Vincent's reply was to shuffle toward me, and I pressed myself against the crate. When he reached me he knelt down on one knee and looked me over. I cringed and prepared for death, but he did nothing. He only stared at me with those unblinking, intense eyes.
His inaction made me mad. I was tired of being the mouse. "If you're going to kill me then do it," I demanded.
"I wish I could," he quipped.
I blinked in bewilderment. "But you-"
"The circumstances have changed, and so have both of us," he interrupted. "What did Timothy tell you about our relationship?"
The change in subject was so sudden that I habitually shrugged. My whole body ached with the motion. "He said you were partners."
Vincent chuckled. "Is that what he told you? That we were some sort of a team? All for one and one for all?" I cringed, but nodded. He scoffed and his face twisted into disgust. "We were nothing of the sort." That was all I needed to hear from this psychopath. I slowly scooted along the floor, but Vincent slammed a hand against the crate next to my head that arrested my escape. "You're to go nowhere," he told me.
I frowned. "If you're not going to kill me then what are you going to do to me?" I asked him.
"I'm going to protect you." I raised a doubtful eyebrow, and he impatiently sighed. "You're a slow one, aren't you? Have you even figured out what I am?"
"A psychopath?" I guessed.
He smirked. "True, but that doesn't describe my species."
"I just want to-ah!" A spasm of pain shot through my sore hand. I doubled over and clutched at my shivering fingers. Vincent grabbed my shoulders and held me still. I grit my teeth and raised my head to look at him. "What's going on?" I asked him.
"The union isn't finished yet. Where is the ring?" he asked me. My eyes traveled to the fallen lantern. The ring had rolled up beside the glass casing around the flame. Vincent followed my gaze, and he left me to snatch the ring and return. "Put this back on," he instructed me as he held out the ring. I squished against the crate and shook my head. I wasn't going through that pain again. He sneered at me and shoved the ring into my palm. "Put it-"
His insistence was interrupted by the sound of guns outside the warehouse. Bullets penetrated the thin walls of the old building and shot over our heads. I swung my arms over my head and ducked down. Vincent threw himself over me and pressed me to the floor. He stuck his head close to mine and his long teeth looked impossibly sharp. "Put on the ring or we're both dead!" he snapped.
I was too panicked to argue, and hurriedly slipped the ring onto my finger. I clutched my hand as pain shot out from the band of metal and into my body. Vincent clenched his teeth and I heard his stifled cries as his pain mirrored mine. The gunfire outside was replaced by a more hideous sound of a large wolf howling. I heard the front door being ripped off its hinges and tossed aside. Clawed feet clinked quickly along the hard floor, and through the pain of the ring I imagined a far worse death than the one promised by Vincent. I feared I would be torn apart by some bloodthirsty hound. How wrong I was.
The clinking claws came closer and rounded the corner of a nearby crate stack. I turned my head and my eyes widened when, by the light of the dim lantern, I beheld not a large dog, but a wolf creature larger than a man. It spotted us and raised itself onto its hind legs. The wolf thing tipped its head back and howled. The awful noise echoed through the metallic building and sent a shiver through my body. It dropped back down on all four legs and raced toward us.
Vincent flew off me and jumped between the monster and me. When the beast was a foot from him Vincent kicked out a leg in a circular motion and knocked the monster's front legs out from under it. The wolf crashed head-first into the hard floor and slid into the crate of boxes behind me. The wooden boxes toppled over him. I crawled away, but the pain wracked my body so badly that I couldn't find the strength to stand.
Vincent grabbed one of the crates and tore a long, jagged steak from the wood. The wolf beast burst from the crates and howled in rage. Its golden eyes fell on me, and I screamed when it lunged at me. Vincent tackled the beast from the side and the pair of them rolled away from me. I backed up and my hand knocked into something hard but light. It was the lantern. I grabbed the lantern and swung it in front of me to watch the tussle.
The beast righted itself and dove at Vincent, but he was too fast and dodged the thing's claws. Vincent slipped behind the wolf and raised the stake to plunge the weapon into the creature's back. The beast turned the tables by using Vincent's trick of round-kicking a leg to knock him off his feet. Vincent fell hard on his back, and the beast turned around to tear Vincent to pieces. I thought fast and threw the lantern at the beast's back. The flame hit the thing's fur and caught the hair on fire.
The creature screamed and waved its arms in a futile attempt to to reach back and extinguish the flames. Vincent grabbed the stake and jabbed it into the creature's chest. The wolf released a long, terrible howl before it fell over dead. The fur continued to burn, and by its light I watched the thing transform from a furry demon to a barely-clothed man. Once the transformation was complete the fire was extinguished from the no-longer existing hair on his back. I was completely enveloped in darkness, still wracked with pain, and alone with Vincent.