Barrel of a gun.

Simon doubled over throwing up thick, bright red blood. This was a good sign, he told himself, it meant that the bloody pulp they were beating out of him was fresh, at least. With a smile he took another right hook in the stomach as his shoulders were pulled nearly out of their sockets by the two men holding him. Well really, they were lifting him since he had lost all feeling in his legs about an hour ago. It could have been the baseball bat or maybe even the butt of their rifles but he would bet money it was the well placed bullets they had shot him with.

Smart, these werewolves, Simon decided. They knew enough about them to keep them weak by draining the blood out of them or else they ran the risk of a vampire's 'fight or flight' response or to the Tacharan's, blood lusting. The minute they woke him up, his body went into hyper drive but that was squelched by several gun shots to the chest and an immediate and painful beating. They at least let him pass out from time to time, that was nice of them.

Another barrage of fists hit him in the solar plexus and face, splitting his lip in another inconvenient place and blurring his right eye. He could barely breath as they kicked him in the stomach and pulled at his arms which, he discovered in an most unpleasant way, were clamped behind him just above his elbows. It felt like a long cylindrical tube about a foot long, fitting tightly on his arms just above his elbows. They held his arms about six inches apart, just far enough to not completely dislocate his shoulders, but close enough to make standing difficult. His arms were certainly dislocated or at least still attached by sheer will but the pain radiated up his neck and down his back.

With bleary, bloodied eyes Simon coughed up more bright red blood and tried to get an picture in his head of the room he was in. It appeared to be a fruit cellar or basement in a cabin somewhere. It was cold, dank and musty. It was honestly perfect, he thought as a fist flew across his face, cracking his cheek bone. Where else could they keep them alive, albeit barely, and continue the torture without being discovered? They had to be in the woods, maybe on their property, Simon wondered as he lost another tooth.

They dropped him finally and his face bounced off the dirt floor of the cellar. His blood shot eyes peered through the swelling from around his eyebrows and saw a pair of blood covered boots. Someone rolled him over, onto his back and he looked up. Above him was the thick necked individual that had come through his bedroom door.

'My name is Michaels and you are my guest. Gonna get some sleep, are we?' The thick neck fellow laughed.

Simon swallowed as best he could, clearing the blood out of his mouth.

'Yesssth,' he slurred. 'I...hadth...c...considered....a nap.'

'Oh, ok then.'

A final kick across the face caught him, surprisingly enough, off guard and it half turned his body toward the opposite side of the basement. Ellis was laying in a heap, unharmed he was pretty sure, but there was no telling when her turn would come. The man called Michaels knelt down and followed his gaze.

'Don't worry, we'll give you a break once she wakes up.'

Simon blinked slowly and even that hurt. His eyes watched Michaels stand and walk out with two other men. The clamp dug into his back as he laid there staring up at the ceiling. He tried to roll over but found he couldn't even lift his legs. With a final sigh Simon finally let the rest of a properly beaten man take him over.

Ellis laid quietly on the dirty floor trying not to change her breathing or react to Simon's beating. Without looking she could tell he was badly hurt, probably having been beaten for god knows how long. She wondered briefly what time it was - the drug didn't seem to take more than an hour or so but there were no windows, no way to tell what time of the day it was.

'My name is Michaels and you are my guest. Gonna get some sleep, are we?'

It helped to know their captor's name. It would make killing his family that much easier.

She did not flinch as she heard them give Simon a few final blows and then drop him onto the ground to fall unconscious. His sense of humor despite his pain almost made her laugh out loud.

'Don't worry, we'll give you a break once she wakes up.'

Ellis closed her eyes. It took everything not to shiver. Vampire or not, she still knew when to feel fear. Any immortal who lived their life without fear would die by it, that much she had seen over the years. She enjoyed a challenge but knew her limitations and she respected the fear that curled up at the bottom of her stomach. Knowing that there was someone who enjoyed causing pain more than she did made that fear grow.

The door closed as the men left. Ellis waited a full five minutes before she risked even changing her breathing pattern. There was thumping of heavy boots above her which led her to believe that they were in a basement of some sort. She tried not to think about the hopelessness of their situation - the fact that no one knew where they were and that no one was going to come and help. Simon was in no condition to help and she was next and knowing men as well as she did - from the 21st century to the 3rd - a woman held captive had a poor chance of dying without being humiliated.

Her choice to stay still was a smart one. The door opened again and one of the men brought in a wooden square table, planting it against the wall next to her. She tried to calm her nerves as she listened to the sound of metal being placed on the table. Having to fight to keep her body relaxed was making her heart pound a thousand beats a minute.

SNAP.

Ellis almost flinched at the noise but listened carefully.

'What are we going to do about Michaels?'

'They don't deserve any better, Piper.'

In a lower, hushed voice. 'But you know what he'll do. How'd he even get this detail with his record?'

'Have you not noticed? They have both killed at least four of us Pipers.'

Pipers? That's what they called themselves, they were Pipers?

Again, in an even lower voice. 'But you KNOW what he'll do, sir. There's no stopping him.'

'And why should we? Is that charged? Let's go then.'

The fear in her stomach twisted painfully. This was bad. Very, very bad.

Ellis waited fifteen minutes this time before even opening her eyes. She blew the hair out of her face and turned her head. She was laying on her left side, arms clamped in something incredibly debilitating and painful. Rolling onto her stomach she pulled her knees up to her chest and pushed off the ground with her chin. The muscles in her back screamed from the pain but she successfully rolled back onto the haunches of her feet.

The top of the table next to her came into full view and she gulped. Several shiny instruments were laid across the table - a few she was well acquainted with and a few she wouldn't even use.

Fuck me, she mouthed.

Looking over at Simon, Ellis held back a silent sob. His face was ground beef.

Oh god, Simon, she mouthed quietly to herself.

She listened to his breathing was which watery and irregular. It was loud in her ears, so loud that it was all she could hear. His eyes were swollen shut and his face was covered in his blood. For the second time in her long and somewhat ugly life she found herself apologizing to Simon for essentially ruining his life.

'Jesus Simon, I am so sor...'

Ellis straightened and turned to the side, making herself a slim a target as possible as the door flew open and a .40 caliber bullet whistled by her neck, into the mud wall. Another three followed and she turned again, moving with as much speed as she could to avoid the first two but took the third into her shoulder.

