Post by Chloe Reynolds on Apr 30, 2011 10:04:39 GMT -6
So what did a girl do when her emotions were all mixed up and she didn't have a clue what she was going to do about something? She went hunting.. Thats what she did. No sitting around crying into a tub of ice cream for Chloe Reynolds. No way. She went looking for the baddest mofo she could find and put a bullet through his brain or a blade through its heart.
And Most of the time.... It made her feel better. A lot better.
Not this evening though.
This evening, she felt as if something stalked her and it made her uneasy. So uneasy that she checked and double checked behind her but found nothing out of the ordinary. Still the feeling of unease persisted and she found herself jumping at ordinary sounds. The banging of a stray jumping out of a garbage can about gave her a heart attack and it was only when she spied the cat darting down the street that she realized she'd raised her gun, fully prepared to fire on almost anything.
Damn it all to hell. She was beginning to act like one of those stupid horror movie heroines.. Jumping at her own damned shadow. Why the hell wasn't her gut giving her more to go on than just a hovering cloud of doom? She hated when her gift manifested like this. She KNEW that something was going to happen this evening that would change her world but besides the ball of forboding in her stomach... She hadn't a clue as to what it might be. The only time it ever happened like this was when it directly influenced her immediate circumstances.
And it was NEVER good when it did. Really, it was enough to make her almost consider going home, locking the door and not coming out until someone up above gave the all clear. Somehow, she didn't think that was save her this time though. Whatever it was was going to happen whether she liked it or not so she was going to take her licks like a big girl. Whatever they might be.
Suddenly, the sound of a scream rent the air and Chloe was instantly on the move. Following the sound of the terrified cry, she bolted off down the street and ducked into an alley behind what appeared to be an old warehouse district. Several old buildings towered up the sides and there were vacant truck loading lots between some of them. Moving as swiftly as she could without alerting whoever lingered about to her presence, the hunteress skittered through the dark and paused here and there to listen for noise. She was just coming up to one of the loading docks when the sound of a body hitting the floor drew her gaze to a shadowed corner. What she saw gave her pause and her finger tightened over the trigger of the pistol she carried close at her side.
What in the …..
Before she had time to finish that thought, the woman crouched over the dead man turned gleaming eyes towards Chloe and stood up. Moving with a lethal grace that was somehow inhuman, she stepped over the lifeless body and into the dim moonlight. As she did so, her face revealed and the huntress hissed. While infinitely beautiful, there was a viciousness about her expression that gave Chloe the shivers. Black war paint was drawn into something resembling tribal markings all over her face and her eyes glittered with a light that seemed to shifted between gold to black and back to gold. The sound of bone sliding against bone made the dark haired beauty step backwards even as a set of wings seemed to grow from the womans back. What the hell?? She was like nothing the huntress had ever seen before and she knew without a doubt that this was what her intuition had been warning her about.
Fuck a duck...What the hell was she? And more importantly... How the hell was she going to kill it??
Seeming to read her thoughts, the woman smiled evilly and tilted her head back with a laugh. When she leveled her gaze on Chloe once more, amusement seemed to dance in her eyes.
“Well Well... What have we here? A wee little hunter? Me thinkith the hunter has become the prey in this instance...” she hissed out in a guttural voice that raised the hairs on the back of the young womans neck. “You should not have come here, girl. I am not a creature to be sent back to hell by one such as you. I am the sword with which my lord punishes the guilty and their blood wets my appetite for destruction. I am the fury of revenge! I am Thuflthas , servant of the god Tinias of the underworld.”
Well, hell.. that just about answered her questions now didn't it? Ancient god of the underworld? Fury?? Shit, she was so dead. Guess Death had decided to keep this appointment after all.
Then, suddenly, the visage before her seemed to flicker and an ordinary woman took form before Chloes very eyes. Stumbling forward, the woman sank to her knees and bright green eyes met the dark ones of the hunteress.
“Help... Me...” she choked out, seeming to battle some sort of inner demon. “You .. must.. help.. me... before.. she.. takes.. complete... control.....”
Nonplussed, Chloe could only stare in horror as the face shifted again and the fury seemed to gain control once more. It hissed and shook itself like a wet dog before pushing to its feet and raising glowing eyes towards the young woman. Instantly, the huntress raised her gun but before she could fire a shot, the creature was upon her. As pain spasmed up her arm, the weapon went flying across the abandoned lot and events seemed to slow until Chloe could see everything in infinite detail. Claws had sprung from the womans fingers and they'd laid the skin of her forearm wide open in a maneuver that she would have admired if she hadn't been so busy saving her ass.
