Page 26 of Echo (A Monster’s Prey #2)

“You stupid, bitch.” The person repeatedly banged my head against the wall.

The voice was a little familiar, but I couldn’t identify how with my brain bouncing off the inside of my skull.

Each slam sent a wave of nausea and agony through me.

I dug my nails into flesh and bone as the edges of my vision turned black, but it didn’t slow them down in the least.

My lungs burned and screamed for air as my heart banged against my chest to make the last of the oxygen in my bloodstream work. It wouldn’t save me.

So this was it. For all my sins and shortcomings, I was going to die by the hand of someone that wasn’t even on my list of potential deaths.

I wondered who it was. One of my ex-husband’s enemies? One of my dad’s? A friend of Mark’s? A good man that wasn’t good enough for me, because I needed violence and toxicity?

I probably deserved it.

“Eddie,” Aunt Pearl’s voice said outside with a light airy voice.

The hands released me, and I fell to the ground like a potato sack. I took in a deep breath that hurt and made me cough. The world spun around and I tried to make sense of my surroundings.

The door opened. The moonlight filtering in made me realize my vision was blurry, but the vague image of an elderly woman in a long old-fashioned dress stood there.

Her face was wrinkled as her experience lined her face. The harsh blue eyes flickered to me, before locking onto the other person in the room. Her gray hair was tucked into a neat bun at the nape of her neck.

“Grandma,” I whimpered, but as my vision cleared up I realized this woman was too old to be Grandma Ruby. I covered one of my eyes to get the double vision to stop and realized this woman was also too tall.

Not to mention the hard way she grit her teeth as if she wanted to snap bone. This woman was too hardened and angry to be my grandma.

“Help,” I wheezed.

“Mama.” The person who’d rang my bell said. “Why’d you give the house to her? I did everything for you. You promised me.”

The person stepped up and covered Eddie in the glow of moonlight pouring in from the open door. The relief in his bloodshot eyes was palpable.

Aunt Pearl’s son, really?

“Oh, baby.” The woman chuckled as if he was a silly child. “Move the salt and we’ll talk about it.”

It was Echo pretending to be Pearl. Eddie was eating out of Echo’s hand, too lost in his grief to realize the truth of things. To remember all the things Pearl must have taught him about surviving out here.

I whistled for Ranger, but no response came from the house. The silence weighed heavily on my chest, and it was like I was suffocating again. “Where’s my dog?”

That was when I saw where his pants were ripped right under his ass cheeks and blood smears where he’d been bit. I also saw the pretty shiny number tucked into the back of his pants.

A murder’s special. No doubt with a suppressor on the end, so I wouldn’t hear the gunshot, since there was no reason to think a neighbor would.

“What did you do to my dog?” I screamed at him the best I could with a hoarse voice, struggling to get to my feet.

“That mutt wouldn’t stand down.” He hissed at me. “Fucker snuck up behind me and wouldn’t let go.”

I saw red. I ran in his direction and he braced himself for the attack, but he wasn’t my target. I dropped my weight back, dipping to my knees to go under his arm, and slid through the salt that was keeping Echo out. The wood was abrasive against my tender skin, but I didn’t care.

“You shouldn’t have come back.” I sneered at him. “And you shouldn’t have fucked with my dog.”

Aunt Pearl vanished like the illusion she was and a thick black shadow filled the living room.

“What the fuck is happening?” Eddie went wide-eyed.

“You’re mother’s worst nightmare,” I said. “Tell that bitch I said hi.”

The shadows reformed slowly, no doubt to really hammer in the fear that oozed from Eddie’s pores like paraffin. His eyes locked on the place where Echo’s shadow grew into the monster.

Echo snarled, and Eddie fumbled back into the wall with a whine.

“You should have listened to your mother and never came back,” Echo growled, taking a step closer.

“You’re real.” Tears flooded Eddie’s eyes as he stared at Echo with disbelief. That wasn’t the only fluid escaping. The stench of urine suddenly filled the night air.

Echo reached his long arm out to grab Eddie by the throat, much like Eddie had me moments before. “No one touches my Little Rabbit.”

Eddie choked on his own spit, struggling to breathe as Echo’s grip tightened. I was sure that Echo’s claws weren’t making the experience any gentler. Without any warning, Echo pulled Eddie back and slammed him into the wall.

Wood cracked and bone snapped, making my stomach flip. Especially when Echo proceeded to give Eddie the same treatment I’d gotten, but with so much more force Eddie’s head went through the paneling. It was a safe bet that at least some of that frustration was for me. I’d been testing his patience.

When Eddie’s body thumped to the ground, the moonlight poured into the room, showing his open skull. Thick, pink gelatinous matter oozed out of cracked bone in a way I’d only seen once before, after my dad had taken a baseball bat to someone who’d gotten a little handsy with me at his bar.

Brain matter.

Echo bellowed out a roar that made me cover my ears, and then went to all fours, sinking his teeth into Eddie’s arm, ripping away the flesh and muscle in one disgusting rip.

At the time, letting Echo in seemed like a good idea.

Now that I was out of the frying pan, this was definitely the fire.