Johnson glanced back. “Maybe you should back up.”
“They’re just dogs.” Davies honked the horn again. The Anubis stalked closer.
Another beast bled into the light. Then a fourth.
“Fuck, Jon, back up the fucking car!” Johnson shoved himself against his seat as if he had a chance at making space between him and the approaching Anubis.
Davies threw the car in reverse. Smoke spewed from under the tires before the rubber grabbed the pavement. The sedan rocketed up the road, right rear tire catching the shoulder and spitting up more gravel.
The Anubis charged. One landed on the hood, another the roof. The metal buckled under its weight, and the windshield shattered. Johnson pulled his gun. A series of muzzle flashes illuminated the Anubis’s long dagger teeth.
Davies screamed, and the car lurched backward. The roar of the engine was only outdone by the deep growls from the creatures clinging to the body of the car.
More glass exploded across Davies. The Anubis shoved its head through the busted windshield. Davies made a feeble attempt to escape its reach, then the upper half of his body was torn away. Steam erupted from under the Anubis on the hood and water sprayed through the gouges its toenails cut. The sedan jerked, spun, and the front slid off the road into a ditch. Luca’s scream got caught in his throat. Bits of paper, flesh, and a shiny loafer tumbled around Luca. Blood leaking from Davies’s remains tracked the roll of the car, painting the roof, sides, and bottom with every turn.
It hit the ground hard with one final flip. The sedan continued to slide, pulled by gravity down an embankment. A tide of mud and rock swept into the glassless windows, splashing cold sludge across Luca’s face and shoulders.
One of the creatures tried to shove its muzzle through the collapsed window. Johnson smashed the butt of his gun against its nose.
The static crawl spreading over Luca’s skin sharpened.
He chased the seatbelt latch with his hands. Metal brushed his numb fingers, and he pressed his thumb against the button. The strap opened, and Luca dropped onto the ground. Agony tore at his shoulder blade. He rolled away from the jagged wrinkle of metal, pushing through the fabric of the buckled roof.
Johnson screamed while he fought his seatbelt. But either it was jammed or fear made it impossible for him to operate the release. The man’s frightened gaze met Luca’s. Then a swipe of razor claws transformed him into ribbons of bone and flesh.
Luca crawled to the back window. Glass stuck in the palms of his hands. Crimson soaked the knees of his scrubs. Burning scratches dragged down his sides as he wriggled through the narrow gap. Mud as slick as oil squelched under his arms as he belly-crawled away from the car where the Anubis fought over the remains of their kill.
Luca stood. Earth squished up between his toes, and he slid to the left, landing on his hip. A water droplet hit Luca’s cheek, then more followed in a torrential wash of rain.
Luca crawled on his hands and knees back toward the road. The remaining headlight of the sedan cut the void into the shape of a beast. Its long teeth gleamed from between its blood-soaked lips.
“Get away from him.” Nox’s deep voice overrode the thunder.
Lightning revealed every perfect line of his body, thick rope of muscles, hard and unforgiving eyes. The tattered remains of an Anubis’s head lay at his feet.
He kicked it aside, and it landed in the loose circle of the three remaining animals. “I won’t ask you again.”
The Anubis drew up their teeth. Thick lines of saliva dripped from their jaws. Foam collected in the corners of their mouths. Somehow, they expanded, gaining mass. Two beasts leaped from the ground, their bodies a blur of night as they torpedoed toward Nox. Before the next flash of lightning could wink out, he vanished. A heavy thump reverberated through the ground and up Luca’s arms. The sucking sound of wet mud followed the descent of two headless Anubis sliding down the hill.
Luca was jerked off the ground by thick arms. The man took off in a run. Luca flailed in his grip but gave up trying to pull free in favor of protecting his face from the underbrush slashing his skin.
A roar rose up behind Luca.
Nox’s rage rippled the air, and Luca’s core sang in response.
The forest, the clouds, rock, and the fleeing form of a man showed in shades of gray. Muscles that weren’t his flexed, strength born of another world powered through him, and air whipped through fur he didn’t have.
He braced himself as the image of the man grew larger.
The hold on Luca broke, and he slapped the ground. Earth splashed his face and clogged his nose. The man who’d taken Luca disappeared under an explosion of darkness, his bones shifting so violently it could have been gunfire.
Luca rolled.
Two voids of black collided, and the space surrounding Luca warped, sucking away the air. Teeth clashed in flashes of ivory, green glowing eyes flared with gold. Snarls and snapping jaws drowned out the storm. Strings of hot saliva whipped Luca’s skin.
A massive foot came down close to Luca’s shoulder. He scurried back. Another cleaved rocks jutting out of the ground.
The smaller Anubis lunged for Nox. Its powerful rear legs gouged out the earth and blades of heat punched through Luca’s torso. A snap lit a sharper pain in his thigh. He screamed, his cries butchered when the creature’s forward momentum shoved Luca back on a wave of rocks and forest floor, smashing him into a tree.