14766 words

Hoping everyone likes this, a nice little story inspired by Jim Butcher's "The Dresdon Files". I figure I should point that out now so people don't think I am plagiarizing. Much thanks to  DnDiana for turning me on to this series.

I admit to taking a few liberties with the rules and source materials. This is WoD, nWoD to be exact, but it should at least be fun.

Questions, comments and other such all adored

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The Willowflower Files:
By TerraMGP

I knew it wasn’t going to be a good day. Call it luck or fate, Call it women’s intuition, hell maybe even mages intuition. Whatever it is, when one of my friends calls me with mention of gunfire on campus, I just know it’s not going to end well.

I walked up to the side of Bradberry Hall just about as casually as I could. Its not a big college, and the large face clock showed it to be exactly 2 am in the morning. If there was a night guard I couldn’t see him. Normally I would have been able to waltz up the steps with no problem. A mouse girl who is just barely on the edge of noticeably short, and whose idea of fashion consists of Irish flat caps and a big gaudy patch shaped like an NES controller plastered as the centerpiece of a far-too-big jacket. I might be able to pull of the eccentric college student, but I doubt that would have helped me long after Night Classes were over with, and even the Bars had closed. Of course, in coming here I would be a prime suspect for whatever was happening. Its one of the risks of showing up before the cops. Which is still better than the risks I‘d have to take after they arrive.

I and a handful of other Magi in each town tend to the various tasks other council members deem too trivial for the stronger, more talented, or more experienced of our ilk. Sadly, for me it is more about the third part than the first two. I had the talent, or so I’d been told. So far I could only focus it into a few niche areas, Mainly item crafting and electromancy. Before you ask, No, I cannot mix up a love potion, Alchemy is completely different and I happen to suck at it. So what it boils down to is to get respect I have to have earned it, and how do I earn it? By being a good little girl and go around sticking my nose into things the Free Council wants investigated. So against my better judgment I climbed the stairs up to the buildings entrance, gripped the handle firmly and pulled back, bravely entering ‘the field’.

The old administrative building turned current-day trophy hall didn’t seem like a great place to initiate any kind of fight, especially not a gun fight. The complete and total lack of effective cover made me think it was an act of desperation, or maybe something planned out well in advance. Neither of those options sounded good for me, and I tried to brace for the countless worst case scenarios my overactive mind decided to conjure. The main hallway was dark, quiet, and frankly creepy as hell. As I loosed the little Black and Decker flashlight from my pocket and flicked it on. It didn‘t take long to figure out what happened. There were bullet holes dotting each wall both above and below the wainscoting with the vicious evenly spaced lines of automatic weapon fire. Crossing, and often intersecting these were savage slash marks, gashes like the claws of some enormous feral making streaked crescent moon arcs with building frequency and depth all the way along the hall. My intuition kicked in one more, a knot forming hard and fast in the pit of my stomach. I recognized these claw marks quickly, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out the rest. Well ok a genius had figured it out this time, but someone of lesser skill and study probably could have gotten the job done.

“You damn crazy whoever you were, what the hell did you do?” I sighed sweeping my flashlight side to side down the hallway. Someone, or more precisely several someone’s with automatic weapons, had decided to try hunting down a Were. Or maybe the beast chased down a few gang bangers, it was hard to tell. Why campus security wasn’t already mobbing the place and screaming for police backup I will never know. Primarily because I didn’t think asking them would be a bright idea. “Well the whole automatic weapon thing narrows my options down. Whoever was involved with this was strapped like crazy. So I guess gang bangers and guys with their own ‘compounds‘ are pretty high up on my list.”

It didn’t take long to find what I was looking for. One quick cursory flashlight scan was all I really needed to pick out the slumped over from of someone laying in the corner, her body dead still and motionless as it sat there in a sea of its own blood. There were no weapons, at least not that I could see, and her clothing looked tattered and torn. I would later come to find out that this is actually the style again, and people like their brand new clothing to look like its been worn to the point of disintegration. Silly sleepers and their bizarre idea of what looks good.

I finally made my way to the corner and glanced down at my subject. It was easier to think of her that way. The admittedly lovely chipmunk now lay pale and drained hunched over in one corner, her back pressed up against the raised wainscoting. Thus far the body, if not warm, was at least still moderately fresh and thus lacked most of the signs of rot. All I really had to do was objectify her in my head and it would allow me to begin the investigation, though I doubted I’d find anything unusual on this one.

“Well, this is about what I’d expect.” I sighed to nobody in particular, leaning down and getting a closer look at the scene before me. Judging from the walls it all seemed like a by the books werewolf attack, which I quickly realized was a sad thing for me to recognize. Blood splatter ran in long streaks up the wall in either direction. These lines converged lazily with each other until they finally pooled together in the corner as one big bloody mass behind the body.

"It was only as I approached her that I realized she was breathing, the Chipmunk, looking pale as a sheet and laying in enough blood for her to have bleed to death twice over was still breathing. My hand was in my jacket instantly seeking desperately for any tool I could find. I took a quick step back and found myself landing hard on the ground, one heel resting in a slick of blood. I’ve seen the dead get up once in a while, and I knew just about everything that could cause that to happen. Contrary to what you might think, the burden of that knowledge does not for a less jarring experience make.

My trembling fingers were already around the tip of my countering wand, a long radio antenna with quartz plates for the handle, as I saw the chest rise and fall again and my grip loosened. I looked the girl over from head to toe. Long strands of blue dyed black hair cascading down dark brown fur and broad athletic frame draped with a denim jacket that had obviously seen better days. The deep Gashes of claw marks having ripped away pieces of it and the Kevlar Vest underneath, revealing unbroken fur and skin. “Well you‘re not a zombie, at least I don‘t think. That is defiantly a plus.” My brow furrowed as I pulled my trembling body up and stepped forward, leaning in closer and slipping on one of those cheep plastic gloves to not get my fur anywhere that other people could find it. “Well miss sleeper, seems to me that you weren’t just some random innocent bystander. That is unless you had a thing for that satiny silky Kevlar feel on your body.“

I pulled the jacket back a bit further to check the wound, or lack thereof, and was greeted with about what I had expected. There hanging from her left shoulder was a well oiled Tek 9 pistol in a shoulder holster, the leather showing more claw marks, Marks that had chipped at the hilt as well. “Looks like your just as lucky as your owner.” I mused to myself, It had been a miracle that the gun had survived at all. That lead to another problem, this was not your normal Werewolf attack, and this lovely young woman was no normal victim. Now, even Gangbangers don‘t normally walk around with a Kevlar Vest. Most likely? This meant that Miss Miracle here was a Hunter, a mortal with some idea of the supernatural shit that goes on in front of humanities eyes. Now, strictly speaking I don’t have a problem with Hunters, but at the same time, they usually don’t have the full picture. One is just as likely to burn me at the stake as it is to help me. With that in mind I reached out to the gun and started fiddling with the release, keeping one eye on the sleeping woman lest she wake up and decide she didn’t like being disarmed.

