Page 15 of Gone Hunting

His breath releases in a long exhale through his snout, delivering more of that vile mist directly into my face. I can’t breathe, choking on air that punches its way down my throat.

Koda and Liam have his long talon arms pinned to the ground, and Gemini is trying to control his legs. The retching sounds they make obstruct their focus. But they can still breathe. I can’t.

The mist coagulates into a gelatinous lump, blocking my windpipe. I attempt to warn my pack, but every movement expands and solidifies the lump.

I thrash. I won’t give up . . . but neither will this skinwalker.

The skinwalker screeches like a thousand feral cats, shattering my left eardrum as he flings Koda away like a toy. Koda is close to four-hundred-pounds of muscle in his wolf form. He collides into the tree Celia dressed behind. The large trunk crumbles.

So does my friend.

I writhe, breaking my right paw free only for the decaying bones to reform and sink their shards into my flesh. I use the weight of my hind legs, digging them into the skinwalker’s pelvis and raking my rear claws through his guts.

I think I hurt him, but it’s Gemini who pays. The skinwalker kicks his hooves into Gemini’s chest, pulverizing his torso and sending him soaring backward.

Tears from the lack of air cause my vision to spin. I’m fighting half-blind, barely able to make out what’s in front of me.

Liam’s jaw crunches over the skinwalker’s throat. I think we have him until Liam falls into a seizure, resuming his human form and foaming at the mouth.

“Don’t bite him!” Celia yells when I snap my jaws. “His body is poison.”

My vision fades in and out and Celia is suddenly there, clutching a large boulder in her hands. She brings it down on the skinwalker’s head, cracking his snout and making him scream.

The skinwalker flails his clawed hands, trying to reach Celia. She ducks and jerks out of the way, lifting the boulder again and smashing it into the creature’s face. The weight and force indent his snout, preventing it from reforming and releasing more rancid mist.

The lump in my throat loosens enough to allow a small wheeze. It’s then Celia realizes I’m choking.

“Aric.”

This time when Celia slams down the boulder, the skinwalker’s arms flop at his side. She leaves the heavy boulder in place and scrambles to me, her nails protruding into razor sharp points.

Celia grunts as she uses her claws to puncture the skinwalker’s chest, cracking open the cavity so I can break free. I collapse on my side. My front paws are stripped of fur and my lungs are on fire. I know I should move, but right now, and I can barely focus.

Celia hurries to my side and rolls me over. I think she means to haul me away, but then her fist rams me in the gut.

I’m vaguely aware of her actions as I lose consciousness. It’s only when I feel that lump of thickening waste dislodge in a painful jolt, that I realize what Celia was doing. I tilt to my side, spitting out blood and foam and whatever putrid waste the skinwalker fed me.

Like a row of daggers, Celia’s nails elongate as she backs away. I’m breathing hard. I can’t see much, but it’s enough. The skinwalker shoves away the boulder and rises, that torturous screech blaring as he stalks after Celia.

“You want me?” she challenges. “Come get me.”

The earth trembles beneath me as I push up to the side, each step the skinwalker takes toward Celia rattling the ground.

Earthquake, I think, pushing myself forward.No. Not now.

The ground splits in front of the skinwalker, the zigzagging crevice shooting toward Celia as if aimed. Still she taunts the skinwalker, keeping his attention while she leaps away from the dismantling ground.

“Come on,” Celia snarls. “Is that all you’ve got?”

The skinwalker screeches, charging straight at Celia. He doesn’t know I’m on my feet, ready to make mince-meat out of his hide.

The crevice breaks off in multiple points, creating a cobweb of deep fissures. Celia scrambles ahead and toward the cliff, leaping left and right, narrowly missing falling through the expanding cracks.

Her head whips around and she catches my eye. It’s only for a second, long enough for her to realize she won’t fight this thing alone.

Celia’s final leap is the longest and most daring. She barely makes it onto the sole pillar of earth protruding from the ground. What remains of this part of the mountain has collapsed around us in a booming sound of noise and chaos.

The pillar is just a few feet in diameter. Celia barely keeps her balance, teetering back and forth as the ground trembles. The skinwalker jumps, his claws outstretched as he takes flight.

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