It was Tetradore's fault. All of it. Darcy knew it was true even if logic itself seemed to argue otherwise in those brief and fleeting moments in which it managed to infiltrate his own mind. Each and every time Risque had ignored him, shouted at him, abused him or cast him out.....it was because of him. Tetradore would anger her no end and spoil her good mood. He would defy her when Darcy himself had so promised to keep an eye on the Panther and as such her wrath was focused upon him yet again. Tetradore would fail in some task that would inevitably impact upon Darcy in turn. Each and every harsh word or blow against him was the fault of the emerald-eyed man in some fashion or another. He knew it. Yet his beloved mistress so often failed to see it. She fawned of the Wereboy like a woman obsessed. She showered him with her attention and worse- her affection. An affection Tetradore so hardly seemed to enjoy. The man acting as if he loathed her touch. How oblivious he was to his privilege! Tetradore was spoiled. Horribly so. A spoiled child. If only Risque could be made to see it. If only she would allow him to rid them both of Tetradore and yet she insisted upon keeping him. She forbid Darcy from harming him beyond healing and from so much as marking his face and now....now she had commanded Tobias was not to die if only because of the leverage the lanky bastard provided her when it came to Tetradore. Always Tetradore. Always. Never Darcy. How those thoughts tormented him! How they turned within his mind! How they coaxed and tugged at those violent intentions within himself until they threatened to boil over! His loyalty to his mistress, his love of her the only things preventing those predatory instincts from so taking control and tearing Tetradore limb from limb. The bar, Risque and everything in it was his territory and Tetradore continued to tread upon it like a privileged pampered pet.

Now here he was, in some godforsaken fucking desert because of Tetradore once more. He would make him pay for it. For all of it. One day. For now- this would have to be enough. His fingers stroked near lovingly through that glorious soft leopard fur of the Were that lay before him. His own affinity for paralysis forcing Tobias to remains entirely still and accept those cold caresses. Darcy's own mismatched gaze lifting to meet Tetradore's own with that utterance of a game. Yes- a game. One to teach him a lesson. One to make him pay for dragging him out here in the middle of the night. How desperately he desired to hurt Tetradore and yet- if he could hardly hurt him physically then hardly meant he could not make the boy feel pain some other way. Tobias so perfectly prone for just that little task. His lips parted readily from his fangs then, those strange, double canines that protruded from his upper jaws catching the moonlight before he bit sharply into the flesh of Tobias shoulder. He felt the leopard jolt, he felt those muscles spasm in pain, his affinity so preventing the Were from screaming as his fangs tore through muscle and flesh and sinew and blood rushed to bubble to the surface and paint his lips and teeth and tongue in the crimson reward. Darcy mauling for the sake of it. His unique fangs so perfectly designed for just that. How good it felt to hurt something Tetradore loved and to so force him to watch.

He leaned away from that wound then, his tongue brushing across his lips, licking up those remnants of blood that had already furthered his own body's healing. Those painfully deep lacerations in his leg from Tobias' claws beginning to clot and close. He hardly adored the taste of Were blood so much as human or the ever illusive Fae and yet he hardly found it displeasing. Perhaps he would have a little more- and a little more- until Tetradore could find it within himself to get into the fucking car. That very threat so falling from his lips a moment later. His mismatched eyes meeting Tetradore's own in that near silent stand-off in which Darcy was assured he held near all the cards. Those other cats circling the emerald-eyed man in readiness. That hard line to Tetradore's own jaw assuring him he managed to anger the man if nothing else. A small victory but one Darcy was willing to claim. His fingers continuing to run through Tobias' fur.

"Wat yar jus standin' there for ya damn fool? Git!"

