Book 2 The Gods of Light and Liars

Chapter Twenty: The Master of Shadows

"No!" She shouted. "Stay back!" and that was all she managed before the light-exposed Shadowbeast jumped her Hare. Shrieking, it threw her hard into the nearest brush and kicked the Beast square in the head. White fur was decorated with red blood within seconds.

"We're coming!" Now that was Henry Dyson, and he was considerably closer than Em had been before.

"Giant creature! Big danger! Run!" she said, articulately, and then thought fuck it and whirled to watch the creature.

Its broad and frightening teeth were stabbed deep into her Fleet-Hare's body. So were several of the long, lionfish like tendrils encircling its face like a mane. Poisonous, she thought. And how did those get down here? Did somebody have a tropical fish tank or something? She began crawling away, slow and backwards.

"Hawk!" Someone shouted, not too far away. The flare was starting to sputter, the light fading from the gleam of the monster's eyes. She wasn't sure how many it had, but certainly it defied the usual two.

"Here!" She whisper-cried...and drew the monster's eyes back to herself. And now it held her gaze. Oh, God. She knew that was bad. Looking a non-human, pack-driven creature in the eye was usually fatal. Maybe she was lucky, and this thing was a loner, and it wasn't going to eat her—an especially fierce growl put that notion to bed. It lunged for her, though it kept its fanged mouth firmly on the remains of her Fleet-Hare.

Dyson thumped through the woods in the next half minute, crashing into her clearing like an eighteen wheeler, no breaks. He carried a flashlight, and in it she caught a few glimpses of the average American Male as he realized there are, indeed, things undreamt of in our reality, and it was eating Hawk's rabbit. "Holy fucking shit!" he said.

The beast heard him, too, and shuffled its bulk so that it was facing off against both of them. Its growl became low and threatening, like some sort of enormous, ancient machinery trying to start its generator. Blood, Hare blood, dripped from its maw to the white-covered ground.

"Stay where you are, Henry," Hawk whispered.

"What? It's not going to hurt us?" He sounded hysterical.

"It's already got a whole horse-rabbit-thing in its jaws. I think it would rather eat that than go after us. Just be calm and back up slow."

"Right. Gotcha." He took a step back and started to turn.

"Don't! Turn." The first word came out sharp, and that brought the cephalopod-like eyes of the Beast back to her. The jeweled blues and golds of its skin glinted in Henry's flashlight. "If you show it your back, it'll go for your throat. It's instinctive. Don't they wear masks on the back of their heads in India?" She took her own slow, measured steps back from it. Unfortunately the stupid white silk robes gave her a more visible bulk in the dark. She'd never envied fatigues so hard. "Just walk back until it can't see us anymore. Who came with you?"

"Emile and Kaiser. They're back in the brush." Henry swallowed. Stepped back. Swallowed again. "Hopefully they're close enough to hear."

"Alright. I'm going to move closer towards you. Do you have the flare gun?" she said.

"Yes," he whispered.

"Alright. I want you to pull it out very slowly. Do not draw attention to it." Hawk whispered.

"Why are we whisper—OH MY GOD!" Emile had stepped out into the clearing. The Shadowbeast's growl grew in proportion to their appearance. Their triple-threat hair color seemed to glow like neon in the darkness. They, too, held a flashlight.