Supernatural Fresh Meat - By Alice Henderson Page 0,54
then louder and louder. It must be circling the building. He moved to the exact center of the room, pivoting to face the windows on opposite sides of the cabin. The wing flaps sounded closer and more intense, and he braced himself, ready for it to burst in again.
Then the wings grew quieter and quieter, fading into the distance. It was moving away. He’d won for now. He let his shoulders slump forward and exhaled.
A wave of fire shot out of the fireplace, raining black soot all over him and the room. The aswang erupted from the flue like an arrow. Dean staggered backward as it collided with his chest, sending him sprawling into the kitchen area. He slammed into the Formica counter, winded. The aswang sneered down at him, the long proboscis attaching onto his face. A sticky wet tongue tasted his skin, then it started inhaling, vacuuming the sweat and grime off his face and leaving a sticky residue behind. Dean felt the graze of teeth.
His grasping hands reached into a drawer and pulled out a steak knife. He drove it hard into the creature’s stomach. It jerked away.
Dean darted out of reach and headed toward the bedroom, spices at the ready again.
The aswang put a gnarled hand to its bleeding stomach. Then it snapped its gaze up, staring at Dean with utter contempt. With the hook of a wing, it wrenched open the cabinet under the sink. For a second it stood there, unmoving, staring at the empty cupboard, then it wheeled on Dean, enraged.
Dean closed in, showering it with another dose of the spice concoction. It let out a cry of agony, skin bubbling and blistering on impact. With a screech of rage, it exploded back out through the shattered window.
The sound of its beating wings, faint at first, grew louder as it flew away, and Dean suddenly realized why he and Sam had been so disoriented before when they listened for it. The closer it was, the quieter its wings sounded. People would let their guard down, thinking it was gone.
Sneaky son of a bitch!
Dean ran to the shattered window and stared upward, trying to see it in the sky, but only the grey swirls of the snowstorm greeted him.
He turned back to the fireplace, trying to clear some of the debris from the hearth while staying vigilant. Twenty minutes passed quietly. The embers started to go out, and he didn’t have another match. He put more logs on and stoked it with the poker. He only had to stay warm tonight, and then, when the storm broke tomorrow, he’d hike out.
A sudden pounding on the cabin door made him jump. He spun, staring at the closed door. More pounding erupted on the other side. Someone was knocking. He approached cautiously, peeking his head out of the broken window to see who it was. He couldn’t make out a face, just a hooded figure in a storm parka and a huge backcountry pack. Grace.
He hurried to the door and opened it.
“Agent Plant?” she breathed, staggering inside in a pair of ice-caked snowshoes. She took the pack off, letting it slide to the floor, then fell to her knees beside it.
“Under the circumstances, maybe you can call me Dean?” He knelt down beside her. “Are you okay?”
“Lost. Dean.” She shook the snow off her hood and lowered it. “I can’t believe it, but I got lost out there. I’ve never seen a storm come up this fast.”
She stared around the cabin, eyes landing on the fire. “Oh, fire. Can you help me over there?”
He hooked a hand under her arm and hefted her up. She crossed the room in her snowshoes and collapsed on the stone hearth. Peeling off her soaked mittens and warming her fingers in the heat, she said, “Oh, this is blissful.”
After a moment, she removed her winter hat and looked up at him. “Saw the light from the cabin.” Her eyes drifted from Dean’s face to the shattered window behind him. “What happened?”
“Tree limb crashed through the window earlier.” No need to tell his secrets. Besides, he didn’t want to alarm her if the aswang wasn’t coming back.
“This is the worst storm I’ve ever seen.” She bent over, unbuckling her snowshoes. “Normally, I wouldn’t have been carrying these things, but I was planning to do some snowshoeing in the high country on my day off. Didn’t think I’d need them at this elevation.”