Demon Deathchase Read Online Free Page A

won’t let anyone take her away.” Light coursed from
     the eyes he opened wide. Blood light.
    There was a sudden discordance in the monotonous drone of the carriage wheels.
    When turbulence had raced into that graceful face, one of the right wheels slipped
     off the axle with a crash. The wind groaned and the carriage lurched wildly to the
     right, kicking up a thick cloud of dust as the carriage rolled over.
    What was truly unbelievable was the acrobatics of the driver. Releasing the reins
     of his own accord, sailing through the air, and skillfully twisting his body, he regained
     his balance, landing like a length of black cloth a few yards from the carriage.
    Anxiety and despair filled his face as he dashed to the vehicle.
    Throwing the door open like a man possessed, he peered inside. His anxiety was replaced
     by relief.
    Letting out a deep sigh, he approached the special metal-alloy wagon-wheel that lay
     some thirty feet away.
    “So, misfortune has decided to put in an unfashionably early appearance,” he muttered
     glumly, lifting the wheel and walking back to the carriage. He looked to the sky once
     again. In a low voice, he said, “Soon the day will be breaking. Seems I shall be walking
     to the Shelter, and repairing this when it’s night again. That’s more than enough
     time for those dogs to catch up to us.”
    —
    Around the time the mountain ridges were rising faintly from the darkness like the
     edges of so many jigsaw pieces, the pair halted their horses. They were atop a fair-sized
     hill.
    “Ol’ Borgoff’s got us doing some crazy shit—riding hard in the middle of the night
     like this. I tell you, he’s all worked up over nothing,” the man in black said, giving
     a light wave of his right hand. The green grass below him was shaken by a dye deeper
     than the darkness.
    In the pale, panting darkness of daybreak, this man alone seemed blackly clad in the
     remnants of night. In a black shirt and pants, it was Kyle—the youngest of the Marcus
     boys. The ebon flecks that remained like stains not just on his right hand but on
     his chest and shoulder as well were splashes of blood from all the nocturnal beasts
     they’d cut down during their ride.
    “I thought he told you to stow that talk. That punk—he’s no garden-variety Hunter.
     You must’ve heard about him, too,” the man said in an attempt to settle his wild younger
     brother, a black staff looming on his back. The man speaking was Nolt, the second
     oldest.
    “Ha! You mean how he’s a dhampir?” Kyle spat the words. “A lousy half-breed , part Nobility and part human. Oh, sure, everyone says they make the best Vampire
     Hunters, don’t they? But let’s not forget something. We slaughter real, full-blooded
     Nobles!”
    “Hey, you’ve got a point there.”
    “If he’s a half-breed, he’s more like us than the Nobility. Nothing to be afraid of.
     Not to mention, we even rode all night just so he wouldn’t lose us, but if you ask
     me our big brother’s lost his nerve. Who besides us would race through a Frontier
     forest in the middle of the night on horseback?”
    Out on the Frontier, the forests were thick with monsters by night.
    Though it was true the beasts’ numbers had decreased with the decline of the Nobility,
     to move through the woods before dawn you still either had to be a complete idiot,
     or someone endowed with nerves of steel and considerable skill. As the brothers were.
    It was for this reason Kyle was repulsed by the oldest of the boys, who’d ordered
     their charge by night so that the youth they’d met earlier wouldn’t get a lead on
     them. Even he would be set upon by numerous creatures before he made it to this hill.
     The only reason they’d somehow managed to get there before daybreak was because they’d
     passed through the area before and knew a shortcut through the woods.
    “Well, I don’t know about that,” Nolt said wryly, being more philosophical than the
     youngest boy.