Chapter Eleven
“Torn Veil”
“It's like holding a wolf by the ears, ... You don't want to hold it, but you don't want to let it go.” ~ Jeremy Lewis
For Tony, getting out of the house was hell. His chest was aching from the rib that was still trying to regenerate although, mercifully, the flesh wound had closed; however, the real problem was that Gibbs didn’t trust that something else wouldn’t happen, and made him promise to take one of the wolves with him. He compromised by having Greiven drive him to the office before heading back to the house to guard his mate.
It was a compromise that had pissed Gibbs off even if he had eventually agreed. Tony couldn’t blame him. He knew his mate was still terrified Tony would be attacked and killed, and while Tony had no doubt that he would be attacked, he wished Gibbs had a little more faith in him when it came to the killing thing. After all, he had been playing this game of cat and mouse with Aedth for more than a few centuries, and he wasn’t dead yet.
Tony shook his head as he entered the bullpen, trying to end his thoughts before they went on to Aedth slaying his past mate, Esllot, and the fear of the same thing happening to Gibbs. No, it couldn’t happen to Gibbs. He could take care of himself, and Tony had left powerful guards that would be hard to fight for a number of reason, but the main one being it was very hard for other wolves to harm an Omega or a submissive. They were precious, rare, and every instinct a wolf had screamed to protect them.
Tony was saved from thoughts of what might happen if his enemy did managed to make it pass them by McGee’s voice, which was mixed with a sort of strained anxiousness and respite at the same time.
“Tony!” He cried, relief evident in his voice. “Where in the world have you been?
Tony raised an eyebrow calmly. “I thought Gibbs told you I was following a lead.”
“Yeah, but all morning?” McGee asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, McGee. All morning. You got a problem with that?” Tony’s voice heavily laden with sarcasm.
Tony sounded so much like Gibbs that McGee couldn’t stop the reflexive gulp. “No, Boss, no problem.”
“Good.” Tony sat down at his desk and turned his computer on while looking around. “What have we got so far, Probie, and where is Ziva?”
“Ziva with Abby. They’re working on verifying the information that we just got out of Mexico.”
Tony looked up surprised, which quickly turned into irritation. “Well, McGee?” He demanded when McGee neglected to elaborate.
“Sorry…We got word out of Mexico about an half an hour ago that Paloma Reynosa murdered her brother, Alejandro Rivera, along with several other high ranking drug cartel members. The rumor is she is still alive, but fled into the wilderness.”
Tony nodded, pleased with the news, and not at all surprised. After all, Nemane rarely did anything small. “Good. Even if she does manage to get out of Mexico alive, she’ll have the entire cartel hunting after her sorry ass.”
“Yeah, but we still don’t know if it’s true or not. She could be using our own trap against us to get us to lower our guard. I mean, I’m not doubting Ziva’s sources or ours for that matter, but it seems a little fishy that she would kill her own family when the murder of her father is why she is hunting Gibbs.” McGee said somewhat apprehensively with concern lining his face.
Tony nodded in agreement although he doubted that was the case due to the fae he had unleashed. “Yeah, it’s a possibility, but you have to remember, Probie, she’s a psychopath. What she does is hardly going to make sense to us.” Tony said with a frown as if disappointed McGee hadn’t thought of this.
Before McGee could respond, a seriously pissed off voice from above snapped out, “Agent DiNozzo! My office, now.”
Tony’s head snapped up with bight silver-blue in his eyes, but Vance was already stalking back to his office. His overconfident posture bestirring the rage of the wolf within Tony.
Still looking up, Tony closed his eyes and took a moment to reign his wolf back under control. With his wolf barely caged, he climbed up to the Director’s office, using a deliberately slow and controlled pace, reminiscent of the patient predator fighting within him for control. It was never a good idea to order a dominant werewolf around and then invite him into an enclosed space.
Walking into the Director’s office, he turned to close the door in a very precise manner as he tried to buy more time in order to get better control of his wolf. Instead, he only succeeded in noticeably deforming the door.
Tony turned to face the Director, who was sitting behind his desk frowning at him with either displeasure or confusion, if he had seen what Tony had done to the door handle, he didn’t acknowledge it. As Tony moved to stand in front of the desk, he wondered what the chances were of him leaving this office with his secret intact. With his limited control, he could not allow the Director to continue to treat him in such a manner, for it wouldn’t be a matter of ‘maybe’ killing him, but when.
“Where the hell were you this morning?” Snapped the Director, oblivious to the danger he was in.
“I’m sure McGee told you. I was following a lead.” Tony growled out with his teeth clenched.
