Trial of Fates

Chapter 1

Bullets whizz by her head so close she can feel the wind ruffle her fur. Natania flinches away, momentarily leaving the unconscious body by her feet. "Watch it! I didn't sign up to be shot at by my ally," Natania shouts with no real venom, while momentarily painful, the human's weapons did little damage.

Instead of shifting again, she withdraws the pistol tucked under her pant leg and fires off a few shots. Her position allows her easy visuals of her targets and the gunfire dies down as several bodies crumple to the ground, but not before a stray shot nails her in the shoulder. Natania growls as thick, black shadows curl out of the wound, creating a thick webbing over the hole that pulse against her skin. A small ping hits her ears as the piece of lead drops to the ground and Natania rolls her shoulder to return feeling to the damaged limb.

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

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

"But that just means I get to take care of you later," Gretchen purrs, curling an arm around Natania's shoulders and ruffling her short, black hair like a child.

Natania swipes her hand away and runs 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 responds with a snort and gives her a sly grin that leaves no doubt of what she was referring to.

Natania glances away as blood rushes to her face and Gretchen plants a light kiss to her forehead before spinning around to survey the damage. The harbor was riddled with bullet casings and bodies, some ravaged by the wolf and others taken down cleanly with a bullet to the skull.

Natania drops down to inspect their dead, fighting to push back the raging bloodlust. The hired goons had been taken out like cannon fodder, she hadn't seen them take out even a single enemy unit. Oh well, she thought, at least Gretchen won't have to pay them now. She rolls back to her feet and jogs a few steps to catch up with her wandering companion. "Anything?"

Gretchen sighs and the scent of frustration hits her full force. "Nothing. This was a setup. They wanted to ambush us." Gretchen glances over the bodies and frowns. "Thanks by the way, if you hadn't scented them we'd probably have died."

"Always happy to help a damsel in distress." Natania dances out of the way when Gretchen goes to shove her.

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

Natania runs ahead, shifting as she goes, and shoots Gretchen a wolfish grin before racing across the harbor. She skids to a stop in front of their ambushers' cars, nose to the ground. Sinking her teeth into the handle, she manages to tug open the door and hops inside. Air fresheners and pot cloud her sense of smell, causing her to sneeze a few times and she backs out of the vehicle, pawing at her nose.

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

Natania rubs her eyes as she fades back into her human form. "That car is rank."

"Dead bodies? No problem, little bit of weed? And the wolf is down." Gretchen snorts, donning some gloves and climbing into the car.

"Well," Natania moves a few feet away so she can talk without her eyes watering, "bodies only smell bad to you because you can't eat them. You're hardwired to associate the smell of dead humans as bad." Natania sneezes again.

"Don't be such a baby." Gretchen scolds as she rummages through the car. The human searches every spot she can think of, even pushing the seats back and forth to see underneath them. Evidently having found nothing of note, Gretchen withdraws from the vehicle with a disgusted grunt. "Nothing." She kicks the front tire, frustrated.

"Hey," Natania quickly rises to her feet and places her hands on Gretchen's shoulders, "It's all right." Gretchen shrugs her off.

Natania ducks her head, unsure of what she can do to help. While they'd known this was likely a trap from the minute Gretchen received the anonymous call to meet, there was still a part of her that had hoped it was true. That she'd finally have a solid lead to follow. It'd be almost a year since they'd paired up and Gretchen was no closer to achieving her goal than she'd been the day they met.

"Perhaps it's time to..." Natania trails off as Gretchen turns to her with fury in her eyes.

"Time to what?" she spits. "Give up?"

Natania drops her gaze, shrugging helplessly. "The danger-"

Gretchen shoves passed and starts forward. "I know what I'm doing, it'll be fine."

"Yeah but-" Natania takes a few steps after her but stops at Gretchen's vicious tone.

"Enough Natania. If you're worried about it then go home."

Natania flinches and grits her teeth. "You know I can't do that." She glances at the floor, head ducked and shoulders hunched in defeat. "I just..." She trails off and shakes her head.

Gretchen slows to a stop and spins around, reaching out a hand to cup her cheek. "I'll be fine Natania. Don't worry so much."

Natania leans into her hand and sighs. "Just be careful."

"I will. It'll be fine." Gretchen presses a kiss to her forehead, her anger momentarily forgotten. "Can you grab the bag?" Their anonymous caller had insisted they bring quite the sum of cash with them, but it'd been abandoned in lieu of the shooting. Natania gives a mock salute and crosses the harbor. It takes her a moment to locate it and she's surprised to see it had survived the assault mostly untouched, only one minor tear where a bullet had passed too close.

The human is holding a gas canister and dumping the foul smelling liquid throughout the harbor by the time she returns. Deciding not to bother arguing against her methods, Natania climbs into her car, dropping the bag under the seat and reaches across to turn the car on before settling back into the passenger seat.

Gretchen drops a match on the ground and the dock lights up as vehicles explode around them. The human sprints into the car, slamming the door shut and hightailing it out of the harbor.

"So," Gretchen asks, "know anywhere we can get some information?"

Natania glances back at her and sighs, knowing the human was truly out of ideas if she was willing to resort to the supernatural. Nonetheless, Natania had sworn her assistance and if Gretchen was willing to face the danger she was bound to comply. "I have a few ideas."