Chapter Four
Catcher
My name is Catcher. It was a mantra I used to have to tell myself just to get through the day. To remind me of who I was. Keep my mind in check and back from lupine land. Less than a year ago I was a wolf, not just a werewolf born and bred, but a true wolf. All forest-prancing, flea-biting, and carcass-rolling wolf. No shame there, I loved it. I was the happiest wolf out there. Probably. When I was younger I was a pretty happy-go-lucky as a werewolf.
I wasn't as young as I used to be, but at least I could go vertical again. Then again, that wasn't always a good thing. My name is Catcher and I was much faster on four legs than I was on two. I raced down the beach after the rest of the pack, several yards behind. Surprisingly, the off-season shore-goers didn't notice three full grown wolves dashing over the sands of Corolla. Just like the humans; shield thyne eye from the unthinkable.
I panted a little by the time I caught up to where they were circling, granted I had a bag of clothes over one shoulder, but they didn't seem to care for the inconvenience. Only one was nose to the ground; a rusty coat of auburn and sandy blonds like mine. My cousin by blood, brother by affection, and the only reason I was still alive today.
We grew up together, before my wayward ways took me to the rain forests in South America. Until a nasty mutation of cells gave me an incurable disease and I came slinking back home. Rafferty was possibly the greatest healer in the world. I'd certainly had yet to meet one better than him. I mean, he cured cancer! Granted it also changed my DNA and caused me to become all wolf all the time. No, idea what the Kin adored so much about that concept. Waking up and snarling at your beloved cousin's face because you don't recognize him let alone mouthwash wasn't a walk in the park.
Then one day I woke up with the legs of a human again. A little disturbing to the folks camping in Yellowstone at the time and a little hairy trying to slip out of the real wolf pack we'd been cavorting with without them attacking in fear. We didn't know why it happened. How it happened. I chalked it up to one of those mysteries of life; accepting one's self and all that. Rafferty was determined to find a scientific reason and prodded at me more often than I liked to indulge. Who knew? Maybe some of that dark mojo anti-healing he sucked out of Suloyak actually worked on me. I didn't like to think about that too hard. All that dark and evil coiling inside me. Bleh.
"Why are we running toward the creature that ripped through space?" I called as I trotted the rest of the distance. Sand was damned hard to run in without paws, but I wasn't willing to risk the beating I would receive from my cousin if I shifted just to spare the soles of my fleshy feet. He got a little paranoid about that; thought I'd get stuck again.
And I knew why Rafferty dashed out of the beach house when we saw the strange warped gray void twisting on the coastline. Or, at least, I had my assumptions. The Auphe created those crazy, unnatural wormholes, but the Auphe were dead and the only other being in the world (that we knew of) that could do that was Caliban Leandros. And that little ray of sunshine wouldn't open a gate for a good time. Not after Raff hardwired his head like a gate-bomb.
Melee had already shifted back to human by the time I caught up, slower now because I pulled the pack to my chest to unzip it and toss her some clothes. The off-seasoners would have glazed-over eyes for a pack of wolves, but a bunch of streakers would get the local cops down here in a second. We learned that lesson already. She tugged on the sundress and motioned to the dark shape Rafferty was cautiously approaching.
"No Auphe. Discarded toy," she said. Her voice thick with a growl. It was unavoidable. The few words that she could get out in a human tongue were always that way. She was, like many, a werewolf bred for failed perfection. I thought her perfectly fine. As a wolf she was a gorgeous gray with a cute rounded snout and as a human she was (by their standards) a bit too tall, much too lanky, and her feet were permanently stretched to the toes. Nothing a 9 narrow heel couldn't hide. I nodded and brushed by her to toss a pair of board shorts at Lovett. Poor schmuck had the worst looks out of all of us; kinda mangy, on shortened legs with a mousy brown colored coat, unless he was human then he looked like a ripped surfer from Baywatch.
I smelled blood; even with the wind at my back I smelled blood. The sun was setting, leaving the beach a darkened blue and the Atlantic nearly sable, but I could see the deepening color of the water when the foam touched the body Rafferty was now dragging to shore. Blood and Auphe; man, that was a bitter scent. Ruined my appetite for the fajitas Mia was making back at the house. Then it hit me and my stomach plummeted.
Blood, Auphe, and a gate. Again, only Cal could be involved in all three. Oh shit. "Raff?"
