Dawn Reclaimed

Anna stared at the man. Her eyes were as round as saucers. Blazing as hot as crystals. Her fangs poked out from beneath her gums. Stimulated by the confrontation and the scent of fresh blood. Her cover was completely blown. Luckily the half dazed and sleep deprived commuters packed into the shop didn't seem to notice a thing. But, the man had. Her hands trembled and heated as she struggled to regain control. Tess was right. She had to get it together. Quickly. Otherwise, she was going over the counter in a single bound and drain the bastard dry. She could and would make it hurt when she sank her teeth into him.

Finally the line moved and it was his turn at the counter. "I'd like a double espresso extra dark and I noticed that you didn't have any blueberry sconces out today. Would it be possible to get you to make me one?" The man's heart pounded in his chest as he licked his lips. Oh, she was something. He should have expected the vampires would put a plant in place. Separated from his prey by no more than three feet of stainless countertop, he imagined the art he could create with her blood. God, she was beautiful. Lethal. Powerful. He wanted her. She was the one he'd been searching for.

Anna made the espresso. The cup trembled in her hands. What she wouldn't give for a nice heaping dose of cyanide right now. Truly, she was surprised someone in the brotherhood hadn't thought of that. Add a little something extra to his coffee and take him out nice and quietly. He knew what she was. She could see the recognition of it etched in his face.

Tess noticed the extra ten clutched the man's grimy fist. The unspoken promise of a big tip got her attention. "I'll be happy to toss those in the oven for you. If you'll have a seat, I'll bring them out when they're ready." She snatched the espresso from Anna's hand and snapped a lid on it. Blondie didn't get it. Hustling for tips was how they made their living. Ten bucks wasn't much. But, to her, it was the difference between eating and not eating.

The man took the steaming cup from the brunette's fingers and slipped a five in the tip jar. "Thanks, I really appreciate that." He shot Anna a wink and fought through the crowd, taking the only unoccupied table in the joint. They were going to play. She smelled the blood on him. He could tell. But, what could she do in a shop filled with customers? He was as safe as a babe in his mother's arms. He pulled an envelope out of his jacket and fiddled with the sharp corner as he waited for the smell of blueberries to fill the air.

Anna fumbled through the next batch of customers in line. Her eyes never left the back of the man's skull. Her hands burned as she struggled to control the white-hot fury they could unleash. She could kill everyone and bring the building down with a wave of her palm. End this. And end him. If there weren't innocents around, that's exactly what she'd do.

Tess bagged the man's blueberry sconces. Scowling at the incapable what's her face, she decided to take them to him herself. She'd also take the five out of the tip jar. The new girl had been standing in the way for ten minutes. You bet she was gonna talk to her boss when he rolled his fat ass in for the morning. Blondie was about to hit the unemployment line. "Here you are, sir. Thank you for your wait." She pocketed the dollar bills he handed her and went back to her post behind the counter.

The man snatched up the white wax paper bag and the last draughts of his espresso. Leaving the five by nine manila envelope neatly on the table in their place. Casually, as if he didn't have a care in the world, he strolled out the front door.

Anna ripped off her apron and darted around the counter. "I quit." She shouted over her shoulder, "And so should you." She followed the man onto the sidewalk. Her mind set to kill. If she could get her hands on him and drag him into an alley or somewhere that humans weren't likely to see. She'd end this. Now.

Tess rolled her eyes and snatched a ten out of a customer's hand. "Greatreallyfriggingreat," she huffed. Thrusting a cup and a bag at he pudgy bald guy in a bad polyester business suit, she picked up the apron whateverhernamewas had tossed on the counter.

Toby dodged traffic, crossing the street to intercept Anna. Her control was taxed and she was in danger of unleashing a fury the likes of which had not been seen since the invention of the A-bomb. "Anna!" Her thoughts were dark and in a whirlwind. She was already gathering power. Gleaning it from the humanity brushing obliviously past her. "Anna!"

Anna paid no attention to her husband's feeble attempts at stopping her. She kept her eyes focused on the ratty brown jacket and the blue ball cap bobbing and weaving through the crowded sidewalks ahead of her.

Patrick knew that look and that walk. The proverbial shit was about to hit the fan. Once, he'd accidentally gotten in the path of Anna's destructive power and it had nearly killed him. Trotting through the crowd, he moved to intercept before she leveled half of downtown. Anna was like a cute, fuzzy, cuddly puppy that suddenly turned and chewed your face off. Totally harmless...until she wasn't.

