Intimidator Read Online Free Page A

do that. And I thank you.”
    As he collected the rods at their feet, Brask added, “Not that I wouldn’t leap at the chance to hunt here myself. In human words, damn, she’s hot. Not your girl, another one.”
    He laughed. It felt surprisingly good and he realized it had been months since he’d even smiled. “Hot? You must show me her.”
    “Can’t. She’s gone back to her home city. It’s only a dream. Preyfinders never get honors like this. Unless you’re lucky, like Jadd. I will survive. Good to see you’ve at least learned the local Australian language.”
    “It was simple. Forced language acquisition is nothing compared to weapons training. Some words will come to me as I speak.”
    “As long as you know ‘ass’, ‘hot’, ‘cunt’, ‘fuck’, ‘where’s the nearest toilet’, and ‘where will this bus take me to’, you’re good to go.”
    Stom nodded, sure he was being taunted. “I see. I know those. Except the bus one.”
    “Pussy? You know ‘pussy’? Not the cat variety. Jadd didn’t, so maybe the language misses that one?”
    “I know it, soldier, but I won’t be going anywhere near one of those.”
    He snorted, grinned. “Come. Let’s do this.” Then he turned and walked up toward the house, throwing back one last line. “Just don’t try to get acquainted by saying, ‘is your pussy glowing for me’. Jadd told me that don’t work!”
    Stom smiled, shaking his head, but he stayed where he was for a while longer.
    Was he being terrible by dismissing this reward so lightly? Perhaps. But the sorrow within had already returned. He had no room for anything but this cold grayness and the blood of battle. The light had left his world forever when Nasskia died.
    *****
    The pub, as it was termed, was thriving with humans – at least twenty were in range. Stom folded his arms and glowered at a girl who ventured into their alcove looking for empty glasses. When they had arrived, despite their concealing long coats, his coloring and height had made several patrons turn and stare. But it seemed even he became a part of the scenery with time.
    “They’ve forgotten me. I’m disappointed.” He shifted on the seat, stretched his legs out, and tried not to knock over the opposite chair, again. “Seems we are inconspicuous, even though I have striped skin.”
    Brask’s lip twitched in a half-smile. “You’re cuter than most of these. Besides the male with his hair threaded with skulls, tattoos of flames down his neck, and the arsenal of pointy things shoved through lip, nose, and ear, is far scarier. Your black spotty skin is nothing.”
    Spotty? He raised a skeptical eyebrow at Brask but refused to respond to the good-humored insult.
    He and Brask sat at a table in the darkest corner, behind a flimsy screen of plants. The man mentioned was on the other side of the plants with another hulking male. That one had settled for the prettiness of tying his blond hair in a braid. He made mocking comments about every woman who passed nearby.
    “This person I’m to kiss, where is sh –”
    A woman entered from the left then detoured for the other woman serving customers at the bar. She leaned over, facing away from him, her little black shorts creeping up her bottom and showing off a glimpse of curve, a hint of places no man was allowed to see unless she allowed them.
    For a second, he wanted to be one of those men. And if she didn’t allow him, he’d…
    His throat tightened.
    “There.” Brask straightened, standing slowly. “Target acquired, as the humans say in the movies.” Brask and his obsession with human movies. “She must have been serving at the other bar. I’ll leave you to it. Remember. Be inconspicuous. Don’t make any move unless you have six or less people in range. We can clean up that many. More is…human word.” He clicked his fingers. “…is a bitch. Yes. That.”
    He was so busy staring at her, he almost missed Brask moving away. “Wait!”
    “What? I can’t