Thatcher
Rogue Werewolf
Vampire Hunter
Whatever pain may come, today this ends.
Posts: 90
|
Post by Thatcher on Mar 29, 2011 22:42:03 GMT
Thatcher had never been in a pack either and had no intention of being in one. Simply put he wasn't a pack wolf and never would be. Never could be. He was too caught up in his own personal mission, too much of an Alpha wolf, and more than anything he was afraid of what would happen if he was ever again responsible for others as he had been in the community he had been born into. Thatcher refused to put himself in that position again and that played a big part in why he kept people at arm's length and didn't make any solid attachments. He had had his chance and he had failed everyone who had looked to him for leadership and protection. That would never happen again.
"I'll show you the boundaries. It's easier than telling you where one territory ends and another begins and how far they reach." Amirah wasn't as familiar with Los Angeles as Thatcher was and at the end of the day it would be clearer for her if she saw them with her own eyes. "If this Oshiro is as powerful as you say he is," he began slowly, keeping his tone from sounding challenging, "are you really going to be able to do this alone? Vampires that old and that wealthy don't travel with just one werewolf."
|
|
Amirah
Rogue Werewolf
Bounty Hunter
Sure fatal doses, malcontent through osmosis.
Posts: 53
|
Post by Amirah on Mar 30, 2011 15:50:45 GMT
For many similar reasons Amirah could never affiliate herself with a pack either, not with circumstances as they were now; she needed the freedom to travel and chase leads, she couldn't bow to anyone's lead, not after the decades she had spent as a mindless, vapid shell under Marek's heel and not when she needed control so badly as a result of that. Amirah had to have a handle on her own destiny, she had to call the shots when it came to her own life and even if she collected her family together, her siblings and her children she could never surrender that control to an Alpha. Amirah was and Alpha in her own mind, she did what she wanted when she wanted, she took what she needed and she didn't apologise for it and never would.
"Of course I am," Amirah snapped, her body strumming to attention, shoulders tensing as she turned to look at Thatcher. He might have been trying not to piss her off for a change but unfortunately for him it was a subject that was so sore for Amirah that nothing he did or said would prevent her from taking everything he said and seeing the challenge in it, reading doubt into the words where there wasn't any. "I know what I'm doing."
|
|
Thatcher
Rogue Werewolf
Vampire Hunter
Whatever pain may come, today this ends.
Posts: 90
|
Post by Thatcher on Mar 30, 2011 22:36:34 GMT
It went a long way towards explaining why they clashed so much, so fiercely and so quickly, whenever they were together; they were both Alpha wolves and not so easily cowed or commanded. They didn't take kindly to being told what to do and their recent near miss only a matter of minutes beforehand was evidence enough of their stubbornness and desire to dominate any situation. To her credit, however, Amirah had shown a great deal of restraint; not only had she withheld from striking Thatcher where in the past she wouldn't have had any reservations, she had also kept herself still whilst Thatcher's aggression reached its peak. She had recognised they were in his territory and granted him that small -- small but effective -- leeway and that was perhaps the only thing that had kept them from coming to blows tonight.
One brow quirked upward at Amirah's quick confirmation and he easily held back a smile she might have wrongfully taken as mocking. He would have given the exact same answer himself, he couldn't fault her for her confidence. It was well deserved usually but he couldn't help but worry about the odds being stacked against her in this situation. "Don't you always?" he said back to her without missing a beat and then drove the conversation along. There was no sense in staying on that one point. It wouldn't get them anywhere except perhaps into a very literal and brutal fight. "I'll see what I can find out about his entourage." Thatcher said the word as though it left a bitter taste on his tongue.
|
|
Amirah
Rogue Werewolf
Bounty Hunter
Sure fatal doses, malcontent through osmosis.
Posts: 53
|
Post by Amirah on Mar 30, 2011 23:14:04 GMT
Not always, was the bitter thought that came freely. Self-doubt was not something she indulged in; it could lead to second guessing herself and that was when mistakes were made but she would have to have been a robot not to feel some sense of it. With the weight of her task pressing between her shoulders she had to wonder sometimes at her ability to succeed, before promptly pushing the thoughts away and reminding herself that she was still free, she was still herself.
