Know Your Enemy

Lets have some fun and dive right in shall we kiddies?

"No!”  They f*****g shot Tim... “Jarrod, get him out of here."  This was the third attempt on one my people's lives this month, I'm really starting to get tired of this s**t.
The blond surfer of a wolf bodily  grabbed the would be assassin, nearly ripping the man's arm off. "Alex, how bad is it?"
"Not good," She growls through clenched teeth as I bend down to grab Tim into a sitting position.  "Silver." it's all I need to hear to  know that we've lost him.
I watch my mate probe the chest wound even as she soothes the dying wolf, she pulls her fingers from the red ruin with the bullet sizzling between her fingertips. "Hayden!" she yells, shaking Tim to keep him conscious. As she pulls the bullet from the wound, my vision flashes red and I clench down on the assassins arm, crushing it and bringing a satisfactory yelp from him and a smile to my face.
Hayden jogs up to the patio, his bronze hair lacking it's usual style. He looks at the wound, the bullet, and even checks Tim's pulse, but it's too late and we all know it. "He's gone Ally,"
"NO! I'm not letting it end like this! You're a Phoenix! you can save him!"
Hayden sighs, "Have I ever lied to you?  You know what it takes me to tell you I can't do something?  Get over yourself, he's dead"  his eyes haunted.
I watch Alexandria's face as she goes from heart broken, to very, very pissed in about six seconds. She meets my eyes, and it's not her looking at me. Her eyes are crystalline. Those eyes beg me for blood, I’m inclined to give it to her.
I look in the killer's eyes, "Tell me who sent you or I'll give you to her.  Trust me, she wont be nearly as gentle as what I did to your arm." I can smell the man's fear, but he meets my eyes as calmly as a man bound for death can, and says nothing.
I lift him by is hurt arm, dangling him over Alex, squeezing and twisting.  Slowly I lower him toward her waiting hands. The man keens, high and terrified as my mate reaches for him with her hands caught somewhere between human and beast. The smile on her face might be one she'd use to greet her students, the look in her eyes is one that'd I’d never want turned on me.
I continue lowering him as he yells, "Lux sent me!  I swear!  Just..." About that time I dropped him and walked away, his scream chasing me, I had a funeral to plan.



