get through. Anything I tried or did might kill the little boy.
I didn’t have hands to help him, either, and though claws were nimble, mine were huge and I hadn’t exactly practiced using them. I was unwieldly on the ground.
I could change form. But if I did, I couldn’t get back through the shield. My hindbrain figured out what I had felt when I pierced the outer shield, incoming. The magics of ley lines. Brittle and sizzling and electrifying. Powerful enough to keep me inside the cave, in any form but Anzu. Ley lines and rifts were part of the same power structure, and as an Anzu, I could—clearly—go through them. I should have thought this through before I bubbled time and dove in. Flying by the . . . feathers of my hindquarters, literally. But now, bubbling time again might kill me, and if I was dead, I couldn’t save EJ. And in human form, I couldn’t get though.
I couldn’t just sit here. Help was likely many hours away. Eventually one of the vamps would wake and the mind of the Flayer would take him or her over. I’d have to dispatch whoever it was, even if it was Tex, my friend. And then there was Dudley. The sickness I had felt earlier grew. I had to finish this, had to get EJ out of here.
I needed a safety net and time to figure out my next move, and since bubbling time was out of the question, then gore would have to do.
With wings and claws, I attacked the Flayer’s torso and tore through his left shoulder joint. Using the arm, I batted the bashed head farther away, against the far stone wall. I tossed the arm at the mouth of the cave and it flew outside, flashing as it passed through the energies. Interesting. The Flayer could get out without dropping the shield. I hopped atop the body and tore off the other arm, throwing it too, though it landed inside the shield.
I reared back and slammed my beak into the exoskeleton, once, twice, the sharp cracks reverberating through my head. On the third bone-breaking peck, my beak pierced through, stabbing into blood and viscera. I grabbed the exoskeleton in claws and my beak. Straining, I separated it, ripping it along the cracks my beak had made.
Good meat. Strong vampire blood, Beast thought. She shoved me down, hungry. Faster than I could think, she pecked out a lung and tossed it up. Opened her beak and took it all in at once.
Gack! Stop!
Beast ignored me and stuck our head inside the cavity, ripping into the heart and liver, tearing them free and shredding strips off with our beak and claws. One by one, she ate them. With each gobbet of gore, I felt better. And grosser.
Gack. E Stop.
No. Good vampire blood, Beast thought.
I’m eating rats. Eating sentient beings, and not for the first time. I’m a monster. I’m gonna hurl.
Inside me, Beast flicked her ear tabs and exerted pressure against me, pushing me down, taking alpha place. Is like Beast giving milk to kits. Will grow back if Jane lets it. With one eye on Shimon as I ate, I glanced with the other eye at the unknown vamp. The vamp was pretty much out of it. The witch was immobilized. No one was watching me binge-eat an insectoid vamp.
My queasiness faded slightly as I realized that Beast had a point. The Flayer was immortal. He’d grow back all his parts if he got the chance. With one independent eye, I looked over the cave, finding that EJ was still asleep and wouldn’t be forever mentally ruined by my dietary habits.
I closed my mental eyes and let Beast feast. When hunger no longer slashed me like knives, Beast withdrew, flopped down on the floor of our soul home, and let me take back over my Anzu’s body. Bloody, needing a bath if I stayed in this form, I hopped over to a dark corner and shifted shape, hoping to achieve my half-form this time. The shift took a long time.
It hurt. A lot. And it didn’t work like I’d hoped.
* * *
* * *
I was human—shivering and naked, wanting to toss my cookies. Pain was a deep ache, as if bruised all over; I was weak as a newborn kitten. But I wasn’t starving like usual after a shape-shift, just ordinary hungry. Shifting into or out of Anzu used energy from elsewhere, not my disease-ridden body. I guessed