Feral Bonds

Part 2: Gretchen Chapter 23

Bullets whizzed by her head so close she could feel the wind ruffle her fur. Natania flinched away, momentarily leaving the unconscious body by her feet. "Watch it! I didn't sign up to be shot at by my ally," she shouted without any real venom. While painful initially, the human's weapons did little damage.

Instead of shifting again, Natania withdrew the pistol tucked under her pant leg and fired off a few shots. Her position allowed her easy visual of her targets and the gunfire died down as several bodies crumpled to the ground, though not before a stray shot nailed her in the shoulder.

Natania growled as her shadows curled out of the wound, creating a thick webbing over the hole that pulsed against her skin. There was a small ping as the piece of lead dropped to the ground, and Natania rolled her shoulder to return feeling to the damaged limb.

"You all right?" Gretchen asked, moving away from the dumpster she'd used as cover while they'd faced off in the harbour.

"I'd be better if you stopped shooting at me," Natania grumbled, meeting her human companion halfway.

"But that just means I get to take care of you later," Gretchen purred, curling an arm around Natania's shoulders and ruffling her hair. Natania scowled, she always seemed to end up with women that liked to mess up her hair. Just because it was short, didn't mean it was open season.

Natania swiped her hand away and ran a few fingers through her hair to fix it. "You can take care of me just fine, without getting blood on your couch."

"I've had worse things on my couch," Gretchen responded with a snort, giving her a sly grin that left no doubt about what she was referring to. Gretchen had had more than a few guests over since they had teamed up.

Natania glanced away as blood rushed to her face and Gretchen planted a light kiss to her forehead before spinning around to survey the damage. The harbour was riddled with bullet casings and bodies, some Natania had killed as a wolf, and others that were taken down cleanly with a bullet to the skull.

Gretchen seemed to have two modes of shooting, deadly precision, or way off the mark, depending on how stressed she was at the time. Natania dropped down to inspect their dead, fighting to push back the raging bloodlust. Their hired goons had been taken out like cannon fodder, and she hadn't seen them take out even a single one of their ambushers.

Oh well, she thought, at least Gretchen won't have to pay them now. She rolled back to her feet and jogged a few steps to catch up with her wandering companion. "Anything?"

Gretchen sighed, and the scent of frustration hit her full force. "Nothing, this was a setup. They wanted to ambush us." Gretchen glanced over the bodies and frowned. "Thanks by the way, if you hadn't scented them, we'd probably have died."

"Always happy to help a damsel in distress." Natania danced out of the way when Gretchen moved to give her a shove.

"You're a real knight in shining armor," Gretchen muttered, voice thick with sarcasm.

Natania ran ahead, shifting as she went, and shot Gretchen a wolfish grin before racing across the harbour. She skid to a stop in front of their ambushers' cars, nose to the ground. She approached one of the vehicles and sank her teeth into the handle, managing to pull open the door and hopped inside.

The car reeked of drugs and those awful artificial air fresheners, clouding her sense of smell. Natania backed out of the vehicle, sneezing repeatedly and pawed at her nose.

"You okay?" Gretchen asked, finally catching up.

Natania rubbed her eyes after fading back into her human form. "That car is rank."