The Curse (Belador #3)(108)
Everything happened in a matter of seconds.
The men had gone into motion at the same time as her, but none were going to reach the cow that creature wanted before Evalle.
Claws extended and curved into attack mode as the creature’s wings folded to land on top of its prey.
Evalle realized she wasn’t going to make it in time to cover the cow with a protective kinetic field of energy either. She took two long strides and lunged into the air at the creature. Just before they collided, she tossed a kinetic blast forward, hoping to knock the beast away.
Which sort of worked.
The creature was blown sideways, hitting the ground face down and sliding away from the cow that started mooing and kicking, scrambling to get up.
Evalle’s momentum took her over the cow and down in an angle that had her going straight for the creature. At least the blast of energy seemed to have stunned it … until Evalle landed on its back.
The thing heaved up off the ground, screeching and crying out, sounding almost like a human that had been hurt.
She reached around its neck with both arms to get a chokehold and gagged on the nasty odor she inhaled. The mottled skin smelled as if it was decaying, plus this thing had plowed through fresh cow patties.
When she felt the body lift up and the wings unfold, Evalle kicked her legs out to each side to stop it from flapping.
Tzader yelled in her head, Get off before it kills you! We can’t throw any power at it without risking you.
She could feel the fury raging through the half-human thing. Her own budding empathic abilities were a new discovery these past few weeks—one she hadn’t had a chance to explore—and they picked a fine time to manifest. If she let go, the creature would probably turn on her or one of the others. Tzader would be forced to kill it, defeating the whole point of this operation.
He’d never risk an agent’s life to capture this thing.
But allowing it to escape could have deadly consequences if the national security guys were right.
She was in the best position to stop it from flying and protect the team.
She told Tzader, I’ve got a good hold on it and I don’t think it can bite me. Give me a minute to see if it settles down and we might just catch it.
Sprigs of hair stuck off the deformed head that spun sideways trying to get at her. Yellow eyes glared at her—so human in shape they stole her ability to think, until the lipless mouth opened and a double row of pointed teeth snapped at her.
What the heck was this thing?
Tzader was foregoing telepathy for Casper’s sake, and was yelling orders for the Beladors to form a kinetic net above the creature. Trey, Tzader and Quinn would overlap an invisible covering to prevent it from flying off, but if the creature made a sudden move straight up it would crush Evalle between it and the solid layer of power they were holding overhead.
She kept her head out of biting range and felt relatively safe until its tongue came out and slapped at the skin on her arms. Instead of soft tongue flesh this felt like a flexible serrated blade that slashed her forearms.
Its freakin’ tongue was a foot long and sharp enough to slice her throat, which seemed to be the creature’s intent, as it swiveled its head back and forth.
Evalle was so busy keeping out of range of that tongue she almost forgot about the kinetic net when the creature arched and bucked again, trying to get her off … then it shoved off the ground trying to get lift.
She yelled out loud, “Forget the net. Grab the wings. Now!”
The creature made a super-strong push straight up and flapped its wings half way, catching air. The movement forced her outstretched legs further apart, her thigh muscles screaming in pain.
She couldn’t see the men, but could feel them struggling to stop the wings by the way she was jerking from side to side.
Now was the time to jump if she wanted to dismount before it flew off with her.
The bottom fell out from under her.
She dropped then bounced against the creature when it—and she along with it—were jerked to the ground.
Tzader and Trey wrestled one of the wings down and climbed on it while Quinn and Casper struggled to get the other wing contained.
The creature’s muscles quivered with strain. It kept snapping its teeth and tossing its head back.
Tzader spoke between ragged breaths. “Quinn … can you do … anything?”
Quinn had a rare gift of being able to mind lock, which allowed him to maneuver inside a person’s brain and, if necessary, control or crush a mind.
Evalle had never seen him use that power on an animal, but was this thing animal, human, demon or what? It was making garbled distress noises, much like an insane person off their meds.
The extra second Quinn took to answer worried her when he said, “I’ll try.”
What if this creature could harm Quinn’s mind? In the next few seconds, the body stopped jerking and kicking. No more insane noises. If it hadn’t still moved with each labored breath, Evalle would have thought it was dead.
Speaking softly, Quinn said, “I’ve never seen anything like this bloody thing. It’s not entirely human, but parts of that brain appear human.”
Trey asked, “What’d you do to shut it down?”
“I’ve taken control of its mind for the moment, but I can’t promise that will last long. I basically put it into a comatose state so I could search its memories for something that will explain its origins. I found images of a house, an antebellum looking place … and images of other creatures.”