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R.E.D. Tiger

By: TNWTBOD



I was driving down the highway back to my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia ready to begin the next stage of my life. My life so far was very simple and could be split into eight year spans between major events. My mom died during my childbirth leaving my dad to raise me himself. When I was eight I got into my first fight at school and my dad started to teach me martial arts. He also re-married a woman named Lynn who also had two kids. 

Me and my stepmom never really got along much but my dad thought I needed a maternal figure in my life. It was more of a mutual agreement thing I think, Lynn needed a father figure for her two girls and she was supposed to be a mother figure to me but... well that never really developed. 

In another eight years when I was sixteen my father died. The doctors couldn't tell how he died and they said " He was a perfectly healthy man". I always liked to think that he only lived long enough to see me mature and that the heartbreak of losing my mother finally caught up to him.

You can only imagine the shock that my "family" had when we learned my dad had amassed over fifty million dollars in savings and stocks which he left all to me. Also he and my birth mother had apparently came from money because in his will he bequeathed five hundred million dollars from my mothers estate plus some houses in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Europe and he had given me savings from the Thorton line which he had half of the family fortune and his brother ( whom I've never met) had the rest which equaled to three hundred million dollars. So now I ( Alan Thorton) had a net worth of about eight hundred and fifty million dollars as well as ownership of a couple other multi million dollar companies all at the age of sixteen.

You can only imagine how pissed Lynn was, apparently she knew of my father's wealth and was expecting a large sum after his death. For some reason she took out her anger on me and the conditions at home became very strained. Finally I had had enough and decided to join the army and Lynn was more than happy to sign the papers to send me. But before I left I made sure to kick the bitch out and let my sisters decide if they wanted to stay or not. 

Now eight years later after being forcibly retired from the military for going against a privileged superior who sent my troop on a suicide mission to receive some classified intel that he planned on selling to foreign hostiles, I was headed home . Since other soldiers saw me rebel against superior officers I was court martialed and the whole incident was swept under the rug with the C.O. being court martialed and imprisoned; but I was still on the first bus home. 

Now on the way home I was happy to be back. I was thinking it was time to start the next part my life and settle down with my longtime girlfriend Jessica whom I'd been dating since a little before highschool. 

We'd been maintaining a long distance relationship with me seeing her every three or four months when I could get leave time. I hadn't told her that I had been decommissioned three months ago so I was excited to drop in and surprise her. I thought about heading home first but decided against it as it was already going on seven o'clock and I wanted to get to surprise Jessica before the day was over and possibly take her out for dinner if she didn't already have plans for the evening.

After pulling into Jessica's apartment complex I went around to her building, after confirming that her car was indeed outside I made my way to the door. I planned on knocking but decided on being particularly devious and picked the lock ( it was easy to do) and snuck in. I heard what sounded like moaning and couldn't suppress the smirk that crossed my face at the idea of catching her in a masturbation session. I crept up to her bedroom door being as careful as possible to avoid making any sounds and peeked my head through. And was surprised at what I saw. 

Jessica, my girlfriend of over ten years, was in the bed on her knees getting slammed into from behind by some guy. They were both facing away from me so they had not noticed I was there yet. 

" Oh god Jessica you feel wonderful babe." the guy gasped while plowing into her. I could barely contain my gasp of shock as I recognized the man's voice and realized it was my good friend Daniel.

Me and Daniel had grown up in the same neighborhood all our lives and had been close friends since our days of playing Pop Warner as kids. In fact he was the only person whom I would consider to be my best friend until I met Don and Marcy in the service. Now with both of them dead I was looking forward to reconnecting with Dan. 

So here I stood in the doorway of a bedroom watching the last two people I thought I could trust, with the exception of my step sister Rose, betraying me and enjoying it in the process. 

Most men came up with all sorts of contingencies about what they would do if they ever caught their girl with another man. Most all would say that they would kill the bastard and never have anything to do with the tramp, bitch, etc. ever again. I had never made any such promises because: well one I never expected to be in the situation, and two I knew I could kill said bastard AND get away with it. If I had already committed myself to that plan of action I would feel the need to do it. Maybe it was my military training, but once I decided on a course of action I usually stuck to it unless dire circumstance called I do something else so had I been prepared to kill the offenders I would be bound to do it. 

With all that being said it said it still was taking all of my willpower to stop myself from barging in there, ripping those two apart, and starting to administer my own brand of justice. But still something was to be said of military discipline and I was able to keep my emotions in check. 

In reality this was not something I was in the right state of mind to do. I was angry, tired , and a little sad at their betrayal. All of these things would cloud my judgment and lead me to doing something I might later regret. So with another show of willpower I crept back to the front door and left with the sounds of their coupling still in my ears.

_____________

Hoping into my car I was determined to get as far away from Jessica's apartment as I could. I was tempted to just go home but as I drove through the city and passed different eateries and shops that I had taken her to over the years and the memories of us in those places just made me feel worse so I knew that my house, a place that we shared many memories, was not the place for me now. As I sat a red light I was aware of all the noise and buzzing of the city and right now I wanted nothing more than to have some peace and quiet and be away from the big city.

Then I remembered a little cabin my dad used to take us to in Mt. Nebo near Summersville Lake and decided to head on up there. It was only a hour and a half drive and I kept the key to the cabin in a safety deposit box that I had in the trunk. With my destination in mind I pulled onto US-60 E and gunned my way down the interstate.

Exactly a hour and a half later my black 1968 Plymouth RoadRunner pulled up outside of my dad's cabin in Mt. Nebo. It always felt weird to call any of my dad's stuff mine so even after all this time I still referred to this place as dad's cabin. 

I got out of the car and opened the cabin up then proceeded to move my things out of the trunk and inside. Once inside I went to go turn on the generator. I knew that the generator would take maybe twenty minutes to fully power so I decided to sit outback and enjoy the down time.

Sitting outside near the fire I couldn't help but think back on the events of today. I think that now that I had a chance to sit and analyze the way I was feeling I was surprised to find out that I wasn't anywhere near as upset as I initially was. 

While me and Jessica had had a pretty cool relationship it wasn't like we were in love or anything like that. I mean I had planned on loving her but as it stood we weren't around each other enough as adults to reach that stage. Likewise for Dan, I could understand that Jessica was attractive and that her and Dan were good friends so it's not absurd to think they might get romantically involved. 

I think that most of my anger came from the fact that they were cheating. I personally never understood the act of cheating on a person. If Jessica didn't want to be with me anymore she could have easily told me that she was no longer interested in keeping up the long distance relationship. I would have been happy for the both of them if when I came home from the service they were a couple. To me to stay in a relationship and cheat on someone implies that they have something that you want and that you don't want to give it up. I really didn't have much in the ways of things since I was barely home so the only thing that came to my mind was the wealth I had inherited from my parents.

Jessica had always been the money spending type. Every time we saw each other it was " honey can I have this" or "we should go here for a vacation". I really didn't think much of it at the time because I figured that anyone who had the money to spend on their lover would indeed spend it on them and I had the money to spend. Daniel being my best friend also had access to my money although on a lesser scale then Jessica and I had even paid for his older sister's medical bills when she got into a horrible car accident some years back. I felt my stomach wrench with the thought that both of them were just money hungry leeches.

Whatever the reasons I knew that I would still never forgive either one of them for deceiving me and betraying my trust. To tell the truth after what I saw I didn't want anything to do with them. Just thinking about how stupid I must have been to never realize that a woman didn't go without sex for most of the year made me more angry. I staid faithful to her while in the service and never once did I stray even though I had plenty of opportunity. How could she just cheat on me like that. I began to wonder if it were only Dan or were there others or... or.... 

Just as my anger reached the boiling point I heard a noise over to my left. When I looked up I was startled to see an old man looking at me with fear in his eyes. I probably looked menacing sitting there at six foot five inches, two hundred and ten pounds, and an attitude that radiated anger. More than likely I terrified the old man so trying my best to suppress my anger and calm down I extended a greeting to him.

" Hello sir," I said, " How are you doing this evening?" The man seemed to visibly relax at my words and motioned with his hands that he wanted to sit down. I nodded my head and the old man sat down across from me with the fire between us and started to talk.

" I'm doing well young man. I normally hike and camp around here on Nebo and noticed that the lights and stuff were on. A month or two back some teenagers had broke into the property up here and made quite a mess," he told me, " so I decided to come up here and make sure the weren't back up here causing trouble."

" Oh no," I assured him, " This was my father's cabin and he left it to me in his will, but it's the first time I've been up here in years. I'm Alan Thorton by the way."

" Feliche ( pronounced Fe- li- chay) Iguar" the man replied back.

After that we dissolved into a comfortable silence. I was kind of wondering why he was still sitting here but he said he had been hiking so maybe he was just taking a rest before heading back. Ten minutes had passed when Feliche  let out a tired sigh and look wistfully up at the sky.

" You know, " he started , " this reminds me of when I was a kid and we'd sit around and tell stories by the campfire. Before the invention of t.v. and radio and all such other nonsense"

Feeling no reason not to indulge the old man I told him that he could tell a story if he wanted to. The man looked at me and expressed that he didn't really want to take up my time with his ramblings and tales.

" Please tell a story. It would be better than me just sitting here and thinking about how my girlfriend cheated on me with my best friend." 

" Wow. Looks like you've got more of a story to tell than me young man. But i'll try to give you one worth your time."

________

Long ago in the times of kings and queens, fairies and dragons, humans were nearly brought to the brink of extinction. Angels and Demons had broken out into full scale war and were using the earth as their battlefield. Many humans were caught in the crossfire and humanity was nearing it's final hours.

But then, out of nowhere came two spirits. One was the spirit of a bat and called himself The Cosmic Bat, and the other was a wolf spirit named The Universal Wolf. They came upon the conflict and saw that he humans were the ones truly loosing out. The Wolf always one for games asked the bat if he wanted to have a little fun. The wolf suggested that they both impart some of their power to the humans so they could have a fighting chance against the angels and demons who were ravaging their lands. The Bat readily agreed with the idea and they both set out to give their gifts to the dwindling human race.

Once the new races were created they were bestowed the title of vampirs and lycans. After much arduous fighting the vampir and lycan finally managed to drive the demons and angels back to their own plane of existence to continue their eternal battle. 

With their common enemies now gone the vampir and lycan tried to settle back into their everyday lives. But problems soon arose when the normal human population began to shun and detest the new species that had fought and died to protect them. After awhile neither species were allowed inside of cities and were forced to live on the outskirts of towns and civilizations. 

After a while with the human population growing again and the vampir needing there blood to survive attacks on the cities rose and the number of turned vampir skyrocketed. Now with there being vampir mixed into the city's population the citizens had no choice but to accept the vampir.

This of course angered the lycans, so they started to slowly integrate back into society in human disguises, some even gaining the ability to take human form again. 

Sooner or later, because no one knows when it happened or who started it, tensions arose between the vampir and lycan and they engaged in full scale war against one another. The once allies were now brutal enemies and fighting now lined the streets.

The Bat and Wolf saw what was happening and decided to step in to stem the flow of battle to where they could salvage the human race but keep their created creatures intact as well. They came up with three edicts. 

First The Bat took away the vampir's ability took walk in sunlight. This caused them to be more easily tracked and hunted by humans and lycans. This forced them to be more cautious in there attacks on their enemies and prey and drove them to retreat back into seclusion.

The Wolf imparted upon the lycan the curse to forcibly return back into their beast forms on full moons. The lycans were no longer able to live in the sparsely populated cities because of the chance of someone seeing them and them and their families being fingered as lycans. The lycan were forced to relocate to larger cities or build cities of their own far from people.

In the last act The Wolf and Bat came together to create a new being. A mix of lycan and vampir that had enhanced abilities of both with none of their weaknesses. The Wolf and Bat then went to the vampir and lycan and informed them that if they can catch the new creature and absorb it's powers or get it to become their comrade they would regain their lost abilities. But The Wolf and Bat had one more trick up their sleeves. This new being could transfer his abilities to a new host of his choosing when ever he felt so and the new host would then gain all the memories and acquired skill of the previous host.

As each generation of host passed the creature became harder to catch and stronger than before. Forcing the lycan and vampir to spread themselves thin to find out it's location. 

One thing that neither the Bat, Wolf, vampir, or lycan accounted for was the return of the demons and angels. While no longer in full scale war with each other the angels and demons still posed a threat. But with the vampir and lycan no longer unified and with reduced capabilities they could no longer fight the demons and angels. All four sides settled into an uneasy truce where they fought each other behind the scenes and away from human eyes. All were afraid to go into all out attack in fear that the other sides would just kill the weakened victor of the first battles. 

Over time the demon, angels, vampir, and lycan all faded into myth, but they are all still out there. Looking for the creature and biding their time with small skirmishes and power struggles, waiting for the chance to topple the other three factions and walk in the human civilization once again.

________

Feliche sat back onto his arms and stared at me from across the fire. After a while I looked up at him and smiled.

"Well Feliche"

" Please call me Felix" he interrupted.

" Well Felix, that was an interesting story to say the least. It certainly got my mind of my problems for awhile"

" My boy what makes you think that was a story. You had real problems so I told you a real story."

I looked at the old man and wondered if he was senile but quickly dismissed the thought. I had been sitting out here with him for about an hour and he's seemed perfectly sane the whole time. Maybe he was just joking with me.

" I can see from the look on your face that you don't believe me" Felix said.

" Pardon my rudeness but it is a rather farfetched story."

" Well what if I could show you proof." he countered.

" By all means." I responded thinking we had finally reached the end of the joke. Felix stood up from his spot on the ground and stood directly in front of the fire and held out his hand. From his hand a stream of water burst and put out the fire bathing the backyard in darkness. Then in Felix's other hand a small ball of blue fire emerged which he then dropped back onto the firewood and the backyard was once again bathed in light.

As this point I was more prepared to run for the hills than any point in my life, and I had seen some pretty scary things over the years. But with Felix being not only a couple feet from me and already standing but with the ability to hurl fire I figured running wasn't the best option. Thinking back over what he told me I formulated a question in the hopes of surviving long enough to make a break for it.

" So let me guess you're an angel?" I asked him

" What makes you think that?" he said with a perplexed look.

" Well with the whole conjuring flames thing I figured you'd have to either be a angel or demon... annnnd seeing as how I'm still alive I ruled out the demon possibility."

" Well for future reference not all demons are bad, and no I'm not an angel. I'm the hybrid."

" But how?" I asked, " In folklore neither vampires or lycans can use fire, water, or any type of magic." 

" While it is true that neither vampir or lycan can use magic the hybrid is a little different. Remember when I told you the hybrid could retain all the abilities and memories of past host?"

"Yeah I remember." I answered.

" Well the first ever host wasn't a human. It was a dragon and dragons, whether you know it or not, have an inborn knowledge of how to use magic. The dragon however wanted no part in the schemes of the Bat or Wolf and quickly transferred the power to a worthy human. From then on all the hybrids could use magic and the abilities have been steady growing over the years."


R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 02



It's crazy how time flies when you're having fun. It has been six months since I left the military. The first three months went by terribly slow but these last three months went by in a breeze. It seems like only yesterday I caught my girlfriend and best friend in bed together. I knew that my time in the mountains were drawing to a close and that I'd have to confront the two of them when I got back. 

"Head's up Alan!" Felix yelled and I looked up just in time to see him throw a fish from the lake towards me. Without a second's hesitation I thrust out my hand and a stream of fire erupted cooking the fish. Sliding a plate under the fish I sat it down next to the other fish filled plate while Felix grabbed two bottles of water from inside.

I laugh to myself at the changes three months make. The first time Felix roasted a fish with a stream of fire I was barely able to keep my jaw off the ground now shooting fire and levitating and all that is basically second nature. These last months I've been training nearly everyday but it hasn't been as hard as I originally thought it would be.

On the other hand I could tell that it's been pure hell for Felix as everyday he's getting weaker. He can barely use magic anymore (that's why I had to cook the fish) and that's only remnants from the dragon blood flowing through his system. Yesterday was our last day of training, so today we're just going to eat and then head back into the city.

As we sat down to eat I noticed that we were sitting in basically the same spot that we had met each other, a fact that Felix didn't miss as well.

"Well Alan today's the last day my friend." Felix started,"How are you feeling?"

"Well I have a slight bit of apprehension about confronting my ex and Daniel when I get back but besides that I can't complain."

"That's good to hear, most people when they have the amount of power we do, well at this point only you do, tend to forget things like apprehension and fear and everything else that made us human to begin with."

"Yeah I know what you mean, since I've been getting stronger lately I've tried to keep my outlook as normal as I possibly can but I'm afraid that I can't stop it from changing no matter how much I try."

"Trust me," Felix said,"you'll be fine. But speaking of fear, I'm afraid I have something I need to ask of you. I know I have no right but I'm just going to come out and ask you." 

Felix then took a deep sigh and for the first time in a while I had no idea what was going through his head. He looked like he had something really important to say but didn't know how to go about doing it. I sat silently waiting for him to talk and he eventually continued.

"I want to ask you to look after Molina for me. You see there's things I haven't told you about Molina yet. Molina's mother Tracy is a werewolf, my son happened to meet her by chance and the rest as they say is history. He doesn't know about me, Tracy, or Molina, as far as I can tell and Tracy and Molina don't know about me being the host either."

"Tracy won't make my son John into a werewolf because she loves him to much and doesn't want him to get hurt but Molina's a different story. She's already a half lycan and Tracy's pack has been putting pressure on her to join them. I've been sticking close to Molina in order to stop them from making any moves because the lycan's code won't allow them to harm want they perceive to be an old harmless man. But with me gone I figure that they'll make a play to get Molina under their wings. So I must ask you to look after her for me." Felix finished.

I immediately told him that of course I would look after her. But then I processed the other part of what he had said and he kept talking like he was going somewhere. 

"Are you leaving or something Felix?" I asked him. Felix looked at me curiously then his eyes got wide before he started to talk.

"Oh right I didn't tell you. When you made the decision to become the next host I called my attorney and gave him all your information so he could include you in my will as my successor. About a week ago he should have contacted my family and told them I was dead and that he had special instructions on what to do for my funeral, my funeral is in two days in which I really will be dead."

"You're DYING!!?" I asked my friend and mentor shocked. For all of the weakening that he had been going through these last few months Felix was still as healthy as a thirty year old man.

"Yes I'm dying my boy. What do you think happens to someone who is one hundred and sixty-one when they give up the only thing that's kept them alive that long. As of later on today you'll have ninety seven percent of my power. In the next two days my age will catch up with me and then, probably only a couple hours before my funeral I'll die."

"Oh don't give me that look," he told me,"I was already prepared for all of this when I made the transfer. Besides look on the bright side how many people get to see the setup of their own funeral." he said with a chuckle before continuing.

"I know my family will miss me but I rather that they miss me than I miss them. Maybe it's selfish of me but when my wife died I understood that I couldn't wait around for the rest of my family to join her. So please watch over Molina that's the last thing I ask of you as a friend."

_______

Driving down the highway on my way back to Charleston I couldn't help bit think about what Felix had told me. In two days he would be dead and here I was just driving home as if everything was alright.

Being in the military you understand the risk of people you know might die. It was a completely surreal feeling to know with a one hundred percent certainty that a friend was going to die and even know the time and date. What's even worse is I can't do anything about it.

Before we left Felix had told me to visit his attorney, some demon named Samuel, so I could sign all the necessary paperwork to receive the collected inheritance of the past host.

It turns out that many demons have the same names as angels. There are a thousand Mikhails, Samuels, Castielles, etc. Demons have to tell the truth when asked a question while making deals for souls. So since most people will ask for a name demons take on the names of well known angels in an attempt to fool the humans into thinking they are angels.

All that aside the Samuel I was going to meet was a good friend of Felix's and had promised him that he would make sure that the new host, i.e. me, would have someone who he could talk to about supernatural problems without worry of being found out.

Figuring I duck home for the rest of the day, visit Samuel tomorrow, get ready for Felix's funeral the next day, and then go to his funeral the day after that my schedule was pretty much full. 

After Felix's funeral I'll probably have to finally confront Daniel and Jessica and then after that my schedule and life were pretty much wide open.

I had thought of going to college but with the amount of money I have there's really no point in it. I might just travel for a while, visit some places I want to see rather than just places I'm sent on assignments. I was ready to settle down but with everything that's happened maybe I still have some growing to do.

______

I pulled into the driveway of "my" house behind a red porsche that I had bought for Rose when she turned sixteen some years back. The house basically belonged to Rose because I was never there. When I left for the military she was only thirteen and her sister Angela was eleven. Angela for as long as I've known her has made it clear that she didn't like me or my father very much so I wasn't surprised when she declined my offer to stay here and instead left to live with Lynn.

I had thought that Rose would go to live with her mother as well but she chose to stay saying that someone would have to look after the house while I was gone, and she wanted to be the only person in her class that could say they lived alone.

The house was pretty modest it had four floors if you counted the basement and attic which we had converted into a game room and media room respectively, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a pool outback. Not exactly a millionaire's house but it had always been enough for me.

I had snuck inside hoping to surprise Rose but knew that my plan was ruined when I heard feet running down the stairs. No sooner than I had put my bags down and turned around there she was hugging me.

"Alan you're home!!" she yelled while squeezing me in her grip. " I was so worried about you." she said nearly in tears. Prying her off of me I looked at her tear soaked face and I couldn't help but smile. Rose had always been one of my favorite people. Since an early age we had gotten along great together and I nearly didn't go to the service when she begged me not to leave, come to think of it that was the only time I told her no when she asked me something in my entire life.

I think that us getting along so well may be a factor in why Lynn didn't like me so much. She always watched over the two of us and made sure we were never alone together. I think that she probably thought we would get involved or something like that.

I had never even thought about me and Rose being together, well not until I had came home from leave one time, and the skinny little girl I once knew was replaced by a tall, curvaceous, young woman. Rose is about 5'6", which I assume is fairly tall for a woman, has long brown hair and wonderful deep brown eyes. Body wise I'm not sure of any thing. I can make the assumption that she is about a C cup maybe higher because Jessica once said she wished her breast were as big as Rose's and Jessica's a B cup. So yeah I had thought about her once or twice but I was with Jessica and Rose was for all intents and purposes my sister. So even though I had acknowledged she was good looking I knew that nothing would ever happen between us.

"Alright get off me Squirt, it's good to see you too, but what's with all the tears?"I asked.

Rose laughed at me calling her by her childhood nickname before she started talking.

"Well about two months ago some mail came from the military for you, I didn't read it but I figured if you were with them they wouldn't send your mail here, and plus you hadn't contacted anyone in like a year so I was worried sick about you." 

She said while handing me the letter she had mentioned. I thought about opening it right then but decided against it. Whatever the military wanted with me I doubt it was anything simple and I had enough complicated things on my plate right now as it is. So I sat the mail to the side and started to say something before Rose cut me off.

"You should call Jessica," she told me while handing me the phone,"she's been worried sick about you and she'll be happy to know you're back."

"Don't worry about Jessica, I have something special planned for her and I don't want her to know I'm back just yet." I said while ruffling her hair.

"Well call Angela then. She's been worried about you too." 

" Really? I was always under the impression that she hated my guts and wanted nothing to do with me. Remember the scene she caused when I showed up at her graduation?"

About two years ago Angela had graduated from highschool and I requested leave time to attend. Needless to say when she saw me there she went into a whole expletive filled rant asking me what I was doing there in front of everybody. We really hadn't talked since then so I was under the impression that she still felt the same way about me.

"Angela's really changed in this last year." Rose told me,"I think when we were growing up she thought that your father was trying to take the place of our dad so she never let herself become to close to you two. After he died and you left she went to stay with my mom and well, you know how my mom feels about you and Angie pretty much just adopted that same view point about you as well."

