Rory turned when my chair creaked and his mouth fell open when he saw the knives. I laid them on the table and pulled off my hat so I could tighten the bun I’d twisted my hair into. They’d seen my hair already—not that I truly cared. I still wore the hat mostly just to blend in. Since the battle with the Dweller, I’d found myself caring less and less about what people thought when they looked at me.
A loud groan of metal sounded before a crash and I glanced outside to see a beige S10 pickup rolling across the parking lot.
“My piece of shit,” Tea Bag whined.
“You all need to stay inside.” Without waiting for their agreement, I picked up my knives and ran out the front door.
Chapter Six
“It’s Bigfoot in basketball shorts,” Phro said.
My first thought was
ghoul
. Thick tufts of golden-brown hair covered it from head to its…whoa, its feet were on backward. Not a ghoul then—they had hooves instead of feet. The thing moved fast, racing around the cars in a zigzag pattern that made me dizzy. It caught sight of me and slowed, steps growing more awkward. The shiny red shorts looked ridiculous. Baggy and striped, they should have been to its knees…but it didn’t have any.
I stared, unable to wrap my mind around how he—because now I saw it was definitely a he—could walk,
hell, function
, with his body all jacked up like that.
He stopped about twenty feet from me, narrowed his already slash-eyed gaze and showed me fangs. At least five inches long, they jutted over his thin lower lip and they glistened with saliva as he opened his mouth wide and released an ear-splitting roar. Sounded like a jungle cat and a wild red fox had twisted their howls together into a higher frequency.
The noise stabbed into my ears and I winced and tightened my fingers around the knives. He lurched another step toward me, the sounds coming from his throat dropping to low, growling noises.
“If that’s its only form of communication, you’re in trouble.” Phro curled her lip. “It’s so dirty. I bet it stinks.”
He did. “Smells like those white flowers that show up on Bradford pear trees in the spring. Kind of like garbage. And I think he understands us because he’s getting angrier.”
I had no idea what he was. In all the years I’d tracked down stories of supernatural creatures, he was new. I vaguely remembered reading about a creature with backward feet, but I didn’t know how to take him down.
Phro said I should study more. I’d kind of been hoping Castor and Blythe would take care of that part, leaving me to kick butt. I
liked
that part.
He jumped and my eyes flew open wide because I hadn’t been expecting him to be that agile—not without knees. I stepped aside, stabbed out with my right hand, but my knife only glanced off his thick pelt. He tried to grab me and I dodged long fingers that thankfully didn’t have claws. I leapt at him, grabbed two fists of hair…and it was hair instead of fur, long, dirty strands that tangled around my fingers. But I got a good grip, so I swung him around hard and slammed his head into the side of an SUV. He grabbed on to the rearview mirror, his strange legs scrambling to stand.
“You need knees, dude.”
The thing growled again and his toes curled behind him as he sprang into the air. This time, I didn’t step aside fast enough. Long fangs sank into my shoulder. I screamed at the razor-sharp pain and ripped away from his teeth, spinning around to kick him. I hoped he’d fall over, figuring it would be hard to get to his feet fast without knees.
He stumbled but didn’t go down, instead twisting around and leaping into the air. I ducked and brought my knife up but his pelt was too thick. Shoving the knives back into their sheaths, I watched him circle me. I flexed my thighs, balanced on the balls of my feet and this time when he rushed, I swung my right leg up in a roundhouse kick that slammed into the side of his head. His spine hit the red truck behind him, but he roared and came at me again.
I stepped to the side and ran a few yards, looking for his weak spot. That kick had made my wounded leg throb.
I misjudged his speed. Before I could blink, he’d wrapped his arms around me from behind and started squeezing.
“Too. Much. Love.” I struggled, lifted one foot to kick backward.
He grunted and squeezed harder, then growled a word that sounded like
shadow
in my ear.
Pain. My world became a haze of pain as it felt like he squished my insides together.
