Truculent Misconceptions

Nicolai hears the ringing of Justin picking up his heavy, metal gun, the sound farmiliar to his ears. He turns around in one, swift movement, quickly enough that he can see when Justin directs it towards Madison. The humans gasp and many back away, making Nicolai quickly have to smoothly maneuver around them. This idiot thinks he can actually get away with this. Justin’s arm is shaking so nervously that it is unlikely that he would even hit Madison if he were to pull the trigger. Even so, it made Nicolai’s skin itch. He is ready to subdue Madison and bring him down or even jump in front of the bullet if Justin pulls the trigger. He pivots around to a place between them that he finds most suitable and convenient, a place that would make Justin least suspicious.

“Just put the gun down, Justin. All right? We need to find shelter,” Madison says with his most affectionate voice. It makes Nicolai enraged that Madison is talking to him sympathetically, further that he is even bothering to deal with the scum that has been threatening the lives of the pack since his family agreed to join.

He starts to circle around Madison and Justin, protecting Madison is his only priority, especially if it means he can finally get rid of this ignoramous fool.

“Now just holster the gun and I promise, as soon as we’ve settled down somewhere, we can talk about this,” Madison says, but to no avail. Justin is still pointing the gun in Madison’s direction.

This is pointless. Nicolai thinks, pondering for a moment. Does he want to risk the time it will take to transform? Yes, he decides, there is no way he will be able to risk taking him down without being in his quicker form. He quickly sheds his clothes. Then, he explodes into his more prominent, threatening form. He feels his bones forcefully break themselves one by one. Then, just as the bone marrow starts to leak into his blood stream the bones rearrange themselves and refuse, the new grafts of bone marrow quickly building film after film upon each other, making the bones strong. His skin tightens and subsequently loosens around certain segments of the new structure almost to the point of ripping. Nicolai cannot help but let out a few groans from the pain. Over the years, the transformation has gotten easier. Not any less painful or faster, just easier, and more farmiliar. He hopes this has gotten his point across. He is a minute away from ripping Justin’s head clean off.

“No, I can’t trust you. How can any of us trust you? You filthy… monsters drain our blood,” Justin says. This makes Nicolai mad, He is calling us the monsters, We are trying to save them. He growls in a low octave, he can’t stand this imbecile much longer. “None of us can trust you! None of us. We’re fools for following you for this long. You can’t protect us.” Justin says, seemingly pleading for Nicolai to end his life. He almost can’t take it now, the blood beating against Justin’s skin is strong. It would be relieving, so easy. He will need it for the rest of their journey and Madison, too, not knowing how long it is going to take to find a suitable shelter, water.

“You agreed to it Justin. Blood for protection, food, and water. You and every member of your family agreed to that.” Madison says. Nicolai arches his back and snarls more apparently, slowly circling around the pair.

“Do you see what you’re doing to them right now? Look at Hailey’s face, Justin, look at how you’re scaring her. Don’t do this to your family.”

Nicolai is getting impatient. Justin begins shaking more violently; his hand supporing his gun falls and winds up beside his waist, making it even less likely that he will be able to shoot his target.

“Dammit, you look at me when we’re talking. Don’t stare at your goddamn faggot boyfriend.”

Nicolai moves closer to Justin, waiting for the right moment. He almost wishes he could communicate wish Madison right now. He must feel awful, out of the whole group he has probably had the least water, giving some of his to the humans. Nicolai had tried to convince him to drink his water, but Madison refused, knowing Nicolai who walked in the midst, most vulnerable section of the group needed his strength.

“All right, Justin. Calm down. Let me just talk to Kylar, all right?” Justin thinks about this for a moment. Then, nervously shakes his head yes.

Nicolai takes the initiative to come within reaching distance of Justin, letting out a low growl to let Justin know if he pulled the trigger he would be hitting the ground within a few seconds, too.

“Tomassetti, you need to get yourself and the group into the shade,” Madison conveys. Nicolai is disappointed because he hoped that he could make an example of Justin to the other humans.