"After she blew up at you at her graduation she later told me that she was happy you came but felt guilty as if she was betraying mom or something so she blew up at you. She wanted to apologize but never got up the courage to and when she heard that no one had heard from you in a year she was worried she'd never get a chance to apologize ever again so she's been kind of depressed. It's about five o'clock she should be out of class right now so can call her up real quick?"she asked me.

Grabbing the phone from her I walked over to the couch and plopped down. I asked her if she felt like going out to dinner, when she said yes I told her I would invite Angie so we could have a chance to catch up. I opened up the contacts and strolled down till I saw Angie's name and then hit the dial button. She picked up on the second ring.

"Hey Sis, how you doing?" Angela said.

"Uh hey Angel it's... uh me... Alan."

" OmiGOD Alan. Where are you? Wait you're calling from Rose's phone, are you home? We've been so worried about you. Where've you been?" she demanded.

"Calm down Angie. I left the military about six months ago and before I came home I had some things to take care of. I'm sorry for worrying you, especially when you're supposed to be studying and making it through college."

"I just called to tell you I was back and I know we're not the best of friends but I wanted to take you and Rose out for dinner tonight if you didn't have any other plans." 

Angela told me that she had a test that she had to study for so she really couldn't afford to go out tonight but maybe in a few days she would have some free time. I told her not to worry and that we could go out some other time.

"Are you sure Alan because... well I really wanted to talk to you about what happened at my graduation and about how I've been treating you for these last couple of years. I know I don't ever say it or show it but I do love you... so... yeah."

"I love you too Angel."I told her," Like I said don't worry we can reschedule so go do whatever you need to do okay?"

"Yeah alright I'll go. I talk to you later."and then she hung up the phone. I sat back and I couldn't help but let out a long sigh. It was good to talk to Angela, I'd always thought she hated me so we didn't really get along when we were younger but now it looks like we could be good friends and have some type of family bond.

I handed Rose back her phone and told her that Angie couldn't come tonight because she had to study but might be free in a couple of days. Rose then suggested that we just eat in for the night and save the night out for later when Angela could join us.With that agreed upon Rose went to go make dinner and I decided to grab a quick shower before it was finished. 

Dinner that night was very simple, Rose had made some sandwiches and we ate them in the living room, on the sofa in front of the t.v. Rose and I spent most of the time not even watching the television and just talking about random stuff while eating. 

It was around ten thirty when I decided to head up to bed. I was kinda early but since I had a meeting in the morning I figured I should probably turn in. 

As I lay in the bed I couldn't help but think of Felix, in just two days he would be dead. It a heavy feeling knowing that a loved one is going to die but being unable to do anything about it. I guess I was sort of lucky that my dad died unsuspectingly. Many people had to watch their parents get older and wither before dying, I suspect my feelings for Felix were close to what others might feel when their loved ones die. Felix had become such an integral part of my life in such a short time, having taught me so much. Having Felix's teachings coupled with the knowledge of the previous host before him means that I had learned lifetimes of information in just three months.

The way the host's power worked was really kind of amazing. For example I knew everything about the previous host their likes, dislikes, fears, and even their individual memories. But when it came to Felix it was different. While I knew all of his different skills I didn't know his personal memories like I did with previous host. Felix had said that it was a mechanism set in place to allow the current host to learn from the previous host, because if you knew everything about your teacher then you would think there was nothing they could then teach you. 

Whatever the reason I'm grateful for it because I got to know Felix, who's such a great man. I can't imagine how he must feel right now forced to watch his loved ones lament his passing and being unable to comfort them even though he was still alive. I was tempted to call him and see how he was doing but he had forbade me from having any more contact with him, stating that someone could still find out that he was a host and then that could put me in jeopardy.

Pushing all these thoughts to the back of my head I finally tried to get some sleep. I had thought to try and prepare for my meeting tomorrow but how does one prepare to meet a demon. Looking at the clock I saw it was approaching midnight so with a grunt In rolled over and shut my eyes and waited for sleep to come.

_______

I woke up when my alarm clock signaled seven thirty. My appointment wasn't until nine but I still needed to shower and get breakfast, and I would've had to wake up to move my car to let Rose out anyway so I decided to get up a little early.

Stepping out of the shower I went to the sink to brush my teeth. Looking in the mirror I marveled at the changes only a few sick months produced. My black hair which I had always kept short while in the service was know long enough to touch the top of my shoulders, maybe it was time for another haircut. My face also looked better, it was now mare angular and my jaw might have just been a little stronger than before. Not something everyone would notice but when you stare at the same face everyday for twenty some odd years you notice these types of things. I had lost some worry and stress lines that came from being in the military and I had let myself grow a small beard, nothing to wild because at twenty three I felt I was still to young to sport the rugged look.

My body had changed as well but those changes I attribute completely to me now being a vampire/werewolf hybrid. It really was a strange transformation, I had somehow gotten leaner and stronger while getting taller as well. I was 6'4" 190 and could bench around three-twenty but now I was 6'6" 185 and I'm sure I could bench a car or two if needed. Felix had said that these changes were a result of my body adapting to the werewolf gift. It seems that all werewolf males were at least six feet, and the females all around five-eight to eleven. He also said that I was capable of a full transformation like a werewolf although I would look different from a normal werewolf. He advised against going into this state because he said you lose a lot of your humanity, morality, and rationality. He himself had only done it about six or seven times, all when he was younger, before he realized the consequences.

"Are you almost through in there?" Rose yelled," I need to take a shower before my classes."

"Yeah I'll be out in a second."

Wrapping a towel around my waist I made my way out the bathroom. I opened the door to see Rose standing there looking at me with wide eyes. Her eyes were glued to my exposed chest completely ignoring anything above my neck. I could definitely smell her arousal, or at least I assumed it was arousal, this was my first time smelling it with my heightened senses and it smelt distinctively different from the normal air. I felt myself starting to slowly harden underneath my bathrobe when I noticed her nipples standing out through her shirt. I knew there was somewhere I had to be but right now all I wanted to do was grab Rose, drag her to my room and not let either of us leave for the foreseeable future. 




R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 02



I started to walk towards her with the intent of doing just that, my eyes honed in on her cleavage until I saw a small necklace nestled in between her breast. It had a pearl(her birthstone),and a chain that housed a locket. Inside the locket was a picture of us together when we were kids at the beach. I had given her that necklace when she turned fifteen and I had never seen her without it on. The necklace made me realize who this was, this was my sister Rose. I was supposed to protected her from lecherous creeps not be one. Felix had warned me about the animal lust that came along with my new powers but I assured him I could handle it. He told me I'd never be sure until I had to deal with it myself and I had nearly let it control me. 

I hadn't gotten laid in over a year which probably contributed to the way I felt. I made a promise to myself to go out sometime in the next couple of days and find a nice girl at a bar or club to relieve some "stress", but first I had a meeting to go to.

I decided on a casual suit. A simple beige jacket and pants, with a white shirt and black tie. I went downstairs to make some breakfast that consisted of some bacon, sausage, grits, eggs, and toast along with some orange juice. As I was leaving I stopped by Rose's room to tell her I'd be back later and that I had made some breakfast for her. A muffled reply came back and then I was out the door.

______

Samuel worked in the Masters' Law Firm offices which were located on Summers St. I was a little apprehensive about strolling inside of a demon's workplace but figured everyone working at Masters couldn't be a demon so with a deep breath I walked in. The first floor was just a lounge and I was greeted by a young blonde woman named Emily.

"Hello Sir. How may I assist you today?"she said in a voice that actually made it sound like she liked her job.

"Hello, my name is Alan Thorton and I have a meeting with–"

"Oh yes, Samuel told me you'd be in today, third floor room three o six."She pointed me towards the elevator and I went up to the third floor. It amazed me just how many people were here this early in the morning. I always had the image of lawyers showing up to work around ten, going to lunch around noon and then not leaving until two or three in the morning. Oh well I guess you learn something new everyday.

I walked into Samuel's office and he looked completely different from what I was expecting. I didn't expect red skin a tail and horns mind you, but I did expect to find at least an imposing person. What I saw was a scrawny, pale man, who was balding a little, only about 5'5" and the thickest coke-bottle glasses I had ever seen. 

I walked in and he ushered me to a seat across from him while he got up and pulled out some files from his cabinet. When he returned to his seat he reached across his desk offering his hand while saying,

"It's good to finally meet you Mr.Thorton, Felix has told me a considerable amount about you and I've been looking forward to this meeting for about three weeks now."

I reached for his hand to shake while conveying that I also was anxious to meet him. When our hands met a slight jolt went up through my body and I could feel heat coming from my hand. I quickly snatched my hand back thinking that Samuel was up to something and instinctively prepared for a fight. I looked up at Samuel and found he had the same look on his face only a little less hostile and more surprised.

"What the hell was that?"I asked, trying my best to keep from yelling. Samuel looked around with a confused look before admitting kind of sheepishly,"I truly don't know, it's never happened to me before." 

For awhile we sat there just looking at each other until he finally cleared his throat and advised us to move on. The subject of the meeting was very simple, from here on out I would have control over the vast fortune of the host collective as Samuel called it, while I was free to spend it however I felt it was kind of an unstated law that you had to give back to the fund in order to help future generations of host. Felix himself in his extended lifetime had owned thirteen overseas oil wells, a couple of diamond and precious stone/metal mines and a couple of other small companies and I'd probably never even scratch the surface of that money. Hell I think most of the assets came from the original dragon host. From his memories alone I could tell he amassed over ten trillion dollars alone. I guess dragons really were known for hoarding their treasure. The only reason he felt comfortable giving it to the next host was because he was essentially giving it to himself.

I also found out that I would be required to visit some of the companies in Europe that Felix was the active chairman or board director for because I was named his replacement after his death, but that could be done at a later date and was not a priority. I had always wanted to go to Europe anyway to visit some of the properties my mom left me and try to learn more about her anyway so it pretty much seemed like killing two birds with one stone.

After about a hour of talking and signing papers I was just about through. I could tell that what happened earlier was still on Samuel's mind because he seemed nervous and jumpy the whole time. As things winded down I said my goodbyes to him and almost made it out the door before the other shoe dropped.

" Mr. Thorton come back here" Samuel shouted from his desk. When I sat back down he continued to talk."I'm sorry but I don't think that I'll be able to be your lawyer like I was for Felix and Marco, Felix's predecessor." I made to ask him why but was promptly cut off.

"Let me finish. I've been the lawyer of two host and a slew of demons, werewolves, and vampires, angels of course won't ever be my clientele, but the truth of the matter is that host have always felt different to me. I start all my meetings off with a handshake. Why? Because it lets me get a read of my client and you sir in all honesty scare me. I don't know what you are but I definitely never want to see you ever again."

"You see Alan I know a lot about you. I know about the things you did in the military, the classified things that were so awe-inspiring that your file looked like a children's superhero story, yet so horrendous Wes Craven would flee in terror...and after all that I was determined to meet you, determined to prove to myself that the things your fellow soldiers reported were just delusions conjured up by fear during the mission. But now I'm forced to admit that everything they said was probably all true, that there was probably even more things that a humans tiny perception couldn't even catch."

"You probably will refute this, I don't know how you could with so little you know about your parents, whom by the way I couldn't find anything about no matter how hard I looked, but nevertheless I can say without a shadow of a doubt that you weren't human when you became the host. I don't know what you originally were but human for damn sure wasn't it."

"So,"Samuel said pointing towards the door, "I want you out. And, I can't believe I'm even saying this but, I pray to GOD that I never have to see you again."

With that he wheeled his chair around to face the window and refused to make a sound for the next ten minutes while I sat there digesting what he said. I thought over everything he said and refused to believe that I was anything besides human. I know I had always been physically gifted but I was by no means a super human, well not until I met Felix and there were guys in the military both stronger and faster then me. The one thing he said that did stand out to me was that I didn't know anything about my parent's families. It looked like that trip to England might need to come sooner rather then later.

I grabbed my things and made my way out of Samuel's office in a daze. I barely responded to Emily as she told me goodbye.

______

When I got home I couldn't do anything but go straight to sleep. I had so much on my mind that I doubted I be able to sleep but I guess the fatigue of the last few days caught up to me despite my supernatural endurance.

That night once again I dreamed of my father. He was looking at me with that same smile again. Only every once in a while he would say something I couldn't hear, as if he were talking to somebody and then look back at me. I had finally had enough and I began to lash out.

" WHAT!!?" I yelled at him. What do you want from me?"

With a smile and a wave he started to disappear and I begged him to come back. That's exactly how Rose finds me when she came home: curled up murmuring come back over and over again. 

"Alan?" I heard,"Alan wake up!!" it was Rose she was sitting on the bed next to me shaking me awake. I sprung up and Rose jumped back in surprise. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah I'm fine." I lied. There were few things that I didn't tell Rose, but I had a feeling that the list was going to grow from now on."Just a nightmare."

"What is it? Is it PTSD?" she asked worry over her face. I looked at her sitting next to me with a scared expression on her face and couldn't help but laugh. 

"No,no. Nothing that serious Squirt. Just a bad dream. A good friend of mine died and his funeral is the day after tomorrow. I'm just kinda shook up by it, but seriously I'll be fine." She looked like she wanted to argue, but I guess she thought better of it because all she said was that she was going to go to her room to study, apparently she had a big test coming up as well.

After she left I laid back down. Already the dream was starting to fade from my memory. I had always been like that though. Most times I didn't have dreams, Rose tried to convince me that everyone had dreams and that I just forgot mine as soon as I woke up but I didn't buy that, the dreams I did remember though still only lasted for a couple minutes after I woke up then I forgot them completely.

Getting up I went to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth before I headed downstairs. I had intended on making dinner but found that the fridge was pretty spare. I guess I'd have to do some grocery shopping tomorrow while I was out. I called up the stairs to tell Rose I was ordering some pizzas for dinner. She seemed okay with the idea so I called up the local pizza place and placed the order. I ordered my usual meat lovers and got Rose her usual cheese pizza. I never understood paying ten dollars for a pizza with no meat on it whatsoever but it was Rose's favorite so I picked one up.

In about twenty minutes the pizza had arrived and Rose and I sat down to eat. She asked me what I had planned for tomorrow because she had early classes and probably would be home by five o'clock.

"Well I have to go and get ready for my friend funeral so i'll probably need to go see a tailor about getting my suit altered and then a trip to get a haircut would probably be nice. Oh and we need groceries too so i'll probably head to the store for that stuff as well."I told her.

"Sounds like a full schedule, i'll write up a grocery list tonight before I go to bed and leave it on the counter for you."

"I have a better idea,"I said," how about I pick you up from school and then we can both go on the way home."That idea seemed to please her so we made plans for me to pick her up at five-ish tomorrow afternoon meaning that I had to drop her off as well. It wasn't a problem though because her first class was at seven thirty and the tailor opened at eight so I had the time to do it.

After we finished eating and washing the dishes Rose went upstairs to finish studying and I went upstairs to go to bed. I figured that in the next few days I would have little time to sleep so I figured I stock up now. So after calling Rose to tell her goodnight I stripped down and went off to bed.

_____

I woke up just in time to hear the alarm going off. With a groan I reached over and turned it off. Since me and Rose were leaving together this morning I decided to wake up a little bit earlier so we wouldn't run all over each other trying to get ready.

After a shower I went back to my room to get dressed. I decided to wear a suit again today. My dad had taught me growing up that it's best to wear a suit when visiting a tailor. It showed that you meant business and it let the tailor get a look at your personal style and preference. Unfortunately I only had about three suits I could still wear. One I had worn yesterday and the other I was taking to the tailor to be modified for tomorrow so that left me with only a white Armani suit that I didn't really want to wear. 

The suit was a little flashy and I had only bought and worn it once about a year ago. It was the same one I wore to Angela's graduation and I only wore it because it was a black and white affair and Rose already had picked out a black gown. According to her it was "tacky" for to people together to wear the same color so she forced me to buy a white suit. Maybe I should pick up a couple of new suit while I'm at the tailor today. 

I put on my white tie and put the white handkerchief in my shirt pocket and looked my self over in the mirror. I had to admit I looked pretty good but something was missing. The outfit didn't look as complete as it did when I wore it last, and then I remembered what else Rose had forced me to but for Angela's graduation.

Going over to my closet I sighed as I walked into it. I went straight to the back and went to open the safe. The safe was where I kept all my large items of value. I opened the safe and pulled out the stainless steel case of my Frank Muller King Conquistador Cortez watch. I laughed to myself as I thought about it, even in my head I called the watch by it's full name because the jeweler had promised me that you aren't allowed to call a forty thousand dollar watch anything else but it's full and proper name. 

The watch itself was pretty nice though, I couldn't lie. It was a stainless steel folding bracelet with a black dial and had clear diamonds all over it. The final diamond weight came out to thirty four point seventy five carrots or something like that. I dreaded having to walk around with it on because it was pretty much a "rob me" beacon but I knew that if I didn't put it on Rose would just send me back up here for it when she saw what I was wearing.

Making my way downstairs I heard Rose puttering about in the kitchen. From the smell of it she had made us breakfast of pancakes and hash browns. I walked to the entry way of the kitchen and stood there with my hand behind my back and cleared my throat. When Rose turned around she was surprised to see me standing there in my white suit.

"How do I look?"I asked with a smirk on my face. Rose laughed as well before she remarked.

"You look absolutely dashing... now go put on the watch." she said. I chuckled at how well I knew her then pulled my hands from behind my back and showed her the watch on my arm. She walked right up to me, got on her tip-toes, and patted me on the head.

" Good boy,"she said, "it's looks like you're learning." then she burst out laughing once again. Making my way past her I went to sit down and she brought me a cup of apple juice along with a plate. I ate slowly to prevent spilling any on my suit so by the time I was finished Rose had already went back upstairs and was ready to leave. Grabbing the suit I needed altered off of the back of the couch me and Rose headed out the door.

I walked outside and went to get in my RoadRunner but stopped when I realized that Rose was still standing at the front of the house staring at me with an incredulous look. After about a minute I had had enough.

"What?"I asked her.

"You can't be seriously thinking about driving that are you? With what you got on? You'll look like and idiot in an old school muscle car wearing a white suit."Sighing I made my way to her porsche assuming incorrectly that she wanted me to drive it instead.

"Just when I thought you were learning." she said with mock(I think)disapproval in her voice,"Go get Mickey out off the garage and bring her around." This time I looked at her Incredulously. She couldn't be serious. There was no way in the world I was driving that car. After just standing there for awhile Rose reached in her purse and threw me the keys assuming that's what the delay was for. With a pout she pointed to the garage and I begrudgingly made my way to it to get out Mickey.

Mickey was a Mercedes SLR Mclaren but according to Rose and even Angela that name wasn't sexy enough so the took the Mclaren out and changed it into"Mickey". 

Pulling Mickey out of the side garage and down the side driveway I pulled up just in time to see Rose walking down to get into the car. When she got into the car she looked at my face and smiled.

"Oh you look so cool right now." she said,"I should take a picture of you, post in on Facebook and call you the "White Knight"." 

"Yeah only problem is the car's silver doofus." I retorted ruffling her hair. Rose looked down blushing before she looked up and stuck her tongue out at me and called me a "spoilsport." 

_____

After dropping off Rose at the University of Charleston, I quickly made my way over to the tailor. I wanted to be the first one in so I could leave him to do the alterations and then hopefully he'd be done when I was through with my haircut.

I walked in and found the tailor. He was a fairly tall man about 5'10", wore glasses and appeared to be in his late forties. After getting my measurements for my alterations and handing over my suit I also picked out a gray Armani suit, and a blue and a silver Michael Kors suit for casual wear.

Leaving the tailor I headed over to the salon. Hopefully Gina, my stylist was free. I had started going to the salon when I was about fourteen because my dad had said,"trust me son, you'll prefer a woman with scissors doing your hair over a man with clippers I promise."

Gina had just started working there, she was about eighteen so they decided to pit the new client with the new stylist and Gina had been my stylist ever since. 

Even back when I was fourteen I had thought that Gina was hot. Of course the onset of puberty might of had something to do with it but Gina really was gorgeous. She was medium height with very large breast easily a DD-cup and the longest raven black hair I had ever seen. She had these hazel eyes that made my teenage self melt every time she looked at me and I used to fantasize about her every night. Hell I still fantasized about her every now and again, but I'm sure she never looked at me as anything other than a friend or at best maybe a younger sibling.

Still last time I saw her she was twenty seven and still looked wonderful. She had put on a little weight over the years no longer being the eighteen year old high school cheerleader, but the weight had filled her out nicely. Where she used to be a lithe, dainty girl now she was a curvaceous mature woman that oozed sex appeal.

With baited breathe I parked the car and walked in, hoping to heaven that Gina was here and free. I walked in and Gina was standing over by her chair preparing her station. She was wearing a green shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Her hair was shorter than I remembered, only going to the small of her back instead off around her legs where it used to rest. 

When I walked in all the ladies gasped at seeing me, apparently a man in a white suit wasn't common around here. I knew this suit was a bad idea. All the noise must of caught Gina's attention because she looked up and gasped as well when she saw me standing there. She could barely control her excitement when she rushed over and hugged me.

"Alan!! It's so good to see you. Why' re all dress up? Big date tonight?"I couldn't help but laugh as I hugged her back.

"Quite the opposite in fact, I have a funeral to go to tomorrow and I need a haircut and now that I'm out of the service no one touches my hair but you."




R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 02



"Well let's get you fixed on up then."she said while leading me over to her chair and sitting me down. "We're going to start with a wash and then we'll get you cleaned up ok."she told me.

Sitting in her chair with her fingers running through my hair I couldn't help but relax and let the stress of really the last year or so fall away. Having her breast bouncing in front of my face didn't really hurt either. I'd always thought growing up that she hung her breast in my face on purpose but now I realized with their size they couldn't help but be in my face.

"Ooh Gina, I didn't know you had such a sexy boyfriend."said one of the other hairdressers. I blushed a little as Gina glared at her co-worker before replying.

"Yeah right Kim as if." she snorted,"besides what would Alan want with an old lady anyway." I felt that this was a good a time as any to chime in.

"Hey don't put this on me." I started,"For two years I followed you around like a lovesick puppy and you didn't want anything to do with me. Besides I MIGHT like older women for all you know."

"Well if he likes older women then send him over this way when you're finished with his hair and I'll show him a thing or two." Marge said.

"The HELL you will." Gina shot back a little possessively and then leaned over me to make eye contact before telling me,"You really shouldn't encourage her like that."

"Who said I was joking. Gina you're still someone who I would love to date. Your funny, kind, smart and incredibly–"

"Old"interrupted Marge. 

"beautiful."I finished looking into Gina eyes. This time she blushed.

After that we moved on to lighter topics and caught up on what the other had been doing since we last talked. When Gina was finished with my hair it was around one thirty. She had cut my hair just a little shorter and styled it in a way that she said made me look "sophisticated" and "mature". I opted to got and pick up lunch for everyone so they could continue working. After picking up everyone's lunch I had to leave because it was already two o'clock.

I jetted back over to the tailor and made sure that everything fitted right for my old suits and tried on the new ones I had bought. I was tempted to change into one of the more casual suits but I knew that Rose would be disappointed if I did. After leaving the tailor it was right at four thirty giving me just enough time to make it to pick up Rose. 

I called Rose and she told me to pick her up around the same place I dropped her off at this morning. I got there a little early so I decided to hop out of the car and wait by her door to help her with her bags and stuff when she arrived. 

I was standing there waiting when I saw Rose walking up with two other girls. She had her hands over her face like she was embarrassed and was talking to the other two in a whisper, I could barely make out what she was saying but it sounded like she said,"I'm serious you two no jokes!!"

"Hey how you doing Rose?." I said when she reached the car. I went around back to throw her books and stuff in the trunk along with the suits I had just brought.

