Pain exploded along his back and shoulders as he slammed into the low wall. His breath whooshed out as he exhaled sharply before he even hit the ground. If he thought the impact against the stone had been painful, the throb that pulsed through him as he gathered his wits about him was several times worse. Nothing felt broken, but God, it hurt to move, or simply just breathe. If he’d been thrown any harder, he wouldn’t even have been able to manage the struggling movements needed to try and haul himself off the ground and back to his feet.

He succeeded in pushing his upper body off the ground, glancing around slowly. The building was dimly lit so it was hard to make anything out clearly through the dust that hung in the air. It was still under construction, and apparently had been for a couple of years now. Something about the development constantly being stalled because of money or legal reasons. Shaun didn’t really remember what it was; that was more Lucas’ expertise than it was his.

His own expertise was supposed to be in the fighting aspect of the hunt. From his current position, half-sprawled on the dirty ground, body aching, and head spinning, he didn’t think he was doing too well at it. The damned beast had thrown him harder than he had expected. It had been mid-transformation at the time, and Shaun had no idea where it might have gone after that. It wasn’t where it had been when he’d been wrestling with it, that was for sure.

With one last push, he made it to his knees and hauled himself upright using a nearby pile of stones. His gun was lying on the floor in front of him, but he had no idea where his knife had gone. His prized possession was missing, its distinctive silver edge nowhere in sight. All he had was the sawed-off shotgun, and his fists. Well, he couldn’t discount the body armor he was wearing. If it hadn’t been for the vest, he would surely have had a few broken bones to worry about.

“Shaun!”

His head jerked up at the cry from Lucas coming from somewhere deeper in the half-built building. The normally calm man’s voice still had its signature clipped tone, but it was the tinge of panic in it that caught Shaun’s attention more than the cry itself. Lucas, despite being less skilled at fighting, wasn’t a man to lose his cool easily. If there was even a sliver of fear in his voice, that meant something was seriously wrong.

As he moved forward to retrieve the gun, a deafening roar cracked through the air. Apparently, the beast had completed its transformation, and that was where he would find Lucas. It was a good thing Lucas kept his wits about him, since he was usually the one trouble found. Shaun might be the brawn of their duo, but Lucas was the one who drew more attention. Unfortunately, it was usually the worst sort of attention.

Ignoring the shooting pain in his upper back, Shaun ran out of the room and through a couple of half constructed doorways. When he reached Lucas, he skidded to a halt on the dusty floor. Sure enough, Lucas was cornered by the monster. He was hiding behind a pile of precariously stacked construction material and the monster was inching slowly towards him. The towering beast stomped its way closer to Lucas, each movement radiating with the power of the predator that it was.

“Oi, ugly,” Shaun cried as he raised the shotgun and squeezed the trigger.

The shotgun blast seemed almost as loud as the monster’s roar. Shaun was used to the weapon’s noise, but it sounded so much louder in the empty, confined space of the unfinished room. He was far enough away that it was a miracle the spread of shotgun pellets even hit the beast at all, but from the jolt of the beast’s body, he guessed they had. The pellets probably got its attention more than the sound of the gun did, as it slapped at one of the wounds and turned on him abruptly.

“What, thought I was dead, huh?” he asked it, chuckling as he flipped open the chamber of the shotgun and shoved his last two rounds into it. The sound of the gun clicking into place was satisfying, echoing round the room and competing with the furious snarls from the monster. The last two shells were his only hope of winning this fight and coming out alive, and it was a beautiful yet daunting sound.

The beast’s savage eyes shifted in his direction, evaluating him. He would bet it was trying to figure out how he was still alive, let alone standing. It really had tried to kill him with that throw. There had been enough strength behind it to toss him the entire length of a wide room and into a low built stone wall. He could only hope it wouldn’t figure out he was wearing body armor. Yet, part of him almost relished the idea of it trying to claw through the armor if it did figure it out. This wasn’t your standard tactical armor, it might appear to be, but its core was surrounded with a thin layer of silver. Not enough to cause substantial damage, but it would inflict pain all the same. A lot of the creatures he and Lucas hunted could be hurt just by touching silver, so his vest got a lot of use and was a real asset when they were hunting.

