He was lovely. I wasn't sure how I'd never noticed that before, but as I followed him through the eerily silent street, I was stuck staring at the rippling muscles of his back and legs. This man was the ultimate hunter. He was made to not be seen. Even his pretty coloration blended into the night, it seemed.

Step by step, we kept moving. When a gun fired only a few houses over, I had to struggle not to yelp in fear, but Kanik didn't have that problem. Following the sound, he ran, leaving me to belatedly chase after him.

Then a woman began screaming.

"I'm saving you," a man snarled in English, so I ran a little faster, coming around a house just as Kanik slammed into the hunter. His tail hit first, but he didn't stop to let the venom take effect. Kanik just hacked and slashed, spinning around like he was some kind of whirlwind.

Behind him, the woman was backing away. Her shirt was ripped at the shoulder, as if the hunter had been dragging her, but she was tailless! I hurried towards her, thinking I was helping, but the sight of me - or my gun - made her scream again.

The sound brought more of the Moles. While Kanik was busy dealing with the one man, another stepped into view with his weapon raised, but I spotted him first.

"Drop it!" I warned him in English, aiming my own at his head.

"What?" the man gasped, completely confused.

"Drop the gun," I ordered. "Step away from it. Guns are dangerous and these are people!"

Then he chuckled. "I remember you. You're that bitch we hung out, aren't you?"

"Ayla!" Kanik yelled.

I ignored him and pulled the trigger, knowing I had my shot lined up. Naturally, it missed, so I stopped trying and just shot. The hunter shot back, but before his gun could go off a second time, he dropped, one of my rounds finally connecting.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked in Vestrian, turning back to check on the woman.

Kanik was kneeling over the Mole he'd killed, but nodding. The woman was cowering against another house. I had no clue how she hadn't been shot, but I wasn't going to question that right now.

"You need to be inside," I told her.

The woman's eyes flicked over to me. For a moment, she just stared in fear, and then she ran. Beside me, Kanik pushed himself to his feet, but I saw a red mark across his arm.

"You're hit," I gasped.

"Cut," he corrected. "The man had a knife. It's okay. I'm okay," he promised.

Grabbing my arm, he pulled me forward, but as we passed the body of the hunter I'd shot, I saw the mess on the ground. A bloody, disgusting mess. No, that had been his head and brain. My stomach twisted in disgust, but I pushed it down, knowing I didn't have time for this. Sadly, my mind jumped back to why they were here.

Hunting.

Dragons.

Meat.

I couldn't stop. I couldn't allow myself to think about that - it made me too angry. I also couldn't hear any gunshots, so maybe it was already over?

"Are they gone?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said gently. "Probably not. Not yet."

I just nodded and started walking again.

"Ayla," he begged, jogging a step to catch up with me. "Let me take you to one of the houses. You'll be safe."

"No."

"Ayla..."

I turned to glare at him. "No! I can help, Kanik. I am helping. I'm also so shitting tired of being weak and helpless and.... I don't know!"

"Fucking," he corrected, one side of his mouth lifting up. "Fucking works better there than shitting. Trust me on that."

"Then I'm fucking tired," I told him. "I want to make this stop. I want to help."

"Then let's go make sure they're all gone," he told me, showing me where to go next.

We barely made it a block before someone in the main street yelled, "Move and I'll blow your brains out!"

English. That meant one thing. I pulled the old magazine from my weapon, dropped it on the ground, and slammed a new one into place as I rushed forward. My hand was flicking off the safety as I rounded the corner of the house to see another hunter aiming his weapon at a Dragon just in front of our house. Both of them had paused, and the Dragon actually had his hands up.

It was a Dragon I knew. I recognized the hunter as well. Drozel and a man I'd sewn up many times were in a standoff, but it seemed neither one knew Kanik and I were here.

"Cyrus?" I yelled, calling the hunter's name. That was enough to make him look over at me, and I refused to waste the chance. "Drozel. Run!" I ordered in Vestrian, lifting the gun into place and looking down the sights the way I'd been taught as a little girl.

At the edge of my vision, I saw the Dragon bolt, but Cyrus jerked his weapon up, turning towards me. My finger tightened on the trigger, and the pops were loud. It was as if they echoed off the houses on either side of us, but I didn't dare let go. There was nothing behind him right now but an empty house. No one else was around. I also knew that if Cyrus managed to get off a shot, there were Dragons somewhere behind me. Kanik was - and there was a chance he could be hit.

I had to kill this man.

So many of my bullets missed, but one slammed into his throat. More hit his chest. Blood sprayed and Cyrus dropped, forgetting about his gun as he clutched at his throat. I took one step forward, into the street, intending to grab the weapon - and something hot slammed into my hip.

I didn't hear a sound. I only felt the flare of pain and then weight smashed into me from the other side. A flash of brown made me realize that it was Kanik just as we both crashed into the dirt. My necklace flew out of my shirt and up, over my chin. I grabbed at it, terrified I'd lose the thing, but I couldn't put it back in my shirt because Kanik was pressing me into the ground!

That was when my brain registered the sound of gunshots flying just over our heads. Lying half over me, Kanik twisted, aimed, and then loosed an arrow. The bow bounced right in front of my face, but the bullets stopped.

"Ayla?" he pleaded, turning me onto my back as he lifted up and looked me over. "Did you get shot?"

"My hip hurts," I admitted, twisting to see why.

There, right across the side of my pants, the leather was split and my skin was red. Raw flesh was visible, but it wasn't deep. Not as bad as when the woman had cut me with the kitchen knife, at least.

"It's just a graze," I assured him.

Kanik sighed in relief. "Thank fuck," he breathed. "But now will you let me get you back to Saveah's?"

"I'm fine!" I insisted. "Pain is fleeting. It's easy to ignore. We have to get the Moles out of here."

"And I'm starting to feel like my roommate's showing me up," he joked, pushing to his feet just to offer me a hand.

I took it. I also needed it, because while I could ignore the pain to a point, that wasn't the same as not hurting. I had to limp. Not badly, but only because I refused to give Kanik any more reasons to lock me back inside. With each lurching step, my sign die and the ring bounced against my chest, the jingle oddly comforting.