“You aren’t used to the change of being a Lupir. The sun is going to affect you more than anyone else here.” Madison continutes. Nicolai looks at Madison for a small moment, relishing his affect on Kylar, who looked as though he could fall over at any second. The humans will not be safe with him for an extended amount of time, Madison expects to conclude this quickly.

I don’t think we’re leaving until this is resolved, so you need to distribute the water to the humans. Take extra for yourself. Do you understand?”I can resolve this easily, Madi. Nicolai wants to give Madison a chance, though. However, he doubts that Justin is going to survive this.

“Justin, drink some water,” Madison says.

“I don’t want you to become dehydrated, Justin. Even if you do pull that trigger, you’ll need to drink water some time. Here,” Justin slowly grips the water bottle, taking the gun off of Madison to screw the lid off. He carefully raises the gun again. Then, holds the bottle upside down, emptying it into the grass.

Suddenly, Nicolai hears something. Moving in the grass, a woman’s voice panting, her footsteps pattering quickly concomitant with her breathing. She has countless more variant, slow, dubious footsteps following her. He thinks about Kylar and the immense group they have with them, but no. It’s farther than that. It’s behind them, but heading towards them now. He hopes he is the only one that hears it, his hearing being stronger from more years of adjusting than Madison, also from being in this form. They can’t afford taking on another human, they can’t even ensure the ones they have now won’t be attacked and killed.

“not trying to poison you.” Nicolai realizes he missed part of the conversation, he knows they need to move, fast. He can’t become distracted again or this will not be resolved the way he favors it to be.

“I’ve always cared for you and the humans before anything else. You know—“

“Just shut up. I’m not listening to this. I’m not listening to you. It’s pointless. I can take care of my family by myself. I don’t need you scum to do it for me.”

“No, Justin, you can’t. Nicolai and I have already saved you once. Even if you do escape the corbuli, how do expect to escape the mosquitoes? How are you going to make sure you have water, let alone purified water, if you can’t even go outside without risking infection? The Lupir are the only ones who are immune. Even if you do manage that, other Lupir are going to find you. Nicolai, Kylar, and I are the only ones willing to protect you. Unless you have entire crates full of those silver bullets, you aren’t going to last very long.”

Nicolai knows something needed to happen, or the massive amount of footsteps he can hear is going to overwhelm them quickly.

“You’re lying. You aren’t helping us, you’re just fattening us up like pigs. We’re just an easy meal for you. You’re taking advan-“

Nicolai jumped on Justin, seeing his hand waiver slightly away from Madison. Sure, it wouldn’t be the quickest resolution, but he knows this is the only way Madison will leave Justin behind. I will also slow down the corbuli. His teeth slash into Justin’s neck, ripping off his head, and exposing his jugular vein. Immediatly, the blood begins gushing everywhere, including Nicolai’s mouth.

As he is feeding, he hears Madison fall to the ground and begin crying. Nicolai changes into his human form, shaking off the pain so he does not distract him. He pulls his clothes back on and lays his hand on Madison’s shoulder. “Drink, Madi.” He says, backing up slightly as he grabs Madison’s arms, pulling him up.

Madison binds his arms around Nicolai and looks at the body, slowly walking towards it. Nicolai focuses again on the corbuli, who are coming closer. He can hear their feet picking up now, the smell of blood drawing them in like mindless buzzards, whose only drive is blood. Madison would be able to hear them if they didn’t leave soon.

Kylar appears through the trees, slowing down significantly when he smells the blood.

“Is something wrong, Tomassetti?” Nicolai says swiftly, hoping they will leave soon.

It takes Kylar a moment to talk, “I, um… We found a-a barn. There… chickens.” Kylar forces himself to say, now staring at the collective pool of blood surrounding Justin.

Nicolai moves in front of his eyes, moving closer. He knows they won’t be leaving quick enough if they have to waste time with Kylar.

“You need to learn to resist the smell, young blood.” After all, the corbuli cannot. You are no better than them if you cannot learn to resist. “Now, lead us to the barn,” Nicolai says, shoving Kylar hurriedly.