Monster Nation(39)

The bear didn't growl or roar or make any sound at all as she advanced. Her fur shivered in the breeze and her eyes glowed with fire as she pressed her snout wetly against Nilla's leg. She had to be seven feet long and her legs were all muscle. Hot breath jetted up Nilla's thigh and she cringed.

The bear looked up at Nilla and panted for a second. She stepped closer, her mass making the ground shake and Nilla cried out as she rolled away. Slowly, keeping her hands in plain view she got back to her feet. If she just walked away, backwards so the bear wouldn't think she was running, well then surely the bear would leave her alone. Right? The bear didn't want to eat her. She was undead'rotting flesh, full of toxins.

Nilla glanced at the corpse hanging from the tree. Oh. Bears must eat carrion, she decided.

It wasn't food the bear was after, though, she could see it in the animal's eyes. The bear knew what she was. It was the same look she'd seen in Lost Hills'and from Charles, less than an hour earlier. The bear was intelligent enough to recognize an abomination.

Nilla turned and ran, her bare feet slapping on the slickrock, her arms pistoning as she'

The bear tore past her at a gallop, not even exerting herself. She rolled one shoulder and slammed into Nilla, sending her sprawling down a slope of loose shale. The pain was intense as she bounced from one sharp rock to another, her skin bruising and tearing as she rolled. When she finally stopped she could only curl around herself, her body screaming.

The bear came lumbering down the hill, a black shape that obscured half the sky, headed right for her.

No, she thought, she didn't want to' to die like this, not alone in the dead wilderness. No.

No.

The bear stopped not three feet away from her and sniffed the air. She lifted her head and opened her mouth, then moved in, her paws smacking the rock. She would have stepped on Nilla if Nilla had still been there.

Nilla was invisible. The cold bit her with renewed force but the pain melted away. She looked down at her hands with eyes closed and saw nothing'no dark energy, just nothing. She stared at the bear and knew the animal couldn't sense her at all. It wasn't over, though. Nilla had to end this or eventually she would run out of strength and become visible again'she had a span of time measured in seconds, maybe'and then the bear would be on her with rending claws and vicious teeth. Nilla had to defend herself if she wanted to walk away.

She reached over and grabbed a handful of loose flesh at the back of the bear's neck and squeezed through the fur, squeezed as hard as her fingers allowed, digging her nails into the pliant skin beneath. The bear made a noise then, a titanic, warbling yell that almost sounded like human language.

Nilla's teeth entered the bear's neck. She could see the artery throbbing there. She could smell the blood. When she broke the skin it coursed out and over her, a red flood to carry her away. What happened next didn't involve thinking at all. She bit and tore and gouged as the bear screamed. A chunk of meat came loose in her mouth and she swallowed it effortlessly. The skin tore open and she thrust her face deep into the bear's body, into its hidden recesses. She bit and chewed and swallowed and bit, desperate to steal the bear's energy before it ran out. The bear couldn't resist her'shocked by the suddenness and the pain of her attack it could only scream and try to run but she had it, she had it down, down for the count.

Its life flowed into her, through her. Warm as blood, rich and sweet as the bear's flesh it thrilled in every cell of her body. It felt like being on fire. It felt like being alive again'there she was, all dressed in white bopping down the street, shaking her hips in the sunshine because it felt so damned good to be alive and healthy and beautiful. It was almost too much.

She fell to the ground on her knees and swayed with it for a while with her eyes closed, watching the bear's golden energy degrade. When she opened her eyes again she saw the bear looking back at her with that same expression of recognition she'd been so startled by before. Then she did a double take. Her benefactor was sitting on the bear's back as if he planned to ride off into the sunset.

'You'' Nilla looked up at the naked man. His beard looked newly-trimmed and the blue tattoos that covered his skin glowed with their own light. 'Who''

'Mael Mag Och,' he said, thumping his chest. He looked down at his mount, at the expression on her face. 'She knows you. She knows what it is to be gruaim air le acras.'

'What are you doing here?' Nilla demanded.

He ignored her. Slipping down the bear's furred flank he stepped onto the slickrock and looked straight upward at the stars. 'In salmon moon, she wakes from winter and eats, and does not stop. She swallows a river if she can, a cliath bhradan. In summer she takes moths'forty thousand every day.'