A Covenant formed

The first of the coven to arrive had been Torin. He had his own transport, and didn't need to be bused in for security reasons, so he had arrived at their HQ months early. He got a job shoveling roadkill in ghosttown which was surprisingly busy; people on the roads here had better sense than to stop or swerve when they saw an animal. The up side to that was the pay was good, and there was a lot of interesting stuff to see out here, which suited him just fine; though even he felt fear's icy Talons when he was out there at night. Their base of operations was a rather nicely redone apartment building between ghost town and the badlands; it stood three stories high with four rooms per story, and was tucked away in a much shabbier abandoned apartment complex. Torin wasn't sure what to expect from the others in the covenant, but while waiting for them he'd been able to secure the place somewhat, bars on the windows; a few spirits on the perimeter, some cameras set up around it. He'd be lying if he said he felt safe in that place alone; too often did shadows skulk around his perimeter, too often were things watching him from the darkness. So when he saw the Van that supposedly carried another of his Covenant, at the weekend that ended his first month; he was quick to run to meet them in the parking lot.

Peyton was feeling apprehensive to say the least as the van rolled to a stop outside of the rather unkempt apartment. To be honest she hadn't even recognized the name of this city when the driver told her where she was going. Things got even more worrying when she'd first seen the expanse of desert and badlands that pretty much surrounded the entire city.

The wolf shifter felt suddenly heavy as she grabbed her bags and stepped out of the car, realizing just how different her life was going to be here. Even the environment was completely foreign to her, where was all the plant life? Where was the smell of rain on the grass and the marmots scurrying in the brush?...Where were her friends? A cold hard lump began to form in her throat as she pondered over that question, seemingly not even seeing the man who was running up to her. Taylor, Liz, Samm, young Luke, cousin Earvin...all scattered to the winds by the goddamn council. Probably all in dead-end towns just like this dump...she prayed to whatever was out there that they were safe, that she'd be able to see them one day.

"You alright? You look a little disoriented there." Torin approached the woman who had been dumped onto the sidewalk with very little in the way of belongings by unmarked van that proceeded to practically speed away. As he watched the van speed away Torin looked a bit confused, but soon turned back to the woman dumped in the otherwise abandoned parking lot in front of him "Well welcome to the frontier; I'm Torin. Hell of a place out here huh?" He offered her a hand to shake. Torin didn't know where she was shipped in from, he didn't know she hated the council, in fact he practically knew nothing of any of those he'd be in a covenant with. Torin had given up his life to come here willingly, and he assumed it was like that for most supernaturals; the thought that some of them might have been dragged away from their homes rarely crossed his mind. It wasn't that he had never heard news about pack and such being "Integrated" It was more that he never thought he would meet one, it always sounded like a different world.

For a moment she didn't react, seemingly lost in thought, then in a jolt she realized there was a dude standing in front of her "Oh...uh..Yeah?" She replied, in her failing attempt to act like she was listening to him.

It was pretty clear she hadn't been listening but that was understandable, there was a lot to take in. Torin just offered a tentative smile, clearly unsure of her as she probably was of him; he continued slightly awkwardly "Right well I'm Torin; Sorcerer I mostly work with necromancy. Our opperating station is just over there, and I've taken a few steps to fortify it; believe me you don't want to be caught out at night in this part of town..." He motioned to the remodeled apartment building behind him and asked "How much of why we're out here have you been briefed on?"

Peyton decided to respond to his last question first " Briefed? What do you mean briefed? They practically just shoved me into a van." The wolf shifter replied, brows furrowing slightly "Don't tell me you...you wanna be here."

"Well yeah I volunteered for it a couple months ago. I didn't exactly have the most exciting life growing up, and it seemed like I could make a difference here." He explained wondering if that was so hard to believe, although he matched her surprise when addressing the first part of her response "So they forced you to come, and they didn't even tell you what we're supposed to be doing here?..." The sorcerer suddenly paused, his eyes caught sight of something moving in the growing shadows of the setting sun, and narrowed. His eyes had caught sight of something just as her ears had. For her part she heard a distant a raspy, heavy breathing. "Let's head inside, I'll cook some dinner and explain everything." The Sorcerer offered, he was at the very least trying to help.