Blythe and the teens came running out of the cafe. Rory was yelling and I struggled to focus on him. “It’s a Kuru-Pira. You just have to knock it down.”
I knew that. Not what it was, but that knocking it down was a good idea. I sucked in what air I could and started a violent wiggle that had him grunting and struggling to hang on to me.
“Don’t let it pee on you!” Sarah yelled.
Because I was plastered to his front, there wasn’t a way for me to stop that from happening. I didn’t want to know what his urine would do to me, but just the thought freaked me out enough to make me struggle harder. I slammed my head back and heard a satisfying crunching noise.
It wailed and squeezed.
I saw black spots in my peripheral vision, even as Blythe ran up and flung her hands at us. Something behind me exploded. Blythe started mumbling, dropped to her knees and flung her hands at us again. So help me, if she caught me on fire, I was going to kill her.
“Look for mud,” Rory yelled at his friends. “Hurry! If you see a footprint, yell out!”
The kids scattered, weaving around the few cars left in the lot.
“Found one,” Brock yelled.
Rory stepped closer to where I struggled against the creature’s tight hold. “Okay, listen to me. I’m going to give Brock an instruction and you need to be ready, okay?”
Ready for what? I was seeing stars and was worried a rib had cracked.
He tapped Blythe’s shoulder. “Hey, what’s her name?”
“Beri.” Blythe started to fling up her hands.
Rory grabbed them. “Whoa, whatever you’re doing is seriously cool. Wish I could throw fire bombs, but I kind of like the buildings and trees around here.”
“I need my yellow bag,” she said.
“Okay.” He drew the word out. “Hey, Beri, still with us? Look at me!”
I was going to do more than look at him if he didn’t get around to the plan here. I tried to convey that through my gasps and flails.
“Brock! Put your palm in the footprint!”
The creature holding me went stiff, like his legs had locked up, and then he fell. He didn’t loosen his grip and I didn’t want him to keep crushing me on the ground, so I managed to use the fall to wiggle far enough down to bite his arm. I got mostly hair, but there was flesh underneath, so I clenched my jaw hard, wincing when he let out another of those screeching roars. Fangs touched my sore shoulder and I wasn’t letting him chomp on me again, so I bit harder. I tasted blood right when his arms loosened. I squirmed free, spitting and gasping. I rolled a few feet away, got to my knees and watched the creature. “As soon…as all the…air…returns…to my lungs…you’re dead.”
He didn’t get up, just awkwardly rolled side to side.
“A Kuru-Pira can’t get up unless he has something to help pull him up.” Rory came over to squat down beside me. “You fight really well.”
“Not well enough.” I started to feel like air could get into my lungs.
Rory pulled out his cell phone. “I’m calling my uncle. He has a dog-catching business.”
I didn’t have my breath back enough to point out it wasn’t a dog, but I didn’t have a better idea. The creature looked so helpless, rolling frantically like a beetle stuck on its back, I couldn’t walk over and kill it. I could if it moved again though. The S10 the Kuru-Pira had thrown was on its side and still on fire. Luckily, the creature had rolled it away from everything else, so I didn’t think the fire would spread.
I looked at Blythe. “Fire bombs?”
She shrugged, chewed on her lip, and looked like she was getting ready to cry.
Tea Bag, the owner of the “piece of shit” as he’d called it, stood staring forlornly at the ruined vehicle.
Within three minutes, a van screeched into the parking lot and it stopped by Rory. Two men got out and opened the back. One pulled out a tranquilizer gun and the other opened a cage big enough for a bear.
“Catches dogs, huh?” I muttered.
Rory shrugged and grinned. His cheeks, red from the cold, got darker. “My uncles are prepared for this sort of thing. We’ve had some strange stuff going on around here lately, in addition to that concert.”
The one with the tranquilizer gun shot the Kuru-Pira. It screeched and flopped around before falling still. The uncles tied it up, then loaded it into the cage. They had to sit it up in the corner so its legs would fit inside. One of them walked over to us, his eyes narrowing on me. I stood, winced and held one hand to my lower rib.
