Liam landed with a thud and certainly not on his feet after the incident on the helicopter. He'd been in enough street scrapes and gotten his ass kicked to know how to take a fall without too much damage. He rolled over and bounced up to his paws very quickly.
He hardly had time to get his bearings before he had to duck and run from the talons of an eager Demon. It wasn't the most fantastic move but Liam found a tarp-covered supply bin to hide under. He hated hiding. The sleek White-fur much preferred facing confrontation head on, but the kind he usually faced required brains, not brawn. Still, maybe brains were all that were required right now. He'd know as soon as he surveyed the environment and assessed the dangers.
The first thing he needed to know was if he could retrieve his weapon. A quick peek showed it must have been lost in the fall. It was nowhere to be seen. Okay, that sucked. But he still had the single one-shot in his vest but that was hardly going t
Priest had returned to his cabin and taken something to help with sleep. He needed to be at his best and most accurate magically if he was going preside over draining Agent of his auric magick. So the first loud explosion he mistook for being part of his dreams. It took the second much louder, boat-shaking one to startle him awake.His first thought as he gathered up his weapons was to get to Ink. This had Agent all over it. Maybe he should have fought harder with his Orangelo lover to stay and observe the Marking. But they'd already had a brutal argument about Priest's plan and motivations. He didn't want to argue with the tom he loved anymore today. Why Ink couldn't see the logic of taking Agent down, the pirate Captain just didn't understand. Priest hoped things could be smoothed out after the ritual and the risk that came with it.But what if Agent was the wild card Ink feared he would be? More powerful than they thought. Lying in wait to strike. Then Priest had made a grave error
It would be easier if everything hurt. This numbness was not conducive to summoning his powers.Agent wanted to snarl in frustration, but his face was still paralyzed by the spells the damned traitors had put on him. Even now that he was left alone after Ink had run out of the room, presumably to check on the source of those explosions, Agent was helpless. He wanted to snarl and bite Priest when he opened the door, calling for Ink. All he could do was glare out of his frozen face. The damn tom barely spared a glance for him before he took off again.But Agent had learned two very important things while he was stuck here.Firstly, there was the bond between Ink and Priest. He had been aware that they were fucking. Hardly an uncommon arrangement on a ship like this one. But the Captain's concern for his Marker went beyond his concern for his ship. He'd come looking for Ink before going topside to find out what was going on. That was going to prove to be valuable information in the futur
The entire world was fire and smoke. He'd been the last tom to jump from the helicopter, hoping to direct it away from the ship and the possibility of hurting their bond mates. However, there was little Jinx could do. The copter was wrecked from its trip through the Underworld portal and Demons that had tried to eat them. The best he could do was point it vaguely at the far end of the ship and hope it didn't blow up anything or anyone important.Waiting that long had put Jinx far too close to the explosion when the copter hit the deck. He could smell burnt fur as he ducked and rolled behind the only cover he could find. The pile of rope was barely big enough to cover him and was on fire within seconds.Scrambling away, Jinx couldn't stop the string of swears that fell out of his mouth. This was fucking ridiculous.He made it about three feet from his failure of a hiding spot and ran face-first into a Demon. Not some big cuddly sex muffin like his Lexi. This was a drooling, angry ball
Hades couldn't help but wonder if he'd lost his damned mind after the events of the last few weeks.Why the hell had he jumped in the fucking ocean after that annoying bastard Liam? And now that he had managed to grab on to Liam, how the hell was he going to get the both of them out of the water and into the boat? Hades could swim, just enough to not die, but while dragging another tom after him? He was going to end up drowning and being trapped forever on the bottom of the ocean with Liam. He wanted to tap into his magick but water made that difficult normally and salt water made it next to impossible.But it seemed that some divine force was going to take pity on them. A bubble of energy slowly and carefully formed around the sinking toms. It took forever to start moving them, guiding them upwards. There must have been some kind of other enchantment or inherent "please don't die" property in the bubble because the burning that had started in Hades's chest eased. He couldn't breathe
"Is that all of them?" Cook looked at the small, shivering no-furs.He'd taken the time to get all of them out of their cages. Most of them required coaxing to come out but because he was a larger and older one of them, it went easier than he anticipated. Having Lexi as a green-skinned no-fur helped a little too. He was something new and different but was still enough like them that they trusted him.There were ten no-furs besides Cook and Lexi. All of them were so young, some just a few months past their majority. They'd come of age here, in these cages, indoctrinated to the strange service the Hares asked of them. Having not gone to the ritual room himself, Cook could only guess what actually happened. What he did know was that the young ones who went to the ritual came back tired and drained. None of them could tell him what happened to the others who had been there before but were gone now. Only vague statements of being "sent home."It all sounded very ominous to Cook. He couldn'
Doll had drifted off into a peaceful slumber. After having his time with Hades through Spitfire as well as Hades's unexpectedly good reaction to him carrying kits, he breathed a little easier. At least enough to doze off in a strange but trustworthy relative safety. He awoke nestled in Spitfire's arms and, even in their predicament, found himself in a dreamy happy place. He stretched his limbs and nuzzled and kissed Spitfire's neck. The awful Hare could come back but Doll sensed he wouldn't. He couldn't say why but he felt it in his bones. Having never been pregnant, he did worry that his calm was some kind of instinctive euphoria brought on by hormones he didn't begin to understand. Maybe he could ask Spitfire about it. "Hey, Spitfire, beloved, are you awake?" He gave the red-headed no-fur a little jostle. He wasn't really asking so much as trying to make sure Spitfire was getting up. "Mostly, I think," Spitfire muttered, turning his face enough to kiss the top of Doll's head. "Th
After several attempts at rowing the lifeboat, Liam and Hades finally figured out how to get it to go the way they wanted. The pair of toms made it to the side of the large central ship with minimal drenching and not capsizing the small boat even once.Using the rope that had been attached to the pulleys used to lower the boat into the water, Hades tied it to the first rung of the metal ladder leading up the side of the ship. He tested the knots on both ends by pulling as hard as he could. Satisfied that the lifeboat wasn't going anywhere, he turned to Liam."Ready to get out of this floating trash can and onto the bigger floating trash can?"Liam's reluctance was in his every word. So was his irritation. "I'd like to avoid the floating trash cans altogether and get my paws on dry land, but that's not happening anytime soon. However, the toms and Hares on that trash can hurt my Cook, so it's time to pay them a visit. Unless we are all going to link paws and sing happy songs like you s
Doll waited for Hades's reaction. Not taking a breath. Not taking a step back. His faith in his Innehavre was unwavering. And if he hadn't gotten through to the tom who he loved with all his heart and whose kits he carried, his trust in Spitfire was just as strong."Do you hear me, Soot-walker?"Hades's eyes were dark with Hex power. He stared at Doll in heavy silence before he finally nodded with the barest movement of his head. "Do it, pretty baby. Take what you need from me."The power around Hades swelled, his aura filled with more than just his connection to Doll. It was the full bloom of his Hex powers and then more, a darkness that went beyond anything Doll had felt outside of his brief trip through the Underworld. The Demons rampaging around the ships started to stumble and flicker. It was as if Hades were sucking in all of their auras, causing them to slowly fade and disappear.The Hares Hades had been holding with his Hex chains were released, dropped where they were and the