Wolfsbane: 3 (Rebel Angels) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Brilliant!’
    He finally looked where I was pointing, and screamed.
    The horse was blue, sort of, but that could just have been the way its pearly-opal hide caught the light. Not all of it was blue. Its face was black, and so were its mane and tail and powerful
feathered legs. It was such a bizarre colour, no wonder I’d thought it was a fake.
    Because it was obvious, now, that it wasn’t. It took a violent leap forward, the bit digging into its foam-flecked mouth as it fought the blond boy on its back, who was clinging on with an
air of desperation. Abruptly the brute screamed like a demon, reared, and shot out of the stall.
    I had fifteen-year-old reflexes, so I had enough presence of mind to get out of the way. The formerly catatonic tourists staggered aside, screaming and yelling and shoving each other in a
magnificently Darwinian fight for survival. Most of them went sprawling as the horse lunged forward, striking sparks from the cobbles.
    I could only gaze at the chaos in admiration as the horse swerved out of control through the stable archway and into the car park. The guide’s face was the colour of wet cement, but once
he got his voice back he hung onto the door jamb and positively screamed at the boy in fury.
    ‘I remember you! I REMEMBER! YOU’VE GONE TOO FAR NOW! You little–! YOU–! I’ll see you PROSECUTED this time, I WILL THIS TIME. You’ve BITTEN OFF MORE THAN YOU
CAN CHEW!’
    Yes, I could hear how much he’d bitten off. The car park was a chaos of noise: a ring and clatter of hooves, unearthly howls of rage, the wailing of under-fives and over-seventies.
I’ll be honest; it thrilled me to bits, like a tiny lightning bolt throwing switches as it travelled down my vertebrae. Wild excitement sang in my blood and I felt a sudden intense longing.
Crazy, really. I never got excited about anything. I prided myself on sheer insolent cool. And yet the funny thing was, I
had
to see that horse. Now.
    Ignoring the bellowing guide I darted outside, then slid to a halt, staring.
    The boy was clinging on for dear life, his heels clamped so hard on the horse’s flanks I wasn’t surprised it was annoyed. It was just a matter of time before its flailing hooves
started doing serious damage to the parked cars, but for now it was thrashing and plunging in the centre of the car park, spinning in a tight circle of fury as it arched its great neck and strained
to snap at its rider. The boy’s white-knuckled fingers were wound so tightly in the beast’s mane there was no way he could let himself be thrown off, or he’d be dragged by the
fingers along the tarmac. All the same his yells had an edge of excitement, and a big grin was plastered on his face.
    My mouth had hung open too long for dignity, so I clamped it shut. I didn’t take my eyes off the horse, though. Now I didn’t like the look of it so much. Catching sight of me it
paused in its crazed plunging, and greenish light sparked in its blank black eye.
    I said, ‘Uh-oh.’
    It sprang for me, head snaking forward, its bared teeth looking very like a grin. I’d have liked to shut my eyes at this point, but as the monster came at me all I could see, between its
ears, was the white alarmed face of the boy. I knew instinctively there was no point shutting my eyes. No point moving. Slaver spattered my skin, and I smelt its hot breath, and I saw its teeth
open for my face.
    And then someone stepped calmly in front of me. As he held up a hand to catch the horse’s muzzle, it skidded to a clattering halt, confused.
    ‘Your master is hunting for you.’ Thin and tough, the man wore ripped jeans and a scruffy t-shirt, but he had a soft voice, and his hand was light on the horse’s nose.
‘Wait for me,
eachuisge
.’ He glanced back at me.
    I blinked. A sharp-boned face like a fox, wild black hair and a trimmed beard. Vicious curved scars slashed on each cheek. And a strange silver light in his brown eyes that I did not like at
all.
    At last,