Fan Fiction ❯ Shape Shift 1: La Manada ❯ Chapter 7

Clash was buried near Disorder, in a clearing in the woods. There was no funeral and only Prank, Anarchy, Diablo and Bloodbath were present. A small stone marked the grave. It read only "Clash. My body lies, but still I roam." Bloodbath dropped the last of t he dirt onto the grave, then stepped back, beside Diablo. "Bye, Daddy," she said, then walked away, not allowing the guys to see her cry. Diablo, Prank and Anarchy followed her, at a slower pace.

"Remember how Clash was tellin' us that there was no telling how powerful a half Wolf, half vamp would be?" Prank said. The others nodded. "Well, we'll know here pretty soon." Diablo's eyebrows rose. "Cool, I think." "Are you sure it's such a good idea?" asked Anarchy. Diablo and Prank looked at him. "A little late to be askin' that, don'tcha' think?" asked Diablo.

Diablo woke near dawn and reached for Bloodbath. She wasn't there. He sat up. "No, not again," he whispered, pleadingly. Hurriedly pulling on his clothes, he almost didn't see the note on her pillow. Grabbing it, he read her almost illegible scrawl quickly.

Diablo,

I'm going after Riot. It's almost 4 am, so I might even catch him asleep. Don't follow me. I'll be back when I'm done. Love, always,

B.B.

"Sonofabitch!"

Prank was looking for Diablo around 4:30 p.m., when he found Bloodbath's note.

Cursing, Prank took the piece of paper downstairs, to the Pack. "Shit," Echo mumbled. "What the fuck do we do now?" Jinx stared at him. "We go after them." "I'll get dressed," said Chaos, still in her sweats. "Don't, cause you're not going," said Prank. "Bullshit!" "No, I don't want you near Riot, not now." "You too. You're staying here," Echo told Jinx. The girls looked at each other, an unspoken message passing between them. "Fine," said Chaos, "Trouble can stay and baby-sit us."

"Bloodbath's gonna get herself killed," Chaos mumbled, pulling on her jeans and boots along with a black, hooded sweatshirt. Jinx and Trouble were lacing up combat boots and pulling their hair back into braids. "Why do they follow Riot?" asked Jinx. "'Cause they're nothing without him," said Trouble. "See, our guys are all strong independently. Riot's Pack, well, isn't. They've got no courage and no Pack pride. Riot and his way is the only thing they know." Chaos sighed. "Well, after tonight, they're gonna have to find a new leader and a new way. Riot won't survive until morning."

Bloodbath sat, quietly, glaring daggers at Creep. It had taken him and Rebel both to drag her inside, kicking and screaming and they both had the marks to prove it. Faintly, she could hear Riot, downstairs, speaking to his Pack. Her breath caught in her throat when she heard a new voice.

"Where's she at, Riot?" Diablo demanded. Riot smirked at him. "Dead. You lost another one, Diablo, and this one was for real, wasn't she? Maybe you should give up." "Bullshit. She wouldn't go down without taking you with her." Riot's eyes narrowed. "I said, she's dead." That was when Bloodbath's screams began, from overhead. "Diablo!" Diablo looked up, then back at Riot. "She sounds pretty alive to me."

Prank and Trickster slipped in the back door of Riot's Pack's old house. Anarchy and Echo were going in the front and Discord was going through an upstairs window. Silently, from all sides, the Pack moved toward the central room of the house, where Riot and Diablo were surrounded by Sabotage, Rebel, Unruly, Necromancer, Siren, Confusion and Amulet. "Where's Creep?" asked Trickster, quietly, not liking the feeling of not knowing where the enemy was. "Dead," said Bloodbath, coming downstairs with Discord.

"What are you gonna do now, Diablo? You're all alone," Riot taunted. "Not quite," said Prank, stepping forward. Riot's Pack jumped back at his voice. The Pack, including Bloodbath, stepped to Diablo's side, facing Riot. "You're outnumbered, Riot. What are you gonna do now?" asked Diablo.

Trouble, Jinx and Chaos approached the house, slowly. They could hear the small war raging within. "Jesus, they're all gonna die," Jinx mumbled. All three of them leaped back when two bodies crashed through the window. It was Diablo and Riot. Bloodbath, in Wolf form, jumped into the fight. Somewhere in the blur of flesh, fur, fangs and blood, Riot flipped Bloodbath onto her back and closed his hand over her throat. That was when Diablo's arm snaked around his neck, caught his chin and yanked.

*The shortest straw has been pulled for you*

The crack of Riot's neck breaking was deafening. Both Packs came out of the house, through both the door and window and gathered around the three Wolves on the ground. Diablo knelt beside Riot. His body was lying on top of a once again human Bloodbath, who was coughing, violently, but was otherwise okay. "It's over," Chaos mumbled. Prank's head snapped up. "I thought I told you to stay at home." She shrugged. "Do I ever do what I'm told?"

"Where do you think you're going?" Chaos asked, grabbing Rascal around the waist. "Eh?" The two year old boy looked up at her with Prank's blue and green eyes and used the most used of the four words in his vocabulary, then shifted into Wolf form. Smiling, Chaos carried the squirming puppy into the living room. Jinx was on the couch, watching Mayhem and Scamp play on the floor. Bloodbath picked up her one-year old daughter, who looked just like her father, and carried her to the window. Scamp, abandoned by his playmate, climbed up onto Jinx's lap, looking around with Echo's big green eyes.

Trickster came into the room and Scamp, Rascal and Mayhem all reached for him, immediately. "Where are the guys?" asked Chaos, letting Rascal run to him. He reached down and picked up the boy, mid-shift, spun him around, then set him back on his feet. "At the graveyard," said Trickster, watching Rascal promptly fall on his butt. "Here they come," said Bloodbath, from the window.

Diablo looked up when the front door opened. There was Bloodbath, carrying Mayhem. Chaos and Rascal were right behind her.

Prank caught Rascal when he came running at them. "Daddy!" "Everything okay?" asked Bloodbath. Diablo nodded and took Mayhem. "Fine. Everything's fine." "Mommy," said Rascal, pointing at Chaos. His word bank was quickly being emptied.

Prank looked back down the trail at the edge of the trees. Down that path was a clearing with three stones in it. Disorder. Clash. Riot. Down that path was the past.

He glanced at Chaos, at Diablo, Bloodbath and Mayhem, then down at Rascal, the future. And Rascal said the last word in his vocabulary: "Shift."