"Lauren, you kick me out and we won't be able to send this thing back to where it came from and Dan's sacrifice will be for nothing," she said.
The creature howled again, a note of hunger in its echoing voice. Shadow tentacles reached out for Dan, but Dan shrank back to the back of the circle, as far back as he could go, and still be inside it, both out of fear and a desire to make it come as far into the circle as he could. He was well aware of what was at stake and that they had to draw the creature into the circle. His blood was dripping from his arm, falling onto where the blood of the cat had been, following the rivulet that he and his group had carved into the tile floor. He wasn't going to be a coward this time; he wasn't going to run.
"Come and get me, you bastard," Dan said, his voice a growl.
