Page 38 of Slayer Mom
“Lucy?”
I froze and all of my slayer instincts went the way of bubbling happiness and mingled terror. My husband couldn’t be here. This is exactly what I’d left to protect him from.
I bent down to help him up. He felt so good, even to my singed fingertips. “Hazen? What are you doing here?”
“Well,” he said, climbing slowly to his feet. “Apparently, night hiking works better on trails with flashlights.”
“You shouldn’t be here. Where is your car? Come on.”
“Keep it down, there’s something there,” Tom hissed, and I froze, because I sensed it too. There was something out there, something different. Something brought by the pygmy’s roar, something that my husband should absolutely not face.
My words were short, terse, like I was ordering Lock and Wat to wash their necks. “Back to the building. Tom, you take Gloria and Hazen to the roof while I keep the beast at bay.”
“You don’t know what you’re facing,” Tom said in a firm voice that reminded me who the experienced slayer was. “You want us to all get out of this without harm. I understand that, believe me, I do, but you’re going to have to listen to me. You’re going to have to stay calm and do exactly what I say.”
I wanted to scream, but instead, I just nodded. “What do I do?”
“Hazen, do you have any weapons?” Tom asked him.
“Weapons? I have some pepper spray.”
“Perfect,” Tom said, like it wasn’t an embarrassment. “Pity you’re wearing such flimsy clothing.”
“It’s jeans and a thick hoodie. Am I supposed to be wearing… Honey, what are you wearing?” He got a good look at my red pleather pants.
Gloria laughed, loud and glorious. “Isn’t she fabulous? You know what this outing needs? Alcohol. Next time, I’m bringing the cups, and Lucky, you’ve got to bring alcohol. Don’t think I’ve forgotten the last time you stole all my booze.” That was her nervous laugh. Maybe terrified was closer to accurate.
“I have champagne in the car,” Hazen offered.
I was going to ask why he had champagne, but then Tom grabbed my arm and whispered words to fill me with dread.
“You’re going to be bait. I’m going to kill it, if I’m lucky. You’re going to protect those two while I take it from behind. I haven’t faced any of these monsters for years. If I fail, we’ll all die slow, agonizing deaths. Don’t tell Gloria or Hazen. It’s good to die with confidence.”
What the crap? I swallowed hard and forced a smile. My children would be orphans. No. No, they wouldn’t. “So, how do we kill it? Fire?”
“I like your shoes,” Gloria said to Hazen, almost out of earshot.
Tom answered me. “It has a few weaknesses, under the joint of its arms into its chest cavity, and internally, past its teeth and the top of its mouth. You have to get past a lot of teeth. You don’t want to get close to any of those teeth.”
Hazen answered Gloria. “Thanks. Lucy got them for me three birthdays ago. She thought we’d go hiking more often, but then everything got busy at work. I was a terrible husband.” He said that, looking at me with an apology in his eyes.
I could not be distracted by his eyes at a moment like this, but I was anyway. Was this the last time I’d be alive to see him? I needed to tell him that I lovedhim, that he was not a terrible husband, but what if, by some miracle, we made it? Of course we’d make it. I was Lucky the Slayer with the Grand Master’s blood in my veins. I could take an impossible-to-kill monster. Riiiiight.
I got Gloria and Hazen tucked into a building with two walls, the rest open so the beast could only come at me from one direction.
“What are we doing?” Hazen whispered to Gloria. “Are we waiting for a drug dealer? Are we vigilantes?”
“Sh,” she hissed back at him, then continued in a voice louder than he’d been. “We’re just having a relaxing evening stroll.”
“Are you guys dressed in cosplay? I don’t recognize Lucy’s character, or yours, no offense. Is Tom a butler? Isn’t he Lucy’s old boss? How old is he?”
“He’s not that old,” she said defensively.
“Quiet,” I hissed and crouched in front of them, facing the darkness. Hazen shifted like he was going to come over to me. “Stay there, Hazen, or I’m tying you up!”
“I have no objections to that,” he said right before the darkness exploded in a frenzy of tooth and claw that couldn’t possibly be one creature.
I didn’t think, just used reflexes I didn’t know I had to roll out of the way and stab and slash to get it to turn on me instead of killing Hazen and Gloria. I caught one glimpse of Hazen’s face, his shock mixed with concern for me, of course. He wanted me to be safe, and here I was out in the night killing monsters. Seriously, what was I doing? Not much if we’re talking about damage to the beast.
