Dead Reaper Walking Read Online Free PDF

instincts crowded to the forefront and he tried to step in front of her as she reached for the handle. To say the look he received would have frozen hell over would be an understatement. Another notch down on the thermometer and they’d all start singing about building snowmen.
    Hands up in surrender, he let her take point. Almost soundlessly, she pushed the handle down and the door swung open with a slight creak. All three froze, waiting for something…anything…to come barreling out of the kitchen toward them.
    Nothing happened.
    There was no time to let go a sigh of relief because before any of them could set foot over the threshold, a scream rent the air. In a heartbeat, they were through the door, weapons in hand. Laney raced ahead, the light glittering malevolently along the edges of her blades. Troy held in the shiver, gun up, checking his side of the room as Reilly checked the other.
    They split up outside the kitchen, and tore through the rooms on the ground floor like a whirlwind. Laney moved easily with them, never getting in their way or in the line of fire despite the fact she was in front. She didn’t walk so much as fade in and out, that weird fogginess he’d noticed before clinging to her like a cloak.
    They reached the entrance hall, looking at each other.
    “All clear my side,” Reilly confirmed, reaching out to throw the latch on the front door. It was a habit. If they needed backup, or the emergency services, then it would help if they weren’t slowed down. As if on cue, another scream shattered the silence.
    “Upstairs,” Laney moved before the sound finished, taking the stairs two at a time. Fear clutched at Troy’s heart, and he couldn’t help his hand moving to grab her arm. Stop her. She couldn’t face whatever it was up there alone.
    A hard hand on his arm stopped him. Reilly shook his head. “Don’t. She can handle it. Believe me, those suckers are tough.”
    Troy’s jaw hit the deck. The look on Reilly’s face said it all.
    “You know what she is, don’t you?”
    Reilly nodded, the muscles in the side of his jaw working. “Yeah, she’s a Reaper. Saw one take out a whole pack of werewolves in Afghanistan.”
    Troy got the feeling there was more to that story, but they didn’t have time. Moving as one, they stormed up the stairs. They hit the second floor as she kicked in the door to one of the bedrooms. A bellow answered.
    Right room first time.
    Not pausing for breath, she launched through the door, leaving the two human members of the party to trail after her. Reilly reached the door first, shoulder propped against the frame and gun covering the room as Troy moved past him.
    The room was utter carnage. Whites and creams decorated with splashes of deep red he was sure the interior decorator hadn’t figured into the design. The lone hand on the window sill and the long length of gray-pink ropey stuff that he was trying really hard not to mentally identify probably didn’t either.
    The demon was not at all what he expected. For a start, creatures from the deepest pit of hell should be…bigger. And they should not look like his nana, or wear cashmere and pearls. That being said, things that look like his nana shouldn’t have claws longer than bread knives nor spit fire.
    Laney ducked as another gout headed her way, leaving the two men to scatter to either side to avoid being roasted. The flame hit the wall behind them, charring the paper. Troy screamed. Maybe a little like a girl but he didn’t care. Despite all the weird shit happening in town the last year or so, this was his first demon.
    Hopefully, it would be his last.
    Thankfully it wasn’t interested in them, instead concentrating on spitting what sounded like curses at Laney. He thought they were curses anyway. He didn’t speak demon, so it could have been a shopping list for all he knew. Laney apparently did, because she bellowed back in the same language and threw a roundhouse kick that knocked it across the