“Well, I ain’t. So how about you get your ugly ass over here? You don’t want him. He’s scrawny, no meat on him.”

The beast’s eyes narrowed, never straying from Shaun, even as he heard Lucas sigh from the relative safety of his hiding place. That was alright; Shaun only smirked at his partner’s exasperation. Just like the animal in front of him, his eyes never left his opponent’s. Even with a monster like this, it was important to watch the eyes. You could read every intention in them, and could still see the body tense or shift from the edge of your vision.

The yellow of its eyes narrowed, the black of its pupils expanding. Shaun knew what was coming and readied himself just before it leapt. Its powerful muscles propelled it towards him in a predictable straight line. He had no time to raise the gun again and fire, so he dove under the beast instead, tucking the gun against his body and hitting the ground with his shoulder. His momentum carried him forward into a roll, his feet hitting the ground and pushing him upward, even as he twisted his body round to bring him face to face with the monster once more. It was an oddly graceful movement for a man of his size, and one that gave him a momentary advantage over his opponent.

Yet his opponent was a fully transformed werewolf, and one hell of a specimen at that. It was made for battle, long limbs packed with powerful muscles, claws and fangs honed to potentially fatal points. Due to its size and power, it possessed a surprising amount of speed. It wasn’t very agile though, it was too focused on speed and strength to show any decent agility. It landed a few feet beyond where Shaun had been standing, and twisted around to face him with surprising speed. Its frustration was obvious, and that made it easier to outmaneuver. Anger was good for making werewolves stronger, but it also made them irrational, and they were so easy to piss off when they were transformed.

They might look like normal humans or even wolves when they wanted their form to blend into their surroundings. It didn’t change the fact that when they wanted or needed to fight, all that natural born subtlety disappeared in an instant of grotesque transformation. That same average looking human or wolf would expand in height and size, growing upwards of eight to nine feet tall. They became the Hollywood interpretation of a werewolf: half man, half wolf, all monster. The only thing those movies couldn’t quite capture was just how terrifying it was to have a genuine monster snarling at you from a few feet away.

Just as his body instinctively rolled under the first pounce, it knew how to aim the gun exactly where he knew the werewolf’s face would be. It came so easily to him, so smoothly, it felt almost casual. He focused on the beast’s ugly face, it’s long muzzle opening in slow motion, deadly claws outstretched toward him. If he hadn’t been fast enough, it would have slammed into him and there would have been no stopping it from ripping him to shreds. In this form, it might as well just be a cunning animal, only intelligent enough to know how to out-flank someone and rip them apart.

He barely felt the recoil of the gun as he pulled the trigger, his eyes never leaving the beast’s face. This was the moment where he would find out whether he would kill or be killed. There was no fear of death in a moment like this, only the almost erotic thrill of danger. He could very well end up the one with his guts strewn across the floor, bleeding out, body wracked in agony. Or, once again, he could find himself standing over the corpse of a slain monster, victorious as it gasped its last ragged breath. The thought thrilled him, radiating from the very core of his being with an erotic heat.

Crimson blossomed behind every fragment of shot as they slammed into the werewolf’s body. It spread out in a spray of red mist and wet chunks as the shotgun blast tore through the monster. It was fully transformed, and that meant the silver coated shot from the cartridge ripped through the normally supernaturally tough body with ease. The silver shredded it worse than a regular set of shotgun shells would have done to a normal animal or person.

A normal creature would have been stopped in its tracks, but the blast did nothing to change the beast’s trajectory. It might have taken the fight right out of the werewolf, but it didn’t do a damned thing to impede its momentum. The fur-covered body drove him to the ground with almost as much force as when it had thrown him earlier. Once again, he found the wind knocked from his lungs, driven out by the force of the ground as his back made contact and the thick body driving into his chest.

