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"Keep away from me," the goateed man said. He had the gun in both hands, but the barrel was shaking so badly it looked like a conductor's baton. |
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The wolf's mouth twisted into what looked almost like a human smile. |
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Wait a minute! Cyrus screamed silently from deep inside his mind. This wasn't part of it. Let him go! |
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But the wolf took another step . . . and another. |
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The gun exploded and Cyrus staggered as the bullet passed through his shoulder. The pain was immediate and exquisite, but it freed him from the beast's hold. |
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The goateed man fired again and again and kept firing until the hammer fell on a spent cartridge. Even then, he kept pulling the trigger until Cyrus, leaking blood from half a dozen places, stepped in front of him and stuck his claw in the muzzle of the gun barrel. |
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What Cyrus longed to do was rip the man's goatee off and his face along with it and have them both for lunch. But six bulletsthree of which had passed through his stomachwere enough to dampen even his appetite. Instead, Cyrus merely bared his fangs and growled. |
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The goateed man dropped the revolver and ran. Cyrus watched him slipping and sliding over the obstacle course of body parts. He fell twice and bounced back up before finally vanishing into the secret tunnel. |
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Phew! What the devil happened? Cyrus wondered as he began to resume his human form. His mind was still spinning. It wasn't just that he had lost control, it was almost like being possessed. He only hoped Kyna hadn't been watching. |
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Kyna was lying slumped across the hollowed-out torso of a young boy. One of the bullets that passed through Cyrus had struck her high in the chest. He fell to his knees to examine |
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