My Little Ventrue Pt. 07 Ch. 04

"I'll answer your question if you answer mine, little lady."

Shit. She looked to Clara and Avery again, but the two werewolves looked pensive. She expected for them to immediately shake their head or something, but apparently a trade of information like this didn't bother them. Or maybe, they were curious about Jack as well.

"I... sorry, I c-can't tell you. Jacob, uh... he'll p-probably... probably tell you. But I w-w-won't speak... for my friend."

Black Blood chuckled, and Natasha did her best to not visibly wince. Something about its voice was terrifying, like she was listening to Death itself; if Death lived in Texas. And the fact she'd just told Death that she wasn't willing to give it information herself, in an effort to protect her friend, was asking for Death to slap her upside the head.

But it didn't. It looked at her, as far as she could tell based on where its skull was pointed, and chuckled some more.

"Tough little thing, ain't ya?"

"I... I try."

"This is pointless," Avery said. She stepped in closer to Tash, stood in front of her, and glared at the enormous creature. "We're not here for you, Black Blood, or your rivals. We're here looking for—"

"The Azlu, I reckon."

Clara stepped up and joined her leader, between Tash and the creature. "You know where it is?"

Having two Uratha between her and Black Blood was enough to let Tash relax, but only a little. Glances around in the dark showed movement, subtle things hiding around the buildings. Some things poked their heads out of manholes, while others peeked over rooftop edges. Spirits were watching, hiding in the dark, hiding behind benches and streetlights, hiding in alleys and behind barriers.

They were afraid of Black Blood, but they respected it. Thin line between fear and respect, she supposed.

"Damn spider is hard to find. It's hiding, like you figured, but not here. Essence flows here, as you can see, with no trouble. So git, and look elsewhere."

Matt didn't like that. The enormous wolf bared his fangs and snarled, body going rigid with tense muscles. Art did the same, coming in closer and standing beside Avery as he matched Matt's growls. But before any more of the gigantic wolves could start growling and lead to some sort of fight, Avery waved a hand back at the pack.

"Back off guys. You know the deal, he can't touch us if we obey the rules."

Another of the wolves began to stand upright. The rest of them looked, and Tash chewed on a lip as she watched Eric reform, his fur disappearing into his clothes as his skeleton adopted the two-legged shape.

Black Blood turned its head down to gaze on the man. "Right, you. I remember you. Another fool that tried to kill that hunter, Jeremiah."

Eric scratched the back of his neck, and glanced around at the other members of the pack. Other than Avery and Clara, the rest of them remained in their giant wolf forms, still ready to fight based on the muscle tension Natasha could see, and the bared fangs.

"Thanks for that," Eric said. "But, yeah, I don't care what beef you have with Avery and her friends. I'm just trying to do a job. Where's the Azlu?"

Clara and Avery both winced. Apparently, they didn't like the way Eric was talking to Black Blood. Hell, Natasha didn't like the way he was talking to Black Blood. If they all kept disrespecting it, would it retaliate? Did its nature allow it to?

The god creature chuckled again, and pushed itself back up to standing straight, lower half of its body still hidden in the pool of black covering the street. "I can respect that, little dog. And I admit, it's the job of dogs to run off vermin." The skeleton lowered its mass, until its colossal head was only several feet from Eric. To Eric's credit, he didn't step back, but there was no way for anyone to not tremble a little when so close to something like that, even someone as obstinate as Eric. "I wager that pest is hiding in Devil's Corner."

Devil's Corner. Natasha shivered, and looked to Avery to see her reaction. The pack leader groaned, and sighed. Ok, so the pack leader of the deadly Uratha was not happy about her quarry being in Devil's Corner, which meant Devil's Corner was probably not a fun place to be in the Hisil.

"... thanks," Eric said.

"Don't thank me, boy. I hope y'all find yourself at the end of its blades. And better sooner than later." And with that, the giant skeleton began to ease itself into the ocean of black that coated the street. "Not you though, vampire. No beef with you. Happy trails."

"W-Wait!" Natasha ran past the wolves, past Clara and Avery and their confused gazes, and past Eric. She stopped in front of Black Blood, hands held in fists at her side, and she glared up at the creature as best as she could manage. It wasn't a good glare, but it was enough to stop the enormous spirit from its descent.

"Yes, little lady?"

