Blood Ties Read Online Free PDF Page A

narrowed, flickering briefly to Jake’s clockwork arm. He shifted his stance and came forward slowly. He was going after Jake’s right side, guessing it was flesh and blood.
    Unfortunately for Jake, Quinn guessed right.
    Jake’s eyes darted to the glinting, filigreed Peacemaker tucked into the sash of the dead man between them, the runes traced into the metal glowing a faint, ethereal green. If he could get his hands on his pistol, the fight would be over in an instant.
    He dove towards his Colt, putting every ounce of strength he had into it. His clockwork legs screamed. He moved like lightning, faster than any normal man.
    Quinn saw the motion and became a blur.
    As Jake’s hand wrapped around the grip, Quinn appeared before his eyes like some sort of ghostly nightmare and slapped the pistol from Jake’s hand with impossible strength and speed. Jake had never seen anything move that fast, not even the werewolf he’d faced down the previous summer. The pistol went sailing into the shadows at the back of the barn, bounced off the wall, and dropped into the dust. Quinn’s backhand hammered into Jake’s jaw, lifted him up, and sent him sailing back into the support beam. Pain shot through his spine, and his jaw felt like it had been torn out. Dazed, his knees buckled, and he slid partway down the post. He shook his head to clear it. As his eyes refocused, the blur came at him again.
    Jake lashed out with a haymaker, the best he could manage in his state, but Quinn shifted easily, avoiding it. The creature took the opening and sent a hard punch into Jake’s stomach. Jake grunted with the impact and swung his left out in a backhand, clockwork gears screaming.
    Quinn ducked under it, stepped out, and sent a brutal roundhouse kick into Jake’s left knee. His foot impacted on the hard metal of Jake’s clockwork leg, and the metal joint shifted slightly but didn’t buckle. Quinn’s eyes went wide with pain, his face filling with rage. He changed tactics and slashed again and again with ragged claws in fast arcs that angled in from every direction. Jake shielded himself with his left arm, the only thing fast enough to keep Quinn’s attacks at bay. The stable filled with the sound of bone hacking and scraping on metal. Shreds of Jake’s shirtsleeve fell before the onslaught; the gleaming bronze flashing beneath the fabric as it was torn to pieces.
    In mid-swing Quinn’s knee came up into Jake’s midsection, smashing him back against the support beam. Quinn lunged just as Jake’s clockwork left shot out and clamped down onto his attacker’s shoulder like a vice.
    Quinn’s collarbone snapped, a hollow, popping sound as the bone gave way. The killer’s face twisted in pain and rage. He grabbed at Jake’s arm, trying to dislodge it. And then he wrapped one claw around Jake’s throat.
    His breath caught in his throat and his lungs burned in protest. As the pressure of Quinn’s grip increased, a gleam of metal caught Jake’s eye. The broken slasher blade was still stuck in the post near Jake’s head.
    “You’re still holding a dead man’s hand,” Jake rasped with cold determination. He brought his right knee up into Quinn’s mid-section like a piston. The clockwork leg hit like a freight train, and Quinn HUFFED with the impact that lifted him off the ground. Jake held firm as Quinn came back down on wobbly legs. He released Quinn’s ruined shoulder, and in a blur his metal fingers clicked around the embedded blade. He swung wide and jammed six inches of steel into the side of Quinn’s head. The blade ruptured Quinn’s right eye as it passed through flesh and bone.
    Quinn’s remaining eye went wide and he howled like a wounded animal, staggering back, black blood poured down his cheek. Jake expected the assassin to drop where he stood. Instead, Quinn stopped and stood straight. His left eye focused on Jake, and a wicked smile split his face. He reached up, grabbed the blade, and wrenched it free, dropping it