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It came, full of awful speed and power. A cloaked figure
charged into the light, seeming to fly over the ground in a blur of
motion.
"Hood!" a Wolf shouted, squeezing off a shot and working the bolt on
his rifle. The caped-and-cowled figure made a leap twenty feet from the
barn, crashing bodily through the old planks and beams as if they were
papier-mâché.
The Reaper landed on all fours, arms and legs splayed like a spider.
Before a gun could be turned in its direction, it sprang at the nearest
Wolf, a shovel-bearded wedge of a man named Selbey. It was upon him before
he could bring up his gun. The Hood's satchel-sized mouth opened to
display ebony pointed teeth. Inhumanly large jaws sank into Selbey's
arm, thrown up in defense. The Wolf's scream matched those from outside as
the thing opened its mouth to bite again.
Valentine grabbed a candle-flare from Patel's two remaining at the
south door. He thrust the candle into the lantern, waiting for it to
sputter into life. It caught on after an eternity, and he ran towards the
Hood.
The thing raised its blood-smeared face from the twitching victim to
receive the burning end in its eye. It howled out its fury and pain and
slapped the candle out of Valentine's hand with the speed of a leopard's
paw. The flaming wand fell to the ground as the thing rose. The Reaper's
menacing black shadow seemed to fill the wall of the barn. Death reached
for Valentine, who struggled to draw his blade from its sheath in time.