Lady Louise let loose a scream louder and more horrid than any noise I had heard from her. Almost at once, the last of the color seemed to drain from her face. Death was the first thing that came to mind. Just like her daughter. And, just like her daughter, I failed to st—

I let out a gasp of air from my ragged body. A fog lifted from my brain that I didn't even know had been there. In its absence, I could control my body again—or what was left that I could control. My thoughts were my own again, too.

But then, what was that before? Who was that who fought Shepherd off the stairs?

"Stop!" Lady Louise shouted from atop the stairs, reminding me of her struggle with the massive dog.

I thought she had died, but the witch was still on her feet. She was pale, sweating, and her hand was no doubt a ruined mess somewhere in between the teeth of a dog. But she was alive. More than that, she seemed to be fighting to keep Shepherd from dragging her down the stairs.

"Stubborn witch!" the faraway voice of the familiar called out. "You will not get away from me."

"I said stop!" Lady Louise practically screeched. She shot out her hand not enclosed between the dog's teeth and connected with the top of Shepherd's head as the familiar simultaneously let out a sharp yelp.

And, for some reason, Shepherd released her hand. Not only that, but he fell backwards down the stairs. And, somewhere amidst the tumbling and rolling, he changed. The fur shrank away, the limbs extended, and by the time he reached the bottom he was a gangly human with long, dark brown hair and a missing ear.

Shepherd's human body let out a few strangled cries and groans as he writhed on the floor. One of his hands reached his throat while the other slid rapidly across the floor, as if feeling it out but not believing what he felt.

"What—What did you—What did you do to me?!" a voice, hoarse and broken, shouted from the thick lips of Shepherd. He tried and failed to stand over and over again as his hand trailed over his face and into his hair. He practically pulled the tangled strands out from his scalp. "What did you do to me, you witch?!"

Lady Louise was not answering. From the looks of her, she had almost joined Shepherd at the bottom of the stairs. By chance, she had fallen halfway down, her limp body strewn out across several steps.

As Shepherd continued to futility demand for an explanation, another faint, faraway voice whispered beside my ear. "Come here."

My body tensed at its words. It was a command, one she was giving to me. But, unlike last time, I did not have to heed it.

Unlike last time...

"Foxy, please."

My body seemed to have recovered enough to allow me to rise up from where the dog had thrown me. There was hardly any lasting pain or soreness as I approached the bottom of the stairs, ignoring Shepherd's frantic look and how he practically crawled away from me. The stairs themselves did not look so steep, and Lady Louise was not that far away.

I remained where I was.

"You must finish him off," the voice of Lady whispered again. She could barely lift her head, the forehead marred by an ugly bruise, to indicate with her bloodshot eyes the familiar who continued to crawl away. "I weakened him, but Hornroot is still having to deal with that monster's ilk. You must end this, please."

Shepherd had stopped his retreat when my eyes found him again. He was breathing heavy, gripping his side. The familiar, in all his pain and suffering, seemed to have forgotten where he was. It would be easy to sneak up on him and get a clear shot at his throat.

I turned back to face the Lady. "Why don't you try making me?"

"What?" The Lady struggled to raise herself from the stairs, and only managed to fall back painfully against them when her one good arm gave out. "Foxy, not now. We don't have time for this. End him before it is too late!"

"If time really is a factor here, what was with all the 'pleases'? Why waste the time explaining why I was the only one who could do this? Why not just force me like you did before."

Lady Louise could only stare back. For a short while, all that could be heard were the crashing coming from the battle on the second floor and the pounding of rain and the deep rumble of thunder.

"Foxy..."

"I'm not going to kill someone for you," I thought back before the Lady could get started with some excuse. "Not even him. Not for someone like you."

"I am sorry for controlling you," the Lady quickly said before I could interrupt her again. "But I am the only one on your side with the power to do anything. You know that, otherwise you would not have accepted my help in the first place. Please, I am begging you, not ordering you, do not run away now. We have Terrebonne's familiar in the perfect position. Without him, she will be weakened. Without him, your friend will be that much closer to being yours again."

"And what happens when she's gone?" a third voice joined in. One deep and full of malice. Shepherd spit a glob of blood at the ground before his dark eyes glared up the stairs at the Lady. "My Master ain't no saint, but she knows her boundaries. Killin' free witches is just part of the game, but she would never make a play like this." His dark eyes then met mine. "You ever stop to think what she would do with Mutt, the familiar you consider a friend? You think she would just let him run free and do whatever he wants?" Shepherd let out a short bark of a laugh. "She would use him. Just like she's usin' you."

