Wearily, the two wolves loped along the deer-trail, each carrying a backpack. They could make much better time furform, and after the alarmingly frequent demon attacks of late, they wanted to keep moving as much as they could.
Although where it was they were running to, Aindry had no idea.
She couldn't recall ever having been so very exhausted, right down to her bones. All too often she was certain Jaisan was going to lie down and not get up, and that only the lingering hope of finding Jess kept him moving.
The deer-trail came to a lake, a rocky shore that sloped sharply down to the water two feet below. Aindry let go of her pack, and scrambled down to the edge for a welcome drink. Jaisan plunged his muzzle into the water beside hers, lapping fast as a cat with cream. She nipped his ear to remind him to slow down before he made himself sick, and he reluctantly obeyed.
She caught a glittering out of the corner of her eye, and raised her head again to look. No, nothing that she could see. It was only the glint of starlight and cottage lights and the thin crescent of the very young moon on the ripples farther out on the lake. She lowered her head back to the water.
Jaisan yelped in pain and shock; she jerked her head up once more, barely in time to see him being dragged into the water by something dark and glistening wrapped around his ribs. She lunged towards him, plunging under the water after him, frantically snapping and clawing at the thing that held her little brother. Jaisan's thrashing only made it harder.
Her skin crawled as she felt a cold, questing touch against her side. She twisted away and broke the surface, panting. No time to catch her breath, Jaisan was still under there.
This time, she went after the thing a few feet past Jaisan, and sank her teeth into something rubbery and acidic. Grimly, she bit down with all the force of a werewolf's jaws, wishing she had solid ground under her feet to give her leverage.
A scream made her head ring, and it snaked towards her—releasing Jaisan, blessedly. Both came up for air at the same moment, dog-paddling towards shore with more energy than she'd believed they still had. Jaisan slipped on the slope up, his breath coming in ragged gasps; Aindry dug in all four feet and blocked him from a fall back into the water with her own body, barely.
Bitter cold coiled around her rear leg, and wrenched her back towards the water. She yelped as she felt something tear, but it was choked off as her head went under again.
Oh, gods, they're going to do it this time, we're going to die. We'll never find Jess or Mom or Sam.
No! No damned demon's going to kill off the Kore-Tremaynes that easily!
Fear and pain went a step away, left her thoughts cold and clear as a bright winter day. She had to get ahold of it and make it let go before she drowned.
She writhed around, felt the extra damage she was doing to her hip, but she found her target and snapped. Even the water couldn't make her miss at that range. The rubbery stuff squished unpleasantly, as though there were no bones, but she ground her teeth together, pretending she was trying to sever a particularly tough bit of meat from a kill.
It screamed again, but held on.
She sensed more than saw Jaisan, his teeth clamped down right beside hers. It screamed, on and on, and abruptly went limp. Together, they scrambled towards the shore again, and this time they made it.
Jaisan stumbled, but kept his feet under him as they turned to face the lake.
That long dark tentacle snaked towards them again, no, two of them, one badly chewed and dripping watery pale blood, the other intact.
Jaisan wavered, then flung himself at the damaged one. He evaded its attempts to seize him, and on the second try buried his teeth in it. Then he dug his feet into the rocky ground, and held on for all he was worth.
Aindry understood. Dodging around the intact tentacle, she limped heavily over, and bit the damaged tentacle again right where it was already weakened. She had to keep moving, but really, the thing wasn't that hard to evade now she was watching for it and could see it. Between her efforts and the tension Jaisan was creating, made worse by its attempts to pull free, the tentacle parted. Jaisan let go of the piece he held, as the demon let out another shriek and flailed the amputated stump.
Trying to watch two at once took more concentration than Aindry had left, even with her present clarity of mind; the bloody stump clubbed her on the side of the head while she was ducking around the whole tentacle. She fell, vision blurring into stars, and saw Jaisan run to stand over her, growling savagely. She had to get up, or it would kill him, he couldn't fight it alone. She battled the spangled haze before her, and drove it off enough to struggle to her feet again, though swaying a bit. Her left rear leg couldn't take any weight, she discovered. Why hadn't she noticed until now?
