Terra's Victory (Destiny's Trinities Book 7) Read Online Free

neck tried to stand up, in a painful prickle. Zack spun to look toward the bare trees and dark evergreens on either side of the path leading to the bridge. There was nothing to see. However, the people on the path were looking into the undergrowth nervously.
    “Oh, shit….” Zack breathed.
    “Was that a dog?” Aubrey asked.
    “A kind of dog-wolf thing,” Zack breathed, watching the shadows under the trees, looking for proof. His hand curled around his cellphone, inside his pocket.
    “The hounds from Canada,” Aubrey said quietly. “If we go, will they leave these people alone?”
    The question underlined the clarity of Aubrey’s thinking, which was one of the reasons why Zack had sought him out this morning. Aubrey was thinking of the safety of the humans, first.
    “I don’t even know it’s the hounds, yet,” Zack replied.
    Aubrey’s hand gripped his shoulder, turning him. “We do, now,” Aubrey said, pointing to the other end of the bridge.
    Moving out of the sparse coverage on the edge of the path was one of the huge hounds that Zack had last seen in Canada, surrounding Declan, Cole and Zoe’s ranch house. This one had the same baleful red eyes, small and mean, yellow teeth and fur that was matted, tufted and worn away in places. There were scars across the thing’s face and hide.
    The shoulders were as wide as a man’s and nearly as high. It was five hundred pounds of muscle, sinew and evil.
    People began screaming. Parents scooped up kids and ran back down the path. The panic spread as the creature padded over to the start of the bridge, blocking off that route of escape.
    As more screaming started up behind them, Zack turned to look at the other end of the bridge. A second hound had emerged from the trees and was moving toward the bridge. It was moving faster than the first.
    Zack pulled out his phone, pressed the speed dial and listened to it ring…and ring.
    “Pick up, pick up, pick up!” he muttered, watching the second hound, waiting to see if it would step onto the bridge or if it was here to box them in, as the first one had done.
    “Are you armed?” Aubrey asked. He was quite calm.
    “Knife only.” What he would give to have his sword in his hand….
    “Me, too, alas.”
    “Zack?” Beth said in his ear, breathless.
    “Gapstow Bridge, Central Park. Hounds! Hurry! There are people everywhere here!”
    He hung up and dropped the phone back into his pocket and pulled out his knife, as the hound walked onto the graceful curve of the bridge, still moving fast.
    Zack stepped into the middle of the bridge, mildly happy that the structure wasn’t very broad. He could cover the width and stop the hound from getting through. He hefted the knife, let his heart slip from his control and beat as it needed to. He would need the blood supply over the next few minutes.
    He didn’t bother looking behind him. Aubrey only looked old. He had been in his sixties when he had been turned, yet the turning had given his body the energy and strength of a man in his prime. Zack didn’t need to worry about his back. Aubrey had it covered.
    The hound broke into a run, drool trailing from its mouth. It came straight at Zack and he braced himself, anticipating the leap for his throat. He could duck under it, if it leapt high enough, or step to one side of the snapping jaws and deal with it from that angle, if it didn’t.
    Only, the thing didn’t leap.
    At the last minute, when Zack realized it was coming straight at him at a dead run, he tried to adjust, mentally groping through his surprise to guess what the thing intended.
    At the last second it swung its head aside, ducking it. Its shoulder slammed into Zack’s upper thighs, taking his feet out from under him. He fell forward heavily and threw out his hands to save himself. His knife went flying and his palms shredded themselves on the rough surface of the bridge. His shoulders took the impact of his fall, creaking under the strain.
    He scrambled forward