Was he supposed to feel something for the boy who stood in front of him, pleading to be taken with them? Contempt. That was what he felt. Contempt and irritation and outright rage directed toward that son of bitch locked within the back of the car who'd all but ripped his head from his shoulders and whose acid continued to burn at muscle and sinew even now. It was still bleeding. His own healing had managed to slow it down and yet that acid was working faster then he could heal, burning new flesh away the moment it formed until at saliva rubbed against nerve ending itself. That pain was....blistering. Worse than the musket from those muzzleloaders that had all but torn upon his side in the war. That pain stopped after awhile. You stopped feeling. Adrenaline chewing away at the edges of a pain like that. This was different. This burned over and over. He could barely think straight. The edges of the world itself having lost that clarity until everything seemed almost fuzzy. He was struggling now and yet he be fucking damned if he let them know it. He needed to feed. Christ he needed to feed and yet he had to deal with this first. This lanky bastard of a boy and Tetradore. Everything was his fault. Always Tetradore.

What remained of those car keys were hurled at Tobias' feet with the ready insistence the boy could walk home, if he even made it. That shoulder was bitten down to nearly the tendons. The limb barely weight bearing in his animal form and equally as useless in his human skin. Good. Maybe he'd do them all a favour and die out here in the desert. His darling Risque would be displeased but she would forgive him, eventually. There would be someone or something else she could use to dangle in front of Tetradore the way she dangled his freedom, his life, his free will and anything else she could grasp in the fine delicacy of her hands. How glorious it was to watch her as she worked. How easy it was to let those idle daydreams take over his mind in that state of blood loss. Those muffled words from Tetradore echoed behind him, aimed at the boy, the Leopard seeming to waver all over again and yet he was already beaten. He couldn't fight them all. He couldn't even fight through those cats to get to Darcy himself and he damn well knew it. The defeat clear enough in his lanky frame and in the depths of his eyes. Darcy had seen defeat in a man before. He saw it every single time Risque broke one of them. That fight so eventually leaving their eyes and their bodies until they simply surrender. That very look echoing from Tobias now. The boy wouldn't fight anymore. Thank fucking christ. Darcy's attention returned to those other cats now.

"Git in the car, the lot of ya. You an you sit either side of Tetradore and make sure he's got his fucking seatbelt on. I ain't havin' him movin' round in da car. You, One-Eye, get in the front seat."

Those final, hissing warnings from the cats were spat towards Tobias then. Darcy keeping his own mismatched gaze on the boy as those cats shifted back to their human forms and moved to the trunk of the car to grab their clothing. The Jaguar was a big enough man in his human form to deter Tetradore from trying anything in that car yet the Snow Leopard was a woman, a young and nearly dainty one at that. The blonde girl barely older than nineteen and terrified in turn. He could hear her heartbeat. Fluttering like a bird. Panicked and fearful. Her fear was almost.....tasty in its tantalizing terror and yet she would meet her end soon enough. Risque would be ill-pleased to know of her poor performance tonight- of the way she had all but fled beneath that car at least twice. Their Mistress did not offer second chances. The little snow leopard girl handed a pair of sweatpants t tetradore in turn as she settled beside him in that car, those doors closed and locked once more. Yet one cat remained. That injured Mountain Lion having all but curled into a ball and still within his feline form, his face tucked desperatly agianst his side. The scent of blood thick and fast around him and pooling at his feet. His eye. His whole fucking eye had fallen out thanks to Tobias.

"I am well over dis shit!"

He moved to reach for that cat and yet that burn in his neck saw him pause. Bending over so hardly seeming a sensible idea here and now and yet there was more than one damn way to skin a cat. Another hiss was spat from his own lips as Darcy strode to the rear of the car himself, his own beloved gun belt fished from within. His favoured revolver slipped from its holster. Ah Delilah. Delilah never disappointed him. Delilah was a reliable woman. The subtle click of that gun loading prompted that injured cat to glance upward. He was no good anymore. Damaged. Ruined. Weak. Risque wouldn't want him back. His usefulness had run out. Darcy's finger found that trigger in near the same moment he found his aim. The vampire nothing if not a crack shot, that bullet sent cleanly through the cats skull in that crack of sound that echoed across the open desert night. The mountain Lion slumping forward as dead as the dirt beneath him just as Snow Leopard girl burst into hysterical tears. Fucking great. A crier.

