{Wednesday, 3rd September. 20:30}

The crescent moon rose over the City of Angels. Under Her light, restless spirits whispered secrets, and those who would look for answers would have to venture into shadows cast by partial illumination. It was a moon for the brave of soul, for the certain of heart, and for the steady of nerve.

Owns-The-Night stood at the window in the gloom of his unlit lounge, having watched Luna's rise over the last hour and feeling Her light caress his bare torso as it streamed through the glass. His eyes were pale discs in the radiance of his Mother's secretive smile, and his answering smile was terrible as it was gentle, his soul singing the Rahu's hymn of Rage and Death at the prospect of tonight's hunt.

The front door opened quietly, and Declan knew without looking that Adrian had returned. As soon as dusk had fallen tonight the young vampire had gone out to seek sustenance, perhaps for the last time. He acknowledged Adrian's nod with one of his own, and watched the slim male walk silently up the stairs to collect his weapons and ready himself. It was time.

He moved to the back door, feeling fur sprout down across his back and shoulders as he took the Dalu skin, his form swelling from the addition of perhaps fifty pounds of muscle. Stepping out into the back yard, Owns-The-Night tilted his head back, filled his lungs, and let out a long, deep-throated howl.

The sound rang out across the city, a foreign noise in this place of plastic and metal and gasoline. To most, it was an animal sound that seemed odd and unsettling. To a few, however, it was the call to hunt. Owns-The-Night's howl tolled around the UCLA campus, and one or two enlightened souls were perhaps aware that it portended something in the wind. But to Ariel, Amber and Sarah, it was a call they had been waiting for.

*Come away, come to here. The hunt begins!*

Sarah was in the midst of patrolling her claimed turf, up near the northeastern corner where the L.A. Country Club meets the estate of one Mr. H. H. Hefner. A howl cut through the night, and every animal in the private zoo on the property promptly lost its mind in reaction, trying to find some way to get away from whatever primal throat had cast out that cry.

But to the Dead Wolf, it was sheer music, and a feral grin came to her lips even as she set out at a silent, breathless run along the empty stretches of Charing Cross, westward toward Declan's call. Her legs pumped with the smooth, complaint-free efficiency that came as second nature to the undead.

The creature cut like a shadow across empty yards and streets, until it came near the small house on Wyton... where it didn't slow, but actually picked up the pace. In one preternatural bound, it took the fence and shrub as one, landing in a feral crouch and looking up out of the darkness with eyes that shown bright in reflection of Luna's smile.

Adrian watched the magic begin. The pack, the pack that included Declan, Amber, Ariel, and Sarah was being sown together by some ancient mystical - primal - rite. It was both amazing and exclusive. He was on the outside looking in. So many of the players were still a total mystery to him. What little he had learned was coming to an end. His case was coming to a conclusion against a murder and man-eater.

Adrian was happy for that, and sad. He had made mistakes and he was forced to accept his stance as the Outsider. He shook his head and moved on. It was time for the hunt. It was time to take a life and hopefully not lose one of their own. For Adrian, it was his first real battle and it promised to be ugly. In his heart he prayed for the courage to stand and make a difference. He could make this his time as well as the pack. He could be someone of consequence.

Ariel was in the parking lot, pacing restlessly back and forth when the howl rose up. She'd been expecting it, but hearing it still set her hair stiff in her follicles. She almost just turned to run in that direction, before sheepishly remembering herself and getting into her car.

They'd have to address this 'commute' situation sooner or later, Ariel thought to herself.

After what feels like an eternity, but is probably just ten or fifteen minutes, Ariel pulls into Dec's driveway and hops out of her old Civic to go to Declan's door. After a moment of hesitation over if she should knock...she decides not to and to see what the reaction is...Ariel heads in to meet the team.

Amber was the last to arrive, coming up at a brisk run. Her face was red but she wasn't panting at all. She walked right up to the waiting group. "Hi," she said, waving her hand to cool her face down. "Where are we at?"

While the three werewolves congregated on Declan's back porch, the Dead Wolf stayed to the ground. Maybe she liked the feel of good earth beneath the soles of her boots. Maybe she preferred the slight shadows of the trees, or the soft silver light of the moon upon her pale face. Or maybe it was realization and acceptance of just how unwelcome she was in the eyes of her cousin.

Whatever the reason, her voice was deadly calm as she looked up and replied to Amber's question from a slight distance.

"We have the address, we know where to go. The question is, what do we do with him when we find him? He's an Oath-breaker and needs to be stopped, but we have our own Oaths. The People Do Not Murder the People... and before anyone gets ideas, neither do I. So we have to remind him of his Oath. Probably with a whole lot of hurt that takes a long time to heal. That, I can do." Moonlight glinted off ebony claws, somehow both wolflike and razor-sharp, that suddenly appeared at the tips of Sarah's fingers.