He shook his russet head and snorted out some blood that had soaked his muzzle. It was enough of a negative reaction that I felt my body loosen. I approached, squinting in the light to make out the curves of a female. She smelled better than Cal; some sort of flora in her blood. Dark blond or brown hair, human form, pale skin from what I could tell around the blood and gore. And there was a lot of blood and gore.
"She's dead." It was more a statement than a question. I crouched beside the now-human version of my cousin and handed him another pair of board shorts without removing my eyes from the girl. Us werewolves, we had urges sometimes, but one of them was not scavenging. It took all the fun out of the hunt, picking off what was left behind. We took out a deer or two on these shores, but seeing this poor creature torn to shreds did nothing for my already uneasy stomach.
"Actually, she isn't," Rafferty corrected me. "But it's a close thing." He plucked a piece of seaweed from her shoulder, then scowled when it revealed yet another deep laceration. She had dozens of them. The most notable shaving through part of her thigh muscle near her femoral, the four rents that left no imagination on where her small intestines were, and another three razor cuts that led from her right cheek to her left breast, just missing the carotid.
I glanced at my cousin asking him without words what we should do. Lovett and Melee stood over us in waiting. Not that Rafferty was our Alpha (well, he wouldn't admit it), but this was his hunt we all bolted into and he got to choose the outcome. We weren't a typical pack considering every single one of us was either hated by, hunted by, or exiled from the Kin. The werewolf rat pack. I loved it and I knew Rafferty was quite fond of our motley crew even if he never showed it.
"I've never seen anything like her."
I gave him a dubious look, then sniffed at the body again. The tasty scent of blood was tarnish by that oily Auphe smell, made tolerable only by the woody floral undertones. And there was something else the tang of canary? "She's half Auphe, half peri," Rafferty explained, seeing the confusion on my face, which only transitioned to shock. Now that was an odd concoction.
"Younger or older?"
"Older, much older." He put emphasis there, which meant her age exceeded even ours when I was only asking if she was older than Caliban. That meant she was the first hybrid, which could make her either more deadly or crazier...or both. I looked toward Rafferty again, waiting for either his hand to touch her chest to put her out of her misery or for him to heal her enough that she didn't bleed out on the beach before we got her inside. That gouge on her leg was still pumping out blood, which meant it wasn't near her femoral but right on top of it. Probably just a nick, but that was certainly enough.
"You're call," I urged when he still didn't move. His mouth pressed into a firm line and I smirked. He didn't want to save her because that would show he wasn't the nasty prat that he pretended to be. He was born a healer, better than any other and he hated it. He hated that he had the urge to take down a deer as readily as he did to heal its fawn. Plus it would be a risk to the young ones in the house if she was insane. Not that he couldn't kill her with a flick of an internal switch, it was just that such was a little difficult if the aggressor could open a gate in your heart. Which we had to assume, since she opened a gate here.
Ultimately, my cousin placed his hand on her sternum and took away her last breath. I blinked in surprise, but didn't say a word. Not until he motioned for me to pick her up. "Uh, I think if we just leave her here the humans will assume shark or..." I tilted my head to assess her wounds. "Rabid raccoon?"
"Or they'll start noticing the wolves on the beach," Lovett pointed out behind me.
"Take her to the house."
"Raff, what are we going to do with her there? Funeral pyre?" He glared at me for the off-colored comment, then lifted her up himself. Her round face lolled back over his bicep, arms swinging like a broken doll. I stepped back and kicked at the bag's strap to snatched it up and follow after.
"I'm not about to carry someone this wounded and this dangerous into my house alive." I smirked again, not only relieved that he hadn't intended to keep her dead, but also that he called it his house. "She'd probably wake up even if I put her to sleep," he went on. "You saw what happened when I fished around in Cal's brain." The little brat tried to strangle my cousin; the Auphe half taking hold and running on self preservation alone.
"Smells odd," Melee murmured as she trailed beside Rafferty, always beside Rafferty. She was too young for either of us, but the fact that he treated her like he did me when we were kids was warming. Best thing in the world, me waking up with human legs. It let my cousin live his life again. Because in the house was Mia and her ice blue eyes followed Raff just like Melee's, only with adoration and lust. He was even good with her two pups, deny it as he might.
