Chapter 40: Bark & Bite

I gazed on as the girl, now known to me as Max, jumped over the railing of the staircase and landed gracefully on the balls of her feet. She stood up to her full height, actually rolling her shoulders in the process, exuding an obvious air of confidence. Almost like Alyssa.

I analyzed her out of instinct. Tanned skin, which was a little bit lighter than Nudge's, about as tall as I was, and wings covered with different tones of browns mixed with an off-white color, much like an hawk. Not only that, but she was pretty. Really pretty. She would be a real looker if she mingled with normal people. That is, if they didn't notice her toned arms and legs, which were completely exposed by her simple black shorts and white t-shirt ensemble. Actually, scratch that. She would still have guys chasing after her, even if they felt inferior and less manly in her presence.

Why do I get the feeling that we won't get along, I thought as she looked toward us.

"Max, I was just about to call you. We have company that I thought you might want to see," said Jake, his voice and facial expressions completely under his control once more. I stared at him in astonishment.

How did he get so calm all of a sudden? Is she pulling his strings or something?

"So I noticed," Max said as she ambled toward us. "Wait. One of them is missing. Where's the blond shrimp?"

"You don't need to concern yourself over her. She is being dealt with," Jake quickly replied.

Max let out a snort. "Yeah right. That sounds like something you would say when you don't have the situation under control. Did you manage to even get her?" Jake clenched his jaw but didn't respond to her question.

Ah, I get it now. There's a power struggle between them.

"Max...you should...we thought you were dead," stuttered Nudge, still unable to take her bewildered stare away from Max's face.

"I was just about to say the same thing to you guys. I have to give you props for surviving this long. You probably wouldn't be here if I was out and about, but then again, I've been under some crappy management lately," replied Max in a matter-of-fact tone as she glanced in Jake's direction. Jake ignored the comment as if Max hadn't even opened her mouth. Instead, he glanced over at the three Erasers that were holding Nudge, Iggy, and Gazzy.

"Well, now that introductions are over with, take those three downstairs."

I gritted my teeth. I should have known that he would separate us.

"Sir," spoke up one Eraser. "The dog?" He raised up the silent bag that Total was in. Jake turned his attention to him with annoyance clearly etched in his face, like a teacher when a student asks them a dumb question.

"Just kill him."

I blanched. Gazzy began struggling against his captor as the Eraser started pulling him away from the line. Nudge was giving more of a fight; her Eraser had to pull her by the chains on her wrists and drag her on the ground as she flailed her legs, yelling the word "no" repeatedly while tears streaked down her cheeks. I watched anxiously with a cluster of thoughts running through my mind as the Erasers made their way to an area behind the couch.

Where are they taking them? There's only two doors out of here and they're not using any of them. Is there a trap door in here? And what about Total? Will they really kill him?

I looked toward Jake, actually placing my hopes on the idea that he would change his brash decision. His back was turned toward us as he talked to some of his idle Erasers and Max, who looked absolutely bored with the conversation. I mentally cursed at my situation, at myself for even depending on Jake for a fraction of a second, and especially at my inability to do anything at all. Lowering my head in frustration, my eyes scanned the intricately colored tiled floor, mixed with many different hues of copper and ivory, as if somehow the tiles themselves would give me an answer to the dilemma that I was in.

I can't use any of my powers right now, especially not my 'third hand' to crush all of them. I'm mentally drained. I can't afford to pass out here. I just have to depend on brute force, which won't last long against this many people. Maybe if I struggle out of Leo's grasp, I'll be able to save Total at the very least...but they wouldn't really kill him so soon, would they? Maybe they will hold him captive for a little bit. That might give me some time to come up with a good plan...

That's a whole lot of maybe's. What it really comes down to is how vicious this batch of Erasers are...

I looked up then, watching the Eraser that was following behind the other three and carrying Total in that small burlap sack slung over his shoulder as if he was some kind of sacrifice that he was bringing back home from a long day of hunting. Other than his already grotesque wolfish figure, however, he didn't look as if he was interested at all. The features on his face oozed with indifference. I didn't want to look into his mind to see what he was really thinking - it was too much of a risk - so I began to place my hopes on those maybe's.

He's just a dog. They really want to get their hands on us. He'll hold no interest to them, so they'll leave him alone.

At that moment, I caught a brief smile off of the Eraser's face. His smirk showed his wolfish canines, and it almost looked like he was salivating. He even kept flexing his free hand and tapping his growing nails on his pant leg in impatience. It was then that I knew what they were going to do to him. They weren't just planning on killing Total. They were going to torture him slowly, and maybe even rip him to shreds before taking his last breath.

