FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Days turn to nights, turn to weeks

Turn to paper, into rocks, into plastic

My material heart, how it keeps us apart

(Röyksopp + Lykke Li)

---

I groggily exited elevator and made my unsteady way down the hallway, fumbling in my pockets for the key to my apartment. It had been a hell and a half of a day, and I desperately needed a hot meal, a hot shower, and a warm bed. The mere thought of my warm, fluffy down comforter made me practically salivate. I wasn't entirely certain drooling was the appropriate response to the thought of beds and sleep, but was too exhausted to fret too much about that.

My apartment was the last door on the left, just around the corner. But when I turned the bend, I found Ciaran standing there, blocking the door. The mink's arms were folded across his chest, his face clouded.

"Hi, Ciaran, what's going--"

But before I could finish my sentence, Ciaran pressed the front section of the newspaper into my chest.

"Read the headline," he snapped. "I thought you said you were working on the situation,"

I glanced at the paper. An image of the wreckage of something completely unrecognizable took up much of the page, with the headline reading simply 'DEVASTATION' splashed across the top.

"Town... wiped off the map... completely gone..." I muttered aloud, skimming the content of the article below the shocking photo.

"It was her," Ciaran stated simply. "It had to have been. Warren, what the fuck have you been doing? I thought you said you were going to fix this. I thought you said you wouldn't let this happen. I thought..."

All of a sudden, Ciaran was a sobbing wreck slumped in my doorstep. Shit. Just what I needed. I was fairly certain my neighbors already considered me some sort of raving lunatic; this would just provide more evidence.

Shushing him gently and hoping that the apartment building didn't have some sort of regulatory body that could evict me at the drop of a hat, I ushered him through my door and into my cluttered kitchen, dropping the paper into the recycling bin on the way after him.

"I know you're angry and frustrated," I said softly, sitting him down at the island. "And you have every right to be. None of this is right. None of it. And Peter and I are working our tails off trying to figure out how to get everything set aright again. We're making progress, but we aren't there yet. I know that doesn't feel like enough to you, and it isn't, but we're giving it everything we have. I promise you, we're giving this our all,"

Was I supposed to make him hot chocolate, or a stiff drink, or something?

Ciaran's eyes glistened with tears. "I'm just afraid we'll lose her. From that headline, I think we might have already lost her,"

"We know who has her," I assured him. "Or we're pretty damn sure we do. Now we just need to find where they've got her holed up,"

Ciaran nodded shakily, but I knew that he didn't wholly believe me. We sat there for a moment, the mink's occasional sniffles the only sound between the two of us.

As if on cue, my mobile went off. Guillam.

"Please tell me you have news," I groaned once I answered.

"Warren," Guillam sounded breathless. "I think I may have a lock on Tabitha's location,"

"No. Wait, what?"

In an instant, I was in full alert. Since Ciaran had shown up at my doorway, I'd slowly, regretfully been letting the fantasy of a nice meal and some good sleep slip through my fingers. Now I released it entirely.

"Yeah. After all that Broken Arrow stuff, I took a look through another section's files on that organization and the new cell they've been worrying about around here. On a hunch, you know,"

"Of course," I nodded somewhat unnecessarily.

"Well. All the intelligence seemed to be pointing to part of the northern end of the Tacoma Range. So I pulled up some sat photos of the region. And guess what I found?" he baited.

"What did you find?" I rolled my eyes.

"A motherfucking compound. Or something. 'Compound' seems the most accurate descriptor for the thing,"

"Let's not waste time arguing semantics," I said. "What is it?"

"Well, I couldn't find any building permits or anything of the like for the area. Not that there should be--it's on Reserve land. Shouldn't be anything there but idyllic alpine meadows and that kind of shit,"

"So there's our place. What the fuck are we waiting for?"

"I'm already outside your place,"

"You're really creepy, you know that, right?" I shook my head. "On my way down. Give me 30 seconds,"

Ciaran followed after me as I hurried for the front door, pulling on a coat as I went. I glanced over my shoulder at him.

"Sorry, Ciaran, but you can't come along," I said breathlessly. "I wouldn't want you to get hurt if things go south,"

"I need to come with you!" the mink snapped in reply. "She's everything to me. I can help, I swear,"

"Sorry, no can do,"

"You took me along with you last time we were springing Tab from the clutches of some crazy person! Why is _this_any different?"

