Dark Light of Mine Read Online Free

up alongside me, faces strained with exertion.
    "Just how bad," I said, taking a deep breath, "are hellhounds?"  I panted. 
    "Worse than you can imagine," Dad said.  "They won't stop hunting us."  He glanced back.  "Even if we cut off the tracking spell with a circle, they could sniff us out anywhere so long as we leave a trail.  We need a car, something to keep our scent off the road.  Otherwise we'll drop from exhaustion long before they give up.”
    If only I had a bottle of Axe Body Spray to dump on the ground.  If such a concentration of manly odor didn't confuse their canine noses, nothing would.  The men behind us obviously didn't look like dogs, but I was too out of breath to ask more questions.  We reached a huge apartment complex.  Leapt the razor-wire atop the chain-link fence.  We'd already gained some distance on the hellhound dudes, but I didn't expect our lead to last long, if what Dad said about their tracking abilities was true.  The apartments were five-story, flat-roofed affairs with a courtyard in the center and two parking decks flanking each side of the complex.
    Elyssa motioned us to follow her inside the nearest parking deck.  "You said we needed a car?"
    "You know how to hotwire one?" I said, impressed.
    She shook her head.  "No, but with any luck we can carjack someone."
    Before I could offer a morally outraged response, she raced around the garage and up the ramps, her gaze sweeping the area for a target.  But we reached the roof without finding a victim.
    Elyssa looked across the apartments to the other parking deck.  "We'll have to take our chances in the next one."
    "How are we supposed to get there?" I said.  "Jump?"
    She offered a brief smile before racing across the deck and launching herself across the wide gap between the deck and the roof of the next apartment building over.  Dad followed.  My guts knotted tight.  It was one thing vaulting backyard fences with Katie on my back and quite another to risk a five-story plunge which would hurt me like hell and probably kill Katie.
    Her grip tightened as I contemplated the edge.  A whimper escaped her throat and I felt her face press against my back.  I hoped to god she had a strong bladder.
    "Just get off and hide," I said.  "You shouldn't be involved in this."  Plus I really wanted the extra load off.  I was pooped.
    "You'll make it.  I trust you."
    I sighed.  "Why are you doing this?  I told you I love Elyssa."
    "I want you, Justin, but if I can't have you, I want to know what in the world is going on here.  You're like superheroes or something.  Just like the ones my little brother reads about in his comic books."
    I chuckled.  "Hardly."  If anything, I was the villain.  Demon spawn weren't heroes in anyone's book.
    Elyssa and Dad waved me over, their faces tight with urgency.  I took a deep breath.  Ran at the ledge.  Jumped.  Katie shrieked as we cleared the gap.  I couldn't help but look down at the hard concrete sidewalk far, far below.  My feet hit the roof.  I stumbled as Katie's weight shifted, but managed to stay upright.  A mournful howl gripped the chilly air.  Dad cursed.  Elyssa gasped.  I spun and saw our pursuers staring from across the parking deck roof at us.  One of the men reared his head back and loosed a chilling inhuman howl which about made me wet my pants.  It was a howl of despair and hopelessness.  Resistance is futile , it seemed to say.  No matter how hard or fast we ran, they would catch us.  Besides, why run?  We had nowhere to go.
    Dad grabbed my arm and wrenched me around.  "Ignore the howls, Justin.  Shut them out of your mind.  Don't let them control you."
    Katie's grip loosened on my neck.  Sobs shook her body.  "We're going to die.  It's useless.  Life is pointless."
    Elyssa dropped to her knees as tears poured from her face.  "He's dead," she said.  "And it's all my fault."  My duffel bag slid from her shoulder and thumped on the roof.
    "What the