FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

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FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

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FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion.
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DISCLAIMER: I don’t own ‘Moonlight’, or any of its wonderful characters. I’m just taking them out for a run! No copyright infringement is intended.

SUMMARY: A multi-chapter action-adventure featuring Mick, Beth, Josef, Guillermo, Logan, Simone, Talbot, and a few really big werewolves, among others! Rated PG-13 for mild language and violence.

SPOILERS: Follows on from all 16 episodes of ‘Moonlight’, as aired on CBS. Follows on from Allegrita’s FanFic, ‘Presto Agitato’, Ch 1 & 2. (Mick and Beth ‘seal the deal’, and become lovers.) Follows on from Desdemona’s FanFic, ‘Silver’, Ch 1 thru 7 only. (Talbot finds out about vampires in general, and Mick in particular, the hard way! He also shares The List with Mick and Josef.) Borrows, with Eris’ kind permission, her original character of ‘Karl’, from her many fine FanFics.

Ready? Okay! Hold on tight! It’s going to be a rough ride!


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The past few nights had been wonderful. Beth had made memories that she knew she would cherish forever……even if she lived to be as old as Phelan and Josef. Her head spun alittle at that realization……trying to grasp the idea that it was now possible for her to live for hundreds of years……perhaps longer. Just like Mick, there was now no real limit to her possible life span……. That still didn’t seem real.

They had run all night, that first full moon…..while the moon rose higher in the night sky, escaping the atmospheric haze on the horizon, becoming a brilliant white orb. The moon’s glow illuminated the countryside like the noonday sun, casting shadows. They had run until the sky began to lighten in the East, heralding the coming dawn. Only then had Beth and Phelan loped easily back to the helicopter, Mick astride Beth’s back, and Josef astride Phelan.

It had all been so beautiful…..Beth had never felt so free, and so powerful. She had reluctantly returned to her human form…..’pulling in’…..as she had learned to do, while Mick held a bathrobe aloft in front of her, screening her from Josef and Phelan’s views. She smiled softly to herself at that memory……her Mick was such a gentleman.

That first full moon was Wednesday, but two more full moons followed…..Thursday night, and Friday night. Supposedly, only Thursday night was the ‘real’ full moon……but Beth’s body couldn’t tell the difference, and demanded to shift, hunt, and run, on all three nights. That had been just fine with her.

They had returned, with Phelan in tow, to Vince’s ranch Thursday and Friday nights as well. On those nights, Phelan assumed a supervisory role and followed Beth while she chose her prey and brought it down, a young bull elk each time. The red Irish wolf had declared Beth to be ‘a natural’, and said he could not think of how she could have done better. This verdict had delighted everyone.

Each night, after eating their fill and taking their scraps to the ‘check-out stand’…… as Phelan called the area behind the big barn…… the wolves had returned to where Mick and Josef waited for them, in the gazebo on the hilltop. Then they had run again, Josef swinging up onto Phelan’s shaggy back, and Mick settling himself astride Beth’s pale golden back with increasing confidence. They had run the perimeter of the ranch each night, galloping effortlessly with long, powerful strides, pausing from time to time to watch the different herds of animals graze. There were the obvious elk, deer, and bison…….but there were also animals Beth didn’t recognize. Different types of gazelles….. mostly from Africa….. Josef had explained.

Beth sighed happily now, and gazed up at the stars above them as they sailed smoothly along in the backseat of Josef’s Bentley, a Continental GTC….. the four-seat convertible for those with discerning tastes……. and very large bank accounts. He had the top down, of course, as it was a beautiful night.

It was Saturday night. Beth had felt no mandate to shift…… the full moon waning….. so Josef had insisted they go out on the town to celebrate her successful ‘maturation process’.

They had picked up Simone, who was all too happy to come along. Both she and Beth were dressed in elegant, yet simple, outfits…..something that would go just as well in either a casual, or formal, setting. Simone sat up front beside the elder vampire, her date for the evening again.

It was obvious Josef enjoyed driving…..his favorite ride being his Ferrari, of course. But the Ferrari was a two-seater guided missile. If Josef wanted to take more than one friend out on the town, his vehicle of choice was his Bentley Continental GTC. If was easy to see why…… Beth ran her hand absent-mindedly over the soft leather seats, and marveled at the sheer luxury of the interior…..every bit of it crafted by hand, with real wood, not some cheap plastic veneer.

Like the Ferrari….nothing about the Bentley had ever seen an assembly line. It was not the sort of car that most people could even dream of owning……but Josef was not ‘most people’. There wasn’t a great deal of leg room for she and Mick in the back seat…..but at least it HAD a back seat, while still managing to be very much a sleek, muscular sports car.

In contrast to the fire-engine red of Josef’s Ferrari, the Bentley was a more dignified deep burgundy, polished to a high shine. It was a beautiful automobile, and Beth thought it reflected Josef’s style well. She smiled fondly at her boyish Foster-Sire, watching as he cornered the Bentley around a hairpin turn.

