Blood for blood

by Tobi Grim

  He squeezed her hand. “I know... I just never thought that going through this bonding would make me feel so... so strongly. I thought that would happen over years, not days. But seeing you like that, watching you hit the ground, it was like... like my heart stopped. Fucking crazy, hey.”

  She smiled. To regular people she supposed it did sound crazy, but she knew it wasn’t, not for them, not for any Hunter and their Protector. She tucked her legs next to her and lay her head on his shoulder. Yes, they had become close quickly, but they needed to. And the bond would only grow stronger, one day he’d know where she was just by feeling for her energy, the way Karl had. She frowned. Was she losing another piece of that life?

  “Not crazy. Right. It’s just... right.”

  They sat there in comfortable silence for however long. Lupa with her head on his strong shoulder, Dameon with his head resting against hers. Dameon’s phone broke the silence, they both sat up as he wiggled to get his phone out of his jeans pocket.

  “It’s Gran, I gotta take this.” His eyes showed more signs of worry.

  He stood to answer the phone, and Lupa felt her head getting fuzzy and warm. What was it she had taken? Ah, whatever, she didn’t give a fuck. She felt good. She felt fucking fantastic. She put her hands up in the air, looking at them with wonder. The black colour was starting to dissipate, more of an ashen grey now.

  “I gotta go Lupa, my Gran can’t find her pills and she is starting to feel sick, and I know it’s gotta be bad if she’s actually admitting she feels unwell. Are you going to be ok? I can come back later if you like? It’s only five now, I can come back after my dad gets home around ten, I know it’s a few hours away but.... or you could come with me if you don’t want to be alone..?”

  “No, no, you go. Go be with Gran. I’ll be fine. I might go out for a walk or something...”

  He nodded and went to the door. “Call me if you need, ok?”

  “Will do.”

  She waved, her voice feeling far away from her. She hoped his Gran was alright, but she felt so floaty it was hard to be concerned. She got up and fetched herself another beer, heading to the bedroom to grab some cloths and have a shower. A walk would be nice, but she could think of plenty of better things to do…

  Chapter Seven

  “As we stand together, we stand stronger…”

  How had she ended up at fucking Grey’s place again? Well, she knew how but she couldn’t really understand why she had agreed. She didn’t want to give him the wrong idea. And if he was fucking dating Brianna... well...

  “Hey Grey?” she wandered over to his drawing wall and had a better look, “Did you tell Brianna about us screwing?”

  Grey joined her with a glass of vodka and OJ. “No... Why would you ask that?”

  “She put a knocking out spell curse on me today. Dameon said you guys were dating...”

  “She fucking did what?!”

  “Chill out, I’m ok. Slasher is on it. Dameon said he saw her... I thought maybe she might be ticked off about us… you know.”

  “We aren’t dating. Not anymore. Wasn’t serious-are you sure you’re ok?”

  The warm drunk feeling was settling in as she took a long drink from the glass. She was looking at one of the pictures Grey had drawn, big wolfbloods crowded around a red hooded girl who held a large machete-like blade.

  “Is that me?” she asked, her hand flying to her mouth, “Sorry. That wasn’t meant to come out of my mouth. More drunk than I thought.”

  She looked over to him laughing, she saw the concern slipping out of his eyes and a cheeky grin spread over his whole face. That grin turned her on.

  “Yeah, it is actually. You didn’t notice last time you were here? I didn’t know what you looked like when I drew it, but I had heard... and I presumed with the nickname that you’d have a red jacket. Like it?”

  Lupa grabbed his shirt and pulled his face down to kiss her. He roughly drew her to him, fingers digging into her back. His teeth tugged at her lip before he pulled away. Grey took her glass from her hand and placed it on the table with his own. He turned back around and pulled her into him with such force her heartbeat picked up double time. His fingers in her hair, a groping hand against her ass, she knew she shouldn’t be doing this again, but fuck it, she couldn’t help herself.

  He slammed her against the wall, pinning one of her wrists as he trailed kisses down her neck. His teeth grazed against her skin, she shivered with pleasure. Dragging her nails up his back, a small thrill ran up her spine as she felt skin under her nails. Yep, no way she could fucking help herself now. And it was much better than a walk.

