wounded or not, so Hammer turned his attention to Ringo.

Swiftly he charged the werewolf and they assumed the position, fighting for dominance, and immediately Hammer felt Ringo's ability to instill fear with his frightening visage, but Hammer was older and stronger and the tinge of fear trickled over him like water. Growling, Hammer seemingly made himself larger, dominating the slightly smaller werewolf and forced him to submit. Snapping his jaws at Ringo, then looking at the vampire, Hammer charged Ringo, striking his flank. Ringo righted himself and growled back, but it was less as aggressive as before.

As if he could even resist Hammer.

Now, with Ringo in temporary submission, the Nakubli would be as well, and even though he couldn't see them, he knew they were blended in the shadows...waiting.
Amir 14 years ago
Amir leaned into the charge of the one-eyed Hammerthynn, but as he turned to strike the retreating back end he was yanked roughly forward as the other reddish wolf clamped painfully onto his arm, teeth digging through two layers of leather into the unprotected joint of his elbow. He whipped his left hand forward and countered but the wolf held on. Blood flowed freely as the wolf tore at his arm and something pulled painfully inside.

Scowling, Amir turned on every bit of hostility he had, his own face twisting into a grimace of horror as he snapped his own fangs at the wolf with two thousand years of frightening visage behind the move. At the same time his left, unhindered arm swung up to punch viciously at the wolf's face with silver-studded knuckles.

It was a desperate ploy, but it worked. The teeth tore from his elbow, bringing shreds of leather with them. Amir flexed his hand around his blade, which he somehow still had a hold of, and took one more shot at the retreating wolf with the longer kilij, before a tons of bricks hit him from behind.
Xeph 14 years ago
As Brig and Hammer doubled up on the vampire, Xeph took a moment to check on his mother. She was just coming around, the wounds on her flank and abdomen closing quickly. He touched Nikhila's nose briefly and then turned with renewed anger. He barely registered the new wolf; Hammer was on top of it. Xeph saw Brig under attack and took advantage of the situation, leaping with full force at the jackal's exposed back.

He took him down hard, teeth at the back of the man's neck, biting for all he was worth with powerful jaws into leather and then skin. Blood flowed anew, but the vampire seemed more irritated than anything. Xeph was still trying to get a better grip for a neck-breaking shake when two arms, minus weapons, reached up behind the vampire and Xeph found himself, all several hundred pounds of him, being levered up and thrown toward Brig.

He tried to straighten himself in the air and land neatly, and was marginally successful. He turned, standing next to brig, to see the vampire had tucked, rolled, and come up standing with both weapons in hand.

There was no defensive guard this time; the vampire came at both of them, blades flashing in the moonlight.
Lily 14 years ago
Lily blinked her eyes, momentarily disoriented. With a soft moan she rolled to her feet and shook dirt from her fur. Turning her head she smelled blood along her side, but although she was achy, there was no open wound and no immediate danger.

Quickly she assessed the situation. Iov was facing down a snarling Vyusher; Aidan and Brig were facing the charging vampire. That had to be what he was. Nikhila stood near her, clearly protecting her.

Lily quickly changed places with Nikhila. There was no way she was going to endanger her grandchild! Lowering her head, she took several steps toward the vampire, who was moving away from her toward Brig and Xeph, but she didn't commit herself to an attack. She didn't know who the black wolf was and she couldn't leave Nikhila without help.
Nikhila 14 years ago
Nikhila fretted, anxious for Lily, although she could see she was improving, and for the others. She knew, as much as any of their kind knew, that vampires were not weaklings, and they shouldn't be just dismissed. But to see this one and to see Xeph Hammer and Brig unable to take it down made her both fearful and angry. It would be easy enough to let that cloud her better judgment. If Aidan hadn't acknowledged her, she probably would have charged in.

As Lily seemed to come to her senses and Xeph was thrown Nikhila found she was having a very hard time staying out of this. She knew better, she knew she had to trust Hammer and Brig to do their jobs and both help and protect their Alpha and to not make their job harder but he was -hers- too. And with the Vyusher involved and the Beta dealing with that, only Xeph and Brig were left with the vampire, who was clearly no longer just defending himself.

She kept close to Lily, just at her shoulder. Nikhila lowered her head and flattened her ears and snarled. Both at the vampire and at the Vyusher, uncertain what part he played in all of this, hoping to make it clear to Lily that she would follow whatever lead or attack was made.
Brig Jameson 14 years ago
The vampire grazed Brig's snout with silver studs that were along his gloves. The momentum of his final shake had thankfully already had him moving out of range or else the studs would have lacerated his skin, forcing him back into human shape. Painfully he shook his massive head, trying to whip the sharp sting that was irritating his sensitive nose while the Alpha attacked again from behind, clamping down on his vulnerable neck. He barely saw the vampire throw the Alpha in his direction.

Being hit with the three hundred pound wolf knocked the wind out of him and he struggled to regain his footing, even though the Alpha had not directly hit him. Dazed, Brig shook off the hit and resumed his attack. With a snarled lip, he barked ferociously and lunged at the vampire's knees, his jaws coming down onto hard skin again.
Oringo Ramsey 14 years ago
Ringo railed against the control the one eyed bastard Hammerthynn was exerting over him, but Hammerthynn had at least fifty years on him and even his own visage barely affected the Kadzait Beta. If it hadn't been for his own uncontrolled need for vengeance, he might have resisted a little longer. At least he kept telling himself that. Controlled, for the moment, Ringo submitted to Hammer and they turned together to face the vampire.

