Right on cue, the door suddenly splinters open as Harper kicks it down and barrels into the room.
“Hey! I told you to stay out!”
“You also told me a madman was after you.” He strides over, eyeing me to ensure I’m in one piece.
“Privacy, man! What if I was naked?”
“I thought making sure the madman hadn’t found you was more important than privacy,” he retorts, his golden eyes scanning the room. His face darkens as he takes in the portal and the emerging tentacles. He curses, “What the—”
“Okay, this looks bad, but I swear, I’ve got everything under control.”
“Then control it!” he barks back, gesturing wildly at the monstrosity.
I grimace. “Damn, did you really have to call my bluff that quickly?”
Harper pulls out his gun.
“You seriously think that’s going to do anything?” I can’t help but question.
“Maybe?”
Despite our dire situation, I find time for an eye roll. “A tentacle monster from another dimension isn’t going to politely pack up and leave just because you introduce it to some lead. You’re just gonna piss it off.”
“It gets mad?” he asks incredulously.
“The tentacles didn’t appreciate when I pelted them with a tissue box,” I admit reluctantly.
Incredibly, amidst our crisis, he halts and stares at me. “You’re giving me grief for drawing my weapon when your first line of defense was atissue box?”
...Okay, that definitely wasn’t my proudest moment. “Can we please get back on track?”
“Alright then.”
Harper’s golden eyes flash as he stands before the passage, his body rigid with tension. I realize what’s about to happen.
“Oh my god, are you really going to fight a tentacle monster?” I blurt out. “A werewolf fighting a tentacle monster. Where’s my phone? I need to record this.”
“Just get out of the way,” he growls.
Dark blond fur erupts from his skin, spreading like wildfire across his transforming body. His face elongates, jaw pushing forward, teeth lengthening into gleaming fangs. Where Detective Ethan Harper stood moments ago, a massive wolf now crouches, its fur the same dark blond as his hair had been, its eyes the same intense gold.
All business even in this form, the wolf lunges for the closest tentacle. Pouncing with his claws extended, he cuts clean through the slick flesh. That’s easy enough. The wolf’s got this.
My relief lasts approximately three seconds.
Then my stomach drops to somewhere around my ankles. At least twenty tentacles rise up. That’s just excessive. They burst through the portal, filling the air with their undulating forms.
Harper leaps to meet them, a whirlwind of teeth and claws. He catches one, shredding it with savage efficiency before twisting to snap at another. But there are too many, coming too fast.
His odds would be so much better with some help.
The whip. It’s still in my backpack by the window, on the other side of the tentacle-filled danger zone. I launch myself across the room, dodging a tentacle that whips toward my face. Another slithers across the floor in my path, and I vault over it,landing awkwardly and nearly falling. I fumble for the whip and grab onto the leather.
Calling on my power happens naturally this time. I let it flow into the whip, watching as the leather begins to glow with a deep violet light.
“Stay away from him.”
I crack the whip, directing it toward the mass of tentacles attacking Harper. The whip doesn’t connect, but the tentacles respond to the power I send through it, backing away from Harper.
