“What a motherfucker.”
“He almost killed you too.”
“I didn’t need your help, you bastard.”
“I couldn’t risk it, he has Meredith.”
Mark gave him a look at that last statement. Damn, Vivi must have twisted him up real bad.
“Uh, yeah, he does. I’m gonna carve this asshole up a bit first.”
Ron whirled on Mark, “You will not. You better not have killed him with that stupid fucking pan of yours.”
Mark sneered at him. Talking to him like he was some amateur in the kitchen. If Ron wasn’t so stupid strong he’d have carved him up by now.
“Like you almost didn’t with your stupid-fucking club?”
Ron slung Tom over his shoulder, “He was a pretty tough one.”
“Most weak people are already dead.” Mark had personally contributed to more than a few of those. Who said an apocalypse wasn’t fun?
Ron turned with Tom’s limp body toward the exit of the kitchen, “Hey! Bring his shit. Morrigan wants it.”
Mark mimicked those words mockingly behind Ron’s back but did go around his trashed kitchen to gather Tom’s crap.
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Pookie took a deep breath of the night’s air. He ignored the scents of the animals that had come by to wait next to this barrier with him. They had tried to talk to him, but he had no desire for any of that.
Besides the near starvation over the last week or so, he found that he enjoyed the solitude. He had explored this Penitent System and found his enforced silence to have benefited his own growth to an incredible degree. Who knew that thinking could cause such growth? It was wondrous.
He liked this new world. He had never liked Human’s too much, his first Stewards had beaten him, forced him to kill his brothers and sisters. He had eventually turned on them, bitten one of them many times, taken down one of their younger ones. Not their youngest Human pups though. Just one of the older ones who had taken a liking to beating him.
After that he had run and been picked up and brought to the cages. That was a desperate place. Then he was taken in by a new woman. She was nice enough, though he couldn’t stand the way she treated him. Like he was broken and would always be broken.
Both were insidious. One caused the wounds, the other never let them heal. He did like his tutu though, that was something nice she had done. He would carry her given name with him as thanks. That first day had been… uncontrollable. Still, she had to die so that he could live. Though he had processed that already.
This last one was okay enough. For a Human. A bit more time, then Pookie would figure out what he wanted to do. One more day of slavery then he… Well, he was unsure how to spend time he never expected to have. He pawed the barrier again, it held fast. He dropped his head back into his paws and closed his eyes. He wouldn’t fall asleep, he would do his duty and then he’d be free.
He probably wouldn’t try and kill Tom afterwards. Yeah, maybe he’d start his new life on another foot, try something different. A more peaceful foot. Somewhere nice in the mountains, by himself, a little treefall next to a creek. Like he saw in one of the Human’s picture books one time. That sounded nice.
His nose twitched. He stood.
A shadow materialized into a shape. It was a wolf, a cousin, though she was wounded.
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Pookie’s nose twitched, as she communicated the details. All canines could do this, communicate scents through body language to other canines. He knew whose trail she followed. Unacceptable.
Her teeth bared,
She looked at him warily, even half starved as he was, though she was significantly smaller and wounded herself,
She wasn’t getting the hint, he sent a deep thrum into his surroundings and the smaller animals scattered into a wide circle. Pookie started to see red, he remembered the circles, oh yes. He’d spent lots of times in fighting circles, filled with red and surrounded by pain.
She disappeared into the shadows.
Pookie took a deep breath and dismissely huffed out from both nostrils. An insult to another canine, but she deserved it. Getting a rise out of him like that. He sniffed before he settled back down, she was still around… somewhere. He tested the barrier again. The feeling of Tom through the Oath was muted… dull. He kept up his practice of cycling his Will, wrapping it around himself, on himself, over himself. Encasing himself in his Will.
Of the others, he took no notice, but if he had he would have seen the animals of the local area continue to swell into the area around him, seemingly multiplying as mass begat more mass. Every animal from the surrounding vineyards was gathered here. Around the big dog.
