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           He arrived in the open meadow, sniffing

intently to try and find a scent to follow. Even his enhanced olfactory ability

was hard put to find the proper molecules to stimulate his nose. He searched

the grounds, sniffing back and forth until he found a smell that he recognized.

His hair stood on end.He turned and race off, heedless of

the pouring rain as it came down in sheets, driven into a climatic frenzy by

the storm. He ran to the edge of a ravine, sniffed the air and turned to chase

after the scent. His mind was only dimly aware of what he was doing, but the

connection between the scent and his quarry matched up in his head. He knew

that when he found the source of the odor he would find the one thing he was

looking for.The Kindred were all huddled

together, hardly bothered by the storm. The Atlantic coast was often hit by

severe storms, common holdovers from hurricanes brewed in the Caribbean.  Leeds himself was still in his feral form,

ignoring the rain as he worked to lessen his pain. The chemicals he had already

healed from, but the loss of his child would stay with him until the end of his

days.The storm howled and raged, not

unlike another party who was out in it at the moment, searching with a ken nose

set to finding someone to whom he could pay his respects. No one had any

inkling that this fellow was now completely out of his head, for if they had,

they might have realized that he was now more dangerous than at any other time

in his brief existence as a werewolf.Somewhere else in the storm, a

group of wolves was trying desperately to get back to their compound. Their

leader called them to a halt, taking refuge under an overhang of rock.  They were wet and miserable, but then, rain

wasn't the worst thing they might have to deal with. Lightning and thunder

might rattle the nerves, but they had just seen things only hinted at by the

tales passed down through generations of the wolf kind. They had a shared,

inherent understanding that there were things out in the world far greater than

they were, and those things where not mere humans. Humans were a different set

of problems altogether.Back in the human city of Pittsburgh,

Billy was pacing the floor. "I don't like it. He shouldn't keep

running off like this. It's stupid. I know he's young when it comes to being

one of the Kind, but it's still an irresponsible thing to do."Edward's father shook his head. "We

tried so hard to let him have a normal life. When he got into the accident, we

knew what had happened to his lucky coin. We thought that it might harm him,

but when he didn't react, we felt it might be just the thing to prevent him

from ever changing. We were right."Billie smashed his fist into the

wall. "Yeah, about that. Why did you think you would know enough about it to

allow that little chunk of metal to hinder his natural being?"No offense was taken. "We knew that

there were forces after us. From what you've told us these forces to a partial

degree have been eliminated. We wanted Edward to survive, and after his

grandparents were murdered, we knew we were in trouble. So we burned down our

own house and disappeared from the sight of most mortals. We felt bad; losing

him like that nearly broke our heart, but there seemed to be little else we

could do."Marcus nodded, understanding their

predicament better than most. "I think he has turned out fine, assuming he

makes it through this rough spot. His heart seems pretty much entwined with

this Maggie girl's, and her loss will fall hard on him."Edward's mother was still wiping

away tears. "He's too young to be getting serious."Kathryn nearly choked. "He's too

young?! What about my little girl? Doesn't anyone think she was too young?""Yes dear and we are terribly sorry

we couldn't have been more successful in preventing this tragedy. But we did

our best to lie low and not attract the attention of those who pursued us."Billie slapped his fist into his

hand. "This has gone on long enough! Eddie wanted us to live like normal

people. His rings have made that possible. Now, either you can all sit here and

talk about how this happened or that happened, or you can get your asses off of

those cushions and we can go back out there and back him up."Leonardo was still keeping a low

profile, not wishing to stir up more trouble than his presence seemed to

instigate. This wasn't his time period, and this country wasn't his either. But

he did have opinions on this matter. He might not fully know Edward's family

line, for in his time they didn't quite exist as they did later on, but he knew

Edward."Excuse me.""Yes?"He cleared his throat. "Edward is

more than capable of handling himself right now. I would suggest we stay out of

his way, or else we might get drawn into a matter that is beyond our control. I

have seen him at his worse, or at least I hope it was his worse. If he has gone

to seek revenge for her death, then getting in his way even in an attempt to

help him is a fool's errand."Edward's parents were still not up

to speed on everything that had happened to their son, including the important

fact that he had the same metal as the special rings riding around inside his

head. They were aware of the nature of the ring, but not who had created it (or

them in general) and that the gentleman talking to them now was really the one

and only Leonardo da Vinci. He was wise enough to not try to press that point

just yet. There were some things that needed time to sink in before going on to

more unbelievable topics."But are you sure he can survive

against this foe? Of all the things I could possibly imagine pursuing me, that

creature is not one that I would wish even on my worst enemy.""He can survive anything.""Are you sure he can survive

