NOTE!!

To everyone who's reading and hopefully enjoying the story I have a request. Soon Alex will be given a name by his new pack and I haven't actually come up with one for him yet! Let me hear your suggestions and which ever one fits him the best will be given to him in my story by the pack!

Thanks for reading! - Sil

Chapter 22 - Shocking Discoveries.

Have you ever been tazered? It's very hard to describe if you haven't. Even being electrocuted isn't quite the same. It hurts, trust me, it fucking hurts. You also can't move. You might see hard asses on T.V. like, fight through the pain. Bullshit, your ass hits the floor and you do a little dance and if you're lucky you don't shit yourself. I'm remembering all this as I do the shocky shakes on the floor until things rather blissfully go dark.

I'm moving, I'm bouncing up and down a little. I slowly open my eyes and see a cage, then I look around, Lawrence is sat next to me with a tazer in his hand. We're in the back of a car, wait, not just a car, a police car.

"Ah, you're awake. Don't move or struggle or I'll have to put you out again." says Lawrence, making the tazer spark for effect.

"Whu... Why..? Why Lawrence?" I can't believe it, my friend. He tazered me. Why'd he do that?

"To capture you of course. Not my current assignment I do know, however these two let me in on what's happening and I agreed to lend them a hand tracking down that little missing kitten." he grins at me.

I stare in disbelief. How can he betray us like that? He was my friend. What's going to happen to Soothing? Is this really the Lawrence I knew? It has to be, he knows things that only the Lawrence I knew knows. But this just can't be right. It just can't. The shock of the whole thing has stopped me from realising that my hands are cuffed behind my back. I can't free them without using some supernatural strength.

"Please don't make this harder on yourself than it has to be Alex. I really don't want to have to waste my energy on you."

There's a chuckle from the front of the car. I'm betting it's the police officers from before. But why was Lawrence helping them? They're just officers aren't they?

"Oh good, we're here."

The car pulls to a stop and the front occupants get out. They open the door to the back and one has a tazer pointed at me. Lawrence gets out the other side and moves around to me, reaching in and pulling me out roughly. I'm carted out of the car and shoved up some steps into a rather large white building. I catch sight of the sign to the side, 'NOPD'. We must be at the station.

With a rough jerk up on my arms, Lawrence uses the handcuffs to guide me through the hallway, past more officers and through into an area with bars across the hall. The two guys are flanking us and that's causing most people to move out of the way. This isn't boding well at all.

The two move on ahead a little and open a door on this big white and blue corridor. The whole place looks well maintained, but there are signs of it's well use. The room I'm now pushed into must be an interrogation room as there's only a table and two chairs, no mirror this time, blast!

I'm shoved into one of the chairs and I grunt in annoyance.

"Right, since we will be literally forever if I go down the route of asking you where the kitten is, we'll go straight to the part where I know you'll start talking." says Lawrence, he turns to the other two officers.

"One of you go get the dad."

They look at each other and frown. Lawrence's form shifts into his half man half coyote.

"Am I speaking another fucking language you idiots? Get the dad so we can show Alex we mean fucking business!"

One of the officers scarpers rapidly out the door. The other one moves to the other side of the room.

"How the hell is that going to help us?" says the cop left. It's the white smarmy bastard.

"Tch, how short sighted you guys are. I know little Alex here, he's a tough little cookie... When it comes to his 'own' health at least. However, he does have a slight white knight complex and will put other people before his own safety. I'm wondering just how much we gotta do to poor daddy before either he or Alex here. Tells us where the little kitten is."

The officer grins widely this time, his face almost grotesque in his appreciation of Lawrence's statement. I must have been looking confused because Lawrence smirks.

"Oh, you haven't run into this ilk have you? Little Fomori here. So full of power from the Wyrm they just can't help themselves when they get to have a little fun with you garou."

"Fomori?"

"Oh yes little garou. That's what we are, we're going to have lots and lots of fun with you...."

My eyes widen as I watch as the officer's shirt starts to expand at the sides, before the material shreds open and for insect like limbs burst from either side of him, each tipped with a wicked pointed claw. His mouth opens far too wide to reveal fangs and row after row of teeth.

If I hadn't seen that demon, I'd have said this was the most fucking ugly thing I'd ever seen. It's not far off right now as it is, but the thing is an abomination, there's no way this kind of thing should exist. Is this the corruption that people kept talking about? The manifestation of the Wyrm within people? A twisted disgusting creature?

