Part of Esteban’s head and most of his front paws began to solidify in preparation for tearing the unarmed Skinner in half. Dropping down to one knee, Cole pointed the spray can at the Full Blood’s spectral lower half and pressed the button that sent a shimmering silver mist into the air. He kept his finger solidly in place as he launched himself sideways into a roll while twisting his body around to put his back to Esteban. Thick claws raked against the shoulder of Cole’s coat, penetrating the tanned werewolf hide deep enough to shred through a few upper layers of flesh. He clenched his eyes shut through the pain and continued to roll while hastily calculating how far he was from his spear. Every second that passed, Cole expected to feel the weight of that Full Blood drop on him like a collapsing portion of the roof.
He wound up on his stomach just short of slamming into a wire display rack. Propping himself up, he pulled his feet beneath him to find Esteban still standing in the spot where he’d initially landed. The Full Blood’s back was arched and his head craned back and forth. The glittering metallic specks that were added to the aerosol hung suspended in the Full Blood’s body like stars in an inky night sky as Esteban was painfully forced back into solid form. His voice returned too, booming with an agony and rage that gave Cole an extra burst as he ran to the spot where his spear still protruded from the floor.
Pieces of his body flickered like a fading television signal, but the aerosol was doing its job by making it next to impossible for him to shift into an insubstantial form. Esteban reared up and screamed as the powdered Blood Blade fragments shifted inside him.
The Amriany attacked from left and right. Nadya was still on the floor but managed to pull a borrowed assault rifle around from where it was strapped over one shoulder. As Paige and Milosh were driving their blades into the werewolf, George joined them. Although some of their tattoos had burned off, there was enough remaining in them to batter Esteban or cut into him with more brutal efficiency than the Full Blood could have expected from any human.
Still, no matter how deeply the Blood Blades cut or how many times he was rocked by a thumping impact from George’s iron staff, the Full Blood was too enraged to be put down. He slashed at Milosh, knocking him aside with ease. Paige ducked beneath the claws intended to take her head off, and George blocked that paw with the middle section of his weapon. Cole plucked his spear from the floor and stood so one of his heels remained in contact with the divining rod. That way he could swing and parry as much as he needed without losing track of where the specially crafted tool could be found.
The Full Blood threw a backhanded swipe in Cole’s direction, which was diverted by an expertly performed block using the forked end of his spear. Before he could attack Cole again, the Full Blood was swarmed by Paige and George. Overhead, the thumping of helicopter blades blew in through the damaged roof as one of the NH-90s settled into position over the store.
“Move him closer to the opening,” Ouray said through the earpiece. “I found a few more of those Snapper rounds.”
“They won’t do much against a Full Blood,” Cole said as he reached back to grab the divining rod. He twisted it again and then dragged it through the ground as he backed up to move beneath the ragged hole.
“Maybe not,” Ouray said calmly through the earpiece, “but it might give you some breathing room.”
Since he wasn’t about to argue with getting backup, Cole shouted, “Over here!” to Esteban as well as Paige and the Amriany. Paige, who also wore one of the earpieces, already knew what he was trying to do, and swung both sickles at the Full Blood. Her eyes glazed over as she hacked at Esteban. She moved with deadly fluidity, ducking and leaning to clear a path for a few attacks without seeming to notice that sections of her tactical vest had been ripped away. Nadya stopped firing, but George and Milosh closed ranks around Paige as one swipe from the werewolf completely shredded the layer of Half Breed skin that was her vest’s main line of defense. A clubbing blow from the claw at the end of George’s staff that finally dropped Esteban down to all fours.
The glyphs etched into the divining rod were seething now. Cole could smell burnt iron, which meant the Jekhibar had absorbed all it possibly could. Plucking the rod from the ground, he prodded the Full Blood with it to create an even bigger shower of sparks.
Drawing once more on his experience as a game developer when something unexpected and cool happened, Cole pretended it had been his idea. “You want me to stop that?” he asked as Esteban looked at him. “Then come and make me!”
The Full Blood’s thick torso was accented by protruding ribs and a backbone that rose up like a stony ridge from a desert floor. He nipped at George to make him back off. Then he barked and swiped at Milosh to send a spray of Amriany blood through the air. Paige held her ground, staying behind him in case Esteban decided to move too far away from the hole in the roof.
Cole held his spear in one hand and the divining rod in the other. When Esteban was close enough, he stepped forward to jab the sharpened end of the Amriany tool at the Full Blood’s head and shoulder. The reaction between the divining rod and the werewolf was similar to a live wire brushing against a piece of wet steel. Esteban bared his teeth and lifted his face toward the roof as a shot was fired at him from above.
The round cut the air with a deeper hiss than a normal bullet. Esteban’s entire body was pulled to one side when the heavy projectile thumped between his shoulder blades, skidded against his flesh and lodged in his fur. Cole was close enough to see the blood-smeared round poking out from his coat. When Esteban turned to bite at the thing lodged in his fur, the humans renewed their attack. The Full Blood slammed the side of his head against Cole’s shoulder, knocking him off his feet, to sail several yards through the air and into a case filled with empty display boxes of games that were current before Shreveport had been overrun.
Although he couldn’t see her, due to the huge werewolf blocking his line of sight, Cole could hear Paige over the earpiece when she asked, “How many more rounds do you have?”
“Just one,” Ouray replied.
“Take it!”
“Fine,” the IRD commando said, and worked the bolt of his rifle.
Cole pulled in a breath and focused on what needed to be done. It looked as if they were already down by two. Nadya wasn’t up yet and Milosh was struggling to get away from Esteban so he could catch his breath. The only one occupying the Full Blood was George, who slashed at the werewolf or pounded against his ribs, depending on which end of his weapon he was using. There were a few more stages of the plan that needed to be carried out, and if one of them didn’t happen, the whole thing failed. And if the plan failed, everyone who’d died in Shreveport would have done so for nothing.
Tossing away his spear, Cole grabbed the divining rod in both hands so he could more effectively use it as a weapon. When he found a wound that had been opened by a Blood Blade, he attacked it using the splintered points of the broken Skinner weapons Ira had attached to the divining rod. The thorny protrusions made contact with the wound and completed a circuit that gave the stored Torva’ox energies somewhere else to go. Even though Ira insisted that’s what would happen, Cole had been skeptical. But the energies flowing through fragments of a shattered Blood Blade had caused Esteban’s body to twitch and the open wound on the side of his neck to pulse with enough raw energy to illuminate the crimson texture of his muscle tissue.
“I know that hurts,” Cole said. He was close enough to see that the Full Blood’s eyes weren’t completely white after all, but more like smooth ivory circles resting on multifaceted ice crystals. By the time a rifle cracked over the rotors churning above the building, the Full Blood was shifting into his upright form. Cole heard the distinctive hiss of the incoming round as if it had been fired into a vacuum.