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His sharp talons grazed my cheek just before I rolled out of the way. I used the momentum to leap at him, catching him off guard. My fist connected with his jaw in a bone-shattering hit—my bones and not his—but the pain didn’t register. I was beyond feeling anything except the rage fueling my last bit of life.
I kicked his gut, and he doubled over, giving me a clean shot for an uppercut to his chin. My elbow crushed into his cheek, and I punched his throat.
His unearthly howl thundered through the building, and if anyone were to walk by, they’d think the devil himself was having a showdown with one of his beastly creatures. I guess that made me a monster too. Then again, I already knew that.
I charged him, wrapped my arms around his middle, and tackled him into a cement beam. Normally, I shouldn’t have been capable of moving anything as big and heavy as him. Maybe there was truth behind the theory that adrenaline surges gave you super strength in life or death moments.
Bits of dust and grime rained down, speckling his midnight hair. His talons swiped out, just missing my torso. I ducked and spun, his hand once again hitting air. My laugh, a cruel harmony as macabre as the dead bodies around us, resonated through the night.
Something in the atmosphere shifted, and the beast stilled. His death gaze bored into me, making me freeze.
What the hell?
A tingle prickled my skin like invisible bugs writhing over my flesh. Icy claws of panic tore open my rib cage as he approached, licking his lips.
“You smell so good. And I’m so hungry.”
Every muscle tensed as I fought the power holding me in place. As he reached me, he gripped my chin to angle my mouth toward his again.
I yelled louder than he had a few moments ago, and the invisible binds around me exploded. I didn’t waste a second and crushed my fist into his ribs, pain erupting over my knuckles as they split wide open. Before I could slip into a better fighting position, his hand tangled in my hair, yanking me back.
Talons slashed across my left side, and warm blood oozed down my stomach as agony pulsated through me. His fury penetrated the atmosphere. He wanted to end me quickly.
But I wouldn’t go into the darkness without him.
I shoved my elbow into his side and dashed away, searching for a makeshift weapon while ignoring the pain. This wouldn’t be an easy kill. Something told me a little cut wouldn’t do the job.
As he pursued me, I tripped onto a pile of rusty metal like a fucking idiot in a horror movie. He snatched my leg and dragged me onto smoother ground. My fingers curled around a broken piece of metal framework that had once held part of this building together, the edges digging into my palms.
My heart pulverized my chest cavity. “Get the fuck off me!” I kicked his hand with my other leg to dislodge his grip and rolled to my feet.
His teeth elongated as another savage roar rattled my bones. I lifted the metal shard, a little shorter than a baseball bat and a hell of a lot sharper, and swung it.
A wet squelch echoed as the edge sank into his neck, splattering black blood over us. His eyes widened as he surveyed me and then the rusty metal sticking out of him.
I didn’t give him the opportunity to fight back as I yanked my weapon out and dug it into the same wound, deepening it. I kept hacking, bathing us in thick, black blood as the sickening sounds filled the abandoned building. The monster didn’t fight anymore. He just stared as if politely waiting for it to be over.
The impenetrable void melted from his gaze, bringing out a stunning blue that Hollywood talent agents would beg for. His head barely hung onto his neck at this point, and my arms shook so violently I almost dropped the metal piece several times.
Sobs clawed up my throat, and I gritted my teeth, lifting the weapon that felt like a hundred pounds of hard steel now, my own blood running down my palms from the gashes it dug in them. He closed his lids as I sank the jagged shaft into his neck one more time, finally ripping his head off.
His body hit the ground, splattering more ebony liquid while his head rolled a few feet away.
The sudden silence after my grunts, sobs, and hacking thundered against my skull. It took a moment to find my breath, sucking in ragged gulps of air clogged with death.
I gagged and dropped my arms, keeping my grip on the metal out of fear. Was it over? Was he dead? Or would he come back at the last second like in the movies?
This was no movie. I’d killed a monster. How was I still alive?
Maybe I wasn’t. Maybe I died when he first attacked, and this was my purgatory.
“Oh, my God.”
The voice had me snapping back into action, and I lifted my weapon, ignoring the screaming of my muscles and the fire surging through the cuts in my palms. “Stay the fuck away!”
A woman emerged from the shadows, dressed in all black and dirty blonde hair slicked into a low ponytail. “It’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you.”
Was she military? Police?