Without a word she nodded and followed him, eyes locked in the direction of the sound.

She couldn't be sure exactly what she saw in the shadows. It certainly looked like a limping and injured human at first inspection, but if she looked closely she could see that its arms were just a bit too uneven, the angles of its head a bit too malformed. As it shambled around Torin began to shut and lock the door. Whatever faults the sorcerer may have, being lax on fortifications was not one of them. On the apartment door he had installed metal reinforcements, and a multi-tiered lock system including a deadbolt, chainlock, latch and padlock, standard door lock, and a rather massive Iron bar that the more academically inclined sorcerer seemed to strain slightly to lift and put in place. "Have to sleep sometime, and I prefer to wake up when I do..." Torin said to the shifter as he struggled lifting the bar into place.

Poor guy, the sight of his scrawny chicken bone limbs struggling to life the bar brought a small smile to her face "Want some help with that strongback?" She offered as she set her luggage aside.

"Nah I've... got it" He said as he hefted it into place, with a little embarrassment on his face. "So uh... food, what do you have a taste for miss?" Torin asked; as of yet he had no idea what her name was, or come to think of it even what she was. Still she was the one who had been thrown in an unmarked van and dumped here; so the sorcerer figured she had the right to ask questions first, excluding the food one which he thought she wouldn't mind.

Darn, it was hard to be as grumpy as she felt like being when he was being so plain nice and hospitable like "Don't gotta call me miss, names Peyton, and I like meat." The words came out quiet and a bit gruff, but the appreciative look in her eye made up for it more or less. She couldn't help it, as pissed off as she was about it, didn't make sense to take it out on this guy. Though she did plan on ditching him soon as she got the chance and going off to find her packmates.

"I'll whip up some steaks and bratwurst; come on..." Torin walked to the left side of the large stairwell entry way they were in, to one of the apartments and opened the door. He figured she was probably a sort of remnant who had been taken from her family and, or something along those lines. On the other hand she seemed a bit too wild for that, a bit too... something he couldn't quite put his finger on. Nonetheless as he lead her into a white walled one bedroom apartment with a bit of generic furniture that probably came with the place, and to a kitchen which seemed a bit more his own with cooking implements that looked like old timey wizarding tools and such. He looked mildly embarrassed at the theme of his kitchen which he really hadn't thought ahead on; murmured a vague excuse about family heirlooms, and swiftly changed the subject. "So if you just got grabbed or something I take it you've got a lot of questions, and it's only fair that I answer." He spoke while getting out food and spice. "I don't really know your situation, and I'm no jailer or anything like that. So whatever you need to know I'll try to help with."

"I've only got one." Peyton replied, scanning over the apartment like a hawk before replying "Why are people coming out here, this place seems like a dead-end town...Is it to get away?" She questioned with folded arms, the place was alright, though not to her style.

"You mean people like me?" Torin asked, and began to explain the council's interest in the place. "This place may look like just a half dead city in the desert, but it's so much more than that. It's a gathering of cryptids, undead, and phenomena like none the council has witnessed before. The vacant dilapidated buildings are nests for all kinds of warped creatures that prey on vagabonds, and the curious. They're mostly worried about the population of these creatures skyrocketing if left unchecked; so they're sending us to collect data on what's here and see if we can't put an end to some of the more malevolent stuff." He paused to season some of the food he was cooking, and looked a little embarrassed admitting what he said next "As for why I volunteered, I've lived kind of a sheltered life, and I wanted to change that. I thought saving people and fighting evil might be quite the adventure..."

What was this, some kind of colonization effort? Sending people out to this dung pile of a city to try and 'bring the peace'? And they sent her here to fucking help them? Like she was some brain-dead jackboot enforcer of there's here to conquer another fuckin' city for their bullshit empire? Almost unconsciously a low feral growl tumbled out from the depths of her chest as she mulled it all over. Fist clenching and unclenching reflexively as she turned her back on Torin. Those goosestepping bourgeoise pissants, they'd ruined fucking everything! And they wouldn't stop with the packs in the woods, they would do it here too! Take something wild and free, and neuter it, muzzle it, lock it in a kennel because it was just too dangerous! "Quite an adventure huh?" She managed to snarl out as she peered through the barred window, blood pumping hot in her veins.

