Okay, I know I have not updated anything in a while, but I hope this 2537 word, action-filled chapter will make up for it.

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Ash's P.O.V.

"Hey, Ash!" Katie yells as I speed walk down the dusty, deserted street with people and creatures watching us from the shadows.  "Slow down!  You're charging right into danger and you're gona ket killed!"

"I don't care."

"But who will help her once she is dead, hu!?"

"We are not even sure if this is her."

"Stop it with that fucking flat tone of yours!  And so you're saying you're going to die even if it isn't her?"

"I'm not going to die, for fucks sake!" I growl, whipping around to face her and look down into her golden eyes. 

"You could," Katie says and puts a hand gently on my cheek.

"Kat, it's not going to happen.  Not with you by my side and with Brooke as the goal.  I must get her back...."

"I understand, Ash, but we should at least have a plan."

"And who said I didn't?" I ask with a deep voice, a disturbing smirk making its way to my face.

"Oh, I like the sound of that...."

"Um, guys?"

"Why is Andrew here again?" I grumble and Katie chuckles.

"Because he knows where she was recently: he saw her," Katie defends him.

"Doesn't mean I like it... and you're not doing a good job at guiding me."

"BECAUSE YOU WON'T SLOW THE FUCK DOWN!" Andrew yells so loud I wince and Kat does too.

"Shut up!" Kat hisses harshly and Andrew snorts.

"Why?  I don't se-"

"Shut.  Up," I growl and feel my canines begin to grow longer and my ears begin to form. 

"Ash, calm down.  We can punish him later."  I smirk, making sure to show my enlarged canines, and motion for Andrew to take the lead in front.

"Hurry up," I growl and Andrew does as I say-- much to my surprise-- and walks in front if me with a grunt.

"It will take a couple of minutes to wal-"

"Then let's run," I say blankly and start to sprint.

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?"  I don't say anything in reply to Andrew and he starts sprinting as well and Kat follows suit behind us.

"This is it?" I ask Andrew while looking upon an old apartment building that is about five stories tall, besides one that clearly had collapsed.  Oddly enough, the condition it is in is surprising, as the foundation still appears stable....

"Yup."

"It has obviously been maintained..." Kat says next to me and puts her arm on my shoulder, which only works because she is tall: about 5 feet and 8 inches, while I'm 5' 9".

"I don't trust this."  I ignore Andrew's comment once again and walk past him with Kat still at my side, but gently gripping my arm in a supportive, comforting manner.

"I'm ready to pull off some limbs..." Kat says lowly and transforms halfway, as do I, and we cover our ears and faces with our hoods while out tails run down one of our pant legs.

When we get to the front door, I slowly push it open with my small knife in my left hand, ready to slice at a Split, nocte sanguis, or avium, which are all just a pain in the ass.  No one has ever been able to stand a chance against me in a fight besides Kat, and I doubt that this will be any different.

Kat gives me a nod and heads in, ready to claw anything that she wishes, whether it be a threat or a wall that "decided to jump in front of" her... she is clumsy, but very elegant and graceful in a fight and when she needs to be... which I find odd.  Maybe her true feline comes out then?  "Andrew, stay behind us an close unless we say otherwise," Kat whispers to him and he nods in response.

"I'll take the lead.  If we need to split up for any reason, I'll go alone," I say quietly and head down the left hall.  I am not sure if Andrew is right and Brooke is here, but all I can do is follow the scents of mud, blood, a-....  "Maybe we will have a good fight," I say with a grin and I see Kat nod enthusiastically in the corner of my eye, knowing exactly what I mean.  Out of the three known beings that are not humans but live with them, nocte sanguis are the strongest.  They are the best enemy I've ever faced-- but still not a challenge-- and they seem to have better abilities, most likely due to the huge disadvantage of being one, but they are strong.

"Well, look what we have here~" comes a high-pitched young woman's voice.

"A couple of splits!" squeals another high-pitched voice, but a male this time. He doesn't sound young, but... crazy. These nocte sanguis may have a few screws loose....

