That… that’s not possible.
I coughed, my lungs burning. I tried to push myself up with my legs, but they wouldn’t cooperate. I had no idea where the other two assailants were.
My stalker grabbed me and yanked me to my feet, crushing my chest against his so his face was inches from mine.
Up close, his perfect skin looked wrong, like the skin of an android stretched over a heartless machine beneath.
“Let go of me!” I tried to wrench myself out of his grasp, but his grip was like iron.
“Look at you,” he rasped. “You’re sojuicy, full of all that human blood and ancient magic. I just want to eat you right up.”
He stuck out his tongue and ran it along my cheek. Its rough surface scratched my skin.
Gross gross gross.
I tried to jerk away, but my limbs wouldn’t move. My whole body locked up, everything frozen in place.
What’s happening to me?
I tried to cry out, but my tongue wouldn’t move, either.
“Delicious.” With a final slurp, the stalker drew away, a self-satisfied grin spreading over his face. He wasn’t even tying to hide his face. His cruel eyes burned into mine. My skin tingled along his saliva trail.
“Don’t you touch her.” Rowan’s face appeared beside me, his features hard. He placed a hand on my shoulder, and suddenly, I could move again.
I kicked at the stalker’s legs, trying to trip him, but my blows only made him laugh.
“She is ours to touch as we please,witch.” He spat at Rowan, shoving him away. The stalker raised his hand, pointing his palm at Rowan. As I watched in horror, his fingers elongated, the tips curling over into long claws, curled over like the talons of a bird.
But how… this can’t be happening. I’m imagining it. It’s the jet lag playing tricks with my mind.
It was no trick. The claws reached closer to Rowan’s face, sharp points glinting in the moonlight. They were real all right, but how the hell did they get on the end of this guy’s fingers?
The stalker tilted his head to the side, and laughed cruelly. “Such pretty eyes you have, witch. I think I’ll take them.”
No. Fuck no.
I pushed all of my fear into my arm. My skin grew hot, and there was this weird swelling in my chest, like I’d just started running up a hill and the oxygen was hitting my lungs. I threw all my weight and all this strangeness at the stalker.
I expected him to catch my punch, but somehow, I slipped under him, and my fist connected with his jaw.
The punch was useless, barely grazing his skin. And yet as soon as it connected, my stalker’s face contorted with pain. His whole body sagged and shuddered.
Okay, so maybe I just hit his Achilles’ heel. Maybe he has a glass jaw. Not my problem. Now was my chance, without his claw-hands dangling an inch from Rowan’s eyes. I kicked out a leg. The shot was too low to get him in the nuts as I’d intended, but I managed to slam my foot into the side of his knee.
His face registered surprise for a moment, and then it twisted with pain as he dropped his hands to clasp his knee. Unfortunately, he seemed to have forgotten that he’d turned his hand into razor-sharp claws. What an idiot. He sliced open his trousers and made a real mess of his knee.
I backed away as the guy fell onto his good knee. Rowan knelt down as well, scooping up a handful of loose dirt from the edge of the trampled path. He pressed the dirt clot to the guy’s head, and muttered something in a foreign language.
My stalker moaned, his eyes rolling back in his head. “Nice try,” he managed to croak out. “But your powers won’t hold me for long, earth witch.”
“They don’t have to,” Rowan growled, his kind voice thick with venom. He kept his hand pressed against the stalker’s face. Underneath, the guy’s skin turned brown and leathery, bits of it flaking off and blowing away in the breeze.
I don’t know what made me do it, but I justknew.
My chest tightened, and I glanced down at my hand that had punched the guy. Inside my fist was the tiny twig Rowan had given me.
The twig that was in my fist when I landed that punch.
