#wr kaden chatzy

[mor-beck-more-problems]

Dead Things || Morgan & Kaden

@chasseurdeloup

Just two friends having a walk in the woods. Guest-starring Ashley the Zombie!

It surprised Morgan that Kaden would choose her to walk in the woods with to let off steam and vent safely. It seemed like the sort of thing to do with a girlfriend, but maybe Regan and her denial blinders were a little much for him just now. And for all the times Morgan had been driven to sign off on him with a ‘fuck you’ on her lips, she did consider them to be friends of a certain kind. He was kind at heart, kinder than he let on even to himself. He had his anger, which Morgan still couldn’t quite fit her head around, but if his life had been anything like Deirdre’s, he had plenty of reason to be. She’d wished he had suggested a place a little less spooky than the woods, but it wasn’t like she could enjoy anything from the counter at Coffee Plus. Morgan reached out with what senses she had and tried to remember the comfort they’d once given her. The sanctity of nature. Never judging, always open to her. The soft earth, ready to take her body back some day. Did it welcome them now? Did either of them know how to fit in a space as simple and open as this?

“Shucks, Kaden,” Morgan teased, “I didn’t think you’d ever ask me to meet you like this. If you’d given me more time I’d have made us BFF bracelets.” She elbowed him gently as they walked. “What’s been up with you?”

There had been a few moments of calm in Kaden’s life the past week. But something about it felt more ominous than comforting. Even though it was a new moon and it should be the calmest time of the month, something felt off. He couldn’t say what. Maybe he just wasn’t used to peace and quiet. Hell even most of his assignments had been normal. It was possible that was why he felt the need to lean into the weird of hanging out with a supernatural friend. Though, to be honest, he was short on non-supernatural friends at the moment. And no matter how many times him and Morgan went head to head over things, there was something, enough easy rhythm, especially when sharing the realities of having banshee girlfriends; a strange commonality and bond he never expected to have or share with anyone else. Leave it to White Crest.

The mention of friendship bracelets pierced through him as he thought of the stupid leather braclet on his wrist. His nose scrunched a little even though he tried to hide it. He hadn’t planned on bringing up Celeste. Or having to dwell on death for a moment. Hopefully she didn’t catch it, assumed it was an overreaction to her elbow. “Well I’d say a friendship bracelet with me is a death sentence but I guess that’s not a problem is it?” Putain. Fine. Just fucking lean into it. Why not? “I figured we could both use a non-carcass walk every now and then.” He gave a small shrug. “And nothing much. No clue what the fuck I’m doing with my life but I guess that’s just what White Crest does to you.”

“Wow. I was kidding, but I didn’t think you’d give me literal stink-eye,” Morgan said, rolling her eyes. “What, are you afraid the big bad world isn’t ready for us? Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?” She pretended to be scandalized, gasping and clutching her imaginary pearls, but she could feel herself skirting close to a kind of truth that lay between them. They couldn’t exactly gather round a foosball table with his hunter friends anymore than she could bring him to a movie night with Remmy and Skylar. Granted, her friends wouldn’t ever try to kill him, but that wasn’t a path she should be going down when they were supposed to be enjoying each other’s company critter-free. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she huffed. “Every walk I take is a carcass walk.” She turned to face him, tilting her head so far to one side it threatened to dislocate her neck. “If you have beef with the dead, you really came to the wrong zombie.” She smirked, her smile growing wider as she kept their pace along the path, backwards now. She righted her head and rolled her shoulders. That had helped with muscle strain before, right? “You’re too easy to mess with sometimes. But, I can be serious if you need to talk about big things. Life isn’t for having all the answers, though. It’s not a performance, you know? We learn things. We try. We--”

An animal roared in the distance. It didn’t sound like any creature Morgan knew, but what else could it be? She looked over at Kaden. Did he hear that too? She turned in the direction of the sound. Something was lumbering through the underbrush, something big.

