Playing With Puppies

*Just a quick little author's note*

I have been HORRIBLY cursed with my long time nemesis of insomnia lately. But I'm a good girl, and so I lay in bed and TRY TO SLEEP.(not gonna fall asleep if ur up and running around, after all.) Since I was like four, my trick has been to make up stories in my head-it usually works. I always fall asleep just when I'm getting to the good part, lol. So if any who reads the start of this story (and thank you for that kindness!) is interested or curious I have already written, in my head at least, the stories of Lindy, Kiara and Jess. Just don't ask why I decided to start with the last first. By the way, I'm still fighting the urge to flip to the last chapter half way through a really good read!

I never should have let my mother talk me into becoming the liaison for the Vampire King. It meant living here in the Mansion. And this fucking place was probably larger and more sprawling then some second or third world palaces.

It housed, between the fangs and the weres, when you threw in all the humans that served either group, at least 400 bodies-warm or otherwise.

And I don't really play nice with other people.

When she's not irritated with me momma says I'm an individualist loner type. When she's actively pissed at me-and that would be ninety percent of the time and usually involves my having punched out someone even I knew I really shouldn't have-she calls me an anti-social Irish hell child with little manners and less self control. And she always blames it on my dad's side of the family. (Like I'd know. I've never met my father. I don't know if he's even still alive. She never talks about him. I don't even know his name.)

I tried to argue her out of banishing me here. I honestly didn't see why she needed me here. She already had three of her favorite former students living at the Mansion.

First she told me that whining was very unattractive in a woman and then calmly pointed out why none of her three pets could be her liaison. A) Lindy was mated to Aidan, the Vampire King. She was the single human that he ever took the blood he needed from, and last but sure as hell NOT least, she reminded me that Aidan was violently in love with his still human mate. Way to go with the fricking over kill mom.

And then she moved onto B) Kiara, who was in a very serious, locked down love triangle that involved Jontay, Aidan's second in command, and Lisset, the wickedly exquisite, deceptively fragile looking female Vampire who wore the misleading face and form of the 16 year old she had been when she'd been changed. And who just happened to be the King's secret, most deadly assassin.

Even I could agree, as much as I didn't want the job, that Jess already had enough to deal with.

She had recently been mated, totally against her will (the poor thing panicked, basically setting herself out on a platter, when she broke the Were "laws of engagement" pact and tried to run away from her mating hunt) to not just one, but TWO Were kitties-brothers, and two of their pride's top enforcers.

That poor girl was spitting mad and bleeding hurt. She felt betrayed because neither Kia or Lindy had done anything to help her. She knew on an intellectual level that both had been literally unable to do anything. It's no small thing when you cry "Master" to a Vamp with power. I know enough from my studies about the fanged folk to realize that it's almost impossible to resist an Old One who's hell bent on seduction and possession.

But Jess still hurt, on the emotional level.

I think the only reason she hadn't attacked anyone yet was because she was so mad at so many people she couldn't decide on a single target. And believe you me-that girl WAS a Warrior. She was top of the class and seething with inborn talent and the learned skill that comes from passionate obsession. If she went off she could do some serious carnage. She didn't need fangs or claws to hurt something.

So there you have your stage set.

Three woman with strong ties to the Warrior guild...and at least five Alpha level were or fang folk not about to let those treasured three get in any sort or danger, even as small as a stubbed toe.

And then you had me.

Nobody really cared about me. Not enough to die for me. I mean my mother loves me. But she loves me with a cold, hard, practical love. With my mother, it is always pragmatic. There were ties that had to be forged stronger. There were things that had to be done. And sometimes that involved sacrifices on one alter or another. I've always known that. I can never escape KNOWING this. It was how I was raised. And I can't even hate or resent her. When I hurt, I do not look to see where I bleed.

If it has to be done, if it will save millions or thousands or mere hundreds. If it affects even just an important dozen-or a single irreplaceable soul one day I may find myself laid out on some alter, real or metaphysical, looking up at a knife that my mother holds.

I know this. I think it is my first memory.

My mother can not be the liaison that is needed. She is too important to risk. She can not be made a target that fangs and claws and human weapons ache to sink into. She has the school to run, her Warriors to train. None of us, not even those who do not understand the importance could survive losing her.

But we need them, these "Others". And they need us. It's always a brutal battle. There are so many blood thirsty, angry rogues who do not understand. But it's this symbiotic relationship that keeps our shared world from spinning off into hell. And you can't just toss some nobody into the role of being the liaison and expect them to have the the power to speak with both "voices" behind them.

