Crunch

It wasn't so much the cracking of bone or tearing of flesh as it was the bits of brick and mortar that fell down from above that reminded Jay just how strong drunk men could be. Two large men, one scrawny looking boy, and a toss down an alley; clearly they had expected Jay to be at least somewhat winded by the throw, but Jay's vampiric body had fully healed before his attackers could take two steps.

"Come on guys, lighten up," Jay said in a mollifying voice, holding his hands up half peacefully, half defensively. "I didn't know she was your girlfriend, sister, mother, aunt, fiance, cousin, friend, or newphew." That provoked a few seconds of blinking.

"She's my girl!" one of the men insisted loudly, to which the other man grunted firmly in agreement.

"Of what type I'm still not sure, but I'm certainly willing to let that go and stop talking to her if that's your goal in dragging me out here and throwing me into a wall," Jay smiled amicably. Jay hadn't so much been talking to the girl as feeding on her, when the men took offence. All they saw was a pale young man talking quietly to a girl who was in close. If she was a girlfriend, Jay certainly saw how that could be taken in the wrong way.

"I don't think we're quite through with you boy," the larger man said with a dangerous glint in his eye. "I don't like it none when you young fellers come in and try to take our women."

"Your women?" Jay raised an eyebrow a bit too calmly. "I'm beginning to wonder if they're even aware of that honor you've bestowed on them." And there, as usual, Jay's mouth got him into trouble.

"Don't matter if they're aware," the smaller one growled and pulled out a knife.

"They're our women because we say so," the larger one grinned evilly and slipped on a set of brass knuckles. This situation had just escalated from slightly upsetting to dangerous. To most people it would appear that Jay merely shifted nervously and pulled his hands in towards his body, but to anyone watching closely enough, they would have seen his eyes narrow slightly, his canines extend, and his fingernails begin to delicately sharpen into claws.

Normally Jay would have tried to simply dominate the minds of these not quite gentlemen and force them to back down without a fight. However, they were drunk, which makes controlling them much more difficult, they were angry and already planning on violence, another wrench in the wheel of peace, and lastly, Jay really doesn't like men who treat women badly. It's one of his very few easy hot buttons.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" came a sharp voice, cutting into the scene and breaking the tension. Jay's teeth and nails instantly returned to normal as he assumed an innocent expression. Before the two men could turn all the way around, the very woman in question stormed out in front of them and placed herself between the men and their prey. The bigger man scowled.

"This doesn't concern you, woman," he told her sharply.

"Yeah, leave us men to our business," the shorter man chimed in, gaining strength from his larger friend's presence.

"No no! Feel free to intervene!" Jay insisted with a nervous looking smile. The woman glanced at him with a smirk, then turned back to the drunks with her hands on her hips and an unimpressed expression.

"You boys should get smart and get out of here," the woman insisted. Jay smiled as he gazed at his ally. He congratulated himself, while checking out the woman's ass, for picking such a fiesty bit of lunch. The tight jeans, leather chaps, and heavy leather jacket, while all quite fetching in a biker sort of way, should have told the drunks something that apparently they weren't listening to.

"Here, get you gone," the shorter man insisted, walking up as if to grab the woman. She took one glance at the knife in his hands and swatted it contemptuously away. Jay's eyes widened as he watched the knife thud into the wall of the alley. The shorter man did not miss the implications and quickly backed away from the tough woman. The larger man, however, was unimpressed and advanced on the woman.

"You best be leavin' fore you stick your nose too far into man's business," the large man sneered. The woman took two hip swaying steps closer to the man and put her face an inch from his.

"And you should have backed off when you had the chance," she informed mockingly him before she kneed him in the balls hard enough to lift him to his toes. Jay winced at that blow, but winced further when he noticed that the large man was not falling down as he should have been.

"You bitch!" he yelled as swung his brass knuckled fist back for a huge hook punch. The woman sneered in return and drove a straight punch directly into the man's solar plexus, another blow that should have driven him to the ground. However, some combination of arrogant, drunk, and stubborn let the man weather the second blow as well, though he stumbled back to be caught by his crony. After shaking his head once the man roared and stepped into a powerful hook punch that would have crushed the woman's face. Even as she tried to block she closed her eyes and turned away.

For a moment everything was silent. Then the large man and his intended target both looked at the fist that Jay's small, pale, and clawed hand had caught mid-swing. Then the both looked at the livid face with red glowing eyes of Jay, his true nature revealed.

"You should have gone down," Jay told the man before hurling him bodliy into the same wall Jay had been thrown into at the start of this debacle. This time, however, the crunch of bone and tearing of flesh wasn't remotely as negligable. When Jay turned with a snarl to glare at the smaller man the knifeless wonder took a moment to scream then run aimlessly and desperately away. With a deep breath Jay calmed and the harsh glare in his eyes dimmed.

"You didn't think I could take him?" the woman asked shakily, partially out of pride, partially out of a need to say something instead of screaming. It is not easy to stand firm and confident in the bared presense of a vampire. Jay looked at the woman as the red flowed from his eyes.

"I just really wanted to hurt him," Jay shrugged before relaxing back into himself and smiling at the woman. She looked him in the eyes carefully for a moment, then smiled back.

"Wow, you really tore him up!" Jay congratulated the woman, who sneered down the alleyway at her defeated foe. Then she laughed.

"Ain't you gonna be a bit embarrassed to tell people how a woman came to your rescue?" Jay smiled at the woman who now believed that she had thrown the man down the alleyway.

"I could have helped, but you didn't even give me the chance!" Jay laughed. "You're too fast, and tough, and I was far too distracted by your stunning good looks to react quickly enough." With a starry eyed smile he coaxed hearty laughter out of his recent prey.

"Well, you be more careful about who you talk to without his permission," the woman snickered as she jerked her head to indicate the fallen man.

"I don't reckon that'll be a problem," Jay winked and smiled. With a final parting laugh, the woman returned to the bar they'd all left. Jay waited till she was inside before approaching the man who looked on in fear. Jay's eyes glowed once again, and he extened his claws and his fangs and kneeled before the man who was now whimpering in fear and pain.

"I would love nothing more than to tear out your throat right here," Jay coldly informed the terrified man. "But I won't. Leaving you here broken by a woman is almost as satisfying." Jay stared into the man's eyes for a moment while returning to normal, then suddenly grinned.

"Damn, boy! You got knocked the fuck out!" Jay laughed in the man's now confused and pained face before turning and walking out of the alley. Though he'd rather have gone back into the bar and back to his meal, he had a loser to catch. It wouldn't do to have vampire rumors starting up. With one final glance at the man in the alley, Jay stepped away from the bar and into the shadows with a feral grin. It was time to hunt.