It pushed her back against the wall, but as quickly as it happened she was halfway across the room running at the gunman when suddenly something peculiar happened. He moved just slightly to his left and before she could react the arrow from a compound crossbow passed just under the gunman's armpit and traveled the short distance across the room to Ellis in less time it took for her to take a step. She felt the arrow pierce her chest and slam her back against the wall with a sickening crunch from her pinned shoulders.

'Miss Duban?'

It took a moment for Ellis to figure out what had just happened. Her name filtered in through the pain and blurred vision. Her head hung down and she looked at the arrow sticking out of her chest. She couldn't move. The arrow had passed through her, into the wall behind her.

Aint that a bitch, she thought to herself.

Looking up she saw again the face in the rear view mirror during the car chase. His voice was already painfully familiar.

'Mr....Michaels?'

The thick neck individual smiled and fired another arrow, this time into her left thigh. Baring her fangs she looked down at the second arrow and then glared back up at Michaels. She was pinned against the wall.

'Welcome to the party, Miss Duban. Now we can begin.'

A silver bullet. How quaint.

Brig knew it was a matter of time before the vampires started using silver bullets. He had expected it much sooner.

'Sir.'

LT leaned in close and whispered.

'It's Michaels. He's a liability.'

Brig merely looked at his LT, waiting for an explanation as to why when he realized that Michaels wasn't present. The look at LT's face would appear that he just realized it as well. Opening his mouth, his first word was drowned out by the blare of an alarm.

A tinny voice began to babble incessantly in the ear piece that was dangling on his right shoulder. He had taken it out briefly to speak with his Beta and LT. Replacing it he tucked the piece back in his right ear.

'Say again.' Brig listened.

A fire.

Marthinus pushed off the door frame and backed out of the way as the Pipers rushed out. The LT was directing them out to the wooded grounds of the property. As they all rushed out, Marthinus turned to follow the last Piper exiting the ready room.

'MARTHINUS.'

It was the LT's voice.

'Stay here.'

Marthinus immediately felt his hackles rise but he nodded. Taking orders still left a bad taste in his mouth but he stood aside to let the Beta, the Commander and the LT out. As the trio ran down the hallway, their voices filtered back to him - key words standing out the most.

'Michaels...Duban...missing...transponder.'

Standing alone in the ready room, Marthinus crossed his arms and walked around the glass table. He picked up the baggie that had been left there and turned it over in his hand. His eyes unfocused as he tried to picture the items in his left and right pants pocket. Small, cylindrical and...hopeful. Hope. He had been lacking that as of late, a little of it would be nice.

Duban.

Marthinus eyes flicked over to the ready room's computer.

There were four Pipers missing but not presumed dead. Not by the tone LT had taken in mentioning the new Piper Michaels name.

Transponder.

They were going to track his whereabouts. He was missing, along with his team. They had Ellis and Simon. There was no doubt about it now. Marthinus looked at the door and then back down at the computer. Door. Computer. This was a risk, a very stupid risk but a loyalty was laying itself down on the line and it was asking him - which family was he going to protect?

'Damnit.'

Marthinus pulled back the chair and sat down at the computer. He was now treading on dangerous waters - using his access to penetrate the security files, he momentarily stopped and ran his hands over his mouth. The computer chirped happily at him, ready to submit to his will. He began calling up all the information he could on Michaels. A new arrival, but very distant cousin of the Jamesons. Violent, aggression issues but more importantly a misogynist. If they were with Michaels and if he managed to subdue Ellis....Suddenly Marthinus was very scared, but not for her.

For them.

Frantically Marthinus tried to identify and locate Piper 5's transponder. Michaels wouldn't just kill Ellis. No, he would do much more to her and if she managed to free herself...

The rest of the Pipers were out trying to contain the brush fire caused by the lightning storm. He'd have to go now, by himself, to find them. Because this was no longer about his loyalties to Tacharan and Ellis - this was about saving the Pipers who were out there - alone with Ellis and Simon. Two ancients, one with bitter memories of an oppressed woman with a seething hate toward rapists and one very stupid werewolf who had planned to do just that.

The GPS system pinged at him, homing in on their transponder. Marthinus transferred the information to his blackberry and pushed away from the desk, knocking over his chair as he rushed out of the ready room to his car.

She probably looked just as bad as she thought she did - laying face down in the dirt of the cellar. They had left the arrow in her chest in and she bled profusely from it, but they tore the one in her thigh out and had released her from the wall. Michaels had no problem beating her as severely as he had beaten Simon - she in fact felt a thousand times worse. Ellis pushed her forehead against the dirt and raised up a little, clearing her mouth from the ground.

'Don't like...women much...do you...Michaels?' She cackled, her throat gurgling with blood as he took a step toward her, his boots now covered in both her and Simon's blood. The steel toe of his right boot kicked her in the ribs. The pain radiated out and pierced her brain like a gunshot. Curling up into fetal position or as best she could with her arms still in the clamps, she coughed up bright red blood onto the already blood saturated dirt floor.

Michaels walked past her back to the wooden desk. He was systematically going through the choice of devices they had laid out earlier. She was already missing two fingers, up to the second knuckle and shot a good half dozen times - but she wasn't really sure about that since the beaten started quickly and maintained a sick yet consistent pace. Michaels was enjoying it - it was either the low guttural laugh or the raging hard on he was sporting that tipped her off. Yes, the gentleman had issues.

Curiously enough the other Pipers elected not to participate in her beating. It was all Michaels. Ellis opened a swollen eye and looked out. The door was open and standing outside she could see two more men. They were just behind the threshold of the door, watching with rigid faces. A third was upstairs. Looking up Ellis listened for the soft thumping of boots - it was moving from one end to the other. That one was pacing. He was probably the one questioning the other about Michaels. She lowered her eyes back down again. Apparently seeing her and Simon dead was just fine by them, they just didn't want any part of the fun before the end. Ellis made a mental note of the faces of the men just beyond the door. They would die first. Michaels though...

He'd die last.

Ellis tried to concentrate on separating the pain from her thoughts but it was beyond difficult. It radiated all over her and the amount of blood loss was keeping her from regenerating at any reasonable speed to be of any help to herself and Simon was still unconscious on the ground. Her heart ached looking at him. He was there from almost the beginning and had always promised to be there at the end, whenever that came. She blinked the blood out of her eyes and looked at him with the caked blood on his curiously relaxed face.

