Blood Feuds
Thunder. Lightning. The rain pounded the pavement, and the sound swam in my ears, drowning out all other noise. I watched the moonlight reflecting on a rippling puddle. I looked skyward and watched each little raindrop fall to the ground, bursting fluidly into a splash, a ripple, and then nothing.
Nothing; just like me. I didn’t exist to the world, but hold your sympathy - I liked it that way. Believe me; it made my job a whole lot easier. I’m the city’s clean-up crew, taking out the scum and the beasts that roam the gutters at night.
As the rain poured, strands of my long, dark hair clung to my cheek, and droplets ran down my forehead into my eyes, obscuring my vision. Not what I needed right now. I wiped my eyes with the back of an admittedly damp hand and squinted through the rain.
“Where is this guy?” I had been crouching for quite some time, my aim of course was to go undetected, but my thighs were beginning to complain, they hated me for my decision.
I frowned and moved my eyes from window to window of the office block opposite. You would think that from a rooftop vantage point it would be reasonably easy to spot what was probably the only meeting at this hour of the night. Or morning, I’d lost track of time by this point. Anyway, the point is that you would be wrong – People in this city left a lot of lights on.
Finally my eyes focussed on an office on the second floor. Three men sat around a table, two more entered. One guy, a big guy, MY guy, smirked as he strutted across the room and took the largest chair at the head of the table. This guy was a real nasty piece of work. Usten Bielgraav; head of the Los Angeles werewolves - He was on a recruitment mission, and that was not good for the city, although it was good news for me. The theory was that if we took out head honcho over there, maybe the others would disperse; I wasn’t holding out much hope. Someone else would just take his place. The werewolves were determined to rule this city, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. The city belongs to the humans, to me, and I will stop anything that dares challenge that.
“He looks so smug. Bastard!” I thought, angrily focussing the sight of my rifle, “Well, of course he does. He’s probably recruiting all of those poor men in there right now!” I shifted my weight from my right leg, which was now starting to feel slightly numb, and I aimed for the head of the smug bastard and squeezed the trigger. And that was it; that was my job done for the evening. I could go home and watch Oprah!
Shouts, gunfire… Shit, that wasn’t it. Someone had seen me. Of course someone had seen me; I had forgotten about the guy that Usten had entered the offices with. I bet he was already a werewolf, not a potential! I hurriedly tried to focus my eyes to find The Guy, but he wasn’t there. My eyes flitted from office to office; I could feel myself beginning to panic.
“Deep breaths, Carrie, he won’t know where you are; he will soon give up.” My thoughts were interrupted by a low rumbling, thunder? No, worse; a growl of a werewolf. A growl of a werewolf stood on the rooftop of the building opposite. He was tall, and big in build, with blonde hair that I would have sworn was glowing in the moonlight. Before I even had chance to take aim, he had flung himself into the air, powering towards me.
“Shit, shit, shit!” I scurried backwards, leaving the rifle; I could come back for it later. I stood and started into a sprint across the rooftops. The feeling hadn’t fully returned to my right leg, and with every beat that my foot touched the rooftop, a shooting pain ran from ankle to buttock. I winced.
“Now is not the time to have a tantrum about a small case of pins and needles. Pull it together Carrie.” The Guy was closer now, I felt like I could feel his breath on my neck, but he definitely wasn’t that close. Mind games.
“Pick it up, Carrie. Pick it up.” My legs pumped harder. I pushed my left heel into the gravel and sprung into the air, landing with a one-kneed thud on the rooftop of an adjacent building. My crappy landing clued him on to where I was. My leg needed to wake up, and fast.
“Shit.” I tore open my leather jacket and pulled a small pistol from a hidden holster. Pulling myself onto my feet I began to run again, half twisting to see how close The Guy was. Right behind me. Oh, good. I fired a couple of un-aimed shots, intended mostly as a warning. I think it mostly just pissed him off.
