Blood of an Ancient by Rinda Elliott Page A

didn’t step aside fast enough. Long fangs sank into my shoulder. I screamed at the razor-sharp pain and ripped away from his teeth, spinning around to kick him. I hoped he’d fall over, figuring it would be hard to get to his feet fast without knees.  
    He stumbled but didn’t go down, instead twisting around and leaping into the air. I ducked and brought my knife up but his pelt was too thick. Shoving the knives back into their sheaths, I watched him circle me. I flexed my thighs, balanced on the balls of my feet and this time when he rushed, I swung my right leg up in a roundhouse kick that slammed into the side of his head. His spine hit the red truck behind him, but he roared and came at me again.
    I stepped to the side and ran a few yards, looking for his weak spot. That kick had made my wounded leg throb.
    I misjudged his speed. Before I could blink, he’d wrapped his arms around me from behind and started squeezing.
    “Too. Much. Love.” I struggled, lifted one foot to kick backward.
    He grunted and squeezed harder, then growled a word that sounded like shadow in my ear.
    Pain. My world became a haze of pain as it felt like he squished my insides together.
    Blythe and the teens came running out of the cafe. Rory was yelling and I struggled to focus on him. “It’s a Kuru-Pira. You just have to knock it down.”
    I knew that. Not what it was, but that knocking it down was a good idea. I sucked in what air I could and started a violent wiggle that had him grunting and struggling to hang on to me.
    “Don’t let it pee on you!” Sarah yelled.
    Because I was plastered to his front, there wasn’t a way for me to stop that from happening. I didn’t want to know what his urine would do to me, but just the thought freaked me out enough to make me struggle harder. I slammed my head back and heard a satisfying crunching noise.
    It wailed and squeezed.
    I saw black spots in my peripheral vision, even as Blythe ran up and flung her hands at us. Something behind me exploded. Blythe started mumbling, dropped to her knees and flung her hands at us again. So help me, if she caught me on fire, I was going to kill her.
    “Look for mud,” Rory yelled at his friends. “Hurry! If you see a footprint, yell out!”
    The kids scattered, weaving around the few cars left in the lot.
    “Found one,” Brock yelled.
    Rory stepped closer to where I struggled against the creature’s tight hold. “Okay, listen to me. I’m going to give Brock an instruction and you need to be ready, okay?”
    Ready for what? I was seeing stars and was worried a rib had cracked.
    He tapped Blythe’s shoulder. “Hey, what’s her name?”
    “Beri.” Blythe started to fling up her hands.
    Rory grabbed them. “Whoa, whatever you’re doing is seriously cool. Wish I could throw fire bombs, but I kind of like the buildings and trees around here.”
    “I need my yellow bag,” she said.
    “Okay.” He drew the word out. “Hey, Beri, still with us? Look at me!”
    I was going to do more than look at him if he didn’t get around to the plan here. I tried to convey that through my gasps and flails.
    “Brock! Put your palm in the footprint!”
    The creature holding me went stiff, like his legs had locked up, and then he fell. He didn’t loosen his grip and I didn’t want him to keep crushing me on the ground, so I managed to use the fall to wiggle far enough down to bite his arm. I got mostly hair, but there was flesh underneath, so I clenched my jaw hard, wincing when he let out another of those screeching roars. Fangs touched my sore shoulder and I wasn’t letting him chomp on me again, so I bit harder. I tasted blood right when his arms loosened. I squirmed free, spitting and gasping. I rolled a few feet away, got to my knees and watched the creature. “As soon…as all the…air…returns…to my lungs…you’re dead.”
    He didn’t get up, just awkwardly rolled side to side.
    “A Kuru-Pira can’t get up unless he has something to help