"I... I... w-want to know. You've b-been working with Jacob for a long t-t-time, haven't you?"

"Gutsy of you to ask, after shooting me down." Chuckling, the skeleton lowered its head over her, until she was literally two feet away from its teeth and jaw bone. This close, she could feel the strange cold pouring off its body. Calling it cold wasn't right, but it was the only way her body could interpret the feeling. Cold and death. If Natasha had been frozen in a block of ice and tossed into a ravine in the Arctic, to wither away to her Beast's hunger until she fell into torpor, it probably would have felt like this.

"S-Sorry, just, I... Dolareido's been going through hard t-times, lately. Everything's turned upside down in the past couple y-years, and everyone's looking for someone t-t-to... blame." She didn't want to say that Antoinette suspected Jacob, and Black Blood especially, of doing bad things and perhaps threatening the city. But it was the truth. "Jacob, he... he trusts you. And I d-d-don't believe Jacob is... is..."

"Give it up, Tash," Avery said, growling as she joined her. "Black Blood couldn't begin to give a shit about our troubles. All that matters to it is its city, and its ruling of it. Only reason it's giving us a tip about the Azlu is it wants it gone, not because—"

"You think you know me, dog. You're just an ant, biting off more than they can chew." The skeleton god shook its head as it sank deeper into the pool of black at Natasha's feet. "And if you're looking to stay alive in the coming tide, little lady, I suggest you trust Jacob a bit more than you have been, and maybe you keep your head down. More than one elder vampire out there, fucking with shit they should know to leave well alone."

Maria. It was talking about Maria.

She opened her mouth, and closed it. Instead of putting her foot in her mouth and tipping off everyone that she suspected Maria was doing something dangerous, she stayed quiet, and watched the alien disappear into the black Earth. As it left, the tide of oozing black faded away, no longer combating Flow's waves. The giant blobs of onyx drooling down the walls of the buildings around them faded, or sank into the hole with Black Blood. The weight of the cold death went with it, letting its grip on her shoulders go as it sank into the ocean of obsidian.

Once the haze of black that sat on them all was completely gone, all the wolves started breathing again. It was almost a shock, hearing a bunch of lungs kick in like that; she was used to the silence of meeting rooms filled with vampires. But once Black Blood was gone, the wolves all visibly relaxed, or at least stopped looking like they were ready to fight. Considering the size of Black Blood, she had a hard time imagining the Uratha lasting twenty seconds in a tussle. Then again, she doubted the Uratha could only use brute strength. Then again... again, she doubted Black Blood was really just a giant black skeleton.

"Natasha," Avery said, "the fuck did I tell you, before we left?"

Uh oh. Natasha shrank, taking a step back from the angry woman. Art and Matt, both still in their Urshul forms, came up behind her, and she set a hand against Matt's shoulder as she put her back to his side.

"T-To... stay out of the way."

"Yeah, I did. So the fuck do you think you're doing, talking with—"

Clara threw up a hand and joined them. "Avery, come on, you saw Black Blood engage her first."

"No reason for her to follow up." Glaring daggers, Avery pointed a finger at Natasha. "You vampires keep sticking your fingers into shit you shouldn't."

Natasha blinked at her, and struggled to hide the realization that clicked. Avery didn't want her talking to Black Blood, and it wasn't just because she was worried about the old spirit. This was about Minerva.

Tempted, so very tempted, to ask her why she killed Jacob's lover. How could a vampire do something so horrible in their research, that werewolves felt the need to kill her? And it wasn't like Minerva was just someone they could kill without consequence. She'd been Antoinette's friend, and Jacob's love. The only reason Avery was alive was because of her old leader Simon, as far as Natasha knew, and Simon wasn't a factor anymore.

"S-Sorry," she said.

Clara shook her head, and put a hand on Avery's shoulder to drag her back. "Don't be sorry, Tash. We know shit's been crazy in the city since we showed up. Since a year before that, from what we've heard. I'd bet money Black Blood's involved."

Shrugging her shoulder free of Clara, Avery walked toward Eric, and tilted her neck far enough to earn a loud crack everyone could hear. "Let's go."

"Go?" he said.

"To Devil's Corner."

