Ulterior Motives

When Things Go Wrong

The werewolves in movies never got it right but they were close. Lycanthrope are natural, natures balance to the vampire but werewolves were bitten. Lycan can control themselves when they change, are conscious of it; there's a balance between man and wolf. Human's bitten by lycanthrope are infected and it spreads like a disease. They can't control the transformation and in turn it drives many of them mad. Most are driven out of cities, forced to live in the outskirts and feed off animals. Warned that if they hurt a human they will be put down like the rabid dogs they are. They become sociopaths and live for blood, the hunt takes over and it's all they know. Creating packs was not something werewolves were known for, they didn't trust each other or have enough control to keep followers under their thumb. Human minds were never meant to encompass this life and there is no cure. Werewolves lose any sense of humanity, and the hunt consumes them, worse than any obsession. They quite literally become monsters, single-minded bloodlust and incapable of remorse.

Reagan had never been more scared in her life. He was blocking her exit and the rank fumes emanating from him made her gag. She felt for the wolfsbane potion on her wrist and with an insignificant tug it came loose. It wouldn't kill him but it would disorient him long enough for her to get around him and make a break for it.

"You smell nice." His voice was raw, like a junkie needing a fix. She instantly felt violated and disgusted. His words came out sideways and the spaces between just slightly too long. Almost as if they didn't make it from his head to his mouth smoothly. They clung to her skin like a toxic film. A layer she felt she would never be able to wash away.

He stepped closer to her, still trailing his nail along the wall, his sharpened nails like claws splitting the layers of paint apart. "I've been told not a...drop of your... blood is to be ssspilled.. and if I keep my promisess.. Then..then I get all the blood I want. The streetss....of this city will be my buffet and I can ... indulge in whatever... fitsss my fancy." His tongue drooped from his mouth as he talked barely making him audible but she caught every terrifying word.

"Told by whom?" Reagan wasn't sure how she managed to get the words to form but they came out a lot stronger than she felt.

Tisk, tisk, tisk." He lifted his hand from the wall, tipped his finger back and forth like a pendulum with every tut. "I'm not... sssupposed to say. It... 's a surprise."

"I'm not really that big on surprises." Reagan felt like keeping him talking would be the only way she might be able to get a blitz attack on him.

"The ssurprise... isssn't for.. you." He sneered. "You.. 're the ssurrr..prise." and he lunged at her.

Throwing the vial as hard as she could at the floor between them it smashed and a pale gray smog enveloped him midair. She had to lunge to the side to miss him and made her escape for the door as he crashed passed her. Putting her between him and the exit she ran as fast as she could. The potion did its job; half transformed in mid jump he had inhaled the gas and slammed into the end chair of the dining room table, crashing into the floor. His momentum had flipped the table on its side and sent the chair flying into the wall.

She ran without hesitation. Careening around the corner she came to a sudden stop. Skidding over the tile barely being able to grab onto the wall for support before she crashed to the floor. It was worse than she could have imagined. They had managed to melt the doorway completely. The door was gone, whatever potion they had used liquefied nearly the entire wall. Pieces of melting sheetrock dripped to the floor.

This is the home of a high ranking Warlock, they couldn't have gotten in without help and somehow they did. Someone had sent them after Oliver. No, that couldn't be right. They weren't here for Oliver, he was already with the traitor. They were here for her, she was the surprise. The adrenaline alone was the only thing that kept her from fainting out of terror.