I still see the break in your way. || Mally.

[tagged; Mally , open.]

It was late in the evening as Gray had just finished up mopping the entire auditorium stage and the surrounding floor. He really didn't mind the grunt work, it kept his hands busy and his mind tamed - something that was typically hard to ask for in a being that was his age. Taking one long look around the auditorium, Gray quickly turned his attention over to the Steinway piano that was hidden off in the far left area of the stage. Ambling over to it, the werewolf ran his fingers over the fine ebony color of the instrument - admiration clearly set in his eyes.

Taking a seat in front of the piano, Gray lifted the fall board up with care - his slender fingers testing a few keys before his chosen melody began to fill the air.

Moonlight Sonata haunted every corner of the auditorium, Gray's interpretation of the song eerie and tinged with sadness. It was quite obvious though that the janitor felt this song to his very core, his body moving and leaning in rhythm while his fingers danced across the keys.

Outside of the castle as Gray's music boomed through the large room an equal sound of thunder shook the island, lightening quickly following to give daylight to the hallway outside if only for a brief second. Despite it being early in spring a storm was brewing all around Foresta Academy, getting ready to makes its presence known.

Nathaniel had a lot on his mind as the evening drew on. Addiction, revenge, classes, the distraction of a new job as House Leader. What stimulus soothed his troubled mind tonight was a haunting melody that filled a nearby room, an evocative tune that anyone would recognize. Nathaniel, an admirer of art who rarely found the time to enjoy it, decided to investigate. There was plenty of time to kill before his next appointment.

The door shut silently behind the vampire because he knew who the pianist was from the first scent. That was a sensation he could never forget, the man's smell tied so strongly to what the vampire thought would be the end of his life. The werewolf played a sonata titled after moonlight. Cute. The enticed vampire licked his fangs, because he had been savoring this moment ever since that night.

In a flash of light, the vampire appeared beside the seated musician. It was Gray Barth, the monster who savaged Nathaniel last winter. The young vampire's hatred fumed through the ambient-lit room as he recalled the fear he felt that night. The fear of death was one thing, but the werewolf left a misery so intense the vampire genuinely wished he had died. The longest minutes of his life he suffered submerged in the frozen river were nothing short of a morbid torture. The vampire would have lost his left arm to the werewolf's bite if he was not able to heal, and he recalled every moment of torment during the recovery process as his nerve endings regenerated little by little. Nathaniel's next appointment could wait - It was time to kill.

The werewolf had tested him in battle, but Nathaniel was no fighter. The vampire was an assassin and he was effective at what he did, but this mark was too personal to hit and run. He could feel the hatred for this werewolf in his DNA - He wanted Gray Barth to know what he did, but first there was a message to send.

The flash of light faded and Nathaniel used the cover of darkness to strike the werewolf harder in the gut than he thought he had ever hit a victim. The fleet of foot vampire stepped left and forward to deliver a second fist that hooked its way in from Gray's right to impact the man's kidney in a fast stunning combo that would send any normal human to the ground, or in this case towards the piano.

A calculated rage fueled the words, "Do you know who I am?"

As his song continued, Gray's eyes opened slowly as he felt Nathaniel's presence enter into the auditorium. It was a scent that he always recognized ever since he bad been turned into what he was. It varied slightly from each being, but at the core they all smelled the same.

Gray took the first punch quite well, despite absorbing the full damage - his awareness of the young vampire offered him enough preparation. The second one thrown though caused Gray to stand up with a slight turn, catching Nathaniel's fist. Finally the vampire spoke and Gray let out a sharp laugh, his eyes piercing as he observed Nathaniel. "Don't play coy with me, boy." Despite Gray knowing full well that the vampire was a student, it had been bred into him to automatically hate his kind. The struggle was cut short though as Gray quickly realized that this vampire was out for blood, the memory of what he may or may not have actually done to this being completely lost to him.

"Oh, let me guess. Did I terrorize you? Have you been dreaming about me?" Gray's words were sharp and flirtatious, he wasn't about getting into an actual fight - but the desire to poke and prod the vampire had him continuing on.

The blow that was meant to stun the werewolf was caught, and instead, it was the verbal response that stunned Nathaniel. The vampire had naturally assumed the werewolf would respond like the many others who regretted their actions during a full moon; He thought the werewolf might even apologize, not that he would have any pity for the creature. Instead, the old werewolf taunted him. Gray Barth's verbal match lit the fuel that burned Nathaniel into a blind rage.

"You motherfucker!" his anger-grizzled voice echoed through the auditorium. "You know exactly what you did, you furry shit! You left me to die!" Nathaniel's screams of pure hatred and spittle escaped his mouth towards the janitor's face. A crash of lightning rattled the island to prompt the full force of the vampire's body weight into the werewolf to send them both over the piano bench into the expensive instrument.

Nathaniel's screams echoed through the auditorium, the storm outside matching the one that was just starting inside. As the vampire rammed the full force of his body into him, Gray reached for the student's shoulders in an attempt to push him off - instead his body still working to recover from the full force of the punch he took before, Gray was thrown back into the piano bench - the full weight of both beings causing the wood to crack under the pressure.

As his body connected with the piano before, a harsh sound blared from the instrument as Gray's upper back slammed against the keys. Gray pushed some of his weight into his arms, intent on pushing Nathaniel back. People attacking him randomly, yelling out obscenities was not a new occurrence for the werewolf. Wherever he lived, Gray knew he put himself and others at the risk of his wolf.

He had no verbal response for the vampire then, instead a chuckle escaping through his lips at the situation. Would he try to kill him? Naturally, Gray assumed that this teen was going to make an attempt at his life. "Are you not ready to die yet, leech? Have you not experienced the joys immortality has to give you?" Gray's tone was cynical and cruel then, flavored with the feeling that the werewolf was not taking this situation seriously at all.

The fact that the werewolf wasn't taking him seriously was the worst of it. The less he felt the werewolf respected him, the more he wanted to claw the life out of this beast. A monster like Gray Barth didn't deserve to live.

"You don't feel a damn thing, do you? No remorse, no conscience, no goddamned soul," Nathaniel growled when pushed back, but the agile vampire kept his balance. "Just a miserable dog begging to be put down!"

The notion that he could get expelled for attacking staff was the furthest thing from Nathaniel's mind when he immediately sprung back toward Gray with a hammering fist meant for the werewolf's chest, but that was only to distract from the clawed left hand that snuck in like an array of tiny daggers from a lower side angle. The vampire was out for blood and he wouldn't quit until he found it.