All the Right Things |TAG: Dantes|

[Father Dantes]

Father Dantes breathed a sigh of relief as he escaped the crushing weight and razor sharp claws of the massive lion. His relief was short lived however. He watched as the massive lion wheeled itself around and lunged straight toward him. Dantes gritted his teeth and gripped his sword tight. With an answering roar Dantes lunged to meet the lion.

The blade of the Paladin slammed into the beasts massive chest as the two made contact. The front claws sliced into Dantes' flesh. He roared again and twisted the sword's massive blade.  He quickly angled the sword downward dumping the lion to the ground. He whispered a prayer of Thanksgiving as he looked down upon the massive body oozing blood at his feet.

[Nick LeCroix]

Despite his maneuvering and quick reflexes, which went a long way in keeping that sword away from him in the initial attack, even he saw the blow coming and realized that he couldn't get out of the way fast enough.  It was a lucky move on the vampire's part and a mistake on his, because he had a bad angle and was just too big to get out of the way fast enough.  In his human form, he probably could have dodged to the side far enough to avoid the hit, but lions don't move sideways quite as well as humans do.  They take massive swords through the chest better than humans, and Nick wasn't exactly new to the whole 'take-massive-damage-and-keep-moving' thing, but that was a big sword, and Dantes twisted it.

Nick's claws in the vampire's flesh flexed and jerked instinctively at that along with an ear-splitting mix of a roar and a scream, and he hoped he tore some shit up.  It wouldn't help him too much, but it was for satisfaction's sake. 

The leech angled the blade downwards and he could feel his body sliding, could feel every last excruciating second of skin moving against sharp metal, and he made a promise to himself in that moment that he was going to see this asshole dead if he survived this, and within a moment of hitting the dirty asphalt, he'd shifted back to his human form.

He couldn't tell if that was an improvement where the wound was concerned, or not.  It probably wasn't, but he felt more in control and able to deal without the cat's instincts screaming quite as loudly at him.  It wasn't even much of an improvement in that department, but it was enough.  The pain, the bloodloss, the awareness that he was fucked, that had human and cat both pushing for action in the direction of survival.  He wasn't going to crawl away and wait for the vampire to finish him off while he did it, but he also wasn't going to just lie there.  He fought his way to his knees, pressing a hand to the hole in the front of his chest to try to hold off some of the bleeding, but the back was just as bad.  He couldn't reach that one, but this was better than nothing.  It was almost funny that his fingers found their way to his spare gun before the injury, but there was no way he'd be able to draw it fast enough.  He might still try, but he knew better.

Pale and bleeding, he glared up at the vampire, but he was sitting up, and that was important to him.  He was a warrior, and warriors don't die on their backs in the dirt.  "If you're going to do this, fucking do it already," he snarled, voice more forceful than he really felt, and part of that was that he was pissed.  He'd survived vampires, shifters and seriously bad guys.  He'd survived set-ups, his own wife, and trained soldiers.  Bullets, teeth, knives, the whole nine yards, and he was going to die by a sword.  What the hell.

On second though, maybe he wouldn't.  It occurred to him rather suddenly that the sirens he'd been hearing weren't all that far away (they just sounded like they were, that wasn't normal), and that there were people yelling and moving around just outside the alley.  There was a flashlight beam that struck them both briefly, drawing less of Nick's attention just because he was having issues focusing too quickly, and that was the opportunity he took.  That gun?  Yeah, his fingers had already brushed it while he was reaching to put pressure on his wound, and now it was only natural for them to close around the grip and point it at the one who'd put that hole in him.

No fancy one-liners, no smart-ass remarks.  Just a bullet, just for Dantes. 

[Father Dantes]

Dantes stood over his vanquished foe in triumph. It had been far too long since he had felt the pleasure of striking down a demon of this magnitude. He began whispering the prayers of cleansing as he prepared to deal the death blow to the foul beast before him. His fighting had been in top form tonight, he was back in the good favor of his Lord. No longer did he have to fear some ignoble end at the hands of some foul abomination...his power had been restored, he had found redemption.

Father Dantes uttered the last of his prayer and swung the Paladin back around, preparing to smite his enemy. That was when his hyper alert senses detected sounds, and thoughts speeding rapidly to his location. He stretched his sense out to their fullest. It was two police officers responding to the shoots fired call their battle had generated. As Dantes probed the men...he found they were no men at all, but more demons. He looked back down at the wounded lion in regret, he did not have time to properly purge this demon from the earth and send it back to hell before the others arrived. They must be coming to defend their lion...their prince of hell.

"You are lucky this time demon, you shall not survive our next encounter."

Dantes swiftly turned and jogged a bit down the alley, sheathing his sword and collecting one of his guns from the floor of the alley. As he turned the corner and saw the approaching police cruiser, he teleported away, leaving his bloodied foe laying in the alley.