"If you're wondering, the wyrm gives you what you want." says Lawrence.

"Of course there's a price, all power comes at a price. Some are willing to pay it, some consider it a bonus rather than a price. Either way, Dyson here, is pretty much an expert at catching people."

There's a gurgling sound from the cop which after a moment I realise must be its laugh. It's horrid.

The door opens and Riyada is shoved in, followed quickly by the black cop who shuts the door behind him. He grins at Lawrence and Dyson before shoving Riyada into the other chair in the room.

"Ah, welcome. What was his name again?" Lawrence asks.

"This is Riyada Smith."

Lawrence snerks. "Really? Smith?"

The black guy grins "Yeah, original."

Lawrence rolls his eyes. "Well then Dave, let's start this little game shall we? You want to slip into something more comfortable?"

Dave grins and sticks his tongue out at Lawrence. It keeps sliding out, that thing slides all the way down to his knees. There's a horrid smell in the air and I notice that stuff is dripping from Dave's tongue onto the floor with a hissing sound. He looms near Riyada and the stuff drips down onto the desk as well, there's sizzling and smoke is rising from the holes. Shit.

"Now Dave here is rather homophobic I have to admit. One might say a bit of a cunt. Though with a tongue like that you can understand why the ladies love him." Lawrence stalks around the room besides Dave and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Yet I get the feeling if I asked 'really' nicely, he'd give little Riyada a nice kiss, you know, help 'loosen' him up, so to speak."

There's chuckling from Dave and Dyson, Lawrence moves around the other side again and leans on the wall near Dyson.

"So I know that you hate to see people getting hurt. All you need to do is start talking and telling us where the little kitten is. Or for the first time ever, you're going to be mortified at the sight of a man kissing another man."

"Hardly asshole, I saw you kissing Soothing. That comes pretty close."

"You saw that huh? Whoops. Oh well. Dyson, where's that info I wanted and the little lie detector?"

"Should be here in a moment boss."

As if on cue, there's a knock at the door. To my surprise Dyson just answers it as he is, taking some items from the guy there and shutting the door. He hands Lawrence a thick folder and what appears to be a circular stone about the same thickness as his fist.

"So Alex, before we get on with the really fun stuff, let me ask. Ever seen a fetish before? And no, I don't mean chips, dips, chains and whips. I mean a mystical item that has a spirit sealed into it, which when empowered by the user can do different tricks."

Lawrence holds up the stone in front of me, it appears to be hollowed out and in the middle there's fastened at white sliver of something. Actually, that looks a lot like bone, in fact the whole thing looks like a compass only there's only 3 markings on it. A mark that looks like a X, a mark that looks like a O and the last one looks just like a line.

"This little doo-hicky will be kind enough to let me know when you two are telling me bullshit, there's also no need to worry about being able to fool it. It's totally accurate."

He puts the file down on the table near me. I realise that it's not just one file, it's two. The top one is marked 'Rin Tsukuyomi', I can't see what the one below it says as there's no markings, but it's a lot thicker than the other one. He then moves back around the room towards Riyada and sits in Riyada's lap. Obviously Riyada doesn't look too happy about this and Dave doesn't look entirely happy either.

"Now Alex, let's get the bullshit out the way. Do you know where Rin is?" asks Lawrence.

"No."

Lawrence looks down at the device in his hands. "Well bugger me. He's telling the truth. Okay Mr, do you know where your daughter is?" he says to Riyada.

"Get off me!"

Lawrence reaches up and his claw touch the skin around Riyada's throat.

"Now stop that, answer the fucking question!"

I can see Riyada gulp from here. "No."

Lawrence looks down at the compass in his hands and frowns again. "Well fuck. Two for two here."

He stands up out of Riyada's lap. "So, you two have no idea where she is. I guess that makes this pretty pointless. Though I do have a question for you Alex."

"What?" I growl.

"As a nuwisha, I need to make sure people learn their lessons, the interpretation of course is up to me. So I wanna know, what have you learned from all of this?"

I growl at him, feeling Dyson move closer to me to my side before a hand clips me on the back of the head.

"Answer the question!" says Dyson.

"Fuck... You treacherous bastard... How could you?"

"Tch, that's not an answer Alex. Stop being so obtuse, at least you might convince these two to make it quick if you're nice."

