R. H. Felidae Athena

在凯特反应过来之前，她和叶琳娜就成了……朋友？

每天晚上她们都在无人的森林里见面，叶琳娜教她怎么对付吸血鬼乃至其他有敌意的超自然生物，和叶琳娜打架的时候，凯特通过在被叶琳娜压制住时变回人形成功摆脱了叶琳娜的控制，这让叶琳娜印象深刻。不过几次后这招就不管用了，因为叶琳娜发现凯特会在变形的时候轻微颤抖，叶琳娜警告凯特不要太依赖这种小聪明以免被有经验的吸血鬼抓住。凯特为此闷闷不乐了一会儿，不过叶琳娜承认这招是很好的战术优势（“哈！我就知道！这是很好的技巧！”凯特骄傲地说，而叶琳娜翻了个白眼）。

她们见面，打架，在森林里奔跑，在休息的时候聊天。叶琳娜问凯特有尾巴是一种什么样的体验，凯特说她认为她的尾巴从来不听她的话。凯特鼓起勇气问狼人酒吧那次叶琳娜对她做了什么，叶琳娜确实告诉她了信息素的事情，凯特忍不住为信息素的另一个用途而打了个寒战（并不是因为她害怕叶琳娜会这么对她），说，幸好我被你吸引了，要不然我真不知道我会做出什么（尽管森林里光线昏暗，但她确定叶琳娜的吸血鬼眼睛肯定看到了她通红的耳朵）。叶琳娜给凯特讲她在世界各地见到的其他超自然生物，她是如此见识多广，凯特情不自禁地被她迷住了。不是“她是一个邪恶的吸血鬼反派，我必须要阻止她谋害人类的阴谋”那种着迷，而是一种更加柔和更加真诚的、非侵入性的着迷。当她在和叶琳娜练习打架的时候，她着迷地看着叶琳娜伸展的尖牙，猛兽般凶狠的眼睛和流畅的动作，不再感到本能地厌恶，毕竟，她只是另一个超自然生物，就像她自己一样。再说了，很多人会说狼人很可怕。

自从她们在森林见面以来，叶琳娜不再带着人类去凯特工作的酒吧了。凯特喜欢认为她们已经过了敌对阶段了，尽管叶琳娜一点也没有减少出现在酒吧的频率，哦不，她只是点一杯价格过高却从不饮用的酒精，并继续享受挑衅凯特这一行为，但她的语气中少了许多攻击性。

对叶琳娜来说，她的日常进食活动退回了单纯的生意，她付钱给人类，人类给她提供鲜血。一想到尖牙下的凡人不是凯特·毕肖普，叶琳娜就觉得食之无味。当她和凯特打架把她按倒在地上的时候，凯特的气味充盈着她的鼻腔。她好奇凯特·毕肖普尝起来会是什么味道，她是否和她闻起来一样美味。

她们从来不谈论叶琳娜的“饮食安排”。叶琳娜不说，凯特也从来不问（尽管凯特确实好奇）。

在她们开始练习两周后，凯特的能力有了明显的提升。尽管吸血鬼温和地嘲笑过凯特的技能，但凯特是一个狼人。狼人是天生的猎手，叶琳娜很容易就注意到了狼形凯特和人形凯特的不同。人类形态下的凯特是甜美的金毛寻回犬，勇敢、坚定，但狼形的凯特更加……原始，尽管她仍然是那个甜美的凯特，但那头狼却更加凶猛、更加狂野，虽然凯特仍设法保持了练习的本质，一次都没有真正咬伤叶琳娜。叶琳娜望进狼人形态下凯特金色的眼睛里，发现她不由自主地被凯特的两面性给吸引了。

这天晚上，她们照例打作一团，狼人把吸血鬼扑倒在地，让吸血鬼动弹不得。狼人的技术愈发地娴熟，巨大的爪子踩在叶琳娜的压力点上，让她难以反抗。叶琳娜在狼人身下哼了一声，用纯粹的蛮力把狼人甩开了。

没控制好力度，狼人被甩得撞在了附近的一棵树上。

“哦，见鬼。凯特·毕肖普，你没事吧？”叶琳娜用吸血鬼速度站了起来，几乎瞬间出现在了凯特的身边。

已经变回人形的凯特呻吟一声，摸了摸腰侧。两个人都突然愣住了。

肯定是撞到树上的时候擦伤了，凯特的手上闪耀着红色。

叶琳娜感觉自己的尖牙伸展得更长了。

凯特显然也意识到了这一点，抬头看向她。

叶琳娜深深吸了一口气，保持平静。“你还好吗，凯特·毕肖普？”

