Moonlight Equilibrium: Book 3.5 of the Preternatural Chronicles

by Hunter Blain

  He pulled down a narrow row that ran at a perfect ninety-degree angle to the house, careful to position the hulking mass dead center. Jose was rewarded for his efforts when a stray branch collided with his side mirror, sending black plastic pieces cascading into the night.

  The three SUVs pulled into a single line behind him, not chancing the other paths. Their blueish HID lights bounced in his rearview mirror, almost as if they were attempting to blind him with their bombardment.

  With a grunt of frustration, Jose smacked the rearview mirror, sending the light to the roof of the vehicle instead of directly into his eyes.

  “They’re catching up!” Isabel cried out as she looked into her side mirror while tightening her hold around her baby.

  Jose looked at his own side mirror before the realization that it was gone struck, and flicked his eyes to the passenger side. They were indeed gaining on them.

  “Hold on, Julian!” Jose called over his shoulder to his whimpering son.

  Jose — having instinctively let his foot off the gas for his family’s safety — smashed his foot to the floorboard. Ana whimpered as the force of acceleration jumbled her delicate senses. She began crying in a high shrill.

  Jose bared his teeth as the skin on his knuckles tightened to resemble snowcapped mountains. He dared a glance to the passenger side mirror and was somewhat relieved their pursuers had not gained any more ground.

  He flicked his eyes back outside the windshield, and worry bubbled up in his stomach like a pot of boiling water with cheap pasta that was overly saturated with starch. The walnut grove was coming to an end, with nothing beyond the boundaries but wide-open desert.

  Jose’s mind flipped through a Rolodex of possible solutions — ranging from absurd to insane — and picked one at random. He flipped the bright HID headlights off right as the desert began, the blacked-out Tahoe blending in seamlessly with the night, and stomped on the break to jerk the huge SUV into a sharp left turn. Once in position, he floored the gas pedal and sent up a fog of dirt that billowed like an erupting volcano.

  Jose repositioned the rearview mirror and watched it intently, flicking his eyes to the darkness in front of him intermittently.

  The first SUV passed through the fog and hit their brakes once they realized Jose’s ploy. The second Tahoe, that had been in close proximity to the first, was blinded by the brown fog which suddenly illuminated bright red, and slammed into the rear of the lead vehicle with a satisfying crunch.

  Jose punched the steering wheel in victory with a cry of, “Yes!” right as cracks of gunfire robbed him of his brief joy. Flashes of light sparked in the dust storm as bullets announced their arrival by pinging off the rear panel. The back window splintered out in a web as the bulletproof glass blessedly did as intended, sparing the occupants from doing their best impression of Swiss cheese.

  Jose flipped the lights back on and was rewarded with a sight that would make even the strongest mind lose cohesion and slip into madness. Brown eyes gazed into yellow orbs bounding from the darkness.

  The world turned to slow motion as a twelve-foot-tall mass of brown fur, muscle, and claws leaped through the air to land on the hood of the Tahoe. Powerful fingers dug through the bulletproof metal of the vehicle’s frame like it was made of paper-thin cardboard.

  Isa let go of the oh-shit handle and instinctively brought Ana closer to her bosom and pivoted her torso away from the beast. Julian began crying in the back seat, using entire lungfuls of air before wheezing and having to suck in air again. Jose’s jaw clenched hard enough that his teeth felt like they were either going to shatter into fragments or get pushed back into the gums like a turtle’s head retreating from danger.

  The monster pushed its long snout into and through the windshield as if it were merely a curtain. It webbed out with a crack before tearing with ease and giving way to the will of the beast.

  Isa’s shriek was deafening, and the beast turned toward her, ripping more of the windshield as it did.

  On reflex alone, Jose lashed out repeatedly with his fist and began pounding on the large, wet nose of the creature. Over and over it struck, with the monster barely seeming to notice.

  Jose slammed on the brakes in an attempt to throw the beast off, but its grip was unbreakable. Instead, the large SUV lifted its tail into the air a few feet before crashing back down once the momentum was halted.

