“We’ll need more noses,” Aric said. “Call Paul and the other team.”
“I can change and help, too.” It’s not like I’d forget that festering smell soon.
Aric sighed, moving toward me. I tried to meet him halfway until an odd sense of cold shoved at my chest like a pair of enraged sports fans. Gemini the wolf leapt to his feet, snarling at the same time my tigress snapped to attention. An earth-shattering scream cut through the silence. The twins had found their next meal.
I charged toward an overgrown path leading deeper into the woods only to be yanked back by Aric. “Stay here,” he growled.
He released my arm and changed, joining the rest of his pack already jetting into the dense forest in beast form. Only the original Gemini wolf remained. His hulking body blocked mine when I ignored Aric’s request. “Damn it, Gem!”
“Celia?”
Emme’s shaky voice kept me from barreling through Gemini. I didn’t want to leave Aric to fight this thing alone. I glanced back at my sisters. Shayna already palmed two daggers. Taran’s blue and white flames danced along her fingertips. No, I didn’t want to leave Aric. But I also couldn’t abandon my family.
“Wh-what is it, Celia?” Emme stammered.
“I don’t know.” I paused. Something dropped onto the roof of the mill from one of the overhanging branches. One. Two. Like softballs . . . with feet. My ears perked. Whatever it or they were pushed between the splintering shingles and scrambled into the building. Gem crept toward the door. He’d heard it, too.
“Stay here,” I muttered.
“Like hell,” Taran shot back.
Gemini’s tail batted against my stomach as I followed him back into the dust-filled and moldy building. The nauseating stench returned, this time with greater potency. We passed into the first large room, the one with the broken office furniture. I froze. Something scurried across the second floor. Just above where we stood. It scratched the battered wood with sharp little nails as it scampered from one side to the other.
“A squirrel?” Emme asked hopefully.
I really wanted it to be a squirrel. But squirrels didn’t move as fast as this thing did. Nor did they hiss. Gemini tore pass me and up the stairs. Garbled screeches followed angry snarls. Dust and pieces of mold pelted us as Gemini’s powerful paws pounded the ceiling above. He’d found one of the demon children.
So then, what the hell was Aric hunting . . . and where was the other twin?
A dark blur the size of my shoe scuttled like a crab above our heads. Then to the right. And then quickly down the wall and behind the armchair in the corner. I couldn’t make out what it was. Just that it had wings. Bat wings.
“Oh, Jesus,” Taran whispered.
Emme clutched my arm as I inched toward it. “Celia, don’t.”
Gemini’s paws continued to beat down more dust and his roars shook the building. The thing was fast enough to keep him busy, and small enough to fit into cramped spaces. Like underneath the chair. “We need to kill it, Emme. No telling how big this thing will get. Shayna, Taran, knife or blast it as soon as I move the armchair.”
I didn’t dare avert my stare to see if they nodded, but their hard swallows affirmed they’d heard me.
I stalked my way to it, slowly. Considering that the bulky piece of crap rested just a few feet from me, it seemed to take a long time for me to reach it. Not that I was in a rush, mind you. Creepy crawlies from hell had that effect on a gal.
The swoosh from Taran’s fire signaled her readiness to burn the thing to cinders, if Shayna’s daggers didn’t find it first. Shayna slid the blades she held against each other—her way of challenging the thing, and urging her inner mistress of all things sharp and deadly forward.
They were ready. I was ready. And now I’d reached my destination. My shaky hands extended toward the armrests. Dust poofed out in brown little clouds as I gripped the thick and torn fabric. I took a breath to steady myself and lifted.
The other twin poked its head from the bottom.
And clenched its mouth around my instep.