Kaden let out a sigh through his throat. “Very funny. I’m just saying my quota of friendship bracelets from dead girls is officially one. Spot’s taken, you’re too late,” he said, elbowing her back. “So quit your dramatics.” If anyone was going to be okay joking about death, it was Morgan. He knew that much. Honestly, it was nice to have second that he wasn’t just fucking sad about it all. And it was only a second because he looked over to see her fucking head turned around like some kind of horror movie. “Putain de merde, do you have to do that?” His face scrunched in disgust as he turned it away from her. It definitely didn’t turn like that, thank god, but it wasn’t quite enough to avoid the fucking scene of her putitng her head right. His mind flashed to Bea’s head in a jar and if he didn’t feel sick before, he sure did now. “At least warn me before you do.” Yeah he knew that wasn't going to happen.

Unsurprisingly, she had a deep answer to his dumb question. Or he was pretty sure she would have it hadn’t stopped paying attention as soon as he heard a wail. Inhuman, for sure. His stomach dropped. Again. She wasn’t going to like this. At least not if his suspicions were correct. Without thinking, his hand reached back to the knife in his pocket and he positioned himself between her and the rustling in the foliage. Another roar and the creature broke through the bush. A decaying, hungry zombie, shambling towards them. He leapt to act. There was only one thing to do with a monster.

“I didn’t even break anything,” Morgan grumbled, pouting. “And isn’t it good for me to have a positive relationship with my new body? Don’t you want the best for me, Kaden?” But, honestly, it was probably a good thing he hadn’t become completely inured to how dead dead-bodies could be, especially hers. Positioning herself in proximity to human existence was a losing game, but for Kaden...maybe it was the best he could do right now. “I want the best for you too, obviously,” she added, more sincerely.

But the moment was shattered by the figure that leapt out from the underbrush. Morgan recognized her at once. She had only seen her ruined face a few days ago in the cemetery with Rio. “A-ashley--?” She moved forward, but Ashley’s face was too rotted and glazed with hunger to give any intelligible response. She groaned from somewhere deep in her hungry belly and shambled forward, one arm half raised with want. Animals didn’t last long on a dead stomach, even the feast they’d given her, but Stars, she’d hoped Ashley would have at least lasted longer once she was herself again. Her path was clear, but Morgan wasn’t going to go any easier on her now. “Ashley don’t--!” She jumped into her path, holding her by the shoulders and digging in her heels. But Morgan had fed too recently since the last time they’d met, and her muscles were quickly meeting their limit. “Kaden! Help me!” She cried.

There was no doubt in Kaden’s mind what was headed towards him was a monster. The decaying hungry zombie was nothing more than undead bones and decay searching for flesh and organs to tear into. His knife was ready and he was prepared to run in and take care of the situation before this became a problem when Morgan put herself in front of him and started speaking. Did she just say a name? “Wait, do you know that thing?” His stomach fell watching the shambling gaunt body. He wanted to pull Morgan away and just get this over with but she ran towards it and  put herself right in harm’s way. Sure, she was a zombie, too, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t get hurt ever. Putain.

He ran over and wanted to tear her from the threat but it was clear she was fighting her hardest to keep it at bay. Which didn’t exactly bode well. Kaden ran around behind the monster and grabbed its shoulders, pulling back. He’d have to find a way to cut off its head, a knife seemed impractical but it would have to d-- Before he could even consider that, the zombie rounded on him and lunged for his neck. Fuck. He raised his hand and threw a punch in its decaying face, trying to get it away from him. But it was fucking determined. His eyes went wide as he watched the teeth come closer and braced his arm to try and keep it away. Fuck fuck fuck.

“Her name is Ashley!” Morgan snapped. What had she been doing this whole time? Sure, the animal food she’d been given wasn’t going to last long, but she’d had time to hunt or buy or even steal something. Did she not know how? Did she not feel like she could? Morgan gripped the zombie tighter, wrestling against her brute force-- and then she whirled on Kaden, teeth bared.

