Fallen to the Dark || Mitchell ||

[Evelyn van Buren]

Her body blended perfectly with the dirty brick wall behind her. As a group of people filed out the back door of the Tavern, Evelyn scanned each figure with a trick in her eyes.

In the dark of the alleyway beside the back door, it was difficult to make out the slender form of the dark-eyed woman sprawled behind an empty recycling bin. If any of the staggering people had chanced to turn on a light off their phones and turned it her way, she'd have looked completely out of place.

Her entire side was coated in a film of bright red, sliding slowly to the dirt where she lay, legs folded up beneath her layered black skirt. She'd lost a shoe somewhere in her mad dash earlier, but she had a lot more to worry about.

Like the fact that the hunters might still be on her trail. She was bleeding profusely, and though she had her jacket off and pressed to her side, she could feel the fabric getting soaked through.

She wouldn't last long like this.

But she was lucky. The silver bullet had only grazed her before she'd dropped everything and run. She'd had the presence of mind not to bring her ID and cards with her when out for a walk so the only thing she lost when a band of Hunters jumped her was a bag of snacks her human self seemed to enjoy.

She had run for a while till the rest of her strength waned and she found herself struggling on her knees and stumbling and rolling into an alley. There she had lain for a while, until she felt enough strength returning to move again. She'd cursed herself for being so careless.

Always, she reminded herself, always give yourself room to change.

It took her a while to orient herself with where she was and reach her current location. She knew she was in no shape to make the trip home, and she had no phone on her. So she was faced with a decision she'd never wanted to make.

She needed human flesh.

As much as Viktor had forbidden it, and her usual agenda ensured she kept well away from any temptations, she needed it. Needed it to strengthen. She didn't intend to take a lot; she could never do that...just enough.

The Tavern was a local place, full of middle and lower class civilians at every hour of the night. Occasionally, the scum of the human population could be found here, drinking away. It was for this reason that Evelyn was an uninvited and definitely unwanted patron here tonight.

The group of humans split up before reaching the main street. Evelyn slid from her hiding spot, leaving a crimson splotch where she'd been and watched, her hungry gaze tracking one male as he stumbled over thin air and fell slightly behind the rest.

His inability to walk in a straight line made her decision for her. Clutching her jacket about her and swaying with every step, her vision fogging every now and then as she lost more blood, she followed at a distance as he turned down one side street, waving a sluggish hand at his friends, and tripped and wobbled his way along the sidewalk.

He was an older human, probably in his late thirties from what she understood of the human aging system. He was wearing a faded plaid shirt and ragged jeans with holes in the knees. She could smell his sweat and the foul odour of his unwashed clothes. Street trash, she concluded.

There were no streetlamps on this street, but even from the three hundred feet of distance between them, she could see him quite clearly. She'd probably be able to tell the colour of his watch had she been in her lupine form.

As she turned once more, into one of the many entrances to a playground, Evelyn headed for the path that ran beside it. She intercepted him when he emerged onto the opposite street.

There was nobody around this part of town. Unfortunate for him, but it allowed her to change even as she fell to her knees, drained and winded.

Pushing her last shred of stamina into it, she breathed out with relief as strands of thick, luxuriously smooth brown and white hair emerged up her arms. She watched the man from behind, examined his neck as she crouched low and changed. As her eyes shifted into the night-capable gaze of a wolf, she could count the tiny hairs at the back of his neck. The sight of the tan flesh made her jaws ache with a sudden, inflamed hunger.

The wolf's mind took over as the changes completed. Her feeble human mind was shoved into the backseat as the natural predatory instincts of an evolved masterpiece took control. Her uncertainties about feeding, her worry about what Viktor would do to her if he found out what she was doing, her fear of herself at her most primal and even her lingering anxiety for the poor human she was about to take advantage of, all were swept away on an ocean of pure, simplistic hunger.

The wolf was hungry and she smelled food. Beside the hunger was a secondary feeling - pain. It wasn't as concerning but the wolf figured that since she was still bleeding, she should attend to that.

She remembered well enough how she'd been hurt. The wolf's ache for food halted momentarily, as a flash of hot rage overtook her. Suddenly, she could recall their scent and for a moment, considered leaving this human and going to track them down. She could probably find them too.

She shifted, turning sideways to retreat into the hedges at the side of the street. Her back leg skidded when she placed it down. She bent her head and allowed the softest whine to escape. Her side still stung. Though the bleeding had slowed, she was in no shape to handle a hunter, let alone a band of them.

No, she had to get her strength back. And sate this terrible, clawing hunger in her stomach.

Good thing both her pain and her hunger could be sated by a single source - the man standing before her.

