"The hell I'm not," Jon replied, setting his jaw stubbornly. "I hunted vampires and ghouls with Shen Lei before you arrived in Rhy'Din, and you're gonna need all the help you can get," Jon said, eyes flashing a challenge to his elder brother.

"You know how to use a weapon?" Desmond asked, considering a moment when Jon nodded in affirmation. His brother looked a little pale but determined, and he was right about them needing all the help they could get. He nodded toward the weapons closet. "Gear up and make it fast. Lyneth, you ready?"

The little girl nodded once again, her eyes dry now as she gave her mother one last hug and moved over to where her father stood.

Piper rose to stand with Vicki, taking Dylan back into her arms.

"Rufus, Taylor, and Kaylee will be waiting for you," Vicki told the little group, her eyes lingering on Jon. "Be safe, okay?"

"Lynnie, you get us there, and then stay at the back of the pack. I don't want you get hurting," Desmond instructed. It was her choice if she chose to grow herself and become a force to be reckoned with, but he thought that was only as a last resort. The most important thing in his mind was keeping her safe, and if he had his way, she wouldn't be going along at all. "If you don't hear back from us within the hour, you send help, but don't leave the Grove under any circumstances," he told Piper.

Jon nodded his head, a strained smile on his pale face. He didn't think he'd ever be called into action again, but family was family, and he wasn't going to sit on his laurels if he could be of help. "Be back in a jiffy," he promised.

There was not time for Desmond to give his brother lessons in fighting Fae. "Iron is the only thing that will hurt them," he shared the only lesson he really needed to know.

Piper nodded, knowing full well that Lynnie was the big guns and hoping like hell she wouldn't have to take part much at all. "Bring all of yourselves home safe," was all she said, letting Vicki cling to her hand as the two women stepped back.

All eyes focused on Lyneth, and despite her stature, there was nothing of the little girl in the small figure she presented. Her eyes closed, seeking out the familiar sensation of Rufus, Taylor, and Kaylee, and one hand rose to touch the air in front of her. It rippled, casting light in slow circles until suddenly erupting into a portal through which they could see the rest of their hunting party just finishing gearing up. Lyneth's eyes opened, and she looked up at her father. "Time to go."

Desmond nodded gravely, eyes shining with pride for the little girl who wasn't his by blood but by choice. There were stronger ties than blood that held them together - ties her Fae father would never understand. "Let's go get Nanny," he told her gently. "Love you!" was the last thing the two women heard, echoed by both Jon and Desmond, almost simultaneously as they disappeared through that portal Lyneth had created.

As the portal closed, the two women were left standing in the quiet room, listening as Humphrey called up to them from the study. Vicki bit her lip, glancing at Piper, and came to a decision. "You get the whiskey, I'll get the kids," she said, shooing her friend down the stairs. It was going to be a long vigil.

Tiernan - or Nanny, as Lyneth called him - had been running all night, ever since the sun had set on All Hallow's Eve and the darkness had replaced the light. Keeping one step ahead of the Hunt had exhausted his strength so much he could no longer shift form and retreat to hawk or wolf. He had tried to outfly them, but his father's magic was too powerful, and once the dogs had his scent, there was no losing them. It was like being a mouse trapped in a maze with nowhere to go.

It was just a matter of time, and he could only hope the moons would find their zenith before his father caught up with him. Exhausted and nearing collapse, he had found respite for a time in the woods north of the city, in hopes of leading the Hunt away from his sister. He could at least do that. He'd already decided he'd rather die than return with his father to court, knowing it was likely he'd spend eternity imprisoned, being punished for daring to defy his father's wishes. Death was a far better fate than that, but he had not yet given up hope.

"You foolish boy."

Around Tiernan, the wind whisked its icy chill, bearing with it the scent of death as the shadows shifted around him. The Wild Hunt rode on, leaving him behind, but he was no longer alone. The Hunter unfolded from the shadows, his bare chest gleaming in the moonlight, the spike of his antlers a lethal shape against the darkness behind him. At his feet milled his dogs - fine wolf-hounds, black dogs, demon dogs, each obedient to his hand, each eager for blood. Only one was collared, and it was to this the others deferred, sat at the Hunter's side, her silver collar glinting in the moonlight.

"Did you really think you could run from me this time, boy?" the Hunter sneered. "You have been an amusing distraction, but no more. It is time to pluck the thorn from my side."

