Brimstone and Lily (Legacy Stone Adventures) by Terry Kroenung Page B

impossible things that had started happening to me, I felt near to falling over in a dead heap.
    Just as we were about to leave the alley we ran smack into Mad Molly. She popped up out of a niche in the wall of Clemens’ Dry Goods store, offering me a flower and muttering something that made no sense. Her dark rags and smudged face made her hard to see, even with my new eyes. I had no trouble sniffing her, though. The stench could’ve knocked a buzzard off a privy. Did she smell that bad all the time? Like something dug up from a festering graveyard? Molly’s smell didn’t distract me for long, because something new happened.
    My Legacy Stone became cold as a January icicle against my chest.
    The Stone’ll let you know, Jasper had said . But this is harmless old Molly. We’ve known her since we moved here from Maryland.How can she be a ---?
    The inner debate ended with a violent jerk on my right ear. Ernie yanked hard on it, hauling my head and shoulders in that direction. Ow! Just as he did so, the ancient withered face distorted. Its jaw unhinged like a hungry snake’s and three rows of jagged teeth shot forward to snap at the air where my head had been. I felt the thing’s steaming drool graze my cheek, leaving it numb. Molly Monster slashed at me with a clawed backhand. I brought up the tin cup in a sad effort to protect my tingling face. She moved quick as a panther. Her talons bounced off of a round metal shield two feet across. Thanks, Jasper! Stumbling backward, I tripped over a cat and went down, scraping my rear end on broken glass.
    “Bloody cat!” Ernie snarled. He leapt off my shoulder onto the animal’s head. “I told yer he was no good!” I heard a terrible commotion of screeching and spitting, commingled with sturdy Britannic cursing. There’s one kitty who won’t relish catching his mousie. That was all I had time to think about, as my attacker tried to pounce on me while I lay sprawled on the ground.
    My boot met her belly, which felt solid as an iron plate. The shock went all the way up to my hip. That foul thing flew above and beyond me, bouncing off the brick wall. I turned to see where she’d go next while scrambling to my feet. My eyes widened to see her launch herself across the alley and crash into the opposite wall, her claws digging into the stone and holding her there like a fly on a window. Yellow-green eyes with vertical pupils glared at me, smoke bleeding out of them. A mouth the size and shape of a coal scuttle held those deadly teeth now and they clicked with excitement, slime dripping from the lower lip. No hair to speak of grew on the long leathery skull. Of course, the ears were pointed. I’d have been disappointed otherwise.
    The assassin creature climbed the wall to get more height for its next pounce. What had remained of Molly’s tattered rag dress fell off. Seeing the whole body of the monster didn’t make me love it any more. I could now see that it was female, in a unsettling and misshapen way. Ick! It had leathery lumpy skin like an alligator hide I’d seen in the Smithsonian. A bony ridge ran along the middle of its broad back. Her belly hung swollen and pulsing, like she’d just swallowed a large dog…or worse. All of the thing’s limbs were longer than they should have been. The lengthy feet had splayed toes with four-inch black claws. An awful, curved spike grew from each heel.
    Right then I really wished that they’d made Jasper into the Righteous Revolver of Retribution, instead of just a sword. Sheesh, this is 1862, fellers. Modern times.
    The reptilian thing on the wall hissed, its black forked tongue slithering out of that disgusting mouth. How could I not know that such dreadful things are loose in the world? And what else is waitin’ for me that might be even worse?
    I saw the haunches bunch up for what I just knew would be a fatal leap. My mouth dried up and my knees shook. I knew that the shield I held couldn’t protect me forever. But I also