Dominant Species Read Online Free PDF Page B

then.’
    As Max headed for the door he pushed past Jake, bumping into him deliberately. When he reached the door he turned and hissed at the others over his shoulder.
    ‘I know what you all think, but you know what? We’re going to have to do it one day. We’re going to have to face them…’ he looked pointedly from one to the other ‘...fight them.’ Then he fixed his stare on Jake, ‘…and that includes you, Bro ,’ having made his point he turned and stormed out of the crypt, and up the stairs.
    A great heaviness clung to Jake as he watched his brother disappearing from view. A part of him was angry, angry at Max and angry at his own behaviour for deliberately provoking him; the other part of him simply felt an immense loss. Like Nathan, he also wondered where it had all gone wrong and not for the first time wondered if he had lost his younger brother forever. It was Trent’s rough voice that brought him back to the present.
    ‘ Always spoiling for a fight that brother of yours…’ whispered Trent right next to him. He sighed and looked at Jake as a father might look at his son ‘…trouble is, this time he might just have a point.’

Chapter 5
 
The Vampire City
     
    Inside an ornate but faded room, a pastiche of some former time, a door flew open followed by a snarling Rodan. He discarded his long, black, leather coat on the arm of an expensive but faded sofa.
    Suddenly the hackles on the back of his neck rose as he sensed someone behind him. He span, his teeth bared, jaw lengthening, as a silky voice caressed across the room.
    ‘So , how did it go?’
    Relaxing, he smiled. His eyes narrowed as he watched the slender shape of a female vampire as she stepped out of the shadows. His eyes followed the contours of her body, clearly revealed by the skin-tight , black leather outfit she was wearing. His eyes moved down to her shapely legs, then slowly back up, over every curve of her striking body, to her face, where they lingered on her lips; lips that were covered in blood-red lipstick. The lips pursed as she moved toward him, every curve flowing into the next. She smiled as their eyes met. A long manicured nail, tipped with a colour that perfectly matched her lips, glided slowly up Rodan’s chest.
    ‘Well?’ She whispered.
    Rodan smiled, his extended canines showing, and he pulled her to him. She looked coyly into his eyes, raised an eyebrow. ‘Well?’ she repeated.
    ‘Yes , Keermit; very well indeed!’
     
    Jake slouched on a pile of rubble, silently staring out over the East river and into the blankness of the night. Through the gloom in the distance he could make out a hundred glimmering lights. His thoughts absently drifted back through time, through a jumbled array of sounds and images ; images that suddenly exploded into a million fragments as a familiar gravelly voice brought him crashing back to reality.
    ‘It’s not right is it?’ Trent said absently , from somewhere behind him.
    Jake’s head jerked round, his brow creased. ‘What?’
    ‘Us here; them there, everything they have, that we don’t. It’s not fair, is it?’
    Jake stared back into the distance, the faint lights dancing across his retinas. ‘It’s not what they have that bothers me, it’s what they take.’
    Trent stared at Jake’s back, considered his response for a second before replying carefully.
    ‘But they don’t always get what they want, do they?’
    Jake’s reply was so distant he could hardly be heard, ‘Not always, no.’
    Trent nodded to himself. He cocked his head to one side, his eyes focusing on the side of Jake’s face he could see.
    ‘And the dreams?’ he asked cautiously.
    He saw Jake stiffen, almost imperceptibly; perhaps he noticed that Jake’s jaw clenched just that little bit tighter, just for a moment. He knew he’d touched a raw nerve and decided to change tack, before he lost Jake’s engagement completely.
    ‘You know s on; your idea of negotiating a truce is brave thinking. It