  The beast turned its attention to the driver, and air caught in Jose’s throat as he pushed himself back into his seat as far as he could possibly manage. His arms trembled from exertion where he pushed on the steering wheel in an attempt to create as much distance as possible between the fangs dripping with drool and himself. From somewhere in the back of Jose’s panicking mind, a single thought flashed as he appreciated the quality of the vehicle, given that the steering wheel hadn’t broken under the extreme pressure.

  Eyes locked on the tooth where Martin’s face had hung, and a whimper escaped Jose’s throat as the monster began opening its maw.

  There was the sound of a large vehicle skidding to a halt to the side of the Tahoe, followed by a cry of disbelief and then cracks of automatic fire.

  Jaws that were about to wrap around Jose’s right arm were yanked backward in rage as the beast tore off a chunk of roof off the SUV with its head.

  There were more cries of shock before the other SUV’s tires began spinning so fast in the dirt that they started creating divots rather than gaining traction.

  The wolf stepped off the vehicle Jose and his family were cowering in, and the shocks regained control from the lack of enormous weight. For some reason, Jose thought about being on a roller coaster when it’s going up the first major hill — that clicking and rocking you felt as the tracks forcibly took hold of the car.

  The werewolf bellowed its indignation as more rounds were pumped into it. One grazed through the beast’s forearm and continued its trajectory into Jose’s trap muscle located on top of his left shoulder. Jose’s head was rocked into the window from the force of the round, creating a web on impact.

  Stars exploded in the blackness of Jose’s universe like his own personal big bang. The sensation of tumbling weightlessly in a spiral threatened to excommunicate the beef jerky from Jose’s stomach, and he shook his head to regain equilibrium.

  From somewhere miles and miles away, Jose could just barely make out screams of raw terror mixing with shrieks of agony. His head lolled on his shoulders as his muscles sent requests for orders to a brain that was still rebooting. Jose noticed that his left armpit was sweating enough to soak through the undershirt he wore and start dripping down his ribs.

  While Jose attempted to say, “That’s weird,” what actually came out was a jumble of syllables that sounded like a drunkard tap-dancing on the verge of passing out.

  A signal pierced the fog of his mind and raced to his neck, which snapped his head up as if awakening from a nightmare.

  “Jose!” Isa was crying out over the cacophony of screams and gunfire. She was frantically shaking his shoulder with her left hand as her right clutched at their baby.

  He turned his head to regard his wife, and a bolt of white-hot lightning shot out of his wound. Jose inhaled sharply through his teeth and clutched at the soaked shirt. He pulled his hand away and almost fainted at the sight of so much blood dripping from his fingers.

  “Jose!” his wife cried again. Jose punched the gas and took a turn down the field heading for the road in front of his house, his wet fingers nearly slipping on the wheel.

  The cries of pain were cut off along with the chatter of weapons’ fire and were replaced with a howl that sounded more like a train horn than an animal’s vocal cords. As the werewolf’s cry rang out into the night, fingers made of solid ice wrapped around Jose’s spine. Goose bumps bubbled across his exposed flesh, and his nipples hardened for some reason that he couldn’t explain, all while the inescapable feeling of being chased clenched the back of his neck.

  A jealous limb reached into the car
to caress Jose’s face through the opening where the windshield had been. Jose barely had time to notice the hot blood coating his face run down his neck and reunite with the oozing wound on top of his shoulder.

  The chorus of automatic weapons’ fire somewhere in the distance began to falter, and Jose could guess as to why: either the contents of the magazines or the contents of the gunmen were being emptied.

  One after another, the sounds dropped until it was apparent that only two men were left, and then one. As the remaining cracks ceased, a shriek that belonged more to a small girl than a full-grown man took its place.

  As the falsetto scream was silenced forever, Jose’s heart began to thud in his ears. Another eerie howl swarmed the desert for miles around. Air was violently sucked into lungs that were overclocked. Sweat burst through his forehead and leaped to its death by rolling down his face, stinging his cut. In an effort to go faster, a heavy boot pressed into the already depressed gas pedal with the intent of punching through the floorboard. Warm air rushed into the car, drying Jose’s eyes.

