*CHAPTER 6*

He moved so fast, I didn't have any time to react. The next thing I knew, I was laying in the bushes, his leather jacket plastered to my face, and sharp rocks stabbing me in the back. I coughed, trying to catch the breath that had been knocked out of me, but it was impossible being crushed by him the way I was.

"What do you think you're doing?" I wheezed, the baseball bat, clattering off to the side and just out of reach. Shit.

"Be quiet." He hissed down at me, still looking out toward the road, his expression hard.

"I will not be quiet." I said my voice getting louder by the second until it built towards a shriek, I thrashed against him in an attempt to wiggle free, but he was heavy, "Get off me or I'm going to scream." My threat didn't sound very threatening with the breathlessness of my voice.

"Shhhhh," he plastered his hand against my mouth. It was hot and rough with calluses and it felt suffocating with my heart racing so fast.

I squirmed against him again, until a dark flutter of movement in my peripheral caught my attention. I turned my head against the hard rocks, following his gaze. Squinting through the scraggly branches of the shrub, I froze. At the far end of the driveway were three figures. All three tall and hooded.

They swayed a bit where they stood, and at first glance, they looked drunk. They moved slowly around the driveway and as they shifted around, one of their faces became visible in the streetlamp for a moment beneath the cover of its hood. I fought back a gasp, my blood turning to ice in my veins.

Because his face...even from this distance it was easy to see there was something unnatural about it. A sickly color. The skin plastered to his face so tightly it was like looking at an emaciated corpse. Cheekbones jutting out at an unnatural angle.

And his eyes. I had to blink to be sure I wasn't imagining it...because his eyes were glowing yellow. I sucked in a breath, my heart stuttering in my chest as I watched them shuffle around each other.

"Who. Is. That?" I whispered against the guy—Malcolm's—long hand. My voice was muffled against his skin. He ignored me, watching them carefully from where he hunched over me in the bush.

One of the creatures lifted his head into the air, tilting it back and forth...sniffing. He was sniffing the air around him. And then his eerie yellow eyes fell in our direction. As his eyes landed on us, a crooked jagged smile broke out across his face.

And he broke out in a sprint towards us.

Above me, Malcolm tensed and swore. He was up from his crouch in the same movement. Despite his large frame, he moved smoothly. Warm evening air rushed over me where his body had just left mine. He rushed forward to meet the three creatures head-on. Every step--every movement--was deliberate and controlled.

The second his weight was off of me, I rolled to my side, pulling myself up, my heart thundering. With numb shaking hands, I fumbled along the rocks searching blindly for my baseball bat as I watched in horror at what was playing out in front of me.

Everything felt like it was happening too fast and in slow motion all at the same time. I watched in horrified shock as a bright orange, yellow light pierced through the darkness surrounding Malcolm's leather-clad figure.

Even from this distance, heat doused my face as a crack of fire blazed from Malcolm's fingertips like a torch had been ignited. In the next breath, he sent a stream of flames toward the graying yellow-eyed creatures charging in our direction. My breath caught in my throat. Disbelief coursed through me.

Malcolm had shot fire from his fingertips. Fire.

I didn't have time to process that fact because the creature dodged the stream of flames in a jerking lumbering motion, continuing its attack. It was almost upon him now.

Malcolm looked back towards me as if he only just remembered that I was still there, "Run." He shouted to me before another blast of fire left his fingertips, the light leaving me temporarily blind. I rushed to blink spots away from my vision, scrambling up onto shaky feet.

He didn't have to tell me twice.

Hot spikes of adrenaline coursed through me and with a death grip on the handle of my bat I made a mad dash across rocky terrain that made up both mine and George's yards and into my driveway. Somewhere along the way I'd lost my sandals and the sharp rocks jabbed painfully into the soles of my feet as I ran. I didn't care though. All I could think about was getting away as fast as humanly possible.

Sweat dripped down my neck and rocks clattered in my wake.

I was halfway to my front door when I was tackled to the ground in a tangle of rough fabric and concrete and unnatural crunching sounds. My skin scraped across the pavement, my head hitting the driveway so roughly that stars flashed across my vision.

I could barely move, weighed down by a heavy creature. It grinned down at me with a set of broken teeth. They were jagged like the shattered head of a glass bottle. Horror like I'd never felt before settled over me. He barely looked like a person, barely looked human. As I struggled to suck in any air, I was assaulted by the same foul stench that had permeated my street that morning.

Burnt sugar and garbage and blood. The smell of rot.

With the creature on top of me as it was, it was potent. Overpowering. Bile crept up my throat. Blinking my vision clear, my eyes were met with the unnatural yellow and bloodshot eyes of one of the deathly-looking creature. There was something in those eyes. Something that reminded me of what it would be like to stare into the eyes of a wild animal.

Hunger.

An unnatural insatiable hunger that had my instincts screaming at me to run, run, run.

I could barely think straight with the creature crushing me, breathing in my face, but it turns out I didn't need to--instinct kicked in and I twisted my legs with enough force that I was able to kick the creature off of me. I had taken it by surprise, and it stumbled a step back before catching itself, readying to launch at me again.

Without a second thought, I swung my baseball bat, hitting it square in the face with a loud crack. The hit reverberated up my arms and the creature hissed angrily where it landed. I smashed the bat into it again for good measure, my heart racing so fast I felt light and hot.

I stumbled backward clumsily, the metal bat rattling and scraping against the pavement. I'd managed to sprint forward another few steps when the creature—moving impossibly fast was in front of me again.

It ducked into a crouch, its smile stretching larger. And a deeply pitched growling noise reverberated through its chest. A noise so animalistic and primal that it had goosebumps skittering up my arm. My heart thudded in my chest, lungs tightened in preparation to scream.

It leaned on its haunches and just as it launched into the air towards me, it was met with a scalding flash of orange and yellow. A crack of fire punched into the center of its chest. It let out a blood-curdling screech that made all the hairs on my arms stand on end.

The creature tumbled backward, landing heavily against the door of my car. It attempted to get back up to its feet, and Malcolm sent another billowing blast of flames toward it. The fire hit its mark. I watched on as those same flames that knocked the collapsing creature glanced off its stumbling form and in the same breath engulfed my car in an inferno of fire.

I felt my mouth drop open in horror.

Within moments my beautiful hunk of metal car had turned into a blazing bonfire.