Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ 'Do You Want to Live Forever?' ❯ Fists and Fangs ( Chapter 5 )

A/N: Another Vampire Explanation: Pure Bloods cannot climb up and down walls like a bug or hang from ceilings like 'Made's' can. They can, however, jump very high depending upon individual strength and longevity.

Disclaimer: I do not condone or believe in Police brutality, and though I believe it goes on at times, I do not think it happens enough within our Law Enforcement System to justify how many Policemen are viewed. So, up front, I am apologizing for the scene of police brutality that used in this chapter, but it was a necessary evil... and, as I am always trying to make my characters 'real' and more three dimensional, it is true, that Cops get very pissed off when one of 'their own' get's killed... and they usually want to go 'after' the person who did the killing. I am not excusing this behavior, but it is an understandable emotion... and sometimes, even the best of us can lose our grip on our control when it comes to something that is very close to us... like losing a partner.

Clarification: In order to set a few minds to rest about the 'so called interlude' between Kenshin and his Great-grandmother, please allow me to explain. It appears that my intentions were a 'tad'

misconstrued. My Images of the Vampire population have been heavily inspired by a great author,

Anne Rice. I am a life long fan (Though the 'Queen of The Damned' Movie was a complete insult

to the book), and I have always loved how she made her Vampires into such sensual and emotional creatures. There was always a bit of a hint of 'gayness' in her books which simply went along with The Master and his Children and the bond of The Blood and The Love it represented. It was a unique concept. I myself wanted to bring out the concept that it is the blood itself that inspires the bond... that it inspires the pleasure of the joining between one Pure Blood to another, seeing as how they cannot harm one another with their saliva... it is a mixing of souls and hearts. For family members it is a sharing of knowledge and a certain kind of pleasure... perhaps incestuous if you choose to look at it that way, but it is not meant in that sense. It is merely that The Blood is the very core of life and emotion between these beings. It is used to bring families closer together, to enhance existing or latent powers, but is not something that is done very often. Only on certain rare or emergent cases... for lovers and mates... it is obviously much more. As Kenshin would be new to the whole matter of blood and the emotions it invoked, and having never even be taught about such things... he got a little carried away. If I grossed anyone out... I offer my deepest apologies. Gomen nasi.

Clarification: Why is Kaoru such a bitch? Welllll.... at the moment she is not really a bitch, she is just a very strong, very self centered self assured Slayer who thinks she doesn't need anyone's help or advice. She thinks she is the best there is... humility is always the most difficult lesson to learn... and often the most painful. I have written her as a strong character because I wanted her to be one... She is exactly what I want her to be.... Strong, opinionated, brassy, arrogant, and tough as nails... but everyone has their breaking point, and everyone has their soft spots... It just takes the right person to find them, and the right situation to bring them to the surface.

Standard disclaimers apply... I don't own Rurouni Kenshin or any of those fab. Characters.

Chapter Five

Fists and Fangs

New York City... Ally/streets

April 2004, The Weekend

Sunday Night, 9:32 p.m.

Characters:

Kenshin Himura

Kaoru Kamiya

Richard Wimsey/Police Officer

Ed Springfield/Police Officer

Dave Mitchell/Police Officer

Lyle Carter/Police Officer

Tony Simpson/Police Officer

Charlie Fuenttez/Police Officer

Teddy Marco/Rookie Officer

Nick Jackson/Police Officer

"All right, Little girl... just come on out and nobody will get hurt..." Officer Richard Wimsey slowly approached the darkened end of the boxed-off alley his hand hovering over the grip of his 9mm as he went. Just behind him his partner, Ed Springfield, was backing him up doing the same thing. Neither one of them had been prepared for what had happened that night and their call for back-up had been over five minutes ago and still no one had shown up yet. It looked like they were on their own with this one.

"Go to hell..." The feminine voice spat viciously from the darkness where they new the little minx was hiding, and the two men exchanged frustrated looks with one another. This was not working out as well as they had hoped. But then again, nothing had from the moment they had laid eyes on this wicked beauty as she was dropping her obviously dead victim to the ground in the alleyway down on 59th street.