“Don’t hurt him!” It was the stupidest thing she could’ve said. Ashley didn’t even have enough brain cells to string together who she was. There was no way anything like pleading was going to work right now. Morgan barreled into her from the side, sending them both sprawling to the ground. She pinned her to the forest floor by the shoulder, but Ashley roared and wrenched herself up before she could make her position any more secure. The flesh from Ashley’s arm came straight off and Morgan stared helplessly as the dead limb lay in her grasp. “Shit,” she hissed, scrambling back to her feet to follow the hungry zombie. She was making a beeline right for the hunter and Morgan wasn’t sure if she’d be able to tackle her in time if he didn’t move. “Kaden, get back!” she cried.

“Her what?!” Kaden yelled as he pushed his forearm into the monster’s neck. Putain, it didn’t matter what flesh the teeth connected with, just that they did. His stomach flipped furiously. The thought of being undead was far worse than the threat of death. He may be immune to werewolf bites, but zombies and vampires were still on the table. He could feel his pulse pounding in his chest. And fuck, he’d like it to keep fucking doing so. Desperately, Kaden took his knife and rammed it into the monster’s guts over and over, intestines and rotting flesh tumbling out of its side. It was barely holding itself together anymore but all the same, he was fucking panicking just a bit.

Before he knew it, the monster was thrown away from him by Morgan’s body. Okay. Alright, He had to find something to behead it with. Something more effective than a knife. Shoe lace? No, that would take too long. Morgan could only keep it at bay so long and he had a feeling she wasn’t about to try and kill her “friend.” “I thought you said not all zombies fucking knew each other,” he grumbled as he pulled his belt from his pants. Not great, but it would fucking do.”Mo--” Kaden was about to yell at her to get out of the way but he didn’t have to, the monster was lunging at him all the same. He didn’t listen to his friend and kicked out at the zombie and went to wrap the belt around its neck.

“I just fucking asked her!” Morgan was running as fast as her legs would take her. She could do this. Kaden was bound to have something to restrain Ashley with until they could get her food again. He could hunt her as many deer as she needed. She just needed to get the two of them apart long enough for him to understand what the plan was. She grabbed Ashley from behind, tugging her back as hard as she could by her shirt and wrestling an arm around her neck. “What part of ‘get back’ was hard for you?” She grunted at Kaden. “She’s just starving!” She dragged Ashley back several paces, grimacing as she wriggled and bit at her skin. Her grip loosened as Ashley took a deep chunk out of her arm, and it was all she could do to push the zombie off her feet as she stumbled free. “Give me that,” she said, pulling on the belt in his hands. “You need to run for some fresh deer, or brains, or--fuck!” She hit the ground hard. Ashely’s hand was around her leg, pulling her down with a strength Morgan couldn’t compete against with her humanity intact. “Kaden, what are you doing?”

Kaden really didn’t give a shit if this zombie was hungry or not, but Morgan sure did. And it was hindering him from doing his job. She seemed to insist that she knew this monster and it was very hard for him to care when all he saw were teeth coming towards him, hell bent on tearing into his flesh. “Deer?! You think deer are going to solve this?!” He was just about to solve this his way when Morgan yanked the belt away and he was once again without a way to take care of the problem quickly or easily. Putain. Morgan was down and while deep down he knew that the other zombie couldn’t really hurt her, he didn’t want to risk it. But he had no confidence that Morgan could keep the zombie contained on her own. Kaden reached over and pulled the zombie away from his friend. Or tried to. All he got was a fist full of flesh that had pulled off the bones. “She’s too far gone, Morgan.” The monster turned and hands wrapped around his arm as it pulled at him, teeth coming dangerously close once again. This time he was ready and had his knife braced against its neck. The closer it came to him, the more of its head he hoped he’d sever. It was hungry alright. Hopefully starving to death.

“I don’t know, maybe two of them?” Morgan wrestled with Ashley on the ground. It shouldn’t have been this hard to overpower a woman who was falling apart, but she was still fierce enough to knock Morgan’s bones out of place every time she thought she had the upper hand. And Kaden wasn’t running. Morgan didn’t know how to get it through his thick skull that what she needed wasn’t a rescue, but zombie tofu. “You’re too far gone,” she said through gritted teeth. “Just get her something--no!” Kaden’s knife glared in the twilight around them, slicing deep into Ashley’s neck. Morgan reached out for them from the ground with her broken arms. “Stop! She doesn’t know what she’s doing!” She popped them back into place and scrambled up. Ashley’s neck had been sawed away down to the bone, so fragile and bare for all her thrashing. No one should look like that, she thought. No one’s bones were meant to be bared that way, with rotten flesh staining the surface brown and dripping over the rounded ends. The body protected the bones. All of this was wrong… “Kaden, don’t!”

