5.2 The Fiery Girl in Red

The bell tolled loud and clear as everyone rushed to the window and glassed out. Within the dimly lit streets, lean shadows darted about as screams echoed around them. It was almost unbearable for anyone in the room to hear but it was the old man who found his voice first.

'H-how is that possible? The wall is impenetrable,' Herman exclaimed in disbelief while Lillian shook her head with a frown.

'It would be safe to presume that they dug underneath the wall,' the finder aspirated.

'It doesn't matter how they got in, we need to help them,' Allen urged as she rushed towards the door with Lenalee and Kanda close to her heels. Phoenix clucked her tongue in annoyance.

'Stay here usagi,' she ordered flatly as she yanked him back by his long floppy white ears while he tried to go by her. Lavi yelped in pain and surprise.

'What? Why am I being left behind?' the redhead began to protest back but when Phoenix fixed him with an icy glare, Lavi jumped behind Lillian.

'Someone needs to stay behind to look out for gramps, doggy Lee and the finder, and that person ain't gonna be me, dumb ass,' she retorted dryly. Lavi nodded obediently.

'Just go!' The finder shouted loudly and Phoenix was out the door as the words left her mouth. Lillian sighed and folded her arms across her chest, her lilac eyes narrowing slightly as she glanced out the window.

'Something wrong?' Komui asked as Lavi went over to the door and leaned a chair against it. Lillian shrugged without moving her gaze from the scene outside the window. Pillars of flames and torrents of wind could be seen weaving between the houses.

'Don't you think this is a little erupt?' She asked quietly before turning to the canine scientist. Komui dropped onto his hunches and his brown eyes quivering in thought.

'Now that you mention it, this is odd but then again the innocence is desperately trying to stop us from leaving,' Lavi called from the other side of the room as he began to draw the curtains over the windows.

'Even so…' Lillian began until movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. Her head snapped towards the window just as a large furry figure smashed through spraying glass and wood splinters across the room. Lillian barely had enough time to raise her arm to cover her face as it barreled into her.

'Lillian!'

….

Phoenix paused after sending a scrawny wolf flying into house and tilted her head. The air around her smelled of smoldering fur and flesh but that wasn't what caused her lapse of concentration. She definitely sensed something else.

In her moment of distraction, Phoenix barely noticed another wolf lunge towards her. But it was quickly knocked back by a swift kick.

'Pay attention Phoenix!' Lenalee said briskly but Phoenix didn't bother rebuking her instead she grinned and glanced about the street. She was beginning to pick up an all too familiar scent she memorized since waking in this strange world.

'So it finally decided to show up after all!' She squealed in amusement but Lenalee stared at her in confusion.

'Who decided to show up?' Lenalee asked while taking a hasty step back when she noticed a pack of wolves heading their way. Phoenix ignored the wolves and huffed in annoyance with her hands on her hips.

'The Alpha, it's here!' She declared before a loud constant barking could just be heard over the chaos happening around them. Lenalee's eyes widened as she recognized the bark.

'Brother!' Lenalee took to the air, flying towards the old man's house while Phoenix followed a few metres behind by traveling through the battle-torn streets. But the green-haired girl was gone from her sights as she dove under the crumbling remains of a building.

She dodged around several stragglers by jumping up the broken remnants of a house and onto the rooftop of the next. Phoenix hopped across from unstable shindled rooftop to rooftop while knocking down any annoying furballs that got in her way!

She landed right outside the old geezer's place before Phoenix was forced to cartwheel out of the way of a flaming snake, credited to one stupid rabbit. Even if flames didn't affect her, she still growled at the male redhead's carelessness. Although she knew that she was no better at her aiming either.

But that train of thought stopped there when a hulking figure rose from the smoke and dust before her. There was no mistaking the anthropomorphic wolf standing on its hind legs and was as tall as the she-man with dark grayish fur. It's eyes were a fierce red that glowed in the flames around them.

She had finally found it!

