Fire Fall - Picture Perfect (Skye)

[Dante Stark]

Stark had been sitting out in the woodlands for god knows how long.. But he'd checked his watch it'd be almost time for her arrival as he kept the camera close to him.. He'd borrowed some of that spray off Hobbs to mask his scent, she'd never be able to tell he was here so he could gather all the evidence he'd needed to make his case. He'd always wondered how the head of EAI would have felt had she known what Mr. Stark was actually up to out here in the woodlands on the dawn of a full moon fast approaching.. He was feeding his own flame.. Everyone was a pawn to Dante and he'd intended to keep what he was doing here a secret from anybody close to him..

Dante could hear things rumbling in the distance and he smirked as he allowed himself this remember what he was doing this morning.. It'd been an early day for Dante as he'd been sitting in his makeshift office in one of those storage garages, he'd been looking at his board with all the sheer bits of information and tabs he'd been keeping on people.. He wasn't exactly paranoid but he didn't abide by the law either.. Some pictures also lay on his board marked with X's, he'd taken the liberty to assassinate those none key players off his board... Next on his list was one of the corporate heads of EAI.. and she was going to be caught with her hand in the cookie jar.. Dante just had to prep himself for tonight's mission..

Dante dropped his thoughts as he returned to the hood of his car, it was almost time to strike and capture those pictures that he'd so desperately need.. She'd probably be roaming around the woodlands by now and he'd strike once she became human again... He went out into the woods his camera close to him, and his pistol just in case he'd have to abort his mission and put her down.. But that wouldn't happen he was just here for the recon nothing more.. Killing her would have been too easy.

[Evelyn van Buren]

She kept downwind of the deer she'd been chasing for over fifteen minutes. She hadn't needed to - she'd eaten her share tonight - but the game of chase was exhilarating.

Evelyn inhaled deeply, filtering out the scents of the woods around her. To her left, she could smell the nearest human establishment, a quiet farm. With her sensitive hearing, she could hear the sleepy cluck of hens in their houses, the neighing of horses from the stables and even distant human voices through closed windows.

To her right lay fields of wheat. She stayed in the trees, making her way on silent paws toward the deer.

The animal wasn't as subtle. With a great crashing of branches and thudding of cloven hooves, it darted away from her as she drew slightly upwind. Evelyn allowed herself one excited bark and followed, keeping pace so she didn't catch her quarry just yet.

This was a regular pattern for her, this playtime with nature. As a pure-blooded Lycan, she'd been gifted the extraordinary ability to be more than a Lycan beast - she could meld into the very network of mother nature's web of life, take her place amongst the real wolves as one of them, and enjoy the survivalist lifestyle, the chases, the freedom from life as a human.

She came up to the countryside once every two weeks - when the crammed parks of New York grew to be too restricting to bear - and spent a night or two out here before returning to her other life. She told no one, not even her pack. This was her time. She wasn't a Beta out here because there were no packs in this area - just lone wolves and other pure-blooded Lycans like her.

For one night every fortnight, she was one of them and all alone.

She raced through the forest, skipping over thick tree roots, swerving between shrubbery and rocks, crashing through a pond and shaking the water off her gleaming fur, letting the streaks of silver white at her throat and muzzle gleam under the full moon.

She'd momentarily let the gap between herself and the deer to grow, and she didn't care. She slowed down, trotting toward her "camp", ready to turn in as the night drew closer to day. She shifted subtly as she went, letting her fur recede into pink human skin from her legs up. By the time she reached her camp, only her torso remained covered in a thick coat of brown hairs, rather like an eccentric one-piece bathing suit. Her bowlegged frame began stretching out, adjusting bones and cartilage and she dropped gracefully to her knees as she reached for her bag of clothing with hands that were still one finger short. The hair on her chest had begun shrinking as she pulled a pink blouse over her head. She always felt conscious when she changed - it was her most vulnerable moment and not just because she was technically naked (minus what the fur hid). If something snuck up on her right then, she'd be helpless to fight it off.

Evelyn had been brought up a lady - so dropping her clothes was something she found quite difficult, despite the wolf hair covering her breasts. She'd learned to control the change to secure some amount of dignity in the event she was ever ambushed. But even that wasn't always enough and she was always superbly conscious of the areas she chose to change in.

She felt safe right now, however. There was nothing alarming that she could smell in these woods.

And yet...

Did she hear breathing? Evelyn's head snapped up. It hadn't been obvious till now, when she'd stilled. But beyond her own thumping heartbeat, she could distinctly hear another, close by. A human heart, going by its slow rate.

No. Her stomach dropped. It was too late to go wolf again, and whoever they were, they might have seen her already. The best she could do was run for it before they caught her.

She could not get caught - not by a hunter or by a civilian. Clearly if someone had been lurking here, they'd been waiting for her. But why? How?

She hastily pulled on the rest of her clothes, feeling sweat bead on her pale cheeks and forehead. With the trousers on and shoes still in the bag, she leaped to her feet with it, swivelling to run. She didn't understand - how could she not have smelled it before? How had a human hidden from her so well? She tried to track the sound so she didn't accidentally run toward it, and realized it was just behind her.

Gritting her teeth, Evelyn bolted in the other direction.