"They are most likely all vampires," she said coolly. "He won't risk males around her, she is worth too much to him and her-- trainer." Was the air in the room getting thinner? Her lungs felt small, her breathing went shallow for a few moment's Marek was breathing on her neck, she could hear him repeating the rules that he set out for those who purchased one of his wolves, though she had never been one herself, far too precious to him to sell. If they wanted their new pet to remain in the best condition possible it was important to keep them isolated from other wolves unless they, too, were trained. Rogues who sold out and went to work for the vampires as hired guns couldn't be trusted; they were an outside influence that could become a complication. "It would be against the rules. She will be the only wolf in his immediate company." Which wasn't to say there wouldn't be other wolves full-stop, but they didn't concern her overly.
|
|
Thatcher
Rogue Werewolf
Vampire Hunter
Whatever pain may come, today this ends.
Posts: 90
|
Post by Thatcher on Mar 30, 2011 23:26:58 GMT
Even those who were filled with confidence sometimes faltered and Thatcher was no exception himself. He overestimated himself and underestimated his enemies and he had his fair share of scars to prove it. Amirah was no different. They were powerful and old and experienced but that didn't make them infallible. Like Amirah though he didn't let himself doubt. To show doubt in a fight when surrounded by vampires would be inviting a whole world of trouble and hurt and Thatcher refused to give those creatures any further excuse to cause him pain. They had already taken enough.
Thatcher's teeth gritted in thinly veiled anger at the idea of so many vampires coming into the city. There were plenty in Los Angeles already but they were scattered. The ones arriving with Oshiro would all be united. They were dangerous, even if they had no ambitions when it came to the city itself. There were questions burning through his mind but he forced himself not to ask them. That didn't stop the foul taste that settled at the back of his tongue and refused to be shifted. Leaving the room now would send the wrong message and so he stayed where he was and decided to endure it. "What about numbers? Do you know that?"
|
|
Amirah
Rogue Werewolf
Bounty Hunter
Sure fatal doses, malcontent through osmosis.
Posts: 53
|
Post by Amirah on Mar 30, 2011 23:47:16 GMT
"No," she replied succinctly. "It could be many."
Information had been hard to come by when it came to Oshiro. Thankfully she had been to Japan several decades go and had some contacts there at the very least but they told her the same thing in different words; Oshiro was wealthy, arrogant and all but untouchable. Amirah didn't believe the last part, everyone had a weakness and she was good at honing in on them. Often with older vampires it was their werewolf companion, it spoke to a certain indulgence and misplaced superiority complex. Amirah didn't doubt that he thought having a female wolf as his pet, one as old as Surayya would make him look good to the younger vampires, someone not to be crossed. It was her intent to prove them wrong by taking that away from him; her sister was no one's prop to be moved around.
|
|
Thatcher
Rogue Werewolf
Vampire Hunter
Whatever pain may come, today this ends.
Posts: 90
|
Post by Thatcher on Mar 30, 2011 23:57:21 GMT
Thatcher fully expected it would be. Vampires like this Oshiro wouldn't take chances and if he had money to throw around and owned business across the globe then he no doubt had a great deal of enemies for all manner of reasons. He had earned himself another tonight without even needing to lift a finger. Thatcher hated vampires on principle, despised the entire race and wanted nothing more than to destroy them all, preferably as painfully as possible.
"I could show you the boundaries tonight if you have time," he offered, taking up his water bottle after recalling its presence and unscrewing the cap so he could drink from the mouth. "The sooner you know where they are the better, right?" For all she knew the vampire and his wolf and other companions could show up tomorrow. While it was her fight and not his Thatcher at least intended to give her as much useful information as possible before her enemy's arrival.
|
|
Amirah
Rogue Werewolf
Bounty Hunter
Sure fatal doses, malcontent through osmosis.
