Starling Read Online Free Page A

the blond guy took her place. The creature hammered him to his knees, and Mason heard the whuff! of air as all the breath was driven from the young man’s lungs and she saw his head smash into the floor. The sword flew spinning from his grasp, and he sprawled, dazed, in the middle of the gymnasium.
    The creature threw back its head in a howl of glee, ropy arms thrown wide in a triumphant gesture that left its flank wide-open.
    Diving for the dropped weapon, Mason scooped it up and ran forward, the blade held out in front of her like a lance. She was screaming in terror and, distracted, the creature rounded on her with vicious speed—only to drive itself accidentally onto the point of the blond warrior’s sword in Mason’s hand. The blade was so sharp it slid deep into the creature’s flesh, and the thing writhed and screamed on the point of the blade, reaching to tear at Mason’s face and hands even as it died. The screams stuck in Mason’s throat as she saw the stranger rise up behind the thing to grab its malformed head with both hands. A sharp twist, a snapping sound, and the thing slumped to the floor, dead weight, sliding off the end of the blade in her hand.
    Mason heard Cal’s scream again—only this time, it wasn’t a warning.
    She heard Heather cry out, “Cal!” and Mason turned to see him caught in the gnarl-fingered grip of one of the creatures about five feet from where she stood. Mason dropped into a ready stance, looking for an opening, but the monstrous thing had Cal by the throat. Its sickly white moon-glow eyes locked with hers, and it grinned hideously, cruelly.
    It hissed at her through jagged teeth—a single word that echoed in her mind. She didn’t understand it. Couldn’t hear it properly over the raging storm. But it somehow still terrified her to her very core.
    The sword in her hand wavered.
    She stood there, frozen, as the creature’s ropy arm rose and then slashed down through the air, its talons tearing through Cal’s flesh. His face and chest suddenly bloomed crimson as Mason watched, horrified.
    Cal’s howl of pain blotted out the sound of the phantom word locking up her brain and freed her muscles to move once again. The creature looked as though it was moving in for the kill on Cal, but before it could sink teeth or claws or blade into him, Mason reared back with the sword and charged forward again, yelling incomprehensibly as she swung hard at the exposed flank of the monster. She felt a fierce moment of savage elation as the edge of the blade bit deep into the horrid thing’s withered flesh. The creature hissed wetly in pain and scrambled back into the darkness as another of its kind advanced from behind Mason. The momentum of her first blow carried Mason around, and she struck out wildly again—a glancing blow this time, but enough to make her assailant skitter back into the ink-black shadows beneath the fallen oak tree.
    “Sword!” the stranger shouted, having regained his feet. Without thinking, Mason tossed it to him. He caught the heavy blade one-handed and swung it up and over his head. Then he proceeded to give the terrified fencing students and their teacher a master class in swordplay.
    Mason grabbed for Cal’s arm and struggled to haul him out of harm’s way.
    “Run for the cellar storage!” Toby croaked, appearing at Mason’s side out of the darkness.
    “You mean … underground?” Mason’s stomach lurched.
    “ Now , Mason,” Toby barked. “While he’s got those things occupied!”
    Following at Toby’s heels, Rory didn’t have to be told twice. Still clutching his gym bag like it was some sort of security blanket, he sprinted across the gym. Mason and Heather ran after him, and Toby followed, half dragging Cal, who was doubled over in pain. Rory grasped a metal ring recessed into the gymnasium floor in front of the stage and heaved open the trapdoor, which led down to what used to be an old cellar but now served as storage for stacking chairs