"If your friends would kill you for this then they're hardly good friends," Jonathan rumbled, his voice still dangerously close to a growl. His instincts now that there was fresh blood in the air were to hunt and feed and it was not helping his mood in the slightest.

"Look at it this way," he continues. "If you leave you might have a chance of running and surviving the rest of the day. If you stay that chance drops sharply."

It was a bluff, although he wasn't certain if he was bluffing himself just as much. He wouldn't let himself kill a human, but God if it wasn't tempting right now.

The fear was starting to win out and the young man took a step back, though for the rest of his doubt to take over and he turned and bolted. Jonathan wasn't risking a foolish attempt to try anything else, however, and kept the bright pulse of that racing heartbeat in his senses until it was a few streets away.

The boy and the puppy that had started it all, he realised wryly, had taken the chance to flee when they could. Not that he blamed them that. In his experience people who weren't accepted by anyone and found themselves a target wherever they went knew when to run and hide.

Which just left Raylan. A frown creasing his brow, Jonathan reached for his sleeve. "You're bleeding."