At the current time, the Alpha was a little preoccupied by the red and green blur whizzing about it. It snarled at Lenalee as she darted towards it. Somehow it had yet to realize her presence when the green-haired exorcist slammed her leg into its raised arms. To Lenalee's surprise, it blocked the blow and knocked her back.

Phoenix decided it was a good time to join the brawl and lashed out with a flaming kick to catch the Alpha on its exposed side.

However, the bastard was clever and had grabbed Lenalee from mid-air and tossed the girl in her direction. Reluctantly, Phoenix quickly extinguished the flames but barely had enough time to slow down her momentum. Both girls were sent skidding across the cobblestone with Phoenix curses under her breath.

'Get offa me!' Phoenix growled as she tried to shove Lenalee off herself but the Alpha was already charging towards them. She frowned. 'On second thought, duck!'

Phoenix quickly took in a deep breath before breathing a torrent of fire in the Alpha's direction that satisfyingly caught the large wolf off guard. There was a high-pitched yelp as it tumbled over their heads and into the bushes, singeing them slightly.

Finally, Lenalee scrambled to her feet while Phoenix stood up in a single jump. She quickly dropped into a fighting stance with her fists raised as the Alpha recovered. Its red eyes were glaring hatefully at them as its lips were pulled back into a snarl to reveal its long sharp canines.

'Lavi! Lillian! Komui!' Phoenix briefly glanced down the path to see Allen and Kanda rushing towards them. She stared back to see that the Alpha growled deeply before turning tail and dashing away through the flame-lit streets.

'Oh no ya not!" Phoenix shouted irritably as she gave chase despite the protests of her fellow exorcists.

….

Allen had barely heard the frantic barking that came from Komui and rushed back towards Herman's house. Running through the streets, Kanda shortly joined her and they arrived to find the house missing a living room and half the rooftop had caved in. Lenalee and Phoenix were standing outside, in their respective fighting stance staring down at a large creature glaring back at them.

Phoenix hadn't been kidding when she described the Alpha as being a werewolf!

'Lavi! Lillian! Komui!' Allen called out in worry. Phoenix spared her a brief glance before turning back to the large anthropomorphic wolf. The Alpha seemed to have noticed that it was greatly outnumbered and pelted away from them.

'Oh no ya not!' Phoenix protested angrily before giving chase.

'Wait Phoenix!' Lenalee tried calling after the red-haired girl but it would seem that Phoenix either ignored her or hadn't heard her. The fiery girl was long out of sight. The green-haired girl sighed in defeat. 'When will she ever listen…?'

'Lillian!' Allen heard Komui's desperate cry echo from within the ruined house and she couldn't help but glanced at Lenalee in concern. That hadn't sounded good as she rushed inside with her friend and Kanda close behind.

Inside they found Lavi leaning over Lillian, blocking her from Allen's view. Komui was crouched beside him with Herman hobbling out of the kitchen with a box in hand.

'What happened?' Allen asked as she took the box from the old man and found that it contained medical supplies. Lavi looked back at her in worry.

'The Alpha come out of nowhere through the window… it bit Lillian,' he explained grimly as Allen gave him the box and sat beside the seemingly unconscious finder. Lillian looked unnaturally pale; her eyes were scrunched up in pain as sweat glistened against her skin. Allen's eyes then wondered down to the bite mark bleeding profusely on her lower right arm.

'You had one fucking job, usagi,' Kanda growled but Allen turned to him.

'This isn't his fault! This could have happened to anyone with the wolves attacking us without warning!' The samurai-wannabe had no right to blame this solely on Lavi as she glared angrily at Kanda. Kanda in turn rolled his eyes.

'Whatever.'

'Enough you two, this isn't helping Lillian!' Lenalee snapped at them before turning to Lavi whom was now wrapping a bandage around the wound. 'Will she be all right?'

'Let her rest for now but we really need to find that Alpha before something really bad happens,' Lavi said grimly before a fuming redhead stormed into the room.

