Sanctuary [Closed]

[Tindome]

    The sanctity of the circle was broken.

    Again.

    He woke faster this time, more like he was supposed to. He stood, arms straightening, wings flaring. And the intruder fell to the ground right in front of him, exactly where he'd been watching.

    Small and pale and raven-haired. The same girl? Or did he only think so because the memory was so fresh, still fixed in his mind, the way she'd watched him as she fled?

    More intruders. These ones were breaking things. Were they with her? If it was even her. It didn't matter, anyway. He was supposed to be killing all of them. No time to bother with sorting things out. Kill those ones first, then check if this was her, decide what to do with her if it was. Or if it wasn't.

    This imprecise assessment of the situation took only a half-second before he roared, turning to jump down to the first floor. He drew his wings in close as he hit the ground, pushing off immediately to pounce. He wasn't aware of guns, or what they could do, but he was faster than their aim regardless.

    Bullets were generally much less effective than baked goods.

    His claws sank into flesh with ease, and it felt strange when all his most recent memories were of trying very hard not to do that. Maybe he would have acted differently if these intruders had been smaller, looked softer. He gripped the esophagus, yanking and tearing through it and pulling them to the ground in the process so they could die out of his way. Just as quickly, he pounced again, the claws of his feet sinking into this other one's stomach as he wrapped both hands around their head and twisted. They fell to ground, him on top of them, their head entirely backward.

    It took two leaps to get to the last one, kicking claws into their back to hook on their spine. There was a lot of unpleasant screaming as they collapsed, which he resolved by slamming their face into the floor, again and again until it had cracked all to pieces. He roared again, which accomplished little, but felt satisfying.

    The church was silent around him except for his breathing.

    Surrounded by corpses and covered in blood, he found that he didn't really know what to do with himself. Usually this was the part where he turned back to stone, to be found in the morning by whoever it was that took the bodies away. They usually cleaned the blood off of him, while they were at it. He stood up, pulling his claws out of the man's back with a wet sound. He licked at the blood on his hand.

    Bleh.

    He flared out his wings, and this time when they beat it was with purpose, pushing against the ground so that he could fly up to the second floor again. He landed, and his footprints were bloody as he drew his wings back in to approach the little intruder again.

    Different clothes, but this was the one he hadn't killed before, the one so eager to get away from him. Why would she come back here? Had she brought backup this time for whatever she'd meant to do before, or did she bring them along for revenge? There was blood on her leg, but he couldn't tell whose. There was blood on his leg, too.

    He crouched to try to get on her level, and gave her a quiet growl of warning.