Chapter Eight
“War and Blood”
"Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon."
~ Shakespeare, A Midsummer-Night's Dream, v.1.379
As Tony had left that morning, Gibbs couldn’t help but feel uneasy. His gut told him something was going to go down today, and it wouldn’t be a good ‘something.’ He knew better than to tell Tony about it. His lover would just tell him not to worry, and he supposed he shouldn’t, Tony was a werewolf, after all, but he even though he knew Tony could take care of himself, he couldn’t make that feeling go away in his gut.
Tony’s thoughts were occupied with a thousand different things. He sensed blood on the horizon, provoking hunger while bestirring his wolf to prowl within him. Tony and his wolf were in agreement, something was coming. He couldn’t help but wonder if his one time comrade had finally made it into the state. Was he being hunted? The wolf roared with fury inside him. No one, nothing hunted him. He was the predator. It would be him who ended it all as he sunk his teeth into the jugular of the fool who thought to stalk him, hunt him.
His eyes turned to silver-blue ice, and his hands tightened on the steering wheel, forcing it to creak and moan under the strain. Tony forced himself to calm down before he broke the wheel or left it oddly bent, which would be hard to explain to his mechanic.
Tony was just loosening his grip on the wheel when it hit him. The car slammed into the passenger side, roaring out of a side street to barrel into him. His car was thrown off the road, flipping, until it settled in the wooded area that ran parallel to the lightly traveled street.
Although his head had been smashed hard against the steering wheel, as if it was taking its revenge for the earlier abuse he had dealt it, he quickly ripped off his seatbelt, kicked the windshield out, and climbed out of the wrecked car using all of the superhuman speed available to him, only to be rammed into by a supernaturally strong body.
The force of the body ramming into his had them both rolling for several feet on the ground with Tony’s attacker savagely snapping at the soft flesh on his neck and chest. Trying, almost desperately, to kill him as soon as possible. Tony could feel the other wolf begin to change as they rolled down the wooded hill occasionally smashing into trees as they went, altering their fall with painful force.
Tony held him back with hands that were beginning to change into claws, grunting when their fall finally ceased at the bottom of a long and too damn tree riddled hill. Tensing his muscles, Tony thrust his attacker back with all the force he could muster from the awkward position, but it was all he needed as attacker went flying back to slam into a tree. Hitting the tree and then the ground, Tony’s attacker roared, a sound more animal than human.
Tony was already beginning to change. There was no way he could hold off the wolf when they were being attacked. With his face beginning to elongate to accommodate razor sharp teeth, he growled roughly with a barely human voice, “Who the hell are you? You’re not Aedth, but you carry his sent on you…” He paused, cocked his head then snarled. “He’s here?”
The other wolf was a little further along in to the change as his cloths were beginning to rip under the pressure of his expanding muscles. “Like I’d tell you. Won’t matter. Gonna die.” The attacker’s voice was growing less and less human as he spoke until Tony suspected he could no longer speak at all.
It looked like the other wolf thought that the battle wouldn’t start until one of the managed to finish their change, but Tony had news for him. The older a wolf was the more powerful and dangerous that age made him, and Tony’s extreme age allowed him to attack before finishing his change. It was a dangerous way to fight. The pain was so extreme it could make even a wolf pass out or in Tony’s case loose all semblance of control, but he decided it would be worth it to punish the fool who thought he could kill him.
With a defining roar, Tony lunged forward, teeth bared, claws unsheathed, to savage the startled wolf in front of him. He was better than Tony thought as, after a moment’s hesitation, he lunged right back, striking out with deadly claws. The claws of his new enemy racked down Tony’s chest, drawling blood but no sound. All wolves were taught to fight silently for a dozen different reasons. Even pain that was equivalent to swimming in lava, would not make Tony utter a sound. Instead, in retaliation, Tony’s head snaked out and his teeth clapped down on his enemy’s left should with a sinking crunch, drawling a stifled whimper from the wolf before him. However, it seemed the wound was not enough to stop the wolf, for, without warning, Tony was suddenly being thrown back. The force and suddenness of throw had blood spraying everywhere as Tony took a good chuck of his enemy’s flesh with him.