  Jose leaned forward in his seat, almost touching the steering wheel with his face. Then he was through the field and down the driveway of his home, traveling at what felt to be a relativistic speed. Isa let out yelps of worry, but didn’t protest further as she continued to clutch their baby in both her arms.

  The road rushed to meet them, promising safe passage away from the monster Jose knew was just behind them. He could feel it on the back of his neck like a hot breath. A random comparison sprang forward in his mind, and he thought about being a kid and rubbing a balloon on the carpet before bringing it up to his arm, keeping the rubber an inch off the skin. As the balloon was moved up and down the arm, the hair would stand on end. Jose felt that odd sensation right now, from the base of his skull down to his shoulder blades.

  A sound was birthed in the darkness beyond the SUV and demanded Jose’s full attention, who was concentrating, intensely, on the bumpy dirt driveway.

  Thump Thump Thump. Thump Thump Thump.

  The noise grew louder and Jose bared his gritted teeth while exhaling a moan that sent spittle down his chin.

  The road, which was only twenty yards away now, seemed to stretch its hand while shouting, “Hurry!”

  Jose gathered his will and forced defiant muscles to turn and focus his eyes outside his window. He immediately wished he hadn’t.

  Furious eyes glinted a bright yellow as the monster flew through the air. Jose screamed, and his sore throat issued a warning that it would soon tear completely.

  The twelve-foot-tall werewolf smashed into the side of the SUV — which activated every airbag in the cabin — and sent the vehicle skidding to the side until the driveway no longer supported the tires. Rocky terrain bumped and thudded under the carriage, jagged stones reaching greedy points into the sky in an attempt to break something vital on the vehicle.

  The momentum was stopped with enough force that Jose’s grip slipped off the wheel and he was thrown to the side while still in his seat belt, the deflating airbags no longer offering support. The wound in his trap muscle ripped open, expanding in diameter with a sickening tearing sound. Jose’s vision, which had become a circle with blackness on the outskirts, began to shrink and give way to the nothing.

  Isabel’s shriek snapped Jose back to reality, and he looked out his window to see the wolf holding the frame of the SUV as the tires continued to spin uselessly. It growled and reached its hand to the driver’s door, ripping it off like a paper towel from a dispenser.

  As the mammoth inserted its head into the vehicle, a wet river of carnage dripped from its snout and poured first on Jose’s arm and then his neck, where his bullet hole — which was now a chasm — spilled his blood. Jose absently hoped none of the men had a blood-borne disease that could spread to him.

  The wolf sniffed Jose with a head the size of a two-door file cabinet. With his faculties all returned, Jose’s mind reeled with a thousand different scenarios and sent overlapping signals to his muscles. This resulted in the man sitting frozen in terror as the wolf slowly opened its jaws, as if it was enjoying the kill it had worked so hard for.

  Jose’s eyes moved from huge crimson-stained teeth to yellow orbs that held a frightening intelligence behind them. With a stomach-lurching realization, Jose knew with complete certainty that the beast was taking its time.

  A signal broke through the floundering orders of Jose’s rapid-fire thoughts, waving its hand around as it ran while holding a piece of paper with a message directly from up top.

  Jose slowly reached behind him and wrapped his fingers around The Judge. He pulled, and the monster of a handgun got caught in his belt. Panic grew like a fast-approaching mushroom cloud in his mind. Jose could already see it, and knew he would feel life-threatening anxiety in just a few heart-wrenching moments.

  His family whimpered wordless syllables as they watched the inevitable end approach.

  His muscles were still attempting to follow through with their original orders, and he tugged again, but to no avail. The beast pulled back slightly and regarded its meal with intelligent eyes. They scanned down his chest and to the arm hidden behind his back before snapping back to lock onto Jose’s own wide eyes. All preamble vanished like the flash from a camera, and the beast opened its massive jaws to envelope Jose’s entire head.

  Something pressed into the soft skin below the werewolf’s lower jaws, giving the monster pause before the click of The Judge’s hammer caused the sentient being to inhale sharply. Jose could feel the air rushing to fill the expanse of its lungs before he squeezed the trigger.