“我没事，只是一些擦伤。”凯特说，一边站起来，一边继续盯着叶琳娜看。

她接受了叶琳娜伸出来的手。凯特没有在害怕，但她确实担心叶琳娜会失控或者什么的。

“让我看看。”叶琳娜说。

凯特还有点酸痛，她检查自己受伤的一侧，站在原地没有动。她们有人带了任何医疗用品吗？反正凯特没有。她也不认为叶琳娜，一个口袋爱好者，虽然在穿着便服的时候也带着大量奇怪数量的武器的人，是会随身携带针对凡人的医疗用品。

叶琳娜翻了个白眼。“我不咬人。好吧，至少不打算咬你。目前来说。”

看样子今天的练习就到现在为止了。“怎么，你想……以后咬我吗？”凯特一旦确认了没有任何骨折和内伤，就开起了玩笑。

叶琳娜又翻了个白眼，没有屈尊回答凯特。

“让我看看。”她再次要求到。

凯特顺从了。她转过身，让吸血鬼看到她后腰上的伤口。

叶琳娜实际上被凯特没有任何反抗就信任把她流着血的后背暴露在她面前的事实震惊了。

她不知道该为凯特如此信任一个吸血鬼感到不高兴还是该为凯特信任她而感到高兴。她微微苦笑了一下，但很快把注意集中在她造成的凯特的伤口上。

一旦她清理完伤口确认了实际上并不是很糟，她就咬破了自己的手指，然后把自己的血涂在凯特受伤的地方。

凯特因为叶琳娜的触摸而颤栗起来。叶琳娜屏住呼吸，看着破损的皮肤愈合如初。

最后一个伤口被叶琳娜的血治愈，叶琳娜松了一口气。该死的，凯特·毕肖普闻起来真不是一般的美味。

“那是什么？你有魔法手指吗？那是你的另一个吸血鬼超能力吗？”意识到伤口已经愈合了的凯特转过身，开玩笑地说。

“我的血。”叶琳娜解释说，“我不知道你是否还记得，吸血鬼的血有神奇的功能。很显然，它也能治愈伤口。”

“哇哦，”凯特有些惊讶，她肯定是在吸血鬼文化课上打盹了。“它能治愈癌症吗？很难想象它不是大热门……”

某一时刻，凯特意识到了叶琳娜没有回应。

“你还好吗？”凯特问。

叶琳娜回过神来，怀疑地看着凯特。“我把你甩到树上了，你却问我好不好？”

“但现在完全愈合了！”凯特得意扬扬地扭了扭身体，好像在甩一条看不见的尾巴。

叶琳娜挑起一边眉看着凯特。凯特突然意识到自己不是狼形，而是人类的形态。哦老天，叶琳娜绝对看到她企图摇尾巴的样子了。

“不管怎么说，”凯特赶紧转移话题以免遭到叶琳娜的嘲笑，“每次你都会在不高兴的时候做那种事情——”

“我会什么？”叶琳娜突然变得非常防御。

“——不如说没有做任何事情。你就是，完全静止了。像个雕塑一样。我不知道是不是什么吸血鬼能力，我从来没见过凡人能那样一动不动……”凯特滔滔不绝地说。

叶琳娜露出半个坏笑，一边把凯特的衣服捡起来丢在凯特脸上。“凯特·毕肖普，不要因为你做不到一动不动就认为其他凡人做不到。”

“嘿！”凯特叫了起来，被冒犯到了。“不好意思，我可以保持完美的静止！我的尾巴碰巧扫到了别的东西又不是我的事！”

叶琳娜在教凯特在吸血鬼面前潜行的时候凯特的表现没有达到叶琳娜的标准，但凯特的辩护是，狼一向是追捕型选手，她们不是猫科动物。

“上一次我检查的时候，你的尾巴还是属于你的。没有一条活蹦乱跳的尾巴在这里跳舞，不是吗？你在潜行方面太差劲儿了。”叶琳娜温和地嘲笑道，被凯特逗乐了。

“随便啦。”凯特摆摆手，“狼人都是冲动的家伙，这让我们成为了更好的猎手。所以我们是最优秀的追踪者。我们不躲藏。”

叶琳娜转了转眼珠子。“总有一天你会需要低调行事的。你总不想笨手笨脚地搞砸了吧？”

“我在改进！！”凯特抱怨道。

叶琳娜大笑起来，“不，你没有。”

看到凯特撅起嘴，叶琳娜笑得更开心了。

叶琳娜笑声渐渐平静下来，于是凯特决定再试一次。

“你想……谈谈吗？”凯特柔和地说，小心翼翼地挪到叶琳娜身边。

叶琳娜看着凯特小心地、慢慢地靠近，被凯特金毛犬般的友好和好奇震撼到了。她从来没有遇到像凯特·毕肖普一样的人。

吸血鬼——尤其是寡妇们的生活充满了血腥和暴力，群居的吸血鬼则更加残暴，而人类也没有好到哪去。即使心脏仍在跳动的人类也一样残忍，甚至更糟。她见过这么多生物，猎杀过更多的生物，但她从来没有遇到一个真诚的、主动想要靠近她的人。除了娜塔莎还有她的父母外，她从未见过有谁在乎过她。但她们的关心总是让她恼火。大部分她遇到的人想要杀了她。好吧，公平来说，她确实杀了大部分她遇到的人，但是观点仍然成立。