His head nodded toward that waiting town car. Tetradore, it seemed, requiring another reminder of just what happened when he stepped to far out of line. Darcy allowing his lips to part again with that clear intention of tearing another gash into Tobias' prone figure. That sudden shift from Tetradore entirely unexpected. Darcy's own action momentarily hesitated before those other cats suddenly cowered, that snow leopard outrightly flying into the darkness. Those guardians between Tetradore and himself suddenly no more. The ebony-haired vampire near instantly aware of just what was about to come- even of he had failed to anticipate that assault would come from behind.

"Oh fuck...."

The words were very near spat out on a hiss. That rush of hissing air between his teeth hardly fully exhaled before Tetradore disappeared from before him, and within the same heartbeat, seemed to strike him from behind. He felt those claws rake at his back, those teeth burrowing into the his neck in near the same instant, the pain near lancing and yet he had not been ready for that saliva. That acid burning his skin and into the lacerations off his flesh those teeth had made. That pain.....beyond anything he remembered. Worse then even those piercings that adorned the ridges of both his ears. Worse than anything Risque had ever done. His mismatched gaze widening in shock. That sound that came from his own throat then was some horrific cross between a scream and a snarl of outright fury. Tobias abruptly released. Darcy near instantly launching backward with all that vampiric strength to send both Tetradore and himself crashing backward into the ground, that very effort so placing Tetradore beneath him in some effort to wind the Panther and attempt to force him to release his grip. Darcy's right elbow was jammed backward with shocking force toward the stomach of the cat in another effort to force Tetradore to loosen his grip as the pair struggled, the moment any slackness was felt within those jaws prompting the vampire to jerk himself free and scramble away from the panther and onto his feet. His bloodied neck bleeding profusely while that acid....that acid continued to burn. It was near maddening. Another hiss was spat readily from his lips. His rage, this time, far stronger than Risques command to leave Tetradore (mostly) unharmed. Those bloodied fangs bared toward that panther. Darcy lunging directly for Tetradore now.

His fist was aimed squarely at the Panther's ribcage, Darcy fully intending to shatter any ribs so unfortunate enough to meet that ironclad punch. The vampire's own reflexes readily prepared to assist in dodging any further assault from Tetradore. Darcy leapt clear of a slashing claw only to aim a solid kick at the panther's left back leg and aim to send the appendage out from underneath him before making that bold dive for Tetradore's scruff in turn. The full force of his own strength aimed to force Tetradore to the ground beneath him by pressing down upon his neck and forcing his head to the ground- his own breathing coming in quick, short gasps. He could taste his own blood in his mouth. That wound on his neck wasn't....closing. At least...not as it should. That acid. That fucking acid. The edges of the world were beginning to look less clear and far more fuzzy. Darcy refusing to release his grip on Tetradore all the same. The Panther was weaker then he should have been, injured, exhausted and yet....far stronger then he remembered. If he had been at his full strength there was every chance that cat would have come close to overpowering him. He'd underestimated him. Him and Tobias both- and he'd nearly lost for it. Tobias, shit. His knees pressed forward, Darcy content to use his own weight against Tetradore in the same fashion as he had Tobias to keep the panther down as he knelt on him, his mismatched gaze falling to the spot the Leopard had been. That blood-stained sand decidedly empty. A roar of frustrated outrage clawed free from his throat once more. Darcy slamming one fist into that sand. Fuck. They were working against him, the both of them. He needed to find Tobias, no, he needed to take care of Tetradore first.

"I dun know where da fuck ya friend went but imma kill 'im the minute I get me hands on 'im ya hear?"

