Matt Archer: Bloodlines (Matt Archer #4) Read Online Free

live-fire
exercise was a little scary, but the alternative was worse.
    “Fire,” Uncle Mike commanded.
    The deep thump, thump, thump of multiple grenades firing
sounded behind me. Less than three seconds later, the pack of Dingoes lit up
with a brilliant flash.
    The howls are terrible, but I couldn’t see what happened
because a cloud of debris, smoke and dust hid our targets.
    “Again!” Uncle Mike said.
    More grenades whistled over my head. More howls, then they
fell silent. An optimistic person would think we got them all. I knew better;
they were planning something.
    When the smoke cleared…all thirteen monsters were still
standing. The ordinance hadn’t even make a dent.
    “Cease fire! Cease fire!” Uncle Mike yelled, as the pack
started running at us in a wave.
    Fine, then—now it was my turn. I relaxed, letting Tink’s
calm and Coach Shaw’s battle lust sing in my blood. My body felt loose, and
time seemed to slow. I could see distinct shapes in the pack. The leader was
huge, with a notched left ear and a scar on his muzzle.
    Now .
    Tink’s command hit me like a rush of adrenaline and I
sprinted to meet the monsters head-on. Most of them skidded to a halt, but I
was on the front three before they knew what hit them. I took out two at
once—one with each hand—then stabbed both blades into the third’s chest, before
whirling to face the rest.
    To my surprise, a portion of the pack, four of them, started
whining, and one cried—in English, “Blade wielder! Run, mates!”
    I heard a few exclamations of, “Holy shit!” behind me. Some
of the new guys hadn’t heard the monsters talk before, and the Aussie accent
was especially unsettling. But what bothered me was that of the ten still alive,
only six Dingoes stood their ground. I’d seen monsters run from me before, but
it was a rare thing.
    Were they getting smarter? Did they think this was a fight
they couldn’t win? Or did they have something else planned for later?
    I tightened my grip on the white bone handle in my right
hand, and the bronze handle of Will’s knife in my left. The six remaining
Dingoes paced back and forth twenty feet away, like they were waiting for me to
make a move. Sensing a trap, I tensed and held my ground.
    The big leader chuckled deep in its chest. Two of the others
came to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him. They weren’t as wide through the
shoulders and their snouts were narrower…were they female? Didn’t matter; they
bared their teeth at me in horrible grins as their boss laughed. Female or not,
they’d gut me if I gave them a chance.
    I didn’t plan on giving them that chance.
    “You gonna fight, or stand there?” I jerked my chin at the
leader. “Or are you planning to send your girlfriends in to do your dirty
work?”
    The boss growled. “Look at the little man. So brave now that
you have your knives back, but you ran before. Coward.”
    Okay, no one got to call me a coward, especially not
when half the leader’s posse bailed. “Bring it on, dog-face.”
    With yips and snarls, all six rushed me. The females reached
me first, and I whirled in a circle, cutting them both down, one in the
abdomen, the other in the back. A big male followed behind, jumping to tackle
me. I dove out of the way, rolled, then came up ready. It spun around and
lunged to wrap me up in its long arms. Mistake to let me get that close, and I
slammed the knives into its chest. It gave me a shocked look before the light
in its eyes went out.
    I pulled the knives free only to find the boss right behind
me. It punched me in the sternum with a huge paw, sending me flying off my
feet. I hit ground hard and all my oxygen whooshed out. Struggling to breathe,
I tried to get up, but it was right there, coming at me with jaws snapping.
    A shot rang out. Something black and hard smacked into the
boss-Dingo’s eye and bounced off. It reared back with a yelp, covering the
right side of its face with a paw. I didn’t waste time, scrambling to