Twisting away, she used one leg to swept the fury's feet out from under her and had only milliseconds to be satisfied by the her success before the creature hit her so hard she flew back into the brick wall and swore she felt bones crack. “Oh wait.. Maybe she had” she thought to herself as pain radiated down her back and made her almost to slow to dodge the claws heading directly for her throat. Holy shit the bitch was fast.
Forcing herself to move, she ducked and rolled out from under an arm that thankfully embedded itself in the brick. While the fury worked to free herself, Chloe pulled out her silver blade and shoved it into a kidney. A shriek of pain and fury exploded from the creatures chest and the visage flickered once more so that the human slumped against the wall with blood flowing down her back. Shit... Had she just killed an innocent? What the hell was going on?? Some kind of possession??
Confusion warred with indecision and she unthinkingly broke the golden rule. She let down her guard and unconsciously stepped forward as if to catch the human.
As she did so, she missed the flash of the shift and suddenly found herself embedded upon long, dagger sharp claws. Even as pain spread through her body, the huntress stared in disbelief and felt her knees give out. With her swiftly numbing body slumping towards the ground, she watched as the claws became bloody fingers once more and she looked up into the eyes of the tormented woman.
“Oh gods.... I'm so .. sorry......” the woman choked out, sinking with her. “I … tried.. to hold.. her.. in.... But she.. is … to strong..... I'm... to.. tired..... Forgive me for that.. and forgive me... for what.. I'm about to do..... May you... have more luck than I... in controlling her... for she will reak hell on...earth … should she succeed in over coming her... vessel....... My service has ended.. Now yours shall begin...”
With death turning her vision black, Chloe heard the woman's blubbering but could make very little sense of the words. Reality seemed to shift and she knew she had precious few moments left in this world. An ironic grin spread over her lips as her life literally flashed before her eyes and the face of a particularly snarly bouncer hovered like a last regret. Leave it to Ty to be the last thing she got pissed about before she died. As her eyelids closed for the last time, she felt the woman lean over her and was startled to feel lips against hers. Unfortunately, she was to far gone to resist and Death allowed her one last sigh before it claimed her for its self.
Only, it turned out.. Death wasn't the end... It was only the beginning.
TYREESE
Bam, bam, bam.
The sounds of a hammer working away on dented metal were music to any car lover’s ears. It spelled promise; the hope of yet another masterpiece being born into the world, all for the joys of the big, open road.
In his case? In his damn case, the only thing the sounds of the hammer spelled was him trying to take dents out of his goddamn Camaro after a 17 year old girl rammed into his side at the grocery store. And he’d once scoffed at his coworker’s love of growing everything himself…GAH.
Muttering about children and their new ‘toys’ of the century, an irritated skinwalker proceeded to take his anger out on the piece of dented passenger door he’d managed to remove just moments before. It was going to be hard work; seeing if he could take away the cracks in the body and smooth over the now scratched paint on the side. He could just go to a shop and replace it, sure…but dammit, he’d spent so many hours trying to trick up this once rusted out baby, that the sight of the dents on the door made his heart ache.
And some people said that guys got too worked up over their cars. HA. They’d never driven down the street and watched every pair of eyeballs turn their way. Obviously.
Leaning on the workbench a bit, Ty paused in his work. Balling up his fist, he ran his middle knuckles along his sternum and frowned. His chest was…hurting. Aching, like someone had given him a solid kick right in the solar plexus. Was he really THAT annoyed? Hell, he didn’t normally get this freaking crazy over the Camarro…it was only a few dents.
The feeling intensified, and he groaned, resting his forehead on his arm. Okay, screw that; something was definitely wrong. It felt like someone was taking his fucking heart and jiggling it around in his chest cavity…what WAS that? Was he having a heart attack? Good Gods, could he even HAVE a heart attack?
…And, more importantly, why was he moving toward the garage door?
Okay, now he was severely freaked out. A slightly panicked expression slid onto his face, as he continued to move toward the street. It was like something in the back of his mind took over; something primitive and…quite intimidating, given the amount of tension radiating through his body. What the fuck was going on? Where was he going? Oh Gods, was his skinwalker side trying to take over? Was he being possessed? Was he high? WHAT—
Like a switch being flipped, all such rational thought ceased to exist. There was only the feeling in his chest and the unexplainable need to go…somewhere. He didn’t need to know where; someone he cared about was in trouble, someone that his other half didn’t mind being around. That was unacceptable.
So, almost robot-like, Ty sped down the street in a light jog. He ignored familiar faces, scowled at anyone who got too close; following the need to move, to find that someone, to kill anyone who might be causing the ache he felt.
Then, he was there.
