Lady Superior Read Online Free PDF Page A

She wasn’t like other humans herself. Did she deserve that fate?
    Kristen heaved herself to her feet. With cautious steps, she walked toward a body—the only one in the aisle that hadn’t been scraped away by her makeshift bulldozer. She took it by the shoulder and flipped it onto its back with ease. A few thundering heartbeats passed as she waited for the body to move. It didn’t. She opened the clasp on its helmet and pulled it away. Beneath, the bloodied face of a Caucasian man stared at her with dead eyes. Bile rose in her throat.
    The dead man’s hand grabbed her by the neck.
    His arms suddenly swelled with muscle, armor snapping off from the shoulders down, the cloth beneath tearing to pieces. She tried to scream, but her throat was squeezed too tightly. The man howled, baring teeth that lengthened to sharp knives too large for the man’s mouth. He straightened his arm, lifting her high above him as he sat up, then stood. She dug her fingers into his thick wrists, trying to pry his hands loose—to no avail. The rest of his body rippled with ropey muscle, thick fur covering the skin the riot gear had protected moments earlier. He squeezed her neck, harder. Her ears rang and she felt a pressure behind her eyes; memories of flicking the tops off of dandelions as girl flooded her mind. She thrashed, kicking out with her legs. The creature’s arms had grown so long that she connected with nothing but air. Kristen tried to cough, but it caught in her closed throat. Her tongue felt thick. She tried working on the creature’s hands instead of wrists, trying to pry away individual fingers. Her arms shook with the exertion—every ounce of superhuman strength only managed to pull away one finger at a time.
    Without warning—and seemingly without reason—the creature stumbled forward. Its grip on Kristen loosened for only a second, but it was enough. She tore its hands away and fell to the concrete in a heap, gasping for air. Her senses seemed to flood back in. She shook her head, gathered her wits, and threw herself out of arm’s length of the creature who’d held her. A figure silhouetted by starlight stood in a shooting stance atop the bulldozer-crate. A series of cracks and flashes issued from the silhouette, each round striking the creature with a splash of black. Blood?
    Whatever damage the bullets caused, the creature didn’t seem to mind. It threw its head back, now sporting an elongated muzzle, and howled.
    Is that a werewolf? Kristen wondered. Did I almost get choked out by a fucking werewolf? That’s not even fair. There isn’t even a moon tonight.
    The creature got down on all fours and charged the distant silhouette. The shooter seemed to anticipate the action, using the creature’s rising head and height to vault over as it leapt at her. Jane landed behind the creature in a roll. She came up on her feet and ran straight for Kristen. “Help!”
    “Help?” Kristen croaked. Her throat hadn’t yet recovered from the creature’s grip. “How?”
    Jane ran past her. “Punch it in the face!”
    “What!”
    Jane disappeared around a corner. “That’s what I’m paying you for!”
    The beast turned on Kristen and charged her.
    Punch it in the face.
    Kristen shrugged and held her ground. “Yeah, sure. Why not?”
    The changeling bore down on her, its shoulders nearly scraping the shelves on either side. It howled and threw itself forward, arms outspread.
    She ducked its grabbing hands and surged straight up the moment they passed, using her weight and upward motion to drive her fist into its jaw. The combination of her blow and its momentum carried it over her shoulder and sent it spinning head over tail through the air. The creature slammed into the far wall behind her and fell to the ground in a twisted heap.
    Kirsten watched it fall in awe. Jane reappeared just as the body hit the concrete and delivered two rounds to its already mangled head. She shuffled back from the creature, watching it in