The Pretender (The Soren Chase Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

of bullets in his direction.
    Rakev lifted his hand, cocked his head to the side, and stopped the bullets in midair. It was a neat trick he’d seen once in a movie, and he enjoyed the surprised look on the guards’ faces. With a gesture, he batted away the bullets back in their direction. A couple of soldiers went down, but most stayed on their feet, protected by the bulletproof armor they wore.
    Rakev disappeared, collapsing into black smoke, before reappearing behind the closest guard. Again, he gave the human a second to react, turning in his direction even as his compatriots opened fire. Rakev swiftly drew a finger across the guard’s neck, a thin line appearing above his body armor and below his helmet. Rakev vanished as blood began spilling from the guard’s neck.
    Rakev weighed the most entertaining way to kill the rest of them. He was tempted to slaughter each individually, but usually after the first four or five, it got boring. As he reappeared behind another guard, he felt a sudden burst of inspiration.
    He opened his mouth and sucked inward. As the guards fired at him, he let their bullets pass right through his body without harming him. The room was large and it took slightly longer than he anticipated, but Rakev succeeded in sucking up all the oxygen within it.
    After a few seconds, several guards around him began clutching their throats and gasping. A few kept firing at him, their discipline apparently stronger than their survival instinct. One even managed to lob a grenade, which Rakev swatted away in annoyance. It exploded against the left wall, breaking glass and setting off sprinklers.
    Rakev looked up at them in irritation. He hated getting wet. But he watched in satisfaction as every guard in the room slowly died in front of him, their faces contorted in agony. His only regret was there was no audience to witness his performance.
    He looked around the complex, admiring the intriguing equipment it housed. He stepped over several bodies, and walked toward the end of the room where there were several items in glass cases. He noted a golden tablet that seemed to be glowing slightly, a sword made of a metal he couldn’t immediately identify, and a small bit of cloth that pulsed with malevolent energy. As tempting as those items might have been, he was really only interested in the object on the far right—a small silver, futuristic-looking gun.
    He extended a finger to the case protecting it, vibrating it so it shattered without hurting the object inside. Smiling again, he reached out and grasped the weapon, admiring its graceful design. There was a soft ding from the elevator behind him, and Rakev turned as several soldiers wearing oxygen masks came rushing into the laboratory.
    As they were raising their weapons, he extended his own. He had no idea what would happen when he pulled the trigger, and watched in fascination as a red ball of energy emerged. It flew across the room and slammed into the guard in front. The blast lifted the man off his feet, but as he flew backward, his body completely disintegrated. He was obliterated before his body could hit the ground.
    Rakev looked at the gun in wonder. “Holy shit! That was neat. Let’s do that again.”
    He knew from having read the specs that the gun had a limited firing capacity. It could only get off a couple dozen shots before it had to recharge. But he enjoyed using his new toy as he shot his way out of the lab and back into the elevator.
    Rakev gave the guards some credit. No matter how many he killed, they kept coming, apparently determined to die. But within a few minutes, he emerged from the building he’d infiltrated without a scratch, the gun held tightly in his hand.
    He could hear sirens blaring, the police and more military personnel on their way. Some of them were already moving in his direction.
    But Rakev didn’t have time to stay. He ran, evaporating into smoke, and moving so fast he was a blur to the soldiers that attempted to