My focus was suddenly broken when one of those strong hands shot up and wrapped around my wrist and pulled it up “Mmm if you’re gonna try to cop a feel on a dead girl, ya might want to make sure she’s really dead first.” Before I could really react she managed to pull us both up to stand again, one hand still holding my wrist tight as the other went for something on her belt.

There was a small part of me that wanted to analyze and asses the situation, to try and reason with this woman and ask her up front just what had happened. That part quickly got tucked away as I reached into my own jacket and felt familiar comforting plastic in my paw. Before I knew what was happening a large and surprisingly sharp bowie knife was pushing right up against the soft flesh of my neck, my only saving grace a repainted plastic Nerf gun covered in copper painted runes that now rested its barrel against the other woman’s nose.

The woman’s eyes locked with me as her knife pushed in a tiny bit more, it didn’t draw blood yet but I could imagine just how much it would hurt when It cut the skin, and I wasn’t too eager to find out if I was right. “Look I’m not here to hurt you ok? Just put down the weapon, and I’ll put mine down, ok? One person already got killed here today, no need to make it two.” Of course I didn’t really want to mention that I worried about being number two. Anything relating to my own demise seemed like an exceptionally bad option.

“Actually.” She snarled tilting her head and grinning at me “By my count nobody here is dead, at least not yet.”

We gazed at each other for a few moments, her admittedly lovely eyes locked in a near death stare. I almost didn’t realize it when the knife left my throat and returned to its sheath at her hip, leaving me standing rather awkwardly with a nerf gun pointed to her nose. “Oh, sorry about that I…” I started to stammer pulling the normally harmless weapon aside and sticking it back into my jacket pocket, reaching up to fiddle nervously with my hat in a futile attempt to somehow look more intimidating.

“So I take it you’re not a vampire then if you’re begging for your life?” She finally said looking down at me and brushing herself off. Flecks of bloody cloth and Kevlar fluttered down before her landing in the still warm pool of her own blood. I snuck a quick look back to confirm that her jeans and much of her jacket were indeed bloodstained as well. That lasted for all of three seconds before I felt a strong hand wrapping around my left ear, The ear in which I kept a wide array of shiny ‘cool‘ earrings. I screamed out in shock and quickly pushed myself back to my feet struggling to avoid any more pain than I had to endure. “And its pretty obvious you’re a lil perv if you keep trying to check me out like this. So are you a perv with some knowledge about what attacked me? Or do ya just have a thing for blood? Because most people I know would be freaked out by all of this.”

“I am not a perv” I exclaimed a bit more quickly than I probably meant to. Bad enough I had to be the one on scene when a werewolf victim sprang up to life miraculously, the insinuation that I was actually here checking her out or worse was quite another. Not that there wasn’t plenty to check out of course. She had that rare kind of build between athletically muscled and deeply feminine you so rarely see outside of 80s fantasy art, and the kind of piercing blue eyes you just knew that you’d fall into if you weren’t lucky. A gal like me could fall into those eyes really fast and really hard. I had to stay on my toes with this one.

I took a few steps back for distance, but that was more for pure comfort than any kind of safety. I watched her slowly check the bloody marks in her vest and jacket with a dejected sigh, before turning around and scooping up something I felt rather foolish for not noticing before. It was a weapon, a bastard sword to be precise, or at least the closest any thirteenth century got to our traditional notion of one. A simple and painfully tattered leather scabbard wrapped around a blade easily thirty five inches or so in length. The hand guard and hilt all looked tattered and chipped as if by countless impacts, signs of way too much use without the proper care. Granted it was freaking amazing compared to the rusted and rotted out artifacts that got passed around in my medieval history classes.

“So, you gonna say something?” The girl finally asked once again snapping me back to reality. “Or did ya just come here sight seeing?”

“That really isn’t fair.” I grumbled back motioning to her sword. “I came here because my contacts told me someone got attacked and I wanted to see if I could help, or at least make sure nobody else got attacked. Its kinda my thing. I just needed a few moments to gather up all the facts and make an assessment.” Not really my best bluff, but then I never claimed to be a good liar. Besides like any good lie there was a kernal of truth. With the Free council so weak within the city, and with the less than civil tactics local adamantine arrows seemed to favor around here I was sadly the best candidate to figure out what was going on while keeping the peace.

I walked up to the spot where only moments ago the woman had been sitting and adjusted the thin copper wire frame of my glasses, trying hard to summon my mages sight and get some idea of what had just transpired. “So mind telling me what you were doing here?” I asked casually while glancing over the blood splatter, doing my best impression of a secondary character on CSI. From what I could tell there was still magic bound to the corner, storng magic, and more importantly magic that seemed to follow itself along to the ground, magic I could trace.

The woman didn’t seem to think much of this, seeming to regard my attempts at professionalism with all the respect and consideration of a kindergarten drawing. “I think we both know why I’m here, perv.” she laughed watching me move my eyes slowly along the blood stains and over towards her. “I came here with my friends because we heard a werewolf was skulking around here, and figured it was better than sitting around playing with ourselves and eating cheap pizza.”

I should have been grateful. That snaky little comment along with what I already witnessed around her gave me plenty to go on. I could already assume that she was a hunter considering the body armor and heavy ordinance, but really the accusations were just starting to get old. “Ok.” I said calmly “So you and a few other hunters came here looking for a werewolf. Your friends obviously didn’t succeed considering what happened to you. And since you’re the only body we can assume the ‘target’ got away…”

“Great, the fucker got away.” she sighed holding the sword at her hip, and then quickly trying to loop the strap over her shoulder instead, seeming quite unsure of how she wanted to carry the weapon. “Five months to track down even one member of the Soul Fangs and the second we manage to corner one I get a gut full of claw. Now those psychopaths are running around free, and who knows what they’ll do next.”

