"Those things. The thing I thought you might be when I first met you." His throat is a little dry, so the response comes off more raspy than he means it to. He swallows, tries to get his voice back.

"Saw some before. Knew they'd still be around. Thought I had a breather." He can't, though. Since when did he have a break in the past three years? Never. Even these few weeks, he shouldn't have gotten complacent. He should have been hunting more... but doing this without backup is a bad idea.

... But he can't go back to the others. Not while he's still angry with Jake. He'd get into a fight with him and he knows that it'd tear things apart, which would be even worse.