But before she even crossed five steps, Madsen was in front of her, grabbing her by the back of her shirt and restraining her with utter effortlessness as though his hand were an iron vise or something.
The more she learned about shifters, the more they scared her.
“You still have a part to play in this, bait. And though you are… sumptuous, I have a basilisk to catch.” He yanked her backward, and it was all she could do to keep her feet beneath her as he brought her unceremoniously toward the center of it all before shoving her onto the ground. “Walk. Or my men shoot.”
A dozen weapons trained on her, and she looked toward the field with the metal posts. She could see now that they were humming, throbbing with a low pound, pound, pound like the sound of a far-off train or excavation work. Beneath her toes, the hard soil seemed to tremble slightly.
She picked herself up, dusted herself off, and turned toward the field, walking in the direction Madsen was staring.
Her heart was racing, still only half sure what was even going on.
She’d only walked a few dozen steps, all eyes on her, when suddenly, the ground beneath her feet began to rumble.
And then it happened.
A gigantic head the size of a small house exploded from the earth in front of her only fifty or so yards away, throwing dirt and rocks all around the ground beside it. Then a huge claw attached to a stout, scaled leg pushed upward, crashing into the earth as the gigantic thing emerged from the soil.
A basilisk.
Mel couldn’t fully enjoy the fact that she was finally, finally looking right at the thing she’d been chasing since coming to Parson’s Creek. All her looking, all her interviews and searching for clues.
They really existed.
She stepped back as the titanic beast continued to rise, and in the overcast noonday light, she could see colored scales peeking from beneath layers and layers of caked dirt and mud.
It was like a dinosaur crossed with a dragon, humongous and ferocious-looking, with great spikes that covered its back and went down the length of a long tail and huge horns that seemed to reach to the very sky above her.
She would have been in awe if her thoughts weren’t still on Dallas.
And trying to not get killed right now.
The basilisk’s head lowered slightly, and she saw bright, deep-red eyes that seemed to glow as it appraised her. She felt a full-body shiver, a mixture of fear and curiosity.
Then, to her utter surprise, the basilisk’s eyes turned from dark red to a deep, almost bright sapphire blue.
“It’s working. Perfect,” she could hear Madsen saying gleefully, even a fair distance behind her.
The basilisk’s mouth opened, and it rumbled a low, dry sound that could be called an attempt at speaking, though nothing came out. Not that basilisks could probably talk. That notion seemed bonkers.
Though a lot of things she would have considered unbelievable were coming to harsh reality for Mel since this morning.
The basilisk continued to watch, cocking its head.
And then, to her utter surprise, the creature began to disappear, and huge masses of earth that had clung to its shape fell down as black and brown shimmers filled the air.
In a matter of seconds, the monster was gone.
And a short distance ahead of her in the field, she saw a man.
What. On. Earth?
He was huge, muscular like a bodybuilder, but with the face of a fallen angel. To her shock, he only had on what looked like leather rags, which hung loosely on his shoulders and down his partially exposed torso. And even at this distance, she could make out long, intricate tattoos that wound around his arms and across his chest.
And as he looked up at her, those same deep-blue eyes peeked from behind long, shaggy brown hair.
Oddly enough, he looked kind of like the man with tattoos she’d seen a couple times during the week, though his facial features were different.
Her brain wanted to explode if not for the fact that the adrenaline was keeping her on her toes, watchful for any opening, any help.
The basilisk took a step forward, and his mouth opened. “Ma-ate?”
“My hypotheses were correct. Restrain it, quickly, before it can react!” Madsen yelled.
All of a sudden, dozens of people in black were running toward the confused-looking basilisk, wielding guns and what looked like high-tech cattle prods.
Electric zaps filled the air, and the basilisk yelled, throwing his fist into a nearby man and sending him flying backward dozens of feet with a single punch. But the mercenaries were determined, poking him with arcs of blue electricity, while others ran up and tried to restrain him with huge steel cuffs and chains.
“Quickly, before he shifts!”
Mel wanted to run toward the basilisk, help him any way she could. Nobody deserved to be treated like that, to be baited and caged just to be unleashed like a monster on unsuspecting humans.
While the basilisk continued to fight them off, blue eyes turning red and full of confusion, there was an earsplitting roar from somewhere behind her, and Mel turned around in the direction the sound had come from.
“The tiger. A million dollars to anyone that brings me that traitor’s head!” Madsen called out as everyone turned in unison away from the basilisk.
There was the slightest pause as everything seemed to go still.
Then the RV positioned at the back of the circle suddenly flew forward, tumbling like it had been pushed by a wrecking ball, and Madsen and his people jumped every which way to avoid it as it crashed through them like a boulder.
And behind where the RV had been, a giant tiger charged through the dust and smoke, only slightly smaller than the vehicle he’d just pushed over like it was a toy car, majestic and powerful and lethal.
She didn’t even have to look twice to know who it was.
Dallas.
His amber eyes gleamed in the cloudy light as he leaped at the nearest person,