A million reasons. Now we're up against a fucking terrorist cell. Now she's definitely done bad things, and we don't know what her... status will be. The last thing I wanted was to deal with a potentially deranged giantess while simultaneously keeping her grief-stricken boyfriend from doing anything stupid.

Yet against my better judgment, I found myself pursing my lips and nodding slightly.

"Fine," I relented. "But you are to do everything I tell you and nothing otherwise,"

I took Ciaran's hastened pace for an agreement and hurried out the front door of the apartment building. Guillam had better have brought coffee, because fuck only knew I needed a gallon of the stuff at the moment.

*****

I lay on my side in the hangar room, curled into a ball with my arms around my legs. All I could do was shiver slightly, staring at the blank wall. My eyes swam with tears. Why was I crying? I'd done what I was supposed to do. Hell, I'd done a good job, at least if my benefactors could be believed.

My body was still stained with traces of blood. I'd managed to get the worst off the soles of my feet, sitting on the banks of a small lake and scrubbing vigorously, but the other stains persisted, trophies of my earlier conquest.

If I was doing what I was supposed to do, what I was meant to do, why did I feel so bad? The whole time, it felt like I'd been watching myself through a foggy glass. I'd been separate from myself somehow. It didn't feel right.

All I could think about was Ciaran. My mind fixated on him, worrying about him, almost dreading what he would say or think if he heard what I had done. He was too gentle. The world wasn't a good place; he wouldn't survive it like that.

I would keep him safe. When I was ordered to lay waste to Saaduuts--for that was an inevitability of which I was sure; maybe not soon, but sometime--I would find him. I would protect him. He would be mine, and I would keep him and hold onto him and make sure he didn't get hurt. That gave me some comfort, if 'comfort' still left you feeling a little hollow inside.

My hands trembled and I felt another wave of nausea pass through me. No, Ciaran wasn't any different from the rest of the insectile masses I would grind under my heel. He wouldn't get any special treatment. My overseers wouldn't take kindly to that in the least. Or was he bad? I was so confused and scared. I wasn't supposed to think about it. It was easy to smash and destroy. But that all got more muddled once you made the mistake of thinking about it at all.

I flinched as the double doors at the end of the hangar swung open. Two people stepped in, accompanied by a swirl of cold air. They hurried towards me, signaling to a pair of their comrades who followed to open the large doors on the opposite end of the hangar. I curled up, trying to make myself as small as possible because I knew what was going to come next.

"You are needed. Go out to the main courtyard," snapped one of the people in an authoritative manner.

Unfolding myself slowly, I stretched before making to slip through the opened doors. I tried to blink away my tears, hardening my resolve. No more moping, no more second-guessing, no more thinking about it. I couldn't afford that. I had a job to do, a duty to help see through the vision of my benefactors.

Stretching out in a standing position outside the hangar, I shivered in the surprisingly biting chill. It was pitch black. I watched various people hurrying about my ankles, heading in various directions as they bustled about to other parts of the compound. Before too long, I was alone. I knew from experience that wouldn't last too long. What on earth did they want with me now?

*****

I'd missed the last bus from hospital to my apartment. They stopped early on Sundays, for whatever reason. Apparently, people didn't need to go anywhere after 9 o'clock on that day.

So I walked. Coat collar turned up against the gathering cold and pitch black, I shuffled down the street past vagabonds and teenagers trying to bum a drink or a smoke off passers-by.

It started to sprinkle lightly, small, cold drops dampening my shoulders and the top of my head. I hastened my pace, not wanting to be caught out in the storm when and if it picked up a notch or two.

Too late. Moments later, the skies opened. So much for the snow they'd been promising on the evening news I'd seen close-captioned on the television across the hall from Reynard's room. I supposed that was what I got for actually believing the weatherman.

While my long coat was passably warm enough, it certainly didn't offer all that much protection against the rain. The invading damp just made me feel even more alone.

I glanced to my left and saw that I was passing the luxurious main entrance of the Bodley Building. Didn't Andy live there?

Stepping under the cover of the awning, I pored through the directory, ignoring the sidelong glances from the porter. My eyes fell on Andy's name. Did I really want this? My hand hovered over the intercom button as I leaned against the panel. Was this the right thing to do, the thing that I really wanted?

"Yes?" Andy's tin can voice crackled out of the speaker as I buzzed him.

