Like the break in an ice damn, a glacier, cold surgered. From deep inside Max it sweeped and avalanched. As much as it came from within, cold also swept in a wave behind the three of them. They were watching her back. Well, Semyon was. Max let the push take him. He rode the freezing ice and directed himself right where it wanted to take him.

To Daisy. 

One side cold. The other a blast of sticky heated wind. Something was coming in both directions. Max could understand the grip of cold that took him. It was the fingers of the dead world coming to collect their due. They wanted her. They had him. But she was calling something else. That punk pink headed chick was playing with her reaper toys and directing something bigger than should ever be here. Or if it should, it was fucking well gonna change the landscape some. 

Confusion racked through Max, his own and that of the cold hand that held him. 

Never mind, Max cursed. It was not his style to figure out everything. He was an action figure. So, go Joe. Go gettem’. To infinity and beyond. Right now that was Daisy.

Max leapt up in the air with his back to the new swarm of creepy swamp shits that surged just as he did. His aim was Daisy. Their aim was too. His hands finally ready to snap her fucking neck.

Right as he lept something shook his body. Like the cry of an injured wolf, his ears rang with a howl. He tasted blood.Not his own but, was it Veti? Max as much as Thad, knew the sound, the scent, the touch, the taste of that amazing wolf woman Veti. How could she….? He screamed in frustration. He heard Thad weep. But what could Max do?

Max was already committed to his attack. He aimed to be on Daisy and drag her down into the cold that wanted her. Her back was turned, his hands were opened, and even if now it suddenly seemed wrong, tasted bitter, he would follow through. 

It was a trade.