'The fucker got away again!' Phoenix shrieked with flickers of flames coming off her slender form. She eventually lashed out at the broken couch, smashing it even further with her foot. No one looked up to the task of stopping her little rampage. Allen didn't want to know what happened to the unfortunate soul if anyone did.

'You lost it?' Kanda scoffed as Phoenix glared at him.

'Well duh, I wouldn't be here if I hadn't!' She snapped before continuing to take her frustration out on the trashed furniture. Phoenix then noticed Lillian's condition.

'What happened to the finder?' The redhead pondered bemusedly.

'The Alpha bit her,' Lenalee growled at Phoenix's bluntness. Allen simply sighed while Lavi scooped Lillian up carefully and carried her over to the back bedroom that had remained untouched by the attack.

'Well the sooner we get out of this godforsaken book, the sooner we can hand Lillian over to the medical staff,' Kanda spoke up as he leaned against the standing doorframe with his arms folded over his chest. 'For now we really need to find that Alpha and take it down.'

'I agree with the she-man. That innocence is only going to become more difficult and who knows what its planning next!' Phoenix declared with determination flaring in her ruby eyes. Komui shook his head.

'Again, easier said than done. How are we going to find it? Phoenix has probably lost it more times than she'd like to admit and she's our best tracker here," Komui chipped in before hiding behind Lenalee's legs when the red-haired girl threw an annoyed glare at him. She would have leapt at him if Lavi hadn't returned and unwillingly held the girl at bay.

Despite this discussion, Allen was still feeling uneasy. She could feel that something wasn't right. 'But that still doesn't explain why the Alpha attacked here and injured Lillian. What would it benefit from that?"

"Really moyashi? We already know that this innocence doesn't want us to leave the book! What else more is there to fucking get?" Kanda growled back and before Allen could protest, Lavi intervened.

'Moyashi-chan has a point; this innocence has shown an unusually strong sentience I've ever since before. Maybe this is the Heart?'

'Nope,' Phoenix deadpanned as she crossed her arms over her chest to emphasize her single word. Lenalee groaned.

'Don't dismiss it so easily, Phoenix, it's a possibility,' the green-haired girl pointed out with an annoyed tone.

'But it ain't possible. This is just a very stubborn piece of innocence!' Phoenix pouted just as stubbornly as her opinion. Allen brought her palm to her forehead. This conversation was just going around in circles. She was about to say so when a loud crash echoed from the back room where Lavi had left the finder.

'What was that?' Lenalee wondered with worry as they hurried to the bedroom. Allen squeezed passed Lavi to see that the room was empty and Lillian was nowhere in sight. Their only clue was the messed up bed and broken window.

'Oh no, did the Alpha come back?' Allen panicked as she rushed to the window and gazed out it. Phoenix come out of nowhere and poked her head out the window as well.

'The Alpha didn't come back. Lillian jumped out the window,' the redhead frowned and seemed to sniff the air animalistic manner. 'Something's off about her scent though.'

'Crap, why didn't I think of that before?' Lavi groaned aloud and Allen glanced back at the rabbit as he slapped his forehead.

'Forget what usagi?' Kanda growled dangerously.

'In legends, werewolves are capable of turning humans in one through biting,' Lavi murmured and the group fell silent.

'But why Lillian?' Allen dared to ask as Lavi looked at her gravely.

'It's simple; Lillian is the only one amongst us who isn't an accommodator of innocence. The Alpha… no the innocence, has infected her with innocence particles…' he explained as Phoenix snorted.

'Yeah, forget her turning into another werewolf, if we don't find her and remove those particles from her system...'

'Don't say it!' Lenalee pleaded anxiously what Allen mentally feared.

'It'll kill her.'

….

Well, this took a very long time to do. Sorry for the very long delay! It was partly… okay mostly due to my laziness but I really did try and write this chapter!

Anyway, if everything goes well, next chapter will be the final one so I just couldn't help but add a cruel cliffhanger of all things to this one. So this ponders the question… how long until I finish writing that chapter xD

In all seriousness, I'll try my best, honest!

So please leave a review and tell me what you think!

OH and thank you for the patience!