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He doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.
I crouch low to the ground, scanning the clearing in front of me. Great pines wave in the wind, the grass like a rolling sea. Thunder cracks overhead and the heavens open up, rain coming down in sheets. It lays the grass flat with its immense pressure, and as the grass flattens we all see the man at the other side of the clearing.
From behind he’s monstrous, even in this form. He crouches over Evelyn’s unconscious body, his silver hair braided haphazardly down his scalp with shaved sides. He’s tattooed everywhere, a great beard hiding most of his face. His eyes are so dark they seem black. He stiffens as he senses he’s been found, and we watch in horror as his skin splits and the black monster seems to explode from his flesh.
He stands on all fours, dripping blood and fangs gnashing, and we attack as a single pack. I watch in horror as Ruby dashes at the creature's legs, biting the back of his ankles and trying to pull him off his feet like I did with the bear. She’s a fast learner, but she’s no fighter. He kicks her off and she flies through the air. She crashes into a rock and falls, limp, next to her mother.
I’m going to kill this mother fucker.
Ryder and Cole attack in tandem with me, ripping and tearing at any part of this massive beast that we reach. I bite down on its arm, and my mouth is filled with the most toxic tasting blood I’ve ever encountered. It is rancid, curdled, and the beast makes no sign that it is hurt at all. He shakes me off, just like every other bite or scratch. The attacks only seem to strengthen him, his screaming roar echoing louder than the cracks of thunder all around us.
The creature steps back as the packs attack in waves, yet never retreats. Just like he doesn’t attack. He stands over Evelyn and Ruby, as if this is his post and he has no intention of leaving it. As if he’s somehow protecting them.
He digs in his claws and roars wildly. He teeth clamp on to anyone who gets too close, crushing their skulls between his jaws as if they’re no more than a grape. Blood covers the flattened grass and lightning cracks overhead, the clouds seeming to sink lower and lower over our heads until it feels like the lighting is flashing directly above the battle. If we jump too high, we may be struck, killed by the bolts themselves.
I dodge and duck the monster’s hand, jumping up under its arm and ripping flesh from bone. Ryder goes low, biting at the creature's massive thighs, and Cole jumps, propelling himself off Ryder’s back and going straight for the throat. A blazing bolt of lightning hits the earth only feet away and the monster shields its eyes, giving Cole an open line of attack. I shout with victory as I watch his teeth sink into the monster's jugular, blood gushing down its chest.
But the creature pulls him off and tosses him away as if it feels nothing.
The pack retreats, panting and circling as the beast rises to its full height and roars at the sky. Lighting cracks all around him, the storm voicing its anger as the ground seems to shake under our feet. This thing is wrong, everything about it, a freak of nature… Or is it a freak of design? It pants wildly, blood dripping from its jaws as it turns this way and that, ready to face whoever attacks first.
I shudder as I see Ruby start to move underneath the thing, coming awake. She lays with her mother, completely human now, and stares up between his legs with a mask of terror. She thinks she’s going to die, and her fingers clutch her stomach desperately. I will not let my woman die, I will not let my baby die!
I snarl, grabbing his attention as I claw at the ground and step forward. I reach out to its mind, horrified to find there’s nothing human in there. He has no shields. No way to make sense of this. Just fury and pain.
Unbidden and unwanted, images flash before my eyes.
A dark room, strapped to a table, being tattooed by a masked man, being stabbed and tortured. I feel the moment the fight leaves the beast and he becomes the man’s servant. I see the monster take Brody, torture him as a man, attack him as the grotesque animal he’s been reduced to.
He takes Mason while Brody is still alive, torturing them as the other one watches. He’s trying to break them, fear fills his mind at the thought of failing. I see his reflection in the terrified eyes of Brody, his entire face is tattooed, his teeth filed so he looks like a monster even in his human form. Even the whites of his eyes have been tattooed.
I watch in horror as the creature herds both boys through the mountains. I hear their screams and how they beg for mercy. He makes Mason watch as he tortures Brody, forcing him to start a shift before he hauls him above the ground in Raina’s house by an old rope. He’s waiting for something, waiting for Brody to do something, but when life fades from his eyes the monster roars in defeat.
He shifts back to the beast, biting Mason on the side and carrying him off like a pup as he runs through the woods. He’s failed, his master will be displeased. He keeps failing, nothing works! He runs blindly until he comes to a half-collapsed cabin in the woods, where the man is waiting for him. He’s wearing a ski mask and overalls, he’s covered in blood and a screaming woman can be heard from inside the cabin.
The monster drops the boy as the man grabs a cattle prod and attacks the monster until he’s on the ground, writhing in pain. Mason is screaming for him to stop, trying to protect the monster of all things, but the man doesn’t.
The next image is of Bob’s place, Mason’s sobbing, heavily injured, screaming at the beast to save him, to let him go, as he hauls him up by the rope. The monster holds the rope with human hands, giving it slack and letting Mason gasp for breath.
“Do it!” the beast screams. “Change you idiot, change!”
But Mason can only claw at the rope until his eyes bulge and his body goes limp. The monster hears shifting upstairs, something crashes to the ground, and he ties the rope to a table and runs away.
The beast runs through the woods, full of terror and guilt, tearing at trees and ripping plants from the ground. He goes back to the cave where he kept the boys, tortured them, and curls up to sleep. He will not go back to the man, he will not torture anyone else.
Except the man finds him. I watch in horror as he attacks the beast. He doesn’t defend himself, he takes the brutal attacks until any part of him that’s still a man is erased. Only the beast is left, only his task is before him.
Catch them, make them change, or kill them.
I snap back to reality, and the humanity in the monster’s eyes climbs through his consciousness and reaches out to me. He showed me on purpose, he wants me to know, wants me to see. Ruby is moving frantically underneath him, shaking her mother, turning her over, until finally she finds what she’s looking for. She pulls a long dagger out of her mom’s shoes and her eyes meet mine.
“No!”I scream to her, but she shakes her head.
She stands up on her knees and stabs upwards, cutting the creature between the legs as blood pours over her and her mother. I’m in motion before I know it, I have to get to her before the beast kills her. It stumbles away, screaming, and raises a clawed hand to kill her.
I jump in front of her just in time and the hand closes around my neck. He raises me in the air, roaring, and begins to squeeze.
Chapter20