The clanking of metal broke her train of thought as Michaels picked through the instruments. With a rough sigh Ellis tried to think. She had no idea where they were or if they were even still in the city. Inhaling deeply again she tried reaching out with her abilities but it was useless. All she could do was take in the fresh pine scent in the air and the cold aroma of the dirt beneath her. Pine. They were outside city limits, in the acres of forest toward the mountains in the north. The middle of no where.

Michaels boots stirred and Ellis looked up in his direction to see his hand come down and grab a fistful of her hair. Wincing, she felt him lift her off the ground, pointing her face at his. She couldn't see his right hand but she heard the clanking of metal coming from it. With sick realization she realized what he was going to do.

'Open wide.'

Michaels lifted the heavy pliers in his hand and pried them into her mouth, claming down around her left fang. She tried kicking her feet but she dangled from her hair as it threatened to rip out. With a smile she would never forget, Michaels leaned in close and licked the side of her face, running his tongue along her left cheek.

Then he pulled.

His name was Shorty.

He was pacing the floor, all six foot seven of him. Shorty was of course ironic, but he liked the nickname just the same. The newbies didn't get nicknames so when he received his, he took it with pride, but there was nothing like being called a Piper. He tried to remember this honor when the screaming from below in the basement began.

He was born into his life and the pack with the same memories as the other Pipers. His father and his father's father passed the memories down from their father to him and he'd pass it on to his son, but the screaming from the basement wasn't something he wanted to remember. This was a memory he would be ashamed of passing on to his son.

Michaels was torturing the Duban vampire. He had watched as the others beat Huntington within an inch of his immortal life but Michaels was going solo with the woman. No one wanted any part of it, but they were letting it happen.

'Just kill her,' he said. 'What are you waiting for?'

Michaels and his group commander just looked at him. He wanted her dead as much as the rest of them, but he did not sign up for torture. Shorty just wanted to walk in there and put a bullet into her brain but Michaels refused. So now, he was upstairs listening to the screaming coming from the Duban woman. He closed his eyes and covered his ears with his hands, trying to block it out.

Then it stopped.

Shorty lowered his hands and wiped the beads of sweat off his top lip when Michaels came up the stairs and into the room. He was followed by the other two Pipers.

'Shorty!' Michaels exclaimed happily. He was holding something in his right hand. 'Would you like a souvenir?'

Shorty flinched as Michaels tossed something small and white at him. He caught it in his left hand. Opening it up only added to the sick ball of shame curdling in his stomach. Looking at it, his face twisted up in disgust.

'You cheapen the name Piper.' Shorty turned his hand over and dropped the fang onto the ground. He looked at each of the men. 'All of you.'

Michaels watched as Shorty turned to leave. In the wake of the other Piper's declaration he had dropped Duban's fang on the ground. He followed behind Shorty and retrieved the lone fang. Straightening up he called out to Shorty.

'Piper.' Shorty turned and looked at Michaels with his hand on the door knob. He was going to leave and tell LT what they were doing. What *he* was doing. They couldn't have that.

Michaels drew his weapon and put a bullet into Shorty's right eye. Two of the other Pipers ran to Shorty, kneeling down over him.

'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!'

Looking back at the other Pipers he raised his gun at them. Michaels put a bullet in between the eyes of the two near Shorty and with his left hand he pulled his other gun and shot at the Piper next to him from the hip, hitting him square in the left eye.

'I'm gonna have me some fun.'

Simon jerked awake into a cloud of dust and something falling onto his arms. The pain surged up his arms to his neck and into his brain, waking him into consciousness. With a painful grunt he tried to clear his head, shaking it slightly which only made it worse. His right eye has completely swelled shut and his left was threatening to follow suit, still he turned his head to try and get a view of the room. Suddenly an overwhelming urge to vomit overcame him - it radiated out from his center to his head and extremities. His stomach cramped and he vomited whatever was left in his stomach along with some blood. The last time he felt something like that was when...

'Ellis?'

Frantically Simon fought against the pain and tried to roll over, looking for her. The last time he felt anything like that was when Ellis was being electrocuted in Hillman's compound. Rolling onto his stomach he switched sides and came face to face with whatever fell on him.

Lying in a pool of blood, motionless and beaten beyond recognition was Ellis. Fresh blood was seeping out of her mouth, onto the blood caked dirt floor. The top half of her face was covered with her matted black hair but he could see the cuts, bruises and swelling underneath. Moving closer he whispered to her.

'Oh god, Ellis? Can you hear me?'

Her eyes opened slightly or at least as far as they could beneath the swelling. The whites of her eyes were blood shot and her lips cut and swollen. Simon's face winced in pain just looking at her.

'Did they...?' He didn't want to ask if they had raped her but to his relief she shook her head slowly. Looking at her, beaten and barely conscious his heart ached painfully. There was nothing he could do to get them out of their situation, but he wouldn't let them humiliate her.

'I won't let them, Ellis.'

Nodding slowly she closed her eyes and sobbed quietly. Slowly a smile touched the corners of her lips, revealing her missing fangs. Simon felt his chest tighten and through his swollen eyes, he felt tears well up into them. After he had passed out they must have tortured her relentlessly - the beatings, gunshots and of course ripping her fangs out. He touched her forehead with his.

'I promise.'

'My hero.'

She mumbled the words as best she could through the pain in her mouth. It twisted in her like a dull knife. Michaels had yanked them clean out of her mouth, for which she should be thankful. He could have just broken them out - either way once the fangs were out he dropped her on the floor, next to Simon.

'I'm gonna have to say...we're both not having a good day.'

The words were hard to form but it was worth it to see Simon smile, if only a little. She pressed her forehead back against his taking comfort in him being there but the guilt festered inside her knowing that it was because of her that he was going to die along with her.

'Listen, if you can get out....'

Simon pulled back and glared at her. He shook his head and Ellis watched as a tear dislodged itself from his swollen eye and ran down his dirtied cheek.

'God damn it, Simon. You shouldn't be here.' He kept telling her to stop, but she kept going. 'If it wasn't for me...if...' He told her again to stop. 'You don't deserve this...you didn't deserve any of what...I did.'