They had gone in guns drawn shouting for her to freeze and to put her hands behind her head which had done... for about three seconds, and then she had hissed at them like some sort of rabid cat showing them fangs that should have been inside of a bears mouth just before disappearing down the ally. Holstering their nines, they had given quick pursuit not even sure they were going to be able to follow the lightening quick shadow, but they had gotten lucky. She made a bad turn and got herself boxed into a dead end with no stairs or doorways and the walls were at least 60 ft high if not more.

She was caught. But she wasn't giving up, and neither was sure how to proceed.

"Look here, Missy... I don't want to shoot you and you don't want to get shot, so let's just do this by the book... nice and easy. What do you say? Come out peaceful like and we'll all go down to the station and have a little talk."

"Sure we will, Officer... and then you lock me up and forget where the key is until your anal retentive Captain show's up in the morning and you serve me up with his coffee and dounuts like a prize out of a crack-jacks box."

"Geez... she's a smart-mouthed bitch." Ed scratched his chin where his usual five o'clock shadow had turned into tomorrow's argument with his wife.

"What do you think we ought to do, Ed?"

"Hell if I know, Richard... but we can't let her get away. You saw what happened back there, man. She just wasted that guy."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... I'm not stupid you idiot... I meant, what do we do with her until we get some decent back-up?"

"Shit! What are you asking me for? You're the senior partner. I thought you were supposed to know how to handle stuff like this."

"Jeepers, 'Dick'," The sound of a feminine dripping with sarcasm and disdain voice drifted out to the men interrupting their heated discussion and drawing their attention back to the dark ally. "Sounds to me like you got a real problem there, Dude... What with Eddy-boy not knowing his balls from his ass and you not having the guts God gave a piss-ant..."

"Shut your trap, Bitch!" Richard bristled angrily at her condescending tone... and the disparaging nick-name. Deep throaty laughter filtered back at him and he realized he had just been manipulated into the unseemly outburst by the conniving wench and her well placed barbs.'Dammit!' He thought, 'I gotta stay in control here... I'm in control, not her.'

"Shame on you, 'Dick'... you aren't supposed to verbally harass your would-be prisoners... What' would the Captain say? Tsk tsk tsk." More laughter followed along with the sounds of shuffling feet and other movement.

"Hey!" Ed barked into the dark shadows. "Don't you be thinking you can get away with anything in there, little girl... we won't hesitate to shoot you if we have to."

"Of course, you won't, Eddy-boy... why, that's why you carry around that sorry excuse of a pea-shooter isn't it? So you can shoot your unarmed suspects?"

"WE don't do that!" He shouted succumbing to her barbs just as his partner had.

"Of course, you don't... Cop's never shoot the wrong people... or accidentally shoot their prisoners... or make mistakes... or fuck up... do they... Eddy-boy? Cop's are perfect, aren't they?"

"If you don't shut-up your crap, Woman... I'm gonna forget that I'm one of the GOOD Cops and I'm gonna blow your freaking head off."

"Ooooh Eddy... I think I'm scared.... I think I might even pee my pants I'm so scared.... Oh, please don't shoot me, Eddy... Please..." And then the ally was filled with loud raucous laughter as she openly mocked him with her careless attitude. "You couldn't hit the side of an outhouse if your Mother stood you up in front of it and pointed your gun for you."

"That's it you filthy bitch!" He hollered as he yanked his pistol from its holster and pointed it into the darkness. "Your dead..." But before he could start pulling the trigger, Richard grabbed him by the wrist and forced his arm down.

"What the hell are you doing, you stupid moron? You can't just shoot a suspect like that... You'll lose your badge... go to jail... shit, Ed. Get a grip on yourself, can't you see she's trying to get to you, and doing a damn good job at it."

"Fine... I'm fine." Ed yanked his arm out of his partner's grasp. "But if she doesn't shut her mouth, I swear... I swear to God, Rich... I'm gonna put a bullet in her head."

"Just wait for the back-up, Ed... they are on their way... just wait. Let's do this the right way or she'll walk... got me, Partner?" He looked over at the seething man who was still staring furiously into the darkness and whacked him on the shoulder. "I said, do you get me?"

"Yeah, I get you!"

"Good, now holster that damn gun before I do it for you."

