HOME | DD

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

I’d like to thank for help with this part. For months I fought with crippling writer’s block. I had no idea where I was really going with the story. He suggested this angle with Claire and my writer’s block evaporated.

It was early morning when Daniel finally got back to the police station. The group didn’t do much the entire time. They left a bag in an alleyway every now and then, but that was it. Jack finally cleared him to come back. The Gryphon was exhausted and sore. He wanted to fall in his usual spot and sleep for a week. He could see the sun peaking over the horizon off in the distance.

He landed on the rooftop and his breath caught as he saw Phillip waiting for him. Without preamble, the augury opened up his pouch and pulled out a golden monocle with a long chain. He held it out to Daniel.

Daniel accepted the artifact and stepped back. He nodded. It was the same device he saw Carlos using. He couldn’t explain it, but he could feel its power. He looked up at Phillip. “Thank you.” Phillip nodded silently, understanding the meaning.

“Good, you’re back,” Jack suddenly said behind him, startling Daniel. Daniel quickly stuffed the Scryer into his bag. “You…” Jack paused, catching a glimpse of gold in the sunlight for a split second. “What is that?”

“Nothing,” Daniel quickly said, turning to face him. “Just something Phillip-“ His next words died in his throat as he saw the look on Jack’s face. The man stared intently at him. His eyes narrowed accusingly.

In that moment, Daniel knew he made a mistake: Jack was a telepath, a mind reader. There was a long, drawn-out silence and Daniel’s heart hammered in his chest. For a few seconds, he legitimately considered making a run for it. Jack couldn’t fly, so he’d have a good head start on the man.

Then, unexpectedly, jack’s expression softened. He nodded. “Fine, keep your secrets.” He looked away, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “I…I need to talk with you, Daniel. I haven’t been entirely fair with you.”

Daniel did a double-take, surprised. Then he quickly scoffed sarcastically, “Really? I never noticed.”

“You’ve made mistakes, but you’re learning from them. You’re a better person than you give yourself credit for, and definitely better than I was at your age.”

Daniel was confused, unsure how to respond. This was out of the blue. He shook his head and snapped out of it. “Are you alright? You’re acting weird.”

Jack sighed and shook his head. “It’s nothing, I’m just rambling.” He was silent for a minute or 2, looking toward the sunrise, away from Daniel. “Sleep as long as you want, rest up.” He turned and left without another word, leaving the gryphon confused.

Daniel stood there motionless for a long time, dumbfounded. Jack was acting really weird. It sounded like he had something important to say but couldn’t bring himself to say it. Stranger, he didn’t call Daniel out on the lie. The Gryphon had to investigate. He had a bad feeling something terrible had happened.

~Let it go, Daniel. Go to sleep and forget that conversation.~

It took Daniel a moment to realize it wasn’t his conscience speaking to him.

~DA? Where the hell have you been?~

~Right here, inside your head.~ The symbiote sounded tired, like he just woke up. ~I’ve been recovering. I’m sorry I haven’t spoken to you for a while. You drew so much energy from me to change, it nearly killed me. I’m fine now, though.~

Daniel was about to ask what the vordr meant, when it hit him. He remembered it clearly, losing his temper and changing into a gryphon without warning.

~I didn’t do that, Daniel,~ DA explained before Danny could ask. ~You did that. You needed magical energy to change forms, so it took it from the nearest source, me.~

That explained a lot, actually. Alex said descendants could change forms at will with access to a power source. Jack told him vordrs were made of pure energy.

As he thought about this, an idea slowly came to him: it’d be easier to eavesdrop while in human form. He could hear Jack in the room…

~No, Daniel,~ DA quickly said. ~Go to bed, let it go. He’ll tell you in the morning.~

~No.~ Daniel shook his head, his mind made up. ~No, he’ll spin some bullshit story, same as he always does. Right now, he thinks I’m asleep, or about to be.~ He moved to the edge of the roof and looked down at the ground. ~Could you make it safer to change forms? I can hide more easily in human form.~

DA was silent for a moment, then sighed. ~I can control the flow of energy between us. I guess I can help you change, as long as you don’t try it on your own again. When you feel it, concentrate on your human self, visualize what you look like as a human.~

Daniel nodded confidently and quickly fluttered to the ground 20 feet below. ~Do it.~

He didn’t notice, but there was a pigeon watching him a nearby lamppost. It was almost invisible in the dark parking lot.

