Bleeding Nights

A/n: OK, I own everything and such...This story is purely fiction and does not necessarily reflect my beliefs or feelings. Also if you so happen to smoke a bunch of weed and suddenly start seeing things, then it obviously was a bad batch or not really weed. Drugs are bad people! :P

Selwyn traversed the well known streets of Cascade a slight frown on his face as he passed an empty park, one that used to be full of beings that were either hunting or simply having fun. He glanced up at the moon, only half of one but soon it would be full, it was around twelve at night which meant the shifters, vampires, and other supernatural beings should be out and about playing; however, it seemed he was the only one. How very odd.

Giving an annoyed sigh he brushed gold locks out of glowing blue eyes and leaned against an old oak tree while he fished a cigarette out of his pack and lit it. 'Ten years,' he mused to himself, 'Five years since I was turned and ten years since I was last in Cascade. The light of a lone motorcycle passed over his face and his eyes seemed to shine blood red before it was gone and they reverted back to their original color. He brought the lit cigarette to his lips and took a long drag then blew the smoke out his nose, letting the nicotine and the menthol soothe his battered nerves.

Ten years was a long time, but the inhabitants here had even longer memories, and he knew it was only a matter of time before he was dragged in front of the city’s vampire guardian. Lord Ancel always insisted that a new vampire in his territory be brought to him, whether or not they came willingly was all that they controlled about the meeting.

One as old and as powerful as this ruler had a long memory indeed and when he’d been alive Selwyn had been paid a great deal of money simply to break into the other’s mansion, he hadn’t stolen anything; however, the audacity of such an act warranted a lot of hostility towards himself. He was lucky that he’d been let off with a light beating and a warning not to do it again…and by light he meant that only two ribs were broken, only one shoulder was dislocated, three fingers broken, and both wrists merely sprained. He never did bother to categorize all of the bruises and cuts, there were too many to bother with that and none were actually fatal.

At least he’d known someone who was more than willing to heal him properly, most of the others wouldn’t even touch him because of Ancel’s scent. Few were able to go against any decision the vampire made, and those who did quickly learned not to. Everyone that was except for one panther shifter who took it as her sworn duty to be a thorn in the side of the ruler.

A small smile graced lips that were glossed black, "I wonder how Miska is getting along," he pondered aloud before pushing off the tree trunk and making his way further downtown. Hopefully she would still be controlling the beach as though she were the dictator of a small country. The young vampire let out a soft chuckle then took another drag off his cig; he sure had missed that panther and it would be good to see her again…even if he was only staying until the council no longer had hunters out looking for him.

Tossing away his cig he sat down on the grass and his body seemed to distort for a moment. A minute later there was a timber wolf who looked as though it had just barely passed into its adulthood where a human had been. It gave a lupine grin and trotted off towards the beach, its glowing blue eyes holding more than a hint of mischief. Some things never changed in Cascade, no matter how long someone had been gone.

Ancel sat in his great library, idly reading a book on the social behaviors of wolves and comparing it to what he knew from his own experience. At a glance the first thing one would notice about this master vampire was that he had almost tanned skin and his hair was a non-descriptive dark brown, the second thing was that his eyes were an unusual grayish blue-green. A dark blue button up shirt was partially undone, and simple black slacks seemed to hug his legs and hips. Of course it was hard to ignore the big black wolf who lay at his feet, mainly because of the icy blue eyes that held a human intelligence in them and the way he glared up at the other male.

A chuckle emerged from Ancel’s throat and he glanced down at his unwilling companion, “Are you bored Kazan?”

There was no reply, mental or otherwise, to his inquiry and he gave a sigh before running his fingers through the surprisingly soft fur. This particular pet of his was always so difficult, despite or because of the fact that he was blood bonded to him. Still the werewolf made a good companion and was always willing to fetch those beings who he thought the vampire would find interesting enough to train and maybe keep. It was rather surprising he’d never brought in his nemesis Miska, but then again it was probably a good thing, because he while he enjoyed a challenge every now and then he would end up killing the shifter for her insolence before a week would be out. He removed his hand from the fur with a sigh.