He blinked at the abandoned warehouses that loomed over him; their shadows playing tag under the streetlights. What the fuck was he doing there? And…ah hell, with the fuckin’ automatic legs. Getting OLD, man!
Moving forward, he made good time to an alley that ran through a cluster of the old, decrepit buildings. His eyes ran along every nook and craney, looking for something, anything that could tell him what he was doing there, why he was playing Artificial Intelligence…when he heard what sounded like a sack of potatoes hitting the floor.
A startled sound escaped him as his legs- now under his own command- moved him toward a body lying in the back of the alley. There was another woman down the way, obviously dead, given the amount of blood…but his eyes were trained on the other one. The dark haired one.
Chloe.
”CHLOE!” His voice echoed in the deserted street as he ran forward, bouncing off the walls like some sort of serenade. Skidding to a halt beside her, he fell to his knees and hefted her up in his arms. ”Fuck, Chloe, wake up for me. C’mon…open your eyes, sweet. Chloe! Wake up!”
CHLOE
The damned movies had lied.
Chloe was quiet certain she was dead and there was no bloody light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, there was nothing at all. No sense of time, space or movement. She felt trapped in some kind of stasis where something was holding her back from moving on.
Something that seemed... off.
But then, hell... What WASN'T off about dying, right? All Chloe knew is that someone needed to correct those hollywood idiots and tell them there wasn't any shining light. A girl might feel a bit cheated if she had really believed all that jive.
Nope, she was simply dead. Deader than a doorknob. Deader than a flat joke in a comedy club on Saturday night.
Like she hadn't seen THIS one coming! Ok, maybe not the whole possessed human by a fury thing but she'd known her own death was lurking. Scenes of memory flashed through her brain of claw like fingers stuck through her middle and blood.. oh god.. so much blood.. flowing down her front like a river. A female face seemed to hover over her dimming vision and then lips covered her own.
Whoa, wait.. Press the rewind button.
Lips covering hers? Female lips? Damn, she'd experimented a time or two but she didn't remember anything remotely alluring sexually about the female she'd been fighting. Not that she hadn't been a stunning beauty but .. dude.. she'd KILLED Chloe! What was she? Some kind of sicko who liked to get it on with dying people? Was she even now still making out with her cooling corpse? EWWWWWWWWWWWW! It was enough to gross even the dead out!
Then the woman's words floated back through her mind and her soul hissed. As if some flood gate had opened, a million sensations ran into her and Chloe felt as if some alien presence were taking up residence with her. It was like a dark, evil cloud of withering anger and pain. Fear spiked through the huntress's soul and she sought to move away from the thing but a mocking laugh entwined itself about her and made moving impossible.
"Give it up, little hunter. Your mine now. All Mine. At least, as long as you survive."
Blazing panic stabbed through Chloe and she fought against the bodiless hold the thing had upon her. Suddenly clarity rushed in and she KNEW what she was seeing. The damned bitch had passed her passenger on to Chloe herself!! THAT IS WHAT SHE"D DONE WITH THE FREAKING KISS!!
But how?? After all, she was dead, wasn't she?
And then she was blasted out of the darkness and back into her own body. Strong arms wrapped around her and she heard a voice calling to her from somewhere far off. A loud gasp broke from her lips as her lungs were hit with a jolt of magic so electric that she suspected it had started her heart too. The wound in her middle began to heal slowly but the agony still cause her to curl into herself.
She was ALMOST thankful when she felt the being inside her moved like an oily shadow. IT focused her mind away from the pain wracking her body and onto something far more dangerous. The Fury was out and she wanted to play.
Especially when her inner instincts registered the man who held her.
Ty.
Oh God. NOT TY!
The fury inside licked her lips as she gazed out of Chloe's eyes and took in the male form beside her. It tossed its head and a contented purr seemed to expand from her... their... throat. In that moment, the huntress knew her own eyes were pitch black from the demoness's influence and she desperately tried to push away from the skinwalker.
God, she couldn't let this evil taint him.
"To late, little hunter." the gutteral voice inside her mind taunted. "I will have everything in your life and I will enjoy watching you suffer while I do it. You don't have the power to control me and I shall soon be free.... FREEEEEE...."
As if to prove her point, the fury suddenly swept forward and Chloe felt all control leave her body. The ancient creature cackled gleefully and smiled evilly up at the man holding her.
