“That is impossible. I would have sensed them,” I growl.
“There is something masking them, but I can sense them now. Three of them!”
I frown, honing in on my senses, when I realise she’s right.
I feel them now. Not clearly. Just a dark, hungry aura clinging to the air.
And then I hear it.
An unearthly, blood-curdling cry of a manananggal. A blur moves through the dark, rushing straight towards us. My grip tightens. I swerve around a bend, and my stomach turns as sparks fly from the asphalt.
Then something slams into the back of the bike.
Hard.
We lurch forward. The rear lifts, and we are airborne.
Sienna screams. I twist with her, wrapping both arms around her, locking her against my body as we hit the ground. Pain explodes through me. Gravel tears across my skin as I slide withher in my arms, shielding her from the worst of it. Behind us, the bike skids across the road, hits a tree, and explodes in a violent burst of fire and steel.
Fuck.
The light from the blast throws long shadows across the trees, illuminating the darkness. Smoke and fumes hit my throat as I push myself up, breath ragged.
“Sienna!”
“I’m fine,” she answers softly. “You protected me.”
I don’t even have time to mourn over the loss of my bike, not right now when I have Sienna to worry about.
My back is torn, but I don’t care. She is alive. Her fingers are trembling against my chest. Her arm is scraped badly, and her top is torn. I take off my jacket and place it around her as I help her up.
Looking behind us, I scan the area; nothing.
I know they’re here, but what confuses me is the urge to run.
I don’t run, but my intuition is telling me to.
Why?
Should I shift? My wolf is clawing to be let out, but Sienna is still here, and if I shift, I won’t be able to communicate with her, but we don’t have an option.
Smoke smothers the air. The light from the fire flickers red and gold over the trees and bushes as it spreads across the field on the left side of the road. I scan my surroundings.
Where have they gone? I can still smell them.
Then I see them, the three dark shapes approaching at an unusually slow speed, as if they are in no hurry.
Giving me time to take in their elongated limbs, skin stretched tight over their skeletal frames. Grey and sickly, the one’s abdomen ends in torn flesh. From the waist down, there is nothing but trailing muscle and exposed bone.
Eyes glowing, teeth long and needle sharp. Its hands hang at its sides, long and skeletal, with fingers shaped like blades – sharp enough to slice flesh and bone.
The stench rolls over us. A rotting, wet smell like a corpse soaked in sewage. It hits my nose and turns my stomach, but my body remains still.
Sienna stiffens beside me.
The first manananggal lets out a gurgling rasp and takes a slow step forward. Its claws drag across the road, ripping up the asphalt, and I slowly move Sienna behind me.
“Shield yourself,” I murmur, and my voice seems to be the trigger. All three become a blur as they rush towards us. “Now!” I command her as my wolf tears through me, and I shift – bones crack and reshape, muscles stretch and twist, and then I hit the ground, my aura surging around me as I snarl, ready to attack.
