He grinned, showing all his fangs, and his huge paws took the items.
“A Desert Eagle,” he observed, recognizing the pistol, and quickly found its matching magazine. He loaded the weapon, prepared it to fire, and put the safety on before handing it back to me by gripping the silver barrel in his fist. “A very useful choice. Keep it. You’ll need it. How’s your aim?”
“…I don’t know. Good, I guess. At short distances.”
“Good. You already shot the panther once, so be careful. It must have you in its sights. I could smell its hatred.”
Thinking about that—about how I might have made a tremendously powerful enemy just by defending Andre and Sasha—I tucked the gun under my clothes along with the knife. Rex started walking and I moved with him, heading back to the others.
“It would’ve been more
