Night's Omen

"That's great.  It's damn cold outside, good luck with that," he snapped, heading out the door without a backwards glance.  He knew that Ken was following him, but that was neither surprising nor anything of concern.  He couldn't stop Ken from stalking him, but he didn't have to encourage it, either.

Here's to hoping that he wouldn't run into Mitchell or Batten on his way out of the guildhouse.  Or Vin.  Or Lore.  Hell, he didn't want to run into ANYONE he knew, if he could help it.  He didn't want their glances if they'd heard about him being infected just yet, and he definitely didn't want to know that rumors had gotten out about his shift being uncontrolled.  He just wanted OUT.

He still didn't slow in his pace when he got outside, right up until he reached into his pocket out of habit and realized his car keys weren't there.  With all that had happened, he forgot he'd left them with Ken, who was going to pick him up from the airport when he got back into town, if things had gone according to plan.  "Fuck.  My keys," he hissed.  Great.  So much for IGNORING Ken.

Kenji followed Erik out to the parking lot, silent as his own shadow.  However, when Erik reached his car and swore in realization, the raven cleared his throat politely and dangled a set of keys between his fingers, jingling them for attention.

"May I ride with you, Lucio-kun?  It is cold, as you said, and I would rather not fly all the way to your home."

He still intended to perch on the roof, or a nearby tree, if Erik wouldn't let him inside the house.  It wasn't like he slept, anyway.

There was no way, even if he was ignoring Ken himself, that he could miss the jingling of the keys.  He twisted around and snatched them away, then turned again to unlock his door.  He didn't speak until he'd already thrown his things into the car.

"No, you can just fly to your place, since it's cold and much farther to mine," he told Ken, resisting the impulse to remind the raven that he was still mad at him.  He wasn't giving him a ride, because that'd essentially be the same as encouraging him.  He was NOT going to do that.  Nope.  Ken could suffer if he was going to be that stubborn, and Erik was going to enjoy the car ride alone.  Small space, but alone time.

How nice.

He slipped into the car then, leaving Ken to his own devices.  He had little doubt that he'd beat the raven to his house, which gave him time to make sure the man couldn't break in.

Knowing Ken, it was possible, and it WAS going to be a cold night.  That was obvious just from the current temperature.

Ken nodded impassively, and watched Erik drive away without him.  Then, allowing himself a small, inaudible sigh, he shifted down to raven form and flew off after the car. 

Arriving at Erik's house, he confirmed that the car was in the driveway, then peeked in the windows to check on Erik.  Yup, present and accounted for, and still human-shaped.  Satisfied, Kenji found a perch in a nearby oak that allowed him a mostly unobstructed view of the house and surrounding area.  It was even out of the wind.  Fluffing his feathers out for warmth, he settled in for a good, long night of watching.  He could even doze a bit, here and there.  A tiger busting out of a window would surely wake him.

Maybe it was mean of him to refuse Ken that ride, and actually it probably was, but he didn't care right then.  He didn't WANT Ken to follow, nor did he want his partner anywhere near him if he was going to try to figure this whole situation out.  The last thing he needed was to eat the guy accidentally. 

Ken wasn't really cooperating, though.

He knew when he got to his house that the raven would be right behind him, which was why he locked the door right off the bat.  Then, he hit the kitchen, proceeded to raid anything that looked as though it might be borderline still edible, and finally ended the entire situation passed out on the couch.

He'd earned it, as far as he was concerned.

It was dark when he woke up again, making him wonder what the hell he was doing with all this sleep, but the troubles of recent times seemed to have required a good sleep session on his comfy couch.  He followed it up with a shower, the writing of a shopping list, and finally, a return to the couch.  He wasn't sleeping this time, however, and stared at the TV (which was off) for a few moments, just thinking. 

He needed to try that shifting thing out again.  He was tempted to avoid it, knowing Ken was waiting outside for it, but the thought of putting it off until there was another accident wasn't so comforting.  That was actually what prompted him to get up, close all the blinds, and finally return to his living room for a deep breath.  He wasn't looking forward to this, but it wasn't like he could keep putting it off.  He had to really think about what he'd felt like as that tiger, however, since he couldn't remember exactly how he'd done it when Lore pounced him.