"FINE! I shouldn't have trusted you! I shouldn't have assumed that you were the Lawrence I knew and that I should be more careful." I blurt out.

"Halleluiah, he can be taught! My job is done, so I will have to turn you guys over to these gentlemen." says Lawrence as he stands up and then holds his hand up next to Dave who blinks, then grinning he high fives the werecoyote.

Lawrence moves over to me and Dyson and just as he gets close I turn to hear Dave make a choking sound. His tongue seems to be swelling in size and he's clawing at his throat. What the fuck?

Before I can finish the thought, blood sprays over the table in front of me and Dyson's face smashes off it. Lawrence sprints around the room and grabbing Dave by the back of the head he drives it down into the floor with some serious force. Dave stops moving as Lawrence stands up.

"Well that went better than I thought it would. Didn't know I was such an asshole though." says Lawrence.

"What... What the fuck? You asshole! You set this up! How the fuck did you?!" I snarl.

"Calm down. I didn't plan any of this as such, I took advantage of the situation. But that doesn't mean that what you learned should be forgotten Alex. Just because I really am on your side doesn't mean you should have been so trusting with me. What would have happened if I wasn't really on your side? Who would have suffered for your mistake here? It wouldn't have just been you. Do NOT make the same mistakes I have and assume you can trust everyone who's of your ilk. It really can be skin deep the similarities."

I growl again, still angry as hell but keeping it together just. "So what the fuck now?"

"Now, we walk out the front door."

The blind audacity of the statement sets me back a little, my jaw hangs open. "The fuck?"

"Dave's outfit should fit Riyada here, you're being released as you have no useful information and I have every intention of following you back to where you actually came from in order to find Rin. Riyada will escort you off the premises and I will follow shortly after. So count yourself lucky yet again Alex, not only did you learn an important lesson, you get the kitten's dad back."

He turns to Riyada and gives a little bow. "My apologies for how I acted there. I couldn't afford to risk taking them out straight away as I needed the information they had on your daughter. Plus I did need Alex to learn his lesson. Would you be alright in slipping into that asshole's uniform and shoving Alex out the door for me?"

Riyada sits there with his jaw open for a moment before regaining his composure and shaking his head.

"You're a tricky bastard. How do I know this isn't a trap?"

"You don't, if you have a better option, feel free to take it. However I will tell you this. The Tyr in my world was someone I loved dearly and I got him killed. I will move fucking mountains to make sure that the tiger's survive in any world because of the love he showed me. Your Tyr is now there and I can do little to help him, yet right now I can give you the help. It's your choice."

Lawrence moves behind Riyada and undoes the handcuffs somehow before moving over to me and doing the same. I rub my wrists and look at him.

"How can we trust you right now Lawrence?"

"You can't and that's the point I'm making. Don't trust all the time, check your options and understand that some you may be forced to take, but others that are based on trust need to be looked at hard."

"What happened to make you this bad?"

"You mean apart from nearly two hundred years as a vampire?"

"Well yeah, but you still loved life even though you didn't have it as such."

"Eh, long story short, I got my emotions back and now I realise I can't trust them as much either. I'm developing feelings for Colt and I'm scared he won't feel the same back, but on top of that I don't want to upset you alright? Now Riyada if you'd be so kind, I'll turn my back, quickly now."

He strips Dave's uniform in record time before shifting back to his human form and turning away, giving his back to us. I knew at this moment he was testing me again. He'd betrayed me and got exactly what we needed and what we wanted and taught me a lesson. If I truly didn't trust him, he was giving me a chance take the risk by myself and I could take him out right now.

I was so angry at him right now but a thought hits me as hard as a truck. He'd betrayed us just to get us what we were after, he'd saved us and yet I now didn't trust him. Colt must have felt the exact same way the day he found out I'd betrayed his beliefs in me. Even now staring at the open shot Lawrence is giving me I know that he's still trying to be my friend by doing the harsh lessons that I couldn't forgive anyone else for. Colt may never forgive me, but I'm not Colt.

Standing up, I walk behind him. He tenses a little but doesn't turn around. I slip my arms around him and hug him tightly.

"Thank you my friend."

"Don't thank me Alex. I'm sorry I had to do it."

"I'm ready" says Riyada and we both turn around.

Not the best of fits, but if we kept moving its unlikely anyone will notice. Time for us to leave this place.