Trey somehow ended up back on his feet even as his ribs exploded in pain all over again. Stepping forward with a growl, he stood toe-to-toe with the giant, the two of them punching and slashing at each other over and over. The damage Trey inflicted on the man was horrendous, deep, slicing gashes across the arms, chest, and shoulders that went all the way down to bone. The wounds didn’t heal like they had on that female soul-sucker thing downtown, but the man never flinched. Hell, he never even made a sound. He simply kept swinging and punching, each blow more powerful than the last, as though all the trauma Trey was causing didn’t even faze him. It shouldn’t have been possible for any creature—even if it was supernatural—to sustain this much damage and not feel it.
A stray punch caught Trey in the chest, sending him flying yet again, bouncing him off a tree hard enough crack a few more bones in his back. When he hit the ground, there were a few moments as his vision started to fade and he had to waste precious seconds fighting off the approaching wave of darkness. If he passed out, he was dead.
Going on pure instinct, he scrambled for the weapon holstered at his ankle, even as the voice in the back of his mind pointed out that if his claws hadn’t slowed the behemoth down, a little 9mm round probably wouldn’t even tickle him.
Not that it mattered. By the time he got his weapon out and pointed in the right direction, he realized the big man in the robe was nowhere to be seen. After shoving himself upright and staggering forward a few steps, he came to the conclusion that the guy was already gone. The revving of a vehicle engine from the direction of Straus Road a few seconds later told him there was absolutely no chance of catching the man.
He stood there in the darkness, wondering why the monstrously huge man hadn’t finished him when he had the chance. The only answer he could come up with was that the guy had attacked him simply to give his slower partner time to get away. Of course, if that was the case, he couldn’t help but wonder how much more dangerous the guy would be if he had really wanted to murder Trey. He had to admit it was rather disturbing that the guy may not have been trying to kill him and had still been doing a bang-up job of it.
Trey turned and started walking slowly in a northerly direction, taking shallow breaths to ease his aching ribs as he pulled out his cell to let Connor know that the bad guys had gotten away. Connor passed the information on to dispatch, hoping for the best.
He just made it back onto Cedar Break Trail when he caught wind of Connor, Trevor, and Hale approaching, along with a scent he definitely hadn’t expected. A few minutes later, he saw a flashlight bobbing up and down in the darkness, coming his way.
“We found her at the intersection of Cattail and Cedar Break trails trying to figure out which way to go,” Connor said as they all reached him a minute later. “We thought it was better to keep her with us than to try to send her back to the parking lot.”
Trey was about to thank his pack mates, but the moment he stepped into the beam from Samantha’s flashlight, she let out a shriek and came running toward him. He held up his hands to stop her, but it was too late. She slammed right into the busted-up ribs on the right side of his body. He tried to hide his grunt of pain. And failed.
Expression bordering on panic, Samantha’s heart rate—which had already been way too fast—shot through the roof. Yanking up his T-shirt, she aimed the beam of her flashlight at the exposed skin and the bruising already forming across his torso. He tried to push the shirt back down as quickly as he could, praying she wouldn’t notice the places where his broken ribs stuck out at strange angles.
“Crap,” she said. “You look terrible. We have to get you to a hospital. On second thought, maybe you should lay down here and wait for the paramedics to arrive.”
Trey grabbed the hand swinging the flashlight wildly around and pulled her closer before she hit him—or herself. “Samantha, I’m okay,” he said softly, getting an arm around her and rubbing little circles on her back with his hand, trying to soothe her. “I’m a little roughed up, but nothing I can’t handle. I promise.”
Samantha looked like she wanted to argue, but then took a deep breath and let it out with a shuddering sigh, her eyes coming up to meet his in the darkness. “Sorry. I was sitting in your truck completely losing my mind worrying about you, so I got out to come help. When I saw the bruises, I kind of lost it. Like I told you, I’m not really good with living patients.”
He wanted to be mad at her for getting out of his pickup, but seeing her so freaked out, he simply couldn’t do it. He promised himself they’d talk about it later. Because the thought of Samantha being in the same woods as that huge psychotic monk scared the hell out of him.
“We’d better get back to the parking lot before too many people show up,” Trevor said. “Or we’re going to have cops wandering around these woods all night trying to find us.”
After they got moving, Hale deftly fell into step on the other side of Samantha and distracted her with a vivid description of the body parts they’d found about a half mile to the west of their location. Trey didn’t have to wait long before Trevor and Connor tugged him back a few yards to talk.
“Samantha wasn’t exaggerating,” Connor murmured quietly. “You do look terrible. What the hell did you run into out there?”
“Truthfully? I don’t know have a clue,” Trey admitted, keeping an eye on Samantha to make sure she couldn’t hear them talking. “The guy was big, fast, strong as hell, and I’m pretty sure he could control his heartbeat. At one point he was hiding behind a tree only a few feet away and I know for a fact that I didn’t hear a beat for at least twenty seconds.”
“Are you saying the Butcher is a supernatural?” Trevor asked. “Any chance he’s working with the one you went up against the other night?”
“It sure seems like he’s a supernatural to me,” Trey said. “As for whether he’s involved with the creature who’s going around turning people into mummies, that’s anyone’s guess.”
As they walked, Trey described the fight in detail, emphasizing how much damage he’d inflicted, to little effect. He also told them about the second guy he saw.
“I’m not sure what it means, but I think the guy in the robe could have killed me if he’d wanted to,” Trey added as they reached the parking lot area already filled with cop cars. “Or at least screw me up a lot more than he did. But as soon as I was temporarily out of action and the second guy had gotten away, the big man disappeared.”
Hale, who’d clearly been eavesdropping on the conversation from several yards ahead, looked over his shoulder at Trey, surprise on his face.
“Why would a supernatural serial killer decide to let you live after he just dumped body parts of his latest victim?” Trevor asked.
Trey shook his head grimly. “I wish I knew.”