Craetis and Veylo retreated into the far corner. Treycore maneuvered around the bed, holding his sword out.
“Now,” Treycore said. “We’re all going to get through this nice and—” Something pushed him into the wall. “Fuck!” he called out.
While he’d been fixated on Veylo and Craetis, Deter had snuck behind him and tackled him. Deter grabbed Treycore’s wrist and rammed it against the wall. Treycore’s hand froze up, and his sword slipped free. Bouncing off the linoleum floor, it landed a few feet away from him. Craetis leapt over the bed. Treycore elbowed Deter in the face and threw himself at his sword. Just as his finger grazed the tip, Craetis landed with one foot on the sword’s hilt.
“Fuck no,” Craetis growled, looking down at the now-helpless Treycore.
“Hey!” a voice came from the hall.
All eyes turned to Mika, who had Kid by the arm, a dagger to his throat. “Look what I found in the restroom.”
Treycore’s face went white.
“Now,” Veylo said. “What to do with you, Treycore?”
***
Kinzer plowed through the stairwell door. Dedrus was right behind. They hauled ass, practically throwing themselves down a set of concrete steps. What sounded like an explosion came from behind them as the monster’s tentacles shredded the stairwell entrance apart like it was made of cardboard.
“Just like old times,” Kinzer said, hopping on the platform of the second floor.
“You know what that means?” Dedrus said.
“I’ll distract, and you kill the motherfucker.”
Three tentacles wrapped over the rails above them. As they reached the bottom of the first floor, Kinzer pushed through the door. He raced across the asphalt. Dedrus’s wings sliced like knives through the back of his shirt. He bounded into the air and flapped to the top of a neighboring building. The Morarke’s tentacles ripped through the garage’s brick wall. Its razor teeth crushed bricks and pipes into dust. Kinzer waved his sword about.
“Come here, you fucking dick!”
The creature shrilled as it stomped toward him, leaving a trail of prints in its path. Dedrus dive-bombed off the roof, tucking his wings close, pointing his sword out, and aimed at the eye-slit above Hoddy’s razor-mouth. One of Hoddy’s tentacles went right for Kinzer. He leapt over it. He thought he’d cleared it when five mini-tentacles shot through the side of the main one and grabbed him by the ankle.
Fucking hurry, he thought.
Dedrus was less than a foot from the monster’s eye-slit. He maneuvered his wing ever so slightly. The tip of his sword was almost there. A tentacle came from his side, wrapped around his waist, and barreled him to the ground.
“Fuck!” he cried.
The tentacles around Kinzer released him.
Oh no, Kinzer thought.It picked Dedrus. Why? It totally had me.
A realization struck him. He didn’t have his wings…or powers. Dedrus must have been giving off a stronger immortal scent than he was.
Shit. I’m gonna have to take it out myself. Without anything.
***
Is this how I’m gonna die?Kid wondered.
Mika tightened the tip of his dagger against his neck.
“Move it!” Craetis barked as he kicked through a door, holding Treycore in a headlock.
He tossed Treycore on the floor and kicked him in the stomach.
“Aw, fuck!” Treycore groaned.
Craetis kicked him again. “Bet that turns you on, doesn’t it?”
