The New Avenger

Prologue

The night air blew through my fur and brought me his scent.  Ha-ha. I've been waiting, tracing, tracking this pungent scent for weeks now, every time I got close to him he'd somehow sense the danger and escape in his car, which had outrun me. But now he had returned. Salivating, I picked up my loping pace and trotted down the filthy street, following the stench of sweat, alcohol and foul things. My ears pricked at every sound – the rustle of an empty chip packet, the yappy bark of a small dog somewhere above me in the skyscraper apartments. But there was one that chilled my bones and set me on the trail better than a smell ever could. A scream, too high to be an adult, too weak to be anyone bigger than a teenager. Children. My blood boiled with anger and a thirst for the man's blood.

I followed the scream, racing through down the dark back streets that are publicly off-limits if you weren't stupid and you listened to your parents about strangers. I zoned in the smell when I was close enough, and stopped at the mouth of a dead-end alleyway. I smelled filth and fear, the latter of the two belonging to a small boy sheltered beneath an elder girl, both cowering in the shadow of a middle-aged man, the source of the filth. He had his back to me, and was inching the children against the wall. The kids were in uniforms – navy blue ones I recognised from the local school just a few blocks away. The girl looked around eight, with cute blonde ponytail, a bit dishevelled, and the younger boy around five or six, with flowing tears staining his red, puffed-up cheeks. The guy had a bottle wrapped in brown paper in his left hand, and had his right outstretched toward the children. I could hear him chuckling to himself. 

Growling, I leapt over the man and in front of the children blocking the man's path. When he saw himself reflected in my yellow eyes he blanched. I bet he'd never even seen a wolf before. Bastard.

I growled at him fiercely and he drew a gun from his jacket. He was quivering with fear and his eyes darted madly around, searching for an exit, but he knew at least that he could never outrun a wolf, even an adolescent. A much louder growl ripped through my throat, and in his fear he fired a shot. It caught me straight in the chest. Another few shots. I flinched, but I doubt he noticed. Blood now seeped through my beautiful black fur, dying the streaks of white red. I kept telling myself not to move. Don't move. Move and he'll see your weakness. I didn't move. He ran away screaming, and I turned to the children who had been too shocked to move. I spoke to them in a husky voice.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, please don't be afraid." I said. "I can take you home OK? If you want me to be a human again just ask me it-"

I was cut off immediately as the small boy broke free from his sister's clutches and wrapped his tiny hands around my chest, luckily on the side I wasn't shot on, otherwise I would've howled. Loudly. I did give a faint whimper, however, but he didn't hear it.

"You're warm." Was all he said.

The sister looked at me still shocked, then moved forward to grab her brother.

I changed back into a human.

"You're very welcome," I said.

The sister told me they could find their own way back, and that she and her brother wouldn't have to be worried all the time about that man. She said, "Thank you."

And walked off.

Smiling, I started to walk back to the main road, but the first step I took I collapsed on the floor breathing heavily. Crap. Blood had soaked through my shirt, and was now pooling around me where I lay. I hadn't realised how precarious my life was at the moment. Before I could think anymore, my eyes rolled backwards and my world went black.