Moonshadow (Moonshadow #1)

Aw, damn. It was never a good sign when bullets didn’t faze a creature.

She didn’t pause to think. Instead, she acted. Lunging toward the monster that was getting to its feet, she slapped the confusion spell onto its back. It faltered and looked over its shoulder at her.

For a breathless moment she looked down a massive, bloody muzzle with long, sharp teeth meant for rending. The monster turned toward her, and it kept turning in a circle… and turning. Its growl changed to a puzzled whine.

Arran was dead white and shaking. “What the fuck is wrong with it?”

“Doesn’t matter.” She gasped. “It’ll do that for hours.”

She felt a rush of air. The monkey had climbed up her body and shrieked an earsplitting warning in her ear. Arran jerked the rifle up to his shoulder and fired just behind her. Whirling, she saw the first monster already climbing to its feet.

She had two confusion spells, one on each side of her hand; two telekinesis spells, again, one on each side of her hand; and the corrosive defensive spells on her forearms. Before the monster could scramble to its feet, she slapped it with the second confusion spell.

Another scream split the night.

Arran said, his voice shaking, “Maggie.”

“Call for help,” Sophie told him. She grabbed the puck, pulled it off her back, and flung it to the area behind the bar where it could take cover, then she raced to the back game room with the dartboard.

Pausing on the doorstep, she took in the details of the room at a glance. Dead body parts, check. Blood all over, check. One of the monsters was in the process of tearing apart a closet door while Maggie screamed from inside it.

Really bad situation, check.

Oh man. If the gunshots didn’t keep one of these monsters down, would her telekinesis spells do much better?

She couldn’t stand by and watch it rip Maggie to shreds. Striding forward, she delivered a roundhouse punch to the monster’s broad, powerful side. The blow lifted the creature into the air and slammed it into the opposite wall. It crashed halfway through the plaster and hung suspended in the hole it had created, half in the room and half in the kitchen behind it.

Sophie turned and, ignoring the painful tearing pull in her weak side, hauled Maggie bodily out of the closet. The other woman was hysterical, sobbing and babbling. Sophie grabbed her by the shoulders.

That got the other woman’s attention. With a hiccup, Maggie stopped screaming to stare at her.

Behind the other woman, Sophie could see the monster pulling itself out of the hole in the plaster. She told Maggie, “Run.”

As Maggie raced out of the room, Sophie didn’t wait to watch the monster finish extricating itself from the ruined wall. Her spells called for close quarters and being proactive. Striding forward, she swiped at the monster’s shoulder, activating the corrosive spell and skipping back several paces.

While she watched, the spell began to eat away at the monster’s shoulder. With a final yank that pulled down half the wall in a cloud of plaster dust, the monster broke free and tried to swipe at its shoulder.

At the same time, the monkey leaped on her back and shrieked in her ear again. She snapped, “Not helpful!”

The monster fixed on her. Even as the corrosive spell consumed flesh and bone, it began to stalk her from across the room.

Her mind raced. Option: run until the corrosive spell ate it up. That sounded like a great one, but for the next several moments, it could run too, and she had already seen for herself that these monsters were much faster than she was.

As she backed up, it advanced.

She had one telekinesis spell and one corrosive spell left. Both necessitated her getting within biting distance of those wicked teeth. This was going to suck so bad.

Calmly she told the monkey, “Go on, Robin.”

The monkey pinched her ear painfully. Ow! Not helpful!

Keeping her eyes on the advancing monster, she edged toward the door. With one hand, she plucked the monkey off her shoulder and threw it through the doorway. The monster’s reddened eyes tracked the movement. For a moment she thought it was going to go after Robin. Then its attention came back to fix on her. It gathered itself, and she tensed.

It was going to leap, and when it did, it wouldn’t be expecting her to dive forward, because that would be Stupid and Crazy?. But if she could get underneath it, she could punch it as hard as she could with her last telekinesis spell.

After that, she didn’t know what she was going to do. One step at a time.

The monster leaped, and she dove forward. The maneuver didn’t turn out as well as she had hoped. She landed hard on the floor and didn’t flip over fast enough to get a punch in as it sailed overhead, so when it spun around to face her again, she was lying on her back looking up at it.

Good news: she still had the telekinesis spell. Bad news: she was going to have to use it while she faced all those killer teeth head-on.

Before she could roll away, it limped forward and landed on top of her, driving the breath out of her lungs. Gods, it was so heavy she couldn’t move. The corrosive spell had eaten away one shoulder and part of its torso, and she didn’t know how it was still moving, but it was.

Why didn’t it go down?

It bared massive teeth and snaked its head down to her. She fought to grab hold of its neck and keep that giant muzzle at bay, at least long enough for the stupid creature to realize it was dying.

Behind it, an avenging angel appeared, lean, dark, and fast, and wearing the same chilling, ferocious expression she remembered from the first time she had seen him.

Who’da thunk it? She was actually glad to see that terrifying asshole.

He had his sword drawn, and it was dripping with blood again. His eyes blazed with dark fire as he whirled to strike. She felt the blow shudder through the monster’s body as Nikolas decapitated it.

The head flew through the air, and she lost track of where it went as a fountain of blood gushed over her. She managed to get one arm over her eyes before the warm wetness drenched her, while the monster’s body collapsed heavily over hers.

Shouts sounded outside, and sirens, but in the room, silence fell.

Sophie peered out from underneath her arm. Nikolas stood over her, breathing heavily, and his hard, beautiful face wore an expression she didn’t know how to identify. Anger? Relief? Incredulity?

He pointed the dripping tip of his sword at her and said between his teeth, “Are you insane? You ran into the building.”

She wiped monster blood off her lips. “Apparently, so did you.”