Blood on Sand

A SMILING CORPSE

Wojtek rushed into his house, phone clutched in one hand and a few remnants of his clothes hanging in rags from his body. "Satul!"

"Here." Satul was leaning against the wall in the hallway with a towel wrapped around his waist.

"What the hell are you doing dressed in a towel?"

"I'm... erm... Zoe's in the bath and I figured maybe... since he doesn't seem to be used to... I didn't want to be naked."

Wojtek stared at him. Didn't want to be naked? They were shifters for fuck's sake, naked was their thing. "What's he doing in the bath?" They didn't run a fucking spa. When was Satul going to get that into his thick skull?

"He was dehydrated."

"And you ran him a bath? What's wrong with giving him a glass of water?" Satul shook his head, making Wojtek even angrier than before. "I'll deal with the crawler after you've told me what's going on."

"Someone's been in the house." Koray came walking from the bathroom and down the stairs—without a towel. Why did it bother Wojtek that the redhead had been naked in the bath with Zoe? "Satul and I came back from the arena, ran through the forest. That's where we came across an unfamiliar scent. We followed it, thinking someone had left there and ventured into the hamlet."

"They had," Satul interrupted. "Someone, one person as far as we can tell, walked from the stadium, through the wildwood and into the village. Seemed like he or she knew where they were going, too."

"Yeah, no detours or anything. He went straight to this house," Koray added.

Wojtek growled, he couldn't help it, someone had come into pack territory and walked about without being invited, and they had broken into his home. His vision shifted, claws ripped through the skin on his fingers.

"Nothing's taken," Koray continued, without so much as pause when Wojtek turned into a partially shifted monster before his eyes. He was used to it of course, but Satul would at least have faltered a little. "As far as we can tell, he was in the cellar but didn't come up into the house. Still, the lizard was down there."

"He had nothing to do with this!"

Wojtek didn't listen to Satul's shouts of defence. He rushed up the stairs, shifting a little more while he took the stairs three at a time. The claws on his feet dug into the wooden treads, not that he cared about the damage, but it was good to set foot on the stone-tiled floor again. He reached the white panelled door and barged right through it. It bounced on its hinges after banging into the wall.

Zoe bounced almost as hard until he saw that it was Wojtek bursting in, then he smiled—fucking smiled. He stood there in all his glory, teeth bared, eyes glowing, and the fucking crawler smiled. In one swift moment, he leaned over the bath and had his claws around the lizardman's voice box.

He had to change back a bit to be able to talk, but stayed as much wolf as he could. "Who was in the cellar with you?" It was hard to talk with fangs growing out of his mouth, and his tongue did not obey properly.

Zoe's brows creased as if he was trying to make sense of what Wojtek was saying. "I... eh..." He let up a little on the pressure since it seemed the twat couldn't talk, watched as his claws slipped into his fingers again. "There wasn't anyone in the cellar. You left me, I had a glass of wine, and then the redhead came growling."

If it hadn't been for the fact that he wanted to rip the reptilian's head off, he might have smiled. Koray sure knew how to growl. He heard footsteps on the stairs and went to lock the door. He did not need Satul in here at the moment. The man was weak, or maybe not weak, but he let his human side get too emotionally invested in things he should keep at arm's length. And to think he'd thought Wojtek would lose the bet. And why the hell had he covered up with that towel earlier? And why hadn't Koray?

"He didn't have anything to do with it, Wojtek!" Satul was pounding on the door. Wojtek could hear Koray mumbling something to him, but he couldn't hear what he was saying.

"What's up with him?" That tongue flicked out again as if he could smell Satul through the door. Wojtek growled. Why would he try to scent Satul?

"He thinks I'm gonna kill you, which I am, unless you tell me the truth."

"Finally." A forked tongue came out, but the change stopped there, and Wojtek realised that he meant it. Finally. He tried not to stare down into the water—you didn't stare when you were a shifter. People were nude all the time, or at least werewolves were since they were quite a lot bigger in their were-form than they were in their human one, so no clothes survived the constant shape shifting. The lizard was smaller in his human form but not by much—or it wouldn't have been much if he'd had some meat on his bones. The parched, paper-thin skin was covered in scars, and every bone in his body was visible. Wojtek thought that maybe he looked a bit better now than he had when he'd first come here a week ago, but he was still just a pile of bones. Shit, what had they done?

"Erm... don't fall asleep." He turned his gaze away, tried to hold on to his indifference, but he couldn't stop his fingertips from lightly caressing the abused throat as he straightened from the bath. He tried to crush the stupid feeling of wanting to lift Zoe out of the bath, towel him dry, and put him in some soft clothes that wouldn't scratch his delicate skin but would shield him from Satul and Koray's prying eyes. He growled at his own silliness and walked out of the bathroom. He would remember that scar-covered body when he closed his eyes tonight. "I'll be back in a few minutes to ask you some questions, okay?"

He didn't wait for Zoe's answer, just walked out, and turned to face Koray and Satul as soon as he exited the room. "Okay, so one person, you say?"

"Yeah, one." Koray didn't miss a beat. "One scent, and I don't recognise it. Definitely here in human form, though, otherwise it would've been headier."

There were only a few scents Wojtek would recognise in human form, only the ones he'd talked to, since the majority of people he met stayed shifted. The arena was a place you went to bet money and watch creatures tear each other to pieces; you came for the blood and the thrill of death, not to socialise outside your race.

"We tracked it from the arena, into the hamlet, and then back to the arena where it got mixed up with all the other scents. He probably changed somewhere in the crowd, because there isn't a trail anywhere after that." Koray clenched his jaws. "If a human walked through the crowd, someone should've noticed it."

Yeah, Wojtek thought. You didn't go into the arena in your human form; it was too dangerous. But on the other hand, you didn't go around talking about what you'd seen either. What the fuck should they do now?

Satul cleared his throat. "You didn't hurt him, did you?"

Wojtek glared. He wanted to punch Satul for trying to look past him and into the bathroom. He wouldn't hurt Zoe. He might have thought that he wanted to, but he didn't. The mere thought of harming him while he was in the bath, looking so small and defenceless, made Wojtek's skin crawl. But if Satul didn't stop looking soon, he would most definitely get hurt. He exchanged a frown with Koray, again. Satul's interest in Zoe was definitely becoming a problem.