Veti gave her lover a smile that, despite the maw full of fangs, was still somehow tender, so very loving. Only Thad would ever think to wrap his arms around an eight foot tall crimson wolf beast, just to steady her, simply to tell her without a single word that he would never leave. She was rattled, without a doubt, but Thad braced her in a heartbeat. "Thank you, love" she whispered, leaning down to whisper in his ear, finding warm reassurance as she took a deep breath, burying her muzzle in the warm crook between his neck and shoulder for a moment, until she heard the new guy's plaintive self-introduction.

The werewolf lifted her head from Thad's shoulder, torn somewhere between stunned laughter and a wee touch of sympathy at his pathetic state, hunkered down on the ground as he was, looking all sad. "Well hey Gabe, consider it the 'average first day at Bain & Hoyle.' It'll probably be the standard Day 20 of your employment too. First anniversary. Retirement party... " She shrugged noncommittally despite the hurricane of emotions that screamed through her head and heart in this very moment: the unspeakable loss of a sister wolf, the hellish vision of the freed Fenrir, the unforgiving blood oath of vengeance - and now?

Now, she was going to work on introducing the new hire. Heh. Fuck it.

Yeah, it was probably a good thing she didn't laugh. Veti was suddenly sure if she started, she probably wouldn’t have stopped, and it’d probably have gotten all twisted up into something hysterical and not altogether sane.

“Veti, werewolf. [i]Obviously,”[/i] she began, patting her chest with a sly, wolfish grin, “Thad, warlock and love of my life. Daisy,” she added, one ebony-tipped claw gesturing toward the Reaper. “BFF and Reaper – not necessarily in that order, but I’m grateful nonetheless.” Veti’s claw ran lovingly over the hellhound’s massive head. “Artie, Daisy’s true companion, but she lets me love on him too because she’s good to me, even when I’m at my most pathetic.”

Her claw pointed toward the undead man, and then to each in turn. “Semyon, a greater wight and all around Russian bad ass. Siya, vampire and my other BFF, roommate and partner in pretty much… Well… Everything?”

“Jay-Jay, pyromaniac and demon host who seems to have been branching out with her skills this past year. Henry, river fae – a Nack – and executive assistant to our boss, the more obvious demon type with the prehensile tale and wings? Yeah, that’s the big guy, Atticus, incubus, immediate supervisor and Chief of Operations for the Boston Branch Office. And… “

Veti tapped her furry chin with one long claw, as if she were considering for a moment. “Yes, that about covers our people – and the mission? Save the world from complete destruction of course – honestly, I doubt this team has another mission anymore. This particular existential threat to our world is called variously Ragnarok, or the Twilight of the Gods as you will – “

As if to punctuate her words with [i]extreme[/i] prejudice, green lightning erupted in the center of the standing stones, endlessly it seemed though it only took one earthshattering rumble of thunder to toss the crimson werewolf backward off her clawed feet, helpless as a windblown autumn leaf to halt her flight, slamming clumsily, painfully, into the ground again and again.

The werewolf groaned deep in her throat when the earth stopped bucking and she could finally lift her head from the dirt, shaking her pelt as she tried to scramble to her claws. To her eyes it seemed the brilliant Irish night sky had disappeared utterly, replaced with an endless, abyssal darkness. Veti opened her jaws to shout for Thad, breathing deeply – 

The wolf in her whined, her great crimson tail instantly tucked beneath her in abject terror as she crouched in a huddled ball, as small as she could make herself. Ears pinned back, she could barely bring herself to look upward, toward the black shadow that blotted out the whole world. Her whole body shook with an all-consuming dread, every cell in the werewolf’s body screaming for her to bolt, to flee in mortal fear, heedless of love or duty… 

[i]Holy shit... Not just freed – here![/i]

Fucking Jay-Jay...

It was the woman who rose this time, the woman who seized the wolf within and shoved her back, emerging into this hellish new shadow world. The wolf was all but useless, paralyzed with fear in the presence of the Fenrir, the wolf-god, and Veti [i]could not let that happen.[/i] She leapt to her bare feet, the blood-spattered remains of her once-beautiful grey dress the only armor she had now, but that simply didn’t matter. Not now. Not when the faces of everyone she ever loved flashed through her mind’s eye, an endlessly looping reel that gave purpose to every last good and decent thing in her lifetime.

Veti knew they probably didn’t have a prayer before a demigod – but fuck it. She wasn’t about laying down and letting this monster rip apart the ones she loved. [i]Distraction.[/i] She could do that, but damn it ALL to hell, her Desert Eagle was still in the Keep – [i]shitshitshitshitSHIT![/i]

[i]“SEMYON?”[/i] she shouted, her eyes sweeping the darkening glade for the wight. “SEMYON! [i]NEED A GUN![/i]”