Sinth Salvation - Pearl Tate Page 0,42

moment. Or at least ones like it.

I’ve been in bombing situations with less adrenaline running through me. But my stomach still cramps in fear as I settle my fingers on the cold scales in front of me. Instantly, the world solidifies. Instead of letting myself stay, I grasp the thin arm and immediately “step back” mentally, watching the colors burst like a cloud, mimicking a puff of confetti.

It works! The Taxin’s arm collapses like tissue paper in my palm, disintegrating just as the Taxin registers my hold and turns to lunge. Freezing, the scales change their color from a muddy greenish-brown to gray as they fall apart around me in a rain of dust.

Coughing and cursing, I choke, spitting after unwittingly inhaling Taxin remains. Fuck! That’s some disgusting shit.

Now that I have a better idea of what I’m doing, I rock forward again, mentally and physically. Grabbing two this time, I pull back, capturing them with me as I phase.

Again.

And again. I work my way through them and watch as they disappear. I can taste them as they burst apart, snarling and lunging at the last minute. It looks like I’ll need to do some house cleaning in Nikon’s—no, our—dimension as I continue to pull them to their deaths.

At least they’re dumb. They don’t acknowledge what I’m doing to them by stopping to regroup or avoiding me. They just keep on coming.

The man in the bus who was blocking the door has gone silent, but I’m directly in front of the doors now, with only a few scratches as I’m attacked from all three sides. It’s time-consuming, but effective, as I phase back and forth, protecting the space between me and the door at my back.

Blood, salt-water, and what I can only describe as slime fill my nose while I try to ignore the disgusting goo coating my hands as I bounce back and forth between dimensions. I can hear the children behind me trying to revive the man who’s now collapsed completely on the bottom stair of the bus’ entrance.

I don’t have time to see what’s going on with Nikon as I hear a woman shrieking. Even though the Taxin sound similar, they don’t use words, and this shriek sounds like “Greg!” or “Ted.”

It isn’t until I hear a strange snuffing at my back and one of the children cries, “Mr. Garrison?” that I wonder if he’s coming to.

Multiple voices cry out his name as I pull another Taxin into the other dimension, adding yet another layer of residue to my clothing and skin. Scanning my surroundings, I see another five heading my way, but the pounding on the bus as tiny feet retreat makes me look up, wondering what the hell is going on? Did some of the Taxin manage to climb the bus and enter it somehow?

Spinning around, I realize the teacher has transitioned. This close, I can’t even spot his pupil in his now milky-white eye! When did this happen? How?

He was just unconscious a moment before, but now he’s up, trying to pull his arm out from where it’s trapped in the door. One brave boy is holding the bus door shut with the lever by the driver’s seat, terror written plainly in every fiber of his shaking frame.

But it’s working. The man is caught. His bloody and mangled, and yes, half-eaten hand is stuck outside the bus.

“Lilibeth!” Nikon’s voice is irate rather than scared, and I ignore him as I reach out for the limb.

Will this work the same way with a human? Nikon wasn’t exactly clear on all the technicalities, but if I don’t do something, it’s only going to be a few moments before he manages to peel the skin from the bone and wrestle his arm through so he can go after the children.

“Jón! Jón!” Multiple voices say, and the boy by the driver’s seat glances back at his friends, a lone tear leaking from his eye. He’s right to hesitate. With the body part wedged in the door, it keeps the lever from locking into place. If he lets go, the man will be free, and from the feral noises he’s spewing, he has every intention of going after all of them just like the Taxin.

Wrapping my fingers around flapping skin and bone, I attempt to phase like I was just doing with the Taxin. Nothing. What’s going on? Can’t I do this with a human?

Glancing back, I see Nikon slashing his way toward me, but he’s going to take