It wasn't the usual smiles and greetings when we slipped through the bottom level door though. The twins stayed down there with bunk beds and an air hockey table to keep them company, so two pairs of wide spring green eyes stared at us. Curiosity and noses piqued. "No," I told them, not caring it was an insulting command. The finger wag was fucking universal and I was reclaiming it. "You guys stay put."
The boys ducked back under the fort of mattress and spare sheets, whispering to each other. They were probably trying to find a way up without getting into trouble and they would indeed find one, but I wasn't concerned about that.
We followed the scent of onion, sizzling meat and cheese up the stairs, but veered off before we got to the top floor where Mia was cooking. Melee broke off to inform the mama what happened, while Lovett and I threw down a couple of towels onto the unused mattress in my room. We were renting it after all (or Lovett was). I wondered if Rafferty put her in this room on purpose for my snickering at his compassionate decision. Rafferty's was next door with a spare room between him and Melee at the end. Lovett was crashing in the master suite upstairs and Mia slept downstairs with her pups on the first level. Perfect for a happy pack of seven.
Raff laid the girl out on the bed and shook his head solemnly. I knew what he was thinking. Same fear running through my head. "It was Auphe, wasn't it?"
Rafferty sat down on my bed and pressed his knuckles to his lips. He didn't have to nod, didn't have to say a word. It was Auphe. Which meant Caliban and Niko were wrong. They weren't all dead. That also meant they'd probably go after the brothers too someday. And obviously when they meant business, even a quick gate wouldn't save you. I sighed through my nose, carefree night gone to waste. "What do you need?"
"Water bucket, towels. There's more blood than physically possible, which means it isn't all hers," he said slowly. Considering some of it looked more black than brownish red, I had to concur. I was also assuming the black splatters were from the Auphe she'd been facing and to that I had to give her silent bravo.
Rafferty's palm hovered over her leg to force it to clot, then glided up and her chest heaved with a breath. I could hear her heartbeat eagerly patter before it steadied to a normal rhythm. She didn't wake though; Rafferty was keeping her in a deep sleep. I liked to watch him work, but ridding the house of the bitter scent of Auphe blood was more pressing.
Lovett helped me get together a bucket and several hand towels, as well as the first aid kit in Melee's bathroom. Might as well patch up the less than fatal wounds so Rafferty didn't have to heal them. Both peris and Auphe were quick to heal. If my cuz could get her stable enough to let her body do the work it would be less taxing on him.
Mia came down halfway through the process. Her sharp eyes flickering over the now bare and less bloody body of the girl, then resting pointedly on Rafferty. His back was facing her, but I knew he could feel her boring gaze. With a sigh he pushed some unruly ginger locks out of his face to address her with a scowl. Yeah, both of us looked like unkempt Irishmen and we tanned just as well. I preferred the ski slopes honestly, but my stint in the Amazon was pretty fun too.
"Dinner?" she offered as if he was insulting her for not rushing up the moment the meat hit the pan. I didn't know what expression he showed her, if any, but when he turned back around I caught Mia smirking triumphantly as she scooted out of the room. She called the boys and Hunter and Chase scampered up the stairs, pointedly taking their time in front of our door to rubberneck their way into seeing what 'Uncle' Rafferty had brought home.
Lovett shooed them out, then tossed me the last clean towel. "I'm going up. Holler if she codes." I smiled at his joke, but quickly looked back at Rafferty. Lovett and I had cleaned her up to disinfect the shallower wounds –and by shallower I mean an inch or less in depth. I turned my attention on finishing the last wrapping at her ankle. By this point my cousin was breaking a little bit of a sweat.
"Stop," I told him, knocking my knuckles to his hand pressed to her forehead. "She's stable enough. You're going to strain something."
"I'm fine," Rafferty growled, flashing that angry glare at me. I wasn't intimidated.
"And if she's a psycho-loony when she wakes up and you're low on juice?"
He paused at that and wiped both hands to his board shorts. "What the hell does this mean?" he sighed. I gnawed at the inside of my bottom lip and flicked a piece of the girl's hair out of her face. She was cute for a humanoid. Round face, full lips, what looked to be big eyes and a pretty rockin' body. The scars would heal in time, but they'd always be there. I wasn't letting my cousin waste his energy on cosmetic shit like that.
"It means our little brothers aren't out of the woods yet," I muttered.
Rafferty groaned and stood from my bed, walking around to leave the room. "Like we need this right now." I watched him go and just sat on the edge of the desk chair for another moment. I tilted my head as I looked over the halfbreed. Maybe we did need this right now. A half peri half Auphe could kick some serious Kin ass.