Eric frowned for a moment, and glanced around at the various spirits. The oddities began poking their noses — if they had them — out of their hiding holes, and resumed their hustling and bustling. Natasha had expected spirits to look colorful, and perhaps see-through, but Safe hadn't looked that way, or the spirit of secrets they'd caught. They looked like strange creatures out of fairy tales and childish whimsy, or freakish nightmares. The spirits around her continued the trend of bizarreness.

Good thing those weird wraith things hadn't shown up. She'd never seen one, but Jack had described it to her in one of their little meetings, Matt and Art had mentioned them as well, and it was a scary thing to imagine. She'd almost hoped to see one though, because that spirit of secrets the Prince had captured said Black Blood's wraiths had spoken with Maria. Much as it was in Natasha's best interest to not stick her nose where it didn't belong, she wouldn't be much of a dragon of the Ordo Dracul, if she didn't seek out answers to mysteries whenever she could.

Besides, as much as the thought of Maria still irritated her, the elder had tried to reconcile with Natasha, a little. And Natasha never could hold a grudge.

Shaking his head, Eric nodded in the direction of Devil's Corner. "We've been here for a couple hours already."

"Hunts can last a long time," Avery said. "Let's go. Besides, we're not going to engage."

Natasha sighed, and rubbed her neck into Matt's neck, and Art's. Fluffy, warm, and soft. They both gave her a quick lick, and she giggled as she felt their tongues on her skin. Big, dumb, floppy dog kisses. Art at least tried to be a little artful with his, getting her cheek once, but Matt licked her like an excited Bernese Mountain Dog might. Slobber was inevitable. She giggled again, and climbed up onto the big guy's back.

The whole pack changed into their giant wolf forms, and began the walk to Devil's Corner.

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~~Eric~~

He hadn't expected that. Black Blood showing up and causing trouble, he'd partly expected. He hadn't expected the godly entity to leave without causing any real problems, so that was nice. He also hadn't expected Natasha to have the guts to talk to it, which had been impressive from the very tiny woman.

Don't underestimate the tiny vampire, Eric. She went with Jack on that rescue mission for a reason. According to Jessy, she was over fifty years embraced, and was both smart, and deadly quick. He was glad to have her with him on this — hopefully — dry run of hunting an Azlu. Except, now they were going to Devil's Corner, and it wasn't because of her input, but Black Blood's.

He didn't trust it. The pack didn't trust it. Doing anything Black Blood suggested was a bad idea, but at the same time, Black Blood did save his life, Nathasha's too, and Clara's, and Matthew and Arturo's. And Jessy's.

He frowned, and shook his head a few times, causing his ears to flap against his head slightly; he'd changed back once they started moving. The Urshul form was empowering, and it was also clouding his thoughts. Difficult to think about complicated webs of manipulation and deceit, when his wolf brain was focused on tracking down his prey. Focus on that, figure out whether you can trust Black Blood later.

He breathed deep the smell of Dolareido, the spirit half of it anyway, and looked over his shoulder. Everyone was behind him, while Avery walked alongside him, her nose up and taking in the smells, same as him. She was following his lead, but she knew the way to Devil's Corner, same as him.

He didn't like being at the front like this. It'd have been better to have him follow, but she seemed intent on having him drive, and that was weird as fuck. It was almost like a test, to see if he was good enough to join their pack, which he had no intention of doing. Besides, he hated tests. Always did horrible in high school; test anxiety was a bitch, and cramming the day before certainly didn't help.

So, of course, he was nervous. He had a dozen Uratha behind him, watching his every move, following him and waiting to see what he'd do. No doubt Caleb told them about his fuck up, and how he lost control in their tussle. Well, it was the bastard's fault, pushing him so far. Eric thought he handled himself pretty well when transformed, all things considered.

Naturally, while thinking about being in his true werewolf form, where the aggression exploded and the hunger for action boiled over, he couldn't help but think about Jessy. And in his monster-sized wolf form, that aggression and instinct may have been muffled compared to the Gauru form, but it was still there, and in larger supply than it would be in normal wolf or human form. Thinking about Jessy was a bad idea right now, but god damn, the sight of her ass spreading around his dick as he pinned her to the bed underneath his weight, was burned into his memory. Separating the thrill of his inhuman forms, especially Gauru, with sex, was going to be impossible, thanks to her.

He growled, shaking his head, trying to focus on the task at hand. It earned a look from the wolf next to him, and he kept walking as if nothing had happened, signaling its meaninglessness. Focus, pay attention, look around you.

