Greykin Valley

| 60 | Cat and Mouse

⥐ ⋞ ☽ ⋟ ⥐

| Damon |

The chase led Damon out through the back of the building and towards the battlefield. He didn't know if Kane was still inside or if he was attempting to flee his territory entirely, but Damon didn't plan to stop until he found him.

He watched as Sebastien used his wings to propel himself into the sky, and then the hound dived back down and crashed into one of Kane's retreating wolves. Everyone else stopped around Sebastien, so Damon did, too, letting the rest of their enemies get away.

"Where the fuck is Kane?!" Sebastien growled into the wolf's ear.

"Get off me!" the wolf yelled back while he tried breaking free, but the hound was clearly a lot stronger than he was.

Sebastien harshly stabbed the spike of his left wing carpel into the wolf's side. "Tell me where Kane is!"

The wolf shrieked painfully and writhed around beneath him. "He's going for the Amarok!"

Dread filled Damon's racing heart, shoving aside his anger and hatred. If that thing got out, it would kill hundreds—it might even kill everyone. And when he looked around at his new allies, it was written all over their faces that they knew the same thing.

Sebastien snarled frustratedly and stabbed both his carpel spikes into the wolf's neck, ending its life. Once he severed the head from the body, preventing the dead wolf from resurrecting as a hellhound, he turned to face Damon and the others. "We can't let him free that thing. Cyrus is leading the targets away, and Heir Zephyr's back in the building healing your comrades. We are going to have to deal with it until Cyrus or Heir Zephyr can join us."

Although everyone looked nervous, they nodded. And when Sebastien hurriedly led the way back towards the battlefield, they followed.

Damon thought as he ran. Wasn't that cadejo pit nearby? He remembered Julian talking about Kane leading undead into that place they found back when they were staying at the old Nosferatu Consulate ruin, so it couldn't be far from here.

He looked around, taking in what he could see of the forest and mountains in the distance through the frost-filled air. If they could lead the Amarok to that pit, the cadejo would surely devour it down to its bones.

"Sebastien," he said, looking down at the hound as he ran beside him in his Prime form. "I have an idea."

"Talk," the hound invited.

"There's a canyon filled with an entire fucking ocean of cadejo not far from here. If we lead the Amarok to it, then—"

"We dump it inside and let the corpses eat it. Good idea," Sebastien agreed. "Everyone, listen up," he called to the group,

While the hound shared the plan, Damon took a moment to focus on Jackson through their imprints. To his relief, he could feel Jackson's determination—he had the inimă, and he wasn't far behind.

But then dread filled him again. Jackson didn't know the plan.

"Jackson's coming," Damon told Sebastien.

"Good. We could use the inimă to help us guide that creature away from the battle."

Damon looked over his shoulder, hoping to see his mate running towards him, but savage snarls closed in around his group, and he had no choice but to focus ahead. A gathering of Kane's wolves broke off from the battle and collided with him and his allies, but with him and Sebastien, they made quick work of their enemies.