"Andy? I need you," I said, forehead pressed against the cold metal of the intercom box.

"Need me? Ha. Maybe you should have thought about whatever you needed from me back before you decided to waste my time earlier today," came the jackal-god's response, gruff and dismissive.

"No, I... need you," I replied urgently.

Andy's tone turned on a dime. "Oh, really? Well... tell Jeeves in the elevator that you're a guest of mine and he'll let you up,"

"That's his name?" I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure. Sorta assumed that's what all butler types were called. Some sort of title or whatever,"

Ringing off, I pushed through the revolving doors and crossed the marble-tiled foyer. The Jeeves in the elevator wrinkled his nose a little at my bedraggled appearance (apparently the tenants of the apartment just didn't get wet), but obliged my request to allow me up to the penthouse level.

Andy wasn't wearing anything when he answered the door. I supposed I shouldn't have been all that surprised; now that I thought about it, I think I'd spent more time around him when he was nude than clothed. Seemed a little ironic given his choice of profession, but there you had it. Life is crazy.

"I just didn't get dressed after seeing you last," the jackal grinned mischievously.

"I didn't want to be alone," I murmured softly as Andy drew closer to me, his fingers pulling my coat and unthreading my scarf from around my throat.

"Of course," Andy replied, planting a kiss on my lips as he started to unbutton my shirt. "You don't have to be. I'm right here,"

Andy drew me farther into his apartment, undressing me efficiently as he went. His lips caressed my neck and collar, sending a shiver down my back.

"Last time I was here, I was only a couple of inches tall, as I recall," I commented as we reached the end of the hallway leading to the bedroom.

"That could be arranged," Andy rumbled in reply, a crooked grin on his lips.

"Nonono!" I hastily replied. "No need for that,"

"Pity," Andy said, pushing me onto the bed.

The jackal clambered on top of me, kissing me as I stroked his side. It felt good to be with someone, close to someone, for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. I closed my eyes, exhaling gently as he pressed against me. I felt happy. It all felt so good.

*****

"We have absolutely no plan for this mission, do we," Guillam stated matter-of-factly, staring ahead through the dark at the poorly maintained rural road down which he piloted the car.

"Technically it isn't a mission, strictly speaking," I corrected, unwilling to acknowledge his statement. We really were shooting in the dark. Quite literally, perhaps, if and when things went south.

"We know what the compound looks like, right?" I asked, hoping that Guillam had brought a map or something to work from.

"Glove box," the cross fox jerked his head in its general direction.

I pulled out a folded piece of paper, inspecting the topographical map and trying to come up with any sense of a plan.

"Still not sure why he's coming along," Guillam's head jerked again, this time in the direction of the back seat.

"His name is Ciaran," I reminded Guillam calmly but firmly. "And he's got a pretty big stake in the whole thing. He's been helpful before, so I don't see how it can hurt us any. We're flying by the seats of our pants as it is,"

"That's exactly why we don't need him," Guillam replied, an edge entering his tone. "We don't need any collateral,"

"He'll be fine," I insisted gently. "He can fend for himself when it's needed, I assure you,"

Guillam was as nervous as me. He only ever got snappy with me if he was really anxious. Well, either that or super horny. I definitely preferred the former, especially when there was "company" around.

"So, how are we going to do this?" Guillam persisted. He really wasn't going to let this whole 'not-flying-by-the seat-of-our-pants' thing drop, was he?

I grimaced silently in reply, staring through the windshield and willing the darkness to furnish me with an answer.

Snow began to fall softly in great, wet flakes. By that point we were high enough in elevation for it to stick, gradually carpeting the asphalt in an irregular smattering of puffy white. Despite the unusually cold winter we were having, Saaduuts had yet to see any snow. That was probably a good thing, I mused idly. Saaduuts drivers are terrible enough in the best of conditions; an inch or snow of powder would be sure to bring about a city-wide state of emergency. It would probably be a blizzard rather than a gigantic rampaging person that finally brought that city crashing to its knees. What a way to go.

A jarring thunk shook me out of my snow-centric reverie. We had turned off the main road and were now bumping our way down a rutted gravel logging road. Or at least I supposed it was a logging road. To be perfectly honest, I was probably being far too kind in calling it a road. The beam of the headlights cast a feeble light a few feet in front of the car, illuminating scraggly trees and the ever-thickening snowfall.