Hunter snatched the envelope off the table and ran the paper under his nose. The woman. Gina. Her scent was embedded in the paper. He slid the envelope under his jacket and packed up the laptop. He didn't know what the envelope contained. But, he wasn't going to open it in a crowd, lose control of his wolf, and blow the lid off the supernatural world. People didn't really want or need to know what was out there. And he had no doubt the envelope contained nothing good.

Hunter had been warned about what Anna could do. He'd been advised to steer clear of her if things went down. She smelled the blood same as he, probably, more acutely than he ever could, given the fanged's obsession with the stuff. And as predicted the man spotted her and what she was. The expression on her face as she stormed out of the shop was one of sheer determination. She wanted the man dead. If her looks could kill and rays could shoot out of her eyes. The man would have been a pile of fried human on the sidewalk.

So, he followed the vampire's directives, and left them to handle their own business. The man was otherwise engaged. Hopefully, Anna would catch up with him. In the mean time, there was no harm in having a look around this part of town. The killer had walked north up the sidewalk and might have a place nearby.

The man felt the female vamp's eyes burning a hole in his back. Time to step up the game. She was everything he was looking for in a victim, blonde, female, shapely, and fanged. He would get her. Soon. He turned down a less busy street and ducked into a narrow causeway between two towers of brick and mortar.

A hand reached out to snatch him by the jacket lifting him off his feet. He recognized the man immediately as a vampire. In fact, he'd seen the vamp before. The night he'd planted his second victim. The vampire was a big son of a bitch, perfect in his predatory lethality. "Kill me and you'll never get to the woman in time," he rasped.

Keene rattled and shook the son of a bitch. The rotten bastard had the upper hand. He knew where the woman was and they did not. He couldn't kill him. Oh, there were ways to extract information. And Keene was an expert at the craft. But, not here, not in an alley, later in private, where he could take his time and wring the information they needed to know out of him.

Anna rounded the corner and followed the scent of blood into the causeway. Gathering her power, ready to blast this guy into kingdom come. She'd never killed before. But, somehow, she didn't think frying this bastard like a fish on a griddle would bother her in the least. "Keene, get out of the way!"

"The woman is still alive. You won't get to her in time. I swear. She'll be dead by nightfall if you don't let me go." The man's breath hitched in his throat. His hands feebly fumbled for his blade. He never left home without a weapon. But, this time he needed no blade for defense. He had information, which was far more powerful. "You'll never find her."

"Damn it!" Keene released the man's throat. Wrenching his fist in the man's dirty, greasy, mop of hair, he yanked hard and elicited a squeal of pain. The man hurt. But, he was not used to pain. Good. It'd take less effort on Keene's part to get out of him what he wanted. "Where is she?"

"Kill me and you'll never find out."

"Keene! Move!" Anna's body trembled with the effort of holding back the rein of fury she was about to unleash. If Keene didn't move, he was going to be in her line of fire and she could very well kill him in the process.

"Anna," Toby said gently. "Stop. He has the woman. He knows where she is. You can't kill him. Yet." Toby wrapped his arms around Anna's middle, pinning her arms and hands to her side. If she couldn't get her hands free, she couldn't unleash her power. "There'll be another chance. I promise. Let Keene do his job." He pulled her from the brick tunnel and back out onto the sidewalk. "You want the woman found before it's too late."

"Yes."

"Then we have to let him go. He's in control for now. Not us."

Anna huffed and shivered. Drawing her power back into her body. "I want him dead."

"We all do."

Patrick heaved a relieved sigh as Toby navigated Anna away from the killer. He stood next to Keene, glaring at the man. "You'd better start talking. I can't kill you. But, I sure as hell can make you wish you were dead."

The man chuckled at Patrick's idle threat. "Try it. For every mark you put on me. I'll put ten on her. Go ahead," he goaded. "She's rigged with explosives. One scratch on me and I'll push this little button in my pocket. And you'll be doing body retrieval not a rescue." He was bullshitting, pure and simple. But, he was very good at controlling his physiological reactions to lying. Came with the turf of being what he was. Natural born killers were the true master of lies.

