I was laying on one of the bunk beds and showing off against Anders who lay in the bunk next to me. We somewhere found that child's toy ball that needed just a little force to bounce like crazy. Children likely had a blast with them, and some black eyes, two highest ranking members of our striking team would put them to shame as unprofessionalism goes. The goal was to throw a ball and catch it before it hit the ground while it bounced off as many surfaces before that. And as added difficulty one had to catch the ball before it landed. Damn Anders found the weird angle of his bunk that was damaged some time prior and got him 4 bounces there alone, 12 in total. While I languished at 10. I turned the small ball in my hand, nearly resigned I'd lose when Ian moved and stood in front of the Tick that moved toward my bunk. I checked the time, sundown was in some 15 minutes, and their masters would wake up soon. And this wannabe thought he could just walk up to me or Anders and inform us about this. Not even their leader, One of the short pump action shotgun ones. I glanced at Anders. He gave me a small shake of the head. And I tended to agree, that killing Ticks would be counterproductive, but allowing them to think they are our equals was the same. I placed the ball next to me and observed. Tick aggressively armed his shotgun and then in shock took a step back. Ian did nothing, but almost out of the shadows, Gar and Dona appeared behind him on the left and right. I did not have to look closely, their special ops clothes barely contained them. Both were taller than Ian, and when I glanced at their hands I saw claws. They were in a Hybrid state. Ian had to do nothing, two of them were all the muscle he needed.

Finally, Tick's boss moved forward, and the air of arrogance was almost visible. I eyed Anders and he sighed leaving his bunk mothing to me "I won" I crumpled 50$ and threw it his way, expertly he caught it winking at my middle finger salute. Anders placed the hand on Ian's shoulder and the youth retreated. Tick Leader said something, but I couldn't exactly hear it over the sound of broken bone and teeth, Anders decided to dispel the myth that unless we shifted, we were just human and gave him a nice backslap special. Not too diplomatic as all others pointed weapons at us. Leader mumbled something through his ruined mouth. And then his head vanished, Anasthasia holding it in her hand while, I sighed again, NOW I had to get involved.

Anders moved back making the space, and I faced my opposite. Surprisingly she bowed "My apologies for the offence this prospect caused you." I shrugged "His broken jaw and lack of teeth made me unable to understand him" Anders chimed in helpfully "He called your mother whore that mates with animals." "Then he died too quickly." Anders simply said, "If he called my mother that, yeah, he did." I turned and looked, Anders over my shoulder. He was both my number two and my best friend because he knew my limits, and now he has realized he was just on the line. He lowered his head and took two steps back. "Sorry, boss." I turned my head back toward Anasthasia "I assume you will call your specialist." She wiped the last of the blood from her face and nodded "And I assume you will call yours." "Nope." One of her eyebrows raised slightly I gave a half shrug "I don't think this was done by a Vampire." "How magnanimous of you...care to share your thought process?" "Guy is torn like a chicken by particularly hungry Teen. Your claws are not strong enough to do that to a grown adult male." "But your's are?" I looked at her leaving unsaid part of her sentence and grinned "And then some." I turned to return to my bunk. Before I managed to lie down there was another question "So you admit this is a Warewolf attack"

Now there is a difference in time for how long it takes to take a War Form, the record was a second, I say "was" because now is 0.25 seconds, held by me. In short by the time I held her neck her some 10 feet off the ground giving her enhanced vision really good look into razor sharp points of my teeth, especially 2.5 inches of my canines. I spoke old tongue under the really annoying lights of firearms. Anders cleared his throat "He asked what was your derogatory term for him?" There was a pause before what I assume was the second in command answered "Covenkiller" I growled again Anders smoothly translated "Are you a coven, or slightly short of members?" "We are elite..." This time Anders didn't even wait for my response "So, not a Coven. We'll kill all of you, Ticks included before he takes a first volley because as "Elite" dumbasses you forgot there are four more of us and pointed all guns at him. You would be dead before the first volley went off." I transferred back, and, for what it mattered placed her gently on the ground. "I don't often extend Olive branches to Corpses, no I don't think it's one of you, and I suggest you keep your guesses to your specialist. Or he'll work overtime. We clear?" Her eyes were daggers "Crystal." "Perfect" I finally rested on my bunk and heard Anders lay on his. "You are butt naked." "It happens when baby grows 4' under a second." "So you are O.K. with it?" "Why? You happen to have clothes of my size stashed somewhere?" "No" "Well then I guess this is something we'll have to learn to live with."

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Their Specialist happened to look the part, a man in his 50s with a large black bag and another smaller one, he had a short talk with a few of the Ticks and they vanished for a few minutes just to return with a foldable surgical table and some lights. He looks at both sides "So...the body?" Under the circumstances, I couldn't but admire how calm he was. He had to know he was in the middle of a brewing shitstorm and his pulse wasn't elected for a beat. In 15 minutes he had his setup and remains on the table large bag had various instruments, some I knew, some I did not, and was oddly comforted by it. I had an odd suspicion that this "Specialist" did not work only on corpses. The small bag contained his pristine white cloak, mask, and all other stuff one would expect Doctor to have. Anyway, his examination lasted unusually long and was usually gruesome. Just I and Anastasia watched from beginning to end, by the confused crease on his forehead specialist got about 20 minutes in I assumed that was the reason for a further 40 minutes. Finally, crease still visible he removed his gloves, then mask, and waved both of us closer, I was slightly surprised I was included, not only because I was still butt naked, but because he had to know I was from the...shall we say: enemy camp. "This is unusual." He started without a preamble, voice pleasant tenor with an upper-class accent. "At first I thought it would be an open and shut case, due to this he pointed at two marks", he did not have to say what they were, I had one too. "Claw marks, too big and brutal to belong to a Vampire, the mark of the Human subculture of Canis Canis." This was the first time I heard us described so officially and almost smirked "But then I found this" he pointed deeper and adjusted lights so we could see deeper into the body cavity. "Missing liver? What is so unusual? Rogue Wolves are rogue because they turn to cannibalism." Asked Anasthasia glancing at me with two pieces of ice she had instead of eyes "My... colleague can concur that." I slowly nodded "But that is not what he is showing, He's found teeth marks that don't fit" She frowned and looked better "Naked mister have good eyes." I had to give it to him, his manners were impeccable "If I did not wear a magnifier I'd miss them myself" he pointed with a laser pointer, "My assumption would be that the creature fed directly from the cavity and this was the last bite" "And they are too small to belong to Wolves." Ended Anasthasia. "Not just that, Doctor added, they have no appreciable canines at all. All teeth are perfectly the same size, all perfectly serrated If I did not know better I'd compare it to a small shark" "Any other clues." "Not the one I can find here." I added "Any hypothesis?" He looked me for the first time in the eyes, they were brown but lacked any feeling. This guy was a psychopath, through and through "No. Analysis so far discards any Human Subspecies I encountered. Most certainly any active in the New York area." "Because we hunted most of them to extinction," I added in my mind. "We will need to examine this more thoroughly in a real lab." I noticed Anasthasia furrowed her nose, but this time even I had to rub my brow in frustration, before calling back "Anders, go out and call the tribe, tell them to arrange a specialist, clothes for me, and prepare a meeting of the High Table." "What?" his tone was almost incredulous as my demands. Last High Table convened when the Truce was established "I'm afraid we'll have to stay with our..."I glanced at Anesthesia "...colleagues for a little more."