Life With A Werewolf

Suicidal Powr Play Conclusion

          It had been a long night, and felt like it’d be an even longer morning. Part of me felt as if we all had finally awakened from a years long nightmare. It was a familiar feeling, one I’d gotten after every deployment. Usually the feeling fled, days into being home. I couldn’t help but wonder how long that feeling would last.
          There was a beer in my hand immediately when I got home. Neither Elouise, nor Crash said a word. The first sip felt like a warm comfortable mistake, one I’d be struggling not to make over and over. Still, it was one I felt I’d earned, so I took one, then a longer sip as I avoided eye contact with both of them. I wanted to be pissed, but I couldn’t be. After all, wouldn’t I have done what they did in their shoes? Haven’t I literally done the same before to some of the others in the very house I lived in?
          All questions that I wasn’t certain there was any good answers for. I looked towards the woods, and sipped my beer again. The desire to chug it was hard to ignore, but ignore it I did. At least for the time being. “She brought you along, didn’t she?”
          Crash might have given me a nonchalant shrug. I couldn’t tell. He wasn’t looking me in the eye at that moment, that much I did know. His muzzle stared at the horizon for a moment, in that manner that I could tell he was trying to judge what to say to me. “You had training wheels on,” he eventually said.
          “Don’t trust the FNG, huh?”
          I looked over at Crash, he did actually shrug then, his ear tipping.
          “Don’t take it personal, you’re just a bit too green to trust doing that job alone,” Elouise said for him.
          I just gave her a look, shrugged and turned back to the woods.
          She took my shrug as a question and decided to press her argument. “You bombed two vehicles. You had no consideration for anyone that might have been inside, if anyone might have gotten hurt. I mean, Jesus, Jason! What if they had kids?! You went off half cocked hell-bent for blood and fire.”
          I glared at her. “No toys in the yard, no bikes, nothing so much as even a tire swing. Windows with black curtains over them, nothing else. No car seats in the cars, do I need to go on?” She crossed her arms, and snarled at me. She was in her human form now, but there was more than a bit of gator in that snarl. “The explosion was designed to do two things, surprise them, and shock the hell out of them. Shake them from clear thinking for a second, a half a second. It was the only advantage we had. The only chance of survival I had. You wanted a fair fight? All three of us would be dead right now.”
          Crash’s growling voice broke through my developing stormy mood. “Lighten up on her, Jason.”
          I looked at Crash. “You were supposed to be in bed. I was going to kill him.”
          “Heh, with what, a hammer and a stake?”
          He’d posed it as a joke, but I nodded. “Yes. A hammer, a stake. And a pole to mount his head on outside his fucking house as I burned it to the ground.”
          “Pike. You’re supposed to mount it on a pike, which they didn’t have.” I looked over at Elouise, and she cracked a grin. The comment hung between us a moment, and I couldn’t help but to start laughing. Crash joined in, then her. Soon, jokes were flying back and forth about the proper way to kill a vampire. My beer sat, temporarily forgotten.
          “So, I wasn’t authorized to kill Milton.”
          Crash shook his head.
          “I was only authorized to kill the humans.”
          Crash nodded.
          His silence routine was starting to get on my nerves. “Do I need to get your leash and take you on walkies?”
          “We both know, that’d end up with me giving you walkies.” Chuckles all around followed that one. Elouise and Crash then began talking about the appropriate way to walk a human. I jumped in where I could with that. Apparently, I’d need to be muzzled, and have my hands bound behind my back, be wearing a harness, because you know a collar is just cruel. I’d apparently choke myself to death on it in my own stupidity.
          “What I don’t get,” Elouise said eventually. “Is why that guy in the suit. Why was he even there?”
          “Drug connection. I didn’t recognize him, but apparently he was some drug lord who had shown up to get to Milton. All of that meth about drained Milton’s abilities, but he must have had enough strength to mesmerize the men that guy brought with him.” I took a long sip of my beer, then set it down. “I figure, Milton originally got some weight from the guy. Probably a kilo, I don’t figure Milton was smart enough to negotiate more. Then, he missed his payments. That guy was probably there to collect.”
          She nodded. “Yeah, I remember him talking about payment. Shit, it’s why we made our own down in Louisiana. No one to come knocking, trying to collect on ya.”
          I nodded and looked over at Crash. He still wasn’t looking at me. “You pissed at how I did the job?”
          He didn’t answer for a moment or two. To be honest, it did make me a little nervous. “No, I think you did fine, considering your limitations. If we ever have humans involved, expect to get a phone call.”
          I grinned. “Well, next time, I won’t do it for free.”
          He grinned back, finally looking at me. “Since when do interns get paid?”
          Well, fellas, I must get running, a girl’s gotta get her beauty sleep. Come here cher.” She leaned in and motioned for us both to hug her, which we happily did. Then, I finished my beer in a few large swallows and wished Crash a good morning. It was hard to ignore the desire for another, but I’d managed to do it. Everyone had come out of the hospital the next day. Crash picked everyone up in his car. We looked at each other, hugged once, and then climbed inside. Zack asked two questions. “Is he dead and did he suffer?”
          I looked at him. There was an anger in his eyes I hadn’t seen on Zack’s face, I think in ever. It pained me to see it there. Zack normally had a kind face, the sort that’s more designed for smiling than growling. I felt fresh rage at Milton for stealing some of that from him. For stealing some of that innocence.
          “Yes to both, and both were self-inflicted,” I said.
          He nodded. “Good.” And then didn’t say anything else the rest of the car ride home. No one did. Kris and Sean leaned against each other gingerly. Zack glared out at the sidewalk. I sat in the back by the door, wondering what this would mean for us. How it would change our little group. For the first time in a long time, I found myself praying. I prayed that it didn’t. I just hope my prayers weren’t in vain.