4

The booming crunch almost stopped, giving way to continuous champing, Alud finished his feast, complaining a little that the food was not quite healthy and not as tasty as before. Fragments of bones and scraps of clothing, pools of blood around, torn flesh, that's all that remains of a person. The werewolf turned his head, looking for some kind of package. From the shaggy mouth flew blood mixed with saliva, in time with the turns of the head, the shiny coat trembled slightly, sometimes filled with glare from the light.

- Here. - The head is frozen, the eyes are fixed on the target - a large black garbage bag is strong enough to haul heavy construction debris.

- What you need, and strong and does not shine through, and does not leak, but where were these packages a hundred years ago, at least some benefit from civilization. He muttered softly, pulling the half-empty bag towards him, simultaneously shaking the garbage out of it.

- Eat, wash the dishes. Thought Alud, with a slight smirk on his bloody muzzle. Human remains gradually filled the inside of the black bag. Alud is busy with routine business, cleans up the traces of his presence, so as not to raise unnecessary noise, and not to betray his presence in this world. Every werewolf in the city does this, obeying the unspoken rule of the dark ones, every vampire, every shadow, they all hide their true nature, creating around themselves a dense cocoon of fables, myths and fairy tales that they believe in or want to believe. Few people know about them, all who have snatched a piece of truth are either dead or walk in dark circles in the form of servants. Furry ears trembled slightly, moving a little, first to one side, then to the other, picking up the slightest vibrations of sound. Nothing special . L people walk, cars drive, water drips, fog rustles, whirling in gusts of wind, a plastic bag rustles, taking another portion of bones. Nothing suspicious, but some kind of internal anxiety does not weaken the hearing, and more and more makes you delve into what is happening, a quiet, swift rustle approaching from the back. The delicate senses of a werewolf are hard to deceive, not many creatures can sneak up on them from behind, this almost succeeded. There was a growing whistle of metal cutting through the air, Alud remembered this sound well from oMiddle Ages, especially during the Inquisition. Alud's skin knew a lot of metal. The battles took place in the open with superior human forces, but years of fighting only strengthened the will of the werewolf. An instant reaction is the best friend in such situations, an instant signal spreads through the muscles, causing them to rapidly contract, with a sharp movement, the werewolf jumped towards the garbage cans, pressing his shaggy shoulder against the brickwork of the wall, along which moisture flowed in small streams. Something metallic stuck into the dirty asphalt with a slight vibrating sound. Alud fixed his gaze in the direction from which the ominous gift had flown. From the thick fog, an approaching figure was drawn. A leather cloak, black hair, a silent gait, and a white face, with black vertical stripes at the eyes and a horizontal one at the mouth, something long and shiny is tightly clenched in the hand, cold. The werewolf's eyes widened in surprise, fur rising from his forehead, creating a line of eyebrows.

What the hell is this creature doing here? Alud hadn't seen anything like it in over two hundred years, but he immediately recognized the creature that stepped out of the mist before him. White-faced Hunter: No concept of honor, valor or feelings, their existence has only one goal to kill whoever his masters say, and then disappear into oblivion. A kind of professional assassin of the dark world. Only a few dark ones are not afraid of these accursed creatures. Called with the help of complex ancient rituals, they are full of power received through a special conductor in the material world. A treacherous shiver ran down Alud's back, he remembered the instructions of his elders from his childhood:

- If you see a hunter - run, it's better to meet with two vampires in their territory than with one hunter. - Rumor has it that if you're being tracked by a hunter, you're dead anyway. Bristling his skin, Alud slowly backed away, thinking over the tactics of retreat, the hunter walked at him, without changing the pace slowly but surely, thereby creating additional mental stress, him at least a meter. The werewolf froze, he knew what it was.

- Fuck your mother ... - The depressive tone of what was said did not bode well.

The ribbed steel surface of the rod was covered with small, pulsating filaments that exuded a faint blue glow. The rod firmly dug into the asphalt from a powerful blow. Sharpened growths slowly moved out of the surface, piercing into the dense structure of the asphalt with a characteristic sound. A pulsating ball with many notches, small ledges and hieroglyphs crowned this design. - "Pin of shadows."

Where did he get your mother? - Alud knew what this strange object was doing: being driven into any surface, this pin generated an impenetrable cocoon around itself, from which it was impossible to get out until the pin was pulled out. In addition, she transferred everything around her to another film of reality, hiding what was happening in other matters, only slight perturbations of space can betray what is hidden from prying eyes in such a place. The best way to incapacitate someone or hide something is with the Shadow Pin.

The back felt the wet wall, the trembling intensified, Alud slowly shifted his gaze to the approaching silhouette. Thoughts were confused in a mess, creating various solutions to get out of this situation. Nobody likes a stalemate, nobody likes being a rat in a corner, not everyone can handle it - that's survival.

“Well, no, I won’t die that easily. I'm not a bug, you can't crush me. - The eyes of the werewolf stopped running, cleared up, the pupils narrowed, rage, anger and readiness to accept any outcome of events burst into these clear eyes with a seething stream. The carbon came out of his lungs with a low, menacing growl, and a deep breath filled his body with oxygen.