We Are Bulletproof

Josh was not used to being ignored.

Normally he didn't have to work very hard to be noticed; there was something about him that made people look up and take notice. Going through life as the center of attention made it difficult now to stare at the face of his phone, black and silent, and be okay with it, especially because it was Rae that he waited on. Rae who normally responded if only to insult him was conspicuously quiet now.

Unsettled, Josh kicked away a chair that stood between himself and his bed. He dropped heavily onto the mattress and slid one hand behind his head, letting the other with the phone in it fall beside him. After the previous night's fiasco, Rae dropped off the face of the planet. Josh had gone down to the police station earlier that day to see if they had taken Rae there, but they hadn't. He probably ought to have stayed long enough to see where they took Rae the night before but at the time, his only instinct was to get away.

Besides, he thought that Rae would call him once he changed back and let him know where he was.  Then Josh could reluctantly drive there, pick him up, make a snarky comment about how Rae was 'losing his touch' and things would return to the way they were. That was how it played out in his own mind but obviously Rae insisted on being a pain in the ass, being nowhere to be found.

So not the police station then. It wasn't as if Rae was dying. He was just being kept somewhere, probably feeling sorry for himself, and Josh didn't want to be subjected to that. Yes, yes, loyalty was important to Rae but he was the one who had to ruin everything by confessing.

Josh knew it wasn't real.

Those feelings Rae professed to having for him weren't completely Josh's. Part of him still wanted the fox and Josh couldn't stand it. He couldn't accept Rae's feelings when Rae had them for someone else and frankly, Josh felt like he was being lied to when Rae claimed to love him. Rae didn't love him, Rae was desperate to be loved. Those were two patently different things.

It burned inside, burned down deep, boring a hole straight on through to the other side. If Rae didn't feel about him the way he felt about Rae, then it wasn't enough for Josh. His feelings didn't come cheap; Rae wasn't earning them by dithering between Josh and an undeserving cripple.

Suddenly, his phone went off and almost embarrassingly eagerly Josh brought it up to look. Aldon? His lip curled as he flicked open the message to read the frantic text. Aldon was asking him about what happened the night before, giving far more information that he probably should have handed to someone like Josh. Well, they were friends, weren't they? Sometimes Aldon was almost useful. Once Josh got past the slew of exclamation marks, he found out that Rae had ended up at the shelter, having been abducted by animal control services. Josh did laugh a little nastily at that.

Josh: Is he still at the pound?

Aldon: No! Alva got there and convinced him to go to the hospital! I'm gonna go pick him up and bring him over to my place in a bit.

Josh: And who told you to do that?

Aldon: Um... nobody. It was my idea!

Josh's brows lifted in skepticism. Right. It was Aldon's bright idea to take Rae in, instead of letting him go home with Josh, who was his lover. That had the fox's scent all over it. So Alva was back in the picture, was he? How sweet—now he was playing hero. Josh dropped his phone and got up abruptly, stirred into action by a cold and ugly fury rising up inside. Just when he was beginning to think that he had Rae, Alva came around to ruin everything. That fox ruined everything.

He couldn't just stay away, could he? Couldn't let well enough alone. Even when he already had someone—when he had all those other people in his life doting on him and fawning over him just because he was in a wheelchair—he still had to dig his claws in deep with Rae. How selfish could one person get? Well a wolf's fangs could sink in deeper than a fox's claws. Josh snarled softly in the privacy of his bedroom, as he stalked over to his closet to pull on a leather jacket. It was beginning to rain, and the temperature was dropping; he wasn't going out in the thin sweater that he was currently wearing.

Where was he going?

The hospital.

It was time to get rid of that fox once and for all. If he couldn't outright kill him, then maybe he could out-smart him. There was more than one way to skin a fox, after all. Maybe brute-forcing things wasn't working for him; he needed to change up his tactics.

Where the fox was, his little witch was sure to also be there, and Josh had long been toying with the idea of employing his unique set of skills. Witches were a problematic lot but Josh honestly was beginning to think that he and this particular witch had a lot in common, especially after he heard stories from Aldon about the witch using memory charms on the fox and his little cousin and friends. And Rae. Really, the idea came to Josh after Rae's memories of the fox resumed. It sort of just... clicked.

Yes. Yes... He could take the fox out of Rae's life once and for all, and not have to dirty his hands...

