Jesse Allard's Story

The following morning...

When Jesse woke come morning he found himself sprawled upon the cold cement of the facility, awkwardly devoid of any clothing. Unlike those of the Bloodstone pack who where born shapeshifters, Jesse was not yet accustomed to the comfort most of them held with public nudity. Worse yet, his clothes where still back in the Phantom Quarter where he had left them the night prior.

Fortunately Cornell's patients where typically werewolves, and they were well accustomed to such complications, and Jesse had been volunteering enough hours here that he knew there was a storage room with old clothes and he got up with a groan. He was stiff from sleeping on the floor.

Once he was dressed with a pair of oversized pants and a shirt that was a few sizes too loose, he went in search of Cornell. Bare feet padded against the cement floors as he made his way through the facility, which had initially been constructed as an office building. The original owners had abandoned the project halfway to completion and Cornell had bought up the property, and the building with it. Unfinished office rooms had been converted into exam rooms, and utility closet into supply rooms. Everything had an unfinished look to it, as the walls remained unpainted, and the floors bare of any linoleum or carpeting. It was a rather drab place of greys and unfinished wood. From the exterior the 'hospital' appeared little more than a rundown, abandoned building with the windows boarded up to keep the interior lights from shining out into the streets at night. Those who knew of its true purpose knew to come in through the back.

The entire operation was highly illegal, but the human hospitals lacked the proper facilities for treating werewolves without endangering both patient and doctor. There was also the trouble that many of Cornell's patients were criminals, and not too keen to contend with the cops when they showed up at the hospital with gunshot wounds.

For that very same reason, much of the facility and its supplies where kept maintained by the various packs. It was through their funding that he could maintain this private operation, and being the only werewolf surgeon in the city meant that all of the packs had a vested interest in keeping him in business and respecting the neutrality of his center.

When Jesse finally located Cornell, it was in one of the many converted office rooms where he was checking up on Re'Altarm.

"Hey. How is she?" Jesse asked.

"Stable for now. Those friends of yours did good work in getting her here," the doctor answered. "She's going to need surgery, but I don't think she's stable enough for that yet. I'm easing her off the sedatives so I can try to talk to her and find out what happened. Are you staying long?"

"Nah, I have to get back to report this to Baron. She was attacked scarcely a block outside of our territory, he'll want to know about it. Though... before I get going, there's something I wanted to ask. There's a little girl I've been treating, in the Phantom Quarter. She's in some bad need of some antibiotics, if you could spare some."

"Go ahead and take what you need," Cornell told him.

Slowly her eyes opened and she allowed herself to become conscious once more. The night before was just a haze after arriving here. All she could remember was shouting people and fussing over her, lots of needle pricks and then nothing. At least, she guessed she was still alive.

She was cleaner than she had been the night before. The doctor needed to get the dirt and blood off of her for the most part, and though the gown was tattered and reused quite a bit, it had been cleaner than the rags she wore into the hospital. The old battered medical equipment normally would have frighten her, if her thoughts hadn't been sluggish. Her throat was parched, probably from the stupid mask they put on her to help with her breathing. She couldn't move her right arm or shoulder at all. The pain from it was dulled to the point she barely felt it, or any of her aches and pains from the attack last night. However the one thing she could feel through the drugs, was that her entire body felt like it was on fire. It was a deep ache that throbbed with every fiber of her being. But it beat being dead, and if she no longer had use of her right arm and her body pained her like this for the rest of her life, she would use it as fuel to exact her revenge.

She began to look around for any sign of life. Her mind was foggy and thoughts came to her like a thick sludge, but desperation to find a familiar face from the night before took hold. "W-wolfie..?" She called in a soft, cracking voice. She swallowed hard, though it didn't help the dryness of her sore throat. "Wolfie...?!" She managed to cry louder.

Present day...

Baron descended down the steps, pulling his clothes on as he went.

"What happened?" he asked as he reached the cellar.

Julienne was laying on her stomach on one of the cots while Jesse swabbed the bits of metal that had grafted to her flesh. A small tray of tools sat on a chair next to him and he retrieved a scalpel and a pair of tweezers to begin the tedious process of removing the metal from her flesh.

Carlisle meanwhile was seated on the second cot waiting his turn when Baron reached them.

"We ran into trouble on the way back. Elliot didn't make it. A man - or machine really - pulled a knife on us. There was another, on the rooftops somewhere, but I didn't get a look at him. We were blind-sided. I didn't smell wolf, I don't think it was a rival pack."

"Fuck me," Julienne hissed through grit teeth as Jesse pulled one of the metal shards from her skin and dropped it into a metal tin on the floor next to the cot.. "I hadn't smelled or seen anything like it before. It wasn't human. It looked like a robot of some sort-" she broke off as she bit out a string of expletives as a second piece of metal joined the first in the tin.

"She's right. I have no idea where it came from. A new weapon of the Ardelean Society maybe?" Carlisle said.

