"Is it over?" Beth asked, "are you cleansed of the antidote?" Beth's concern was obvious, but what wasn't was the fact that her concern was for more than just Morgan's state of spiritual purity. Beth also wanted, desperately wanted, to drag Morgan away from the ugly, grasping hands of Dale Evanborne, from his pale, naked body and his quivering, pathetic, puny little penis.
"Shhhh," Morgan whispered, "be patient. I must meditate over what has happened before I can know for sure."
Beth smiled glumly, "OK, no problem. No problem at all."
"What do you mean it's no fucking problem?!" Diane screeched. "They fucking blew up the whole goddam street! Cops are everywhere and, if that fucking plumber was telling the truth, so is a fucking army of goddam Hunters!"
Miriam grabbed Diane by the shoulders and shook her hard. They were both on the edge of hysteria, ready to completely snap. And two crazed weretigresses were the last people in the world you wanted to have snap.
"We made it back here alright, didn't we!?" Miriam shouted at Diane. "We're safe here dammit! SAFE!"
"We won't be safe until we get as far away from Shadow Peak as we can," Jake growled, "Hell, I won't feel safe until we're out of the fuckin' state." Elaine agreed with him, and so did Amy and Wendy. And that's why they were heading for the U.S./Canadian border. They had only made one stop since driving like hell out of Shadow Peak. The town was now far behind them but they still had miles to go before they'd hit the border between Washington state and British Columbia.
"And if anyone does try to stop us from going where we want," Jake added, "we all know what to do, right?" A chorus of animal growls was his answer.
"We all know what to do, right?" Bravo Leader asked his team of Black Dogs. Everyone nodded. Contain and capture, that was the mission objective. The recon team that had been watching Miriam's home had confirmed that two of the weretigresses had returned there after the fiasco at Amy Daninger's house. No civilians (i.e. Miriam's family) were present and that meant that Bravo Team could go in and do their job without worrying about collateral damage.
"OK men," Bravo Leader finished up, "this is a grab and bag op. If they put up any resistance, and they will, feel free to hurt them, but the Citadel wants them alive. Now let's go."
"We must go now," the Elder said, "we're running out of time." The others in the room hesitated. The Elder sighed; he too knew how dangerous the situation was but the Council had made it's decision and the danger had to be risked. "It is time for the Owls to fly," he said to them, his voice steely and firm.
"But how many of us will return?" a woman asked quietly.
The Elder gazed at her, but she did not flinch from him. But then why should she, after all she was only voicing the question that was on the minds of all of the others. The question that the Elder himself was wondering about. "Redwing, we are Owls," the Elder replied. "The path we tread has ever been a perilous one. Now is no different. We cannot afford to hesitate, to shirk from our sacred path. The people of Shadow Peak hang in the balance, whether they know it or not, and we cannot afford to fail."
"This is the will of the Council?" Redwing asked. The Elder nodded, "Yes, the Grove has spoken and we will obey. The weretigers are the key, and we must bring in as many of them as we can before the Black Dogs sink their claws into them."
The sounds of haggard breathing and frantic moaning that came from inside of the shack cut into Beth's heart like cruel and baleful claws. When Morgan had told her that the Rite of Purification was not yet complete and that she and Dale would have to engage in yet another round of lovemaking, Beth had taken it as best as she could. But once the two of them had begun to kiss and to hold and to fuck each other, Beth couldn't stand to be a witness to it and had run outside.
Now all she could do was wait. Wait, and suffer.
Sat Jun 1 01:10:51 2002