  ⃝

  Lupa let Grey give her a ride home this time, mostly because she wanted to ride on the back of his bike again; to feel like she was so fragile she could float away in the breeze. She didn’t invite him in though, and didn’t let him kiss her goodbye. It was just sex after all. He waited for her to unlock the building’s front door before they waved to each other and he rode off into the night. Her phone started ringing as she reached her own apartment door, unlocking it with one hand while searching her bag with the other, she pulled it out.

  “Hey, how are you?” Lupa shoved the door open with her foot and closed it with her ass.

  “Yeah good. How are you feeling? Has the spell left your system yet?”

  Lupa looked down hat her hands, “Yep, wouldn’t even know a fucking thing. What did Brianna say?”

  She heard Slasher sigh, she could imagine her rubbing her temples. “She admitted to it as soon as I said Dameon saw her. Brianna said it wasn’t meant to be as strong as it was, and that she wanted to get you back for stealing her boyfriend. But she had no proof as to why, not that it would make a difference, she kept saying he’d never drawn a picture of her. Anyway, she’s been put on dungeon duty for the next month. Shane too, he knew about it and didn’t say anything. Are you satisfied with that punishment?”

  Lupa snickered a little viciously. The dungeon was where the wolfbloods used in training were kept, and where they were ‘questioned’ should they be captured. Cleaning up after them, being stuck with their stench suffocating her nostrils for a month was definitely punishment enough.

  “Sounds fitting.”

  “And how’s Dameon doing? Do you think I’ll get another blasting anytime soon?” Slasher sounded amused.

  “Ha, ha. You know how men get, especially Protector men. He was fine when he left, I was going to text him after I got off the phone and see, he had to go home cos his Gran isn’t well. I’ll let him know how the Brianna affair went too.”

  “Ok. Well, tell him I say thanks. I know you’re in good hands. Tank has said he will take you down to Hammer’s joint whenever you’re ready. You’ve got your case to work on, but the offer is there for if you decide to look into it that way...”

  “Thanks, Slasher. I’ll let you know.”

  “Ok, hun, bye now.”

  “See ya.”

  Lupa lit a smoke while she texted Dameon, asking how his Gran was and letting him know that Brianna had confessed and was given dungeon duty. The thought made her smile again. The bitch fucking deserved it, she hoped the beasts gave her hell. Lupa wouldn’t enter the dungeons herself unless absolutely necessary, almost everyone felt that way… Dameon texted her straight back, saying everything was fine at his place and he was happy with the punishment. They made plans to meet at his the next morning to start on their case.

  She flopped onto her couch and stared at the roof, how strange this all felt. How… easy. It was like Dameon had always been there, and yet… not. Was she disrespecting Karl by finding this so easy? Should she be struggling with this more than she was? Shit.

  She rolled on her side and wished she was drunker, or fucked up on something else, but… she should probably get some sleep or something. She had work to do tomorrow, with her new Protector, someone who would help her avenge Karl. That made it all ok, right? Surely he would understand, surely he would be happy for her. Silent te
ars falling again, warm against her cool cheeks. She’d fucking get them; all of them.

  ⃝

  “So, Red, we didn’t talk any about the case yesterday, did you wanna go have some breakfast and we’ll sort out where to go? I had a look through and all, but… this is ours not just mine.”

  Lupa walked next to him as they headed down the street. “Sounds good, I just want to get the fuck out of this rain. Why did we have to fucking walk?”

  “Because,” he said, grinning, pulling the door of a small diner open and following her in, “the rain is a great thing to walk in.”

  She rolled her eyes as he led her to a booth. The red fake leather seats were cracked and worn, threadbare in most places but comfortable enough. Lupa leaned back and lit a smoke, her wet hair sticking to her skin.

  “So, how does it look? How many people made reports?”

  Dameon placed the thin folder on the table. “So this guy, Mike Smith, is the one we’re looking into. Looks like three reports were made by an elderly woman, she says she’s seen him with yellow eyes, says she saw him claw something, and she saw him with the girl a couple of hours before she was found dead. There’s a report from a teenager who says he attacked her, then we have the filed reports of two missing girls, it seems the other one that was reported missing just ran away. He works in a supermarket just down the road a bit. Apparently stacks the shelves. So what now? Do you want to question the people who made reports? Or his co-workers?”