Dolareido, in the Hisil, was a scary place, largely because he didn't recognize it, but did. Kind of like when you put a scary smile on a teddy bear, it became creepy, sitting somewhere between normal and terrifying. The shadow of Dolareido was like that. He recognized the places, the buildings, but it all felt off and weird.

There were no cars, but there were plenty of those tire asphalt creatures rolling by. Some were chased by creatures that looked like they too were made of asphalt, with bodies that looked more serpent like. The closer they got to Devil's Corner, the less he saw of those flying coin eels; probably spirits of money and spare change, or disposable income. The streetlights, twisted like corkscrews, pointed back the way he came, toward the center of South Side. All roads lead to Rome, he supposed, or in this case, to the money.

The sky pulsed with a moonlight heart beat, mixed with strange colors from chaotic streaks that cut across its black surface. Instinct told him the colors above were spirits of a sort, but it was hard to wrap his mind around what they could be. The buildings around him were tilted and dilapidated, far more than Devil's Corner actually looked; yeah, reflecting how beat up and downtrodden a place Devil's Corner was. Closer to North Side, the people of the Carthian district were hardy and honorable. Devil's Corner, on the other hand, was filled with crime and problems. And the deeper he moved into Devil's Corner, the more he could see that being reflected.

Eyes watched them, from the dark, and there was plenty of dark. The twisting streetlights flickered, and many didn't shine as bright as they should have. Alleyways had shadows that slithered up into the air, and adopted forms like wavy strips of black, with arms, and two, tiny glowing white dots for eyes.

A blurry wisp of blue ran by, and only once it got a little closer could Eric see through its subtle glow, and to the tentacles underneath. It had several eyes, each wide and blinking, and terrified. It sped past them, half hovering half running. Behind the fleeing creature, a hulking, humanoid mass followed, tall and heavy. It had no glow, but instead marched upon two legs that looked like they belonged on Goliath. Its enormous torso held four arms, and the shoulders connected with no head between them. Upon its chest, two small eyes and a giant, shark teeth-filled mouth sat where a stomach should have been. It stood at least ten feet tall, and its skin looked like dirty brown fur.

It would have looked comical, in a cartoon. But standing there only fifty feet away, the creature looked like something out of a nightmare; and he had the experience to make that claim, he supposed, after having met a couple nightmares. It leaned forward, walked like a gorilla, and the mouth on its gross stomach-face drooled as it sauntered. The air around it reeked of rage and strength, and Eric could picture what this monster would do to him if it got a good grip on his body with its four hands: tear him into literal pieces.

The fuck kind of spirit was it? It was chasing something that looked terrified, so, was the thing running away a fear spirit? Or rather, a spirit of being afraid? So maybe the brute chasing it was something that fed on fear then. A bully, maybe, or something more sinister. Devil's Corner had bullies, thugs, and assholes that fed on people's situations.

It turned to look at him, and Eric bared his fangs. Kill? He turned to face the rest of the pack, but Avery shook her head. No kill then. Probably for the best. It looked like it could put up a hell of a fight, and it wasn't like it was screwing over the ecosystem of Devil's Corner. Maybe tilting it in its favor more than Eric would have liked, but Devil's Corner's balance of poverty and crime had remained largely unchanged for a century or more.

Still, it sucked seeing something like that gross monster walk around. If they brought it down, what would happen? Instinct told him its 'influence' would lessen, but he didn't really know how that'd manifest. That's why he was on this trip, to learn about how this shit worked beyond what his new half-spirit-wolf-brain-thing was telling him.

More things he didn't like the look of made an appearance. A gangly, tall, ghost-white humanoid creature sat in one of the alleys, a leg hanging out onto the sidewalk. It had a gray cloak filled with holes, and the creature's face was hidden in a black mask. A plague doctor's mask, with two large, black eyes. More grotesque, was the creature's hands. They would have looked human, barring the size and lanky nature, except the fingers were needles.

Didn't take a genius to figure out what kind of spirit it was.

Growling, Eric began to stand up. His clothes reemerged, muscles shrank, and he growled through the pain as his snout was sucked back into his skull. Transforming didn't hurt as much anymore, but it was still a pain, especially when he rushed it.

He turned to the pack, and Natasha, and gestured to the spirit of drugs and whatnot. "We seriously just going to leave this thing here?"