Rory cleared his throat. “Uncle Gale? This is Beri. She’s looking for a friend of hers who is in that band.”
Dark eyebrows drew together on the uncle’s face. “You kids didn’t go to that concert, did you?”
“Nah, Tea Bag’s truck broke down.”
Gale eyed the smoldering truck, frowned. “We’ll come back and tow that after we get that thing set up at the Preserve.”
Rory rolled his eyes. “There are two creatures out there and you call it that.”
“Three now.” He crossed his arms and frowned at something over my shoulder. I turned to see Blythe dumping baggies on the ground.
I rushed in to explain. “They’re herbs. She collects them. Not drugs. I know what it looks like.”
“Tell her to keep her
herbs
away from these kids.”
I nodded, just glad he was carting that thing off, because I sure didn’t know what to do with it. The demons I’d fought from the Dweller had sort of melted into mush. “Hey, Blythe, gather up your stuff and do whatever it is you’re doing back at the room. We have to take care of that other problem.”
“What other problem?” she asked as she shoved baggies back into her yellow purse.
“The ancient one.”
“Oh right.” She stood up and slowly walked to Tea Bag, tapped his shoulder. “I’m so sorry about your car. I can’t buy you a new one—I don’t have a job right now—but I can help pay for a used one. I’ll give you my address… Wait, my house burned down.” She bit her lip.
I took pity on her. Something, probably the fire bombs, had her completely frazzled. I walked over and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. Big, startled blue eyes looked up at me. “I’ll bring some cash by the cafe tomorrow, okay?” I said to the forlorn teen.
“Sure,” he murmured. “But you really don’t have to worry about it. It was a bad truck. Not even worth five hundred bucks.”
“Well, I’ll bring that and you can use it as a down payment on another, okay?”
“Thanks.” He stared at Blythe. “She’s not going to cry is she?”
Poor boy looked so alarmed, I grinned.
Blythe sobbed.
“It’s been a rough couple of days. She’ll be all right. Come on, Blythe.” I walked her to the motel, feeling the suspicious gaze of Rory’s Uncle Gale the entire way. The ache in my leg felt particularly strong and I rubbed it as we walked.
Glancing at Blythe, I noticed she seemed to have gotten herself under control, but again she was strangely quiet.
“My shoulder is stinging, so we’re going to have to clean it out. That thing got me with its fangs.”
Fixing me up always seemed to cheer her up. I think it made her feel needed.
As we walked, dark crept in and the sound of crickets, loud in the field between the strip mall and the motel, nearly drowned out the sound of the van revving away. Lights spilled from a couple of open motel rooms, a few people had apparently caught the fight going on. Ignoring them, I unlocked our room and gently pushed Blythe inside.
My overnight bag was bouncing around the bed.
I shut the door behind me, grabbed the leash and approached the bag. “Hey Fenris?”
“Let me out of this vile box.”
The voice of mini-thunder was back. I laughed, then winced when it hurt my rib. I didn’t think it was broken, but cracked was a definite possibility. “I’m going to let you out and I’ll let the witch set you on fire if you try to escape.”
When I set him free, he shot up in the air, sprite dust fanning out around him in a black cloud. I lifted one of Nikolos’s T-shirts and tied it around my nose. “Don’t breathe that in, Blythe.”
She whipped a pink scarf out of her bag and wrapped her face.
“Never lock me in a box again.” He shuddered and flew around the room, his wings spread out around the cape. “I said I would let you use my blood. You owe me a new home too, so I won’t try to escape. But I must eat.”
I held up the leash.
Tiny eyes flew open wide and his mouth opened enough to show the small fangs. “You have to be kidding.”
“It’s the only way. I’m not one for trust and especially not vampires. My experiences with your kind haven’t been so great.”
“There are no others of my kind.”
“Hell of an ego you got there, Fenris.” I watched him zipping around the room, stretching his wings, as well as his small arms and legs.