The knife cut deep into her neck and the stench that came from the rotting severed neck was enough to make him gag. Kaden held it back and kept pushing the knife through. It slid and slipped through what was left of the muscle and then the bone. The monster backed off and started to crumple away. One last whack with the knife and there would be no way for it to regenerate. He was about to do it when Morgan spoke up. All of the fear he felt before was burning away with anger. “No.” It was all he said before taking that final chop to her head, the tenuous connection between the body and it finally removed. All that was left was two piles of disgusting decay. It smelled like the reverse garden in the back of Regan’s apartment, maybe worse. Even before the head was gone, there wasn’t much keeping this together.

“We should burn what’s left.” He frankly didn’t give a shit if she was okay with that or not. Now that he had a moment, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Morgan had said earlier. All of it. “Just get her something, huh? Something to eat?” He could feel the impression of the knife handle pushing into his palm as he gripped it tighter. “Like what? Me?!” He was so close to getting bitten so many times and here she was concerned about a fucking monster. “You knew her, didn’t you? Met her before? You knew her name.” His voice raised louder every fucking sentence. He kicked a lump of decayed flesh away from his shoe. He wanted to kick the fucking corpse but he didn’t feel like trying his luck. “You knew she was like this and you let her--” There was so much he wanted to scream about that he couldn’t even pick where to fucking start. He threw the knife blad first into the ground, making sure it fucking sank in instead. “Morgan what the fuck?!”

“No!” The cry was barely a sound in Morgan’s dead throat as Kaden lobbed off the woman’s head. She stared, mute and trembling, at the remains of her body. All the magic that had been holding her together was gone. There were only masses of green and purple rot and the poor bones that couldn’t hold themselves together anymore. Kaden was yelling, but Morgan couldn’t hold on to any of his words for more than a few moments. “I--I met her once,” she said faintly. “I got her some food. I fed her. It was just...a stupid faun, and the butcher’s whole stock of brains and organs. She...she was scared. I think she was scared. But I don’t know why she didn’t…” Take care of herself. Feed herself. Come up with something better than roaming the woods. Morgan shuddered, thinking of how deep her pit had to be for her to choose living this way, to run away from people who wanted to help. “She ran away before I could do anything more.” Her eyes filled with tears as she finally looked at Kaden, teeming with his hunter rage. “I wasn’t going to let her hurt you. She wasn’t even trying to hurt you, she was just...I don’t know. She was lost, Kaden. Haven’t you ever been lost and stupid?”

“You could barely hold on to her! And your fucking help before led to this!” Kaden said, pointing that the pile of decomposed flesh and bones. “She wasn’t trying to hurt me, she was trying to eat me. I was fucking two seconds from getting bit. A couple of times.” A chill ran through him. There were few fates he could imagine that were worse than being undead. Morgan had adjusted or what-fucking-ever she wanted to call it, but it was the last thing he wanted for himself. And he wasn’t immune. He rolled the muscles of his shoulder blades back, trying to ground himself, pull back. “Lost and stupid was going to fucking kill me, Morgan. If I didn’t-- She was going to eat me. You fucking saw that, right? Putain, if I didn’t have hunter strength--” He gave a small shake of his head. He was so fucking sure she didn’t see it or didn’t care. “What if she came across someone who wasn’t us? What if-- She would have killed them. That’s not some ‘lost stupid’ mistake,” he spat out. “That would be murder. Fucking murder, Morgan. You fail at rehab with monsters and it ends in murder.” He took a deep breath and reached donw for his fucking knife. He wanted to just leave. “This isn’t some fucking game you get to play at.”  

