What he saw almost froze him solid where he stood.
The squat creature was humanlike in only the vaguest sense, made of random pieces of splintered wood and jagged shards of metal seemingly held together with little more than wads of wet cardboard. It only took a quick glance around the now-almost-clean floor to realize the thing had been somehow formed from the trash and debris that had littered the place only seconds before. Connor’s head spun, refusing to believe this was possible.
What could only loosely be described as a head had spikes of wood in place of hair and a twisted piece of metal buried in the midst of what should have been its face. While the thing had no eyes that Connor could identify, the way it stalked directly at him suggested it could see perfectly fine.
The creature closed the distance between them faster than Connor would have thought possible. One moment, the thing was ten feet away, the next it was swinging one of those long, spike-covered arms toward him again. Connor quickly ducked under the blow, then came up shooting, putting three .40-caliber rounds right through the monster’s chest, knocking it backward several steps and sending chunks of wood flying everywhere.
Holes the size of his thumb appeared in the creature’s chest, and for a moment, Connor thought the thing was going to fall to the floor. But then the monster stepped forward again as if it hadn’t felt a thing, clubbing Connor across the shoulder so hard, it felt like his arm came off.
This time, Connor bounced off the wall before hitting the floor, blood pouring from a wound torn through his skin by one of the rough pieces of wood. He opened his eyes with a groan only to realize the concrete block he’d hit was the same section he’d been punching pieces out of a few minutes ago. Except now the wall was as pristine as it had ever been.
He didn’t have any time to wonder how that was possible as the creature closed on him once again. Connor knew he had to move, or the thing was going to beat him to death right where he lay.
Connor slipped under the creature’s outstretched arm, its rough wooden fingertips grazing the back of his tactical vest and ripping it open. He spun and put three rounds through the thing’s head at damn near point-blank range. Chunks of wood the size of his fists fell to the floor, sparks flying from the metal still embedded in its face.
As half its head disappeared, Connor waited for the thing to drop, telling himself there was no way in hell the creature should have been able to keep going in that condition. But as Connor backed away, all he could do was suck in a ragged breath, cursing as pieces of wood and debris snapped up from the floor and the monster’s head began to rebuild itself piece by piece.
“They won’t die!” he shouted to his pack mates. “They just keep rebuilding themselves!”
“No shit!” Trevor called from the far side of the room, unloading an entire magazine into one of the creatures, then kicking it in the stomach for good measure. “Help us get Zane and Alyssa out of this room. We can’t fight these damn things and protect them at the same time.”
Connor couldn’t disagree, but he had to bite his tongue to keep from pointing out that leaving the room might not help. What would stop these things from simply following them and continuing the attack, room after room after room? Sooner or later, they’d be pinned, their backs to a wall with nowhere else to run.
But he kept those thoughts to himself, quickly moving over to help Trevor and Diego scoop up Zane and Alyssa off the floor, then slowly moving toward the next room as Mike and Hale protected their retreat.
“What the hell are we going to do?” Connor shouted even as Mike punched one of the things in the face so hard, its head exploded.
“We survive,” Mike growled while the monsters continued to advance, even as the one he’d just hit reformed its head, acting as if it simply didn’t care what was done to it. “Until we find a way that will work. Or the Pack figures out we’re in trouble and finds a way to help us.”
Connor didn’t say anything. Instead, he put a bullet through the kneecap of the creature closest to him, then wedged a shoulder under Zane’s arm and backpedaled as fast as he could. While Mike’s plan might make sense—not to mention it was the best they could do at the moment—he had a hard time believing they were going to last long enough for their pack mates to show up all the way from Dallas. Even if they did get there in time, what the hell could a few more werewolves hope to accomplish when these creatures they were facing seemed to be damn near indestructible?
Chapter 4
“Their vehicles are still here,” Cooper said as he stepped out of the SWAT SUV the four of them had driven down to San Antonio in, glancing around the abandoned and overgrown condominium complex with a worried expression. “Maybe Kat was onto something when she said the guys are in trouble.”
Kat had to bite her tongue to keep from saying something rude as she, Rachel, and Becker joined Cooper in front of the main entrance to the dilapidated building. Of course she’d been onto something when she said Connor and his pack mates were in trouble. She didn’t simply make up crap to get attention. And she certainly didn’t need to manufacture drama. Unfortunately, it seemed to naturally follow her everywhere she went. Put her in the middle of a pack of werewolves and chaos was a given.
She only wished they’d taken her warning seriously enough to bring extra backup with them. The three of them didn’t seem like they’d be enough. She hoped they didn’t end up regretting that decision.
“Connor! Hale! Where are you?!” Becker called out, wandering around to the left side of the building.
Assuming he was following their scent, Kat went with him. But it wasn’t long before Becker stopped in his tracks. She thought it was because the high brush in front of them was too thick for anyone to get through, but then she realized he was studying the ground, like there was something interesting in the grass.
She scoured the ground to see what he was studying but didn’t find anything.
“They turned around and started running,” he said, motioning for her to go back the way they’d come.
“Like someone was chasing them?” she asked, hurrying to catch up to him as he strode past her.
Before he could answer, Cooper interrupted, his deep voice echoing through the air. “Kat! Becker! Get over here! We found something.”
Becker looked her way for a second, then they were both hurrying around to the front of the building. There was no one there, so they kept going around to the right side. It was only a couple hundred feet, but even that short distance had Kat breathing hard. The change from feline to human form had sucked a lot more out of her this time than usual. Not even the two-hour nap she’d taken on the way to San Antonio had seemed to help. Of course, there was also the matter of her being a little behind on her cardio. For reasons that didn’t seem to make a lot of sense, she’d never wanted to exercise when she’d been in her cat form. It seemed so undignified, at least to her cat sensibilities.
They found Cooper and Rachel standing near an open stairwell along the side of the building, both gazing at something on the wall to the right of the stairs. Curious, Kat stepped closer to see what they were looking at so intently. A little shiver of fear rippled down her spine when she saw the runic symbol painted there. She’d been right about what it meant. There was no doubt this was a trap.
“They took these steps,” Rachel said, eyeing the dirt-and-leaf-strewn entryway. “I guess the bloody graffiti on the wall was enough to make them suspicious.”
Cooper and Becker immediately started to follow Rachel down the steps without realizing how dangerous it was. Kat supposed it wasn’t their fault. They didn’t know what that kind of magic could do.