Energy like a surge of static electricity flowed through him. He thought back to that moment in the veterinary clinic weeks ago when he first veiled, saw his reflection in the mirror. The image came readily and he felt his feathers melt. Before he could process all the sensations, it was over. He looked down at himself, bunched his t-shirt in his fist as he looked at it. Human again, and no painful veil required. And the collar still worked like a charm.

He quickly made his way up to the building, under the window where Jack’s voice came from. He could easily crouch under it and stay out of sight. He could clearly hear Jack and Ethan within, arguing.

“This is a mistake, Ajax,” Ethan suddenly said clearly. “It’s no wonder Alex turned on you. Did you really think he’d betray all of his friends in that camp?”

Daniel perked up, intrigued. Ajax must’ve been Jack’s real name. What they said about Alex worried him, but didn’t surprise him. He had a feeling Alex left them. He wanted to know why, but doubted he’d get that lucky.

“I don’t care what you think, Ethan,” Jack countered calmly. “Shorak and his gang are a major threat and have to be dealt with. Don’t you remember what happened last time? You were there, too.”

“That was 50 years ago, Ajax!” Ethan almost shouted at him. “FIFTY YEARS! This vendetta of yours is out of control!”

There was a tense silence. Daniel had no idea what they were talking about now, but he had a feeling he heard something he wasn’t supposed to.

Suddenly, Jack sighed. “I won’t argue you this with you, Ethan. If you don’t like my methods, you can go join Alex. You’ll be dead in 2 weeks, just like he will. In the meantime, we have work to do. Stick to the plan and it’ll all be over soon.”

Another charged silence. Then: “Fine, but this conversation isn’t over.”

Silence reigned after that. 5 minutes passed, then 10, 20. Daniel started to think it was over. He turned to leave. He was confused. Jack wouldn’t REALLY kill Alex, would he? The anger in his voice, though…

Suddenly, Ethan’s voice stopped him dead in his tracks: “Have you told Daniel yet? About…you know…”

Jack sighed. “No, not yet. Despite all his flaws, he’s one of the few people I really trust right now. If I tell him…”

“WHEN you tell him,” Ethan corrected him. “He has a right to know, and the longer you wait, the more he’ll hate you.”

Daniel moved closer to the window, his attention completely on the conversation inside.

“Hes going to hate me no matter what.” Silence. “Garmr’s Gates…I swore I would protect Claire, I told him I would save her, and I…” A loud crack resounded as the man struck a table. “GOD DAMNIT! How the fuck am I supposed to tell him Claire is going to die?”

Daniel’s heart skipped a beat and he staggered backwards.

“The doctors can’t do anything else for her except make her comfortable. Her body has started to rot from the inside out. It’s only a matter of time now.”

“But can’t-“

“I should’ve done more!” Jack shouted. “I should’ve put a bodyguard on her, I should’ve posted more soldiers at the camp, I should’ve raided shorak’s camp when I heard he had her! I should’ve done all of that! I hesitated, I chose to play nice, and now Claire will die because of that!”

There was a long silence. Finally, Ethan asked calmly, “How much time does she have?”

“A week at most. The only reason she’s still alive is the coma they put her in.”

Daniel didn’t remember changing forms again or taking flight. 1 second he was there at the window; then, he was in the air, flying hard and fast. The world around him faded to a haze.

Hot tears streaked through his feathers, blurring his vision. “No, no, no, no, no!” He screeched at the sky, agonized. Claire, his rock, his reason for fighting, his closest friend, the thing keeping him sane through all of this…

Reality came crashing back as a weight hit him from above like a semi. It happened so fast, he didn’t have time to think, to react, even to scream in pain. Agony tore through him as he crashed into a rooftop and kept going. Blue feathers tore free. He ricocheted off an AC unit and into open air. He hit a wall, then a canvas awning, then rolled off and finally slammed into concrete.

He lay there, broken and bloody. The world faded in an out around him. As he blacked out, a large shape approached him on all fours on the sidewalk…

When Daniel finally awoke again, every inch of him hurt. He could feel something wet on the ground under him. He couldn’t see, and worse, his legs and wings were tightly bound by thick ropes. He didn’t want to move, it hurt so much, but his gryphon brain panicked at being trapped. He thrashed in vain, screeched at the top of his lungs. His voice immediately reverberated off the walls. He was in a small room.

