Free Beyond the Veil by Pippa DaCosta

I peered out through the back window but couldn ’ t see anything. The car suddenly bucked, the roof above caving inward. Four gashes ripped through the roof as though it were paper.
    “ Hold on! ” Stefan planted the accelerator to the floor, lurching the car backward again.
    I snatched at my seat, clinging on as the invisible hound on the roof tumbled forward, cracking the windscreen and denting the hood on its way down. Stefan locked an arm around the back of my seat. His unwavering glare focused through the rear window, and his other hand twitched the steering wheel. I had a moment to wonder where we were going when the rear of the car plowed into a sizeable chunk of nothingness. The hound yowled.
    “ Is it dead? ”
    “ Nope. Just pissed. ” Stefan slammed the car into gear and yanked the steering wheel, accelerating hard toward the exit ramp. The rear end fishtailed, tires squealing, before the car finally found traction and lunged forward. Its raw horse-power threw me back into my seat.
    We burst onto the street, narrowly missing passing traffic. Stefan fought with the steering wheel. The car slid sideways, but he didn ’ t ease off the accelerator. Engine revving, the car gobbled up the road. Buildings blurred past us. Weaving between the sparse nighttime traffic, Stefan swapped the car from lane to lane. Horns sounded around us.
    “ Put your seatbelt on. ” He stared ahead, his attention divided between the road and mirrors, before changing gears to squeeze yet more acceleration from the engine.
    I fumbled with the seatbelt, watching the needle on the speedometer creep higher. Glancing out of the rear window, I couldn ’ t see anything but the angry flash of headlights from other drivers as they resented our disregard for traffic laws.
    “ I can ’ t see them. ”
    “ Take this. ” He tossed the gun into my lap before dropping a gear. The car roared, and we burst through an intersection, the red lights little more than a blur in my peripheral vision.
    I picked up the weighty gun. “ But I can ’ t see them. ”
    He stole a brief glance my way. “ Call your power. You ’ ll see them. ”
    Stefan jerked the car to the right. I clung on, leaning away from the turn as the car drifted toward oncoming traffic. If the hounds didn ’ t kill us, his driving would. I caught him smiling and frowned at him. He was enjoying this.
    Straightening the car out, he said, “ You might want to start pointing and shooting about now. ”
    I twisted in my seat, gun heavy in my hand, and peered out of the rear window. Spilling a little of my element into my body, I let it pool outward, dropping a warm veil over my vision. At first, very little changed. As the car twitched and jerked, I struggled to focus. Then I saw the glass windows blow from the ground floor of a nearby building. Ahead of the devastation, a parked car bounced sideways, an entire side caved in. I tried to focus on where I thought the beast to be, using the wake of destruction as a pointer, and saw its hazy outline shimmer into existence.
    It was huge, the size of a small car and hairless except for several razor-edged spikes running down its back. Its hideous bulk bounded toward us, bouncing off the city obstructions like a dog through an agility course. I tried to steady the gun on the seatback but the constant twisting and lurching made aiming impossible. “ I can ’ t get a shot. ”
    “ You want me to pull over? ”
    “ No! ” I saw a gleam of mischief in his eyes and swore at him. Sarcastic and arrogant, what a charmer.
    “ It ’ s gaining! ” The hound had our scent, its crimson eyes wide with fury as it chased us down.
    I pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.
    “ Flick the safety off, ” Stefan helpfully suggested, suppressing a laugh.
    I fumbled with the safety, yanked the slide on the barrel back, and fired. The recoil nearly tore my arm off. The bullet punched through the shatterproof rear window, but the shot went high, completely