Othermoon by Berry Nina

Author:Berry, Nina [Berry, Nina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 9780758276933
Publisher: K-Teen
Published: 2013-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

A sound like a tree limb snapping, and something smashed into my chest like a sledgehammer. I gasped, but my lungs took in nothing.

I caught a glimpse of Lazar’s eyes wide with horror; then he grabbed for Michael’s gun.

Makes sense, I thought with an odd sort of detachment. Michael’s wearing a bulletproof vest, which makes it tough to shoot him back. And you can’t just go around shooting people in the middle of a casino.

Or maybe you can.

I wasn’t sitting up anymore; I was lying on my side on the floor. I didn’t remember sliding downward. I put my hand to my chest and felt something sticky, but didn’t have the strength to pull my hand away to see what it was. I tried inhaling again, and a tiny thread of air squeaked into my lungs.

Not enough. Not enough.

Something like the ocean was roaring in my ears, and the struggling forms of Lazar and Michael were growing fuzzy at the edges.

“Dez!” Through the din came Lazar’s voice, sharp as a razor. Somewhere out there I could still see his brown leather jacket, wrestling with a man in a gray jacket, whoever that was. It didn’t really matter. My eyelids were made of lead, and my heart had been replaced with a stone.

“Dez, you must shift!” Lazar’s voice cut through the woolly fog. “I call upon you to shift now. Now!”

That voice could not be denied. It stirred the dark roiling essence at my core that had begun to still. Power, blazing with life, rolled through that portal in my soul, shredding the haze in my mind, pushing the stone from my chest. My hands were not hands, but huge, velvety, striped paws; my skin was now fur, my teeth fangs.

I rolled to my feet, my long tail knocking aside the desk. The monitor on it crashed to the floor. The bullet which had pierced my chest dropped to the floor, and I dug my claws into the patterned carpet, screening out the piercing clang of casino bells, the bright flashing lights, to zero in on the man in the gray jacket. He was thickset and strong. He expertly rolled on top of Lazar, one elbow pushing down on Lazar’s windpipe while pinning his legs to the floor with his knees. Lazar heaved up against him, to no avail.

Both guns lay useless nearby, a few feet apart. So Lazar at least had dealt with that part of the problem. I would deal with the rest.

Someone screamed, “Tiger!”

Yes, I thought, as a general murmur of panic swirled through the room. Yes.

And I roared.

The vibration from it made the floor thrum. Michael’s head turned with the suddenness of a marionette’s on a string. His eyes widened in fright. His terror pleased me, but it would not save him.

Around us, the sounds of hubbub turned to yells of horror and cries for help. Michael pushed himself away from Lazar, crabbing backwards on all fours and trying to grab for a gun. Lazar coughed, still alive.

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