Page 129 of Sin

“Dad?” Mare asked, glancing behind her. But that look cost her. Because a massive fireball of a cougar slammed into her, knocking her through the banister. She cursed as they rammed into the floor, but they successfully crushed Adam into the marble floors.

There were cracks, both from Adam and the flooring, from the impact.

While Mare shoved the cougar, who was trying to stand despite several of its legs being bent in unnatural directions, Jinx swooped in to snatch Adam out from beneath them. And it was a good thing considering Adam, neck twisted abnormally to the side, arced a hefty chunk of broken marble at the back of Mare’s head.

Blade and Lewis fought back-to-back as dozens of birds dove at them from above, pecking at their faces. From the ground, they kicked and punched a scurry of at least twenty squirrels as the critters tried to climb up their legs.

Blade swiped at them over and over, slicing their bodies in half and not even bothering to wait to see them drop. On the ground, the squirrel halves continued to move, their corpses still wiggling and attempting to reach her and Lewis.

Lewis used his nanotechnology to form ropes and used them to throw aside any birds who pitched for them.

London and I tried to dodge around a Jinx clone fighting off Mr. Radley’s now very pummeled corpse, but our escape was blocked by a swarm of vibrant butterflies, beetles, and spiders. The insects came out of hiding from behind curtains, from under furniture, from inside several decorative vases and cloaked the walls as they skittered toward us. From the area beyond the foyer, the ground filled with snakes.

I didn’t care that I only had a minute, I slapped that flamethrower button on my suit so fast. Just in time too, because the moment my arms were engulfed in fire, several tarantulas jumped at me.

London cursed as a snake managed to sneak up on him and wrapped around his leg. He shook it off, and it went flying through the air behind him before smacking Jinx in the face.

Jinx smacked it away just before Mr. Radley grabbed his chair and swung it at the mammoth of a man. The chair splintered against Jinx’s suit, but it didn’t cause him any damage. Jinx activated his fire arms, apparently done with this shit, and grabbed at the old man.

While Jinx attempted to melt the zombie Mr. Radley, London and I returned to fighting our own battle.

Unlike me, London resorted to activating one of his grenade launchers. He aimed his gun at the incoming sea of snakes and fired.

We were blown backward, and several pieces of writhing snakes and bugs showered us.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jinx growled, spitting… a convulsing tarantula leg out of his mouth. Mr. Radley was now pinned to the wall by one of the broken chair legs. His muscles twitched violently, and his skin in several places had blackened from the heat of Jinx’s hands. Adam jerked from where he was wrapped and restrained on the floor by Lewis’s nanobot strings.

“Sorry!” London shouted, not sounding terribly sincere. The creatures just seemed to keep coming.

I swiped left and right, trying to block as many of the bugs lurching at us from the walls.

The flames helped keep them at bay, but a few managed to sneak up along my suit, and I felt tiny feet tickle my neck and hair before…

“Ah!” I said, trying and failing to squish all of the bugs between my head and shoulders as they nipped and bit into my exposed skin. At least I was thinking clearly enough to remember not to swat at them with my arms.

The flames died out, signaling I’d reached their limit, and with the risk of burning gone, I smushed the remaining bugs. It was disturbing to still feel the sensation of their squashed bodies twitching on me though.

“Where’s my dad?” Mare shouted, jumping back as several house cats hurdled toward her. A tabby slashed her cheek, making Mare hiss in pain and attempt to yank it off her. But it had a hold of her hair. It was all she could do to keep his sharp teeth from ripping into her vulnerable face.

And that’s when we all realized that in the chaos, we’d lost track of Lucas.

Where the fuck was he?

“Shit,” London said, retracting his grenade launcher as we looked around for any trace of him. But I hadn’t seen him since the monkey had…

As if reaching the same conclusion, London met my worried eyes. The monkey had injected him with something. We’d seen him staggering, but we’d been too preoccupied with our own battles to realize what had happened.

Lucas had been knocked unconscious and taken.

“Find Keith,” I said, stomping on the head of rattlesnake. Its tail struck over and over at my suit to no avail. “Or Lucas. If you find one, you’ll find the other. I’ll keep these at bay.”

“I don’t know if I can,” he said, as Blade, sick of the squirrels, enabled her grenade launcher and blasted them.

“You have to try,” I said, continuing to stomp and kick and swat away any bug, reptile, and mammal which came too close. But the creatures were slowing, making them easier to dodge or dispose of, meaning Keith’s power over them was waning. We just needed to hold out a little longer. Hold out and find Keith.

London grimaced, but he knew I was right. “Fine, but if I wake up buried under spiders, you’ll find cheese graters to be a minor threat in comparison to what I will plan for you.”

I shivered.

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