Night's Omen

"No," he said. He didn't raise his voice much, but the irritation had given way to anger by this point. He was ready for Aimee to be off of him, and it was only his morals holding him from trying to pitch her into the wall. His morals would wear thin, eventually, eroded by his increasing anger, if this tired conversation kept going around in circles.

"I don't want to be either. I'm going to get up, and I'm going to go home, and neither you nor Wesley is going to get to have any say in that matter. Get off me," he said. He meant it. He was done screwing around. He liked Aimee, and he was really trying, but this was all too much for him to swallow at the moment, and he needed to be alone and think. He might even have a cigarette.

"Now," he said, voice raising significantly. Josh was pretty adorable when he was being amicable and comfortable, but when he wanted to, he could be intimidating. He was a decorated Marine sniper, a decorated police officer, and above all, a fairly aggressive individual when push came to shove. Right now, he was being pushed, and he was about ten seconds away from shoving back.

Well, this definitely wasn't going according to plan.  Josh was supposed to accept the fact that she was doing him a favor and trying not to make him suffer, understand the bad situation, and be an adult about it.  Instead, he was acting like a petulant child who didn't want to eat his green beans.

"Josh, you're making this more ridiculous than it has to be," she pointed out, just as irritably, but she took a deep breath and considered the situation.  This was going to get violent if she refused, and she wasn't quite ready to just attack him.  That really wasn't her style.

Letting Wes attack him wasn't an option either, though.  "Fine, I'll get up on one condition.  Don't try to leave the apartment, because that'll set Wes on you.  As long as you don't try to leave immediately, maybe we can talk him down from his ultimatum, okay?" she asked, trying to compromise.  She really didn't think it was right to force Josh out of his humanity, but this situation wasn't exactly one she was in control of.  She hoped he didn't just try to flip her, either, or it was going to get bad.  She could be hurt, and it WOULD hurt if he did something to her, but she'd be on him in seconds.  She didn't want that.

"Okay," he said. The gears in his head were already turning, twisting, doing their Joshua thing. He was good at getting out of sticky situations, and this was about the worst he'd been in for a long time. It wasn't quite like bombs over Baghdad, but it was close to his heart - it involved people he cared about, for one, and the problem now seemed to center directly around his unwillingness to conform to something they all thought best for him. That was the kicker.

He got up slowly when she finally got off of him, and he held out a hand to pull her up. For someone who had just snatched him with so much force, she was as light as a feather, as her frame would dictate. He was... thoroughly perplexed by her, in many ways. Pretty, dangerous. Bad combination, but typical of a woman. He didn't smile, though he almost wanted to at the thought. Aimee was proving to be anything but typical. It was too bad she had a boyfriend - she seemed like just the right amount of trouble for Josh, even if this time he'd bitten off more than he could chew - so to speak.

He walked down the hallway, making a sharp right turn as Wes glanced at him. "Going for a smoke," he said. He snatched a pack of cigarettes on the counter - Melisande didn't smoke, but she'd pointed to them, saying something about Nikki leaving them there. Figured. More shapeshifter nonsense.

He went out onto the balcony, closing the sliding door behind him softly, though leaving it open just a hair to hear what was going on, and lit one up. He didn't even really inhale it, because he was biding his time out.

"Well, now that the room's free," Melisande muttered to herself, though she knew damn good and well Josh and Aimee had been squabbling in the hallway the whole time.. "Hey, Drew," she whispered. She got something of a, "Mm?" response from him, and slid off of the couch.  "C'mon. Bed, let's go."

It didn't take much. He was up and moving, slowly but surely, and she guided him down the hallway to the room. She shut the door with a click, and flicked the lock on it. No chances.

Once more, Aimee found herself seated on the floor besides him as he agreed and then got up, but she wasn't really expecting the hand up.  She accepted it, being lifted to her feet as easily as if she weighed nothing, which obviously wasn't true, but she'd thought he'd have been too angry with her for that.  It was nice to see that wasn't the case.  He wasn't smiling or anything of the sort, however, which was enough to get the point across.  He wasn't pleased.