"Ya'll be goddamn nextif ya dun shuddup."

His free hand balled easily into a fist, slamming against the door to make his point as the girl desperately tried to swallow her tears before that revolver was pointed towards Tobias then. The Leopard boy struggling desperately to raise his hands with that injured shoulder. Hmm. Someone had pointed a gun at him before then. Else someone had taught him what to do. That crooked simper dancing on vampires lips then as he flicked that gun towards the sports car.

"Git over there, das right, sit down beside dat dere front wheel. Fucking stay."

Finally. Someone smart enough to comply. Tobias doing just as he'd been ordered to do as he eased himself down beside that front wheel. Darcy glancing briefly back towards that car with Tetradore in it, the emerald-eyed man's vision obscured by the back of the car and Tobias' seated position so keeping the boy directly out of Tetradore's sight. The panther capable of seeing little more than Darcy's revolver pointed toward him. Why not play with him a little? Darcy's fingers hit that trigger a second time. That bullet, so far as tetradore knew, aimed directly at Tobias himself. The vampire having shifted that shot at the last moment to collide with the front wheel of that Agara instead and yet- it was....pleasurable to watch Tetradore panic, maybe even hurt those ribs a little more in his efforts to see. Tobias was going nowhere fast any time soon. That revolver was tossed back into the trunk of the car, the trunk lid slammed down then as Darcy made his way back toward that fallen feline. His hand reached down as best he could to grasp the hind leg of the cat and haul it upwards and on to the bonnet. Fucking finally. Something to eat. His own jaws parted again, those wicked double fangs exposed before he bit into the neck of the already bleeding out feline. Darcy caring little for tearing into that flesh to make it bleed over and over and steal that still warm blood those dead veins gave up all too readily now. God it was good. Each mouthful utter bliss. His healing kickstarted all over again as if finally begun to counteract that acid and yet- that wound would take weeks to heal properly.

That mauled carcass was tossed aside some minutes later. Darcy wiping his lips across the back off his hand then. That world so at last seeming clear again as he swung open the drivers seat door and started that engine. His fingers effortlessly brushing over that radio to find that ever satisfying country music 'Mommas dont let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Don't let'em pick guitars or drive them old trucks, let'em be doctors and lawyers and such! Mommas dont let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Cause they'll never stay home and their always alone....even with someone they love.' How contrasting that music was to that very scene around them. Darcy shifting in his seat once more to eye Tetradore as best as his neck would let him. His gaze briefly resting on the mans black and blue ribs.

"How dem ribs feelin' Tetty-Bear? If ya annoy me one more goddamn time in dis car I will break da ones on da other side too. All dis, everything right 'ere, its yar fault. Everyone is dead or injured cause of ya, no one else but you, so why dont ya think 'bout dat on the drive eh?"

He knew how much Tetradore tortured himself over those deaths he had been the cause off in his life. He knew. So why not rub salt into that wound and make sure he knew Tobias was injured because of him, that girl was crying because of him, that cat was dead because of him. Maybe that would shut him up for the rest of the drive home. Victim blaming was easy, after all. Darcy shifted that car into gear then before pressing his foot on that accelerator. Only a few more hours before he finally got to see his Darlin' Risque again. Maybe she'd even reward him, he was sure she would.

.........................

Tobias own dark gaze glanced from those crumpled keys and back up again. That panic of sorts clawing within him at that very idea he might be left behind again the way he had been all those years ago. He remembered, he did, somewhere within the dark confines of what remained off his mind. He remembered being alone in the smoking remains of their childhood home. He remembered Tetradore's cries. He remembered following after his beloved friend for years in a single, endless pursuit of that trail. He did not want to be alone again. That fear more potent than even his pride and yet that begging had hardly worked. Irritation sparking within him once more as his gaze flickered from Darcy to the cats and back again in some attempt to decide which would be the easiest to take first. The injured one. Yes. He could smell the weakness on that one. That tiniest coaxing off his own affinity readily seeing his fingernails replaced with claws. Tobias hardly needing that full feline form to fight as his muscles tensed once more- and that muffled voice from within the car readily saw his dark gaze glance upward. His eyes meeting Tetradore's own then at that command to go home. The lanky deviant seeming to waver one more. A confusion of sorts lingering upon his features. His head suddenly shaking. This one of the few times Tobias had ever sought to disobey a command from his chosen Alpha and best friend.

