Page 11 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

No doubt the very one from the containment pendant around the child’s neck.

It hissed, saying something that was drowned out by a cacophony of voices and noises.

Fear, not for himself but the child, came over Stratton. Ignoring the pain that he was in, he shoved off the floor, harnessing the air around him with his power and sending a gust of wind at the goblin, propelling it back from him and away from the child.

Drest shouted something that Stratton missed.

Instantly, Stratton’s magik went haywire, alerting him that something was against nature—was walking death. Not in a vampire kind of way, which had a certain feeling all unto itself, but something more. Something dark and dangerous. And the feeling he got in cemeteries returned tenfold.

Something slammed into Stratton from behind, and he lurched forward before spinning. What he saw took his breath away as shock coursed through his veins.

The entire foyer was filled with what could only be labeled as the walking dead. They weren’t zombies, that much he knew, but the Nightshade side of him that dealt in both life and death magiks said they were straddling the line between both worlds. That they were against nature. Abominations. This wasn’t a case of a demon inhabiting a body. This was something altogether different.

Yet not totally unfamiliar.

They were what the family was known for. What it was under strict sanctions because of, and why Drest had been assigned to them in the first place. These creatures were something Stratton and his cousin had dedicated years to hunting, along with rogue Dark Fae and demons.

Two of them grabbed for Stratton, each taking an arm. Having encountered others like them before, he knew full well just how powerful they were. They could and would tear him in half if given a chance. They were also more than capable of harming a small child.

Stratton jerked the creature on the left so hard that its arm actually did come off. It was an arm that in no way matched the rest of the body. It, like the rest of the parts of the creature, had not come from the same source.

Stratton tossed the arm in the other direction and called upon more of his magik. His ring heated as a long sword appeared in his hand. He rammed it into the other creature and twisted.

Had the creature been a living being, not piecemealed together from corpses as was the case, it would have shown signs of that hurting. Hell, that type of wound would prove fatal to a mortal and even some supernaturals. The creature didn’t bat an eye. But it did bat Stratton. The strike lifted Stratton off his feet and sent him flying into the wall. The remaining framed photos on it crashed to the floor.

He pushed up, desperate to locate the child and get her to safety. It was hard to see through the seemingly endless creatures filling the foyer and spilling out through the now open front door. Duty said he should follow and stop them before they could harm an innocent. That the family had made its bed, let them lie in it. But he couldn’t. It wasn’t the child’s fault that her father had clearly learned nothing from the sins of his ancestors. All he’d seemed to learn was how to cheat death. She shouldn’t have to pay the price for his ignorance and desire to play God.

Stratton kicked a creature away and charged through the mass of bodies, the smell of decay filling the area. As he broke through the cluster of them, he spotted the little girl in the parlor, peeking out with wide eyes from behind the goblin, of all things.

The goblin was hissing and tossing back any creatures that tried to get closer to the child. If Stratton wouldn’t have been there to witness the act for himself, he’d have never believed a vicious goblin—one serving a life sentence—could play nanny to a child. Yet there it was, protecting the little one.

The window behind showed flashing from more lighting, almost timed perfectly with the goblin as he struck monsters and as the child flinched.

“Hun-ter,” it ground out from its towering height. Stratton was over six feet tall, yet it managed to make him look downright puny. The glowing orbs of its eyes increased in size as well, looking like yellow fire for a moment. It hissed at him as if to warn him away from the child too.

“I won’t hurt her,” Stratton said, just as one of the manufactured monsters tackled him. It managed to knock the sword free from his hands.

Rachael’s screams sliced through the chaos.

The little girl screamed too and lightning struck close to the house, this time bringing with it a massive boom.

Stratton made short work of the creature on him and twisted to see Drest near Rachael, knocking monsters away as Henry was pressed to the far wall, his back practically fused to the plaster as he stared with a look of glee at the sight before him. More of the monsters rushed up from the basement doorway as others continued to run out of the home.

Rachael gasped loudly and covered her mouth as a female creature burst through the darkened doorway from below. “Ohmygod, Henry! You didn’t!”

“Mommy?” shouted the little girl, trying to dart around the goblin.

Stratton’s breath caught in his throat as he lifted his hands, his intent to call on his magik more in the hopes of bringing order to insanity.

The goblin snatched the child up with great care and cradled her to its chest as it kicked away another of the creatures. The little girl clung to him at first but then her green gaze found Stratton from across the room. She put her arms out to him and he nearly ran for her.

“Get her!” shouted Henry to the monsters.

Stratton focused on Henry, anger seeping up and through him at a rate that wasn’t safe for anyone. His magik continued to build as he glared at the man. “Henry Frankenstein, what in the hell did you do?”

Drest was suddenly there with his arms out, trying to pull the female creature’s attention from the goblin and the child. “Amice, over here. Focus on me. Not—”

Stratton’s magik broke free of him then, exploding around them, bathing everything in blinding white light. It muffled out the moans, groans, snarls, and screams.

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