I froze solid. “The Soul Fangs? Are you sure that you were tracking a member of the Soul Fangs?” At this point everything that added up about her story fell apart like a house of cards, and I began to focus my thoughts to my right arm, to a small simple thong of strong brown leather, from which hung a small gold coin with a complex celtic knot stamped into one side. It was a charm, a token my master had given me when I started my apprenticeship five years ago. “Look, whoever you are.”

“Hilda, My name’s Hilda.” she replied with an uneasy calm about her.

“Yeah, Hilda. Look Hilda, I know that some Werewolves can be a real pain in the ass, but if you guys were going after a Soul Fang then you’d better just pack it up now and walk away while you still have the chance. They aren’t a threat to mortals, at least not mortals who don’t do something nasty to deserve it. They have a pact in these parts, Mage orders like The Adamantine Arrow, The Free Council, Even the local vampire prince. They all have a deal not to fuck with each other and to lay off the slee… to lay off the mortals.

“Tell that to the twelve people we found scattered around their territory.” Hilde all but growled the words as she eyed me wickedly. “That part of your deal too? A few mortals go missing, some men, women, kids… you guys just look the other way. That about the size of it?”

My thoughts left the coin immediately as I let go any of the power I had drawn forth. It was a good thing I had too, since it was about that moment I noticed Hilda going for the hilt of her sword, stopping short just as the telltale sparkle ceased. “Bodies? How… how many bodies?”

“Twelve that we knew of” Hilda snapped “At least six or seven hikers and other such unaccounted for around there too.

I looked at her in stunned shock for a few moments. I’d known several of the Soul Fang personally, and for a Were Pack they seemed to be more or less stand up guys and gals. Granted it was never a very good idea to get them angry, but since they usually stuck to a small trailer park off the highway, and rarely allowed any outsiders to linger very long it had never been that much of a problem. To think that they had bodies, families, littered around their territory was scary, Wolverine as Apocalypse’s horseman of death scary.

“Look Hilda,” I said quickly, already making a few small signs on the wall just over where the blood was starting to set in “I donno what happned to you, and as much as I’d like to I can’t take the time to figure this out right now. I know you’re a hunter.”

“Former hunter.” She said firmly “Its… complicated.”

“Ok former, look we can talk about this later. If this is true than it means trouble, and it means we need to get some information fast. I know you have a score to settle, but there are some more important things going on right now.” I gave her a nervous look and then pushed my hand against the wall, pulling my Nook out of my pocket and pointing it at the wall, whispering a soft “Copair, Leictreachas“. The Screen quickly flashed with brown and green light, and without warning the wall flashed a bright brilliant copper, a hint of ozone and tangy metal drifting into the air, even as the blood began to vanish from sight. No Blood, no DNA. No blood stains, no signs of anyone actually getting hurt. A hallway full of bullet holes and gash marks may be bad, but its far better than a murder investigation.

It only really took a second to pull off the spell, changing the walls conductivity long enough to make the electricity from the walls lines burn all the blood off and then changing things back to normal. Still I knew it would take a lot longer to explain, and we didn’t have that kind of time. “Come on, we can talk more about this on the way. I think we need to see a friend.”

“And why should I go with you?” She snapped coldly “For all I know you want to protect the Were and just want to lead me off so you can kill me.”

“If I wanted you dead.” I sighed “I would have just popped you before you got up to make sure you weren’t getting up. Besides it’s the only way to figure out who it was that finished you off, and who killed all those people you found.”

“You talk like they are two separate people.” she said cautiously, once again giving me a critical glance.

“They very well could be.” I insisted. I turned back and started to walk back out of the hall trying not to show my own panic. “At least I sure as hell hope they are.”

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Its amazing how quickly a cute girl with obvious combat experience can make you realize just how uncool you really are. There we stood at the far west campus parking lot in the middle of the night, breathing in the cool November air, standing before a small black moped. Blue highlights and copper flames were Spray painted along either side of the vesper, which I am ashamed to say were my first major attempts at modifying the vehicle to something ‘befitting a wizard’. It had felt pretty good riding it around too, knowing that even those sleepers who saw me would understand there was something special, even if telling them might open up a nice little hole in reality just big enough to cause some kind of hell. But here with someone actually standing there scrutinizing the thing I couldn’t help but wonder how many people had just been laughing at me behind my back for doing the thing up like some vintage custom chopper.

“You don’t have to look at me like that.” I said glancing back at Hilda, hopeful that my apparent anger would mask the embarrassment I felt standing to my vehicle of choice. “Unless you want to walk all the way downtown, this is the only ride I have. Besides Its not that bad. Its… pretty fun to ride really.” Even as I said that one paw reached down to pick up the black helmet, which was adored with more runes to complement the ones I had put onto my nerf gun blaster.

Hilda shook her head and remained silent as I reluctantly pulled the hard plastic over my flat cap and looped my long twin braids into the back, making sure they wouldn’t fall out and catch into the wheel behind me. “I so have to get a picture of this. I always pictured you mages skulking around in the middle of the nights in hoods and flashy robes. This is just so freaking priceless.” I had to admit it was probably quite amusing from the outside. Everyone seemed to have a preconceived notion when they thought about mages, and its easy to forget that when you eat, sleep and breath magic.

Before Hilda could get out her camera phone and take any snap shots I pulled the helmet down hard, hopped on the front of the seat, sparing as much room on the back as I dared, and glanced back up at her, glasses now resting below a pair of prescription built in goggles I never really put on. “Sorry I don’t have another helmet. I don’t get too many passengers these days.”

She stared at me blankly for a good long while, probably nowhere near as long as it felt, but enough to make me feel pretty silly about the whole thing. Thankfully the joke wore thin, or perhaps the tough girl just picked up on my discomfort a bit. She sat down on the seat back, those big army boots taking up more of the floor than I really wanted. “Aren’t you worried about wearing a helmet?” I asked, suddenly having second thoughts about my poor little bike and its capabilities to handle the weight now applied to it. Not that we really had much of a choice in this case, but it still felt like a really bad idea.

“Nah I already had one brush with death today, Kinda doubt that this dinky little toy is going to make it number two. Besides, I can be pretty tough when I want.” She laughed. I was going to offer some more protest, maybe ask if she had transport of her own to make the drive shorter, when I felt a couple of powerful arms wrapping around my mid section. That was more than enough to silence any further complaints. I kicked on the engine, started up the kickstand and pushed forwards. “Ok then” I thought to myself feeling the engine starting to push us forwards. “Now all I need is a guitar…”

With a big beautiful beast pushing at my back and the wind in my face, it was honestly more than a little tempting to just keep the ride going on forever. We weaved in and out of city streets, moving though traffic as best I dared. It was almost tempting to keep on driving like this and simply forget about the whole werewolf dilemma. Even more tempting when I felt Hilda lean in and I could have sworn her arms moved up just a bit more, tucking under my jacket and gripping my sides at either end of my chest.