不过同样的话也可以用来形容叶琳娜自己。现在，她在这里，和一个狼人成了朋友，她在乎她，教她如何对付自己的种族。

叶琳娜叹了口气。躺在了草地上。

凯特模仿她的动作，也躺了下来。

一开始，她们谁也没说话，她们在舒适的寂静中看着头顶上的森林。

“有一个女孩，她被转变的时候才19岁。然后她被卖给了毒贩子。这个毒贩子专门卖我们的血。虽然吸血鬼天生强壮，很难被人类抓到，但一旦被银制品困住了，我们就和普通人类一样脆弱。她被困在银锁链里，成了那个人的造钱机器。那女孩一周有时候两周才能进食一次，但一直给那个人提供源源不断的吸血鬼血液。”叶琳娜在长长的沉默后突然说。

“太操蛋了。”凯特小声说。

“那个毒贩子，很显然还为自己拥有一个吸血鬼非常骄傲。只要给了足够的钱，他让他的客人从她身上直接喝血。根本不在乎他的那些混蛋客户如何用银制品伤害她的。”

凯特被人类的残忍给惊呆了。“操，”这是她唯一能说的。

“很明显，人类对杀不死的生物有着病态的迷恋，尽管人类憎恨吸血鬼。”叶琳娜厌恶地说，“他们用银制品割伤她只为享受着看她自愈的样子。”

凯特的肚子不舒服地蠕动着。一股怒火从心底生起。她希望能狠狠伤害做出这种事情的人。她有人能惩罚那个人类。

“当我发现她的时候，她已经晕过去了。我移除了银链，”叶琳娜咬紧牙关，继续她的讲述。“但我不得不让她喝下我的血才让她醒过来。”

“你杀了那个毒贩吗？”凯特轻声问，转头看向叶琳娜。

叶琳娜拒绝回应凯特的目光，她只是微微摇了摇头。“那不是我的决定。我把那个毒贩交给了那个女孩，亚历克斯，那是她的复仇。她当着那个毒贩的面吸干了那个毒贩的所有手下，把那个毒贩留着当血包，追杀每一个曾经伤害她的人类。”

凯特不安地扭动了一下。那是残忍血腥的行径，但那个女孩经历了这么多非人的折磨，凯特觉得她无权说她的复仇太残忍。更何况，凯特现在已经知道了，以牙还牙、一报还一报是吸血鬼的文化。再说了，当她的族类的文化是头狼和挑战头狼的狼人两者之间必有一死的时候，她又有什么资格批评吸血鬼生性残忍呢。

“那你呢，凯特·毕肖普？”叶琳娜突然问，她转过头，深深望进凯特的眼睛里。绿褐色的眼睛遇到了蓝色的，叶琳娜一眨不眨地看着她，“如果是你，你会怎么做？”

“我、我——”凯特结结巴巴地停下了。她从来不喜欢这类事情的粉丝，所以她从未加入任何一个狼群。她母亲杀人、和黑帮合作，所以她选择了把她母亲交给警察。但警察奈何不了金并，她也不认为人类当权会在乎吸血鬼的权利。见鬼，凯特知道旨在推动吸血鬼权益保障的法案在大多数地方都没有通过（不像其他超自然生物，吸血鬼基本上是死去的人，所以吸血鬼权利是美国最具争议的议题之一）。她会为了保护人类猎杀吸血鬼或者其他超自然生物。她甚至可能在圣诞节的时候已经杀了几个运动服黑帮。但是，在这种情况下，她真的不知道她该怎么做。她不觉得对着那人的脑袋一枪能平息她的愤怒。

“我会把他当做靶子一样射箭，”凯特说，“直到他像刺猬一样浑身是箭。”

叶琳娜悲伤地笑了起来。

“不，凯特·毕肖普，你不会的，”叶琳娜说，“你不是这样的人。”

凯特不知道说什么好。叶琳娜也失去了再次开口的兴趣，两人静静地躺在草地上，在彼此的沉默中思考着。

不知过了多久，叶琳娜站了起来。凯特惊讶地坐起来看向叶琳娜。“你要走了？”

“不。”叶琳娜开口。“够多沉思了，凯特·毕肖普，你还打算和我一起练习吗？”

凯特咧嘴一笑，站起来化作狼形。

Notes:

她们越走越近了！！！（咬住小被几抑制住兴奋的尖叫.jpg）

上周在狼人酒吧的糟糕经历让凯特情绪低落，因为她讨厌失去控制，也讨厌在酒吧里看到的一切，更讨厌叶琳娜让她非常困惑。所以她去了森林，享受在平静的森林的夜晚自由奔跑的快乐。

