Excerpt: DARK MOON the first, a short battle scene

In honor of finally having recut and numbered all the chapters in Dark Moon: The Ward of Shadow (there are 38, if you're curious), I offer to you a short excerpt from somewhere in the middle of the book.  Lena and her friends have stumbled upon some creepy beasties...and cue spotlight:

"

Lena heard Shadow whimper.  The creature was pressed to him with its spindly legs wrapped around him like a vice, squeezing bulges into his flesh.  Lena aimed a clumsy stroke at the tough hide but it held fast.  Shadow’s eyes rolled back into his skull and he began to convulse.  With a roar, Lena grabbed hold of the creature’s slick wormlike body and pulled as tightly as she could.  Spitting from its red-toothed maw, it loosed Shadow and threw itself at her, squeezing until she choked.  Its skin attached to her like Velcro.  She could feel blood draining from her body like from a thousand doctor’s needles, until she could no longer see, or even hear herself scream. 

As her eyes blacked, she heard a sickening squish and the creature peeled away.  The earth tilted and twisted.  She sunk drunkenly to the ground.  There was a shriek and a weight collapsed on top of her.  Just before losing consciousness altogether, she heard a sickening crunch, like teeth cracking through bone.
" 

Enjoy!  And tell me what you think, of course.  (: 

Next stop:  Review of Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein.  The book comes out May 15th, so get pumped!  I'm loving it.