The boy was more wild than strong, his hand scraping Solomon’s eyes so that he could barely see. Solomon tried to forearm him off, but Vernon’s little clawlike hands would not release. The boy found Solomon’s windpipe and gave it a wrenching squeeze. The boy’s face was close to Solomon’s head, his breathing coming out in a rapid, seething hiss.

Solomon still held the flashlight and he struck the boy twice in the side to no effect. He felt the boy’s small fingers dig into the flesh around his orbital bones. Solomon couldn’t get any breath. The only true advantage he had was the boy’s slight weight. Solomon wedged his arm between the boy’s chest and his own, and with a great heave threw the boy clear of him, gripping his choked throat to make sure Vernon hadn’t taken a chunk of skin with him.

Solomon got to his feet. The boy was up and running at him, and Solomon swung the flashlight, catching the crazed child on the side of the jaw. It sent him spinning down into the dirt, but he popped right back up, baring his teeth again…only now a few of them were gone.

Solomon put out his free hand, warning Vernon, “Stay back!” He reached for his gun, but just as he got it clear of his holster, the boy flung himself at him again, rabidly, Solomon’s gun discharging once into the ground as it was knocked from his hand.

Vernon clung to him tight, having gotten under Solomon’s arms. He felt a wet sensation at his throat and realized the boy was trying to bite him with his jagged, broken teeth. Solomon let out a scream, feeling the feverish heat of the boy and realizing he was fighting not a child but a thing—a possessed thing.

With two hands he worked the handle of the flashlight beneath the thing’s throat and pushed back, keeping his gnashing teeth from the arteries in Solomon’s neck. The thing snarled and snapped its jaw but Solomon could not push it off him. He felt something rough at his back and found that he had backpedaled against a tree. This close, the thing’s eyes looked almost glowing, their madness boring into him, powered by demonic strength and, at the same time, an element of terror.

At once, the thing’s expression changed to surprise. Its head bucked backward and its grip on Solomon’s back lessened. Its head lowered and Solomon saw Hugo Blackwood revealed behind it, his hand holding something to the back of the thing’s neck.

Solomon threw the fiendish child off him with a yell. He slapped at his throat and face, exploring for bites or mortal wounds, but his hands came away unbloodied.