strange_natures

There’s duct tape residue on her wrist. Thewlis picks at it absently, mostly to help herself keep a mask of calm. You’re a stone-cold bitch. Remember that. Being kidnapped in the middle of the night is just a day ending in a Y.

It’s a lot easier to keep that mask on now than it might have been a few years ago. There’s something to be said for practice.

So she leans against a mobster's desk as though she isn’t wearing Lilo & Stitch pyjamas. As though the blood-soaked fabric isn’t cold and clammy against her skin. She stands there and rubs left-over glue into grey blobs with one thumb. Relaxed, as though the screams and useless gunfire don’t bother her. As though she isn’t mentally totting up the body-count. Just a day ending in a Y.

The blood isn’t hers. Most of it belongs to the former owner of the disembodied arm that lays by her bare foot like an offering.

“Call off your fucking dog,” Bain says from the corner he's crawled into. His voice is a hoarse whisper, the sound of a man who’s also totting up a body-count, and doesn’t like what it means for his own survival. A man who regrets his attempt to remove the head of the Odd Squad from his case. Then his eyes widen, his gaze fixed on something behind her. All the blood drains from his face.

She doesn’t look. She doesn’t have to. She’d recognise Toby’s deep, bass rumble purr anywhere.

The vampire takes his customary spot on her left, the position his subspecies instinctively reserves for the pack-leader’s favourite. He doesn’t say a word, but his stance is a plea for orders. Eager to please the human he imprinted upon.

Bain’s eyes widen even further when the screaming and gun-fire don’t stop, evidence of more than one monster. They almost bug when Thewlis holds up a hand for Toby to rub his cheek against. It's tacky with blood, dragging against her fingers.

“Here’s the thing, Bain, I can barely call off this big ol’ puddy-tat,” Thewlis says as Toby’s purr crescendoes. Any louder and it might drown out the grown man pleading for his mummy in the next room. “You’re on your own with the rest of them.”

*

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