Serpent's Blood

The Weight

ner store, and again while walking down the cracked sidewalk toward his apartment. The coins jangled in his hoodie p

n signs flickered in and out on the strip ahead, mostly liquor stores and busted diners with 24-hour sig

ged to the

canning. Always alert. Always ready. It was a habit drilled into him from years of growing up in Greywood

en he shoved it open, and the hallway smelled like cigarettes and bleach. Mrs. Halpern's cat hissed

that matter. Isaa

e had

or gone. He unlocked his door with a slight twitch of the wrist-

t plate that sometimes worked, and a window with a cracked pane that whistled when it raine

hone

gnor

buzzed

ut of his hoodie pocket

I heard ab

urse she'd heard. Word spread fast in Greywood. And M

ed out

e. Just

ed, then vanished

de food. You

human again. Still, he didn't move. Not yet. Not tonight. He stared

when it

ribs, stretching up his spine. His muscles tensed. He sat up, sud

he window

ducked, rolled, came up on instinct. A shape

hu

Its skin shimmered like oil. Not a

ung. The thing moved fast, but not fast enough. The metal connected with

limbs. Clothes that weren't cl

ll are you?"

hing

but it nev

t it touched him,

de him-o

that vibrated the walls. His skin lit up, veins glowing faintly green, pulsin

than he should've. Stronge

e tiles cracked beneath them both. The crea

whispered, voice gurgli

Isaac growled,

still. It was gone-dissolved into bla

like

ook. His chest still burned, but it was fading-li

ed at h

kin warm, too warm. And in his reflection-just for a second, in t

bli

o

ne buzz

u coming

didn't

. The city outside looked the same, but he didn't. So

e out ther