"The People don't murder the People, true." Declan growled, his Dalu shape giving his voice a bestial edge. "But if he's mad, or got the taste for forbidden flesh so much we can't reach him, then we give him a merciful death. Better that than the alternative." He shrank down to his human form as he spoke, picking up his old battered sweatshirt and slipping it on.

He waited for Adrian to join them before continuing. "We go to the address, pick up the trail there. If it's older than ten minutes, we stake the place out and wait for the fucker to show up. If there's a chance of tracking him, we follow him fast and try to catch up. Either way, once we have eyes on him, we make sure he's got no back-up then take him down hard first, then swat him with the rolled-up paper." The Rahu looked around the assembled group, both pack and vampires. "Any objections?" It wasn't quite a question.

"Do we take out the back-up if he's got any or just hit them all at once?" Amber asked. She didn't like the talk of killing the maneater. She honestly had realized that they'd have to do it, but she'd been sure it was a last result, once everything else was exhausted. She hoped that was the case, still.

"Back-up goes down first if possible." Declan nodded at Amber. "But we don't risk him getting away to do that. If we have to, we hit them all at once." He looked around at everyone.

"Ariel, you drive Amber and me. Adrian, you ride with Sarah and take point. When we get there, you do your sneaky shit and scout the place out. Play it safe and act like he might be able to see you: for all we know, he might. Sarah, you're his backup if anythin' goes wrong. The three of us will be right in behind you once the metal starts flyin'." He started to walk for the door. "If he's home, we take it from there and black-bag his ass. Otherwise, we find roosts and wait for him. Nobody other than Adrian gets too close to his lair until we have a positive that he's home. Don't want him getting a whiff of Uratha and bein' warned."

"I understand," says Adrian quietly. It is clear that he is both afraid, and willing to undertake the task. In this matter, his longing for some sort of respect, no matter how pathetic and unlikely, is stronger than his fear for his own life.

"How do I signal you to let you know if he's in, or if you should take up watching positions? Cellphones would be easier but I need somebody's number. Ariel maybe?"

He fidgets with his armored T-shirt, waiting for the last of his orders.

Sarah simply nodded. The Alpha had called out the plan; whether or not she owed him any formal allegiance, she'd follow. "Text should work, set to vibrate. I'll have my senses ramped up; if you can give me some sort of warning before opening up with hand cannons, that'd be nice."

Declan nodded to Sarah in approval of her idea. "Yeah, text Ariel if he's home. If not, or if you can't, r-v back with us and we'll take it from there."

He opened his front door and stepped out into the night. "Let's go to work, people."

Ariel's lips quirked a bit. She wasn't wild about giving her phone number to Adrian...but it wasn't a sticking point. She went over to the vampire and jotted the number down on the back of an old receipt from her wallet, then handed it to him.

"He may be expecting trouble, and his people have seen your face. If you think you're in any danger at all, call."

She heads back to Amber and Declan and says, more quietly, "He may be packing silver, you know. Break one Oath, break them all. Anything we can do about that other than watch our asses?"

"Nothing at all." Owns-The-Night said grimly as he led them over to Ariel's car. "But if he pulls silver, I'm striking to kill and I'm not fuckin' around."

He was quiet after that, going deep inside himself somewhere as he waited for them to get going.

As they are walking over to his car, the Gunmetal Gray Mustang - the one his goons don't know - Adrian asks a question of Sarah.

"What's the problem with gunfire?"

He carries two pistols himself and doesn't want to mess up his partner in stealth. Besides, the cautionary note about senses rings a bell in his own schooling not a year gone bye. The exact context of that lesson have never really been applied in his life yet, but he recalls they invovle a bit of pain and disorientation ... right?

Without looking at the Mekhet, Sarah replied in a low monotone. "Got my nose. Got my ears and eyes with it. It's a wolf thing... and apparently, a Dead Wolf thing. But if you go blasting away while I really have my ears open, you're gonna leave me deaf for a while. So a little warning would be a good thing, OK?"

It was a lesson she'd learned the previous night, when a car backfired in the midst of her patrol. Most of an hour had gone by before the world was more than a muffled roar.

With only a moment's hesitation, Sarah pulled the passenger-side latch, and slid into Adrian's sleek ride. The stink of formaldehyde was still strong in the car; its owner had precious little scent of his own to contribute to the mix. Dimming her new-found senses in preparation for the ride, she nodded as he took the wheel. "Let's do this."

