The Source: Book III of the Holding Kate Series by LaDonna Cole Page A

He grabbed a young girl who ran from a giant wasp and held her up to his eye. She screamed hysterically. “You no Kate!” He tossed her aside and the boys scrambled to catch her.
    The wasp attacked the giant and he yelped and swung at the insect with his bulbous club.
    The boys ducked the frenetic slashing of the club until the Cyclops stomped off in pursuit of the fleeing wasp.
    Corey’s heart sank. Mattovdzky was sending creatures after Kate. He glanced toward the Doc’s office and shouted for the second time in as many minutes. “NO!”
    A deluge of zombie creatures had closed in on the Doc’s office and were trying to get through the doors. Corey sprinted toward the center of the village with Donnie and Manifus close behind. They hacked through the press of partially decomposed bodies and found Eunavae and Drayse fighting from the other side.
    Rotted corpses littered the walkway and severed limbs scampered around searching for their bodies. A hand grabbed Corey’s leg and started climbing up his pants. He scooped it off with his sword and grimaced in disgust.
    “Zombies?” Eunavae cried. “Seriously? Is he plundering all of our prior jumps?” She swiped the head off the last one and kicked the body away.
    They paused and panned the site in shock, stunned at the massacre all around. In the distance Tara, Trip, Starlythe and Staid clashed with an enormous dragon, with scales of burnt ebony and piercing bellows to melt a stout heart. Brashtor had just joined the fray and loosed his spear into the dragon’s screaming maw.
    Kate opened the door of the Doc’s office and stepped out in trepidation. “Ugh! What is that smell?” She clamped her hand over her nose.
    “Kate, stay inside, they want you, specifically!”
    “Kate?” The Cyclop’s voice rumbled and the cover over the walkway peeled back like the lid on a Tupperware bowl, revealing the giant brute. “Kate!” He reached for her and seven swords came to bear on the monster.
    He jerked his bleeding hand back, and Corey shoved Kate inside and slammed the door behind them. He dragged her through the first aid station to the back door and hurried her away from the building. They glanced back to see the Cyclops stumble and fall into the structure. It crumbled around him in a heap of debris and dust.
    I have to get Kate out of here! I have to get her somewhere safe . A giant scorpion dropped out of a tree in front of them. Kate snapped her whip at it to distract it while Corey circled around and stabbed it in the head from behind.
    They ran. Candol and Stealthlin jogged around the apothecary building to the left and fell into step alongside Kate.
    “Where are we going?” Stealthlin asked.
    “I have to get Kate to safety.”
    “They are targeting her?” Candol asked.
    “Yes. In here.” Corey yanked open the back door of the Chapel and they filed in. He glanced around to see if they were being watched but saw nothing in the area.
    They passed through Chaps’ living quarters and into a hallway. “Down here.” Corey led them into the basement and pressed Kate down into a chair in the center of the room.
    Candol, Stealthlin and Corey each took a window and scanned the perimeter. Corey had a view of the black dragon. He wasn’t doing so well, it would only be a matter of moments before the warriors would finish him off.
    “The one-eyed giant is down for good,” Stealthlin reported from his viewpoint.
    “Clear,” Candol answered from hers.
    They all heaved a sigh of relief and Kate shuddered, wrapping her arms around her middle. She looked up at Corey with eyes full of dread.
    “I am going to get you out of here, Kate. We’ll go where he can’t find us.”
    She nodded and placed her head in her hands, elbows to knees, and stared at the floor, trying to catch her breath. Her whole frame trembled.
    Corey heard a strangled noise and whipped around to the closet behind him. Stealthlin heard it too and they approached the closet carefully. Taking up a