“Which I might have believed if it was you who told McGee that and not Gibbs.” Vance glared at Tony, who was glaring right back, and Vance was disconcerted to realize that Tony’s glare was making him want to blanch and look away. Only years of training held his eyes in place when every instinct in him was screaming at him to stop staring Tony in the eyes.
Tony was barely holding the growl in his throat back. Wolves don’t like to be challenged, and the more dominant a wolf is the more likely the challenger will end up with a set of fangs lodged in their throat, and Tony was as dominant as they come. He knew he had to do something fast, or else he would have to try and explain to his co-workers why he killed their boss.
Tony, making the only split second decision he could think of, growled out, “What do you know about project ‘Shadow World.’” Inwardly, Tony was rolling his eyes as a brief moment of amusement rolled through him although it did nothing for the rage still roaring within him. However, he couldn’t help but think what it was with the CIA and horrible code names. First ‘the frog’ for an arms dealer, like a frog is gonna scare anyone, and now ‘Shadow World.’” Humans, couldn’t they could try a little harder?
“‘Shadow World?’” Vance voice was considerably quieter, but no less demanding. “How the hell do you know about that?” Tony was now reasonably sure that Vance’s frown was now one of concern and confusion.
“I guess you could say that I came across it…or more like it came across me.” Tony shrugged.
Vance frowned and said with frustration lining his voice, “And what the hell does that mean, Agent DiNozzo?”
Tony cocked his head, and Vance could’ve sworn he saw Tony’s eyes flash something akin to blue; suddenly Vance had an idea as to how Tony heard of this highly classified project.
Tony was unable to speak without the wolf being clearly discernable in his voice, so he remained silent and waited for Vance to put two and two together.
“Are you…” Vance couldn’t help but hesitate. The question he was about to ask would have Tony questioning his sanity if he was just fishing and really knew nothing about project ‘Shadow World.’ “Are you human?” Vance threw the question out before he could decided to lock it within him and feign ignorance.
He knew it was the right question when Tony smiled predatorily, showing his teeth and making Vance shudder. “Very good question, Director.” Then after a moment’s pause, he answered as his predator’s smile grew wickedly on his face, “No. I am not human.”
Trembling, as Vance began to understand the true scope of the situation he was in; he asked, “What are you then?”
“The closest classification humans have of me is a werewolf.”
Oh, SHIT! The protocol for werewolves written in the files for project ‘Shadow World’ flew through his head, and Vance quickly looked to the floor while showing his neck at the same time. Vance belatedly realized that he had challenged Tony not only while they were alone, but in front of people as well. Why the hell wasn’t he dead? For that matter, why hadn’t he been killed along time ago? Why wasn’t Gibbs dead? From what he understood, werewolves did not tolerate challenges of any kind, and Vance wasn’t stupid enough to believe the predator in front of him was one of the submissives of his kind. No, there was more to this situation than met the eye.
Tentatively and feeling like he was pressing his luck, Vance asked, “Why am I still alive? Why are any of us still alive?”
Tony had already considered what to tell Vance if the need arose, so he didn’t even have to pause as he said, “There are ways, magical, ways to suppress the wolf and make us, for the most part human, but it does not last and has a considerable price attached to it, a price that I am now paying as it is beginning to wear off. It would be better if you treated me like any other werewolf with limited control from now on.”
Vance blinked, “From now on? You think you are staying?” Vance winced as he realized what he had said, and how he had said it. Tact wasn’t something that he usually needed to employ with his subordinates.
Tony’s upper lip curled up in a snarl as a low growl of barely contained rage made itself know.
“Sorry, sorry…That didn’t come out right. All I meant, was that I thought you would want to leave rather than errr…letting the others find out. After all, Gibbs will have to be told, and perhaps your other teammates as well…And…No offense, but I doubt the government will allow you to continue working for us when they find out.”
The last sentence had Tony going from frowning with rage and displeasure to laughing out loud. “Director, I think the only thing they will care about is you and the others finding out, not that they can stop me from telling anyone.”
“What do you mean?”
“They already know what I am. Have for awhile. I’m on their ‘Red List.’ You know…Their ‘leave alone for various reasons list.’” Tony rolled his eyes and raised his hands while bending his index and middle fingers in exasperation and annoyance.
“Then how do you know about the project?”
“Please.” Tony drawled while waving a dismissive hand. “All the wolves, hell, all the supernatural creatures know about their stupid project.”
Vance raised an eyebrow in disbelief while still carefully avoiding eye contact. “I find that hard to believe, DiNozzo.” Vance paused as a thoughtful look flashed over his face. “Wait, is DiNozzo even your name?”
“No. On the list they have me down as Drystan. Ya have any buddies with high level clearance? They can check it for ya since your not likely to believe anyone I direct you to.”
“I do know one guy, but he’s not all that forthcoming.”
“What’s his name?”