  Lupa smiled to herself, it was interesting watching someone come to the whole working on a case thing with new eyes, her and Karl had grown together with their excitement, dulling a little as they got used to it, but never fading. Dameon had never got to do this part, he was only ever taken as a tag along, back up or lookout.

  “What would you like to do?” she asked, tapping her cigarette ash into the cracked plastic ashtray on the table.

  “Well… I’m not sure really. Maybe go to his place of work and see whether anyone else has noticed anything?”

  “Yeah sure, sounds good to me, does he stack at night?”

  “From what I can see he does. It aint that specific. I would have called and asked but I didn’t want to go ahead without you.” He shrugged.

  “Ok. Either way I’m-”

  “Can I helps you?” An underweight girl stood over them in a stained green uniform, holding an old tattered notebook.

  “Umm…” Lupa looked over at Dameon who grabbed the menu, she didn’t really feel hungry but she supposed she should eat something, “What’s good?”

  The girl sighed, “Nothing. Milkshakes are a‘right.”

  “Get me one of them then. Chocolate.”

  “I’ll have a burger and a choc milkshake too,” Dameon told the girl, placing the menu back.

  “Mm’k” The girl wandered off still scribbling in the notebook, Lupa wondered whether the girl was even writing their order down or if she was writing something else.

  “So we’ll eat then go down to the ‘market?”

  “Yeah sounds good. Just gotta hope he’s not there, wouldn’t want him to sense us and make a run for it,” Lupa butted her smoke out, “I’m really not in the mood for running today.”

  Dameon looked at her, really looked at her. His eyes scanning her face. “You sure you’re ok? You’ve been a bit… off today.”

  He was right, she felt like she’d slammed her head into a brick wall. Lupa also felt like a fucking idiot for going to Grey’s place again and she wasn’t exactly hiding her bad mood well. She dragged her eyes away from his, peering down at the table.

  “Sorry, Hawk, feel a bit shitty. But I’ll suck it up and get over it. Think I just drank too much last night.”

  “Hawk?”

  She grinned at him feeling her mood lift a little, “Well… your tattoo… and you don’t fucking miss a thing. Any luck?”

  “I actually aint mind that one,” he laughed, “We’ll see. If it sticks, I won’t complain about it. Best one yet.”

  The skinny waitress interrupted them by putting down their milkshakes and Dameon’s burger on the table and giving them a strange look of longing. She sighed heavily and shuffled away.

  “Now she is in a bad mood,” Lupa said taking a sip from her shake. It was pretty damn good. She felt better already.

  Dameon made some sort of affirmative noise with his mouth filled with food. She rolled her eyes and smiled. That was something Dameon and Karl would’ve had in common; stuffing their faces. She played with her hair and drank her milkshake, positive the burger and shake in front of Dameon would be gone in a few moments. Despite Karl being skinny, he had known how to put his food away. Lupa had learned quickly not to ever offer to buy him dinner unless she really, really needed a favour. Just thinking about it made her wallet start to shrivel up.

  “I’ll go pay and we can go?”

  “What? Fuck you got through that quick. Yeah ok, I’ll finish my ‘shake while you do that.”

  ⃝

  The supermarket was fairly busy this time of day, they wandered down towards the back of the shop to where the cashier had told them Mike Smith’s supervisor would be. He had also told them Mike wouldn’t be in until later, which they were both relieved to hear, though Lupa suspected herself more than Dameon.

  “So, do you want to do the talking? I’m not really sure where to start…” Dameon looked at her somewhat nervously.

  “I can do that, you keep them hawk eyes looking around then.”

  They reached the end of the isles and Dameon opened the door leading out to the packing area, and they both went through. Immediately they stopped and looked at each out. Fuck. There was a wolfblood here. A fairly strong one too. Lupa shoved her hand in her bag and grabbed the small dagger she kept on her at all times and then they stood dead still.

  “Should we leave, I don’t have anything with me…” Dameon whispered, still looking only at her.