The young man gritted his teeth as he rose to his feet, his lungs burning with exhaustion and cold, every muscle in his body aching in protest, but he could run no more. This was his fate, and he needed to face it with pride and courage. He would not give his father the satisfaction of begging for his life, but perhaps he could delay him a little longer, long enough to buy himself enough time to regain his strength and find his wings before he met his end. "Let us not pretend, Father. We both know you would rather take me back to court than kill me outright, and we both know I would rather die than spend eternity a prisoner. All I have ever wanted is my freedom. Is that so much to ask from a father to his son?"

"You have always expected so much from me, Tiernan," the Hunter commented, more amused by this interlude than anything. He could taste his victory, be it in capture or death; he could afford a few moments for talk. "I gave you life, what more could you possibly want?" His smile was cruel in the moonlight, one hand on the silken head of the wolfhound beside him. "I gave you life. I can take it away far more painfully than you can imagine."

Tiernan's eyes darted briefly to the wolf at his side - his father's pet, it seemed - and his own eyes flickered, turning almost feral in the moonlight before they returned to their usual forest green. The woods around them had grown deadly quiet, as if the very forest itself was holding its breath to see how this conflict would turn out. "The life you offer is no life at all, Father. You took me from my mother without a thought. You broke her heart, and you tried to do the same to my sister. How many mortal lives have suffered at your hands" You care nothing for me or any of the other children you have made. You are full of pride and arrogance, thinking you are better than them - better than mortals, humans. But you are not. Do you know why, Father" Because, though you have a heart, it does not know how to care or to love. You exist, but you do not live. I would rather die than become what you are, but you hide behind your pets, too much a coward to do the deed yourself." The floor of the forest seemed to shake briefly, as if the ground was trembling with rage, but Tiernan knew in his heart that he was no match for his father's power.

The Hunter barely seemed to notice the trembling of the ground beneath his feet, his son's magic no match for his own. Even his hounds, though made momentarily skittish, did not give ground as their master sneered at his prey. "And why should I sully my hands with your half-blood, boy, when Faolan could do it far better?" His hand stroked the head of the collared wolf beside him - for wolf, she was. She was no hound, no mythical dog; she was as pure a bloodline as any wolf. Intelligence flickered in her golden eyes as she looked from father to son. The Hunter's sneer grew colder. "I think that would be fitting, don't you?" he asked Tiernan. "To have my favorite bitch rip your throat out, and have to live with the knowledge of what she has done."

The Hunter's impotent rage was palpable in the air as he snarled behind his teeth, but the danger of iron weapons was only too present. To be faced with five mortals bearing iron, five mortals who knew how to fight ....it was not a battle he was prepared to walk into. He hissed at them, his victory stolen from him. Tiernan would never be unprotected now, but perhaps he could take something else. He reached out his hand toward Faolan, and the she-wolf cringed, smoke rising from beneath the silver collar about her throat.

"Ah, excuse me a moment," a voice interrupted, and Rufus broke ranks, smiling pleasantly. He moved to one knee beside the cringing, whimpering she-wolf. "It really isn't polite to collar a werewolf with silver, you know." Gentle hands reached out to break the collar, tossing it back toward the Hunter with a glare. "Yours, I believe."

As Faolan sat upright once again, free for the first time in decades, the Hunter's growl deepened, his hounds milling nervously about him. His eyes focused on Tiernan and Lyneth, the children who had defied him, the younger cradling the elder in her arms. "There will come a time when you will regret this defiance."

"The collar," Tiernan murmured weakly, from where he lay on the ground, cradled in his sister's arms, but he needn't have worried as Rufus stepped up to rectify that problem without hesitation.

"You're outnumbered, and you're running out of time," Desmond reminded the Hunter. "I suggest you leave while you still can. My finger is getting itchy to let this arrow loose, and I'll make sure the next one isn't a glancing blow," he warned. From the look on his face, it wasn't an idle threat.

"I sincerely doubt they will ever regret it," Jon said, speaking at last. He knew what it was like to have another being own your soul, and he didn't wish it on anyone, least of all those he cared about.

Another hiss left the Hunter's lips, and for a moment, it seemed as though he might attack in spite of the army arrayed against him. Then Lyneth spoke - the grown Fae he had failed to sway months before, who loved being human too much to give it all up for the sterile nothingness of the existence he offered her.