He landed on the rooftop; I could hear his heavy footsteps behind me, I was thankful that he wasn’t in wolf form, I would never have heard him. I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun this guy, but I just needed to get somewhere safer. Pushing all of my energy into my legs I started to pick up speed. A large hand grabbed my arm and pulled my backwards, throwing me to the ground. I swung my legs up and managed to kick The Guy in the side of the head. He stumbled. Good.
I jumped to my feet and turned just in time to block a fearsome swipe, but he had partially shifted and his claws were out, leaving my left forearm shredded. I sucked in a hiss of air and swept his legs out from under him with my own. He hit the floor with a thud and I quickly followed up with a swift stamp to his throat. He gasped for air and clutched his throat. I started into a run again; I definitely couldn’t take this guy.
“Double shit.” I could see a large gap between this rooftop and the next; I was going to have to jump, but I didn’t think there was enough room to get to the speed I would need to clear this jump.
“It’s jump at the best speed you can reach, or fight this guy…” I had to agree with myself, jumping seemed like the best option right now.
Picking up speed I slammed my black boots into the ground, my feet were beginning to ache from the running. Preparing to jump, I chanced a look behind me as I leapt forward – my timing couldn’t have been worse. The guy was much closer than I had anticipated, and he was glad that he had found me. He fired a huge gun, grinning a huge grin that made my skin crawl. I tried to dodge the bullet but I was already mid-air, it tore through the right sleeve of my jacket, a burning sting swept through my arm, knocking me sideward.
“SHIT.” Before I had chance to right myself, my left shoulder slammed into the wall of the building I had intended to land on. I felt my shoulder crunch under the impact, the pain screaming through my body was nearly enough to make me pass out.
I looked up at the rooftop I had just fallen from, and where I had crashed painfully into the building and landed in a heap on the alley floor, The Guy just leapt down gracefully, carelessly until he was standing over my seemingly disabled body.
“Just kill me, asshole!” I snarled, but he just grinned his creepy ass grin; he wasn’t going to kill me. He was going to make me one of them; the hunter would become the hunted. I would be made a target by my own kind. He bared his teeth at me, his long canines glinted in the moonlight. I tried to kick, I tried to fight, but I couldn’t move. He leapt forward and sank his teeth into my shoulder, tearing a large chunk of flesh from my body. I cried out in agony and frustration. The last thing I remember is seeing my own blood fall, a splash, a ripple, and then, nothing. Nothing; just like me.
~*~*~*~
I awoke in a place that I didn’t recognise. Restrained on a metal gurney in a room with dingy, damp walls seemingly splattered with… Oh God, was that blood? No, I mean yes it was blood, but no, I did recognise this place, I had just never seen it from this angle before. This was where The Assassins brought people for, shall we say ‘information gathering’?
“So, you’re awake?” An annoyingly British voice came from the corner of the room. It was Charles. Charles was such a good assassin that he didn’t even have a surname, he was just Charles. Infamous, admired, a cunt.
“Well, since you have me strapped to a fucking gurney, I can’t see you to confirm, but I guess from the irritating accent that it’s you, Charles?” “British asshole.” A swift back-hand to my jaw answered that question. Charles and I had never exactly been friendly with one another.
“So, what? The company sent you to take care of me? How did they find out so quickly?” I demanded.
“The company knows everything, Carrie. And yes, I am to “take care of you” as you put it. Of course, they didn’t say how I was to dispose of you, which I guess means I get to do it my way.” He sniggered. I felt sick. I had seen Charles’s way, it was not a way in which I wanted to go. Charles’s way made most assassins feel sick. Most of us were quick, clean, getting a job done. This sick fuck enjoyed what he did, took his time with his marks. He had been reprimanded on more than one occasion; I highly doubted that he had been randomly selected for this, he had fought for this opportunity.
“I know what you’re thinking.” He smirked, “and you’re right; I begged for this. After all, a chance to take down the great Carrie Brent is not an offer one can refuse.” He was clattering around with his tools. His tools had seen too much blood for my liking.
