Monster Mine (12 page)

Every time I managed a step forward, I
got shoved back three. I could see nothing but flesh and fur, blood
and bone. The enemy mingled with allies until the snipers above had
to stop firing for lack of a clear shot. I grabbed someone’s hair
and tried to leap over them and the massive aswang body they were
entwined with.

An elbow cracked across my mouth and
my head snapped back against the building’s wall. For a second,
darting white stars spiked my vision, and I had to keep blinking to
clear them away. I tasted blood and felt it running down my
face.

An aswang’s back collided into me and
we fell together. We hit the ground with a thump, and I immediately
started scrambling to get out from under it, expecting its mouth to
close around my throat at any moment, but its head lolled back on
my shoulder, eyes blank. Dead.

By the time I got out from under the
thing, the sounds in the alley had died down to just the ragged
breathing and moans of the injured.

I struggled to stand on shaky legs as
I pushed my glasses back up my nose, my eyes bouncing over humans
and ’swangs until I found him.

Luke had Hatter’s arm slung over his
shoulder as he hauled him over the carnage. Their faces were a
smear of blood and grime. As they came forward, I couldn’t count
their injuries or separate their blood from everything
else.

“
Halflings!”

I recognized Thad’s voice, but I
couldn’t see him.

“
Call out!” His shout
echoed down the alley.

I pushed passed a halfling holding her
head, her ear hanging by a piece of cartilage in her hand. I needed
to help these people, but I could only see Hatter.

Above me, someone shouted down,
“Lauren! No injury!”

Then, “Rimmel. Injured, nonfatal! No
assist required.”

I reached Luke and Hatter, who sagged
forward. One of his eyes was swollen shut, his bottom lip split
through. His shirt was torn down the front, and I saw the first
bite. The flesh along his neck and atop his shoulder had been torn
clean through. Inches over and the bite would have hit his main
artery. He brought his hand to my face, his thumb raking across my
cheek.

“
Yvonne. No
injury!”

“
Taylor. In-injured.” The
voice was no more than a rasp behind me. “Assist . . .
assist.”

“
First assist!” Thad
boomed. “Now! Keep calling!”

The darkness of the narrow space was
nearly absolute. The people around us were no more than shadows as
the moon slipped behind the cloud cover.

“
You okay?” Hatter choked
out.

I nodded, too busy running my hands
over him, searching for more bites. I found three more before Luke
sagged against the wall. The three of us crashed down together in a
pile. Luke coughed thickly and couldn’t stop. Hatter’s head rolled
forward onto my shoulder, his weight crumpling against me. I
wrapped my arms around him and held on.

“
Someone help over here!
It’s Sunny!” I called out.

“
Second assist!” Thad
echoed back instantly.

Next to me, a halfling turned, took us
in on the ground, and grabbed Hatter. With one easy lift, the guy
had Hatter on his feet.

“
Reece,” he called out.
His skin was tanned, like he’d somehow found a beach out here, and
his eyes shone brightly back at me. “No injury! Third assist
needed,” he added, seeing Luke.

“
Third assist!”

Another halfling came to us and
followed Reece’s order to collect Luke. The halfling slung him over
his shoulder and herded us down the alley to the other opening. All
around, more and more halflings called out, most injured. Some
didn’t fill the gap between calls, so Thad would shout for an
assist. They still hadn’t finished the roll by the time we stepped
into the opening, which had become a triage of sorts. Bodies were
lying spaced across the pavement, with halflings crouched over
them. Some worked to stop the bleeding and others fought to hold a
person down as another set their bones. Bandages were torn from
shirts and used to wrap up wounds.

The fight had lasted seconds, but in
that tight space, it had decimated us.

Reece and the other halfling helped me
lower Luke and Hatter to the ground. More people streamed out of
the alley, the shouting dying down. I glanced back and saw some
people were hauling out the ’swang bodies. With a hand to my
shoulder, Reece went back to help.

“
You didn’t answer me,”
Hatter gasped, wincing.

“
I’m fine,” I said, my
voice hoarse. “I’m okay. Where are you hurt?”

“
Everywhere. You have a
lot of places to kiss and make better.” His mouth fluttered into a
sideways smile before he grimaced.

Luke finished coughing and braced
himself against the ground, where he sat hunched over.

“
Are you bitten?” I
asked.

He shook his head. “Just banged around
a bit. Nothing ser—” Another round of hacking coughs cut him
off.

“
We need to get back to
the warehouse,” I said as I peeled back Hatter’s shirt, my eyes
scanning his bloodied skin. I counted four major bite wounds and a
few more minor cuts.

Halflings lay all around us, some
worse off than Hatter. Many had bites all over their bodies. I
needed to go to them, but I couldn’t make myself move.

“
I’m fine,” he said,
reading my face. “Go. It’s okay.”

“
I—”

“
Sunny!” Thad jogged up
behind me. “We could use another hand.”

I nodded as I stood. “We have to get
them back to the warehouse. It’s not—”

A scream, far different from the cries
of the halflings around us, ricocheted off the buildings. I was
already lifting my face to the sky as the shadow slipped by. People
ducked and flinched away, but most looked upward in time to see the
winged creature circle over us.

The moon came out from behind the
clouds and shone down on us, silhouetting the creature. It hung in
the air just above the building’s roofline, its wings slowly
undulating. It was close enough for us to make it out. Flesh hung
in strips from its waist as if it had torn through its skin. Where
its legs should have been dangling, there was only bone and
swinging entrails. Bare breasts hung over its sharp ribs. But its
face . . . I had never seen anything like it.

The creature was a woman, no doubt.
Dark hair billowed in tattered streams around her. Her eyes were
wide-open black saucers above jutting cheekbones. She opened her
mouth, a gaping black hole, and screamed again. A long, slender
tongue, like a snake’s, slithered out and tasted the
air.