Mick reached over and squeezed her hand, smiling at her warmly, his hazel eyes alight. Beth returned the squeeze and smiled back, leaning closer to him, snuggling against his side. He wrapped his muscular arm around her shoulders, hugging her to himself. Mick seemed more carefree now than he had in the entire time she had known him……even happier than he had been during his brief week of restored humanity. It made her happy to see him happy.

Beth wished that the memories of Mick’s ‘human week’ had not been clouded by the pain of losing Josh……. She had loved Josh……but she hadn’t been ‘in love’ with Josh. She understood that now……there was a difference. She just wished she had known it then……she had said some terrible things to Mick…..when the grief of Josh’s death was still so fresh….. When she blamed Mick for not doing MORE than was ‘humanly possible’ to save Josh……………

She was also glad that Josh had died believing that Beth was in love with him, and had done everything she could to fight for him, and save him……….

Beth made a conscious effort to shake off the melancholy that had settled over her. Her life with Josh was long over and gone…….Josh was over and gone. Her own life as a human being was over and gone, for that matter…….. Time to focus on what was ahead.

Like the previous three nights, this night had been wonderful….. but different. This night had been spent in human form. They had enjoyed dinner…..well, Simone and Beth did, anyway….. at an expensive restaurant. Josef had pointed out, with a wink, that all the exotic meats on the menu were from Vince’s ranch. Later, they had relaxed while listening to fine live Jazz music. Mick and Josef sipped Scotch, while Beth and Simone had enjoyed the most expensive bottle of Champagne the place had in stock. Beth had balked at the price, but Josef had insisted…..reminding her that they were ‘celebrating’.

It had been another perfect night in what Beth hoped would be a long, happy future with Mick. Her new life was beginning……and she was enjoying every moment of it so far.

They were headed home now, back to Josef’s estate. Simone was apparently planning on spending the night there, as Josef showed no intention of driving her back to her own place. Beth got the feeling this was something Simone and Josef did with relative regularity.

She smiled, and wondered idly what Phelan and April were doing. The big Irish werewolf, and the little redheaded freshie, had announced plans of their own for a night on the town, and had taken off earlier. Beth hoped they were having fun too. She suspected they were. Beth could tell Phelan liked the petite freshie…..his scent betrayed him when she was around……and it seemed like the feeling was mutual. April’s scent also suggested a growing……interest……in Phelan.

Beth’s wool-gathering was interrupted as Josef glided the Bentley to a stop in front of the main gate to his expansive estate grounds. She glanced at him…..noticing the slight frown on his youthful-looking face.

“Hmmm….that’s odd…..”, Josef said quietly.

“It’s not opening?”, Mick asked. Beth glanced over at him now…..and saw that he too, was frowning.

“What’s wrong?”, Simone asked.

“Nothing, doll…”, Josef replied in a reassuring tone, “Wait in the car.” Josef opened his door and stepped out of the Bentley.

Mick turned to Beth and started to speak…..but then stopped himself….grinning and snorting instead, shaking his head.

Beth grinned back. “You know I’m not going to wait in the car.”

Mick nodded, his grin widening, and hopped out of the convertible without bothering to use the door. Beth followed suit a moment later.

Josef turned and glared at both of them, “Hey! Careful with the upholstery!” He shook his head and walked on.

Simone sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes, “As our group’s token human, I guess I will go ahead and wait in the car.” She winked at Josef playfully.

Josef quirked a smile at her as he continued toward the guard shack beside the gate. Mick and Beth followed along behind him.

Josef peeked his head inside the empty guard shack. “Okay…..This just gets weirder….. Where’s Roger? He’s supposed to be on duty right now.” Josef glanced at Mick, his expression confused, “The man’s worked for me for twenty years…..and he’s never missed a day….. very reliable.”

Mick agreed….. Roger, a human, was tremendously reliable…… This wasn’t like him at all. He stepped inside the guard shack, closed his eyes, and scented the air, concentrating. Images came……

Roger in the guard shack……Roger distracted by some movement down at the end of the driveway, near the street……he couldn’t see what it was……Roger frowning……Roger craning his neck out the door…..trying to see something……his frown deepening……Roger stepping out of the guard shack and starting cautiously down the driveway toward the street…....
Then nothing……………


Mick’s eyes snapped open, and began scanning the area, “I don’t like this, Josef……Something’s really wrong….. Let’s head for the house on foot.” His tone was low and cautious.

“I don’t want to leave the Bentley sitting down here on the street.”, Josef replied mildly, “Let me try a couple things….. We’ll lift the gate off its hinges, if we have to….”

“Josef…..”

“Just a sec, buddy.”

Josef stepped in and toggled a couple switches on the shack’s console while Mick and Beth looked on nervously. Nothing…..the gate didn’t budge. “It’s been disabled….”, Josef said quietly, his expression darkening.

