He would break free in seconds, but for Shade a few seconds was a long time. Long enough for her to snatch the pistol from the patrolman’s hand just as he’d slammed in a fresh clip. There was no time for her to register the fact that she had never held a gun in her life before this moment. She ran, bounding, and leaped atop the downed monster. She aimed the gun at his right eye and . . .

Blam!

This time it was her bullet she watched. It was her bullet that flew harmlessly past Knightmare’s eye.

“Damn!”

She jumped closer to the eye, which was slowly focusing, dark circles within still-darker circles. From a distance of three feet she fired again. This time the copper-jacketed slug plowed into the eye. It dimpled the surface, like a marble dropped on Jell-O, but then the Jell-O exploded outward, the vitreous black goo displaced by the bullet entering the membrane.

It was like watching a water balloon filled with ink explode in slow motion.

Monster, Chapter 16