Ah right, I so tried to forget. Happy little misfit wolf pack in hiding from a massive mafia of our brethren that wanted Rafferty's servitude. My name is Catcher and they weren't taking either of us alive.
I was surprised Rafferty left the girl in my room that night. Surprised only because he usually liked to keep his patients near him or, if they were as lethal as we could assume this creature was, in complete isolation.
Currently, I watched her as she slept from the corner of my eye while I read on my own bed. My belly was full with Mia's delicious breakfast, still marveling that I wasn't killed in the middle of the night by the cute little thing. I knew Rafferty had encouraged her body to shut down in slumber for twenty four hours at least, but I also knew Auphe had a tendency to exceed expectations as easily as they thrashed them to pieces.
Rafferty and I hadn't had too many experiences with the vicious race, but we knew Caliban. I still recalled with horrific clarity, our dear friend trying to choke my cousin to death after he askedRaff to clip his gating wings. Instincts could be violent things. And no being appreciated someone mucking around in their brain, cutting wires and dampening senses.
She didn't wake last night, at least not that I noticed the few times I dragged myself out of sleep to make sure I still had a pulse. She barely moved save for a few muscle twitches or a tilt of the head. But I watched her all the same, fearing the scream or sudden attack that might occur when she opened her eyes to a very unfamiliar sight and a wolf in the next bed over. I hoped she didn't have a grudge against our breed; that would certainly put a glitch in this situation.
Rafferty came in around noon. A brief peek into the room to glance over his patient and then give me a steady look. Not a word spoken, but none needed when there was nothing to say. He went back to his room and I went back to my book. It was still refreshing to be able to hold the pages open with opposable thumbs instead of dingy paws. Just like being able to communicate outside of a tail wag or a pencil to a laptop keyboard. It really made you appreciate the little things, like the feel of the page sliding over my fingertip.
Yeah, the little things. Like seeing my cousin leave the house without fear of what will happen to me while he was gone. Like looking into his eyes and finally seeing some of the guilt fade away. He beat himself up for what happened to me, when he was only guilty of saving his blood. It was good to finally see him enjoy the life he refused to live without me all those years. It was also good to see his libido hadn't completely died out; he thought he could hide those shared wanton looks between Mia and him.
There was a shudder and a sudden jolt from the body on the bed next to me. Before I could raise my chin from the horrible mystery book that I found on the shelf filled with out-of-date VHS tapes and beaten up board games, she was braced into a sitting position by way of one arm behind her and the other lifted for defense if necessary. Her eyes fell on me almost instantly, an interesting shade of ruddy red, like cherry wood or mahogany.
"Hi," I said jauntily. I gave her a smile too, hoping if my tone didn't show my amiability the fact that I hadn't moved from my lounging position on the bed would. She didn't bare her teeth or flex her fingers to claws or anything remotely threatening. She just stared at me with full lips parted and dark blond eyebrows pulled tightly together. "My name is Catcher." I almost laughed aloud when the former mantra came out of my mouth unconsciously. Instead, I kept on the innocuous smile and folded the paperback closed in my lap. "Before you panic. You're safe. You're in a beach house in North Carolina. And yes, we're all wolves, but we mean you no harm."
Her eyes flickered away from me to lay unfocused on the foot of the bed as she processed this. Then she tossed the sheets from her body. I thought she might be attempting to get out of the bed and rose from my own to stop her, but she merely looked down at her body, assessing the damage the Auphe left behind, post-healing. Her free hand flitted over her wrapped thigh that had been slashed to the point she almost bled out, to her stitched together stomach that had been torn enough that her intestines were exposed, and then to her cheek where there were still pink puffed up lines from deadly black claws that had just missed her artery.
Her hand fell to her lap and she sat up so she could bring both hands together. She did so without much of a cringe, though I knew she was in pain. Rafferty may have been a bleeding heart to save her, but he wasn't about to sacrifice his energy for a half Auphe that we didn't even know was stable, especially with the Kin sniffing at our paw prints. "You want me to get you something? Water? Vicodin?"
Didn't actually have the latter, but it was more of an ice breaker anyway. Her dark eyes flickered back over to me. "I need to pee."