“Josef!”, Mick snapped in a tight whisper, glancing around them again, “Use your damn nose! Something’s happened to Roger…..something drew him away….and he didn’t come back!”

Josef closed his own eyes for a moment and scented the air. Then his eyes snapped back open, “You’re right, Mick.”, he said, his expression tense, “We need to get out of here now.”

Josef turned on his heels and exited the guard shack, heading towards the Bentley, gesturing to Simone, “Come on, doll, out you go……we’re walking from here.” Mick and Beth were right behind him.

Simone was just starting to open her door when something hit Josef in the chest with a soft whoooosh, a little thump, and an electric snap.

A heartbeat later, Mick was also hit……another soft whooosh, another little thump, another electric snap.

Beth watched in horror as a dart abruptly bloomed from the chests of both Mick and Josef…… She saw a tiny explosive charge in the butt-end of each dart flash brightly for an instant…… as each device forcefully delivered its payload on impact.

Then she could smell it…. burning in the air…… a strong metallic odor…..it had to be silver…..emulsified silver…..

Mick and Josef both crumpled silently to the pavement like sacks of grain.

Simone screamed and threw her door open…..bailing out on to the ground.

Beth dropped into a fighting crouch, hovering over both Mick and Josef. A deep snarl rumbled in her chest as she batted the spent darts off of the two downed vamps, for all the good it would do……the damage was done……the silver had already been injected into both of them.

Simone scrambled on her hands and knees around to the driver’s side of the Bentley and hunkered down between the car and Josef’s still form. She reached out and grasped Josef’s hand. “Josef?”, she whispered desperately. He didn’t respond, he was limp, and his still- open eyes were starting to roll back in his head. “Josef!”, Simone sobbed, her own face crumpling.

Still in a defensive crouch, Beth instinctively began to hone in on the shooters, her eyes panning the low hillsides above the street where Josef’s gate was located. She could feel the recently disturbed air…..the paths the darts had just traveled seconds earlier…..she followed their trajectories….backtracking their course to their source………

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About hundred feet away, on a darkened dirt service road that was largely concealed behind shrubbery, two men watched from a slightly elevated position on a hillside.

Both were dressed in black, and in spite of the summer heat, both wore black ski masks over their heads and faces. Behind them, their vehicle, a simple black van, sat waiting quietly, its engine off. In the back of this van lay Roger…… bound, gagged, and unconscious.

Neither assassin congratulated the other on their perfect shots a few moments ago…..they were all business. They watched with quiet satisfaction as first one vampire, and then the other, slumped to the pavement……a dart in each of their chests. One shot, one kill……every sniper’s creed.

Silently, they each slid open the breeches of their CO2 dart rifles and reloaded……just in case. They continued to watch their downed targets through the night-vision scopes on their rifles. One dart apiece was generally more than enough…..in their experience…..but you never knew. Some of the older vamps were exceptionally strong.

They could not see the brunette human female anymore, not since she had flung herself out of the car and crawled around to the driver’s side. She was apparently hiding down there now. But that didn’t matter…..neither of the women had been targets. Just the vamps.

They could still see the motionless forms of both targets on the ground, just past the car, as well as the blonde woman, crouching over both fallen vamps.

She was an odd one……that blonde…… She didn’t look frightened…… She looked furious…..and she was sweeping their dark hillside perch with her eyes…….like she was looking for them. They saw her nostrils flare…..almost like she was trying to catch a scent. Huh……

They both watched her through their rifle scopes as the blonde woman’s eyes rapidly swept closer and closer to their position…..

They both gasped softly as the blonde’s eyes appeared to fasten on them….. as if looking at them right down the scopes of their rifles…….

It was as if she could see them……. It was as if she was looking right at them……….

She could………

She was……….

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Beth saw them…… close….. on a dirt service road slightly above Josef’s gate. Rifles….scopes…… black clothes…..black van……

The Legion....... It had to be………

Beth’s snarl deepened as her sky blue eyes tipped instantly to a glowing sapphire blue. Her lips drew back to display teeth that were already changing shape…… becoming sharper…..longer……

She placed one hand on Mick’s still shoulder, and the other on Josef. Neither vampire moved. Beth’s sapphire eyes flicked to Simone, who was still huddled under the Bentley’s driver’s side door, her brown eyes wide and frightened.

“Simone….”, Beth rasped, growling, “Be ready……this is going to happen fast.”

Simone nodded, the scent of her terror rolling off of her in waves.

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“What the hell?”, one of the assassins murmured. “Do you see her eyes? I’ve never seen eyes like those on a vamp before…..she’s a vamp too?”

“Can’t be a vamp…..” , the other whispered back, “look at those teeth! That’s a lot more than just two fangs!”

“Do we fire?”

“Hell yes!”

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“Here it comes….”, Beth snarled softly.

Simone tensed and whimpered, curling into a fetal ball on the asphalt.

