Skinwalkers

Chapter Twenty One

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Chapter Twenty One

Glenn was the first to strike. Moving with the swiftness of a buck in its prime, he gripped his antler knives and drove them down into the chest of the first sleeping beast.

It opened its eyes and howled in pain as it died.

The other four were on their feet in an instant, their fangs gleaming in the moonlight. Fey fixed her eyes on the monster at the far edge of the camp and dashed toward it. It snarled at her and flexed its claws in anticipation. In the corner of her eye, Fey could see Norrin wrestling with another monster, his natural strength as a bear-walker equaling their own. Elsewhere, Ember was facing off against one that was several times her size. As soon as it lashed out at her, she turned to smoke. While it was distracted trying to attack her incorporeal form, Skylar swooped down to sink her talons anywhere they could reach.

Fey's monster lunged at her, but with goatlike nimbleness she was able to dodge out of the way. As its jaws snapped at the spot where she had just been, she balled her fist and drove it into the monster's face with all her might. The moment she made contact, though, pain lanced all the way up her arm. It was like punching a brick wall! The monster swung its claws at her, and would have taken her head off if her enhanced reflexes hadn't let her duck beneath the blow. Bending her powerful knees, she leaped backwards, landing almost ten feet away.

Idiot! she cursed herself. You know that's not going to work!

She wasn't as strong as Norrin, and she didn't have claws or talons like Ember and Skylar. All she had was her agility and her horns. She just hoped they would be enough.

The monster came after her, long strings of drool hanging from its mouth in anticipation of the imminent feast, and Fey threw herself forward into a roll. Her momentum carried her right between its legs, and she leaped to her hooves and dashed behind it before it could turn around. She felt the wind touch her hair as swung its claws, nearly taking her head off. She retreated a few steps, then spun around to face it again. It growled in irritation.

"Hold still!" it yelled.

"Come and get me!" she yelled back.

It came for her again, but by now a plan had formed in Fey's mind. She charged straight for it, and when it bent down to bite her, she jumped. Her strength carried her high above its head, and she carefully aimed herself so that when she came back down...

She landed gracefully on its face, and the monster howled in pain. Not that she could blame it, since her hard cloven hooves had come down right on its eyes. She immediately jumped again, launching herself into a backflip as its hands closed in on her—one of which, she noticed, was missing everything but its thumb and little finger. She hit the ground lightly and, while the beast was still rubbing its eyes, she charged forward to ram her horns into its heart.

Her plan would have worked if it hadn't jerked out of the way at the last second. Instead of its heart, her horns pierced its side. It howled again as she gouged two painful, but ultimately harmless holes in its side. Then, before she could react, it grabbed her.

"I already know that trick, bitch!" it roared.

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap! she thought as it hoisted her into the air, holding her by the horns. She tried to kick it, but its long arms kept her out of reach. It glared at her with its sickly yellow eyes, now bloodshot from being kicked, and it almost seemed to smile...