'God damn it, Simon. You shouldn't be here.'

'Stop.'

'If it wasn't for me...if...'

'Ellis, stop.'

'You don't deserve this...you didn't deserve any of what...I did.'

'STOP!'

He yelled in her face and they both turned toward the door, listening for the others upstairs. After a few moments Simon looked back at Ellis.

'I'm not leaving.' She began to cry harder now, the tears doing their best to push past the swollen skin and caked blood. Then suddenly a gunshot rang out.

Ellis tried to turn her body toward the door but he stopped her.

'No, no.' He coaxed her back to look at him. 'Look at me. We started this life together, you and I. If I ever had a purpose, it was to be here for you. From the beginning, it's all I ever wanted, Ellis. Was to be there...for you.'

Two more gunshots rang out and then there was silence. He tried to ignore the silence and concentrated on Ellis' watery green eyes. Through the blood shot whites and matted hair, he tried to see what it was that drew him in so many years ago.

'Hiding, behind the pain, remorse and guilt was the woman I fell in love with and stayed in love with. I don't know what else I could do or could have done.'

Ellis sobbed quietly as Simon told her what she had needed to hear - whether it was the truth or not. They were both going to die and they knew it. Clearing her throat she gave him a small smile. Michaels was coming and they didn't have very much time. Some things just needed to be said.

'I love you, Simon. I always have and always will. It took you killing me to realize what I had.' Ellis looked into his hazel eyes and above her she heard foot steps moving across the floor.

'I never deserved you and you don't deserve this.'

He heard the steps above them but it was only one pair. In the back of his mind Simon wondered just how crazy Michaels really was. If those three gunshots were for the other werewolves, he was leaving himself alone with the two of them.

'It doesn't matter anymore.' He smiled at her as he listened to the footsteps come down the steps to the basement.

'I love you.'

The basement door opened and Michaels walked in, holding his weapons in both his hands. He set them on the table and Simon watched as the werewolf turned and crossed his arms.

'Isn't that cute?' Michaels said. Simon looked back at Ellis and he saw it, for the first time, terror in her eyes.

Michaels walked toward them and grabbed Ellis by her arm, lifting her up painfully. He pulled the arrow left in her chest out and was covered by the spray of blood. He seemed to not even notice it as he threw her onto the table, her arms and backside up.

'Michaels. Don't do it.'

'Not only am I going to do it, but you're going to watch.' Michaels dropped the arrow and smiled.

Ellis had her face looking down at the table in front of her. Simon tried to roll over onto his stomach to get a knee up underneath him as Michaels began to undo the belt of his camouflage paints. He closed his eyes, trying to focus when Ellis called his name. He didn't want to look as he heard Michaels beginning to rip at her clothes. She said his name again and he opened them just as he got his knee underneath him, ready to push up off the ground.

Ellis was looking at him from over her shoulder. She stuck her chin out and motioned toward something on the table next to her. Blinking he couldn't quite make it out. Suddenly Ellis pushed back against Michaels, knocking the table and its contents to the floor - all but the item she pointed at. She managed to catch that with her shoulder before it slid off.

Simon blinked again, his eyes trying to focus on the stick. His eyes grew large as he realized just what it was.

Ellis was exhausted and her strength completely tapped - but when she heard Michaels readying himself to rape her, she found the will to fight back. She wasn't about to go out like that - not like that, not with this stupid fucker humiliating her. It wouldn't be once and she knew it. He'd kill Simon but not her, not till he was done or his friends found him because she knew what those three gunshots were.

He had killed his team and meant to do whatever he wanted now.

'Simon.'

Not if she could fucking help it. Not now. Not after she had seen the one thing that would save her and Simon. She pushed back against him hard enough to rock the table and she caught the glimmer of hope with her shoulder before it rolled off. Now she had to make him mad.

'Simon!'

She called out to him, over her shoulder. He was trying to get up but she needed him to see it. He needed to understand, but he wouldn't look at her.

Michaels laughed as he resumed his task, ripping her shirt in half and pulling at the waistband of her pants. She gritted her teeth when she felt his hands on her skin and turned to look over her shoulder at Simon. Finally he was looking at her and with the item still on the desk, he squinted, trying to look through his swollen eyelids. He needed to see it. He needed to understand.

Simon's eyes grew large just as Michaels ripped her pants waist band and began to push down on her clothes. Simon got his knee up and slowly stood.

Ellis took a deep breath and snapped the top half of her body back, connecting the back of her head with Michael's face. If that didn't get him mad, she wasn't sure what would.

Michaels reached up and touched his bloodied nose and he came back at her, hitting her across the face, knocking her off the table, along with the item. They both sailed across the room into the corner and he stood over her with blood dripping out of his nose.

Ellis looked up at him and glared. 'Oops, my bad.'

That's all it took.

Ellis bent over and put her hands on her knees, laughing mostly to herself as she and Simon finally began to feel the effects of the electrically induced blood lust wearing off. Simon stumbled back against the wall and slumped down, smearing Michaels' blood down the wall with him. Turning, Ellis warned him of what was coming next.

'It's amazing, isn't it? It's nothing like you've EVER felt before - but this...break down, I guess you could call it - get ready for a long nap.'

She laughed as she watched Simon's smiling face begin to fade. She walked over and sat down next to him on his left, looking at him as he systematically shut down and slumped over to the side.

She looked around the room and found Michaels' bloody watch and checked the time. It was past sunrise already. Dropping the watch to the side, Ellis looked back at Simon and considered their situation. They were alive, yes but still in the same situation.

No where to go, no one to help them.

They were in no shape to use the Piper's vehicle to get back to town (assuming they were out of town which she was pretty sure of) and even going out to brave the sun, even for a short while, would be pointless. The pain would stop them dead in their tracks - literally. So, they were stuck. No radio, no phone. They would come and they'd be here.

In fact, they were already there.

Ellis didn't bother to look at whoever came through the door until they were in the room. As she turned to look at who had come in, she wasn't sure if seeing Marthinus was a good thing or a bad thing. Still, she gave him a warm smile.

'Marthinus.'

A thin sheet of sweat was covering his face and he jammed his hands into his pockets and then took them back out again. Her eyebrows furrowed at the sight. Was that silver he was wearing? She pointed at his hands and he shook his head, wiping at the sweat. Nodding, Ellis laced her fingers together in her lap and looked down at them for a moment.