Unfortunately ignoring the problem probably meant someone would end up dead. It was a problem I really couldn’t ignore. From what I had been told that was why Master Raeshire chose me as his apprentice. Oh I had talent, but so did many others, and he had always said there was something far more important a Mage needed to be great. That something was also why Master Raeshire had left the Adamantine Arrow soon after taking me on. Other Mage orders may consider the safety and wellbeing of sleepers as trivial compared to the traditions of Atlantis, but that just wasn’t how the old man saw it. As we turned off from the main street and headed a few blocks down a small row of old theater and artist lofts I started to wish he just hadn’t given a damn.

“So who are we meeting here anyways?” Hilda grumbled as she hopped off the back.

I felt my heart sink the second that big tough frame moved away from my back, even if two jackets and a Kevlar vest kept us apart to begin with. I tried to put my disappointment out of mind for a moment and kicked the stand back down, hopping off and setting the helmet on the seat. I didn’t bother to give Hilda a glance lest my resolve fail, or worse I get even more self conscious than I was now and say something extraordinarily stupid.

“Its an old friend of mine, I met her early on in my training. She‘s pretty well connected around town.” I stopped in my tracks for a moment, glancing back and taking a deep breath. “Look you should probably wait here. Odds are good you two aren‘t going to get along, and the last thing any of us needs is a fight right now. Besides.” I smirked trying to avoid sounding like a total jerk “I need someone to make sure nobody jacks my sweet ride.”

“Jo’s your… you know what? I’m not even going to dignify that one. You’re meeting with something wickeder you? The kind of thing you know I’m going to take care of given half the chance.”

She was at least part right. I sighed a bit and put my hands in my pockets, preparing myself to give her the best ‘serious’ stare down I could. “It doesn’t matter who she is, she’s my friend. What’s more she is the only one who has the kind of information we may need.”

Hilda’s paw went to her sword hilt and she narrowed her eyes. “Either we both go in, or neither of us go in. You get my drift?” she growled looking around as if expecting assailants to jump out form the shadows.

“Fine“ I grumbled “Just… don’t pull any weapons in here ok?” Considering how calm Hilda had been so far, and hell my own growing little nibbles of infatuation, I had almost forgotten that she was in fact a dangerous hunter, someone with a bone to pick with the supernatural world and the training to pick it. Unfortunately where we were going, that was liable to get us both killed.

An extended glair and a rather long heavy sigh later, and Hilda took the clip out of her gun, slipping it over to me. “You can keep this, but the sword stays. Whoever’s in there, if they have a problem with it they can just take it up with me.” The way she said that all but oozed foreboding. My second thoughts about doing this were quickly turning into third and fourth thoughts. I may have realized how laughably hilarious the movie Blade really was in hindsight, but for all I knew Hilda’s crowd considered it a training video. I eyed her once more and then made my way up to the nearest old building, walking confidently in with head held high.

There were a few people loitering in the hallway, typical Goth clothing, eyeing us intently as I led Hilda to a run down old service elevator at the back of the building. One of them moved himself directly in front of the elevator and pulled his coat aside, revealing a shoulder holster with some oversized monstrous pistol, the kind that would probably break the kids wrist if he tried firing it. Not that he was going to pull it anyways.

“Hay, you three wanna make yourselves useful” I uttered firmly, eyes locked with the young ’guard’. “why don’t you go out and get me a few bagels, the ones with the cinnamon sugar crusted on top that they have at Penera Bread. And some Cream Cheese too.” I smirked and slammed the gate, watching the three of them attempting to act off put and indignant. I just gave them my best glair, pushed my glasses up my muzzle and watched as they scampered out of the doorway, nearly falling over themselves in the process.

“Well that was kinda sad.” Hilda chuckled leaning back against the wall as I grabbed the elevators accordion door and pulled it shut, feeling rather proud of myself after that little display. “Those really aren’t the best guards in the world are they?”

“They aren’t guards.” I noted with a shrug ‘They are part of Jo’s Herd.” I winced the moment that came out. Once again I had forgotten my new friend was a hunter, and that even the most lenient hunters view vampires in a less than favorable light. Worse still I’d blown a perfect opportunity to look like a badass after showing off my two wheeled bundle of ‘Mikey Tuttle chique’ out in the parking lot.

Hilda nodded somberly but didn’t say anything. I noticed her seeming to mouth something under her breath, but decided it was best not to press things further. This was already going to be a painfully delicate situation, the last thing I wanted was to make it worse by making my guest angry.

What greeted us as the elevator hit the top floor looked about as much like a vampires lair as I seemed to look the part of a wizard. The main floor of the loft sat mostly bare save for a large and out of place Persian rug, or at least a reasonable facsimile, upon which rested a big leather sofa set and glass coffee table. Against the far wall facing the seats rested a massive 72” big screen TV, complete with all of the most recent game systems and a rather fancy looking gaming computer hooked up to the TV itself. Three others, each different though looking equally expensive sat lined up off to one side at a long buffet style table, all set up perfectly for a nice Lan party. There were wall scrolls and posters put up along the walls, along with several book shelves, and paintings that, for the life of me I could not understand. Hay I may not know art, but I know I like what’s in most Monster Manuals. This all ended off with a sparkling clean kitchen, one currently in use by one of Jo’s other herd members cooking up a nice meal for her little toys. What could I say? She liked having the best, in her way. For Jo that often meant her cattle had the absolute best as well, and they knew it.

And there was Josephine, reclining contently on the big leather couch, her pure white fur contrasting both the dark material and the black top hat she always insisted on wearing. Personally I kinda thought the hat made her look like some crazy gothy raver version of Johnny Depp in that Willy Wonka remake, but then Jo had been wearing it a lot longer from what she always told me. She sat with her arms around two more of the gothy looking people, both wearing almost identical lad skirts and tattered black tops with matching bits of leather and cloths pins. The two weren’t twins, but it was pretty clear they both took pains to look alike, which was pretty impressive when one got close and noticed they didn’t even share a gender.

“I had a feeling I’d be getting a visit from you tonight.” Jo chuckled leaning her head back, that Victorian dress blouse undone a bit lower than one might consider proper with company around. “Then again I was expecting you to show up alone. Gotta admit Willow that’s one of the reasons I like you. Always keeping me on my toes.”

