NOW
I did my watch in one of the neighborhoods near the university campus, made of older homes. The neighborhood association tried to keep it as clean and respectable as it once had been, but failed with the influx of drugs, prostitutes, and the never-ending homeless humans searching for a safe place to sleep. My heart went out, but I steeled myself and continued to search for danger. I stopped three muggings, a molestation, and one rape in those few fleeting hours, then I moved on. I flew to the other side of the university, where the sorority and fraternity homes were, and rested in the tallest tree. I bounced and swayed with the bough in the night wind, feeling the light warmth of the escaped moonlight beams that penetrated the clouds. I reflected on the little work I did, saddened by the fact that I could only do so much. I took a deep breath of the cold, winter-filled night air, and cast a mental net over the area. This area was filled with girls and boys trying to figure out how to be adults, but only repeating their high school years. Never having attended such public and “normal” human schools, I could never understand the need for repetition. I only spent a few minutes there, maybe an hour at most, as the men and women who acted as house managers were strict, though once and a while, certain activities slipped through the cracks and caused sensational journal stories.
I was preparing to take off when I caught something, something…dark. Hungry, evil, even. It flitted on the edge of my mental net, flowing through my mind and suffusing my limbs with a tantalizing, paralyzing bliss I have never felt before, with one exception to come close… I banished that line of thought without effort, and languished in the feeling. I barely registered falling down the tree, slamming hard into each thick limb and sliding in the smaller, denser branches until I was upside down, scraped and bloody but uncaring. I felt euphoric, elated yet sated beyond comprehension, that cloying presence filling me, my body and my very soul until I was fit to burst. Then, suddenly, it began to dissipate, and I felt a panicked sense of loss that made me scramble to the ground. I was making odd noises I have never made before, small, needy, desperate squeaks that made me think, “this isn’t me… this is not me… this is NOT me, THIS IS NOT ME!”
With that last forceful thought, I ripped that thing out of my soul and threw up my mental shields before it got its seductive coils in me. I crouched on the cold, hard ground, feeling little freezing pinpricks and knowing the snowfall would help me think, if not stop the flowing blood from all the cuts in my skin. I sank into a Chinese breathing exercise and focused into feeling the elements around me, in me, and building a rapport with the earth to keep me grounded before opening my mind tentatively to locate that dark wrongness and “see” where it was going, to follow it and stop it from spreading.
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I scaled the tree again, the tiger-stipes of lights from now-lit windows blurring by as I gained speed. I reached the tip of the tree and threw myself backward into the wind. I went as high as I could go into the night sky, above the clouds and clearing my mind. I sent a probing thought to the local pack in charge of this territory, and continued as the dark twinkling trail passed through more territories, alerting Djinn, werewolf, werecat, weredog, weresnake, werelizard, even a troupe of weresquirrells in a particularly wooded area. I notified them of the intrusion, explaining the case, and each leader I “spoke” with agreed with my request while looking into the new “drug” that was giving this strong an impression. They admitted that many of their brethren were still feeling the effects of the dark, sparkling wrongness, and would bring it up as soon as they were able to be coherent again.
It was excessively potent, and I found it amazing that whomever was carrying it was unaffected as they were to drive out as far as they were, out to a quiet little apartment building toward the middle of the city, out nearer the truly nicer and expensive homes were.
I landed on the apartment building roof and watched as the humans got out of their car. A human male, with a physique to rival a Roman God that was dressed well, exited the vehicle and closed the door, shifting his jacket before sauntering over to the drivers-side and opening the door for a woman of average build with wild red hair and a lovely lavender colored dress that fit her curves like a glove. He helped her out of the car, said something to make her laugh, then closed the door behind her. As they walked toward the building he slipped his arm around her shoulders, and I could “see” dark burgundy sparkles emitting from his jacket pocket nearest her. They entered the building and I could only “feel” the star-studded trail of the drugs as they crossed and rose up. I sensed them moving again and shifted myself to match their location and positioned myself above the balcony belonging to the apartment on the third floor right below me. I heard the glass door slide open and voices drifted up to me. I sat in the light snowfall and watched as the couple sat on the balcony and drank something from streaming mugs, laughing and talking about books and music. The woman was truly a bright intellectual, and he clearly enjoyed that. He sounded sincere when he told her he was having a great evening. She laughed and mentioned that it was rather late, and she had to work, inviting him to call on her again some other time while making it clear it was time for him to leave. He asked a quick question about a book she recommended and she went inside to get it. I saw him reach into his jacket pocket and bring out a small baggie. He sifted a small amount of powder that was so light little tufts puffed into the night air before blowing away. He poured that into her mug and hid the bag as she returned, book in hand. He thanked her and encouraged her to finish their cuppa before he left.
