Dylan's brain was recording every detail about the creature's appearance even as he was immobilized by fright. The spell was broken when the beast slid its tongue out between its lips. The tongue was round and pointed, Dylan thought it appeared hard and barbed on the end. A big dollop of blood rolled off the tip and splattered down El Chupacabra's chest.

"Ewwww! Gross!" Dylan squealed as he dropped the pistol and brought the shotgun up in line with the creature's chest. He jerked a trigger and fired one barrel. The flash lit up the farmyard and the recoil pounded him back a step. El Chupacabra was an instant faster and had leapt straight up just before the pellets tore through the space it had just vacated.

Dylan recovered quickly and was trying to track the creature with the shotgun, but things were happening fast now. At the top of its leap, those long quills on the beast's back spread and flattened out. The creature was able to turn in mid-air and fly or glide off in a totally new direction. Dylan fired the other barrel of the shotgun, but El Chupacabra twisted into a looping spiral and the shot went wide.

Dylan broke open the breech of the shotgun and frantically scrabbled to reload. He had just finished clawing the spent shells out and had rammed fresh ones home when he looked up to get a bearing on the creature's whereabouts.

He heard a swoosh and turned to his left. El Chupacabra plowed feet first into his chest and kicked off into the air again. Dylan was bowled over backwards by the force. The creature couldn't have weighed more than twenty pounds, but it had slammed into Dylan at a very high speed and the kickoff had driven the air from Dylan's lungs.