Monster Mine by Meg Collett Page A

“We have to get
them back to the warehouse. It’s not—”
    A scream, far different from the cries
of the halflings around us, ricocheted off the buildings. I was
already lifting my face to the sky as the shadow slipped by. People
ducked and flinched away, but most looked upward in time to see the
winged creature circle over us.
    The moon came out from behind the
clouds and shone down on us, silhouetting the creature. It hung in
the air just above the building’s roofline, its wings slowly
undulating. It was close enough for us to make it out. Flesh hung
in strips from its waist as if it had torn through its skin. Where
its legs should have been dangling, there was only bone and
swinging entrails. Bare breasts hung over its sharp ribs. But its
face . . . I had never seen anything like it.
    The creature was a woman, no doubt.
Dark hair billowed in tattered streams around her. Her eyes were
wide-open black saucers above jutting cheekbones. She opened her
mouth, a gaping black hole, and screamed again. A long, slender
tongue, like a snake’s, slithered out and tasted the
air.
    Halflings scrambled into action and
started firing. The thing rose up with a fierce beat of its wings,
sending a stinking blast of air down on us that smelled of rotting
flesh and sour fish. She ducked and weaved, rising up then diving
down at us. Bullets scattered around her but never
connected.
    Hatter took my hand and pulled himself
up. Luke stood beside him, clutching his side.
    Thad had joined in with the firing
squad, and together they drove her farther up into the sky. With
another scream, she disappeared over the buildings and into the
night.
    Slowly, one after the other, the
halflings lowered their guns and looked around, faces stunned and
terrified. No one spoke, but we all felt the same bone-deep
chill.
    Thad swallowed heavily and
said, “Ha-halflings.” He paused and cleared his throat. “We’re
moving— now .
Assist those who can’t move and fucking double-time it back. Stick
to formation. Injured in the middle. If I see one damn person
lagging or not helping, I’ll shoot you myself. Go!”
    He turned to me. “I’ll get Hatter.
Help Luke.”
    “ I’m fine,” Luke growled,
but I went to him anyway, forcing his arm over my
shoulders.
    “ Move out!” Thad had to
shout again when no one started forward.
    “ Sunny!”
    The shout rang out from across the
lot. We all looked up to see Ollie hurtling toward the group at
full tilt. She caught sight of us, her eyes bouncing from me to
Hatter to Thad and finally to Luke. She shoved through the
halflings jogging past her and threaded her way to us.
    “ Sunny,” she repeated, her
mouth hanging open, panting out breaths.
    “ We’re okay,” I
said.
    “ What the hell happened?”
she asked, taking a position by Luke’s other side. “What was
screaming?”
    Ollie was taller than me, so when she
took most of Luke’s weight, he was lifted well above my shoulders.
Her eyes scrutinized every inch of him, their faces close together.
He set his forehead against hers and took a long, deep breath. It
was the closest I’d seen them together since we’d arrived in
Anchorage, and it was the first time I’d seen Ollie actually touch
someone willingly.
    Luke, wounded as he was, seemed to
savor every moment of it, leaning into her more than he needed to
and breathing her scent in deep.
    “ No clue,” Thad said. He
sounded shaken and looked more scared than I’d ever seen him. “It
was flying.”
    “ Flying?” Ollie’s head
snapped toward us and away from Luke’s injuries. “How?”
    “ Wings,” Hatter hissed. I
went to Thad and helped him with Hatter.
    “ It was a woman,” I said,
positioning myself under Hatter’s arm. “Her legs were just bones,
and she had these strips of flesh hanging
. . .”
    Ollie cursed and picked up
her speed toward the warehouse. We all did. The other halflings
were well ahead of us. On the way back, we didn’t talk. Our focus
was solely on