Posts: 53
|
Post by Amirah on Mar 31, 2011 20:58:38 GMT
Tonight would be better than tomorrow; that was practically one of Amirah's mantras. Putting off when she could accomplish tonight would only mean she would have to deal with it another day and who knew when problems would start piling up, she might have too much on her plate to take the time needed to view the territory boundaries of the city. It was an important part of coming to a new city too; knowing when she was crossing the invisible lines would help her in combat situations, tactically it was good sense to know the playing field she was stepping onto.
"I just got into town," she said vaguely, swaying on the spot with listless energy. It had been a long journey from Boston but she didn't think she could settle tonight anyway, there was too much going on inside of her mentally and emotionally; she doubted she would sleep much even if she did check into a motel. "I have time."
|
|
Thatcher
Rogue Werewolf
Vampire Hunter
Whatever pain may come, today this ends.
Posts: 90
|
Post by Thatcher on Mar 31, 2011 21:14:31 GMT
Why put off until tomorrow what you can accomplish today? Thatcher's father had been a strong believer in that simple principle and it was one he had lived his life by. Thatcher had done his best to honour his father by doing the same but it wasn't as easy as Gregory Ward had made it seem. His father had made a lot of things seem easier than they had turned out to be. Thoughts of his father, of his family and what had happened to them, were best left in the back of his mind and that was where Thatcher pushed them whenever they rebelliously tried to surface, as they did now.
"Is that a yes?" he asked her, eyes narrowing in curiosity as he watched her, waiting for an answer that was less vague and more decisive. It wasn't like Amirah to dance around a subject or a response, she was clipped and straightforward, she said what was on her mind and if nothing else you could always trust her to be honest, sometimes too honest. Thatcher was restless himself and it might be good for him to get out and wander the city for a while.
|
|
Amirah
Rogue Werewolf
Bounty Hunter
Sure fatal doses, malcontent through osmosis.
Posts: 53
|
Post by Amirah on Mar 31, 2011 21:35:14 GMT
If Amirah put things off she would probably find herself caught before the month was out. It was fear of what might happen if she didn't accomplish things as soon as possible that kept her going just as much as her obsessive need to keep searching and keep moving. She'd never had a good role model in the form of a father like Thatcher. She had a father; Miroslav, her own father, had been Polish and that was about all she really knew or remembered about him. The males weren't involved with their children, they didn't get to raise them and she could count the times he had held her on one hand. She supposed that ought to make her sad, really. But she didn’t have time to mourn her own childhood, she had others to save.
Amirah turned her head to look at Thatcher very slowly, her own eyes narrowing at his repeating her question from earlier when they had been arguing. A low, subtle growl shuddered in her throat. "That is a yes." Her head tilted. "Was I unclear?"
|
|
Thatcher
Rogue Werewolf
Vampire Hunter
Whatever pain may come, today this ends.
Posts: 90
|
Post by Thatcher on Mar 31, 2011 21:51:37 GMT
By contrast Thatcher had been very close to his father, had grown up idolising him, wanting nothing more than to be just like him. Everything from the way he carried himself to his fighting prowess, from his friendships with those around him and his unwavering love for his wife and devotion to her had inspired Thatcher and given him great ambitions for his own life. Gregory Ward had been a great man and Thatcher remembered all too clearly and all too often when he had held his father in his arms and watched him die. It was just one of many unpleasant memories that rose unbidden, often in the dead of night.
Thatcher smiled a quiet, tame sort of smile. "A little," he said to her with an odd sort of calm. She had growled but he saw no need to respond to the hint of a challenge. As far as he was concerned that time between them had passed for now and he had won his own little battle.
|
|
Amirah
Rogue Werewolf
Bounty Hunter
Sure fatal doses, malcontent through osmosis.
Posts: 53
|
Post by Amirah on Mar 31, 2011 22:09:10 GMT
It was thoughts of her mother that often kept Amirah awake at night. Karima, who had given her vampire master fourteen children and not been allowed to be part of their lives beyond nursing them as babies. Amirah remembered her green eyes, the same eyes she and many of her siblings had. Surayya had those same green eyes and that same haunted look about her, gaunt shadows beneath her cheekbones and the same wraithlike figure that made her look as though she might blow away in a strong gust of wind. Amirah didn't know if her mother was still alive and even if she was she wasn't sure that Karima Novak could be saved, she might have passed her inextinguishable defiance down to her eleventh child who had used it to escape, but she wasn't strong enough to run. Amirah knew she wasn't strong enough for a nomadic life.