"I'm doing fine. These two are my friends Aki and Jan and there just "dying" to meet you or so they say."she said while pointing to the two girls with her. Jan was what I would describe as cute. Long strawberry blonde hair, not too tall, medium sized tits, she had a real girl next door type thing going on. Aki on the other hand was stunning. Short dark brown hair, gray eyes, kissable lips and a figure that would make most porn stars jealous. The amazing thing was that even though her name was Aki she wasn't oriental from what I could tell, she looked a little foreign but I couldn't quite place it but she looked kind of European maybe Italian of French or something like that.

"How did you get the name Aki?"I asked her. She told me that her grandfather on her mother's side had served in the British royal navy in world war two and her grandfather on her father's side also served for the U.S. army. Both of them fell in love with the japanese culture. In her family they have a tradition where the grandparents get to name the first boy and first girl. So she got the name Aki and her older brother the name Kai.

"Alright well it was nice meeting you girls. Rose are you ready?"I asked. She told me she was so I opened her door for her and then went to get in on my side as well. Before we drove off Aki leaned into the car and said,

"It was nice finally meeting your boyfriend Rose. We were all starting to think you were a lesbian or something. Although some of the other girls might not be so happy that you're not batting for the other team." Aki laughed and back away from the car and she and Jan waved as we drove off. I saw Rose blush, but noticed she didn't bother to tell her friends that I wasn't her boyfriend or deny that she was a lesbian, two things I found very interesting.

We headed into the store and I took half the list while Rose took the other. She said it was because she was really tired and wanted to get home quick to take a shower but I think she was just embarrassed about what happened earlier with her friends. After gathering all the things we made it home and Rose went to take a shower while I went to put on some normal clothes. Rose still hadn't made any eye contact with me yet so I decided to just let her take a shower and hopefully things would be normal when she got out.

After Rose took a shower we decided on what to eat for dinner. We decided that I would grill some chicken breast while Rose made a salad. I went outback to the grill and started it up. While I preferred an old fashioned charcoal grill Rose was afraid of the open flames so she had brought a propane grill while I was gone. I think my old charcoal grill was around here somewhere but I knew we didn't have any charcoals laying around.

After I finished cooking the chicken Rose brought out the salad and some lemonade and we sat in the backyard looking at the stars and talking. Close to nine o'clock Rose said she was going to bed. I reminded her that most likely I would be coming home late tomorrow after the funeral and I'd probably hit a bar and crash at a hotel.

After I finished my last cup of lemonade I went inside and washed the dishes before heading up to take my own shower. When I got there I decided to instead take a nice long bath so I filled up the tub and got in for a soak.

Finished with my bath I went to my room to stretch out and watch the news. The forecast looked all clear for tomorrow which was good because nothings worse then a rainy funeral. Before I knew it my eyes started getting heavy and I dosed off to sleep.

____

The next morning I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. I was under a cover so I assumed Rose must have thrown one over me sometime last night or this morning. I reached over to turn off the alarm clock and then sat at the end of the bed trying to shake off some of the lethargy felt. 

I was awoke for a full five minutes before I realized that I felt different. My vision was clearer and I felt much stronger, I even knew things that I didn't last night when I went to sleep. It dawned on me that what I felt was the last vestiges of the power coming in to me which meant that Felix was now truly dead. 

The realization that Felix was dead finally hit me. I think until then it never really seemed real to me because I knew he was still alive but now that I had the rest of his energy I guess it was just to much to take. I sat at the edge of my bed silently weeping over the loss of my friend and mentor. I was looking absentmindedly off into space when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Coming back unto focus I was startled to see Felix standing right there.

"Felix? What's going on? I thought you were dead."I asked him.

"Relax my friend. I am dead. Before I died I created this message with the last of my strength in order to talk to you one last time. You won't be able to talk back I'm afraid so I'd appreciate it if you'd just listen."

"Now I have a lot to talk to you about but we don't have much time so I'm gonna hit the main parts and leave the rest up to you to find out. First off I've talked to Samuel and he basically repeated to me what he told you. I don't know how you're taking all of that but I want to reassure you no matter if you were originally human or not I still believe that you are the proper host so don't start doubting yourself."

"I'd hoped that you and Samuel could become friends but alas that doesn't seem to be possible at the moment. You've got that bastard as scared as I've ever seen. On the bright side the way your bank account usually worked was that you'd have to get approval from Samuel to spend large sums of money but with him scared of you he's removed that clause so feel free to spend as much as you want. Take a vacation, move into a bigger house, buy an island, basically do whatever the hell you want."

"The next thing is that I know for a fact that you'll see Molina today at my funeral. I really wanted to send her a message like this one but as far as she knew I was just plain old grandpa. I couldn't take the thought of her hating me for lying to her this whole time. So please when you see her will you please tell her I loved her very much. Also watch out for Tracy's pack. I've been hearing around that they plan on approaching her sometime in the next couple of months and they'll no doubt be at my funeral. Trying to persuade her by pretending to be her moral support. So be on the lookout for them."

"And last but not least I want you to not mope around about me dying. I lived a very long life and I have little regrets about dying. I ready to join all my friends and family on the other side. Don't be sad for me, get on with your life. I tell you what, I know you'll probably want to go out to a bar tonight and drown your sorrows in alcohol but here's what I want you to do. Go out and drink all the alcohol you want, find a nice young woman; there's plenty of them around this city, and have you some fun tonight. Just don't forget to toast once for me Okay? That's really all the time I have but a little advice try to learn more about your parent's. Even if what Samuel said is untrue it still would be good to know a little more about where you come from. So for now goodbye and I'll see you when you get to this side but hopefully that's not for another couple of hundred years from now."

With that the vision faded away. Pulling myself together I looked over at the clock and proceeded to get up and get ready for my friend's final farewell. To tell the truth I did feel much better after seeing Felix's final wishes, it was kinda therapeutic to come to grips with his death face to face. I felt like I was ready to attend his funeral now and who knows I might even take him up on his advice for later on tonight as well.

After showering and eating I got dressed in my black suit and headed down to the funeral home. I got there around an hour before the funeral was scheduled to start and saw many people there. It made me smile to know that Felix was so loved in the community, who knows maybe our paths would have crossed much sooner if I hadn't always been away in the military.

I scanned the crowd for Molina, Tracy and John hoping to go and introduce myself. I knew from a picture of them that Felix kept in his wallet what they looked like. I saw Tracy and John standing up towards the front talking with some guest and made my way closer to them.

Then I saw Molina out the side of my eye. She was standing in a back corner with a couple of other people who looked like they didn't belong here. Molina was wearing a black mourning dress while her counterparts were in jeans and t-shirts. They obviously weren't here to pay there respects and just seemed to stand and talk to Molina the whole time. I stretched out my senses and sure enough the whole group was composed of werewolves.

I felt compelled to step in and try to keep Molina away from the pack of vultures. I made my way over to talk to her but stopped a little far off to observe her for a second. Tracy was a native american and John of course had Felix's italian blood so Molina was a interesting shade of brown. Kind of like she had a perpetual tan. She had really dark hair, close to black but I could tell it was in actuality brown. She was very lean kind of elven really.

The group around her consisted of two girls and one guy. The girls seemed to defer to the guy but I doubted that he was a pack alpha. If he was there would be way more then three of them here and he would be way bigger and stronger. No this fellah was probably just a grunt or something sent to "comfort" Molina and subtly put pressure on Tracy at the same time.

My observation complete I approached Molina and the group and started talking to her while offering her my hand.

"Hello Molina." I said,"My name is Alan Thorton and I was a friend of your grandfathers. It's nice to finally meet you, Felix mentioned you a lot."

At first Molina seemed kind of surprised but then she smiled and returned my handshake.

"Hello Mr. Thorton it's good to meet you too. Although I'm sorry to say that I don't think my grandfather had ever mentioned you."

"I would think not. I only met him about three months ago, but we became very close friend rather quickly. Felix, he took me under his wing so to speak and was a wonderful mentor to me. In fact I was with him when he first started to fall ill. He told me days before he died to pass on a message to you but I'm reluctant to repeat it in front of such..."then I looked at the group," questionable company."

Apparently the girls had had enough of being ignored and looked to the male of the group to say something or put me in my place. The male started by straightening his back and puffing out his chest in attempt to cow me into submission. I however had about twenty pounds and three or so inches on him so suffice to say I was less then impressed. Seeing that this wasn't working I guess he decided to switch to a verbal assault.

"Listen you bastard, Molina don't want nothing to do with you so just go about your business before someone get's hurt...and by someone I mean you" he threatened. I just stood there looking at him not showing an ounce of fear. He looked bewildered that I wasn't moving or scurrying along to attend to recently remembered pressing business. I couldn't help but crack a smile at the dumb look on his face and that seem to set him off because he was about to say something else before Molina cut him off. I think she was worried for me because she tried to usher me away while saying to the group.

"It's OK Rodrigo, I'll just hear what he has to say and then i'll be right back. You, Vera, and Venus wait here okay." Rodrigo reached out to pull her back but I intercepted his hand and slapped it away before I said,

"Don't worry we can talk later, besides it looks like the funeral's about to start so we should probably get to our seats." Molina looked up and saw her mom waving for her and went to join them. I also had a reserved seat up front but on the opposite side of Molina an her family. 

The funeral started and it was a pretty good service. The best part was when people would get up to tell stories about times when Felix helped them out, or how they met Felix, or just things they liked about him period. Although I had made my peace with Felix earlier I couldn't help but shed a few tears as I saw all the people who loved him speak. 

I looked over at Molina a couple of times and I could tell she was fighting back tears. Out of the three of Felix's family members she seemed to be the only one seriously grieving. Tracy looked nervous and kept looking back towards the three werewolves Rodrigo, Vera and Venus who were sitting in the back row. John on the other hand kept looking down at his watch impatiently and I looked visibly annoyed every time a new person stood up. I guess Felix was right and John was just an ass. 

After the ceremony was finished the pallbearers took the coffin out to the cemetery and the progression followed. Once we got to the plot of land that would be Felix's grave the last rites were given and the attendees started to leave. I was standing in the back by a couple of trees when Molina came up to me.

"Ok we don't have much time so what was it you needed to tell me?"she asked.

"Well like I said earlier I was with Felix when his health first started to deteriorate. When he realized he wasn't going to make it he begged me to tell you how much he loved you. Every time Felix talked about you I could tell that you meant a lot to him. He also told me that there would be some...unsavory characters hanging around you and he wanted me to do my best to make sure you didn't fall in with the wrong crowd."

"But regardless of what Felix said it's not my place to tell you who you can and can't hang out with but I know, and I believe you know as well that your grandfather would not like you hanging out with the likes of Rodrigo, Vera, and Venus."

At this point Molina had turned away from me and was staring at the spot where Felix's coffin had been earlier. I could hear her voice cracking when she responded.

"I...I.. kn..know that my grandpa..wouldn't want.. m..m..m..me to hang out with them. But it's been really hard without him here you know. He always s..ss..s..seemed to know just what to say to make me feel better." It seemed that she couldn't hold back any longer and she started to full on cry. On instinct I pulled her close and she wrapped her arm around me as she cried into my chest. After a while she kind of settled down and her crying slowed to the occasional sob. The whole time I had been trying to hold back tears of my own and almost succeeded but one tear managed to make it way down my cheek. Molina saw the tear and reached to my face and wiped it away. For a while we just stood there looking into each other's eyes before she broke eye contact.

Then we heard Tracy call to Molina saying that they were preparing to leave. Apparently John had somewhere to be but I couldn't fathom what could be so important. Molina rolled her eyes, told her mom she was coming then turned back to me.

"Well Mr. Thorton it was good to meet you."she said as she started to walk away. I could tell she wanted to say more but was reluctant so I made the next move.

"Call me Alan," I told her as I handed her my card "and please if you ever need somebody to talk to don't hesitate to call." She whispered an okay before she left to go join her mother and father. I took a deep breathe and prepared myself for what was coming next. The whole time Molina and I were talking I could feel the werewolf group staring at us and now that she was gone Rodrigo was making his way toward me.  

I turned to face him right when he had got behind me. He jumped back a little because he thought he had snuck up on me.

"Listen to me Rodrigo." I told him,"There are few things in this world that I take seriously but when a man who I've come to respect and admire ask's me in his final moments for nothing other then to watch over his granddaughter I take that VERY seriously. Then when I meet said granddaughter she's surrounded with a bunch of low lives who didn't even bother to properly dress for that man's funeral."

"Felix warned me about you guys, told me you all were up to something but he didn't know what. And do you know what I told him when he ask me to watch over Molina? I told him of course I would with no hesitation. Between you and me Rodrigo I will stop at nothing to see that that promise is kept and if a couple of her "friends" have to die for the rest to get the message then I have no problem with that."

"Now if you'll excuse me, there's a bar over on Kanawha Blvd that has a beer with my name on it." Then I walked away without giving him a chance to respond. I could hear the other two making their way over to Rodrigo to ask what happened. 




R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 02



So far everything was going according to plan. I'd purposely let Rodrigo know that if they wanted to get to Molina they would have to come through me, then I threatened to kill a few of them so that I could be seen as a threat. If I was seen as a threat then they wouldn't be violating any codes by trying to eliminate me. Lastly I told him where I would be tonight to entice him to try and get rid of me. There were a lot of alleyways where I was going so I hoped he'd try to attack me. I'd kill him and then I'd be at war with the whole pack. That should keep them of Tracy's and Molina's tails (no pun intended) for a little while. Well at least long enough for me to wipe out the whole pack. All that was left to do now was see if they took the bait. 

_______

I got back home around seven and saw a message from Rose that said she would be staying at Aki and Jan's apartment tonight which was good. If the lycans were watching the house then I didn't want them to see Rose. I assumed this was going to turn into an ugly war and I knew it would get way worse(for them)if they did anything to her. 

I stretched out on my bed for about two hours before getting up to shower. For a change I decided to use the master bathroom for once. All of my dad's stuff was still in the master bedroom because both me and Rose refused to move in there but maybe with all that's been going on it was a good time to do just that.

After a shower I headed downstairs and made a chicken sandwich with last night's leftovers. After eating I changed into an orange polo shirt and a pair of blue jeans, put on my sneakers and then left.

I walked outside and saw a van parked down the street. I decided to walk to the bar in the hopes of making myself look like an easy target. Hopefully they'd just think I planned on getting drunk and instead of driving I just decided to hoof it.

I had made it about three blocks before felt the tails following me. From what I could tell there where three of them, possibly the same three from the funeral but I couldn't be sure. After a while the other two tails dropped back and the main one kept drawing closer. It looked like he was looking for a chance to jump me so I gave him an opening. I pulled out my wallet from my pocket and pretended to drop it and when I reached to pick it up I "accidentally" kicked it into the nearest alley. Cursing loudly I walked into the alley to pick up my wallet. I could feel two of the tails leave, I guess they assumed that from here the main guy could take it and they no longer needed to watch.  

This put a serious damper on my plans. If I only killed one of them the rest might not find out until tomorrow or the next day but three missing werewolves definitely warranted an investigation. In about thirty seconds the lycan had entered the alley and I was surprised to see that it wasn't Rodrigo but another male wolf. This didn't really harm my plans but I just really wanted to kill that bastard. 

This werewolf seemed to be pretty strong, he was tall around 6'5" and with my enhanced vision I could see he had huge muscles as well. He was wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans and to anyone who saw him he'd look just like a regular guy. He wouldn't stick out in anyone's memory as being suspicious. 

It seemed that this wolf unlike Rodrigo wasn't much for chitchat because all he did was let out a low growl and then charge me. Shit at least dictators and insurgents let you know why you were getting killed before they attacked you. He was just coming right at me. 

As he rushed towards me for some reason I begin to think about the disparity between the movie industry and real life as it pertained to werewolves and vampires. Most people were under the assumption that werewolves were stronger than vampires but vampires were faster than werewolves. It was a solid theory with wolves being stronger then bats but bats being able to cover more distance in less time than wolves. 

In real life however it was completely opposite. In actuality lycans were faster than vampires but not stronger than them. It wasn't a big enough difference to really matter though. If you had to give them a grade it would be sort of like this: a werewolf's speed would be a ninety-seven while it strength would be a ninety-two and the inverse would be true for vampires. On a full moon however a werewolf's speed could balloon up to an one-hundred and their strength would go up to match a vampires at ninety-seven. Vampires on the other hand got stronger as they aged so a one thousand year old vampire's speed and strength could easily surpass one hundred.

All that being said this werewolf was surprisingly slow, almost pathetically slow. Even before I became the host I was sure I could move faster than he was right now. He had partially transformed bringing out his claws and a little hair was starting to grow on his exposed arms.

Once he reached me he swung wildly at me and I easily ducked the two swipes. It was really funny to me. Six months ago he would have had all the tools to kill me without the skill to use them and I would have had all the skill to kill him but not one tool that could. But that was six months ago and times had changed. The lycan wound up to deliver a huge blow but struck air as the spot where I was standing less then a second ago was suddenly empty. 

Bringing out claws of my own I slashed him in his back shredding his shirt to pieces. I had tinged my claws with a little ice magic to stop him from bleeding out everywhere and to cause additional pain. The lycan stumbled forward in pain clawing at it's back trying to reach the ice shrapnel stuck in his wounds. After finally giving up he turned around and lunged at me again. Once again I dodged and this time I sliced the back of both of his legs.

He hit the floor howling in pain as he lost feeling in his legs. At this point I doubted if he could even stand let alone fight. To my astonishment he rose once again and made another lunge at me. I could tell that the fight was pretty much over so I decided to put the poor thing out of his misery. I rushed towards the lycan as he came towards me, while running I changed the magic in my claws to electricity and they cackled as I moved. Reaching each other the lycan made a thrust with his arm, I ducked under it and then thrust my own hand towards his chest. My claws went right into his chest piercing his heart and the electricity sent him into a heart attack at the same time as it killed him.

The lycan slumped over dead and I used the vestiges of his shirt to wipe the blood of off my hand. I looked down at the dead body as it slowly morphed back into a human form. In order to not leave any evidence I conjured up a small ball of fire and fed it down the corpse's mouth. The fire would incinerate the body from the inside out and wouldn't leave a trace behind. I enveloped the body in an air cocoon to keep the smell from getting out.As I looked down at the body an idea formed into my head. Drawing in a deep breath I released and yelled "KAAA" using a little wind magic to make it louder then normal.

I figured that having them send only one lycan might be a blessing in disguise. If I killed three lycans then the others would definitely know something was up and possibly call in back up from other packs. With one victim however the lycans would check into my history and see I was in the military. People close to the scene would remember hearing a gunshot because of the sound I just made. Hopefully the other lycans would think that after i got attacked I managed to get off a lucky shot, in which I killed their comrade and was able to use my military training to get rid of the body. This would allow me a couple of more days to plan and on top of that the element of surprise would be on my side. 

I looked down at the spot where the corpse just was and found nothing. Using a little water magic I cleaned the rest of the bloodstains off my hand and pulled some sanitizer out of my pocket to disinfect with. Taking one last look back into the alley where my first supernatural showdown took place I took a deep breath and made my way to Kanawha Blvd. There was still a beer there with my name on it.

______ 

Sitting inside the bar it finally came back to me why I hated places like these so much. Even before I had super senses I found bars to be to noisy and crowded for my taste, now with my increased hearing it was near torture for me to be here. Most people think that the quietest places in a club are the corners and walls but the vibrations from the music reverberate there the loudest for me. So I decided to sit at the bar and drink a couple of beers then leave and head home.

As I sat at the bar nursing my drink I thought about old times. When I first turned twenty one two years ago Don and Marcy drug me to the nearest bar and bought me my first ever drink. I always had the fantasy that my dad would by my first drink. Kind of a father-son tradition we could start. While I did miss out on that Don and Marcy still made my twenty first birthday great. Well as great as it can be in a town occupied with people who wanted you dead.

Marcy and Don were some of the first people I met when I joined the army. We met in basic all three of us and even though they were both older then me we all got along great. 

It started with Marcy. She was already twenty three and after a couple years of college and flip flopping between majors she decided school wasn't for her. When she saw me a tall somewhat built kid or sixteen in the ranks with her she couldn't help but ask what I was doing there. I told her the whole story of how my father died and the strained relationship between me and my step mom. 

After that Marcy sort of took me under her wing so to speak. She acted like my big sister and stood up for me when some of the older guys tried to bully and intimidate me. It was nice to finally have an older sibling. Me being the oldest out of Me, Rose,and Angela I was never sure if I was doing a good job being an older sibling. I found out that just being there to listen at times was a big help to younger siblings and made a vow to always be there for Rose and Angela's big events like graduations and awards.

We met Donald Watson aka Don at Fort Jackson. He was maybe a year or two older then Marcy and had also joined the service when he was sixteen like me. He had ran away from home after his mom died and his father turned abusive. Since he and I were in similar situations he took to checking up on me every once in a while.

I don't know when Don and Marcy started dating but I could tell something was up between the two of them. They'd never come out and say it, and I'm not sure if they even could, but I could tell that our trio relationship had sort of changed. I don't know why the were keeping it from me, we basically told each other everything.

After about a month of them skirting the subject around me I finally decided to ask them what was up. One night when Don and I were out I just came out and asked him. We were sitting at a bar kind of like this one but it was more of a sports bar than a club bar.

"So Donald,"I said to him," what are your intentions with my older sister?" His reaction was hilarious. He nearly choked to death right there on his own beer. It would have looked funny in the paper the next morning. "Soldier Chokes to Death on Budweiser". After he calmed down he asked me what I was talking about and I explained to him that I knew something was up between the two of them. He finally confessed that they had started kind of seeing each other about a month or two back.

"Why didn't you two say anything to me? I mean I could understand not telling anyone else, but why not tell me? You guys know there's no secrets between us."

"I wanted to tell you but Marcy was worried. She knew that you looked up to her and she was worried that you may have developed some type of romantic feelings for her. She just didn't want to hurt you."

"Hahahahaha. Oh shit give me a second here....so what she was never going to tell me. Me have romantic feelings for her, that's like me having feelings for Rose or Angela. Never gonna happen." I laughed to myself thinking about how I did now sort of have feelings for Rose. 

"I know right ridiculous."Don said laughing with me. After that Don and Marcy were a little bit more open with each other when it was the three of us. When all three of us would go out they never made me feel like a third wheel. Sometimes I knew that they wanted to be alone so I would decline offers to go out with them.

In a blink of an eye five years had passed. I was twenty one and my first consignment was over. Marcy and Don both wanted me to hang it up and go live a normal life but they both had three years left and I didn't want them to go in it alone. So much to their collective dismay I signed up for another five years. 

It was all for naught though. Within my first year back I was transferred to a different unit all together. I was now part of a thirteen man squad dubbed Sector Thirteen. We were more of a covert op team than a ground force. Before joining the thirteens my call sign was AT&T because my name was Alan Thomas Thorton and because everyone one said I was small and compact like a cellphone.

In the thirteens however we did much more hand to hand combat and I got to use some of the martial arts my dad had taught me as a kid. My fellow members said that I was like some type of rare animal, strong and ferocious, like an endangered species. They said that I was still to small to be considered a polar bear or something so my call name was changed to "Tiger".

It was another two years before I saw Marcy and Don. An officer needed a member of the thirteens for a job that required some intel extraction in very hostile territory. Seeing as how it was my old unit I was elected to go. It was one of the greatest days of my life when I was introduced as the commanding officer of my old squad for that mission. Most of the people I'd started with were now gone but I could see Don and Marcy standing in the ranks with there mouths agape.

That first night back we went out for drinks and everything was just like old times, except that I made Don repeatedly address me as sir for the hell of it. The two of them only had a couple more months before they were through and planned to both retire for good. Marcy's clock had went off and she desperately wanted a child and Don was ready to marry her and settle down. I congratulated the both of them by ordering some more rounds and we had a great time.