“She is not a monster!” Morgan cried, her voice cracking in her stiff throat. “She was a person, Kaden. Not a ‘this’ or a thing or a--whatever else someone told you she is! She is like me, Kaden! She’s just as much of a person as me! It’s not her fault what her brain does to her when she’s starving, we don’t even know how much of a choice she had! And now we’re never going to because you couldn’t see past the end of your knife long enough to think of a better solution!” She pointed at the body, shaking her head furiously. He couldn’t even feel bad for her. He couldn’t even mourn what he’d taken away from the world. He couldn’t even see her. “That’s murder, Kaden. Not your hypothetical hunter crap. That.”

“That. Wasn’t a person. Not anymore. And it was going to kill me. I’m really glad to know a pile of rotten flesh is worth more to you than--” Kaden couldn’t even finish his sentence. It hurt too much to hear out loud. And he knew the fucking answer already. How often had he seen supernaturals value each other’s lives over human’s? It made him sick. Potential zombie life valued more than a living, breathing human. “There was no time for a better fucking solution. And your attempt at a better fucking solution however long ago your little intervention was clearly didn’t work. She ended up like this.” He was ready to walk away and be done. He was so fucking tired of being told he was wrong for fighting for human life.

“Yes, she was! Ashley was sick, Kaden! People get sick and say and do hurtful things when they’re sick all the time. And we don’t murder them for it, we put them in hospitals! And plenty of your people, your fucking humans do them stone cold sober!” Morgan backed away from Kaden, her insides crawling with disgust. He seemed to come so far and when they were joking around or having their heart to hearts everything between them could feel so nice. She always forgot that to him she was just an exception to a rule about creatures, worse than the dogs he wrangled up for his day job. “But, you know, good job. I’m sure it’ll make a great story to tell all the guys over a beer someday. You showed that starving girl who’s boss all by yourself. If you don’t mind, though, I’m gonna pass on whatever you have lined up next.”

“Sick? What the fuck, Morgan? Sick?!” Kaden was walking away when he heard that, but he turned on his heel to walk back to her. Were they even talking about the same fucking event anymore? Had she even been there just now? “A starving girl? Is that how you think of that?” he shouted pointing once again at the pile of decomp between them. “That was a zombie. Who was very fucking hellbent on eating me.” The more she spoke the clearer it was to him that she didn’t get it. That she saw no value to him or what he did, what had to happen, the reality of things. She had some rose colored zombie glasses or something, he couldn’t figure it out. “You know what, have fun on your walk with your friend there. Because it’s apparently not me. Hope she’s better fucking company. Considering she was higher on your fucking priority list.”

#dead. things #wr kaden #wr chatzy #wr kaden chatzy #wr

[mor-beck-more-problems]

Snags and Snarls || Morgan & Kaden

Morgan and Kaden really just wanted to do the jacket exchange and leave, but there’s more than snark waiting for them in the darkety-dark. 

@chasseurdeloup

Morgan resented having to do anything nice for Kaden. She had considered turning the leather to plastic imitation, thinning out the thread along the sleeves so they ripped twice as easily, just to make his day a little harder. But she had made a bargain. She owed him. And she certainly didn’t want him to argue that she owed him anything else after this stupid drop off. So, Kaden’s leather jacket was restored to what she guessed was factory condition, and with the help of some clothes from her own goodwill bin, insulated with wool padding against the lingering cold. She told Kaden when it was ready and when to meet her at Flipped. It was eerie, driving up on what looked like a foggy night at all of--four in the afternoon. In March. She parked at the edge of the lot under a heavy fir tree and huddled in the safety of her Subaru, lights still on, since it was harder to see than usual. This should just be a quick exchange. Give him the damn jacket and get back home. When she thought she saw a particularly smug-asshole looking shape approach, Morgan opened her door a crack and peered out. “Are you gonna be creepy or are you gonna come take your jacket?”

