Work Text:
Mating Rituals
by Aiden
Horatio Caine and Mac Taylor from the Federal Police Force arrived at the crime scene with their team. When Detective Frank Tripp approached them, Mac asked him. "Were's?"
"Yeah. Apparently, the guy, in the ambulance, attacked that young man over there." Frank pointed at a young blond talking to one of the officers on the scene.
The young man was arguing loudly. "What?! What should I have done?! Let him attack me with the knife?!" the young man asked angrily, getting into the officer's face.
When someone yelled, "Daniel!", the young man stopped dead in his tracks and lowered his head. Mac turned around and saw several men standing behind the yellow police tape; their stances and hardened expressions screamed 'werewolves'.
Mac and Horatio walked over to them. "Who are you?" Mac asked them.
One of the men, Mac assumed it was the alpha, approached them. "I'm Nick Stokes. This is Warrick Brown, Greg Sanders, Ryan Wolfe and Timothy Speedle," he introduced the men that flanked him.
Nick looked at Mac, and asked. "You've read him his rights?"
"He isn't under arrest," Mac replied.
"Good." Looking pointedly at the young blond, he growled. "Get your butt over here right now."
The young man walked over to them slowly, still not looking up.
"What were you thinking, Danny?" Nick asked softly, trying not to draw too much attention to their exchange.
"He came at me," Danny protested, looking up.
"I don't care. A knife can't kill you." Stepping closer to the blond, he hissed. "The government is looking for any excuse to lock us up, and you know that."
"Danny was only defending himself," Greg started before he was cut off.
"Stay out of this, Greg." Warrick warned him.
"But he just…" Greg tried again only to have Timothy slapped the back of his head.
"Hey, Speed, cut it out." Greg glared at the other man.
"What did Warrick just say?" Speed replied harshly. "Stay out of it."
Interrupting the interesting group dynamics, Horatio chimed in. "We need to ask your friend here a couple of questions."
Nick gave his permission. "Fine, but one of us will go with him."
"Fair enough," Horatio responded.
"Speed, go with Danny." Nick commanded.
"What?" Danny whined. "No, not Speed."
Grinning, the black haired man laid a hand on Danny's shoulder. "Of course, Nick. My pleasure."
"Follow me, gentlemen." Horatio said as he turned towards a squad car.
"No," Speed said authoritatively. "We'll meet you at the station."
Horatio turned around to face him. Even with the dark shades, Horatio could feel Speed's intense glare.
"I'm not getting into a squad car, not in a million years." Speed shook his head.
Horatio walked back towards them, and stood in front of Speed. "It's okay, nothing will happen to you."
Speed snorted. "You're damn right it won't because I'm not getting in it."
The redhead understood the man's reluctance to get into a police car. Horatio had heard stories of police officers stopping their cars in the middle of nowhere and beating up suspected werewolves. It was a good thing the average cop didn't know how to kill one.
"I will drive you to the station myself," he reassured the other man.
Speed turned towards Nick, and the older man nodded.
When the two men continued to look at each other intently, Horatio wondered if they were communicating.
Speed turned to Horatio once again, and said, "Okay, let's go."
Horatio walked towards the Hummer, looking over his shoulder discreetly to make sure that the two young men were following him.
~.~
From the minute they entered the station, Speed could feel the pointed stares they were getting from the other officers and detectives. His sensitive hearing picked up what they were whispering as they passed.
'Well, Horatio has guts, bringing in two stinking Were's.'
'To bad the guy didn't just kill'em and save us the trouble.'
Turning around, Speed snarled. "You want a piece of me? Try your luck."
Danny laid a hand on Speed's arm. "They're not worth it," he softly said.
Speed took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, you're right."
"Let's get into the interview room," Horatio said, opening one of the doors.
He motioned for the two men to sit down, and then took his seat across from them. "Can you tell me what happened?" he asked Danny.
Danny sighed. "I was just walking down the street when this crazy guy came at me with a knife."
"So, you defended yourself?"
"Yeah, I did."
"You broke his arm," Horatio stated.
Speed took off his shades and rubbed his eyes. "What were you thinking, Danny?" he asked looking at the younger man.
When Horatio glanced at the dark-haired man, he was shocked to see that the man's right eye was intense dark brown but his left eye was completely white, a scar was running from his eyebrow down over his eye.
Suddenly, he recalled hearing about a man who'd been attacked by four hunters and survived to tell the tale. He'd paid a high price though, when he'd lost the sight in his left eye.
Two months later, the hunters had been found dead, mauled and torn to pieces. The police had never found any evidence pointing to the man sitting across from him, but Horatio had always suspected that this man'd had something to do with the hunters' demise.
Fascinated, Horatio asked. "You're White Eye, aren't you?"
Speed snorted, he hated the nickname that the humans had given him. "No, I'm Black Shadow," he said with pride.
end part 1