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Curran was breathing deep The wound on his shoulder gaped with red The edges had begun to pull together, but long brown bristles stuck out of it--the stiff "hairs" that had lined the giant insect’s leg

"Do we have a flaet a flamethrower"

We looked at each other The stench was almost unbearable noas covered head to toe with spider-scorpion slime and my own blood Curran leaned over and spat to the side That’s right He’d bitten the da

"water of the speed and the spirit" a ht

I turned

Across the street Mac and Leroy were trying to chant the FJ Cruiser’s water engine into life

You’ve got to be kidding me

The two mercs saw us My stare and Mac’s connected I forced myself to stand up

"Oh, no, no, no" Mac jerked his ar"

Next toout of the car "This is my shit!"

They took off down the street at a run

I turned to Curran and pointed at them I had no words left He shook his head

I reached out withfor small droplets of my blood It answered my call I pushed The blood flowed out of the spider-scorpion corpse, pooling on the pavement into a small puddle It turned solid and shattered into powder, all of its one The wind swiped it off the pavement as if it had never been there