Amber stared out the window, letting the scenery flow by her. She tried not to think of Antoine, waiting impatiently for her. She tried not to think of Melody, God knows where, unaware of the danger her mother was riding into. She tried not to think about the Oath-breaking she might have to participate in later. She just tried to think of battle, and the glory of Luna, and the duty of the People.

Owns-The-Night was also very quiet, his eyes focused on the road ahead. He was well aware of the possibility that only an Uratha's death would solve this problem. The man-eater had friends, a support group. Whatever their motives, Owns-The-Night was confident that the rogue was not simply misguided. He was prepared to deliver a death blow if he deemed it necessary, especially if it would save lives he cared for. The thought of one of the People preying on humans naturally led him to think of Morgan perhaps falling prey to such a beast. That thought was enough to start silver fires of rage dancing in the Rahu's eyes. When he next spoke his voice was low, as though coming from the depths of his chest.

"One way or another, this Uratha doesn't take another human victim. This I swear. And if killin's the only way my oath can be fulfilled, I'll do that killin' myself." He turned to look at Amber, then at Ariel. "If execution is called for, I'll make it quick. Like putting down a mad dog."

Ariel grimaced.

"Lets be honest. How can this possibly end without having to kill him? And don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way eager for that, but do we really think we can just put a beatdown on him, tell him he's been a bad boy...maybe smack his nose with a rolled up newspaper...and then let him go and he'll behave from then on?"

She shakes her head.

"If he was human, I'd say lock him up for life. Our version of exile. But he's not..."

At that she trailed off for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "Except he kind of IS. I mean, he's basically a serial killer. If we can -prove- it then we wouldn't have to kill him. We'd let the system take him."

"And let them put him in a jail where he's among his food source and has the ability to rend concrete and twist iron," Amber said, her arms crossed. "I'm sure he'd be fun in Gen-pop."

She glanced at Ariel. "I get where you're going hon, but he'd take to being imprisoned about as well as you would, and probably worse. His wolf is no doubt more menacing than yours." Amber wondered why adherents of Red Wolf always seemed less primal, but this wasn't the place; she filed the thought for later. "He'll be as ok in jail as a wild wolf. It's a good idea, but it'd be a bloodbath."

"Then what?" Ariel wants to know. "I mean...how do we get out of this without killing him if we can't imprison him?"

"If he agrees to stop, and we set spirits to watching him when we can't... we'd become his prison guards, effectively," Amber replied. She sounded resigned, or maybe just tired. "It's all we can do, and that assumes that he's willing, and that he could stop eatin' people. Eatin' people is a shortcut; he might have trouble giving it up. I'm willing to help him, but I'm not going to let him kill anymore."

Not when Antoine could be on the menu.

They were in Santa Monica at 3rd Street and Ashland Avenue, or close enough to the intersection to find a place to park. Adrian looked to Sarah and nodded.
“Its apartment 402,” he said, checking that his information was the same as hers. “I’ll check out the door. You won’t be able to see me all the time, but I’ll keep close to you as I can.”

They let a car pass then he crossed the street. He didn’t seem to have too many things with him, just his pistols. For Adrian’s sake, the pistols had silencers and there wasn’t as likely to be room for a sword or a shotgun. Looking over his shoulder to see that Sarah was close he walked up the stairs and through the door.

There was an elevator off to the left (in working order apparently) and stairs up to the right. The Mekhet nodded and headed for the stairs. The vampires took the stairs rapidly up through the third floor at which point Adrian held up his hand.

“I’m going to go invisible now. Follow as close as you feel comfortable, but give me a second to disappear. Follow in a three count.

With that, Adrian moved up and around the corner. Alone, he pulled the shadows around himself and felt himself dim to the rest of the world. He was cloaked and the world took on a shadowy hue. When he looked around the corner, Sarah didn’t notice him. He was pleased.

Adrian took up the last flight up stairs taking them confidently, almost serenely. He loved the pull of the shadows around him, even though there was an overriding mission to do. He came to the final landing and scanned around. The hall was clean, mostly, and there was a window at the end of the hall … right were their door, 402, would be.

As he walked down to it, he felt the world dampen around him, but that was because the room was a beacon of light and life. He could hear the music coming from inside then a female laugh – damn. Adrian leaned his head against the door and listened intently.

He leaned back and sighed. He made his way back to the stairs and went half way down before pulling out the phone. Hastily, he dialed the number.

“Ariel, I’m on the fourth floor. I’ve been to the door. I’ve heard …” and he gave then his best estimate on what was within.

Perception test: rolls 9d10 and gets 4,2,7,4,1,10,3,2,9.
rolls 1d10 and gets 10.
rolls 1d10 and gets 2.

