Wildfire (Hidden Legacy #3)(31)

Something smashed into the beast, knocking it off me. I rolled on my side. Cornelius stepped over me and bashed the beast's head with a frying pan.

The bat-ape tried to rise.

He bashed it again, then again, bringing the frying pan down like a hammer. Blood splattered the walls. The bat-ape shook and lay still.

Cornelius straightened. I got off the floor and looked at the mangled corpse. Cornelius hefted his frying pan, pondering the body.

"But you don't like guns?" I whispered.

"This is different," he whispered back. "This is how an animal kills. This feels more real."

My new employee was a closet savage, but I wasn't going to complain. I would take this surprise savagery and be grateful. "Thank you."

He gave me a solemn nod.

I left the kitchen and crept up the stairs. Cornelius followed me.

"Any luck with making friends?" I whispered.

"No. Their minds are very primitive. It's like trying to bond with an insect. All I feel is hunger."

Ahead, the staircase turned in a grand sweep. A low eerie growl came from deeper within the house. All of the tiny hairs on the nape of my neck rose. A voice floated back, urgent, female, but too low to make out the words. Rynda.

We rounded the bend and I moved deeper into the house toward the sound. I glanced at Cornelius. He held up four fingers. Four creatures. I only had four bullets left in this magazine. I'd need a lot of firepower in a hurry. I ejected the magazine, slid it into my pocket, and put my spare in. Thirteen shots, twelve in the magazine and one in the chamber. I'd have to make them count.

A short hallway turned to the left, bringing me into the second living room.

". . . bleeding out. There is no need for violence," Rynda said. Her voice trembled.

"Give me the file and all your problems go away." Male voice.

"How do I know that you won't kill us?"

"You're playing for time, thinking that whoever fired that gun downstairs is going to rescue you."

I pressed my back against the wall by the doorway. I couldn't see into the room, and once I got in there, I'd have to act fast.

"I've been doing this a very long time. Nobody is coming to save you, Rynda."

Cornelius closed his eyes and opened them slowly. They were very blue and luminescent, almost catlike.

"Your knight in shining armor is clutching at his guts on your floor. Apparently, you don't care."

A man moaned.

"Stop it!" Rynda yelled.

"Keep going the way you're going and I'll make you watch as they eat him alive."

"Leave him alone!"

"Fine. Pick a kid. I'll do one of them instead."

"You wouldn't dare, Vincent."

"You know perfectly well that I would. Just give me the fucking file. This mother's last stand is getting tiresome. Here, I'll pick for you. That one."

"Mom!" a little girl screamed.

I lunged into the room. Someone pressed pause on the world, the room crystal clear in a split second. On the left, a dark-haired man in black clothes with his arms crossed on his chest. The summoner Prime. Vincent.



       
         
       
        

A creature waited next to him, indigo blue, with a spray of ghostly black and paler blue rosettes and spots across its fur. At least two and a half feet tall at the shoulder, six feet long, with a thick neck crowned with a fringe of tendrils, a short wide muzzle with dagger teeth, and wide paws as big as my hand. It reminded me of a tiger.

Two bat-apes crouched by Vincent, one by his feet and the other on the table behind him. On the right, fifteen feet away, the third bat-ape sat over Edward's body. Edward lay on his back on the blue rug. A wet wound gaped in his stomach. The third bat-ape was digging in it with its claws. Edward's eyes were open and filled with pain.

Rynda stood behind Edward, her arms around her two children, her face a bloodless mask.

If I killed Vincent, it would cure everything that was wrong with this picture.

"Run!" I barked, and fired.

The world snapped back to its normal speed in a roar of gunfire. The bat-ape by Vincent's feet jerked upright, throwing itself into the path of the bullet meant for the summoner. I'd missed by a tiny fraction of a second.

I pumped three bullets into the bat-ape. Its head jerked with each impact, but it still stayed upright.

Four.

Five.

Rynda didn't move. She just stood in the same spot like a deer in headlights. Damn it.

The creature by Edward leaped over his body and charged me. I pivoted and put six bullets into its skull. It toppled over. I spun back. The first bat-ape sprawled on the floor, dead. The last bat-ape had taken its place, blocking Vincent.