After a minute or 2 of this, he slowly forced himself to calm down, to take deep breaths. Trapped or not, prisoner or not, flailing around like a caged animal wouldn’t solve anything. He was hurt badly too, and needed to save his strength.

He quickly got himself under control and lay there motionless. He took stock of the situation and examined his surroundings as best he could. He was in a dark room, as he’d already figured out. He was on cold stone. A single door had a sliver of light along the bottom. Not outside, then. Indoors, inside a building. He could hear muffled voices outside the door.

He had a very bad feeling, deep in his gut. It wasn’t the Iron Talons - at least, he didn’t think so - and the silver claw had no reason to take him prisoner. That left only 1 group…

His ears perked up and his head jerked toward the door as it opened. His chest clenched and he felt a jolt of fear as a massive creature ducked through the doorway. He had the muscular, hairy body like a gorilla and the face of a wolf with 12-point antlers arching over its head. Heonly had 1 eye, which gazed at Daniel intently. A Cernunnos.

~The Black Hand.~

There was no question now who’d taken the gryphon. This wendigo, however, was different from the one that killed all those cops that night. He was taller and was missing his right eye instead of his left. He also didn’t have a hook hand. The thought that there were more than 1 of these monsters in the city right now made Daniel’s blood turn to ice.

“Hello, Daniel,” the man suddenly growled at him. “I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time.” He reached for the ropes binding Daniel’s front legs and the gryphon lunged at him.

With a swift movement and without hesitation, the man struck Daniel on the top of the head. Daniel’s head bounced off the floor and he saw stars.

“You’re going to do a job for me,” the wendigo said flatly, moving on immediately. “It’s in your best interests to cooperate. You’ll be well-rewarded, too.”

“Fuck you,” Daniel hissed, his feathers fluffing up instinctively.

The man suddenly frowned. He looked at something behind Daniel for a moment, then nodded. Daniel couldn’t turn to see who or what it was. “Hmmm…stubborn, even in the face of death. I like that, actually. Your great grandfather was like that.”

This gave Daniel pause. His great grandfather? What’d he have to do with anything? “What?”

“He and I worked together, a long time ago,” the man explained. “He was a good man, though a little too moral for our line of work. You’re the spitting image.”

Daniel’s mind wandered back, remembering something Dr. Morris told him. Descendants were third-generation descendants of changelings. If that’s true, it must’ve been one of his great grandparents who was a royal gryphon.

Slowly, with a turn of his stomach, Daniel realized who he was speaking to. The way he spoke, the cold superiority in his voice…he was exactly how Claire described him. “Charon?”

The man bared his sharp teeth in a grin. “In the flesh.”

Charon, the leader of the Black Hand. Claire warned him about this man. He was crazy, manipulative, sadistic, and hated humans with a passion.

Daniel shook his head. “I won’t join you.”

“I wasn’t going to ask - not yet, at least. Right now I want information from you.”

“Why the hell would I help you? Claire told me all about you.”

Again, Charon’s eyes darted to that corner of the room for a moment. “Actually, Daniel” - his grin grew - “Claire is the reason you’re going to help me.”

Daniel’s feather’s ruffled in anger. “Stay away from her!”

“You misunderstand. I don’t want to hurt her. No, I want to give you the thing you want most in the world.” He knelt down in front of the Gryphon. “I could save her.”

Daniel’s breath caught in his chest and he was suddenly uncertain. Then he shook his head. “No, she could still…”

“She’s dying, Daniel. My sources tell me she has a week left, at most. Soyronn’s Disease. Horrible way to go, truly. She’s dying and everyone knows it. You know it, I know it, the doctors know it, Ajax and Ethan know it.”

“You…” He knew Charon was baiting him, drawing him in, but the idea that this man could stop Claire from dying… “You could really save her? How?”

The wendigo shook his head. “That’s not how this works, kid. You do things for me, I give you the cure. Oh, and don’t worry, you’ll get it in time to save her.”

Daniel remained silent for a long time, torn. This was wrong and he knew it. He’d be betraying his friends, Claire included. But…if he could really save her…

“Well, what’ll it be, kid? What is that kitsune’s life really worth to you?”