Kaden wondered if he had wasted his $15 favor on a jacket but either way, he was pretty pleased to be getting it back. The wool one he’d been wearing in the meantime was fine, but he just didn’t like it as much. Didn’t have the right weight, not enough pockets, not as nice and worn. He looked around a bit as he approached the diner. Didn’t see anyone standing around. Made sense, though, it was a little chilly. Plus, probably not ideal to hang out exposed in the open during whatever bullshit eternal night that was happening in town at the moment. He had a feeling the car with the lights on was her, had to be right? Hands still in his pockets for warmth, he leaned down a bit to try and get a closer look when she pushed her door open. He scrunched his nose at her comment. “Creepy? The hell does that mean? You’re the one holed up in your car. I’m not going to be creepy, calm down.” He tried to resist rolling his eyes but couldn’t manage. “I just want the jacket and then you can feel free to write your debt off.” He reached out hand, waiting for her to hand over the jacket.

Morgan grimaced at Kaden as he came over, incapable of even admitting how he carried himself, how well he wore the ‘I’m a murdering asshole’ stamp over his head. “Oh, please,” she said. “You’re trying this on right now, because I am not coming back here in a week just because you decided ‘the lining isn’t right’ or ‘I made the sleeves too short,’” She mocked his accent in a baby voice as she got out of the car and handed him the jacket. “I have spare material in the back, so just make up your mind now, and no backsies later.” She glanced around them, arms folded over her against the cold. There was a strange sound above them, like the wind only not. She hoped Kaden would be quick so they could get the heck out of here. 

Kaden rolled his eyes again. He had a feeling if this interaction lasted much longer, it was bound to keep on happening. “Fine. And do not sound like that,” he said as he shrugged off his current coat, placing it on the roof of her car for the time being. He held out the jacket in front of him. It was impressive work, he had to admit. It looked good as new. Maybe a little better. No doubt it was a stark improvement over the sad charred shell it had been when he brought it to her. He swung it around and put his arms in it. He tugged on the lapels a little once it was, rolled his shoulders, then swung his arms back and forth in front of him to make sure it all moved fine, that nothing impared his movement, all that. With his arms crossed in front of him, elbow touching the inside of his arm, he met a touch of resistance. “Hmm, little tight right there,” he said, collapsing his shoulders forward into the seam. Nothing popped, though. “Should stretch out just fi--” A scraping sound in the nearby trees cut him off. He froze in place and his head shot up, trying to see where it came from. But all he could see was the strange pitch black of the afternoon night sky; he couldn’t make anything out beyond the first row of branches even if he wanted to. He waited a moment, but there was nothing more to hear in the following few seconds, just the wind. Maybe he was just hearing things.

Morgan rolled her eyes. Of course nothing was quite good enough. “It’s insulated, so it keeps you warmer,” she grumbled. “You don’t want that stuff to be too thin and bendy—” She was going to go on about the composition of the thing when the sound came again, closer. She gave Kaden a puzzled look—Did he hear that too? Did his hunter brain—then there were nails inside her shoulders, sharp and heavy, and she was off the ground. Morgan flailed in the grasp of whatever had her and shrieked to the sky.

“Putain!” Kaden shouted as claws descended from the fucking trees and into Morgan’s back. He reached out to try and grab her away from the monster, his first instinct. Not his best, admittedly, but keeping her on the ground seemed like the best plan he had at the moment. He got one of her calves first, then reached up to lock his arm around her hips, leaning back to pull her back down to the ground with all the strength and weight he could muster. Didn’t look like it was going too well. His mind raced to place the creature in his lexicon of supernatural creatures. Tree demon. Big ass claws. Night. Vampire? Asasabonsam. Had to be. “Hold on!” he shouted at her as he tried to pull her out of the monster's grip. 

“Hold onto what?” Morgan shrieked. She had a monster pulling on her shoulders hard enough to dislocate something, and Kaden was on her legs. Between the two of them, she might as well snap in half. That would be a fun hospital trip. The creature yanked on her harder, enough that she cried out, shrill and strangled with fear. She flailed to find purchase on something, anything, and caught her hand on the rough, cold skin on the creature. That was something. Good. Good something. But now what? She clawed her fingers up its arm, too breathless with fear to scream anymore, and pressed down her cuff. She opened herself up, desperate, and pushed. 

