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The Half Moon Club (EvelynWillows x Collector of Rarities)

Carla's face split into a smile and she let out a hearty laugh. "That "something" was me, Freddy," she said, affectionately. "I told you not five minutes ago. You aren't going senile on me, are you?" She handed her glass back to him and told him she just wanted water for now. "And I wouldn't get worked up about Victoria trying to snag Joe if he were just a one-night-stand, but he's not. We had a very nice date earlier today and agreed that we'd give a relationship a shot. I guess it's a bit irrational," it wasn't, but Carla was just telling Freddy that so that she didn't appear crazy, "but when Victoria makes a beeline for the guy who said that he wanted to give a relationship with me a shot, I took it personally. I'm not trying to be the crazy, possessive girlfriend, I'm really not, but it's kind of hard not to be paranoid when she and I have such a long and vicious history together."

She sipped at her water and gave Freddy a small grin. "You'll keep this between the two of us, right?"
 
"Oh...jew did say that," Freddy remembered sheepishly. "I guess et's jus' that I didn't want to think that someone else got into those tight pants before ah did," he said, laughing. "Well, goot fer jew, goot." He sighed. "Jew never told me what happened vit jew and Vicki though; she's not so bad in the office. What did she do? Steal your boyfriend? Take your secret formula or something?"

He nodded. "Jus' between us. Bartenders, jew know, are like cheap shrinks. Only I'm not so shrinky, ef jew catch my drift." he chuckled.

Gary came by and told Carla about some women suspected of bringing crank in who had just went into the ladies' bathroom. He wanted Carla to check it out for him.

"Duty calls," Freddy said. "See jew after maybe? We should talhk, outside of work, jes?"

Back at the office Joe was sleeping deeply, but in his dreams he was being touched in the dark and he felt cold, hungry lips exploring his body. His mind was still working through the glamor that Victoria had put him under, and he was definitely living out erotic thoughts about the blood sucker...
 
Carla smiled and nodded, heading off to the bathroom to check out the women in question. She was glad for the time away from Freddy so that she could get her story straight. She supposed that she could just go for the old "Rival secret societies" story she usually went with. She hated lying, or even just not telling the whole truth, but it was a part of her life now. For Freddy, she might go for something a bit simpler: rival sororities, perhaps. Honestly, that seemed far more believable; some prank went too far and Carla and some of her friends got hurt. Simple, far more modern and totally believable.

Sure enough, she caught the two of them as they were pulling a bag of cocaine from one of their purses. She planted herself in front of the door and radioed Garth. "Hey, Garth," she said. "I've got two women in the ladies' room with cocaine on them. Could you send an extra guy over here? I can detain one of them no problem, but I might accidentally hurt someone if I try to keep a hold of both of them. Do you want to call the police or should I?" She settled into a ready stance as she waited for a response; the women didn't really pose a threat to her, but she wanted to make sure that they didn't hurt themselves if they struggled.
 
The women looked at Carla like she was some kind of mutant. "What the fuck, bitch? Who the hell do you think you are?" One of the women brought a can of pepper spray out of her purse and began to spray the bouncer, infecting the entire lavatory with the toxic fumes.

"Shit Sheila!" the other cried out. She tried to rub her eyes, which made it worse. "Damn it! Fucking shit!" She went to the sink and began to wash her face furiously, cursing and crying simultaneously.

The first woman emptied her canister and then pulled out a short knife to attack Carla with, though it was obvious she didn't have any fighting skills.
 
Carla's eyes stung and her vision clouded, but she grit her teeth and forced herself to keep her eyes open: now was not a time to let her opponent out of her sight. With her vision obscured, she had a hard time seeing exactly what the woman was doing, but she could make out a general blurred outline of her form. She could see something short and shiny in her hand: she hoped it was a knife instead of a gun, and the fact that the woman was coming closer to her made her think knife. She allowed the woman to stab at her, stepping to the side as she did and catching her wrist. She received a small cut in her side for her troubles, but now had control over the arm holding the knife. Using a basic aikido technique, she had the woman face-down on the ground and with her arm in a very uncomfortable, but non-damaging lock. With Carla's superior strength and the knife pointed away from the werewolf's body, there wasn't anything the pinned woman could do to hurt her. With a bit of finagling, she was able to activate her bluetooth.

