Hallow Point Read Online Free PDF

balcony by a neck that was probably two inches narrower and longer’n it was when this all started.
    He didn’t so much drop as
throw
me.
    It’d be a cliché to tell you time slowed down, but it really felt like that. I saw the pillars reaching up past me, the ceiling receding at a steady, uncaring pace. This was one of those “ain’t likely to rub me out but could really,
really
hurt” situations. I used what time I actually had to wrap myself in the luck I’d stolen from Herne’s leap, and then…
    Wham.
    Not the floor, not yet. Lemme tell you, ricocheting off the back of a pachyderm ain’t nearly as delightful as it sounds.
    That whole “time slowed” thing? I had just long enough after hitting the elephant to think “Howdah, pardner”—I know,
I know
, but it’s what I thought—before…
    Wham.
Again.
    Yep.
That
would be the floor. Goddamn
ow
.
    I wondered, pain radiating through every limb and nerve, how bad that woulda hurt if I
hadn’t
protected myself. I wondered if I’d even still be conscious. I wondered just how far in over my head I was.
    I wondered why the light above me had suddenly gone dark.
    Oh.
    I rolled, far enough and quick enough, that Herne missed me when he landed—by about the length of a cricket’s manhood. A particularly proud cricket, maybe, but still…
    He struck the floor in a crouch, fist hammering down where my chest’d been, putting a long hairline crack in the stone. I think I visibly shuddered thinking about how that poke woulda felt if it’d landed, which I’m sure intimidated Herne something fierce.
    He rose slowly to his full height, rock powder sifting from his knuckles. I scrambled awkwardly to mine, wand extended like a dueling blade.
    Coulda been worse, I guess. One more floor down, and we mighta been close enough for Pete and the bulls to hear from the basement.
    Oh, sure, I’d have welcomed help. The coppers, though? They weren’t help, not against Herne. They were collateral damage. Maybe sport.
    “It doesn’t have to go down like this,” I told him. I’m pretty proud of how steady I sounded.
    “It already has.”
    Sigh.
I knew he’d say something along those—
    And just that quick, he was on me.
    A freight train of muscle and magic. Trying to take him toe-to-toe was a
bad
idea—but I knew Herne of old. I couldn’t match his strength or his speed, but I
might
be able to out-finesse him.
    I spun aside—pirouetted, really—when his meat hooks were inches from me, hauling up on my coat with my left hand to make sure the flogger flapped in his face real quick. The museum walls blurred around me, and then I was facing him again, right as he went by. I stabbed out with the L&G like a dagger, punching hard at his side.
    I peeled more luck off his aura, but there was no way that’d be enough. Didn’t think my chances of messing with his senses were worth a plug nickel, either, not the way
he
sees the world.
    So…
Pain.
Every bit of pain in my aching back, my memory of slamming hard into floor and fauna, I channeled it through the wand, an emotional poison to aggravate the wound.
    The hunter
roared
, and if you’re thinkin’ I mean that metaphorically, you go right on and think again. He staggered, almost stumbling to one knee as he flew by me, and I gotta say, I marked that as a small victory. I hadn’t been too positive I’d been able to do even
that
much to him.
    Course, that also meant he was good’n
steamed
, now, too.
    A few almost-crawling steps and he was back on his feet, lunging back at me. Just a touch unsteady, carrying my extra pain, but not a lot slower’n he’d been. The cry had risen in his throat, and sounded more like a hissing cat now. Every running step echoed in the massive hall, until the whole room sounded like the inside of a drum being played by a rhinoceros.
    I crouched low, body and wand braced against his charge. It was an obvious move, but we both knew he wasn’t enough of a bunny to fall for my matador trick a