Now that she knew what she was looking for…….Beth felt the air’s disruption as the pneumatic rifles fired their CO2 charges with a soft whooshing pop…..and the darts leapt forward, clearing their barrels……racing towards her. She could feel the trajectory of each dart……. She knew where they were going…..exactly where……….

She waited, her brilliant sapphire eyes narrowing in concentration, her lengthening canines bared. Wait for it……wait…….

At precisely the right instant……moving faster than a serpent striking…..Beth fluidly inclined her body ..…..first right…..then left. The first dart whizzed past her on her left, followed a split second later by the second…..whizzing past her head on her right.

Both darts slammed harmlessly into the asphalt behind her and skittered away……

Before her opponents could reload, Beth let go, and transformed explosively, shifting in a heartbeat to her lupine form. One of her favorite outfits fluttered in torn shreds to the ground around the huge golden she-wolf. She didn’t spare it a glance.

Balancing on her powerful haunches, Beth leaned forward, low over the pavement, and scooped up the two unconscious vampires…… tucking Mick under her right arm, and Josef under her left……. taking care not to cut them with her razor sharp claws. They rolled like rag dolls in her grasp, unresponsive.

“Now, Simone!”, Beth snarled, “Now!”

Simone didn’t hesitate. Scrambling to her feet, she hiked her silky skirt up around her hips and threw a leg around the huge golden wolf’s neck, quickly grabbing handfuls of fur beneath Beth’s tall triangular ears. Her expensive sandals dropped off……. first one, then the other.

Beth rose to her full height, balancing gracefully on her hind legs…… Mick hanging limply under one arm…..Josef under the other arm……and Simone perched with her legs wrapped tightly around Beth’s shaggy neck…… clinging for dear life to the thick golden fur of her ruff. The wide-eyed attorney sat atop the now towering golden wolf like a child sitting on the shoulders of a linebacker.

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“Oh shit…..”, one assassin whispered.

“Say that….”, the other breathed.

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Beth roared once at the shooters, her jaws gaping open wide.……a bellowing torrent of blistering fury, a promise of violent death.…..… before turning, with her passengers, taking two long strides, and bounding easily over the closed gateway to Josef’s estate.

She landed running. She had to get her pack-mates to safety first……she had to help Mick and Josef…….before it was too late…….

Then she would deal with this new enemy…….

Beth raced through the foliage of Josef’s estate grounds on her hind legs, sprinting from one cover to the next, never giving the assassins another clear shot. Her huge hind paws, with their scythe-like talons, tore up the ground as she ran. Her fluffy half-tail jutted out behind her, parallel with the ground, an effective rudder through the rapid twists and turns of her course.

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Simone hung on, terrified, gripping the golden wolf’s ruff with her hands, and the thick muscular neck with her legs. She tried to get a look down at Josef, where he bounced limply against Beth’s side..….but she couldn’t see him well…..too much fur in the way. Was he going to die? Were they all going to die? Talbot had told her about the ‘List’ he had received…..and what Josef thought it meant. Was this it then???? Was this mysterious ‘Legion’ coming for them now? Simone closed her eyes and buried her face against the back of the golden wolf’s head.

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Beth emitted several barking roars as she weaved swiftly through the manicured shrubbery and trees of Josef’s grounds…… huffing and snarling in her rage…… powering up the hill towards the mansion. Hopefully, someone at the house would hear her……and understand that she was coming in hot……that there was danger…….

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A group of freshies…… lounging around the newly re-decorated Terrace Room’s infinity pool….. heard what sounded like a woman’s scream…… coming from down near the front gate, far below them. It was faint…… They glanced at each other, anxious, and unsure of what they’d heard.

Then they all flinched hard as a terrifying roar split the night air.

For a moment…..no one moved…..they were frozen. Then the bellowing roar was followed by a series of vicious snarling barks…..each one closer than the last………… Something was headed their way……Fast! And it was REALLY upset!

“Karl!”, one freshie screamed, as they all clamored up, wrapping towels around themselves and turning towards the shelter of the Terrace Room.

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Beth could see the edge of the Terrace Room’s infinity pool hanging out over the steep embankment up ahead, supported from beneath by huge corbels. She was nearly there…… She heard the freshies’ panicked voices…..heard them calling Karl….. Good…… They had heard her…….and understood……

While the majority of her attention was focused on getting Mick, Josef, and Simone to safety..…… another, more instinctual, part of Beth’s mind was monitoring her new enemies…..

She could hear the snipers scrambling to their feet and opening the side door of their van. She heard them toss their rifles inside, while tensely whispering to each other that they needed to get out of the area fast…… They hadn’t expected this……they hadn’t expected HER….. They were shaken…..not sure how to proceed.

Beth’s snarl deepened as she ran, jaws parting, lips pulling back further, wrinkling her muzzle and revealing more of her enormous canines. Her large sapphire eyes glowed with fury. These new enemies could run…..but they really could not hide. Her territorial rage was intense and primal…..it boiled through her blood…..she had been triggered.