She was quiet for a long stretch, just looking at him in her unnervingly still way. "You were injured earlier?" she asked, referring to his state when he can come home to his apartment. "It can wait if you need to rest."
|
|
Thatcher
Rogue Werewolf
Vampire Hunter
Whatever pain may come, today this ends.
Posts: 90
|
Post by Thatcher on Mar 31, 2011 22:46:58 GMT
Shaking his head Thatcher offered her another one of those calm smiles, quiet and faint enough that those who didn't know him would have to look for it, search for it. Thatcher usually wore his heart on his sleeve so to speak, his emotions were often plain to see but then those were angry, heavy things, rage and aggression and a predatory ferocity. The lighter side of things were much harder to see, they were more efficiently veiled and that was perhaps helped by the fact that they were much rarer. Thatcher didn't smile fully or laugh nearly as much as he once had.
"It takes more than a few bruises to keep me down, Mirah, you know that." There was a feral kind of amusement in his voice, something that many would have foolishly mistaken for playfulness. "I'm not the one who only just arrived. Maybe you need to rest?" A little of the colour of his wolf rose to his eyes and his smile grew in a harmless, hollow kind of challenge.
|
|
Amirah
Rogue Werewolf
Bounty Hunter
Sure fatal doses, malcontent through osmosis.
Posts: 53
|
Post by Amirah on Apr 1, 2011 21:49:47 GMT
At this stage of the evening Amirah wasn't sure if she found his calmness more frustrating than his outright anger. In the end it was better that they weren't literally tearing one another to pieces right now, which could have easily been the case had their argument escalated much further, but on the other hand at the very least she understood that sort of interaction. Subtleties had long been out of her grasp, she was one thing or the other, rarely mixing her emotions. That was when things got messy, that was when she lost her edge; Amirah had to be hard and direct, she had to be straight as an arrow with no time for guilt or pain or sorrow, she had to shut all of that down and focus on her task, whatever that happened to be at any one time. Which wasn't to say any of that was easy, Amirah wasn't a robot, contrary to popular belief, but she was well practised if nothing else.
"I can forego sleep for several days," Amirah told him starkly, cocking her hips defiantly as she looked at him. It was true after all; she had been awake for days at a time over the years for one reason or another. In Prague she had been pursued by a group of mercenary vampires and wolves and had to run in order to save her skin and had subsequently stayed awake for more than a week, looping back to pick the bastards off one by one, turning them into ash on the ground and fangs in her pocket. But she was tired. Tired and annoyed he had suggested it. "Which is to say," she clarified bluntly, "that I do not need to rest."
|
|
Thatcher
Rogue Werewolf
Vampire Hunter
Whatever pain may come, today this ends.
Posts: 90
|
Post by Thatcher on Apr 1, 2011 22:06:02 GMT
It was the calmest Thatcher had felt all night, strangely. Honestly he wasn't even sure what it was that had him feeling so calm, whether it was the alcohol or his re-acquaintance with someone he genuinely respected, something of a rarity in his life nowadays. It was strange, though, to be almost relaxed in Amirah's presence when usually things were very much the opposite and they were both tense and on the verge of exploding. It wasn't something that he saw fit to analyse, whatever the reason for it, so he put it out of his mind. He felt how he felt and that was that. There was no sense in picking it apart and potentially undoing it.
Offering her a crooked sort of smile that was more a smirk than anything, almost as if to say he'd gotten a rise out of her and she had satisfied him in that way, he nodded his head. "I'll just change and we can go." Taking his glass from the table he headed out of the room without another word, depositing it in the sink to be dealt with later before heading out again and crossing the apartment to his bedroom. He swung the door and even though he didn't hear it catch closed he grabbed a change of clothes out of his closet and drawers anyway and proceeded to shed the ones he was currently wearing in exchange for the fresh shirt and pants. His hair was still damp but it would dry off soon enough in the balmy evening air of Los Angeles.
|
|