Torin didn't need to be perceptive to hear the snarling tone with which she spoke "These things they aren't the same as us, what we're talking about is an evil that could grow to..." When he noticed her turning to look out the window, he got back to cooking, and simply said "If you feel a kinship with what's here then you should go meet them for yourself. Like I said, I'm no one's jailer, but I promise you any reservations you feel about what we're doing are going to dry up when you see what I've seen the last month here." Torin was tense, despite his otherwise green nature it was clear that he has seen something here, something that he hadn't expected. Out the window she saw a dark night, even by her standards, shadowy figures occasionally shambling in the distance; figures she should be able to see with her senses clear as day, but were somehow obscured to her.

Peyton let out a low grunt in response, clawed fingers gripping the window sill firmly as she tried to suppress the bloody red that clouded her vision. There was a molten ball of fury bubbling and hissing deep down in her gut, and every muscle in her body ached to let out the fury she was feeling. She hated when she felt like this, despised it when the howling beastly rage began to raise its ugly head and she felt the wolf within growling and slavering for bloody-handed revenge. It was a natural part of being a wolf shifter, her blood ran hot, her moods swing like a pendulum, and she'd been suppressing it ever since her pack got split apart.

Head throbbing, muscles tense, window sill beginning to crack in her fingers. She tried to find something in her line of vision to focus on, something that would help suppress the fury for a while. Eventually, her eyes landed on the desert, the great expanse of dunes that lay beyond the city. Empty, serene, unspoiled, the great waves of sand almost glowing in the pale silver light of the moon. Good, focus on that push back the animal, push it down again, make the claws go away, don't death rage in the house of a stranger. Count to four and breath in, count to four and breath out. Slowly, gradually, the fury began to subside, her fingers loosening their grip on the plastered wood of the window seal as her muscles began to relax and the need to kill something faded. After a moment of silence, she slowly backed away from the window and turned to look back at the sorcerer "Sorry about that, I'm a shifter if you couldn't tell, we have...temper issues...You were saying something?"

It was when her rage faded and she began to take a step back that she heard the warning the sorcerer had been calling out ever since she had touched the window, it was full of sudden concern, almost frantic urgency"You need to get away from the..." That was when it happened, there was an explosion of glass shards as a fat, fleshy hand that had not been there before reached out of the darkness, between the metal bars, and through the window to seize her arm in one fluid motion. Then there was the creature standing before her. The thing was tall and at first it seemed grotesquely obese, its pudgy arm barely fit trough the bars belying the thing's viper like movements; the misconception however was swiftly rectified as her inhuman nose smelled the rot, and her eyes saw the saggy skin. This creature was not human, that much could be seen in its predatory grey eyes. Much like her it was something else wearing the skin of a human, unlike her it was not in a metaphorical sense. it wore a loose full body suit of human skin, sewn together in places, and filled with writhing bumps underneath. The creature smiles revealing needle like teeth, and asked in a raspy voice "May I come in?"

For a moment surprise took over, Peyton standing wide-eyed and slack-jawed in the thing's grip. But quickly she snapped back to reality and with a fanged snarl replied "Hell No!" Her arm beginning to sprout a coat of dark brown hair, Peyton lashed out with fingers that suddenly had claws, severing the limb clean.

The claw slashed through the flesh like a hot knife through butter butter. From beneath the layer of human skin, various rotting and severed human appendages spilled out onto Elliot's floor at the very least it became apparent what the bumps beneath the flesh that simulated obesity were. Then it happened, her claws hit a strange tar-like substance; they continued along their path however until they hit something solid, tore a fer inches into it, and got stuck. "Well that wasn't very neighborly..." The still grinning creature spoke in its raspy voice. What it did next would probably have killed anything that wasn't a shifter. The thing seized her stuck arm with its other and began to pull. It pulled her right into the metal bars; she stalled on it for just a moment as with a screech the metal bent outward against her skin leaving deep bruises on her flesh as it was trapped between high quality metal and her own bone. At some point in the experience a blast of crackling magic struck the thing in the face; tearing off a bit of skin suit and sending sizzled rotting parts flying into the air, but doing little to phase the creature.