Brought here by his calm patience and testing of the barrier. His conversation with the dark wolf had been overheard, noted, and spread as one of the first games of multi-species animal telephone was underway.
Maybe tonight would be different. Maybe the big dog knew a way through the barrier. A way to their enemies, to the humans.
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My body took a full 10 seconds to reboot once someone found the power switch. At least, I think, before I managed to pull open my eyes. Fuck, was I just unconscious? I had no idea how long I was out. I tried to put my heads into my hand but I was barely managing to not puke at this point.
My hands were not moving. My head continued to swim back and forth and I was grateful that it was incredibly dark… wherever I was. I felt something chafe against the skin of my wrists. Shit, tied up. That included my fingers which were also tied up pretty snugly. No snapping going on here. Awesome, being unconscious for however long was bad, much less long enough to get my ass kicked in the kitchen and end up tied… Wait, where was I?
Someone was still talking? I couldn’t understand a fucking thing they were saying. I groaned again.
I felt someone pinch my nose and push something down my throat, a liquid. I choked against it, didn’t want to swallow. I did want to breathe however so down it went. My head started to clear.
I blinked like it was the first time my eyes had ever worked and saw the arrangement before me. A real who’s who of… Well actually, it was just the usual suspects. Morrigan looking fully like a pompous ass in some ancient illuminati robe or somesuchshit that looked like a cross between the mason’s, the shriners, and some professor emeritus at an overpriced university.
Tracey had an asian style gown that shimmered an icey blue with long slits cut high on each leg. Vivi was whispering into Ron’s ear. Speaking of that motherfuck… I could barely see a black mist slowly trickling out of his ears.
Like I'd observed before, Dark Affinity was easier to make out in low light conditions than clear day. The blank look in his eyes sealed it. Fuck, no wonder my sword cut through Ron’s durable body so easily, the man was clearly under some sort of curse.
I saw Mark out of the corner of my eyes but I ignored him after clearly taking in everyone else. He’d get some satisfaction from seeing me mad at him, so I did the most hurtful thing I could imagine to an egotistical dickhead like him. I completely ignored him. Severe concussion or not, I could piss people off in my sleep.
The surroundings were… Well, they were fucked. Just absolutely fucked. Some sort of poorly lit entirely stone storeroom, but that wasn’t the fucked part. That was reserved for the multi-ringed hexagram made of what appeared to be blood. The worst part? I was in the center of it and tightly secured to a chair.
Oh fuck no. FUCK NO AND FUCK THAT. I was not getting my soul consumed in some satanic ritual. Absolutely not. Especially not now that I knew for a fact that souls actually existed. That shit was mine. I heard a grumbling from behind me and turned my head.
Bound like I was, we sat in a triangle that faced outward. Jon, of course that dickhead was here. Our eyes met for an instance and he filled them with as much glare and hate as just about anyone could fill into a glance. I wouldn’t even have cared if it was just his soul that got sacrificed.
“Shoulda drank more of the fucking wine.”
What?
“What? I did.” I’d been drunk for like three straight days and nights.
I didn’t even know what he was talking about so any response I could have made beyond those three words sailed right past my conscious mind.
“Must have been the salt…”
As he said and before I could try and process that particular response, I got hit hard right in the feels as I tasted salt on my tongue, even before I looked to my other side. Shit. Meredith.
We locked eyes but the gag in her mouth stopped her from saying anything but sad mumbles. Tear stains, both fresh and old, streamed down her face. She looked like someone had beaten her too. Fucking Vivi, that bitch.
I mean, it’s not like I was super attached to Meredith or anything, but it was hard to look at her crying beaten face and knowing that I’d kind fucked this and, even if my actions didn’t directly cause this, they almost assuredly contributed. Even if just a little.
I’d also really prefer to not lose my first Salty person to a satanic sacrifice. Also myself. Perhaps most importantly. Definitely most importantly. I mean, I’d choose neither if that was an option.
“Finished taking in your situation?”