Free Unleashed by John Levitt Page A

attack on an unsuspecting victim. But I knew better. It seemed to have gained some size or weight, probably from picking off unwary pets. It had learned to disguise itself; that was why we hadn’t heard any reports of strange creatures prowling the city streets. But it hadn’t done a very good job. Its ears still had little tufts of fur on them; the claws on its feet scraped the pavement as it came bounding toward us; its movements were quick and jerky, nothing like the smooth and fluid motion of a real dog’s gait.
    Naturally I didn’t have a spell ready to deal with it—my magic doesn’t usually work that way. I adapt, taking what I need from the environment around me, using sun and wind and bits of string and the sound of tinkling bells. It works for me; I’m flexible if nothing else, but right now I could have used some of Victor’s raw power and clever presets.
    The other problem was that this creature was resistant to magic, much like a true Ifrit would be. So I also could have used one of Victor’s extensive collection of firearms.
    About halfway to us it slowed momentarily, having trouble deciding on who to attack first. I was the obvious choice; if it attacked Lou, I’d be able to intervene. If it attacked me, there wasn’t much Lou could do about it. But it was cautious, and rightly so. One might assume that a puny unarmed human is no match for a wild animal, flush with sharp teeth and tearing claws, but that’s not always the case. I’m one hundred and eighty pounds, in shape, and reasonably strong. A four-hundred-pound tiger isn’t going to have any trouble with me, but a small carnivore, no matter how vicious, is another matter. Carl Akeley, a famous African explorer and hunter, once strangled an eighty-pound leopard to death with his bare hands after it dropped on him from an overhanging branch.
    This creature could tear me up badly. If it got to my throat, it could kill me by ripping open an artery before I could get it off. But I could also kill it, grabbing hold of it and pounding its head against the pavement. It wasn’t interested in a Pyrrhic victory.
    In the end, I think its obsessive hatred of all things Ifrit was the deciding factor. It swung left and lunged at Lou, the jaws of its curiously flattened face snapping shut inches from his tail.
    I didn’t think twice. I glanced up at the Columbarium dome scattering sunlight through the air, twisted the refraction, and neatly divided Lou into five dogs. Not real dogs, of course; Lou and four illusions. Since the creature was related to Ifrits in some way, no illusion would fool it for more than a second. Not if they would obligingly stand still, that was. But with five small identical dogs running frantically in different directions, each one twisting and turning, it wasn’t so easy to tell the real from the fake.
    It picked one at random and went after it. Man, the thing was fast. It caught up to the fleeing dog and fastened its jaws on the back of the dog’s neck, and I had a moment’s sick fear that it had guessed right. But no worry; Lou wouldn’t have let himself be caught so easily. The jaws chomped down on nothing at all, with the imitation dog continuing its run as if nothing had happened.
    I took advantage of the mistake by sprinting toward the van. The creature saw and came after me, but I had too much of a head start. I jumped in the front seat and slammed the driver’s door in its face an instant before it could reach me. Leaning across the seat, I rolled down the passenger-side window and put the van in gear before it could make it around to the other side.
    The fake dogs were still running in circles as I roared off down the street, but the real Lou was easy to spot now. He had stopped and was standing motionless, looking with total disbelief at the van speeding away. I slammed on the brakes and yelled at the top of my voice.
    “Come on ! Through the window. Get a move on!”
    He came tearing across the street, running at