"I have no ill intentions for your friends," Lady Louise said between grunts of pain. "I only want to see them free from this life of servitude to Wildwood, as you do."

Shepherd continued his strangled laughter as I turned to face the witch. "But what then? What happens after they are free?"

Lady Louise stared at me long and hard before answering, "I speak the truth, Alex."

"Answer the damn question!" I shouted in my head as a growl escaped my lips.

But the Lady did not. Instead, she bit her lower lip and glanced between Shepherd and I. Almost as if—

"Are you puttin' it together now, Alex?" Shepherd asked, his laugh dying to a low chuckle. I froze up when his crazed eyes found mine again. "She can't hear what you're sayin'. No more than she can force you to do her bidding anymore. Whatever force was keeping you from obeying her little brat is gone now. She was just reading your expressions and the flow of the conversation to know what to say next." The familiar broke our shared gaze to glare back up at the Lady. "It was bound to fail at some point, but I guess you were banking on gaining control of him again before he caught on."

The Lady did not dispute him. She did not say a single word. Not when I met her eyes again. Not when I silently pleaded with her to say something—anything.

"I can't know that you won't just take control of my friends the moment we free them." I glanced between her and Shepherd while taking a few steps backwards, towards the revolving doors. "I can't trust you. Not with their lives."

"Foxy—Alex— whatever you are thinking, we can talk this through," Lady Louise pleaded, trying and failing to get up from the stairs.

"Right, talk," Shepherd said with another laugh that ended in a strangled cough. He glanced back at me with one wild, dark eye. "Talk until the words become demands. Talk until you got no choice but to listen to every word the witch says. You want to see Mutt again? The only way you get to is if you take me to him."

"Right, like I'm going to listen to the dog that almost killed me," I hissed back, growling as I continued my backwards retreat. "Just because I'm refusing to kill you now doesn't mean I won't later if you try anything. I'll see Mutt again on my terms."

Shepherd smiled. "Oh? And how do you plan on doing that?"

Don't think about it.

"Please, do not run from this," the Lady pleaded again, her voice quickly losing it's strength. "I am the only one on your side. Only I have the power to help you achieve your goal."

Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Just get outside. Just get away.

"If not the Lady, where would you run to, little fox?" Shepherd asked, his smile diminishing as his dark eye continued to follow me. "If not my Maser, then..."

I turned and ran for the exit as I saw the realization hit him. I slammed my body again and again against the revolving doors as Shepherd cursed and failed to get to his feet.

"You cannot be that simple!" the familiar howled, half-crawling, half-falling towards me. "If you go to her, it will spell disaster for us all. I will not let you bring ruin to all my Master has done!"

No matter how hard I pushed, my body could not budge the heavy doors. And, while Shepherd was still failing to control his human body, he was growing closer. If I didn't think of something, I would have to kill—

"Hornroot!"

The Lady's shout was followed soon by a dark shape sailing to the ground, directly behind Shepherd. Before the frazzled familiar could react, Hornroot had him by the shoulders and threw him to one side, sending Shepherd into the wall hard enough to leave a sizable dent.

Yellow eyes flashed to me. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get my useless body to move the doors.

"Stop him!" Lady Louise practically shrieked.

And I saw the dead look that came over those bright eyes. I saw the stilted way the familiar moved towards me. Not wasting a step. Not wasting a word.

It was pointless.

I turned away from the impossibly heavy revolving doors to press my tiny paws into the shiny, white tile floors and bare my teeth at the approaching figure. As I growled and snapped at the air, I wondered if he looked how I had when the Lady took control of me. Not flinching at the threat posed before him. Attempting to carry out the order with no heed to the risk or danger. I was threatening to snap off a few fingers, but he reached out his hand like a few fingers meant nothing to him.

"Stay away from me!" I screamed in my head as whines and barks and other desperate noises spilled from my mouth.

This man was too big and too strong. I couldn't fight him. Scrambling backwards only helped to remind me how trapped I was. The doors still wouldn't budge. No matter what noises I made, he still reached for me.

The hand became all I could see. A hand much bigger than me. A hand that could do what it wanted to me. Make me whatever it wanted me to be. I knew if it grabbed me, it would hurt me. It would hurt me again and again and again and I don't want to do it anymore. Please don't make me do it again!

"STAY AWAY!"

It was right there, in my face. It was right there, but it did not move closer. My brain and throat and everything hurt, but not because of the hand. No, instead, the hand moved away as I struggled to recall what just happened. What I had just said.

I stopped trying when I saw those yellow eyes again, and the steady stream of tears spilling down from them.

