For a split second, I caught a streak of glowing white before my brain caught up with it.
I shifted again, letting my body drink in the moonlight and power the transformation. The wolf was out in the span of seconds.
I barely felt the change. My attention was too locked on the monster.
It was vaguely humanoid—two arms, two legs, wearing a long, tattered white gown that looked horribly like a weddingdress. Its hands were long, wickedly sharp claws. It had tangled pure-white hair. And its face was almost human—feminine—but elongated grotesquely, as though someone had taken a human head and stretched it out like taffy. Its teeth were sharp and long, dripping with a dark, viscous fluid. Its eyes were black and empty, like the eyes of a great white shark. I could see the shapes of the trees through its body, suggesting it wasn’t quite physical. It hovered three feet off the ground, its gown rippling as if caught in an invisible wind. Its dead eyes zeroed in on Harris and it let out a noise that sounded almost like laughter.
Rage burned through me and I lunged at it, my jaws wide and my claws out.
The creature screeched, moving faster than my eyes could track. It was there one instant and gone the next, moving almost as quick as a vampire.
I landed ten feet away, hard enough to feel the impact through my paws. My only thought was protecting Harris.
I immediately rounded on the creature and let out a low snarl.
The creature darted in Harris’s direction, causing him to stumble backward. Its hideous mouth twisted into a triumphant grin. It seemed abruptly more solid.
I tackled it again, driving it to the ground.
Then I darted forward, my jaws lunging for its neck—
My teeth closed on nothing and I bit my tongue instead. Pain flashed through me and the taste of blood filled my mouth—mine, not the creature’s.
The creature flowed away like mist.
It let out a low, sinister cackle that sent a thrill of fear dancing up my spine.
Though it looked vaguely like a person, it wasn’t. It was a hungry, empty thing. And it wanted to hurt Harris. It had clocked him as the easier prey. I was merely the obstaclestanding in its way, preventing it from taking him apart piece by piece—the pain so bad his teeth would shatter from grinding them together.
It turned to face Harris, its form coalescing again. Becoming more solid. It drifted forward.
I jumped on it again.
This time, however, the thing was ready for me. It spun, lightning-quick, and raked its claws across my chest.
I let out a startled yelp and crashed to the forest floor.
The creature straddled me, riding my body down to the ground. Where it had scratched me felt like ice, clawing away my body heat.
I snarled, attempting to buck it off.
My body was weaker than before. The creature haddonesomething to me. It grinned down at me, letting out a shrill cackle.
I couldn’t see the trees through its form any longer. It was solid.
“Get off him!” Harris thundered.
I wanted to speak, to warn him to run, but all that escaped me was a helpless rasping snarl.
The crack of a gunshot split the eerie silence of the forest.
The creature shrieked.
Harris fired two more shots.
The creature screamed again. Then it suddenly became transparent, as though it had lost its hold on the material plane. And where the bullets had struck it—two in the chest, one in the back of the head—the wounds glowed bright, as though his bullets were made of fire.
It darted up from me and whirled, its bloodcurdling wail echoing through the forest. Its black eyes locked with his, its grotesque mouth contorting in pain.
