claws longer than human fingers directly above her. She tried twisting away but was pinned beneath Minh’s weight. Paige reflexively raised her right arm and was just quick enough to catch the incoming slash before it removed her face from the front of her skull. Claws raked through the petrified skin of her arm but didn’t go in very far. Somehow, she lifted her Beretta and pulled the trigger. Her nose filled with the scent of burnt cordite as hot brass was ejected from the pistol. Minh winced as she licked the blood from Paige’s arm, and then used the side of her muzzle to bat the gun aside.
“Enjoy your Breaking, Skinner,” the Full Blood said. Then she reared up and shifted into another body, taller than Gunari’s but not as imposing as Liam’s. Beneath the bristling dark red coat, Paige could see a rounded female body. Minh’s thighs were strong and thick. Her arms were long and capped with hands that stretched out into impossible proportions. A tapered waist extended upward into a lean torso, complete with the subtle hint of curving breasts. The sight of her was almost captivating enough to keep Paige still as the Full Blood brought more Half Breeds to her side with a few huffing barks.
Paige dropped to the ground and rolled until she bumped against the SUV’s front tire.
Boots thumped against the packed dirt to her right.
Gunshots blasted through the air.
Another Half Breed dropped dead, several close-range gunshot wounds still smoking in its fur.
Gunari rushed to Paige’s side, reloaded the .44, and then offered a hand to her. “Back to the plane,” he said. “There’s no more we can do right now.”
She accepted his help but wasn’t happy about it. “What the hell does that mean? We didn’t come all this way just to turn around and go home!”
“Quiet and do as I say,” he scolded before firing another couple of rounds into Minh’s chest. The bullets thumped against the Full Blood, causing the fur to rustle as each bullet snagged within her coat. “Do you see Ktseena?”
Paige circled around Gunari so she could retrieve her weapon and then bury its blade into the shoulder of another Half Breed. After the wretch dropped, she finished it off. Kawosa was nearby, shifting into his gangly human form. “I see him. Don’t you?”
“No.”
“He’s right there!” she said while pointing to him.
The shapeshifter was dressed in filthy rags that barely covered his human form, his face almost completely hidden by long stringy hair. Tilting his head, Kawosa showed her a sympathetic expression while gently shaking his head.
“He told me I couldn’t see him, and I cannot,” Gunari explained.
Since Milosh was still crawling toward her and Nadya was backing away from the SUV amid a steady spray of automatic fire, Paige didn’t waste any more time before grabbing Gunari’s arm and pointing his .44 at Kawosa. “Just fire, goddammit!”
He did as he was told and they both sent their last few rounds through the air toward Kawosa. The shapeshifter dropped straight down, shifting into a nightmarish equivalent of a coyote before scampering away on all fours.
“Back to the plane!” Gunari shouted.
Nadya nodded and quickened her steps through the field toward the airstrip.
“We’re just gonna run for it?” Paige asked while fending off a Half Breed with her machete.
“We can make it,” he replied.
“If you believe that, then you’re screwed up too much to be of any use to anyone. We’re only alive because that bastard’s toying with us.”
Gunari’s eyes drifted to Liam. The Full Blood squatted on his haunches with his elbows perched upon his knees, grinning wider than a jack-o’-lantern at the Amriany.
“I’ll give a five second head start,” Liam snarled. “That’s only sportin’, eh?”
Of the Half Breeds that Paige had spotted when she first climbed out of the SUV, only one was still standing. Another was doing its best to crawl despite having caught a significant amount of gunfire. Liam’s coat was slick with blood that may or may not have been his own, and Minh had already shaken off wounds given to her by Amriany steel as well as Nadya’s MAC-10. In addition to that, Half Breeds crept in from farther down the street and from the far end of the field. As they drew closer, the sound of panting breaths and anxious yelps drifted upon the stagnant air.
“One . . .” Liam said.
“Head for the street,” Paige snapped as she began jogging in that direction.