She wanted them…… She would find them……… They would pay.

She had to protect her pack……her mate…..her friends. The threat to her pack MUST be eliminated. This was HER territory…..and she would fight to defend it with everything that was in her.

She heard the shooters dump something out of their van onto the dirt road with a soft thud, just before the van’s engine roared to life. Beth heard the tires sling dust and gravel as the van sped down to the paved street, and then away. Its engine noise rapidly faded into the background sounds of traffic on the streets of LA far below.

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Karl arrived at the Terrace Room in a blur, having heard both the freshies’ distressed voices, and the rapidly approaching bellowing roars from below. He immediately began waving the freshies inside. They streamed past him into the Terrace room, clutching their towels to themselves.

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At that same moment, Beth, still running upright on her hind legs, reached the base of the steep embankment below the infinity pool.

“Hold tight, Simone!”, she growled. She felt the terrified woman tighten her grip on her neck, with what was probably the last of her strength. Beth could feel building fatigue, as well as terror, rolling off of the young attorney.

Beth didn’t break stride, her powerful haunches bunching, then releasing, as she launched herself, and her passengers, up the face of the embankment.

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The huge golden she-wolf sailed into view above the edge of the infinity pool. Karl watched as Beth dropped gracefully onto the concrete ledge beside the stately little pool, landing on her large hind paws, her hocks and knees flexing slightly to absorb the impact.

Karl’s pale blue eyes widened, and then went ice-white, as he saw Josef hanging limply beneath Beth’s left arm. His fangs dropped. “What……”, he began.

Beth didn’t pause, bolting for the doors to the Terrace Room.
“Ambushed!”, she barked, snarling, darting around the enormous vampire, “The Legion! Dart guns! Liquid silver!”

Several vampire members of Karl’s Security Team had arrived in blurs of motion at that same moment, drawn, as Karl had been, by Beth’s approaching roars, and the freshies’ cries of alarm. Now, hearing what the golden she-wolf had just said, and seeing the condition of their employer, numerous pairs fangs dropped, and numerous pairs of eyes iced over.

Karl turned to his Team. “See to it!”, he snapped. The Team scattered as quickly as they had arrived, each zooming off in a different direction at hummingbird speed, disappearing into the night. Karl remained, his eyes riveted on Josef’s motionless form tucked under Beth’s left arm.

Ducking down to avoid cracking both her head, and Simone’s, against the top of door frame, Beth shot past Karl into the Terrace Room.

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Terrified freshies screamed and pressed themselves against walls all around the room. Most of them had seen Beth in her lupine form before……..a few of them had seen her angry before too…… But this was different. Beth was enraged. She looked crazy. Her almond-shaped sapphire eyes glowed with a feral fury, and her normally elegant golden muzzle was wrinkled back in an open-mouthed snarl.

She looked completely wild…… out of control…….reared up so tall on her hind legs……an unresponsive vampire flopping under each powerful arm…….and the human lawyer, Simone, clinging to the back of her shaggy neck like a Spider Monkey.

Too frightened and stunned to react, the gathered freshies starred, motionless, as the huge golden she-wolf strode deeper into the Terrace Room.

***************************************************


Highly agitated, and nearly frantic…… Beth struggled to think clearly. At the same time….. she struggled to contain the fierce aggression….. and the overwhelming hunger….. churning through her body.

Everything looked good…….Simone, the freshies, Karl…………….

But she successfully forced herself to focus on the silver poisoning issue……………

She had been in this situation before……sort of…….the first time The Legion had tried to kill Mick. She remembered what to do…..what Josef had said needed to be done to save Mick then….. The same principal should work now……

The injected silver had to have a way to drain out……and the poisoned vampires would also need blood…..lots and lots of blood….. to flush the silver from their systems, and provide fuel for healing.

Slowing for only a moment, as a plan formed, Beth turned and charged out of the Terrace Room, rushing through the mansion’s ground floor.

Karl followed, keeping pace with her easily, his eyes locked on Josef, his expression desperate.

Beth arrived in the freshie family room on the other side of the main floor in seconds…..Karl hot on her heels. She pivoted on the run, and headed for the stainless swinging double doors that led to the main kitchen. Her senses stretched out ahead of her….. There was some activity behind those doors…..probably the kitchen staff preparing late suppers for some of the freshies, and the other assorted human staff.

Beth gave one loud warning bark as she thundered towards the doors. No time for more…… Her head dipped, and she rammed the doors, knocking them wide open.

Pots and plates were dropped, and utensils flew, as the kitchen staff scrambled out of the crazed wolf’s way. Fortunately, no one had been right in front of the doors.