"Yes Sir." Ed slid his 9mm back into its custom holster all the while hearing the soft chuckling of the girl as it drifted out of the black hole at the end of the ally. 'You and me got unfinishedbusiness, girly.' He thought maliciously as he eyes tried to find her shape in the dark nothingness before him, but could see no definable shapes. 'No one mocks Ed Springfield and gets away withit... no one.'

As it was, Kaoru had never known fear until now, keeping her bravado up was the only way she could think of to keep these two cops off balance so she could think. They had caught her completely by surprise, and that bothered her, bothered her enough that she had blown her concentration, got mixed up on the ally ways and made a very bad mistake. Now she was boxed in and the walls were too high to jump, and she was beginning to experience something she had never felt before. Anxiety... her palms were sweating, her breathing was becoming shallow and irregular, and her heart rate was going through the roof. If she didn't find a way out of this mess before their so-called back-up arrived, she was going to be in a world of hurt because even SHE couldn't dodge that many bullets no matter how fast she was. She had to think. There had to be a way around these two idiots without having to kill them... if only the ally were wider... if only...

The sound of sirens broke through her concentration and a shiver of cold apprehension slithered up her spine setting off all the warning alarms inside of her brain... time was up...compromise planning was over, and as three more squad cars pulled up just outside the opening of the ally, Kaoru crouched down low assuming an attack position even as she wedged herself into one of the dank and dusty debris filled corners.

Six more police officers were counted as they approached the two who were standing watch, and as the scent of their bodies reached her highly sensitive nostrils, the female growled low in her throat and bared her fangs in response to the threat they represented. 'I'm cornered...' Her primitive hind brain registered the life-threatening fact and began pumping adrenaline into her already powerful body increasing her strength and speed more than a hundred fold. 'Must survive... must... survive... must...'

#

"You're sure she's still in there, Rich?"

"Course I am. Me and Ed been standing here the whole time, and we haven't see anybody come out, besides, she's been trying to bait us into some sort of a conflict trying to get us to drop our guard ever since we cornered her in there... and she's not doing to bad a job at it either, I might add."

"What do you mean? Not doing to bad a job? You guys didn't rough her up didja?"

"Nah... but Eddy here just about put a bullet in her a bit ago."

"What? Are you kidding me?"

"Nope... she really yanked his chain but good. I really think he was going to do it... if I hadn't stop him that is."

"Shit, Ed. Don't you know what could happen to you if you killed or injured a suspect, Man?"

"Yeah, I know, Jackson... so just shut your hole, all right. I've already had the speech from my partner here... don't need to hear it again."

"Damn hot head. Your gonna get yourself killed or locked up one of these days if you don't learn to calm down, Man."

"I thought I told you to shut-up, Jackson."

"Sheesh... How do you stand working with him, Rich?" The Officer named Jackson turned and looked at Richard and found him with a disgusted expression all over his face.

"Lots of coffee, Jack... lots and lots of coffee."

"Coffee, hell... I'd be bringing me a bottle on shift if I was you... Damn!"

"Well, Jack... I guess that's why YOU aren't his partner and I am, eh?" The two men started to laugh as Ed humped his shoulders up inside of his flack jacket angrily. No one understood him or liked him, but that was all right. He didn't much like any of them either, and after tonight, well it wasn't going to matter, one way or the other. They were all out here in a dark ally with a highly dangerous suspect who was capable of heaven knew what, and all sorts of accidents were possible. All sorts...

"Hey Ed... Come on, Man... we need to get regrouped already, get your ass over here."

"Yeah, yeah... I'm coming." As he turned his back to join the others, a flash of movement caught the corner of his eye and his reflexes jerked him back just in time to pull his nine halfway out of its holster and utter a single terrified cry of terror before the red-eyed snarling demon leaping soundlessly through the air struck him full force center mass with both feet. He slammed to the ground with a sickening 'thud' feeling his ribs cave in puncturing both of his lungs causing white hot pain to explode through his chest, and up into his neck. The breath left him in one great bloody 'Whoosh', and he found he could not draw air back except for the tiniest squeaks and sputtering sounds.

