The thing must have been seven feet long, its muscled body a hand span in diameter at least. It hissed, showing wicked fangs, and flared its hood in anger at its missed prey.
Ally had apparently managed to swallow, because her scream was clear and high and loud.
Wrench was shifting without conscious thought, clothing ripping from his panther’s sleek body as he twisted to charge at the snake, snarling in challenge.
The snake moved in impossible ways, slithering out of reach of Wrench’s grasping claws and somehow coiling itself to strike again at the same time.
Wrench dodged its snapping jaws and lunged forward to try to bite at its hooded neck.
Again, it wasn’t where he was expecting it to be, and his teeth closed on air as coils of thick scaled muscle tangled his feet. He snarled and spun, and suddenly Ally was dashing forward wielding a fork like a weapon, whooping in challenge.
“Ally, no!” Lydia cried, and then she was shifting into a tornado of black wings and wading into the fray.
The snake seemed to be everywhere, its snapping fangs seeping poison and its scaled body looping underfoot.
Lydia hissed back at it, trying to get between it and Ally while the girl bravely tried to stab it with the fork clutched in her hands.
Wrench finally got claws into the snake, flexing wickedly into its flesh, and it gave a weird shriek of pain as it moved lightning fast to bite deep into the offending paw.
Wrench howled in agony, poison burning painfully into his blood.
Lydia beat at it with her wings and stabbed with her hard beak, and it let go to hiss and finally retreat, leaving a trail of blood.
Ally screamed again.
Wrench tried to turn to follow the snake as it slithered away into the jungle and fell over on his side as he shifted back to human.
Chapter 32
“Wrench!” Lydia cried, dropping to her knees beside him. Ally fell beside her.
“Uncle Wrench?”
“We’ve got to get you to the hospital,” Lydia cried, cradling his bit hand in her own.
“Can’t,” Wrench ground out around clenched jaws.
Lydia thought he was protesting the idea of a hospital, then he followed with a gasping, “Can’t see…” and started seizing violently.
Lydia held onto his shoulders, trying to keep him from hurting himself.
She was losing him.
All she could do was wrap arms around his trembling muscles and watch his skin go a sickly shade of gray.
Suddenly, the sun above them was blotted out, and she looked up to watch Bastian lower himself into the courtyard like a precise reptilian helicopter, churning leaves as he landed.
Saina hopped off his back, dressed in her lifeguard uniform with a first aid kit in her hand.
“What happened?” the siren demanded, bending over them.
The courtyard still felt very crowded, even after Bastian shifted back to his human form and joined his mate.
“A cobra!” Lydia explained, not willing to let go of Wrench even now. “His hand!”
Saina and Bastian exchanged worried looks as they found the twin puncture marks and the black lines that were already obvious up Wrench’s arm.
“I could medivac him to the mainland,” Bastian brainstormed to Saina.