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

I’d like to thank for help with this part. For months I fought with crippling writer’s block. I had no idea where I was really going with the story. He suggested this angle with Claire and my writer’s block evaporated.

It was early morning when Daniel finally got back to the police station. The group didn’t do much the entire time. They left a bag in an alleyway every now and then, but that was it. Jack finally cleared him to come back. The Gryphon was exhausted and sore. He wanted to fall in his usual spot and sleep for a week. He could see the sun peaking over the horizon off in the distance.

He landed on the rooftop and his breath caught as he saw Phillip waiting for him. Without preamble, the augury opened up his pouch and pulled out a golden monocle with a long chain. He held it out to Daniel.

Daniel accepted the artifact and stepped back. He nodded. It was the same device he saw Carlos using. He couldn’t explain it, but he could feel its power. He looked up at Phillip. “Thank you.” Phillip nodded silently, understanding the meaning.

“Good, you’re back,” Jack suddenly said behind him, startling Daniel. Daniel quickly stuffed the Scryer into his bag. “You…” Jack paused, catching a glimpse of gold in the sunlight for a split second. “What is that?”

“Nothing,” Daniel quickly said, turning to face him. “Just something Phillip-“ His next words died in his throat as he saw the look on Jack’s face. The man stared intently at him. His eyes narrowed accusingly.

In that moment, Daniel knew he made a mistake: Jack was a telepath, a mind reader. There was a long, drawn-out silence and Daniel’s heart hammered in his chest. For a few seconds, he legitimately considered making a run for it. Jack couldn’t fly, so he’d have a good head start on the man.

Then, unexpectedly, jack’s expression softened. He nodded. “Fine, keep your secrets.” He looked away, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “I…I need to talk with you, Daniel. I haven’t been entirely fair with you.”

Daniel did a double-take, surprised. Then he quickly scoffed sarcastically, “Really? I never noticed.”

“You’ve made mistakes, but you’re learning from them. You’re a better person than you give yourself credit for, and definitely better than I was at your age.”

Daniel was confused, unsure how to respond. This was out of the blue. He shook his head and snapped out of it. “Are you alright? You’re acting weird.”

Jack sighed and shook his head. “It’s nothing, I’m just rambling.” He was silent for a minute or 2, looking toward the sunrise, away from Daniel. “Sleep as long as you want, rest up.” He turned and left without another word, leaving the gryphon confused.

Daniel stood there motionless for a long time, dumbfounded. Jack was acting really weird. It sounded like he had something important to say but couldn’t bring himself to say it. Stranger, he didn’t call Daniel out on the lie. The Gryphon had to investigate. He had a bad feeling something terrible had happened.

~Let it go, Daniel. Go to sleep and forget that conversation.~

It took Daniel a moment to realize it wasn’t his conscience speaking to him.

~DA? Where the hell have you been?~

~Right here, inside your head.~ The symbiote sounded tired, like he just woke up. ~I’ve been recovering. I’m sorry I haven’t spoken to you for a while. You drew so much energy from me to change, it nearly killed me. I’m fine now, though.~

Daniel was about to ask what the vordr meant, when it hit him. He remembered it clearly, losing his temper and changing into a gryphon without warning.

~I didn’t do that, Daniel,~ DA explained before Danny could ask. ~You did that. You needed magical energy to change forms, so it took it from the nearest source, me.~

That explained a lot, actually. Alex said descendants could change forms at will with access to a power source. Jack told him vordrs were made of pure energy.

As he thought about this, an idea slowly came to him: it’d be easier to eavesdrop while in human form. He could hear Jack in the room…

~No, Daniel,~ DA quickly said. ~Go to bed, let it go. He’ll tell you in the morning.~

~No.~ Daniel shook his head, his mind made up. ~No, he’ll spin some bullshit story, same as he always does. Right now, he thinks I’m asleep, or about to be.~ He moved to the edge of the roof and looked down at the ground. ~Could you make it safer to change forms? I can hide more easily in human form.~

DA was silent for a moment, then sighed. ~I can control the flow of energy between us. I guess I can help you change, as long as you don’t try it on your own again. When you feel it, concentrate on your human self, visualize what you look like as a human.~

Daniel nodded confidently and quickly fluttered to the ground 20 feet below. ~Do it.~

He didn’t notice, but there was a pigeon watching him a nearby lamppost. It was almost invisible in the dark parking lot.

