The Van Helsing Conjecture – Excerpt No. 284

That was her cue to get ready.

“Like…”

The single syllable sounded like an opera singer holding a note. What Clara really wanted was to act but was also enjoying Julia’s flair for theatrics.

“N…”

Clara shot her wings into the sky. With a powerful flap, she was standing. One the second, she spun in place while the other wing knocked down several hunters.

“O…”

Her feet hit the ground, and Clara raced around the hollow. She accounted for every heartbeat and freed every hunter of their bolts and cut the strings to their crossbows. At this pace the limbs would not snap in place until after she had done her rounds.

“W…”

She dropped the bolts into the fire and returned to mostly in sync with time. I left just enough to react if someone gets smart.

a dramatic, low-key, cinematic photograph of a young woman with long, curly dark brown hair and porcelain skin, sporting large, velvety black feathers sprouting from her back, resembling wings, as she sprints through a group of six to eight hooded, armed men clad in dark trench coats, their faces obscured by shadows, in the midst of a mystical, moonless, and intensely foggy dark woods at night, with fog wisps swirling around her legs and the hooded figures, capturing the feeling of dynamic motion, with the blur of trees, mist, and the men's coats streaking behind her, as if time itself is warping around her, with the overall mood and lighting evoking a sense of urgency, danger, and mystique.

Disclaimer: This novel is an work in progress and readers may encounter grammatical errors and inconsistencies. Please view this a draft and not a published work.