"Thank you," she told him anyway, following him down the hallway with enough room not to crowd him, but close enough that if he'd bolted for the door, she could try to get to him before Wes did.  Fortunately, he banked for the counter instead, saying he wanted a smoke.  Good, at least he wasn't trying to bolt.  Even so, she was going to be watching him, just in case.  He'd agreed to staying pretty easily, which he had to know meant that they still intended to infect him.

Drew had already been pretty out of it by the time Josh came back in and then went off to the balcony for a cigarette, so he didn't get the opportunity to see his best friend's new shiner or the results of eating carpet.  He also didn't get to see his foul mood, which would have tipped him off to something being messed up.

No, Melisande woke him up, and the most anyone was getting out of him right then was his movement in the direction of the bedroom and more sleep.  He was starting to drift off again by the time he even hit the bed, so he didn't even notice Melisande locking the door.  Details he normally would have puzzled over, and they were completely lost to him.  Poor Drew.  At least he couldn't worry about everything.

"Well, that could have gone better," Aimee sighed once Melisande had Drew down the hall and Josh was on the balcony.  She'd noticed that the door wasn't completely shut, but she'd expected something like that.  She'd have done the same thing.  "You're not changing your mind, are you?"

Wesley glanced up at her, sighing a little. "No," he said softly. "Unfortunately. I know you were hoping I would. We can't risk it. For all we know, they dropped Drew off and they're waiting, watching - waiting for one of us to fuck up." He squeezed his eyes shut briefly, like he head a headache, and opened them again, looking back at the floor, at nothing. The television was off and the light was on, and the room was quiet.

"He comes back in, and one of us is doing something. If it won't be you, it'll be me. I'll destroy our friendship if it means keeping him alive, Aimee." He paused. "You know, I'm not a bad guy," he said, making an effort to believe it himself. "I just... I'll do bad things for the greater good. Everyone in this apartment can hate me tomorrow, but if what I do keeps them alive, then they can hate me to their hearts content. I'll be fine."

Josh's shoulders rocked a little in silent laughter. Who knew Wesley was such a martyr? He made a mental note to kick the shit out of him later, if he could find a way to. For now, though, business was going to continue as normal. He waited until they were good and occupied in their conversation, and he loved Wes for sucking Aimee in to one of those "am I a good person" debates he knew she would eat up given her current mood.

Silently, he flicked his cigarette off of the balcony, and glanced back. Thank God Melisande had some horribly vision-obstructing blinds in the way, or he'd never be able to get away with what he was about to do. Effortlessly, he swung himself up and over the rail, dropping down almost gracefully, so that his hands were hanging at the base of the balcony. He dangled his feet for a minute, searching for the railing of the balcony below him, and found it after a heart-stopping second where his toes didn't touch anything but air. Long way down, that.

He got his balance - thank fuck it was a wide rail he'd planted his feet on - and dropped down, completely removing himself from Melisande's balcony. From his new vantage point, he booked it over two more balconies, and then took a quick leap to the fire escape. As agile as Wesley had been breaking into his apartment, Josh could be breaking out of Melisande's. He of course, had to apply way more effort and concentration, but finally he was down on the ground with the sound of two feet firmly hitting wet pavement.

He dipped around the corner of the building and took off down the street. "Catch me now, bitches," he laughed, though it was an angry sort of 'HUH' laugh. He wasn't pleased, not at all.

This was all nice and dramatic on Wes' end, and Aimee understood what he was thinking, but she still thought he was jumping the gun and being a little outrageous.  There were ways around ruining his friendship and all this mess.  Personally, she wasn't above calling Marius up and having him scare the living hell out of Josh.  There was nothing Josh could do to hurt Marius, and the vampire was trustworthy enough to be allowed to scare the daylights out of the guy.

