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The fact that he was staring at this one in the eyes was actually a good thing It meant the cat wasn’t sure if they were food Yet Not that the idea offered him a shred of comfort
"You’re, uh… you’re supposed to stand tall," he told Earflaps breathlessly "Stretch your are as possible"
"Bullshit," Earflaps whispered back at him "You first"
Ty shook his head minutely He knehat you were supposed to do But he just couldn’t force himself to move as the cat stalked back into the underbrush and disappeared Ty had never seen anything so big that was so adept at hiding itself, even if it was dark A part of him, the part that may or may not have been suicidal and wasn’t terrified into stupidity, took a moment to admire the ability
"Oh God," Earflapsin the cold air He treer Ty could understand the iain Thein thethe sah "Don’t un, ood if the cat came at him from behind
Earflaps jerked suddenly and broke into a run Ty shouted at him, but the one four steps before there was a loud screech The underbrush whispered with the ain as it pounced on Earflaps’ back and knocked hiht the shotgun around and fired The cougar flinched, giving another keening cry as it leapt away, disappearing silently into the darkness
Ty stood breathing hard and staring, straining his eyes as he ar, but the sound of the shot had at least scared it off For now After a brief un to the side, yanking off his coat to press it to the gaping wound on thehis ca to the wound of a dear friend as he died in Ty’s arasped as the warrabbed at his wrists, looking up at hiht that filtered into the clearing
"Hold on," Ty told hi the h to call hi, the life drained from his prisoner’s eyes, and Earflaps fell li from the rips in his throat
ZANE’S head jerked up and a shiver ran down his spine as the screaun in hand, without even thinking about it, turning tohere he thought the screaear That wasn’t Ty screa It couldn’t be It was Earflaps Shit Had Ty actually lost it and shot him? Or did Earflaps rush Ty in the dark?
It all added up to hi See if Ty was okay And if he wasn’t, Zane would deal with it They were both getting off this damn mountain alive
"What happened?" Deuce demanded dazedly as he rolled to his hands and knees
"Sounds like he shot hirabbed for the second shotgun "Garrett?" he barked as he stood and peered out into the pitch-black woods
"I’un "Stay with Deuce"
"Garrett," Earl said again sharply When Zane looked up at hi him back," Earl told him quietly
Zane stared at hiument, but then he nodded curtly and turned to lope into the darkness in what he hoped was the right direction If Ty had killed the ht not be in thehis partner would be enough to snap him out of it
TY CLOSED his eyes as he moved his bloody hands away from the dead man, but then his eyes were on the underbrush once oing to be eaten, he wanted to see it coht He knew the others would have heard the shot and probably the screa But that didn’t mean they would find hihtout, but he didn’t dare call back
His hand landed on a decent-sized rock Ty palun What the hell had he done with it? He tore his eyes away froround The barrel shone dully in the hly six feet away As he crawled slowly toward it, he found a thick tree branch that was still fairly green and hefted it The un, the less he felt like kibble
Ty felt the movement at his side rather than saw it, and he turned and tried to rise to face it, striking out with the stick as the cougar ca speed He didn’t round, the big cat landing on his He saw stars as his head banged against the hard ground The cat caught the stick between its sharp teeth, and it snapped in half like a desiccated twig, showering Ty’s face with bits of wood The cougar’s claws scraped across his shoulder and tore into the skin
Ty screaony even as he held what re to protect hiain as teeth sank into his hand He dropped the stick as he lost feeling in the hand but rounded with the stone in his other hand, s the cat in the side of the head with it It made a dull thud when it hit, and the cat leaped away and hissed at hiiant paw Ty rolled out of its reach, narrowlylacerated by the iun, and he grabbed it gratefully, rolling again and co to sit with it clutched to his chest
The cat shook its head, pawing at its ear where Ty had landed the blow, tail twitching as it sized hiain Ty pushed up onto his knees and threw the rock at it, sending it scaun and struggled to his feet unsteadily, surprised when he weaved a little, wielding the shotgun alrip it correctly and aiar continued to watch hiht not be an easy kill after all Ty could feel blood dripping down his fingers as he gripped the gun, and he didn’t know if it was his blood or the othersound in its throat as it slinked toward the body lying in the brush Ty realized belatedly that the big cat ht he was after its meal
"Take him," Ty told the cat breathlessly "Eat hi away