Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page A

a sound like wet cloth tearing in two. Bellowing, Spider stumbled back, one hand with its bracelet of colored rag clapped to her spurting cheek.
    And Alex had the rifle now.
    She surged to her feet. Her mouth was filled with Spider’s blood and a meaty chunk of the girl’s cheek. Alex spat, never taking her eyes from the girl, and then she was winding up like a batter and swinging, hard and fast The butt whirred, cleaving air. At the very last second, Spider sensed it coming; flinching, she ducked and made an abortive move to the right, which probably saved her life. The stock smashed into Spider’s left temple with a loud, hollow sound like a heavy butcher’s knife against a cutting board. Spider’s head whipped right as jets of blood flew in long tongues. Spider’s silver eyes rolled up to whites as her knees unhinged, and then the girl collapsed to the snow like a sack of soiled laundry.
    Dizzy with pain, Alex swayed over the girl. Spider’s face was a mess. Blood painted her jaw, and more streamed from the girl’s nose, fiddleheads of steam curling into the still air where hot blood melted into snow. Spider’s breath came in long, bubbling snores.
    End it. Alex’s stomach curdled at the taste in her mouth, sour and puckery with dying blood, the raw meat of Spider’s flesh, and the lingering, metallic tang of spent adrenaline. Her throat felt like the neck of a vase, every swallow bright and glassy. A high, whining buzz competed with the boom of her heart, but not so much that she didn’t hear the crunch and squeal of snow and knew: the others were coming for her.
    Kill Spider at least. Put a bullet in her head and then take one of them in the bargain. Tom wouldn’t go down without a fight, and neither would Chris. Fight, damn you. Don’t make it easy.
    Her grip tightened on the rifle, but then she remembered something: the look on Spider’s face at the moment the Browning hadn’t fired. The rifle was loaded with .270-caliber Magnum shorts and one already in the breech. She’d seen it herself. If she tried again, the weapon might very well explode in her hands. People died like that, too. She could use the rifle as a club, keep them at bay, but all they had to do was wait for her to tire herself out.
    Has to be another way. The useless rifle slipped from her fingers. There has to be something I can do. But what? They had superior numbers. From the looks of this place, hers was a scenario they’d watched unfold a hundred times before. Well—she flicked a quick glance at the gurgling Spider—maybe not. Beating Spider hadn’t bought her anything except a little more time.
    But every second I’m alive is one more moment I still have a chance to do something. She watched as they sidestepped the unconscious girl—and never wavered but just kept coming, silent and implacable, that weird choke of hot turpentine and resin mixed with roadkill so strong it was as if that scent somehow yoked them together the way beads ranged on a strong cord.
    All right, she accepted that there was nowhere to go. Even if she bolted, beyond the circle the snow would be too deep. Could she surprise them again, the way she had Spider? Do something they wouldn’t expect? Yes, that might work, especially if she could get hold of a weapon . . . but what could she use? Come on, come on, think! She took another quick step back, pressing up against what remained of the pyramid as the Changed drew so close that Wolf could’ve reached out and taken her hand.
    But only if he put down Spider’s corn knife first.

4
    Her blood iced . Hips braced against the ruined tumble of frozen flesh and bone, she tried not to flinch as Wolf ’s gaze dragged over her body. His nostrils suddenly flared as he inhaled, long and deep, pulling in her scent. A moment later the too-pink tip of his tongue eeled from his mouth to skim his lips in a slow, sensual glide.
    Oh God. Wolf was tasting her, savoring her scent the way a snake sampled the air. Her eyes