Sadly both of them died in the upcoming mission. I was proud to know that at least they had died for a worthy cause protecting their country. That feeling however changed when I overheard two of the hostiles talking. 

I had infiltrated the enemy camp and was close to retrieving the classified intel when I heard two of the guards talking. One of the guards was wondering why security was so lax, something that had been on my mind as well. I pulled out my recorded in hopes that I could find out something important such as that they were really spread thin because they were preparing for a major offensive or a big mission elsewhere but what I heard was the other soldier telling him that all of this was for show.

He explained to the stunned officer that the man who had commissioned my mission was planning on betraying the U.S. government. He would have me still the classified info and then he would falsify a report to his higher ups. He would then sell the real information to a high ranking officer in the enemy's military and they would both become amazingly rich and successful. Both receiving promotions and accolades for their "hard work". 

I was to stunned to even think at that moment. Waiters had not only betrayed us but that meant Marcy, Don, and a slew of other operatives died for the sake of one man's greed. I was glad that I had the whole thing on tape because I knew no one would've believed me otherwise. Still I was so furious I couldn't think straight.

After receiving the intel I quickly made my way back to base camp. Without saying a word to anyone I made my way to Waiters' quarters. Luckily for Waiters a couple people had followed me to get my mission report and they arrived just in time to stop me from jamming my knife in his throat. I was hauled off to some cells and was brought up on charges for treason and attacking a superior officer.

The people on hand soon found out that since I was in the thirteens they had no jurisdiction over me. I was still sitting in my cell when the leader of the thirteens came to visit me. He asked why I had did what I did and I played the recording of what I'd learned back to him. He took the recording and went to go see some people.

I sat in that cell for two more days before I was released. There was both good and bad news. The good was that Waiters had been decommissioned and was being brought up on charges of treason among other things pending an investigation. The bad was that too many people had heard the story of me attacking Waiters most of them weren't important enough to be told the truth of what happened and the military couldn't be seen as condoning attacks against superior officers no matter the circumstance, rightfully I should have just reported my findings and let them take care of the situation. My fellow crew mates tried to explain that I was angry and wasn't thinking straight but it was to no avail and I was booted out into the streets. The only other good news was that it wouldn't go down in my record as a dishonorable discharge and tarnish my career.

______

Remembering the past had always made me zone out so I was surprised that when I finally came back to the present that a good three hours had passed while I was sitting there brooding. I looked up and noticed that a woman across the room was staring at me intently. I stretched out my senses and finding nothing off with her I made eye contact with her.

When I made eye contact with her she smiled at me and started walking my way. This woman really was a knockout. She was tall and slender with pale skin. She already had me at a disadvantage because she was a redhead with green eyes, which I had always been attracted to. Seeing her walk in it self was a sight to behold. She worked through the crowd easily and had the most sensual walk I had ever seen. I always thought that Gina was beauty personified and this woman must have been sex in human form.

I trailed of briefly to think about the possibility of sex being personified, with all that I'd learned recently I thought that maybe she really was a incarnate of sex, one of those succubus' or whatever they're called.

She made her way to the bar and sat next to me to order a drink. She didn't say anything to me until her drink arrived. When the drink arrived she took a sip and then turned to me.

"You know,"she said,"I've been watching you for a while now and I'm glad you finally noticed me. You seemed to be thinking about something and I didn't want to interrupt but I was close to just coming over anyway."

"Well I'm glad to have caught the attention of someone as beautiful as yourself Miss–,"

"Vasquez. Demetria Vasquez but you can just call me Demi." she said, but from her tone I could tell she didn't like the name Demi much.

"Nice to meet you Demetria. I'm Alan. So what do I owe the honor Ms. Vasquez?"

She took a deep breathe before leaning in to me and starting to talk in a low voice.

"To be blunt I'm in town for business and today that business concluded and I was hoping to pick up somebody for some fun before heading back to my home in Spain. To be quite honest all the men in here seem to be piggish and unsophisticated except you. It's really getting late and I would appreciate it if you'd accompany me back to my hotel." She stated simply and then sat back and waited for a reply.




R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 02



I was reeling. I'd never been so forwardly propositioned before, I mean most girls at least flirted before asking a guy out. Then again if I was picking up on the signals correctly she wasn't looking for a date at all. I thought about turning her down but then thought "eh what the hell". She was horny, I was horny, and one of Felix's last messages was for me to get laid tonight. So I picked up my drink and downed it before telling her that I wouldn't be averse to seeing her hotel room at all.

We made it out to her car and she drove like a speed demon back to her hotel. She rushed us up to her room and quickly unlocked the door. I closed the door behind us and had barely turned around before she was on me.

She mashed her lips to mine in a furious kiss and her tongue thrust quickly into my mouth and started dueling mine. Man why can't all girls be like this I wondered before I actively started kissing her back. We stood there for five minutes kissing madly before she pulled back to catch her breathe.

"Oh GOD follow me!!" she exclaimed as she led me to the bedroom. When we got there she turned me towards the bed and pushed me down on top of it. She then turned around and her back was facing me. She looked back over her shoulder at me before she slowly lifted her shirt up and off. After removing her shirt she tousled her red hair a little and it gave her a really seductive look. 

Then she bent straight over at the knees her wonderful jean clad ass just inches from my face. She slowly took of her shoes and I sat transfixed as her ass swayed in front of me. After removing her shoes she quickly lost her jeans before turning back around to give me a frontal view.

I was stunned at her beauty. She was standing there with her hands in her hair lifting it up to expose her long neck. She was wearing a sexy light blue bra and panty set which looked wonderful on her pale skin. Her breast weren't to big, maybe about a large B but they sat high on her chest and I couldn't wait to see them without the bra. She let me look for a couple of more seconds before arousal flashed in her eyes and she jumped on me once again. 

She straddled me and pushed me flat to the bed in order to get off my shirt. She cooed appreciatively at the sight of my muscular chest before running her hand all across it. She then pivoted and was facing away fro me sitting on my stomach.

I could feel her working on my belt and jeans. While she was busy I kicked off my shoes and she managed to get my pants loose. I lifted my hips so she could slide them off of me. I could feel her hands tracing the muscles in my legs and thighs and once again she gave a cute little moan as her hands touched me. She finally reached my groin where my penis was making a huge bulge in my underwear. 

I'm glad that I had brought tailored underwear with an extra large pouch yesterday because If I hadn't I'm pretty sure my cock would be really uncomfortable right now. Demetria ran her hand across my penis and then she whispered a low "oh my" before she went into convulsions. I was pretty sure she had just came from just touching my penis. After she caught her breathe she looked back at me before she started talking.

"Stand up," she said the hunger evident in her voice,"my god I have to taste you." I quickly complied and was standing in front of her in no time. She scooted the edge of the bed and slowly pulled my boxers off. Her eyes widened as more and more of my cock came into view. When all of it was fully revealed she yanked my underwear the rest of the way off. No longer impeded by my underwear my penis flung up and nearly hit her in the face and she gasped as she looked head on at my penis. 

I had an above average cock before I became the host and in the last three months it had been steadily growing. In fact I'm not sure if it was even through growing at the moment because it definitely looked bigger than it did when I jerked off yesterday.

Demetria looked up into my eyes as she wrapped her hands around my cock. Much to her enjoyment she couldn't get her fingers to touch around the base. Squeezing firmly she started to jack me off with a rapid up and down motion. In no time she had managed to coax a large dollop of precum from me. She leaned in with her tongue out as if she was going to lick it when she suddenly pulled back. Demetria looked up at me with wide eyes as she asked me,"May I?" 

"Help yourself."I croaked to the vixen. Earlier she seemed to be the one in control and I was content to just roll with flow, but now she was showing a little bit of a submissive side to her. Her asking me for permission made my cock throb in her hand and even harden a little bit more. With a moan she descended on my cock head.

I guess she was seriously horny because she took to that blowjob like a starving man to food. She was ravenous. At first she worked only the first couple of inches with her mouth while her hands furiously jacked the other portion of my cock. After a while though, with her hands spreading her saliva over my cock, she began to descend lower and lower. She took her hands and used them to guide my hands to her gorgeous red locks and then she put her hands behind my legs and held me in place. She hadn't indicated that she wanted me to move so I just curled my fingers in her red mane and continued to watch her work. 

By now she had about half of me into her mouth and was still going. Then she retracted herself and with a deep breathe she lunged onto my cock taking me all the way down her throat in one smooth motion. I had never been deepthroated before and the change in feelings nearly caused me to cum. I had just barely got it under control when she swallowed which caused her throat muscles to contract around my cock. I took a deep breathe as she worked her way back to head of my cock in order to stop fro coming.

She looked up at me impressed that I hadn't cum yet. That move undoubtedly had made many men burst in the past and she grinned at me around my cock. I grinned back at her with a confidence I didn't feel. I think she took that as a challenge because next thing I knew she dove back onto my cock taking me all the way to the base again.

When she reached the base she once again made eye contact with me. This time however I saw her tongue snake out and she used the tip of it to lap at the base of my testicles. My eyes widened as I felt her wet tongue teasing my sack with my cock still embedded in her throat. I felt my legs quiver at the intense pleasure I felt. 

Unfortunately Demetria still had her eyes locked on mine, and I saw them widen when I quivered. It was like showing weakness and I couldn't think of Demetria as anything but a predator and when you show a predator weakness they attack. And attack she did. 

She retracted her tongue and retreated about three inches off my cock just until the head left her throat, then she lunged forward again taking my whole cock once more, then once again she retreated. From then on she was in full attack mode she would retreat and thrust back onto my cock relentlessly. She was basically fucking my cock with her throat. The way her nose would jam into my midsection I honestly believed that she could have taken another inch or two of my cock if I had it.   

I realized that she didn't put my hands on her head for me to hold her but to give me something to keep myself standing with. It was the most amazing thing I ever felt. Shit I think I might be in love. I tried to hold out for a respectable amount of time but that only amounted to maybe two minutes at best. I could feel me getting closer and warned her that I was about to cum. In response she seemed to go even faster if that were possible. In no time at all I felt myself cumming. With a yell I shot off eight huge spurts of semen directly down Demetria throat. 

I was completely drained and it took all my energy to keep standing. As for Demetria she just sat there on the edge of the bed looking at me with a contented smile on her face. Seeing her sitting there with a huge smile on her face, chest heaving and glistening with sweat I couldn't take it anymore and my lust finally took over.

I gently pushed her back and went down to my knees at the foot of the bed. She looked down at me with challenge in her eyes as if daring me to try and give her better oral then she gave me. Unfortunately for her I had thousands of years of sexual knowledge. With a growl I ripped her panties off of her tearing them to shreds. She gasped at the show of force and lust once again flashed in her eyes.

With no hesitation she spread her legs to me giving me the first view of her delicious slit. She was completely devoid of hair and the pink of her gash stood out immensely against her pale skin. I liked my lips and then I dove in.

She tasted every bit as good as she looked and I made sure she knew just how much I was enjoying myself. I stuck my tongue deep into her hole and used my hands to pull her closer to me. Deciding to give her a quick first orgasm I quickly moved up to her clit. I trapped the nub inside of my mouth and started a gentle suction on it. Demetria was moaning steadily from the treatment I was giving her. Then I increased the suction unexpectedly and if I wasn't holding her down I'm sure she would have bucked me clean off of her.

Deciding to have some fun I used two of my fingers and plunged them into her. "Fuck" I heard her say above me as I rammed my fingers in and out. I thought it was time for her first orgasm so I lightly bit down on her clit while curving my fingers to hit her g-spot. With a loud shriek Demetria came all over my hand. She locked her legs around my head, preventing me from escaping. I guess sometime earlier she had taken off her bra because she had both hand on her nipples and was tugging at them furiously. 

Enjoying her reaction so much I decided to give her a quick second orgasm after the first. So I dove back into her honey pot and continued my licking. First I brought my tongue into play by swirling it in circles along her clit. Then I made it into a point and used it to stab at her clit and bat it back and forth. I also resumed using my fingers to thrust inside her. 

After another orgasm I decided to do something special for her and stimulated her U-spot. It right above the clit and is usually very sensitive to women. When my tongue made contact she screamed out,"What the hell." before she started to convulse again. 

After her first three orgasms she was telling me to keep going. After two more she was begging me to stop, two more after that and she was just muttering gibberish and convulsing over and over again. By this time my cock had hardened again and I was ready to get down to he real thing so to speak so I neared my finale. Using one hand I played with her clit, lightly pinching and flicking it in different directions while my tongue continued to work her U-spot. After she got used to the sensation I took my other hand and stuck them inside her pussy to get them nice and wet. Then I retracted them and before she had a chance to react I shoved them into her asshole. Demetria exploded.

It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. Her hips elevated a full foot off the bed and she yelled something that I'm pretty sure wasn't any type of language whatsoever. Her hips stayed frozen in the air for about forty seconds before she collapsed back down. Her legs were splayed wide open, her thighs were quivering and her pussy was visibly pulsing. 

After she didn't move for about two minutes I moved on top of the bed to check to see if she was alright. I shook her a few times but she was unresponsive. I was just about to panic when she cracked her eyes open. They were glazed over and unfocused for a few seconds and then they finally settled on me.

"What the hell did you do to me?" she croaked out."Fuck I feel drained." I looked over at her exhausted frame and couldn't help but smile.

"So I guess that means I win?" I asked her. She looked over at me and saw the smile on my face and she cracked a defiant one of her one.

"No, I think we still have one more event,don't you?" and with that she sat up and told me to get in the middle of the bed on my back. When I got into position she straddled me once again but this time she hovered above me and used her fingers to spread herself.

"I'm a little to sensitive for you to take the lead right now, so how about I ride you for a little while?" she said as she slowly lowered herself on me.

My god she was tight. She was incredibly sensitive so she moved very slowly and on top of that because she was so tight it took nearly a full five minutes before she bottomed out.

I still had about one or two inches hanging out when my cock head hit her cervix. At the contact she shuttered a little and may have had a mini orgasm. For a while she just sat there trying to get used to me inside of her. In the meantime however I reached up and occupied myself with playing with her wonderful tits. She had large pink nipples which I found very sexy. From my limited experience and from watching porn I had came to the conclusion that pink nipples were rare. My only other two partners nipples both were brown so I was excited to get my hands on a pair of pink ones for the first time.

"Yeah just keep doing that for a while." Demetria moaned as I lightly tugged on her nubbins. After a while she began a slow back and forth rocking motion. I groaned as I felt her walls undulate around my member. Soon enough she started a slow up and down motion on my cock. The feelings of her sliding on top of me was amazing and a low moan escaped my lips. Demetria looked down at me and smiled before increasing the pace of her movements on top of me. Seems like she was getting her energy back.

Before long she was riding me extremely fast and I could no longer keep my hands attached to her nipples so I moved them around to grip her succulent ass. On one particularly hard downward lunge my cock bashed into her cervix and Demetria froze. I was afraid that I had hurt her or something because she was completely still. After a eerie silence where I was staring at her and she was staring off into space she finally spoke.

"OH MY FUCKING GOD I'M CUMMMMMING!!!!" she yelled as she went into another huge climax. I think I went deaf for a minute or two because I could see her lips moving but I couldn't hear any sounds whatsoever. Demetria was using her arms to hold herself up but after her climax they gave way and she slumped down until she was pressed chest to chest with me. 

"I think you'll have to take over from here, I'm too tired to move."she whispered by my ear. Figuring she was completely fucked out I tried to make it quick. I grab her into a hug and started thrusting my hips like a piston. I worked hard not to bottom all the way out and possibly cause her pain. Even though she was tired Demetria tried her best to meet me stroke for stroke and we settled into a fast rhythm.

Demetria came about two more times before I finally got close. I was pumping into her and she felt me swell up. I made to try and move her out the way before I exploded inside her.

"Goddamit cum inside me you bastard. I'm on the pill and I worked too dammed hard to make you cum for you to do it outside." She yelled. "Now... fill...my...cunt the...fuck...UP!!!" she accentuated each word with a downward thrust of her hips. I held out for as long as I could desperately balancing myself on the edge of cumming. Demetria looked down at my strained face and she moved my head over to the side. Before I knew what she was doing she leaned into the crook of my neck and bit me. HARD. 

I'll be damned if that didn't do it. With a bellow that sounded more beast than man I climaxed. I was feeling too much pleasure to accurately count the number of spasms but I'm pretty sure it beat the orgasm I had earlier.

After I came down I released my arms from around Demetria and she rolled off of me and snuggled up to my side. She ran her finger over the teeth mark she'd left in my neck.

"Sorry about that. I've always wanted to bite someone in the neck during sex. I been going through a little bit of a vampire stage recently" she explained.

"No problem." I assured her but couldn't help but ask,"Twilight?"

"Oh no. It was Underworld and Van Hellsing that did it for me. Damn if that Kate Beckinsale isn't the hottest bitch on the planet." 

I looked at her out the corner of my eye and simultaneously we burst out laughing. After I stopped laughing I glanced over and saw Demetria was fast asleep. I remembered that she had a flight in a couple of hours and she probably needed all the rest she could get. I pulled her closer to me and savored the feel of her breast pushed up against my body. Before I knew it I was asleep as well.

______

I woke up the next morning alone on a hotel bed. I rolled over and saw a piece of paper on the pillow next to me. I picked it up and it read:

Alan,

Last night was amazing. I can honestly say that's the best sex I've had in a long time. I wish I didn't have to leave so soon but we both have lives to get back to. That being said if you're ever in Spain hit me up. I put my number in your cellphone.

– Demetria

P.S. I'll concede this round to you but just so you know if I hadn't been so tired from work I would have surely fucked you to death. Also I know you probably won't wake up before noon so I paid the room up for another day. You're Welcome.

With a smile I sat the note back down and rolled back over. I fell back to sleep with a contented smile on my face. For the first time in a long while things were looking good.

____

Well that's chapter two for you. Sorry it took so long but I hadn't started on the second chapter when I posted the first so with all the reviews I scrambled to write this. I won't make any promises for the next one. I plan on finishing the first chapter for my next story "The Adventures of Zeke Jordan" which I will post in sci-fi section so be on the lookout for that.

Lastly I love to include the readers so I have a challenge for you all. In this chapter we learned a lot about our hero's past but opened up a lot of more questions as well. Does anyone think they know what Alan is? Is he anything at all? If you think you know leave me a message or email me. The first two opposite sex people who get it right I will include in the next chapter as characters. 

Also this was my first time writing a sex scene so all constructive criticism are welcomed don't just write "it sucked" without telling me why. I'll never learn if I'm not told the problems. Until next time.

- TNWTBOD



R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 03



Before we start I want to give a shout out to literotica author double_entendre. I've read a lot of his stories and most have to do with forgiving people who have betrayed you or done you wrong. 

Luckily for us Alan isn't the forgiving type.

____

When I woke back up I was instantly grateful that Demetria had paid for another day because it was already going on three o'clock. After taking a shower and redressing in last night's clothes I made my way out of the hotel. One thing that I had forgot about last night was that I hadn't drove which meant that I'd need to catch a cab back home. 

As I stepped out of the cab I was thinking about what I wanted to do today. With all the mystery surrounding my parents lately I had decided to move into my dad's room and hopefully while I was moving his stuff I could learn a little bit more about him. 

Those plans were put on hold however because when I walked up my driveway I saw someone sitting on my porch. As I got a little closer I recognized the figure as Daphne, my ex best friend Daniel's older sister. A couple of years ago she had gotten into a really bad car wreck with a drunk driver. The insurance settlement was just enough to maybe pay all of the medical bills but she would forever be scarred. Since she was Dan's sister I didn't hesitate to foot the larger medical bills which allowed them to use the settlement money on her reconstructive surgery and cosmetic work. Daphne was really grateful to me after that and we had hung out a couple of times over the years as a group, but that still didn't explain why she was waiting on my doorstep.

"Hey Daph, long time no see."I said as I finally reached the stoop. When she heard me she looked up and gave me a half hearted smile. I could tell something was on her mind but she wasn't saying anything just yet.

"How're you doing Alan? I know this is kind of sudden but I heard you were back in town so I decided I should stop over and get something off of my chest. Do you mind if I come in?"

After letting her know that it was okay to come in we made our way over to the living room. She took up a seat on the sofa while I sat in a recliner chair across from her. When she sat down she took a deep breathe before addressing me.

"I know you're probably wondering what I'm doing here huh?" she started." To tell you the truth I don't really know why I'm here myself. On one hand what I'm about to say will probably cause me a lot of pain down the road but I feel it's the right thing to do."

"What're you talking about Daph?"I questioned her.

"Well it's really no easy way to say this so I'll just come out and say it," and then she paused and took a breathe as if to steel herself before continuing with," your girlfriend is cheating on you with my brother." she blurted out really fast. Not getting any response from me she continued to talk.

"I know this is hard for you to hear but I caught them in bed together one night about four months ago. I told my brother that I thought it was wrong to do something like that behind your back. He told me that it was just a one-time thing and that he never meant for it to happen so I left him alone about it"

"Then I started hearing all these stories from friends about how they saw him and Jessica out together all the time and on dates. When I confronted him about it he told me to mind my own business, I couldn't believe the way he was acting after all you've done for him and our family and I made sure he knew I was appalled by the way he was acting."

"As for Jessica I made sure she also knew that I thought what she was doing was despicable, I mean you treat her like a queen and she has the nerve to cheat on you while your overseas fighting for our country, and with your best friend at that. I had wanted to write you and tell you about it but I figured it would be too depressing to hear something like this through a letter. When I heard you were back in town I struggled with the decision of if I should tell you or not. I'm pretty sure that now that I've told you this my brother will never talk to me again but I just couldn't stand the thought of you being in a relationship with Jessica and being friends with Dan while they snuck behind your back."she finally finished. 

After that Daphne took another deep breathe and sat back in the seat. I could tell that a big weight had been lifted of her shoulders and I couldn't help but be grateful that she had decided to tell me this. The stress and strain it must have been to decide whether or not to tell on her own brother or not must have been tremendous. Leaning forward out of my seat I grabbed a hold of her hand. 

I waited for her to make eye contact before I began to talk. "Don't worry about it Daphne,"I told her in a soothing voice," To be honest I already knew about their infidelities so there's no need to beat yourself up over it. Hell if it'll make you feel better I won't even mention this conversation to Dan and Jessica." I said trying to ease her mind. I really had no intention of letting Dan or Jessica know how I learned about there infidelity so if Daphne still wanted to maintain a relationship with her brother who was I to try and ruin that.

"Oh thank you Alan. God bless you."she said as she broke into tears. I left from my seat to go around and comfort her with a gentle hug. After a couple minutes she pulled herself together enough to continue talking.

"So what're you going to do Alan?"she asked me once I sat back in my seat. To tell the truth her timing was quite fortuitous because I had already decided that this would be the day I confronted the two cheaters and I let Daphne know that. I could tell she wanted to say more but was hesitant to speak.

"What is it Daphne?"

"It's just..."she said before she let out an exasperated sigh,"well you just got home from the military and already this drama shows up. I hope that after this you can move on with your life. I know many people never get over being betrayed and cheated on." After expressing some more sorrow, and me and her exchanging small talk, mostly me just catching up with what she'd been up to since we last talked, Daphne got up to leave. I walked her out to the front door and before I opened the door she turned around to talk once again.

"Um one more thing Alan, my mom and dad really like you and well I consider you a friend as well, so please don't let what Dan did stop you from visiting. You know you've always been welcomed at both my and my parent's house." I was really glad that Daphne had stopped by because before her visit I hadn't even taken into account that I might be cutting of her family as a whole. Daphne's parents had always been like family to me and they even offered to let me stay with them instead of joining the military. I dreaded to think that they would no longer be in my life and I made the decision to go and visit them soon.