The sickening feeling began to churn in my stomach; the sinking feeling began to turn to a combination of fear and anger. I would not be put down like a stray dog! My skin started to prickle, my insides felt like they were on fire, my mouth turned dry, and that churning turned to gut-wrenching, twisting pain. I writhed on the gurney and screamed, but the voice that I heard was not mine. It was deeper, huskier. Oh, God…
I could hear clattering in the room, snippets of shouts about tranquilisers, but I couldn’t concentrate on that, I could only concentrate on the burning heat rolling over my entire body; like a sudden fever. Flames licked at my eyeballs, a second scream as claws burst forth from the skin of my fingers, I glanced down in time to see my own nails ripped off and falling to the floor. Fuck, that made me feel even sicker.
Without my realising it, I had been approached by one of our resident doctors, armed with needle. Concentrating on my right arm, the arm nearest to the doctor, I felt my skin rip open, hot blood ran over my newly exposed, furry forearm. Using all of my strength I yanked my arm high into the air, tearing the leather strapping that had once restrained me, I slashed the doctors’ throat. His warm, thick blood sprayed over my body and a small, disgusted part of me realised that The Wolf was enjoying this. She was desperate to get out now. Pressing against my skin, I could feel her pushing, tearing, crying to get out.
Pain erupted in the centre of my face as a long snout pushed through my skin, ripping and tearing; my own teeth fell out in rapid succession and were immediately replaced with the pointed teeth of a beast. My huge canines settling comfortably back in my wolf face. The pale, freckled skin of my human face peeled backward, taking my long locks with it, and revealing deep set yellow eyes and pointed grey ears. I began to wriggle out of the remaining restraints, The Wolf’s legs tearing through the skin of my own, leaving behind a bloody shell of the woman I once was.
In full wolf form now I jumped onto hind legs and growled. Everything was greyscale, but I could see more clearly than I ever had before. Turning back to look at the gurney that I had been laying on, the sight was enough to make anyone sick. The Wolf had skinned me, I was here, I was alive, but there I was, clear as day; all of me, in one large piece on the metal slab.
Shaking the image from my mind and leaping forwards I cornered Charles, he was whimpering in a corner. “Fucking pussy.” The Wolf’s ears couldn’t understand the words he was saying, but the small part of my human brain that remained was well aware that he was begging for his life, but by the time it registered (or so I like to tell myself) The Wolf had torn off his face in one bite, rejoicing in the hot liquid running down her throat.
I had no control, but I had all control. I was everything, and I was nothing.
Running on all fours now I charged towards where my human brain had remembered that the exit was. Many staff tried to stop me, doctors, the dodgy traders that brought us our weapons, but I was unstoppable; slashing, tearing, stomping my way through the innocent people. The people that had always protected me and dressed my wounds were now in pieces on the floor, by my hand and my hand alone.
Then a noise that I recognised, coming from the distance; a gun - a bullet… Before I could react it had torn through the flesh of my hind leg, the silver bullet burned like acid and I howled a low howl. The Wolf found the attempted assassin and was barrelling toward her – Chi Lyn, a girl I had affectionately named one of the Seven Wonders of the World, I was almost honoured that she had just tried to kill me – but this wasn’t the time. I towered over her in this form, but fear was neither a thought nor a flicker upon her stoic face, a face that The Wolf grabbed with a long-fingered hand-paw and pounded repeatedly into the stone wall, before biting a hole in her chest and puncturing her heart.
No one could take me down. Assassin after assassin of The Company tried to stop me but I tore my way though, luxuriating in the raw heat of the moment, and the liquid heat of the blood, and the screams of terror were music to my ears.
I crashed through a rear exit of the building, and took off towards a safer, wooded area. Clichéd, maybe, but I didn’t know how long it would take me to get me back to me, and The Wolf was ready to sleep.
It was going to take The Company a long time to recover from the blow I had inflicted. Several of their best people were dead. Their best person was the monster that killed them. I knew they would come again, but for now I was safe.
I am Carrie Brent; werewolf and assassin of assassins, but don’t worry, my bark is worse than my bite. Most of the time.
