AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The boy released my hand on a whimper and scampered off behind us, rounding the corridor, out of sight.
A beastly, dog-like creature, with bloody, matted fur and bones sticking out, stepped ahead of the other creatures. My heart sank as I studied the slight familiarity in its eyes. A little too much like those of Cerberus, but decayed and twice as demonic.
Oh, God.
On a screech, they charged toward us. We didn’t even get two steps before the first one nabbed Vespyr, yanking her beneath it. In three quick stabs–chest, throat and skull, the creature fizzled into black dust. She scrambled to her feet.
Another one dragged her backward.
“Vespyr!” I set the lantern down and barreled forward, dagger in hand.
I stabbed the creature in its skull, watching in horror, as it rose up to his feet, my blade lodged in its head. “Oh, no. Oh, shit.”
It grabbed hold of the hilt with its bony hand and yanked the blade out, tossing it off. As it lurched toward me, Vespyr ran her blade over its chest, across it’s throat, and in the skull. The three moves Jericho had taught me. Just as before, the creature exploded.
I swiped up The fallen blade and held it ready for the Cerberus lookalike, who barreled right for me with a malicious glint in his glowing eyes.
Another bounded after Vespyr.
“Chest, throat, skull!” she said, charging toward the second.
“Right!” Chest, throat, skull, chest, throat, skull.
Cerberus prowled slowly, as if taunting me. With trembling hands, I squeezed the blade’s hilt. Chest, throat, skull. “H-h-hey, boy,” I said, swallowing past the lump in my throat.
I jumped forward and managed a slice to his chest, before I jumped backward, dodging the swipe of his mangled paw. “Fuck!”
He barked with a deep guttural sound that sounded more demon than animal.
A rapid glimpse of Vespyr showed her fighting another one of them.
The frustration of being totally useless sent a bolt of anger through me, and I charged again, managing a slice to the demon dog’s throat. My movements were so inexplicably precise, that I glanced at Vespyr again, wondering if I’d actually been the one to administer the slice. The dog let out a demonic yelp and stumbled, while black blood oozed from his throat. I stabbed the blade into its head.
Again, almost effortlessly, as if I’d done it a hundred times before.
Not a second later, the dog exploded into a bright orange flame, just as Jericho had said it would with the cursed blade. “Ha! I did it! I fucking did it!”
“Great! Run!”
I lifted my gaze to see a half-dozen more of the humanoid creatures charging at us. Spinning on my heel, I nabbed up the lantern and headed around the corner, where I spotted Elyon squatted down beside the next door. All three of us piled inside the room, and with us on the other side of the door, I slammed it shut.
Eyes closed, I fell back against the barrier, panting.
Vespyr crouched beside me, also bent forward, breathing hard. “That was intense.”
I held up my fist to her. “How was that for fucking myrmecophilous.”
Snorting, she stared up at me and bumped her fist against mine. “Pretty sure Van Croix would’ve been proud of you, too.”
“I’ll have to tell him I killed my first demonic dog. Assuming I see him again.”
“You will. We’re getting the fuck out of here.”
Closing my eyes again, I took deep breaths to calm the rush of adrenaline that’d pounded through me the moment I saw those things.
Calm. Deep breaths. Calm.
“Farryn!” As the familiar, masculine voice called out to me, I swallowed past the sudden dryness in my throat, and my eyes shot open.