……然而她的平静夜晚注定要被叶琳娜打断。

“凯特·毕肖普。”一个俄罗斯口音在荒无人烟的森林中响起。

凯特想都没想就把手中的水瓶砸了过去，尽管她已经闻到了熟悉的气味。

“嗨——！”穿着黄黑色格子大衣的叶琳娜唱歌般地说道。

凯特转过身来面对她。

“你想要什么，叶琳娜？”凯特问。

“放松，凯特·毕肖普。我只是想和你谈谈，好吗？”

“上一次我想跟你谈的时候你在我肋骨上踢了一脚，”凯特抱怨道，“那真的很疼。”

“啊，没错，好吧，被巨型狼人撞倒在地也是一样。”叶琳娜的眼睛亮了起来，“哦，不过那招真不错。特别有效，不是吗？你的背摔也挺厉害。”

“谢、谢谢。”叶琳娜所说的凯特的巡回金毛犬内心膨胀起来，然后她记起叶琳娜是个讨人厌的碍事吸血鬼，“别让我喜欢你了！”

“抱歉，我就是忍不住。那真的很有趣。”叶琳娜毫不抱歉地耸了耸肩。

凯特忍不住露出一个笑容。她从来没有什么和其他吸血鬼打交道的经历（至少不是通过语言），不过她发现叶琳娜很有魅力。

叶琳娜停下笑容，意有所指地看了她一眼，“你打算穿上点衣服吗？这不是那种谈话。”

凯特为叶琳娜话里的暗示感到脸色发红，来不及细想她为什么这么做，她只是说，“当然，我又不是什么怪物。”她找到附近丢弃的衣服穿好，懒洋洋地坐在叶琳娜附近的一块草地上（她不知道吸血鬼习惯的社交距离是多少，所以她选了一个中立的地方）。

“我是一个黑寡妇。娜塔莎·罗曼诺夫是我的姐姐。自从我和她毁掉了红房间后，我们一直在寻找流落各地的红房间技术并销毁它们。”叶琳娜开门见山地说。

凯特被这巨大的信息量打了个措手不及。“你……什么？”

娜塔莎·罗曼诺夫是凯特小时候的偶像（除了鹰眼之外）。她凭一己之力逃出并毁掉了剥削小女孩们的准军事犯罪组织、公开了红房间所有的相关文件，确保了再也没有类似的事情发生。始作俑者德雷科夫在落网前失踪直到今日，被推测已死亡。但所有公开的资料里都没有提到寡妇们是吸血鬼、推翻红房间的人还有另一个。

“你真的是那个黑寡妇的妹妹？天哪，我差点要杀了你！”凯特不可置信地说。

“你，杀我？”叶琳娜大笑起来，她的笑声惊动了寂静的森林。“你真搞笑。我是不死的。”

“吸血鬼可以被杀死的。”凯特实事求是地说。

“那是真的。但不是像你和我打架那样。如果你打算惹金并的话，你会需要学习怎么猎杀吸血鬼。”

“你怎么知道金并？”凯特警惕起来，但接着想起来，“你很了解我。”

与此同时叶琳娜说，“我很了解你，记得吗？”

“那么，关于金并，你知道些什么？”凯特问。

叶琳娜仔细打量着凯特。“有证据表明金并手中有一些红房间的技术和联系人。这就是为什么我会去调查那个女巫集会和狼人酒吧。看样子我们的案子混在一起了。”

“叶琳娜，这是你说我们应该合作的意思吗？”凯特笑得很开心。

叶琳娜站起来，居高临下地看着草地上的狼人。

“不。我一个人工作。和娜塔莎。”叶琳娜平静地说，不等凯特说些什么，叶琳娜露出半个微笑继续说道，“但是我不能看着我最喜欢的狼人把自己弄死了，所以，凯特，我要教你怎么和吸血鬼打架。嗯，以及如何猎杀吸血鬼。”

凯特尽量不要因为叶琳娜说她是她最喜欢的狼人而脸红，“所以没有‘远离这些，凯特·毕肖普’了？”

“那是对我口音的拙劣模仿，”叶琳娜抱怨道。“我确实告诉过你远离这些，不是吗？可是你是这么固执，阻止你就像尝试阻止龙卷风一样。你真是个讨厌鬼。”

“谢谢！”凯特兴高采烈地说。

“那不是夸奖。”叶琳娜干巴巴地回答。

“可是你还是愿意教我如何打架。”凯特骄傲地说。

“那是因为我需要你暂时不要和那些女巫和狼人交手。”叶琳娜解释，“我需要找出她们背后的所有势力，这样才能完全消灭红房间的残余势力。与此同时，她们的能力可能会越来越大，攻击人类似乎是不可避免的。你能做到吗，凯特·毕肖普？”

凯特盯着叶琳娜看了一会儿然后说，“那如果为了你而延误让人类遭到袭击了怎么办？”