Nothing; just like me. I didn’t exist to the world, but hold your sympathy - I liked it that way. Believe me; it made my job a whole lot easier. I’m the city’s clean-up crew, taking out the scum and the beasts that roam the gutters at night.
As the rain poured, strands of my long, dark hair clung to my cheek, and droplets ran down my forehead into my eyes, obscuring my vision. Not what I needed right now. I wiped my eyes with the back of an admittedly damp hand and squinted through the rain.
“Where is this guy?” I had been crouching for quite some time, my aim of course was to go undetected, but my thighs were beginning to complain, they hated me for my decision.
I frowned and moved my eyes from window to window of the office block opposite. You would think that from a rooftop vantage point it would be reasonably easy to spot what was probably the only meeting at this hour of the night. Or morning, I’d lost track of time by this point. Anyway, the point is that you would be wrong – People in this city left a lot of lights on.
Finally my eyes focussed on an office on the second floor. Three men sat around a table, two more entered. One guy, a big guy, MY guy, smirked as he strutted across the room and took the largest chair at the head of the table. This guy was a real nasty piece of work. Usten Bielgraav; head of the Los Angeles werewolves - He was on a recruitment mission, and that was not good for the city, although it was good news for me. The theory was that if we took out head honcho over there, maybe the others would disperse; I wasn’t holding out much hope. Someone else would just take his place. The werewolves were determined to rule this city, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. The city belongs to the humans, to me, and I will stop anything that dares challenge that.
“He looks so smug. Bastard!” I thought, angrily focussing the sight of my rifle, “Well, of course he does. He’s probably recruiting all of those poor men in there right now!” I shifted my weight from my right leg, which was now starting to feel slightly numb, and I aimed for the head of the smug bastard and squeezed the trigger. And that was it; that was my job done for the evening. I could go home and watch Oprah!
Shouts, gunfire… Shit, that wasn’t it. Someone had seen me. Of course someone had seen me; I had forgotten about the guy that Usten had entered the offices with. I bet he was already a werewolf, not a potential! I hurriedly tried to focus my eyes to find The Guy, but he wasn’t there. My eyes flitted from office to office; I could feel myself beginning to panic.
“Deep breaths, Carrie, he won’t know where you are; he will soon give up.” My thoughts were interrupted by a low rumbling, thunder? No, worse; a growl of a werewolf. A growl of a werewolf stood on the rooftop of the building opposite. He was tall, and big in build, with blonde hair that I would have sworn was glowing in the moonlight. Before I even had chance to take aim, he had flung himself into the air, powering towards me.
“Shit, shit, shit!” I scurried backwards, leaving the rifle; I could come back for it later. I stood and started into a sprint across the rooftops. The feeling hadn’t fully returned to my right leg, and with every beat that my foot touched the rooftop, a shooting pain ran from ankle to buttock. I winced.
“Now is not the time to have a tantrum about a small case of pins and needles. Pull it together Carrie.” The Guy was closer now, I felt like I could feel his breath on my neck, but he definitely wasn’t that close. Mind games.
“Pick it up, Carrie. Pick it up.” My legs pumped harder. I pushed my left heel into the gravel and sprung into the air, landing with a one-kneed thud on the rooftop of an adjacent building. My crappy landing clued him on to where I was. My leg needed to wake up, and fast.
“Shit.” I tore open my leather jacket and pulled a small pistol from a hidden holster. Pulling myself onto my feet I began to run again, half twisting to see how close The Guy was. Right behind me. Oh, good. I fired a couple of un-aimed shots, intended mostly as a warning. I think it mostly just pissed him off.
He landed on the rooftop; I could hear his heavy footsteps behind me, I was thankful that he wasn’t in wolf form, I would never have heard him. I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun this guy, but I just needed to get somewhere safer. Pushing all of my energy into my legs I started to pick up speed. A large hand grabbed my arm and pulled my backwards, throwing me to the ground. I swung my legs up and managed to kick The Guy in the side of the head. He stumbled. Good.
