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Anton Shit

"God, do you country types ever stop shooting the breeze?" The Brethren behind us interjected

Anton turned and snarled at her Well, it was good to know that we agreed on so to ht

"How are the wounds?" There was an odd lascivious glea much?"

I scowled at hi when all of a sudden there was the sound of hundreds of birds flying up into the sky followed by a low ruan to shake From side to side, like an…

"Earthquake!" Soistered the impossibility of natural earth tre into full self protective round continued to sharply jerk froround The trees creaked alarly around us and there were sounds of others nearby becoround I fell forward onto my hands and knees, and then quickly covered my head with reat oak decide to plant itself on top of my body

Up ahead one of the Brethren spontaneously shifted in blur of ripped cloth and fur I could hear growling and snapping froan’s Voice over everyone, using co stopped but the rue I huddled into a ball, praying that the others back at the keep were alright Eventually it seemed to stop

Stay where you are There ered to his feet I kneouldn’t have heard Corrigan’s warning and I yanked at his jeans to pull hiasped, "That’s not an earthquake"

"What do you…?" I realised suddenly that if it wasn’t an earthquake, and he had used his powers to work that out, then it must be some sort of creature It , stood up with lightning speed, and ran The adrenaline pu e I felt a hand stretch out and try to grabout, but I sidestepped and sprinted faster The fire took over, all consuoing to stop le with heat I neared the tree runes and slowed, starting to stalk with intent There was definitely soe, dark shape There was only one creature, at least, but it looked big, and definitelyto die

I came out from under the canopy of the trees and finally saw the whole thing for real in sharp technicolour vision Whatever it was, it looked to be about twenty five hands high, had horns on top of its furred head and stood on ted legs Steam puffed out heavily from its nostrils The monster took a step towards the trees - towards an to shake again in another tremor This time, however, I was ready I kept ht arer take flight with unerring accuracy Or it would have been unerring accuracy if the monster hadn’t flipped its head to the side with unnatural speed so it caught it in the side of its pointed ear instead, barely scratching its skin With another heavy crunch, it took a step, this time with round ruforblack eyes onto ly The bloodfire holly in control, however, and I didn’t flinch I was about to fling the dagger at the creature with everything I had when a shape flew out of the trees behind me and launched itself at it It was a were-panther, sleek and gleaht It sla it stagger backwards slightly, setting off another surge through the ground The panther’s jaws snapped and snatched away at a clu onto its side

From the left spread of trees, three transfor Three others cae tree trunk of an arain and shook the theround shook again The panther sprang fro into it to cling on whilst it roared again and flailed around trying to pull the cat off I sawfor its hand And this time, I didn’t miss, as the sharp pointed eony and clutched at the dagger, trying to pull it out,the panther

Another wave of shifters attacked in concertina The s, al crunch To onto its ankle I sidestepped, trying to gain a better point hich to aid the panther, which stayed clinging onto the iant paw at the side of its head

My blood wasn’t happy Much ot the chance to do anything Anton’s bear joined To The monster picked up its foot and shook theain, as soon as its padded foot returned to the ground, another earthquake hit, sending shifters flying everywhere The panther took another chance to claw the beast’s head, but this ti aftershock I sawleap onto its outstretched back

I ran up to its neck, legs powering up the slope of its inclined posture,on clu on to a horn with one hand and reaching into my trusty backpack with my other hand for le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>