Marcus Pelegrimas - The Breaking

She believed him.

“Don’t listen to him!” Gunari said.

Paige snapped her head around to find him standing beside Minh. The Full Blood wasn’t as bulky as Liam, who’d moved back to direct the Half Breeds with short, huffing barks. Wrapped in a soft pelt of dark, reddish-orange fur and coated in spilt blood, Minh bared her fangs while grabbing the front of Gunari’s tanned leather tunic and tossing him through the air. Milosh still hung onto her like a tick, so she reached around to knock him off.

“You can tell me if you know something regarding the young one,” Kawosa insisted while taking a few cautious steps back.

Screams came from down the street as well as from the nearby airport. Cars tore past and some screeched to a halt to get a look at what was going on in the field. Paige glanced around for the closest threat and found one Half Breed circling around to get behind her. When it opened its mouth to snarl at her, she twisted around in a similar pivot she’d used to attack Kawosa. The Half Breed wasn’t as quick as the wily old deceiver, so her machete sliced horizontally through the back of its mouth. Paige angled the blade downward so it reemerged from the creature’s left shoulder. When the Half Breed dropped and skidded against the ground, it opened like an old Zippo lighter.

Liam must have gotten his paws on Milosh, because the Amriany landed on the roof of the SUV, slid across it on his back, and dropped off to land in front of Paige. Only a quick tuck of his head made the difference between impacting on Laim’s shoulders and breaking his neck.

“If you know anyone who might be more useful,” Kawosa said while Liam howled victoriously, “you should tell me.”

“Shut your goddamn mouth, woman!” Milosh said. Seeing the stunned expression on Paige’s face, he reached behind his back to draw a snub-nosed revolver from a holster and fire two quick shots at Kawosa. Each round hit with a hard thump that kicked up more dirt than blood from under Kawosa’s fur. “He is Ktseena! Don’t listen to a word he says!”

Minh got to him in a series of movements that looked like a smear of dark colors against the canvas of empty space. Milosh was able to pull back before the Full Blood’s teeth clamped around his throat, but not before she caught his arm with a second snap of powerful jaws. The Amriany screamed and his eyes widened as Minh sank her fangs into his flesh. With one quick twist of her head, she pulled away his left arm and chewed it into pulp.

Heavy steps pounded against the hood of the SUV, prompting Paige to step back so she could put that area in her peripheral vision without looking away from Minh and Kawosa. Gunari bounded over the vehicle just ahead of a downward swipe of Liam’s paw that flattened a portion of the driver’s side.

“Fall back!” Gunari yelled. “Too many of them!”

Paige only concerned herself with the threats in her immediate line of sight, chief among them a Half Breed that crept over the front of the SUV. Having already been wounded, the creature now had to drag itself toward Gunari using long claws that curved from formerly human fingers, punching into the vehicle’s dented hood as it did so. Snapping her arm forward like a whip, Paige willed her machete into a shorter and thinner shape before letting it go. The weapon sliced through the air and hit the Half Breed less than an inch from its eye. Slightly off her mark, but a good enough blow to put the creature down.

“Watch it!” Gunari shouted.

Before she could heed the warning, Paige was knocked over by something that felt like a battering ram. After hitting the dirt, she looked up to see a mass of luxurious fur and the glint of claws longer than human fingers directly above her. She tried twisting away but was pinned beneath Minh’s weight. Paige reflexively raised her right arm and was just quick enough to catch the incoming slash before it removed her face from the front of her skull. Claws raked through the petrified skin of her arm but didn’t go in very far. Somehow, she lifted her Beretta and pulled the trigger. Her nose filled with the scent of burnt cordite as hot brass was ejected from the pistol. Minh winced as she licked the blood from Paige’s arm, and then used the side of her muzzle to bat the gun aside.

“Enjoy your Breaking, Skinner,” the Full Blood said. Then she reared up and shifted into another body, taller than Gunari’s but not as imposing as Liam’s. Beneath the bristling dark red coat, Paige could see a rounded female body. Minh’s thighs were strong and thick. Her arms were long and capped with hands that stretched out into impossible proportions. A tapered waist extended upward into a lean torso, complete with the subtle hint of curving breasts. The sight of her was almost captivating enough to keep Paige still as the Full Blood brought more Half Breeds to her side with a few huffing barks.

Paige dropped to the ground and rolled until she bumped against the SUV’s front tire.

Boots thumped against the packed dirt to her right.

Gunshots blasted through the air.

Another Half Breed dropped dead, several close-range gunshot wounds still smoking in its fur.

Gunari rushed to Paige’s side, reloaded the .44, and then offered a hand to her. “Back to the plane,” he said. “There’s no more we can do right now.”

She accepted his help but wasn’t happy about it. “What the hell does that mean? We didn’t come all this way just to turn around and go home!”

“Quiet and do as I say,” he scolded before firing another couple of rounds into Minh’s chest. The bullets thumped against the Full Blood, causing the fur to rustle as each bullet snagged within her coat. “Do you see Ktseena?”

Paige circled around Gunari so she could retrieve her weapon and then bury its blade into the shoulder of another Half Breed. After the wretch dropped, she finished it off. Kawosa was nearby, shifting into his gangly human form. “I see him. Don’t you?”

“No.”

“He’s right there!” she said while pointing to him.

The shapeshifter was dressed in filthy rags that barely covered his human form, his face almost completely hidden by long stringy hair. Tilting his head, Kawosa showed her a sympathetic expression while gently shaking his head.

“He told me I couldn’t see him, and I cannot,” Gunari explained.

Since Milosh was still crawling toward her and Nadya was backing away from the SUV amid a steady spray of automatic fire, Paige didn’t waste any more time before grabbing Gunari’s arm and pointing his .44 at Kawosa. “Just fire, goddammit!”

He did as he was told and they both sent their last few rounds through the air toward Kawosa. The shapeshifter dropped straight down, shifting into a nightmarish equivalent of a coyote before scampering away on all fours.

“Back to the plane!” Gunari shouted.

Nadya nodded and quickened her steps through the field toward the airstrip.

“We’re just gonna run for it?” Paige asked while fending off a Half Breed with her machete.

“We can make it,” he replied.

“If you believe that, then you’re screwed up too much to be of any use to anyone. We’re only alive because that bastard’s toying with us.”

Gunari’s eyes drifted to Liam. The Full Blood squatted on his haunches with his elbows perched upon his knees, grinning wider than a jack-o’-lantern at the Amriany.

“I’ll give a five second head start,” Liam snarled. “That’s only sportin’, eh?”

Of the Half Breeds that Paige had spotted when she first climbed out of the SUV, only one was still standing. Another was doing its best to crawl despite having caught a significant amount of gunfire. Liam’s coat was slick with blood that may or may not have been his own, and Minh had already shaken off wounds given to her by Amriany steel as well as Nadya’s MAC-10. In addition to that, Half Breeds crept in from farther down the street and from the far end of the field. As they drew closer, the sound of panting breaths and anxious yelps drifted upon the stagnant air.