“Good,” Liam growled as he dropped down to all fours and sprouted multiple layers of muscle beneath his sleek black coat. “ ’Cause that means there ain’t no reason to keep you healthy.”
Chapter Ten
While the Full Bloods had been talking, the Half Breeds stayed still. For creatures ruled by instinct and driven by pain, this was no small feat. The only time they remained still on their own was to prevent the sun from burning the pasty skin beneath their fur when it was retracted during sleeping hours. If they smelled blood, Half Breeds ran. If the taste of fresh meat hit their tongues, they gnawed and tore until nothing remained.
When Liam barked, every wretch in the vicinity of the overturned SUV did what they’d been born to do.
Drina screamed as the Half Breed’s teeth sank all the way into her shoulder. She pressed the muzzle of her FAMAS against its torso, but the Half Breed’s fangs had already scraped against each other within her. Even though her hold on the rifle’s grip was solid, it simply wasn’t made to be fired one-handed. After a few shots thumped into the Half Breed’s upper body, the FAMAS kicked up and sent its next several rounds into the sky.
Firepower of that caliber at that range would have been enough to put down a normal Half Breed. They were tough, but not bulletproof. The one biting Drina was hurt, but not badly enough. Whatever pain it felt was wrapped up in a bellowing howl and spat back at the Amriany as it tore her open amid a flurry of claws that quickly separated major pieces of her body from the trembling whole.
Paige tried to get around the SUV to help her. By the time she arrived, Drina’s dark blond hair was slick with blood and her eyes were devoid of life. Gripping her machete with enough force to push the thorns deeper into her palms, Paige connected with a swing that buried the blade into the side of the creature’s neck. From there she slid the machete in farther and dragged it back across to saw the Half Breed’s head from its shoulders.
“Drina!” Paige shouted. “Can you hear me?” She’d seen the other woman move, but that was only because one of the Full Bloods had shaken the vehicle by jumping onto its roof.
Minh crouched on top of the SUV, but was suddenly distracted by the chattering gunfire of Nadya’s MAC-10. When the lithe werewolf bared her teeth and lunged at her, Nadya hopped to one side without taking her finger off her trigger. As soon as her magazine was emptied, she rushed over to her fallen partner to retrieve Drina’s FAMAS. Minh’s paws hit the dirt, and Milosh was right there to drive both of his charmed blades into her side.
“What do you want here?”
At the first sound of Kawosa’s voice, Paige raised her left hand and squeezed off three shots from her Beretta. Rather than stand and absorb the rounds like his Full Blood companions, Kawosa dropped beneath one, shifted into a smaller form to clear a path for the second, and then skittered away before the third could find him. After that, he returned to a spot no more than three feet from where he’d started.
“You have to tell me what you want here!” he demanded.
For whatever reason, Paige believed him. “I want to kill you. All of you.”
Kawosa’s brows lifted as the pure truth of her words sank in. “You can’t kill me, Skinner.”
Paige’s finger had already begun to tense for another shot. Instead of pulling the trigger, she slid it out from beneath the guard and rested it along the side of her Beretta. After holstering the gun, she swung her machete in a way that would build up the greatest momentum for a downward strike when it came around.
Only a supernatural thing could have been fast enough to avoid the lightning-fast swing. Despite Kawosa’s unearthly body and reflexes, even he felt the bite of her machete as it scraped his front paw and peeled away several layers of skin along his left side.
“That won’t kill me either,” he panted.
“One way to find out.”
Kawosa’s form was leaner than the Full Bloods and longer than the Half Breeds. His tapered snout was filled with thin, crooked teeth. The expression on his face wouldn’t have fit anything of this earth, but had a vague hint of surprised pleasure. After rolling away from her next attack and then jumping