Live your own life, for you will die your own death

Pepper almost fell off the branch and was in shock she was sure she had eaten bad hush puppies or smoked a loco leaf. Eyes wide what the actual heck had she seen. Eric had been Erica?

There had been breasts then there wasnt. She looked at aminita to confirm it. Then she felt it vampire and knew chidera was near enough to get the younglings. That was crerpy and she dug claw into tree to avoid going to that call. Chick was powerful more so then shed thought.

Anita chuffed sniffing the air as a wisp of vampiric energy wafted over the group. It was interesting that the energy while not targeting her tempted her. It showed both how strong the wielder of the aura was and how distracted she was. It was a sign she needed to tend her hungers both physically and emotionally.

So wrapped in her own head she almost missed the shifts they came rapid fire lightning quick. It was disconcerting the ghost images that cropped up during the storm of shifting that took place. She tried to right them in her head and yet she didn’t know which one to doubt. It was a tricky situation and one she didn’t waste time pondering just yet. She instead breathed a sigh of relief as the new lions faded back into the night. Drawn by the siren song of the vampire.

Damion and David Were struck by the power of the vampire and immediately slammed their shields. Looking to each other nodding as they both caught the scent of a lioness in estrus. It set their teeth on edge no lioness in presence should have been strong enough to bring them into heat. Yet here they were frisky with no real outlet. They were strong lions and as such they only cleaved to strength. The lions here had a strange soft strength that made them see most as meat and the others as challenges.

Santiago shook his head as the wall of vampire strength crawled over his skin. Shifted as he was he was more susceptible so he closed his shields and focused on the fight. It was the metaphysical equivalent to sticking ones finger in the ear and singing la-la-la to keep from hearing something odious. It worked as he watched the quick shift which should have been impossible he counted five shifts two a shifting of forms male to female. It was ghastly it meant Eric was stronger than he let on and far more mentally divergent. Santiago wanted his blood. He was abhorrent and need to be put down. It was all he could do to not break the line and take the man down.


Raphael nearly fainted. Eric took on the look of the one human victim he’d ever had. When he was first infected he’d run. He looked for a cure and ended up here in New Orleans. Due to no fault of his own. He’d passed out in a shipping crate. Disoriented and far more scared than he should have been he struck out. He mauled the woman who’d opened the trailer. He hadn’t meant to kill her or worse but there was no way she could have survived. Yet here in the blink of an eye was her living breathing image. He shook his head trying to clear the image and the guilt he felt. Yet it nearly bowled him over. He had no choice but hunker down as his legs nearly gave way.



Specter screwed up his face as he watched one of the strangest displays he’d seen in years. He had no words and didn’t even seek them. He knew that such a monster had to end. Such strength to survive such changes so close together.


Andres Too bad was all that Andres could think of. Such a talent to be wasted in death. He looked towards the call and stopped himself. The feel was feminine and it made his nose ache yet considering Eric it was a shame such a one was mad and lost to them.

Aminta watched everything she memorized every moment. She had no choice her gaze was locked her attention focused. She was at a loss for any thing but rapt attention. The blood called her the vampires called her. And yet she held firm. She squeezed her hands the nails digging into her palms. Forcing herself to look away she caught Peppers gaze nodding slowly as her head and eyes were forced back to the fight. It was over too soon and yet not soon enough. She could have gone without knowing Eric might have been a Regina level lioness masquerading so thoroughly as a Rex level lion that he she fooled everyone nose and all.



It was scary considering what he she they were able to accomplish and yet for all of that power it was over. There would be no more Eric, there would be no more threat from within. There was only blood. She didn’t know why but the idea scared her she looked at Tibs with his beast on him and wondered would that madness seep into him. Was that the end for him. Here years from now defeated and wasting away. This moment id not fill her with confidence. She needed to be here to help. She needed to be here so Pepper was not alone. Yet..