Opening his eyes, Ed beheld above him a magnificent creature of glorious beauty yet monstrous deformities for, though her face was that of an Angel, she bore the fangs and burning red eyes of a demon from the deepest hell. Even her delicate hands which seemed better suited for a pianist were tipped with long curving talons that could rip his flesh open in one flick of her wrist.'I'm dying...' He thought, as he gazed up at her while struggling to breath. 'I'm looking at the Angel of Death, and I'm dying... God... help me...'

"God doesn't want you, Eddy." She whispered down to him and noted the widening of his eyes when he realized she had read his thoughts. "You've done nothing but hurt others all your miserable fucking life..."

"Noooo...." He rasped and tried to reach for her but found he could no longer move.

"Yes, what about Emma... and Susie? What about them? How many times have your drunken fists pounded the shit out of them because dinner wasn't just right? Or your uniform wasn't ironed just so? Or your beer wasn't cold enough? Or just because you felt like it? How many, Eddy? How many?"

"Soo-rry..." 'How did she know that? How did this black-haired, fanged Angel know he beat his wife and kid? 'How....'

"Too late for that... you should have thought about that a long time ago." And she turned away disappearing into the darkness leaving him laying on his back bleeding inside and slowly suffocating from two punctured lungs.

"Heeelllpp mmmeeee...." He wheezed trying to get someone's attention, but they were all huddled together talking and no one seemed to notice that he wasn't there until his partner, Richard, turned around to yell at him again and found that Ed was not with the group.

"What the... Hey, Ed? Where the hell are you?"

"Rrriich..." The rasping whisper caught Richard's attention and he finally noticed the shine of his partners black satin jacket gleaming halfway back into the dark ally where he was laying on the ground.

"Holy shit!" He exclaimed in a voice that was half filled with panic. Grabbing his shoulder radio, he yelled, "Officer down! Officer down! 56th and Wilshire! I repeat... Officer down! Send an ambulance. Eddy! Oh my God!" Richard pulled his nine from its holster on his right hip, cocked it, and started back into the ally. "Jackson, Marco... back me up... Fuenttez, Mitchell, you guys pull your riots out and cover the left, Carter, you and Simpson do the same and cover the right... Ready...Go!" And everybody moved taking up position in a matter of seconds.

After waiting and making sure that all of the men were settled in, Richard waved to the two officer's behind him and motioned for them to follow him as he slowly eased his large frame up the side of the ally wall. "I'm coming, partner." He called softly. "You just hang in there, Ok?"

"Demmmon..."

"Don't try to talk, Ed... Just you lay still, help's on its way." Richards eyes narrowed back into the inky darkness as he tried to penetrate the heavy veil but it was useless. He couldn't see a thing. "I know you're back there, Little Girl... I can smell that dog piss you got on... where'd you get it anyway?"

"The last Policeman's charity benefit." Was the hushed throaty reply, and Richard had to smile. She had guts, he'd give her that. She was in way over her head now that she'd hurt one of their own, but the bitch had guts.

"That's cute, you know..." He said, trying to judge where her voice had come from and pinpointing it off to his middle left somewhere. "You're a real funny girl... too bad you're in so much trouble. I like funny girls... Why I bet you and me could have got along better under different circumstances, whatdaya think?"

"I think you're full of shit." Richard chuckled but took careful note that her voice had moved sharply to his left. She was moving away from him.

"Ahh, now that's not a nice thing to say, is it, Babe?" He chided as he continued to ease his way into the darkness past Ed's body. Looking down at his injured partner, Richard could barely make out any respiratory movements at all, and that worried him. What the hell had she done to him anyway? "You telling me I'm not your type, girly? Is that it?"

"You could say that."'There are too many of them...' She thought as the true reality of her situation started to sink in and suddenly Kaoru felt like a little girl. '... too many guns... too manybullets... I can't... I... Papa...I'm.............I'm afraid.'

"Well... what is your type... tell me that and maybe we could work something out, hmmm?" He looked back and gave a nearly imperceptible signal to the two officers guarding the left side of the ally telling them to begin advancing inside, and slowly they too started easing their way along the opposite wall toward the darkness.