Vance winced. Shit…How was he supposed to handle this? Who knew what Tony would do to him if he refused to answer, and, from what he remembered, werewolves could tell if someone was lying to them, and not many people survived the experience.
As he waged an inner war with himself, he caught a glimpse of Tony’s face. He was smiling hungrily like he was just waiting for Vance to try and hide his contact’s name from him.
Swallowing harshly at the hungry look, he decided a name was not worth his life. “His name is Michael Slay.”
Tony’s eyebrows rose and a brief flash of recognition went over his face. Tony rubbed a hand over his chin thoughtfully before nodding and letting a small knowing smile brush his lips.
“I am…” Tony paused as he tired to come up with the right word to use. “ I am familiar with him.” Tony continued slightly stressing the word familiar, and giving Vance a bad feeling. “Go ahead and call him. It would probably be best not to mention that I work at NCIS. I believe they revoked his clearance to know my whereabouts.” He grinned wolfishly at Vance, causing the other man to blanch slightly at the predator he saw within the other man.
“Why did they revoke his clearance?” Vance asked cautiously, for he was sure he would not like the answer.
Tony’s grin widened, exposing his teeth like any good predator. Vance took a step back unconsciously. “There was a little fiasco back in England several decades ago that was mostly his fault.” Tony laughed low and roughly at the memory. It was back in the days when governments were still just learning about the supernatural, and they thought that they could just go around kidnapping his and other races to study. It was only after he had destroyed most of a countryside in both rage and defense that they realized some of the things which walked in the shadows of the night were better left alone; thus, the red list had been created. Michael; however, had to be forced to leave, for he had been unwilling to give up the fight. Against his will, Tony couldn’t help but admire such determination.
The overwhelming memories of a past long dead morphed Tony’s face, which had taken on a shadowed look with eyes that clearly bespoke of a man with bloodlust. He was only brought out of his recollections and back to himself when he heard Vance hit his desk, having backed up into it.
Tony took a breath, and his features turned less murderous although he knew the damage had been done. He doubted Vance would ever forget seeing a small piece of the monster that lay within him.
Growing tried of the situation, Tony gestured to the phone on Vance’s desk. “Why don’t you go ahead and call him, so we can get this over with?”
Vance raised an eyebrow, but went over to the phone. He didn’t really like the idea of calling his contact with Tony in the room as his contact would not be pleased that someone else…no scratch that, something else knew of his existence. However, Vance was not foolish enough to try and demand that Tony leave.
“You don’t have to tell him I’m here. You can just vaguely say you ran into me or heard of me.” Tony paused and offered a wolfish grin. “Yes, I think that would be for the best.”
Vance cringed inwardly at his situation. How the hell had this happened? What happened to the times where everything was normal, and he actually felt like the boss in his own office.
Grudgingly, Vance picked up the phone and dialed with his back to Tony as he was doing his best to forget the other man’s presence, and, at the very least, pretend that he was doing this of his own free will.
“Hello? Who is this?” Came a vastly impatient voice.
“Slay? It’s Vance from NCIS.” Vance was trying to speak with the authority of his position in his voice and not like he had an agitated and possibly irate werewolf breathing down his neck.
“Vance…Leon Vance? Haven’t heard from you in years.” Slay’s voice was rough and laced with suspicion.
“I know it’s been awhile. How you’ve been?” Vance asked somewhat conversationally.
“Let’s cut the chit chat. Why did you call me? What do you need?” Slay said harshly.
Vance sighed. There was a reason why they had not talked in several years; the man had the manners of pissed off hyena. “I need know anything you know about a…umm…person named Drystan.”
There was a noticeably long pause before Slay roared, “DRYSTAN! Why the hell do you what to know about him? Have you seen him? Is he in DC?”
Vance paused, slightly taken back by his rather obsessive attitude and decided to go with Tony’s plan. “No, but someone mentioned him to me, and I would like to know what I am dealing with if I ever come in contact with him.”
“Damn.” Slay muttered clearly disappointed. After a few moments of passionate cursing, he answered Vance as if there had been no interruption, “Drystan is extremely dangerous and extremely powerful. No government is willing to go after him. Bunch of rat bastard cowards if you ask me.” Slay growled out in distaste, and continued to mutter several more incomprehensible curses.
Vance felt himself pale at this new information. “Yes, but what is he, and how should I deal with him?”
“Deal? You don’t deal with him. If you see him, then you run in the other direction. He is classified as a werewolf, but the truth is we don’t know what the hell he is. Among his own kind, he seems to be revered as something akin to a God. Among them he is know as the Lord of the Night or something to that effect. Listen, even other creatures like the fae and the vampires give this guy a wide berth. He is not someone to screw around with, and he’s damn near impossible to kill. Trust me, I should know.”