Shaking her head she brought her hands up rubbing away the sudden chill Tibs roar inspired. She felt his connection to Chidera and the power resting there between them. She knew if they chose they could have all the lions in the city and its outlying areas at their beck and call. They didn’t flex that muscle but she knew it was there. She watched Tibs as he inspected each of his lions and she honestly didn’t know what he saw. She wouldn’t try to see things from his side of the scale. She knew what came next Eric had been the hunt. As a Pride they were supposed to feast before the flesh grew cold yet she wasn’t sure she wanted to.



Her beast responded for her the moon was near its apex she’d held her shift this long and could maybe force another half hour but it would cause her pain and so she reached out to Pepper taking her hand and began shifting.

It was a lot to take in especially as Raphael responded as if he'd seen a living ghost that wasn't a vampire. Ray shook his head this mess wasn't over. The end raised more questions than it answered. The job was all but over yet there was a niggling part of him that would not let the questions lay. He would drop things for now. He stretched and shifted his shift had been waiting hanging on him like a coat made of lead. As such he allowed it to come rippling over hims as his muscles flexed shrank tore shifted morphed and washed him in a layer of shift goo which he shook loose.



Moving first he skirted the newly crowned Rex. He was taking the crown Ray hoped he would hold it and use it to make the world for these lions better. If wasn't his call but in the end he could hold whatever hopes and dreams he wanted. He met the Rexes gaze forcing himself to not challenge and test the lions mettle. It was force of habit with him one that sooner or later would cause him to meet not only his match as he had with Ro but his end.



He wouldn't feast he was not taking an oath to the Rex here he was a contractor in all of this. He moved to Raphael putting himself between the Rex and Raphael. Something was wrong and he wouldn't allow Raph to cause more harm than good. Swatting the lion he watched as his glazed look refocused. It was not a look that should ever cross a male lions face it was a look that was prepared to die willing to die looking to die. Raph met Rays gaze and took off at a full sprint away form the Pride here who were pledging themselves to Tibs.



Damn it all a portion small portion that was his human voice sighed exasperatedly and took off behind Raphael. 

Se kept the younglings away they had filled their bellies and she felt some of the outsiders move away from the group She had done her part and now the young she took from the pride house along with those taken from estelle who were already under her sway would be joined and raised loyal to the kiss. She moved swiftly and they with her scaring the citizens back into doorways but not one was harmed as her small group fallowed to disappear behind her into the new home she had set up for them. Gates had found her a building and in short order it had been set up they would be treated in comfort as children educated with the best tutors and taught many things but above all else it would be who was really in charge of New Orleans.

Once they had been settled after baths had and tucked in exhausted she smiled. Now it was time for the next more difficult part of it all. Cutting the ties that bind and doing it gently. Shed gotten glimpses of his mind as he fed and did other things that night. She couldnt blame him not one ounce and it was almost funny. Shed never thought to be the nurturing type hed taught her that and shed taught him how to be cold again.

Ray was no fool and as he crashed through the brush after Raphael, he felt more than heard the others in his wake. The twins were gawkers and knew they would toe the line even possessed of their beasts they were competent but still whelps. Santiago however was gaining and out for blood. He supposed it was time to have out whatever the issue was.



Making a tactical error on purpose Ray allowed Raphael to continue his head long sprint he would find him later. Now however he would deal with Santiago. Whirling he skidded to a halt in the ankle deep water and waited. His eyes already adjusted to the gloom the Bougainvillea’s other swampy trees and plants obscured the moonlight even as its power could still be felt. The gloom was deeper and his deep tawny coat seemed paler and darker here. He listened his ears picking up the stealthless onrush of the twins and the fleeter more silent approach of Santiago.



Backing himself against a tree he waited as the twins burst into the small clearing nearly on top of one another. They were such an interesting pair he knew it was due their twin synchronicity and seeming conjoined thoughts at times. He waited until they were too close to do anything else and he loosed a roar of warning. It had the right effect they both leaped and almost fell over each other. Santiago however was committed to the what he thought was a chase and came barreling into the clearing just barely missing trampling the twins.



