Wolfbreed Read Online Free PDF Page A

way it had come.
    Then it kept going, falling into the chamber beyond the doorway, leaving a dead column of darkness in the body of the door.
    Oytim took aim at the gap, certain he would see something move in the darkness, a glint of tooth or eye—
    “No, you idiots!” Oytim screamed at the men by the door. Two had closed on the breach from either side. Using the remains of the door for cover, they bared their swords to strike at anything that might reach from the gap. But they blocked any shot Oytim had at the chamber beyond.
    Something moved in the darkness and the soldier to the right of the gap lunged at it. His sword arm lost itself in the darkness, and then his body froze, as if his blade had just hit a stone wall. A look of almost comical surprise crossed his face. Then his body lurched forward, as something pulled his sword arm and slammed his torso against the door. He turned toward the man next to him, as if about to call for help. Then his whole body twisted sideways, his feet leaving the ground as his body was yanked completely through the breach.
    “Gods preserve us,” Tulne said, voice cracking.
    The other men were closing in on the door, but of the original six men who had been holding the door, there were now only two. And one of them was staring at the darkness that had swallowed his comrade rather than holding the door.
    Something slammed the door again, and the brackets holding the oak bar in place gave way with a scream of twisted metal and a cloud of masonry dust. The heavy oak bar fell as the remaining splintered planks of the door collapsed outward.

    ünter ran after the creature, armed only with the silver dagger. It was suicidal, but the carnage had pushed him beyond reason. He did not want to survive to see his men slaughtered.
    Dagger in one hand, lantern in the other, he ran up the five dark levels toward the main door. The stairway was close, andturned tightly, so that any step might bring him face-to-face with the creature. The stone steps were slick and uneven, and he nearly twisted his ankle several times in his haste.
    There were doors at each level of the stores, though only the uppermost one had been barred. Even so, the creature had thrown open each one with enough force to crack the timbers and wrench iron hinges from stone. One door had been so damaged it took several minutes to pull it open enough to allow him through.
    Once Günter was past it, his gaze fell on a bloody hand print marring the stone wall. No human hand had made it. The palm was padded, like a wolf’s paw, and the fingers were longer and thicker than a man’s. Above the print, the creature’s claws had been strong enough to leave four parallel scratches on the worked face of the stone.
    Somewhere above him he heard a powerful impact. He looked up, and a fine dust filtered through the cracks in the stonework above him, stinging his eyes.
    She’s reached the main door …
    He shouldn’t have felt the fear as deeply as he did. Even if she could force open the oak bar on the door—something that should require a battering ram—beyond it were thirteen Prûsan warriors, and he had ensured that they would at least have the silver bolts to use on the creature. Thirteen trained battle-hardened men, armed with silver.
    It should be enough.
    He feared it wasn’t.
    Redoubling his efforts, he ran. But he wasn’t surprised when the screaming began.
    He shuttered the lantern and cast it aside, hoping that if he came up behind the monster, he might have a clear attack on its back. He ascended the darkened stairway, listening to screams, the sounds of sword against stone, and a low growling that tried to turn his guts to water.
    He took the last turn in the stairway to face a corridor filled with light that shouldn’t have been there. The light spilled in from the granary beyond the now-open doorway. Shadowed against the light of the granary, he saw a chaos of bodies moving in the hallway. The air was thick with the sound