"Don't....know where.....home is."

Those stuttered words fell softly from his lips once more and yet those claws readily receded, replaced by fingernails again. That small gesture alone seeing the boy wince from that pain in his shoulder as those cats hissed at him again and Darcy begun to order them back into the car. That look of panic so finding Tobias' features once more and yet- he remained where he stood. That near...defeat so clinging to his battered frame. Tobias capable of little more than watching as those cats shifted back to human form and slid into the car with Tetradore- save for one. That injured Mountain Lion hardly having moved. His own dark eyes readily followed Darcy then as the vampire moved to the back of the car to fetch that revolver. The lanky Leopard holding enough of an understanding of guns to know just what that was. His very frame tensing in anticipation for what he already knew would come as that shot echoed across the night air. Tobias lifting his hands to his ears near instinctively. His eyes resting near blankly upon the now dead Mountain Lion with an apathy of sorts. The death of those he did not know nor care for so failing to hold any effect upon the boy in any sense. Tobias, perhaps, lacking some true understanding of death in any sense. That gun so suddenly pointed towards him readily seeing his own eyes widen.

"Didn't.....do.....anything. Didn't....fight."

Those words fell readily from his lips in that near garbled mess once more in some effort to assure Darcy he was doing what he had been ordered to do. Tobias struggling to raise his hands. His mind so having seen that very gesture over and over again in those movies he so often watched upon the end of Tetradores bed on those nights when it might just be the two of them alone. Tobias so adoring those nights more than anything else. His fractured thoughts so failing to understand just why that gun was pointed at him now when he had surely done as asked. How readily he stood action and reaction and yet- how poorly he understood Darcy's own malicious intent. His shoulder aching with that very action, his mind aching with that effort to try and please the man before him as he was ordered towards that car. His bare feet shifted across the ground then, doing just as commanded before carefully easing himself down to sit upon that hard desert ground and beside the front wheel. The sudden sound of that gun and explosion of the front wheel beside him prompting that cry from within the boy himself as his arms flung over his head, much to the protest of his shoulder, Tobias scrambling several feet backward in panic before the vampire turned away from him and back toward the car to feed on that cat.

Tobias' own lanky form shifted, if only slightly, to bring himself back in to Tetradore's view in the least and assure the other man he was entirely alright. His gaze meeting his companions own once more through that rear window. That desire to get to his companion still turning near potently within him and yet he was not so foolish enough to approach the vampire once more. Darcy tossing that carcass aside then only to climb into that driver's seat as the car roared to life. Tobias readily scrambling to his own feet then, that shoulder nursed close to his body as he took several steps towards that car- only to halt once more. Darcy sure to spot him if he came any closer again. The car suddenly accelerating forward, his brother and best friend nestled within that back seat as the car all but roared away from him. Those tail lights bright in the darkness. Tobias own bottom lip so beginning to tremble then.

"Supposed to.....protect him."

Just who he was talking to remained to be seen. Tobias so left standing within the dark and beside that broken car and broken dead cat- just like before, all those years ago when he had been no more than a child. The lanky young man so suddenly seeming to have no desire to stand any longer. Tobias shuffling back toward that car- the only thing left of Tetradore's he so had left to protect any more. His figure slumping down beside it then, his dirty palms wiping readily at his eyes.

"Bad....at my....job."

Those words, it seemed, were only to himself once more and little more then whispers in the darkness. Tobias, it seemed, entirely determined to blame himself for that very evening. That utter loathing for Darcy near eclipsing that of which he felt for Risque in those moments. That anger and frustration and distress so finally getting the better of him as the first of those sobs wracked his frame. Tobias so refusing to leave that car. Some part of him, perhaps, readily assured Tetradore would come back for it- come back for him. Yet that desire to follow his companion was near equally as potent. His own affinity for finding what he desired assuring Tetradore was a beacon of sorts he could follow to the very ends of the earth. Walk. Yes. Maybe he should start....walking. The sun likely to rise within the next hour. Maybe Tetradore would not be mad at him for leaving the car. Maybe. Yes. Tobias contemplating that road ahead when that very car so suddenly roared into life. That accented voice resounding from behind him then.

"It seems to, Mon Amie, you could use a ride? I always wanted to drive this car. Aiden says I am a bad driver, we will see. Come now, he will want to see you home."

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