“I thought you said Jaime easily kicked Noah’s butt once,” DiNozzo questioned. “How much stronger must this Lenny-guy be?”
Maggie chuckled. “Noah doesn’t fight dirty,” she explained. “A werewolf in human form and a vampire are on a pretty even keel in a fair fight. But when the vampire can incapacitate his opponent mentally without ever touching him, it’s hard for the wolf to defend himself,” her voice broke on the last word. “If he hurts Morgan, I’ll tear his throat out.” She paused, “well, I’m already going to kill him, but if he hurts Morgan I’ll make him hurt before he dies,” she promised. Tony shook his head. He was glad she wasn’t going after him. The look in her eyes would be enough to stop most men in their tracks.
“Turn left,” Abby commanded, as Gibbs jerked the wheel to get into the proper lane. She was allowing Noah to see through her eyes. “Okay, it’s on the corner a couple of blocks… THERE!” she shouted, spotting the building. Hands gripped the dashboard, knuckles white, as Gibbs squealed in next to the building. They jumped out of the vehicle, weapons drawn. Maggie allowed the others to exit the vehicle, leaving the door slightly ajar. She quickly removed her clothes and changed into her wolf. She nosed through the open door, allowing it to close behind her, and bounded down the sidewalk to the entrance, where Tony was holding the door for her.
They heard the cries before they could see the open stairway that led to the basement. Maggie whined.
“Morgan?” Gibbs asked. She shook her head, ‘no’. Gibbs pushed Abby back behind him, motioning to Tony to check the doorway. After confirming the way was clear, he started down the stairs. Maggie fell in behind him, followed by Gibbs and Abby. They heard footsteps. Tony stopped and looked at Maggie. She could tell from the smells that there were three people in the basement: Lenny, Morgan and a third, presumably the marine. She nodded three times to Tony, who nodded back in understanding. She nudged past him, making her way into the basement. Her brother, Morgan, was lying in the far right corner in a pool of his own blood. She could hear his heart beating and knew he was alive, but could smell his fear. She saw the third man tied to a post in the corner of the room. He had been brutalized, and was barely hanging on to consciousness.
She turned her attention to Lenny and snarled. She sidestepped to get out of the line of fire from the rest of the team, and then growled deep in the back of her throat. Lenny couldn’t take his eyes off her, fascinated. He laughed, showing some of the madness that had taken over him. She felt the power of his mind try to take her over, and pushed back with all that she had. She pounced him, claws tearing deeply into his abdomen. He laughed, throwing her off him. He shouldn’t have been that strong. Again she felt him invade her mind, and this time she was having trouble holding him back. She leapt again, even more determined to take him out. She grabbed for his upper torso with her teeth, hoping for his throat. Instead, she left large, gaping marks down his right shoulder as he shoved her away from him. Gibbs and DiNozzo took that moment to open fire on Lenny, although the bullets did little to slow him down. They did distract him enough for Maggie to attack once again, without having to fight him mentally. Claws tore his flesh, his left arm now hanging only by fragments of tendons and skin. Still, he laughed.
Abby watched the scene with a mixture of fear and excitement. Noah’s voice echoed in her mind. ‘See the gas can by the far wall? Pour the fuel on him and use the flame thrower in Gibbs’ bag to set him on fire,” Noah instructed. ‘Gibbs has a flame thrower?’ she questioned. ‘He does now,’ he answered, as Abby made her way to the gas can. Gibbs saw her moving and started to panic, fearing for her safety. Then he noticed the flame thrower in her hand and the gas can along the wall. He crossed in front of her, providing cover, and nodded to her in encouragement.
Lenny began walking slowly toward Maggie, her snarl relaxing. She lay on the floor as if doing a trick for a master, whimpering. She began to switch forms. Lenny laughed; he was in control. Bullets continued to strike him repeatedly from the rear, as Gibbs and DiNozzo tried to keep him away from Maggie. When DiNozzo realized Maggie was no longer fighting, he moved as if to attack Lenny himself. Gibbs held him back, motioning to Abby, who was now armed with the means to permanently take out the insane creature. Tony nodded.
“Now,” Gibbs whispered, hoping Lenny was too distracted by madness to notice Abby’s approach. She splashed the gasoline on his back and fired the flame thrower to life. Lenny screamed as his body burst into flames. He continued to focus intently on Maggie. Gibbs knew the fire would kill him, but didn’t know how long it would take or how much damage he could do to her in the meantime. He tackled Lenny, pulling him away from Maggie. He immediately rolled away, putting the fire out of is own clothes, as Abby hit Lenny with more flames. He screamed again, crawling toward Maggie’s naked, unconscious form. DiNozzo kicked him away from her. Lenny grabbed his foot, twisted it and sent him flying across the room. He hit the far wall, his head making a loud impact as his body slowly slid to the floor. Abby rushed to his side, checking for a pulse.
“He’s okay,” she told Gibbs, tears in her voice.
Gibbs grabbed the flame thrower from where Abby had dropped it when she ran to check on DiNozzo. He turned to Lenny, his eyes full of anger. Gibbs stepped between the crazed man and the focus of his attentions, the flame thrower providing a wall of protection around them. Lenny screamed one last time, as he succumbed to the flames and fell to the floor. Abby grabbed the sword from Gibbs’ bag and decapitated him without a second thought. Gibbs looked at her in surprise.
“It had to be done,” she explained through her tears. “Stupid Lenny,” she cursed him, spitting on his head. Gibbs chuckled. He crossed to check on Maggie. With the exception of some nasty bruises, she was fine. She was simply unconscious from being forced to change forms so quickly. Gibbs then crossed the room to check on the marine. His heart was still beating, but he needed to be hospitalized quickly. He had no idea what needed to be done to cover up the nature of his wounds. He performed some basic first aid and prepared him to be moved. Gibbs then crossed the room to join Abby next to DiNozzo. He confirmed that his leg was definitely broken, along with at least two ribs. And he probably had a concussion. Gibbs left Tony in Abby’s arms and went to check on Morgan. The werewolf had regained consciousness and had begun healing, although he still had a long way to go. Gibbs helped him sit up. He stood and surveyed the room, and then picked up the phone to call for help.
“Nice job,” Noah said, as he and his party entered the room. They immediately began setting the place to rights, altering the wounds on the victim and assisting with the healing of the others. Noah reset Tony’s broken bone, causing Abby to wince. Estelle carried Morgan to the back seat Gibb’s car for transport back to NCIS, while Noah called an ambulance for Tony and the marine. Gibbs removed his shirt and put it on Maggie, then lifted carried her out and put her in the front seat of his car next to Abby.
Noah stayed behind to ride in the ambulance with the marine, and to do damage control with the police. He thought about the look on Gibbs’ face when he arrived. As thankful as he was that they had succeeded in stopping Lenny, he wondered how he was supposed to tell his boss about Rupert.
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