“Well everyone has to be good at something.” I shrugged walking up and taking a look at her two companions, then glancing back up to the TV. “So, Finally decided to pass off the strenuous duties of unlocking in-game achievements to your little harem?” I smirked glancing back to the screen. “So I take it you’re the one who got hold of Abobo and told him to tell me about the Werewolf incident? Of is it just another of those little tidbits you happened to pick up while sitting around having your fun?”

Jo smirked once more, though this time it was obvious she wasn’t looking at me. I glanced back quickly to Hilda, realizing that I had completely forgotten about my guest. Thankfully she hadn’t pulled out a second clip and started shooting, at least not yet.

“So Willow, you sly girl. Where’d you pick up the bruiser? I didn’t interrupt a nice night out did I?” Jo said.

I blushed a bit and glanced back, Hilda already sneering a bit as she paced over to the couch. “Ya know a couple hours ago, I probably would have come right in here trying to steak you.” Hilda said. She walked along to the back of the couch and just glanced at Jo‘s two pets a widening grin on her face as she left her thought hanging.

I tensed up instantly seeing the two locking eyes. Jo turned back, a sly grin showing off the length of her vampiric fangs. She seemed amused enough, but I knew how quickly my friends amusement could turn bitter.

“And what is it, pray tell, that is stopping you from trying now?” she chuckled “I would assume utter futility or the risk of harming the innocent mortals here. But then most of the hunters around here Don’t really care about either that badly, do they?”

Hilda’s eyes narrowed a bit, but the smile never left her face. “Maybe. ‘Cousre I think you’re calling the kettle black there Kitty. That doesn’t matter much though. Right now I got bigger fish to fry. Bigger, hairier, nastier fish.” She reached up and patted the hilt of her sword. “And with a little help from a new friend I think that bastard is going to regret what he did.”

“Now hold up.” I noted quickly glancing at a very confused Jo for a moment “I am just looking into all of this. I never said anything about actually attacking anyone in the pack. So don’t say what I think your going to say because you don’t need to say it. Got it?”

I glanced tentatively at Josaphine, who smiled almost wickedly at her pets and patted them both on the head “Go… fetch yourselves some ice cream or something from the store down the street. The grown ups have to talk.” Jo said with all the firmness of a frustrated parent. I watched the two near identical herd members got up and prance to the elevator hand in hand, not seeming the least bit upset that they had been cast out.

“Heh, nice job with the wonder Goths there Jo.” I chuckled “So let me guess, the boy can only turn into items from hot topic…”

“Oh hush Willow.” Jo smirked, standing up and licking her lips with that chesher cat grin I always hated to see. “Now I can understand bringing this… lovely creature into my home. After all not everyone can have their own little harem of cuties.” That one was below the belt, but I should have expected that from Jo. Even when I knew she was plotting something she found some way to tease me. “That being said finding a cute hunter and offering her up a pack of Weres isn’t exactly conducive to second dates, or preventing all out war.”

“I never told her that she could outright, exactly…” I said glancing sideways for a moment as I once again realized how badly I’d patch worked things together. “I mean its not like I said ‘lets go pick up a few dozen silver bullets, and start hunting down Jules Desjarlias while Tom and Crow make fun of us.’ Hilda here said that her group was attacking a werewolf because…”

“Because we caught it killing innocent people.” Hilda snapped, her patience obviously wearing thin. “Because there are at least a dozen bodies sitting out in the woods behind some old trailer park that our contacts say some pack of weres live in. And the only reason I agreed to come here was that you said you had a friend that might know something. So far we’ve been giving her all the information and she’s just been acting like its some big imposition to have us here.” I could see that Hilda’s quiet and patient routine before was far less about being respectful in a world she didn’t understand, and more about acquiring some intel that otherwise would be totally inaccessible to her. At this point I couldn’t really blame her either. Unfortunately this put me in the middle of things, a place I had been so long since my master left that I was considering renting a house.

Hilda and Jo exchanged a long, heated glance as I stepped in between them, holding up a hand to either side and sighing softly. “Look regardless of how anyone feels about this there is obviously something going on. Now Jo if Hilda says there are bodies on Soul Fang turf then I have to check it out, you know that. The second my Master left the Free Council leaders around here decided to make me a researcher and fact-checker. Granted that was probably to get me out of the way, but its still my job damnit.” I gritted my teeth and shoved my hands into my jacket pockets, feeling the plethora of Nintendo and Sega and other game related patches almost shift like armor plates along the sleeves. “Either she has her facts wrong, in which case I’m walking into a trap with a bunch of armed sleep walkers who can somehow feign a werewolf attack. Or…”

I gave Jo a moment to consider that option, the one I was sure had found its way to the forefront of her mind. “Or the some of the Soul Fangs have gone rouge.” Jo sighed slumping her shoulders. “And gone rouge without me knowing it. That’s… a pretty unsettling thought.”

Hilda glanced at me, obviously confused by the sudden wave of concern. “Lets just say Jo’s like the shadow broker.” I nodded glancing back towards my friend “If there’s something she doesn’t know about in this town, then its either a bold faced lie or too obscure to matter.”

“I know the obscure stuff too Willow, like how you hide your porn folder in your lolcats folder where you think nobody would look if they busted into your system.” I had to flinch a bit at that one, especially since Hilda raised an eyebrow curiously. “Or maybe the fact that you still sleep with a plushie every night? Or the fact that…”

“Ok ok fine, I get it.” I stammered quickly. I turned back to Hilda and bit my lip hoping she would take the whole thing as a joke. “Look my point is made, Jo knows stuff, she can get information, and I would much rather get her take on things before traipsing off to get eaten by the Tasmanian Devil’s bigger, meaner siblings for something they may or may not have done.”

“If they didn’t do it, then who did?” Hilda asked firmly.

“We don’t know yet.” Jo said “But I intend to help you find out.”

This was something of a shock to me. I stared at Jo, and tried like hell to close my muzzle which was now firmly in the ‘agape’ position. “You’re coming with us? But I thought you hated this kind of confrontation. I mean, lets face it you’re the one who’s always telling me neutrality is good for business.”

“Yeah and you’re the one who never listens to me about it.” Jo said already walking off towards a very old and ornate looking hat stand, picking up a large heavy trench coat and sharp looking lacquered cane from off two of the top pegs. “But you’re missing an even more important rule. When something major happens and you have no advanced warning, something’s wrong. I get an old friend dropping by with an armed hunter in tow and news that the biggest were pack in town might be going rouge, that’s enough unexpected news for me tonight.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Hilda grumbled, looking at me. “Its one thing following around some college chick with a weird nerf gun that does who knows what cause she seems concerned about other people, but how do I know you aren’t just coming along to put me in the ground because I’m stepping on some ones toes?”