"It's possible, but we need more information before we jump to conclusions. Snow, I want you and Julienne to head out after Jesse is done here. You two are our best trackers. Don't engage it, but I want to know where it came from. If it's Ardelean, they've finally gone too far."

Snow nodded his head with a solemn grimace. "We'll find it." he said, watching as the shards of metal clinked into the tin. "But what of the other attacker? Could you tell if they were working together?"

He thumbed the knife sheathed on his leg. He didn't know what use it would be against a machine. If he had time to back to his apartment... no, there wasn't time. And if all went to plan, they wouldn't need to be exchanging blows with it.

Jesse was seated outside the cafe in the small outdoor pavilion that sat in front of the cafe, and he caught a whiff of Blaze's scent as she swept past and headed indoors.

He turned and his eyes followed her as the bell gave a jingle.

Wasn't that Banshee's Pack Leader?

Jesse had only been with the Bloodstone Pack for a couple of months himself, and wasn't as well versed in the various packs that made their home within the city, but he remembered Blaze. They had never spoke, and he didn't even know her name, but he had seen her once in Merveilleux. She had a memorable enough look that he was certain it was her.

So what was she doing here, in Bloodstone territory, alone.

He watched her through the window of the cafe until she had finished her coffee, and when she left he rose from his seat before she could sweep past him again.

"Hey, slow down there," he told her. "What are you doing here?"

After finishing her coffee, Blaze got up, placed her cell phone in her front pocket, as Blaze went to leave, she gave the woman a tip and walked out, pushing her fiery red hair back, out of her eyes, and looked at herself in the glass, making sure she looked okay. Her head turned when she caught a whiff of another wolf and kept walking, her stride normally faster than most. She froze when she heard him calling to her. Turning around on the heels of her worn out boots, she looked at the man.

"I'm here, trying to live a normal life as a lone wolf" she said, with a hint of sorrow in her tone, but a small smile upon her lips. "The name's Blaze, and you are?" she asked, with a risen orange eye brow, she put one hand in her pocket, making sure she had not forgotten her phone, letting the other hand play with her hair.

"Jesse," he answered. "And if that where true, you wouldn't be here flaunting your presence in Bloodstone territory," he pointed out.

Lone wolves weren't typically well received in pack territory.

"If some of the guys found you here, you know there would be trouble. So that means you wanted to be found. So let's try that again. What are you doing here?"

Blaze smirked and smiled her charming smile. "well Jesse I was looking for a new pack." she said, giving a sweet smile. "I can promise you I can stand my own, hunt, and won't cause any trouble in a pack. Plus I think ya'll need a color diversity, I'm sure an orange wolf could help" she said in a joking tone. "My sister took over my pack, killed my kin, and turned everyone against me" she added with a slight hiss in her tone, her eyes now set in a hard stare at Jesse.

Jesse shook his head. "You need to see Baron. I can take you to him, but I can't promise he'll grant your request."

Baron was apt to taking in strays, but the former Pack Leader of a rival pack was another matter entirely, if she was telling the truth at all. Jesse was young, but not entirely naive.

Blaze smiled and stood up straight, ”I would enjoy that, thank you Jesse” she said, and joined Jesse’s side. ”You are very cute, by the way” she added, looking at him. He was a little nicer than most wolves of rival packs. Both of her hands in her pockets as she waited for him to lead the way. "If he doesn't I could persuade him." she added in a more assured and confident tone.

"Come on then, it's not far. I walked here," he replied. He shoved his hands in his pockets and headed off down the street, in the direction of The Den.

Blaze followed Jesse and stayed at his side the whole time.

Bowen had smelled it when Julienne and Carlisle had stumbled in the door. "White phosphorus.", he muttered to himself. If they looked to him he would speak louder. "White phosphorus. Lucky they only caught the shrapnel. Its that garlic smell that catches at the back of the throat and that burned-out match tang that lingers in the back of your nose that gives it away. Whoever did this is well armed and well funded. Its not exactly easy to refine the materials in mass enough for weapons.", he offered.

"Speaking of Ardelean, they have been quite active as of late. I myself have noticed I had a tail from time to time." He meant no pun when he said this. "This is what I wanted to speak to you about. I would also be more than happy to accompany your wolves to the scene if it means I can get some answers.", he said and motioned to Baron, making it perfectly clear that he was speaking to him.

As Re'Altarm was starting to come around the quiet of the center was disrupted by the loud screech of tires outside as someone peeled through the parking lot out back. The screeches where abruptly followed by urgent shouts from the lobby. It would all seem rather distant and surreal to Re'Altarm as she was still shaking the fog of drugs that had been keeping her sedated.

Cornell grunted though. "Looks like we're revving up for a busy few days. Can you stay with her and see what you can find out?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure..." Jesse replied. "I'll just give Baron a call and let him know I'll be in later.

"Good lad," Cornell said as he clapped a hand on Jesse's shoulder and shuffled past.

As Re'Altarm started crying out, Jesse moved over to the side of bed.

"Hey, easy there. You've been through a lot. I prefer going by Jesse by the way," Jesse replied with a reassuring smile. "Wolfie lacks a certain... panache," he added with a wink. "How are you feeling?"

