Spirit Breaker Read Online Free

adrenaline and fear propelling her into motion. She whirled around and broke into a run. She had almost reached the escalators when an invisible force stopped her dead in her tracks and whipped her back, sending her flying.  
    For a moment, she was airborne. Then she hit the ground hard, the world spinning around her. Stunned, she craned her neck upward, expecting to see hooded faces leering down at her. But she was…alone.
    There was no trace of a human presence.  
    Her breath clouded in the air before her and she shivered. The temperature must’ve dropped by at least ten degrees. She crawled back to her feet and inspected her shirt. The strange collision had shredded the fabric. The skin beneath the torn blouse was mottled by a series of black burn marks, sensitive to the touch. Adrenaline was keeping the pain at bay, but Karen knew it wouldn’t last.  
    What was happening here?
    Karen turned and saw that the hoodies had returned. They loomed in the near distance, outlined in the pale moonlight, a ring of wraiths barring her escape. Why had they given up the chase? Had they tired of this horrible game? And what had tripped her in such a violent manner?
    A chilling whisper interrupted her racing thoughts.
    “Death is only the beginning.”
    Her heart pounding in a deafening drumbeat, she tilted her gaze toward the ceiling. She could feel her face twisting with horror, her lips distorting into a scream.
    A vaguely human form hung upside down from the mall ceiling, suspended like a spider.
    With a guttural shriek, the apparition launched toward Karen, bony hands hurtling toward her throat.
    Karen screamed.  

C HAPTER T HREE

    TALON WAS A man without a home. He constantly traveled the globe, devoted to his personal quest of keeping mankind safe from occult enemies. Before signing up for the dark missions that now defined his life, he’d been a Delta Operator and his work had kept him on the go in a similar fashion. In a way, this had always been his reality. His calling.  
    After dealing with Espinoza, the question was where he should head next. The world was his oyster nowadays. Every month, Casca transferred $25,000 into his bank account, payment for services rendered. The military had taken care of his needs for the last ten years, and Casca was fulfilling the same role now—albeit at a higher income bracket. Talon didn’t obsess about material wealth; he never would’ve become a professional soldier if money were that important to him. Nevertheless, he appreciated the freedom to go wherever he damned pleased.  
    For a moment he considered San Francisco. Staying close to Casca for when duty would call again might be a smart move. But San Francisco was filled with memories of Michelle, and he was just managing to put a little distance between his past and the present. Instead he decided to book a flight to Sarasota, where his old Army buddy Rob had embarked on a promising career in law enforcement.  
    The next day, Talon arrived in Florida and checked in at his hotel. Rob had invited him for dinner that night, and he was a little bit nervous about spending time with Rob’s wife and four-year-old son. He had originally figured they would grab some drinks the way they had back in the old days, but Rob wanted him to meet his clan. Talon couldn’t show up at his friend’s house empty-handed, so he proceeded to stop off at the local Toys “R” Us before dinner. Walking into the store, he was confronted with a new challenge: what to get a kid in 2015? He settled on a couple of Star Wars action figures.  
    Ringing Rob’s doorbell, Talon felt more nervous than he had when facing down the army of thugs in Mexico City. He could hit a moving target at 1000 yards but this social gathering was making him break into a sweat – he’d been out of the game too long. A dinner with Rob’s family should’ve been the most normal activity in the world, but over the last few months Talon’s definition of normal had