"My Lady," Hornroot said, his voice no more than a strangled whisper. His eyes never left mine as his hand lowered to the floor. "I can't."

"NO!" the Lady hollered, pushing her body up from the stairs by her arms with a burst of strength. "Hornroot, do not—!"

And the Lady was down again, sprawled out across the stairs. But, this time, she did not get back up. She did not say a single word.

The only sound that was heard was a deep, steady growl from a great, furred beast that now stood at the top of the stairs. It glared down the expanse towards Hornroot and I with one hateful eye—the other had been gouged out. The man with the big hand stained with blood stood up and began to walk away from me.

"Go, find your friends," the man said inside my head as his form continued it's advance towards the stairs. "I will keep Shepherd and his ilk here."

"Come with me." I moved away from the doors and in the direction of the old familiar. "This doesn't have to be your life."

            The growling reached a crescendo when the creature caught sight of the vulnerable woman halfway down the stairs. The beast with the missing eye leapt down, it's massive jaw open and ready to tear her apart.

In response, Hornroot raced up the stairs. Using one arm to cradle his Master, the other gripped the hulking beast almost twice his size by the throat before it even reached the end of it's leap. With a single groan of effort, the familiar threw the monster back up the stairs, beyond them, and out of sight.

"My life belongs to my Lady." Hornroot did not look back once as he ascended the stairs, his Lady cradled in his arms. "The same does not have to be said for you, if you leave now."

Before I could say anything back, the old familiar shouted, "August, it is time to earn your keep! Escort the fox to Saint Charity Hospital!"

There was a deep sigh from somewhere nearby. I almost had a heart attack when I looked over and saw someone sitting amongst a wreckage of wood and clothing. Someone who had apparently stolen a pair of jeans and one of those thick, puffy coat's with the fur hood judging by the price tags still dangling from them. He wore the hood up over his face and kept his head downcast, so I could still not make out who it was even as he stood up and sauntered slowly in my direction.

In response, I backed up again and let loose a threatening growl. They were almost second nature at this point and convincing enough to make the strange person stop and hold up his pale hands.

"Whoa, hey, we're on the same team, remember?" The man in the coat lowered his hands as he seemed to appraise me from somewhere beneath the shadows of the fur hood. "Uh, you are a familiar, right? I'm not just talking to some wild fox right now?"

I stopped growling. Shit. Right. This was August, the witch Lady Louise had recruited just last night. This whole shit-show happened because we were going out to buy him clothing. That and because he had run in here heedless of the potential danger.

Well, talk about learning things the hard way.

"Okay, you stopped growling," August observed. His voice had gone back to that deadpan that reminded me of Ash. Though, where Ash's tone seemed to stem from a general lack of care or concern, August sounded absolutely depressed. "So, listen, when the storm kicks up like this it's really hard for people to move around in it. Except for me, I can move around just fine. People who are touching me can move around okay in it too. And, like, since you're so small and whatever, it'd probably be easier for me to just, you know."

August held open his hands. For a second, I was brought back into that cramped, dark attic, but I quickly pushed it aside. Although Shepherd still looked quite unconscious from his spot against the wall, it was better to not think about it until I knew it was safe.

And, despite my reservations, I knew Hornroot and August had the right idea if I wanted to be safe sooner rather than never.

As I allowed August to hesitantly walk over to me and scoop me up, I chanced a glance back towards the ruined remains of the clothing depot, and up the stairs where Hornroot and his Master had disappeared to. Some part of me was telling me this might be the last time I see either of them again. And, for some strange reason, I wanted to see them just one more time. Both of them.

I guess, despite their faults, if not for Lady Louise and Hornroot, I would never have gotten this far.

"Your overwhelming gratitude has been noted," a voice, mocking but at the same time with a hint of humor, echoed inside my head as August began to push through the doors. The words that followed lost both of those inflections. "But if some part of you truly understands what we have tried to do for you, I only ask for two things in return. Find Rosetta and keep her safe until my Lady and I can retrieve her. Do those things and I swear to you I will not let my Master come between you and your friends again."

I could only imagine Hornroot had waited until the moment August and I were leaving to plead his last request of me. For, as soon as the weather witch stepped outside into the dark, torrential storm, my connection with the wizened familiar severed.

...

*Author's Note*

Jeez, Foxy, can't even hold an alliance for more than a day? Let's just hope your next one pans out a bit better.

So, who do you guys think Foxy has in mind? And do you think this person will give him the friends he's so desperately fighting for? Whatever your thoughts, be they hope or despair, I would love to hear them!