Covering one ear with his free hand, Quint ducked lower, pulling in tighter. Sweat slicked his grip on the brokenmacuahuitl.
At the mouth of the tunnel, something glinted in the flashlight’s beam.
He pressed further back into the wall, steeling himself for what was about to join him.
A racket of flapping and hissing and screeching filled the stone-lined chamber, along with clicking and clacking and clattering.
He cringed. What the hell was coming?
Then there was a sudden quiet, broken only with short, raspy breaths.
Wait, those were his.
He gulped again, his gaze locked onto the macabre stage set before him, waiting for the villain to step out into his spotlight.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Click.
A creature eased out into the light. Several feet tall, its head was canine-like, with a long snout and pointy ears, black lips pulled back to show fangs glistening with long strings of foamy drool. From the neck down, it was mostly bat—a huge one. Partially folded wings with curved talons at the tips, muscular haunches, and extra-long claws on its front and hind feet.
It lowered down onto all fours and stalked slowly toward the altar, walking like a bear.Click click click.
Quint held tight to the handle of themacuahuitl. Maybe he could take the creature with the broken weapon. There were still a few blades on the part he had. If he could come up behind it and slice across its neck somehow. Or at least cut through one of the wings.
Movement behind the bat-beast drew Quint’s gaze.
A second big bat came out of the darkness, pausing just inside the spotlight.
Two of them!
Oh, he was fucked for sure now. Unless Angélica came back with his machete. Damn it, he should have had her toss down her blade before going for help.
The second bat lifted its snout, nostrils flexing as it sniffed the air. It pulled back its black lips and chittered, its fangs vibrating as it turned one way and then the other.
Shit. It was using echolocation to find any sign of movement. If he remembered right, many kinds of bats could see decently in the light, but they still used echolocation to zoom in on barriers and prey.
If he kept very still, maybe they wouldn’t notice him.
The first bat flap-hopped up onto the red stone altar.
Christ, those claws could tear clear through him.
Something hissed at the tunnel entrance.
His gaze shifted to it as a third bat stepped out, this one larger than the first two.
A fresh layer of sweat slicked him from head to toe.
It screeched at the others.
Quint winced. He didn’t dare move to cover his ears.
Several chirps came from the tunnel, along with more clicking. The first three bats turned to watch as a fourth crawled out.