"Please don't drive us off a cliff or something," I said flatly, prompting Guillam to scowl at me.

After a while, even the logging road tailed off and we were following a rough dirt track. Just as I began to fear we would be stuck in the car forever, driving aimlessly through the mountain wilderness like some sort of modern Flying Dutchman, Guillam slammed his foot on the brakes, jerking the vehicle to a shuddering stop.

"Here we are," Guillam announced softly, his tone sardonic. He glanced over at me. "Now would be an ideal time to unveil that master plan you've doubtless been putting together, Mr. Silent,"

I glanced at the GPS, whose coordinates matched those on the satellite photo print-out my partner had furnished. We had come to a halt a few yards in front of a chain link fence with barbed wire looping over the top. Peering past the barricade, I could make out the vague outlines of a number of squat, industrial-looking buildings through the darkness. Everything seemed to be in variable states of disrepair, but the air of the place still set my teeth on edge.

"Cut the engine," I said softly and urgently.

Guillam wordlessly complied. Getting out and circling around to the back, we pushed the car off the dirt track and under the boughs of a large pine tree, hiding it as best we could under a number of fallen branches.

As Guillam surveyed the fence for possible entry points, I turned to face Ciaran, who stood leaning against the tree, staring at the camp with an expression of mixed anguish and fear.

"You can still stick this one out," I promised him in hushed tones. "There's no shame in that. This is outside your... comfort zone. Wait here and we'll be back sooner than you think with--"

"--I'm going," Ciaran cut me off with an air of finality. "I've come this far; I'm not going to turn tail now. Besides. I'm sure Tab's been forced outside her 'comfort zone', as you put it, by these... these monsters. I owe it to her to continue,"

Dissuaded from further trying to convince Ciaran by his glare, I nodded once and turned to check on my partner's progress. He'd pulled one of the rugs from the car and thrown it over the barbed wire of a partially collapsed section of the fence.

Glancing over at me, the cross fox vaulted athletically over the fence. I tried to follow similarly, but it proved much more difficult than he had made it appear. Several sweaty and grunt-filled minutes later, I stood panting on the other side of the fence as Guillam eyed me derisively.

"I bet if you'd tried really, really hard, you probably could have made a bit more noise," he taunted quietly.

"Not all of us are some sort of crazy track-and-field star or something," I snapped back good-naturedly.

"The intelligence made it sound like there would be patrols or something," Guillam noted, glancing nervously around the dark area.

"Yeah, for some sort of fearsome terrorist cell, they really have some pretty lax security protocols," I said, starting to feel even more wary about the whole situation, if that was possible. Something was amiss.

"You don't think they're... elsewhere?" Ciaran came up from behind, his tone worried.

I noted with a spasm of jealousy that he seemed to have made it over the fence without a hitch. Was I _really_that out of shape?

Making a mental note to look into getting a gym membership or something, I gestured for the other two to follow me as I hurried behind one of the squat buildings scattered around the compound. Peering around the corner, I wasn't able to see all that much more than I'd viewed through the chain-link fence.

"They've got to be holding Tab in some sort of larger building," I hissed, realizing seconds after I'd said it just how painfully obvious that statement probably was. Neither Ciaran nor Guillam commented; they were either too focused or too nervous to bother with quips.

As if in answer to my statement, a large set of doors on a hangar-like building on the other end of the compound began to slide open slowly. The rusty wheels guiding the doors along their tracks squeaked and squealed as a growing shaft of light pierced the darkness, illuminating the meager blanket of snow.

Instinctively, Guillam and I withdrew our peering heads. We stared panicked at one another. All of a sudden, things felt pressing and dire. Why was this so challenging? We'd been through dozens of situations like this--worse, even--just fine. Now was not the time to seize up.

"Er, I think that's where they were keeping Tab," Ciaran whispered as he glanced at us, his face ashen.

I followed the mink's pointing finger. Sure enough, there was Tabitha, standing in the center of the open space in front of the hangar. The ferretess' time in the compound had rendered her normally svelte figure rather gaunt and wan, yet something about her facial expression terrified me. Despite her slumped shoulders, limp tail, and drooping ears, a rage-filled fire smoldered in her eyes.

"I need to talk to her," Ciaran whispered urgently, making to step around the corner and into the open.