anything? That's an awfully general statement." Billie was listening and as

unusual, was unable to follow the master's words. But he could figure out what

was being said. "Eddie is tough, but the one thing that metal will not protect

him from is a broken heart.""This is all too true. I did not

expect him to react so strongly. I guess it can be safely said that I never

lost my heart in such a manner. I don't know whether to envy him or pity him."That bit was relayed to Billie. "I

say that you should do neither. He needs our help. I don't think that we need

to get into the details of why.""But son, what can we do? Those

creatures make us look almost normal!""I don't know pop, but what else

are we going to do? The same thing you

always do? We can't always weather the storms. One of these days we will have

to get up and fight for what is ours or else just lay there and get

steamrollered. I for one would rather die than live like this. Eddie knew that,

even if his method for going about fixing it was foolish. It can't be helped

that Maggie was equally foolish. Both of them still had a lot of learning to

do."Maria stood. "I agree. I am too old

to care about what the world views me as. If we must return and fight a proper

fight, then I say we do it."There were a few words of dissent spoken

and the house erupted back into intense arguing.Edward was tearing up the ground

searching for his quarry. Time and again he had to backtrack, searching out the

scent and retracing his steps until he found the trail again. The rain was

working to effectively remove any evidence, both spore and scent, and he was growing

more frustrated as time wore on. If he had been thinking logically, then his

brain would have easily figured out the direction the group had gone. But he

was presently blinded by feral fury and unredeemable rage. His howls competed with the thunder

for which of the two was the loudest.                Several

trees fell to the gorund, victim to the combined fury of two storm fronts; one

natural and the other a bit more supernatural. The poor werewolf was torn

between what he knew he should be doing and what he had been doing. His mind

was mixed up for the moment and all he wanted to do was search, locate, and

destroy. And yet, even the last part was muddled. Destroy what?                His

mind remembered the winged creature. He could see it clearly. He could tear the

wings from it and shred the rest. But would it help? He shook his head in rage.

He couldn't remember why he was even after this thing. Had it harmed him in

some way? His body was intact, so that couldn't be it.. It was all too

confusing. He remembered mating in a woods like this, only not like this. He

remembered...he remembered... He roared in rage. His memories were faulty;

spotty; incomplete.                His

nose caught the barest of scents. With a howl he was off, barreling though the

wilderness past isolated houses and through the back yards of posh suburban

homes. In his wake he left dogs barking and security lights flashing as his

sinuously agile bulk tore up the miles. If nothing else, he was going to expend

his anger in his movements, which were so fast even a helicopter would have had

trouble keeping him in sight.                 Anna

was rubbing her hand over a healed wound, partially thankful for being alive.

Her gratitude was diminished by the fact that her granddaughter was now gone.

She had focused on preserving her family line as best as she was able, but in

the end she had been unsuccessful. Maggie was dead. Now these others talked of

going back. It was sheer madness. This Edward fellow could go off and fight his

own battles and leave them out of it. She said as much.                That

brewed more dissent.                Alexei

was quick to point out those things he thought should be obvious. "Look sister,

your daughter would still be lying in bed in a coma if it weren't for him. He

is not at fault here. She took it upon herself to drink poison, and she did so

without contemplating what it would do to the rest of us. Edward is probably

half mad with grief, for this isn't the first time he has lost her. Those two

have been in plenty of scrapes, and one way or another they came out of them

intact. But everyone has a breaking point. I fear that if left to his own devices,

he'll revert to being nothing more than a mindless brute. It's in his nature,

and he has alluded to this before."                "But

that is not my problem. Let him go take his battles as far from here as he can.

I for one wish that I had never been bitten nor removed from my grave. Damn

Gregori! My hopes were on Maggie. Now my hopes are gone."                Billie

started to say something but Leonardo placed his hand on the biker's hairy arm.                "Let it go. There is great anger in the air

right now. Edward will come to no harm, not even from your arsenal of mighty

weapons. I think he has only one thing on his mind right now, and it would be

best to allow him to carry through with it. As much as it may chafe you to do

this, I think that we must all stay here."                "If you say so old man. I

don't like sitting out during a fight."                "But this fight is no longer yours. It is

Edward's and in the end, he will either come through it triumphant, or there

will be hell on Earth like your people have never ever seen. I have faith in

him. He has qualities that even he has yet to discover. If his love for the

girl was true, then the phrase love conquers all will prevail."                "Love

has a way of turning sour. The girl snubbed him in the end."                "And you judge this as something less than

love? I for one will not comment on it. There are too many variables to the

human heart. I would like to think she did what she had to."                Billie

growled a little. "You know, you can be sort of cold and calculating at times."                "Emotion will get you only so far my friend.

You should know that. All I am saying is that Edward must do what he feels he

needs to do. I for one would not consider trying to stop him. Would you?"                "No.

