nobody's safe

His teeth met flesh and the ache in his jaws was soothed momentarily by the violence, but the hapless victim turned to speak and the familiar coffee-and-cream visage caused his vision to momentarily grey and he shrank back. "Aureus," he said pitiably, in the tone of one pleading though he could not say precisely what the plea was. He knew this couldn't be Pyrrhic because he'd left Pyrrhic in charge of Aerie, and Pyrrhic wouldn't have abandoned the pack, not like Eligos had, so it could only be Aureus after all though he had watched Aureus' body burn to ash on his funeral pyre was it any odder than having spoken to his murderous, blasphemous uncle? "Aureus," he said again, but sudden movement and the touch of something smeared on his face broke rational thought once more and he turned on the touch with a wrathful snarl and a rage that blinded him. "You use my brother's face to trick me, demon?" he rasped, for what else could this be? Aureus would not have tried to kill him, so it could not be Aureus despite his certainty a moment before. "To lure me here so you could poison me?" He didn't know what the creature had rubbed on him but it stung in the sores and that small pain drove the conviction of poison.