Page 49 of Only Human in Strangeville

He kissed my neck, arm tensing around me as we hit a bump on the track. “Perhaps you can go a touch faster.”

I opened the throttle as much as I dared and prayed the mineshaft had given us enough of a head start to get away.

Branches cracked in the distance, and I wished for invisibility.

Katsuro shifted around on the seat behind me, probably looking in the gear as best he could while we bounced along through the forest. His vampiric nature gave him an edge, and he didn’t fall off even though I hit a rock or something and nearly dumped us over. He probably saved us when he shifted his weight, and I kept going as fast as I dared down the track.

“Bridger left us a gun. Werewolves in the forest are notoriously hard to hit, but I believe I have a chance, and I do know how to use this. It has a suppressor, so it shouldn’t deafen you.” Katsuro’s breath tickled my skin as he spoke, leaning forward so I could hear him over the muted noise of the ATV.

“Great,” I replied through gritted teeth. My arms and shoulders ached from wrestling the vehicle, and a dull throb had formed behind my eyes. I suspected it was heading toward migraine potential, though I didn’t typically get migraines.

To make it worse, my glasses were sliding down my nose and I didn’t dare take a hand away from driving to push them back up. I might be able to see in the dark, but that didn’t make my vision any sharper. I wrinkled up my nose and tilted my head back, but gravity was stronger than my contorted face muscles and the glasses stayed low on my nose.

“Problem?”

“My glasses are sliding down. Because, of course, they are.”

The vampire kindly pushed them back up my nose for me, startling me but returning my normal range of vision.

“Thanks.”

He didn’t reply, instead twisting around and firing the gun. I jumped at the muted sound of the suppressor. I was unfortunately very familiar with the way a suppressed gun sounded, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t startling.

An answering yelp, followed by an enraged roar, had me twisting the throttle as far as I could, even though there was no way I could make this even sort of safe. We were still ahead of them, but not by much.

“Fuck,” I muttered, then swerved as something huge crashed past us, racing toward the approaching wolves. Sensing that the giant thing was Nimbus, I skidded to a halt. That Katsuro didn’t question me, only confirmed what I’d thought.

“What the fuck?”

“Your nimbus has discovered a new power.”

My nimbus was huge. He still looked like himself, just the size of a buffalo or an elephant or something. I immediately thought of the cuddle possibilities as I stared at his fluffy, feathered legs. He crouched as several wolves came out of the forest on the other side of him.

They stopped, clearly startled, heads tilted dog-like.

Nimbus lowered his tail, bared his teeth, and shrieked.

The trees bent away, leaves quaking, and the dried litter on the ground blasted into the air, scattering under the onslaught. The wolves collapsed, howling in pain as my dog destroyed their eardrums. He didn’t do mine or Katsuro’s any favors either, but at least we weren’t on the receiving end.

“Holy crap,” I said, belatedly clapping my hands over my ears.

Katsuro rested his forehead against my back, and I faintly heard him cursing in another language. Well, I thought he was cursing, anyway. I would have been if I had vampire senses.

Nimbus wagged his giant fluffy tail where he’d curled it over his back, pleased with taking out the wolves, before trotting back over to me and lowering his massive head to touch his nose to mine. Except his nose was the size of my head, at least, and I almost ended up in his nostril.

“Buddy,” I said, caught between laughter and pain and a little worry that the puppy wouldn’t know his own size.

Nimbus seemed to understand the hesitation in my voice and backed off, peering at me.

“Good boy, Nimbus. Now, how about that shelter?”

He rooed softly—though at his size it was still a rather large roo—and trotted off into the woods, crashing through the underbrush like an elephant.

Katsuro grunted but put his arm around me when I maneuvered the ATV to follow.

“Are you okay?” I’d lost the sound suppression on the ATV, however I’d accomplished that, but I could still see, though perhaps not quite as well as before. The headache had blossomed into epic proportions.

“I will survive,” he answered loud enough for me to hear.

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