Keene hissed and bore his fangs. Ripping this man's limbs off and sucking them dry while he watched until the life bled from his body was going to be sheer pleasure. The man might be bluffing. But, Keene saw none of the physiological signs of a lie. The man's pulse, while elevated, didn't jackhammer in his chest. His eyes were level, locked with Keene's steel gray stare. They couldn't afford to be wrong. Not with the woman's life hanging in the balance. Against his better judgment he released the man's jacket. "What are your terms?"

The man ruffled his jacket and smoothed down his lapels. "I'll be in touch." He wasn't through playing. Not yet. If he told them, they'd have time to set up an ambush. He wanted to take them by surprise. Snatch their precious female away from them while they stood there watching helplessly with their thumbs up their asses. He enjoyed the thrill of the chase just as much as the kill. "We'll talk, soon." He said as he left the vampires standing in the causeway growling and barking like a couple of Dobermans on a very short chain.

Gina pried her eyes open. Shit, shit, shit. What in the hell was she still doing here? Where were the cops? Hadn't anybody noticed that she was missing? Hadn't they reported it yet? Didn't anyone give a damn? Why weren't her rescuers beating down the door? She would cry but the salt in her tears stung the broken skin of her cheek too badly. According to her biological day night cycle, which was probably way off kilter, today was the second day of her capture. Day two of her delightful stay at the house-o-horrors and she wondered what fun the sick fuck had in store for her today. Perhaps a little rape? Some sodomy for kicks? God, she was beginning to loose it. She almost looked forward to his visit. Talking to a nut job was better than suffering the hours alone. She curled into a ball and waited for the door to open.

The man ducked into a very posh department store and snatched something off the rack in his size. He threw a fifty at the cashier and found his way to the bathroom to change. He didn't need the vampires following the scent of the woman's blood on his soiled clothing. He rinsed off with soap and water. Then ran hand sanitizer over his chest and thighs. The harsh sterile smell would kill her scent and his. He could not believe the vampires had let him walk away. He didn't know dink about bombs. But, he knew human nature. Grinning he pulled the remote to his TV out of the pocket of his soiled clothes and laid it on the shelf above the bank of sinks as a sort of in your face gesture. He had no doubt they were tracking him. Let them. They couldn't do shit to him in broad daylight.

He dumped the clothes into the trash bin and snatched a ball cap, red this time, off the display. He checked out properly, winking at the blonde cashier as he bought some time to make sure he hadn't been followed. Smugly, he wound his way back to the warehouse. He had it together. He was in control. And he decided what would happen when. Unfortunately, he still needed the woman alive. But, soon enough, he'd kill her. Or rather, he wouldn't, but the vampire would. She was just food for the predator one-step up on the evolutionary chain. Until then, when all the pieces of his plan came together, he'd have to be satisfied with merely playing with her.

Hunter ripped open the envelope and howled in fury as he flipped through the pictures. The woman. Bound with chains. Bleeding and bruised. Suffering. He ran a finger over the tuft of sandy blonde hair enclosed in the envelope and bound with a rubber band. So soft beneath his calloused pad. Her blood was a dark stain on the white towel the killer had stuffed inside to accompany the contents of the package. He lifted the cloth to his nose. Inhaling deeply, he sucked in a breath and ducked into the shadows.

The man... his clothes and hat were different, but Hunter would recognize that walk. Anywhere. The man sauntered down the sidewalk, whistling a tune, like he owned the city, with a cock of the walk attitude. Hunter could not believe the man had been so easy to find. The killer had simply walked out of a department store a few blocks down from the coffee shop. He had to know he had a tail. Had to. No human was that stupid. The brothers were around. The Guardians were on his ass too. But no one was going to stick to him as tightly, like gum on the sole of a shoe, as Hunter could. He tucked the envelope into the backpack with the laptop and stuffed it behind a dumpster.

"Gina, wakey wakey." The man slapped her cheeks, rousing her. He had wandered around for hours, leading the vampires closer and then further away. Afternoon rush hour was perfect for giving them the slip. And he was certain he had. He was exhilarated from the chase and in desperate need for a little R & R with his favorite girl. "Time for more fun and games. Today, I think I'll draw a picture." He held the scalpel in his fingers twisting it so that the blade caught the light.

Gina struggled against her bonds. Her arms were already secured in the hook above her head. And her feet spread wide. The links of chain locked into place. She could barely shift her hips and chest. She couldn't move. "No, please." She whimpered as he cut through her shirt with the blade, exposing the tender flesh of her belly.