"Garth, I could use that backup," she said, sounding more annoyed than urgent. "One of them used pepper spray and then came at me with a knife. I've got her pinned but I'm not in a position to deal with the other one, so I could use someone to handle her."
 
The woman yelped at Carla's grip, and began to sob and kick as she was being pinned down. The bag fell to the ground and burst open poofing white powdery badness into the already laced air.

"Karl is on his way," Garth replied. "Tall, blond, you'll know him when you see him."

As if on cue the door opened and a lean, vampiric man in the bouncer's uniform shirt slid in. He quickly took account of what was happening and gave Carla a curt nod. He put a hand on the back of the struggling knife-wielder's head and she slumped in Carla's grip, unconscious. The other woman looked up at the smell of clean air rushing into the bathroom. Her eyes met Karl's and she stood there, entranced.

"The police are on their way," Karl said to Carla. He turned his gaze on her and gave her a more acknowledging nod, almost a show of respect. "So...you must be Carla Winters."
 
"Winter," said Carla, letting go of the woman's arm and getting to her feet. "It's singular: no "s". You're Karl, then? I'm afraid I didn't hear about you until Garth said you name just now."

She finally allowed herself to rub at her eyes, which were burning like hell by now.

"Don't suppose you know how to neutralize pepper spray?" she asked. "It stings like a bitch. I could hardly see anything when she came at me with that knife." She honestly didn't know if she was supposed to be rubbing at her eyes, but did it anyways unless Karl had any other suggestions. Her supernaturally fast healing would kick in soon enough, but until then she was effectively blind.
 
"Winter," he repeated. "Water works well." He saw her predicament and reached out to guide her to the sinks, where one of the girls was still standing and staring at the mirror. His hand was cool to the touch against hers. Karl turned on the cool water and put Carla's hand in it. "Washing away the spray is the best way to rid yourself of it, though water stings like a sonofabitch when you first put it on."

He stood protectively over her and when another patron tried to enter the restroom Karl directed her to the one in the front of the club. It seemed like it was only a few minutes until the police came to gather the girls and the remains of the evidence. They took a statement from Carla before they left.

"Feeling better?" Asked Karl. He smiled, charming even without the extra pull of his supernatural state of being. "We look out for each other here, even leeches and dogs."
 
Carla didn't mind the stinging in her eyes; she'd been punched in the eye before and that hurt far worse. Still, the stinging was irritating and she let out an annoyed growl as she washed the spray from her eyes, though she felt much better once it was gone. Carla gave an honest report of what had happened to the police, but refused medical treatment for the cut in her side. For one thing, it had already stopped bleeding and would close on its own by the end of the day. It wasn't a deep cut and it hadn't hit anything vital, so she'd heal without any complications. She did, however, let a paramedic sterilize it for her.

"Yeah," she said, once the police had cleared out. "Now that my eyes aren't killing me, I'm fine. I've been shot, beaten, burned, stabbed, slashed, bitten and clawed before, but I've got to admit: pepper spray's a new one for me. I'd like to avoid that again if possible. Now all I need to do is add "blown up" and "tazered" to the list and I think I'll have received every possible injury this world has to offer." She nodded at Karl's statement, mulling it over for a second before responding. "Not all leeches are bad," she conceded. "Honestly, I've only met a handful that have really pissed me off. Most of the time, it's just that instinctual thing in the back of your head that goes off when you meet another predator. I'm sure you know the one I'm talking about." She shook her head. "It's... a bit weird to have someone watching my back after spending so much time alone, but I've got to admit that it feels good. I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks, Karl."
 
Karl took in every curve and plane on Carla's body as she spoke. He found her openness charming, if not a bit nervous on her part, but thought that it might be difficult for one of her kind to not immediately lash out at one of his kind. "I'm simply doing my job, Ms Winter. I'm sure you'd have done the same for me." He put a hand up to his ear piece and listened momentarily before nodding to himself. "I have to go. Hope the rest of the night is more pleasant for you." He smiled at her and then disappeared out the bathroom door.

