Cole, still pinning one werewolf by its hind quarters, tried to do something more than annoy it. Just as the creature pulled away, he jabbed the forked end toward its neck. Both sharpened points stretched out less than a quarter of an inch before snapping shut, but the Half Breed had bent its head back like it was about to dispense candy from its throat.
Putting all of his strength into one motion, Cole flipped his weapon so the spearhead swept up and out, digging a messy trench through the Half Breed’s shoulder. The creature staggered and tried to get away, but wasn’t fast enough to escape before Cole swung again. This time he stabbed it in the side and twisted the weapon before it came loose. The Half Breed contorted just enough to slash at Cole with its paw. He defended against the first swipe, but another Half Breed joined the fray, to create a flurry of teeth and claws. Cole kept his spear in front of his face and chest, pivoting often to answer with a few jabs of his own.
Teeth scraped against the collar of his body armor and ripped away a little piece of his chin. One set of claws sliced less than an inch away from his eyes, and another set shredded the waistband of his jeans. One Half Breed finally reared up and placed its front paws upon his shoulders.
Cole could feel his legs start to buckle and realized that he wouldn’t have the strength to stay up if the werewolf pushed against him with all of its weight. Out of sheer desperation, he brought the spearhead up to impale the creature through the bottom of its jaw. The Half Breed craned its neck to pull away, but not before the modified spearhead dug a tunnel straight up and through its brain. With a quick push, Cole shoved the creature back and then let it drop.
As soon as he stepped back, another creature hit the ground. He turned and saw Paige place her boot on that werewolf’s back and drive her weapons into its sides. Even then, the Half Breed continued to drag itself toward Cole. Paige put a stop to that by pounding the sharpened handle of her weapon through its skull.
“That was a stubborn one,” she said.
There were still a few other Half Breeds nearby, but they seemed hesitant to approach. In fact, they were backing away from another werewolf that had a thicker, meatier frame and larger, longer ears that lay flat against its head. It was tough for the Skinners to make out the details of the bigger creature since its fur was so black that it absorbed shadow as well as the bit of light cast by the campfire. Once Cole saw the crystalline eyes glittering in the firelight, however, he knew exactly what they were dealing with.
The Full Blood was shorter than he remembered. Despite a more compact frame, raw power exuded from the beast like it would from a hurricane or a black wall of storm clouds. The burning that crackled through Cole’s scars ran like a live current all the way up to his shoulders.
“That’s not Burkis, is it?” he asked.
Paige shook her head. “No. Wrong coloring. That’s the one that took Henry away from us in Wisconsin.”
“Yooouuu waaaant Henrrrry?” the Full Blood snarled, using words that were crudely fashioned from growls and forced out through a latticework of fangs. Unlike the daggerlike protrusions that cut through Burkis’s face, this one’s teeth laced together neatly but prevented its jaws from fully closing.
The few remaining Half Breeds were getting impatient. When two of them huffed and began to rush the Skinners, the Full Blood stretched its body forward and opened its mouth to let out a quick, roaring bark. Upon hearing that, all of the Half Breeds pressed their chests against the earth and slunk away.
As his lips came down and his snarl faded, the Full Blood lowered his shoulders and lifted his chin. When he spoke again, it was through a muzzle that had shortened just enough to accommodate a more human voice. “Henry used to ask about you, Paige.”
“Good,” she replied as she adjusted her grip on her weapons. “Tell him to come see me. I’ve got a couple presents for him.”
The Full Blood’s lips curled into a savage grin. “I thought you’d already gotten to him, but now I see he’s simply run off.”
In the distance, car engines revved and faded as headlights swung wildly down a path leading through the nature preserve.
“It probably won’t be long before the cops or a ranger shows up,” Cole whispered to Paige.
“This’ll be over long before the cops make it out here,” she replied.
“Oh, I hope not,” the Full Blood said in an English accent that tarnished his voice the way rust corrupted glistening steel. “Your founding father didn’t show his face, but I’ll still have plenty of witnesses to see what happens to murdering ghouls like you.”
“Founding father?” Paige asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”
The Full Blood drew in a lungful of passing breeze as if sampling a finely aged wine. “I thought he would come to your aid, but I guess I was mistaken. That changes nothing. I warned you to clear a path for my kind the last time we met. If you refuse to step aside, then I’ll just have to remove a few more Skinners from this world. Funny,” he added with a tilt of his growing head. “I thought more of you would come to defend this piss hole of a city. Perhaps there are fewer of your kind than we thought. How interesting.”
When the Full Blood lowered his chin and dug its claws into the earth, Paige raised her weapons. “Take one more step and I’ll gut you just like I gutted your friends!”
“Thaaat’s it,” the dark Full Blood snarled. “If you scream loud enough, you’ll catch someone’s attention.”
“Who else are you after?” Paige asked.
Standing upon two legs but keeping his body hunched over, the Full Blood approached and stared at her with his unnaturally clear eyes. The upper portion of his skull settled into a more human shape, and his snout retracted to a mildly protruding nose. “The one that’s hiding like a tick wedged in the middle of this continent.”
“I’m the only partner she needs,” Cole said.
The shadowy beast lifted his chin and then cocked his head to one side. His eyes narrowed before widening into glittering circles. “You know what? I believe you really don’t know about the man I seek.”
“Honest mistake, so I’ll give you one chance to leave,” Paige said. “If you go back to your forest or wherever you were before, we’ll call it a night. If not, then—”
“Then
The Half Breeds stood in the shadows, swaying on their feet and panting with anticipation.
When Paige spoke, it was in a snarl that rivaled the Full Blood’s. “You wanna do more than bark? I’m right here.”
The single puff of air that came out through the Full Blood’s nose was as much of a chuckle as a growl. He stretched out both arms and dropped back down into his compact, barrel-chested form. The challenging smirk remained on his face as his teeth nearly doubled in length. Barely another second passed before he bolted forward.
“Paige! Look out!” Cole shouted as he dove to push her out of the way.
Both Skinners were human, which meant neither of them was fast enough to avoid what was coming. Just when he thought he could shove her to the ground, Cole felt a rush of air as Paige was snatched away from him. Cole landed on his side, rolled over and popped back onto his feet with his spear raised in front of him. He didn’t expect the Full Blood to be close enough to reach out, grab him by the shirt, and toss him through the air.
Being whipped around like that took away his perspective. The ground rushed along the edges of his vision, and the moon flew by in another direction. His feet knocked into his legs. His arms flailed through empty air, and just when he thought he’d figured out which way was up, he was proven wrong. He hit the ground on his back, expelling all of the wind from his lungs in the process. Paige wasn’t in sight, but the Full Blood was only a few inches away.
Cole knew he needed to move, but he couldn’t. The Full Blood loomed over him, gazing down and drizzling saliva onto his arm. When Cole dug the business end of his spear into a huge paw, the massive creature seemed genuinely surprised. “I see you’ve already met Randolph,” the Full Blood said as he reached down to grab Cole’s weapon. “Either that, or he’s losing his teeth in his old age. Needn’t worry about that from me.”
Cole rolled away as the beast’s claws dug a row of trenches through the ground where he’d just been. When he felt the brush of a twig against his backside, he stopped rolling and scrambled to his feet. The Full Blood stood