“不相信自己有能力保护人类吗，凯特·毕肖普？”

凯特被激怒了。“我当然可以做到。我只是没那么信任你。”

“我愿意教你如何猎杀我的同类，凯特·毕肖普，”叶琳娜皱起鼻子，“这大概是一个种族对另一个种族终极友好的象征了。”

这……有理有据，凯特无法反驳。

“好吧，就这么定了，”凯特站起来，伸出手准备和叶琳娜握手。

叶琳娜好奇地盯着她伸到半空中的手，没有动弹。“那是什么？”

“握手为定！”凯特惊叫出声，被叶琳娜不知道握手意义的事实给惊呆了。

“吸血鬼没有这种东西。”叶琳娜若有所思地说，“我们被我们的行为所定义，而不是一些奇怪的人类仪式。”

凯特盯着叶琳娜看了一会儿。“你基本上为血给人类付钱，而不是直接杀了她们，你甚至还带她们吃晚餐，这就是仪式。”

“那是资本主义。”叶琳娜扬起眉毛，“你觉得只有人类社会才有金钱交易吗？有点种族主义不是吗？”

凯特的脸红了，不知道该怎么回答。叶琳娜看了她一眼，决定放她一马。“不管如何，吸血鬼文化确实和凡人的文化不一样。现在，告诉我，凯特·毕肖普，你知道杀死吸血鬼的方式吗？”

凯特思考了一下。“木桩穿心，斩首，火，还有阳光？”

叶琳娜点了点头。

“我看到了你的武器选择，”她朝凯特放在一边的弓箭示意，“非常不实用，但是我猜你有银质箭头吧？”

“嘿！我要让你知道弓箭非常实用。”凯特被冒犯到了，“不过我有银箭头，木芯箭。我在女巫会后装备的。不是针对你个人。”

叶琳娜耸了耸肩。“弓箭很占地方。不利于隐蔽。而且箭头的消耗速度太快了。完全没有枪支那么实用。”

“太吵了，”凯特抱怨道。“而且我有我的特殊箭！它们比子弹好用多了！”

叶琳娜哼了一声。“我们保持不同意见吧。你有哪些特殊箭？”

“让我看看，我有油灰箭，网箭，酸箭，冰箭，声波箭，电磁箭，爆炸箭，麻醉针箭……”

“你需要胶质银，装在你的那些小箭头上。”叶琳娜实事求是地说，“你的大部分箭头对吸血鬼都没什么用。即使能让吸血鬼受伤，我们也能迅速恢复。但是胶质银能对吸血鬼们造成巨大痛苦。能发射紫外线的箭头也会很好用。在晚上相当好用，特别是当你你没有火的时候。”

“声波箭应该也会有效，”叶琳娜看着凯特的箭想了想，补充道，“吸血鬼耳朵非常敏感。这可会让我们有够受的。”

“好吧。”凯特说，“白天第一件事，做新的箭头。”

“当你的小箭头用完的时候，我猜你会变形和别人打架？”叶琳娜把手中的箭递还给凯特。

“没错。”凯特努力不要骄傲地翘起尾巴（她失败了）。

“那就变形吧，小狼，让我看看你是怎么对付吸血鬼的。”叶琳娜说。

于是凯特听话地变身了。

“好女孩。”叶琳娜说。

这句话对凯特产生了意想不到的效果。她忍不住发出一声呜咽，并祈祷吸血鬼并不像读懂人类形态一样容易读懂她。

叶琳娜笑了。

她揉了揉大黑狼的耳朵，“你喜欢，不是吗？”

狼人发出了一声很容易被识别为沮丧的声音。

“来吧，小狼。别害羞了，攻击我，”叶琳娜说，“我保证会下手轻点的。”

狼人发出一声低吼并扑向了吸血鬼。吸血鬼熟练地绕开狼嘴，用胳膊圈住了狼人的脖颈，嘴巴贴在狼人的耳边。

“你死定了，小狼，”叶琳娜说，“你瞄准我的喉咙没错，但同时你也暴露了你的。”

狼人发出一声咆哮，把吸血鬼从肩膀上甩下来，然后再次试图扑倒对方。

叶琳娜被撞倒在地，但她很快用强壮双腿夹住了狼人的腰。“记住，狼人的腰部很脆弱。如果不能快速消灭对手的话，千万不要让你的腰暴露在吸血鬼的攻击范围内。”

叶琳娜轻松地把两人的位置颠倒过来，骑在狼人身上。她吃吃笑起来。“我想我更喜欢你的狼人形态。你平时是那么多话，”

叶琳娜身下的狼人生气地哼了一声，她打了滚把叶琳娜摔到一边，然后又一次向吸血鬼发起了攻击。

她们互相挑战对方，直到下半夜。

“这很有趣，”叶琳娜又一次松开对狼人脆弱脖颈的抓握，优雅地站起来，“不过快要日出了。”