Beth headed straight for a grouping of islands towards the center of the large professional kitchen. She positioned herself in between two gurney-sized islands, and ducking down, she abruptly used her huge lupine head, and long muzzle, to sweep the contents of the kitchen island on her right off onto the floor. Much crashing occurred as more platters, plates, and pots hit the floor. Food sprayed, splashed, and bounced across the formerly spotless tile floor.

Beth gently laid Mick down on the now vacant surface of the island. She then turned and used her now free right arm to sweep the contents off of the kitchen island on her left, and then laid Josef out on it.

*********************************************


While this was going on……Simone took advantage of Beth’s lower posture, and lack of forward momentum, to swing her legs free her shaggy neck, and slide down her long back to the floor behind the huge upright golden she-wolf. She stumbled and nearly fell, feeling dizzy…..grabbing for the edge of the kitchen island that Josef lay on….trying to steady herself.

Simone froze……starring into Josef’s now waxy, lifeless-looking, face.

*********************************************


Beth swung her great head around to look at Simone for a moment…..almost as though she had forgotten she was there. The golden wolf dropped to all fours and blinked at the attorney, before turning back to the two dying vampires now laid out on the kitchen islands on either side of her. No time for concerns about Simone……the woman seemed shaken…..but otherwise unharmed.

Mick and Josef, on the other hand……they were ashen and waxy….. Their skin sinking in as the silver destroyed them from the inside out…..like Ebola. But, they both clung stubbornly to life. Beth could hear their silver-polluted blood flowing sluggishly through their veins. Their eyes were half-lidded, with no awareness behind them…….the tips of their fangs showed, as their dying bodies instinctively reached out for their only hope.

Karl was there……having followed Beth into the main kitchen. He reached out now, and gently took hold of Simone’s arm, pulling her to the other side of the island that Josef lay on, giving Beth room.

“Tubing!”, Beth snapped abruptly, “Someone get me some tubing!”

“What kind of tubing?”, Karl asked softly.

“Any kind!”, Beth bellowed furiously.

Karl disappeared like a shot, darting off to a far corner of the kitchen. He returned just as fast…..holding a long coil of finger-sized plastic tubing in one hand. He held it up towards Beth.

“Ice-maker tubing……this will work?”, he asked hopefully.

The golden wolf eyed the roll of tubing and nodded. “Perfect! Cut it into four equal lengths! Hurry!”

Karl quickly measured the tubing out on his long arms, and bit through it at even intervals…..his scalpel-sharp fangs slicing it cleanly….…rapidly creating four sections of tubing, each section approximately a meter long.

While Karl was doing that, Beth sat back on her haunches and reached for Mick, hooking his shirt with her claws and ripping it open, exposing his chest and abdomen. She did the same with Josef.

Beth was aware of a quietly growing audience of humans, gathered around the walls of the large professional kitchen, looking on in horrified silence. Most were kitchen staff and maids, but a few freshies had also come in……and Simone had joined that small group.

Ignoring this audience, Beth shot a glance at Karl, and held out one huge hand-like forepaw towards him, her ivory talons catching the light and gleaming softly. “Hand me one piece.”, She commanded.

Like a scrub nurse handing the surgeon a requested instrument, Karl quickly placed one meter long length of tubing across the golden wolf’s enormous hand-paw.

Beth’s thick fingers closed around it, and she turned back to Mick’s motionless form. Using the tip of the talon on her right index finger, she quickly punctured the side of Mick’s abdomen. He groaned softly, but otherwise didn’t respond. Her sapphire eyes flicked to his face momentarily, and then back to her work.

Leaving her talon in the wound, Beth used her other hand to feed one end of the tubing into Mick’s abdominal cavity. Once it was several inches in, Beth gently withdrew her talon. The makeshift surgical drain stayed in place. She let the other end of the tube snake towards the floor, where it hung in the air just above a drain beneath the kitchen island. Perfect.

Almost immediately, blood, mixed with pus and flecks of silver, began to stream from the tubing in Mick’s side.

Beth held her hand out for a second piece of tubing. Karl silently handed it to her, and Beth quickly used the same method to insert it between Mick’s ribs and snake it inside his chest cavity. More blood, mixed with pus and silver, began to flow down this second tube and drip to the floor under the kitchen island, making its way to the drain.

A thrill of hope shot through Beth. It was working! She turned to Josef and repeated this process of drain placement, with Karl handing her the sections of tubing when she held out a hand towards him. Blood, pus and silver also began to flow from the drains in Josef.

With all four drains in place, two in each stricken vampire, Beth let out a shuddering sigh of relief……it was working. Now all she had to do was feed them until their bodies succeeded in clearing all the poison from their systems.

A confused, and very frightened, Talbot had fed Mick the last time this happened……and it worked…..Mick recovered. It had nearly killed Ben, of course, but he was only human. Beth smiled……. She wasn’t human anymore……and Josef had said that werewolf blood was the vampire’s panacea.

She moved to the place between the kitchen islands where she was beside each vampire’s head. She then sat back up on her haunches again, balancing there, and stretched out her huge forearms on each side of herself, placing a large, golden-furred, wrist in front of each vampire’s face.

