Page 171 of My Undead Love Life

I hated that she was probably right. The farmhouse had too many weak points. Too many broken windows and doors with old hinges and bad angles. The boards would slow them, but not enough if they hit from two sides.

The leopard took another step. Then stopped. Its head tilted. The spray had confused its trail, maybe, but not enough.

I made the call. “Take the shot.”

Keith and Luck moved at the same time.

“Leopard!” Keith lined up through the wider gap near the left board.

“Wolf!” Luck braced his pistol through a lower opening, hands steadier than I expected after the day he’d had.

Oxi raised his cane sword near the doorway, ready in case the shots failed. Spencer moved beside me, katana lifted, eyes locked on the window.

The wolf lowered itself, muscles bunching. The leopard’s jaw opened around a wet, rattling growl.

“On three,” Keith murmured.

Luck swallowed. “Yeah.”

“One…”

The leopard stepped closer.

“Two…”

The wolf followed, angling toward the porch.

“Three.”

Two loud shots cracked through the night. The sound exploded through the farmhouse, making the boards tremble and dust fall from the ceiling.

The leopard dropped first. Its skull snapped sideways, body collapsing into the snow with a heavy, pale thud.

The wolf barely had time to react before Luck’s second shot took it through the head. It crumpled mid-step, legs folding beneath it as dark blood spread across the snow.

For one breath, no one moved.

Then Luck exhaled. “Holy shit.”

Spencer grabbed onto my arm, but I didn’t lower my axe.

Keith kept his rifle trained on the bodies. “They’re dead.”

The leopard twitched once.

Luck made a strangled sound, and Keith fired again. The leopard went still.

“Now they’re dead,” he said.

I nodded, adrenaline burning through my system, hot and vicious.

Outside, the snow kept falling. The two bodies lay in the yard, dark stains spreading beneath them. Nothing else moved.

That didn’t make me feel better. Predators didn’t coordinate across species by accident, and a cult was waiting in the city for its blessed beast to return.

Sofia had said the virus was evolving faster than expected.

“Everyone stays up,” I said.