"Ah, a sweet symphony." Cutting on her yesterday had dulled the blade. It wasn't that he didn't take pride or proper care of his tools. He did, with the zeal of the religious. But, the scalpel was one of those one-time use models. He'd washed off the stain of her blood and tested the edge with his thumb. Today, the duller edge would drag and tear across her skin. Hurt much more than yesterday. He licked his lips as he studied the blank canvas of flesh before him. "Don't wiggle. You'll mess up my picture and I'll have to start all over."

Tears rolled down Gina's cheeks as he made the first cut. Long, stinging, and painfully slow. Blood welled to the surface of her skin, trickling across her waist in a tiny river. By the time he'd gotten to the third cut, she couldn't control her screams any longer. She'd do anything to make it stop. If he wanted her to scream, she would. And she did.

"You're being so inspirational today." The man shivered in joy, so close to getting the release he so desperately needed. He poised the blade for another pass when he heard the sound of something heavy crashing to the floor.

The noise had barely registered in Gina's mind. She hovered in between consciousness and unconsciousness. Wavering in and out. The sound echoed like a boom through the interior of her cell. It sounded like rescue...like hope. "In here!" Gina shouted at the top of her lungs. "I'm in here!" She pulled against her chains desperately wiggling on the cot. Sobbing in relief with big, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

The man punched her hard, silencing her cries. He snatched the sickle off the table and unlocked the door. Poised and waiting for his company to stop by for a visit.

Hunter knew better than to go in alone. But there wasn't time to call for back up. He'd used every bit of his wolf's skill to track the man. To see without being seen as was the way of Brother Wolf. He followed the man to a warehouse turned into storage compartments. Getting inside took precious time. Time the woman didn't have. He'd settled for haste rather than stealth and kicked in the front door.

He was barely inside the facility when he heard her screams echoing off the cinderblock walls. Accompanied by the scent of fresh blood, he followed his nose and his ears through a maze of gray cinderblock and steel doors.

Hunter rested his hand on the knob. Sure that the woman was behind the door. When the handle turned, he was positive. The scent of her blood, fresh and dried and of humanity, sweat, fear, and pungent excrement was so strong he could almost taste it. The woman was chained and pinned like an animal to a cot. Blood dripped down her chin from a wide split in her lower lip. It ran in rivulets across her abdomen welling from a series of carefully placed cuts into her skin. So much blood. He was careless and stupid, rushing in to save her when he should have been paying closer attention to his surroundings. The man caught him across the belly with the sharp edge of the sickle. Cutting a deep gauge in his side. Everything went dark as something hard and unyielding cracked across the back of his skull.

The wolf took over as his human lost consciousness. Whimpering in pain, blood dripped from his fur. He scrambled onto his paws. Scrabbling to keep his footing on the concrete slicked with his blood. Something sharp bit into his hindquarters and he yelped in agony. Loosing its footing and crumpling to the concrete where the darkness overtook him again. The spirit wolf, freed of his earthly form, called out in a dark howl to his brothers. Danger was in the air. Death. Blood. Darkness.

The man stood watching the scene in awe. Werewolves. He hadn't even considered that there might be more out there than just vampires. Obviously, the vampires kept the wolf as a pet to do their bidding. The wolf changed form into that of a man. Unconscious. Easy pickings.

He hated men. But this one, he'd keep alive. The werewolf was certainly a much better bargaining chip than the woman. And he healed so quickly. He'd last far longer than the bleeding woman unconscious on the cot. And his clothes were already shredded from the rapid change from man to wolf and back again. Stooping to scoop handfuls of fur and scraps of clothes, he dipped them in the blood pooled on the floor. The wounds across the werewolf's stomach and thigh were already beginning to knit closed. And the killer began to imagine a new game to play.

He dragged the werewolf across the floor. Heavy ass bastard. Hefting the wolf man's weight onto his shoulder as he secured the chains. The man's head lolled onto his chest, his bulk suspended by his arms. Hurriedly, the killer secured the werewolf's ankles, locking the chains in place and leaving no slack. He tugged on the chains as hard as he could. Guessing they'd hold him. He had prepared to house a vampire. And he didn't think the wolf was as strong as a vampire. But, there was one problem, if the man shifted into the shape of a wolf, he might be able to slip free of the chains.