Two more of the meat puppets closed on her, recognizing that she was the immediate danger. One Shade dispatched by hurling a section of steel mast like a javelin. It skewered the foul creature, but then something struck Shade’s neck.

She jerked away with speed that saved her life, but barely. The place where the tendril had touched felt like someone had jabbed a cattle prod deep into her neck.

Shade bolted, ran, then . . . slowed. Her limbs had gone heavy. Her insectoid legs had lost their spring. The world around her sped up as she slowed.

Poison!

She began to de-morph, but instinct warned her not to, and she stopped, fearing that the poison within her would not be eliminated by resuming her human form. Suspecting that out of morph, the poison would kill her.

She folded her legs beneath her and sat hard on the dock. Breathing was coming hard. Her vision blurred and her head swam, as the dock turned beneath her. Nausea rose in a wave.

A meat puppet advanced, and it was all Shade could do to keep it in sight as the whole world went sideways and slanted and prismatic.

Tendrils whipped the air and in seconds would stab her again and again, filling her body with enough poison to kill any living thing.

Water. She had to reach the water. Get away.

Her legs were as awkward as stilts badly attached to her body. Her hands were better and she clawed at the dock, hauling herself inch by inch . . . but there, just before her, a pool of liquid fire.

Monster, Chapter 25