Second Skin (Skinned) Read Online Free PDF Page B

of their heads didn’t reach above the truck’s metal emblem, a silver ram, perched on the hood.
Red eyes peered out from beneath their hoods. The headlights exposed eroded, ravaged flesh.
Now that wasn’t fake makeup.
Their oozing, gaping mouths opened wide. A chorus of eerie screeches pierced the night.
“Shit, shit…” Alec cried. He slung his arm over the seat, sliding into reverse.
Matt reefed the gearshift back to park, risking the transmission. “No, we have to help. I think that’s Kate out there.”
Alec swore again, spun to face me, eyes hard. “Weapons.”
I dug into the gear bags and tossed whatever I could grasp to the brothers. They caught an axe and a bowie knife, and then bolted from the truck. The truck doors slammed into the buildings on either side as the guys scrambled to get clear of the truck and find some swinging room.
Matt popped his head back in just as I reached across the scattered equipment and grasped the door handle to follow. “Keep Brit out of the way, she’ll be weak now, and I don’t want her to fight.”
I swore. Nice of Matt to play up on my Mount Olympian pile of guilt. The guys stood on either side of the truck, assessing the diminutive figures that stalked away from Kate and eyed them right back.
“I am so not waiting in here,” I said on a growl.
“Nope,” Brit confirmed, “me either.” She wrenched one of her claws free of the leather seat.
“If you get hurt, Matt will never forgive me,” I said. Every instinct screamed at me to get out of there and back the guys up as I struggled to heave the gear bags out of my way.
“If you don’t get out of my way, I’m going to kill you.” Brit became a hellion of wings and scales and claws, trying to twist free of Matt’s coat and work herself out of the cramped cab.
Alec and Matt were closing in, about to make a move, when the figures charged for the truck with Brit and me trapped inside.
Lovely.

Tricky little suckers
 
In tandem, the hooded figures launched themselves onto the hood of the truck, crushing the metal under them with a deafening crunch.
Brit gasped. “Holy hell, how much do those little guys weigh?” My stomach rolled. The sour gas smell permeated the night.
Ugh, talk about silent but violent. They freaking stink! Out of the glare of the headlights, and up close and personal, I studied the creatures crouched on the hood. Huffs of smoke billowed from mouths filled with jagged teeth. Snowflakes drifted past hooded faces, absorbing the red glow from their eyes to fall like blood drops to their feet.
Bare feet. Buckled, hair-covered toes.
“What are you?” I racked my brain for possibilities. I hated to admit it, but I was thinking outside the monster box, more in line with high fantasy lore. This was comic-shop-dwelling nerd territory, the stuff of video games and sci-fi graphic novels. Hadn’t my father told me a thousand times faeries, elves, and their ilk were nothing more than fancy-assed stories? Still… trolls? No. They moved too fast. Goblins? Nope, no gray beards. They were nothing I’d seen and yet strangely familiar. Right down to the medieval brown cloaks and pigmy stature.
The truck rocked as Alec climbed onto the tire near the driver’s door, using it for extra height as he jabbed his blade at the creature closest to him. It turned its head, and let out a series of rapid, high-pitched squeals, near dog-whistle level.
I flinched, ready for some real inner-ear damage when the blade struck home.
But that didn’t happen.
Alec’s fist remained suspended at full strike. The blade trembled in his grip. With a wave of its hand, the creature sent the bowie knife soaring through the air. Alec dropped to the ground. Stunned.
The little rotter was some kind of wizard.
Matt bellowed in anger, hauled back, and swung his axe at the other little guy. It sliced through him all right, but he was smoke and mirrors. The axe went right through his small body as if he wasn’t there and struck deep into the