Halflings scrambled into action and
started firing. The thing rose up with a fierce beat of its wings,
sending a stinking blast of air down on us that smelled of rotting
flesh and sour fish. She ducked and weaved, rising up then diving
down at us. Bullets scattered around her but never
connected.

Hatter took my hand and pulled himself
up. Luke stood beside him, clutching his side.

Thad had joined in with the firing
squad, and together they drove her farther up into the sky. With
another scream, she disappeared over the buildings and into the
night.

Slowly, one after the other, the
halflings lowered their guns and looked around, faces stunned and
terrified. No one spoke, but we all felt the same bone-deep
chill.

Thad swallowed heavily and
said, “Ha-halflings.” He paused and cleared his throat. “We’re
moving—
now
.
Assist those who can’t move and fucking double-time it back. Stick
to formation. Injured in the middle. If I see one damn person
lagging or not helping, I’ll shoot you myself. Go!”

He turned to me. “I’ll get Hatter.
Help Luke.”

“
I’m fine,” Luke growled,
but I went to him anyway, forcing his arm over my
shoulders.

“
Move out!” Thad had to
shout again when no one started forward.

“
Sunny!”

The shout rang out from across the
lot. We all looked up to see Ollie hurtling toward the group at
full tilt. She caught sight of us, her eyes bouncing from me to
Hatter to Thad and finally to Luke. She shoved through the
halflings jogging past her and threaded her way to us.

“
Sunny,” she repeated, her
mouth hanging open, panting out breaths.

“
We’re okay,” I
said.

“
What the hell happened?”
she asked, taking a position by Luke’s other side. “What was
screaming?”

Ollie was taller than me, so when she
took most of Luke’s weight, he was lifted well above my shoulders.
Her eyes scrutinized every inch of him, their faces close together.
He set his forehead against hers and took a long, deep breath. It
was the closest I’d seen them together since we’d arrived in
Anchorage, and it was the first time I’d seen Ollie actually touch
someone willingly.

Luke, wounded as he was, seemed to
savor every moment of it, leaning into her more than he needed to
and breathing her scent in deep.

“
No clue,” Thad said. He
sounded shaken and looked more scared than I’d ever seen him. “It
was flying.”

“
Flying?” Ollie’s head
snapped toward us and away from Luke’s injuries. “How?”

“
Wings,” Hatter hissed. I
went to Thad and helped him with Hatter.

“
It was a woman,” I said,
positioning myself under Hatter’s arm. “Her legs were just bones,
and she had these strips of flesh hanging
. . .”

Ollie cursed and picked up
her speed toward the warehouse. We all did. The other halflings
were well ahead of us. On the way back, we didn’t talk. Our focus
was solely on getting to a secure location with a roof over our
heads and locks on the doors. By the time we were halfway back, we
all caught the first strains of a low-thrumming
tick tock
.

Our bodies tensed. We wouldn’t survive
another attack. On Hatter’s other side, Thad lifted his nose to the
sky and took in a long drag of air.

“
Easy!” Thad called as
halflings lifted their guns. “It’s just Hex’s pack on our flanks.
Keep moving.”

I saw them then, our allied aswangs
moving through the shadows around us as we came to the main street
in front of our warehouse. They bounded along, truly guarding our
sides. Behind us, some leaped from rooftop to rooftop, guarding us
from above. They called back and forth with high-pitched clicks
that were far different from the wild barking I’d heard in the
alley.

One darted in close, loping forward
with long, ground-eating strides. He was absolutely massive, the
biggest ’swang I’d ever seen, including the ones who’d just
attacked us. Through his dense, black fur, I saw the rigid muscles
contracting and pulsing. His coat was shiny and unscarred, his eyes
completely black. Curved ears swiveled around, listening to every
scant sound. He drew up next to Ollie and Luke, who stiffened and
tried to pull her away.

“
It’s just Hex,” she said,
breathing heavily beneath his weight.

I noticed the moment Hex must have
said something to Ollie, because her attention snapped to him.
Whatever she said back through her thoughts had some sting to it.
Her eyes narrowed and her mouth frowned in disapproval, even though
he came up to her shoulder, his massive snout level with her eyes.
He literally dwarfed me, and maybe Ollie had the balls to talk back
to him in her head, but I tucked in closer to Hatter. On my
shoulder, I felt his grip tighten on me.

“
Almost there,” Thad
said.

In front of us, halflings were
spilling through the bay door, which Ghost had rolled open, the
echo of metal chains still clanging through the empty night
air.

Hex’s pack peeled off and disappeared
back into the night as the halflings went safely inside. With one
last look at Ollie, Hex joined them, and just like that, they were
gone.

As soon as we were under the bay’s
rolling door, it began to lower. Halflings spread out, securing
locks and taking positions at windows. They had to be beat, but
they all moved with military precision. Some started reloading ammo
clips from the crates lining the back wall. They started up a sort
of assembly line to distribute ammo and fresh weapons. Others laid
out the injured on the warehouse floor. Ghost darted between them,
med packs stacked high in his arms. He’d come prepared. Along the
wall with the cabinets, Lauren started unlocking the drawers and
pulling out unmarked pill containers and pre-filled syringes. She
was working with black and blue bruised eyes and a taped
nose.

“
Where’d they go?” Ollie
panted and helped Luke to the ground.

“
They have positions
around the building,” Thad said. “Hex will probably lead a small
contingent out to search for the ’swangs who made it away from the
fight. They’ll terminate them by dawn.”

“
And what about that
thing?” I asked.

Hatter lay on the ground, his hand
still in mine. I hated seeing him among the injured. It tore my
heart out.