He lent back just enough to release that pressure on the panther, one hand firmly gripping Tetradore's scruff, the other reaching to grab a a fisful of skin and fur further down the panthers back with little care for how much it might hurt. Darcy content to all but haul him upward and drag him toward that car then. Teteradore unceremoniously tossed onto that back seat. Those car doors slammed and locked behind him, caging the cat within. He didn't get paid enough for this....disrespect. The vampire lent heavily back against that car then, his figure sliding down the side to rest against it, his hand reaching upward for the first time to touch at that wound on his neck. He needed to...feed. That hunger gnawing at him. And now it was fucking raining! It felt strange. It was warm. Warm rain? His thoughts were near hazy, those mismatched eyes glancing upward to meet the glowing golden eyes of Tobias peering down at him from above, the leopard poised atop the car to strike, that saliva running from his jaws and down on to Darcy's neck. The rain. The rain was that saliva. His own body was exhausted and yet that need to save himself was stronger. Darcy propelling himself from the ground as Tobias leapt- and another flash of fur intercepted him. Tobias and Risques own Mountain Lion colliding mid air to tumble and hiss into the sand, those other big cats rushing forward to put themselves between Darcy and and Tobias in turn.

...........

The lanky deviants teeth readily found purchase in that Mountain Lion's chest, the other cat howling as both tumbled and rolled in the earth, Tobias' body twisting to rake claws across his opponents face and send that other cat scrambling backward and toward his vampire master. All three of those cats and Darcy himself so standing between him and that car now. Tobias' gaze flicking from Darcy to Tetradore within that car and back again. His own shoulder...burned. The limb so upon the brink of no longer weight bearing. Those very tendons within his shoulder so terribly damaged from Darcy's fangs and very nearly exposed to the night air itself, the boy struggling not to show that limp. The battered and bruised leopard so clearly considering fighting all three of those cats and Darcy in turn. Tobias taking but another step forward, his left limb near buckling with that very action and yet determination had perhaps so eternally been one of the boys more engaging attributes. His desire to reach tetradore once more, to protect him, prompting that growl to rise within his throat again. Two of those other cats content to growl right back. The Mountain Lion far to taken with his own injuries to summon a sound beyond a whimper in that moment, that cat sure to lose his eye entirely. From Tobias' claws. Tobias limping yet another step forward, his tail lashing at his flanks. The vampires voice permeating that haze of adrenaline. "Ya gonna die, here and now if ya do dis, ya can't fight all of us, Tobi-boy and i swear ta god if ya try I'll murder ya meself. Tetradore is comin wit me and yar gunna stay here."

That golden leopard gaze flickered from Darcy to Tetradore and back again. Tobias wavering upon the very brink of that choice. Even he was hardly immune to those ansimisitics instincts that new readily when he was beaten. This a fight he would not win, not without Tetradore, not with his left limb so barely functional any longer and yet that.....human desire to get to his brother was near equally as potent and so blended with that pack bond. Some small, fragile part of the boy so desperately afraid....to be left alone again. Irritation rising readily within him. That anger rapidly turning to frustration at the situation presented to him. Tobias near incapable of handling those emotions that tugged so violently at him. The deviant so suddenly and abruptly shifting back into his human form. His jeans and t-shirt far more torn then before. The boy winching from that injured shoulder he so subtly nursed closer to his lanky frame. Those words far more of a struggle then they so normally were if only for that injury to his pride in turn. Tobias lifting one hand to point toward that black town car then.

"I.....want to....come too...please?"

That very admittance of defeat, of submission had surely never left the shaggy-haired boy before and yet, it seemed, he would sooner die with Tetradore then without him. Those wild dark eyes turned back towards Darcy then, meeting the mismatched gaze of the vampires own. "Ya want ta come? Sure, lad, sure, hold on one sec eh?" His gaze moved to followed the vampire then as he wandered toward that still stalled Agera. Darcy reaching to snatch the keys from within it before wandering back toward where Tobias stood. Those keys suddenly held out toward him then. Tobias content to eye them warily before his own hand extended tentatively- only to have Darcy snatch those keys back- and crumple them within his hand. What remained of those keys tossed at Tobias' feet. "I dun like ya, Tobias. Ya can think about how much I dun goddamn like ya with every step it takes ya to walk da fuck home- if ya even make it. Ya bleedin' a bit there boy-o."

madness, as you know, is like gravity: all it takes is a little push