凯特恢复了她的人类形态，气喘吁吁，不禁有点嫉妒起吸血鬼毫不疲惫的样子。

“穿件衣服吧，小狼，”叶琳娜笑嘻嘻地说。

凯特傲慢地哼了一声，挺起胸膛。“我们狼人也有自己的文化，看我在不在乎。”她说着，把水从水瓶里往头上倒，心知叶琳娜在打量她。

“好吧，我想我可以了解更多。”吸血鬼感兴趣地说，声音里没有一丝评判的意味。“我们明天同一时间在这里见？”

“哦！当然。”凯特有些惊讶地说，然后看着叶琳娜像往常一样突然消失在森林里。

凯特今天对叶琳娜的了解比以前多了一些，但她猜有些事情还是不会变的：她总是随心所欲地出现，然后突然离开。

Notes:

叶琳娜没有告诉凯特所有的事情！
她也没有打算接受帮助，但她肯定是做出了改变XD
（说，谢谢你娜塔莎——）

Yelena has been investigating Valentina for a while. After observing her for a week, she manages to infiltrate Valentina’s social circle under a fake name, admiring the various gadgets the wealthy ancient vampire is keen to display. Most of them are artifacts, arts, and secret weapons, which she had purchased, stolen, and plundered during her immortal life. Valentina is a show-off who doesn’t hesitate to display her vast collection to anyone who constantly compliments her, so Yelena quickly identifies all of Valentina’s Red Room goods. The only problem is that she can’t bypass that amount of werewolf bodyguards. Valentina’s manor is heavily guarded by her wolves, and there are wolves patrol outside 24/7. Uninvited vampires can be sniffed out from a mile away.

She doesn’t know why a vampire can have so many loyal werewolf minions, so she continues her observation until she follows her to the werewolf bar. She hides in the shadows and sees all Valentina’s supply activities. That’s when she senses an obnoxiously delicious smell of a familiar werewolf. Kate Bishop.

She never knows werewolves could be so annoying. With the exception of these blood-addicted wolves in front of her, almost all werewolves never interact with vampires. Although Yelena is not biased, there is a reason why vampires don’t like werewolves in general. Werewolves smell more like dogs than humans. Yelena doesn’t mind though. She likes dogs. Although vampires can’t really have dogs (because she doesn’t really get a chance to walk them every day with her schedule and she clearly can’t invite dog walkers into her home), she always rescues lost puppies. She would take them home and play with them for a while before she has to send them to a shelter. Natasha teases her a lot about it, so she revengefully names every puppy she rescues Fanny.

But Kate Bishop is a special kind of puppy. For one, she doesn’t smell like any other werewolf. She smells more like a human, with a freshness that Yelena could only describe as the smell of a forest. Second… She’s literally a puppy that has a strong sense of justice. She understands, that in another life, she might also have a sense of justice when she sees a vampire treating a human like a glorified blood bag. She admired the werewolf’s unflinching interaction with a vampire, so despite Kate’s obnoxious interruption to her feeding, she didn’t harm Kate at all. If it were anyone else, she would have broken their neck instead. But she also knew that the pursuit of justice was a rare thing. Valar Morghulis, immortals also will die, or worse, with so much power but feel so weak.

When she was three, her mother told her she could be anything she wanted to be. She had her loving parents, and a strong, brave sister. There’s nothing she couldn’t do. She thought she was the most capable person in the world. By the time she was six, her dreams were over. Her family was fake, and her life was a mission. She was violently dragged away from Natasha and was sold to the Red Room. Since that, there’s only endless training and forced V-abusing left. The year of her graduation, she was honorably killed and reborn as a vampire. She was the best child assassin. Then the best widow vampire.

Years later, she heard that Natasha had escaped. But she didn’t stop Dreykov. Not really. Dreykov was forced to go off-grid, while he used dark magic to control all the widows to make sure it never happened again. Eight years later, she was freed from the magical red dust, but at the cost of watching herself killed her savior.

She didn’t know what to do. The vulnerable feeling of being pulled away from her sister came back. So all she could do was send the old photos and the antidote to the nearest safe house of Natasha she could find.

Eventually, Natasha came back for her. The whole mission was filled with pain, relief and doubt, and even now she sometimes still would doubt that Natasha will leave her again.

Natasha made a terrible vampire joke, saying that she would never let Yelena go again until the day she met her true death. For Lilith’s sake, Natasha is so good at making Yelena roll her eyes.

As unbelievable as reconnecting with Natasha is the amount of Red Room assets. In addition to widows all over the world, there are countless secret black magic weapons and so many Red Room contacts.

Their mission is to free the widows and remove all of Dreykov’s legacy. Someone has to. After all this happened to her, Yelena wouldn’t trust anything like this to stay in the world.

