Antione
The giant alligator slowly stopped, its head facing Antione. A trail of Clay’s blood mixed with the water. He didn’t know if his lungs were burning due to a lack of air or something else, but he struggled to stop himself from growling in challenge at the colossal reptile.
He couldn’t afford to lose the air, and Antione idly kicked his legs to remain a safe distance from the massive jaws that were opening again. And then, the most bizarre thing happened. The alligator spoke. “Quite the foolish one, aren’t you?”
Antione’s eyes widened in shock. It can talk?! It shouldn’t have been that surprising. Robert had told him and his siblings about some of his adventures. A giant talking alligator shouldn’t have been that surprising.
But it was, and it almost cost Antione his life as a shadow briefly passed over him before diving at his head with fang-filled jaws opened wide to swallow him. Antione kicked, feeling his claws scrape against scales as a second alligator laughed. “You must admit, Tock. This has been an interesting hunt so far. Perhaps more will come to rescue them, and we can all feast!”
The first alligator shook his head, eyes never leaving Antione’s as the second slowly swam around the hapless werewolf in undisguised glee. But it did nothing as Tock spoke again.
“No. We’re not going to wait to see what gets here first, Tick. The one I swallowed was all the bait we need.” Tock slowly moved closer to Antione. “But we have time to eat this one…”
Antione shuddered and swam with all his might back to the surface. The alligators’ laughter followed him, and for the first time in his life, he felt like prey. He’d been scared when Jean-Claude’s pack attacked his family on the first night of their trip, and he’d fought many things to the death before.
But this was different. Antione’s inner wolf howled in outrage. He isn’t meant to be prey. This was wrong. A fight was all about survival. One party would die while the other lived. But the alligators weren’t trying to fight Antione. They were hunting him, toying with him. And he hated it.
This was a mistake. He didn’t know when he made it, but he should have just left Clay behind once they hit the water. All the noise they’d made must have been like a dinner bell to the alligators. The river was their domain. Antione had no business acting like he was in control in an area that didn’t belong to him.
But that didn’t mean he was willing to give up and die like a caught rabbit. He pumped his legs harder, tensing his toes, fully expecting to feel teeth catch him at any moment. The water grew clearer, but Antione was still several feet away from the surface when Tick came at him from the side.
Antione twisted out of the way, but the alligators circled him again, and he could see more shadows approaching them. His lungs felt like they would tear themselves apart. He needed air. He needed to get out of the water, where he stood a better chance of surviving. But every direction was filled with hard scales, gleaming eyes, and mocking laughter.
He was trapped. Antione stared at the surface for a moment before letting himself relax. Tock nodded approvingly, a few feet from the young werewolf’s floating body. “That’s right. Make it easy on yourself. This will be over in just a moment.”
Tick scoffed. “He’s giving up already? That’s no fun. Werewolves are supposed to be fighters. I’m not done playing yet!”
Tock didn’t care. “He’s had enough. Eat him and be done with it. Or let one of the others have him.”
Antione didn’t wait any longer. The current had gently guided the young werewolf closer to Tock, and he knew he only had one chance. He kicked his legs, sending him straight at Tock’s face, claws spread to gouge the monster’s eyes out, but Tock saw him coming and chuckled.
“Never mind, Tick. This one’s mine.”
“No fair!”
Tock’s jaws opened, revealing some slivers of bone and torn cloth, in a fatal invitation. Antione ducked between those jaws and dug his claws deep into the roof of Tock’s mouth, making the giant alligator roar with pain and rage as more blood filled the water.
Antione braced himself as the jaws attempted to slam shut, his lower claws digging into Tock’s tongue, and anywhere else he could reach. Tock swung his head from side to side but this only made the werewolf dig his claws in further, causing more damage to the beast’s mouth.
I need to end this quickly. Please, work! Antione knocked out a tooth and slammed his hand into the exposed flesh.