"So, what's up, 'Dick'?" The soft husky voice drifted out to the men from the very center of the ally catching them all by surprise and causing everyone to stop in his tracks. "Are you trying to pull a fast one on me? Hmmmm? Do you really think I don't SEE you and your little soldiers sneaking up on me from back here? Do you think I'm blind... or just stupid?"

"Well, now... I don't actually think your either, Little girl... but, ahh, I do think we are going to take you down... one way or another."

"Really?" 'Papa... I don't think I'm coming home tonight...'

"Yes, Ma'am... really. Unless of course, you decide to do the smart thing and come with us peaceful."

"You mean... give myself up."'I will make you proud... I swear I will... I won't give up.. I won't.'

"Yeah... that's what I mean."

"Sorry, 'Dick', but I can't do that." 'Forgive me for my arrogance... forgive me... I was wrong... I was... wrong...Oh Papa... I was so wrong.'

"I was afraid you were going to say that... I guess we'll have to play it your way... you want to play hard-ball... so lets play hard-ball."

"Wouldn't want it any other way, 'Dick'... bring it on." 'I'll remember what you taughtme...Papa.... I'll remember.... and I'll take some of them with me, I won't go down easy.... youtaught me to be a fighter, a Slayer, and I was the best... but.... but... I never knew what that really meant... forgive my pride... I never knew... I never understood... all these years... I never...'

"LOAD 'EM UP!" He shouted, and the five remaining men lowered their weapons aiming into the void of darkness where the female was hiding. "Let's try not to kill her... if we can."

"Yes Sir..."

'I love you, Papa... I'm still your little girl... I'm still your little jasmine flower... I'm still your....'

"RIP IT!" And the sound of dozens upon dozens of bullets being fired simultaneously inside a contained area suddenly tore through the night, and the darkness inside the boxed end of the ally began to light up as the powder flashes from the guns and rifles exploded in brief brilliant flashes of white. What these men saw during those brief momentary flashes was something that would linger in the memories of those who survived for a very long time.

#

Running. Running so fast that the world was only a blur to his vision. A melting of lights, people, cars, buildings, trees... everything bled together until it became an endless blurring river of color without texture or form... there was not even sound for he raced by so swiftly that not even they could catch him.

Pulling... she was pulling him. He could 'feel' her... feel her blood pulling him toward her. It was sobbing... crying... screaming inside of his head in fear and despair... she was afraid... she was in danger... she was... injured. 'Noooooooooo!' His heart screamed as it strained against the confines of his chest struggling to reach out for her... to hold her... cradle her... comfort her... save her.

Save her... he had to save her. She was his beginning... his end.... his life and death. His Soul. She was the Source.

#

Vampire vision and lightening speed helped Kaoru dodge, jump, and duck the screaming projectiles as they came at her in an endless stream of death and destruction, but even her well honed Slayer skills were not completely infallible as she crouched down, doubled over, overcome with pain, and bleeding from several wounds. Most of the injuries were superficial grazes, but one was not and she knew from her own experiences with comrades', that should it go unattended for very long, she would surely die.

Looking down to where her hand pressed against her right side, she judged that the bullet had gone straight through her liver without severing any main arteries or vessels, but she was still slowly bleeding to death and needed medical attention immediately.

The Officers had stopped shooting for the moment waiting to see what was happening with her.

Was she dead?

Was she wounded?

Would she give up now?

They waited, none of them believing yet what they had just seen.

"Did I just see her dodging bullets?" Jackson's voice was a little shaky as he slid down the wall and knelt next to Richard and his partner, Marco.

"Sure as hell what it looked like to me." Marco replied as he loaded another clip into his nine. "Damnedest thing I ever saw in my life... ain't never seen anybody that could move that fast... nobody."

"Me neither... it's not humanly possible, I mean... It's just not."

"What are you getting at, Jackson?" Richard turned a frustrated face to the two shaken men. "Are you trying to say this little girl isn't human?"

"Hey, I don't know, all right... I don't know. All I do know is what I saw her doing back there... the way she was moving and shit... Hell, reminded me of the shit we saw in the 'Matrix' movies, you know... that 'bullet time' crap."