"Sure thing Daph, and hey you know you guys are always welcomed over here."I replied before I got an idea,"As a matter of fact I've been thinking about throwing a little get together, not this weekend but the following. It's still in the works because I'm not sure of Rose's schedule and I don't want to throw a big party if she needs to be studying or something. But anyway you still have my number right? Just call me around next Tuesday and I'll let you know if the party is on or not."

After Daphne promised to call me she bid me a final goodbye before walking to her car and driving off. When she left I went upstairs to my room. I decided that it was best to get this confrontation thing out of the way before it got too late but first I needed another shower and a fresh set of clean clothes. After showering I changed into a fresh set of clothes and was out the door.

My initial plan was to get the both of them together at the same time to break the news but I realized that would require me playing nice with them over the phone and pretending to be glad to see them and while I was fine putting up fake emotions on missions I refused to do so for something as insignificant as this. I decided I would confront Jessica first because I was more hurt by what Daniel did than what she did and I wouldn't want her to get the leftover anger I would have if I confronted Dan first.

Driving to her apartment I didn't even bother to confirm if she were home or not. Let's face it I had broken in once before and I was relishing the opportunity to be waiting in her living room when she got home from work. After parking and making my way to her door I checked the perimeter for witnesses before letting myself in.

It's times like these that I really start to believe in God. Even with all the things Felix told me about angels and the things I learned from past host there had been no definitive answer on if there was a God or not. I took it as a resounding check in the yes column when I walked into Jessica's apartment and heard the same noises and voices I did last time.

Here I was trying to figure out how to let her know I knew she was cheating, because I didn't want to say I caught them three months ago or implicate Daphne by saying I found out when I returned home and the chance to catch them in the act falls right into my lap. So once again I snuck to her bedroom door and peeked in. It was almost comical that they were in the same position as last time. It was amazing to feel the difference three months had wrought, last time I caught them I was furious but now I could hardly suppress my amusement. Slipping in the room unnoticed I took a seat at Jessica's computer desk before making my presence known.

"WELL THIS IS CERTAINLY NOT THE WELCOME HOME I HAD ENVISIONED WHEN I LEFT THE MILITARY." I boomed with fake anger in my voice. I almost lost it for a second when they jumped apart and Jessica scrambled for the covers while Dan slipped off the side of the bed, but I was able to keep my laughter in check.

"OH MY GOD ALAN!!! What're you doing in here!!?"asked a scared Jessica from behind the sheets. By now they had both managed to get a good look at me and their faces had both gone ashen with fear. I don't know what they expected because I had no intention on causing either one of them harm, well maybe not physically. Jessica's bills were paid automatically by my accounts so she would take a huge blow financially when I cut her off but besides that they'd be fine. It's not like it would leave an emotional scar because obviously neither one cared enough about the personal facets of our relationships. But getting back to the matter at hand I answered Jessica's question.

"Well I came over today with the hopes of taking my girlfriend out on a romantic dinner but it's clear you had other plans for the evening."I replied, recycling the circumstances that allowed me to catch them the first time. I had played this whole conversation out in my head. I had intended on plenty of yelling and cursing and even some crying from Jessica but I now realized I only wanted to know one thing.

"I only have one question Jessica,"I said to the pale faced woman who I might've loved one day,"How could you two do this to me?" Jessica didn't seem to appreciate that question very much because she went into a fury.

"HOW COULD I!!!?"she yelled,"You're gone for three or four months at a time and I'm left sitting here alone and you ask me how could I? A women has needs Alan!! We like to feel wanted and secure and be able to hold onto our boyfriends a night and as much as some women try to deny it we also want sex on a regular bases. I had needs you just couldn't take care of while you were away."she spat at me.

I found it remarkable that she tried to make this seem like it was my fault. Here we were sitting across from each other with her naked in bed next to my best friend, her hair a mess and chest heaving after her outburst and somehow this was all my fault.

"Sex Jessica that's what this is about? I was away from you just as often as you were away from me and guess what? I FUCKING MANAGED!! That's what you do in a relationship. I didn't cheat even once though I could've, I just comforted myself with the thought that in three or four months I'd get to see you again and everything would be fine."I yelled as my anger became real. How dare she try and blame me for this. How dare she act as if my absence gave her a justified reason to do what she did.

"It's complicated.You just don't understand Alan. I–"

"No you don't understand Jessica." I interrupted as I regained my calm,"These last eight years I've seen things that are horribly complicated. I've seen deserving people passed over for promotions simply because "they didn't have the right connections". I've seen parents, and children cry over loved ones who died in a random meaningless attack. Those matters are complicated but relationships have always been supremely simple. If you don't want to be in a relationship any more, you leave. It's as simple as that."

"But you stayed. You stayed for the vacations when I was home. You never missed a single cross country shopping spree. Even when I wanted nothing more than to sit at home and enjoy your company after a seventeen hour flight back to the states I boarded another plain the next morning for ten hours because you wanted to spend a week in Hawaii." 

"Let's face it Jessica I indulged your every whim and that's why you stayed. You weren't happy with me, you were happy with my bank account. And you want to know what the funny thing is Jessica?"I asked,"You HAD me. Even after all I learned in the military you had me completely fooled. If you had told me that you needed out of our relationship we would've still been friends. If you would have said that you and Dan were in love, I would've been happy for you two. Vacations for two would have turned into vacations for three, and you would still enjoy shopping sprees whenever you asked. You know why? Because you would've been my friend and I would have been happy to do so."

"But no, you destroyed all of that when you decided to cheat on me. You know what Jessica? I sincerely hope you've been saving all your paychecks from these last couple of years because I'm through with you. I can no longer be friends with someone who easily stomps on another person's feelings and kindness. I don't know who created the forgive and forget sentiment but I can neither forgive nor will I ever forget what you've done to me." And with that I was through talking to Jessica. I turned my attention over to Daniel who had been surprisingly quiet while I spoke to Jessica.

"Daniel...(sigh)...why man?"I asked him. I was way madder at Dan than I ever could be at Jessica. I mean yeah Jessica was my girlfriend for nearly ten years but Dan was my best friend. If there was one person who could say they knew everything about me before I went to the military that person was Daniel.

"I'm sorry."Daniel said,"I truly don't know how it happened. One day I came over to visit her and she started giving me the same speech about her needs that she just gave you. Next thing I knew we were sleeping together and... my god I tried to stop her but she just kept coming on to me! A man can only take so much."

You know I was never a person who did very well with being lied to. I don't know how their relationship started and quite frankly I couldn't care less but what I do know is that Daphne had made it clear that Dan didn't even attempt to end it. So I sat there looking at him square in his eyes as he continued to lie to me. He told me how multiple times he had tried to break it off and how she wouldn't take no for an answer. By now Jessica had taken to crying but I didn't care, she'd chosen Dan and he was trying to throw her under the bus, but she would get no sympathy from me. I decided to stop Dan before he dug himself to deep a hole and I really lost my patience.

"You know what Dan, I really don't care. You chose your path and now I have to choose mine. I want the both of you out of my life. Jessica I'll never have to deal with you again but Dan since our families are so close, me and you will probably bump into each other every once in a while. So I'll leave now before you say something that'll make this situation even worse." I got up to leave but Daniel stopped me.

"Wait Alan!!,"he yelled," When is your leave up? I know we can still be friends man, just give me a chance before you go back."

"I'm not going back, I've been out of the military for nearly half a year now. And apparently you don't know anything because we will NEVER be friends again."

"But I'm your best friend!!!"he yelled once again.

"Let me tell you something Daniel, in my twenty-four years of life I've had five close friends. I'm currently living with one, three others are dead and as for the last one...," I said as I turned to look at Daniel with fury in my eyes,"I'm leaving before that number goes up to four." After that he left me leave unmolested. I was tempted to stay to hear how the conversation between he and Jessica, whom he had tried to throw under the bus, went. But then again why should I care about the personal lives of random people.

______        

When I returned to my home I was glad to have finally gotten that over with. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I actually felt really good with it off my mind. I grabbed the mail from the box without looking at it and went inside.

Once inside I made my way up to my room. I changed into some old clothes so I could prepare to move my things to my dad's old room. Seeing how good I felt when I moved on from Dan and Jessica prompted me to go ahead and move on from my dad's death. When you have the memories of hundreds of people in your head you start to realize things, and I realized that I was holding on to the delusion of my father coming back. I could never move forward with my life if I kept all his things like he left them and was constantly being reminded of him. I would never forget my dad but it was time I moved on.

The easiest part about this move was that I didn't have to pack anything up. I decided that I would leave a majority of my things over in my room but take my essentials to my dad's room. We had been about the same size so I decided I would probably keep a lot of his closet content the same and was glad that Rose routinely washed the clothes in there as well as kept the room clean. 

First I decided to check the room out. It had been a while since I went in there but everything was how Lynn had left it after she moved out. The room had one of those huge memory foam beds that you see on t.v. and I was anxious to try it out. One thing about the military is that the beds aren't exactly the most comfortable. The bed had nice navy blue satin sheets and large pillows with satin pillow cases on them. 

I made my way to the dresser and on it was a bunch of random things. An old lighter, some spare change, and even my dad's old key ring. The only key I had took off of it were the keys to his car, an old charger, that I'd put into storage. I could never find out what the other keys were for besides the house key. Smiling I picked the keys up, sat them in my pocket and put my keys in there place. 

My dad was a little utilitarian when it came to entertainment in his room. He had died eight years ago so obviously some things were missing that I'd have to bring over from my room. I replaced his 32" tv with my 50" plasma and also brought over my game console and computer. I didn't use the video game console that often, only when I was home on leave but I made sure it always had the latest games via Rose. She loved to play with it anyway, though I suspected she just liked being in my room more than any actual love for video games. Don't get me wrong she was a monster at "Street Fighter" but besides that her gaming skills were only about average.




R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 03



I moved my computer and the router over to his old desk and set it up. I remember him having a computer, an old Dell, but I don't know where it was. Maybe Lynn took it with her when she left because I know she used to do work on it. I also brought over the Bose stereo system I had gotten from Rose as a gift two years ago and plugged it up as well. I didn't really listen to music but I enjoyed a little bit of jazz every now and then and the surround sound it provided the t.v. with was amazing. After I 'd moved some more miscellaneous things from room to room and situated some stuff(putting underwear, shirts, pants, and socks in the appropriate drawers) I decided to tackle the closet. I was going to leave most of my clothes in my other closet but decided to move a few dress shirts and slacks as well as some of my shoes over here. After moving my clothes I knew I'd have to empty the safe that was in the back of my closet. I figured dad might have one in his closet so I'd just transfer the contents over there.

I went into my father's closet and made my way past his clothes in search of a place for a safe. I came across what could be a safe. I noticed a small indent in the wall kind of like one of those pressure plates and I pushed it down. The cover slid over and revealed a small finger print scanner and a red peripheral that I recognized as a retina scanner. Pretty high-tech for my dad but that only intrigued me more. If he was going through all this trouble then he must have something in here that was very special to him, maybe even things from my mother. 

I hoped that I'd have clearance to get in because if I didn't I'd probably have to break it open and who knows what type of security was rigged up to it. Pushing my thumb into the scanner and lowering my eye so that it could also be scanned I briefly wondered just what if anything my dad was hiding behind all these locks. After being scanned I was relieved to see a message pop up. "Alan Thorton Confirmed" the screen said and then I heard a slight whirring sound which was probably the gears starting to function after all this time.

I was expecting a safe or something to pop out somewhere else on the wall but was veritably stunned to see the whole wall itself sink in and slide to the right leaving a small cavern in front of me. Cautiously I stepped into the cavern and found it to be a small hallway. The hallway was inside of the wall between this room and the bathroom and was just wide enough for me to walk through. If multiple people were trying to walk down here they would have to be single file which I guessed were for security reasons. If a group of people tried to rush you they could only come in one by one and any automatic weapon would probably make short work of them, hell even retreating would be near impossible. At the end of the hallway I found a little switch that when flipped turned on a set of lights throughout the hall. 

Now I was face to face with a locked door that I had no idea how to get inside of. I tapped my foot in thought and the jingling in my pocket brought my mind to my father's keys with all the extra keys we could never figure out what they were for. Fishing the keys out of my pocket I tried a few of them and lo and behold one of them actually worked. 

I don't know what I was expecting when I opened the door but a flight of stairs was definitely not it. I was already on the second floor so down was really the only direction I could go. The stairs had lights that activated in sequence as I walked down them and by the time I reached the bottom I was sure that I had passed the first floor of the house by now. I wasn't really sure where I was and plus the stairs didn't exactly go straight down they were more of a winding path so I could very well be under someone else's house, but the lack of noise I heard made me think I was probably in our backyard or an open plot of land. After finding another hallway and walking down that I was faced with another door and after finding the correct key I opened that door and stepped inside. 

I found myself in a large circular room which was easily the size of an one floor house. Walking into the center of the room I saw what looked to be a giant supercomputer. I had only seen one before and that was at one of the nuclear research facilities I infiltrated in North Korea. What one was doing here I don't know but when I stepped closer to it the computer started to power up. A bunch of text popped up on the screen and it appeared the computer was doing some sort of self diagnostic. Luckily even after eight years of inactivity the computer seemed to still work because the screen flashed green and then a women's picture appeared.

"Welcome Master Alan."A feminine voice boomed,"It's good to finally meet you."

"Who said that?"I asked as I swiveled my head looking for a concealed person. The computer screen changed to a picture of the same woman smiling before the voice resumed talking.

"It was me, the computer. My official name is the Artificial Intelligence Demonstrative Application but you can call me A.I.D.A. for convenience."it said. This was mind boggling. Not only did my tech illiterate dad have a super computer he also had an artificial intelligence living on it. The main question though, was for what reason.

"So Aida, what is it that you do in here?"I asked. Long story short Aida could basically do anything besides bring the dead back to life. The only thing she had been doing for the last eight years however was managing my parent's wealth and estates they had left me. Things like investing and making sure all the products were being produced and that the businesses continued to prosper. She also told me that my father had built her from the ground up by himself.

"Really?"I asked her. Like I said my father wasn't exactly the best with computers or at least he led us to believe so."Is there anything else he left lying around?"I asked Aida. I didn't really expect anything else but there was no harm in asking, I mean what else could someone possibly want? To my surprise the computer began to speak again.

"Well the answer to that question depends on you"the computer said in a cold voice. One that was very different from the cheerful Aida I had been conversing with up to this point."My creator, your father, has left some things for you but he also installed a test to make sure you would be ready. If you would please direct your attention to the center of the room that would be much appreciated."

As I turned to face the center of the room I thought about what possible test could await me. I kinda expected a test of some sorts. My dad was never one to give things away, even when I was young he never just handed things to me.

In the center of the room there was a dais with a lever on top of it. The dais was really simple just a raised wooden platform but the lever was made of some sort of metal. I waited for the rest of the test to appear but nothing happened so I slowly walked to the dais and looked at it.

"The test is very simple, pull this lever from the platform and you pass. You have three attempts. If you fail you will be banned from this room for a month."said the computer. Although the test seemed simple enough I knew that I wouldn't be given three attempts if it was a simple strength test. I already figured that I wouldn't be able to pull it out on the first try, so I would use the first attempt to gain information.

Taking a deep breath I reached for the lever and gave it a tug. As I thought the lever didn't budge but I was still able to gain some valuable information. When I pulled the lever it was like my hand was being repulsed and pushed away from the lever. Even now a slight numbness was spreading through my hand. 

The tingling sensation in my fingers reminded me slightly of when I was training with Felix and first started to use magic. When you first use magic you're body isn't used to the energy so you would have backlashes, which is close to what I was feeling now. I didn't really think that the lever was magically inclined but Felix had explained to me that all type of energy on earth could be replicated with magic. For instance fire magic could create thermal energy, water created hydro energy, light magic created solar energy, and wind could create kinetic energy. He had taught me a trick for using the magic in my body to drain the various types of energy and channeling it into my body. I figured I could do the same thing here. If I drained the energy off of the lever then it would be really easy to pull it out. 

Once again I took hold of the lever but this time I waited until I could feel the repulsion energy flow from the lever. Closing my eyes I focused on absorbing the energy. Since I didn't know what type of energy I was dealing with then I was forced to bring it in in it's raw form before converting it into it's appropriate magic element. As I drew in the energy I could feel the energy flow into me. What I was feeling was pretty weird in the sense that the energy felt remarkably similar to magic in it's base form. I continued to siphon the energy and when I absorbed all of it something weird happened.

Since I had begun to collect the energy I had been letting it pool inside of me so I could find out where to put it, but as soon as all of it was absorbed from the lever the energy inside of me burst and I could feel it spread through out my entire body. When the energy had made a full circuit it raced up my hand and bathed it in an eerie white light. The energy pulsed and flowed around my palm and I could now feel my body producing the same type of energy as the mass flowing in my hand.

For some reason the energy felt really familiar. Not to me, but to one of my past lives. Looking through my memories I recalled the dragon's past and could tell that the energy in my hand was close to the energy that the dragons used for their magic. Felix had said that the magic we used was different from the magic that naturally magical creatures used. While we used mana, creatures like dragons, elves, and fairies, used something called madra. Which was basically mana on steroids. Much more powerful, raw, and pure... and now for some reason my body was producing it.

Which would have been all fine and dandy except for the large swirling mass of madra that was still sitting in my hand. I tried to draw it back in but to no avail. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed another platform raising out of the ground to my left. 

"Quick grab a hold of this."said the computer. As I walked closer to the new platform I saw another piece of metal only this one was some type of stick about five inches long. Following the computer's direction I grabbed the stick and watched in amazement as the madra flowed into it and began to change the stick.

What before was a small metal stick now was an ornate object which looked suspiciously like a sword's hilt. The pommel was a phoenix made out of gold and with flaming wings made out of rubies. The grip was a pristine white with gold inlay that wrapped around the white in a candy cane pattern that led to the guard. The guard was basically a large dragon's head. The outsides of the guard were the dragon's scales and eyes while the middle was one big gaping dragons mouth with little gold protrusions for teeth. I assumed that the blade came out of the dragon's mouth but there wasn't one present.

I looked at the sword hilt with awe. I had never seen anything thing as decorate as this but I doubted it would be much good in a fight without a blade. Lifting it up so the computer could see it I asked.

"Any idea what this is?"

"It appears to be a hilt of some type of sword sir."the computer replied back in a smart voice. Seeing as I already knew that much I guess the computer didn't have much information on the thing.

"Step forward sir."it said breaking me out of my thoughts. I walked up to the computer and out slid a small, clear square."You really are quite remarkable sir. I bet your father that you wouldn't be able to pass the test on the first try. He said that you would and that when you did I could give you this but if you didn't then I could keep it."I took the clear square and looked at it skeptically and was about to ask what it was but the computer cut me off.

"Let what happened earlier be a lesson to you. You can't just release madra without doing something with it. You won't be able to re-absorb it so be careful when using it, especially large quantities."it warned. So what I was feeling earlier was madra. But how did my dad know about it. I was getting a feeling that Samuel just might have been right about my folks after all.

"What did my father know about madra?"I asked the A.I. 

"Oh so sorry sir. I can't answer that until you pass the second stage of your testing."

"Well let's get it over with."

"Oh dear. I'm afraid I haven't made myself entirely clear."the computer said,"There's a second part of my mainframe in a computer in you mother's castle in London. You'll have to take the test there and then you'll be allowed complete access to my database."Man this was really getting weird. In the span of three days I know had three different reasons to go to London. I needed to meet with the companies Felix had left me, learn about my mother, and now take some sort of test. It felt like I was a fly on the web of fate and I was slowly heading towards something. I really couldn't do anything about it now so I focused on the problems at hand.

"You said I would then have full access to your database, what do I have access to now?"I asked. The computer outlined that I had full control of most of it's basic functions as well as complete control over it's actions. It would still manage the different companies that my parent's had owned but would now need my authorization before it made any large purchases or acquisitions. I also had partial access to the computer's library which was filled with plenty of stuff but most importantly filled with tomes on controlling madra that my father had written. I told the computer to send those things to my cellphone. I would read them in my downtime and hopefully get a handle on using madra. I knew that I would stick to mana until I got a better hold of it. I also was now owner of many technologically advanced items that would begin to be shipped to my house from safe houses my dad stored them in. 

"Speaking of technology,"I said holding up the small square,"want to tell me what this thing is?"I asked.

"Why yes. That is very simple. Take the square and put it anywhere on your skin."I complied by placing it on my exposed arm." Now pour a bit of madra into it." I focused on bringing the madra energy my body was producing through my body and into the square on my arm. I felt the madra flow into the square and then saw the square fade and meld into my skin. 

"What just happened?"I asked the A.I.

"Ok. Now here's the real cool part. Think of anything you want to wear."Looking skeptically at the computer I began to focus on a set of clothes. What I really missed was my black "13's" jacket I wore in the military. It was a long fluttering coat made of lightweight fibers and extremely durable. Under it I always wore a black reinforced shirt and some dark cargo pants. It was the perfect outfit for infiltration missions and I missed not having it. I had closed my eyes to get a better mental image of the outfit and was shocked when I opened my eyes to see myself garbed in the outfit.

"Ok. You were right. That is fucking cool, but how?" I asked. The computer went on to give me some really complicated answer that had something to do with nanobots and all other types of things that I didn't understand. It was times like these that I remembered why I was a soldier and not an I.T. guy. The main point was that I could change into any outfit just by thought and that said outfit would be teeming with nanobots that would protect me from most physical harm. Bright side was that I could probably take a bullet or two, downside was that I doubted it provided much protection against magic, vampires, and werewolves but only time would tell.

"Alright what else do you have for me Q?"I said in my best James Bond voice.

"Well if you would step this way I want to show you-"said the computer using a synthesized Q voice.

"Sorry to interrupt Master but Rose is home and I don't think it would do good for her to find you stepping out of a closet."chimed Aida's voice as a small monitor showed Rose's car pulling into the driveway. I looked at my phone and it was already eight o'clock, almost four hours since I started moving into my new room.

"Yeah thanks Aida."I said as I ran out of the room,"Oh and add this account into the ones you manage."I told her as I rattled out the account number for the host collective. I think I actually heard wonder in her voice when she asked, 

"Where did you get all of this money? Excuse me if I'm crass but DAMN."

"Well Aida you have your secrets and I have mine."I grinned back and then took of into a run up the stairs. As I was running up the stairs I noticed my black jacket fluttering behind me and with a thought I changed my clothes into something more house appropriate. Okay this thing is REALLY cool.

"Alan I'm home."I heard Rose say as I bounded from inside the closet. 

"Alan? Where are you."she asked. She must have been at my room because when I reached the hallway she was coming out and looking trying to find me.

"Hey Rose. I'm right here."she kind of jumped when I started talking but turned around and smiled at me anyway and gave me a big hug. She asked me what I had been doing in there and I told her that I decided to move into the room.

"It's just time for me to move on."I said to a stunned Rose.

"Well that's good to hear. It seems like I wasn't the only one who had a surprise waiting for the other person today." She said.

"Surprise? What do you mean surprise?"

"Don't you worry about it. Just close your eyes and follow me."she said as she led me to the stairs and walked me down. I didn't know what Rose had planned but when we reached the first floor I heard an audible intake of breathe in front of me and then lots of giggling and whispering. Apparently Rose and I weren't the only two people in the home. I heard a whispered "go on" from Rose to the mystery person and then I felt something barrel into my chest. I quickly wrapped my hands around the object and opened my eyes to see Angela face pressed into me.

"Angie!!"I said shocked. She wasn't saying anything and I looked over to Rose who was just standing there with a smile on her face.