Tock screamed again, but Antione ignored everything: the warm blood coating his fur, the growing pressure of Tock’s jaws struggling to close, and the thudding of his heart, and then… almost as if being called, his vision focused on a single point. A scrap of cloth … and the blood on it.
He couldn’t stop staring at it. He didn’t know Clay, and he doubted the vampire would have gone after Antione if an alligator had eaten him. Yet, he couldn’t help himself, and just when he was sure he was about to pass out, his power activated, making Tock scream again. The alligator finally got his tongue out from underneath Antione’s feet and slammed it into the werewolf, knocking him free from his mouth and into the open water… and he was still screaming.
The blood on Antione’s claws was surprisingly bright to his exhaustion-starved brain. He could feel the currents shift as more alligators began circling him, but none attacked. Antione looked up to see the army of scaled behemoths focused completely on Tock, who was spinning around like he was trying to do a death barrel.
It didn’t make any sense… until Antione saw Tock’s stomach bulge and burst in a shower of bone, flesh, and blood. But he didn’t get a chance to see what caused it when Tick and two other alligators swam at Tock’s body and began tearing it apart… it was the last thing they did.
A form still cloaked in gore hurled itself free of Tock’s corpse and attacked the nearest alligator, shredding it to pieces as the giant reptile attempted to flee. The rest of the group tightened their formation, refusing to give the new threat a chance of escaping, but the creature didn’t try to flee.
Antione felt more than heard its cackle as it dove at Tick, going through one of his eyes and clawing its way out through the back of his skull, reducing the once-mighty predator into a twitching mass of meat as he slowly sank into the darkness. The alligator that came with Tick had seen enough and tried to swim away, but it was too late.
The creature had already spun around and threw itself at the alligator’s unprotected neck, tearing through the scales as if they were paper before it released a deafening screech that almost knocked Antione out, but he held on as the creature turned and looked at him. The gore and muck still concealed its features as it swam towards him.
A pair of red eyes studied him, trailing down his exhausted frame to his still-bloody hand, and paused. Antione also looked at his hand and found the scrap of bloodied cloth tangled around his wrist. And maybe it’s because of the puff of energy he’d barely managed to steal from Tock that he could already feel draining away, or perhaps it was simply due to good old-fashioned oxygen deprivation because the blood began taking on different hues.
The mass still clinging to the scrap became vibrant red, while the rest, coming from the giant alligators, resembled golden bronze. It was beautiful, almost making Antione forget his aching lungs. Finally, he gave in to the urge to open his mouth, letting the strange cocktail grace his tongue before invading his throat. The creature grabbed his hand and dragged Antione to the surface.
None of the alligators attempted to stop them, but more than a few gave the retreating duo looks that promised death should they ever let their guards down in the swamp again. But Antione didn’t care about that. His head finally broke the river’s surface, and he coughed up water at the same time he tried to get air into his lungs.
The creature snorted, dragged him onto the nearest bank, and thumped Antione’s back. “Breathe, mutt.”
Antione hacked and sputtered for several minutes before turning to get a good look at his rescuer. It looked about as human as Antione’s werewolf form, but there was something familiar about the condescending look in those red eyes… “Clay?”
The vampire snorted, an impressive feat given he only had slits for nostrils and pale grey skin clinging to bones that should have been brittle given how thin they looked. But the differences didn’t end there. The hands and feet ended with long talons, and Antione couldn’t hide his gasp when Clay unfurled two wings attached to his arms and went down his legs as he shook off as much water as he could.
“Who else would it be? Did you see that thing eat anyone else?” Clay snapped, irritation oozing from every pore as he slowly turned back into his human form. Antione followed suit, and both boys quickly turned their backs to each other.
“Are you alright?… Your legs were… you know.”
Clay sighed loudly before coldly starting. “I’m fine. Vampires have the best healing factor out of all the races. That stupid crocodile should have bitten my head off. I tore my way through his veins and into his heart before he realized what was happening!”
Antione nodded dumbly before muttering, “Alligator.”
