“Nox is coming.”
* * *
The surge of the ATP2 injections snaked through Nox’s bloodstream until the energy of the Anubis threatened to supernova.
But one thought, one name, kept Nox rooted in reality.
Luca.
The only tether the Anubis didn’t fight.
We have to protect him.
The Anubis responded to the thought with images of death. From men Nox had killed in the field operations to Paul Dekker’s final screams.
Powerful legs propelled Nox over the ground, muscles flexed and unflexed under thick hide with black fur. Cold air turned to steam at the end of the Anubis’s muzzle and the world blurred around it.
It blew by overturned vehicles and dismembered bodies. Copper and spring flavored the air. Particles glittered in an ocean of turbulence, leading them past rocky ground to where the grass stood high enough to reach the Anubis’s chest.
An engine hummed. Voices spoke. The rhythmic beat of paws against the earth.
Blue wolves flanked an armored SUV with a similar build as an M-ATV assault vehicle, but almost three times as long and twice as wide. The missing back door revealed the remnants of seats, boxes of ammo, and body parts.
Military M-ATV were guzzlers. As big as these were, Nox doubted they’d get many miles.
So whatever was left in the tanks wouldn’t be enough to allow Luca to escape.
The only way to ensure those defectives didn’t catch up to him was to kill them.
Nox focused on the massive beasts thundering in the direction of the M-ATV, dragging the Anubis’s attention to the real danger.
Three defectives broke formation and charged.
Nox leapt, claws extended, catching the creatures across their backs as he cleared the space. Two of the three went down. Their bodies cleaved through to the bone. He spun on his toes, pushed off, and landed front feet at the base of their spines.
Their heads detached.
The third defective attacked. Nox dodged the creature’s snapping teeth. It made a clumsy landing, tripping on misshapen legs. Nox took the opening and went for its neck.
White-hot pain shot through Nox’s jaw and the Anubis blocked it. Nox jerked away, leaving behind his bottom jaw caught in the bite of a second mouth on the side of the creature’s neck.
Filaments rebuilt the Anubis.
Johnathan had warned Nox of deformities that could make them harder to kill.
Slower but at least as strong and with nonstandard parts.
More defectives turned toward Nox.
Unfortunately for them, the Anubis had tricks of its own.
The world snapped into silence, freezing clouds of dust and lunging animals mid-attack.
Nox rocketed through the horde with claws extended. He sheered through legs, and ribcages, turning the defectives to ribbons just like he had the curs.
Until his claws met resistance, jerking him from Phase and into a pit of teeth bent on tearing him apart. He rolled, moving between their legs, escaping the onslaught. The claws on the Anubis’s left front paw had shattered.
Impossible. There was only one substance the Anubis couldn’t break through.