The wind shifted, bringing Luca’s scent. Faded, frightened, filled with sorrow.
Where was he now?
Nox picked apart the sounds, whittling them down to heartbeats and breaths. None of them belonged to Luca.
The Anubis pushed closer, and this time Luca wouldn’t be here to make it stop. If it surfaced, every one of these people was dead.
A set of shiny black shoes moved past the fold in the tarp, disappearing around the other side of a patrol car. Lightning rumbled through the clouds, muting the flashers on the cop cars. At the first hint of thunder, Nox rolled in the direction of the embankment.
The ground dropped out, rocks slammed into his ribs. He couldn’t afford to be injured bad enough to put himself out of commission again. The Anubis crawled under his skin, and he didn’t fight it. Threads of black rushed over his limbs, his bones snapped, his joints realigned all within the second of impact with the ground. Nox twisted upright, his massive feet sinking into the soil.
Panicked voices drew the attention of the Anubis.
Luca. We need to find Luca.
Nox barreled over the trees, his weight coming down ripping limbs from the trunks. Rock and mud slopped up around his feet, but he was moving before it had time to soak into his fur.
He felt them before he heard them.
Black forms bled out of the shadows, falling in behind Nox. He leaped for the largest tree within reach. Nox struck the trunk with his front legs and used it to push himself backward, planting his rear feet over the gouges he’d left, and used the momentum to change his direction.
The two Anubis in the lead raised their heads. Nox spread his fingered paws, extending his talons as far as he could.
Both Anubis drove their feet into the ground, but Nox met them mid-turn.
Mud muffled the pop of a skull under one paw, and his claws lanced through the spine of the other. Nox hit the ground, skidding to a halt. At least a dozen Anubis surrounded him. He had twice the mass on the largest of them. Nox bared his teeth. His growl rose up drowning out the thunder.
A few of the Anubis stepped back. Their fear flavored the air along with human sweat.
These Anubis were nothing more than false prophets, bending the laws of the Anubis to fit their needs instead of sharing a death with an Alpha.
They charged, the mass of bodies striking Nox with enough force to push him off balance. He twisted, dragging his claws through the weight plowing into him. Two fell, their heads hanging on by tatters of flesh.
Ragged agony sank into Nox’s thigh, another on his shoulder, a third his flank. If they killed him, Luca would be helpless. And if they knew where he was, it might already be too late.
The thought blazed through Nox on a wave of fury.
Nox shoved himself from the ground, parting the bodies covering him. The snap of silence left Nox’s ears ringing with the echo of the frozen world. He tore himself free of the jaws holding him, and shot toward the Anubis hanging in the air, trapped in a millisecond of time Nox could go around.
Nox opened his arms as he barreled between them, each hand with claws extended. Thick layers of fur, muscle, and bone offered no resistance.
The wet hiss of parting flesh rode in on the back of time. More than half of them hit the ground behind Nox, their necks severed. Their limbs twitched for a few seconds before falling still.
Human bodies emerged from some of the wolflike forms. Others remained furred.
He turned.
The remaining Anubis drew back.
Nox stalked forward. Four fled, and Nox snatched one of the remaining two off the ground. It wasn’t even a challenge to tear him in half.
The last Anubis watched Nox with its head down, tail tucked between its legs. He rolled his lips, and it darted into the trees. He was about to make chase when the wail of sirens broke through the quiet.
Luca. He needed to find him and fast.
His presence seared a path through Nox’s memory, and an invisible towline directed him west. Nox melted into a grove of trees, kicking up earth and rock. Tree branches snapped, and saplings were torn up when he plowed over them.
Luca.