CHAPTER 34

He didn't have to answer because she heard it. It was faint at first, but someone was tapping on the walls of the cabin. The sound amplified as others joined in. She peered through the shutters to see that one of the little men was using his spear to poke at the siding.

"Can they get in?" she asked.

"I don't know," Emery answered. "But we need to get them to stop."

"Damn." She looked over at Bigfoot, who was still asleep. Even if she wanted to run, where could she go? Her uncle still needed time to recover, which was a scary thought as well. Whatever poison was in his system must be potent indeed to have dropped him as fast as it did, which meant it would probably kill her outright.

She went into the kitchen and picked out an old cleaver from the knife drawer. Grabbing the broom from next to the fridge, she met Emery at the front door. "I'm going to need you to make a little noise while I go out through the roof."

Emery made a face like he was going to argue, but the tapping intensified. One of the creatures was now trying to wedge his spear into one of the shutters. She threw the imp a knowing glance, then reached down toward her spinnerets to withdraw some webbing. Unable to create the intricate webs that her sister could make, it was still strong enough to cocoon a creature.

She used it to attach the cleaver to the broom handle, then gave it a practice swing.

The imp nodded. "How long should I wait?" he asked.

"Count to thirty." Velvet flexed her legs and leapt up into the loft. From here, she was able to let herself into the attic of the cabin. It was mostly full of boxes from their childhood, things that her parents couldn't bear to part with. There were also several boxes of canned soup for her father in case of emergencies.

She stopped to touch the corner of one of the boxes. It suddenly occurred to her that the last time the box was opened, her father had been alive. Tears forced their way into her eyes as she tried to sniff them back.

"I am not crying over fucking soup," she muttered, then moved to the hatch that had been bolted shut from the inside. Her father had installed it for their mother and them when they were little so that they wouldn't wake him up if they went out at night. She put her hand fondly on the bolted passage, took a deep breath, then slid the bolt out of the way and pushed it open.

It moved with nary a sound, and she was out on the roof. The afternoon air was chilled, and her breath was coming in tiny clouds that vanished on the breeze. Down below, she heard Emery let out a shriek of alarm and start banging on one of the windows.

Her sense picked up one of the little men directly beneath her. Near the back of the cabin, she cast a wary gaze toward the tree line. Seeing that there was nobody coming, she chanced a look over the edge. The cannibal carrying the spear was moving toward the corner of the house. His back was to her.

She dropped down from above, then swung her makeshift halberd in a wide arc. When she struck the creature in the head, the blade stuck in its thick skull. It fell with a grunt.

"Plus two to damage, bitch." She yanked the cleaver out of its skull and used the reflective blade to peek around the corner. Two of them were moving toward the racket that Emery was making, but a third was using its spear to try and force open the shutter that went to her father's room.

Seeing red, she charged around the corner and sprinted toward the nirumbi forcing open the window. It let out a screech of rage when it saw her, but she sank her fangs into its neck before it could do anything else.

The nirumbi farthest from her cried out and threw its spear. She used the nirumbi she held as a shield to block it, then drew the Sig and fired. Her shot hit the nirumbi that had thrown the spear in the chest, and it went down. The third raised its own spear, but Velvet swung her makeshift weapon hard enough that it cleaved through the little man's arm.

The broom handle broke. She pulled the spear out of the nirumbi in her mouth and threw him at his friend. They both fell down, and Velvet used the spear to pin them together at the belly.

"Nirumbi-kabob," she muttered with a grin, then leapt onto the roof. A second later, three nirumbi came around the corner to investigate, but Velvet was on her way to the other side of the house. She found two more nirumbi nervously circling around the house.

She dropped down from above and fired the Sig. It took four shots this time, but she killed them both and took their spears before fleeing to the roof. By now, the air was filled with hooting as they tried to track her down. A group of them had emerged from the barn, but Velvet kept to the back of the cabin. She snuck back inside and latched the hatch shut.

Down below, Emery was shrieking his little head off, but the tapping had already stopped.

"I bought us some time," she told him, then picked up her father's rifle from the dining room table. "I'm thinking we can pick a few more off from the roof."

Emery nodded, then pressed his face to the gap in the window. "Should I make another distraction?"