Her skin still looked hot, though, probably too hot to touch. Megan pulled out a pair of winter gloves from inside her coat and put them on. They were rather flimsy and wouldn’t protect her hands for long. They likely would, however, work just long enough to pull the woman out. She didn’t look like she weighed much.
That thought stuck in her mind as Megan carefully stepped down the steep sides into the crater. Maybe it was the burn damage, but there seemed to be something odd about this woman’s proportions. She looked like she hadn’t had an ounce of fat on her body, and she looked smaller than a grown woman should. Holy crap, was this a little girl? No, Megan realized as she got closer. Two large yet still shriveled protrusions from her chest marked this woman as a full adult, or at least a teen who had been well-endowed early. Her back was messed up though in a way Megan couldn’t quite identify, almost as though the woman had been deformed even before whatever happened. These were all details that Megan knew she shouldn’t be dwelling on just now, though. She could wonder what it all meant later, after she’d given the dying woman what little comfort she could and the police were involved.
“Help.” This time the word was barely audible. Megan stooped down in the growing pool of water and leaned her ear in close to hear whatever the woman’s last words might be.
“Please,” Megan said. “Tell me what happened.” She knew this would be a sight that would haunt her for the rest of her life and every moment she stayed here was a little more psychological trauma added to her already heaping pile. Yet she couldn’t leave yet. It was the only right thing to do.
The woman’s lips moved again, but this time no sound came out. Megan moved closer, hoping she might decipher some of what she was saying through lip reading, but there weren’t enough lips left to read. There was, however, something else odd about her mouth. Something strange about her teeth…
With lightning speed, the woman grabbed Megan by the shoulders with both arms. She sat up, her entire body creaking and cracking yet moving with a quickness that Megan had never even seen in a completely healthy person. Megan screamed, partly out of shock and partly at the red hot touch of the woman’s hands that burned right through Megan’s coat to singe the skin underneath.
“Help,” the woman said again. There was no longer any sign of weakness in her voice. Her voice was strong, deep, throaty, and very clearly not human. Her charred lips curled back in a grim parody of a smile, giving Megan a clear view of the woman’s teeth. All of them pointed. All of them sharp. All of them dripping with some kind of mucous-colored ichor like venom.
“Help me,” she said again, then opened her mouth wide and came at Megan.
Megan’s scream was short.
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Defensive Instinct (Survival Instinct Book 4) Page 56