After tucking away the phone, I began flipping through the Culberson file again. I skimmed the whole thing, front to back, without experiencing a single ah-ha moment. Frustrated, I took stock of our surroundings. “How much farther?”
“Another pet was discovered a half mile from this location.” Thom threw the SUV into park while I stuffed my gear back where it belonged. “I tracked it to that house on the right last night.”
Blinking away the dancing lines of text from my eyes, I focused on our surroundings. “This is not what I was expecting.”
Thom had guided us into a warren of a subdivision and parked in the driveway of a half-finished house at the end of a row dappled with homes in various stages of completion. Pallets stacked with shingles waited on the road, and some yellow, mechanical monstrosity was frozen mid-scoop over the manmade pond it was creating.
“The site has been shut down until bills owed by the development are paid to its construction partner.”
“Are ubaste nocturnal?” I swept my gaze over the area. “Are we hoping to find where it’s denning?”
“Yes.” He lifted the rear hatch and removed a carpeted square that revealed a hidden weapons cache. Three knives and a gun disappeared on his person that I noticed. I’m sure there were more. The last Glock got pressed into my hand, and already I felt better about life. He also passed me a six-inch dagger I slid between my belt and jeans for safekeeping. “Hunting them is easier during the day.”
A detailed map of the subdivision was only a few clicks away online. The developer wanted the plots sold ASAP, and there were at least two dozen listings that outlined the layout of the entire development. The cell signal wasn’t great out here. I almost whipped out the black phone to check its reception, but I decided to make do with what I had.
“Let’s use a standard search grid.” I checked the gleaming road signs until I located the ideal starting point. “We’ll start on Cypress Lane, work our way down Dogwood Court, then finish on Magnolia Circle.” I scanned the nearest houses, both skeletal outlines left exposed to the elements. “Do we stick together, or do we each take a road and meet in the middle?”
“You aren’t at full strength, and it will capitalize on any perceived weakness.” Thom sidled up to me. “I’m not sure how susceptible you are to an ubaste in your current form, but we can’t risk finding out. We do this together.”
Full strength meant going demon, a thing I wasn’t certain I could do. After all, if Conquest hadn’t stirred to save herself from her sister, I doubted she would care much if an ubaste snacked on us. “Works for me.”
As we moved from shell to shell, we cleared every room on each floor. No sod had been rolled out, so the yards were patchworks of dirt and weeds that made it obvious nothing had tunneled down into the earth or was otherwise using the ground for cover. We made it three houses down Dogwood Court before a fetid stench launched me into a coughing fit.
“What is that?” I lifted the collar of my tee over my nose, but it didn’t help much. “It smells like week-old Chinese food and dirty diapers.”
“We’re getting close.” Thom flared his nostrils, his expression tight. “That reek is indicative of a den.”
House number four came up empty, but we struck pay dirt on house number five. It was more than three-quarters finished inside, and it was one of the few homes that had a full basement. Claw marks had ruined the cherry hardwood floor, and thick clumps of gray hair made dust bunnies in the corners. We cleared the first and second levels then regrouped by the door leading underground.
“Cover me.” Thom gripped a dagger in each hand then vanished down the stairs.
“Thomas,” I hissed. No electricity meant no lights, and no lights meant he had disappeared on me. I couldn’t see him to cover him. I couldn’t perceive anything at all beyond the fifth or sixth step. All was pitch black. “Fall back.”
A high-pitched yowling pierced my ears a second before a massive ball of mottled fur plowed me down on its way out of the darkness. I hit the floor with a grunt and aimed my gun at its retreating back, but Thom flew past in a whir of black feathers and ruined the shot for me. Glass exploded as the beast shattered a window in its frantic bid for escape, and Thom zipped through the opening, wings blurring with their speed.
“Don’t worry about me.” Groaning, I got my legs under me. “I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”
I jogged through the house, out the front door, and trailed the thing from where it crash-landed. The ubaste, in daylight, with its low hind quarters and higher withers paired with its spotted pelt reminded me of a hyena, but its face was utterly alien. Rather than a jaw lined with teeth, the tip of its nose tapered down into a proboscis similar to what came standard on mosquitos, except the ubaste swung its limber snout with the ease of an elephant curling its trunk.
Unlike Veronica, the ubaste wasn’t humbled by my appearance. Given its rabid expression after waking up on the wrong side of the basement, I’m not entirely certain it knew what I was or cared. Still, it would have been handy if it had fallen at my feet instead of scuffing its paws in preparation for a charge.
I settled into a comfortable stance and steadied my aim. I couldn’t outrun the creature. I had to stand my ground. One deep breath in, one out, and it was thundering toward me. I popped off six rounds that hit center mass and caused green blood to blossom across its chest, but it didn’t slow. I got in a few more shots before impact slammed me flat on my back. Pinned under its paws, I was stuck as the ubaste aimed its needlelike snout at me.
“Thom?” I called. “Little help here?”
Black wings came into view over the ubaste’s shoulder. Thom had landed on its back and was walking the length of its spine. No time to wonder what the cat was up to, not when the ubaste was stabbing at me like I was an iced coffee he wanted to slurp.
Whatever Thom was up to, he wasn’t doing it fast enough. The puckered end of the ubaste’s snout brushed my cheek, and white-hot agony ripped through my limbs. The pounding of my heart slowed, and my lungs forgot what they were supposed to be doing for the span of a few tortuous beats.
The cold place surfaced before true panic sank in, and it was as if my body moved on autopilot. I retrieved the knife Thom had given me and sliced through the creature’s snout in a clean arc. Its shriek of rage was more of a gurgle as its proboscis hit the dirt, and I almost pitied the ugly thing.
“Mmmrrrrpt.”
Over the ubaste’s thrashing head, Thom locked gazes with me. I read the look to mean you better get while the getting’s good. Scrabbling backward, I managed to wriggle out from under it seconds before its dazed thrashing morphed into drunken imbalance. Thom hovered out of range until the ubaste’s knees liquefied, and it collapsed in a heap of fur and stink. I flopped on my back a safe distance away and caught my breath.
“Thanks for the assist,” I panted. “Is it dead?”
The boxy tomcat landed on my chest, turning breathing into a workout, and proceeded to lick his right front paw.
“Good talk.” I rolled onto my side, startling the cat into flight, and pushed myself upright to get a better look at the demon. “Did you get what you needed?” Already the smell was worse. Must be all that green blood slicking its fur. “What do we do with the body?”
Once the cat finished cleaning his face, he deigned to notice me and shifted back onto two legs.
“It’s not dead. The narcotic in my saliva has rendered it unconscious.” Thom left me where I sat and approached the creature. He squatted beside it, ran his palm over its mottled fur and inhaled the scents he stirred on the air. He dipped his fingers in its blood and tasted that too. “There is no hint of Famine on this beast. The taint of the other worlds has gone too.”
“Then it knew the rules.” I frowned at the hulking mass. “It’s been here long enough to figure out how to blend in, how to survive. What caused it to go rogue? It must have known it would be hunted down.”