A guttural hiss vibrated the leaves. Ancient wings slapped the air with fury. The scary monster noises threatened to paralyze me, so I ignored them and concentrated on running. Fast. Counting houses to keep the panic at bay.
Something darted out from my left, ground level. I swerved right, nearly falling, but kept going. I glanced back. A dog, one of those tiny, foo-foo things, scampered out on stubby legs, planted its feet, and started barking skyward. The demon diverted its sights from me and swooped down on the yappy mutt.
Dogs aren't my thing.
I hate dogs.
And if this one was dumb enough to sacrifice itself for me, hallelujah. I kept running.
After I reversed course.
Stupid dog.
I dived head first and scooped up the mongrel as I slid by, feeling a rush of air from the giant beast passing overhead. A reddish sheen covered my eyes. I'd cut it so close the demon's talon sliced through my ponytail elastic and released an onslaught of thick massive curls that cascaded over my face.
On foot again, I flung back my hair and continued my retreat, the squirming dog growling protests against my chest.
"Ungrateful mutt," I growled back.
I sensed a presence looming overhead and dodged into a driveway, happy to toss the annoying pup into a garage where it tumbled under a sedan. A blow from behind lurched my body forward. I would've gone down but instead found myself airborne. And gaining altitude.
Not good, because last I checked, I couldn't fly.
CHAPTER TWO
On the positive side, the beast hadn't gutted me when it snatched me from above. On the negative, its massive three-toed chicken feet trapped my shoulders and torso in an excruciating vise. It leveled out and glided, letting my feet skim just above the ground, its laugh triumphant. This flying thing would've been kind of cool except for the sulfurous rotting stench that seared my throat and watered my eyes.
And the fact that it was about to kill me.
My hands shot up and wrapped around thick legs, reptilian cold, rubbery, and rough with warts. Fingernails digging into the demon flesh, I squirmed and twisted, fighting for leverage.
"Now that I have you," it dipped its hideous beak-face toward me, hot breath sweet as a sewer, "I'm disinclined to sanction your liberation. Our peregrination has just begun."
"Oh, shut up!" I swung my legs harder. Momentum and determination finally carried my feet high enough to land a couple of solid kicks to its belly which only seemed to launch us higher.
I raked my nails down its legs and sunk my teeth into the monstrous flesh. A bitter acid burned my tongue igniting a ferocious need to spit. The demon gave one surprised grunt before its grip tightened to rib cracking proportions. The leathery wings lifted. The monstrous body heaved for a powerful flap, ready to propel us high in the air and me to my doom. It would probably strip my flesh while giving me vocabulary lessons. I'd be dead but smarter. How's that for glass half full?
Frustrated, panicked, I inhaled for a guttural scream-that never came.
A sudden intense pressure cemented my lungs, enveloped my body, and threatened to squash me into two-dimensional proportions. A tingling shimmered from my gut and spread through my body. Heat emanated from the inside out and rippled over my skin, gaining momentum, striding down my extremities. An expanding glow blanched my vision into blinding white. I smelled something burning. I hoped it wasn't me.
The demon's angry bellow echoed an instant before its claws jerked open. Good news, except it left me plummeting through the air. I reached for something to break my fall. The ground obliged. I rolled on my back, anticipating another attack. Vision still sketchy, I made out the snarling creature circling, then swallowed hard when it dived, its mouth split wide, fangs bared. I could breathe again, but that didn't look like it would last.
A flash of dark orange lightning jolted across the sky, its jagged length spitting sparks and flames like fireworks off a rocket. The bolt smacked the demon from the side, which jarred it off its murderous course and spiraled it backward. No time for shock and awe. I grunted to my feet and high-tailed it toward home.
CHAPTER THREE
I silently cursed my mother's green thumb. I'd swear the hedges lining our lawn had grown three feet in the week we'd been here. I doubted I'd make it over the gauntlet, but it was my only chance of avoiding a slow and torturous death offered up by my local Demons-R-Us.
Something slammed me from the side. We catapulted in slow spirals through a thermal pocket of warm air toward my next-door neighbor's lawn and landed with a brain-rattling thud, rolling out of control. A demonic shriek slashed through the night, then silence.