He must have done something right, because within a few seconds, there was that same enormous tiger in his living room where he'd been, and Erik just...wasn't home.

It was quiet.  Too quiet, Kenji thought, ironically.  He'd dozed off for a few minutes on the tree branch, and awoken to... what?  There was no sound.  What had caught his attention enough to rouse him from his nap? 

He came to the answer in a moment:  the light from the windows.  It had dimmed, and when Kenji peered down to determine why, his little bird heart sped up in anxiety.  The blinds were closed.  He couldn't see what Erik was doing at all.

Hopping from his perch, he flew down closer to the house and landed on the hedges just under the living room window.  He couldn't see through the blinds, but he could see a silhouette of the couch.  Then, there was another shadow.  A huge, tiger-shaped shadow.  It leaped over the back of the couch, and if Kenji could have cursed in bird form, he would have sworn a blue streak.  Erik had shifted again.

It was time to take action.  Fluttering to the ground, Kenji checked for observers and shifted back to his own human form.  Immediately, he regretted not having the foresight to wear a warmer jacket.  The temperature had dropped below zero after dark, and there was a bitter wind blowing.  In raven form, he had excellent tolerance against the cold, but not so much in his unfeathered human shape.  However, as a human, he had a cell phone.  That was the important thing.

He hit the speed dial on his phone for Connor Batten.  "Erik Lucio has shifted again.  Yes, he is still in his house.  No, he has not done anything, yet.  I will monitor his activity.  It may be prudent to send backup.  Yes, thank you."  No hello, no good-bye. 

It had been fortunate for Kenji that Erik trusted him enough to give him his keys before he'd gone to China.  Perfect opportunity to make copies, after all.  Kenji took a spare house key from his coat pocket and unlocked the kitchen door.  Easing the door shut behind him, he surveyed the area for tiger, but all was clear.  He kicked off his sneakers, and padded barefoot into the rest of the house.

No tiger in the living room anymore, either.  He must have moved into the bedroom or bathroom, Kenji reasoned, making his way quietly towards the other side of the room, where a hallway led to several open doors.  He stepped lightly, making hardly a sound with his bare feet, ears open for any sound that might mean tiger.  Though he was as silent as possible, even his breathing and heartbeat seemed magnified to his hyper-aware ears.

A sharp creak from the floor behind him rang out like a gunshot in the stillness.  Kenji froze, hearing a low rumble.  Painfully slowly, he turned around to face the tiger...

"Leave the door open, and I'll be over as soon as I can," he told the man on the phone, getting a 'yes, thank you' in response and hanging up.  Connor cursed the instant he was off the phone with Kenji and pulled his jacket on in a flash, already armed.  He was on his cell even as he shot out of the building, informing Capri as to his pending lateness, and silently cursing himself for taking the bike into work that day.  It'd been much warmer when there was sunlight.

He also shot off a mental warning to Val, just in case things got bad.  Val deserved to know, he figured.  One of my hunters lost control of a shift.  Tiger.  Should be fun.  Yeah, so it wasn't much in the way of informative, or comforting, but he didn't care.  Hopefully, he wouldn't have to do anything more extreme than racing a Harley through the streets in frigid temperatures.  At least he'd get there fast.

Maybe not fast enough.  It was only BARELY lucky for Ken that he turned around before Erik actually pounced him, or the raven would have been dead.  Period.  Having a tiger that size crushing your spine in its massive jaws wasn't something a person, even a shifter, recovered from.  Tigers preferred attacking from behind, but that didn't mean he wasn't still considering it.  He wasn't nearly as hungry as he'd been the first time he shifted, though.  Must have been that makeshift meal he'd had earlier.  Ken was going to want to keep him well-fed in the future, since it helped.  A little.

That didn't mean he wasn't growling and looking extremely pissed off.  In fact, he WAS pissed off.  He might not have consciously remembered it, but he HAD told Ken not to come in, and there he was.  He didn't know WHY he was pissed, but having Ken there pissed him off.  At least he hadn't pounced yet, though.

Kenji knew that Batten wouldn't be there soon enough, the way the tiger was eyeballing him and gearing up for a pounce.  He did not look like a happy kitty.  The growling was the biggest tip-off.

"I apologize for entering your home without permission, Lucio-kun," Kenji said in a low, steady voice.  "Please do not attack me."

