Luca climbed out of the sleeping bag. Any warmth escaped through the thin material of his shirt and boxers.
Goosebumps raced up his arms. His exhaled fogged the air.
Luca eased between the two front seats. The area at the front of the van was clear. He put a knee on the passenger seat and pressed against the glass.
Down the side of the vehicle the empty path of loose gravel of the road shoulder he’d parked on.
Luca started to turn.
In the small disk of the panoramic rearview mirror, a void of light watched him with wicked yellow eyes.
Luca jerked back and crouched behind the seat. Had the other Anubis found him?
Wind whispered over the van. Shrubbery rattled. Luca’s heart thundered in his ears.
If it was one of the others, why didn’t it attack?
Out of sight is often out of mind.
“No.” Luca slapped his hand over his mouth. He’d thought Nox had been overreacting suggesting he might go away and not come back. He’d been wrong about the Anubis before. Why not again?
But if he wasn’t?
Luca had hardly tossed the idea around in his mind, and now there was a creature standing out there, not the man Luca knew.
Luca climbed back over the seat.
The spot between the clumps of brush was empty.
There was no way he imagin—
A slow hiss whispered along the side of the van, and the entire vehicle rocked up on the passenger side wheels as if pushed, threatening to tip over. The suspension snapped back, and the van bounced nearly tossing Luca into the floor.
He moved to the driver’s seat. Darkness swept past the window. He ducked. Black fur brushed the glass, spreading, rejoining. Extending in a thread-like manner.
Then the creature disappeared around the back.
Keys were in the ignition. Nox had told him to run, and common sense told Luca to obey. But a static hum building in his chest wouldn’t let him get behind the wheel.
Luca inched to the rear of the van.
The dirty glass on the window distorted his view, breaking apart the dark stretch of landscape in tiny waves of dust. Luca opened one side of the double doors.
Under the moonlight the Anubis was so black Luca had to wait for his eyes to adjust to see it and for his brain to be convinced the massive creature standing a few yards away was not an optical illusion.
“Nox?”
A wave of ebony surged with liquid grace. Luca startled and fell on his ass. The Anubis poured back into reality, becoming the wolflike monster with a long muzzle, high set ears, an arched back, and long tail.
The monster was larger than Luca remembered. Had it grown? Was that possible?
It rolled up its lips, flashing ivory blades as long as Luca’s hand.
Luca’s heart slowed, his muscles relaxed, a soothing calm flowed through him, washing away every ounce of fear.
The Anubis filled the door with its head. Thick strings of saliva stretched from its jaws and landed on Luca’s thighs. Steam curled from the globs of spit. A copper-scented huff tossed Luca’s bangs. The Anubis flared its nostrils, and the light of its eyes dimmed.
Luca lifted his hand and laid it on the creature’s muzzle.