World of Darkness World of Darkness: Attrition - The Vampire's Locus [Fin]

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

[7:40PM 9 Feb 2008]

These are just fucking strange days, Sarah thought to herself as she leapt the hedge to lope across Declan's back yard. The irony of thinking such while walking on four legs up to a werewolf's back door was lost on her.

What she let out by way of announcement wasn't exactly a howl. Rather, short little yipps, almost barks, came from her muzzle, and she scraped at the sliding door with her paws, claws clicking on the glass as she did.

[Owns-The-Night]

"No... don't... don't..." From inside the dimly lit apartment, Sarah's sensitive ears could hear what sounded like helpless whimpering, a female voice. No-one was in view of the kitchen door, but her eyes made out the lights were coming from the lounge. "...ohgod...don't... no... don't... STOP!"

The shriek wasn't one of terror or pain or mortal death. It was an exhortation, a plea to continue. It was, in fact, the voice of a young woman having the time of her life. For about 20 more minutes, the noises continued at a loud peak before trailing off into murmurs of contented lust. Ten minutes later, the female voice spoke again, this time in shock.

"Oh. My. GOD I've been here three hours!?" A kissing sound. "You were... wow... I need to go. Jeez... Keep working out, y'know? You're like, a wild animal or something!" A giggle punctuated that statement, and the listening Dead Wolf, despite her wolfly eyebrows climbing off her head, couldn't help but grin.

"Let me get the door for ya." Dec's voice this time, and Sarah saw the naked Uratha walk into her field of vision into the lounge, opening his front door for a very dishevelled redhead who's flushed features and rumpled UCLA sweats clearly indicated to anyone what she had been up to. Grabbing her sports bag from next to the door, she kissed the groundskeeper hard on the mouth one more time before turning and almost staggering down the pathway.

Dec shut the door with a slight laugh as the girl turned out onto the road, then moved to the kitchen. Abruptly he stopped as he saw the lupine shape lurking there, looking in with an expression that could only be termed as 'old-fashioned'. He grinned a little sheepishly and came through into the kitchen, opening the door.

"Come on in, frail. Sorry 'bout that, wasn't expectin' guests."

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

Sarah was dead flesh. No circulatory action to speak of. Stolen blood sitting in pools here and there within her body, to be used as unholy fuel rather than anything relating to a pulse.

Despite this, she exhibited a full blush after shifting back to her human seeming.

"I, um... sorry, Dec. Didn't really, uh... yeah." She shuffled a booted foot on the tile floor of the kitchen, looking the most human that her werewolf friend had recalled seeing. Then, she abruptly shifted topics - whether in urgency or a desire to get rid of her blazing cheeks, Declan would never know.

"So Amber of all people came to my territory a couple nights ago. Some fucking leech is giving her trouble, and the asshole is going to be at Hef's place - in my territory, mind you - on Valentines Night."

A grin that was anything but pleasant creased her features. "She wanted permission to hunt him on my turf. Which made me plenty happy, so long as I get to take a piece of him in the process."

The grin became a touch more cheerful as she continued. "But that ain't what I'm here about. Up there back of Hef's, she found a locus. A locus in my territory." Sarah paused to let that sink in before going on. "Mind you, I can't see the damned thing, 'course. But if it's there..."

She looked to her would-be Alpha with pure puppy dog eyes and asked, "Dec, would you be willing to take me 'cross so I can see the spirit-side of my territory?"

[Owns-The-Night]

Dec pondered those puppy dog blue eyes for a long moment, then broke.

"Aww crap. I'm a sucker for women in need. One day it's gonna be the death of me." Declan grinned wryly at Sarah as he turned to walk out of the kitchen, trailing heady testosterone. "Leave the door open, the place needs a bit of airing. I'll be ready in ten."

He was actually ready in five, jumping into the shower and scrubbing himself vigorously to remove the scents of sex and female. Without bothering to dry off or dress, he came out into the kitchen and nodded at Sarah. "Take it we'll be runnin' this on four legs. Lets go. I'm curious what Hef's got in his back yard." The grin was pure wickedness.

A shut door, a quick form change, and a brisk shake of the fur later and Owns-The-Night was running steadily through the evening twilight next to Sarah, heading for the Playboy Mansion.

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

It wasn't long before the two were in one of the closest things to woods in the overpriced, overgroomed suburb around Holmby Park. Sarah had led the pair through the park at first, nearly to the Country Club before turning north, and that's where the trees overtook the yards.

Even as they closed in on the spot, Declan could begin to feel a hint, a tingle of something nearby. But as Sarah brought him up to the redwood fence behind Hefner's infamous "Grotto", there was no mistaking the place: it was most assuredly a small but healthy locus. Were the Rahu to actually try sampling the essense, he'd have to cross onto the manor's property, but even on this side of the fence there would be no trouble stepping over into the Hisil.