Looking at his own reflection in the mirror, Josh smiled thinly to himself. It was more of a self-satisfied smirk, really. He adjusted his collar, smoothed back his hair and then turned to grab his phone and car keys. It was a short drive down to the hospital, and once there all he had to do was find the fox and wait. And didn't they always say—all good things come to those who wait?

Well, he was going to wait for that witch to come to him.

I have a proposition for you, witch, one that will enable us both to get what we want.

[ID says Joshua Kang]

@Shimizu Susumu

Music pounded and the lights strobed across the room, casting everything into garish shades of red and green and yellow and blue. Josh pounded back a shot from an overfilled glass, hardly caring if the liquor splashed over his hand as he did so. Lazily, he licked away the spilled remnants from his fingers and savored the burn in the back of his throat with a low, throaty hum of satisfaction.

Leaned casually against the bar with one elbow resting on the countertop, he scanned the rest of the room. On the main stage, a well-proportioned man was working the pole; others, dressed so scantily that they might as well have worn nothing at all, meandered through crowds of cheering and hooting women to serve drinks. Josh saw tips being stuffed into underwear, winks and nods, flushed cheeks. The strip club was mostly full of women but there was a decent smattering of men here too, taking in a show.

Josh's predatory gaze flickered from one to the next. "Hey bartender." Josh gestured with the casual arrogance of someone accustomed to having his way immediately. "That one."

A man at the end of the bar finally caught Josh's interest. As the bartender walked over with a purple drink and handed it over to the man, then gestured towards Josh, he smiled. There was just enough self-assuredness in it to not be completely cocky, but confidence and Josh never strayed far from each other in a sentence.

Put on something nice

We're going out tonight

@Reagan Ryang

It was done.

Josh twirled the keys of his car as he stepped out into thin, watery sunlight, breaking cover from the woods and leaving the site of his sordid deal with Savas behind. He smiled to himself. There was nothing that he couldn't get--by hook if not by crook. Having almost no moral scruples to begin with made this so easy. So painless. Soon that fox would be out of the picture and Rae...

Well, Rae never stood a chance.

His dalliance with the lesser species was a momentary thorn in Josh's side, but now Rae was right where he belonged. Safe in Josh's hands, and those were hands that never let go once the claws had sunk in deep enough to pierce the skin and bone and heart. Josh unlocked his car with the key fob and slipped inside. The engine purred to life--only luxury cars for Josh, thank-you. Nothing as crass as a pickup truck or a jeep, despite the fact that roads in and out of Hazleton tended to be rough. It wasn't like he couldn't afford it.

His sleek silver car pulled out of the pebbled parking lot and he headed into town. A twenty minute drive later, he was pulling up to the palatial mansion that he called home. Josh showered, changed and spritzed just the barest hint of cologne onto the side of his throat. He dabbed it delicately and checked himself out: sleek dark hair, pale skin, eyes that burned with the hidden light of madness, the seed of which was planted when, as an innocent child, he was infected with the sickness that made him feral.

Somewhere downstairs he heard a door closing. A car engine roared and the crunch of gravel indicated that one or the other of his parents had left. Which was it now? His mother to meet with another lover? Or his father, to while away the nighttime hours in the embrace of alcohol? Josh sneered at his own reflection. It was a wonder he didn't end up more twisted, with loving role-models like that. They barely seemed to register his existence inside their own house. If they bumped into each other once a week, Josh counted that as frequent.

His nostrils flared briefly and the sneer faded, leaving a blank slate. Only the eyes remained bright as ever. He couldn't ever remember a time when his parents noticed him. When he was a baby, nannies hovered constantly by his side. As a child, he had tutors and managers and was whisked away on tour. As an adult, he had the run of his own life. Their family was rich--old money, as they said. There was more than Josh could spend in two lifetimes, even with his excessive habits.

And yet. He latched onto someone like Rae. Hm. No accounting for fate, he supposed. He could have had his pick of the men in his social circle but he wanted someone born to such humble beginnings, here in this backwoods little hole. That, however, was his choice.

Josh had things his way, or he destroyed the things he couldn't have so that no one else could have them either.

Josh didn't stand there for long. He grabbed his keys and headed out, and soon pulled up to Rae's apartment. Josh eased back in the driver's seat and idly picked at a pack of cigarettes, lighting up and sending a plume of smoke out through the crack in the window. He picked up his phone and typed into it as the smirk returned.