'Are you here to kill us, Marthinus?'

Marthinus wiped the sweat off of his face and was genuinely shocked at her question.

'Are you here to kill us, Marthinus?'

'No', he immediately answered and then was perplexed by his answer. He supposed he wasn't, not really. He had come for a completely different reason, at least that's what he kept telling himself.

Marthinus pointed up and could smell the sizzle of his flesh from the ring, ignoring it he asked about the Pipers upstairs. 'The others...?'

Ellis shook her head.

'Michaels, then.'

Her smile fell and she shrugged.

'Yes, it was Michaels.' He looked around the room, pointing at the bits of flesh and blood splatter everywhere.

Ellis smiled again, nodding.

Marthinus shook his head slowly, closing his eyes but was shocked to see that he could still see Michaels' torn body in his mind. That would be a long reoccurring nightmare.

'I don't know if I can help you. They're busy back at the...home base...but they are coming, Ellis. I can't stop them.'

Ellis looked down at her hands again. The sun was rising and the end was coming up with the horizon. She didn't understand his loyalties, or even knew where they lay, but she felt no regret asking him to help.

'Marthinus, I don't know what you're going through.' She began slowly but without looking into his eyes. 'I'm sorry but...I just don't remember what I did.' Ellis looked over at Simon as he slumbered deeply in his blood lust coma.

'I won't ask you to do it for me but...for him.'

Self sacrifice. This was a new one for Ellis. It confused her in so many ways, it was so...selfless. Every day had been the same, exactly the same. She used to have a purpose - more power, more land, more humans and more money. A voice in her head that was so clear in its drive and its meaning. But now...

'Not for me, Marthinus. Not for me.'

The sleep over whelmed her, reaching up with its soft arms, embracing her into the deep nothingness that she so clearly recalled in the blazing inferno of Hillman's compound. When Simon tried to kill her. She chuckled at the thought - fire was so cleansing. Maybe she did die that day, so she could continue to live.

Ellis felt the world shift and her eyelids grew heavy as the dirt came rushing toward her face, and with a final sigh that seemed to expand her universe all around her, she slept.

Ladies and gentlemen please
Would you bring your attention to me?
For a feast for your eyes to see
An explosion of catastrophe

Like nothing you’ve ever seen before
Watch closely as I open this door
Your jaws will be on the floor
After this you’ll be begging for more
- Saliva

((OOC - Ellis and Simon out))

Marthinus watched her slump over to her side, falling into her deep sleep. She was completely vulnerable - her and Simon. The Pack could come now and kill them and they would never know a thing. They would never feel the pain that the rest of them felt. Was that fair? To the Pack or to his great grandfather?

'...Not for me.'

He had never in his life with the clan seen Ellis give herself up for Simon. For anyone.

Marthinus took a step back and turned toward the door. He gave them a final look and left the basement. As he climbed the stairs he reached into his pocket for his cell phone and dialed a number he was all too familiar with.

He walked back though the cabin as he put the phone to his ear and he passed through the front door just as the other end was picked up.

'Carol...you need to listen closely to what I'm about to tell you....'

The fire consumed about an acre of the forest on the property and with the help of the Pipers, the local fire department was able to contain and extinguish the fire quickly. Brig finished rolling down his sleeves with his cousin in view as he finished speaking with the Fire Marshall. Neither he or Hammer discussed the situation that LT had brought up but he knew it had been on both their minds. He did not have to ask LT where he was going when Brig dismissed him from the fire and was not surprised when he returned with the information.

Not surprised but very disappointed.

LT approached Brig and quietly relayed the information. 'Piper 5 has been silent for the past two hours.' Nodding Brig turned to leave but LT stopped him.

'Sir...there's more.'

Brig listened as he buttoned the cuff of his shirt. As LT finished Brig's shoulder slumped and he looked at his second in command with an annoyed look.

'You're serious?'

LT nodded and took a step back, looking past him. Brig followed his gaze as Hammerthynn approached them both.

'Piper 5 has been located.' Hammerthynn nodded and began to walk back toward the Den. Brig reached out and touched his cousin's arm.

'Hammer...it's Marthinus.'

Xeph, comfortable in his suite, was lounging on the couch, watching a movie with Nikhila. He wasn't actually paying much attention to it, though. It had been her idea and he had accommodated her. He knew she was trying to take his mind off the events of the previous few nights which consisted of an interesting night of bowling and and even more (and worse) night hearing some very disturbing reports regarding his Pipers.

So when the phone he referred to as his Bat-phone rang, he glared at it. Picking it up when it stopped, he listened to the message and sighed. Sitting up, putting shoes on, and pulling a t-shirt over his head, he apologised to Nikhila, who made what he assumed was a great effort not to try to join him and simply asked him to be safe.

Xeph strode from the Den, making it as far as the front entrance before Lily stepped out in front of him. He looked at her, at the stubborn green eyes turned steely, and knew asking her to stay out of the way would be pointless.

They exchanged no words, but Xeph nodded at her and she accompanied him out of the Den and off to the coordinates that had been relayed to him. Xeph was already keyed up... from what he'd heard of the previous night, Hammer already had a lot of explaining to do.

There had best be some answers involved here.

Brig stepped out of the black SUV with his hand draped on the door. He looked up the gravel driveway at LT who was walking down toward him with a green face. They had sent the Pipers ahead to scout the area and survey the scene - it had only been two minutes when LT called in that it was clear to proceed.

That meant there was nothing there, nothing good at least.

LT approached him and then turned to the side, not looking at his Commander. Brig put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. Passing the shorter Piper, Brig looked back at Hammerthynn who was stepping out of the SUV and they approached the cabin together. Marthinus stepped out onto the porch, his hands slipping out of the pockets of his trousers and nervously balling them into fists. Hammer and Brig climbed the porch and stood towering over Marthinus. He wouldn't be the one to deal with the new werewolf and he didn't want to be there when Hammer did.

'You have probably,' he checked his watch, 'two minutes to tell us what happened before the Alpha gets here and regulates us all, Steyn.'

Hammer looked down at the five foot eight man from his six foot five stature and brushed past him, electing to see the damage for himself instead of hearing it from Marthinus. He was just too angry to even look at Steyn was probably closer to the truth.