Later, when he had a chance to catch Carla's eye, Freddy waved the ex-MMA champion over to the bar. "Darlin', Joe left a message for yew while yew were in that...mess vit the women. He had to go home but he said he'd see you tomorrow." He smiled apologetically. "I jess it's just yew and me tonight, hm?" He poured a screwdriver for a blond in a too-tight shirt and low-cut jeans. There were a few hours left before the club closed for the night and it looked like the party was going to last the whole night. People were dancing, laughing, and having a good time. A few wolves and vamps moved among the humans but Carla's nemesis was no where to be seen, and it seemed like the rest of the night would go smoothly.
 
Carla nodded and smiled at Karl. She didn't mind that he was looking her over; she took great pains to sculpt her physique and would be more offended if someone didn't give her the once-over. After all, what was the point of having a magnificent body if no one took notice? "So long as no one pepper-sprays me again," she said, a grin spreading across her lips, "I don't think I'll have anything to complain about."

Carla sidled back to the bar, ignoring the looks she got as she walked over. Although there was only a small bloodstain on her shirt, people still took notice of it. She'd put the shirt through the wash when she got back home, but she'd have to put up with the occasional stare for the rest of the night. She nodded at Freddy's message and gave him a friendly smile. "I think I can put up with you for the rest of the night," she teased. "So, Freddy, what makes a successful lawyer like you want to be a bartender in your spare time? If I met you on the street, I'd have pegged you for someone who'd be more at home on the dance floor than behind a bar."
 
Freddy motioned Carla closer. He took out a small spray and saturated the spot of blood on Carla's shirt. It immediately foamed white, and he dabbed at it and sprayed it again until the blood was completely gone. "It will dry," he said with a wink. "Hydrogen peroxide, it works wonders." He poured out some drinks for a waitress from the dining balcony and then turned back to the ex-MMA fighter.

"Well, this es mah hobby, not mah job." He grinned charmingly. "And besides, there are zo many gorgeous people on the dance floor; what better way to get to know zem than to be their bartender?" He shrugged and gave someone out on the dance floor a wave when they seemed to be leaving the club. "I could ask yew the same thing, Mzz Winter. Why give up a life in the lovely spotlight to come and bounce zom leetle New York club? Certainly, es not for the money!" He straightened the collar on his designer shirt and checked his immaculate dark hair in the bar mirror.

"You're gorgeous, don't worry about it," Garth growled good-naturedly at Freddy as he came by. "Hey, Carla, the night is almost done and you haven't taken a break. Why don't you head out early?" He leaned against the counter and gave her a rare smile. "You did really well today. Karl says you handled things like a pro."
 
Carla grinned and laughed at Freddy's question. "You've got me there!" she said, beaming. "Let's just say I was getting tired of the publicity. When you're a face on TV nowadays, it's not enough to just show up for your scheduled appearances anymore. Fans want you to be on all sorts of social media, Facebook, Twitter, maybe even a blog of some description, and update them about every single mundane little detail of your life. It was fun at first: I got to interact with my fans more directly and some of them were pretty cool people. But for every cool one there were twenty assholes and it quickly got to be too much for me to handle. I mean, all pseudo-celebrities get flack all the time for things they say and do, but it's worse when you've got a pair of tits. If I said something someone didn't like, I wasn't just ridiculed for my words, but also for my gender. Sometimes it wasn't even anything political or controversial: just saying that I liked Coke better than Pepsi would unleash a floodgate of insults and misogyny. The final straw came when I got about fifty different rape threats for deciding to take a New Balance endorsement over an Underarmor one. Now, I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself, but after putting up with this for a couple of years I'd had enough. I got into the MMA to get paid to punch people who are trying to punch me, but I'm not going to sit there and be a verbal punching bag for thousands of people hiding behind a computer screen. And it wasn't like I could stop, either: my contract stated that I needed to do this sort of publicity.

"So I finished up the season and just didn't renew my contract. I poked around for work a bit and eventually found myself here. And you know what? I got stabbed tonight and I enjoyed that more than the last two years of my MMA career."