I jumped to my feet and turned just in time to block a fearsome swipe, but he had partially shifted and his claws were out, leaving my left forearm shredded. I sucked in a hiss of air and swept his legs out from under him with my own. He hit the floor with a thud and I quickly followed up with a swift stamp to his throat. He gasped for air and clutched his throat. I started into a run again; I definitely couldn’t take this guy.
“Double shit.” I could see a large gap between this rooftop and the next; I was going to have to jump, but I didn’t think there was enough room to get to the speed I would need to clear this jump.
“It’s jump at the best speed you can reach, or fight this guy…” I had to agree with myself, jumping seemed like the best option right now.
Picking up speed I slammed my black boots into the ground, my feet were beginning to ache from the running. Preparing to jump, I chanced a look behind me as I leapt forward – my timing couldn’t have been worse. The guy was much closer than I had anticipated, and he was glad that he had found me. He fired a huge gun, grinning a huge grin that made my skin crawl. I tried to dodge the bullet but I was already mid-air, it tore through the right sleeve of my jacket, a burning sting swept through my arm, knocking me sideward.
“SHIT.” Before I had chance to right myself, my left shoulder slammed into the wall of the building I had intended to land on. I felt my shoulder crunch under the impact, the pain screaming through my body was nearly enough to make me pass out.
I looked up at the rooftop I had just fallen from, and where I had crashed painfully into the building and landed in a heap on the alley floor, The Guy just leapt down gracefully, carelessly until he was standing over my seemingly disabled body.
“Just kill me, asshole!” I snarled, but he just grinned his creepy ass grin; he wasn’t going to kill me. He was going to make me one of them; the hunter would become the hunted. I would be made a target by my own kind. He bared his teeth at me, his long canines glinted in the moonlight. I tried to kick, I tried to fight, but I couldn’t move. He leapt forward and sank his teeth into my shoulder, tearing a large chunk of flesh from my body. I cried out in agony and frustration. The last thing I remember is seeing my own blood fall, a splash, a ripple, and then, nothing. Nothing; just like me.
~*~*~*~
I awoke in a place that I didn’t recognise. Restrained on a metal gurney in a room with dingy, damp walls seemingly splattered with… Oh God, was that blood? No, I mean yes it was blood, but no, I did recognise this place, I had just never seen it from this angle before. This was where The Assassins brought people for, shall we say ‘information gathering’?
“So, you’re awake?” An annoyingly British voice came from the corner of the room. It was Charles. Charles was such a good assassin that he didn’t even have a surname, he was just Charles. Infamous, admired, a cunt.
“Well, since you have me strapped to a fucking gurney, I can’t see you to confirm, but I guess from the irritating accent that it’s you, Charles?” “British asshole.” A swift back-hand to my jaw answered that question. Charles and I had never exactly been friendly with one another.
“So, what? The company sent you to take care of me? How did they find out so quickly?” I demanded.
“The company knows everything, Carrie. And yes, I am to “take care of you” as you put it. Of course, they didn’t say how I was to dispose of you, which I guess means I get to do it my way.” He sniggered. I felt sick. I had seen Charles’s way, it was not a way in which I wanted to go. Charles’s way made most assassins feel sick. Most of us were quick, clean, getting a job done. This sick fuck enjoyed what he did, took his time with his marks. He had been reprimanded on more than one occasion; I highly doubted that he had been randomly selected for this, he had fought for this opportunity.
“I know what you’re thinking.” He smirked, “and you’re right; I begged for this. After all, a chance to take down the great Carrie Brent is not an offer one can refuse.” He was clattering around with his tools. His tools had seen too much blood for my liking.
The sickening feeling began to churn in my stomach; the sinking feeling began to turn to a combination of fear and anger. I would not be put down like a stray dog! My skin started to prickle, my insides felt like they were on fire, my mouth turned dry, and that churning turned to gut-wrenching, twisting pain. I writhed on the gurney and screamed, but the voice that I heard was not mine. It was deeper, huskier. Oh, God…
I could hear clattering in the room, snippets of shouts about tranquilisers, but I couldn’t concentrate on that, I could only concentrate on the burning heat rolling over my entire body; like a sudden fever. Flames licked at my eyeballs, a second scream as claws burst forth from the skin of my fingers, I glanced down in time to see my own nails ripped off and falling to the floor. Fuck, that made me feel even sicker.
