~~~
Jake raced through the large barn just in time to see his dad knocked flat and the same gremlin drag Cael into the grass when two or three more of the little beasts latched onto him. They yanked on his brother, fighting over him like dogs over scrap meat. They were going to tear Cael apart and Jake was still too far away to pour flame over them.
"No!" He raced across the ground, the long-legged vet close on his heels, his own lighter and aerosol in hand.
But Henry was faster. Jake had never seen his dad fight like that. Their father flung gremlins off Cael like he possessed the same superhuman strength they had. Henry was all fists and elbows and kicking boots, though he couldn't keep the gremlins off long, or keep them from leaping back at Cael. Henry finally dug enough of an opening and hauled Cael up, where they ran, half-stumbling into another small barn, slamming the old door behind them.
By that time, Jake was in range and poured aerosol-born gouts across the gremlins. Doc's stream of fire joined his. The monsters shrieked and burned, exploding into flame, skidding and spinning across the field. Jake briefly wondered if they might cause a wilderness fire, but at the moment he couldn't bring himself to care. He sprayed fire over the beasts, unrelenting, herding them away from that barn…until spazing out, overlong arms flapping, one of the creatures broke away and ran spinning into the barn door, bursting through, trailing fire that caught instantly on the old wood.
No problem. They could put that out. Jake was about to shout a warning to his dad when a loud concussion of air ripped through him, smacking him to the ground. A large eruption of fire plumed up, breaking through the roof and tearing the walls apart like a land mine going off. A wave of smoke rolled outward in a giant gray ring and all went quiet.
Jake stared from the ground, frozen, his heart seizing painfully as the smoke rolled over him. The barn was destroyed, completely gone, just demolished heaps of blackened smoldering and burning boards.
Jake couldn't move, he couldn't move. His family, his entire world was in there.
Eleven