I felt rage build and snarled as she touched the handle of the mug. Before I could stop her she lifted it and took a sip. That was all it took. She began to fall and he caught her. He carried her inside, but didn’t close the door.
I stood and threw myself into the wind, curving my body and angling myself into the living room and into the man as he struggled to strip her down.
He screamed for me, high and whining, as I punched him and wrestled for the pocket with the baggie. He snarled in Latin and I was lifted and thrown into the bookshelf, knocking books and ceramics off the shelves. I struggled to stand and he snapped in Chinese, and my breath stopped. I couldn’t take in the air, and I scrabbled my claws at my throat. He laughed and stood over me, sneering as I grew more and more weak with my flailing arms and thrashing tail. As I slowed to a body twitch, he kneeled beside me and whispered, “Before you die, I will give you a piece of paradise. Then I will take your willing body until you turn to stone, and I will destroy you. I have never had a gargoyle.” At my rolling eyes he laughed. “Oh yes, I know what you are. You are part of a nearly extinct lineage, and your species will be one less when I am through with you.”
He reached into his pocket, his brown eyes never leaving my face. He withdrew the baggie then noticed his hand was covered with blood. He murmured a spell and he was again the perfect Adonis he started the evening as. He opened the bag and again sifted a small amount into his hand, slightly larger than the pile he gave the woman. His hand went up toward his mouth, and he sucked in a breath. I blew out hard, and smiled in satisfaction at his startled, red face. I bared my fangs in a wider smile and hissed. “I do not need to breathe. I merely find it convenient for when I need to speak.”
He began to faint, bliss suffusing his face as the drug kicked in. I stood and dusted myself off, and perkily said, “I will take that” before I relieved him of his weapon. I turned to the woman, trying to rouse her, but she was unresponsive. I growled and lifted her I in my arms, throwing her over my shoulder and reaching for him. He was muttering over and over the same word.
How.
I laughed and hoisted him by his belt, which he had so thoughtfully forgotten to remove. I went out to the balcony, drifted down to the car, and fumbled with the keys I had grabbed from the coffee table I destroyed. I made a mental note to buy and send a replacement.
I got the car unlocked, the woman in the front seat, and the man in the trunk. I jammed the key into the ignition and drove to the nearest open hospital. When we arrived, I had only time to park the car in the emergency loading zone and leave a hastily penned note about the incident, leaving out key details about how they arrived and why the man was in the trunk. I made sure a light dusting of the drug was in his hair and suggested they test it.
With that I pocketed the remaining powder in the baggie in my tattered jeans and scurried off into the night. There was two strip malls, several apartments, and a high school near by. I chose the high school as it was under construction and hid in the shadows, watching the sky begin to lighten. I felt shock taking over my body and realized I was bleeding around a piece of glass embedded in my side. I conjured a little magic and called a sylph to my side, urging it to send a message and quickly to someone important. I fed them what energy I could spare, but it wasn’t enough. It demanded some of my blood.
I filled the palm of my hand with blood and murmured a blessing and spell into it before offering it to the sylph. It greedily accepted and lapped at the edges of my claws before allowing me to pour it into its open maw. It’s very interesting to see a pretty sylph suddenly turn into a creature from Beetlejuice, and I forgot myself for a moment. I came back to and it had licked my paw clean, and had moved to my side. I cursed and sent it on its way. As the sun came up I screamed and ripped the glass from my side and turned to stone.
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