“Help me find my mommy. Please.” She walked through a door that was ajar, into the smal alcove that led to the interior garden.
“Wait!” Nick closed the distance between them, wanting to help her. He reached out to pul her to a stop.
His hand passed right through her body.
What the?
Al of a sudden, she turned around and his gut shrank. Her face was scarred, her large eyes were nothing more than an eerie shadow.
Baring a set of fangs, she attacked.
CHAPTER 10
Nick staggered back as the “little” girl grew to over six feet tal .
Towering over him, she grabbed him by the shirt with hands made of talons and laughed in his face. “You should have done what your friends wanted you to, Gautier, and helped them rob and kil that couple. You made a big mistake by being nice. So long as you let your goodness weaken you, we can feed on you.” She moved to bite his neck.
He kicked her back and sprinted for the street.
Just as he reached it, three more creatures appeared to block his way. They looked like men, but cold lightning danced in the sockets where their eyes should be. The courtyard’s temperature instantly dropped twenty degrees to leave him shivering. Worse, these newcomers smel ed like something that came out of the back end of the mules that pul ed the carriages through the Quarter.
Dang, didn’t they ever bathe?
The lead one tsked at him, flashing a set of sharp, jagged fangs. “Did you real y think you could get away from us?” Yeah, he did. …
Nick stepped back and looked for a way to get past them.
They completely shielded him from the street. There was no way to reach it without coming into contact with them. And behind him was the closed-off courtyard.
Crap …
“What do you want?” Nick asked, trying to think of a third option.
The girl grabbed him from behind. “We want to kil you.” She sank her teeth into his neck.
Hissing, Nick slammed his good arm into her midsection.
She released him enough that he was able to twist out of her arms and scramble away from her.
The other three came at him.
Where’s an ax when I need one?
Better yet, a rocket launcher.
The raven swooped down to land on his injured shoulder.
The moment its talons touched him, something like electricity went through his body. It was so intense and painful that it sucked his breath out. For thirty seconds, everything seemed to stop. The wind, his attackers, the bird.
His heart.
When the world returned to normal, it came back with a rush that slammed into him so hard, he gasped. His senses sharper than they’d ever been before, he realized his arm was no longer injured.
Fight. The voice in his head sounded demonic.
From somewhere deep inside him, Nick felt a power rise up and radiate through his entire body. The bird launched itself back to the balcony to watch as the things attacked him.
Even though he knew they were moving at an inhumanly fast speed, he saw them as if they were in slow motion. It was like he was possessed by something else.
The first one struck.
Nick dodged the blow and returned it with one of his own.
The creature staggered back. He spun to catch the next one with a head butt.
The third one screamed out in rage as he ran for Nick’s back. Nick flipped him over and slung him to the street before he slammed his fist into his chest.
The female kicked him into the wal .
Nick turned around and blocked the punch she sent to his throat. Like something out of a movie, she punched him repeatedly and he countered every blow.
When did I learn kung fu?
And his mom said al those Jackie Chan movies were a waste. Apparently, he’d learned by osmosis— ’cause there was no way he knew this otherwise.
He felt like he could take on the world.
Someone toss me some nunchucks.
Kicking her back, he caught another of the creatures and slammed him into the first. Within a matter of seconds, they were on the ground and he was standing over them without even breathing hard in a perfect sotobiraki jigo hontai dachi stance.
Take that, Chuck Norris!
The bird cawed as if in approval before it flew off into the night.
Nick straightened up. His shoulder didn’t hurt at al . More than that, he had total control of it, which was something his doctor and physical therapist had said would take months to have again.
What is going on? He would think this a dream, but for the fact he knew he was awake.
The creatures evaporated into a fine mist that scattered into the shadows while the temperature returned to normal.
Al of a sudden, there was a man in front of him. One who bore a striking resemblance to his father except this one had a strange double bow-and-arrow mark on his face. Dressed in black, he had on a long leather coat that fel to his ankles. With hair the same color as Nick’s, only longer, he stood six feet four and had a wel -trimmed goatee. And whereas Nick’s eyes were blue, his were as black as his clothes.
Nick braced himself to fight. “Who are you?”
“Relax, Nicky. I’m just a friend who’s here to help you.”