She shed her poufy skirt and ripped off the shreds of the tank top clinging to her muscled shoulders. Freedom. She could feel the cool night breeze on every part of her. She stretched luxuriously over the pavement, tipping her head back and letting moonlight illuminate the single white stripe of fur on her chest.

At the sound of tearing fabric, the man turned. His blue eyes went wide and he staggered back a step, looking extremely inviting to her ravenous wolf.

Prey. Weak prey. She drew close enough that he couldn't possibly mistake her for a dog. She was over 140 pounds of quivering, bleeding, emotional wolf. Sharing a mind with an even more distressed woman. It was not a happy combination.

Mustering strength in her back legs, she leaped. He turned to run, but she was faster, a blur despite her throbbing side. The man screamed, but with decidedly human skill, she placed a large paw on his mouth and muffled the sound before it echoed.

Holding him down with her other paw on his chest, she stood over his recumbent body, breathing into his face. Drawing her lips back, she snarled softly and then pulled a face as the man gave a strangled yell and then the stench of urine rent the air.

She shook her head, disgusted at herself but also at him. He couldn't hold it in until she let him go? It wouldn’t take long...

She lowered her head and bit down into the fleshy surface of the man's left arm, ignoring the involuntary jerk of his body beneath her as he tried to scream and lovely red blood blossomed around her teeth.

[Mitchell Monroe]

Mitchell had been working in the tavern for a couple of months and he’d enjoyed his job quite well and he’d never been bothered by hunters as they had been unaware of his status as a vampire. Mitchell had blending in more and more with society, he’d seen a few groups of hunters coming around regularly and he’d gotten to know a few faces. He wasn’t one to attack them unless they had threatened his life or to expose him to other groups of hunters. He’d put on a smile as he served customers around the bar and he joined in with the camaraderie they all seemed to commit and enjoy the general vibe of the bar.

He’d finally left work and was enjoying his brisk walk in the outside air, it was refreshing and made him think that he could have been out slaughtering humans like his brethren but instead he’d chosen a more humble and idealistic lifestyle of only feeding off of animals and not harming humans, Mitchell had been walking around the streets humming Sweet Caroline to himself remembering the time he’d actually met Neil Diamond and he laughed thinking back to the time he’d done so many fun things in the past.

He’d been walking through the paths not paying much attention to his surroundings, but something smelled familiar to him... Blood... He could smell it. It’s smell so attracting and yet refreshing it lingered in the back of his throat as he followed the smell to its source. After following various pathways he finally made it to the source of the smell, the corpse lay there blood fresh and a Wolf gnawing at its arm.. Mitchell refrained himself from looking at the corpse instead keeping a slight distance between the two, he looked towards the Lycan he could tell was injured as even in her wolf form she appeared to be oozing blood too. He slowly put his arms up and kept a distance between the two.

"I'm not going to harm you, but you clearly already have a taste for blood... How about we both play nice and if you turn again I'll patch you up... Sound good? " Mitchell coughed trying to avoid the temptation to dive right in and suck the blood from the corpse himself.

[Evelyn van Buren]

The large brown wolf lifted her head from the man's arm and turned to glance at the interfering Vampire. With all the blood in the air, she'd almost missed his scent - almost.

Eyeing him for a minute, Evelyn hastily dismissed him as a secondary concern - she needed to eat first. With a gesture that was decidedly dismissive, she snorted and turned back to hr meal, leaning in again to continue ripping off the muscle she'd bitten into.

This time, the man's scream escaped, ringing like a church bell in her ears. Startled, Evelyn pawed him rather more roughly in the face than intended, and hastily withdrew as blood swelled across his cheek.

The wolf backed away, no longer a frothing machine of fury. She let loose a distressed whine, glancing between her vicitm and the new arrival. Inside, Evelyn grinded her teeth, fighting off the wave of guilt ripping into her doubtful decision to snack on a human.

But then the man decided to run. Before Evelyn could make up her mind, he was on his feet and in a mad dash down the street, screaming all the way.

Evelyn wondered if somebody had ever thought to tell him that running from a canine predator was about the worst thing you could do. Presumably, nobody had.

She couldn't help herself when the wolf's instinct to chase kicked in. She tore off after him, ignoring the Vampire completely, and tackled the man a few yards down the street, rolling him over onto his back and snarling in his face. She looked up at the Vampire then, narrowing her eyes into a warning glare.

She made no move toward him, but her message was clear. She was tolerating his presence - but under obligation to her needs. If this leech interfered again, she would not be so compromising. This was her business, her moment, and he had no right to be involved.

Evelyn broke off her glowering, lowering her head toward the human again in silent dismissal to the Vampire.