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Elves were always heavy. Their magic had once fought dragons on the daily. An unconscious elf might as well be a wild dragon refusing to budge up off your roof. Still I dragged him along until the trees hid us from any passing vehicles. This stretch of highway was dry both of rain and usually of cars, but I wasn’t taking any chances. Any time Juda and I were spotted on Earthside rumors flew wild for years and new flurries of voices flooded in, giving my mate headaches.
Pit hounds weren’t a natural thing. Most folks could never become pit hounds because usually they needed to be in the ‘Pit’ first. Most folks weren’t that bad. Most folks figured out their own bullshit and left me alone. Still, if someone already had an inner beast, they couldn’t become a pit hound because there wasn’t anywhere to shove the runt.
Pit hounds occurred naturally in the wild. They were born in the same litters as the three headed dogs, but came with only one. While the three headed pups would never agree to merge with a person – usually because they had too many brains with too many opposing thoughts, the single headed pups were usually up for the challenge. When things worked out, the pit hound and person were bound for this life and all the lives to come after. When it didn’t work – the person went to the Pit and the pit hound returned home to his pack.
I whistled and the big black dog with glowing icy eyes scampered out of the bushes I told him to wait in. He only had one head, but it was massive, and his muzzle alone was as long as my forearm. This particular good boy had three tails that all wagged in tandem as he circled around the unconscious Terrick Lost Fang.
“What do you think? Is he worth it, boy?” I asked, scratching him behind one of his massive ears.
The pit hound didn’t answer me. He knew what we were here to do, but they were quiet guys and gals for the most part. He barked once and pounced on Terrick’s sleeping chest. He pounced two more times before the pit of his soul cracked wide open and allowed him to sink into the crevice left behind. That would be one helluva wound to heal in the Pit, but if he managed to find himself before the next full moon it would heal up right around the ‘good boy’ now living inside him.
Terrick’s life had been hard, but a hard life didn’t give anyone the right to become a monster. That was something Grady Moore and I still talked in circles. I talked a lot of things in circles with all the folks in my Pit. We all have pain, but we’re all emotional alchemists. Either we turn that pain into something kind, beautiful, or useful or we become those who tore us apart.
I wasn’t about to dump Terrick into Scott’s lap, but I did leave him just outside the Other World gateway in Heartville. He could sniff off his counterpart. Even if his vampyric sense failed him, the pit hound’s nose would always lead him homeward.
Chapter Four
Terrick
I sniffed before I opened my eyes. What the fuck had I done? Where the fuck was I? Okay. No. Back track. Who was I? Anger pounded in my temples and my tails wagged. Tails? That was new, right? That was definitely new.
“Come on! Come on!” A low but chipper voice sounded off inside my thoughts.
“Who are you? Why are you inside my head?” I asked, wanting to rub temples that were no longer there.
I did have temples, right? Once upon a time I was pretty sure I walked on two legs, because these paws were strange. I couldn’t wrap my mind around lumbering around so close to the ground.
“I’m you now! Well, maybe! Come on! The red headed one awaits!”
“Who?” I blinked.
“Our mate!” The voice said and my tails all wagged so hard I was pretty sure my ass was going to take off like a fucking helicopter.
“Mate?”
“Come on! You have to let me get up! We’ve got to go! Time is short and the trip is long!”
“I think I’m hung over. I don’t feel like going on a trip,” I groaned.
“The walk is short, but the trip is long,” the voice said again. “Come on! Aren’t you happy to have a mate? A true-mate.”
True-mate.
The words echoed around my thoughts and hit square in my chest. While I couldn’t figure out why I was here or who I was angry with, that was a phrase I knew. True-mate: The man I chose to spend every life with while we were all just talking wisps in the Other World. Maybe he’d know what the fuck was going on with me. Maybe he’d know why I was suddenly a dog when I was ninety percent sure I hadn’t always been.
I gave into the many-tailed off and allowed him to rise to his paws. They were just as massive as the rest of him. He lumbered forward, skidding along the dirt, as he picked up speed. Scents flew at me from every direction. A deer was nearby and my throat burnt for its blood.
“No time to eat the deer! Gotta get the mate! The trip is short, but the journey is long!” The weird dog sounded off inside my thoughts again.
Was this a dream? Was I laid up in some hospital bed with someone trying to wake me up? If so, who was shaking me? Who was watching for me to come back? Surely, even if I wasn’t dreaming all this, someone had to be looking for me. I lost track of what the dog was doing or where he was headed. My thoughts spun over and over. Maybe I’d always been a dog and just couldn’t remember it. Maybe I had a concussion or something. Maybe I was bespelled. If I was, I bet a dragon did it. That’s the sort of nonsense dragons got up to.
In the end, it didn’t matter. I was along for the ride until I woke up or remembered who I was and why I was here in this weird smelling village. Sleep pulled at the edges of my mind. It would’ve been so easy to slip down into the abyss and just say fuck it. Except, one scent pulled at everything I was. The dog opened his mouth and breathed in. The scent of the true-mate I was yet to meet washed over me: Warm, coppery, and somewhere between sorrow and rage. That last part felt like home. Sorrow and rage made great bedfellows because one always led to the others.
“MATE! THE MATE! OUR MATE!” the weird dog sounded off in my thoughts and picked up speed.
Chapter Five
Scott