Mick and Josef were too weak to respond, and didn’t seem very conscious, but Beth saw their nostrils flare slightly, as each of them scented what they desperately needed. Both their fangs were already descended, so Beth simply brought it to them…….. pressing her huge lupine wrists against their open mouths, pushing up until their fangs broke her skin and embedded in her flesh.

Beth’s blood began to flow, filling each vampire’s mouth. Relief washed through her again as she saw first Josef, and then Mick, swallow that first gulp of manna convulsively. Slowly, both vampires weakly raised their hands and took hold of the furry, golden arm before their face, securing it, and beginning to suck hard on the wounds, swallowing the rich werewolf blood greedily. Their ice-white eyes slid partially open, and seemed more aware, before sliding closed again. Both vampires now wore the contented expression of a nursing kitten. Beth could even hear a very soft purring sound coming from each of them. She smiled.

Beth turned her graceful lupine head and looked back at the surgical drains, where they trailed to the floor. All four sections of drain tubing were now producing copious amounts of blood, mixed with equally copious amounts of pus and, most importantly, silver flecks. These noxious fluids flowed to the floor beneath each kitchen island, and streamed towards the drains built into the floor.

She sighed and closed her own eyes, smiling gently..…… This was going to work.

“Mademoiselle?”

Oh no……not him……not now……. Beth’s blazing sapphire eyes slid open slowly at the sound of the familiar French accent. A soft growl rumbled in her throat. She knew that, at any moment, the man’s usual tirade of French swear words, and broken English, would begin….and he would be, officially, stepping on her last nerve…… This would be it……she knew she was going to kill the French chef………. She simply didn’t have the willpower left to stop herself this time. If it weren’t for the fact that her hands were not free, she would do it right now………

The short, pudgy French chef was standing a few feet in front of her, in the midst of the pots, pans, plates, and food, that had been tossed on the floor when Beth commandeered the kitchen islands. His expression was not what Beth expected…….given that she had REALLY made a mess of his kitchen this time. Oddly, he didn’t look angry or indignant. He appeared shocked…..and frightened…..but not for himself…….

He looked at Josef and Mick, before raising his gaze to Beth’s elegant lupine face high above him. His expression was tight with concern.

“What do you need, Mademoiselle? I will get for you. I will help.”

Okay……that was a surprise….. Beth blinked at the little man, her head involuntarily cocking to one side slightly…… her initial desire to kill him beginning to fade.

“Meat….”, she replied in a raspy voice. “I’m hungry…..”

The little French chef nodded, glancing down again at Mick and Josef feeding greedily at her wrists. “Yes….I would imagine so……”

He turned and strode to the meat locker, waving impatiently, but silently, at two of his assistants to follow him. They both came off the wall and fell into step behind him.

Opening and entering the meat locker, the little French chef paused, scanning the contents. “This one…..and this one.”, He said in his heavily accented English, pointing to the carcasses he wanted.

His assistants lifted the two venison carcasses down, and then followed their boss back out of the meat locker.

Beth eyed the meat with longing, but didn’t move…… She had to keep feeding the two vampires suckling at her wrists. They needed her……

The little French chef actually cleared an island himself…..pushing the contents off onto the floor, where it all crashed, clattered, and splattered. Beth’s jaw dropped in surprise. Had he been to a Doctor for his OCD? Gotten started on medication? His scent had not changed……so she doubted it.

“Here!”, the chef snapped to his assistants, “Put them here.” The two assistants obediently dropped the carcasses onto the stainless steel kitchen island. It was the one next to the island Mick lay on, relatively close to the huge golden she-wolf.

“Bite-size pieces…..”, the little French chef instructed his assistants, “HER bite size……quickly!” He grabbed a cleaver and began dismembering a carcass, cutting it up into rump roast sized chunks, bones and all. His assistants followed suit with the second carcass.

Once his assistants had the idea, the little French chef grabbed a long, and heavy, bifurcated skewer from where it hung on a wall-mounted utensils rack. He impaled a five pound chunk of venison on the long, two-prong fork and extended it towards Beth.

Careful not to jostle, or otherwise disrupt, her two feeding vampires, the huge golden wolf leaned sideways, as far as she could, towards the offered chunk of meat. Her jaws parted to receive it as it neared her mouth. The little chef cautiously maneuvered the venison chunk close to Beth’s enormous canines.

Beth gratefully plucked the rump roast sized chunk of venison from the large fork. She flipped it back into her jaws and chewed, swallowing quickly, and then leaned again towards the little French chef and his assistants, her expression expectant and eager. In spite of the desperate situation, the tip of her fluffy half-tail wagged slightly on the floor behind her.