The huge monster sprawled across Shaun, soaking him in blood from its multiple wounds. Its life was seeping out all over him, and making a damn fine mess of the ground around them as well. It stirred a few times, its movements weak and feeble. Even with wounds fatal enough to kill most living things instantly, the werewolf still clung to life. It was dying though, the rapid healing he had seen from its kind was unable to make a difference. Its body might have been able to close normal wounds within seconds, but the silver from the shot prevented it.

“A little help?” Shaun croaked, finally managing to drag enough air into his lungs to speak.

Lucas appeared, standing over the two of them with a look of distaste. He didn’t appear all that concerned, but Shaun didn’t miss Lucas’ eyes lingering on his face. The guy kept his cool most of the time, and that usually involved not showing too much concern for his partner. It was there if you knew where to look, and Shaun had been working with Lucas long enough to be able to glimpse it when he was paying close attention. It also meant Shaun had a good measure for how much trouble he was in as well. If Lucas’ concern or worry was obvious, it usually meant something was really wrong.

“You’ve certainly made a right mess of yourself,” Lucas informed him, flipping a strand of blond hair out of his face.

“I think he’s the one makin’ the mess,” Shaun grunted, pushing at the stilling werewolf’s body.

“Well, give it a moment and I’ll be sure to help you.”

Shaun knew that answer was coming, but sighed anyway. He didn’t really expect Lucas to be able to lift the several hundred-pound body off him. Thankfully, like many of the supernatural monsters they fought, werewolves made clean up a little easier once they were dead. Werewolves weren’t as polite as vampires or fae, which shriveled to dust when killed. They did however, rapidly turn back into either their human or wolf form as death took the last breath of life from them. Shaun wasn’t quite sure how the final form was chosen, but he usually hoped for a wolf. It made things a lot easier.

They both watched as the body began to shrink, and Shaun breathed a sigh of relief as it kept its fur while doing so. Sure enough, as the weight pressing down on him eased, it shrank into the corpse of a normal looking wolf. Well, normal for a wolf with a giant hole through it anyway.

Sighing with relief, he shoved the body off him in order to stand up. “I love it when they make it easier to clean up. Means I ain’t gotta lug a human corpse around, lookin’ like a serial killer.”

Lucas shook his head looking at the current state of Shaun. “Says the man covered in blood. We’ll have to hose you down outside before you can go anywhere near the public. It’s a good thing it’s summer.”

“Aww, you worried about me gettin’ the sniffles?”

The corner of Lucas’ mouth twitched as he bent to pick up Shaun’s shotgun and hand it to him. “I’m just glad the truck has leather seats.”

Shaun squinted at Lucas, only now noticing the man’s large gun holstered at his waist. “Why didn’t you just shoot ‘em?”

“I was waiting for my knight in silver armor to come save me,” Lucas told him, his tone dry. People sometimes mistook that dry tone for mockery or sarcasm. Shaun had at first, years ago, when they started working together. Now he wondered how he had ever missed the difference between when Lucas was simply using dry humor, and when he was truly mocking someone. Sure, it was a subtle difference, but it seemed so obvious to Shaun now.

“Well, glad to be of service. Can I have a shower now?”

Lucas looked him up and down, that same almost-smile returning to his face. “Sure. There is a hotel shower with your name written all over it.”

Shaun knew his grin was probably wider than was strictly necessary, but he didn’t care. After being tossed around like a rag doll, and having a big ass werewolf all but crush him, a hot shower sounded wonderful. He could soak in the relaxing heat for as long as the hot water lasted, and he wouldn’t hear one complaint from Lucas over it. Lucas would certainly want a shower of his own, but he would be content to let Shaun use up all the hot water.

“You just want to see me walk around in a towel,” Shaun accused, not even caring if that was actually the truth or not.

“Working with you has to have some benefits.”

Shaun’s grin only widened as he happily followed Lucas, his mind now on the hot shower, a warm meal, and perhaps a bit of fun afterward if Lucas’ mood was any indication. Trying to hunt down and kill supernatural monsters around the world might not always be a great job; sometimes it was downright hell. That didn’t mean there weren’t good moments, or even a few perks to enjoy either.

And Shaun was a firm believer in enjoying the perks.