Once he saw how ridiculously easy it was for a vampire to totally pwn him, maybe he'd reconsider, especially if he got to see someone of Aimee's size deal with Marius.  She wouldn't mind, and she'd been wanting to push the vampire around for awhile.  She was all for aggressive examples.

She had no idea what Josh had coming.

"Oh, stop that!  I don't want to hear all this, 'am I a bad person' nonsense!  I think you're being an ass and jumping the gun, but if you're going to be stubborn about it, then you're going to just have to deal with it.  I can call Marius and get him to come scare Josh if you want, but I still say you should let them choose," she told him, and yes, she'd noticed that Josh had vanished.  Naturally, that didn't mean he'd jumped off the balcony, since they'd been out of sight when Wes infected Melisande, but she noticed.  She just didn't say anything immediately.

It wasn't like she was completely against the idea of Josh getting away, despite trying to convince him to cooperate.  As long as Wes didn't catch him and infect him, she wished him well.

As always, Jared didn't have the slightest idea what he was walking into.  He was hungry, didn't feel like catching some pretty lady that he'd have to liquor up, and the dude he saw coming said something to the effect of 'catch me now, bitches' before running.

As far as he was concerned, that demanded his attention.

He positioned himself in a dark alley where the man had to pass, which was easy given the fact that Josh was already headed in his direction, and it was child's play from there.  YOINK!

He threw an arm out and would have totally clotheslined the dude if he hadn't gotten a grip on him at the same time to avoid him landing on his back and contemplating the sky.  Instead, he whipped him around and bounced him off the alley wall.  Best to avoid giving him a good look at who was attacking him.  "Looks like I caught you, bitch," he snickered as he approached, grabbing the dude and steadying him against the wall.  He wasn't lingering over this one.  That always got bad.

"Maybe I am. One more reason why we don't need more lions running around," he said, finally laughing a little. The fact that the tiny woman insisted on calling him names and hitting him made him want to laugh, but up until this point, he'd been too wound up to do it. Now he did laugh, though, shaking his head a little. "There have to be other alternatives. Don't you know any other shifters? Maybe he just doesn't want to be a cat." He shrugged a little. "Personally, I don't see why. We're pretty much cooler than anything else out there. I mean, he could get infected by, I don't know, a sparrow tomorrow. Could you imagine how pleased he'd be, then? I might actually take the risk, considering the alternative. Josh, a sparrow."

If only he'd known Church.

"I'm going to be hearing it from them for a long time. Wait until my brother finds out. Then I'll catch it from both ends, and he's still human. He'll fool you, though," he laughed. "I'm almost relieved Drew is in Mel's care, though. She'll think long and hard about whatever she does before she does it. Patience is a virtue I lack."

He stopped talking suddenly, and tilted his head. He craned around to look at the balcony. He sniffed a little.

"Son of a BITCH!"

All of that talk of trying to calm down went out the window, and Wesley leaped up and was out of the apartment before Aimee could have even stopped him. He thundered down the stairwell, having zero time for elevators, and busted out into the street. It was dark, there was no traffic. He was livid. He allowed himself to slip into form just enough to scent Josh out, which wasn't hard, considering he knew the smell like he knew his own. His eyes were positively amber now as he stalked after Josh's trail at a stupidly fast pace.

All thoughts of making his friend into an animal were gone, replaced only by the very realistic idea that the vampires who'd attacked Drew were waiting around for something to give, for one of them to pop up again. Damn Josh for being so human!

Josh was hoooome free. He felt bad about leaving Drew, but when he had the word of Aimee that Melisande was watching him, he felt like it would be a nice time to step out and collect his brain off the sidewalk. He needed to get his life out of the jaws of the two big cats and try to get it sorted before he could come to any kind of conclusion - as it stood, he was about as warmed up to the idea of being a cat as Hitler was of Anne Frank, which is to say, not very much.

