Page 24 of Sloth
You wanted to feel useful again, Max, well, here you go, mate.
He kept moving.
A snarling growl rumbled from further in the store where a flash of black tumbled around with a human attached to its mouth. The human was Sloan. With the dog-thing latched onto her leg. She tried to pry its jaws open. Sloan was strong. If she had trouble unlocking that jaw…
Heart in his throat, Max aimed his gun, but couldn’t risk shooting. They rolled too fast. One minute, Sloan was on top, the next the animal twisted to the side. He might shoot Sloan by mistake. Instead, he lifted his weapon and shot into the ceiling, hoping to draw attention.
The dog lifted its head. Sniffed.
Fuck me.
That’s not a dog.
Maybe it was—once. Resembling something like a Doberman, its short black ears pointed skyward, but it was huge. The sharp fangs and roped muscles belonged on a dragon. Lethal claws flashed. It twisted and wrestled in Sloan’s hold, getting loose, trying to come at him.
He fired the gun again.Come on beastie. Come to Maxie.
It snarled and broke free from Sloan’s grip. Teeth and saliva came at him. He froze, petrified. But it didn’t attack. Its sights were on something else. It launched past Max, through the window and onto the sidewalk. Shit.
Shaking himself from his stupor, he aimed. It wove through the street, making it hard to get in his sights. Max leaped through the window and pounded after it. Sloan’s footsteps thudded behind him. She soon overtook him, running faster than he thought her capable. They passed the store Misha was in, and the dog—beast—suddenly stopped, skidding as though it caught a scent. Snarling, it turned its attention to the shop’s glass window.
It battered the glass window, using its head as a ram. It wanted something or someone inside.
“Shoot it, Max,” Sloan shouted. “Now.”
Max trained the animal in his sight. He fired.
The crack echoed in the street and the beast jolted—shot, but not down. It didn’t even slow, but launched at the window with single-minded viciousness.
He fired again. This time, the beast moved too fast. He missed.
Sloan darted forward.
“Out of the way, Sloan!” he roared.
But she didn’t listen.Fuck. She was going to wrestle it down, to attack with her fists. Darting a glance around, he noticed they had spectators. She could reveal her secret if she wasn’t careful. There was no way a normal woman had the strength to fend that beast off.
“Sloan.” He moved around the animal, to get a better shot. He lowered his voice. “Don’t compromise your identity.”
“I got this, Max.”
Once again, it sounded like she was trying to convince herself, more than anything else. What was she trying to prove?
As they moved closer, the animal stopped attacking the glass and snarled, aware the two of them were circling, surrounding it. Sloan darted forward, and it ran. Right toward Max.
“Run!” Sloan shouted. “Run, you dumbass.”
Adrenaline surged through him. He pivoted, boots pounding the pavement, muscles pushed to the extreme. It chased. He had to get it away from the public. He darted into an alley, hoping the animal would continue its pursuit of him. With Sloan chasing its tail, it did.
Breath burning his lungs, he ran, jumping over fallen crates, nearly tripping. Hot beast breath tickled his neck. Paws pounded the pavement. Slobbering snarls snapped.Panting, panting. Slobbering. Snarl.Snap. Jaws clicked perilously close.
And then he came to a brick wall dead end. There wasn’t enough time to climb. Turning, he pointed his weapon and fired as the black blur launched at him. In the space of a blink, he caught two black demon eyes, white fangs, slobber. It didn’t stop coming. The bullets did nothing.
Jaws locked onto his wrist, over his jacket. They careened into the wall, hitting hard. The gun went flying. Panic swamped him, and he thought,This is it. This is the end and I haven’t had a chance to tell Sloan…
A piercing squeal came out of the dog like he’d never heard before. Its body seized, paralyzed, as though being stunned. For a moment, Max thought perhaps Evan was there with his electricity, but when he pushed the beast off, he only saw Sloan with her furious gaze intent on the beast. Alley wind buffeted her hair as she stabbed the nail file into her palm, blood dripping onto the pavement. Max’s gaze darted to the beast, whining in agony, then back to Sloan. She was doing something. Something supernatural.
“Sloan?”