By now the other Kadzait male was commencing his second attack along with their Alpha. Two versus one had now become four versus one, not to mention the twelve Nakubili ready to protect his own back. He and the one eyed Kadzait lunged at the vampire, each seizing a soft joint - Hammer had his opposite elbow, Ringo claimed the soft area above his shoulder joint and together they shook their heads violently, trying to tear the vampire apart.

Ringo felt the distinct sting of a slice, but the madness and the moon made this Left Hand of God invulnerable to pain, if only for the moment, and he ignored his fresh blood splattering about. Nothing important lost that could not be regained immediately anyway.
Amir 14 years ago
This was downright uncool. Amir was suddenly swarmed as the smaller black wolf apparently decided to play with the fun vampire toy. That one dug its teeth into his shoulder while the red wolf with both eyes lunged for his knee. Hammerthynn had a good hold on Amir's elbow, and Xephier had regained his feet to tackle Amir's ankle, gripping it with crushing force between his massive jaws.

Drawn and quartered by cooperating werewolves was not how Amir had planned to go. Ignoring the considerable pain it caused he began to thrash, not something your average human (or even young vampire) would have done, but Amir was a tougher opponent than that. With his own howl of pain, the first noise he'd made in quite some time, he wrenched his left knee out of the one wolf's mouth. He was pretty sure the wolf took some vampire with him, but his leg was still mildly functional so he used it to slam his booted heel into the front of the wolf's mouth. Twisting his hips, he ignored Hammerthynn and the black wolf, swinging his injured leg and kicking Xephier repeatedly in the side of the head until he, too, fell away.

Legs free but injured, Amir flopped to the ground, folded his knees beneath him, and leaned forward quickly, levering Hammerthynn toward his front. Suddenly the black wolf released his grip and Amir lurched as his shoulder came free.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth he forced his shoulder up and sliced Hammerthynn quickly once, then twice, along his ribcage, following it up with a full-force punch with his studded fist.

Free of attackers for the moment Amir regained his feet unsteadily, quickly regaining his balance as his various wounds mended themselves.
Lily 14 years ago
Lily snapped ineffectively, unsure of where to fit herself in as four of their kind converged on the vampire. Surely this was a victorious scenario here? But no, she barked with distress as first Brig fell away, bleeding from the front of his mouth, and then Aidan took several heavy kicks to the side of his head and staggered off a few feet, swaying.

The black Vyusher, too, seemed to be in distress although Lily hadn't seen what happened to him. A guttural growl issued forth as the vampire cut Iov twice, and then brutally punched him with the silver-studded fist. Iov fell away, looking pained, losing control of his form.

The vampire noted Iov's trouble and lunged forward, aiming for Iov's chest. Lily snarled and lunged for the wounded ankle on the right side, the one Aidan had just released. She pressed down, feeling still-mending bones shatter all over again. Viciously, she tugged backwards, yanking again and again. Each time she pulled she felt the crackling of bone, tasted it as it pierced through skin and leather, harried and shook and ripped.

Iov was safe for the moment, but the vampire was turning toward her now, his swords flashing dangerously.
Nikhila 14 years ago
Yes, she was more passive than most werewolves. There was not question about that, but even Nikhila could be roused to protect her pack. Lily's attack on the vampire as he forced his way free of the others suddenly gave her permission to join the fray.

Most of the successful attacks had been on joints. He seemed to be free of the silver there. Crouching down, coiling, waiting to spring but still hesitant Nikhila watched. Seeing the vampire turn to Lily, ready to strike at her with his weapons she bolted past the weapons, past Lily and launched herself at him. Her fangs sank into his knee and she allowed her momentum to continue to pull them in a different direction. Away from Lily and pulling him, further off balance she hopped.

Blood, finally. Her jaws clamped down, she shook her head determined to help bring him down.
Iov Hammerthynn 14 years ago
Hammer fell away with a pain that blinded him. First the stinging slice of a blade splitting him open, then the pungent smelling silver directly into his snout forcing his change. Curled up and disoriented, he lay vulnerable as his body reacted to the silver, crippling him and distorting his physical being. He let out a horrible howl that turned into a guttural human cry. Suddenly, he was human again.

Hammer shook his head, completely unaware at how close he came to death as Lily and Nikhila thwarted the vampire's advance onto him. Falling onto his back, with a blurry eye he backed up, watching the two white females tear parts of the vampire off. Pulling his hand away from his ribcage, he saw the blood and he laid his head back, his eye falling onto the moon.

The madness swept him up again as he heard a long howl pierce the night. It was Brig's howl that sent him back into the change, again painfully breaking his human shape and reforming back into a wolf. All of this happening within twenty seconds of first being hit, Hammer let the change overcome him till he was dizzy with rage and vengeance.

Standing back on his four legs, his paws dug into the earth and Hammer joined Brig in his long howl, calling to the Pipers, who ever and where ever any were in the park reserves.