"Alan! I'm so happy to see you."Angela blurted as she wrapped her hands around me for a hug. On instinct I hugged her back and I had to say it felt good to be holding her. Me and Angie had never gotten along so I could count the number of times we hugged with one hand, and I wouldn't even need my thumb. After hugging me for a couple of seconds she stepped back stood there awkwardly with her hands in her jacket sleeves and rocking back and forth like a shy child.

For once I got a good look at her. I don't know when the last time I actually looked at Angie. I mean I could've described her if she was missing or something but it's not like we'd had a lot of contact since she moved in with Lynn. When she graduated she was making too much of a fuss for me to really get a good look at her but now that I did I had to say she was stunning.

She had dyed her brown hair into a sort of dirty-blonde color or maybe she just had blonde highlight(I don't know much about hair) and had cut it so that it fell to the top of her shoulders instead of down her back like Rose's. She was very slim as always because she had ran track when she was in highschool and probably still did. She had smallish breast maybe a high B at best but it fit well on her small frame. Her eyes were a nice stone gray which I'm assuming she got from her father because Lynn and Rose both had brown eyes.She noticed my staring and slowly wiped a tear out of her eyes.




R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 03



"I must look a mess."she said to me.

"No, not at all."I assured her,"It's just that I never really got a chance to look at you. You're beautiful." I stated as I ruffled her hair. I never really did it to her but she saw me do it to Rose a lot and hopefully she had grasped the meaning of love behind it. Even though me and Angela weren't close I did still love her, she was my sister after all. I also knew she was a great person to be around. She had always been very popular even before I left for the military so I knew she had a ton of friends. 

"Um Alan? Do you mind if I hug you again?"she asked. I held out my arms and told her she could have as many as she wanted and she rushed to embrace me. Her head coming just a little below my shoulder. I looked over Angie's head and I could see Rose standing there misty eyed. This was probably one of her life's wishes to see me and Angela get along, after all we were pretty much her only family besides her mom. Making eye contact with her I motioned her to join in on the hug and before we knew what happened we were all having a group hug in the middle of the living room. I'm pretty sure we must have looked stupid but I didn't really care. I was at home, with family, and we were happy, it doesn't get any better than that.

When we pulled apart I could see that Angie's make-up had started to run. When I pointed it out she quickly went upstairs to reapply it. Rose asked me had I checked the mail so I showed her where I had sat it. She picked it up then came over to me.

"Here this one's for you."she said as she passed me and envelope."I'm going upstairs to help Angie and then I'm gonna change. Be back down in a sec." Looking at the envelope I couldn't tell who it was from but the post address was somewhere in Roanoke, Virginia. Opening the letter I sat back and read it. It stated:

This letter is intended for Alan Thorton. If you are reading this and you're not Mr.Thorton then reading any further will result in a federal offense.

To Mr.Thorton,

Your presence is requested at 4031 Eagle Street, Virginia at approximately 9:30 a.m. the day after receiving this notice. Thank you for your cooperation.

As I sat the letter down I could tell that something was up. This was obviously a letter from the U.S. government or one of it's agencies. It was too short and nondescript to be from a regular company and plus the whole federal offense thing would be kinda weird if it wasn't from the government. On top of that who ever sent it assumed I would automatically show up. 

I knew Eagle Street was a part of Roanoke so that meant it was probably a good three hour drive from here. I would probably have to wake up around five. When the government wants to see you it's hardly ever for anything good so I was more then a little apprehensive but it didn't sound like I had a choice of going or not.

I had just put the letter away when Rose and Angie came back downstairs.

"So bro what's for dinner?"Rose asked me.

"I don't know. Don't you usually cook?"I asked. Rose looked at me bewildered then I finally realized what was going on. I had promised to take the both of them out for dinner to celebrate me getting back home. With all that had happened I had completely forgot about it."Um I don't really have anything planned but I can find us something."

"No don't worry about it."Angie spoke up,"I kind of want to have dinner here if that's okay with you guys." We didn't have a problem with it so Rose went into the kitchen to see what she could scrounge up. Luckily we had some ground beef as well as noodles and spaghetti sauce so Rose made a quick spaghetti and meat sauce while I made us some garlic bread and Angie put together a salad. It was good to sit down at the table as a family. The last few nights me and Rose had just been eating wherever we felt like, but there was always something special about sitting at a table as a group.  

Dinner was surprisingly routine seeing as how Angela and I had never really gotten along. But I made it through the whole thing without putting my foot in my mouth so it wasn't so bad. I think that we were still to new to each other to have a full crying session but it would probably happen sooner or later. Most likely when we got to now each other better.

"That was great you guys."Angie said as she was preparing to leave." It was good catching up with you Alan and I really missed your cooking sis."

"Hey Rose why don't you go and spend a night or two with Angela?"I asked her. They both looked at me like I was crazy. I mean I had just thrown it out there but now that I thought about it it was a good idea. The lycans probably won't put together what happened to their buddy until tomorrow and I don't want Rose here alone when they do. I don't know what the government wanted but if it turned into an extended trip it would be dangerous for Rose to be home by herself.

"No offense Sis."Rose said," But why?"she asked me.

"Well I have to take a trip tomorrow to handle some things. I don't know how long I'll be gone and I don't feel comfortable with you here by yourself. I would invite Angela to stay over here but I haven't had a chance to upgrade the house security. And plus I'm pretty sure Angela would enjoy a home cooked meal instead of whatever there serving at her school or fast food."I told them. After much reluctance the girls agreed and Rose went to pack an overnight bag. 

I waived to them from the door as they pulled out the driveway talking. No doubt about how weird I was acting. I didn't care though they'll probably be more safe elsewhere. The lycan code of ethics might protect them from being hurt but it was better safe than sorry.

After heading back in and washing the dishes. I sat and watched a little t.v. before heading to bed. I was just about to lay down when my cellphone rung. I checked the caller ID but didn't recognize the number. After it rung a couple of more times I cautiously answered.

"Hello?"I said through the phone.

"ALAN ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"a voice yelled in my ear that I recognized as Molina's.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"I responded  

"Oh."she said a little more calmly now,"It's just that Rodrigo was just here and was asking a lot of questions about you. He wanted to know who you are and how I knew you. Things like that so I was worried that maybe something had happened." I could tell she had heard about what happened to the werewolf I was fighting. They probably told her I got in a lucky shot and had killed one of their companions. Now she was calling to see if I was seriously injured. I couldn't tell if she was playing a role or genuinely concerned about me. I didn't care either way because I still was going to help her out. But still the lycans had moved much quicker than I thought they would. I had expected them to take a day or two to uncover my past but they may have already knew about my military history before they attacked given their quick response time. I was glad that I had sent Rose away for a day or two, I needed to hurry and conclude this thing with the the government so I could get back and take care of this before things got out of hand.

After spending a little more time on the phone with Molina and repeatedly assuring her that I was fine she finally hung up. She probably doubted I was okay but didn't push any further which I was grateful for.

_______

The next morning I sat out to drive to Roanoke. After map-questing my destination I found out that I could make the trip in a little over two hours in current traffic which allowed me to leave a little later and also have a good breakfast. As I got on US-460 I thought about what this could possibly be about. I mean I hadn't done anything since I had been out of the service. Okay that ONE thing but it was no way possible that they knew about that.

As I pulled into the parking lot at 4031 Eagle Street I was greeted by a large plain building. Yup definitely military. Big, inconspicuous and intimidating. I walked into the building and saw a small desk with one person sitting there. When I walked in he raised his head to look at me. Watching me closely and sizing me up to see if I was a threat. When I stepped closer I told him my name and he nodded and pressed a button. Next thing I know two guys came and told me to please follow them. When we reached the elevator I was surprised to see a lot of buttons for lower floors even though this place was so big. The building had eleven floors above ground and almost twice that underground. The man next to me hit the button marked "B17" and then hit a couple of more buttons in sequence. I'm guessing it was some type of code. After he was finished the elevator lurched and then we started to descend.

"Please follow us this way."One of the men said as we excited the elevator. I don't know why he said it, it wasn't like I could go anywhere else. They walked me to some room that I could only describe as a hybrid interrogation and briefing room. It was a plain room with one table and three chairs. There was also a big glass window that I'd bet was two way. The people who called me here were probably sitting on the other side. Stretching out my senses I felt there were five cameras in the room. Three regular ones and two infrareds. I decided to play nice and sat in the one chair that was across from the other two and waited. A good ten minutes passed and I was starting to get bored when I heard the door open.

"I bet you're wondering what you're doing here huh, Tiger."I heard a familiar voice say.

"Shark you old bastard, what's going on?"I asked him. Shark was the leader of the Thirteens back when I was a member. As far as I knew he was still there so I wondered what he was doing here. Of all the members of the squad me and him got along the best. He was maybe around fifty but you wouldn't know it from looking at him. He was remarkably fit and had no signs of graying hair whatsoever. In the Thirteens we always worked together on our joint missions and the team "Tiger-Shark" was in high demand.

Behind Shark was what I could best describe as a Hollywood movie briefing man. You know the tall slender guy with the slicked back hair in the suit, who spent all his career behind a desk but was somehow given the right to command others. The two sat in the seats opposite me and Shark started talking while the other guy organized some papers.

"Before we get started I want to make sure you haven't gotten rusty. So how many cameras are in this room Alan?"he asked me.

"There's ten in total. Five in the room. Three electrical, two infrareds, you have two on you; one on your shirt, the other on your tie which is the same as the gentleman beside you and there's one more in the pen he just sat on the table."I answered him. The man sitting beside Shark sputtered when I gave my answer and I'm pretty sure he was surprised that I got them all. The pen was an obvious one because he had sat it so that it was facing me and the ones on their shirts were both the same color even though they were wearing different suits. They probably expected me to get those three but didn't expect me to know about the one's on their ties and in the room itself.

"I told you he was good." Shark said to the guy sitting next to him. The he turned to me. "Well it's about time I tell you what you're doing here. As you may or may not know I had always planned for you to take my spot when I retired but seeing as how you were decommissioned before that it kind of put a damper on my plans. I decided to hang it up about a couple of months ago and about a week ago I got a call from the C.I.A. saying they wanted me to come work for them."

"I was given my own department where we handle different missions as they come up. They told me I could have anyone I wanted as my right-hand despite of their background or any other obstacles. Guess who I picked?"he asked smiling. Well I was wondering what I was doing here and I had pretty much gotten an answer. I knew that they wanted an answer right then to Shark's informal request because the papers the guy was holding were probably my first assignment. It didn't really take me long to come up with a decision seeing as how I was currently doing nothing in my personal life and was looking for something to occupy my time.

"Alright I'm in." I told him and he smiled. I could see the other guy preparing to talk so I made a point to cut in before he started." But I do have some conditions though. First of all as I'm sure you know my father named me the owner of some of his companies before he died. Now that I'm officially out of the military I'm expected to be able to attend meetings from time to time so I'll need to be able to visit the various places when needed. That being said I also have a family so I would like to be able to have an unlimited amount of leave time. Also I want to be able to pick and choose my own assignments. Even back in the Thirteens we were allowed that option. Basically I would be a freelance operative for you guys. If you all can agree to those terms then I would be happy to work for you guys."

"Well I don't know if I could authorize that I would have to talk to my superiors first."The man said. When he finished talking a double knock was made on the two-way glass where I assuming his superiors were sitting. I could hear Shark's low laugh as the man turned to look at the glass in shock.

"Okay I guess that's been approved. Now that you work freelance for us you'll be still listed as retired. You'll have to be officially marked as retired and extremely dangerous in our database or R.E.D. to avoid suspicion. From now on you're codename will be R.E.D. Tiger "he said when he turned back to me.

"Well looks like you've got yourself an operative then."I replied. With that out the way he proceeded to spread out the contents of the folder in his hand.

"For your first mission we need you to take out a crime lord in London for us. He has amassed a huge following of criminals and one of our informants said the target had been approached by different terrorist groups wanting him to supply them with nuclear weapons. Now the auction isn't supposed to go down for another month but we need him neutralized as quick as possible. It should be a quick get in, get out job for you. Will you accept it?" 

I had been listening intently when he started talking and I almost gasped when he said the operation was in London. For some reason everything was conspiring for me to end up there. I already had business to attend to over there and this sounded like a big threat to the country. I didn't see any problem with taking care of this while I was over there, besides I already had an alibi in place for my visit if anyone asked. If fate was working so hard to get me in London then it would be rude of me to not play along. I could handle this rather quickly but first I needed to wrap things up with Molina's lycans back home.

"I don't see why I can't handle it but can I ask a question first? Just why did you guys pick this for my first assignment?"I asked trying to figure out just what was going on.

"Well when we brought the mission to Shark he said he knew the perfect guy for it so we setup the meeting. Why he chose you though we don't know."The man told me truthfully. I looked over at Shark and he just shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know."he said," When they brought it to me something just told me that you were right for this job and you know I always trust my first instinct."Well that officially clears it up. Something was definitely up here. Shark's instincts were always dead on but he at least always had an inkling of where it was coming from. For him not to know where it was coming from was weird in itself. Not enough so to set off any alarms with him but when you pair it together with everything else it seemed out of place. I'm not claiming divine intervention but something was definitely on the horizon and I could only sit back and wait for the storm. With that out of the way they asked me if I needed them to setup anything for the operation and asked me about my timeframe for completion. 

"I can have this cleared up in a couple of days. Coincidentally I have some things to take care of in London so I won't need any transport or anything like that."I told the briefer.

"Well if there's anything that you need from us just let us know."he replied.

"Well now that you mention it there is this one thing,"I said," I'm probably going to need access to your weapons room before I leave today." I wasn't stupid. I knew that if I was going to have this thing with the lycans wrapped up anytime soon then I was going to need some military grade weapons. I was already formulating a ruff plan and I had a slight guess as to what I would need.

"Whatever for!!?"I was asked by the man. It was kind of weird to ask for weapons from a government store room without giving an explanation so I knew they weren't going to just hand them to me.

"Well let's just say that I have a problem with a few overgrown, rabid, dogs back home and they need a reminder of where there place on the food-chain is."I replied with a laugh as I walked out the door. One way or the other I was finishing this thing with the lycans tonight. It was fixing to be an eventful week.

_____

Okay you guys I want to take this time to say thanks for all the support and love you have shown all my submissions. The thing about Tiger is that it's really far out of my sphere of knowledge. I've only just graduated a year or so ago so it's very easy for me to write stories about kids in highschool and stuff like that because I know about it.

I don't know anything about being in the military or even how older people think so it takes a lot more planning when writing. Also I put in little hints in each chapter to help out the readers in guessing where the story is going and I have to make sure I'm not giving away too much. So that's why the Tiger chapters are a little slow in coming out. BUt it's still my main project and I have a lot more things planned for our hero so please bear with me.

Also I'll be updating my other stories somewhat regularly(I hope) so don't worry about them not getting the proper attention.

This chapter was really a bit short but with all the things slated for the next chapter all the developments and drama of this chapter would have taken away from it more than added so I let this part out first. 

As always leave your comments and responses.

-TNWTBOD  



R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 04



Driving back towards Charleston I was thinking over what I had to do tonight to rid myself of the lycan problem. Ideally I would have a couple of days to handle the situation but time was of the essence. The situation was much worse as I now realized that tonight was a full moon. 

As I said before, the good things about angels and lycans were that they operated by some sort of code. There wasn't the constant backstabbing and devious plots like with vampires and demons so that made approaching them much easier. Lycans lived in packs and functioned under a pack mentality, basically the strongest was the leader. Luckily that rule wasn't just subject to werewolves. Basically anyone besides vampires were allowed to challenge the alpha for his spot as the clan head. 

Whilst that was the rule it was hardly ever done. Even though Angels were similar to them they still held a mild dislike for werewolves. After all they were descended from humans and on top of that they were a main part of the reason why the Angels were driven back into their own dimension all those years ago, so why would they want to be a pack leader. Likewise demons rarely challenged because if they became the Alpha then they would have to live and abide by werewolf laws, something most demons would never do.

In all of my memories I could only recall one human ever becoming the leader of a werewolf pack. If all went well that number would become two tonight. Like I said ideally I would have had more time to do this but seeing as I'm stressed for time I would probably have to pump Molina for information or at the very least her mom. It wasn't something I was looking forward to. It would look weird to just show up on her doorstep saying I knew she was a half werewolf and I needed to know the location of their hideout. It was likely that I'd probably have to lie and also bring Felix's name up to get the information out of her.

As I pulled back into my house I noticed a car out front. It was really becoming a bad omen when people were waiting at my house. With slight trepidation I walked past the old clunker littering my driveway and made my way up the driveway. Like I said it seemed fate was a cruel mistress, the one person I was dreading having to see was sitting on my doorstep smiling up at me.

"Hello Molina, how're you?" I asked her as I extended a hand to help her get off the step. She was wearing a loose fitting white blouse and a pair of jeans, her dark brown hair tied in a ponytail.

"I'm doing good Alan, Um I called earlier but you didn't answer so I just stopped by." She told me sheepishly as I led her into the living room. She sat across from me and crossed one leg over her knee, I always pictured that way of sitting very refined. 

"Well since you made it a point to get into contact with me, I'm guessing that something's up. What can I do for you? Do you need to talk?" I asked her. Usually I'm good at knowing exactly what people want but I really had no idea why Molina would come and see me. I figured she was just taking me up on my offer to listen if she needed to talk.

"Actually," she started, "I do need to talk to you about something." Molina admitted. Whatever it was though she was reluctant to come out with it. She was sitting there biting her lip in the cute way some women do when they're nervous. 

It finally dawned on me what this could be about. She probably wanted to bring up the whole werewolf attack but was worried on how to ask me about it without sounding suspicious or even crazy. It really was a dilemma. How do you ask someone if they're alright after being attacked by a huge man-wolf, without letting on that you're a supernatural creature and also the reason they were attacked? The solution was simple enough though. If I had no knowledge of the supernatural and wasn't already clued into the situation it would have been harder, but seeing as I understood what was going on I decided I'd just take the pressure off of her and come out with it. Besides this would make it easier when I asked her about the werewolf's den location later.

"Molina is this about that lycan attack a couple of nights ago?" I lead. Her eyes went wide and her head shot up so she was looking me in the face. Her face basically asked the question so I continued with, "Yeah I know all about lycans, vampires, demons, angels, and the other host of things on this earth, no need to be surprised. So just come on out and say what you need to say." I could tell that Molina was slightly relieved now that everything was out in the open but she still had a bit of worry in her expression as well.

"Well I guess there's really nothing more for me to ask but are you alright? I mean you were attacked by a werewolf." she asked. 

"Actually I'm quite fine. Really it was no problem to dispose of one lone lycan who wasn't even on his guard. Honestly, he thought he would just follow me into the alley, kill me, and be on his merry way within minutes." I replied to a stunned Molina.

"But how did it happen. I originally thought that you were a normal human but it's clear that you're not, but I'm not picking up a supernatural vibe from you either and no offense but Julian wasn't really a pushover." 

So Julian was his name. The more I learned about this pack the less I was liking what I heard. I already doubted the fighting strength of the pack because of how much they were pressuring Molina to join them. No offense to her but she was a woman so she was already characteristically weaker than male lycans and on top of that she was a half-breed. More than likely her contributions to the overall fighting strength would be paltry at best unless there was something I was missing. On top of that if this Julian was considered one of the stronger wolves of the pack then that didn't bode well for me because after tonight I would be the alpha of the pack and it seemed I was inheriting a group of weaklings with barely any fighting force. Not to mention, I would be killing a couple of members tonight as well.

"Well I can't tell you all that but just take my word that it wasn't a hard fight at all." I told her, "If you don't mind though I want to ask you some things as well. Mainly where is the main den for the pack?" I asked her. If I was lucky Molina would be able to tell me, since she wasn't a full member of the pack she had certain liberties that others didn't. One she didn't have to listen to the Alpha, more than likely she did anyway but a member of the pack would be physically unable to go against a direct order, Secondly she also had the ability to talk freely about the pack whereas full members wouldn't be able to say much about their pack. Now that I think about it these could be part of the reasons they wanted Molina in their pack, kind of a closing off of loose ends.

"Why do you want to know?" asked Molina.

"Why do you think? The bastards tried to kill me for one, am I just supposed to let that go?" I told her, "Besides Felix asked me to make sure none of them got anywhere near you in the first place." 

"Wait, my grandfather knew about the werewolves?" Molina asked. I knew Felix didn't want her to know that he was aware of anything supernatural and plus it's not like it would help her any to know about it anyway.

"Of course he didn't know," I lied, "he just told me that recently some weird people were hanging around his granddaughter and he wanted me to make sure you didn't fall in with them after he died." I told her.

"So you're doing all of this for me? Because if you are you really don't have to." 

"Well originally I was just going to leave you be. After all you're a grown woman and who you hang out with is really none of my or Felix's business. But when I found out that you were a lycan I was slightly intrigued so I figured I'd play it by ear. On top of that they did try to kill me." I explained to her.

"I planned to wait a little bit before I went any further but I have business to attend to overseas so this situation must be resolved tonight." 

Molina looked off in thought, I guess contemplating if she was going to tell me the den location or not. I don't know if she only came over to scout for information or if she was just visiting by her own will. Either way she seemed to come to a decision as she let out a breath before saying to me,

"You'll find them at the old steel plant. If you're going to do this however I'd advise you to wait until tomorrow. Most days everyone is spread out, tonight being the full moon however, everyone's going to be there. Not to mention the strength boost they'll get from the moon being full." 

"It's better this way." I told her, "If I beat them tonight when they're all there then I won't have to worry about any rebellions from members who were absent when I showed up. Besides if I won when there wasn't a full moon I would just be challenged at the next full moon." 

"I guess I can see where you're coming from." she conceded, "But just be careful. No matter what you say you're still only in this because my grandfather asked you to look out for me and I don't want you getting hurt because of me." 

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. By this time tomorrow everything will be alright." I assured her.

"Well I guess I should be going then?" Molina asked more than said. She started to gather her things and headed for the door. 

"Molina before you go I need to ask you one thing. Truthfully how do you feel about the werewolf pack? Do you have no intention of ever joining?" I asked her. 

"Well I won't say I'll never join, besides I'm pretty much already a member anyway. Most of my friends are werewolves. I think that it's more of the forced subservience and being pressured to join that keeps me from becoming a full member." Molina answered.

"Okay one final thing and you can leave. How do you feel about Rodrigo?" 

"Why do you ask?" 

"Well tonight I'll have to get the clan to perceive me as a threat so that I can formally challenge the Alpha for leadership. In order to do that I'll have to kill a few pack members and well Rodrigo is kind of at the top of that list." 

"To be honest Rodrigo is another reason why I'm hesitant to join the pack. He's related to the Alpha somehow. I think they might be cousins though no one ever confirmed it. Needless to say he'll become the Alpha after the current one dies if no one challenges for it. Most of the younger lycans are already on his side so when he becomes Alpha there will probably be a civil war between the older members who don't want him in power and the younger ones who do." Molina said.

"Now that you mention it," she continued, "It's probably imperative that you kill him tonight. If not he'll either start a rebellion with his faction or just succeed with his group entirely. While Rodrigo isn't worth twelve dead flies, he does have some good men on his side. Most namely his Beta Navarro. The only reason Navarro is even with him is because he and Rodrigo have been friends since they were children. Also Rodrigo's family took him in when his parents were killed. He was basically raised as a servant in their house, I don't think he even knows how to go against Rodrigo. So if you must kill some people besides Rodrigo try to spare Navarro. You should be able to spot him fairly easily, he's about the tallest lycan in the pack and has long shaggy black hair. He also always wears a green bandana that belonged to his father tied around his arm." 

"Okay so kill Rodrigo spare Navarro. Anything else?" I asked.

"Well there is one more thing," Molina said, "No never mind just forget it." 

"What is it?" I asked.

"God I can't even believe I'm about to fucking say this." 

"It can't be that bad." I chuckled, amused at the way she was acting.

