Adrenalin pumped through Vee?s blood, lending speed to her feet ? her worn Converse thudded on pavement faster than a human should rightfully be able to travel. She hated showing her nature so openly, but she could almost feel the notebook burning a hole in the pocket of her jean jacket. Ducking, weaving through the crowds in the Market, she left a trail of disturbed shouts in her wake.

Yellow-green eyes were narrowed against the breeze of her passage, focused on her goal, her apartment, her haven. Wind and blood rushing through her veins and Converse pounding on the street muted all other sound, even for her sharp ears. If she hadn?t been running so fast, she might have caught the following eddies of passage through the crowd behind her. As it was, she almost slammed into the door of her apartment building, fumbling the key in her haste.

Taking the stairs up to her door two at a time, the second key was dealt with almost as clumsily. She was breathing hard as she ducked in the door, turning and slamming it behind her. Roland looked up from the book he had been reading on the couch, his expression startled. She didn?t give him a chance to ask before she pulled the slim black notebook from her pocket and held it up. ?I knew she was a devil, I just didn?t realize it was literal. I had to wait until she was out of her hidey-hole before I could get out without her knowing, but I got here as quick as I could after. Here.?

Pacing, still trying to catch her breath, she tossed the notebook at Roland, who caught it deftly. Once again, she rattled on before he had a chance to get out a word. ?I don?t know what she was speaking but it?s no language I?ve ever heard before. I got down as much as I could phonetically before it cut off.? Pushing ink-stained fingers through the wild tangle of her curls ? only the more tangled for her frantic run, she shook her head. ?I think that?s at least the beginning of her ward-spells.?

Roland had already flipped to the last page with writing on it ? her scrawled Gregg shorthand even harder to read than usual. She had been listening from the floor above Morana?s room, pressed flat against the wood with her ear to the floor and writing without looking at the page. "These words... I know these words." He frowned up at her, his own fingers suddenly afraid of the pages they held.

She was looking over Roland?s shoulder when the door burst open behind him. In her haste, she?d forgotten to lock both the building door and the bolts on her own front door. Roland whirled, hand reaching for his sword, but he was too close to the men entering. One of them lashed out with what looked like a casual back-hand, and caught him across the face; the back-handed fist was weighted with heavy brass knuckles, and the man was solidly muscled. Roland dropped like a rock.

Fear lashed with rage through Vee?s system, and without thought she was launching herself at the foremost man, a ripping snarl tearing from her throat and her clawed fingers seeking for his eyes. He fell back with a startled shout, just far enough that she caught his chest instead of his face. She was a whirl of feral fury, her eyes lit with green ? but while she tried to tear the throat from the man in the lead, two more had been coming up from the sides.

Kicking, snarling, clawing ? she managed to break at least one nose, to kick another hard enough that he would likely never sire children, to tear a third man?s arm to the bone with her claws. But for all her fury, the strength they hadn?t expected, there were more of them than of her. The same man with the brass knuckles waited until she had broken another nose before he leaned into the fracas and almost casually swung his fist.

Bright stars filled her vision when the blow hit her temple, and then evaporated into darkness. She fell limply to the ground. The thug she had unmanned kicked her hard in the ribs, producing a sharp snapping sound, before the leader with his blood-stained chest stilled the man. ?Toss the place, find th? notebook.?

?Ain?t here, boss.? Two of the more cautious had bypassed the fracas and searched the small apartment while the rest were trying to subdue VeeJay. The leader frowned, then jerked his head at one of the others to pick her up. Breath bubbling through the blood pouring from his broken nose, he wasn?t too gentle as he swung her up to his shoulder.

?Then we?ll get her to tell us where it is. C?mon, been here too long already. Get back to our territory before we start asking.?

Her first sensation was shock, and a confused babble of arguing voices. Dazedly she blinked her eyes, and the image of twelve men standing and arguing coalesced to six, blurred into three, then back to six, doubled vision failing to resolve further. A cold chill swept her, and she shivered ? the motion wracked her with pain. She tried to hold the involuntary moan between her teeth; it escaped as a whimper.

The sound attracted attention ? the leader stormed over to her, yanked her up by one arm. It twisted her shoulder backwards with an unpleasant tearing sound. The bruises she had gotten in the fight were already beginning to fade; apparently they had figured out that getting answers from her would take more than simple blows. His teeth were gritted as he leaned in close to her face, onion-scented breath filling her nose. ?Th? notebook ? where is it??

A little laugh cut off as it sent pain through her broken ribs. Still blinking dazed, feral green eyes at the man, she shook her head and grinned, that grin that looked entirely happy and too wide for her face. He shook her, hard, jostling her shoulder further; she gasped with the knife of pain that caused, then laughed again. ?Right under your nose, bully-boy, and you lost it.?

?Shouldn?t toy with us, girlie. Little girls don?t know what they?re getting into come to bad ends.? He hauled her higher by that same arm, reached out with his other hand to sweep his hand over her chest ? where had her jacket gone? It was a confused thought, oddly disconnected from her circumstances. After a hard squeeze, his hand moved up and settled around her throat, started to tighten.