From Sarah's perspective, the disappearing trick by Adrian was disconcerting at the least. He was around a corner when he pulled the stunt, but there are more ways of knowing a presence than sight alone. The faint sounds of his shoes on the worn carpet, the slight creak of his shoulder holster and scent of oil on the firearm therein, his deoderant, the fabric softener in his clothing... every trace of the once-man that called itself Adrian was there one moment and utterly gone the next, well before the requested three-count could expire.

Indeed, the irrational part of her mind started to wonder if he had somehow stepped over into the Shadow world known so well by her cousins - or had been pulled into such by tonight's target. A quick glance around the corner revealled the comfortingly closed door of apartment 402, and her inhumanely sharp ears detected some of the same sounds as Adrian, only slightly diminished over the length of the hall.

"There are three people I know to be in the room. One is a male whose voice I know. He is one of the goons I've already met. There is a second man's voice that I don't know but who isn't the other goons. There is also a female's voice heard in the room. It seems like they are having a bit of a party. If there is someone else in the room, I don't hear them."

Adrian waited for Ariel to pass the information on to Declan and for him to decide what that Pack was going to do.

"Tell them to hold position and keep us updated." Declan murmured to Ariel. "If the unknown male turns out to be our target, then we move in on them. Otherwise we wait."

He was clearly not happy with the arrangement. The rogue could be in there, with an unsuspecting victim... But no. Surely the rogue wouldn't be mad enough to shit where he lived...

(smee...)

"Wait for what? How are we going to know what's going on unless we make a movie?" Ariel wants to know. "If the rogue's not in there then we can question his henchmen."

"And if he catches a whiff of us, he won't come back." Declan said quietly, then pondered a compromise. "How's this? If nothing happens for an hour, we go in and question those fuckers hard. Sound good?"

Adrian waits there with the stamina of undead muscles. He goes up and waits, invisibly masked by the shadows, in the hallway. He waits for nearly the entire hour with nothing happening. Oh, a person comes down from one of the other rooms on the fourth floor, but he doesn't notice Adrian and pays little attention to Sarah.

Almost on the hour mark, the girl comes out of the room. She is obviously a hooker from her overdone make-up, her supertight attire and the dead look to her eyes. She has just headed down and out of sight when the door to 402 opens again and the the Man-Eater comes out alone. He makes a grunt of a good-bye to whom ever is left in the apartment and starts to head down himself. Their target is on the move.

No sooner has the werewolf crossed the landing than Adrian pulls out his cellphone and he hits the redial.

"Ariel, he is on the way down alone - right now," he all be screams a whisper into the phone. "He's coming."

Ariel nods and looks at Declan and Amber, "Adrien says the rogue's out of the apartment and heading downstairs. Can he really smell us even in human shape? My smell's pretty normal. Or we can come at him from downwind..."

The scent of stale cigarettes and bad perfume did nothing to cover the stink of sex on the first departure from Room 402. Half a flight above, Sarah watched the prostitute from the landing, peering past a bannister rail scarred by a thousand hand, carkeys and knives over the years.

Not a minute later, the door creaked open again, and the Dead Wolf picked up an altogether different scent: the smell of family.

The People Do Not Kill the People, she repeated to herself silently, but I'll sure as hell take a chunk out of this one to remind him of the Oath. Claws at the ready, Sarah positioned herself in a tight crouch, ready to spring down the stairs and into battle.

"It's... a feeling, too," Amber said softly, her eyes on the door out of the building. "I say we split and surround him. Wait until he's secluded and then jump him. That way, if he runs, he runs right to us, and we can box him in and surround him."

"He'll be coming outside, and we'll be waiting for him. I'll play sheepdog and drive him to you two." Declan was already peeling off his sweatshirt and tossing it into the back seat as he kicked off the battered sneakers, silver eyes glancing over at Ariel. "Tell the vampires to come down behind him and engage from the rear as soon as the fight starts. As soon as he sees us, he'd have to be nose-blind to miss us as Uratha. We don't know how strong he is, or how mad. We drop him first and then talk after. And for Luna's sake don't try to read him his fuckin' Mirandas." He grinned with savage humor at the detective as he wriggled out of his pants, his teeth already seeming longer and sharper, his eyes brightening with terrible eagerness for battle as a growling timbre entered his already low voice.

"Let's go." Owns-The-Night growled as he freed himself from the unwanted clothing and, opening the door, swung his bare feet out into the night. Clawed paws hit the pavement, the man turning to wolf in one flowing motion that took but a heartbeat, making the shift to Urhan with natural ease.

A dark-furred shadow, he flowed from parked car to trashcan to parked car, before dashing across the road in two bounds and sidling along the wall adjoining