I had always wondered what it was like when the hulk transformed. As a kid I imagined what it would be like when his arms started to swell and bulge with muscle. I wondered if the stretching, thickening bones and broadening frame hurt as they forced him to get bigger. Hell I wondered if the whole turning green felt tingly like when your leg fell asleep. Now, finally, I think I knew. “Just shut up, both of you!” I snapped with a forceful tone that seemed to come from somewhere far too deep for my body to contain it. “I can’t take it anymore. I am twenty three years old. I’m barely getting good grades in class because I have to spend all day studying and going to lectures, and then I have to spend all night studying my magical tomes just so I can keep up as a wizard. On top of that the Free Council leaders around here, in their infinite jackassery, have decided to make me the fucking watch dog for one quarter of a small city because God only knows I have nothing better to do. On a light day I might get four hours of sleep and even then its hard because that small foot deep carpeting of five hour energy bottles laying in my drafty roach infested one bedroom constantly makes me wonder if that shit is giving me stomach cancer or an embolism or if I’m just going to end up with heart disease by the time I hit twenty five. I’ve got thirty thousand in loans after my scholarship, I ride around on a freaking vespa and she” I said pointing to Jo “bought me the only fucking thing in my house that didn’t come from Goodwill. And now on top of all that I have to fucking track down a werewolf, and if I’m lucky, LUCKY, I get to fucking hunt him down. That’s assuming said weres whole entire pack hasn’t decided to go rouge, because if they are I have to go in front of pretty much every single person of notable power within this city and tell them the biggest were pack around has cut loose, and we have to hunt them down. Now unless both of you are ready and eager to do something I haven’t gotten to fucking do since high school I suggest you shut the hell up, deal with each other, and follow me.”

I didn’t bother to see what either of them were doing. Turning on my heel I quickly strode towards the service elevator as it was coming up, the three gothy furs from the entrance standing inside. I breezed past all three of them as they were walking out, grabbing my bagel without missing a beat and taking a nice big bite out of it. That comforting gestalt of warm bagel, crystallized cinnamon sugar and cream cheese tasting strangely like victory.

---

The Soul Fang Territory was really just a large trailer park sitting a short distance off the highway. It made sense to think about it really, after all you can purchase some pretty nice trailers today, and there is a stigma surrounding a trailer park itself that tends to act as a strange kind of defense. Most people make the assumption that because you live in a trailer park, you are definitively ‘trailer trash’. Swilling pisswater beer, chomping down on venison you shot during deer season and cleaned yourself because you can’t afford to buy meat at the store, low IQs and lots of inbreeding. Pretty stupid and baseless characterization really, but as I followed Jo’s nice sleek Nissan GTR into the winding labarynth of roads I started to realize just how clever of an idea it was. After all, even people who don’t want to admit that they steriotype wouldn’t come into a place like this unless it was to visit someone they knew.

Unfortunately that meant a couple of intruders rolling in with a very high-end sports car and a gawdy little scooter were going to stand out like trekkers at a Renaissance Fair. Worse still while Hilda knew about Magic, I didn’t exactly know in what way. Unfortunately using magic on those uninitiated, or on those whose natures aren’t exactly tied with the ‘normal’ world to begin with can have some pretty adverse effects, bad enough to justify avoiding it in the midst of a were attack.

Though some minor miracle we made it to an old rest spot left over from when this part of the forest was still part of the state park, the kind tourists would stop at to grill and hang out before taking off and leaving the place a total mess. The Soul Fangs had made a nice little chunk of that forest part of their demands when signing up to our city’s little non-aggression treaty, and since then the stop had fallen into disrepair. Granted that meant they probably still came to check the spot now and then, but considering how much Jo’s pricey sports car stood out it was as good a place to hide as any, at least until we were able to confirm or deny Hilda’s claims. I pulled up beside Jo’s infinitely expensive car and parked, making sure their was no way my crappy little scooter could ding the vehicle. The two of them both got out and began to draw their weapons. Jo, holding her cane at her side, a wickedly sharp and well forged saber like blade contained within. In her free hand she now held a well polished, brightly finished Desert eagle which she insisted was ‘Jo’s Desert eagle’. I remembered when she got the thing after the two of us watched ‘Burst Angel’ one night, well back in the early days of my apprenticeship. It still amused me how much that anime affected her. Not that I can watch the thing without going though several stages of neurotic panic and denial wishing that Jo would stay with meg, nobody could. But to make a vampire, and particularly a Mekhet feel that sentimental takes some real talent with story telling.

“Hay Jo, can you pop the trunk for me a moment?” I asked walking around behind her car as she quirked her brow and hit the trunk button on her key chain. I looked in and smirked, reaching my hand in and slowly pulling out a slender, mid-sized steel rod that had been laithed down in the middle, forming a narrowish neck that formed a smooth half-dome cap on the bottom, and a thick top with several smooth rings on the top. It was heat-blued and treated to a high mirror polish, measured up exactly to the tip of my head.

“H-how… how did you get…” Jo gasped

“Magic!” I laughed shutting the trunk carefully and shaking my head. “Not really. I told you I forgot something in your trunk last time. I just forgot to mention it was my staff.” Normally when I’m out on patrol I don’t normally take my staff with me. Like any wizard I had taken quite a bit of time with it, lathing out the intricate final design, carving out each and every rune adorning the head with a dermal, heating the steel to that bright vibrant blue and then polishing it until the light made wonderful rainbows and dark spots no matter the angle. But I still owned a moped, and even if the spell casting tool didn’t break my passable if unorthodox appearance of normalcy, it was really hard to carry around on a bike. Besides I had my gold coin, and that had worked literal wonders in the past.

I looked up at Hilda, who was already working at cresting the hill, had her Tek 9 out, still seeming to forget that her clip was resting in one of my many pockets. Her other hand rested on the hilt of her sword for a moment, but then simply let go as she reached into her jacket pocket, and pulled out another clip.

“Ok what the hell.” I snapped feeling pretty stupid now “I knew I should have frisked you in the first place.”

Hilda brushed me off with a haughty little laugh and just shook her head. “See? Told ya she was a perv.” She said slamming a clip into her weapon and cocking it.

