Chapter 7 - Showdown At Not So OK Corral.

He's not exactly wearing the uniform well, it's on him alright, but it's far from a good fit. Oh well, it'll have to do. Here's hoping I can distract enough people and not get my ass killed or discovered.

"Good. They won't give a shit about me and probably will do as they're told I hope." I grumble, grabbing the files of the table. This top one should have all the details for Riyada and the kitten.

"Keep hold of this, at least you'll know what they know up to this point." I say, handing the folder to him.

"Lawrence, is that your file?" asks Alex.

I look down at the hefty thing and say "Yeah." Pulling open the file I start looking through it. There was a lot of documents with writing on which I gave a quick glance over, words catching my eyes like "Project Chimera" and "Project 5". Jeez, original names. The photo or two in the folder makes me stop just flicking through it. They were pictures of people and what I assume happened to them as the second picture of each person I glanced at, was red smears and parts of bodies. Here's hoping I can use this fucking thing for some good.

"Fuck, looks like I have some work to do. Here's hoping I hang around long enough to fix some of it. I can read this later, let's get a move on." I start to head to the door then I remember the two idiots I took care of. Better move them.

It's not difficult to pull them under the table so they're out of sight for now. At least this way they're not going to be noticed right off the bat. I motion for Alex to walk out in front of me and jerk my head at Riyada to shut the door. Shoving Alex in the back I start to hassle him down the hall.

"Come on come on, I've got better shit to do today than worry about you runt." I grunt and shove him some more for good measure. He's getting into the part too, sounding more and more pissed as I push him.

We get back down the hall we came from and about to pass through the double doors we came in when the two desk monkeys decide to pipe up.

"Agent Blake? What's happening?" says the slimmer of the two, though I use that in it's loosest term.

The pair look like they beat anorexia with the world's biggest stick. They look greasy as hell and one of them has some delightful sweat patches sticking out from under his arms. Oh god, there's an aroma I thought you only got in fucking abattoirs. It's all I can do not to sneer in disgust at the pair of them.

"This little runt is wasting my time so before I'm inclined to do something more drastic, the officer here is escorting him off the premises." I jerk my head again at Riyada and shove Alex towards the door, Riyada taking over the hassling and they're out of the door rather quickly.

That leaves me with the anti diet squad.

"Agent, forgive me for saying, but you just let a suspect go who we could have done with keeping." says the sweatier one.

"Indeed I did officer. I have my reasons, the key one being to give him a head start and tail him to wherever the little whelp is being held. Also officer?" I lean a little closer to him.

"Yes sir?"

I punch him right in the stomach. A perfect gut shot, though to be honest it wasn't a small target. He buckles under the punch and everyone else starts staring at me.

"I don't forgive you." I growl and turn my glare on the rest of the room who suddenly all seem to remember they have something else to do which is highly pressing. I could get used to being a dick like this. Though I have a feeling it would put a serious dampener on my sex life. Heh, sex life. Yeah, like that's ever going to happen again. Though it is cool that now all my body actually works and it wouldn't be quite as difficult to have fun, considering it's now 'natural'. Yet I've got the lovely issue of comparing them to my lost love, or wondering if a certain other garou might be impressive between the sheets. Urgh, apparently jealousy still worked horrendously well.

There still is the issue of taking care of this place. As a police station it'll have an armoury room and some stuff that would be explosive, but it's unlikely to have anything I could bring the damn place down with. However, I didn't get to check out if Riyada had anything when he came in, so if I head to the evidence room, then I can get the items on the premise of using them to track the kitten. I'll just do what Tarquin does and shout at people who get in my way.

"SIR SIR!" someone comes running into the room. It's another police officer who looks like he's not seen sunlight as long as me and has shocking ginger hair.

"Gregory, what do you want!" snaps the guy I just punched. He's struggling to his feet.

"Sir! It got loose! Its running around downstairs!" whimpers Gregory.

"The fuck are you on about!?" snarls fatty.

"The spirit, the fire spirit!" says Gregory.

The fatso's both pale. It looks like they aren't equipped to handle this. Hrm, maybe I can turn this to my advantage. Though I haven't dealt with fire spirits before, here's hoping I can actually talk this one into blowing this place to bits. That is if it has the capability.

"Well that sounds like fun, I have someone to tail, good luck." I say to the two fat guys.

"Sir, please! We need you, we can't handle this!" begs the other guy who I've decided to call sweaty.

"And I should help why?" I growl at him.

"Because the higher ups would get pissy if you don't." says fatty.

I narrow my eyes at him and my growl gets louder "Why would they be pissed at me for YOUR incompetence?!"

He blanches again and steps back. Should I take his ass out of the sling yet? Not yet, but I'm not going to make it look like I'm scared of anyone.