  Jose yanked his head to the side and out of the creature’s mouth as a tidal wave of blood spurted from its maw. Hot, sticky gore coated Jose’s hand as the wolf’s head collapsed to his lap, its tongue lolling out. Blood rained down from the ceiling of the SUV that hadn’t been ripped off.

  Jose cried out in wordless victory as his eyebrows shot to his hairline in surprise. An adrenaline-fueled laugh began at his stomach before climbing out his smiling mouth. He was surprised when his own voice sounded like it was coming from another room, as if muffled. A ringing that sounded — and felt — like there was a high-pitched, whining drill trying to bore into his skull through his ear canal appeared. He knew, just knew with absolute certainty, that his hearing would never recover after tonight.

  Jose pried his wary eyes away from the wolf to inspect his wife, who was trying to comfort their, apparently, screaming baby. Jose could barely make out the cries of the infant that seemed to match the pitch of the ringing in his ears.

  Isabel was mouthing something to Jose, who felt dizzy for some reason. Maybe it was from the blanket of relief that staved off the flames of worry which had enveloped his being. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and let sleep take him. It was over.

  Her expression grew exponentially more urgent, and Jose followed her eyes and trembling index finger to see the incredibly heavy wolf head resting in his lap. One of the eyes had been blown out, along with a sizable chunk of its snout. Jose’s stomach churned as he looked through the gore cavern that . . . had stopped . . . bleeding.

  How odd, Jose thought to himself, still in a daze. He attempted to move the head off of him with both hands, but must have touched an electric line because his left hand screamed in pain all the way up his arm. He jerked back his hand, which had been under the wolf’s massive head, and saw the cause of the intense pain. The firearm — which basically had the power of a shotgun in the compact frame of a revolver — had kicked back hard enough to splinter the bones in his wrist. It throbbed with each beat of his heart and began to swell sickeningly.

  The revolver dropped from his numb fingers and smacked Jose right in the balls. For the briefest of moments, Jose was glad the weapon had shown mercy by only careening into his delicates rather than going off instead.

  As Jose jerked his entire body from the sudden shock to his testicles, the wolf’s remaining yellow orb slowly rolled to land
on him. Jose froze in disbelief, feeling that if he didn’t move then it might not see him. After a single heartbeat, he shrugged off the silly notion and placed his free hand under the chin of the wolf, ready to push it out the door and be done with this nightmare. Hell, maybe Hector would forgive him for taking the SUV because he had killed the monster. Jose was feeling good about being able to retire and focus once again on being a farmer.

  The pupil expanded and then contracted again, and Jose had to fight the overwhelming urge to void his bowels as gaping flesh began to slowly knit itself closed.

  “Oh fuck!” Jose yelled and tried shoving the wolf out with both hands. For some crazy reason, the screaming pain in his left hand had suddenly reduced to the equivalent of someone lightly clearing their throat to get your attention . . . from thirty feet away.

  The werewolf’s nostrils began to flair with some of the air escaping through the closing hole, prompting the man to push harder than every accumulated bench press he had ever done in his entire life. The wolf . . . didn’t . . . move. What did happen was that Jose’s wrist crunched violently, and the man shrieked in agony as dizziness waged a war against his equilibrium.

  A glint of silver caught Jose’s eyes, and his free hand drunkenly shot toward his crotch — right as the wolf rolled its head.

  “No, no, no, no, NO!” Jose cried out in frustration, unable to reach the gun.

  Disbelieving eyes locked onto the exit wound that was diminishing with every passing second. After shrinking to the size of a tennis ball, the cavern sent strands of flesh across the expanse and began filling it in. A yellow speck, like a deflated balloon, grew from the back of the empty socket. Then it did something that threatened to snap Jose’s already fraying mind: it began growing, complete with a black slit for the pupil.

  A thought struck Jose like a blast of cold water, and he pulled his foot off the brake and smashed it into the gas. The SUV lurched forward and then to the side, being still held in place by the sheer bulk of the beast.