Cole wanted to run, but he couldn’t. He was scared, but that wasn’t what kept him in the apartment. At that moment not even Paige’s iron grip on his wrist could pull him away.
“We need to get to that Blood Blade!” she shouted over the creature’s roar and scraping of claws against the floor. “He’ll kill you!”
Burkis’s legs shot out from the remains of his trousers, snapped in half to bend against the knees, and grew to nearly twice their original length. Every move he made brought up sections of the carpet along with a few pieces of the floor itself. The man from New York arched his back as his spine rippled in a shockwave that started at the base of his neck and rolled all the way down to his newly formed tail.
“We can kill him,” Cole said.
“That’s a Full Blood! We need the—”
“I know what it is,” Cole snapped. “He’s still changing. We can kill him before he grows to full strength. Like those Half Breeds we found in that den in Wisconsin, remember? We got to them before they changed all the way and we can do the same with him but we need to hurry!”
Paige thought it over for less than a second before she nodded. When she lifted her hands, they were each wrapped around shorter versions of her sickles, which allowed for stronger blades. “You ready for this?”
“No, but let’s do it anyway.”
Burkis was now somewhere between human and animal. It wouldn’t be much longer before he was one of the most dangerous creatures in the world. Cole just hoped there would be one less in the world before the night was over.
Paige got to Burkis first and sank both curved blades into his back. Since Burkis’s muscles were still expanding, she was able to pull the right one out, but was having trouble getting the left one free.
Cole wasn’t able to build up much steam, but what he didn’t gain from momentum he more than made up for in adrenaline by driving his spear into the shifting meat of the werewolf’s side like a soldier delivering a killing blow with a bayonet. Judging by the howl that exploded from him as he shook his head and arched his back, Burkis felt the weapon hit home. A second later fur flowed out of every one of his pores as if to entangle the weapon before it was reclaimed.
With one sweep of a massive arm, Burkis knocked Paige off her feet. When the creature stood upright, Cole was almost hoisted off the floor. He pulled his spear free, dropped to his feet and was immediately knocked toward the sliding glass door when the creature pivoted toward him.
Burkis’s face was now completely changed. A low, ridged brow had settled in above a pair of crystalline, gray-blue eyes. Fur flowed from him like water trickling over his skin after a hard rain. As the creature’s frame settled into its final shape, he hacked up a bellowing roar, kicked aside the couch and lashed out with both hands.
Cole was just quick enough to drop and roll away from the window before those claws shattered the thick glass of the sliding door. When the creature turned, it howled and staggered to knock away a sizable portion of the door frame. Only then did Cole see Paige hanging from the sickle that was still lodged in its back.
Seeing her hang on with every bit of strength she had, Cole thought back to the isolated cabin in Canada where the first two Skinners he’d ever known were killed. They were good men who’d put up a hell of a fight before being torn apart by the same Full Blood that was seconds away from ending Paige’s life. It had been the better part of a year since that happened, but Cole still smelled that blood and heard those screams in the back of his head as he threw himself into a fight that no reasonable human being could ever hope to win.
Every swing of his weapon drove the thorns farther into his own flesh. One of those hits must have landed in a soft spot, because the creature dropped to all fours and shook Paige off. She pulled her weapon free but landed awkwardly and was about to hit the floor on her back when Cole caught her.
“We’re not doing anything but pissing it off,” she said. “We need to get downstairs.”
“That’s the Full Blood,” Cole wheezed.
“I know. That’s why we need the Blood Blade!” She grabbed Cole by the back of his collar as if dragging an uncooperative mutt by the scruff of its neck.
Resisting Paige’s efforts to get him moving, Cole held his weapon in front of him and watched the thing that scrambled to get disentangled from the broken patio door frame. Outside, the sound of police sirens drifted from the direction of the main parking lot. “No. That’s the Full Blood from Canada. The one that killed Gerald and Brad.”
Paige took a moment to look the creature over, recognizing the color of its fur as well as the patches of gray on its chest, thanks to Cole’s past descriptions. Burkis even had some familiar scars that could now be seen through spots where its coat had thinned out a bit. “Run,” she said.
“We need to kill it.”
“We’re chipping the surface but not doing enough damage. We need something other than what we’ve got.”
If Burkis had been hurt in the slightest by their attack, it was recovered now. Baring its teeth, it glared at the Skinners and unleashed a demonic howl wrapped around the vestiges of a human scream.
“Run!” Paige shouted.
Chapter 11
Paige jumped through the hole in the floor that led to apartment 203 and shouted for Daniels. The Nymar was gathering things from a pile of overturned boxes and shoving them into a large gym bag he’d strapped over his shoulder. Seconds later Cole dropped through and knocked the ladder down behind him. The Full Blood quickly appeared to stick its gnarled face through the opening and snap its jaws at him.
“The cops are here!” Cole shouted as he hopped away from the closet.
“Hopefully they’ll just find a big dead body,” Paige replied in a rush. “Where’s that package, Daniels?”
“Already packed it,” the Nymar replied. “Along with the mixtures of ink, my burner, and my notes, so I can—”
“Get the Blood Blade and bring it to me. You never told me the combination to that damn safe!”
Gripping the edges of the opening that had been burned between the second and third floor apartments, Burkis tore away chunks of the floor and ceiling like he was digging a hole in the ground. Wood, plaster, and metal formed a heap in the closet as the werewolf forced its way down.
Daniels collected a few plastic containers and stuffed them along with some other knickknacks into his bag. After that he raced down the hall and disappeared through the next hole.
Standing beside Paige, Cole asked, “Have you ever killed one of these things?”
“I don’t know if anyone’s really killed one. There’s been stories, but nothing solid.”
“Can we kill it?”
“We can try.”
Burkis hit the floor and exploded from the little room that had contained the ladder. As soon as he saw Paige and Cole, he roared and batted aside the piles of heavy boxes as though they were all empty.
Paige distracted the werewolf with a few swings of her weapons as Cole backed toward the hall where the water heater should have been. Racing down the ladder without being fully aware of what his arms and legs were doing, he felt the touch of panic lapping at the edges of his mind. He managed to keep moving and was soon joined by Paige in apartment 103.
The flashing lights and sirens of the police cars were getting closer. Cole only cast a quick look toward the approaching commotion when he felt Paige shove him into the living room. Burkis didn’t do any digging this time. Instead he shoved his face through the opening to rip directly into the first floor apartment. His thickly muscled frame was solid enough to crack the ceiling and send chunks of plaster to the floor. He hit the ground and immediately lunged forward to clamp Paige’s arm between his teeth.
She let out a short, piercing cry that contained as much surprise as pain.