If Leo hadn't anticipated that I would try to make a break for it sooner or later, I would have bolted right out of his grasp and dashed towards my friends that were being led away. Instead, he wrapped the chain that was connected to my handcuffs around his hand to limit how far I could go and even placed his free hand on my shoulder with an unyielding grip. Even with all of that, he still had to force me on my knees in order to gain control as I continued to struggle.

"If your mutts touch one hair on Total, I swear to God I will!-" I hollered toward Jake's back. He rapidly turned and glared at me.

"What! What can you do, huh?!" he snapped back. The entourage of Erasers that were escorting my friends out froze in place and watched the scene, but I wasn't paying too much attention to them. With no response ready at the tip of my tongue to lash out to him, I closed my mouth.

He was right. What could I do at the moment? I was pretty much incapacitated, with not enough energy to use any of my powers and not enough physical power to fight them all. And I knew that I was disregarding my earlier plan to not start a fight, but things had changed drastically. No one was supposed to die in the process. But I hated that he was right! So I returned his glare, silently wishing that he would back down and change his mind. Complete silence had fallen over all of us at that moment. All I could hear was the thrumming of my own pumping heart. But no matter how stubborn Jake wanted to be, there was no way that I was going to let him win - a fact that was proven seconds later when his gaze slowly but surely softened.

And then Max started clapping.

"Oh, just look at the little runt. Are you frustrated that you can't do anything?" mocked Max as she passed by Jake and strolled over to me. I stared at her feet as she finally came to a halt in front of me, but not being satisfied with just looming over my body, she leaned down and grabbed my chin in her hand so that I had no other choice but to turn my glare on her face. "The wittle baby looks like she's gonna cwy."

I yanked my chin away from her grasp just before gathering a large amount of saliva in my mouth and letting it out right in her face. Max froze, unable to conceive that there was fluid running down her face. She abruptly stood up, angrily wiping my spit off in the process, and made her way toward the Erasers and their fugitives. She grabbed the bag that Total was in from one of the Erasers, took the metal bar that he was also holding, then looked dismissively at the other two. "You can take the other two brats away," she directed. They followed orders and stood on what seemed to be a part of the floor, but soon lowered itself with only a small humming sound that indicated that gears were even working in the first place.

Swiveling back in my direction, she pulled opened the bag and pulled out Total's head. "I knew you were stupid, but I never thought that you would try to pick a fight with me over this little piece of shit," she spat out angrily. Total's eyes were closed, and I could only hope that he had fallen unconscious from the lack of oxygen in the bag. "I'll show you the price of messing with me."

Turning back on her heel, she tossed the bag to the nearest unoccupied Eraser. He easily caught it, but held the bag with apprehension, unsure what exactly he was supposed to do with it. Max walked towards me, coming so close that I would grab her if I wasn't restrained, and sneered in my direction. "All right, batter up!" she exclaimed as she got into position and started practicing her swings with the metal bar. The Eraser, now understanding Max's motive, grinned maliciously while aligning himself with her and prepared to throw the bag that Total was in like a baseball.

"Max, stop this!" cried out Fang. He managed to shrug off his captor's hand off of one shoulder, only for it to be grabbed again more fiercely.

"Fang, you stay out of this," replied Max. She glanced back to look at me once more and smiled before sweetly saying, "This is just between us girls."

"Please...please don't," I begged, sounding mousy even to myself. She ignored me and turned her attention back to the Eraser with a gloating grin on her face. I hung my head, unable to watch what was about to happen. I caused this. I brought it to this point, and now I can't do anything to stop it. I'm so weak. Total, I'm so sorry...

"Enough."

My head snapped back up and right in front of me stood Jake standing behind Max and holding the top half of the metal pipe so that she couldn't swing it. She spun around to face him while still clenching the bottom half of the pipe as if it was her toy. "What the hell are you doing?!" she flared.

"I'm ending this," Jake calmly stated as he gazed down at her with cold eyes.

"Why?! Just look at how pathetic she is! I was about to break her, and you want to step in and ruin my fun? I don't think so." Max tugged at the pipe, but it wouldn't budge any closer to her. "You better let go if you know what's good for you."

There was nothing but silence for only a short moment before the half that Jake was holding suddenly broke off and fell to the ground with a resounding 'clank'.

"I said, enough."

There was no falter in his tone. This was an absolute command. Max flinched as the metal made contact with the ground and stepped away from Jake's overbearing figure. She clutched what was left of the pipe tighter before regaining her composure once more.

"Pathetic." She finally tossed the pipe away and stormed past Jake toward the stairs without looking back at any of us, like a child throwing a tantrum. After Max had walked through the door, Jake sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed.

"Get them out of here."

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