Ascendance Read Online Free PDF Page B

look like a bit of a dick if he couldn’t, and there were all those cameras on them, so maybe not.
    ‘What’s the problem?’ he asked, ‘You know. Besides monsters.’
    ‘Having a battle of wits here, Hooper,’ said Karen, nodding tightly at the Threshrend. He noticed for the first time just how strained her voice was.
    ‘Is this daemon bothering you, ma’am?’ he asked. But he could see from the way veins were starting to stand out on her neck that it was. The air seemed to crackle between Warat and the beast, the atmosphere so charged that he could feel the hairs on the back of his arms standing up. The terrible pressure inside his own temples had to be connected to whatever was going down between them, and he wondered if it was also affecting the Hunn and their leash.
    Dave rolled his shoulder again – it felt good now – and he hoisted Lucille, smacking the hardwood handle into his palm. Crazy bitch was fairly whistling her happy tune, and he suspected it might even be soothing the sharp pain in his head and behind his eyes. He had the very strong impression that were it not for the enchanted splitting maul, he’d probably be as paralysed as those Hunn appeared to be.
    Carefully sliding up beside Chadderton he said, out of the corner of his mouth.
    ‘Hey, my name’s Dave. Who are you?’
    ‘Chadderton,’ the man answered, his voice steady but tense with the effort of keeping it so. ‘Ted,’ he added, and shook his head as if surprised by something he’d said. ‘And this is Officer Delillo.’
    ‘Cool,’ said Dave. The woman didn’t reply or add anything to her partner’s introduction. Her eyes remained fixed on the largest Hunn. Dave could see she was aiming at its centre mass, which would do no good at all.
    ‘So. Ted. Officer Delillo. You guys got enough ammo left to put down that ugly-ass hell toad over there. The one with all the eyestalks and the warts?’
    ‘I got three rounds left,’ said Chadderton.
    ‘Two,’ his partner offered.
    ‘Think you can shoot out the base of those stalks?’ Dave asked. ‘Its thick skull is a lot thinner there.’
    ‘Can try,’ said Delillo, her eyes flicking to Dave and widening a little. She had some trouble focusing on the Threshrend again. Dave held back his sigh. She dug his magic Old Spice. But she wasn’t hot, and this wasn’t the time.
    ‘That’s all we can ever do,’ he said. ‘Karen? Karin ?’ he added as quietly as he could while still being heard. ‘You good to go?’
    The Russian, who looked about a thousand miles from being good to go, jerked her head up and down and Dave continued his slow sidestepping shuffle toward her, leaving the cops behind, but making sure not to get between them and the Threshrend. Even ducking low at one point to give them the shot.
    ‘Don’t. Try. Orb.’ Warat grunted each word separately, and for a moment he wasn’t sure what she meant. And then he recalled her saying she’d ‘orbed’ out of the consulate to get him. Some Russian word for ‘warp’ maybe.
    ‘Yeah, already figured that. Old daemon Kermit there is fucking with us, right?’
    ‘Right,’ she said, almost a gasp. She was sweating and tremors ran through her upper body, causing the blade she still held to waver a little. One of the Hunn stepped forward uncertainly, but stopped as Dave turned on him. The beast’s nasal slits flared, as though he smelled something he really didn’t like.
    Dave addressed them as a group, speaking in the Olde Tongue.
    ‘So, you boys aren’t from round here, are you?’
    He expected the Threshrend, which he suspected was the superiorae of this small group, to answer, perhaps giving him a chance to try warping over there while it was distracted. Instead one of the Hunn spoke. The one with the biggest balls, of course.
    ‘You are the champion of this village?’ it growled, its deep, guttural voice noticeably slurred.
    ‘Dude,’ laughed Dave. ‘Are you drunk?’ But his smile faltered when he