Chapter 19 · Shadows Collide

"Get your hands off me!" Vera’s scream echoed off the sterile white tiles of the lab, but it was cut short by a wet, crushing sound.

Something huge and pale had her pinned against a surgical table. A scavenger—one of the lab’s failed experiments—had its jaws clamped onto her shoulder, dragging her down. The creature's breath smelled like old copper and rot. Vera slammed her elbow into its eye, but the beast didn't even flinch. It just tightened its grip, its teeth sinking deeper into her collarbone.

"Damn it!" Vera hissed, her voice straining. She reached for the knife at her thigh, but the scavenger’s claw slammed down on her wrist, pinning her arm to the cold metal. She was trapped. The room was a blur of flickering fluorescent lights and the rhythmic thumping of her own heart hammering against her ribs.

"Help!" she shouted, though she knew no one was coming. The lab was a graveyard of glass and gore.

Then, the air ripped.

A blur of obsidian and silver slammed into the scavenger from the side. There was a sickening crack of bone.