Energy like a surge of static electricity flowed through him. He thought back to that moment in the veterinary clinic weeks ago when he first veiled, saw his reflection in the mirror. The image came readily and he felt his feathers melt. Before he could process all the sensations, it was over. He looked down at himself, bunched his t-shirt in his fist as he looked at it. Human again, and no painful veil required. And the collar still worked like a charm.

He quickly made his way up to the building, under the window where Jack’s voice came from. He could easily crouch under it and stay out of sight. He could clearly hear Jack and Ethan within, arguing.

“This is a mistake, Ajax,” Ethan suddenly said clearly. “It’s no wonder Alex turned on you. Did you really think he’d betray all of his friends in that camp?”

Daniel perked up, intrigued. Ajax must’ve been Jack’s real name. What they said about Alex worried him, but didn’t surprise him. He had a feeling Alex left them. He wanted to know why, but doubted he’d get that lucky.

“I don’t care what you think, Ethan,” Jack countered calmly. “Shorak and his gang are a major threat and have to be dealt with. Don’t you remember what happened last time? You were there, too.”

“That was 50 years ago, Ajax!” Ethan almost shouted at him. “FIFTY YEARS! This vendetta of yours is out of control!”

There was a tense silence. Daniel had no idea what they were talking about now, but he had a feeling he heard something he wasn’t supposed to.

Suddenly, Jack sighed. “I won’t argue you this with you, Ethan. If you don’t like my methods, you can go join Alex. You’ll be dead in 2 weeks, just like he will. In the meantime, we have work to do. Stick to the plan and it’ll all be over soon.”

Another charged silence. Then: “Fine, but this conversation isn’t over.”

Silence reigned after that. 5 minutes passed, then 10, 20. Daniel started to think it was over. He turned to leave. He was confused. Jack wouldn’t REALLY kill Alex, would he? The anger in his voice, though…

Suddenly, Ethan’s voice stopped him dead in his tracks: “Have you told Daniel yet? About…you know…”

Jack sighed. “No, not yet. Despite all his flaws, he’s one of the few people I really trust right now. If I tell him…”

“WHEN you tell him,” Ethan corrected him. “He has a right to know, and the longer you wait, the more he’ll hate you.”

Daniel moved closer to the window, his attention completely on the conversation inside.

“Hes going to hate me no matter what.” Silence. “Garmr’s Gates…I swore I would protect Claire, I told him I would save her, and I…” A loud crack resounded as the man struck a table. “GOD DAMNIT! How the fuck am I supposed to tell him Claire is going to die?”

Daniel’s heart skipped a beat and he staggered backwards.

“The doctors can’t do anything else for her except make her comfortable. Her body has started to rot from the inside out. It’s only a matter of time now.”

“But can’t-“

“I should’ve done more!” Jack shouted. “I should’ve put a bodyguard on her, I should’ve posted more soldiers at the camp, I should’ve raided shorak’s camp when I heard he had her! I should’ve done all of that! I hesitated, I chose to play nice, and now Claire will die because of that!”

There was a long silence. Finally, Ethan asked calmly, “How much time does she have?”

“A week at most. The only reason she’s still alive is the coma they put her in.”

Daniel didn’t remember changing forms again or taking flight. 1 second he was there at the window; then, he was in the air, flying hard and fast. The world around him faded to a haze.

Hot tears streaked through his feathers, blurring his vision. “No, no, no, no, no!” He screeched at the sky, agonized. Claire, his rock, his reason for fighting, his closest friend, the thing keeping him sane through all of this…

Reality came crashing back as a weight hit him from above like a semi. It happened so fast, he didn’t have time to think, to react, even to scream in pain. Agony tore through him as he crashed into a rooftop and kept going. Blue feathers tore free. He ricocheted off an AC unit and into open air. He hit a wall, then a canvas awning, then rolled off and finally slammed into concrete.

He lay there, broken and bloody. The world faded in an out around him. As he blacked out, a large shape approached him on all fours on the sidewalk…

When Daniel finally awoke again, every inch of him hurt. He could feel something wet on the ground under him. He couldn’t see, and worse, his legs and wings were tightly bound by thick ropes. He didn’t want to move, it hurt so much, but his gryphon brain panicked at being trapped. He thrashed in vain, screeched at the top of his lungs. His voice immediately reverberated off the walls. He was in a small room.