"No! What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I hissed, grabbing the mink roughly by the collar, jerking him backward. "Don't!"

"I have to," Ciaran faced me, looking gravely at me. "She's hurting. I think I can help. She'll listen to me, I'm sure of it. And then we can all get out of this godsforsaken place,"

I hesitated, pursing my lips and glaring fiercely at him. Taking advantage of my momentary silence, Ciaran pressed further.

"They're leaving her alone now, see? For all we know, this is the only shot we'll get! I can get to her,"

I didn't reply, but nodded slowly. Guillam shot me a look as Ciaran rounded the corner, shuffling towards Tabitha.

*****

Andy's fingers traced down the center of my back, running through the dense fur of my bushy tail down to the ivory-furred tip. I lay on my stomach in a mess of silken sheets, my chin resting on a pillow as I looked over at the jackal.

"How do you guys deal with these things?" Andy wondered aloud, petting my tail pensively. "I mean, wouldn't it kinda make the small of your back sore or something? Pain in the ass, I should think. Or pain just above the ass, really,"

"I dunno. I like mine fine enough," I glanced down at it. Returning my gaze to Andy's face, I smiled a little, interlocking my fingers with his. "Unless it's super humid out. Bushy fucking nightmare,"

"I think it's cute," Andy shrugged. "Just find them kinda odd, as a whole, I guess,"

"Well, I happen to find your lack of a tail, or even fur, for that matter, kinda odd, I guess. Freak," I retorted playfully.

"Hey! Them's fighting words," Andy growled, a grin on his face.

He made to leap on top of me, but I was too quick. I rolled over, pressing him onto his back. We wrestled back and forth across the bed.

I managed to vanquish my foe, pressing him flat on his back and sitting on his stomach. As I grinned down at him, hands on his shoulders and thighs pressed against his sides, guilt reared its ugly head again. Shoving those unwanted thoughts to the back of my mind, I craned my neck down to kiss him on the lips.

"I just defeated a god," I announced breathily.

"Don't make me smite you down, mortal," Andy rumbled, a grin playing across his lips as I kissed him slowly down the length of his neck and over his collarbone, my lips exploring and caressing his smooth skin.

"Mmm, if that's anything like what you just did to me, then consider me an insolent heretic," I murmured.

My fingers played over his torso as I matched the jackal's grin.

"Oh, I'm nowhere near done doing things to you," Andy growled, snapping his teeth at me.

A shiver ran down my spine and I caressed the jackal's cheek appreciatively. "Good. Just don't shrink me or any shit like that," I admonished gently. "I didn't like that,"

Andy's eyes glinted mischievously. "And why would I ever do that?"

"You've got a track record," I scowled.

"Well, in that case, I suppose we'll just have to find other things to do with ourselves,"

I giggled as Andy flipped over on top of me, pinning my wrists to the pillow over my head as he planted a kiss on my neck.

"You should cancel all of your plans for tomorrow," he instructed.

"Yes, sir," I murmured. It felt as if the emptiness inside me was gone, or at least patched over for the time being. And that was enough for me.

*****

Tabitha had never seemed larger. She had always towered over me, but now, standing there in the snow at her feet, she seemed to stretch even higher into the sky than I was accustomed. I quailed. She was going to do to me what she had done to every last person in the town I had read about in the newspaper. I would soon be a stain on the sole of her foot, I was sure of it.

"Tabitha?"

My voice sounded thin and pale, shivering through the chill air to the giantess' ears far above. At first, I thought she hadn't heard me. But after a few moments, her neck craned down and her eyes fell on me.

For a fleeting moment, an expression of surprised relief passed over her features. It was gone in an instant, though, as her eyes darkened and a grotesque smile twisted its way across her lips.

I staggered back a pace or two as the ferretess kneeled down, her knee impacting into the ground. Her hand reached down towards me with excruciating slowness. I thought she was going to pick me up, but instead she cupped her hand over me, her fingertips biting into the earth.

Peering around one of the "bars" of my prison, I looked up at Tabitha's face. She was regarding me with the detached indifference of one who had just found an insect on the pavement.

"Ciaran," she said at last. "I've been thinking about you recently,"

"You haven't left my thoughts for a moment!" I replied emphatically, unsure of quite what her statement meant. "I've missed you so much, Tab,"

"Well, I've had other... things to think about lately," the ferretess sighed. "Important things. Truths I've learned,"

"Well, you don't have to think about any of that now! All you have to think about is freedom," I urged.