“Yeah like everyone else doesn’t know it already.” Jo added. I knew I should be more upset that they were talking about me behind my back like that, but for the moment I was just glad they were getting along, and focused on getting away from the trailer park.

I made a point to hurry along in front of the other two and reached into my pocket for my nerf blaster. As I slipped to the front my mage sight once again alerted me to something strange about Hilda’s sword. There was something off about it, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It felt… tainted, but not exactly dark or evil in any way. On the contrary it looked like an aura of mirrored silver with a rough old patina on it, covering the weapon and seeming to almost creep into Hilda herself. In all honesty I had no idea what on earth it could have been, but at the moment we had far more pressing concerns.

“You know guys.” I finally piped up, looking between the other two and smiling nervously “I know neither of you are gonna like it, but I still think that maybe we should, you know, ask the accused before rooting around in their woods? Just a thought. I mean there very well could be a perfectly logical explanation for this.”

“Right, a bunch of mutilated corpses wound up in woods owned by Weres, and tell them we were wondering because my hunter group snuck in here to take a look earlier before taking on one of their members. That’ll go great.” Hilda sighed shaking her head and glancing over at Jo.

"Look Willow” Jo sighed “I dunno about you, but traipsing into the Were's Packhouse and telling them that not only did we find dead bodies on their territory, but they did it. I want you to meditate on what their response would be. I don't want to fight a Were ever. The smart thing will be to get what evidence we can, and bring it up through those offical channels you are always forgetting about"

I let out a defeated sigh and slumped my shoulders. It was hard to dispute their logic, but at the same time… I couldn‘t help but get that nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that we were about to do something amazingly stupid. “Ok, well in that case I guess the best thing to do for now is have Hilda show us where the bodies were, and then we can give them a though investigation. For all we know Dexter just decided to move north and we can call the police.”

“No,” Jo insisted “if its Dexter I get to shake his hand… and then put a bullet in his head. The guys an artist, but vigilantes don’t exactly make for easy hunting.”

“Yeah right, like you ever hunt anymore.” I laughed rolling my eyes as we skulked down into the woods. The whole area was mostly barren dirt with a thin carpet of leaves, just enough to make the place look particularly dead and foreboding. To make matters worse the landscape around this area was full of small hills and valleys, most of them only about ten or twenty feet high and gentle enough to climb. It was also high enough for something to hide behind one of the hills, say a car full of dead bodies or a very angry Were.

With the help of my staff and a bit of frantic scrambling I managed to pull myself up above the first hill and tired to look beyond it to the second or third, hoping to catch sight of something quickly. I’m not ashamed to admit I wanted out of those woods. It was dark, hilly, and getting caught by one of the Soul Fang prowling around here probably end messily regardless of what perceived authority I may have had.

Apparently Hilda didn’t have concerns like that. She charged ahead the second we crested the hill and jumped across a dry old creek bed to the next one, scrambling up and over before I could say anything. This prompted a bit more speed out of me as I ran down quickly and used my staff as a makeshift vault, crossing as much distance as I could and clamoring up in time to see Jo cross the gap with one effortless bound.

“Hay, Leeroy Jenkins!” I hissed coldly glancing up at Hilda, using my anger to mask the fact that I was already out of breath. “Be careful. We don’t know what we are going to find around”

“here…” she said, almost perfectly finishing my sentence. At first I was going to protest, but then it dawned on me that for once tonight the hunter wasn’t being a smart ass. We all looked down into the valley, past the black loamy dirt and smattering of orange and yellow leaves that had accumulated over the years. Down in the little ravine, covered in the muck plant matter and slowly gathering insects were two bodies, two skunks both at about middle age, their insides torn open and laying spilled out and intermingled on the cold ground.

It took all I had not to puke. The sight of those poor souls laying there lifeless, massive gashes having turned to big rent chunks now removed from their torsos. The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to run. I just wanted to turn tail and push my feet as hard as I could in the other direction and not stop until I fell from exhaustion and could not get up. When I thought about hidden bodies and mutilation that was one thing, Hell even seeing Hilda on the floor, while shaking, hadn’t really caused me too much duress. But the state of rot and decay and the utter mutilation of the body itself… I simply had never seen anything like that before.

Jo was already down by the bodies before I returned to myself, with Hilda close behind. I gripped my staff and started stumbling down towards the bodies with all the weight my reluctant dread could summon. As I moved in closer, I looked down at the bodies and felt the stench hit my nose like a sledgehammer to the snoot. “Well, I guess this confirms that we have bodies here… but that doesn’t tell us any details.” I stuffed one hand into my pocket and pulled out one of the latex gloves. At first glance it would seem that Hilda was absolutely right in her assessment. Of course looks usually ended up deceiving, hell most Prime mages made that mentality their bread and butter. A lot of this still didn’t seem to add up just right.

“I told you it was here.” Hilda grumbled darkly “These two are some of the freshest… for severe lack of a better term.” She seemed strange. Angry, but not at the death itself. No something about her anger seemed, different. It was more like the way they were killed, or perhaps the fact that they were killed at all stuck something deep and dark and primordial in her. If this was what all hunters felt, it suddenly explained just why they did it and why they were so dangerous. I never wanted to be on the wrong end of anger like that.

Jo was far less affected than either of us, leaning down and tracing two fingers at the dirt resting near them. “Something seems really off about this.” she mumbled holding the blood up to her face to examine it. I half expected her to give it a taste, but considering how old and dirty it was it probably would have been bad, at least I assumed so by whatever standards vampires have for such things. “These people weren’t killed by a werewolf, no way in hell.”

“So you’re telling me some other giant clawed monster just tore though these people with the strength of a city bus at full speed and no remorse?” Hilda snapped sharply, the anger still in her voice. I gripped my staff all the tighter. The extra firepower had been intended for our target, but if it helped me keep these two off of each other I wouldn’t hesitate to use it. “You can’t be serious. One of htem already attacked me, hell he managed to win too.”

Jo was cool as ever, and I was grateful for that. She glanced at Hilda for a moment, and then to me “When they leave an enemy almost whole in a dangerous situation that’s one thing, All wered out and fighting off a couple of harmless mortals… there might be a few bones left. Maybe a limb or two. Not something like this.” she stood back and shook her head with a sigh “On top of that I know Klyne, the alpha around here. Even if his pack went rouge he teaches respect for the dead, even if you’re the one who kills em.”

"Well, You have a point, but still, this is hardly conclusive enough." Even as I bent down examining the bodies closer. "What has the Strength of a Were, and the Claws of a Were, but doesn't have the Instincts of a Were." ...A pretty good Riddle if I do say so myself.