Stepping inside the cabin Hammer let the door open and with a large sigh he looked down at the fallen Pipers. Piper 1 was in the process of bagging up the dead men, but they all stopped to look up at their Beta. Behind him LT entered the cabin and began to recap what had happened.

'Three Pipers - Shorty, Recon, and Jamie,' LT referred to them all by their nicknames but Hammer knew them all as nephews and cousins. 'All with one gunshot wound to the head.' LT neglected to mention that they were all probably dead before they hit the floor, but Brig's second in command didn't need to tell him that.

Hammer asked in an unemotional voice, 'Michaels is where?'

He really didn't have to ask that, but the need to maintain some sort of normalcy was overwhelming. Hammer was looking at fallen relatives, not just his special tactics team. These men were blood and someone killed them and he had an idea of who it might be. The smell of blood hit him the second he stepped out of the vehicle in the driveway and majority of it was coming from the back of the cabin, down the stairs.

LT answered quietly, 'In the basement, sir.'

'Right then.'

Hammer nodded LT to accompany him and they made their way down to the fruit cellar. Rounding the corner and stepping in view of the door to the cellar, Hammer began to chew on his lip. A nervous habit, one that seemed less obtrusive than busing his hands, gave the only indication of annoyance. It was better than vomiting.

Stepping into the cellar his boot sank in the blood saturated dirt. That first step sent chills up his spine but he remained emotionless and continued in. Michaels was in pieces all over the basement. The walls, floors...Hammerthynn looked up...and the ceiling. The term 'torn asunder' came to mind and the queasiness in his stomach cramped up like a rock. He had seen worse, hell he had DONE worse - but as crazy as Michaels apparently was, he was still family.

Instruments were strewn all over the floor and there was a broken wood table. His eyes surveyed the room and noticed thin fingers with painted fingernails mixed in with Michaels. Hammer closed his eyes and swallowed - Michaels had been torturing the woman and her companion. Her death meant more to him than anyone but even he had a limit to how long a wolf should play with their kill. There were some things you did not do - a certain amount of respect you paid to your kill.

Pipers did not torture or rape.

They were in and out. As clean, as quiet and as deadly as you please, but they did not torture. Part of him, he was sad to say, admitted that Michaels got what he deserved.

The crunching noise of an approaching car flicked by his ear and both LT and Hammer turned back toward the door. Allowing himself a disgusted look, Hammer nodded toward LT again.

'Come with me.'

Then both werewolves ascended the stairs to meet the Alpha.

'I disobeyed a direct order and tracked the transponder myself. I know what Ellis is capable of, Commander...I was trying to stop a slaughter but I must have showed up just as it finished.'

'And Duban and her companion?'

'Gone. There were traces of familiar scents - more than likely they were rescued by Tacharan's Mercs.'

Marthinus knew that Brig had noticed the military boot prints crisscrossing through out the cabin. He had made a mental note to step over the prints knowing that anything out of the ordinary would immediately be picked up. He wasn't too worried about appearing nervous since that was to be expected, especially with the Alpha's car coming up the gravel drive.

Hammerthynn and LT stepped out of the cabin behind them and Marthinus avoided looking at their faces, not wanting to read the emotions that he knew even Hammer couldn't hide. It hurt him to see the dead Pipers, but he couldn't imagine how it must have felt to blood kin.

The four werewolves stood on the porch and watched as the Alpha stepped out of the vehicle and over to the passenger side door, opening it. When Lily stepped out of the car, Marthinus, as well as Brig and LT, could not help but look at Hammer.

The tension just went up about one thousand fold.

(OOC - Permission to move Xeph and Lily)

Xeph popped the car into neutral, jammed on the parking brake, and unfolded himself from behind the wheel. He exchanged glances with Lily, both of them equally grim. The men on the porch of the cabin looked ill, all of them.

"I have a feeling this isn't going to be pretty," he said to Lily. It was hard to view her as "mother" at this moment. Thirty years of vague, infrequent communication stood between them, along with the knowledge Xeph had. Lily had been, still was, a capable Beta, strong, stubborn, steel-willed.

But she was his mother. "You don't have to be here."

Nonetheless, he got out of the car, walked around the outside, and opened her door for her. Then he turned, keen eyes picking out each man on the porch of the cabin; Brig, LT, Hammer, and Marthinus. All looking unhappy, all wearing various degrees of discomfort on their faces. LT looked positively green.

With long strides, Xeph crossed the swath of grass and gravel between his car and the porch. Climbing up to the same level as his Pipers, he surveryed them all, a look almost of sadness in his eyes. This, whatever had happened, was bad. And Xeph would need to do what an Alpha must do to maintain order. That didn't mean it would be pleasant.

"So. Who wants to start?"

His face was grave. Xeph was already angry, and if the preliminary reports were correct, he would soon be furious. He trusted the Pipers to maintain order and security. Not ruin them all. Betrayal, disappointment, and bitter anger hovered beneath the surface, but for the moment he kept his expression as neutral as possible.

Lily turned to Aidan when he spoke to her. They'd been quiet for most of the drive, both lost in thought. No doubt Aidan's concerns were much more holistic than hers. In this, Lily did not deceive herself. She had not taken an active role as Beta for her son since coming to Nachton. Of course she'd helped where she could, but she knew that two men she considered friends were involved in whatever had happened here.

She'd gone to Marthinus' suite earlier that evening, hoping to coax the man out, to find him gone and nowhere to be found. No one was too reluctant to give information to the Alpha's own mother though, so it hadn't taken much to determine that something serious was happening. She'd found Aidan, luckily, just before he'd left the Den.

Now, as he turned to her and tried to give her a reason to stay in the car, she smiled softly at him and replied, "I know it isn't, but I do have to be here."

There were undercurrents here not even Aidan was aware of. And shouldn't be aware of, not just yet. As he opened the door for her, Lily's keener-than-average senses picked up the unmistakeable tang of blood on the air. She drew in a breath, sharply, and followed him toward the cabin.

Once there, she focused mostly on Iov and Marthinus. Gazing at first the one and then the other; old and new, Gifter and Gifted, both torn between conflicting loyalties, she wondered exactly what lay beneath both facades. Whatever had happened here, she knew, would change the way things were for them all.