I laughed aloud, glad to see she had a sense of humor or at least the same blunt way as my cousin. I motioned to the cracked open door at the back of the room. It joined this room and Rafferty's, but I doubted she would mind. "I can imagine. You've been unconscious for almost twenty hours." I edged closer as she started to scoot off the bed. "You want some help?"
"I think I got it." She said as much, but the moment she put weight on her damaged leg, she went down to the wood floor. Several of her wounds, including the less devastating of them, had cut into muscle and that took a bit longer to heal than a few hours. I hastened over, kneeing beside her to lift her into a sitting position.
"Thanks," she murmured. I got her up on her feet and helped her into the bathroom. I left her to it then, figuring she could handle it and doubted she wanted me around while she relieved herself.
I could hear the rush of water from a bladder long over-strained and waited for the flush, before I asked, "So I'm Catcher. What's your name?"
"Cassie," she replied. She opened the door and leaned against the threshold as she dried off her hands. She'd wrapped a towel around herself, making me realize she had been naked when she woke. Usually that would unnerve most (us werewolves didn't care much about it since we were naked when we shifted) but she hadn't panicked at all. She still looked unbelievably flushed due to healing from the near-death experience. Her pale skin shined with a patina of sweat from a fever and her mahogany eyes were hooded in fatigue. Her eyebrows, a shade or two dark her than her matted hair, were twisted, but it didn't seem to be in pain. "Did I die?"
I smirked at her candor. "For a little while."
This hit her a little hard. I saw her face pale and her cute round jaw tightened in disquiet. Not that I blamed her. Finding out that you were conceivably dead for several minutes probably wouldn't sit well in my stomach either and I had a stomach of steel. Rafferty always looked at me with horror at some of the meals I put together, marveling at how I could keep the concoctions down regardless of spices or mixed flavor. I figured it all went to the same place anyway.
"Where am I?" I let her take careful steps back toward the bed, easing down on the mattress like every muscle in her body was aching. I handed her one of Melee's sheath dresses and she gingerly slipped it on. Her own clothes were so torn and frayed from the battle that they hadn't covered her modesty much. Blood caked on almost every inch of the fabric so we trashed them. We'd washed her off as best we could with a wet rag and a bucket of water. Her skin looked clean enough, but I knew remnants were sticky on her flesh and probably felt pretty uncomfortable.
"North Carolina," I told her again. I wasn't going to fault her for not getting that the first time. "You sure you don't want some water?"
"Cheese-steak…and a root beer."
Oh, I adored this girl already. I smiled and tilted my head in consideration. "I think I can scrounge up a Hot-pocket and a coke." Cassie gave me a weary smile and shook her head.
"No, I'm fine. I think." She lifted her head, eyebrows knitted again. "Was I alone?"
"When we found you on the beach? Yeah, no Auphe in sight," I assured her. "Guess they thought the job was done."
"So did I," she said softly. I watched her rub her hands up and down her arms. Lucky she didn't have much body hair so the blood didn't catch or matte there. Must have been an Auphe thing, because despite his dark mop of hair, Caliban didn't have much body hair either. I couldn't go a day without shaving unless I wanted a nice scruffy beard popping up along my jaw. "It's not just you here."
It wasn't a question but a statement and considering Cal's nose was pretty stellar even if not as hypersensitive as a werewolf's I could assume she could smell the other werewolves here. "There are seven of us. Five adults and two pups." I didn't really count Melee as an adult personally, but she was too well into her years to be considered a pup anymore.
"You're a pack?"
"Of misfits and exiled degenerates," I offered. She smiled at that, a small thing and fleeting, but it was warm. Being half Auphe I knew she'd understand the sense of being abandoned by her kin, ridiculed and cast aside, hunted and threatened. Caliban never got how well we understood him, but with her age I had no doubt Cassie would. "Let me get you that water. I need to get my cousin too, he should check you over."
"I'm fine," Cassie tried to assure. I ignored her; I need to get Rafferty anyway and I could smell the lunch beginning upstairs. Considering it was Lovett's turn to cook that meant lunch meats and whole grains coming out of their plastic wrappers.
"I'll be right back." I pointed accusingly at her. "Don't you run off anywhere."
