He approached cautiously. I lagged behind. We’d become good friends. I liked him a great deal. I didn’t want all that to change… and I knew, somehow, that what happened when we breached this fence would alter us forever.
Joe scowled, motioning me forward. I had no choice in this. Duty demanded I obey. I took a step closer, and caught a faint, nearby whine.
Joe must have heard it, too. His head snapped up, his focus beyond the gate, where the backside of a long garage-type adobe building sprawled across the brown lawn. Small windows tucked against the eaves, interspersed with metal vents. I sniffed. Those vents funneled the stench.
Something distracted him, and he pressed a finger to his ear. Then his shoulders slumped. “Copy that. Damn it.” He turned to me, his frown deep and dark. “He got the drop on us again, buddy. Looks like we came out here for nothing. Team’s reporting the main house is empty and there’s no sign of activity on the grounds.”
He pressed his finger to his ear once more, listening to the voice in the tiny device as dread welled inside me.
“Roger. We’ll regroup for morning.” He turned his back to me.
No! He wasn’t going to walk away. He couldn’t. He’d heard that whine, I was certain of it. My lip curled, disgust rising before I could control it.
“Hold position, Tevares. I’ve got something here I want to check out.”
Check out? I blinked.
Joe strode through the gate, his stride long and confident, though I knew he kept a watchful eye on his surroundings. He walked straight for that building.
He wasn’t… I darted forward with a sharp yelp and bounded to his heels. He dropped a hand to the nape of my neck and ran his fingers through my hair. Another whine came from within the building.
We turned the corner, and Joe stopped in his tracks. Not much of ordinary life startled him, and given what we encountered daily, I understood why. I’d never seen him freeze as if fear possessed him, as he did now. Only fear wasn’t the emotion rolling off him. I couldn’t put a name to it, and looked from him to the open lawn.
Heavy-duty wire panels formed a circular ring in the middle of the yard. The grass around it had been stamped to hard-packed dirt. Blood spatters stained the ground inside the large cage, fresh crimson with a pungent scent. On the other side, against a small, gray shack, two motionless canine bodies lay in the scant shade. No scent of decay drifted from them. Only a few flies gathered on their mottled, bloodied fur.
What had they done here? This wasn’t what I’d expected at all. My muscles tensed as apprehension and anger brewed inside me.
Joe’s gaze cut to the long building at our left. He drew in a long, audible breath and started for the door. Glancing between him and that ring, I followed, uncertain what I should do. What I should prepare for.
He pushed the door open. The stench rushed out. “Stay here,” he commanded as he pointed at the ground by the door.
I sat. Joe ducked his head into the shadows.
“Damn it!”
Anger drove him forward, and he burst inside as if he were hot on the trail once again. Any minute I half expected him to draw his gun and fire. But the only bullets that exploded were his exclamations of profanity that tripled in volume. As they grew, concern overtook me. I couldn’t sit here and wait for something to happen to him.
So I charged inside.
I skidded to a halt on the concrete floor, nose to nose with a six-foot-tall, narrow kennel. In the far corner lay a dog. She lacked the strength to lift her head, and a large, festering wound covered her right shoulder.
I knew wounds like that. I made wounds like that.
Her eyes met mine, full of sorrow and lost hope. I looked away, helpless for the first time since I’d been a puppy. I sought Joe, and found him five kennels down, jimmying the lock on another cage. It popped with another of his exclamations, and he flung the door open, tearing at his shirt even as he surged inside.
I trotted cautiously closer. A warning growl from the cage to my immediate right gave me momentary pause, but as I looked, I found a dark black dog locked safely behind bars. Convinced there was no immediate threat, I followed Joe inside the kennel. He knelt beside a fawn-and-white dog and wrapped his shirt around its neck. It let out a soulful whine — the same whine we’d heard outside.
“It’s okay, girl,” Joe murmured. “You’re going to be okay.”
The dog rolled its gaze to him, but didn’t otherwise move. This poor female dog was harmless now. Too wounded to hurt me, or Joe. I reassured him in the only way I could. I dropped my nose to his.
Joe pressed his earpiece again. “Tevares, get your ass down here. I’ve got a fresh dogfight — we must have interrupted them. Call Animal Control. There’s twenty dogs in here. Some healthy, some in terrible condition.”
I stood close enough to Joe that I could hear the voice crackle in response. “Copy. Already on it. I must have the winners over here. Found four chained to barrels covered in blood but otherwise healthy.”
“Yeah,” Joe muttered. “I’ve found the bait.”
I glanced at the dog before us, then slowly around us. Bait. I didn’t need human intelligence to understand the role these dogs played.
“Back, Ghost,” Joe murmured.
Dutifully, I backed off ten steps. Joe stepped over the dog, moving behind it, then carefully slid his hands beneath. When she offered no sign of protest, he eased her into his arms. Another whine slid free. Blood seeped beneath his makeshift bandage to stain the patch of white fur around her throat.
As he stood, three men tromped into the building.
“Joe, that dog could turn on you,” one of them cautioned.
Joe shook his head. “Don’t really care. She’s not going to make it if we wait for help. Lock this place down. Get these dogs out of here. Find the cats. Or rabbits. Or whatever else they’re using for training bait. I’m taking this girl to the closest vet. Call me if you run into any problems.”
As Joe started for the sun-baked outdoors, I stared after him, caught momentarily by surprise. He hadn’t turned away. Man. Dog. Cats. Rabbits. He cared.
And I was part of his world. He was part of mine. I had never thought to respect a human this much. In that moment, he wasn’t just Joe, he wasn’t just my partner. He was my master, and I would willingly give my life for him. I bounded after, more proud than I’d ever been.
My master’s screams jarred me from the memory.
The smell of rot and death surrounded me again as I heard laughter, cackling knight laughter, and my eyes focused. My master was pinned inside a pile of splintered crates, jagged edges cutting into his flesh, his clothing torn. Blood seeped from various wounds, and I spotted his knife lying out of reach on the cavern floor, his pistol clasped limply in one pinned hand as he struggled to free himself.
And the knights were sneering, laughing, their snow-white leader leaning over him with a look of triumph. I sensed it then: a predator preparing for the kill. My master needed me. Strength surged as blood and adrenaline poured through my body. My legs stiffed, a growl rising inside me.