"Lover At Last" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ward, J.R.)

The lesser didnтАЩt bother to answer, which was in contrast to what they had been seeing lately. Unlike the others, this was no young punk to talk smack and flash his gat. Calm, calculatingтАжcontrolled, he was the kind of enemy that improved your job performance.

Not exactly a bad thingтАж

And sure enough, his hand disappeared into his coat.

тАЬDonтАЩt be stupid, my man,тАЭ Qhuinn barked, prepared to put a bullet in the bastard at a momentтАЩs notice.

The lesser didnтАЩt stop moving.

Fine.

He pulled his fucking trigger and dropped the bitch.



The instant the lesser hit the snow, Blay froze with his guns in place. The others did the same.

In the silent seconds that passed, they kept eyes locked on the downed slayer. No movement. No response from the periphery. Qhuinn had incapacitated the thing, and it appeared to have been working alone.

Funny, even if Blay hadnтАЩt heard the shot in his left ear, heтАЩd have known Qhuinn was the shooterтАФeveryone else would have given the enemy another chance to think things over.

As Rhage whistled in a short burst, that was the cue to close in. The five of them moved like a pack of wolves over downed prey, swift and sure, crossing the snow with guns up. The slayer remained utterly stillтАФbut there hadnтАЩt been a death in the family, so to speak. You needed a steel dagger through the chest for that.

But this was the desirable state. You wanted them to be able to talk.

Or at least, in a condition to be forced to talkтАФ

Later, when he replayed what happened nextтАжwhen his mind churned and burned over the facts obsessivelyтАжwhen he stayed up days trying to piece together how it all rolled out in hopes of divining a change in procedure that would ensure something like it never, ever went down againтАжBlay would dwell on the twitch.

That little twitch in the arm. Just an autonomic jerk seemingly unconnected with any conscious thought or will. Nothing dangerous. No signal of what was to come.

Just a twitch.

Except then, with a move that was blinking fast, the slayer outted a gun from somewhere. It was unprecedentedтАФone second he was deadweight on the ground; the next, he was shooting in a controlled manner in a fat circle.

And even before the popping sounds faded, Blay caught the horrific image of Zsadist taking a slug right in the heart, the impact strong enough to stop the BrotherтАЩs forward momentum, his torso throwing back, his arms ripping out to the side as he flipped off his feet.

Instantly, the dynamic changed. No one was looking to interrogate the bastard anymore.

Four daggers flashed high. Four bodies jumped in. Four arms slashed down with cold, sharp blades. Four impacts struck, one right after another.

They were too late, however.

The slayer disappeared right out from under them, their weapons stabbing the black-stained snow beneath where the enemy had landed, instead of an empty chest cavity.

WhateverтАФthere would be time to question the unprecedented disappearance afterward. At the moment, they had a fighter down.

Rhage all but launched himself on top of the Brother, putting his body in the way of anything and everything. тАЬZ? Z? Oh, mother of the raceтАФтАЭ