"Oh, I think I can handle you myself, werewolf," Brian said letting his emotions seep into his voice.

"Maybe once, a long time ago I would have answered to the name werewolf," William answered. "But I'm a full Shape shifter now, a little older, and a lot wiser than I was when you first heard about me."

"Then come out and fight, wolf. I'm tired of shooting and killing your kind, did you check the hallway? I can do this all day." Brian said with a small laugh.

"You and your House will pay for the blood you've spilt today, Brian," It was a female's voice, rich and full of confidence and power, but no malice, or hatred, just pure confidence and gravitas. Brian found himself feel a trickle of fear slide down his back hearing that voice.

"That can only be Ansuya, am I right, Ms. Das?" Rachel asked from Brian's side.

"It took you long enough to figure that out. After being a guest of Kenneth's for so long I would have thought you would have recognized me," Ansuya replied.

"It's hard to recognize someone when they hide behind walls. I don't have x-ray vision, you know," Brian retorted.

A crash sounded behind Brian as Tyler flew through the wall and careened through the air, smashing into the reinforced glass walls. The bullet proof glass didn't crack but gave just a bit as Tyler dropped to the ground with a heavy thud. The impact didn't break the glass, but it broke Tyler's neck as his team member laid on the ground dead.

Brian whipped his head back around to see a seven-foot-tall werewolf step through the newly created hole. The beast was covered with tan fur shot through with black stripes. His ears flicked as it took in the three vampires in front of him.

"You're not the biggest werewolf I've seen, so I think I can safely say you're not Ares," Brian said calmly.

The werewolf watched the three vampires as a predator watches his prey, but it nodded its head.

"Then you must be William. What is it? Too ashamed of your ugly face to show yourself in human form?" Brian laughed and Rachel and John laughed with him.

William growled and stamped his foot in the direction of the vampires making as if he was going to charge.

Rachel at least, flinched backwards, William smiled.

Brian held up his empty assault rifle and tossed it to the side, "Ansuya? I think you can show yourself now. Your pet really should be on a leash, while the grownups talk, don't you think?"

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William stayed silent and crossed his arms over his chest. Ansuya stepped through the same hole William came through and gauged the three remaining vampires, "Now you want to talk, Brian? What? You don't have me surrounded and outnumbered so you want to talk now?"

"No, I want you to die."

John opened fire from his rifle, spitting rounds and fire from the barrel. William kicked Ansuya back through the hole in the wall and dived forward into a roll, that brought him neatly to John's feet. John had great concentration, better than William anticipated. William's maneuver did nothing to throw off the vampires aim. William caught several rounds in the back, shoulder, thigh and stomach, before he was able to plunge his claws into the vampire's abdomen and crush whatever shriveled, atrophied organs his claws could touch.

William lifted the dying vampire into the air and tossed him against the glass wall near to where he had thrown the other vampire. His vision blurred as he saw Brian and the female vamp run through the far doors of the boardroom, that had been a solid steel wall a few minutes ago.

William was on the ground and felt wind pass over his face and fur as a large familiar shape jumped over him and tore through the room following Brian and the female through the doors on the opposite side of the room.

His blurred vision was met with the sight of purest white fur and the nuzzle of a snout as he felt the familiar bite of a Healer. He looked up from Physis and saw Aceso had knelt down next to him as well and she was also inhaling his scent looking for any other wound that would need to be attended to.

William wasn't able to lift his head yet but he turned his head anyway, "where is Ansuya? Is she alright? Physis? What are you doing here? Ares?"

Physis nodded her head, "It was Ares, yes."

"Then we have to help him, he can't be left to run around this tower on his own, he's only going to get himself killed," he stammered as he tried to lift himself up onto his elbows. But it was a pair of smooth brown skinned hands that gently pushed him back down to the ground.

"William, Ares can take care of himself," Ansuya was saying softly as she sat over him. "I wish he hadn't gone alone, but he knew what he was doing. And even if we wanted to follow," she gestured to the far double doors where Brian and Ares disappeared, "the steel portal closed behind them. We have to find another way around."

William found his body twisting in heat and pain as his wounds were being closed and his body healed itself rapidly from the two Healers administrations. He looked up into those deep brown eyes and asked quietly, "Are you alright?"

Ansuya laughed softly, "Oh, if you mean, am I mad at you for kicking the crap out of me, throwing me back ten feet through a hole in the wall, only to collide into two other Shape shifters who did not appreciate our sudden collision in the slightest?" Her fingers ran through his fur over his long pointed wolf ears, "The answer is no, I'm not mad at you. Yes, I'm fine. Now just what in the hell were you thinking, throwing yourself at an armed vampire in the middle of the room like that?"

William struggled with the answer to that question for long moments. He had never considered himself terribly heroic or chivalrous, but these vampires and the evil they represented, the corruption and hedonism they engendered, had to be destroyed. That explained why he was fighting, but not the other.

William looked down, half closing his eyes, unable to meet her eyes at first, "I just couldn't stand the thought of you being hurt. And if I could prevent that from happening, then I had to do it."

A soft smile formed on Ansuya's lips, "Even if that meant getting shot and killed."

William nodded and looked up at her, she could have been the only person on the planet at that moment, "I would die in your place a hundred times, Ansuya. A world without you in it, is a world not worth living in."

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