Mad Cow Read Online Free

the skin James held.
    “That is, like, super-cow, man. It’s mega-cow. It’s … it’s freaking meta -cow, by now.”
    “So it’s what? The cow-of-cows, then? What the hell does that even mean?” James reached for the skin in Frank’s hands. “Give me the wolf!”
    “No!” Frank clutched the wolf skin to his chest and turned away. “Be the cow!”
    “I don’t want to be the cow!”
    Thud .
    Two more ward lines exploded in sparks.
    Frank and James stared at the door in silence for a moment.
    “We don’t have much time,” Frank said. “Just trust me, alright?” He pointed at the hide James held again. “ That is the most powerful thing my grandfather left behind. I swear it.”
    Thud.
    James clenched his teeth.
    “How does the cow work?”

    * * *
    “ S o remember ,” Frank said, “it’s not the actual hide that determines your final shape, it’s your own willpower. So you have to think of the biggest, baddest-ass, most freaking killer cow you can, okay?”
    James stared at him.
    “Are you serious?”
    “Dead serious, man.” He pointed at the hide. “That has every bit of cow-power there could possibly be in it. Think about it — there were these bad-ass cows called aurochs or something like that. They were, like, I don’t know, eight-feet tall with six-foot horns and maybe, hell, fangs and stuff, okay? Think about that.”
    James stared at him.
    “Bullshit.”
    Frank sighed.
    Thud.
    Only three ward lines crossed the door now, and the door itself was shuddering with each new blow.
    “Just concentrate, okay, man?” Frank’s eyes were wide and he shook out his own hide in preparation. “Throw that over yourself and when you feel the power, try to guide it. Picture a bad-ass cow that can take down three werewolves and let the power make that happen. Trust me.”
    James stared at him.
    “I am never going to trust you again. Ever.”
    “Fair enough,” Frank said. “But you’d better get started. Oh, and —” He paused. “Well, just try to remember who you are, okay? Don’t, you know, really become a cow.”
    “What the actual … dude , you just told me to become the bad-ass cow!”
    “But not, like, become the cow, you know? You gotta be you — not give in to it completely, okay? That’d be bad, I think.”
    James sighed and closed his eyes for a moment.
    Thud.
    The sparks from the shattered ward line were so bright he could see their traces through his eyelids.
    James crouched down and grasped the cowhide, swung it over his shoulders and head, covering himself completely, and waited.
    At first, nothing happened.
    Then he felt a tingle. A tingle that grew. All over his body, like he’d touched not just his tongue, but his entire body to a giant nine-volt battery. Then twelve-volt. Then twenty-four volts. Then that freaking big-pronged socket behind the clothes dryer.
    His muscles twitched. His jaw clenched. Something seemed to press in on him from all sides, harder and harder until he couldn’t breathe and he thought he’d suffocate.
    Cow , he thought, trying to keep the picture of what Frank had described in his head. Bad-ass cow .
    Eight-feet tall. Giant horns. Bad-ass, werewolf-killing cow.
    COW!
    Then his bones broke and he screamed.
    His insides twisted and he screamed more.
    Bones ground, flesh twisted and tore, and James screamed so loud he thought his throat would explode and his ears with it.
    cow?
    He thought it must have taken minutes, hours maybe. Too long and what he’d felt was really the werewolves getting through the door and eating him — nothing else could hurt that much.
    James opened his eyes.
    He saw the door still shut, so he must not be dead. There were two glowing bands of the wards still crossing it, but the colors were muted, mostly black and white, in fact.
    Am I dead?
    He looked around the room, caught sight of Frank who was also mostly shades of grey.
    Ah, man, the afterlife’s in black and white?
    No … no, there was some color. Mostly yellows and