46

Picking up a rock the size of a billiard ball, I let out my best battle cry and throw at Bishop. The stone flies true and hits him at the base of the head with a dull thud.

For half a second, I feel kind of proud of myself. I don't think I could make that attempt again if I tried a hundred times. Also, I'm pretty sure that if I threw a pitch at an ordinary man, it would knock him unconscious or maybe even kill him.

Bishop, however, is no ordinary man. No more.

He turns on me with a snarl, ropes of blood and spittle pouring from his mangled face. His eyes are inhuman with rage.

The beast crouches back, preparing to charge and tear me apart. But before that happens, something causes him to freeze, tense muscles going rigid like a carved monster.

From across the landscape comes an angry roar. Two of them actually. A two-part harmony of brutality and rage.

Addom and Hasker are charging towards us at seemingly impossible speed. Her arms and legs are flailing so rapidly that they are little