The Deadliest Bite

Counting Aaron, our numbers matched almost evenly. And considering we had Vayl, Raoul, and two Dogs fighting on our side (not to mention me, with a sword from Raoul’s armory that felt like it had been forged to my hand) I figured our odds wouldn’t bring huge winnings on a two-dol ar bet.

And then he stepped out from behind the tree line that had separated us.

We’d been hiding behind a long line of scrub interrupted by piles of fal en trees and mounds of ivy-strangled branches that’d al flame like a hairspray-soaked wig the second somebody thought to bring a match to the game. Stil , good cover, until I got my first real look at the blemuth lumbering toward us. And then I reminded myself to write thank-you notes to every one of my trainers, who’d once again done such a good job that despite the shock of seeing a creature I had been sure never existed outside Sandy’s Bar (where the stories always outsize the hangovers), I managed not to give away our position with the gasp of awe that had shot up from my quaking stomach. I didn’t even break the twig sitting right next to my foot, despite the fact that my knees had begun to shake so badly that my pants would probably have ridden right down my thighs if I hadn’t been wearing a decent belt.

I rol ed my eyes toward Vayl, who’d thoughtful y clapped his hand across Aaron’s mouth and wrapped another steel-muscled arm across his chest before he could accidental y betray us.

Can’t be, I mouthed. He nodded. Which was as close as he’d ever get to Can too, Jasmine.

Now wrap your mind around this before all your moving parts freeze permanently.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing, feeling the air of a rarified plane slide in and out of my nostrils as I accepted the inevitable. I’d just seen one of the most twisted creatures ever created. According to legend the first blemuth had begun life as a dragon’s egg, but once the sorcerer Alire had shoved his wand and a huge glob of ogre slime into the guts of the poor thing’s DNA, it had very little chance of hatching into anything but what it became: A war machine, programmed to decimate every living thing it encountered. What surprised me was that it had enough soul left to get itself trapped in any sort of afterlife. Most creatures like the blemuth managed to incinerate themselves completely when their time came. The fact that this one had remained to rampage through the Thin worried me more than I liked to let on.

I caught Vayl’s attention and mimed shivering and then breaking spaghetti between my hands.

He understood that I wanted to know if he could freeze the blemuth long enough for us to attempt to hamstring it. When he shrugged, I understood we’d be winging this one. Vayl might be uberexperienced, but even he’d never had to face a creature with the reputation for being resistant to attack. As in every. Single. Kind.

I wondered how keen the Dogs were to complete their mission now they’d seen how much tougher the blemuth was going to make it. They didn’t leave me curious for long. Pointing to each other and then making huge circles with their hands, they let us know that they wanted to be the ones to tackle the creature.

Hey, the dumbasses wanna be heroes. That’s so damn sexy, said my Inner Bimbo. She spun around on her bar stool, singing, “I think I’m in love, and my life’s lookin’ up.” She should let Eddie Money do his own songs. She’s just butchering the hell out of that piece, Granny May murmured. What she real y wanted to say was that Bimbetta was sick and twisted, so that was the issue I addressed.

I said, If not for you it could’ve been worse.

So true. Granny looked at me, then she pointed to the needlepoint of the cowboy, Zel Culver.

Once you’ve unchained Aaron Senior, don’t let him go until you ask him about the cowboy.

Wow, that was kinda out of the blue, Gran, but okay.

Sometimes it pays to listen to the voices in your head. Sometimes you end up looking like a complete loon. Soon I’d get to see which category I’d be playing for. But for now I watched the Dogs get into position to take down the blemuth. It wasn’t pretty. Later I figured their lack of good judgment was caused by the fact that they’d been forced to leave their uniforms behind. Some people just don’t think wel in civvies. Like the Dogs. Who stood up. Barked. And charged.

“Why does it always seem like our team is heavily seeded with dumbshits?” I yel ed to Vayl as I fol owed him into the melee.

He grinned over his shoulder at me. “You are only saying that because we are outnumbered, outsized, and outvicioused.”

I felt my lips draw back from my teeth, the pre-battle smile brought to life by my lover’s excitement. “Vayl! Did you just make up a word?”

“Perhaps I did at that.”

And then we were too surrounded to talk. Vayl and I stood back-to-back with Raoul and Aaron just to our right. Brude’s mercenaries came at us randomly, their attacks as disordered and chaotic as the realm they defended. It worked to our advantage. A foe who fights out of pure emotion leaves plenty of openings for the clear-minded defender to exploit.

I’m not saying it was easy. Their blades were just as sharp and deadly as ours. But raised too high, or held too far away from the body, they did nothing to protect the most vulnerable spots, the places we’d been taught to target since our rookie days in the field. The moment my sword sliced through a former Nazi’s jugular, I knew we were going to clean up.

Grunting. The sound of whistling blades, the scream of dying spirits, and I was right. We were winning. I could feel the tide turn before I saw it. Brude’s mercenaries fel at our feet like dead leaves. They hadn’t even managed to cut one of us, so that the smel of our blood would bring more spirits screaming down on our heads. And then the blemuth stepped into the center of our ring, one screaming Dog clutched in each taloned fist.

It slapped them together like a couple of cymbals and spirit residue fel on our heads like bloody rain. Before the Dogs could melt into the ethos, the blemuth stuffed them into his giant, gap-fanged mouth, crunching them up like fresh celery sticks.

“Shit!” I yel ed, wiping sweat and Dog remains out of my eyes.

My Spirit Guide skewered two of his foes like they were a couple of chickens headed to the