Voyage of the Sanguine Shadow 1: Shadow Galactic Read Online Free PDF

before she stumbled
into him.  “I’m so glad you’re here,” she breathed.  “The guy I came here with
was a total creeper.  He was literally all over me.”  She paused.  “OK, not
literally, but you get the idea.”
    “Are you alright?”
    Taryn nodded.  “He wasn’t hearing no, so I bent
back his fingers.  Maybe broke one or two, not sure.  The jerk ditched me after
that.”  She smiled brightly.  “So… I figured it’s been a while since I’ve seen
you, and I really wasn’t in the mood to call a cab.” 
Taryn Sikes looked taller than she was, lean and strong of build, yet elegant
besides.  She was ospyrean, proud and fierce.  Snow-white down blanketed her
birch-white skin, and brilliant red feathers cascaded from her head, tied up
loosely at the shoulders.  Her keen eyes were more golden than brown.  She wore
knee high steel-toed boots draped in buckles, tattered net leggings under
ripped shorts and a threadbare black T-shirt over a tight, long-sleeved gray
undershirt.
    “Stop dating humans,” he chuckled.
    “Fat chance.  Is Takeo with you?”
    Gavin nodded.  “Fogg is too.”  He led Taryn back
to the entryway, smiled toward the woman with blonde dreadlocks and pushed open
the door.  “We should hurry.”
    Taryn glanced about.  “Where are they?”
    “See you, Chris,” Gavin said to the bouncer, and
he pointed further down the block toward Fogg’s rotating police light.
    “Hasta.”  Chris dipped his massive forehead horn
toward Taryn.  “Ma’am.”
    She gasped as she took note of the bound
assailants, of Takeo looming over them in the distance.  “Oh my God!  What
happened!?”
    Gavin laughed quietly, dryly as they stepped out
into the cool morning air.  The door closed behind them, and it was suddenly
and deafeningly quiet.  “That’s part of why we need to hurry.  We got mugged by
a maugal and his crew of human thugs, but it’s alright.  Takeo took care of
it.”
    “We’re so lucky he’s our friend,” she said.
    “And that he agreed to come,” Gavin added.  “I
talked down the maugal, though.”
    Taryn smirked.  “Yeah, right.”  She squeezed
Gavin’s hand, quickly kissed its knuckles, and held it close against her
chest.  “Not everyone gets to be a hero, and you don’t need to impress me
anymore.”
    “I really did, though!  Right after I got my ass
kicked by one of his goons.”  He pulled free his hand.
    Taryn stopped, stood directly across from Gavin. 
“You promised.”
    He breathed out heavily.  “I’m not lying.  I
swear.  Not to you.”  His ears were quite red, and his shoulders sank.  “I
swear.”
    She nodded and returned to his side as they
resumed walking.  They passed the group of people near the trash bins Gavin had
earlier encountered.  “Fine, I’m choosing to believe you.  How did you do it?”
    Gavin stole a glance toward the huddle and
shivered to find the tall woman silently staring at him.  He leaned in and
whispered, “I told him there was a radio signal broadcast as soon as Takeo took
his first shot and that there was a Yakuza special weapons team already en
route.”  He looked at her sidelong.  “I sort of charmed him after that, and he
left.”
    Taryn huffed, amused.  “Only you, Gavin.  It still
counts as lying, though.”
    Gavin shook his head gravely, gesturing as if
cutting his throat and mouthing “no” repeatedly.
    “What?  There’s no Yakuza weapons team.  So you
lied, but in this case, I can excuse it.”  She winked, before suddenly noticing
his growing panic.  “What is it?”
    “ Now you die !” roared the stone giant as it
stepped back into view on the far side of Gavin’s truck.
    “Maugals have excellent hearing,” breathed Gavin,
and he swallowed visibly.
    “No more of your tricks!”  The maugal looked up
and down the street, ignored Takeo as he demanded the granite thug stand down.
    “We should run,” advised Gavin.
    Taryn’s eyes went wide.  She spun her