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AUSTIN

I didn’t likethe plan. Putting that monster between myself and Rosi, then chasing it toward her? It went against every fiber of my being. Part of me hoped it wouldn’t work.

The rest of me knew I had to trust her, and other lives depended on this. Time was running out while that lazy ass face spirit drained our friends.

“Are you ready?” Rosi asked, twisting her hair around her finger as she paced the far end of the corridor.

“Are you?” I asked, practically twitching. I glanced up at the ventilation access in the hall, above and to my right. I looked back at Rosi when she didn’t respond. She’d stopped pacing and squared her shoulders.

“Places then. Let’s do this.” She stepped onto the hover disks we’d salvaged and closed her eyes.

Gripping the laser gun, I ducked back to the corner of the hall and into the shadows. The idea was to scare the creature toward where we wanted it to go. My spear was strapped to my back just in case, but we knew the gun worked to at least scare it, so why not use it?

Rosi’s lips moved as she spoke to the thing in her mind. The way she squeezed her fists told me she was putting everything into this. Lip reading wasn’t my strong suit, but the “Come get me” before she opened her eyes was unmistakable.

We waited in silence, Rosi breathing hard in anticipation of fleeing upward. There was only one more level on the interior. From here we could make out the faint glow from the blue lights on the track. As the minutes ticked by, it felt less and less likely that our plan had worked.

Then came the scrambling sound and the grunting we’d heard in the caves. I stared at the access point, and I swallowed, clearing my mind in preparation for the deadliest game I’d ever played.

The grate erupted, flying across the hall and landing with a clatter on the ground. I held my position as first the claws, then the head of the massive beast appeared. Rosi gasped, and I doubted it was pretend. The creature focused on her with a grotesque smile before scuttling along the wall, ceiling, and ground in a display that seemed purposely creepy.

Using the hoverpad, Rosi rose into the air and started for the center of the resort. The monster hissed and made as if to lunge. But it halted, and I dropped back against the wall.

It lifted its head as though scenting the air. “I don’t think you called me for a game of cat and mouse. You asked me to come out, and as much as I want to believe you desire the exquisite torture I provide, I doubt that was the intent.”

“I guess you don’t want me then,” Rosi said, glancing my way.

Shit.

“The thing is,” said the monster as it crawled up the wall and to the ceiling, a touch closer to my hiding place. “Twice, your people have fired a weapon at me.”

It dropped to the floor and sprang toward me. I fired until it knocked the weapon from my hand. The next moment, I flew through the air and landed on my back, skidding across the fake ice of the ground. Then it was on top of me, pinning my legs. The stench of rot and sulfur made it difficult to breathe.

“And it had no effect. So I no longer fear your weapons,” the atshen said, leaning toward me, pointed teeth dripping toxin onto my chest as I struggled to throw it off. I swung a fist toward the ugly face looming above me, and it caught my hand, squeezing until I saw stars.

“Your little friend already surprised me once. I won’t fall for that again.”

Attempting to find leverage, I kicked and bucked, but the monster secured my arms and legs to the floor with its own, its strength unbelievable. Helplessness crept in along with panic when I found I had nothing left to fight with. I felt like a flea trying to bite a rhinoceros.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch as it bit my face off, but instead of feeling its needle-sharp teeth, it was knocked off me. Scrambling to my feet, I found Rosi crouched in the hall, dagger held out before her.

The monster rose to its full height, higher than the doorframes in the corridor surrounding it. It howled, clutching its arm where a viscous black substance oozed from a gash. Then it sprung toward Rosi.

“No!” I yanked the spear from the strap on my back and hurtled it at the space between the beast and its prey. It wasn’t the smartest move to lose my weapon, but I couldn’t let it hurt her.

The action forced it to jerk backward, and Rosi flew at me, knocking us both off the railing and into the air. The magnetic tech of the hover disks struggled to keep up, slowing our descent. We clung together. But the disks wouldn’t hold us both for long.

“You saved me,” I said. “Again.”

“Don’t thank me yet. We’re headed the wrong way.”

“Rosi,” I said, taking her beautiful face in my hands. “You’ve got this.”

I stole a quick kiss from her sweet lips and jumped.