The League of Doorways (A Book of Vampires, Werewolves & Black Magic) (The Doorways Trilogy - Book Two) Read Online Free PDF

another. He stepped from between the trees. Willow scuttled backwards on her giant paws and snarled at him. This human seemed unafraid of her as he stood before her. There was a smell about him too – a smell that she couldn’t help but recognise.
    Then, looking into her eyes, the man took another step closer and said, “If you want to carry on living, Noxas, you had better come with me.”

Chapter Four
     
    William–the-wolf-Weaver lowered the man they had found out in the desert against the wall of the rocky overhang, where they had decided to take shelter. Neanna crawled into the furthest corner and pulled her tattered cloak about herself. As she lay curled on her side, all that was visible were her bright blue eyes shining out of the gloom. The floor of the overhang was littered with the dusty skeletons of creatures that either had been eaten, or had fallen down dead and rotted away. Just enough daylight seeped in through the gap of the rocks to show them that nothing living, other than them, lurked in the shadows.
    Feeling quite safe, Captain Bom’s armour clinked and clacked as he sat crossed-legged against the far wall and continued to suck thoughtfully on his empty pipe. He stared at the odd-looking man, which Zach and William were now studying.
    “I don’t think he is a man at all,” Zach said, leaning in close and studying the odd-looking skin which covered the man’s face. He gingerly touched the skin with his fingertips and it felt cold and leathery.
    “I think the ‘on-off’ switch sticking out of his neck gave that away,” William woofed, as he too crouched down so he could take a better look.
    “It’s not just the switch,” Zach breathed, carefully pulling back the man’s face from beneath his chin. “Take a look at this!”
    “Whoa,” William gasped, and stroked the long straggly hair which dangled from beneath his chin. With his bulbous glasses just inches from the man’s face, he added, “What’s with all the cogs and pistons?”
    Zach looked at the intricate mass of tiny cogs, pistons , and levers which were attached to the man’s skull. “I think he is like some kind of mechanical man – like a robot or something.”
    “What’s a robot?” William asked, glancing at Zach through his telescopic glasses.
    “It’s a machine that does things,” Zach tried to explain, but couldn’t find the right words.
    “Like that train you took us on back in your world?” William asked him.
    “Kinda, I guess,” Zach said. “Robots are more like humans. But I’ve never seen one before. They don’t really exist in my world.”
    “Like werewolves and vampires don’t really exist in your world, yet really they do,” William reminded him.
    “It’s different,” Zach breathed, lowering the skin back over the man’s face. “We have robots, but they are really basic. They can’t think for themselves. They do simple things. They don’t have skin, hair, eyes, and hands, nor do they sit up on their own.”
    “But they have on and off switches , right?” William woofed, reaching behind the man’s head again.
    “No, don’t do that...” Bom suddenly shouted.
    But his warning came too late and William flipped the switch with one of his claws. The man lurched forward again, and out of the wind, Zach and William could hear the sound of the tiny pistons and cogs whizzing and whirring beneath his fake-looking skin. The man blinked as if coming out of a dream, and fixed Zach and William with his dead, black eyes.
    “Who are you?” he asked again, as if the time it had taken William to carry him from the desert to beneath the rocky overhang had never existed. It was like this man was still caught halfway through the conversation he had been having with them some time ago.
    “Who are you?” Zach asked right back and stood up, creating some space between him and the mechanical man.
    “I’m Doctor Faraday, model one” he said, and his voice still sounded flat and synthesised. Faraday’s