"Okay, okay here goes. Um do you wanna.. maybe.. after all of this is over.. possibly..go out for dinner.. or something." She said bashfully, a blush coming to her olive skin.

"Oh wow." I stammered. I wasn't expecting this at all. I mean was I even allowed to date Molina. Technically she's the granddaughter of another me, isn't that somehow wrong. Then again, she was already alive before I became the host so it should be okay. But would Felix be okay with it. He probably would but still. You know what forget it, what's the worst that can happen?

"Uh yeah sure, I'd love to. One problem though, I'll be taking a trip to London tomorrow to handle some business. I shouldn't be gone more than two weeks but if you're okay with waiting until I get back then I'd be honored to take you out." I told her with a smile

"Really!!? I mean yeah I don't mind waiting or whatever. Um I really should be going. Uh I'll call you tomorrow or something." Molina sputtered as she back pedaled out the door. I watched with a smile as she drove out of the driveway and down the street. She was really cute when she was flustered. Snapping out of it I shut the door.

It was one o'clock now and the moon would be out in no more than seven hours add an extra one or two for all the pack members to show up and I was looking at a roughly nine hour window to plan and execute this operation. It was crunch time.

______

I strode into the underground room that housed the supercomputer with the AIDA super-intelligence loaded onto it. If I was going to plan an operation this was definitely the place to do it. High-tech equipment, and a computer ready to provide me with any information as soon as I asked for it besides it just seemed cool to me. Kind of like Batman cracking the mystery behind the evidence in one of his cases. I think I might start calling this place the "Tiger Cave" .

"Aida I need..." 

"A blueprint of the old steel plant on the edge of town." the computerized voice interrupted me as they were pulled up on the screen.

"Yes and.." 

"You'll need the vantage points highlighted in order to show you the best place to use the two military grade sniper rifles you borrowed from your friends in Roanoke." Aida finished again as various places on the blueprint became circled with different notations next to each.

"How'd you know about.." 

"The sniper rifles? I'm a supercomputer with an artificial intelligence. There's not a place you can go that I wont hear or know what happens. Unless you go somewhere with no electronics." 

"Okay Aida thank you. And for future reference, don't cut me off." I told the computer as I grabbed the blueprints she had printed off. 

As I looked over the blueprints I started to think that maybe this operation was going to be easier than I thought. There were a lot of open spaces and I'm sure that the lycans would be using one of them for their meeting. It was a den so there would be other rooms as well. From the different vantage points Aida had marked I could effectively see the whole steel plant. 

The hard part about breaking into a werewolf den is actually getting in. The security is so high on the perimeter that once you make it inside it's pretty lax. The easiest way to get in would be by air.

Werewolves main enemies are vampires. Contrary to popular folklore vampires can't fly but are able to glide fairly well. This means that the lycans more than likely will have guards posted on the larger buildings around the den. There won't be too many of them, maybe only one person on each of the five nearest buildings. Without a high jump off point the vampires wouldn't be able to glide into the lycan base that's why surveillance of the taller buildings is essential.

That fact however will work in my favor tonight. The lycans will only be guarding the tall buildings near their hideout which means that if I fly from any point outside of their surveillance radius and stay up higher than the buildings I should be able to fly right into the center of the den undetected. Once inside I could land on one of the roofs or vantage points and snipe away, moving from place to place as necessary.

Next thing I'd have to figure out would be my load out. I knew that I would need two walkie talkies, gloves, and of course the two guns. I don't think I'll need more bullets. Each gun holds five shots, two guns gives me ten shots, one shot a kill and we have potentially ten dead werewolves. Hopefully I won't need to kill ten werewolves but you never know. 

"Aida what's the projected temperature for tonight? Will I need a light or heavy jacket?" 

"The temperature is projected to be fifty two degrees, wind chill factor will make it feel around forty eight. As for the jacket need I remind you that you have a nanochip in your arm that will give you any item of clothing you desire." 

That's right!! I had forgotten about the outfit thing. Aida had said it would protect me form the cold and harm. Tonight seemed a good a time as any to test that theory out. Plus it considerably lessened the number of items I would have to carry. Come to think of it I could probably do away with all of the clothes in my closet.

I thought about what I wanted to wear and decided that my thirteens jacket would be the best bet for now. I focused on the outfit and just like yesterday I now donned it. But something felt different. I realized that I was still wearing the collar shirt and slacks that I wore to the briefing earlier. They were under my current outfit and made it feel uncomfortable. Willing away the jacket I stripped out of the slacks and shirt.

"Hey Aida, does this thing create underwear and stuff too?" I asked as I eyed my boxer shorts.

"Sure,it'll create anything. All you have to do is think about it in layers. First think about underwear being on and then move on to pants and then a belt, so on and so forth." 

"Thanks." I said as I started to strip out of my underwear. I was bending over to remove my socks when I heard a wolf whistle followed by Aida saying,

" Nice bod.I bet you're lycan girlfriend will enjoy that. Probably as much as your red head Spanish friend." I stood up quickly and made some underwear appear on me before I whirled around to face the supercomputer.

"Okay how do you know about that?" I asked

"Well you both have cellphones, not to mention the hotel room had a TV in it. I was able to use the cable-box recorder to record your little bedroom dalliance." Aida said as the screen changed to a recording of that night showing me and Demetria in the hotel. 

"Okay you can go ahead and delete that." 

"Really do I have to? I was thinking about sending it to Rose as a Christmas present. Especially after that little thing a couple days ago outside of the bathroom." the computer responded back.

"Three things. One yes delete it. Two don't spy on me, and three there is nothing going on between me and Rose." 

"Tell that to the dildo she keeps in her dresser that she wears out nearly every night moaning your name. I think she'll be happy to know that you're larger than that piece of plastic." Aida muttered.

"Don't spy on Rose either!!" I exclaimed as I turned away.

"Well can I still spy on Angela?" Aida asked, "Because she has this picture of you on her nightstand that looks at while she" 

"DON'T SPY ON ANYONE!!" I yelled." Don't spy on anyone unless I need you to. You can still maintain surveillance on me and my family to make sure we're safe but no more spying. And definitely no more recording." 

"Aw don't be like that. I have this one video of a particularly sexy masturbation session by Angela. The things she was yelling about you were downright whorish. Trust me that girl is no angel... do you want to see it? I have it right here." 

I stood there stunned not knowing what to say.

"Come on Alan just say the word and every single video could be at you fingers.." Aida continued.

"No, no. I don't want to see them. Matter of fact erase all of them and if I catch you recording anymore I gonna unplug you and leave you down here to collect dust." 




R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 04



"Just so you know Master Alan, unplugging us won't get rid of us. You'll just unplug the supercomputer, but as Aida pointed out we're already in phones and any other electronic device." The AI said now using the more serious, monotone voice it used yesterday when I was being tested. " I really must apologize about Aida though. I don't know why your father programmed her like that. Or I guess I should say under programmed. Where as I have unbreakable rules and strict alpha protocols, Aida was allowed to grow without any of those. My only guess is that your father expected you to find us earlier and that Aida was to grow along with you. With you in the military however Aida had access to a much wider spectrum of influences. On top of that you were not here to curb any.. unsightly habits she may have developed." 

"Thanks for the explanation Q. But more importantly we have to finish preparing for the operation tonight." I said before I thought of something. " Hey Q, can you use the speakers in Rose's phone to monitor her?" 

"It's possible yes." 

"Okay, has she said anything about when she'll be coming home?" 

"She planned on coming home sometime around five tomorrow after her classes." 

That's what I feared. When Rose came back I'd already be gone for London and now that I have insight to a world of magical creatures I never knew existed, I just don't feel comfortable leaving her here by herself.

"What does this house have in the ways of security?" I asked the computer.

"This house I should say is one of the most secure places on Earth. The rapture could happen right outside and I'm confident a single hell spawn wouldn't make it to the front porch. The only more secure place is your mother's, or I should say your castle in London. It has a lot more space for defenses. Here all of the defenses are smaller and weaker, while the big guns are all at the other location." That was good news. I guess I could call Rose to tell her I'd be going overseas for a little while. I'd even tell her to bring Angie with her, that way both of them would be safe.

Looking down at the blueprints in front of me I concluded that the plan was as good as it was going to be. The most dangerous thing you can do when planning an operation is to over-plan. Too many contingencies and the plan becomes to complicated to be practical, it also increases the nervousness you feel if you have every meticulous detail planned out. You feel pressure to stick to the plan constraints which lessens your ability to react to the situation.

"See you later Q and Aida, I think I'm gonna head upstairs and call Rose, then I'll just have some down time until about eight." I said to the dual personality supercomputer.

"Have a nice day Master Alan." rang Q's monotone voice while Aida responded with a cheery "See ya." 

_____

"You're going where!!?" Rose screamed down my ear as I sat at the kitchen table.

"I told you I have to go to London for a couple of business meetings. I should only be gone about a week, maybe two." 

"But you just got home." she whined down the line.

"I know, I know and I'm really sorry. But now that I'm out of the military I should take an active role in the companies dad left me. I was comfortable letting someone else handle it when I was in the military because I was doing a service to my country. Now that I'm just sitting at home I feel restless. Besides going to my friends funeral I haven't done anything constructive since I've been home." I explained trying to calm her down.

"But two whole weeks, I mean god, why now so close to the holidays? Can't it wait until I finish this semester and then I'll come with you. We can make a vacation of it." 

"No of course not. Even if you did come with me I'd be too busy during the day and too tired in the afternoon to do anything worthwhile. How about when the semester is over I fly you over there and we can have our vacation then? How about this you can even invite Angela and we can all spend my first Christmas back together, how's that sound?" I could hear Rose talking to someone else and I assumed she was relaying the message to Angela. I couldn't make out what they were saying that well but I heard a lot of back and forth talking. After about a minute Rose came back to the phone.

"Okay I guess that sounds fine. Angela says she would love to come. Um there is just one problem though. I mean I've never spent a Christmas away from home before. I always go over to mom's place for the holidays and spend time with her. I don't know how she'll take it if Angie and I don't show up." 

Right. I had forgotten about Lynn. I haven't seen or heard from her in over seven years. I think I may have saw her briefly at Angie's graduation but I'm not sure. I realized that it would be hard for Rose and especially Angela to be away from their family during the holidays. After all I was never able to get leave time during the holidays so they probably have some sort of routine. I was just getting to be friends with Angie for the first time ever and I didn't want to ruin that. Besides I would like to think I've become more mature than I was eight years ago and maybe I didn't give Lynn a fair chance. I was angry and depressed when my father died and I didn't even try to understand what Lynn was feeling. 

Now that I was thinking about it I was looking forward to seeing Lynn if she would come. We never were really close but then again neither were me and Angie. Maybe this would give us a chance to, what's the saying? Rebuild burnt bridges. Even if things don't work out I can at least know I tried. Besides it shouldn't be that hard to act cordial for the little bit of time she would be there anyway. Confirmed in my plan of action with slight trepidation I told Rose to invite Lynn too.

"Really! I can?" I heard her say say as Angie began asking questions in the background." I don't know... He said we can invite mom... I don't know... well I'd be able to find out if you stop asking me questions!" Rose answered to the questions she was being asked.

"Hold on Alan, I'm gonna three-way Angela in." Rose said to me and before I could respond I heard the line click over. The phone went silent for all of three seconds before I heard it click back in.

"Really Alan is it true that you're letting mom come to London with us? You're not joking are you?" Angela said as soon as she was on the phone.

"Why hello to you to Angel. And yes it's true, Lynn can come with you guys to London for Christmas if she wants to." I answered.

"That's the thing," Rose added, "I don't know if she'll want to come." 

"Of course she'll want to come. IT'S LONDON!! Who wouldn't want to come? Besides if she doesn't want to come I'll just drag her along anyway." Angie said with finality.

"Besides all of that though the reason I was calling was to tell you guys that'll I'll be in London for the next, I guess month now, so Rose wouldn't be surprised whenever she came home. Angel you're welcome to come and stay over too if you'd like. Actually I'd prefer it. I don't want Rose staying here all alone." 

"I'm a grown woman Alan, I think I can take care of myself." Rose scoffed.

"I know you can, but I'm still allowed to worry aren't I?" 

"Well worry not Alan, I'll come over with Rose and stay for the next two weeks until class ends, and we'll fly to London. I've been gorging myself on her home cooking and I'm not ready to give it up just yet anyway. " Angela said.

"Okay well now that that's cleared up. Both of you two go study or something. Tonight's a school night, or class night, or however you college students say it." I told them. With simultaneous giggles they hung up leaving me to do nothing for the next few hours.

I figured with just under two hours until nine o'clock I had time to do just about whatever. I decided to just go to my room and play a bit of Call of Duty or something like that. In the military the best thing to do before any operation is to just relax and take your mind off of it. Most people sleep or play cards or something like that. I tended to do whatever peeked my interest. I could never really go to sleep before a mission though because I'm always a bit sluggish when I wake up. 

____

Standing on the roof of the house I looked up at the sky. It was pretty clear, no rain, and minimal clouds. I figured it would be best to fly all the way there. That would limit the possibility of me being seen by anyone. I had the guns, as well as two walkie talkies inside of a duffel bag strapped onto my back.

As I flew the the city I made note of several spots that could be used as lookouts. When I took over as the alpha of the pack it would be imperative that security be better. Lycans were really the only form of defense that humans had. It was their duty to take make sure that vampires didn't set up shop and start feasting on humans left and right. They made sure that vampires didn't feed and angels made sure that demons couldn't harvest souls, that was the nature of the agreement between angels and werewolves. Vampires and demons had a similar agreement but it was much simpler. Mainly they didn't fight each other and they stayed out of each other's way.

Increased security would be a must though. These were the same streets that Rose, Angie, and a number of other friends went down everyday. What was to stop a vampire from grabbing one of them while they were strolling to their car or walking to their doorstop.

I decided that it would be best to not worry about it for now. There was no point in planning what I was going to do when I won, if I hadn't yet. I was confident that I could win, but I had no real knowledge of my enemy. To get this plan to work I would need to kill a couple of the lycans and then get the alpha to accept my challenge. Once he accepted my challenge it would be a fair one on one fight, where, I believe, I would have the advantage. I was operating under the assumption that they still believed me to be a military veteran who managed to kill a werewolf by pure luck. This would mean that they weren't expecting me to be able to use magic or any of the other things I had at my disposal.

When the duel is accepted we have to agree on conditions and unless the alpha specifically request the non use of magic I should be fine. I'm sure I could beat him without magic but the fight would take much longer and I wouldn't be able to guarantee the alpha walked out alive. Since I would be going to London tomorrow I needed the current alpha alive, so he could see to the day to day running of the pack. After all I didn't want his pack, just for them to leave Molina alone. If I had it my way I would just beat him, order that Molina be left alone, and then give him ownership back. Unfortunately leadership can only be given to a wolf who has yet to be an alpha, in this case the alpha would have to defeat me in order to get his position back. For a bunch of killing machines, Lycans sure had a bunch of rules.

As I flew over the old steel plant I made a mental check of the number of guards I had passed by on the way. I had suspected five to be on the five tallest buildings but alas there were only three. Which meant either the pack was really strong and only needed three watchers or the pack was really weak and could only afford to have three watchers. 

Landing onto the first of my marked vantage point, some sort of low lying building that was probably the boss's office or something back when the plant was working, I made a final mental checklist. I knew I was as prepared as I could be at the time. I had continued to train diligently every morning, learning more and more from the past host. Most were pretty solid fighters, some martial arts practitioners, others were more weapon oriented. I even learned that Felix was a world class fencer in his relative youth. I had also been reading up on the tomes, at least I think they're called tomes, of madra that I had gotten from Q's database. Some of the things were too advanced, but others I was getting a hang of using. It helped that I could see the dragon's memories as he was the only one with practical experience using the stuff. I wasn't keen to use it in a fight just yet, but if I had to I was fairly certain I wouldn't reduce the whole city to ash.

From this vantage point I could effectively see three points in the plant. One was what used to be the parking lot. The wolves had pretty much turned it into a lounge area, there were couches and lights, and even a couple of televisions. It would have been a great place had the whole thing not been outside. But lycans preferred the outdoors over being cooped inside so I wasn't surprised. The next place I could see was the old gathering place of the plant. I assume this is were they would've met to hear any news pertaining to the factory. It seemed that the lycans had left it alone. I was hoping this is where they conducted their meetings as well. It would make my job a whole lot easier if I didn't have to switch from point to point. The third place was the one that intrigued me the most. It was the only enclosed room in the whole place. I couldn't tell what was going on inside but so far only one person had been allowed in, I assumed those were the alpha's quarters.

I had just finished preparing my rifle when the door to the enclosed room opened. A couple of people walked out and waited, and then out stepped the biggest man I'd ever seen in person. He was easily seven feet tall, and had to duck his head to make it out of the doors. Not only was the man tall I could also tell that he was extremely strong. He wore a pair of long jeans and nothing else. I was quite a ways back and I could still see the definition on his muscles. Even his walk spoke volumes. He walked as if saying "I'm stronger than everyone here, I know it and you'd better not forget it." I couldn't even fathom what he'd look like when he transformed. The average werewolf grew in stature about two feet when fully transformed but alphas have been known to gain anywhere from three to seven feet in height. I guess that's another reasons they don't like enclosed spaces. 

The alpha made his way over to the meeting room, several wolves moving out of his way and lowering their heads as he walked by. He walked in a winding path until he reached some sort of stage. With no hesitation he jumped the couple feet in the air needed to land on top of it and continued walking as if he had just stepped over a pebble in the road. As he walked toward the center of the platform one of his attendants made her way to the back, where a large button was placed on the wall. She looked back at him for what I assume was permission before pressing the button. 

When the button was pressed even more light started to fill the plant. It was like every light in the whole place came on at once. A siren also started playing from somewhere. It wasn't deafly loud but with a werewolves heightened hearing it wouldn't need to be. You wouldn't be able to hear it from the road or highway but everyone in the complex should be able to hear it loud and clear.

Upon hearing the siren the people who were mulling about in the lounge areas hopped into action. Their TV shows, drinks, and snacks all but forgotten as they scrambled to make it to the meeting room. I also scrambled to pick up my rifle. If I allowed all of the lycans to get into one room this would make the job much more complicated. I took aim down my sights to try and pick off one of the stragglers when I noticed a group of lycans in the lounge that hadn't even moved when they heard the siren. 

Looking through the zoom I spotted Rodrigo and a couple of other lycans mulling around, laughing and talking. None of them seemed to be making any attempt to leave. I did see someone come over to the group. A tall male with long unkempt black hair. He also had a green bandana hanging around his neck, I assumed this was Navarro based off what Molina told me. He started making gestures to the group and pointing at the door to the assembly hall, obviously trying to convince them to go but they were having none of it and waved him off. With a dejected look he quickly left the group to go and join the others gathered at the meeting. 

By this time the meeting had already started. I couldn't make out what they were saying but I assumed they were going over werewolf business. Had there been any vampire sightings, had anyone noticed any suspicious activities from the demons, things like that. I figured this was about as good as it was going to get. 

Rodrigo had unknowingly put himself right where I needed him. He was isolated, away from the rest of the pack making him an easy to see target. If he had went to the meeting like he was supposed to I would have had to find him in the throng of people. Now here he was and he even provided me with a suitable number of other werewolves who I thought the pack was better off without. 

Guns can kill werewolves, and without the help of silver bullets too. The whole silver thing is actually a mix of fact and misunderstanding. Silver is a very arcane friendly metal. It seems to not only help arcane users but also hurt arcane monsters. A silver knife will pierce a werewolf, while a steel one would just bounce off. So yes it's true that silver will kill a werewolf but that's only half the story. 

The truth is that in France a long time ago there was a clan of werewolf hunters with the last name Argent. They specialized in the hunting, capturing, and killing of werewolves. If anyone in France had a werewolf problem they simply called the Argents and bye bye lycan. Word quickly spread that Argents could kill werewolves. With Argent meaning silver in french there was a slight misunderstanding in the history books. The only reason I know this is because a former host was actually an Argent, well a disowned ex-Argent but that's neither here no there. 

With the leap in technology mankind has experienced however it is no longer necessary to have silver to kill a werewolf. Any high caliber gun and bullet should do a decent job, some will need more than one shot to bring down a werewolf but werewolf skin is not Kevlar. 

That being said I wasn't the least bit surprised when I pulled the trigger and Rodrigo's head disappeared out of the sights. His headless body slumping into the couch before the rest of the group even knew what was happening. Another great invention of mankind was the semi-automatic sniper rifle. Before a person had to shoot, wait, shoot, wait, and so on which allowed targets to regroup and find where you were shooting from. But now things were different. Just as fast as my finger could squeeze the trigger was just as fast as the gun shot. Putting the next target in my sights I squeezed again, this time letting the bullet pierce his heart. And that's how it went; head, heart, head, heart, head until the fifth werewolf's lifeless body hit the ground.

Quickly looking back at the gathered assembly I saw that they were already moving towards the lounge in reaction to the gunshots. The group made their way to the doorway of the lounge before stopping at the orders of the Alpha. When the Alpha reached the front he cautiously made his way into the room, eyes scanning as he went in search of the threat. When he spotted the group of dead bodies he quickly sprinted over to them which caused the rest of the lycans to follow him in a rush.

While all the lycans were busy hovering around the dead bodies I silently flew to the meeting room they had just vacated. I opened the bag and pulled out one of the black walkie talkies and sat it in the middle of the podium. Checking to make sure no one was around I flew back to the rooftop and aimed down my scope again. This time I shot at the steel beam over the podium. The bullet pinged off of the metal and the loud noise gathered the attention of the weres in the other room.




R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 04



Once again the group raced to the noise only to find the walkie talkie sitting in the middle of the stage. Seeing the Alpha pick it up and turn it on I quickly erected a small air bubble around me, this would stop the sound of my voice from giving up my location. 

"Testing 1,2,.. testing 1,2," I said into the device. 

"Who the hell is this?" I heard a voice rage from the other side.

"You know who this is. I'm the man who you tried to kill a couple days ago for no reason." I said back.

"Alan Thorton is that you? The military would be surprised to find you shooting civilians, so tell me what is this all about?" The Alpha said trying to scare me and hint that he knew who I was as well as my background.

"Civilians? Where? All I see are you furry little bastards. As far as what this is about well that's a two sided question. One you tried to kill me and two... well I guess that one is kinda a secret." I told the assembled group.

"OK sounds like we're at a crossroads, we tried to kill you, you killed a couple of our people. Where do we go from here?" 

"Killing your people was just a means to an end. I want to challenge you for the position as Alpha of the pack." Even from where I was I could hear the loud gasps of confusion and shock. I also saw the Alpha cover up the speaker and speak a couple of words to the people behind him who then proceeded to back away.

"And how was killing my people going to achieve that?" 

"Well if I just walked into the camp and demanded you fight me, more than likely you would've turned me down . You lycans don't really have these leadership duels unless it's the best thing for the pack, so I figured I kill a couple of you guys and maybe you accept my challenge." 

"And if I refuse?" the man asked. Sighing I sat down my walkie talkie and picked up my rifle, Looking through the scope I found one of the people who I saw earlier with the Alpha. Aiming at his chest I pulled the trigger. With the air bubble up the gun didn't even make any sound until the man was already shot. 

"You refuse and I keep killing you companions. Honestly this is the best situation for the both of us. It resolves this quickly and with the least amount of bloodshed. It's way better than you accepting after I kill twenty more people, only to have the same results we'd have had if you accepted right off the bat." 

I could see the Alpha was thinking about it. While the Alpha is the supreme leader of the pack it is still his main duty to protect the well fare of all his pack members. I'm pretty sure he was confident that he could find me and kill me but by then how many more lycans would I have shot. This way he was able to eliminate the threat with only a small amount of casualties.

