Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 156945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Crouched, huge, made out of solid shadow and smelling like human blood, he was no puppy. He was a ferocious guard dog that responded to a single master. Gray.
He sniffed loudly, slowly rising to his feet, even taller than when he’d occupied his body. Strong and prepared for battle, he was a magnificent beast.
Gray half-yelped when the clubhouse resonated with a series of shots from an assault rifle, but the bullets coming from the hallway ricocheted off Shadow’s solid form amidst the chaos. Gray fell to the floor when a high-pitched scream tore through the air, but his eyes remained trained on the tar-black creature with three arms.
“What is this fucking thin—?” screamed a man, whose voice echoed from the hallway, but Shadow bolted through the door before the bastard even finished his sentence. A terrible sound reminiscent of punching through thick pudding resonated off the walls.
And then there was silence.
Gray couldn’t make himself breathe as he stood up, glancing at the damp spray of blood glistening on the floor. This couldn’t be real.
Shadow stilled in the corridor where the other intruder lay in a growing puddle of red, and he slowly moved his head from side to side. If he were a dog, he would have had his ears pricked.
His faceless head turned to Gray, eyes burning red, and he took a few steps, leaving the body behind. “That’s all of them,” he said softly in that strange voice that reminded Gray of a throaty sound blown through a paper tube.
Gray licked his lips, oddly humbled in the face of such power, but despite the carnage left behind by Shadow’s actions, he wasn’t afraid to face him. Everything that had happened tonight proved that Shadow’s agenda was to keep him safe.
“Well done.”
Shadow turned into bouncy black gel that splashed over the floor until it reached Gray and wrapped himself around his body.
The clicking of guns pulled Gray back to reality. He heard sobbing.
“It’s safe. There were only two,” Gray said quickly, and as he turned to face whoever was still here, he noticed that Shadow was back in his basic humanoid form, still hugging him.
The patches stood in silence, weapons drawn as if the attackers had been only an appetizer in terms of danger, and it was Shadow who suddenly became the main dish.
Beast’s jaw worked even before he spoke. “Who were they?”
Gray exhaled, and his gaze trailed to the head that had rolled into the corner, leaving behind a bloody trail. “Let’s find out,” he said and walked up to it, with Shadow still holding on to him. He didn’t get to lean down for the skull before one of Shadow’s limbs picked it up and gingerly placed it in his hands.
He wasn’t sure whether the gesture was endearing or creepy.
Gray had seen some pretty gruesome shit in his life, but peeling a balaclava off a severed head that was still warm and bleeding was a whole new level of nauseating.
He recognized the man the moment he saw the large black birthmark on his cheek.
“He’s one of the men from the train. Wild guess is that the other one is one of them as well.”
“Are you sure they’re working alone?” Beast asked, gently pulling a sobbing Laurent from behind the sofa.
Gray dropped the head, and winced when it gave a nasty crack as it fell.
When he met the jewel-like eyes, Shadow nodded. “It’s only the two.”
“How in the flying fuck did they find us?” Knight asked. He had Elliot under one arm and Nao under the other. He rubbed her back when she shuddered, hiding her face.
“What was this t-thing?” Gray heard from behind him. He wouldn’t need to look back to know it was Angel, but he was relieved to see that she was likely lying behind the furniture and couldn’t see Shadow. When her voice turned into a loud cry, Gray stepped out of the room, taking Shadow with him.
“Oh, my God! They hit someone! He’s dead!”
Knight gave Elliot a quick kiss and rushed off to Shadow’s body which lay face down on the floor. “What do we do?” he asked Gray with his eyes wide, rolling the lifeless flesh mannequin to its back.
“Who cares?” Rev roared, emerging from behind a fallen armchair with bloodstains on his hand. “Get me a first aid kit!”
Nao stumbled toward the kitchen, and then Rev’s way with the box of supplies in hand. “Were y-you shot?” She briefly glanced at the headless body and whined, hunching her shoulders.
The scene around Gray reminded him of the one just weeks ago. Fire and explosions had created so much chaos, people had walked around aimlessly in the snow, shell-shocked, and with their eyes empty as if they didn’t want to take in the carnage.
“Who was shot?” he asked loudly, but the bundle of curse words coming his way hardly constituted an answer. Angel’s sobs did. Fuck. She must had been hit by one of the ricocheting bullets.