It was when she tried to kick him that she realized both that her feet were tied, and that her other wrist was broken. That was why they hadn?t bothered to tie her arms, and they hadn?t gagged her because they needed answers. Their mistake. Filling her lungs around the piercing flame from her ribs, she lunged towards the man?s ear as best she could, and screamed. Loudly. When he flinched away she twisted with the motion and sank her teeth into his neck.

A chunk of flesh tore from his throat when he flung her back against the wall ? unfortunately not deep enough to be more than annoying. The back of her head echoed with a hollow thud and once again stars filled her vision, swimming in blackness.

Once again, sound returned first, the screech of metal against metal from the street below, an odd rolling thump that ended with a crack of bone. Words from the doorway that made no sense ? sounds without meaning attached. ? ?Lest you want girlie hurt.? Frowning, baffled by the odd sounds, Vee tried to open her eyes.

There was as little sense to what she was seeing, once she was able to focus ? although the double-vision still lingered. Roland, his face a mask of blood and rage, leaning into a sword, the leader of the thugs spitted on its end against the wall. Her frown deepened. She searched for meaning, and came up with words, voice raspy after the choking and her scream. ?Is he dead??

Roland stood there, the fire slowly going out of his eyes, much like the bleeding man before them. His breath steadied by degrees, and when it seemed he might not answer her at all, he tugged the sword free and let the body crumple. "...Yes," he said at last. "The man is dead."

His head turned to his shoulder, looking VeeJay over... then he dropped the sword with a clatter and hurried over to her, breathing her name.

?Good. You dropped your sword.? She couldn?t focus her eyes ? close examination would show her pupils dilated, fixed. The bruises from the first attack, in the apartment, were gone ? but the later round wasn?t healing nearly as fast, her system overwhelmed by the amount of damage. She shifted, tried to sit up, and flinched as the movement jostled her ribs, her broken wrist, her left shoulder. Slowly, events were taking on meaning again.

?You?re bleeding ? Roland, are you all right?? Carefully she lifted her left hand, reached up to touch the blood drying on his face. Then her eyes tracked beyond him, to the man slumped dead against the wall. Doubled vision just made the scene more gruesome, and the chunk of flesh missing from his throat was the last straw. Her mouth was filled with the copper taste of blood. Abruptly she turned to one side, away from Roland, retching.

Roland, still an innocent young man in so many ways, was not oblivious, and had become rather sharp since knighthood. "I am fine, Vidya... just..." He frowned, reluctant to move from her, but did enough to grab his sword, wiping it down quickly. The blood was overwhelming her, overloading the were in her - he had read a few chapters on weres as part of his studies in the Order, and had pieced together more of the 'science' of it over nearly a year dating her. "We have to get you out of here," he said, stooping down again to help her. He vaguely recalled seeing a bathroom down the hall, and hoped it had a working shower.

With Roland?s aid, Vee stumbled to her feet, pausing once for a wave of dizziness. The shower was a godsend, despite ? or because of ? its lack of hot water. She ducked her head under the stream and the shock of cold with a strangled gasp, but it restored her to clarity, to humanity. When she straightened, the double vision had finally resolved itself. The feral light had faded down from her eyes, leaving them yellow-green again. Cold water dripping down her back was ignored.

Taking in a deep breath, she finally looked back at Roland with a shadow of her usual bright smile. ?That was interesting. Let?s never do that again.?

Roland stood in the water with her, letting the cold water shock his own inner beast into submission and wash the blood away. He pressed his brow to hers, chuckling, and murmured, "Agreed."

Feet shifted outside, up and down the hall, in the room with the slain man, but the Watch guards let the pair be. Roland swore he could make out the voice of one of the House's gnomish lawyers sorting out the mess they'd made.

For a few moments longer Vee stood there, until the shivers prompted by the cold water started aggravating her broken bones. Making a face, she ducked out of the shower and looked around for a towel. Which might or might not have been a lost cause ? she didn?t get far into her search before another thought struck and she looked back at Roland with wide eyes. ?The notebook! It?s still safe??

"I handed it off to a soldier for the House - it is very likely at Greyshott Place as we speak, being analyzed under armed guard," he said as he left the stall, then rifled through a small closet and found them towels that smelled fresh enough. When she moved to take one from him, he touched her arm. He searched for the words, visibly considering an apology, even beginning one, and at last he said, in its place, "I am glad you are all-right, Vidya... I do not know what I would do, if..." He frowned again, turning his face away.

The unfinished sentence hung in the air, aching ? and Vee didn?t have a response in words, not at first. She closed the distance between them with two quick steps, hugging him as best she could. With her face pressed against his shoulder, she finally answered. ?You?d keep on with what you do, of course. I?ll be fine ? just a healer to set the bones and good as new in two or three days.? After a moment she looked up, and her sunny smile was back in full force. ?Tougher than I look, you know. I was more worried about you.?

He smiled at that. "Oh..." There was a long pause, a little longer than it should have been. "...He only made me angry." After stealing a kiss, he offered his hand to her, as dry as he was going to get in a strange apartment where he had just killed. "Come on... let's find you a healer."

((scene adapted from live play))