“You ready to meet your first Half Breed?” she asked.
Cole tried to laugh but could only manage a few short-winded gasps. “Just as long as…you don’t expect me to…”
“Oh, you’ll be fighting,” she said before he could finish his sentence.
His mouth hung open but no words came out. After a bit of coaxing, he finally managed to spit out, “Unless a Half Breed is some sort of rabid dachshund, there’s no way I’m ready to fight!”
Even though she’d been working twice as hard as Cole throughout their sparring session, Paige was practically jumping out of her skin for more. “It’s not about the moves,” she told him. “It’s about the warrior’s spirit, remember?”
“I thought that was just inspirational bullshit.”
She shook her head as a hungry smile drifted onto her face. “The Half Breeds will be coming for us as soon as they wake up.”
“You can’t seriously expect me to do this. We’ve only been practicing for a couple hours. How good can anyone be after a couple hours?”
Paige eyed him for a few more seconds before easing up on her stance. “Fine. Would you feel better if I told you there’s a shotgun in the case behind me?”
“Is there?”
“Yep.”
“Then yes,” Cole sighed. “I feel much better.”
“You’ll still need to be ready to use some of those moves I taught you. All you’re doing is stabbing like it’s a spear. If a caveman could figure it out, I think you’ll do just fine. It’s getting close to nightfall,” she added. “That means we still have time to get into that pit and introduce ourselves.”
Some of the supplies that Paige took from the case included a flashlight and hunting knife for each of them, some rope, and a plastic container about the size and shape of the one he had used for his retainer when he was in eighth grade. When he opened the plastic case, he saw two sculpted glass vials and a syringe. One of those vials was very familiar.
“That’s your Resurrection Vial and dose of antidote to reverse it,” Paige explained.
“What about the other one?” Cole asked as he eyed the vial that had a single delivery needle as opposed to two.
“That’s what you take if you get mauled by a shapeshifter and survive,” she told him. “It’ll kill you quick and painlessly.”
“Jesus, you Skinners are morbid.”
“Just safe,” Paige said as she pulled out a false bottom from the larger case, then removed two sawed-off shotguns. “If you ever see how a Half Breed changes, you’ll know the alternative is a hell of a lot better.” She handed one of the shotguns to Cole and took the other for herself. Both had a mesh strap that allowed the weapons to be slung over their backs so their hands were free. Leaving the rest of the supplies in the clearing, she led the way to the pile of rubble. “When you use that weapon,” she explained, “grab hold of the thorns tightly. It’ll be quick and may even fire you up.”
“Stick versus shotgun? That sounds like an easy loss for the stick to me.”
Paige dropped to one knee once she got to the edge of the pit. Looking down to make sure the gnarled creatures were still laying in their spots, she whispered, “You empty both barrels into a Half Breed’s head or chest and you should put it down. Of course, they do have a tendency to rip apart everything in the vicinity when they’re wounded, so no wild shots.”
“If this is payback for me getting frisky a while ago, it’s a bit extreme.”
“No, no,” she said with a sexy grin as she tied a length of rope to a stake she’d pounded into the ground. “I get pretty frisky on full moons too. It’s a shame you didn’t feel your wild side a bit more when we had the time.”
Before Cole could reflect upon what could have been, she was gone. She’d simply grabbed hold of the edge of the pit, swung her legs over, and dropped into the shadows with the rope trailing behind her. He glanced up at the darkening skies. There were still clouds overhead, but they’d thinned out into tattered, smoky shreds. The sun had dipped below the horizon, which allowed a good portion of its light to sneak in beneath the clouds and wash over the rubble and neighboring mansion. When he craned his neck a bit more, he could already make out the pale shape of the moon hanging back like an actor waiting for his cue. He looked into the pit and was stricken by the vast contrast between that dirty hole and the sky above it.
He expelled the breath he’d been holding, dangled his legs over the edge…and dropped.
Chapter 22
Cole’s feet smacked against the dirt with a jarring impact. Pain shot up through his ankles, burned all the way past his knees and settled into his hips. Switching on his flashlight, he scraped his foot against the ground and took a look at the ground beneath him. The first few layers of dirt on the floor came away easily to reveal smooth, evenly placed bricks. He then saw that the hole wasn’t actually a pit, but the remains of an old room.
One side of the room was piled high with a mixture of broken bricks, dirt, and rotted beams similar to the rest of the rubble aboveground. There was a distinct odor underground, however, which was only made worse by the mangy, deformed creatures sleeping noisily against one of the only walls that had remained in tact. Paige was in that area, covering most of her flashlight’s beam with the palm of her hand. The light she cast was muted and reddened from being filtered through body.
“I see two of them,” she whispered. “What about you?”
Cole’s first reaction was to look away from the closest Half Breed, as if the creature was some pathetic collection of remains laying on the side of the road after being decimated by a passing truck. It had looked strange from a distance, and was only stranger now that he was close enough to hear every last one of the thing’s rasping, grunting breaths.
Pale skin varied in texture from smooth spots along its back to callused and wrinkled patches along its limbs and side. Its face looked like something sculpted from wet clay by someone who couldn’t decide if they were making a pig, a dog, a person, or a monkey. Half of a snout emerged from between misaligned cheekbones and slanted to one side as if it had started to melt and then cooled. A thick, meaty tongue lolled over its crooked jaw. Some of its teeth were dangerously sharp and others blunted and broken. Greasy hair sprouted in tufts that didn’t even come close to covering its wrinkled privates or sagging teats.
One of the creature’s hands sprouted wrinkled, clawed fingers. The other was definitely some sort of paw. Both of its feet were drawn up close to its torso, where they twitched and wriggled in fits of sleep. As Cole’s eyes wandered along the length of the creature’s body, he couldn’t help but wonder if the jagged bumps in the thing’s flesh were some sort of growth or broken bits of bone poking up from beneath its flesh.
“I’ve got one over here,” he reported. As he spoke, he noticed the chewed-up flaps of skin over the creature’s ear holes twitching a few times before coming to a rest. “Wait a second,” he added as his flashlight wandered toward a dark corner to reveal another figure huddled on the ground. “Make that two.”
“Damn,” Paige hissed.
Cole moved in a slow crouch to keep his head from knocking against the fallen supports that kept the ceiling from collapsing into the pit. He didn’t have to go far before noticing something about the sleeping figure he’d just found. “This one’s human,” he said. Upon spotting the dirty jeans, flannel shirt, and neon yellow vest wrapped around it, he asked, “Didn’t Walter mention something about a survey crew that was supposed to be coming out here?”
Paige’s voice was faint as she whispered from another section of the pit, “Yeah, but they were supposed to stay away for a few more days.”