Freeks(88)

“Mara,” my mom said breathlessly. “You should leave.”

“No, I can’t,” I said as I crawled under the table to grab the last of the arrows, and it was everything I could do to keep from throwing up. It felt like I’d been punched in the stomach.

“You can go with Gabe in his car and drive far, far away from here,” Mom pleaded with me.

I shook my head. “No, Mom, I can’t, because it’s too late. It’s already here.” I put the bolts back into the satchel and dropped it over my shoulder.

She grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to face her and see the terror in her eyes. “Remember the incantations I taught you. They will save you, qamari.”

Roxie started shrieking, so I had no time to say anything more. I grabbed the crossbow and dashed outside.

A strange darkness seemed to have descended over the campsite. It felt as if nothing existed outside of this circle. The streetlamp had gone out, and the bulbs in the Christmas lights that had been strung around camp popped. The wind raged on, not strong enough to blow us away, but leaves and debris flew around. Campers rattled, and it sounded as if the earth had begun to hum.

It was like we were being sucked into a vortex of darkness.

“It’s here!” Roxie shouted from her perch with Luka outside his trailer, but at first, I couldn’t see anything.

In the very center of the campsite, Gideon, Gabe, Hutch, Della Jane, and Selena had formed a loose circle, their eyes darting around the ever-growing shadows. Out of the corner of my eye, I would see it for a second, but then it would be gone again.

I didn’t really see the Kirpka, not until it grabbed Selena and she let out a bloodcurdling scream.





57. monstrous

As the Kirpka tore into Selena’s flesh, I truly saw it for the first time.

It had four legs, but it used two as arms as it grabbed onto Selena. The limbs were slender and covered in inky black scales, and the long fingers ended in hooked talons. The body appeared to be covered in daggerlike fur, resembling the quills of an angry porcupine. The demon’s head was massive, with an elongated snout filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth.

Even from where I stood, I could smell the sulfur radiating off the creature. But it was its eyes that made my blood run cold.

It had four eyes across its face, and they were like portals to another world. They weren’t black, but rather devoid of color. They sucked out all the light and life, and when I looked the demon directly in its eyes—only for a split second—I could see the underworld inside them.

Della Jane screamed and her human voice transmorphed into the bay of a wolf. She jumped, and as she did, her flesh began tearing away as silver-and-bronze fur pushed out through it. Her body stretched, her dress tore off, and her golden curls shifted into pointed ears.

By the time she landed, she was on all fours—a massive, snarling wolf.

She charged at the Kirpka, and as soon as she collided with it, the demon seemed to dematerialize. While it had been attacking Selena, its form had appeared real and permanent, but it was on the move again, so it’d returned to its blurred shadowy form.

As Della Jane tangled with it, it was as if she was pulled into the darkness—her own fur becoming a mixture of darkness and shadow. Hutch picked up Selena, carrying her toward Luka’s trailer, where she could be out of harm’s way.

Della Jane cried out in pain, and within seconds, Gabe had shifted from human to wolf—fur ripping apart his clothing.

The two of them against the demon seemed promising at first. But it was hard to see exactly what was happening—tufts of fur flew up into the air, snarls echoed through everything, and the shadow of the demon hid them.

Then the Kirpka threw Della Jane across the campsite, sending her flying into Roxie’s damaged Airstream where she collapsed onto the ground. Blood soaked her bronze fur, and she let out a plaintive whimper.

If two werewolves couldn’t handle it, I didn’t know how Gabe could on his own.

Gideon must’ve had the same train of thought I did, because he took aim at the swirling mass of fur and darkness that was fighting at the edge of camp. That’s when I realized he was pointing the Luger full of silver bullets.

“Gideon, no!” I shouted, and dove at him, but I reached him a second after the gunshot cracked through the air.

Gabe yelped and fell to the ground.





58. the devil

The Kirpka began circling the campsite again, trying to draw us into the center where it would be easier to pick us off.

The shadow hit Hutch first, but it spit him out just as quickly—probably realizing that Hutch had no supernatural powers. He flew through the air and landed in front of my Winnebago, moaning and bleeding, and my mom immediately rushed to his side.

We couldn’t let the Kirpka keep going at us, or we’d all be dead soon.

“Roxie, light it up!” I shouted. I stood in the dead center of the camp, holding my crossbow up and waiting to take aim.

Roxie’s powers hadn’t been working well since we’d gotten to Caudry, and her first attempt at a fireball was only a plaintive little puff of fire. But as the Kirpka took a turn charging at her, she tried again, and this time a huge fireball burst from her hands.

The demon snarled and jumped back from it, but for a split second, the creature was fully visible. I fired a bolt at it, but it leapt out of the way and my arrow landed in the dirt.