The story was partially true; Carla had been required to maintain a Twitter feed and a Facebook page, which she needed to post on a certain number of times a week. Needless to say, there were a good many assholes to deal with and, at first, she'd tried ignoring them, but her manager would occasionally have her get into fights with some fans a day or two before a match to build up some hype. Of course, there was the fact that she'd barely aged in the seven years she'd been fighting to be concerned about as well, along with the fact that she consistently had to sell blows that would have put her down if she wasn't a wolf when her instincts were screaming at her to hop back up and pummel her opponent. Besides, she liked being around people, even if there were some leeches in the mix, and she'd hoped that a less glamorous job like being a bouncer would allow her to make some new friends, which it had.

Carla smiled at Garth's suggestion and nodded. "Thanks for the tip about hydrogen peroxide," she told Freddy. "Before I head out, where do I pick some up? Can I find it in a grocery store or would I have to go to a Home Depot? A couple of bottles of that seem like they'd be really handy to keep around the house."
 
Freddy nearly laughed. "Where to get this magical potion? CVS, Rite Aid, hell...Wal-fucking-mart will have it. Or ask your lover, yes? Ahm sure Joe-baby has plenty. Y'know he used to smack talk you MMA types all the time. He doesn't talk any more; you must have put the squeeze on him, hey?"

He gave Carla a smack on the ass and sent her off, tossing a small spray bottle of his magical potion at her that she could tuck into a pocket. "Go have an O on me, mon cherie! Tell Joe ah'll get him eventually, even if ah have to grow tits!" He grinned and waved Carla off.

Karl was up on the second level talking to a group of sexy co-eds. They seemed to be quiet enthralled with him, though he wasn't more than 'average' if you were to line him up with others on a police line. He gave Carla a subtle wink as she passed out of sight.

Bruce was out front, talking to the paparazzi about whether or not he'd allow them to come in with their cameras. He seemed to be enjoying himself, though, sparing verbally with the sexy little blond reporter and her string-bean photographer.
 
Carla let out a little yelp as Freddy smacked her on the ass, but that quickly turned into a giggle. "Will do," she said, catching the bottle. "And if you ever do get him into bed, be sure to send me some pictures or video; I'd love to see it."

Carla gave Karl a polite smile, though it wasn't much more than that. From this distance, she couldn't tell if he was using a glamour on the girls or not. She didn't have a problem with Karl, but she'd always hated glamours. Granted, they didn't work on wolves unless the vampire was very old, but it was a matter of principle for Carla; hunting was about the chase. Of course, there was some stalking and cleverness involved, but if you were going to hunt something, you should be prepared to work for your food. Simply drugging or using some sort of supernatural charm on your prey to make things easy felt like cheating to her.

She heard the clamor of reporters outside and opened the door a crack to see how many were out there. When she saw that a small crowd of photographers were waiting outside, she decided to turn around and take the back door out. She wanted to get home and collapse into bed without anyone bothering her. Besides, it would get frustrating if a bunch of her fans started coming to the club to distract her while she was trying to do her job.
 
Freddy had laughed. "Girly, if I ever get him in bed ah'll want to see that video too! Yew and I, though? We can get him in there if we put our minds to et." He tapped the side of his head with a finger as Carla left. He didn't seem too bent out of shape that she had gotten to that hunk of flesh first. In fact, he liked Carla a lot.

Carla was able to get out of the back door safely, and aside from coming across a couple copulating in the alleyway it was quiet. The night was dark; the moon still a few weeks away, and the air was just starting to get a soft chill of Autumn to it. The night was perfect.
 
Carla let out a sigh as she took a deep whiff of the night air. It was on nights like these that she wished she could just turn into a wolf and run free through the Boston Commons. Unfortunately, that was an excellent way to get animal control called on her, so it was out of the question. The city, for all its wonderful sights, sounds and attractions, had its drawbacks, and it was on nights like these that Carla cursed her decision to settle down in such a populated area. Ignoring the couple, she walked around behind the back of the neighboring building, coming out a reasonable distance away from the cameras in front of the club. Turning her back to the paparazzi, she walked down the street and towards her T-stop.