“Huh?” Clay looked at him in confusion as the werewolf continued.
“It was an alligator… a big one… that can talk. We should probably get out of here before they come after us.”
Clay opened his mouth, anger blazing in his eyes… until he looked at the river and nodded. “That sounds like a good idea, although I don’t understand why it matters what the things are called.”
“It doesn’t unless they can hear us.”
“True.” Clay removed the shredded remains of his hoodie and tied it around his waist as best as he could.
Antione slowly rose to his feet, his clothes had fared a bit better, and offered Clay his hoodie. The vampire said nothing as he accepted it. Antione smiled and said. “I need to know where your people are keeping my father.”
Clay’s response was immediate. “I don’t know anything about that.”
“His name is Robert Pack.”
“I said I don’t know anything about that,” Clay shouted, glaring at Antione before looking at the river anxiously. “I’m only here for part of my training. I don’t know anything about what the others are doing.”
“So you are a tourist!”
Clay shrugged and nodded. “I guess. Can’t say I enjoy the local scene very much. We should get going. My caretaker will come looking for me, and I don’t want to explain why I’m walking around half-naked instead of having a glorious fight to the death.”
“You just killed four giant talking alligators. How much more fighting do you need to do?
Clay tilted his head, frowning thoughtfully before nodding. “You have a point…”
“No, don’t tell me. You need proof, don’t you?”
“Words are cheap…” Vampire and werewolf stared at the water for a few moments before Antione shook his head.
“That they are. But I’m not dumb enough to go in there a second time. You can if you want, though. I need to find the vampires holding Robert before something else happens.”
Clay stared at the water in frustration before turning around and walking back into the woods. Antione followed, relieved that the odd vampire wasn’t willing to push his luck. But, the lack of progress infuriated him. I spent all this time and he really doesn’t know anything?
Several minutes passed before Clay suddenly stopped. “Hey.”
Antione also stopped, not willing to get closer to the other boy but not willing to leave him alone, either. “Yeah?”
“Why are you following me?”
Good question. Antione shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Why were you in the river?”
“Because I jumped in.”
“Why?”
Antione shrugged. “I don’t know. I just did. Why? Did I break a vampire law or something?”
“No, but…”
“But what?”
Clay turned around, but a familiar voice called out before he could say anything. “Yes, what does that mean?”
Antione spun around, a grin quickly forming as Longnose stepped out from some brush with a predatory smirk. Clay backed up, eyes taking in the new werewolf… and both he and Antione failed to notice Bruno until he was right behind Clay, a massive hand resting heavily on the vampire’s shoulder as he growled.
“You heard the Alpha, now talk.”
“Get your hands off me, you waste of blood!”
Antione raised an eyebrow in appreciation. He remembered the first time he saw Bruno up close, and the last thing on his mind was to insult the giant werewolf. But Clay didn’t care about Bruno’s size. He didn’t care about anything beyond moving away from them as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, Bruno simply used his raw strength to pick the vampire up and hold him in the air. Clay screamed in rage, but he didn’t transform. He kicked Bruno in the leg, but the burly werewolf didn’t react… until the remnants of Clay’s hoodie slipped to the ground, making everyone freeze.
Bruno looked away and muttered. “Can someone lend this kid a bigger shirt? I’m a firm believer that everyone should die with some of their dignity intact.”
Clay screeched, thrashing around even more as Bruno winced, blood dripping from his ears, but he didn’t let go. Longnose was also covering his ears and saying something, but Antione couldn’t hear him.
He tried to call out to Bruno, but even his own voice was lost to Antione at this point. His sense of smell, however, worked just fine. A pungent tobacco scent surrounded them before Bruno was knocked away from Clay’s still-struggling form. The vampire was then unceremoniously thrown over a man’s shoulder and carried off into the night. Antione could only blink as his mind tried to piece together what he saw. A long brown leather coat, top hat with a bent corner, and that smell… He shuddered and promptly passed out.