He didn't have time to think about much besides that, though, because he was suddenly down, up, and without breath. The wind got knocked out of him pretty fiercely, not to mention his gravity comprehension was suddenly very shaken up. He'd gone backwards, and then been picked up and slammed into a wall, and was now being accosted by a very menacing looking man that.. Josh narrowed his eyes, trying to force air back into his lungs.

Jared actually wasn't so menacing at all. He looked sort of like a car jacker or a punk, but not a big Mafia boss. Not only that, but he was maybe half as built as Josh, and Josh was SWAT, so he was pretty tough. Why were his feet dangling above the ground?

"What... the fuck..." he wheezed. Did this kid really have any idea he had a cop pinned against a wall? Josh didn't recognize his face, so it couldn't have been that personal, could it have?

A cop?  HA!  Even better. 

Wait.  Jared was pretty new when it came to the whole vampire mind-reading bit, but he was getting pretty good at it, and this was...wow.  Did he really have the luck to snag a guy out of this kind of a situation?  "Dude, you should have listened to your friends.  Vampires don't give a shit if you're a cop," he pointed out, holding the guy back.  He was SWAT and thought he was badass.  Not good for cooperation.

Normally, Jared wouldn't have hesitated from there.  He'd have buried teeth into the man's throat and finished up fast, but he smelled something.  Actually, it was similar to one of the scents coming off the human, but it wasn't quite right.  He smelled cats, two different kinds, and this new scent was another of the cats.  Same kind, but different animal.

Oh, shit.  He didn't want to deal with shifters, especially big ones, not tonight.

Maybe it'd leave him alone long enough to eat.

Yeah, right.

Nick actually had the good fortune to end up happening upon this situation, which was only proof of that whole 'it's a small world' concept.  He smelled lion, though not incredibly strongly, in the area, and ended up glancing into the alley to see where it was coming from.  He found a man being pinned to the wall by another man who was built well, but not well enough for the job at hand.  Pretty much guaranteed that it was a vamp, especially given their positioning.  He'd bet vampire, and if that wasn't the case, his bad.

Nope, definitely vampire.

The dark-haired attacker lunged forward, obviously to take a chunk out of the man he had pinned to the wall, and Nick was on him in seconds.  He hit the vamp like a train, effectively tearing him away from the human (yes, human, even though he had a whiff of lion about him, with even more leopard in there), and shifted as soon as he was clear of the human.  No sense in risking claws and teeth around someone who couldn't heal.  The guy was probably going to have a few new hurts just from the vampire.

Yeah, the shifter wasn't going to let him eat.  He hated that shit.  Fucking assholes, interrupting all the time.

Oh, FUCK. 

"Oh, you fucking SUCK!" he hissed, scrambling back as the man who'd knocked him sprawling changed form.  A fucking lion.  A LION.  Holy hell, that fucker was big.  BIG.  He didn't know lions were that big, but were they really?  Was it just big because it was a shifter, or because lions were that big?  Damn, he had no idea, but he wasn't hanging around for this one.  "Fuck that, you can have him!"

He still had to dodge claws and teeth, something he wasn't entirely successful with, before he could BAMF out of there.  Fuck that, FUCK THAT.  LIONS. 

Josh struggled against the vampire, but what he said made his head spin. Listened to his friends? What? Josh suddenly realized that he'd been thinking about what had just happened, right then, and that Wesley and Aimee might have been right. He didn't have time to react, though, because it looked like Wesley had this under control... question mark.

Josh fell to his knees, and immediately backed up into the alley further, which he knew was a dumb decision on his own part. The vampire was gone - literally gone - just like that. Nowhere to be found, not a trace, no footsteps running in the distance - nothing, nil, nada, zip, zilch, gone. Josh blinked rapidly, and then turned to look at Wesley.

"Okay man. You were right. You were totally right," he said, holding his hands up. "But Wes, I don't know that I want to be a lion just yet. I mean, think about it, fucking lions, man. How am I going to figure out what the hell is going on, what I do, where to go from there?" He was babbling, but he was like... That had totally just blown his mind.