As much as I have always hated it and never wanted it I am the one who stands silent, in waiting. I am the weapon lurking behind the striking force of the immensely powerful Warrior's guild.

I am the power behind the power. And I have long been kept in check; a prisoner in waiting. I am left simmering, burning. A murderous deadly weapon given no target. I am held back just waiting, always waiting. Momma told me once, when I was sick almost unto death from a knife tainted with poison and she thought me too incoherent to hear, that I was the best she had ever trained. She told me I was the one who could someday take her place.

From my birth, I have been trained.

I am a weapon, well honed, with a perfect cutting edge. All I am, is a weapon.

And right now I am a weapon lost fucking somewhere miles beneath the bowels of the above ground Vamp Mansion. I got caught up all confused and turned about in the rabbit warrens mess of tunnels carved out under this Mansion prolly a thousand years ago for means of warfare, deception, or escape.

And the gods as my witness I am gonna be hard pressed NOT to kill the first living creature that stumbles across my path!

I am supposed to stay a well kept secret. At least for a little while. No one but my mother and maybe some what under a dozen residents of Aidan's Mansion even know that I am back on Earth...or even still alive! Great fucking plan but the end results go kinda all to hell IF I DIE DOWN HERE!!!!

My mom personally stuffed me down a sewer some 6 miles away from the Mansion's grounds. She gave me a map even. But either I zigged when I should have zagged or the map she gave me is worthless. Because if I followed its twists and turns, I should have bumped into someone after maybe an hour of easy jogging. But I've been wandering down here for over six hours and the only creatures I've met thus far have been bats and rats!

"Aurghhhhh." I shrieked. "Momma, if I get outta here alive so help me I'm gonna..."

Oh shit. I wasn't alone in the tunnels anymore. What ever had joined me was bigger and meaner then bats and rats. And it was growling at me! Listening the low, deep in the throat snarl, only a deaf and dumb idiot wouldn't have realized the fucker was stalking confidently closer!

"Oh shit oh shit oh FUCK!" I yipped softly, backpedaling as fast as I could in the total blackness trying to not trip over my own feet while at the same time fumbling to find the button that would turn my flashlight back on. My thumb finally found the right button...

"What the...???"

I was miles underground and apparently I had stumbled into some kinda twisted, tweaked fairy tail. Because while I sure as shit wasn't lil red riding hood, I WAS apparently facing off against a big bad wolf. From the little I know about wolves, this one seemed to be a timber wolf, and one big bastard of a hefty, healthy, vitamin fed specimen to boot.

I was still backing up as fast as my feet would move, and, yeah, fine, fuck you I admit, fighting the urge to hyperventilate while I gibbered inane threats and warnings.

"Back off, you flea bitten mongrel! I'm a Warrior. Mess with me I'll kick the shit out of you. And my mom will nail your mangy hide to her study wall."

Oh to all the gods above and below can I have no dignity in these last few minutes before the feral puppy rips my throat out? I am trying to threaten an animal with my mommy! This is getting way beyond humiliating. If "mommy" had allowed me a knife, I'd cut my own throat! OK fine, but facts, this green eyed bastard outweighs me by close to a hundred pounds, and hell yeah he's got way bigger teeth...

The wolf barked at me, lips pulling back and sharp white teeth bared in a canine sneer.

I yelped, and almost fell flat on my ass when my feet tangled.

"You are so dead if you don't turn tail, mutt! Lindy and Jess will figure all this out and..." I paused. "I don't think Kia has ever really liked me but-augh!" Just kill me NOW!!! I was seconds away from getting my throat torn out and I was still wondering why Kia always looked at me with cool neutral eyes. I was used to people; at least those who knew who I was, being scared of me. And Lindy and Jess weren't my friends. I had no friends. But we had grown up together in the Warrior's Guild, trained and fought together.

They weren't my equal. I think, maybe, other then my mother, no one human is. But they, and Kia as well, are good enough that they could probably at least get away from me. I'd find them again, but...not many people can escape me even once. None of the the three best friends were MY friend, but I was meant to be a liaison to Aidan, and if I died, my death would be investigated.

And then I did trip my damn stupid self and fell flat on my back, arms flailing in a way I knew would have had my mother covering her eyes and shuddering in shame. I landed full length, with a noisy splat, and the muck that erupted around me pretty much finished the job of covering me head to toe in stinking goo.

I screamed like an Irish banshee. My eyes had been glued to the wolf form that had caused me to stumble over my own feet...and then that canine form suddenly froze, then flickered and...changed...in a way that my human eyes could not follow. And suddenly I was staring at the very large, imposing figure of a buck naked male.