"You morons let it loose and I'm well aware of what will happen to you idiots if you can't recapture it. On top of that, you're flapping your gums at me instead of doing something to contain the problem. Why the fuck should I save your balls?" I growl darkly.

"Buh...Be.. Because... You just got back, so you need money and we can get some out of the evidence locker." Says the fat one.

He's got a good point there. Greed is also something these guys know about, so if they chuck me the cash then I blow the place, I can kill two birds with one stone.

"Okay, now you're talking a language I understand. Get me enough and I'll do it, you better hurry and get it though, that spirit isn't gonna be slow." I smirk.

The fat guy sort of runs off, I can't describe exactly how disturbing his run is. It's really unpleasant for a dancer of my calibre to see something like that waddle off like that. I just stand there with my arms folded and tapping my foot. They can fuck off if they think I'm going to help before I get the cash. The longer I leave it, the more chance of destruction.

He comes jiggling back at quickish speed. He should just roll up in a ball and throw himself, probably be faster. I don't see myself shitting a brick if this git is chasing me. He's got a small bag grasped in his now very sweaty hand. Yeck.

"Hufff, huff... Here..." he thrusts the bag towards me. I shove the file under an arm and check the bag, it's kinda heavy.

Inside appears to be a couple of bundles of bills, looks to be a few thousand. But there's also a lump of play dough. The hell? I slide my gaze slowly up with a glare at the officer.

"In case.... you need to.... blow them garou...." He huffs.

I raise an eyebrow, looks like the guy I used to be here knew how to use C4. This could prove useful, though I have no idea how the hell to use it. I wonder if a fire spirit knows how to blow up C4? Failing that I know that this stuff doesn't go off if you set it on fire. Tyr mentioned something about a blasting cap one time, but I'm now kicking myself trying to remember what the hell he said.

"You usually have C4 floating around?" I frown at him.

"No.... Stupid garou.... We found it.... Stopped them. Now. Fire spirit?" he's panting.

I smirk, how amusing. He's wanting me to use the garou's own explosive against them. This aught to be a laugh at least, if I can figure it out. Better head downstairs for now though. With a dramatic sigh and throwing the bag over my shoulder I look at the ginger.

"Come on, show me where it's gone."

Ginger actually manages to get paler. That's a pretty neat trick. I'm kinda impressed with that, so instead of booting his ass into gear, he gets a not so harsh shove in the direction he came from. It has the desired effect and he starts to move swiftly down the corridor. I actually have to move rather briskly to keep up with him. Wow, this little shit can actually shift. Faster than I'd expect any human to move anyway. Mental note, make sure he's taken care of.

He leads me through a couple of corridors and down a set of stairs. I notice there's no windows, so I'm guessing this is the underground level. I shift up a form and keep my eyes, ears and nose peeled. Wouldn't do to go walking face first into a trap. At least not again, I would hope I'd learned something from my current misadventures.

A wave of nausea hits me as I look at the ginger's back and suddenly I'm not looking at the corridors of a police station.

I rush as swiftly as I dare through the props and stage setups. Dodging and jumping over small items as I run towards the rear stage exit. An arrow whistles through the air and embeds itself in the wall besides me. I don't bother stopping as I hit the door and barrel through. This bastard was crazy! He'd actually managed to cause enough of a distraction to lure Tyr away from me and now he was chasing me with a fucking crossbow.

I curse inwardly as I run faster, knowing that right now I can't risk using too much of my abilities for fear of being seen by the public. Though in the same vein, he can only follow me so far with that crossbow before the populous start getting antsy. That's what I'm hoping anyway, as well as hoping it's sometime really soon.

I run further through the corridors and rather annoyingly, through more empty corridors. There's no one around. How convenient. This guy is either the world's luckiest bugger, or he's got more tricks up his sleeves than I'm aware of. Granted, he's also apparently worked out I'm a sodding vampire, but hey, there's always the jealous fans. Didn't expect one to come armed with a crossbow though.

Another arrow whistles by and clips my arm. I grit my teeth and dive through another door marked exit. Unfortunately this time it leads me right back to where I started in, the main stage area. On the plus side, there's Tyr now, currently taking on what appears to be half a dozen guys with small swords. Not good. They've not got the advantage over him, but neither is he able to actually take care of them. Plus right behind me, is the lunatic with the crossbow.

Running away seems like a very good idea right now. In fact, that's exactly what Tyr told me to do. I'm probably going to get shouted at again for coming back, though what's more annoying is the fact I let myself be led back here. The six stooges all appear to have Tyr pretty much boxed in, I'm betting those damn swords are silver. I'm surprised he hasn't gone batshit on them. Though he's also still in human form and wielding what appears to be a chair I think. I bet he's like that garou and silver doesn't affect him when he's in his natural form.