"The last time we spoke," she said softly, "I told you that if you harm me or the people I love, I will smash your precious cycle into a million pieces." She glared at the Hunter, furious that he had not realized how much she meant it. "Whatever else I am, I am Fae, and we are jealous beings. You are on my turf. You have brought the Hunt to my world. You have shed the blood of my brother. You are beaten, and still you make threats. I think maybe it's time people saw you for what you really are."

She reached out, linking her fingers with Tiernan's, and her eyes flashed bright, burning away the illusion the Hunter wore. And there he was ....a tiny, wizened thing, more bark than skin, no beauty, nothing but the power he exuded. His hounds flinched away from him, and he snarled at his defiant children.

"How dare you?!"

"You chose this, Father," Tiernan said quietly, his breath rasping in his chest. "You chose to make us hate you. You brought this fate down upon yourself. Now, let us go before the mortals finish you." The words were slow coming out and weak, but the woods had gone still enough that everyone standing in that small clearly could hear him perfectly. It wasn't a challenge or even a warning, but a promise.

As if in response to some unspoken order, the mortals gathered there - Lyneth's family, and by extension, Tiernan's, too - braced themselves, the weapons in their hands ready for work. Beaten and humiliated, unable to hide his true form from the eyes of those who had been protected enough to see, the Hunter shrank back, calling to his hounds with a last baleful glare at the she-wolf who had been stolen from him. "Another time," he promised them in return, but the words were just that ....words, that faded on the wind as he and his pack faded from sight. And in their wake, Faolan raised her muzzle and howled at the moons, a howl of triumph that echoed through the woodland plane.

Jon was the only one among the group who flinched at the sight of the Hunter's true appearance, though even he had seen things far worse in his lifetime. He was the least hardened of them all, but just as determined to see this thing through, no matter the outcome.

"She defended me," Tiernan whispered, some part of his being answering that wolf's call, though he was far too weak to shift and meet her in that feral form.

Once the threat had passed, Jon was the first to lower his weapon and see to the fallen Fae. "He's lost a lot of blood. We're gonna need a healer."

Rufus joined Jon on the ground, his own weapons stowed as he helped assess the fall half-Fae. "Which one of them bit you, Tiernan?" he asked, glancing warily toward the werewolf. "Was it her?"

Faolan's muzzle swung around, golden eyes glaring at the former Watcher for such a suggestion. Behind them, Kaylee exchanged a glance with Taylor and prowled off to make sure they were truly alone, her weapons still at the ready.

"No," Tiernan replied quietly, his face even paler than usual, clinging tightly to his sister's hand. "No, it was one of the dogs." His gaze shifted between the wolf and his sister, a weak smile on his face. "Thank you," he said quietly, as much to the entire group as it was to any one person, and then his eyes drifted closed and he said no more.

"He's cold," Jon said, touching his neck and feeling for a pulse. "But he's alive."

"I can take us back," Lyneth offered, and as she spoke, her voice mutated, drawing their eyes to see the full grown Fae resume her charming little girl's form once again. She looked up at Des conspiratorially. "So's Mummy doesn't get a fright," she assured him, one little hand reaching out to touch Faolan's fur. "Where did Taylee go?"

Rufus snorted with laughter at the combination of Taylor and Kaylee's names. "We should go home now," he told everyone there assembled.

Jon looked at Lyneth with wonder in his eyes. "I'll never see you the same again," he told her, before looking back to Tiernan. The fallen Fae was his main concern right now, and his hands were bloody from putting pressure on the wound. It seemed he knew a little more about this sort of thing than he'd let on.

Desmond surveyed the area, lowering the bow, his shoulders tight with tension. He wouldn't relax until they were safe back at Maple Grove. "Taylor! Kaylee!" he called. "Time to go."

Lyneth offered Jon her sweetest grin. "S'okay, Uncle Jon," she assured him. "I haven't seed your winkie." Rufus bit his lips to keep the laughter in, reaching out to help Jon get Tiernan up onto his feet as Kaylee and Taylor came back into view.

"All right, munchkin," Kaylee told the little girl. "Back we go. Is the dog coming with us?"

"Thank the Gods for that," Jon said, stifling a chuckle at Lyneth's remark, before helping Rufus get the unconscious Fae to his feet.

"She's a wolf," Desmond pointed out, crouching down to offer an upturned hand to the she-wolf. "You'd better come with us," he told her, hoping she understood a little of what he said. He'd recognized the silver collar about her throat and his thoughts echoed Rufus', but this wasn't the time or place to discuss it further. "It's not safe here right now."