Without my realising it, I had been approached by one of our resident doctors, armed with needle. Concentrating on my right arm, the arm nearest to the doctor, I felt my skin rip open, hot blood ran over my newly exposed, furry forearm. Using all of my strength I yanked my arm high into the air, tearing the leather strapping that had once restrained me, I slashed the doctors’ throat. His warm, thick blood sprayed over my body and a small, disgusted part of me realised that The Wolf was enjoying this. She was desperate to get out now. Pressing against my skin, I could feel her pushing, tearing, crying to get out.
Pain erupted in the centre of my face as a long snout pushed through my skin, ripping and tearing; my own teeth fell out in rapid succession and were immediately replaced with the pointed teeth of a beast. My huge canines settling comfortably back in my wolf face. The pale, freckled skin of my human face peeled backward, taking my long locks with it, and revealing deep set yellow eyes and pointed grey ears. I began to wriggle out of the remaining restraints, The Wolf’s legs tearing through the skin of my own, leaving behind a bloody shell of the woman I once was.
In full wolf form now I jumped onto hind legs and growled. Everything was greyscale, but I could see more clearly than I ever had before. Turning back to look at the gurney that I had been laying on, the sight was enough to make anyone sick. The Wolf had skinned me, I was here, I was alive, but there I was, clear as day; all of me, in one large piece on the metal slab.
Shaking the image from my mind and leaping forwards I cornered Charles, he was whimpering in a corner. “Fucking pussy.” The Wolf’s ears couldn’t understand the words he was saying, but the small part of my human brain that remained was well aware that he was begging for his life, but by the time it registered (or so I like to tell myself) The Wolf had torn off his face in one bite, rejoicing in the hot liquid running down her throat.
I had no control, but I had all control. I was everything, and I was nothing.
Running on all fours now I charged towards where my human brain had remembered that the exit was. Many staff tried to stop me, doctors, the dodgy traders that brought us our weapons, but I was unstoppable; slashing, tearing, stomping my way through the innocent people. The people that had always protected me and dressed my wounds were now in pieces on the floor, by my hand and my hand alone.
Then a noise that I recognised, coming from the distance; a gun - a bullet… Before I could react it had torn through the flesh of my hind leg, the silver bullet burned like acid and I howled a low howl. The Wolf found the attempted assassin and was barrelling toward her – Chi Lyn, a girl I had affectionately named one of the Seven Wonders of the World, I was almost honoured that she had just tried to kill me – but this wasn’t the time. I towered over her in this form, but fear was neither a thought nor a flicker upon her stoic face, a face that The Wolf grabbed with a long-fingered hand-paw and pounded repeatedly into the stone wall, before biting a hole in her chest and puncturing her heart.
No one could take me down. Assassin after assassin of The Company tried to stop me but I tore my way though, luxuriating in the raw heat of the moment, and the liquid heat of the blood, and the screams of terror were music to my ears.
I crashed through a rear exit of the building, and took off towards a safer, wooded area. Clichéd, maybe, but I didn’t know how long it would take me to get me back to me, and The Wolf was ready to sleep.
It was going to take The Company a long time to recover from the blow I had inflicted. Several of their best people were dead. Their best person was the monster that killed them. I knew they would come again, but for now I was safe.
I am Carrie Brent; werewolf and assassin of assassins, but don’t worry, my bark is worse than my bite. Most of the time.
Evie Lola
Evie Lola is a cat loving, panda loving horror writer living in Burnley, Lancashire, however she hates writing about her self so the rest of this was written by The Curiosity Cabinet!
Evie is beautifully in love & once won 'Gothic Babe of the week.' Not only does she write dark tales but she is an artist and people are her canvass. She creates beautiful hair and the most fantastically morbid body art. Follow Evie on Twitter at @Love_Addikt