“You should probably go out and hunt, but I want you back within five hours,” he casually dismissed the wolf who wagged his tail in acknowledgment then trotted out the door. ‘He’s obviously happy that he gets to hunt and pick fights, though we both know there’s no real reason for the latter, everyone is pretty much aware that he’s alpha wolf in my city,’ he thought to himself before going back to his reading, all too aware that there were dozens of contracts he had to sort through in his office. Another sigh is given and he blows some hair out of his face, really it was hard being the most sought after slave/pet trainer in the underground world.

He could afford to spend a few more moments in lazy solitude though, there certainly wasn’t anyone stupid enough to disturb him and chivvy him to his work. That wasn’t really a reason to avoid it though, not to mention he should probably answer that letter from his sire; there was no point in putting that off, it might be seen as rude.
Giving another sigh he closed the book and gracefully rose from his seat. Unable to help himself he stretched in an almost catlike fashion before moving towards the swinging double doors that Kazan ha just exited, he had things to do and had delayed long enough.

There was one more thing that he should probably check on, but he was fairly certain that the new vampiric aura he’d felt enter his territory was familiar…Besides it wasn’t like he couldn’t deal with that later, after all there was nowhere in the area that the other could remain hidden from him for very long, which left him to track it down at his leisure and he didn’t feel like it right now.

“Well Selwyn, it’s been awhile since your shadow darkened my territory, and it seems you’ve changed in that time,” Ancel said aloud to himself, pausing just long enough to give a truly evil grin. The next few days or so should prove to be very interesting, which was a good thing since he detested being bored. “Let’s see if you prove to be a challenge or not.”

Selwyn smirked as he watched Miska chase a rather pesky mutt off of her beach, more than willing to put some marks in its hide. Unable to help himself he trotted closer on silent feet, before reaching out his muzzle and playfully catching her tail between his teeth.

The panther yowled and turned quickly with an upraised paw to swipe him on the nose. Of course it was an old dance and he just as quickly dropped the tail and pranced back out of her reach, tail wagging.

She hissed angrily at him for dodging her swipe and her body crouched towards the ground in preparation for a leap. It was obvious she had yet to recognize him, but it wasn’t all that surprising seeing as it had been a long time since they’d last seen each other and he had changed since then.

‘You’re getting slow in your old age Kitty,’ his mental lyrics were teasing as he called her by the name that no one else could call her and live. His eyes warily watched her for any sign of movement, more than ready to leap and dance away if she should choose to pounce.

Miska froze in place, her head tilting to one side in curiosity and shock; almost as if she could not believe what she was hearing and seeing. ‘Puppy?’ her own mental inquiry sounded unsure as she examined him even more closely.

He gave a canine grin and his tail wagged even faster, ‘Long time no see, huh?’ the tone went from teasing to gentle and caring as he stared at his long time friend and protector. He was no longer wary as he watched her, knowing that she would not try to maim or kill him.

She pounced in a second and had him pinned in under two seconds as she eagerly gave him a tongue bath, purring all the while. ‘You brat! Ten years ago I hear a rumor that you’d attracted the attention of a powerful vampire, and then I couldn’t find hide nor hair of you! I thought you were a pet or dead for sure! And now here you show up again as a hybrid and pounce me without so much as a ‘hullo’!’ her tone had the happy outrage of a mother hearing from her child after a long while of not communicating.

He slunk further towards the ground at the friendly scolding, tail thumping against the wet sand and ears back a bit, all an attempt to please and pacify her in one fell swoop. ‘I’m sorry, I simply couldn’t contact you to let you know I was alright without alerting the hunters,’ the tone was sincerely contrite as he looked up at her, trying to make up for the worry she must have gone through for the decade he’d not communicated with her.

‘You’d better be sorry, no good excuse for a cub,’ Miska snorted and backed off of him, tail sweeping the sands in exasperation.

