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"Stay behind un up, and walked to the door, forcing uards were dead Very dead, beyond all help Someone had taken their weapons The odor of blood hitelse, an odd stench that re a storm I sed down bile and stepped over the corpses into the brightly lit foyer

Blood ainst the soft creaes--soet away A bloodstain with feathered edges, as if soainst the floor--so swipe--whoever had fallen here was dragged into the living roorab on to the floor with bloody hands Please don’t let it be Rynda or the kids Please

I padded along the wall, avoiding the bloodstains I was so glad I duht

The vast living room opened in front oflike an arroard the center of the room, where, twenty feet away, two creatures crouched on their haunches over another dead body splayed out on the Oriental rug About five feet long from head to the base of a prehensile tail, they had the build of a sleek greyhound, but there was so at the body of a youngwhite claws Their stiff, greyish-blue fur stood straight up like bristles on a boar Their heads, round and crowned by bat ears, swiveled towardlooked barely twenty Death had frozen his face into an expression of utter horror He had known he was about to die He probably felt it as they ate hi anyone else

Suh to our animals, which meant their eyes were close to their brain Brain was an excellent target

I fired

The gun roared The first shot tore into the left creature’s ht top eye The bat-ape stumbled back

I turned and fired at its friend Bullets punched into the second beast’s face, ripping through bone and cartilage

Two shots

Three

The bat-ape collapsed facedown

The first beast jerked on the floor, gripped in spas I carefully stepped over the body and put another bullet into the back of its skull just in case it decided to get up Six rounds gone

Cornelius touched ht, toward the kitchen, and held up one finger

So thumped above us Echoes of faint voices floated down

If ent up the stairs and the thing in the kitchen decided to folloe’d be in a lot worse shape Being attacked fro the corner A dark shape leaped at le shot before the bat-ape landed on ainst the floor All of the air rushed out ofaped open, the needle teeth like the jaws of a trap about to encloses it off me I rolled on my side Cornelius stepped overpan

The bat-ape tried to rise

He bashed it again, then again, bringing the frying pan down like a hammer Blood splattered the walls The bat-ape shook and lay still

Cornelius straightened I got off the floor and looked at thethe body

"But you don’t like guns?" I whispered

"This is different," he whispered back "This is how an animal kills This feels e, but I wasn’t going to corateful "Thank you"

He gave me a solemn nod

I left the kitchen and crept up the stairs Cornelius followedfriends?" I whispered

"No Theirto bond with an insect All I feel is hunger"