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Three of the lads had spread out, surrounding her, herding her back towards the lake; the other youngest one was behind them. She had nowhere to go – but she didn’t want to go.
“OK lads, what do you want?” she asked.
“Hey it’s that bouncer-bird!” the youngest of them observed from behind his mates.
“So? She’s not that hard,” the scrawny and dirty-looking one on Red’s left commented.
“Yeah, her fella fucked off, he’s not that hard either,” the driver said.
“To be honest, you can’t talk. If it takes four of you to take me on, how hard are you lot?” Red said, “And maybe my fella has the confidence in me to say he doesn’t need to be here to help me. How’s that for an explanation?” Red saw them all look to each other then. That gave them pause for thought.
“We’ll take the chance,” the driver said, waving the others forward.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Red muttered.
Red settled herself on her feet; her weight spread even and a little forward, a touch more on the balls of her feet than on her heels. She had a light spring in the way she stood due to her knees being bent a little, her hands were by her sides, but she was ready as she faced them.
The driver, a stocky lad, a couple of inches under six feet tall with a baseball hat on facing backwards approached her and lashed a hard punch to her face. Red didn’t duck or try to avoid the blow, instead she let the anger boil. She rolled with the punch, hands still by her sides. She heard Luke’s growl from where he was watching, but the lads didn’t.
The back seat passenger who had not spoken also took a swing. He was shorter than the driver and wider, but he carried more fat than muscle. Red ducked and avoided the clumsy and inexpert swing, punched him – gently for her – in the midriff, doubling him over. His mates laughed at him as he staggered back, holding his stomach.
“You’ve done martial arts then,” the driver said.
“That was boxing mate, a clean uppercut,” Scrawny said.
Red nodded confirmation. “You still have time to back out if you want to. I don’t have to injure you all.”
Red heard Luke talking, giving their location. He was confident they wouldn’t back off.
“You punched a fat guy who doesn’t know how to fight, don’t get cocky, love,” the driver said. “I can’t see you giving us the keys to your car; I think we’ll have to take them. Anyway, we’ll have to knock you about a bit so you can say you tried your best to defend yourself when you tell the cops and your insurance.”
Red nodded and gestured with both hands the universal ‘come on then’.
“You fucking cocky bitch!” Scrawny said.
As he got close to her, he grabbed at her stolen blouse and yanked her forwards. Red repeated the uppercut, going in below his solar plexus, just above his groin, but this time she extended her fingers, growing the claws to lethal points. To his friends, it looked like he’d been winded – indeed, he thought that too as he let go of her blouse and staggered back. As he fell into the grass, he could see dark blood on his white fingers. His blood was already making his faded blue jeans look shiny and black in the moonlight. Red watched him collapse and smiled.
The fat guy had re-joined his mates and they were all concentrating on Red rather than their soon-to-be-dead colleague.
Red laughed out loud as Luke gave a rather corny, but effective as hell Werewolf-from-the-movies, just-for-effect howl. All three snapped their heads ‘round to give their full attention behind them. The moon had showed itself from behind the scant clouds, just – it seemed – in time to watch. That was what Luke had howled at. Red took advantage of the distraction and changed to part-Wolf herself. She stood on her hind legs, she was careful to make sure her blouse did not tear this time.
The first one to turn his attention back to their ‘victim’ screamed like a little girl. She had taken the opportunity to close in on her would be assailants.
As the Wolf took his head in one clawed hand, bending his head to expose the neck so she could tear out his throat, the other two ran for their lives. Red pushed the fat boy backwards so that he dropped, still alive, into the shallows of the lake; his blood swirled and merged with the water. Then she went in pursuit of the others.
The younger boy and the driver were neck and neck; Red opted for the larger of the two – the driver. She bowled him over and took his head clean off with a combined effort of jaws and tearing with her clawed hands. She ripped the glands from this one, giving the young boy time to get to the car. He looked back before he got to the Impreza and saw a monster butchering his friend. He let out a gurgling scream full of abject terror and dived into the driver’s seat, locking the door. It was sheer bad luck that the passenger door was open and before he could lean over and lock it, Red had arrived and sat next to him, she was morphed back to human shape.
Luke sat up in the back seat and jangled the keys. “You’ll need these for a quicker get-away.” He dropped the keys into the boy’s lap.