He stood up and bowed his huge cranium towards the ground, looking exactly like a scolded puppy that had simply had a recent growth spurt. His large blue eyes belied that appearance because they held that hint of untamable wildness that could only belong to a wolf, some of the other wild canines had it as well, but not in so much abundance.

‘You’ve grown well, and it seems that you could almost lead a pack,’ she praised as she paced a tight circle around him, jade eyes not missing a single detail not matter how minute. ‘I can’t say I’m fond of that scar on your right haunch though, looks like it was very painful at the time,’ this was said about an old gash that trailed all the way down his hip and was about half an inch wide.

‘Yeah, I got a little careless and some human seemed to think that my pelt would look great in front of his fire place,’ a snarl lifted his lips so that his fangs were partially exposed. He really hated hunters, particularly human hunters because most of them were simply wasteful and didn’t appreciate that full benefit of a good kill.

Miska shook her head and gave a feline sigh, ‘Whatever are we going to tell your mother? She’s in town for a couple of days and I promised that I would make you see her, even if I had to drag you kicking and screaming.’ She eyed him for a brief moment before seeming to stretch impossibly large, and within minute there was a beautiful Asian woman standing were the panther had been.

Selwyn followed suit and soon both stood eye to eye, almost as though they were staring each other down.

Most people outside of Cascade would have found this site strange and unnatural; however, in this city the citizen were used to seeing such things and generally dismissed them out of hand, or purposely ignored them. There was the exception of the new arrivals, and there was one such human on the beach now though he was looking at them like they were ghosts and then looking down at the joint in his hand as if it were somehow to blame.

Miska smirked then stalked towards the man, her most welcoming smile pasted across wine painted lips. “Hullo, you must be new to these parts,” she purred in her smokey voice and batted long black lashes at him.

He nodded dumbly as if she would eat him any second and was just waiting for the opportune moment.

“I thought so, me and my brother figured we regonized Johnny’s brand of weed,” she nodded her head over towards Selwyn who’d slipped closer while the man had been watching her.

He looked between the two of them, obviously now bewildered by how in the world they could even be related let alone siblings.

Selwyn caught the confusion and gave his own winning smile, “We got adopted by the same abusive assholes,” he explained calmly with an almost bored tone as though he’d given the explanation so many times that it ceased to matter to him.

“So is it Johnny’s?” Miska brought the conversation back on track.

“Yeah, I haven’t had time to find a different dealer,” he answered nodding his head like an idiot.

“Ah, I told you so Sis ,” Sewlyn said triumphantly as though they’d been debating that fact for awhile, then he turned a sympathetic face towards the thoroughly confused man. “Johnny sells the best shit out there man, there’s no doubting that…but the thing is until you get used to it you have a tendency to see things that aren’t there.”

“What sort of things?” the tone was suspicious now and the blood shot eyes stared at both the male and female.

“Oh, nothin’ much, just animals turning into people or the reverse; vampires; witches; people with wings or other animal appendages; angels and demons; and exotic animals,” Miska informed the poor soul a grin on her face the entire time.

“Yeah? What do I do about it?” Now the tone was hopeful as she described the very thing he’d just seen. He was more than willing to chalk it up to an overactive imagination and drugs.

“Simple, you do your drugs at wherever you stay from now on, and if you do see anything weird ignore it. That’s what we do,” Selwyn advised and placed a friendly hand on the guy’s shoulder.

He shrugged it off and was down the beach like a shot, wanting nothing more than to follow the advice.

Miska watched him for a bit and then shrugged, black leather jacket creaking with the movement. “You know it’s been awhile since I’ve had any of Johnny’s stuff,” she commented almost wistfully.

Selwyn gave her a mock shocked look, “You want to get fucked up before we see Bronwren?”

Another shrug, “Why not? It’s not like it’s going to hurt us or anything…and we can always go see Bronwren tomorrow night and put off the lecture until then.”

“Very true,” he agreed and casually wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they headed in towards town in search of Johnny.