Moonstone

wild things

"You can only come to the morning through the shadows." J.R.R Tolkien

Can

I ran through the quiet streets of Istanbul as the dawn threatened to lift the shadows I used as my cover. Running was as natural to me as breathing in either of my forms... and so was eradicating monsters. Keeping my quarry in my sights I relished the moment when I'd overtake my prey and bring him down. Relieving this city of filth was my job and I was damn good at it.

I came close to bringing the rogue down. So close I could see the fear in its red eyes, but I backed off at the last minute and decided to play with it a little more.

"Never play with your prey, brother. Didn't anyone teach you that?" Osman chuckled. My best friend, and my brother in everything but the biological sense.

I grinned at him. "This is almost too easy. I'm bored," I said as I jumped over a wall making sure to remain cloaked in the dark.

I slowed down as we took a turn down a gloomy deserted residential street filled with traditional houses. All the windows were shrouded in darkness as the residents slept. We were the denizens on the night. The invisible ones that kept nice neighborhoods like this from turning into a hunting ground for monsters.

"Come on, let's get this over with," Osman said. He was ready to call it a night. I, on the other hand, was filled with an odd restlessness I couldn't shake so I decided to drag this out even more, reluctant to head back. We turned down another street and I could see it and it's ragged fur ahead, it was getting tired and had slowed down significantly. I sighed. It really wasn't fun anymore. There was zero challenge in taking down this pitiful mess. Fucking werewolves, I thought. I made it my purpose in life to rid the world of this plague and the ones that created them.

I could overtake it in two seconds flat, I thought. "Let's do this," I said to Osman.

"Fuck, yeah." He climbed up the sheer facade of one house while I remained on the ground.

My muscles gathered and tensed ready to strike and finish it off. I gathered speed as I ran by shuttered homes and storefronts. Too fast for anyone that might still be awake to notice anything more than an unusual breeze.

I heard Osman laugh from above as he jumped over roofs and tried to overtake me. This was something we'd done ever since we were kids. Racing me in any form was a favorite pastime of his even though he knew he could never win, it didn't stop him from trying. I smirked and picked up speed, passing him up easily. He jumped down from a building, popped up in front of me and flipped me off.

I returned the gesture, jumped over a parked vehicle and then hit a solid wall. Hit it so hard it knocked me right on my ass and struck the breath out of me. I lay flat on my back on the wet street, dazed and bewildered, looking up at the gloom of the predawn sky.

My head was swimming. I lifted it slightly and looked around. What the fuck? There was no wall. Only a faint fragrance, and this...energy. Something indefinable that abruptly grabbed me in a chokehold and pulled at all of my senses inexorably.

"It got away," I heard Osman complain but the words barely registered. He was looming over me shaking his head in disbelief.

"What the fuck are you doing, man?" He said, irritated.

"Do you smell that?" I jumped up to my feet in one sudden move. That indescribable fragrance now permeated the air. It saturated my mind and left me breathless with a powerful urge to find...

Her.

"Yeah, " Osman said now more baffled than irritated. "There's a bunch of flowers over there. Flower shop or something."