INVITING FIRE (A Sydney Rye Novel, #6) Read Online Free PDF Page A

hearing was. Blue showed up then, his fur soot-covered in addition to the blood. He looked crazy and scary.
    I didn't reach out and pet him as I'd normally do and he cocked his head at me. Looking down the hill, I saw Frederica exiting the grasses. She glanced around, keeping her body low, gun still in her hand. I wanted to yell to her but didn't want to give up my position. The wind shifted and the black smoke coming off the truck drifted toward her. Frederica knelt down next to one of the bodies. Her body shuddered when she coughed, the thick smoke furling around her. I recognized the instinct that drove her out into the open. She was desperate to say goodbye. But I had lost too much and almost died too many times to take chances like that.
    The smoke billowed thick around her. I saw her shape, the light color of her jeans, the stained purple shirt, move on to the next body. I looked around but didn't see anyone. They might all be dead. But then I saw him. He was coming around from the back of the building, from where the shallow grave lay. I yelled and saw Frederica look up in my direction, not at the man. I stood, pointing. I could barely make her out in the smoke as she turned.
    A single muzzle shot in the dark smoke, like lightning from within the depths of a storm, and Frederica joined her friends and Malina on the ground. Then there was just me and the man with the gun. I stared through the haze of pollution as it thickened and thinned around him. He was tall, black hair, his white button-down shirt stained with blood and soot. The same as Blue.
    I was standing in the grass, exposed, so dropped to the ground. He started up the hill toward me. The man couldn't be this stupid and be the only survivor, I thought, as I pulled my gun. He ducked into the grasses before my aim could be trusted.
    Blue nudged my elbow with his nose and I looked over at him. My arm was still oozing blood. My bicep and forearm smeared in it. The drying rivulets pulled at my arm hair and itched my skin. Looking at Blue I watched his ears, letting his senses guide me. The ringing in my own ears was still distracting.
    But then I heard that other sound. The sizzle of lightning. A bolt crossed my vision. It hummed there, bright and white, superimposing itself onto the world in front of me. The sound of thunder filled my senses and I gripped my machete in one hand, gun in the other, determined not to die today. No fucking way.
    Blue's ears swirled and I looked past the string of light and saw movement in the grasses. He was coming. Blue went out to circle behind the man. I stayed crouched. The bolt began to fade. The sun was hot on my skin and sweat trickled into my eyes. The sound of thunder stopped abruptly and then I heard his footsteps and saw the rustle of the grass. I fired in his direction. The noise of my gun creating the ringing again. I didn't hear anyone fall. But would I?
    Blue barked and I knew the man was still alive and coming my way. My eyes were stinging from the smoke and the sweat. My thighs burned from crouching and my right arm throbbed from its wounds. I thought I heard him moving away. It was possible the man didn't want to face me. I stayed still, waiting to see him. Then I heard Blue growl and a body hitting the ground. A gun went off. I was flying toward the sound, my fear for Blue stronger than any other instinct.
    There was movement in the grasses ahead and I was suddenly upon them. Blue had the man's gun arm in his mouth, the gun now pointing in my direction. The man was wailing at Blue's body with his free fist, grunting with the effort. The man spotted me and was about to pull the trigger when I brought my machete down onto his wrist, almost severing his hand. Blood spurted out of the wound and I felt it land, warm and wet, on my hands and forearms. Droplets splattered my cheeks and forehead. He screamed, piercing and hardly human.
    Blue held onto his forearm as the man struggled. His face was growing paler. His blood