She took the train and a bus back to her apartment where she immediately stripped down after locking the door behind her and headed for the shower to clean the blood off of her. Once she was clean, she pulled a raw, irradiated steak from the refrigerator and tossed it carelessly onto the floor before steeling down on her hands and knees. She took a deep breath and focused on transforming while maintaining control of herself. It was easier because the full moon was so far away, but she still had to concentrate through the initial rush in order to avoid losing herself to the wolf.

The transformation was quick, but painful as her bones realigned and she grew fur all across her body. In wolf form, she was about as long as she was tall and her shoulder would have been even with Joe's abdomen. Her fur was as white as her hair and her eyes retained their icy blue color, but otherwise there were no recognizable features to define her as Carla Winter to those who did not know her scent. The pain of the transformation brought on an adrenaline rush, which she would have chased if she weren't in her apartment. Instead, she fought it and retained her consciousness, altered as it was from her new form. Though she kept most of her human personality and higher thought, being in wolf form changed the way she perceived the world: she was colorblind, her senses of hearing and scent were much sharper and she felt a strong desire to chase something, anything, as well as to howl at all of the other dogs she smelled.

Rather than doing any of those things, she simply padded over to the steak and ripped into it, letting out satisfied growls as she tore into the meat and chewed it like she might an animal she'd hunted. Though the thrill of the hunt was missing, the satisfaction of tearing into raw meat remained and she quickly wolfed down the steak. Once the meat was gone, she licked the juices from her lips and changed back into human form (which was oddly less painful) and went to the bathroom to wash the remaining juices from her face and brush her teeth before crawling into bed. She left her cellphone on and on the bedside table in case Joe called, since Garth hadn't told her when Joe would be seeing her the next day. In the back of her mind, she found herself hoping that Joe hadn't bumped into Victoria on his way home, but she only thought of this as she was already drifting off to sleep.
 
Carla's house was only eight miles from Joe's. He thought about running over, literally, and waking her up, but then he decided that he wanted to surprise her with a breakfast, some chocolates, maybe sex...

He put the things he wanted to make for her for breakfast in the back of his 1966 Chevy Chevelle, a car he worked on with this dad to restore way back in high school. He loved that car. It was one of the best memories he had with his father, and he kept the car purring as a testimony to his father's memory.

The doorman let Joe in, recognizing him from the previous night, and Joe got into the lift and rode it up to Carla's pad. With any luck he'd be able to wake her up to the smell of coffee, bacon, eggs and biscuits. For some reason he felt like whistling but he refrained; he didn't want to wake her up too early and disturb her rest.
 
Carla, having taken the stairs up to her apartment, had forgotten to lock the door to the lift on her floor. Since the lift opened directly into each of the different floors, the landlord had spent good money making it as silent as possible so that no one was woken up late at night when the lift started up. Additionally, Carla had spent extra money to soundproof her door so that nothing she did echoed out into the lift and nothing her downstairs neighbors did echoed up into her floor. Of course, if the music was too loud, she could hear it through the floor, but not anymore than in a normal apartment.

The door, which was two layers of metal with sound-proofing foam in between them, slid open to Joe's left. It made a good bit of noise if opened quickly, but if he opened it carefully enough, he'd be able to slip in without Carla hearing anything. Carla herself had gone to bed naked and was currently lying on her stomach with her head turned towards the wall. She'd kicked a bit of the blanket off in her sleep , exposing a good bit of her back and part of her ass. She stirred slightly as Joe's scent filled the room, though she didn't wake up quite yet; she didn't think of Joe as a threat, so his presence wasn't setting off any alarm bells, meaning that it would take a while for her brain to register that Joe was actually here, rather than just in her dreams.
 
Joe was very careful to be quiet and slow once the lift reached Carla's apartment. She had been a MMA fighter, among other things, and he didn't want to startle her and have his neck snapped. His time doing sweeps in the military had taught him the importance of slow and quiet as well, so he had slipped off his shoes and padded in his socks across the loft. When he saw Carla half-nude in her bed, her shapely back and part of her perfect ass exposed to him, he simply smiled. It was already a good morning.

He quietly got the bacon and fluffed eggs loaded up in the oven with the biscuits, deciding to make it easy on himself, and set the coffee to brew. Once everything was on a timer and could tend to themselves he quietly walked to where Carla was dozing on her bed.