“Luke! You’ve scared the poor boy, he’s pissed himself.” Red mock admonished her husband.
Luke looked at the dark patch in the area where he’d dropped the keys and laughed a deep chuckle full of animal menace. Red was reminded of the night when Darius had hunted her and the terror she had experienced. Sudden sympathy threatened to engulf her until she reminded herself that she hadn’t attacked a woman mob-handed that night and had done nothing to deserve Darius’s attention, whereas this boy and his friends had.
“You’re going to kill me aren’t you?” the boy said.
“Yeah.” Red answered and nodded to confirm it. “Who’s your boss?”
“Charlie is, the guy who owns this car, I suppose.”
“Who sent you?”
“Sent us? I don’t know what you mean.”
“Ok, then tell me why you decided to choose me.”
“We’d spotted your car as we were driving round and when we came back to steal it this fella was sitting on it so we cruised around a bit to see if we could see any easier car to steal, then we saw you and him driving it and he figured it was easier to steal it with the keys.” The boy blurted out all the information. “Look, I’m sorry; I don’t usually go around trying to steal other people’s cars. Honestly!”
“No? So how do you usually make a living then?” Luke asked.
“I’m an apprentice mechanic at Charlie’s dad’s garage.”
“And what about the others?” Red asked.
“Twiggy, the tall skinny one, he’s a dosser, doesn’t do much in the day, I think he’s a dealer, he’s definitely a user. Garry, the one you punched first, he’s a hanger-on, like me I suppose. He works in a supermarket. Charlie doesn’t do much at all; he works at his dad’s garage, in the office. He’s supposed to be learning about selling cars, but he prefers cruising round till late and doesn’t get in to work until lunchtime sometimes. He doesn’t like to see anyone else with a better car than his, especially women; especially if they can drive better than him. You should have heard him mouthing off when you beat him at the lights.” He laughed a nervous, jittery sound. “Oh Jesus, don’t kill me, please. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck! Please don’t kill me, I’m sorry, oh god! Mum, help me.” He was crying by now.
Red looked at him closer. He really was just a boy. But he’d seen her morph into Wolf. Decision made, she thrust out her hand and hit him at the side of his head, snapping his neck, and he didn’t know what had hit him.
“You hesitated there. You were going to let him live. Have you gone soft, Red?” Luke asked.
“Is he dead?” she asked.
“Yeah, neck broken.”
“I’ve not gone soft then have I?” she snarled.
She left the boy in the car, but morphed to Wolf, dropped her clothes next to her car and went back to the driver’s body, he was definitely deceased - he was missing his head. The one in the lake was dead, but he had taken his time, he’d managed to drag himself out of the water, but died on the shingle just out of the lapping ripples. She allowed Luke the glands from that kill. The skinny one – Twiggy – was still in the long grass, his bloody clothes glistening in the moonlight. Red took his glands at her leisure, noticing that his sweat smelled rank, more than just unwashed; he’d been a user of something for certain.
“C’mon Red, it’s time we weren’t here. The Crew is waiting for us to clear out. You know they don’t like being seen.” Luke said as he approached Red feasting on the body.
Red snarled at him and guarded her kill.
“Steady on Red, I don’t want any of your kill, chill out babe.” Luke said as he morphed back to human and backed a little away from his Wolfed wife.
She continued to chew through the flesh of her victim, ignoring Luke’s request to be away.
Luke watched her, his concern mounting, as she still didn’t quit her kill. He decided he’d have to leave her soon, but how could he when the clean-up squad were waiting to go in? Luke waited for a few more minutes then went back to Red’s car, picked up her clothes, retrieved the keys for the Porsche and got in the car.
As he hoped, the car starting up and driving away brought Red to her senses and she padded out of the clearing, past the Impreza and followed her Porsche up the lane.
The Cruentus Nuntius team drove in scant seconds after Luke had got Red to follow him. They would clean up the bloody mess – which is the exact translation – and dispose of the bodies, taking care to harvest glands and valuables and then dismantle the car, breaking it for spares. The squad had expenses and the cars, valuables and any harvested glands of victims went a good way towards meeting them. The Loop - or Ministry would pay the balance this time as it was a Sentinel kill, otherwise an individual would be expected to settle their own debts to The Crew.
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