After they destroyed the Red Room for good, Yelena and Natasha got separated. While She locates and liberates other widows, Natasha travels across the world, building safe houses and investigating Red Room contacts. Natasha is the perfect investigator, she is so good at getting information from unwilling people with or without vampire powers (a little too good at it, Yelena admits, and sometimes it’s very annoying). They meet, catch up, annoy each other, and sometimes work together to destroy bad guys in between missions. She does not feel any sense of justice. Not like Kate Bishop does. Just things have to be done. She’s still killing people. Plus, she’s a vampire. She feeds on humans.

But Kate Bishop is different. Yelena knows her from her few encounters with her. She can see that Kate is an innocent wolfie, believing in justice. She has this passion to save humanity. She literally put her own mother behind bars. While Yelena’s notorious mother is studying pigs on a farm in the middle of nowhere, her father spent more than 20 years in prison before breaking out of it with Yelena and Natasha’s help. And despite all the weapons options, Kate Bishop chooses a bow and arrows. Very impractical. They are two people from different worlds (literally and metaphorically) . Nevertheless, Yelena finds herself couldn’t help but be stupidly attracted to this Kate Bishop.

Kate’s stupid naivety and the sense of justice made part of her want to cry. The other part of her wants to wipe the arrogance and optimism off her face every time Kate interrupts her.

That’s why she’s always deliberately taking humans to the bar where Kate works. Sometimes she’s not even that hungry. She really enjoys getting under Kate’s skin. To be honest, playing with food was not her cup of tea. It’s more like Natasha’s thing, but she just can’t help with it. She just loves to see Kate blush at the innuendo flirtations and retort wittily without hesitation. She enjoys flirting back and forth, and feeding got more fun. In the past, Yelena paid a human, and the human offered their blood, it’s a strict business relationship, very formulaic. However, after meeting Kate, she would take humans out, and yes, the emotional connection with a human does make a human taste better. And she really enjoys the righteous look that Kate shoots at her every time. She wants Kate to know that humans don’t need her to rescue them. Besides, Kate is gorgeous. Elena doesn’t mind being stared at by a good-looking werewolf like her.

But then Kate kept irritating her. She began to meddle in Yelena’s missions, and not only to save humans in distress. Yelena didn’t know what werewolves do to spend their time, but can’t Kate Bishop chase a squirrel or something? So she did what she does best: investigate Kate Bishop. She discovered that Kate’s mother had a business relationship with Kingpin, which was why Kate Bishop turned Eleanor Bishop over to the police. Kate Bishop’s investigation into the coven could be because of Kingpin. This was a direction that Yelena had not thought of. She still had not found out who had provided that bunch of clown witches with such advanced witchcraft, but it might be a good breakthrough point. She looked at the long list of evidence of Kingpin’s crimes, thinking that sooner or later, Kate Bishop would get herself killed.

Kate Bishop will get herself killed sooner or later. Yelena watches the crazy behavior of other werewolves in the bar, thinking. Even she feels the wild energy in the air.

Yelena sighs and drags Kate out of the bar.

“I told you to stay out of this, Kate Bishop,” Yelena says, holding Kate up to the brick wall. She’s not sure how much it affected Kate, and she won’t take any risk. “I see you’re in my way, again.”

Kate begins to fight her crazily. She’s never seen Kate this out of control. Their quarrels were always semi-friendly, even when they first met, Kate didn’t really show this much aggression. Kate’s eyes now are golden, pupils dilating. She struggled fiercely, baring her teeth in a low, threatening voice.

Yelena tries using pheromones. In general, she doesn’t like to use pheromones. Pheromones are only effective when she’s feeding on someone or when someone is attracted to her, and she doesn’t like to take advantage of people. Not anymore. Old Yelena who was under control would do whatever it takes to achieve the goal, nowadays, Yelena does not want to do it, not at all.

Kate calms down under Yelena’s pheromones. Of course it worked… Yelena sighs in her mind. She certainly noticed Kate’s attraction to her, but she never intended to use pheromones in such a situation.

Kate’s eyes have returned to their original bright blue. She never planned to hurt Kate, so she put a calmer Kate down. She should have known Kate would connect the dots. Kate was naive, but not stupid. She didn’t want to encourage Kate’s investigation, so she just lets Kate go completely and leave.

Then Kate asks her out for a drink in the middle of a fight. Looking up into Kate’s expecting eyes, she wonders if she does this every time. Does she ask her opponent out for a drink during every fight? What is she thinking in that pretty little head?

Although she does not want to encourage Kate’s dangerous behavior furthermore, she cannot resist flirting with Kate before leaving. She just couldn’t help it. And she blames Natasha for this. Natasha is such a bad influence on her!

After getting rid of Kate, Yelena decides to see Natasha. Valentina’s werewolves army is very disturbing, and she needs to let Natasha know.

Turns out Natasha is in a safe house in another state. Yelena blows their secret whistle at the door. Natasha responds with her whistle before opening the door.