"Jesus, Jack... get a hold of yourself. Are you losing it, or what?" Richard reached out and grabbed the shoulder sleeve of the other officer's uniform and gave it a hard jerk. "That wasn't no 'movie bullet-time' shit, got me? I know we hit her... she's either dead back there, or else she's down. We just gotta wait and see what's going on, all right? You frosty, Man?" Jackson and Marco looked at each other exchanging worried glances which just seemed to make Richard that much more angry. "HEY! DICKWEED! I said are you frosty, Man?"

"Yeah, yeah... we're frosty... we're frosty. Lay off." Marco slapped Richard's hands off both him and Jackson's flack jacket's in irritated anger and then leveled a glare at the other officer.

"You just lay off, Man... WE know what we saw... so do you. You're just too chicken-shit to admit it."

"Shut you hole, rookie... before I shut it for you."

"Yeah... whatever."

#

Closer... so much closer. How many miles had he covered and how fast had he covered them? His mind could not even begin to fathom the concept of what he was doing, but... that was not what was important at the moment. What was important was that he reach HER in time... Her pain cried out to the sky even as her heart cried out to his, and he could smell her blood, taste it even as it dripped in a constant stream from her body. Her life was oozing away and she was becoming weaker by the moment... Hurry... hurry... hurry.

#

"Hey there, Little girl... You still back there?" Richard eased his way farther into the darkness thinking that once his eyes got used to it he would be able to find her without a problem, but then he had an idea. "Shit," He mumbled in irritation. "Why didn't you think of that before you big dumb-ass." Slowly he turned and looked at Marco. "Go back to your car and get a flashlight..."

"Right..." And Marco carefully made his way back to the squad car and retrieved a flashlight from the trunk bringing it back and handing it to Richard.

"Thanks... why didn't any of us think of this before?" Jackson and Marco looked at each other and shrugged. "I guess we were all too worried about Eddy... just went straight to the guns."

"Hummph.... that sure isn't gonna look good on a report, Marco. You're gonna have to come up with something that sounds better than that if you don't want the Chief coming down on your back like a wild hyena." Then Richard looked across the ally and made eye contact with the other officers and motioned them that things were on the move again. "Did you hear me, Little girl?" He called again. "You still with me, doll?"

"Do..n't call m-me doll, 'Dick'." The voice was low... lower than it had been, and laced with pain but still full of the same bravado and gutsy 'go to hell' attitude. Richard couldn't believe it.

"Now, how in the hell did you manage to get out of the way of all those bullets, girl? We'd all really like to know that? Jackson and Marco here say you're not human... I say you're just lucky... which is it?" Raspy laughter greeted his question and he had to smile as he finally once again pinpointed her location as somewhere right-center.

"I g-guess that de..pends on your p-point of view, 'Dick'."

"My point of view? Now why would you say that, girl?" He asked as he flipped on the flashlight and began panning it across the back wall.

"Depends on wh-what you consider h...uman." At that moment the beam of the light fell upon the half kneeling half crouched from of a woman whose long ebony hair was dangling in the dust and dirt at her feet. As the light hit her, she looked up into it and it illuminated a face of exquisite beauty that was now streaked with blood from a flesh wound over her right eye. Grayish dirt was smeared over her porcelain perfect cheeks giving her an unnatural ghoulish appearance. Blood was oozing between the fingers of her left hand where it was pressed tightly against her right side, and the evidence of more shone stickily from her black leather pants.

"Well, well, well..." Richard stood up and motioned for his counter parts to do the same. "Looky what we have here..." Holstering his gun, he ambled over to the woman stopping within six or seven feet of her. "Looks like your all used up, girly..." She said nothing in response, just lowered her eyes and groaned in a low tone. "Oh... is the poor little girl hurting? Did the Cop's and their big bad guns hurt the poor little girl?" Still she didn't move or speak. "Well, now aren't you something? You sure did have a lot to say when I couldn't see you, didn't you?"

Carefully he advanced on her being sure to watch her every move. "You sure messed up Ed... what the hell did you do to him anyway, huh? You think I ought to make you pay for what you did to him? I think he's dead by now... if not, he's damn close to it. He has a wife and a little girl, you know... a family. Does that mean anything to somebody like you?" Suddenly filled with inexplicable anger, Richard reached down and grabbed a handful of her long black hair and yanked her head back forcing her to look at him. "Does it? Do you even know what it means to have a family, you murdering bitch? I ought to do you right here." Pulling his fist back, Richard looked into her face for a moment and then let his anger lead him.