He didn't really think it would help, with the state Erik was in, but he had to try.  Stealthily, he slid his right hand into his coat pocket.  There was one trump card up his sleeve for this sort of situation-- if he was quick enough to use it before Erik swallowed him whole.

Apologies?  That tiger really didn't care about apologies.  It cared about the fact that this place smelled of itself (although somewhat strange, far too human) and not this man.  This bird.  Mmm, bird.

What was that about not attacking?  But he felt like attacking.  Why wouldn't he attack?  Because this bird said not to?  Hey, at least he registered what Ken had said, even if he wasn't thinking about it that way.  Now, if only he'd notice that he'd been called 'Lucio-kun' and what that meant, instead of wanting to eat Ken.

Wait, he could keep wanting to eat Ken if the man was going to stick his hand in his pocket.  Erik may have been a tiger, but he was still a hunter and a predator, and he knew that pockets were bad.  Smart tiger, silly birdie.  He snarled particularly loudly at that movement, and raised one frying pan sized paw to swat at the raven, even if he didn't get close enough to really smack him.  The point was there.

Why hadn't he pounced yet?

Kenji froze in place when the tiger snarled and swatted at him.  Apparently, Erik had remembered that pockets could hold weapons.  Bully for him.  He did not remove his hand from his pocket, but he also didn't pull out the syringe that was hidden within it.

Despite all the growling and glaring, the tiger hadn't yet bitten through Kenji's scrawny neck, so it seemed safe to assume that there was just enough Erik in there to hold back the beast.  It was no guarantee that it would keep Kenji off the menu forever, though, so he had to work fast.

"Lucio-kun... Erik, please calm yourself," he murmured.  "I am your friend.  You really do not wish to harm me.  Are you able to shift back?"

Erik.  That was familiar.  Enough that he didn't even swipe again, though he wasn't going to let something as strangely familiar as human mouth sounds distract him from the hand in that pocket.  That couldn't be good, whatever it was, and if Ken was going to pull that hand out, the tiger was going to bite it off.  Simple.

In the end, it didn't really matter, since a certain guild leader chose that moment to pop the kitchen door open.  Granted, it was as quietly as he could manage, but the door wasn't all that quiet to begin with.  Tiger ears flicked in that direction for an instant of concentration, and then he was off like a rocket, Ken's presence temporarily ignored in favor of the newer, less confusing threat.

Poor, poor Connor.

Naturally, Connor had NO IDEA that his walking into the house might upset things, or that he was a much more appealing choice in prey for that tiger, since he didn't have any platonic emotional attachments to the hunter locked up inside.  He got into the house, shut the kitchen door, and was very slowly starting towards rooms OTHER than the kitchen when his mistake became apparent.

He should have never even shown up.

Not that ignoring Ken's call for back-up had been a possibility in his mind, but having almost 800 pounds of tiger streaking towards him was the LAST thing the guild leader ever wanted to face.  Unfortunately, that wasn't something that was about to work out for him.  Did things EVER really work out for him?

Eh, not usually.  The bond with Val made itself useful rather suddenly, though, and not just in giving him someone to belt a stream of mental expletives at.  That tiger was on him in seconds, and Connor was NOT going to be able to keep his feet with that kind of an attack, meaning he got pushed right back through the kitchen, and the table within it.

Ouch.

Another stream of expletives for Val, and Connor impacted the floor, the tiger continuing past him with its momentum, but it was turning around.  Connor actually didn't think he was getting up, not after that one.  His head was swimming, he knew he had to be bleeding from his skull, and there were definitely other broken bones.  There had to be.  800 pounds of tiger and a rather solid table didn't mix when you had a comparatively frail human body between them.  He was so lucky to have that bond, it wasn't even funny.  This was going to make explaining without telling the truth damn difficult, though.  He had to stay awake, first. 

Concussion....stay awake....god damn tiger coming back....GET UP!

He was trying, but it wasn't looking too good.  At least the tiger hadn't chomped him yet.  "Erik Lucio, stand the FUCK DOWN," he yelled at the animal, hoping to God that his hunter was in there somewhere.  Or that Ken wasn't dead in the rest of the apartment.

