Night of the Living Demon Slayer by Angie Fox Page A

again.
    When I sloshed out of the water, I saw Carpenter several feet away on his knees. The guard stood behind him, digging a chain under the necromancer's throat. He thrust out a foot and the white alligator snapped at it.
    "Attack!" The guard hollered, straining to finish the job on the necromancer. "Enemies on the island! Attack!"
    I fired a warning shot and the guard dropped the chain. The tank of a man stumbled backward as Carpenter turned in one fluid movement to pounce on him, rolling to get his hands around the man's neck.
    The switch star boomeranged back to me and I caught it right as the newly-freed white alligator rushed me. Damn, it moved fast, hissing the whole way. I might not want to kill a guard, but I sure as hell had no trouble blasting an already dead beast. I aimed and hit it in the forehead with a switch star, watching the blade burn through skin and bone, sinking deep.
    The alligator shuddered, its legs stiffening as its momentum carried it another several inches until it came to a rest at my feet. Dead.
    "Okay, good." I huffed. That was easier than I thought. I drew off my soaked leather gloves and stuffed them into my belt.
    Now we just had to get out of here.
    Drums beat in the distance. It sounded like the entire voodoo congregation had heard the guard's cries, and it wouldn't take them long to get here.
    "We gotta go," I said, keeping an eye on the alligator, skirting around the corpse and stomping over the red pillow to see how I could help Carpenter.
    I saw the marks in the dirt where he'd fought, but the necromancer himself was nowhere to be found.
    Oh, geez. "Carpenter?" I hissed, although heck, they already knew our location. We had to run. "Carpenter!" I said a little louder.
    I followed the scuff marks and broken branches. Blood spattered the ground, along with sticky-sweet smelling purple flowers. I picked up a handful and shoved it in my pocket, trying to see through the dark.
    With every movement, every word, I was betraying my location to people who very well might want to kill me. "Carpenter?"
    I stiffened as a low hiss erupted behind me.
    My breath sounded shallow, even in my own ears as I turned and faced a very alive, very ticked, white alligator. The switch star hole in its forehead smoked, and oozed with thick, black blood.
    Oh, frick. "You won't even stay dead for a demon slayer."
    The undead alligator rushed me. I hit it with another switch star in the same spot, hoping to at least slow it down. This one glanced off the wound and ricocheted into the trees beyond.
    The reptile clamped its jaws on the same fricking leg the other one had. Teeth met metal, the shock of the impact driving through me as I hit it with a switch star to the neck. It let out a high-pitched squeal and clamped down harder.
    It twisted its head, knocking me to the ground. Then it was on top of me, jaws in my face. I grabbed hold of its mouth, like I'd seen them do in the roadside gator shows. These suckers had crushing bites, but the muscles that opened their jaws were weak. I held its mouth open, right over my chin, but I couldn't keep the up for long.
    Then I felt it. The dark soul calling to me. The animal bucked, thrashing against my side. It began to climb directly onto me crushing me with its weight as the dark soul inched up its chest, and into the back of its throat.
    Now or never.
    I braced the jaws with one arm, knowing they would snap shut at any second. With my other hand, I reached right through the soft skin of its neck. The black soul nestled like an ugly black marble. I closed my fingers around it and yanked it out.
    "Mine, mine, mine ." It seethed. It struggled to bury itself in my skin. It wanted inside me.
    The reptile had gone limp. I shoved it away, struggling to my knees as I hurled the black soul across the bayou. Birds erupted from the trees as it broke into dozens of blackened shards and escaped out into the night.
    The alligator lay gray and dead at my feet.
    Holy Hades. I'd let