@Reagan Ryang

Josh leaned back against the seat as the taxi drove away from his place, settling down for the ride out towards Eagle Ridge where the fox den was. There were several dens scattered in the woods surrounding the town, but this one was the largest. Or, rather, it had the largest foxes—ones that should give the coyote a run for his money.

In order to take out that fox, Josh had to make sure that his sacrifice of choice was well-equipped for the job. He wasn't above lending a helping hand in that matter, but it was preferable to not be caught with his jaws around the pest's throat. Something told him that Rae wouldn't appreciate that.

Although, like Josh said, he didn't need Rae to love him. Hate worked, too. Any strong emotion still meant that he had Rae. It was the absence of feeling that he needed to worry about. The day that Rae failed to acknowledge him, Josh would know that it was all over but for now... He supposed that he had a fair chance.

Once the fox was out of the picture, it would be easy pickings for Josh. He didn't want things handed to him, but he also didn't like working too hard. He enjoyed the chase; he didn't enjoy losing. There were many fine lines there, really.

He chatted with Rae as the taxi wound its way through town but once it reached the outskirts, his interest was diverted to the woods. Josh cracked open the window slightly, allowing the icy air to stream inside. He sniffed. Pine. Dirt. Nature. The feral wolf inside clamored the deeper they trundled into the woods, until the taxi rolled to a stop by the rest area. Josh paid and hopped out, glancing around idly.

No coyote in sight, but the fresh air and nature invigorated him. Despite his fine clothes and well-polished appearance, Josh didn't quite belong to the modern world. It was the wildness in him; the flicker of evil in his dark eyes and his cruel nature that set him apart from all the others. He was literally a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Since his hired help was a little while in coming, Josh sat down on a picnic bench and rested his elbows against the top of the table. He breathed in the cold air, like icy fingers reaching deep into his lungs. A little smile colored his lips as a twig crackled and he only half-turned to eye the source of the disturbance.

(A posting under a generic account)

I have information about the white wolf.

Contact me at (phone number) if interested.

@Savas Oakley

Hey, guess what?

I hear some guy's been going all over town looking for a white wolf
Wonder which white wolf that could be

@Reagan Ryang

Fuck. This fog was seriously getting on Josh's nerves. He peered intently through the gray mist, looking for the turn-off from the highway that would lead him onto a small side road, towards the bait shop. Why the fuck did the owner want to open up a shop here, of all places? And how the hell did Rae wander all the way out here in the first place?

Grimacing as he nearly missed the turn-off--and bumping the rear tire against something that Rae might curse him out for later--Josh finally found the right exit and slowly trundled down the dirt road headed for the bait shop. It had a small, glowing sign that flashed; a welcome beacon for Josh, who couldn't see anything at all out of the dense fog.

He turned in at the bait shop and honked the horn once. Rae would hear it--super werewolf hearing and all that. Then again, the truck was so loud itself that Josh probably didn't even need to honk, and Rae would still hear it coming.

"Hurry up!" he shouted bad-temperedly, not too keen on being caught at a crime scene. Fuck whatever happened to the old man who ran the bait shop. Josh didn't care who did the deed; he didn't care about some filthy human.

You left your car and house keys here idiot

I'm not driving all over the city to find you

@Reagan Ryang

What the fuck was taking so long?

Josh paced up and down in front of his apartment building, arms crossed and a sour look on his face. He'd been waiting for half a freaking hour and Rae still hadn't shown up. If he was taking so long just to say goodbye to that little rat shifter he was dating, Josh was going to hunt the little pest down and have him for a snack on the next full moon.

What did he see in that cripple anyway? What did Aldon see in Ryland Ren?

Ugh. Right. "Love." Disgusting. Josh was determined to never, ever fall into that trap--he saw how much of a fool love made out of his best friends and he wanted no part of that. Besides, he liked his lifestyle. It was an indescribable high, albeit one which he needed to constantly chase. Sometimes... it was tiring. But most of the time he reveled in that vicious sense of victory, whenever he managed to have his way with someone. Especially someone already in a relationship--there was no point chasing the easy target, was there?

But what didn't please him was the fact that it was nearly forty-five minutes before Rae's car came into view, and the first thing that Josh did was poke his head in through the passenger's side window to hiss, "You're fucking late, asshole!" He slung his bag into the back seat, slid into the front passenger's seat and slammed the door hard.

"What took you so long?! I could've slept in for another hour if I'd known that you were going to be this late!"