After a minute or 2 of this, he slowly forced himself to calm down, to take deep breaths. Trapped or not, prisoner or not, flailing around like a caged animal wouldn’t solve anything. He was hurt badly too, and needed to save his strength.

He quickly got himself under control and lay there motionless. He took stock of the situation and examined his surroundings as best he could. He was in a dark room, as he’d already figured out. He was on cold stone. A single door had a sliver of light along the bottom. Not outside, then. Indoors, inside a building. He could hear muffled voices outside the door.

He had a very bad feeling, deep in his gut. It wasn’t the Iron Talons - at least, he didn’t think so - and the silver claw had no reason to take him prisoner. That left only 1 group…

His ears perked up and his head jerked toward the door as it opened. His chest clenched and he felt a jolt of fear as a massive creature ducked through the doorway. He had the muscular, hairy body like a gorilla and the face of a wolf with 12-point antlers arching over its head. Heonly had 1 eye, which gazed at Daniel intently. A Cernunnos.

~The Black Hand.~

There was no question now who’d taken the gryphon. This wendigo, however, was different from the one that killed all those cops that night. He was taller and was missing his right eye instead of his left. He also didn’t have a hook hand. The thought that there were more than 1 of these monsters in the city right now made Daniel’s blood turn to ice.

“Hello, Daniel,” the man suddenly growled at him. “I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time.” He reached for the ropes binding Daniel’s front legs and the gryphon lunged at him.

With a swift movement and without hesitation, the man struck Daniel on the top of the head. Daniel’s head bounced off the floor and he saw stars.

“You’re going to do a job for me,” the wendigo said flatly, moving on immediately. “It’s in your best interests to cooperate. You’ll be well-rewarded, too.”

“Fuck you,” Daniel hissed, his feathers fluffing up instinctively.

The man suddenly frowned. He looked at something behind Daniel for a moment, then nodded. Daniel couldn’t turn to see who or what it was. “Hmmm…stubborn, even in the face of death. I like that, actually. Your great grandfather was like that.”

This gave Daniel pause. His great grandfather? What’d he have to do with anything? “What?”

“He and I worked together, a long time ago,” the man explained. “He was a good man, though a little too moral for our line of work. You’re the spitting image.”

Daniel’s mind wandered back, remembering something Dr. Morris told him. Descendants were third-generation descendants of changelings. If that’s true, it must’ve been one of his great grandparents who was a royal gryphon.

Slowly, with a turn of his stomach, Daniel realized who he was speaking to. The way he spoke, the cold superiority in his voice…he was exactly how Claire described him. “Charon?”

The man bared his sharp teeth in a grin. “In the flesh.”

Charon, the leader of the Black Hand. Claire warned him about this man. He was crazy, manipulative, sadistic, and hated humans with a passion.

Daniel shook his head. “I won’t join you.”

“I wasn’t going to ask - not yet, at least. Right now I want information from you.”

“Why the hell would I help you? Claire told me all about you.”

Again, Charon’s eyes darted to that corner of the room for a moment. “Actually, Daniel” - his grin grew - “Claire is the reason you’re going to help me.”

Daniel’s feather’s ruffled in anger. “Stay away from her!”

“You misunderstand. I don’t want to hurt her. No, I want to give you the thing you want most in the world.” He knelt down in front of the Gryphon. “I could save her.”

Daniel’s breath caught in his chest and he was suddenly uncertain. Then he shook his head. “No, she could still…”

“She’s dying, Daniel. My sources tell me she has a week left, at most. Soyronn’s Disease. Horrible way to go, truly. She’s dying and everyone knows it. You know it, I know it, the doctors know it, Ajax and Ethan know it.”

“You…” He knew Charon was baiting him, drawing him in, but the idea that this man could stop Claire from dying… “You could really save her? How?”

The wendigo shook his head. “That’s not how this works, kid. You do things for me, I give you the cure. Oh, and don’t worry, you’ll get it in time to save her.”

Daniel remained silent for a long time, torn. This was wrong and he knew it. He’d be betraying his friends, Claire included. But…if he could really save her…

“Well, what’ll it be, kid? What is that kitsune’s life really worth to you?”