Joe had taken off the jacket he wore the prior night and laid it over a chair. This left him in just his jeans and tee shirt. He eased into her bed and rested on one elbow, watching her sleep for a moment before reaching out to lay his arm across her body and whisper into her ear.
 
The smell of food was what finally brought Carla out of her slumber. Normally, she'd smell food cooking from a lower apartment, making it distant and therefore irrelevant. Having food cooking in her own apartment, though, when she herself so rarely did anything more complicated than throwing leftovers in the microwave, was a rather large disturbance to her habitat. Rather than doing anything rash, she simply stayed as she was for the moment, using her nose and her ears to pinpoint exactly where the intruder was. She relaxed slightly when she smelled Joe, though it took her a moment to run through her mental checklist and realize that she'd forgotten to lock the lift before she relaxed entirely. She didn't smell anyone else with Joe and, at least at this distance, she couldn't smell Victoria on him, so he'd come alone and under his own free will. She closed her eyes once more and decided to let Joe have his little surprise breakfast.

She felt the shift in the mattress as he laid down beside her and subtly, slowly cuddled her body against his. When he laid his arm across her, she began turning towards him until she lay facing him as he whispered in her ear. "Well good morning to you too," she responded, opening her eyes to grin up at him before yawning. "And how, pray tell, did you sneak in here, you sly rogue?"
 
Joe smiled and leaned down to kiss her before answering. "I got lucky." He flattened his hand across her stomach and pulled her closer to himself. "How do you manage to wake up looking so desirable? You're like some seductive cat all stretching and yawning there...much to comfortable to pull out of bed."

He nuzzled her and then kissed on her neck, enjoying the warm sleepy scent of her body. "I hope you don't have a morning date planned. I was kind of hoping to dominate your morning." He trailed kisses from her neck back to her lips.
 
Carla laughed when Joe said she looked like a cat. "Trust me," she said, "if I look like anything, it's certainly not a cat. Cats and I don't get along: never have, never will." Cats hated werewolves for some reason. Carla had often wondered if it had to do with cats' sensitivity to the supernatural or the fact that werewolves smelled like wolves, or perhaps if it was simply an aspect of the symbolism of cats and dogs disliking each other. Of course, wolves were different from dogs, even though the two species could breed, but the symbolism was still there. Whatever the case was, Carla had not studied her condition overmuch and only occasionally found herself pondering the hatred cats had for her. The bottom line was that she wouldn't ever own a cat and did her best to avoid them where possible, so the answer to the question was not all that important to her.

"Well, it looks like you're on a roll today, lucky boy," she said as Joe kissed her neck. "I don't have anything planned until work tonight, and my mornings tend to be pretty lazy, so I've got plenty of room for you." She nipped playfully at his earlobe, giving it a gentle tug with her teeth. "So, what've you got planned for me this morning?"
 
Joe chuckled. He licked her neck as she told him her plans for the day. "Damn, you smell so good," he crooned. "I just want to hold you and inhale everything about you." He groaned slightly when she pulled at his ear. His hands slid over her stomach, warm plan against her toned flesh. "I didn't have much planned; I was going to feed you, make love to you, maybe two or three times..."

He grinned, meeting her eyes. "Last night I had hoped to come over and spend some time with you after work but it got a little weird. I think I fell asleep in Bruce's office." He ran his hand further up her body and brushed his fingers across her nipples, cupping her breasts and giving them a light squeeze. "Uhm...you're not secretly wishing I'd stop, are you? I don't want to pressure you into sex if you're not in the mood, or you've changed your mind," his thigh slid between her legs, "or maybe you just don't want some horny guy over here who is planning on spending hours worshiping your body repeatedly?"
 
Joe soon had Carla panting lightly as his mouth and hands roamed her body. The way she reacted, writhing against him and twisting her body to give him a better angle at which to stimulate her, should have hinted that she wanted him to keep going, though the wetness between her legs was a bigger tip-off.

"No, don't stop," she said, her voice husky with lust. "I like the sound of making love two or three times. But maybe don't spend that time worshiping my body; I liked how you were last night. It's fun when you take charge. But yes, I want a horny guy all over me today."
 
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