Wesley heard the scuffle, and rounded the corner just in time to see a vampire popping off into the wind. His jaw nearly dropped at the sight of another lion, though, and his hackles raised. He could feel fur at the back of his neck, though he couldn't quite see his own eyes bleed from the hazel blue into straight gold. Instinctively, he lowered himself a little, ready to pounce on his own.

"Josh," he said, his voice very firm. "I'm over here."

The scent of the other lion was completely unfamiliar to him, and he all but ached at the idea of attacking. He reached out and snatched Josh behind him. "Time for 'I told you so' is later, buddy. For now, stay here," he said, placing him behind him. "This might get ugly," he added, his voice barely audible; he was saying it to himself, really, as he took another step forward.

What the hell was this?  Did that guy just call him Wes, and then start babbling about being a lion?  Could it possibly be the same Wes he'd known?  Bishop?  No way.

Yes way.  Yes, this guy, Josh, was talking about Wesley Bishop, and that much was obvious by the sudden appearance of Nick's old military buddy.  Small world.  This was NOT good, though.  Besides Bishop's reaction, all aggression, Nick could smell him.  That was the lion he smelled.  Bishop was a lion.

FUCK.

Nick knew what that meant.  It was his fault.  Damn it. 

Letting it get ugly was the last thing he wanted right then, which was fortunate, since he could have gone for a fight.  He could still smell the vampire's blood on the air and his claws, but fighting with Wes wasn't a good thing.  Only if he had to, and he could shift in a hurry if the situation called for it, so he flicked his tail again, fixing the other lion with his golden eyes, and returned to his human form.

"Surprise.  You even think about getting ugly on me, and I'll kick your ass, Bishop," he warned, grinning as he did so.  "You can relax, I've already eaten, so your friend is safe."

From behind Wesley, an audible sound between relief and irritation was heard as Joshua paced in the background, but Wesley was all stunned all over again. "LeCroix?" he asked. Of course. It all made sense now. He thought back to the incident, all the blood, and just shook his head, amazed.

"Well, I'll be damned," he trailed. His surprise was clouded by a smile, and it was a happy sort of smile. "Nick," he said again, and this time laughter was following his words. Relief, happiness, and good memories were certainly what the doctor ordered this time. "You always show up at just the right possible moment. How are you, man?" he asked.

The tension was gone - even for a male lion, Wesley could override that small attack command when it came to Nick. After all, he'd sort of 'fathered' him, so there was a deep respect there that simply wouldn't be shaken by primal urges. He extended his hand, and did the manly "shake/hug" thing guys do, with the one armed pat and the chest bump.

"Josh, it's cool. This is Nick LeCroix. He was with me when I got exploded - kind of like you and Drew, except... I got more than a medal for my effort." He motioned for Josh to come over, which he did, gloomy as ever.

"How's it goin? Thanks for ah, yeah, that," he said, pointing behind him at the nothingness where Jared had vanished. "It seems like Aimee was right, after all. Being a human is just one step away from being splattered." He frowned. He wasn't happy with his reality right now.

Nick's grin only widened at Wes' obvious shock, and he pretty much stood there looking smug and pleased with himself as Wes went from shock to relief and happiness, even with the lion fight-vibes.  Personally, Nick wasn't worried.  He was top-cat, when it came to lions anyway, and he wasn't giving that up.  Everyone else could just deal.

"Glad to have been of help, and good to meet you, Josh," he responded smoothly, his grin fading just a touch at the edges to give Josh a look that clearly said he agreed about humans getting splattered, and hadn't forgotten the bit about Josh being a lion.  "I'm doing well for myself, but we have time to catch up when we're not lingering at the site of a vamp attack.  I doubt the little shit will be back after the chunk I took out of him, but you never know with them.  You sound like you have a mess on your hands."

Actually, it sounded like more than just a mess.  Who was Aimee, and what exactly was going on?  Naturally, Wes didn't have to tell him, but he'd help wherever he could.  "Need a hand?"