It didn’t matter. Maybe the huge dog would delay the hellhound long enough for the woman to escape. Alex wished it so, but at this point, all he could do was stand between her and the other hellhounds…and hope.
Alex and Caleb both held their weapons ready. Hewn from the purest iron, treated with the salts of the Dead Sea and the power of the Beyond, the blades could kill these heinous abominations. He sliced the air in front of him and bent his knees. Twenty feet to his left, Caleb did the same. The hounds bayed relentlessly but Alex tuned inward, focusing on the weight of his weapon, the goal of his mission. He counted six hellhounds total, including the one that had raced after the woman, but more could be lurking in the scrub and shadows.
Three of the creatures paced in front of him, snapping and baring teeth that looked as thick and long as Alex’s fingers. The beasts chortled a strange and eerie message to one another as they eyed his blade with aversion. Their sounds made his bones feel cold and his blood too thick to pump.
“Come on,” he muttered, but the hellhounds didn’t move. They seemed to be waiting for something.
On cue, a seventh hound stalked from the trees. The others watched it with hungry eyes, snouts dropped in obeisance. It moved with haughty disregard, not even bothering to snarl as it passed them. Still the other hounds shrank back. Alex marked the beast as the leader.
Carefully, without a word spoken between them, Alex and Caleb drew closer together, knowing they’d need to work in tandem if they hoped to kill them. The apparent leader watched with disdain. The message was clear. They could gang up, pool their power, and wield their weapons, but still they’d be nothing more than food to the hellhounds.
Alex gripped his machete, wondering if the woman had made it to shelter or if her bloody remains even now stained the earth. The thought disturbed him and disrupted his focus. He shouldn’t care. Casualties were expected. But the thought of those beautiful eyes closed forever made his gut clench with despair.
“How many more do you think there are?” Caleb asked.
“Five? Fifty?”
“That’s my count, too.” Caleb smiled grimly. “See you on the other side, brother.”
A promise of comrades. Today they might die protecting the Beyond, but tomorrow they would awake in the afterlife, purified by their sacrifice.
Or so they’d been promised.
Shoulder to shoulder, they advanced on the pack, but once they hit the middle, they turned their backs to one another as they fought. The hellhounds countered with the kind of military precision that had Alex convinced they were capable of higher thinking, regardless of their bestial appearance. The hellhounds positioned at the sides darted forward in synchronized assaults while others circled around from behind. A small, wiry one hung back, watching and assessing, while the leader leapt to a boulder which gave it a bird’s-eye view of the battle. It surveyed them with glowing lantern eyes and bared teeth. Strategizing. Only a fool would see it as anything less.
Alex took it all in as he swung his blade, intent on cutting through the first hound he reached and clearing a direct path to the leader, but before he realized it, they’d isolated him with a skill he could hardly grasp, leaving him trapped in the middle, separated from Caleb, who fought with a steady, if frantic, pace. Other hounds rushed in and expanded the space between them with their attack, making Alex swing but twisting away before he could do more than draw blood. Wearing him down. He recognized the tactic even as he felt himself tiring.
The big one leapt from the boulder, intent on finishing him off. Alex feinted to the right, turning in mid-step and catching the big one in flight. Blood spewed and its body went one way, the head the other. He finished his rotation, catching a different one with the machete and eviscerating it with a slice it didn’t see coming.
Another creature sideswiped Alex with a body blow that took him to his knees. It was exactly the opportunity the small, wiry one wanted. Downed prey ready for him to finish. The beast landed on top of Alex as he tried to roll away. Claws tore his coat and dug down to flesh. One hellhound sank its teeth into his leg, another his arm, keeping him pinned for the wiry one on top of him.
Suddenly, a furious bout of barking joined the guttural growls and vicious howls of the hounds. From the corner of his eye, Alex saw a mottled blur speed across the patches of snow.
The woman’s dog.
Dread pooled inside him. Surely the woman wouldn’t have come back? The dog plowed into the hellhound poised on top of Alex, knocking it off and following it down. More barking joined the chaos and Alex’s heart seized with fear.
They still had him pinned down and now a huge one pounced on top of him and moved in for the kill. Alex couldn’t get his arm free, couldn’t get the hilt of his machete in a grip that would allow him to swing with the other hand. He bucked and twisted, but it was no use.