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I sucked in a strangled breath and hauled myself to my knees.
The Nothir slid toward me, a strange kind of malevolence gleaming in its lone eye. It had the body of a worm, with six barbed tentacles that it used as arms. One of those tentacles opened, revealing a hole of a mouth, filled with sharp teeth. A tongue slid out, tasting the air.
Nothirs were usually lurkers, hiding in caves, holes, and crevices—primarily in the Middleground. They weren’t predators, but theycouldbe insanely territorial. They would consume anything, using their tentacles to drag wounded creatures off to their lairs, where they would take their time…
Nope, nope, nope.
Wiggling Angelica’s ring off my finger, I shoved it back into my mouth. The Nothir let out a strangled hiss as it lost sight of me. Then that tongue slid out once more. Of course, it was scenting me. And since I was covered in blood and various other disgusting fluids, it wouldn’t exactly be hard for it to figure out where I was.
I spat the ring back out. No point risking swallowing it when the Nothir could scent me anyway. This would come down to which of us wanted to survive more.
This creature had a brain the size of an apple. It was all instinct. I could kill it. I had to get back to Nathaniel.
But I was so tired. And everything hurt.
I had to finish this quickly.
The Nothir moved closer, its wormlike body slithering across the stone between us. Behind it, a flight of stairs taunted me. Kill this creature, get up those stairs, and find Nathaniel and Kyla. That was all I had to do.
Studying the Nothir, I paid careful attention to its range of motion. It could move quickly backward and forward. But when I took a large step to the side, it had to stop and turn its head in my direction so its body could follow.
Excellent.
Maybe I could finish this without having to add to my bruises. Pulling my Beretta, I aimed into the center of the Nothir.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The shots were loud enough to make my ears ring in the small chamber. The Nothir screeched, lunging toward me, and I darted to the right, narrowing my eyes.
Plunk. Plunk. Plunk.
Three bullets hit the stone. The Nothir had pushed them backoutof its body.
I aimed at its head this time, but—as expected—its tentacles closed over its mouth and eye, and my bullets ricocheted. I ducked. It would be fucking embarrassing if I was taken out by my own bullets.
I tucked my Beretta away and reached for my knife. The hilt of the A-F felt slippery in my clammy hand.
So much for getting this done quickly.
I raised my A-F. The Nothir moved toward me, attempting to box me in against the wall at my back. I ducked and rolled, giving myself space to move. It hesitated, turning slowly, and I studied it.
When it moved in a straight line, it was surprisingly fast. But it had trouble spinning around. I could use that.
It had almost finished turning when I moved again. It let out a screech, obviously frustrated, and one tentacle slashed out at me.
“You missed.”
I wasn’t sure if it understood me, or maybe it was just the sound of my voice that pissed it off. Most creatures could understand when they were being taunted, even if they didn’t know the exact words being used.
The Nothir hissed, and this time, two tentacles whipped toward me.
Nathaniel would be losing his damn mind by now. I needed to get this done.
After the way the Nothir’s body had repelled my bullets, I knew I needed to cut off its head. And that meant removing some of those tentacles.
Another tentacle joined the first three. The Nothir was almost facing me now. I shied away from the tentacle and swiped my A-F at it. The blade sliced cleanly through skin and sinew like it was paper, and the Nothir let out a sound that made me want to clamp my hands over my ears. Noxious yellow blood splattered me.
Slam!
