Page 40 of Nexus
Just as I’d figured, he shifted form. Now naked and in his scruffy, unwashed human guise, he yanked the bolt out of his hand. “You’re crazy!” he accused me, completely unfazed at having his privates swinging out in the wind, so to speak.
“I’m not the one going around murdering humans,” I retorted. “Why did you off him, anyway?” It wasn’t my job to question the perpetrators, but I was curious.
“I didn’t kill anyone,” he denied, eyes shifting guiltily at the obvious lie.
“Is he the target?” I asked Ruen. He took a shallow breath, then nodded in confirmation. “His nose never lies,” I said. “He picked up your scent at the store, so we know it was you who killed the human.”
“He caught me stealing and was going to call the cops,” the shifter said in desperation. “I had no choice!”
“You could have run,” I pointed out. “It was stupid to kill him, but it was complete idiocy to behead the guy. That’s the sort of thing that makes the cops suspicious. You know we can’t let the humans find out about our kind. Now I have to kill you to set an example for the other supernatural creatures.”
I didn’t get any joy out of hunting down losers like this. Sure, he’d torn the human’s head off in panic after getting caught, but he wasn’t downright evil. He was just a moron and now he was going to have to die for his stupidity.
Chapter Thirty-One
MY TARGET BENT TO SCOOP up a handful of sludge before I could pull the trigger. He tossed it at me and I sidestepped it. The next handful wasn’t as easy to avoid. He hit me directly in the eye with the third one. Half blind from mud and crap, he was on me before I could shoot him. Grabbing my wrist, he pushed my crossbow out of the way, then tried to bury his teeth in my throat.
I grabbed a fistful of his shaggy hair and pried him off me. He hadn’t even broken my skin and his eyes were wild and terrified. Slobber was on my neck and was dribbling between my boobs. He clawed at my eyes, so I let go of my crossbow to catch hold of his wrists.
“I won’t let you take me alive!” he screeched and lunged forward, snapping at my face with his teeth.
“I’m not planning to, you dunce cap,” I said in exasperation, easily holding him at bay. Ruen had drifted backwards to pretend to guard the exit. I knew he would be useless to stop my quarry from escaping, but it wasn’t necessary. I had him right where I wanted him.
The rat lifted his leg and clumsily kicked me in the stomach. I absorbed the blow without flinching, then headbutted him. His knees buckled and I let go of one of his wrists to pull a knife. I swiped the blade across his throat before he could recover. Blood sprayed all over me as I shoved him away.
Wiping blood, sweat and crap out of my eyes, I sensed Ruen hovering directly behind me. I turned to see his attention was fixed on the dead wererat. His pupils were fully dilated and his mouth was open slightly. His fangs were fully extended and he looked ravenously hungry.
“We should go,” I whispered as the rodents all began to move towards their fallen pack member. “We should go now,” I hissed as the rodents pounced and began to feed. Even pimples like them could prove to be a bother when they were enraged.
Ruen didn’t seem to hear me. He took a step forward, bumping into me as if he didn’t see me at all. He’d gone into some weird kind of vampire trance. Bones crunched and gobbling noises came from the swarm of wererats as they devoured their fallen pack member.
I put my hand on Ruen’s arm when he stepped around me and he snarled at me furiously. I knew he couldn’t hurt me, but I still recoiled a little at his vehemence.
One of the wererats heard him and squeaked shrilly, taking his presence as a threat.
“Uh, oh,” I said when the entire pack turned on us. All that was left of the dead guy were a few splinters of bone and clumps of hair. One lone body wasn’t enough to satisfy their appetites. Frenzied from feeding, they’d gained the courage to ignore my weapons and surged forward.
I grabbed hold of Ruen and yanked on his arm, pulling him after me as I ran from the wererats’ lair. A roar from the tunnel ahead blasted my ears. I sensed something huge and powerful rushing towards us and ducked into a smaller culvert. I put my hand over my flashlight to plunge us into darkness.
The shifters that had been chasing us squealed in terror, then reversed direction. I glanced over my shoulder to dimly see the pipe was blocked behind us, then turned back just as a monster rushed past. It had a long snout filled with snaggleteeth, a greenish-gray scaly hide and was over thirty feet long.
“Did you see that?” I gasped, but Ruen was still in his trance.
Hearing squeals of pain and crunching noises, I figured the monster would be busy while it fed on the rats. They’d instinctively fled to their lair only to become trapped. I yanked Ruen into motion and raced back down the main tunnel. My flashlight bob bed and swayed madly with each step I took. I left it in my waistband, since we weren’t out of the woods yet.
Another roar sounded, then a second scaly creature lunged at me from one of the larger side tunnels. Teeth latched onto my leg and bit deeply. Even with my skin’s natural toughness, I felt a twinge of pain. Panic tried to win, but I forced myself to keep my cool and pulled one of the twins. My senses identified the creatures as weregators rather than normal alligators. I sensed that its hide would protect it from most damage, but its eyes were vulnerable.
The gator worried at my leg, but it wasn’t able to penetrate my skin. I shot it in the eye and it flinched, but didn’t let go. It took a few bullets in both eyes before I penetrated its brain. It went limp and its mouth relaxed enough for me to pull my leg free. My jeans were shredded, but at least I wasn’t bleeding.
Speaking of blood, more had splashed on me from my rapid series of gunshots. Ruen swayed towards me, lured by the scent of the liquid he craved so badly. The other gator finished eating its prey, then roared in rage when it saw its dead companion. More bellows from other weregators came from deeper within Sector G. They would converge on us and rip us both to shreds if we didn’t get the hell out of there.
“Run!” I shouted at Ruen, but he was in no shape to hear me. Still holding him by the wrist, I took off running. Turning left at the intersection, I ran as fast as I could.
Ruen suddenly leaped onto my back and wrapped himself around me, causing me to stumble in surprise. I thought he was trying to bite me when his head came over my shoulder. Then I realized he was licking the blood off my cheek. It wasn’t easy to run with him clinging to my back like a gigantic tick.
Even with the gators hot on my heels, I began to laugh. Ruen’s tongue rapidly bathed my face and neck clean. His tongue was probing my ear when I barreled through the wall of excrement. That was enough to snap him out of his daze. I’d caught the brunt of it, but my assistant was also splattered with crap.
“What happened?” Ruen asked, then glanced backwards as I did my best to follow our trail. Seeing the weregators rapidly gaining on us, he leaped off me, grabbed my hand and used his vampiric speed to race to the closest exit.
