Catwalk: Messiah Read Online Free PDF

evidently intimidated by the man who gave off an air of wealth, despite his physical atrocities.  
    Hitch continued. “You have beautiful eyes, Jesse.”
    “Th-thank you, sir.”
    “Tsk tsk.”
    “Thank you.”
    Hitch grinned. “Your heritage is something foreign. Something exotic. You are from Turkey perhaps, maybe Syria?”  
    A wordless nod was his only reply. Hitch grinned wider. He offered a brief phrase in Hebrew, roughly translated to mean, “Every hole is black in the night.” At the end of his statement, Jesse raised his frightened eyes to meet his gaze. He addressed the man who paid more than his normal price. “How can I serve you, sir…uh, not sir?”
    It was more temptation than Hitch could stand. He raised his hand to the boy’s throat, gripping it with a frenzy driven from the heat of his loins. The sooner he murdered Jesse, the sooner he could claim dominance over the bright-eyed youngster.
    The sound of thunder near his head made Hitch jump back against the seat.
    The limo driver’s brains splattered against the Plexiglas screen that separated him from the passengers. Hitch boggled at the sudden shift in direction, forcing him to release Jesse and grab the sides of the maneuvering vehicle to steady himself. The sunroof shattered inward and he raised his arms upward to cover his face from the rain of glass. He heard a scream and turned to look at his would-be victim. Jesse’s eyes met his. The youngster was screaming in sheer horror. A moment later, the scream was gone. Jesse’s shocked form disappeared upward through the broken frame of the sunroof.
    Hitch heard a muffled voice, and suddenly the here-and-now drew him to a reality his brain had covered with dementia. His prey was gone. His escort was gone. He turned his gaze upward and met face-to-face with a pair of glowing inhuman yellow eyes.
    “I told you that you’d burn, chitbag.”
    The thing with the yellow eyes grabbed Hitch before he could scream and ripped him from the limo. The shattered sunroof tore through his clothes and cut into his flesh as the creature dragged him onto the roof. The limo careened out of control; the dead driver’s foot still pressed against the accelerator.
    A second later, all the cobwebs and shadows hiding his psyche dissipated, leaving him vulnerable to the cold recollection of every one of his crimes. Without the comfort of the shadows, his eyes opened wide. Clarity of thought tore into his mind like a scalpel, and he prayed that the vision before him would disappear into a nightmare. Centimeters from his face, yellow eyes stared back at him. The recognition petrified him. It was the Cat, the one who’d sent him the vow of revenge following his last conquest. The threat had seemed so innocuous at first, until the would-be avenger had spelled out detail after detail. Now, it was evident. His throat constricted. He couldn’t swallow or cough or beg for his life. Stars and spirals invaded the edges of his vision.
    The Cat gripped him hard. Its claws ripped through his cheap suit and into his skin. He felt his flesh tear as he struggled to avoid its grasp. It stared into him…through him…like some inhuman avenger. It wasn’t human; couldn’t be human. He moaned in agony. Its claws made him remember the sting of his father’s belt – submission through pain. But this thing wasn’t his father. It wasn’t even human.
    Hitch felt a greater threat, even as his mind splintered. Tearing his focus from his assailant, he looked beyond the Cat and saw the outline of something large...an ominous, formless shadow somewhere behind them. In the dark, he couldn’t decipher what it was or how long they had before impact. A desperate voice tore at his temples, scratching like rats on a sinking ship looking for a way out. He even thought for a second to warn his captor.
    Words from the yellow-eyed assassin brought him back to consciousness. “This is for Amber.”
    The avenger placed a piece of fabric into