"Shit!" I spit, and pushed myself to a sitting position, ignoring the muck and goo and I don't wanna know what else that was running down my arms and basically coating me everywhere. He gave me a slight bow that should have looked ludicrous coming from a naked man. And it annoyed me violently, how sleekly suave he still managed to look. Of course, compared to me, covered in rat and bat shit and...still not going into that what else area...anyone would have looked good.

"You would be Katt, I presume. You are a bit late, little one."

I snarled, who was he calling little? OK, never mind that. Compared to him...doing the math/mass/ratio thing...

"Do you weigh more in human or were form?"

Oh gods, someone please just shoot me! It was bad enough when I was babbling at what I thought was a simple Timber wolf, but I'm still doing it! I have a brain, and my IQ is a good bit higher then the norm. Which begs the question-where did they both run away to? Not to mention the little factoid that I KNEW I was going to a place that housed not just Vamps but a few species of Were beasties-so why did it never even occur to me that I was was facing a WERE wolf?

My mom is so gonna kill me if she ever hears about this!

He grinned at me, taking obvious enjoyment in my temporary loss of sanity.

"I weigh about 260 in my were form-a bit large for a wolf, but then...I'm not exactly small in human form either."

Have you ever wanted to do something you really, really KNEW you shouldn't? Wanted to do it so bad, ached to do it more then anything you'd ever wanted before? I had two hands filled full of that stinking muck and...and I just did it!

Hit the bastard dead on, full face-took about two seconds to bask in gloating triumph then thought...oh shit he's gonna kill me, scrambled to my feet and commenced running like hell down the pitch black tunnel.

It takes me about six running strides to get into top flight form-if Momma would ever let me enter, I could prolly win every running event in the Olympics. (Just maybe not anything involving hurdles)

I got to about ten, which meant I was running flat out and hell bent on getting away, when that fucking cursed tunnel took an abrupt turn-which I couldn't see in the total blackness of course-and I body slammed face first into brick.

First thing I noticed when I regained consciousness was that my face hurt. No, let's clarify that, every damn part of my body hurt, even my toes. Which I guess made sense, I vaguely remembered kicking into the the wall with my leading foot, just before the full body contact stop so my other foot must have hit it as well when...

"Shit!" I shrieked, leaping off what ever the hell it was I'd been lying on. "What the fuck are you doing? And damn it mutt, where the hell are your clothes?"

The mutt in question shrugged casually, obviously relaxed and completely cool with standing there talking to me stark naked (and why wouldn't he be, the previously never knew I had it, lewd pervert part of my brain piped up-he's beautiful. Can we go bite him?)

Oh my gods, I'm losing my mind.

"Somewhere back in the tunnels."

"Huh wha....?" Damn, was I drooling? Please don't let me be drooling. This was bad enough without that.

"My clothes-when you didn't show up when you were expected Aidan sent me to find you. I knew you were somewhere in the tunnels but I couldn't get a good enough read with my human senses so I had to go were. You might have hurt yourself somehow."

Hmmmm, so he called the Vampire King Aidan, not Master or my lord or any other honorific-the familiarity of how he spoke meant he was...

OH HOLY HELL...suddenly I realized that I was just as naked as the mutt was! (And just how did that escape my attention!)

I don't, and I never will, even try to picture how ludicrous I must have looked trying to drop into a defense stance-while at the same time trying to cover my pubes and boobs. Considering the fact that he almost fell over from laughing, I'm guessing it was not one of my better moments.

"If you tell my mom about this I'll kill you!" I bellowed.

Oh gods...take me now, please.

It didn't help matters-for me at least-when I looked around me and saw where I was.

"Why am I in a dungeon?"

He laughed lazily. "It's not a real dungeon...it's just for sexual play, S and M, Domination and submission...stuff like that."

Oh and wasn't that just reassuring information.

"I repeat..." I snarled in as icily of a haughty tone as I could dredge up. "WHY am I in a dungeon?"

"I didn't think you'd want to meet the court...as you were, so to speak."

I winced, puppy had a point there.

"Couldn't someone else have cleaned me up."

"I suppose...but I honestly don't know of anyone who wouldn't have talked, so..."

Sigh-I was off to a great start here.

"Do I at least have some clothes somewhere to put on?" I groused.

"I think you look wonderful as you are."

JUMP HIM...oh lovely, my pervert side was back and she still wanted to play.

"Get me clothes or so help me I'm gonna try as mother fucking hard as I can to kill your fucking ass!" I shrieked.

Yep, I was off to a great start.