As Tony hit the ground, he allowed the change to finish taking over his body just in time for the other wolf to throw himself on top of Tony, trying to tear at his soft underbelly. Tony roared in rage as claws and teeth sunk into his body.
With a great show of force, Tony pushed himself up and flipped the other wolf on to his back. He struck faster than the other wolf could even blink, and buried his teeth into the wolf’s neck. After taking a moment to savor the taste of victory and blood, he jerked his head up while his teeth were still buried in the other wolf’s throat, and relieved him of his head, assuring that the enemy wolf would not be getting up ever again.
Tony stepped back from the dead wolf’s body as he struggled to gain control over his wolf, which really wanted to finish the job by eating, gorging on the body, the meat, in front of him.
Stumbling back from the bloody scene and gaining control over his very pissed off wolf, he began the painful, almost excruciating, process of the change. It was not at all fun to change while wounded. The human form just wasn’t as capable as the wolf’s when it came to recovering from battle, but a wolf couldn’t use a phone and do what needed to be done.
Gasping as he finished changing, he focused on finding his phone in order to keep the wolf within him from focusing on the meal before them. After discovering it among the torn shreds of his pants, he quickly called the witch he kept on speed dial. At least one witch was on almost every other supernatural creature’s speed dial. They were the ones who got called when a particularly bloody mess needed cleaning up…and a body needed disposing of.
His witch was a pain in the ass to deal with and cost more than he made in a century, which was usually a sufficient enough reason to keep him from needing her. When she finely answered the phone, she made it clear that she was less than pleased at being called out so early in the morning, but she grudgingly assured him that the cars, body, and blood would be taken care of and no one would be the wiser as to what had taken place, forensics or no.
He magicked some jeans on, but forewent the t-shirt, so if anyone saw him, they would only have to wonder about all the blood instead of having to add a naked man into the mix. He painfully made his way back up the hill as blood dripped to the ground, a promise of the battle to come.
After managing to make it to the SUV of the other wolf, he looked in it for some sort of clue, but it was infuriatingly empty. He slammed his fist into the other car in frustration before having to lean up against it in exhaustion.
He was on the edge of passing out, and, wolf or no wolf, loose enough blood and you inevitably black out. He was gasping as he struggled with a more complicated form of the spell that had taken Gibbs and himself to his mate’s bedroom just the other night. He could only pray he had enough power to make it all the way. He could only guess what some hapless human’s reaction would be if a half dead bloody body popped out of nowhere.
He finished the spell just as the edges of his vision were beginning to darken, but then he was flying through space, only to reappear in the middle of his mate’s living room. As he vaguely felt his body slam into something hard, he wondered at what his mate’s reaction would be. Gods, it had to be a shocker. It wasn’t everyday the bloody body of one’s mate pops into the middle of your living room.
Tony groaned as shouting reached his ears. He had no desire to scare his mate, especially after what had happened to his father only a few days ago, but he needed Anna’s power to quell his wolf and keep him from going on a murderous rampage. He could only hope that his mate would forgive him for the memories his condition was bound to make resurface.
PLEASE REVIEW AND/OR LEAVE COMMENTS!!!
I'LL PUT THE NEXT CHAPTER UP LATER TODAY...
Author's Chapter Notes:
Battles come when we least suspect them. Unprepared, we are forced to our limits as prayers of survival are uttered from our breathless lips.
Chapter End Notes:
WARNING: Blood and Violence
Sorry about the wait. I ended up writing two chapters without realizing it. Meaning, it didn't sound right, so I spilt them in half. I’ll have the next one up later today, just some editing left. :)
Enjoy the story.
PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS AND/OR REVIEWS!!!
THE MORE I GET THE FASTER I WRITE. ;)
Sorry about the wait. I ended up writing two chapters without realizing it. Meaning, it didn't sound right, so I spilt them in half. I’ll have the next one up later today, just some editing left. :)
Enjoy the story.
PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS AND/OR REVIEWS!!!
THE MORE I GET THE FASTER I WRITE. ;)