He's way too massive when he's ticked off."                "Correct. So for now, at least until this

storm abates, there is little we can do except drink, sleep and pray that the

almighty has compassion on his soul."                Edward

had no soul. Not at the moment. Theologians say that animals don't have them,

and anything human inside him was deeply suppressed at the moment. In his rage,

his form needed no moral compass with which to guide his actions. Once he found

his target, he would salve the deep pain inside with blood.                The

rain was slowing, easing up on the relentless downpour that had been carpeting

the region for hours. Even back at the ravine, the chemical solution of silver

nitrate had been diluted to the point that it wasn't concentrated enough to be

toxic to anything. It ran in rivulets down the side of the embankment. The

puffy ashen form at the bottom had all but washed away, leaving just a hint of

charred sticks and leaves plastered on the ground. It was as good a way of

dissolving back into the earth as any. Nature found many ways of reclaiming its

own.                Under

an overhang there stood, wet and miserable, a pack of wolves still hoping to

get back to their pens before morning. It wasn't likely to happen, and only a

few of the wiser ones really shared that concern. After all, what would the

humans do? Lock them up again? It's what humans did. In the end they, the

wolves, would still be fed every day, watered every day, and they would have

the limited freedom they always had. The humans would be left like the last

time, scratching their heads and wondering how this had happened.                A few members

of the pack ranged outside of the safety of the outcrop. They might have been

raised in pens, but their natural instincts still held sway. Protection of the

whole was paramount to their personal, individual safety. Unlike their normal

method, they were now searching the skies, such as they could. The storm had lessened

but still rain came down in sufficient quantities to make their vigilance to

the treetops difficult.                Edward

too kept his eyes upward, knowing in the back of his mind that these woods were

home to something almost as formidable as him. From time to time, when the

massive oak, cottonwood or elm made an appearance in his path, he clawed his

way up to the top to search the horizon for winged creatures. It didn't occurred

to his clouded brain that they could just as easily be on the ground in human

form. Humans didn't strike his brain as being particularly dangerous.                When he

found nothing in the canopy, he returned to plowing along on the ground,

sniffing and searching the forest floor for the slowly fading scents that would

lead him to his quarry. The big problem was, he was getting multiple faint smells

and was unable to isolate the one he wanted. If he had been operating with his

full brain, he would have come to the conclusion that where one was, the rest

would most likely be.                He

resumed his search, going from ground to treetop in a concerted effort to

locate his target. He forgot how some of the weres could alter their smell. It

had happened to him in the past. But those memories belonged to a mind that was

more rational than his present one. Leeds was no different than any other, if

that individual had mastered all of the nuances of having multiple forms. It

was part of the reason their kind was so hard to find, rarely encountered or

recognized for what they were.                There were

stirrings among the Kindred, for the loss of their own was a great to them as

it was to the normal werewolf clan members. A few took to the air, more than

happy to do battle with the winds as the storm beat down. It was times like

this when no one would see them, and even if they did, the ill weather would

make them question the accuracy of their eyes.  Lightning could make even the most innocuous

of shapes seem sinister.                And so

it was that there was a mix of creatures out there in the woods again, even

after a battle that had killed one and maimed others had been birthed and then

ended. One way or another, someone was going to find someone else. The end

result was likely to be catastrophic, depending on who met who and where.                The

wolves were preparing to move out from under their shelter. Their part in all

this had been minor, to the point that a few of them openly complained at being

pulled away for such a foolish errand. Their superiors hushed them, and the lone

Alpha female among them didn't even spare them a glance. They had done what was

expected of them and they had suffered no causalities. There were worse ways to

come out of a confrontation like that.                But

that feeling fled when one of the scouts came racing back to the group.                "Intruder!"

she panted out as much as her heaving breath allowed her.                "Air or

ground?"                "We

heard it in the trees. The wind has shifted so we didn't catch a scent. But whatever

it is, I think it means trouble for us."                "Alright,

let's get a move on it then. I doubt we'll outrun those freaks with wings, but

we'll put as much space between us and it."                The

Alpha had hardly gotten that thought out when a great crashing disrupted the

pack. Brush was thrown aside as a hulking form erupted into the small glen

where they had sought shelter. The great hulking feral was panting heavily and

sniffing the air. He looked from one to another of the wolves, apparently

looking for wings. He sniffed again, and then again. He shook his head in a

dazed manner.                He went

from one to another of the wolves, sniffing them in an ever more exited manner.

Somewhere in his head he remembered them from before. They had been fun! He remembered

that! They had been fun! He liked their kind of fun almost as much as he liked

fighting. He liked to fight too, but these weren't the enemy. They were

different!                He avidly

sniffed one after another, getting greeted with many a submissive lowering of

the head and shoulders. But one wolf did not greet him in such a manner. He sniffed

it and it bit him! He wasn't angry, but he was surprised. He stood back and

looked at it with an appraising eye. He seemed to remember something familiar about

it.                The

wolf morphed and stood on two legs.   "God dammit Edward!"