“Come on Willow, its not that bad.” Jo chuckled “At least you know you only have one monster to deal with… maybe.”

The thought should have been comforting, but really it just made me clutch my staff that much tighter. When you are put on investigations and damage control you are told pretty much up front that you might square off with things few people, if any know about. That all sounds scary enough in theory when one is aware of people that transform into savage monsters, undead that drink the blood of the living and power mad necromancers that can rip out your soul for a snack just to name a few. I really didn’t want to be dealing with an unknown quantity in the middle of the woods.

At that moment a loud, ear splitting howl rang out across the forest. I spun and pointed my staff in its direction only to see more hill, and something vanishing over the top of it. “Hilda was that the thing that attacked you?” I turned around, only to find the large munk girl no longer there. After a moment of contemplation I realized where she had gone and took off quickly as I could “God damn it why didn’t I pay more attention to her?” I called out running as fast as I could. Jo naturally outpaced me, her desert eagle already drawn and pointed forwards as she bounded over the hill. I wasn’t about to complain. “Why the hell did I bring her along. Girl gets hit by a Were, what the hell do you think is going to happen Willow? Honestly I shoulda just told her to come here and… carried on…”

I glanced down from my vantage point at the top of the hill in shock, watching Jo fire off round after round as she strafed this massive monstrosity. This was The Werewolf, not A werewolf. No, this was the primal fury of which Weres spoke, untempered by both a Animals Instincts or a Thinking Mind. Thick hairy arms that reached easily to the ground while standing at full length and impossibly short thin legs that still seemed to move it side to side without any effort. Its upper body was comparable to some great silverback gorilla, only with the waistline tapering down into a triangle. The long, protruding jaws were the worst though, and those were the things that Jo was now dashing wildly to avoid by alternating swipes from her freshly loosed sword cane and pot shots from her gun, neither of which seemed to be particularly effective.

“Tine Naofa” I screamed pointing my Nerf gun down at the creature, unleashing a torrent of shining silver blue light from its painted tip. The light soon formed into a cone of flame, welling up and wrapping itself around the creature. It loosed a loud, almost overwhelming howl at us, waving its hand away and batting the holy fire apart before turning its face towards me.

“I think ya just made it mad!” Jo yelled as she dashed backwards faster than most Olympic sprinters could dream of going forwards and turned to take a few more shots, hopping along the sides of the ravine.

“Well if you’re done playing Dante for a while maybe you can tell me where Hilda is?” I cried out tossing the nerf gun at Jo as hard as I could and gripping my staff with both hands.

“No I don’t. and what does that have to do with anything… and what the hell am I supposed to do with this?” Jo snapped before pulling the trigger a bit, a small amount of the magical flame leaping from its tip. “Oh… ok then. I guess this works.

The last thing I wanted to do was lose sight of anyone. It was going to make aiming my spells a hell of a lot harder, and the thougth of that thing taking down any of us… or worse that the attack from before had done something to Hilda. I pushed the thought out of my mind and dashed towards the thing as quickly as I could. “Hilda, that better not be you.” I murmured under my breath, sliding down the hill as quickly as I could and thrusting my staff into the air, forcing my thoughts into the weapons shaft and pushing raw magical energy though in a wave of power. “Bru” I screamed, waiting until the thing was on me and hunched over ready to strike. I looked away and closed my eyes just in case I was wrong. Sometimes I have a problem with the heavy magic, I mean frying blood off a wall is one thing, but gathering this much power under this much stress? Things can go wrong easy. I unleashed it all, and didn't open my eyes until I heard the impact of something nice and heavy slamming into the far hill.

“I don’t think that stopped it!” Jo cried as she circled back around next to me, my nerf gun having replaced her own weapon which she now aimed straight out at the creature. Master always said I had a talent for crafting and infusing magical items, imparting my power into more utilitarian objects. Times like this I remembered just why I liked having such a talent. “Now come on. We need to press the advantage while we can. I would hated to fight this thing in the open.”

“The open?” I smirked “I’m not too thrilled about fighting the thing right now.” Topping out at just over five feet tall didn’t have too many advantages. The ability to clamber up hills with wet or sandy soil was thankfully one of them. I pushed up and slammed paw over foot towards the unstoppable killing machine with staff in hand, feeling far more the badass than I really was. “Allright you ugly son of a bitch. Lets see your DR work on this!”

I was about ready to take a nice hard swing with my staff, I really was. Both paws gripped the bottom tight as the rings slinked down to one end, the gold leaf I had put into the etched runes catching just a hint of the moonlight. Right before I closed in for the kill, or at least a good ten feet away still, I noticed another figure standing atop the hill standing there glaring the beast down.

Hilda?” I gasped, watching the Munk dropping her Tek 9 to the ground, blade now drawn, fingers clasping the worn black leather hard enough to turn the knuckles white. She didn’t so much as glance at me, her focus locked on the beast, a beast which seemed to be growing and stretching right before our very eyes. Hildas sword shone with an eery, other worldly light, a light that seemed to grow in intensity as the creature rose, swelled, and soon towered over us all on its absurd front haunches. All the while that light grew, and I couldn’t bring myself to look away from the glistening blade.

“Time to leave you son of a bitch.”

“Great, she has a Deus Ex Machina sword” I sighed taking a few steps back and shielding my face. The monster seemed to have similar feelings, its loud savage scream echoing out again in a fit of pure anger.

When my eyes finally cleared I looked at Hilda standing there, her sword blade held at the ready and caked with patches of dried blood from cross guard to tip. For a moment it seemed like the hand that gripped it was now covered in a fine if slightly tarnished glove of silver chain mail. I looked in closer and saw the armor creeping itself along her whole body somehow resting under her normal clothing and yet still clearly visible to the naked eye.

“Well this is something interesting…” I smirked watching the strange transformation, if it could be called a transformation. “Hay Jo, I think we got ourselves a chance now. Hilda just did… something.”

“Hildaguard.” Hilda said. “Hildaguard did it. Now you two stay out of this. This is between me, and that…” The blade came up and pointed to the snarling werewolf that was not a werewolf for a moment. Hilda took a step forward and that combat boot hit the ground hard, generating the almost unmistakable sound of mail clattering as she did. I was all set to watch the Huntress charge in half cocked, striking out with some old powerful magic sword and vanquishing the creature in a flurry of swordplay and fury.

I was not expecting her to place the blade along her wrist and pull it hard, blood sta