Re'Altarm groaned as she tried to sit up a bit more, every movement bringing more of the 'fire' down upon her. She could barely move, and these odd sounds. Why was no one coming? Why was no one here..? It was hard to think through the fog of of the drugs, but she could feel a small rise of fear in her chest.

She was about to cry out again for 'Wolfie' again, when a strange man entered her room and went to her side. Instinctively, she pulled away as best as she could under the conditions she was in. She blinked and looked up at him with big honey brown eyes as he spoke, but the words didn't immediately sink it. It was only natural, she had only seen him in his wolf form. "W-wolfie..?" She croaked. She swallowed hard, though it was still hard seeing she had nothing to swallow.

"I mean.. Jesse.." She said quietly, correcting herself. "Y-you're a lot cuter as a human.." She said, bluntly. Seems her filter was gone too. "I-I could be worse off, I suppose.. I don't feel my right arm.." She murmured. She groaned as she shifted slightly. "My throat is on fire.. Everything hurts.." She murmured.

"No. This is pack business," Baron replied. "We take care of our own."

It wasn't uncommon for many of the Lutetian packs to be resistant to working with people who weren't their own, and this was no different for Baron and the Bloodstone pack. This mentality was especially strong among those born to this lifestyle. A life-long immersion into a culture as territorial and aggression fueled as theirs left one loathe to trust anyone that wasn't pack.

He pulled a pack of cigarettes from the breast pocket of his shirt before lighting one up and tossing the half-empty pack on top of an empty wine cask.

"If the Ardelean are behind this attack, they'll be made to bleed as we have," he stated simply. "If they where acting alone, we'll take care of it."

He took a drag of the cigarette and leaned against a wall near the stairwell while the others in the cellar left them to discuss their business.

Bowen could understand if he felt and called the current situation 'Pack Business'. He had almost expected this stance from the Bloodstone pack leader. What he did not expect from Baron was the lack of weight Baron gave his words. He was not especially emotional about the response but to say he was not disappointed by the amount of thought Baron put into his decision would be a severe miscalculation.

He had told Baron that the enemy he hunted was well armed and well funded. He had indicated that the person responsible likely used weapons that many in the pack were not familiar with. One of his pack had already been killed and the assailant had forced two others to flee. Bowen showed no outward emotions. He nodded sagely and spoke quietly. "Very well."

"Hey now, I think I make a perfectly adorable wolf," Jesse teased lightly. "And that's probably just the sedatives," Jesse explained. "You're doped up enough I would be surprised if you can feel much of anything."

He picked up a paper cup from the side table that had a bit of water poured in it.

"Here, drink this. Dr. Cornell will be back soon and he can take a look at your arm."

He moved to lay the back of his hand against her forehead and his expression fell as he felt the telltale sign of fever. It was too early for infection to have set in and a spike in body temperature was often the first sign that lycanthropy had been contracted. He covered the falter in his expression as best he could with a reassuring smile.

"You're in good hands now. We'll get you taken care of. Is there anything you can remember about last night?" he asked.

"True.. But at least I can hold a d-decent conversation with your human form." She teased back, smiling. She had determined she liked him, and that was all there was to it.

She tried to lean up and take it on her own, but not being able to feel anything, she wasn't able to feel how tight to grip the paper cup, so needed some assistance. The cold water nearly choked her at first her throat was so dry, sending her into a fit of coughing.

She saw his expression fall and pondered upon it only fleetingly. The drugs seemed to make her not care about it though as soon as he smiled.

But at his question, her own expression grew dark. "I remember everything.." She whispered. She swallowed, took a deep breath, and explained slowly. "Went to the Phantom Quarter 'cause there's always trash there.. I hadn't eaten in a while, so I was kind of desperate for money.. Thought maybe I could dig up something worth money so I could buy food.." She began to tremble visibly. "I looked up.. And that.. Thing was there.. It jumped me and held me down.. I c-c-couldn't g-g-get away.." Her heart started pounding, she could hear it in her ears. Even through the sedatives, this memory was still fresh and full of emotion. "H-h-he was l-laughing.. And his.. h-his eyes.." She shuttered at the memory of those burning yellow eyes that seemed to leave scars across her very soul.

The burning intensified and she yelped. Her breathing grew rapid and her monitor showed her heart was racing. She was beginning to have a panic attack.

"Hey, hey," he said as he moved and pulled a small stool over next to the bed she was on. He lay a hand on her own and gave it a comforting squeeze. "You're safe now. You've me told enough. It'll help us find whoever did this to you, I promise."

His face pinched with concern. Her wounds where severe, and there was every chance she wouldn't survive what was to come in the weeks ahead. And if it where anything like his turning, come two weeks she would be wishing she had died last night. It was perhaps this thought that struck a note with him, and he determined then and there to stay with her through this. Just as the pack had stayed beside him.

"We'll get you through this, alright?" he asked. "I want you to get some rest. There's some things we need to talk about, but rest for now, alright?"