Shadow Blade Read Online Free PDF

the alley and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket while she automatically scanned her surroundings. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing at all. Shouldn’t someone have noticed? A good man had died and the world kept on as if nothing had happened.
    She hit the fourth entry on her speed dial, connecting to a Seattle exchange as she stalked up the street, back to the restaurant. It was answered on the first ring. “Travel Department. How may I help you?”
    “You’ve got a bird down,” she said without preamble, amazed at the steady monotone of her voice. She’d screamed the code into a phone in Venice six years ago, when she’d tried in vain to hold Nico’s chest closed.
    “Triangulating position. A team is being dispatched,” the voice said as if losing a handler was an everyday occurrence for the Commission. It probably was, but not for Bernie.
    Bernie.
    “Remain nearby and prepare for pickup,” the operator continued. “We’ll need to debrief you.”
    “The hell I will,” Kira snarled into the phone, glad to have a target, albeit a disembodied one. “You turn my friend into a handler without my knowledge and you expect me to wait to chase his killer? Fuck that noise.”
    “Solomon—”
    She snapped her phone closed, then called her power. Her fingers flared blue, frying the phone’s circuitry. For good measure she hurled the tiny device to the ground, slammed a boot heel on it, and was rewarded with a satisfying crunch.
    After making short work of modifying her right sleeve to match her left, she strode back to the restaurant, found her bike, drew on her gloves, and climbed aboard the Buell. She probably had another five minutes before a Gilead Commission Recovery Team arrived. Gilead’s technology rivaled that of any country’s spy program, especially since they’d had a few millennia to develop it. They’d track her down soon enough, but she had no intention of making it easy for them. Time was short and she had Shadows to chase.
     

     
    “Is she the one?”
    The wraith, as translucent and shimmery as a half-seen cobweb, hovered a few feet off the ground further down
Third Street
from the alley. Trapped between here and there, it had no recognizable form but changed shape frequently as if being molded by a metaphysical breeze. “She is,” the spirit finally replied. “But this one won’t be easy.”
    “True,” the man said. “But I could use a challenge for a change.”
    “What are you going to do?” the wraith asked.
    “Follow her, study her. Find a weakness and exploit it.”
    “She’s a Shadowchaser,” the wraith pointed out. “They’re not known for weakness.”
    “She’s still human. All humans are weak.”
    “And if she’s not?” The wraith solidified, its mercurial shape elongating before taking the appearance of an older black man.
    “Doesn’t matter. She has my blade. I will have it back.”

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 3
    K ira pulled her bike to a stop in front of the one establishment in Atlanta where Gilead wouldn’t dare follow her: the DMZ. The Goth club took its name from the military term “demilitarized zone”—an area between two belligerent powers where no fighting or other military activity was permitted—and it served pretty much the same purpose. Both sides of the Eternal Struggle could enter the DMZ freely as long as no weapons were drawn or confrontations occurred. Outside a hundred yards from the entrance, however, and you were fair game again.
    With the tingle of DMZ’s protective shielding buzzing along her arms, Kira eased her bike into a parked row of other motorcycles. As long as the shield held, nothing and no one—magical or human—could touch her bike.
    The usual crowd milled around the steel and concrete industrial-looking entrance waiting their turn to enter, an eclectic mix of humans and half-breeds. Light and Shadow Adepts never had to queue up at the DMZ. If Avatars from either side ever showed themselves, they probably didn’t