Well, hell.“What do I do?”
“Keep him calm. Jake Jones is bringing a trailer full of sheep for him to eat,”Zarek replied and spat some gobbledygook at the shapeshifter.
The shapeshifter answered him in the same language.
There were so many languages I needed to learn. Zarek vanished from my mind and for a moment raw panic knotted my stomach.
“You are never alone,”Kaelen said. A phantom hand stroked my back.
I blew out a long breath.“Good to know.”
The Katanic shapeshifter licked my hand like it was a lollipop.
My eyes widened in horror. I could feel his terrible hunger.
Zarek smacked the shapeshifter’s mind and snarled something.
His teeth bared in a fierce snarl, the tiger let out a threatening growl.
I backed up a step and looked around for something he could eat.
A bag landed at my feet.
Dad ducked behind a fence.
I opened the bag. There were five packages of hamburger meat. I dumped them in front of the shapeshifter.“This should hold you over until the sheep arrive.”
He pounced on the meat and thirty seconds later he had eaten everything including the sack.
Fire ants tromped through my head. There were fourteen Tai-Kok soldiers heading my way.
The tiger gave a deep, guttural growl and stood in front of me.
“Kaelen, the monsters want him back.”
“Push the middle button.”
I did.
Poof! The tiger was gone and in his place was a heaving silky black mass with long ropy tentacles and a gaping maw filled with needle-sharp teeth.
My mouth went dry, and my heart began to pound.“Ummm. Tai-Kok soldiers.”I gestured.“That away. Sic’em.”
Moving faster than the eye could follow, the shapeshifter obeyed.
I jogged after him.
Laser beams flew in every direction, and the monsters began screaming.
Ducking behind a low wall, I watched in astonishment as the laser beams were absorbed into the shapeshifter’s hide. Huh? These Tai-Kok soldiers’ uniforms were black, not red, and they were shooting him with some kind of alien Taser.
“Kill the Tai-Kok soldiers using the shock guns,”Kaelen ordered.
I gave him a mental salute and started firing.
From a rooftop, Dad followed suit.
As soon as a Tai-Kok fell, the shapeshifter began stuffing the monsters down his gaping maw. Within sixty seconds, the battle was over.