                Chapter One

I was sitting at my desk when i felt Alex reach for me.
"Zeek, honey, help!" Alex wasn't in the habit of asking for help, and when I attempted to use her eyes and ears to get a feel for what was bothering her, she shut me out. I left my study at a flat run. As I sprinted down the hall with all the grace being a wolf-man entails, I gathered quite the group, apparently I didn't run anywhere without a reason.  This better be good.
I reached for her again, and found her in the kitchen. "Pooh?" I called, rounding the corner and using the oak door frame to slide to a halt.
"Surprise!"  What looks to me like the larger part of my pack jumps out from around the corner, scaring me and almost making me fall on my a*s in an attempt to stop. I watch Alex double over laughing, as she leans on one of the granite countertops. Oh she cheated.
"Happy birthday Zeek." Chase says clapping me on the shoulder and shoving me further into the huge kitchen.
"yea, yea," I grumble over my shoulder.  It's been two months now since we put Tim in the ground, and Chase is filling in nicely.  I just wish we hadn't had the slot to fill in the first damned place.
Alex grins at me as she organizes the pack into a serving line for the buffet style dinner covering the tables. I turn back to my new second, "So have we gotten any new info on this "Lux" character?"
"Not yet, but we do have a few promising leads from our Narc friends.  Apparently he might has some serious pull in the drugs in the area."  He sighs, hoping the news will help his boss enjoy his birthday a little more.
"Hey, Hey birthday boy!" The phoenix crows, bursting in through the kitchen door, with a towering package wrapped in sparkly purple paper. I groan, what god did i piss off to deserve that. Hayden makes his way to the table i hadn't noticed before and clears a space between other brightly wrapped gifts.
I sigh and start to get into the mood of a party, calming my heart down finally.  "What could you have possible fit in THAT?"  I prod jokingly at him. He grins, cocky as usual.
"Oh Just you wait WhiteOut." He slings an arm over my shoulders until he has me in something of a headlock. "Alright- who knows how old he's turning and who wants to dole out the licks!" he calls, dragging me towards the crowd.
I laugh in spite myself.  "Please actually spank me this time, I think I'm still getting the saliva off from last year..." I stumble, beneath his arm toward the middle of the crowd, grabbing a hunk of meat off a nearby table as we go,
"Oh i dunno," I hear Alex giggle behind me and to the right "Licking you could get fun." She laughs and the pack laughs with her. Her hands just suddenly slap against my a*s, and she peeks over my arm and smiles. "What stronger, your lust for the best bbq in town? Or a homemade five layer fudge monstrosity of a cake?"
I finish the hunk of meat in my hand," I wouldn't be opposed to the cake, my *ahem* lust, is quite insatiable."  I laugh pulling myself out of Hat-Tricks headlock.  "Chocolate sounds good, and I could use the sugar after that heart-attack you gave me."
"Wonderful!" She squeals, waving Tim's kids towards the pedestal that the four foot cake is perched on. Hayden tucks her under his arm as she links her fingers through mine.
"Hey Ally?" Tim's youngest, Holly, says pulling at our sleeves. "Does it look bigger to you?"
I smile at them warmly, They've been a part of our family for so long that taking care of them now only came naturally.  As I look past the cake at Holly, and I see the cake twitch almost as if it's bubbling, "What's up with that cake..."
"What do you...what the HELL?" Alex's mouth drops open as she stares at her masterpiece, bloating and warping.
"Pooh, whatcha got planned?" I ask her hoping that this is just one of her many reprises back into her acting career. About the time I open my mouth the cake explodes, plastering everyone in a thin layer of chocolate cake.  The room falls into silence as we all realize exactly what happened. It's Holly and her brother Jude that recover first and start the low level of snickering.
It spreads through every person present, before Chase gives a great shout of laughter, and smacks Alex on the rump.
"That's what we get for letting her do the cooking! HAH!"
I laugh harder at the red stain spreading across Alex's skin, as I begin to lick the cake off of myself.  "Well at least it tastes good!" She looks at me and her face and neck are about the same red as her hair.
"It wasn't suppose to do that" she mutters, flicking her hands, she turns to look a Hayden and just stares at him. he's as pristine as if he'd just walked off the runway. I can feel what she's thinking and i don't disagree.
"Hayden?  Did...?:"  I leave the question unspoken, almost hoping he doesn't say what I think he's going to.  This could be the most interesting birthday I've had in a while.
"Me? Oh no," he says smiling hugely, and picking an imaginary piece of lint off his spotless Armani button down. "She managed that one all her own."
Alex leaps at him, smearing cake across his face, "Your lucky I don't drown you in it you stupid peacock!."  She's smiling as she reaches around her to grab more cake and smear it all over Hay. Some how in all of this, I still think it was Chase, an honest to god food fight broke out. Cake, pickles, mashed potatoes, and i think I saw a rack of ribs went flying. It was a free for all.
One of the greatest birthday parties ever.  Ectric walked in just in time for me to accidentally hit him in the face with a handful of potato salad. His perfectly slicked back sapphire hair drips with mustard and bits of celery, and be blinks at me only hesitating a second before he turns a bowl of bbq sauce over my head,
I laugh harder than I've laughed in a long time.  I really needed this.  I lay back in the food sighing.  Chase takes a whole pie across his face.  Wait, pie?  There was pie?  Damn.
I watch Ectric strip out of his suit jacket and tie, pick up a handful of banana pudding and tap Chase on the shoulder. he turns and well you know what happened next. Some where in all of this Alex vanished, i can't find her crimson hair anywhere in the fray, when suddenly the side door bursts open, and we're all doused in icy cold well water. Alex found the water hose.
I take the water to the face, thankfully clearing my sight, but causing me to slip and fall in the mess.  I look around and notice that several others are suffering the same plight, and I reach to Alex pulling her in. She screams and laughs, spraying us all, and drenching Hayden. At some point we stop and i open presents. Lots of odds and ins from my pack, From a new mp3 player to the mystery gift that Hayden brought, a wolf themed totem pole, and even a new bathroom reader on the Kama sutra. That gets the best reaction.
In the end, all I have to say is, best birthday ever, you should have seen Alex's present for me.  I mean, the things that woman can do with her tongue
The Night ends on a note of happiness that the pack hasn't had since we lost Tim. Alex and I lay curled and sated in our bed, it's just before midnight and she's singing happy birthday to me one last time when the phone rings.
"Who the hell is calling at this time of night?  I mean really, even we are going to bed!"  I sigh and lean over to pick up the phone, grumbling the entire way as Alex curls against my back.
“This had better be good,” I snarl at the receiver
"Eros Ezekiel Draigavich, My Name is Lux, and I think you destroyed something that belongs to me."