Brig took a step forward and cleared his throat.

'Sir...The Pipers were on city sewer grid mapping detail last evening and my second in command,' he nodded toward LT who looked at the Alpha and nodded in agreement, 'encountered the Duban woman and her companion. Wounded, LT called in reinforcements with orders for eyes only. Piper 5 went rogue and upon capturing Duban and Huntington, brought them here.

During debrief I was informed of Piper 5 going missing but the lightning fire on the property was our first priority. Steyn tracked their transponder and found them here.'

Brig skipped the multiple accidents the Pipers and the Duban woman caused during their high speed pursuit. The Alpha already knew and the look on his face confirmed that. Brig looked at LT who continued.

'Piper 5 did go rogue approximately three hours ago. They ceased radio contact and left the city.' LT turned and put his hand on the front door of the cabin. He hesitated and looked back at his Commander who gave him no indication to stop, despite present company. Still, he looked past the men to Mrs. Xephier.

'Ma'am.' LT swallowed hard and opened the door. Stepping over the bodies, he entered the main room of the cabin and turned back to the group to continue his report.

'We've determined that the resulting deaths were by a single gunshot wound to the head.' He pointed to each individual, 'Samuels...Shorty, Mastersons...Recon, and Jameson...Jamie.'

LT wiped the sweat off his forehead . These were brethren, cousins and brothers. Their deaths were empty and worthless and LT never felt more like puking in his life. In a small, tight voice he finished his report.

'Michaels is downstairs in the basement.'

'I did disobey a direct order but my reasons were for the safety of the team. Ellis is...I read Michaels' profile. It wasn't so much of what he'd do to her - but what she'd do to all of them because of it.' He pointed down at the Pipers laying in their opened body bags and added. 'But this wasn't her or the Clan. It would not have been...this neat.'

Stepping into the cabin he continued, 'I arrived here approximately one hour ago and everything is as you see it now. The Pipers were already dead and Michaels...Ellis and my grandfa...Simon were already gone.'

Marthinus swallowed, nervous about his slip.

'I must have just missed them. I called in my position and waited for the Commander and the Beta's arrival.'

Marthinus felt a thin sheet of sweat cover him. The cabin was warming up and the smell from the bodies were beginning to ripen. He did not want to be there any longer than necessary but the Alpha would want to know everything. He was hesitant to walk down to the basement with the Alpha's mother present so he waited for Hammerthynn to continue the report. Marthinus did not to look directly at Hammer. That missing scared eye seemed to have almost a phantom like soul gaze and risking a look wasn't something Marthinus wanted to do.

Hammerthynn watched as Brig followed Marthinus and LT into the cabin, but he held back with the Alpha and Lily. He was not sure of why she chose this moment to oversee a Piper mission (or failure, he added) but the basement was not something he wanted her to see. Nor would it be something Xeph would want his mother to bear witness to.

'I accept responsibility for the failure of this encounter and previous missions involving the Duban woman. She has eluded us on several occasions and has an uncanny knack for escaping...difficult situations.

I believe they are correct in their assumptions that these resulting deaths were not by Duban's hand, but Michaels' was.'

Hammer took a step closer to Xeph and as he passed him into the cabin he looked the Alpha in the eye and said quietly, 'You do not want your mother to see the basement.'

Never one to tell Xeph anything, he felt that this advice was necessary. Lily would not want to see that kind of carnage. No one would. And despite being as old as he was, that kind of blood thirsty fury still rattled him to the bone.

'It is unfortunate that Michaels' took it upon himself to secure the Duban woman and her companion and conduct unsanctioned...interrogation. His actions brought upon the deaths of Piper 5, but it was my mistake in...' Hammerthynn took a deep breath.

'It was my mistake.'

Xeph listened as, one after another, all involved gave their accounts. His blood pressure rose with each one. His mind continued to go back to Brig's words even as he heard everyone else's.

Looking at the second-in-command, a man he'd known for years, he asked one question.

"Who threw the first punch?"

Xeph's tone would brook no argument, he would tolerate nothing but the truth. He trusted LT, Brig, all of the Pipers, to be loyal and honest at all times. It was an important distinction in Xeph's mind, for while self-defense was allowable, he had in NO way sanctioned any sort of violence or interrogation of the Duban woman or her family.

He heard Hammer's words of advice, but Lily was already moving further into the cabin, slowly, as if in a trance. Xeph shot a warning look at Hammer and moved to follow his mother, but as the basement door opened he was assaulted by the rank smell of blood and already-decaying flesh.

"Mom, I wouldn't..."

Xeph descended after Lily, stopping at the bottom of the stairs when she did. Taller than her, he had the same view of the room and had to rely on his rigid control to keep himself in check. Looking at it from the view of a doctor he noted various body parts, or piece of body parts, making a visible effort to remain detached.

He opened his mouth as if to speak, but Lily spoke first.

Lily kept an ear tuned to what the men were saying, but she advanced into the cabin ahead of Aidan. Crouching by the uncovered bodies in their unrelieved bags of black, her hand fluttered over each face as if she would close their eyes for them. She didn't touch them though; the time for such formalities was long gone.

Such senselessness. Her keen senses alert, she could almost smell the fear on each body, or was that her imagination?

There had been more here. It wasn't as they said. Marthinus... Marthinus was the key. His grandfather? She favored him with a curious look.

Behind her, Iov and Aidan exchanged words in low voices, but their quietly spoken tones were not enough to keep her from hearing. She understood the tone of Iov's voice, but he better than all should have known to forbid her something, or tell her "not to." Lily was drawn to the basement, the need to know what had taken place strong within her.

Down the basement steps, ignoring Aidan's voice behind her. The senses which served her even better than the usual wolf were afire. She smelled it before she saw it... not just blood, but internal organs, the leavings of a disemboweling, the offal that resulted. Lily was no stranger to the hunt and the kill. These scents were familiar.

Before stepping off the staircase, before using her eyes, she let the smells assault her once more. This time she picked it out, something almost undetectable underneath the overwhelming scent of the kill.

The order was wrong. Marthinus did not arrive after Ellis and Simon had left, as he claimed. Perhaps he didn't know, perhaps he hadn't understood... some werewolves, most werewolves, wouldn't have been able to pick up the subtle hints, but Lily's senses were above and beyond most.

