Homecoming (A Finn McCoy Paranormal Thriller #1)

  ***

  With a greater relief than she would have expected, Cynthia saw that her father was unharmed. She almost ran to him, but then she remembered her place and stood her ground.

  Returning her attention to the battle before her, she saw that her forces were gaining the upper hand. The monster’s retaliatory strikes were becoming weaker and less frequent. Still, she had lost dozens, and would perhaps lose dozens more before victory was theirs. She felt no remorse for the fallen Sluagh; in truth, she loathed them nearly as much as the people of the town. But at least they had not rejected her, and had, in fact, made her their Queen. That gesture alone placed them a few rungs higher on the ladder than the cold, heartless townspeople.

  She glanced at her father again. She could have sworn that he had been struck by the monster, the way he had fallen when it had swung at him. Perhaps he had taken a lucky fall at just the right moment.

  Or perhaps the Hoodoo man had jerked her father out of the way. Why would he do that, when he had been cringing so cowardly behind her father only moments before?

  Her eyes began to dart back and forth between her father, the Hoodoo man, and the monster.

  It had been a trick. It had all been planned. She had fallen for it as blindly as the little girl she’d been when the Sluagh had taken her away. And now she was depleting her forces on a senseless attack while the Hoodoo man sat idly by and watched.

  With a cry of fury, Cynthia began to sprint toward the Hoodoo man and his group, her plans for the town and even concern for her father’s safety temporarily forgotten. The remaining Sluagh who were not actively involved in fighting the demon raced behind her, bloodlust tingeing their bulging black eyes.