Free Sabrina's Clan by Tracy Cooper-Posey

time, although they did like to stay within flight distance of each other.
    An hour before sunset, they had headed into the park. They had caught their first hint of the gargoyle around ten p.m. and had been tracking it since then.
    Now it was moving around them in a big circle, trying to go back the way it had come. If they spread out as Riley was directing them to, then they would be casting a net that could wrap around the creature and snare it as it tried to get back to the safe place where it was nesting.
    It was a good plan.
    Nyanther looked up the slope. The trees certainly didn’t look any thinner there than they did here. The undergrowth was still massively thick, even though the leaves were tinged red on their ends, heralding the coming winter. To his night vision, the red looked black, while the green of the undergrowth was a glowing rusty brown red. Anything with flesh and a pulse stood out almost like the neon signs humans favored. If there was a gargoyle nearby he would see it.
    “A hundred yards,” he confirmed and took out his sword and hefted it.
    “Stay sharp,” Riley warned him. “He’ll feel cornered.”
    Nyanther nodded. Both Nick and Riley—actually, every hunter he had met in these modern centuries—referred to gargoyles in human terms. “He” instead of “it”. They even used their names like they used human names. Nyanther remembered a time when these creatures they hunted had been very different, when calling them by name and referring to them in human ways was right. He didn’t feel comfortable calling these rock-related creatures “he”, not even in his mind.
    He climbed up the slope. It wasn’t a steep incline here, although the slope increased dramatically only a little farther ahead. The undergrowth, though, was a serious impediment to moving silently. After a hot summer and decent rainfall, the forest was thick and full.
    When he had moved a hundred yards or so up the slope he turned to the east and started forward. Riley had already begun to move, which was sensible. If she was going to use her tiredness as a way of beating the undergrowth to flush the gargoyle out, then if she moved ahead, it would naturally try to skirt around her…right toward Nick or him.
    Nyanther felt a fierce satisfaction at the idea of killing the beast. His entire life had been tied up with the fate of gargoyles. It seemed fitting now that he be here to see the final, utter end of them.
    He pushed through the forest slowly, straining to hear anything that was not the movement of Riley. Even the smaller creatures were hunkered down, waiting for the threat to pass. They were wary of humans and even more frightened of vampires. With a gargoyle in their midst, it was no wonder the forest was so silent.
    There was not even a pre-dawn breeze to move the upper levels of the trees. That would arrive soon. For now, the night was still and hushed, making him pick his way through it with great care.
    After an hour of travelling east, his heart started to beat of its own accord. It wasn’t the exertion making it move. He was barely testing himself. These peaks were not the Scottish highlands with their soaring crags, ankle-breaking slopes and thin air.
    Something was kicking his instincts into high gear.
    He slowed down. Just for a moment, he wished he had a cell phone. It would allow them to coordinate properly. However, there were other, more ancient ways to do that. He turned and faced the direction he suspected Nick to be and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Nick?” he whispered into the air. If he was right about where he thought Nick was, then he would hear the directional whisper. Riley would not. Not even the most sensitive human could hear across such distances.
    The whisper came back. “It’s ahead of me.”
    “Coming,” Nyanther breathed and started cutting down the slope at a diagonal, which would give him forward movement yet put him on a path to intersect with Nick’s and Riley’s. He