“Where are you going?” he purred, claiming the space she’d placed between him and them. “Oh I’m going to enjoy this.” The unmistakable glee in his tone—like a child who had discovered a piece of candy—chilled her. Tamar wouldn’t have been surprised if he clapped his hands and jumped up and down. “You,” his eyes narrowed on her, “I will save for last and take the most pleasure in.”
That was the only warning they received. Yet if he’d shot a starter’s pistol in the air and given them a ten-second head start it wouldn’t have prepared her for what happened next.
One moment a man stood on the sidewalk and the next a monster from her most horrifying nightmares crouched before them. And like in those dreams, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t turn and run. The cement under her feet seemed as if it had transformed to quicksand. It clutched her ankles, sucking her down into its lethal depths. Beside her, Resa emitted a frightened animal-like whimper.
The beast tilted its eagle head to the side and tracked them with a disturbing intelligence that glittered in its black eyes. All the gray and obsidian shadows of the night had coalesced and formed the wings that settled alongside the beast’s huge carriage. Feathers the color of dirty dishwater covered its wide breast and thick legs that ended in wicked dagger-sharp talons. It lowered into a deeper crouch like a deranged version of a courtier’s bow and Tamar glimpsed the powerful muscled back, legs and tail in the shape of a horse.
“Jesus,” she breathed. What the hell was it?
“Do me a favor,” the eagle-horse-man thing’s voice rebounded inside her head and Tamar wanted to clap her hands to her ears at the ugly gloating in the sonorous tone. “Run.”
The quicksand disappeared and Tamar wheeled around, complying with his instructions, dragging Resa with her. But her leg squawked an objection at the sudden movement and Tamar went down—hard. Her palms slapped the ground. Tiny loose pebbles bit into the heels of her palms. Yet her knee smacking the unforgiving cement drowned out the small discomfort of her hands. Pain screamed up her thigh and hip. Her teeth snapped together and a black shroud of unconsciousness swooped over her. But with a force of will she hadn’t known she possessed, Tamar shoved it back.
“Resa,” she rasped and her lips grazed the sidewalk as she turned her head to look for her friend. Maybe she’d been able to get away, run for help…
The other woman was sprawled on her stomach beside Tamar, but she scrambled to her back, performing a crab crawl away from the monster who stalked them. Her high-pitched shrieks ended on an abrupt note, replaced by a jarring bone snapping and crunching.
The beast had pounced, taken Resa down.
Fear, a living, breathing entity, crawled alongside Tamar as she sobbed and whimpered, trying to get away from this scene straight out of a horror flick. The beast’s immense body hid the carnage from sight, but the wet, meaty slurp and the metallic, blood-drenched scents were worse.
Crying, Tamar hauled her body up, using the brick building behind her for support. Her left leg throbbed, the angry pulses like a thousand bee stings in her knee, thigh and hip. Still, gripping the wall, she tried to escape the fate that had befallen her friend.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The question halted her progress as if it had reached out and snared her by the shoulder. Slowly she pivoted, the brick strong and sturdy under her palm. A calm settled over her. She couldn’t run—her leg wouldn’t permit it. Even if her limb would allow it, she couldn’t outrace this monster. But she refused to be taken down from behind.
She’d rather see it coming.
“Brave, are you?” It taunted and its cruel words and laughter grated the walls of her mind like acid. “It won’t save you,” it murmured, placing a claw closer to her sandal. The clack of the sharp tip against the pavement scraped over her nerves, raw and terrifying. “And unlike your friend, I’m going to take my time with you.”
She believed the creature, the promise evident in the evil glimmer that sparkled in its gaze. Sucking in a deep breath, Tamar pushed away from the building and caught the flash of surprise in its too-human eyes. Limping, she balanced most of her weight on her right leg and tilted her chin up. Her heart thudded against her rib cage, adding another ache to the chorus. But in a few minutes, none of the pain would matter. Not after he ripped her apart. In her head, she heard the nauseating cacophony of torn flesh and snapping bone that had been Resa’s horrible death and her courage flagged. She closed her eyes.
A deafening roar filled her ears.
A surge of power, wind and heat blasted past her, again knocking her to the ground. Her spine and the back of her skull cracked against the cement and she cried out.