Tati whined incoherently.
The man—Xavier—drifted closer to Kit. Xavier was tall, with poker straight, shoulder-length blue-black hair. He wore stacks of rings on every finger, the gemstones adorning each one sparkling despite the lack of light. “You have a dark aura,” Xavier said. “A shadow hangs over you.”
“Don’t comment on my aura,” Kit said, tensing as Xavier continued to move closer, placing himself between Kit and Quin.
Xavier smirked. “Apologies,” he said, not even attempting sincerity.
Quin growled again, drawing their attention. Tati sped over, the remains of her shirt fluttering around her. “Xavier, the beast is going to kill Master!”
“Only because you tried to kill him first,” Kit said. Done with the standoff, he ran towards Tati, intent on removing her head, but a firm grasp on his arm stopped him. He yelped, Xavier’s hand catching him where Conroy had shot him. Xavier’s grip was like iron, leaving Kit unable to escape.
Multiple things happened at once. Quin roared, dropping Conroy. Tati advanced on Kit, but Xavier held a hand out, stopping her. Roxy yelled a warning, but Kit was so busy trying to free himself from Xavier’s hold that he wasn’t sure of her exact words.
Quin came rushing towards them, but Xavier pulled Kit in front of him like he weighed nothing. Quin skidded to a halt a few feet away as Xavier’s free hand gripped tight under Kit’s jaw,forcing his head upwards. The rings on Xavier’s fingers burned hot against his skin.
“I don’t want to hurt you, little one,” Xavier said, leaning down to speak in Kit’s ear. “But if your werewolf doesn’t back down, then this might have to go that way.”
Frozen in shock at Xavier’s ability to overpower him so easily, Kit could only ask, “What are you?”
Roxy answered. “We’re witches. I’m unlucky enough to be tethered to that one,” she said, jerking her thumb at Conroy. “I’d appreciate it if you both stopped trying to murder him.”
Kit didn’t know what tethered meant, but he wasn’t in a position to argue her point.
Conroy was on his feet, dusting himself off. “Roxy, darlin’, can we talk about this?”
Roxy turned on him. “Are you quite done with almost getting yourself torn to pieces?”
Kit squirmed, wondering if he could wriggle free of Xavier. Quin kept his eyes on Kit; his twitching ears the only sign he was paying attention to the others.
Kit inched his claws closer to the witch’s thighs, intent on sticking them where it would hurt.
“Don’t even think about it,” Xavier warned, his rings heating further and making Kit hiss.
Kit left his arms dangling at his sides, impotent. Quin pressed himself closer to the ground with a growl, looking ready to pounce on Xavier.
“Just do what they say, Quin,” Kit said. As loath as Kit was to admit defeat, he and Quin were outnumbered, overpowered and at the whims of the witches. Even with his werewolf face, Kit could tell that Quin was unhappy. But he lay down flat, his tongue falling out of his mouth as he panted. The scent of his silver-tainted blood permeated the air, so thick and cloying that Kit almost gagged on it.
“Please let me go to him,” Kit said. “He’s hurt.”
“Do you promise not to attack anyone?” Xavier murmured.
“They were the ones attacking us. We only defended ourselves.”
“That may be so, but I need your word before I release you.”
“I promise,” Kit gritted out.
Xavier—to Kit’s surprise—let him go. He stumbled over to Quin, burying himself into his side. Quin’s big head turned into Kit, rubbing against his shoulder. Quin’s fur was soft where it wasn’t matted with blood.
Kit searched for the bullet wound, relief flooding him when he found only grazes. It had been enough to get into Quin’s bloodstream, however. Kit contemplated sucking the poison out of him, like he would with dead blood in another vampire. But he had no idea if Quin’s beating heart would have pumped the silver throughout his body.
“Now that everyone has stopped trying to kill one another, can we have a truce?” Roxy asked. Clearly, she saw herself as the one in charge.
“We were just having a bit of fun.”
Kit peeked out from behind Quin to shoot daggers at Conroy, whose arms were thrown out wide.
“Hunting down a werewolf and one of your own is fun to you?” Roxy said in such a way that it was obvious that she didn’t expect Conroy to respond.