He righted himself realizing Ray was closer than he would have liked and worse was fixed on him. As he wheeled around to face where Ray’s roar had come from Ray was already in motion. One huge paw claws still sheathed struck out sending Santiago end over end. Ray was attempting to minimize the blood shed yet that was the only warning Santiago would have.



Santiago however was stubborn and butt hurt over an incident that should have been dead. For Ray it was a one and one settled yet here was Santiago attempting to settle the score. Ray growled his annoyance as the lion righted himself in a flurry of air snaps and scrabbling claws. When shifted most lycanthropes thought as their beasts their impulses and drives became dominant. As such Santiago raised up to attempt to engage in a standup fight.



Ray had watched Ro and been involved in enough battles that he thought with both parts of himself especially when blood was on the line. So he fought the urge to stand to rise up and take the high ground. That tactic would have cost him maybe not the victory but it would have cost all the same. SO he met Santiago low and fast taking his legs with a flurry of clawed strikes designed to immobilize and emasculate. It could be considered a dirty maneuver as with claws Santiago would heal humanly slow. Ray was rewarded for his actions with several mean gashes being opened on hi mid back and flanks as Santiago fell roaring in pain and flailing out.



He was down but not out Santiago attempted to pull himself to his feet unaware that his legs had been disabled not permanently but long enough for him to grow some sense hopefully.



Fight over? One would think however the twins who gave themselves over to the bloodlust set on Santiago like a pack of wild beasts. Ray tried to intercede but it was two against one and he didn’t particularly like his odds especially wounded as he was. He took his leave heading back to Venatorious proper where he skidded into the local Regina.



Opening his shields, he alerted her to what was happening. Things were about to go bad very fast he wounded though he was he could help but he couldn’t stop things from escalating. The twins were mentally gone and would stay that way at least until they ate their fill which Santiago alone might not sate. There were enough weaker lions that it could be a very poor outcome as the first night that the Deces Ombre were one pride.

There it was done the big bad Eric or as it Erica was dead. Devoured nothing but bones and an ill at ease ghost added to the spirits interred here. The pledges completed never having been a king before he wasn’t entirely sure what should be the expected. So he simply existed floating along on the indecision of the Pride. He kept saying Pride mostly to convince himself. They were still loners and only slightly a unit a family but they were definitely more than a coalition. He’d been doing research he knew a coalition while not usually family could be but it was only part of a family that went and took over another Rexes territory.

Beleiing he was well pass the beginnings of things he was surprised to find himself the focus of the female vindexes attentions. Seemed as if she wanted to pledge herself in a different way. She wasn’t part of the newly formed Pride yet there was strength about her he would be hard pressed to say didn’t have a certain type of charm. He never saw himself as more than a one woman man. Yet Chidera had spent awhile now keeping her shields up between them. He feared the worse as she had never done so for this long.

Part of him knew it was over the real true affection they shared. She had spoken of him one day needing to take a lioness as his Regina. This was not that but he would be a fool to not take her especially as she left little room for anything but taking her or run. He wouldn’t run from her. No sooner had he thought of her and begun rutting with the Vindex had the shields he’d kept up in answer to Chidera’s shielding dropped.

Laid wide the physical pleasure he felt seeped into each of the Pridemates and Chidera yet doing so he was bombarded with Pepper’s haste her need to accomplish and her fear of danger with her need to protect. He unsheathed his member and charged to where she was skidding to a halt as she loosed her last shot. The situation in hand he surveyed the lay and followed the two vindexes heedless headlong path back to the carcass of the other. The lion who he would have to explain his death. Taking in the scene with all of his senses he growled his annoyance. How in the high holy hell would he account for this. Lions would be lions yet this this savagery was beyond him.

Shifting he made his way back to the Pride house he had calls to make.