  “Oi! Who let you back here? You aint s’posed to be in here.”

  Fuck. “Umm, sorry, we didn’t mean to… we’ll leave.”

  Feeling Dameon’s hand pulling the door open behind her as she watched a large hairy man approaching them. His stench hitting her as he stopped, she knew they were fucked now.

  “Aww, nah, don’t think you will be, fuckin witch!”

  His body grew, his jaw jutted out slightly, baring large wolf teeth. Fuck fuck fuck. Was this Mike, or another…? Dameon stepped out in front of her, crouching slightly. Lupa quickly glanced around, there was a garage door leading out to the car park to the left of them, they could run but… she turned her gaze back to the beast ambling towards them. He wasn’t rushing. He knew they wouldn’t go back the way they came and risk the people in the supermarket. He also probably knew they couldn’t make it to the garage door before he reached to them. Fuck.

  Lupa readied her dagger, dropped her bag to the floor and stepped to Dameon’s left, still just behind him. They hadn’t prepared themselves before coming so she couldn’t send him her thoughts, she took a deep breath and focused on him, hoping that she might be able to make a small connection.

  Let him attack me and then you can fuck him up.

  Lupa startled a little, Dameon must have been trying to connect with her too, and he had been able to get through.

  Right. I trust you.

  The beast leapt, his transformed legs tearing his work pants at the seams. Dameon was ready, he grabbed the wolfblood around the middle, both of them roaring. Lupa jumped at them, feeling the jolt of excitement taking over. The black lightning was already dancing around her blade, she dug the dagger into the side of the creature’s neck, jumping quickly aside as he threw Dameon off him and howled in her face.

  “Fucking Hunter bitch! I’ll enjoy tasting your blood, you stinking half breed.”

  He stood facing her, panting, blood trickling down his neck and soaking his soiled shirt. Lupa readied herself, the blade in front of her, her knees bent. Her focus was completely on the creature in front of
her; tunnel vision. She wanted to split him open, she thirsted to tear out his insides... Oh what fucking fun it could be. But she didn’t get the chance, Dameon had pounced, his fingers jamming into the wolfbloods wound as he sent his own black lightning down his arm and into the beast’s neck. Howling filled their ears, bouncing off the metal walls, filling the packing room. Lupa ran at him and buried her dagger into his crotch, ripping it upwards towards his stomach.

  “You never had a fucking chance,” Lupa hissed as the wolfblood’s head fell onto her shoulder. The life dying in his eyes. She kicked him off her, pulling out her knife.

  “You ok?” Dameon panted, kicking the body on the floor.

  “Fucking great, think that was Mike?”

  “Certainly fucking wasn’t,” they turned. Fucking hell. There was another man standing about ten feet away from them, smoking a cigarette and watching them with curiosity. “I’m fucking Mike.” He said. “But I aint no fucking wolfblood scum. Come at me with your witchy shit if you aint believe me.”

  Lupa hesitated before straightening up. Sure, she’d be happy to oblige him, and if he was a fucking wolfblood, they’d just have to kill him too. In fact, she kind of hoped he was, the fight had been over so quickly. But the bloody stench of the dead animal filled her nostrils, she’d need to be much closer to tell. She picked up her bag and started towards him as he smiled and started walking towards her. Face to face as such. He was huge, she guessed he was almost as big as Tank. But she wouldn’t be intimidated. Looking up into his face, she felt around with her power. Nope. Definitely not a wolfblood. She sniffed slightly, he sure fucking stunk though. But just a big fuck off guy. She smiled and raised her eyebrows, waiting to see if he’d step back.

  “He safe?” Dameon’s voice broke their staring match.

  “Yeah, he’s fine.” Lupa said, stepping away as Mike did the same. “Did you know this guy was a wolfblood, Mike?”

  “Nah, I aint got no special fucking powers, knew he was fucking dodgy though. Knew he was fucking around with bitches that aint come round no more. Aint none of my fucking business. I stay outa it. Need this fucking job. Then I dun hear from my sister I was thought to be fucking killing women or some shit, thought I’d come in and see who fucking talking shit, I come find you fighting my boss, I did, and there you find your fucking answers.”