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broadsword, smashing one of the creatures in the side of the head, and there was a sickening sound of breaking open an overripe pumpkin.
    The creatures howled in outrage and advanced on the fencing master. Until one of them swung its head in her direction … and Mason suddenly found herself locked in the beam of its baleful gaze. The creature’s lips peeled back from its teeth in a horrible grin, and it barked out what sounded like some kind of command to the others. The things abandoned Toby and started to move toward Mason in a loose circle.
    She backed farther into the corner, almost whimpering in terror.
    Suddenly a full-throated roar of rage cut through the din of the storm. As wide as Mason’s eyes were already, they got even wider. The pale shape she had seen earlier in the tangle of the oak wasn’t another monster. It was a man—a young man—rising from the wreckage in between her and the shambling, gray-skinned apparitions … and he was stark naked.
    As naked as the shining blade he held in his fist.
    He thrust out his free hand at Mason, warning her to stay back, and then turned and lifted his blade to defend as the creatures attacked again. Mason didn’t move. She couldn’t. Even in the depths of blind panic, she couldn’t help but watch in amazement as the strange young man turned and ran straight for one of the gray-skinned apparitions, sword held high over his head. He brought the blade down in a vicious arc and severed the arm of one of the creatures as if he were no more than chopping wood for a fire. Black, stinking blood erupted in a geyser from the terrible wound, painting an arc of darkness on the gymnasium wall. Another slash of the blade, and the horrible thing’s head toppled from its shoulders.
    Heather screamed, and Toby and Cal suddenly sprang to life, closing ranks behind the young man so that the monstrous attackers couldn’t flank him. Cal, Mason saw, had a death grip on a two-by-four, and Toby hewed about with the length of pipe, striking blows—mostly glancing ones—and keeping the creatures at a distance.
    But they just kept coming.
    In the darkness, it was almost impossible to keep track of the things. Mason heard Rory cry out and Heather was screaming in terror. Toby shot a glance at the stranger, who nodded tersely at him and snarled, “Go!”
    The fencing master whacked one of the shambling creatures out of his way and charged over to Rory and Heather, over by the heavy bag that Rory had earlier been halfheartedly trying out his sparring skills on. Mason noticed, with the kind of detachment that was probably brought on by shock, that Rory was rather impressively holding his own against one of the monsters. He’d picked up an aerobics stacking step and was using it alternately like a shield to fend the thing off or to slam the creature repeatedly over the head with the hard plastic.
    Mason felt useless just standing there. She looked around and saw a length of two-by-four stacked with the construction materials. She lunged for it. But the second she did, one of the monsters darted forward and made a grab for her arm. Lightning arced—flash after blinding flash, waves of white light rolling over each other like pounding surf—and Mason saw everything play out as if in a series of overexposed photographs.
    The stranger and Cal leaped to tackle the creature that was on her heels.
    Cal got to it first, bodychecking the thing away from her.
    The blond guy shoved her behind him, snarling, “Stay back!”
    Mason landed on her shoulder against the stacked lumber, fear and rage sparking behind her eyes. She sprang back up to her feet and charged forward again, determined to enter the fray, but she froze when she heard Calum shout a warning. She saw him pointing at the ceiling as one of the creatures dropped from the rafters, straight toward her. If she’d still been standing there, it probably would have broken her spine. But instead, another sharp shove sent her sprawling, and