CHAPTER 86

Something about that anguished cry struck a chord deep inside of him. When they had been ambushed, he had mostly run interference, scaring them away with his screams. While his friends did the heavy lifting, it had been easy to disconnect from the idea that they were living creatures, but now?

He shivered. It wasn't from the cold.

"Yuki! Bigfoot!" Mike raised the rifle again, watching for more movement. Pondering the ethics of the situation would have to wait for later. He pressed his back to the cabin and kept both eyes open. They couldn't get to him from behind, but knew for damned sure he was vulnerable on his sides. "Tell me who we're dealing with!"

Bigfoot ignored him. He used his shield to make a dash into the nearest group of trees and then disappeared. Mike heard him roar a few seconds later, but now he was on the other side of the clearing. The Nirumbi cried out in alarm, and he saw a few go flying through the air.

"I don't know," Yuki responded. She was holding her tarot cards as the snowballs finished assembling themselves into snowmen. As the featureless bodies hopped past her, she was jamming cards into their torsos and tossing others into the ground. Large stick arms emerged from the snowmen, and they paused only long enough to pick up the swords that Yuki had summoned. "Ran across him once. Claimed to be the Devil, but Emily told him he was full of shit. Did some sort of mumbo-jumbo on us that got us locked in the Everglades for a week."

"How did you beat him?"

"We didn't." Yuki paused, looking away from her makeshift army. "He got bored and let us go."

"You'll find me far more entertaining today." Leeds' voice came from everywhere at once. "You have something that I want, and I shall not rest until it is mine."

Velvet cocked her head, then pointed to the West. "He's over there," she said, then spun around just as a trio of Nirumbi appeared at the corner of the cabin. They raised their bows to fire, but their shots went wide when Dana tackled them from behind.

She hit them hard enough that they scattered like bowling pins. Dana let out a growl and sank her teeth into the throat of the one closest to her and ripped. It was like watching a speed eater at a chicken-eating contest, except with far more blood and shrieking.

"Jesus Christ," Mike muttered. He could almost hear Lily chastising him for his language.

"Sword!" Dana whipped her head toward Velvet, her hand outstretched.

"What do you need it for?" asked Velvet as she tossed Dana the blade.

Dana snatched the sword out of the air and beheaded the Nirumbi she had just bitten.

"Zombie birth control." She tore into the other two before they could regain their footing and stabbed them in the head to prevent them from turning. Dana bolted into the woods, leaving a trail of blood behind her footprints.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Mike muttered, then placed a hand to his stomach. He was feeling woozy.

"It's us or them," Velvet told him, then ran back into the cabin. When she emerged, she was carrying her father's pistol. "We didn't start this. Remember that."

The steely glint in her eyes steadied his resolve, and he continued to watch the trees. The snowmen charged into the forest, filling the air with cries of alarm. With her army finished, Yuki returned to Mike's side and summoned tall walls of ice around them while leaving windows for him to shoot through.

Nirumbi charged at them, and he fired. Once they fell to the ground, he tried to ignore their cries while reloading, doing his best to focus on the task of protecting the others. Quetzalli summoned lightning blasts that struck her horn, allowing her to redirect them into small clusters of attackers that died on impact. The metallic smell of ozone filled the air.

"Something feels off about this," Yuki said, after almost ten minutes of killing Nirumbi. "It's clear that the Nirumbi are outmatched, just like before."

"There are way more of them now," Velvet replied, then raised her gun to take down a Nirumbi that had scaled the wall. "Maybe it's a numbers game?"

"No, Yuki is right." Mike scanned the tree line. "What would be the point in sending them in just to die? Why would they do it?"

"Because they are less afraid of you than they are of me." The voice came from behind him, and when he spun in place, he saw Leeds standing on the roof of the cabin.

Both he and Velvet opened fire, but Leeds flickered as the bullets went through him.

"It's a projection," Yuki explained.

"What do you want?" Mike asked.

Leeds chuckled. "That's simple, dear Caretaker. I want this land."

"Why not just ask? Why not find a different way to reach out?" Mike felt his anger growing as his magic roared inside of him. Tiny sparks formed on his fingertips, but he clenched his hands, willing them away. "I feel like you had options."

"Mike, don't." Yuki grabbed him by the shoulder. "Really, don't even talk to him. He's manipulative."