Sam still held the reload magazine for the Sig Sauer in her left hand when the beast pounced.
In the hair-breadth of reaction time she possessed, Sam instinctively thrust her left arm forward as the open maw of the hound descended; her hand and arm sunk into the wolf's gullet while its steel jaws clamped down, its dagger-like teeth biting deeply just above her elbow. With the final, fading ability of her mind to control her muscles Sam willed her left hand to thumb loose a single 9 mm silver bullet from the magazine. That bullet dropped down the open throat of the hound...
And the effect was immediate.
The jaws opened. The wolf hacked out Sam's arm and ripped its head backward, stumbling on its digitigrade legs toward the mine entrance, where it dropped on all fours, retching, trying desperately to cough up the projectile. Sam still held the magazine in her left hand, though the muscles of that arm no longer wanted to cooperate. Kneeling, she turned the Sig over, pressed it between her thighs, then grabbed the magazine with her right hand and fed it into the magazine well. She gripped the gun, gained her feet, and stepped over the dead wolf to stand before Kronin.
Raising the pistol, she said "This is for the man in the church," and shot the beast in its left shoulder. A cross between a roar and a howl escaped its throat as it fell onto one side, clawing with its right arm to try and get away.
"This is for Barnes," Sam said as she fired again, this time into the monster's leg. Another cry of pain tore from its throat.
"This is for Elias," Sam spoke, her voice cracking slightly as she blew a hole in the hound's right ankle.
The beast had stopped trying to scurry off. It lay there now, its foggy, wheezing breath puffing out in ragged gasps. Its eyes locked on Sam, and she saw something there that she had not seen yet in the eyes of any other Infernum Cane.
She saw fear.
Sam raised the gun once more. It was time now to balance the scales. Time at last to end the legacy of the wolf.
"This is for Kathy you son of a bitch," Sam said as she blasted a bullet straight through Kronin's brain.
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Is it over? Almost! One more chapter to go...