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However, things were looking up. On horses they’d reach town long before dusk, and in town there’d be plenty of guns, plenty of silver. She couldn’t believe the Nahual had knocked out the phones, destroyed everything with a motor, and left the—
A series of small explosions—BB gun? Fireworks? Popcorn machine?—erupted in the barn. Then every last horse thundered out the open doors and disappeared over the ridge.
“That’s not good,” Jase murmured.
Gina ran after them. Why she had no idea. The cloud of dust on the horizon was still moving. She’d be lucky if the horses stopped running before they reached the ocean. She certainly had no prayer of catching them.
She crested the ridge just as the herd split, continuing on in half a dozen different directions. Bending, she clasped her knees and gasped for breath, then glanced over her shoulder.
Jase sat on the ground about twenty feet behind her, left boot off, rubbing his ankle.
Great.
Isaac stepped onto the porch, gun in hand. The others were visible in the hall behind him. Gina was surprised everyone hadn’t spilled out of the house as soon as they heard the pops followed by the thunder of hooves.
Gina walked back to Jase.
“I stepped in a hole,” he muttered, disgusted.
“Broke?” she asked.
“Nah.” Jase shoved his foot into his boot and clambered to his feet, but when he crossed to the barn he limped. Could anything else go wrong?
Gina followed, keeping an eye peeled for holes. They stood shoulder to shoulder staring at the wide-open, empty stalls.
“When I was in here every horse was where it belonged; every stall was secure,” Jase said. “I swear.”
Gina cast him a quick glance. “I never thought otherwise.”
“It’s just…” He waved a hand at all the empty stalls. “How did that happen?”
“Same way the cell phones became crap, I imagine.”
“Magic released the horses?”
“You got a better explanation?”
“I don’t know if we need to explain it. But we do need to survive it.”
“That’s not going to be easy. We’re stuck here with one rifle and a handful of silver bullets. And it appears that thing can get into the house.”
“If he got inside, why didn’t he make all of us furry at once?”
“Maybe he only has enough juice to do one person at a time.” Teo had said that the Nahual gained power by killing.
“Maybe,” Jase agreed.
They turned to stare at the distant puffs of dust that marked the stampeding horses.
“Any idea what set them off?” Gina asked.
“None,” Jase answered. “I suppose we should look.”
They searched the barn from top to bottom. Neither one of them found anything that could have caused the loud pops.
On any other day, the horses might drift back by nightfall. But with wolves all over the place—
Gina winced. She hoped the horses had kept running until they reached the ocean. That might be the only way they’d survive.