The creature let out a ragged, roaring cry of horror. It dropped its hold and Morgan plunked to the ground. She gathered herself up, heaving for breath, and went still again as the creature’s blood splattered down the tree and into her hair. She hadn’t thought about that when she’d made the skin on its arm turn to liquid. But looking up, stiff and trembling, Morgan knew that the creature understood plenty and was ready to make her pay. 

“Anything, pick something!” he shouted back. Kaden was going to have to let go of her if that piece of shit vampire was going to keep its yanking at her into the tree. He tried to keep his grip, pull her back, but it was no use, the creature pulled her up and away out of his grip. Fuck, shit, putain de merde. He wasn’t sure what to do next. Climb a fucking tree? He didn’t have a crossbow or anything like that with him. A gun? No gun. For once. Shit. He dug through his pockets to pull out a knife, still unsure of what good that would do in the immediate but having a weapon ready sounded like a better idea than not. He was about to climb up the fucking tree when he heard the horrfying shriek and saw her fall from the trees. He went to go catch her and got a face full of blood and liquid vampire skin. Perfect. He looked up and saw the monster lunging down at him, screaming and missing part of its arm. No mistaking it, it was angry. Merde, she really did a number on him. Kaden reached out for the arm, digging his fingers into the wound and pulling the beast downwards before plunging his knife wherever it would hit, sinking it into the monster’s ribcage. Wasn’t going to kill it but it sure looked like it hurt. “Get me a fucking stake!” he yelled out to the witch. 

“From WHERE?” Morgan cried. She was still shaking from end to end. Blood and liquified muscle soaked through her hair and sweater, sticking to her skin. She needed to think—of course. She was under a ducking tree, of course! Morgan pawed the ground for sticks, throwing them indiscriminately Kaden’s way. At last she pulled herself to her feet by the trunk and snapped off a low branch. “Uh, will this work better?” She said. She passed it over, still shaking. Were there more in the trees? Was it going to spring back up and try again because she hadn’t gotten a stake sooner? Morgan began to inch towards her Subaru, just in case she needed a faster escape. 

The wailing from the monster was fucking annoying. And loud. Made it hard to concentrate. Still, Kaden pulled out his knife and tried to take the monster down out of the trees, using all the strength he could muster while she fumbled for a stake. But he knew if he got this fucker down on the ground, they’d have the advantage. Problem being, despite the thing being injured, Kaden could feel his feet getting lighter, his grip on the ground slowly slipping away. Putain. Not good. Just as he was pretty sure he was about to be pulled up into the trees, he heard Morgan and turned back to grab whatever it was she threw at him, letting go of the knife still stuck in the vampire’s ribs and catching the branch. Fuck, a branch? Would it even go through? As he felt his feet leave the ground, he decided he didn’t have time to ponder it. He took the makeshift stake and rammed it where the heart should be. And nothing happened. Fuck. Kaden’s eyes grew wide a moment as the monster growled and lunged for his neck. He took a swing with his fist at the branch sticking out of the vampire’s chest, shoving it in farther. And then… poof. The creature burst into dust, its grip on Kaden gone like it had never been there and he fell to the ground right back into the pool of blood that had liquified off the monster earlier. “Merde,” he grumbled to himself as he tried to stand and brush himself off, dust sticking to the blood on his jacket. “You alright?”

Morgan watched with horrified fascination from her place pressed against her car. One minute the thing was there, with its strange, nightmare feet thrashing, and its throat warbling wounded, reedy cries. Then it was gone. If she hadn’t made such a mess with its arm, you wouldn’t have been able to tell it had been there before. It wasn’t like any death Morgan had ever seen. “Shit,” she whispered, groping for the door handle. “P-peachy with a side of keen,” she said, testing her shoulder. Oh. That...some of that blood was hers. “Only got a little maimed by...what was that thing? You’re um…” She grimaced, uncomfortable with her concern. “You’re not maimed either, right?”

