Page 126 of The Stone Initiation
“Where’s your law enforcement office?” Evelyn demanded.
“Down the street. Turn left. Now go. Get out!”
We ran back into the street. The specks were getting larger. Closer. We were running out of time.
“Move,” Shar ordered the omegas. “Run.” Evelyn led the way and Shar made up the rear.
“I’ll be right behind you.” I ducked back into the house. “I need a weapon. Anything.”
The woman grabbed a poker and handed it to me.
It was better than nothing.
“Cameron come on!” Shar boomed from the intersection.
I broke into a sprint to catch up, but as we rounded the corner the grotesques dropped from the sky.
They landed on all fours, bat wings snapping at the air, taloned feet clawing at the ground. Their eyes glowed red and amber, maws too wide, nostrils flared and blowing mist. They were ugly as fuck and emanated a dark aura that made my stomach twist in warning.
The omegas screamed and ran back toward us, their bodies morphing to stone skin in presence of the threat.
Sharniza let out a bellow and dashed forward to cover the omegas. The grotesques screeched in response and ran toward us.
“Get away from my girls!” Evelyn darted forward, tweed skirt flapping then tearing as she morphed and grew and fucking grew until she filled the entire street with her new form.
A snake. A huge fucking snake with a cobra-winged head and fangs. She attacked the grotesques, body whipping from side to side to keep them from getting past her.
But a couple flew over her head.
“We got it,” Shar called out before body slamming the nearest threat.
“Get back!” I shoved Chlobe toward the nearest building. “Get under cover now!”
The second grotesque came at me, its eyes glowing blue then green as they raked over me.
“Back off.” I stepped forward, poker held firm in my hand.
The thing hissed then lunged.
I swung the poker as hard as I could, connecting with its head with enough force to rock it back on its neck.
The impact ricocheted up my arm and jarred my teeth. I swung again. “Get.” And again. “The fuck.” It staggered back. “Away.”
I’d forced it back, but my arm ached from basically smashing an iron rod against stone, and the thing was pissed.
It ducked and evaded the fifth blow, having learned my rhythm, then snapped at the poker, grabbing it between powerful teeth and whipping its head round to throw it, and me, but I let go and fell on my ass.
“Cam, get up!” someone screamed.
I rolled but the creature was too fast, landing on top of me and caging me with its body. The omegas’ screams faded to background noise as the grotesque lowered its awful maw toward my face. Its eyes glowed blue, locking onto mine, and its chest rattled in ominous warning.
What the hell? What was it doing? Why was it just looking at me?
“Get away from her you bastard!” Sharniza snarled.
The grotesque was knocked off me by a whirlwind of stone-gray skin and powerful wings. Sharniza pinned it and punched it in the head over and over until it stopped moving.
“Girls!” Evelyn ran toward us back in human form and dressed only in an all in one Lastonflex body suit. Her tweed outfit and blouse were gone, torn to shreds when she morphed into…whatever that thing had been. Her skin was bloody, but I couldn’t find any wounds, so either she’d healed or the blood wasn’t hers. Highly likely considering the bits of Grotesque littering the ground behind her.