“What do you mean?” Asked Vance cautiously as he was still very much aware of Tony standing behind him.
“I mean, nothing seems to take this guy down. Other werewolves are affected and can even be killed with silver, but not this guy. It just pisses him off. I’ve seen him tear through a whole special forces unit without so much as breaking a sweat. He’s survived explosions, gunfire, and chemical attacks. I’m telling you, you can’t kill the bastard! He’s like a cockroach. A very deadly cockroach. Here’s my advice, stay away from him.” There was a sharp click where Vance realized Slay had hung up. Shit, that left him back to being in a room with a pissed off wolf, who was apparently the equivalent of a super wolf…He was so going to die.
Vance was still facing the window as he was too afraid to turn around, so it was Tony who spoke first. “Well, now you know who I am, or mostly who I am. Slay tends to exaggerate a bit.”
Vane slowly turned around, “Exaggerate? Are you saying you can be killed?”
Tony grinned wolfishly, “Not by a mere mortal anyway, and even if there was a way to kill me, do you really think I would tell you?”
Vance shook his head while his eyes were trained on the floor. Somehow, he couldn’t help that his fear seemed to be getting the better of him. He felt this tremendous pressure coming from Tony that he was simply wilting under. “So…” He asked, desperate to bring this all to an end, whatever end it might be. “What now?”
Tony raised his eyebrows, “Now? Now, you swear to never speak of my…err…other side ever again to anyone. You swear to tell no one what you have learned about me today because I will know the instant you do, and, I assure you, I will kill you. Also, it would probably be best if you are more careful when addressing me, or I might kill you by accident.” Vance eyes shot up and widen at what he saw Tony’s face before he quickly looked away again. “Yes, my control is a little shot right now. Probably a good idea, to be on the safe side, for you to just strive to avoid me altogether.”
Vance took a breath. He really didn’t want to push his luck with the monster that was currently alone in the room with him, but he felt duty bound to ask, “What about the others? Your not going to hurt anyone, are you? I mean, I surprised you have killed Gibbs already.”
Tony merely raised his eyebrows. “Kill him? Why would I kill my pack? Gibbs and my other teammates are my pack, and I won’t harm them.” Vance could of sworn that Tony sounded slightly insulted, but, really, after what he just heard it wouldn’t surprise Vance if he heard Tony threaten to kill them all.
Vance tried to suppress a chill that ran down his back when he saw Tony smile, showing his teeth once more. It was almost as if Tony could read his mi… “No, I would never threaten them. You on the other hand…I don’t believe either of us has ever feigned to like the other, so why start now?” Tony waved a hand absently before leveling silver-blue eyes back on Vance. “No, Director. While I think it is admirable to try and look after your people even after all you have learned, they’re my people now, and it is your own skin you should think of guarding.” Tony’s eyes which had narrowed as his voice lowered suddenly became light as he grinned with true amusement, and said, “Besides, Gibbs, along with Ducky, already knows everything.”
Vance’s eyes widened in shock, “WHAT? Why?”
“Why did I tell him? Because I trust him with the truth, both of them.” Tony said with amusement as he enjoyed the other man’s shocked reaction.
Vance frowned, “But I thought that the laws of your…umm…kind wouldn’t allow you to tell humans the truth.”
Tony’s humor faded, “Don’t try to figure out the ways of my people. It would be…unwise, to say the least. We value our secrets, and you already know far too much as it is.”
Vance blanched and, subconsciously, backed up a step, but he asked, “So, what now?”
Tony blinked, “Now? Oh yeah, that reminds me there won’t be any need to worry about Paloma Reynosa anymore, but I still want you to give Gibbs two more days off, maybe more. He doesn’t need the stress of the job to contend with right now. Also, an old friend of mine has come to town, so I may end up needing some time off as well.” Tony moved to leave without waiting for a reply from Vance before stopping suddenly, “Oh, and don’t worry about the others. I haven’t told McGee, Ziva, or Abby, about me, but I will soon. After all, if they know about me, it should make things less dangerous.” And with that Tony walked out of Vance’s office.
Author's Chapter Notes:
The truth can be deadly burden with weights to heavy to shed.
Chapter End Notes:
Hey Everyone! Sorry for the long wait. Life can really get in the way. If there is anyone still reading, leave some reviews to let me know, and I will upload another chapter later.
This chapter shows a more aggressive and fierce Tony. I wanted to show more of his werewolf side as well as hint to some of his past, and, well, I never cared much for Vance. Let me know what you think! Thanks and ENJOY!!
This chapter shows a more aggressive and fierce Tony. I wanted to show more of his werewolf side as well as hint to some of his past, and, well, I never cared much for Vance. Let me know what you think! Thanks and ENJOY!!