It looked like raven was on the menu tonight.  Bracing himself, Kenji calculated the probability of whether he could get his hand out of his pocket in time to stick Erik with the syringe before the tiger bit his arm off.  The numbers were not comforting.  Then, his guild leader arrived.

Kenji just about had a heart attack when Erik turned and totally owned Connor.  The bone-shaking growls, Batten's shouts, and the thud of solid bodies on furniture had the bird frozen in place for a solid five seconds.  Long enough to cause Batten some serious pain, unfortunately.  When he could move again, he sprang into action, syringe in hand.

"Erik!" he shouted, sounding a bit raspy, as he rarely used anything but an "indoor" voice.  With a mighty lunge, he clung to the tiger's neck and wrapped his legs around the muscular feline torso.  He tried to drive the needle home just behind and below the tiger's ear, but fumbled and dropped the syringe entirely. 

Oh.  Fuck.  Now he was riding a tiger, and he was unarmed.

It was true, Connor had just gotten completely and utterly owned.  He wasn't quite dead yet, though.  That took more than even a massive tiger was going to manage THAT easily, even if he wasn't feeling all that confident right then.  He'd pretend he was, but it'd be a lie.  Really, who could be all that confident with 800 pounds of feral cat glaring at him?

Well, maybe Connor.

When Ken jumped the huge cat that had been considering him, dropping something in the effort, Connor acted surprisingly fast for someone who wasn't sure he could see straight.  He had a gun, a Desert Eagle in fact (Val would be pleased), pressed to the animal's forehead.  Right between his eyes.  Thus, the staring contest commenced, since the tiger stopped moving to glare at him, and he wasn't moving, either.

"Stand.  Down," he repeated, not flinching in his staring into those eyes.  They were kind of scary, to be honest, and he could understand that whole story he'd heard from Ken about Chinese religious zealots worshiping the animal whose blood they'd used to infect Erik.  Being the religious soul that he was, Connor could imagine what Colonel Patterson had felt dealing with those lions in Tsavo all those years ago.  He believed that the lions had been shifters, but there was no proof, and he was now wondering if there hadn't been more to it. 

"Erik, please," he tried, one more time.  If the hunter didn't get an ounce of control and shifter back, or at least back off, Connor was going to have to kill him.  He didn't want to, but he wasn't going to risk Ken's life any further, or his own, to avoid it. 

Tigers are not made for riding, even if they're oversized and scary like Erik was.  Of course, he didn't do all that much about Ken jumping on his back, since it didn't really DO anything to him and Connor suddenly had a gun pressed against his head.  Not good, and even the dominant tiger portion of his brain knew that.  The hunter knew far more about it, though.  Perhaps that was why he didn't attack, since he seemed to understand what was going on a little better.  The 'mouth sounds' didn't seem to be such gibberish anymore, and Connor was talking very slowly. 

It was a slow process, which made the staring contest between the two seem unbearably long, but there were only two ways for this to end.  Either the tiger would snap and attack, or Erik would pull through.  Both seemed equally possible, right up until something just seemed to click.  It was almost like Erik suddenly realized where he was, and who he was.  He didn't know how to undo it, or at least, he didn't think he did.  How had he done this to begin with?

That took some thought, which wasn't terribly easy with a tiger pushing at his consciousness, but he pushed it away just long enough to do something drastic.  Like shift.  With Ken on his back and a desert eagle staring at him.  Great.

"Um.  Sorry."

Yeeeeah, dumb way of responding, but how else do you react to that other than making some dumb remark and staring wide eyed at your boss, who was pointing a gun at your forehead?

Kenji suddenly found himself in the rather embarrassing position of being wrapped around a human-shaped Erik from behind.  With as much grace and dignity as he could muster, he disentangled himself from his partner and stood off to the side in his usual slouch.  "This time we did not have to render you unconscious to make you shift back, Lucio-kun," he pointed out, sounding (for Kenji) downright cheerful.  "I would call that progress."

He glanced at Connor and took note of his appearance.  "How bad are your injuries, Batten-san?"  Though the raven spoke English fluently and with hardly any accent, he still retained the habit of using Japanese honorifics after a person's name most of the time.  Just another of his many quirks.  Most of the other Hunters were used to that by now.  "Ah, and I think the gun is no longer necessary.  Thank you for coming so quickly."