Page 66 of Savage Hunt

I peered through the thick foliage. “Something is stalking us.”

“Maybe your shifter senses are kicking in.” Logan gave one of his sweet, golden retriever grins. “Fane always picked up on certain things before we did.”

My shoulder muscles tightened. “I don’t like this.” I craned my neck back to explore the boughs above and attempted to connect with the shifter magic. After a few moments, my senses sharpened.

“Something’s up there,” I mumbled, grabbing the transformative hilt Logan had brought from his house.

Having heard me, Nik slowed and glanced into the trees. “I don’t see anything yet, but we definitely aren’t alone.”

The wind blew Nadia’s copper strands around her face as she searched for our stalker, a violet sheen eclipsing her irises. Branches creaked, and a few leaves tumbled down. Goose bumps erupted over me as a shriek whipped through the forest.

Ruin cursed. “Lugsin demons.”

“What the hell are lugsin demons?” I asked just as a viscous liquid dripped less than an inch from my shoulder, hitting the ground, smoke spiraling.

Logan yanked me out of the way and jabbed his finger toward the branches. “Those are lugsin demons.”

A giant, slimy slug-like creature plopped to the ground with a screech. My stomach heaved as the revolting blob crawled on his belly toward us without arms or legs, leaving behind a trail of yellowish-green snot.

“Their slime is toxic.”

The lugsin opened his toothless mouth and shot a stream of goo at us, missing Logan and hitting the tree.

I rubbed my thumb over the rune on my hilt to bring out the sword. “I got him.” The creature didn’t look that smart, and he had no eyes. He shouldn’t be that hard to kill. As I circled around, I snuck behind him and lopped his head off.

Too easy.

I shook the slime and black blood off my sword and then wiped it on the waxy leaves of a nearby bush.

Creaking echoed all around us, and a pit tore open in my gut as I slowly looked up. The branches writhed, and droplets of slime fell. As a stream hit me, my flesh burned like acid was poured on it.

“Tate, watch out!” Ruin dove forward and tackled me to the ground as another fat slug plummeted from the trees. Mucus spewed from the lugsin, barely touching me because of Ruin.

The demon lord wasn’t so lucky. He hissed as the toxic goo sizzled and smoked on him. Logan dodged the lugsin’s spit and pulled Ruin to his feet while I scrambled up and swung my sword at the sub-demon.

Just as my blade sliced into his gelatinous body to decapitate him, another stream of slime struck my chest.

Son of a bitch, that hurt.

A flash of purple zipped through the air as Nadia let loose a spell. “That should hold them for a few minutes,” she said as her barrier solidified to separate us from the acid-spitting creatures. “They’ll eventually break it.”

Logan tugged us down the trail as more leaves cascaded from the trees. “There’s an entire nest of them up there.”

I slung the slime off my sword, sneering. “How did they get in the branches in the first place?”

“They can temporarily grow arms and legs.” A shudder rippled through Logan. “It’s the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen.”

My feet stuck in the ground as Ruin tried to pull me farther away from the lugsins. Leaving a fight wasn’t in my nature, and the mix of demon and shifter magic, tainted by the Infernal Sol, wanted to unleash a fury on those creatures.

“Tate, we need to go.” Ruin motioned to the goop on my arms and torso. “If we don’t get this cleaned off soon, the poison will seep in, and our flesh will peel off.”

Well, when you put it like that…

I reluctantly followed the four of them away from the lugsins trapped behind Nadia’s magical shield, deciding to keep my skin intact.

“Over here!” Her voice sounded through the trees, and the forest opened to a small lake as we walked forward. “Leave your clothes on the shore. I’ll clean them off with a spell.”

Having remained clean from the slime attack, Nik stayed on the shore with Nadia, scanning the trees.

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