Tabitha's head cocked a little to the side. "And why would that be the case?"

"Because I'm here to rescue you!" I said, struggling to keep my voice low in my excitement. "Well, me and Warren and Peter. They're right behind that warehouse thing. We're here to get you out,"

The ferretess' laughter chilled me to the bone. Her fingers pinched together underneath me and her hand flipped over as she raised it up, depositing me onto her palm with her fingers extending cage-like about me.

"And why do you think I would ever want to go along with you?" she whispered to me, peering through the gap between her thumb and forefinger. "Have you no idea what I am? In case you've been blind this whole time, I'm what your average person would call a 'giantess'. For those keeping score at home, I'm fucking huge. And that's been a real hindrance in the past, right? Well, I've been taught things here. It isn't a hindrance or a problem or any of that nonsense. This is a gift. Well, a gift with certain usages,"

"I saw what you did. It was in the papers," I said, sitting down on Tabitha's palm. "That wasn't a gift. That isn't you, Tab. That wasn't the person I fell in love with--the person I love still,"

Somehow. Still.

"I made the paper?" the hint of a grin played on Tabitha's lips.

"Tab, please. I don't know what they've been doing to you, but I just want to get you somewhere safe. We can get away from here, back to normal things,"

"Normal?" Tabitha snapped, her tone icy. "Ah, yes. Normalcy. Living in a minuscule city with a boyfriend who lives in a fucking dollhouse under my nightstand. That normal. I'd almost forgotten,"

"It's not like that," I said, even though she wasn't entirely wrong.

"Here is my normal. This is what I was meant to do. Here, I'm doing something that will change everything. Something that will matter,"

"What is that?" I asked, not particularly wanting the answer.

"The world is... degenerate. My benefactors have a vision for a new, better world. A perfect world. But you can't put new things in motion without first laying low the old and impure. I can't make new things, but I can help clear the way," Tabitha's expression was glassy, her voice distant.

"But you are good at making things," I insisted. "You helped with all those construction projects. Thanks to you, those projects came together faster and more safely. That was because of you, Tab. You saved someone's life. Nobody else could have done that except you. Because of your... gift, as you put it,"

The ferretess' expression faltered, but any misgiving was hastily replaced with a smirk.

"As it turns out, I'm a hell of a lot better at destroying things than any of that," she said. "Do you know what I did to that town?"

"I don't want to know," I whimpered.

"Well, I'll tell you," the giantess grinned gleefully, ignoring my protests. "At first, I ate my fill. Had to keep my priorities straight, you know. They don't feed me all that well here, so I was pretty fucking starving. But the little fuckers weren't exactly forthcoming, so I had to tear through their stupid homes, plucking them out like, oh, I dunno, chips or something.

"But I had business to take care of, so I couldn't dawdle around forever, could I? I set about..."

By then I was crying, sitting limply on Tabitha's palm as she continued the litany of the things she had done with ever-growing glee. My captor looked like Tabitha and she sounded like Tabitha, but she wasn't Tabitha. My Tabitha wouldn't take such pleasure in everything she was saying she had done.

"Stop! STOP!" I shrieked, my voice breaking.

"I was getting bored anyway," Tabitha sniffed. Her gaze darted to the side for a moment, and another grin crossed her lips. "Besides. If you have any more questions, you can always ask the boss-man,"

"Tab... Tab, let's get out of here. Now. Run," I breathed, my heart racing a million miles an hour. I had absolutely no desire to meet whichever person had twisted and tortured my Tabitha into a hollow shell of herself.

"What have you got there?" came a harsh, grating voice from somewhere in the vicinity of Tabitha's knee.

"Oh, nothing," the ferretess replied, studying me as she slowly unclenched her fingers. "Just something I was toying with,"

"Well, we've got some... garbage to take out," the owner of the voice, a burly hound in black tactical garments, replied sharply.

Rolling over onto my stomach, I peered over the edge of Tabitha's hand. Warren and Peter stood a few dozen feet away at the edge of the courtyard, held at gunpoint by a pair of people clad in the same outfit as the hound.

"Get this shit taken care of. We have bigger things with which to concern ourselves," the hound growled.

An involuntary sob escaped my lips. We were going to die. I was sure of it.