Feral Bonds

Chapter 34

"Are you okay?" Natania asked, curling tighter into the nock of Gretchen's arm. They were both freshly showered after escaping Duvall's building, having used Natania's magic to move unseen. It would only be a matter of time before the body was discovered, and they didn't want to be anywhere nearby when it was. Doubly so due to its half eaten state.

That'll be a fun headline, Natania cringed internally. She shouldn't have eaten him, but the urge was getting harder and harder to ignore. She knew it meant the demon half of her was getting stronger, but if it contained itself to only eating corpses, what was the harm? They were dead anyway, and once dead, meat was meat. Natania shook her head to banish the thought.

"No, I'm not." Gretchen surged off the couch and began to pace. "That was my only fucking lead, and it was a gods damned dead end. What kind of person doesn't even make a note of who hired them to assassinate someone?"

"Someone who doesn't want evidence linking them to a crime?" Natania ventured.

Gretchen threw a pillow from the armchair at her, scowling. "Do I look like I'm in the mood for your fucking jokes?" she snarled.

Natania winced and lowered her head. "Sorry," she muttered, but Gretchen wasn't done.

"Especially considering you almost killed me today! What the fuck is wrong with you?" Her voice was filled with rage.

Natania curled into herself. "That wasn't my fault. He had black magic fueling that wolf's magic."

"And that just makes it all better, doesn't it?" Gretchen snarled.

"I fought it! I didn't want to hurt you." Natania's voice was quiet. "I love you."

"Well I don't love you," Gretchen shouted, her voice scornful and vicious. "How often am I going to have to look over my shoulder to make sure you're not trying to kill me? You've already tried to take my arm off once."

"I-" Natania slid off the couch onto the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees. "I didn't do it on purpose," she whispered. "I'm sorry." Tears burned at the corner of her eyes and she hastily wiped them away.

Gretchen managed a pretty convincing snarl for a human. "Just get out of here. I don't want to deal with you right now."

Natania hesitated for only a moment before scurrying out of the apartment. The elevator was too slow so she sprinted down the stairs, leaping down multiple steps at a time. Her foot slipped on a step near the bottom floor and she tumbled down four or five steps. Hissing in pain, Natania used the railing to pull herself up. "Stupid steps," she muttered, wiping dirt off her pants.

"You shouldn't run down the stairs." An elderly lady poked her head around the corner of the stairwell. "You sounded like a herd of elephants there. And people are trying to sleep."

"Sorry," Natania replied sheepishly. Not wanting to engage any further, she ducked her head and entered the third floor, intending to cross to the stairs on the other side of the building instead. She limped for a few steps until her ankle healed up, it was only a minor sprain.

Once she was safely outside the building, she dove into a nearby copse of trees. It was still dark outside, likely closer to midnight, so there was no one to see her shift. She ran for an hour, keeping to the shadows. Natania didn't blame Gretchen for being angry, she had almost killed the human. Shame burned through her pelt at the thought, she should have been able to fight it. There had to be something she could do to make it up to her.

A thought came to her mind and Natania searched for a place to shift again. Once human, she looked around for a gas station she remembered passing a few blocks back, then called a taxi. The clerk had been a bit nervous when she asked to use the phone, but a light brushing of Charisma had calmed them.