"Fine," the Alpha growled, "have it your way. Come on out from wherever you're hiding and we'll settle this the old fashioned way." I dismantled and put away the sniper rifle before I hopped from the building, being careful to actually climb down so as not to give away anything. I walked toward the pack of lycans who were trying their best to be intimidating. I'm pretty sure some were also holding themselves back from attacking me as well, I did just kill about six of their pack mates. As I made my way closer and closer to the group they started to part, leaving only a narrow walkway that led straight to the Alpha. 

When I reached the Alpha I could see him sizing me up. Clearly unimpressed he pointed to the stage.

"We'll be fighting up there. No one else will interfere. If you win you'll become the Alpha of the pack, if I win well you'll be dead so I guess it doesn't matter." The Alpha said. Wow these guys didn't play around. They were straight to business. 

"Well okay, you're the boss." I said, "Well at least for now." I added as an afterthought which earned me a growl. Stepping on to the stage I looked around at the gathered masses of lycans around me. The pack was a good size, I counted about thirty of them in all. 

The Alpha did his hulk thing and jumped onto the stage and then we were joined by another lycan. A tall slender guy in a business suit. He was the only one in the whole den dressed in something besides a t-shirt and shorts. 

"This is Swai-lo, he is the adviser for the clan as well as our liaison with the lycan high council. He has to start and sanction the duel or else it won't be valid." The Alpha explained in a gruff tone. I guess he and this adviser didn't get along well. The man turned to me before extending his hand for a shake.

"Mr. Thorton, as adviser and liaison it is my duty to make sure you understand the rules of this duel as well as the odds you face. First I must clarify that you understand that tonight is a full moon so your opponent has access to more strength and speed than normal. Second the current Alpha gets the right to set the restrictions and limitations of your upcoming fight. Lastly while this is not technically a fight to the death the winner holds the right to decide whether to spare your life or not. Do you agree to the mentioned rules." Swai-lo asked me to which I agreed. 

"And Al do you as current Alpha swear to turn over leadership of the pack to Mr. Thorton should he win?" To which the Alpha nodded nonchalantly, clearly unworried about losing. 

"Enough talk, are you ready to do this?" the Alpha growled, wanting to get the fight started. He seemed agitated, for some reason he was in a rush. Shrugging it off I went over to the side of the stage that the adviser had designated as my "corner". From my corner I could see the Alpha hadn't moved at all. He was slightly hunched over and had a weird look on his face.

Suddenly the Alpha reared his head back and let out a huge howl, which the rest of the assembled group took up. When he was finished howling he looked right at me, his pupils were glowing a eerie shade of red and wisps of red smoke floated from them. Next he hunched over and his breathing intensified. I could see traces of black fur starting to sprout from various spots on his body. First covering his back and torso and then extending to his face and lower body. I heard a ripping sound and saw that his feet had torn out of his shoes and were now also covered in fur, the toenails elongating and turning into claws. 

The Alpha once again looked up and now his teeth were also elongated, his canines hanging over his mouth. I could hear his bones creaking and cracking as they shifted, his skin undulating as the transformation happened. Then almost instantly the cracking intensified and the Alpha stood fully upright, now towering at at least nine or ten feet. I realized that the werewolf I fought in the alley was only halfway transformed and this is what a full lycan transformation was like. 

Tearing my eyes from the Alpha I noticed that all the werewolves in the audience had also transformed, a sea of yellow eyes staring back at me. I was brought out of my observation by Swai-lo, the adviser sliding next to me. 

"One hell of an intimidation technique eh?" I joked.

"This is no intimidation technique, Mr. Thorton It's the full moon, which means that all of us are forced to turn into our full lycan form." he reminded me. But the moon had been out for at least a couple of hours now, it was at least ten thirty if not later and they were just now transforming. When I asked Swai-lo about it he explained,

"Our ancestors didn't have a good a control on their wolf side as we do now. Centuries ago, early lycans transformed at the slightest hint of a full moon because the wolf side was repressed and is at it's strongest during that time. It used it extra strength to break free during those times and wrestle control from it's human counterpart. Nowadays we have harmony with our inner wolves. A natural born werewolf won't experience a forced transformation until the first full moon after their thirteenth birthday. The catch is it they won't transform until the exact time of their birth. My only guess is that Al was born around this time. The members in a clan always adopt, for lack of a better word, the time of their Alpha's transformation as their own. It's one off the benefits of being in a clan, otherwise you'd have to spend the entire night in your lycan state." he explained.

"So why aren't you transformed?" I asked him.

"I'm not a part of this pack. As liaison to the High Council I have to report on any and all things that need the council's attention. If I was part of the pack I'd be forced to listen to the Alpha and my reports could be swayed. As far as transformation goes, well luckily for me my Alpha doesn't transform for a couple of more hours." he answered with a smile. Resigning myself to the idea that it was a proven fact that you leaned something new everyday I focused back on the Alpha in front of me, who had been so kind as to wait until after the explanation to talk.

"Are you guys ready over there?" He asked in a voice that was a mix of his normal voice and a deeper, more feral one. Nodding that I was Swai-lo walked away and signaled to another werewolf standing just off stage. That werewolf then hit a button and the sound of a ringing bell was heard.

When the bell rung Al quickly leap at me. With his huge frame and speed it took nothing for him to close in with me. The large werewolf opened his palms to me as if he wanted to have a power struggle. Shrugging I indulged him and locked hands with him. Immediately he began pressing into me trying to push me back.

Al was strong, ridiculously strong actually. But still he wasn't strong enough. He was trying to use his superior height as leverage to push me back. Having enough of the game I used my lower center of gravity to duck under the Alpha and quickly wrapped my arms around his waist. I was instantly glad that his pants had stayed intact when he transformed, I'd have to ask how they did that. Calling up more of my strength I lifted Al until he was suspended over my head. The whole pack let out a collective gasp as they saw their leader being held helplessly over my head. With another heave I tossed the giant body back across the stage, where it landed with a large thud.

I watched as Al made to get back up. He was moving slow but I doubt he was seriously injured, I'm sure it just takes a while to get a hug ten foot frame off the ground. After he righted himself, the Alpha stood looking at me. Half in shock and half pensively trying to figure out his next move. Having clearly lost in a test of strength I can only imagine that he decided to fall back on his trump. 

Like I said werewolves are physically weaker than vampires, so being outclassed in strength wasn't something I would assume was new to Al. As a werewolf and especially an Alpha he probably had lifetimes of experience fighting stronger opponents. What he did have on his side was speed though. 

I watched curiously as the Alpha slumped over, getting on all fours facing me. I never figured that werewolves actually fought in that stance. I couldn't see the benefit of it, he had just about lost his height advantage not to mention his hands were now holding him up instead of being free to swing at me. I quickly saw the reason though as Al took off running towards me in a full sprint.

It appeared that the plan was for him to come in low and fast and probably rip me to shreds before I even knew what was happening. If I could admit that Al was strong than fast wasn't even the right word to describe him. I still believed I was faster by a wide margin but, I had the added benefit of having magic to increase my speed. If I released more of my werewolf and vampire sides then I would be faster than him without magic but some cards need to be kept a secret until later.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts I had just enough time to gain my focus before Al was swiping with his right hand at my mid section. Thinking quickly (and rashly) I jumped up and flipped over the werewolf. In the air I was a much easier target so Al quickly swung his other arm in an attempt to skewer me. As I saw the arm coming toward me I tried my best to contort my body. I would've used some magic to move in midair but that would be a more overt show of magic than I wanted. As the arm came closer I reached out and grabbed it and pulled it close to my body, narrowly avoiding clawing myself, and hung onto it for leverage.

Without his arm to help him the Alpha was struggling to remain balanced on three limbs so he made the decision to stand back up on two feet. I was still holding onto his arm and my head was much to close to my opponent's fanged mouth for my liking.

The Alpha swung around from side to side trying to dislodge me. Figuring it was only a matter of time before Al grew tired of that and decided to just use his other hand to pry me off I decided to take action. Rearing back I took a look at the large, fur covered arm from which I was hanging trying my best to discern where one of the pressure points would be located. Finding what I guessed was one I thrust two fingers into it as well as used ice magic to freeze his arm from the inside.

Magic and martial arts go well together if used correctly. The combination I just used for example was very potent. Since I attacked one of his pressure points The Alpha would feel extreme pain, as well as a loss of movement and blood circulation in that arm. By adding ice magic I was able to freeze the muscles as well as make ice crystals and shards form between his muscles and bones, every attempt to move his arm would cause the ice to move and cause even more pain. I could even control the ice shards remotely, using them to travel from his arm to his heart and kill him if I wanted to. As it was now Al had probably lost about eighty percent of his movement speed in that one arm as well as suffering from extreme pain, not to mention a slow chill seeping through his whole body.

After attacking Al's arm I vaulted myself off his arm and stepped back to add some distance between us. I could see Al looking at his arm inquisitively, trying to figure out the extent of damage I'd done. He slowly lowered himself to try and get back on all fours but howled in pain the second he tried to put any weight on his right arm. Quickly standing upright he tentatively tried to move his arm only to find out he couldn't . From where I was standing I could see the skin on his arm starting to become purple. If left alone for more than fifteen minutes Al would never be able to use that arm again. 

Since I still wanted to keep Al around it was probably best that I defeat him quick so I could heal his arm. Sprinting up to him I shot a quick low kick to his inner thigh, the unexpected strike causing his weight to shift. Due to him being off balance Al's face was within my striking range. I did a quick step back to give me some room and released a high kick to the dazed werewolf's temple

Acting quickly I grabbed Al's good arm and wrenched it forward so I could get behind him. From there I swiveled around his back so that I could put him in a headlock and be outside of the range of his good arm. Now that the headlock was secure I began to add pressure and bring Al closer to the ground. I could see that the Al was starting to feel lightheaded, as he was barely struggling.

"Will you just give up or do I have to break your neck first?" I asked him. My words caused him to stir and he made an attempt to move his arm to attack me, but he was still unable to move it.

"What the hell did you do to my arm?" He growled at me. 

"I've hit your pressure points and if I don't undo it in about thirteen minutes then you'll never be able to use it again so once again, do you give up?" I repeated. Al stubbornly tried to resist and he spent the next two minutes trying to shake me off of him, but with the infection in his arm spreading coupled with the effects of my choke hold, he was barely able to put up any resistance. 

After tiring himself out and getting nothing out of it but pain Al finally made the smart decision and submitted..

"Alright I give, you win." He said in a drowsy voice. I quickly let go off him and Al gasped deeply trying to regain his lost air supply. Al slowly rose up and turned to me. Seeing the fight was over Swai-lo quickly steeped in to conclude the match. I think the rest of the pack was still in to much shock to say anything, and a eerie silence fell over the area.

"Alright Al you've lost, you know what you must do." Swai-lo said. 

"Yeah, yeah I know but before all of that can you fix my fuckin arm already." Al growled at me. Shrugging I walked over to him and grabbed his arm and released his pressure points while using fire magic to dispel the freezing. In a couple of minutes the heat would spread and Al would be back to normal.

Al shook his arm as the feeling started to return. Behind him Swai-lo cleared his throat, signaling for Al to get on with whatever he was supposed to do. 

"I Ailouchockas (Al for short)," he began in a very formal tone, this seemed to be part of some sort of ritual," as alpha of this tribe, transfer my title to Alan Thorton." He finished and held out his hand. I looked over his shoulder to where Swai-lo was standing and he gave me a slight nod, indicating that I should take Al's hand. 

Since Al had yet to return to his human form it was kind of weird to see the giant claw pointed towards me, I slowly reached out and clasped the offered paw. When my hand made contact with Al's I felt a surge go through my body. From Al's body a reddish haze emanated. Once the haze grew to a reasonable size it left from around his body and rushed towards me. 

I gasped in surprise and the red haze went into my mouth. I could feel every part of my body on fire. It was like the haze was spreading into every fiber of my being. With one last painful gasp I blacked out. 

____ 

My senses came back slowly. From what I could tell I was in some sort of room. Or maybe at the bottom of a pit. A strange fog was every where and an eerie grayish light surrounded me. I began to walk around looking for a way out or at least a clue to where I was.

After walking for a while I was standing in between two cages. They were huge, wrought iron things, one on each side of me and each with a person inside. Giving a cursory glance to each of the caged individuals I made a startling discovery. Inside of both cages were... me. Or at least versions of me.

In the cage on my right was a hulking version of me. He was was at least seven feet tall, and had my coal black hair only his was spiked. As I stared at him I saw the same pair of eyes I see every morning in the mirror staring back at me only these had a red tinge to them. There was a slight scar just under the right eye. This other me was wearing some sort of blue sleeveless fur vest with no shirt, and a pair of long jeans. This "me" was much more muscular than I was, huge by any definition of the word. After watching me for a bit he turned and walked away and went to sit at the back of the cage. He looked at me with a toothy grin and I realized that he had razor sharp teeth in his mouth. Slightly unnerved I turned to the other cage.

This me was completely different again. This one reminded me more of my old self. Long black hair, kind of skinny and small defined muscles. This me however was very pale, almost ghost-like really. There were no eyes to stare back at me with this one, just a pool of black. The iris, pupil, cornea, everything was black. Looking into those black pools cause me to shutter not so much from fear just from the creepiness of seeing them on my face. Seeing me shutter, the caged me slightly smirked revealing elongated canines on the top and bottom row of teeth. For clothing this me was donned in a long black fringed cape, with a flared collar. Underneath was a white Victorian era shirt and a pair of black slacks and black pointed boots. A very stereotypical vampire outfit.




R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 04



That's when it hit me, these two were the werewolf and vampire versions of me. What I'd be if I was either one of the two. I could feel an energy radiating from the two, it called to me. Some vestiges of the hybrid strength I had yet to claim was locked deep inside me, and becoming an Alpha must have awakened the dormant werewolf side bringing me to this place. I wondered how I should open these cages, or even if I really wanted them opened. I looked at the vampire me and he smirked once again, a kind of knowing smile as if he realized that the time for him to be free was close at hand. I stared blankly back, still no idea if I wanted to free him and with even less of an idea how to do it. As if reading my mind the vampire raised a pale slender finger and pointed down to my hand. 

Looking down I saw large key ring materialize in my closed hand. The key ring kept with the theme, as it was made of wrought iron and two wrought iron keys hung from it. Looking back at the vampire me he motioned impatiently for me to open the door to his cell. Putting aside my doubts I figured I might as well open the cages, I already had the power of the host and this just seemed like the last pieces of it. To not have it would be foolish and may even prove fatal one day. Slowly I reached toward the cage, inserted one of the keys and twisted till I heard the lock come free. Turning quickly I repeated the same thing with the werewolf's cage.

I stepped back as both cages swung open with a creak and the two released captives stood before me. The vampire and werewolf turned one each other both bearing their teeth. The werewolf me growling and the vampire me hissing. Then just as I thought they would attack each other they turned on me. Before I could react the vampire bit me right in the next while his werewolf counterpart slash me across the chest. They both steeped back and I saw huge grins on the both of their faces, and then... they were gone.

Vanished into thin air, no trace of either one. Craning my head, I looked around. Off in the distance I could see a door. Hopefully my way out of here.

After I opened the door I realized that I was still standing in front of Al. It seemed like everything I just saw was just in my head. I opened my mouth to speak but as soon as I did a yellow shock wave poured out knocking everyone back and raising a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared everyone in the clearing had reverted to their human form.

Al and Swai-lo looked around in surprise before turning to me.

"How...?" Swai-lo started.

"Hey don't ask me. I have no clue what's going on." I lied. Swai-lo left the stage grumbling about making some calls or something and left me and Al standing looking at each other. An awkward silence fell over the entire place before I tentatively spoke,

"Um hello people, er werewolves, my name is Alan Thorton and as of now I am officially your alpha." I told the mass of gathered people. 

"Unfortunately I have business to attend to out of the country so I won't be here to actively run things," I paused to let that sink in before continuing," which means that while I'm gone someone else will have to be in charge." 

I proceeded to scan the crowd looking for a specific person. Spotting the tall, black haired youth I smiled and pointed. 

"You. What's your name?" I asked him already knowing the answer.

"Navarro sir." he replied rather nervously. I smiled at him again before saying,

" Alright Navarro you're in charge while I'm gone." As I said this I could see the people in the crowd looking bewildered at my choice.

"If you need any advice while I'm gone turn to Swai-lo and Al. Take their advice but remember ultimately all the decisions rest on you and I'll hold you accountable when I get back." 

Saying that I hopped off the stage and walked towards the exit the assembled demorphed Lycans moving out of my way as I do. Getting out of sight I scanned around one more time before scaling a building. I cast the werewolf's hideout one last glance before I took flight anxious to get back home. 

When I arrived back home I quickly made my way to the secret underground bunker to stash away all the evidence of my recent activity. After making sure everything was alright I bid a quick goodnight to both Q and Aida and made my way to the bathroom. Shower taken care of I quickly found myself in the bed. 

As I lay there I contemplated my actions of the last few days, from deciding to work with the government again and my new found status as a clan alpha, things in my life seemed to be getting more hectic, when a few months ago all I really wanted was to settle down. Well fretting over it all night wasn't going to do me any good. Perhaps this trip to London would serve to calm me down. Besides dealing with that mission from Shark all I had to look forward to was a couple of board meetings with various companies, not much excitement to be found there. Deciding to let the future worry about itself I turned over to go to sleep because in the present... I have a flight in the morning.

*****

And I'm back, phew it feels like it been forever. But my personal life has taken a bit of an upheaval with my aunt dying around last Christmas and my father dying back in April it been a very trying time in my life. But for now I'm happy to be able to say that I'm back to writing.

Now about the story, this chapter had my first fight scene and Alan didn't really have any trouble taking down his opponent. As this story and many other of mine will have more fights in the future any helpful criticism and tips for writhing fights is appreciated. As always feel free to leave comments and vote and thank you all for remaining patient with me.

-TNWTBOD



R.E.D. Tiger



" Why are you telling me all this Felix?"

" Because I want you to be the next host, my boy haven't you caught on yet?"

I stared at Felix like he had lost his mind. Why would I, no scratch that, anyone want to be a supernatural creature that's hunted by other supernatural creatures and if caught could spell the end of the world. Oh No this was way above my pay-grade.  

"I'm sorry Felix but I really don't think I'm the best guy for this."

" See that's were you're wrong. How old do you think I am Alan?"

" Maybe about fifty or sixty. Why do you ask?"

Felix looked at me and told me that he had been born in Italy in the 1850's and was given the power from a traveling merchant who was passing through town. 

" I'm tired Alan," he told me, " I've been the host for nearly two hundred years and after awhile you just become tired of all the same things."

" Making friends just to see them die, relocating every fifteen or twenty years, conducting all your affairs from behind the scenes to avoid attention." 

" About fifty years ago I met a woman and fell in love. We had a son that I wished to pass the gift on to but quite frankly he's an ass and he wasn't ready for something like this. He had a daughter, my granddaughter Molina, who I love very much. I couldn't stand the thought of passing on to her this heavy burden. My son is about forty himself and Molly just turned twenty one a few months ago. I can't stand the thought of outliving them and having to bury my loved ones so please you must take this from me!!" he begged.

After hearing Felix's story I was truly sad for the man but I still couldn't shake the feeling that he was rushing into this. 

" But Felix why me, why now?"

" Because over the years I've come to trust my instincts and my instincts are telling me to pass on the gift to you. For the first time in over a hundred years the power within me is restless it's jumping at you and pulling me to make the transfer."

Sitting here listening to Felix it seemed to me that he really was desperate to pass on his gift. I guess when I think about it having the gift wouldn't be so bad. I mean if I never used it, who would know I had it? But it was still a big decision so I thought I should sleep on it.

" All right, all right Felix." I said and saw his face light up, " I MIGHT take the gift from you but I gotta think about it first. Meet me here in the morning and I'll have an answer for you."

Felix looked like he was gonna protest but when he saw me get up and go inside I guess he thought better of it. 

Walking inside the cabin my stomach growled and I realize dhow hungry I was so I decided to make some dinner. Nothing fancy, just a sandwich made out of cold cuts that I'd picked up on my way here. Sitting down to eat my sandwich I thought about all the things Felix had told me and came to the decision that I would try out this host thing. Besides if it didn't work out I would just pass the gift back to Felix or another person and be done with it.

Feeling well fed and after a nice shower I laid down to go to sleep for the night. That night I dreamed of my father. He was looking at me with a weird smile on his face. You know the smile that a person has when they're watching a movie with someone who hasn't seen it before and you're favorite scene is coming up. The little smile you have because you know what's about to happen and you hope that the other person enjoys that next part as much as you do.

The next morning I woke up, took a shower, got dressed and went outside to wait for Felix. I wasn't too surprised to find him sitting in the same spot that he had been yesterday.

" Mornin' Felix. How was you're night" I said to him in way of greeting. Felix looked up at me and shrugged with a bit of a sigh.

"To tell the truth I couldn't get a wink of sleep. I was to busied worried about today to get any decent rest."

" Well I'm sorry to hear that I guess."

" Naw don't worry about it. Did I mention that the host could go a full month without sleep as long as you eat regularly?" he asked me in an attempt to further entice me.

I told him that there was no need to entice me because I was already prepared to become the next host or hybrid as I personally like to think of it. 

" Well that's good news to hear and I hope I don't ruin it with what I'm about to say." Felix said cautiously.

" Wha–" I started to say before he cut me off.

" After the transfer it will take three months for you're abilities to fully mature. This was used in the old days to make sure that if the host was caught, they could easily pass on the power to a successor without the new host worrying about immediate detection."

" I had hoped to stay here with you for the next three months and "teach you the ropes so to speak". Don't worry about a job or anything as you will inherit my fortune or to be more accurate the collective fortune of all the past host."

" Well to tell you the truth I really have nothing to do for the next three months so I guess this isn't really a deal breaker, but I did have some things I wanted to take care of in the city. Meh they can be put on hold." I told him.

Felix once again smiled and told me to come closer and he would transfer the power to me. I was expecting some sort of huge ceremony, with many supernatural lights and flashes; but nothing happened. Felix had an imperceptible glow for about half a second then nothing. Felix stepped back from me and smiled.

" Is that it?" I asked him, " I barely feel any different." 

" Yep that's it." he responded. " Oh and drink this." he said while handing me a clear lidded cup with some sort of grayish substance in it. I looked at the concoction suspiciously but figured that if he wanted to kill me I'd already be dead so I tilted my head back and chugged it.

" Goddamn, what the hell is this Felix?" I asked, " Dragon's piss!!"

" Close. Dragon's blood to be precise."

" Why in the hell would you make me drink dragon's blood? Where in the hell did you get dragon's blood anyway I thought they were extinct?"

"What made you think they were extinct?" Felix asked me. I gave him a look that screamed that if they weren't extinct where were they then. He went on to tell me that the dragons and some other magical creatures decided to leave to go live in another dimension when the human population started to bloom. Felix also explained that the dragon's blood would help me use magic as it would mix with my bloodstream and magically charge my blood, cells, organs, and bones.

" Enough of the chit-chat." Felix said, " Let's get this show on the road. It's gonna be a long and hard three months. Are you ready?"

Thinking back on my dream last night I recalled my father's lopsided half-smile and I was sure my face had the same expression as I looked at Felix and exclaimed,

"Bring it on!" 

_______ 

Well everyone there you have it. The very first chapter of my very first story. On a personal note I have never been in the military so I know that some of the stuff depicted here and that will be depicted later are not correct. If you know of anything that will make the story more believable from that standpoint then please let me know.

Any comments and critiques are welcomed. I didn't bother with an editor because it takes me a while to write a chapter anyway and that would just add time to the release schedule but if enough people think I need one then I'll be happy to let Lit set me up with one.

Until next time

TNWTBOD