Marthinus had arrived before Ellis and Simon had gone.

Now she opened her eyes. The carnage in here, the ruthlessness of it, was appalling. Body parts, belonging to multiple people, most barely recognizable as body parts, littered every surface. That made ehr swallow, and she found she needed to look away. She turned and looked, not at Aidan, who she knew would be fighting his own response to this slaughter. Not at Iov, whose face might otherwise have given her comfort and who she might have turned to even just a day ago.

But to Marthinus, who stood at the top of the steps, gazing down.

"You walked the line," she said, just loudly enough for him to hear.

Looking back at Aidan, she said, "I have seen enough. Thank you for letting me come."

Delicately, she lifted the hem of her skirt and moved past her son and her friend, up to the top of the stairs. She glanced down as she passed Marthinus, hiding her expression, and made her way back out to the front porch of the cabin, where she endeavored not to lose her last meal over the side.

"Who threw the first punch?"

LT opened his mouth to answer but Mrs. Xephier moved past everyone, down to the basement. He held back and waited up top for the Alpha to return. He signaled the other Pipers to remove the body bags. Looking up into his Commander's face, he was reassured to see him give him a soft nod. It spoke volumes.

Tell the truth, stand by your word and the CO would never leave him swinging in the wind.

After a few minutes the group returned back upstairs and LT watched Mrs. Xephier move past him and back out to the gravel driveway. The woman had some stones. Turning back to the Alpha, LT approached him and answered his question.

'I engaged Duban and her male.' He took out his modified gun and popped the clip, showing the Alpha the sleep darts. 'But only with these. Piper 5 engaged with their vehicle against orders. I was on foot and wounded.' Unzipping his one piece black field wear he showed his healing but damaged shoulder.

'I notified the CO of Michaels' insubordination and the fact that he was becoming a liability.' That was when Piper 5 had gone rogue, a tell tale sign that the team was feeling the strain of the new city and the weight of the previous failures. LT had an idea of what would happen to the team now. They would undoubtedly be sanctioned, but it was up to the Alpha if he would see the light of another day in this cursed city.

((OOC Still holding out the weapon for the Alpha to examine.))

Xeph followed Lily back up the stairs, but when she moved toward Marthinus, he broke away to where LT and Brig still stood. LT had had plenty of time now and Xeph was pleased to hear the truth come from the second's lips. He took the offered weapon and examined it. A nasty little piece of work. Effective though, apparently.

Truth, though, didn't keep the anger from bubbling over. Hurt and betrayal were too close to the surface for Xeph. One by one he emptied the remaining darts from the gun and snapped them in two, deliberately, slowly.

"I don't remember ordering anyone to take the Duban woman in for questioning."

His voice was dangerously low, as he continued, to include all of the Pipers present, including Hammer.

"I trust you to hold order. To secure our Pack. I am unaccustomed to the level of stupidity you have displayed in the past forty-eight hours."

His voice was rising, and he was snarling. Calming down was pointless now. He met their eyes in turn; Brig's, LT's, Hammer's, even Marthinus'.

"Do you know the penalty? Did it cross your minds, you Pipers, when you began this insanity, that you put your centuries-old grudge match above the good of the entire Pack?"

The last was roared, fangs bared, impossibly large. Xeph visibly struggled for a moment, unwilling to lose this battle to his Change. Sickened, he threw the gun to the ground. His shoulders slumped.

Endangering the Pack was the worst crime a Kadzait could commit. Xeph had sympathy for the Pipers' plight. He struggled with Liam's inherited memories every day of his life. Memories that told him the Illamar were slaves, inferior, scum, not worthy to be Pack. Generations of those memories backed it up. Every time he saw his own Illamar, he had to fight the urge to sneer, to let rational thought win... but he managed.

"I don't care how you do it, any of you," he snarled, "but you will throw off this bloodlust and learn to get a handle on it before I release you upon Nachton again."

He rubbed his forehead tiredly and turned to Brig. "The Pipers will stand down, effective immediately. You will confine yourselves to Security within the confines of the Den. Choose a team to map that will be able to complete the project with clear minds and run it by me before you send them out."

He looked at Hammer, the pain even more evident in his mismatched eyes. "I will speak with you later. Once this mess is cleaned." He gestured to the cabin.

Grimly, he took them all in once more. "What happened here goes no further. You know the penalty for what you've done, and so help me, I can't act upon it." Kill Hammer? Brig and LT... they were like cousins, or brothers. Hell. Hammer was closer to a father than Liam had ever been. How could he kill them?

And yet, how could he let them run unrestrained in Nachton, until they proved to him they could handle this bloodlust, stifle their inherited memories?

Saddened, he turned away, Lily at his side. "If you need help learning to control yourselves, I am willing." The strain in his voice was evident. Never in all Xeph's life had he been unable to trust the Pipers. They were his backbone, his strength. And now their actions had caused more trouble than he could ever have imagined. His trust was shattered, spread about them like little gristly bits.

He didn't know how to pick them up again.

((ooc: Xeph and Lily out))

Hammerthynn tried to relax the sneer out of his face as the Alpha spoke. He was disappointed in the outcome but it was the shame that was settling down on his shoulders, making a home for itself. The penalty for this type of failure was death; he knew it, Brig knew it, and the Pipers knew it. He supposed he should be grateful that the Alpha wasn't being as malevolent as he should be, but the shame of having to out live these failures was much, much worse.

The Pipers were being sanctioned and under house arrest within the Den. Hammer did not have to look at Brig to see the shame filtering into his face as the Alpha passed his judgement.

"I will speak with you later. Once this mess is cleaned."

Hammer looked over at Marthinus with his one eyed glare. 'You are with me,' he mouthed silently as the Alpha finished and exited with Lily.

Lily. He had no idea why she wanted to see the basement. He would have rather she had not, not out of concern for her delicate welfare, which she was far from, but bearing witness to his shame made the situation one thousand times worse.

As the Alpha and his mother left the cabin, LT signaled for the body bags to be removed. Following everyone out onto the porch he turned to Brig and issued a final command.

'Burn it. All of it, to the fucking ground.'

((OOC - Hammer, Brig and the Pipers out))

Ellis and Simon - Continued in Everyday is Exactly the Same

Hammerthynn - Continued in If