The strength behind the punch hit Kaoru in the left side of her jaw and sent her crashing to the ground her head swimming. For a human, Richard had a hellova right-cross. "Did you like that, Little girl? Huh? Did you? Is that the kind of stuff you're used to... the rough and ugly shit? Well, I can give you rough and ugly, all you want. Get up... come on, I said get up!" His anger was completely out of control, and Kaoru was getting weaker by the moment. "You stepped onto the wrong playing field tonight, baby... I play hard-ball remember... Looks like I win... you lose."

"You think? Dick?" She gritted out speaking for the first time, her huge bottomless blue eyes staring up at him as she rolled to her side and then fluidly rose to her feet and faced him squarely. "I heard it different... I heard it ain't over til the fat lady sings..."

"There are no fat ladies, girly... there's just me... and you... and the back of the paddy-wagon where all kinds of accidents can happen." Richard smiled feeling very smug as he pulled his hand cuffs out with one hand and balled his other up into a hammer-like fist. "Come on... Like I said....You lose, let's go." She looked down at the cuffs and his fist, and then looked back up into his smirking face. "One way or another, girly, you are coming with me. This is over... now... fat ladies or not."

"But like you said, 'Dick', there are no fat ladies..." The edge in her voice brought he gaze up to her face and Richard saw something flash through her eyes that made his blood run cold. "There's just you... and me." The last was said in a voice so low... so low and so quiet, he wasn't sure he had even heard her, but then there was a flash of white followed by an unearthly snarling sound, and Richard found himself being lifted up off the ground by one of her small hands as it wrapped around his throat. "Just you... and me."

The other officers watched as their commander walked back into the alley to face the wounded girl, and satisfied that he had everything under control, they began to gather up their weapons and regroup. The startled scream drew their attention back to the darkness and in the next split instant, the severed head of Richard Wimsey sailed out and struck Nick Jackson in the chest splattering blood all over him and his gear.

"SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!" He screamed as he dumped the gory mess out of his arms and stumbled back away from it. "Did you see... did you see... Oh shit... oh shit... oh shit..." He collapsed on the ground puking up the hamburger and fries he had eaten a couple of hours before as his body and mind rejected what he had just seen, and as the others gathered around the decapitated head, the ambulance sirens could finally be heard in the far distance.

"They sure aren't gonna be any help for Rich... Damn... Look at him, the bitch ripped his head clean off... Shit!" Marco was starting to shake as he watched the crimson puddle forming around the head of a man he had only known for six months, but had grown to respect. "How... how did she... Oh shit, Man... Oh God...."

The four remaining lucid officers looked at each other, cocked their riot guns, and turned toward the darkness at the end of the ally.

"Your dead, Bitch!" Carter yelled as he advanced forward first with his partner Fuenttez backing up his left flank. "You just killed a Cop, Lady... and that makes you expendable in our book." Simpson fell in along his right flank and Mitchell completed the diamond by falling in behind him. "So you better make your peace with God... cause we're coming for your sorry ass and we aren't gonna miss..."

"Paa..pa..." The low moan that filtered out of the darkness to them caught them off guard for a moment, and then something they could only describe as a banshee from hell with a ghostly white face surrounded by streaming ebony hair leapt up out of the darkness before them clawed hands raised high over its head ready to attack.

Long white fangs snapped viciously as the snarling beast-woman crashed into Carter's chest sending him careening backward into Mitchell whose gun went off sending the deadly 12 gauge buck-shot flying harmlessly over her head as she sprang off and to the left searching for an escape past Fuenttez, but he blocked her by rushing into the wild charge and throwing her backward.

Kaoru landed hard on broken asphalt sending shards of unbelievable pain exploding out from her wound and nearly numbing her into oblivion, but she refused to give in to the mist that threatened to overwhelm her, and forced herself to roll to her side and find her feet. As she did, Fuenttez was on top of her smacking her hard between the shoulders with the butt of his rifle nearly knocking her to the ground again, but with a great howl of pain and rage, Kaoru lunged up beneath his arm and shoved her talon tipped hand deep into his chest with all the strength she had left.