"Night blood will be spilled," Kat growls, trying to find where they are with both smell and sight and failing.

"Kat!" I bark out.  "Listen!"  She isn't slow, but she acts more with her claws than her brain.

All goes silent as we wait, trying to find their positions so we can make the first move. 

The twitching of my ears causes my hood to fall and allows me to hear better, and I can tell there are more than two nocte sanguis in the room with us.  I hear movement all around, which isn't a good sign.  They must be more powerful and, therefore, faster, in addition to a multitude of other abilities.  "Come play with us!  Or, are you scared, perhaps!?" Kat yells our with a wide grin on her face.  "Only cowards hide in the dark!  That is all you night blood are!"

"Shut up!"

"Don't be hasty!"  I grin as more and more voices speak up.  Well, we are surrounded, but they sure are stupid and prideful....

"Andrew!  Sweep them out!" Kat yells and Andrew nods, a little unsure.  He transforms halfway, his fuzzy ears atop his head, his blonde hair longer, his body more dense and his hands huge with accompanying large, thick nails.

He runs forward into the dark and grunts and yells meet my ears.  "Go on!" Andrew yells and my head tilts slightly in both curiosity and confusion, but I don't refuse.

"Andrew has this, Ash.  Let's go left," Katie tells me and I nod and lead the way, slashing a couple throats on my way and Kat covering the rear. 

Sadly, slashing their throats is only going to temporarily cripple them; you need to either starve them of blood, remove their heads, have them bleed out, (which is tough considering they heal quickly if they are more powerful and more evolved) and lastly, remove their slow-beating hearts.

Side-by-side, we slowly stalk down the dark hallway, the absence of light only broken my the few spaces in the boards that cover the windows, letting yellow shards of light into the building sent by the sun setting.  "It looks as if each of these rooms has a small house in it to sustain one's life..." Kat says quietly after catching up to me from peeking inside one of the rooms.

"Hotel," I say briefly, recalling the rarely-used word.

"Oh yea~" I chuckle lightly and let a small smile remain on my face as we continue through the building.

"Smell that?!" Kat whisper-shouts to me and I nod without looking at her; it is the scent of a female cat split.  And not only that, but the familiar scent smells of tiger lilies and honey; Brooke's scent.  After all this time, I haven't forgotten....

"Follow it," I say and start running, my heart pounding.  Will Brooke blame me?  Will she remember me? Maybe that would be for the best and we should part ways after... but I couldn't bear to see her leave again, but then never return....

"Oh, no you don't!" Comes a voice, which gives me barely enough time to duck as a sledgehammer whips around the corner and smashes the wall next to me.

"Ash!" Kat yells, and I duck, allowing her to launch over my head: straight for our attacker's face.

Despite his large size, he doges her with ease and pounds his forearm onto her back, smashing Kat to the floor with a grunt. and winding her.  I growl and fully transform in less than a second, my body aching and burning with the strain.

I launch my body at him and clamp down on his neck with my jaws, snarling and whipping my head back and forth to tear his flesh.  This is a night blood, so I must be careful and go for the kill.

He doesn't let out so much as a grunt of pain and wraps his hands around my thin neck, but I don't leg go.  "I'm going to snap your scrawny little neck, split."  He won't be able to understand me even if I said somethings, so I'll speak something... more up his alley. 

I release his throat and wriggle out of his tight grasp, pushing off of his chest with my paws.  I land behind Katie who pushes herself up and moves to my side, her nails poised to slice.  "Distract him!  Make it seem like you will attack!" I bark to Kat who nods in acknowledgement.

"Good luck," she says with a smirk and I snort.

"I don't need such a thing," I growl an Katie chuckles.

"Right you are."  Kat rushes forward towards the nocte sanguis who has his sledgehammer out of the wall, ready to swing.  I watch as Kat spins around him with incredible grace and speed and rakes her claws across his flesh every so often, but not making any move to finish him off, which would be very dangerous for her to do....  I quickly dart out of his sight and prepare to launch myself at his neck.  As soon as Kat is out of the way, I push off with my powerful hind legs an clamp onto his throat.