All the wind in Peyton's lungs exploded out of her as she went slamming into the metal bar! Smashed against the metal bars her head swung back, an explosion of stars filling her blurred vision. Everything was pain and confusion and no small amount of fear, what was this thing? What was going on? Struggling to regain her bearings she tried to lock her eyes on something, anything other than the hideous patchwork abomination that was trying to rip her limb from limb. She needed an anchor to hold onto, to escape the cloud of pain and shock. And that's when she saw it, rising about the clouds, the silver beacon in the sky, the harbinger of madness and lunacy..the full fucking moon.

A wolfish grin crossed Peyton's face as she felt the familiar power wash down on her. The full moon meant high tide and crashing waves, and she intended to drown. This feeling would normally terrify her, the fierce tug of the Moon rage pulling on her very soul normally it meant she needed to run, to worry, to find somewhere to hide. Not right now, right now she was pissed the fuck off, right now her life was on the line, right now she wanted to teach this thing, and every fucking thing like it..that she was the wrong bitch to fuck with. So she gave in.

The transformation came sudden, and began as it always did, with terrible pain. A high howl of rapturous agony ripped from Peyton's throat as her bones began to shift and crack, skin beginning to stretch and tear as thick powerful muscle began to appear where it hadn't existed, and deadly fangs erupted from her bleeding gums. Claws, teeth, snout, blood-red eyes, ears, deep brown fur wet with her own blood. Within a few agonizing seconds the transformation was complete, and standing before the grinning creature was a monster just as terrifying as itself, if not more. With a spray of drywall and tar, the she-wolf freed her arms and without a moment more of hesitation came crashing through the metal bars and right onto the creature. Her inch long razor-sharp claws digging into its flesh as the two were sent hurtling down to the concrete below.

The creature slammed first into the concrete with a sickening crack, though dug its needle-like teeth into her shoulder. In her wolf form she was faster than the thing, and likely stronger as well; chunks of flesh both the creatures own and its accessories flew through the air after each strike. The only problems were the tar like substance that passed for the thing's blood, even now threatening to trap her hands if she dug too deep, and its damn bones, each time she tore at one she took out a chunk, and make the thing his like some kind of pained serpent but she never quite sever one. She could see the things shriveled face like a dried up corpse where the flesh mask once was if she stopped long enough to look; somewhat unlikely in her current frenzy.

Meanwhile as the monsters grappled and tore into each other Elliot was soon out the door with a ridiculously large double barreled shotgun. He wasn't sure if the werewolf would have the presence of mind not to have a go at him next, but he wasn't going to leave a member of his covenant out to dry. He tried to angle around for a shot at the cryptid as it and the shifter rolled into the parking lot, but couldn't find a clear shot with them so close, and was no marksman so decided to bide his time until he got one.

She was in full rampage now, all claws and hate and gnashing teeth. With boundless fury she ripped and tore, trying to reduce the creature to little more than a pile of pureed meat. And when that didn't work she changed her tactic, with overwhelming strength she gripped her claws into the thing's flesh and lifted it above her head. Then with a furious, guttural howl, she began to rip the thing in two!

Her new tactic was not at all easy, to begin with she tore off a good bit of the flesh on her shoulder pulling it off to her. Pain rang out in her head, although it was going to hurt a lot more. When she did heft the damn thing squirming as it was and began to pull it took nearly all of her strength, and left her arms aching. Yet for all that; it was pretty damn effective, a loud raspy wail rang out in the night as its legs and head popped out of their sockets, and were torn from its body the necromancer lowered his shotgun as the the thing fell lifeless in three pieces to the ground, and black blood soaked the shifter. Now he was very concerned to if he was next on the menu.