He grunted and sucked in a deep breath as pain and surprise hit him all at once, and his eyes grew round and cow-like as the dumbness of his own death descended upon him. The wrenching tearing feeling inside of him went beyond pain, and Fuenttez blinked, and then blinked again as he felt himself slipping away from his unnatural opponent, and as he did, he looked up and saw for one brief moment the bloody dripping remains of his own heart grasp firmly in her hand. Then his world went dark and he knew no more.

"Did you see that? Did you? Oh My God.... she just... she just... Jesus... she just ripped Charlies heart out... right out of his chest... Oh my God... Oh shit..." Mitchell was stumbling and scrambling around the ground looking for his rifle which he had lost during the impact with Carter and the female, but he couldn't seem to find it and as he watched in horrified terror while she killed another member of their crew, he suddenly didn't think he cared if he found it again or not.

"Simpson... you got anything, Man? Simpson?!"

But Simpson wasn't going to be answering him any time soon, nor would he be answering anyone for that matter because Tony Simpson was dead.

Kaoru had collapsed over the dead body of Charlie Fuenntez exhausted and spent, knowing that she had fought her last battle, and Tony Simpson had immediately closed in on her with rifle cocked and pointed at her head. But Tony never made the shot... Tony never pulled the trigger... Tony never saw what seized him from behind and twisted his head around in a 180 degree turn severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly. Tony never knew what hit him. But David Mitchell did, and so did Lyle Carter as they huddled together in terrified frozen panic and stared at what could only be described as a Demon, or a Devil... Hell, they didn't know what to call it.

It had appeared out of nowhere... silent as a ghost and materializing like a fine mist until it was solid. It's eyes burned like liquid gold and glowed brighter than any natural or man-made light either man had ever seen... they were like beacon's or lanterns in the darkness and their brightness all but obscured the face they shone from. But they didn't need to see the face... they could see its mouth and that was enough. If they had thought the fangs jutting out of the female's mouth had been awesome and frightening, then the ones present in this Demon's were nothing short of... astonishing.

Even from where they lay huddled together, it was fairly easy to see that each of the two canines were at least 2 full inches long and looked more like daggers hanging in its mouth than teeth. One bite from those fangs and a good shake of its head would no doubt severe a limb... or a head, but neither man wanted to find out so they remained perfectly still and as unthreatening as possible. The Demon looked over at them and opening it's mouth, hissed an angry ugly sound that sent chills up both their spines, and from behind one of the squad cars, Teddy Marco began to cry as he lost control of his bladder.

Carefully the Demon walked over the dead bodies and knelt down in front of the woman, and the gentle touch of a hideously clawed hand tilted her face up until she looked into those burning eyes... and spoke but one word.

"You..." In the next moment, the Demon creature had scooped her up into its powerful arms, turned from the carnage that had nearly been her last battlefield, and vanished into this air.

"Did we... are we... what...?" Carter and Mitchell looked at each other as the sound of the ambulance siren rounded the corner and brought the much needed help about ten minutes too late.

"What are we going to tell them?" Carter looked back at the bloody mess that had been four of his friends.

"I don't know, Man... I don't know."

"Do you think they'd believe us if we told them the truth?"

"Oh shit, Man... they'd throw us all in the nut pen for sure."

"Probably, but what are we gonna tell 'em, Dave?"

"Nothin... Alien's... gang fight... hell, I don't know.... something."

"Alien's is good... I vote for the Alien's story."

"You would." Carter grinned shakily and stood up offering a hand to his partner.

"Well, it sound's a hell of a lot more believable than Demon's with two inch fangs that appeared out of nowhere and a girl that can dodge bullets and rip peoples hearts out..."

"Hmmmm... you may have a point there... Let's go check on Marco and Jackson... both of them were pretty traumatized."

"Yeah, and we weren't."

"Geez, you're a baby, Lyle... I never knew that about you... does Helen know, or do I need to tell her?"

"You stay away from Helen... She's my girl."

"Not for long if you keep up with the 'cry-baby' shit."

"You're really an asshole, Mitchell, you know that."

"Hey, somebodies got to do it."

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