Which was probably why the microwave flung itself at the beast next. She heard it beep wildly as it went by, and almost tried to stop it.Not you, you’re alive, she thought wildly. But the thing was, the whole kitchen currently appeared to be. It moved and reacted and breathed all around her, in a great whirlwind of activity. Like a living hurricane.
Only somehow it was one that never touched her.
She didn’t so much as get a splinter in her cheek.
While the wolf howled and writhed and tried to attack anything that came at it. It snapped a chair into splinters in one bite; it swiped at utensils with its huge paws. But of course by the time it did anything, something else was already hitting it from another angle. She saw a jar smack into its back, as it finished destroying a cupboard.And when it did, it exploded. Liquid came boiling and frothing out, all over its fur.
Clear, at first.
But then suddenly it seemed to turn pink, and red, and finally it hit her. Whatever had been in the container was acting on the wolf like friggingacid. It was blistering skin, and melting fur into a gelatinous goo. In fact, for one harrowing moment, she thought she glimpsed bone. She thought she glimpsedskull.
Then the beast shrieked, and fled.
Leaving Cassie leaning against the skewed kitchen table, sucking in all the breaths she hadn’t been able to for the last half hour. She gulped air by the great, shuddering lungful, every inch of her shaking like she never had in her life. She lifted a hand in front of her face, and it quivered so much that it made her think of Jell-O. In a cement mixer. Set to high.
And she couldn’t think rationally. Her mind was a great, roaring noise, full of mangled werewolves, and kitchen utensils like arrows, and the microwave—god, the microwave had taken a bullet for her.It does love me after all, she found herself thinking, then for some ungodly reason choked up. And she fully broke down when she heard it beep, forlornly, from somewhere in the hall. In fact, she almost went to it.
And then it struck her:
Seth.
Fucking Seth.
Holy shit, Seth was out there with those monsters, while she stood here blubbering over a kitchen appliance. But it was okay, it was good, because she knew what to do now. She’d seen what hurt them, and the spray bottle was right there, intact, as if it had been waiting for her to grab it.
Like a spare bullet, she thought, and snatched it up.
Then she did what she knew had made the beast’s flesh melt. She poured some of the extra-strength werewolf potion into the bottle, and shook it up. Because that was the secret, she was certain. That was what had acted like an acid. It had knocked theMake Nice formula up from a protection potion, to an outright Werewolf Killer.
And now she was going to kill some fucking werewolves with it.
She didn’t even think twice about it. She ran to the front door, and flung herself out of the house. Took the porch steps in one go, and practically flew across the grass to the first enemy she could find. Jordan, she thought it was, because he was barely in the fight that was taking place between Seth and Jay. He was just on the sidelines, snapping ineffectually.
Plus, the moment the spray hit him, hehowled.
He practically shrieked, like the little coward he was—and immediately turned tail.
Which left Jay. Jay, who in wolf form was almost as big as Seth. Pale-furred, like his hair, and as grisly looking as the other two. Tiny, beady little eyes, paws all knuckle, bones in places no bones should be. There was a great muddle of them, over the curve of his back. More making impossible spine-like ridges, down the backs of both hind legs. And oh, his face was grotesque.
Ninety percent teeth.
He looked like a shark, she thought, that had somehow gained the ability to walk on land.
But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered, the second she thought of those fangs sinking into Seth. Seth, who had done everything in his power to protect her. Seth, who had looked at her like that, as he held her in his arms. Seth who had saidreturn what I took, as if it wasn’t anything at all.
Even though it was the whole world. It was her best friend, come back to her.
And so she didn’t just step forward and spray the thing attacking him.
She unscrewed the top of the bottle, and smashed it into the first part of the wolf she could reach. She turned the bottle into a hand grenade, without caring what it might do.If he dies, he dies, she thought wildly, as flesh boiled to bone beneath her hands. Asthe beast shrieked and writhed and struggled to get away from her, before it had nothing left to get away from her with.
Most of its hind leg was gone now.
It had to stumble on the remaining three to make it to the tree line. Then it disappeared into the undergrowth, as the others had done. Like it was just as much of a coward as them, when facing a real threat. A serious threat.
Because that’s what I am, she thought as she looked down at her bloody hands in the ringing silence and stillness that followed.I am powerful enough to threaten the boys who once held me against my locker with one hand while smacking Seth across the face with the other.
And she really wanted to marvel over that, for a while.
