In a blur Siya had been through the shade gates after the white wolf; and the look in Thad's eyes, the cant of his frown said he had nothing to tell her regarding the whereabouts of the Reaper. But Veti needed no explanation at all for Reginald Hoyle as the elder werewolf's desolate howl chilled her, an icy spear of despair racing up her spine, setting her hair on end and her teeth on edge, his agony echoing in her skull. 

The ceaseless explosions overhead continued to reverberate through the ancient stones, the keep shuddering all about them. She slipped from her lover's arms, a wordless understanding passing between them as Bain shouted for the group to head through the shade gate; to retrieve a tooth - stolen from the slain Aislinn, it must have been - and end the threat of Ragnarök. 

Swiftly Veti reached to cradle Thad's face with her hand, fingertips and thumbs gently tracing the golden lines of cheek and and jaw and lips, just as she had when she once searched Max's visage. [i]"I love you,"[/i] she whispered, and with a soft kiss promised she would follow right after through the shade gate, after her lover and Atticus and all their team. She simply needed this moment here.

In the seconds she turned from Thad as he moved through the Shade Gate, the crimson wolf came over the woman once more as she dropped to her knees, falling beside the old werewolf where he lay. With only a single beseeching glance to the ancient vampire beside him, begging for just a moment's more patience, Veti gently, so lovingly, collected Reginald in her arms from the floor. The searing pain that lanced through her chest mattered for [i]nothing,[/i] not a single damn thing. It would [i]never[/i] match the torment the venerable werewolf suffered now, she knew. 

[i]All[/i] too well.

She said not a word, her embrace not asking a single thing of a grieving brother riven by the murder of the only family he had left in this world. One arm wrapped about Reginald's thick chest, the other about his shoulder, his whole body still shuddering with sobs. Veti's ebony-clawed hand cradled the back of his great head as she squeezed her eyes shut, whimpering softly as she laid her maw against his. 

But tear-rimmed amber eyes snapped open when Reginald's strong arms wrapped around her, returning her embrace and pulling her close, so tightly. Her ear flicked forward as she felt his maw rise against the shorthairs of her head, the elder wolf's hot breath warming her tender flesh as he spoke. 

The old wolf's voice was thick with heartache and tears, guttural and rough but somehow still steady. "I cannot follow, Victoria. Not now. Not like this." He pulled back from her, just enough to meet the crimson wolf's gaze with his own. The weight of all his long years, his monstrous grief, seemed etched into the depths of his amber eyes. 

"You will find him, the one who did this to... To her. To [i]Aislinn.[/i]" Veti thought for one brief instant his voice might crack, speaking that beloved name here by her lifeless body. But the last of the Teachglach Mac Tíre, the most powerful werewolf left in this world, would not be broken. He reached for Veti's head with both his clawed hands, a ferocity blazing across his face the likes of which she had never seen - could have never [i]imagined[/i] - of Reginald Hoyle before this moment.

"And when you do, you will exact [i]every[/i] ounce of vengeance her name deserves." 

This was no request. 

"It will be done," she growled. There was nothing more she needed to say, no more promise or oath to be made that those four words did not swear, before the only werewolf in this world she would follow through the very gates of Hell. Veti 's eyes closed as she leaned to rest her head against his for just a moment longer, and then stood to her feet, turning to sprint through the shade gate.

[center]**********[/center]

[i]Ardgroom.[/i]

Veti almost reeled backward in shock. There was no gathering of werewolves here now, no bonfire. Only her friends, her loved ones and teammates - and it seemed this ancient stone circle was fated to be the beginning and end of this day.