*This place*, the Dead Wolf said in yips and barks, *this where she say spirit-place is*.

[Owns-The-Night]

Pressing his shoulder to hers, Owns-The-Night led his friend into the Shadow. The barrier was weaker here, sure enough, weak enough for the werewolf and the Dead Wolf to slip through. What they found on the other side was... surprising. Though on reflection, Dec mused, it shouldn't have been.

Directly in front of them was a living wall of wood, vibrating with spiritual essence as it seemed to stretch higher into the sky than it's real world counterpart. The spirit of the fence was awake and aware, and Owns-The-Night could feel it's attention being directed at him and his companion.

From beyond the fence, they could hear sighs and moans of desire, punctuated by ethereal laughter and urgent, whispered snatches of words. Wolf and Dead Wolf exchanged a look, surprised yet not really shocked once they thought about it. Well... What else would Hef's Grotto be attuned to?

*spirit-place-mating-place?* Dec asked Sarah in wolf, his toungue lolling in a canine laugh.

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

*truth,* Sarah offered back with a grin of her own. With a sigh, she left her beloved wolf form slip away, standing once more on her own two legs.

"Makes a lotta sense, I guess. That place has probably seen more raw sex than anywhere else in Southern California... hell, maybe anywhere in the country. So, are they sex spirits, then?"

Not waiting for a reply - and not wanting to touch the living wall - Sarah gathered herself in a low crouch, then sprung into a leap to get a better look. What she saw wasn't exactly what she expected.

There were spirits over there, all right. Beautiful things in their own way. Sleek bodies of every human hue, perfectly toned, doing things that an average person only heard rumor of in shrink-wrapped magazines. But beneath gorgeous locks of hair, they showed nothing on their faces at all... for there were no faces to show. Blindly, mutely, the orgy went on, never ending.

Obviously set aback, Sarah swallowed hard after landing, sighing again before turning back to her friend. "Yeah. Let's go scout the bounds. I think I can more or less make out some of the landmarks." Anything to avoid having to see that again.

[Owns-The-Night]

He nodded and trotted along, still in wolf form as the two of them scouted the boundary around the Playboy Mansion's Hisil reflection. It was somewhat odd, the spiritual resonance of this place. A curious mixture of vibrant desire and lust for life, and shallow obsession with appearances. The pure, clean wild thing that was Dec's soul was both intrigued and appalled at the sight.

Sure, he'd read titty-mags as a younger man, but there had always been something contrived about some of the girls in them. Some were very natural, evidently enjoying the photography work, but for most models he had the similar gut reaction of falseness that he had gotten from porn movies. He wondered if it was the same for other werewolves. He *whuffed* with amusement as he considered asking Amber or Ariel. Not a good idea to talk about sex around female Uratha, perhaps. Maybe No-Moss would have an insight.

As they travelled, he kept his eyes and ears open, getting the lay of the spiritual landscape around the Mansion.

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

They rounded the Mansion - or at least, what it was in this strange world of shadow and spirit. Sarah quickly found that tracking out even her own terrain over here was going to take a sharp eye and open mind, as they moved west along a path of stones that was a busy street back in the physical world.

Most of the houses simply didn't exist here; far too new to have any spiritual resonnance worth a damn, their sites instead showed spirit-trees - a few of which, she found to her mixed relief and concern, bore the mark she'd placed in them back 'home'.

"So this is what I should be patrolling, huh?" she muttered both to Declan and herself. "Cripes, I haven't seen more than a hint of my real territory... if I can even call it mine, really. I mean, shouldn't I be finding a way to get here to keep the spirits in line?"

[Owns-The-Night]

He shifted to human form, crouching naked beside her. In the Hisil, the marks of renown blazed pale silver on his chest around his name brand, the same colour as his eyes.

"Can you even do that?" he sounded skeptical. "I know you're a Dead Wolf, Sarah, but surely there's limits to how much like us you can be." He shrugged his broad shoulders. "On the other hand, if you can do that kinda thing, then yeah. Do it. Until then, I'm sure I and the others will help you out. Your territory borders ours, so it's not much of a problem that I can see. I'll talk it over with Ariel and Amber."

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

Sarah gave a dry, rueful chuckle, as much for the proud silver brands borne by the full-moon warrior as for the absurd thought of finding her own way to Shadow. "Yeah, sure there is. It's called, 'beg the real People to drag me across every other night for the rest of eternity.'"

Her eyes looked off through the half-familiar landscape, focusing on anything but Declan. Shame rose up unbidden redness on the vampire's dead flesh, shame at her deep envy of her friend, and of the knowledge that she would never truly measure up among the People.