Trembling as he reloaded, the cop asked, “What the fuck are these things? Who the fuck are you?”
All Paige said to that was, “Behind you.”
The cop was reluctant to take his eyes off her, but turned around when he heard the sound of claws raking against the cement. Then he added to a chorus of gunfire that dropped one of the smaller creatures charging a police cruiser. When the cop turned around again, Paige had moved on to fight somewhere else.
A few yards down the street, Cole pinned another Half Breed to the pavement. The wretch clawed at the cement, tearing up chunks of concrete while snapping at both him and the female officer he’d already saved. She’d taken a bad bite to the hip but was able to stay upright thanks to another policeman who’d come to lend her some support. The creature’s head twisted around to angles that should have killed any living creature. Since the Half Breed didn’t have a bone that wasn’t already broken, it frantically knotted itself up until enough of the cops’ bullets hit something vital.
But even after it stopped moving, Cole was reluctant to pull the spear loose. When he noticed that there were only three gaping wounds, despite all the shots that had hit, he braced his foot on the creature and freed his weapon. “Nice grouping,” he said to the closest officer.
The policeman, sweaty, scraped up, and shell-shocked, muttered, “Wh-What the hell?”
Cole looked over to Paige just as she swatted at one creature with her left hand and then knocked it into oblivion with her right. When he looked back again, the flummoxed cop had disappeared in a blood-soaked flurry of teeth and claws. From then on, none of the remaining cops were about to stop shooting long enough to ask the Skinners another question.
More Half Breeds raced in from all angles. They knocked over mailboxes and scrambled over patrol cars in their haste to get to the buffet of fresh meat. Some were sent tumbling due to gunfire from the officers on the scene, while others darted around to flank the shooters from a different angle. Every last one of the creatures howled and barked with enough unfocused energy to rend their throats in the same way their claws tore up their prey.
Cole waded through the Half Breeds to help as many cops as he could. One creature dragged a screaming man toward a police cruiser, so he aimed his .44 in that direction. Before he could fire a shot, however, another pair of creatures reached out from beneath the car to grab the Half Breed’s legs. Even with that quick glance, Cole recognized the curved claws and shorter legs of burrowing Mongrels.
At first the Half Breed twisted around to snarl at whatever was interrupting its feast. The surprise it felt when it saw what had snagged it by the hindquarters was enough to show up on even its mangled face. The werewolf barked frantically before yelping in pain as the Mongrels dragged it under the car.
“Can you walk?” Cole asked as he helped the surprised cop back up.
The officer winced, but nodded. “It pulled me a ways, but I can keep going.”
Suddenly, the gunfire rose to a frantic level. Cops screamed at each other and through their radios as stray rounds shattered glass and tore into one of the nearby buildings. More specifically, they fired at the hulking Full Blood that had sunk its claws into the building and was climbing down. Once the coal-black monster made it to the twelfth floor, he pushed away from the structure and dropped into the chaos he’d started.
Chapter 29
Liam’s feet slammed against the pavement with enough force for Cole to feel it through the bottom of his hiking boots. The Full Blood flattened for a moment and then arose in his full upright form. Unlike the twitching attempt in the hotel room, this transformation was a nightmare firing on all cylinders. It stood just over seven feet tall, was covered in pure black fur, and had muscles that looked twice as solid and unforgiving as the steel of the cars surrounding it. A patch of gray fur marked the spot where Cole’s spear had wounded Liam earlier that night.
Gunfire continued to go off, but Liam barely reacted to the constant pecking of bullets against his coat. The werewolf sucked in a lungful of air, shifted his gaze toward Cole and Paige, and then let out another howl that was raw fury given a body of sound. It directly challenged Cole in a language that predated words, reaching down to the core of every living thing to spark the simplest, most primitive of all choices: kill, run, or die.
Cole was snapped out of his paralysis by the thunder of shotgun blasts. Some police officers were still firing their pistols at Liam, but others had ditched the handguns in favor of something bigger. Liam vaulted over the nearest car, tearing the sirens from its roof with the ease of a bad magician sending a few place settings to the floor. Before his paws touched cement again, he was swiping at one of the cops holding a shotgun. He clipped the man with his claws, which was enough to send the guy twisting through the air amid a bloody spray.
The shotgunner’s partner still had a pistol in hand, which he’d already emptied. The instant Liam’s eyes found him, the cop raced for another one of the cruisers. He dove headfirst into the car to grab the shotgun, which was still in its rack. As Liam approached, the cop pulled the door shut and wrestled the shotgun free of its housing.
Meanwhile, the remaining cops were firing or calling for backup. Mongrels picked off several Half Breeds by snatching the wretches from alleys, under cars, or any other cover they could find. Paige and Cole had been singled out by another small pack of Half Breeds, but those creatures were already nursing multiple gunshot wounds. Although they’d absorbed enough lead to put down a pack of any other animal, the werewolves were slowed down just enough for the Skinners to finish them off before moving on to bigger game.
One policeman stood frozen with gun in hand, apparently unable to decide whether he wanted to fire at Liam, one of the hidden Mongrels, or one of the circling Half Breeds. Before the cop could make up his mind, a Half Breed raced forward to sink its teeth into his hip. The werewolf’s fangs snagged on the officer’s gun belt, and then Cole’s spear snagged the creature’s ribs. Cole pulled the impaled werewolf to one side so the cop could use his pistol to put it out of its misery.
A few more Half Breeds stalked toward the cops who were firing at Liam. Their eyes were fixed upon the officers’ backs, so they didn’t see Paige coming until she was wading through them. Her first attack wasn’t half its normal speed, but she swung her crudely shaped machete with enough power to decapitate one of the Half Breeds in a single swipe. She snapped the sickle in her left hand down to bury its curved blade into the neck of the next creature. Paige wanted to answer a third creature’s growl with another swing, but her right arm wasn’t up to the task. The weapon in that hand moved like it was being pushed through water, giving the Half Breed more than enough time to duck beneath it and sink its teeth into her.
Screams erupted from Liam’s direction. There was a crunching impact as the Full Blood tossed three men in full riot gear into the air, sending one of them through the fourth floor window of a nearby building.
Cole barely had time to register what he’d seen before reflexively twisting his spear to block a Half Breed’s attack. Since the werewolf stopped just outside of the spear’s range, Cole adjusted his grip on the weapon to hold it more like a long bat. He waited for the Half Breed to charge at him again, then swung at just the right moment to bury the thorns of the spear’s handle into the creature’s face. It let out a shrieking cry and scampered away.
Rushing toward Paige, Cole found her on the ground, using her feet to push herself away from the Half Breed latched onto her right arm. The creature snarled and snapped its head from side to side like a dog that wasn’t about to let go of its favorite old sock. She took a few swings at it with her sickle, but its frenzy was too far along for it to feel any pain.