Could they run? No, if they didn't neutralize it now, it would simply come after them, perhaps with the advantage of surprise that had almost been their deaths this time. Biting off the other tentacle would probably not kill it.
They had to lure the body out of the water.
Slowly, she began to back away, a step at a time, still throwing snarls and feints in the direction of the threatening tentacle. Jaisan mirrored it.
A large, dark shadow loomed under the surface of the lake, then broke out into the air. If its form were based on anything real, it wasn't from this plane: it had a tail like a whale's, the tentacles were its version of arms, and above the tentacles were two large round eyes and a mouth that held teeth that would have been terrifying had she not encountered and defeated things with more and larger.
They kept retreating, and it kept following, drunk on the taste of anticipated victory and counting on its greater reach to keep it safe. It couldn't get up on the shore, but it beached itself as close as it could.
Aindry nudged Jaisan with her nose, sent him circling to the right, and she echoed it to the left. Neither could move quickly, both were hurt, but if they both attacked at once, one should be able to get in while it tried to deal with the other. The doubtful part was whether they'd pull off the manoeuvre with both of them still alive.
The demon watched first one, then the other, rotating its entire body since its octopus-eyes could stare only directly ahead. They closed in, matching speeds.
Now. Aindry lunged at the demon, and stumbled—she'd forgotten briefly that her left hind leg couldn't hold her weight. Jaisan took that as his signal to attack, and he did somewhat better. The tentacle whipped towards him, trying to grab him and duck him in the lake again. Aindry ran at what speed she could manage on three legs, and launched herself off the shore at the unprotected body; she landed on its tail and dug in her claws, hoping to hold the position at least for a moment. She slashed at its eyes with her teeth, raked directly across one, and opened a rip above the other that let blood spill into it, blinding it. With a violent convulsion, it threw Aindry off and into the water. Instead of trying for shore, she assaulted it from there, with her teeth and foreclaws—no leverage, but no weight on her hind leg either. Jaisan attacked it from the shore.
By some miracle, Aindry found a vital spot just as the tentacle whipped itself around Jaisan's body. The demon let out a final shriek that made Aindry wince, and melted away into nothing.
She splashed heavily up on shore. No open wounds, this time, so no poison, but the damage was severe. They could only pray they wouldn't be attacked again tonight. There'd been two the night before last, and two three nights before that, but only one the night before, so there was a chance.
Jaisan shifted to human, and sat down clumsily, blinking tears of pain and despair out of his eyes. “Oh, gods, Aindry, what are we going to do?”
She willed herself human as well, and lowered herself carefully beside him to hug him. “We survive,” she said, as firmly as she could. “Somehow.”
He shook his head, still struggling to catch his breath around the words. “We're hurt real bad. I think I heard ribs crack, it hurts to breathe, and your leg's messed up bad. You're lucky your jaw isn't broken. They haven't ever been this serious before. They won't stop until we're dead.”
Aindry sighed, and looked down. As much as it galled to admit it, they were no longer holding their own, they were losing.
“Let's go back to Unity,” she said quietly.
“There's no one there.”
“I know. It's possible there'll be enough interference still that they won't be able to find us as easily there. And if there isn't,” she shrugged. “It's melodramatic, but if we're going to die, let's do it at home. At least there won't be any innocent bystanders hurt.” She dredged up a tired smile somewhere. “Besides, maybe there'll be enough demon-luck in Unity still that something'll happen. And, if nothing else, at least it gives us a direction to travel in.”
“I guess it's better than just lying down and letting them have us.” He didn't sound altogether certain he believed that. “Not right now, though.”
“No,” she agreed. “Sleep now. We can start moving when we wake up.” Given the condition they were in, it would take them a while to get there, though it wasn't actually all that far away.
Given the condition they were in, they might never get there.
No point adding to Jaisan's gloom, though. She simply shifted back to wolf with an effort, and waited for him to join her. If another attack came tonight, they'd probably never even wake up enough to notice.