“Little’s better than it could have been. You sure you’re alright?” Kaden took quick stock of himself, any injuries. His back hurt after falling but, minor, really. She looked worse, that was for sure. “I’m good.” He took a quick look at the jacket. Fucking hell. “Uh, this might not be, though.” There were new claw marks in it on top of the dust-caked blood. Lovely. “Oh and that? That was one of those tree vampires. Asanbosam, I think? Can’t say for sure if that’s the right name, probably. You’d have to double check with Al--” He stopped himself short of announcing his friend as a slayer. Not a great idea to someone he barely knew who didn’t seem to love the idea that he was a hunter. “With a book. Or something. Should be right, though.” He shrugged off the jacket, poor thing. It had gone through a lot. “Uh, I hate to ask but…” 

Holy universe, this was almost as bad as getting pulled up a tree by a monster. Kaden, ‘French asshole who treated people like stuff’ Kaden, was a hunter with humanity. It shouldn’t have been the most surprising revelation. Blanche liked him enough to involve him in tracking Miriam, and Morgan had been to many awkward holiday parties with people who would give her hugs and an extra casserole with $20 wrapped in a napkin and then stick a Bush-Cheney sign in their lawn. It was a familiar clusterfuck. She just didn’t think she’d have to have it with Kaden, who was at least some of the things she thought he was, but also didn’t seem to be striking deals over giving a crap now that she needed a lot more than a waffle plate. “I brought extra material in case you had a problem with it,” she said. “Hand it over. And uh--” she tested her shoulder again. “If you’ve got a first aid kit, that’d be great until I can get to--” She stopped short of saying Nisa’s name. “Somewhere to fix myself up better.”

Kaden handed her the jacket and took a look over at her shoulder. Yeah, didn’t look great. It didn’t look like it needed stitches from what he could see but there was no doubt it needed treatment of some sort. His brow furrowed a moment, she was asking for help? “Yeah, I’ve got one in my car. It’s around the corner, though.” Just a moment ago he would have guessed she was about to hop in her car and high tail it out of there as fast as possible. It wasn’t hard to see she wanted little to nothing to do with him. Still, the whole point of hunting was to keep humans safe, even if he wasn’t sure why that was so hard for so many to grasp. He wasn’t going to just walk away if she was injured. “It’s going to take me a minute to get it. Let me know if you want me to take a look when I’m back. I’m no doctor but I’ve dealt with my fair share of claws and teeth wounds.” 

That...did actually sound helpful. The less she had to put on Nisa and Deirdre, the better. Morgan gave Kaden a reluctant nod. “Yeah, that would be…” How was this more bewildering than scary tree vampires being real? “Great. Thank you.” She turned away from him quickly, too weirded out to linger on the moment, and opened the back of her car for her scrap bin. There was a pleather jacket Anya had raked her claws down. She had worked her head around the knack of thread thickness and ink and dye plenty in the weeks since Kaden had first given her the damn thing; it cost her little brainpower now to bring the two pieces together for a fresh repair. Good as new again. She sagged against her car, carefully holding the jacket away from her, and waited for Kaden to come back. “Give it another go,” she said. “Maybe the second time’s the charm.”

With a quick nod and the jacket now in her hands again, Kaden headed to his beat up Volvo station wagon down the street to grab the well-worn first aid kit out of his trunk. Some people had pristine first aid kits that they kept for an emergency that never came. His wasn’t like that at all. If he had to guess, there wasn’t one thing in that kit that had originally come with it. Every item had been replaced time and time again. When he got back to her car, he was surprised to see she was already down. He put the kit down a moment and tried on the jacket. Once again, he shrugged it on, rolled his shoulders a bit. Still felt good. “Good as new.” Honestly, he was a little shocked she was able to fix it up as well as she did, magic or otherwise. It should have been nothing but trash after the run-in with the mime cut out. “Uh, thanks. Let’s get that wound cleaned up, alright?”

Morgan rolled her eyes. “I told you it would be,” she said. “You don’t have to be that surprised.” But she was glad he was, and the snip in her tone faded quickly. “And uh...thank you, too. Really. I appreciate this.”  It felt weird to offer him a smile, all the more so for knowing how little this changed anything. But what else did you do for the person who stopped you from being vampire food?

#snags and snarls #wr kaden #wr chatzy #wr kaden chatzy #wickedswriting