Mistress of the Night - Don Bassingthwaite [123]
At least it did until the black dogs that had pursued her came bounding around the walls. The ram crashed to the ground as the cultists scattered in shock. Teeth bared, Feena set the grappling hook against the stone of the windowsill and tossed the rope out the window, then grasped it firmly and swung out herself. The dogs howled and scrapped under her like puppies begging for a dangling sausage. Feena counted five of them.
Ten feet up from the ground, she pushed away from the Wall, swinging herself out. The black dogs followed her, ugly heads swiveling and spinning. A couple of them darted after her. Feena's swing slowed and stopped as it reached the end of its arc, then started back down.
She let go of the rope and aimed straight at the ugliest of the dogs. It had time to stare at her in alarm before her full weight slammed into it. The beast went down with a yelp of surprise. The other dogs only hesitated for a heartbeat before closing on her in a frenzy of claws and teeth.
Feena's teeth were at least as big. Her claws were bigger. And because the dogs had no hope of redemption, she had no regret in letting loose all of the pent-up savagery of the wolf within her.
She tore into the first dog to come within reach, her claws shredding its slick black hide. The dog's flesh was cold and dark-where light fell on its wounds, black blood hissed away like mist before a flame. A dank smell reached her nose. Shadowstuff. The black dogs had been summoned out of pure darkness.
When she hooked out the first dog's throat with her claws, its body faded into darkness as well. A hard kick smashed the ribs of the struggling dog she'd brought down with her leap. A third dog darted in to rip at her legs. Feena tore down blindly with her claws and took an ear, but the dog's teeth caught her arm. She howled in pain. Unlike the Sharrans' weapons, the dogs' unnatural teeth could hurt her. She lashed at the clinging dog with her free hand, tearing long strips of dark flesh from its side until it released her.
The last two dogs seized the moment to dart in at her. Feena whirled on them-and dropped to all fours, changing into a wolf as easily as she had in her dream of the New Moon Pact. Another gift from Selune! Caught off guard, the darting dogs hesitated. Feena leaped at one, growling and bristling. It cringed back-and she spun to the other, seizing its massive neck in her powerful jaws and wrenching hard. It staggered and shook her off, but it was bleeding shadowstuff, darkness drifting from its wounds and fading away. Feena backed off. The dog with the torn ear slunk in to join its packmates. Low snarls seething from out of their throats, all three paced forward. The outer two moved to flank her.
Feena leaped past them, straight at the dog in the center, the only one she hadn't injured yet. It reared up to meet her charge, but her weight was greater and she bowled the beast over onto its back.
One fast snap of her jaws around its throat sent it back into Shadow, but another dog leaped onto her back. Feena felt jaws closing, trying to find purchase on her neck. She twisted around, willing a change as she moved. Her wide, clawed hands caught the thing's jaws. She jerked them sharply to the side. The dog shuddered, died, and vanished.
The last dog, the one with the savaged throat, shrank back with its tail between its legs as she rose. Feena stalked toward it, growling and flexing her hands. The dog whimpered-then lunged. Feena spun out of its way and raked it deeply with her claws as it passed. It landed, spun around, and managed one last growl before it collapsed and vanished as well.
The mutter of human voices brought