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ChapterOne
EDDIE
How long had I been in this form?
I didn't know. Time itself seemed to be a concept that had lost all meaning. Maybe I had always been this way—this hungry, prowling thing that knew no mercy or reason. All I knew was that for the first time in my limited memory, the hunter had become the prey.
He was human. He shouldn't have been this fast, or this strong. Somehow, he had made contact with that strange silver blade, and although the wound on my side wasn't deep, it wasn't healing as quickly as it should have been.
It was rare enough that a human managed to wound me when fighting back, but it always healed, almost instantly.
The pavement ran out, leaving only a bit of it stretching out in the alley before me, and I could hear the hunter's footsteps, swift and closer than should have been possible. In a split second decision, I leapt up and my claws caught on the side of the brick building in front of me, barely gaining enough purchase that I could pull myself up to scale the rest of the building all the way onto the rooftop.
The building wasn't tall in comparison to the skyscrapers that dotted the city, stretching into the sky like great trees. It was, however, too difficult for a human to climb, and it would take at least a few seconds for him to find and climb the fire escape. Seconds I could use to recover, because while the wound wasn't deep, I had felt strange ever since I’d been cut. Strange and heavy, like a machine with sludge in the gears, slowly grinding to a halt.
The sound of metal hitting brick jolted me from my brief moment of rest, and I saw a grappling hook appear on the ledge of the rooftop. Seconds later, the hunter sailed over the ledge and hit the concrete in a crouched position, the blade still in his right hand.
Shit.
I turned to run, hoping my bipedal form was strong and agile enough to clear the distance between this building and the next. Before I could make it even halfway across the rooftop, I heard gunshots and three rounds were fired directly into my back. One hit my spine and the other two near either shoulder blade. I hit the ground with a heavy thud face-first.
My body twitched, prone and unresponsive to my demands for it to claw its way back onto its feet and fight.
A strange numbness spread out from the three points where the bullets had made contact, similar to the wound in my side. The sensation amplified, and all I could do was claw uselessly at the pavement as I heard the steady encroach of footsteps sticking in the blood trail I'd left behind.
Thap. Thap. Thap.
This was it. I was going to die. Maybe it was whatever poison the hunters’ blood and bullets were laced with, but I didn't feel panic—only a strange sense of resignation. Peace, almost.
My life didn't flash before my eyes, but pieces of it did. They were the only memories that were accessible to me, jumbled and gray though they were.
Two men and one woman, all smiling and laughing. Such familiar, intimate tones and sounds. Stakes hammered into the ground. The smell of meat on an open fire. The sound of water trickling in the distance. A low growl cutting through the laughter like a knife. The rumbling came from inside my own chest.
Blood. The sickly sweet, acrid taste of it, and the metallic scent. It was more than just taste and smell. The blood encompassed every sense, bathing them all in red. Every pore, every strand of fur, every thought in my frenzied mind.
So this was how it was going to end—in blood. That seemed fitting enough, considering that was how it all began. I barely remembered before. Before I had become this thing, this beast that only knew thirst and hunger and rage. I didn't even know what I looked like now, only that it must've been similar to the massive beast that had loomed over me the last time I remembered being sane. Being human.
The beast who turned me had been at least eight feet tall, with jet black fur and piercing golden eyes that burned with the fires of hell. It had a wolf's head and a partially bipedal body covered in fur and tipped in claws as long and sharp as daggers. Its muzzle was soaked in blood, and its great fangs dripped crimson from its lips.
Fangs and claws that tore through flesh, sinew, and bone so easily. Fangs and claws that had torn apart the very fabric of my reality.
It was a monster, that much I knew. And now, so was I. Maybe we were both some glitch in the matrix, and this hunter—this strange new creature that wore the guise of human flesh and clothing while possessing the strength and swiftness of a beast—had been sent to put it right.
As I felt the tip of his blade digging into my back, sharp enough to penetrate my thick fur and hide, I felt the strangest sense of relief. The poison had dulled the madness that had been in control for so long, allowing the remnants of my human mind to rise to the surface for just a moment. Just long enough to die human, or something close enough.
This was justice. This was the only way I could be stopped, because I certainly wasn't capable of stopping myself.
If I were allowed to continue to exist, more people would die. More innocent people, like the family I had torn apart.
Myfamily.
The realization echoed through me like a voice in a cave, and I shuddered.
Before the blade could dig in all the way, finishing the job it had started, a gunshot rang out across the rooftop. I was too weak to even jolt at the sound, but either the numbness had taken over or the bullet hadn’t actually hit me.
The blade withdrew from my back immediately, and its wielder leapt in front of me, turning to face whatever—or whoever—was behind me.
Confusion swept through me as I watched through blurring vision. The hunter darted back, the first solid glimpse I'd actually gotten of him. His dark coat looked like some sort of military uniform, soaked with so much blood that it couldn't all have been mine. Clearly, I was not his first prey of the night.