"Your sweet Chloe is gone, lover boy.... And she is never coming back as long as I'm here...Her body is now my vessel and I can't be gotten rid of without killing her...... Besides, what would you want with that little tramp when I'm so much betterrrrrrrrr.....I sense your nature, old one, and I can feed your appetites for destruction. "
From inside her own mind, Chloe screamed like a grief stricken banshee. Oh god.. NO!! Not Ty!!! She would not let her have Ty! Without knowing how she did it, she shoved the fury back and gave her a mental kick. As the bitch howled, Chloe's eyes flashed back to their normal brown and she stared up at the bouncer, grief stricken.
"Kill... me.... Please? Before... she .. takes.. control... again..."
Even as she spoke, she could see the hesitation in his eyes. He wouldn't do it. It was almost as if he couldn't do it. Which was probably true. He'd never been able to hurt anyone he cared about and on some level... He cared about her.
The Fury inside laugh and gave her a mental smack that sent her reeling.
"You are so easy, little hunter. You give me the keys to destroy you! Pathetic. Your no worthy opponent for me. Your predecessor judged you wrongly. All I have to do is destroy the things you love and your own soul will wither away and die..... and I think I'll start with... HIM!"
That said, the fury took control and Chloe felt her own arm whip out and slam into Ty's chest. As he flew backwards, the huntress was shocked by the force of her own blow. She couldn't have moved him before but the being inside her obviously made her ten times as strong.
As her body stalked after the huge skinwalker, Chloe frantically battled with her inner demon but the recent events had left her weak. She could literally feel her skin changing and taking on the appearance of the demoness and she suspected her eyes were no longer brown but flashing orbs of gold and black.
Maybe now Ty would grant her wish. Surely he would see why she needed to die.
"Time to play, Lover boy" she heard her own voice hiss out in gutteral tones.
TYREESE
Gods wept; this was like the past playing itself out all over again. Hugging her tight against his chest, Ty rocked her slowly back and forth, gritting his teeth against the urge to scream. It didn’t make sense; the pain in his chest, as if something inside was tearing. She was like family, sure, but this pain…the sensations currently shooting through his body was something more. Something…profound.
Which was completely out of the blue, given that he didn’t feel anything but respect and parental affection for the girl. So where was it coming from? He didn’t understand.
…Or was that didn’t want to?
Growling out a prayer in his native language, the ancient gladiator shook her again, calling out her name. Why wasn’t she moving? A sweep of his hands along her body didn’t come up with any critical amount of blood and there weren’t any signs of internal bleeding. So why was she unconscious? Why wasn’t she waking up, with that familiar sarcasm and the light sparkle in her eyes?
Please, wake up, he mentally begged. Please, please wake up…Gods, just make the pain in his chest go away…
When her eyes fluttered and her chest expanded with a breath, he almost passed out right there; like some kind of dumb blonde chick in a horror flick. Cradling her gently in his arms, he loomed over her, waiting for a flash of those familiar eyes and some kind of sarcastic comment about his playing the nursemaid.
Basically, he was ready for just about anything but the dark eyes and evil voice that greeted him. Good fucking GODS, what the fuck was going on?!
With a snarl, the skinwalker released the released Fury and fell back on his heels. Instinctively, he fell into a defensive crouch and eyed the woman before him. It was Chloe’s face and Chloe’s touch he’d felt…but the thing currently speaking to him was not his friend. Every instinct he possessed- both skinwalker and otherwise- practically screamed for him to attack; to kill the thing hurting his friend.
”What are you?” He snarled, fists bunching as he stared at the thing, rage practically pouring from him. ”You don’t know anything about my appetites, bitch. Get out of her, damn you! Get out of her!”
Then, like a switch being flipped, his Chloe came back to him. Practically scrambling, Ty scrambled back to her, putting a palm to her cheek. Kill her…Gods, did she think him capable of that? He couldn’t hurt her…and he saw the resignation in her eyes as she saw just that on his own face.
The monster came back like a hurricane wind, and Ty grunted as her arm slammed into his chest. He was dazed, lying in a pile of broken boxes where he’d landed. How the hell had she managed to move him that far? The thing inside her must be giving her considerable strength, to have managed to throw him across the damned alleyway.
Pushing himself to his feet, he bared his teeth at the thing, currently morphing his friend into something…demonic. Falling into the same defensive crouch again, he faced off with her.
There was no way in Hades that he could kill her, demon or no…but he also couldn’t let her free. Was there some way to subdue her long enough to get Lexi down there? Or Erik? Maybe if he could distract her, he could get to his cell phone in his pocket…
“Why don’t you just answer my question, monster,” He growled in reply, ignoring the shiver that ran down his spine at the sound of her voice. The monster inside of him reacted to the bloodthirsty beast before him; feelings of curiosity, excitement…Gods, and even desire made him sick to his stomach. “What are you, and why are you possessing my friend?”
