High Stakes

•I•

The Barren looked exactly as he remembered it.

The rusted orange bridge where Lucien sat afforded him the luxury of seeing the city from afar, backlit by the moon, the taller buildings cast in silhouette apart from the few remaining dim lights within that punctuated their shadowed exteriors like distant stars. Steam and smoke lazily coiled up from various vents and furnaces throughout, the fine particles and water droplets condensing thickly in the atmosphere above, refracting the moonlight and giving the impression that the entire urban sprawl was encircled by an otherworldly aura.

He preferred this - to observe from a distance, far enough away that he could at least pretend its beauty extended further than the mirage before him. Far enough away that the bustle was muted, the buzzing of the cars and motorbikes sounding less like the drone of flies over a corpse, the occasional inhuman screech or howl almost completely drowned out by the rushing water below. The raging river beneath his feet ran swift, persistently wending towards the sea as though it could wash away the sins and filth of the Stygian metropolis through which it flowed.

But nothing short of death could ever cleanse the stain from Lucien's heart, as there existed no force in the universe powerful enough to erase the blackened scar that this place and the memories held within had inked upon it.

At least this far away he could breathe. He could abstain from the mask that had become an extension of himself, having only borne it for so long out of the necessity to escape the pervasive smog that ringed the city and gave it such an ethereal glow. Here, he could rely on his overly keen sense of smell to scent the air around him, trying to pick up on any of the threats that seemed to grow ever more prevalent the closer he neared to downtown.

Unfortunately for Lucien, downtown was exactly where he must go to acquire what he wanted. What he needed. And he knew that the longer he sat here, the less likely he would be to get it.

He pulled his phone from his pocket to check the time, clearing the message from Joni asking where he was, if he was even still alive. He didn't bother to look at the clock after that, as they'd sent the very same message every night since he'd been gone, at almost the exact same time, just before they'd at last given up their nightly vigil and let sleep take them into its brief embrace. It was only a few hours until daybreak. He had to hurry if he wanted to make it before the creatures of the night gave up their watch as well.

He replaced his phone without returning the message, as he had every time they'd sent it, before removing his well-worn cloth mask from the pocket opposite. Although he hadn't needed it where he'd recently traveled, the familiarity of the fabric against his skin had brought him some semblance of comfort during his hunt, and he'd kept it close, knowing he'd have to return to this godsforsaken place eventually. He'd need to cover his nose and mouth, at the risk of dulling his senses, just in case he drove through any particularly toxic plumes while traversing the streets, and reluctantly slipped the earloops over his ears so that the mask fit snugly against his angular jaw.

He rolled his dirtbike a good distance away from the girder he'd leaned it against upon arrival, swinging a foot over and straddling the seat firmly between his thighs as he tied back his long, unkempt mahogany hair at the nape of his neck, using the thin strip of leather he kept wrapped around his wrist for just such an occasion. A few shorter, shaggy pieces framed his face, still ruffled from the ride over, two eyes of burnished gold barely veiled beneath them.

He'd need those eyes on the ride in - the sharp, piercing eyes of a lone wolf - to find his way through the misty night without the use of a headlamp, taking full advantage of the scotopic vision he'd been endowed with as a part of his lineage. All Lycans could see well in the dark - that, along with their superior sense of smell, were the only traits they possessed that they still retained while in their human form.