Though now is not the time to be stood admiring this handsome specimen take on the human hit squad. Who they are is unknown to me, though if I survive, I will be attempting to find out, if only to return the damn favour. But what I can more or less tell from looking, they're human. Meaning with me, they're outclassed.

I sprint forward and launch myself straight up and over a few rows of seats onto the corner area of the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please!" I shout out, kicking my blood's power into gear.

That did the trick as the six guys all turn and look at me. Naturally the next thing to happen is two of them go down as claws stick through them. Tyr was never a tiger to waste and opportunity. However the muppet with the crossbow also came through the door and just let loose another bolt at me. My blood's ability to increase my speed was pretty much the only thing stopping that arrow from going clean through my heart. It still hurt like hell with it going through my shoulder, but I wasn't down because of it.

The small bonus being that now I have a great eye contact with Mr Crossbow. So I give him the full bore of my pissed off look, making sure he has a clue just 'how' much shit he's in. It seems to work as he starts to back off and the crossbow is pointing down now. My line of sight is then disturbed by another body going flying past and into the wall. Mr Crossbow then decides now is a good time to disappear, so he legs it through the door.

Tyr only has two guys left and they're pretty much realising how hopeless this situation is. At least, that's what I thought, until Tyr grabbed one of them, then the other guy shoved his blade clean through the grabbed guy and into Tyr. The roar of pain I heard then was deafening and Tyr staggered back.

I didn't hesitate, I was a blur across the room and the next thing I knew, I was dropping the guy to the floor with his head facing the opposite way to his body. Tyr was clutching his stomach and down on one knee. I remember stepping forward just in time to see Mr Crossbow show himself again and take aim at Tyr. I raced forward like a blur again, just in time to put myself between Mr Crossbow and Tyr.

The arrow hit home, only this time I couldn't stop it from hitting me in my heart. My body stopped dead. The wood sticking through my heart caused my body to completely shut down and I think I toppled over backwards. I was totally paralyzed. I couldn't move, I couldn't defend myself. I was at the mercy of anyone. It sucked.

I heard another roar from Tyr, then there was a squelch sound a few moments later, he loomed over me. I saw his hand reach down and grasp the arrow, it was wrenched from my chest. I remember thinking, I'm glad I don't have emotions to deal with the pain I'm about to feel. Unfortunately, pain is a sensation, not an emotion. So I'm reminded of how much it hurts to have something yanked from your heart as my body un-paralyses and I'm trying not to scream the place down around people's ears.

"That was stupid Lawrence." growls Tyr.

I look up at him, the wound in his stomach partially healed, but not completely. His face has blood around his mouth and his clothes are somewhat torn in places. If my heart could beat, it would be doing a marathon and I'd have probably passed out from the blood loss to a certain body part.

"Sorry." I mumble.

He always seems to do that to me. On stage or with most people, I'm a confident tidal wave of charisma. Around him, I'm a bumbling fool who always wants to do whatever he can just to impress him. He reaches down and gently lifts me to my feet, the movement making his arm muscles bulge beautifully as well as the firmness of his hand on my arm. It's not real feelings, but I'd swear my stomach was full of butterflies.

"Stop saving me Lawrence. I am supposed to protect you." he growls.

"You owe me a debt, I'm aware of this. If you think I'm going to let you die before it's paid off, you're mistaken." I huff.

"Such is the way of your kind." he says.

In that moment I wanted him to put the arrow right back where it came from. Nothing he could have said would have struck me harder. I didn't feel right, no I didn't, but I felt something for this tiger and on top of that I felt that all I would ever be to him was the monster he owed.

Had I have been human, then all I would have been able to do at that moment was cry. Even as a vampire, no words had ever been physically painful to me until that moment. Yet I knew that Tyr spoke the truth of his feelings, irrespective of how he saw me as an entity, he believed me to be the demon. I turned away and bit my lip, there was little I could respond with that wouldn't sound petulant and childish.

"Lawrence..." came Tyr's voice, a thread of remorse creeping into it.

"You're right Tyr, you're right. Such is the way of my kind. A fate I have to accept." I said as I walk past him.

"I'll be at the hotel in my box." and I left.

I opened the door to the stage exit only to see the police corridor again. In front of me, the ginger guy was still leading the way. It doesn't look like he seemed to have even noticed anything from me, or if he did, he was keeping quiet. Well, at least I know that I didn't try to snog him. He's 'so' not my type.

He stops outside a door near the end of what appears to be a stone corridor, but the walls have some kind of white tiling on them. He points to the door he's stood next to.

"It's in there sir. I locked the door and ran first chance I got."

I roll my eyes and shake my head.

"Good, well, open it." I growl at him, shifting up into my manabozho form.

He gulps and quickly flicks the lock open. I grab him by the scruff and shove him into the room. That's when a familiar scent fills my nostrils as there's a muffled sound from where the ginger sprawled forward.

I can smell naga....