The truck tires peeled off the dirt road and onto a paved thoroughfare in a spray of gravel and dust, back wheels smoking as Koa threw the vehicle forward.
He pulled a walk-talkie from his cup holder and pressed its button, “Al!” We’re away.”
“Aye, but not for long.” The speaker’s deep Scottish accent crackled, “That Hound’s on your tail, lad.”
Leta turned back to see the shadow hyena swirling onto the road to chase after them.
Long legs pumped as it tried to pick up speed.
“Dammit. We’re headed towards Fira.” He hissed into the speaker.
Leta crawled forward and pulled down the center window to shout at him, “Isn’t it a bad idea to lead this monster back to where people are?”
“For us, maybe. Hellhounds exist in shadow. When it’s in light, it loses its form.” He called back to her, reaching into a massive duffle bag in the passenger seat for something.
“So the city is going to help us?
“The lamp lights! When it’s in the light, it can’t hurt us.”
Another car passed them, going in the opposite direction, and she watched in morbid fascination as the Hound’s body seemed to evaporate, ember eyes shrinking to barely the size of a candle’s flicker as its shadows vanished in the oncoming brightness from the car’s headlights.
The moment it passed, the fire of its eyes brightened and drew in the shadows around it, pulling the darkness to it until it was whole once more and back on its trail without losing speed.
“That’s fucking terrifying.”
“Hey! Take this.”
Leta looked back and saw the point of something medieval shoving through the truck’s center window.
“What the… is that a crossbow?”
“Yeah! Take it.”
Her fingers closed over the barrel in an incorrect way to handle a weapon and pulled it to her.
“That looks pretty cool.” Vigo sighed from where he was slumped against the passenger side of the truck bed as if they were casually going for a ride through the country.
“What the hell am I supposed to do with this?” She shouted at Koa with equal parts bewilderment and indignation.
“Use it, you bloody pillock!” He cursed, “There’s bolts under the quiver. Pull the line back and load. Put the pommel near your shoulder, not your chin. You’ll lose your teeth if you do.”
Leta didn’t need any more encouragement and did as instructed, slipping a bolt out of the polyester pouch under the barrel. The string was more challenging to pull back than anticipated and nearly slipped from her grasp.
She set the butt of the weapon against her shoulder like the hunting rifle her grandfather had insisted she learn to shoot.
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It was easier to aim the rifle than this crossbow, which she realized as she pulled the trigger and watched her shot go wide, nowhere near hitting the monster by any stretch of the imagination.
“Oh, this is going to suck.” She muttered to herself and pulled another bolt, pausing to look up as a lamp suddenly illuminated the truck bed overhead.
“Al! We’re getting into Fira.” Koa called into his device, “We’re sticking to the outskirts.”
“Good, lad. Get to - oh, shite! The Loupgaru’s gotten around Bonnie. It’s on your trail!”
“Dammit!” Koa spat before pulling the truck hard to the right when they reached a fork, keeping them from heading into the center of town.”
Leta had been focused on the Hell Hound behind them and lost her balance, falling unceremoniously into Vigo and nearly bludgeoning him with the crossbow.
“Oh..” That was all he got out before he turned his head over the side of the truck and threw up.
“Jeez, Vigo!” Leta scrambled away to avoid being hit by flying nasty.
She heard him moan, “Oh, that’s gross,” as she strung another bolt and took aim.
The lamp lights above were closer together, shortening the time that the Hound was solid more and more until it was more a figment of imagination than a physical thing.
Leta focused, trying to take deep breaths to center herself and time the shot to hit it when it was in darkness but missed as the neon light of an unexpected restaurant kept the monster hidden.
“Feck!” Came from the truck cab before the car swerved right to avoid a lorry backing up into a restaurant, tossing Leta roughly into the other side of the bed.
“I want off this ride…” Vigo moaned, his face green even in the darkness of the night as he lay against the truck.
“Yeah, me too.” Leta sighed as she got another bolt together.
She turned her head to call through the back window, “Someone should have called the cops, right?”
“Hell Hounds can pass as just a trick of the light or a few too many drinks since they’re intangible out of the shadows.”
“We’re not intangible though!” She quipped, “Everyone can see you breaking the speed limit and me with this crossbow.”
“Then we better pick up the pace and hope we can outrun them.” He turned the wheel again to get them down a one-way alley away from the overhead lamps.
The long stretch was free of tourists with minimal door lights, leaving a long stretch with minimal interruptions.
“Take the shot! Take the shot!”
Leta pulled the crossbow up, aimed, and fired.
Her bolt was true and dug deep into the shadow monster’s shoulder blade. It yelped in that haunting, almost chuckling cackle as it lost its footing and stumbled into the pavement unceremoniously.
“Yes!” She whooped, cheeks cracking in a wide smile as she pumped her fist. “Woohoo! Hell yeah!”
Her joy was short-lived as Hound tripped and rolled under the harsh light of a grocery store’s back door, its body again turning to mist as the bolt clattered to the stone floor. Its tiny twin flames moved slowly through the glare above as it drew in the darkness around it, merging into the massive canine form before it shook itself like a dog coming out of the bath and started to peruse again.
“Oh, come on!” She shouted at it indignantly.
“What happened?” Koa called back, only able to glance back for a heartbeat before returning to the road in front of them.
“I hit it, but the minute it got under a light, it evaporated and put itself back together again.”
“Hounds can only take damage when they’re corporeal!” He answered, “Once they’re in the light, they heal themselves. You have to hit it between its eyes or behead it while it’s in shadows to kill it.”
“Well, that’s just great.” She grumbled.
The walkie-talkie crackled to life, “Lad! The Loupgaru’s turning northwest. It’s headed for the rendezvous point. Pretty sure I’m seeing tracks of a Minotaur, too.”
“Shite!” He spat as a car pulled out in front of them, forcing him to lose acceleration and swerve around it, “What’s the call? This thing’s still on our tail.”
“Stick to the plan. Get to the rendezvous where Afra’s waiting to cover for you. This is what we train for, laddie.”
“Right. 10-4!”
“A Minotaur!?” Leta screamed in shock.
“Welcome to being an Arisen.” He chuckled anxiously and then grunted as everyone lurched forward. Then, the truck suddenly decelerated. Leta lost her grip on the crossbow as she fell to the bed, slid backward with a yelp, and looked back to see that the Hound had caught up to them, two shadow paws clinging to the tailgate with its talon claws inches away from where her feet were braced.
Its burning coal eyes the size of baseballs glared at her, mouth opening to bath her in a scorching hot breath full of ash and embers as it tried to lunge forward and take a bite of her.