Page 84 of Shifter's Homecoming

Troy peeled to the left, Trent peeled to the right.You come from above, just after we hit him,Trent told the cat in the trees.Roger,came the strained reply. Trent and his brother leapt for the demon in unison, snarling and showing their teeth.

Khain disappeared. Troy sailed in front of Trent and landed on the ground on his feet. Trent fetched up hard against a tree, hearing and feeling his own ribs crack. He shifted, then shifted again, back as a wolf, fully healed, then whirled around.

Troy was running back and forth, nose in the air.This way,he said, then took off down a trail. Another explosion ripped through the night. A piece of cement as big as a kitchen sink came sailing past, ripping up the trees all around. The two of them ran faster, harder, ears back and tails streaming.

They broke out of the trees and saw Khain. This time he was standing just at the edge of the reservoir. He raised his hand and waved at them coyly. Now his shirt said,Frisk me, bitches.

Trent growled, already at full speed, but digging deep and finding a bit of acceleration—

It was no use. Khain waved one more time, then disappeared with an audible pop. With him gone, they could see one lone figure standing at the water’s edge on the far side of the reservoir.

It was Soren, and Trent just knew he had the poison in his hand.

No,Troy moaned, skidding to a stop at the water’s edge, all four feet dragging in the dirt.

Felen!Get him! Don’t let him pour anything in the water!

Thefelenon that side was already on the move, breaking the tree line, running fast, but he would never make it, unless—

Soren wound up like he was pitching a fast ball. His arm started its forward swing. The big cat leapt from behind. Trent prayed wordlessly—

But it was no good. The tiny vial left Soren’s hand and flipped end over end in the lights from the crane, already spilling its liquid fire. It all landed in the water with a tiny, unimportant splash.

Soren disappeared and after a moment, reappeared twenty feet away. The tawny mountain lion sailed right past the place he’d been. When he hit the water, he came up coughing and gagging. Trent could see him shifting from cat to man to cat to man again and again until he was able to drag himself out on the other side. He lay there panting for a moment as a naked man. Soren only stood there, looking around, like he was waiting for something.

Fuck, what now?Troy said.

Now, we pray, Trent said, but what he really meant was,Now we fight, and Troy did not need an interpreter to know that shit.

Into the water they went, swimming and shifting against the burning poison, heading for the far shore.

***

Rowan felt sick to her stomach. Two explosions. That meant both the damn and the end cap were gone. That meant the water in the reservoir could now reach the water supply for the city, and anything that happened from here on out was entirelyher fault.

She physically wrung her hands for a minute, then turned to Reed, intending to ask what she thought they should do, but Reed did not look good.

She had her hands to her head and was talking to herself. “Hurts,” was the only word Rowan caught.

She turned to Remington instead. He already had his hands up. “Stay calm, your boys out there are the best fighters we’ve got. If anyone can keep this contained, its them. Thedragenis on his way. We’ll figure this out.”

Rowan felt slightly better, until he lifted his head like he was smelling the air. “Gas,” he said, his face going hard.

Oh that was bad.

“Reed, can we get a window?” Remington said.

Reed still had both hands to her head. She looked up, her expression stricken, but a window opened at the front of the building, toward the road.

Rex was there, standing on the porch, a large, white, plastic backpack on his back, like the kind you would put weed killer in, and another next to him on the ground. Both were filled with liquid. He acted surprised that they could see them for a moment, then smiled an evil smile, and pumped the handle to the backpack one more time, squirting what had to be gasoline all over the trees covering the front porch.

He took the backpack off and dropped it to the ground, then took something out of his pocket and held it up, concealing it at first, then revealing it with a flourish. A lighter. Then he pitched the lighter to the side and picked up what looked like a flamethrower from the ground.

“That guy is a dick,” Remington said, his voice flat. “Close up the window, Reed.”

It closed right away, and Remington ushered them toward the back.

“Out we go,” he said. “Me first.” A hot whoosh sounded somewhere, seeming to suck the very air out of the building. The front was on fire. Reed almost went to her knees, but Rowan held her up.

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