I whip my head from side-to-side, tasting the metallic blood as it hits my tung.

He gurgles, chocking on his blood and unable to breath, and Kat continues to slice his body with deeper cuts.

Once his body falls to the ground, I release him, landing in a puddle of deep-red.  "Why, don't you look terrifying," Kat says with a smirk.  I revert back to my middle form-- my natural form-- and notice my pants are now a ripped pair of shorts and I use my knife to tidy it up; thank goodness the pants were somewhat stretchy....  "You are covered in blood, hun."  I wipe my hand over my mouth, but that didn't do much good, as my arms and hands had drying blood all over them as well.

"Fuck it," I say as I spit out some of the blood coating my teeth and sitting in my mouth.  "Cover me.  Try to keep up, but don't die."

"I won't, Ash," Katie says with a sigh before we sprint-- full speed-- down the halls.

The further we get down the hall, the stronger the smell of tiger lilies and honey gets.  "Ash, make a le-" Kat yelps and is thrown to the floor with a loud bang by a nocte sanguis.  That one was super fast....

"Kat!" I yell.

"Go, you fucking idiot!" she manages to cough out, blood following.

"Fuck!" I bark out, my mind so conflicted.  She can handle herself... I hope she will be okay....

Listening to her directions, I make a left into the room she pointed out, bashing the door down with a grunt.

Before me is a long, pitch-black hallway, but I smell a great amount of nocte sanguis in my way, most likely with crazed smiles on their faces.  "Get the fuck out of my way!" I yell, and full out sprint down the hall, relying on my claws and leaving my knife in my pocket where I had placed it earlier.

Using my instincts, smell, and hearing, I slash through neck after neck and pull out a couple hearts on the way.  Blood flies everywhere and I grin, finally being able to have a small challenge in a fight and go all-out.  Their speed doesn't matter, and nor does their healing with their heads rollin on the slippery, wet floor.  In fact, it almost makes it easier for me to slice through them.  "What the hell is going on?" I hear one screech from the end of the dark hall.

"It's a mons-"  Yes.  I am a monster.  No one can keep me from my goals, because I am unstoppable.

"Retreat!  It's not wor-"  I cut another off short and turn the corner t the end of the hall to see another door and bust down this one too, breathing heavily.

"Don't.  Move."  I make eye contact with the one who holds a gun at me and snarl, bearing my bloodied teeth.  Behind the nocte sanguis are women and girls chained to the wall, and I can only assume the worse.

"You... you...."  No insult can describe how I feel about what has been going on.  At this point, even if Brooke wasn't here, I will help these women.

"What are you?" the man with the gun snaps at me, and a large grin forms on my face.

"Apparently, I'm a 'monster'.  An unstoppable monster."  The gun fires just as I move and I yelp, but that is all; my pace doesn't slow.  I tackle him, avoiding most of the bullets shot at me.  I dig my claws into his chest an grasp his heart, ripping it out with great force. 

My left leg is on fire and go is my left bicep and I think my own blood is dripping from a grace to my forehead judging by the burning sensation.  There is too much blood on person to distinguish what came from who....  "Oh my gods..." breaths a woman and looks at me.

"Are you all... o-okay?" I huff out, breathing heavily.  Some nod and some reply with quiet responses.

"Thank you...."

"A-Ash...." I stutter, falling to my knees.  How did I not notice this pain in my stomach until now?!  "Fuck...."

"S-someone!  Help him!"  That voice....

"B-Brooke...?"  I look up with half-open eyes to see a beautiful girl who was before in the corner.  She is battered and also has blood on her, clothes torn to shreds, practically.  Her long, black hair is knotted and bloodied and her pale skin dirty.  Her beautiful violet eyes are dull, but still alert and filled with confusion and surprise.

"W-who ar-"

"Finn!" I hear Kat yell in the distance and smile lightly.

"Take care of her...."

"Finn!"  All shouts and gasps fade and my vision goes black as I fall, loosing consciousness.  Well, maybe I'm not unstoppable, but I sure put up one hell of a fight....