Kate Daniels 06 - Gunmetal Magic

be the brave one, to never panic, to handle themselves with stony dignity, all of them were wiped away, because he was about to lose his son. He was helpless. He begged me for his child’s life and I knew that he would trade places with his boy without a moment’s hesitation.
    I couldn’t just stand there and watch him as his son was eaten alive. It was not in me. The person who would walk away from that man wasn’t who I was or wanted to be.
    I slipped the scabbard off my arm and handed it to Ascanio. “Arrow!”
    He yanked an arrow out and put in my palm. I notched it. “I’ll be shooting fast. Have the next arrow ready.”
    I drew the bow.
    The bravest beast jumped, aiming for the nearest worker.
    The bow string and the arrow sang together in a vicious happy duet. The arrowhead sliced into the creature’s throat. The first beast fell, hissing, trying to swipe at the shaft with its paw. The arrow whined. A blue light sparked at the wound and the beast exploded.
    I held my hand out and Ascanio put another arrow into it.
    The second beast followed the first. A moment later, the second explosion hurled chunks of flesh and bone into the pack. I didn’t have time to watch. I kept shooting, fast, precise, filling the air with arrows.
    The beasts panicked. They dashed to and fro amidst their exploding siblings, biting and clawing at each other. The Mother Beast roared, snapping massive jaws at random, unable to figure out what was killing her babies.
    “Run!” I screamed.
    The workers dashed toward us, running along the wall. The beasts chased them. The air whistled in a nonstop deadly chorus, as my arrows found targets.
    Felipe grabbed a pickaxe out of another man’s hands and ran toward the group. A woman to my left charged in after him, and so did Tony—the guard—and two others.
    One of the workers, a small woman, stumbled, fell, and slid down the glass slope. Two beasts fell on her, ripping into the woman with wet, gurgling growls. I sank two arrows into them, but it was too late. The woman screamed, a short guttural cry, cut off in mid-note. Blood drenched the glass. A moment later the arrow detonated and human and beast rained over the glass in a bloody deluge.
    The first runner made it to the tent and collapsed behind me. The rest followed. Finally Felipe and the dark-skinned guard made it in, both splattered with gore.
    The Mother Beast spun toward us. Finally found the enemy, did you?
    “Form a perimeter!” I barked. “Time to fight for your lives! Use whatever you got.”
    The workers scrambled to form a line.
    The monster ducked her head, and I saw a narrow slit in her carapace, located high between her eyes. Soft pink tissue expanded and contracted, filling the foot-wide slit and then retracting.
Hello, target.
    The beast swung her head again and bellowed in my direction. The wave of sound hit me like the roar of a tornado. I’d have to take the mother out or none of us would get out alive.
    “Can I shift now?” Ascanio asked.
    “Yes. Now.”
    Ascanio’s skin ruptured. Powerful muscle wound about his skeleton, skin sheathed it, and pale brownish-gray fur sprouted through it. A dark mane grew on his head and dripped down the back of his neck, over his spine. Pale stripes sliced his forelimbs, ending in five-inch claws. His face, like his body, became a meld of human and striped hyena. His eyes flashed with red.
    The Mother Beast lifted one colossal front paw and took a step forward. The ground shook.
    The bouda opened his mouth and roared back, breaking into bloodcurdling hyena laughter. My hackles rose.
There’s my pretty boy.
    “Keep her occupied!” I barked. “Make her face this way.”
    Ascanio leaped over the workers’ heads and dashed down to the monster. He swatted a smallish beast out of the way. It yelped and the behemoth swung in his direction.
    I drew my bow.
Not yet.
    Ascanio backhanded another creature.
    Not yet.
I had time.
    The behemoth ducked down, snarling.
    Not yet…
    The huge teeth snapped at Ascanio. He ducked, escaping by a couple of inches.
    I let the arrow go. It sliced through the air, propelled as much by the bowstring as by my will, and sliced straight into the unprotected area of her head.
Yes! Nailed it!
    The arrow whined and exploded. Blood shot out of the behemoth’s nostrils. She shook her head…and charged Ascanio. He leaped up and left, bounced off the glass, and jumped behind her, slicing the behemoth’s leg with his claws on the way.
    Damn it.