Faolan sniffed the upturned hand thoughtfully, glancing at the little girl beside her. She could smell another female on this mortal man, and a small boy; a feline scent, and a canine, too. Her eyes turned to Tiernan, the only one of the group she had any true reason to trust.

Taylor rejoined them, sleeves pulled up and carrying a bowl of hot water and clean cloths. "Uh," he said, noticing the wolf perched on the bed beside Tiernan. "Did I miss something?"

Rufus held Jon's gaze for a long moment. "I think, if he were ever to try again, it will be on a Halloween night," he said carefully. "But I don't think he will try again. He seems to have gone after Tiernan in a form of revenge, not realizing that little Lyneth had already claimed him as her brother and a part of her family. These Fae are deathly afraid of iron, Jon; it is the one thing that can negate their power and kill them completely. To be faced with not one, but five mortals, carrying iron and prepared to fight to protect someone they barely know ....that is a shock to the system. And Lyneth's threat carries weight. She could destroy his cycle, if she chose to, and he knows it. Tiernan belongs to us now, and to get to him, the Hunter will have to come through us. It's a fight he doesn't know for certain he would win."

He glanced up as Taylor came back into the room, chuckling at the look on his nephew's face. "I think she may have decided to make our new friend the beginning of her new pack, Taylor," he grinned, rising to his feet to come out of the way. "Go and get washed up and reassure your wife, Jon. We have things under control here."

It was a lot for the actor to take in, even if he had tangled with undead once upon a time. "So, if he decides to have another go at it, we have a whole year to prepare." There was some comfort in that, but not much for Tiernan. Still, he trusted Rufus' judgment, and there would be plenty of time to think on it later. He nodded his head, looking suddenly weary after the long day and night. "Stay as long as you need. Ed and Lis are on their way," he told the pair before starting toward the door. He paused on the way, and headed toward the bathroom instead to wash as much blood from his hands and arms as he could so as not to upset his wife.

"At least a year, yes." Rufus nodded, waving Jon away to go and wash up. He turned his eyes to Taylor. "What do you need me to do?" he asked his nephew, never afraid to follow orders when he was not the one with superior knowledge in a situation. Admittedly, he was going to have to explain this very carefully to Miranda, but hopefully Kaylee hadn't frightened the life out of his wife when she got back.

"I need to see if the wound is as serious as it looks. The bleeding looks like it's stopped, so I don't think he's severed any arteries. I'm going to assume he's got the same basic anatomy as the rest of us," Taylor replied, looking again to the wolf, possessively guarding her chosen packmate. "I'm not going to hurt him. Do you understand?" he asked her, recognizing the intelligence in those lupine eyes of hers.

She eyed the younger man for a long moment, seeming to analyze him before chuffing her assent to his words, turning her head to nudge at Tiernan a little more insistently. Rufus bit back a chuckle. "I could be wrong, but she may be trying to wake him up for you," he said, moving to the other side of the bed. "May I remove his shirt, young lady?" he asked the wolf, who did a surprisingly good roll of her eyes and padded out of his way to let him do just that.

"It might be better if he stays unconscious," Taylor told Rufus quietly, a frown on his face. He wasn't sure what they were going to find once they had the young man's shirt off, but it wasn't going to be pretty. Taylor just hoped all that would be required was some stitches. "You have a knife" It's better to cut his shirt off," Taylor suggested, not wanting to jostle his patient too much. "He should really be hospitalized," he added, hoping it wasn't as bad as it looked. He was a skilled EMT, but if it was any worse than a flesh wound, it would require someone with more skill. Thankfully, Edward and Lis had wasted no time, as evidenced by the thump of footsteps on the stairs.

Of course, they had to be approved by the she-wolf standing guard over their patient before they were allowed to touch Tiernan, but eventually the two medical practitioners were able to clean, stitch, and bandage the half-Fae's wound, injecting him with enough morphine to keep him quiet and still for a good few hours in the process. That done, all there was left for anyone to do was wait, and they could be quite certain that nothing was going to get past his canine companion. Faolan watched them out of the room, and set herself to stand guard over her new packmate as he slept, possessively protective of the only family she had in the world.

((Who'd have thought, five years ago, that Team Granger could ever be so badass" All these horrible things we've been doing to them has paid off! Many thanks to my partner in crime, who did most of the work in this scene!))