I jogged up the stairs to the kitchen. The din was loud enough that I knew everyone was out of bed and ready to cause trouble. Most of that statement was for Hunter and Chase, since they'd slept in that morning, which normally led to something breaking by two in the afternoon due to their energy levels being so high. At the moment they were running around the kitchen table like a Nascar race, while the adults dutifully pretended to ignore them. As I suspected, fresh ham and turkey were laid out with condiments on the table –retrieved from a special butcher who left it a bit under cooked for us. Wolves might like to hunt and feast on the kill, but sometime honey smoked ham just hit the spot.
Lovett grunted and motioned to his wide display with pride. I gave him a mock thumbs-up since this had been the same spread as the week before. Granted he did change up the meat choices. Rafferty had either decided he was sick of sandwiches or ate before Lovett got it together because his place mat was bare and he was leaned back in his chair watching the boys circle around him. He glanced up when I approached the table, raising his brow.
"She's up," I informed him, snatching up a slice of ham and popping it in my mouth. "Sane, cracking jokes, and doing okay." Raff still got up from the table and wordlessly headed downstairs. I decided to get together some food and water for her before I did the same.
"So she's not a homicidal maniac?" Lovett inquired from around the crunch of a potato chip. I grabbed a root beer, when I saw Lovett had gotten a case, on top of the sandwich piled high with turkey, ham and cheese and a bottle of water. Although females did tend to be a little more reserved about their appetites, I had to assume Cassie could pack it in with the best of any of us werewolves, since Caliban sure could.
"Not that I can tell," I offered. I stacked everything on a plate and tucked the two drinks under my arm. "She seemed pretty fun actually. I'll send her up if Raff says it's okay." He saluted me in response.
Downstairs, my bedroom was empty, but the sliding door leading to the second level balcony was open and the drapes were billowing in the slight breeze. I put down the plate of food and the can of root beer on the small nightstand next to her bed, keeping the water with me since that was what she really needed. Rafferty was with her outside, both standing at the wood railing overlooking the pool and, farther out, the sand and surf. I could see dolphins loping around in the water just past a few novice surfers lollygagging about near the shore.
"Thank you." Those were the first clear words I heard and they were from Cassie to my cousin. Her expression shone the gratitude even more genuinely than the words. He'd been talking as I made my way outside, but I'd only made out that he was giving her the laundry list of injuries she had, maybe at her request.
"Hey," I interrupted and handed her the water. "Drink this. You're probably dehydrated and that won't help the healing process." She accepted the bottle with a warm smile and turned back to the railing.
"I've never known wolves to live on the beach. Seems like the hunting would be slim, unless you prefer the carnal taste of a human…" she said it with caution and a hint of disdain.
"Nah, they're too gamey." I gave her a reassuring smile. "There are a lot of deer in this area and, surprise, surprise, a butcher that has a really good cut of sirloin. Besides this is temporary. Just one stop on our great escape."
"Escape from what?"
"The Kin." Rafferty gave me a sharp look for revealing our weakness to a complete stranger. I didn't think it mattered, honestly. Cassie seemed to have greater problems of her own and there was no way she could use ours to benefit. The Auphe cared about the Kin about as much as a Coyote cares about a human. Leave the Coyote alone and it will just snarl and go about its business, try and get in its way of prey and you were a dead man.
Cassie let off a little grunt, one corner of her mouth quirking into a smirk. "Yeah, they're not too fond of me either." The smile fell and her red-brown eyes hooded as they gaze out to the ocean. "But maybe I should go then. You certainly don't need the Auphe popping in if you have wolves on your tail. Hell, you don't need Auphe popping in even if your life is smooth sailing." She sighed, shook her head, and pushed back from the railing. "I should go."
"I'm not going to chain you here," Rafferty cut in, even as he stepped in front of her when she started for the stairs behind him. "But considering I spent the energy to save you, I'd prefer you wait to run off on suicide missions afteryou've healed completely."
A guilt play. I was stunned. Rafferty rarely played on guilt, plus it would seem ridiculous that such would work on a half Auphe. It did though, which I could only attribute to her being part peri as well. They were the supernatural equivalent of a Catholic; guilt ran in their blood. "Conditionally, I'll stay. But if I scent or sense one Auphe within a hundred yards of here…I'm not putting your lives at risk for bed rest." Rafferty lifted his ruddy eyebrows and gave her a nod of agreement. "In the meantime, as thanks, is there anything I can do to help you with the Kin?"
Rafferty glanced over at me briefly before he replied, "If they come, kill them."
Cassie gave a stout nod, without question. She didn't ask anymore and we didn't say.