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I kept my eyes open, staring death in the face as it approached me. Images flashed in my mind’s eye.
A memory slammed into me.
I was crying. “I’m so sorry,” I sobbed. “I can’t believe I did that. Again.”
Prue waved away a cloud of acrid smoke and hugged me. “Don’t worry about it, babe. We’ll just get a new microwave. Try not to put any aluminum foil in the next one, okay? And let’s keep the timer on low. Under ten minutes, maybe, just to be safe.”
I sniffed wetly, inhaling a quivering breath. “I don’t know how you put up with me. I’m such an idiot.”
“You’re not.” Prue patted my head gently.
“I am. I don’t deserve you.”
“Of course you do. Everyone deserves love, Chloe. So what if you’re a little absent-minded sometimes! I don’t love you because you’re a little goofy, you know.” She lifted my chin, forcing me to meet her eyes. “I love you because you’re creative and imaginative and driven. I love you because you’re loyal, and I know you’d defend me to the death. Honesty, Clo,” Prue said, laughing. “I wouldn’t care if you were a serial killer. You’re my best friend, and I love you. I don’t care how damaged you are.”
Tears filled my eyes. I blinked them back, watching the huge gray wolf stalk towards me.
Suddenly, the air was filled with red feathers, and the most spine-chilling noise I’d ever heard in my life.
A honk of fury.
The blood-soaked goose flew out of nowhere. Lightning-fast, he flicked his neck like a bullwhip, the razor-sharp beak slicing over the werewolf’s eye.
What the fuck?
The wolf staggered away, but the goose was relentless. Hissing, he ducked his long neck; and with a fapfapfap of furious feet, he charged towards the wolf and whipped his deadly beak under the wolf’s muzzle, tearing a ragged hole in his fur. Another expert slice severed tendons on his back paws, then another, cutting a gash in the wolf’s belly. With split-second timing and phenomenal ferocity, the goose sliced the giant werewolf to pieces.
I stood and watched, my mouth hanging open.
The concrete floor grew slippery with blood. The gray wolf staggered, skidded and fell. The goose spread his mighty gore-splattered wings, leapt up on his back, let out a honk of triumph, and sunk his upper mandible into the wolf’s other eye, plucking it out and tossing it to the ground with disdain.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe.
Then, as if I hadn’t seen enough, the goose let out another blood-curdling battle honk and whipped his neck back-and-forward across the wolf’s neck, ripping into his skin with his beak like some sort of mutated frenzied excavator. Within seconds, the goose had dug through the hide, exposing the spine.
Moments later, the wolf’s head rolled onto the floor.
“Holy shit,” I mumbled.
The goose spread his magnificent wings, threw his heck back, and honked in triumph.
Chapter Nine
I edged forwards slowly.
“You’re… You’re beautiful.”
The goose lowered his head, his pitch-black demon eyes fixed on me. It was like looking directly into the void itself. It was so strange. Within the shiny dark depths of the battle-goose’s eyes, I felt an odd sense of peace.
“You didn’t need me to save you, did you?”
He cocked his head. Images swirled in his aura—a vision of himself raising his wings high in triumph, a practiced movement. He was used to winning fights. The image was tinged with sadness, though. He didn’t like being a killer.
“Me too, buddy,” I whispered softly. “Me too.”
His thoughts shifted, showing me an image of him hiding his head under his wing, ashamed. He was a great killer. He was praised for it. It made him feel both proud and desperately ashamed.
I knelt down on one knee. “I understand,” I whispered. “It was the same for me. I got rewards and praise for killing. If I did a good job, if I completed an assignment quickly and cleanly, he would be so proud of me.” My voice hitched. “And I started feeling proud of myself, too.” I let out a bitter chuckle and gestured around the pit. “He would have had a heart attack if he saw this. So much mess…”