The pudgy Frenchman smiled as he stuck another large chunk of venison on the end of his skewer and extended it towards the golden she-wolf’s waiting jaws. She snapped it up again, and, as she chewed, their eyes met……

The little French chef and the golden werewolf regarded each other for several seconds…… Then both of them smiled softly.
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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by mitzie »

Absolutely awesome chapter!! Beth is one helluva wolf!!!! :thud: I hope the Legion doesn't figure out what she is and get to her somehow!!!! :gasp: :eek2: :eek2: :fingerscrossed: I love this story and can't wait for more... :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :clapping: :clapping: :hyper2: :hyper2: :dizzy: :eek2: :devil: :whistle: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :eyes: :eyes: :slappy: :swords: :mob: :seesaw: :dog: :dog: :scarycat: :chair: :fingerscrossed: :clover: :yahoo: :clapping: :clapping: :thud: :thud: :thud: :thud: :notworthy: :worship: :heart: :hyper2: :hyper2:


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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by lionsonleashes »

Hi Mitzie! :hug:
Thanks! Yeah.....Beth is a force of nature....to be sure! And, now that they've seen her transform....The Legion knows exactly what she is....and they WILL try to get to her. (((Unless SHE gets to them first! :devil: )))) They have bitten off way more than they can chew.....and they'll be finding that out shortly! :eek2:
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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by toria1521 »

Please, please, please,please,PLEASE :heart: write more!
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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by allegrita »

OMG--Lions!!! What a freakin' awesome chapter! I was so worried about Mick and Josef, but thank goodness Beth knew what to do. And thank goodness some more that she's got just what the vamp-doctor ordered to help her men get better. And if she runs low, Phelan's there, too... I hope... he is OK, isn't he?! (Oh no, now I'm starting to worry!) :confused2: :pray:

I am on the edge of my seat, wondering what's coming next. If that French chef can come around to Beth's side, anything can happen!!! Thank you for such a wild ride--what a fabulous story. :clapping: :cheer: :hyper2: :notworthy:
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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by lionsonleashes »

Hi Toria! :hug: I will write more, I promise! I've been on vacation for the past couple weeks, so haven't had time to write, but I will begin writing Chap 25 soon & get it posted ASAP. Thanks so much for reading and leaving feedback! :notworthy: :curtesy:

Hi Alle! :hug: :rose: Thank you sooooo much! :yahoo: I'm so glad you enjoyed this Chapter! :hyper2: And yes......Phelan is fine. ;) At this point.... he's still out on the town with the freshie, April, and has no idea what has happened at Josef's mansion.
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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by tucutecats »

Oh what can I say ,I just read all 23 chaps again, my eyes are blury. What a great story teller you are. This is just so wonderful I love Beth as a werewolf. You deserve all kinds of awards, Your talent is great and I look forward to reading many more of your stories.
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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by lionsonleashes »

Thanks cutecats! :hug:
I appreciate your feedback and encouragement sooooo much! :flowers:
I'm working on Chap 25, but it is coming slowly, due to a slight case of writer's block. :quill:
Things flowed better today...... So, hopefully, I'm back in business! :thumbs: :pray:
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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by coco »

Go Beth! Incredible lions :clapping:
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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

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Thanks Coco! :hug:
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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by jen »

Just when you think it is safe to relax a little, catch your breath and heave a sign of relief...

The Legion is back--but those two assasins ran into something they didn't expect. Fortunately, Beth had things in hand.

The Legion will not make this mistake again. Will they see it as the presence of the Pack in L.A.?

In any case, she has apparently saved Mick and Josef, and proven her worth to the local vampire community, but will that usefulness itself cause them problems?

We may find out the answers to all that in the next chapter.

I'm gonna go read...

Thanks, Lions

Jenna

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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by lionsonleashes »

Thank you, Jenna! :rose: :notworthy:
I love your insightful feedbacks! :flowers: :thumbs:
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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by jen »

bump

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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by jen »

The Legion has just made three mistakes that will serve to haunt it for a while to come.

1, they made a very poorly timed attempt to kill Josef Kostan;

2. they have angered a powerful new werewolf, that they were totally unaware of by nearly killing her adopted sire and her mate; and

3. they ruined the celebration that followed Beth's first full moon shift.

Payback is coming and it will be a...well, you know.

Events on the horizon will settle any doubts about Beth's loyalties.

Oh, and by the way--I love the new new banner you have made for this story, the one with Phelan and Beth and Josef and Mick!!

Thanks!

Jenna

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Re: FULL MOONLIGHT---Ch 24---The Legion. (PG-13)

Post by jen »

If ever there was a series of events that would prove Beth's dedication and value to the vampire community in Los Angeles, it is the events here and in the next few chapters.

With each wonderful chapter, we are seeing more about werewolves in general and Beth in particular.

Phelan, bless him, is nowhere around when Beth reacted she did to this attempt on Josef and Mick's life. Not only has she kept her head about her and thereby saved their lives, but now is going to dispense a little bit of werewolf style justice.

Go, Beth!

Thanks,

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