Natasha pulls Yelena into a hug. She raises an eyebrow at her scent after pulling away.

“Have you found any stray dogs lately?” Natasha teases gently.

Yelena rolls her eyes. She swears Natasha is the most annoying sister ever. “Just a clingy golden retriever.”

Yelena rolls her eyes again at the thought of the relentless Kate Bishop.

Natasha raises her eyebrow again. Her little sister looks extra grumpy today.

“What do you know about werewolves?” Yelena asks.

Yelena is busy releasing widows. Social with other species is not her priority. Also, werewolves are a relatively isolated group, she does not know very much about wolves beside the basics.

“Here,” Natasha said, taking a blood bag from the fridge and throwing it at her, “take this, grumpy face. Well, most werewolves are nothing like Alexei.”

At the mention of their name sake father, Yelena rolls her eyes again. Alexei is a werewolf but genetically modified. He’s nowhere as pretty as Kate Bishop in his wolf form, more like professor Lupin in the Harry Potter movie (Natasha forced her to watch the entire series, and Yelena kept criticizing inaccurate depictions of magic and supernatural creatures while watching), but stronger and bigger, and he doesn’t lose his mind. Alexei is noisy, his powers come mainly from his big words, and he doesn’t have a pack. But as far as she knows, Kate Bishop doesn’t belong to any pack as well.

“They are loyal to the pack and would never betray the pack. Traditionally, the alpha wolf is a female. But recently I’ve heard some packs popping up that are almost exclusively white males, and you know, most of these guys are lone wolves that have been kicked out of the pack for misbehaving, which are pretty nasty.”

That would explain what happened at the werewolf bar. Yelena surely noticed more than 90% of those werewolves in that bar are white men.

Yelena frowns. “I think I’ve met one and, worse, they’re addicted to vampire blood and Valentina is supplying them.”

“Oh dear Lilith.” Natasha takes a sip of her drink. “That’s dangerous, Yelena. You know how strong mortals can get when they’re on V, not to mention a whole pack of them.”

She knows. A healthy werewolf may not be as fast as a vampire, but it’s enough to kill an inexperienced vampire (not enough to handle a widow though). Werewolves on V are extremely threatening, not to mention that they follow an equally crazy alpha wolf.

“I’ll be careful. Your information is correct. Valentina has several black magic books from the Red Room. She may or may not have mentioned a giant mob boss in New York. I need to gather more information and destroy them. Someone like Valentina cannot have those.”

“Okay, but I think you need some help, you can take Sonia or Ana with you,” Natasha pauses, then adds carefully, “I can help.”

“No,” her reply comes sharper than she has expected, looking at Natasha’s raised eyebrow she adds with a sigh, “Sonia and Anna have their own lives now, and Ana has such a lovely family. It’s not their mission, not by choice.”

Natasha sighs. “You know that asking for help isn’t a weakness, right? You can always ask me for help.”

“You are helping,” Yelena retorts, “I want you to stay here and put more pressure on that contact of yours. If she can get me access to Valentina’s close circle, she must know a lot about Valentina’s connections. More than she tells. I need more information. I’m going to destroy all of Valentina’s criminal connections.”

Yelena takes a sip of her drink. Ugh, it doesn’t taste very well. She’s got picky, there is nothing better than feeding directly on the living. She wonders what Kate Bishop, who smells fantastic, would taste like. “Besides, if you come with me, Lilith knows how long will it takes, what about your red hair witch? You’re gonna leave her like that?”

It’s Natasha’s turn to roll her eyes. “We’ve only been on a few dates… you’re such a little shit,” Wanda, the witch they met when they destroyed a black magic book from the Red Room last time. Turns out she’s not a villain, she’s just tempted by dark magic.

Yelena chuckles. Ever since she found out that her big sister is dating the scarlet witch, she was destined to tease Natasha with it forever. Otherwise, what’s the fun of having a sister?

“But seriously tho,” Natasha says. “You can always count on me for your backup. Those werewolves are very tricky.”

“You don’t say,” Yelena murmurs, thinking of a particular black wolf.

“Call me, or whatever help you need, before things get worse, okay? It’s not a bad thing to ask for help,” Natasha says, placing her hand on her shoulder.

“Of course. You always are my hero,” Yelena says calmly, without a trace of irony in her voice. Not anymore.

“Oh, and I need some new antidotes. I’m almost out. Then we can watch whatever shitty movie you want to watch!” Yelena puts down her drink and shouts excitedly.

“In the safe,” Natasha replies, yelling as Yelena walks toward the safe. “You could always have asked mom for the antidotes, you know!”

Yelena yells back as she comes back, “Why bother her when I can annoy you to death?”

“You’re the shittest sister ever,” Natasha says, laughing as she bites into her straw. Her little sister is a brat but she loves her so much that her heart aches anyway.