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I approached the body, sword ready, and saw a shock of spiky black hair on the right side of the corpse's skull. Joey.
An enraged growl shook the office. Something clanged, once, twice, a ringing of metal being struck.
I dashed to the back.
The door to the back room lay in shards on the floor. I leaped over it. A section of the wall had been ripped open, and through the gap I saw a female shapeshifter in warrior form. Huge, at least seven feet and sheathed with beige fur with dark spots, she was all claws and teeth, pounding the loup cage with the rest of the chair. Tufts of black hair crowned her monstrous ears. A lynx.
The pieces snapped together in my head. Leslie, the missing render that Curran had been hunting.
Inside the cage, a bouda in warrior form cradled something, shielding it with his body. Deep gashes scoured his back, marked with thick bloody smears. The shape in his arms trembled. Two legs stuck out, deformed and twisted. Muscle bulged in odd places, sheathed by human skin and patches of beige fur.
Leslie saw me and froze.
Ascanio turned and I glimpsed the thing he was trying to protect. A horrible face gaped at me, its lower jaw protruding, its face like a blob of melting wax, the eyes little more than tiny slits. It was the face victims of Lyc-V wore when the shapeshifter virus first infected their bodies.
The small brown eyes looked at me from the monster's face. Julie. Oh my God, Julie.
Leslie was trying to murder the kids.
I charged. Leslie roared and hurled the shattered chair at me. I dodged and stabbed her in the chest, aiming for her heart. Slayer slid off the ribs--I'd punctured her lung instead. Like poking a normal human with a needle. Claws raked my shoulder. I sliced across her stomach. She leaned back and kicked out with both feet. I saw the kick but there was no way to avoid it. The blow took me square in the chest. I flew into the main room, curling into a ball. My back slammed into the wall. The world swam.
Leslie leaped at me through the gap, claws raised, giant teeth snapping.
I dodged. She hit the wall full speed and whipped around, carving the air, her claws like daggers. I dodged, left, left, right. She swung too wide and I lunged into the opening, turning Slayer into a metal whirlwind. Left thigh, side, right thigh, left shoulder, chest ...
She snarled and backhanded me. I've been hit with a hammer. It hurt less. My head snapped back and she raked at me with her other hand. Pain cleaved my stomach. I stumbled back.
Blood filled my mouth. Leslie bled from a dozen places, but not enough to slow her down. She was fast, Lyc-V was healing her cuts, and my sword wasn't doing enough damage.
I kicked at her. She hammered a fist into my thigh. I swayed at the last moment and the fist grazed me. My femur screamed from the impact. She was aiming for my injured knee. I drove Slayer into her liver.
Leslie screeched and roared, "Die alrrready!"
I cleaved at her right arm, severing the tendon. Unless I won, the kids died. I would kill this bitch. I'd tear her limb from limb if I had to.
She grabbed at me with her left hand, clenching my shoulder, lifting me off the ground, and jerked me to her teeth. I pulled my throwing knife and stabbed her in the throat, quick, like hammering a nail. She gurgled, tore me off, and hurled me aside.
I hit Andrea's desk with my back, dropped to my feet, and started toward her. I hurt so much, the pain kept me from passing out.
Leslie grabbed a filing cabinet and hurled it at me. I dodged. She threw a chair. I ducked and kept coming. Leslie heaved a bookshelf. It would hit me; I had no place to go.
A black dog the size of a pony burst through the doorway. Grendel, you stupid magic poodle.
The dog hit Leslie in the chest like a battering ram. The render went down, knocked off her feet by the impact. I ran at Leslie. This was my chance.
Leslie clenched Grendel by the scruff of his neck and flung him aside. He crashed into the wall with a snarl.
Leslie leaped to her feet and bared her teeth at me. Blood dripped from between her fangs, stretching in long red threads to the floor. Don't black out. I just had to stay conscious.
"Osanda." The power word left my mouth, tearing out a chunk of my magic in a flash of pain. I didn't care. I sank everything into it. Kneel. Kneel, you bitch.
She gasped. The bones of her shins snapped like toothpicks and she crashed to her knees. I swung Slayer. The sword's pale blade smoked, feeding off my fury. I cut, severing the spinal column. Leslie's head dropped to the side. I chopped at it again. It rolled to the floor. Her headless body toppled toward me. I kicked her head into the corner and dragged myself to the loup cage.
Julie whimpered in a thin tiny voice, her breath whistling through the space between her mangled jaws. Ascanio lay on his back. His eyes looked at me, flashing red. Still alive. They were both still alive.
I grabbed onto the bars. God, my chest hurt. "She's dead. It will be okay. It will be okay. Give me the keys."
Ascanio cried out and flipped onto his side. A rib had pierced his chest, sticking out. His hand opened, the key a gory bloody mess in his palm. He shut his eyes.
I thrust my hand through the bars, grabbed the slick, warm key, and unlocked the cage.
"Help us," Julie whispered. "It hurts, Kate ... It hurts."
"I know, baby. I know." I had to get them to Doolittle. A quarter of Lyc-V's victims didn't survive their first transformation.
Tears slid from Julie's eyes. "The boy's dying."
I looked over Ascanio. Broken ribs, torn-up back. I touched Ascanio's neck. Pulse. Weak, but steady pulse. He opened his eyes slowly. "I trrrried."
"You did great."
The roar of an enchanted engine thundered outside. Jim's backup. I forced myself upright.
"Don't leave me!" Julie sobbed.
"Just to the door. To get help. I'll be right back."
I ran out into the living room, wrapped in my pain like a cloak, and saw a gray van pulling up in front of the office. The Pack didn't own gray vans.
I sprinted to the door.
The van door opened. An older man stepped out and leveled a crossbow at me. A tiny green spark winked on the end of the crossbow bolt. An exploding arrow head.
I slammed the door shut and barred it. The explosion shook the building.
I pulled the internal shutter on the left window closed and dashed right. The crossbow bolt got there half a second before me and bounced off the grate, falling back. I pulled the shutter down. The burst of magic energy was like a wrecking ball. The walls groaned but held. A couple more direct hits and they would come down.
The kids couldn't move, not fast enough to outrun a vehicle.
Grendel limped to me. I hugged his shaggy neck and ran my hands along his back. Nothing was broken.
