Page 27

"You know I'd never share your secrets, Quinn," Lain said, and he sounded hurt that Quinn would even imply it.

"I know. There's no one I trust more than you, but this is different. Just… please?"

There was another long silence, long enough to make me nervous. I'd promised Quinn we would stay, though.

"I swear to you I won't tell a single being about whatever it is I'm about to see."

Something about the way he phrased that, the words he used, tickled the back of my mind, but there was no time to dwell on it, because a moment later, the door opened and two humans stood framed in the doorway.

For a moment, just a whisper of a second, I considered curling in on myself, making myself smaller and less intimidating, but the beast refused that idea before it even fully formed, and I was inclined to agree. This was us. If this human couldn't handle it, then we'd deal with that later.

We lay still on the deck, taloned front legs stretched out in front of us, segmented tail coiled up behind, draped across the wooden deck. Our wings lay at our sides, too damaged to hold upright. Even lying down, we were nearly tall enough to meet the human's eyes without having to look up. We breathed in his scent, immediately recognizing him now. Quinn came home every day with the faint scent of another human on him, and we'd wondered who it was. Now we knew.

Lain, for his part, hadn't moved or even breathed since he laid eyes on us. His mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound came out. He just stood there staring at us, and there was no disguising his fear. It was tempered by confusion, curiosity, and an odd resignation I couldn't place.

"Lain?" Quinn stood just behind his friend. Perhaps to stop him in case he tried to run? "Lain, did I break you?"

"Maybe." It came out as a raspy whisper, and Lain cleared his throat a few times, never once looking away from us. "What the fuck?"

"I told you it was impossible to explain." Quinn stepped forward, and it forced Lain to do the same, putting both humans on the back deck with us. The big black dog had stayed behind, standing sentry over us, but he rose to greet this new human, leaning against his legs.

"Hey, Rom," Lain murmured, petting the dog but still staring at us. "I just… I… seriously, Quinn, what the actual fuck?"

"Lain, this is Typhon. Typhon, this is my friend Lain. He can help you."

Lain didn't seem to entirely agree with that statement, but he didn't outright deny it. He kept himself as close to the door as he could, though.

"It has a name?"

We bristled at the insult, sitting up straighter and staring down the human. Lain took a quick step back, knocking into Quinn, who hurriedly steadied him.

"Yes, he has a name. Kind of. I suggested it and he agreed, so it's his name until we learn otherwise, I guess."

"What do you mean he agreed?"

"Exactly what I said. He's not some mindless monster. He's intelligent, and he needs our help."

"Help with what? He seems pretty self-sufficient to me." His eyes lingered on our tail, specifically the deadly point at the end. A full dose of the venom we carried could kill a fully grown human in minutes. Even just a few drops could kill someone if left untreated.

We spared a quick thought for the one human we'd struck that we remembered. A man in the woods, the one who traveled with the skin-changers who'd hurt us. We'd scratched him with our stinger before the skin-changers forced us to flee. I wondered if he'd survived. The beast didn't care.

"He's injured and I don't know what to do to help anymore," Quinn said, and our attention focused on him again. "I've cleaned the wounds, but his wing…" He trailed off, and both he and Lain looked at our right wing, where bone broke through skin and the membrane was shredded. Every twitch, every tiny shift of that wing hurt, fire burning through the entire wing, but we were used to pain and knew how to hide it, even if I didn't remember why.

"That's not good," Lain murmured, head tilted to study it. He took a step closer, then must have remembered what we were and hurriedly moved back. "So, you want me to treat him?"

"Please. I can't exactly call Dr. Chapman about this. You're the only one I trust, Lain."

For some reason, that made Lain wince. It was only a moment, and Quinn didn't seem to see it, but we did.

"Thank you for trusting me, but we need to think about this," he said, not taking his eyes off us. "Let's say I can treat him. Are we going to be unleashing an unknown predator into the wilderness and just hoping he doesn't attack humans?"

"I don't think he'd do that."

Lain glanced over at his friend, raising an eyebrow. "Quinn, those talons aren't for chopping salads. Herbivores don't need scorpion tails."

"He can eat human food. We just had pizza earlier. I know how it looks, but he hasn't tried to hurt me at all."

The beast grumbled at the thought of hurting our Quinn. It was a low growl, but it caught Lain's attention, and the human narrowed his eyes at us.