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

to pick up the knife and got to his feet, whirling back to face the hound.
    Both of the big animals were attacking Aubrey. Aubrey had his hands around the throat of the one he had been facing and was trying to squeeze the life out of it. Aubrey’s long knife was lying on the ground by his feet and there was black, wet stuff showing high on the back of the hound.
    It was biting at Aubrey’s face with wet chomps, the teeth coming together with loud snaps.
    As Zack turned, the second hound, the one he had been supposed to stop, leapt for Aubrey’s back. Zack saw the powerful jaws clamp onto Aubrey’s neck at the base, where the big artery ran.
    The hound shook its head, like a dog gnawing a bone.
    Blood spurted. Aubrey’s heart would be working just as Zack’s was. The arterial blood, bright red and hot, drove into the air, covering everything, including the hounds and Aubrey, too.
    Zack threw himself at the hound, which didn’t seem to give a damn that he was behind it. He rammed his fist in between its neck and Aubrey’s back. He drove his arm underneath the neck then hauled backward. He didn’t need much room to get his knife in there. Just a couple of inches would do.
    The power of the thing! Zack had become complacent about his own great strength over two hundred years of being the strongest creature in the vicinity. Yet the hound resisted him. It was growling almost continually, the deep, rumbling snarl blotting out all other sounds. At the same time, it was snapping its teeth, biting at anything it could reach, including the back of Aubrey’s head. There was more blood spoiling the pure white of Aubrey’s hair, laying it against his skull.
    Zack gathered himself and heaved, pushing against Aubrey’s bloody shoulder for leverage. Slowly, the hound peeled away.
    It must have sensed Zack was winning, for it gave up biting at Aubrey. As Zack got his knife under its throat, it turned its head, quick as a whip, and sank its teeth into his forearm.
    The pain was immense. The hound closed its jaws around his arm, biting down with the strength of a vise wound tight.
    Zack’s arm immediately numbed, from the shoulder to the tips of his fingers. He felt the knife start to slip out of his useless grip.
    Desperately, he shoved himself up against the back of the creature to give his other hand further reach. He thrust his free hand around its throat and caught the knife as it fell. The movement ground the hound’s teeth against the bones in his forearm and he cried out.
    He had the knife, though. He turned it in his fingers, facing the blade edge upward, then slashed, using every last skerrick of energy he could muster.
    Hot liquid gushed over his arms, soaking into his coat and dragging his knife hand down with the weight of it.
    That should have ended the hound’s fight, only the thing was driven. Even as the life was draining out of it, the hound let go of his arm and threw itself backward. Its weight shoved Zack back, too. He fell heavily, the stones and pebbles on the path ramming into his flesh through the coat, biting deep. Zack threw up his arms, both of them, fending off the hound, which had flipped itself in the air like a cat. Now the bloody jaws and feral eyes were coming at him. The black blood was spraying over his chest, soaking him with heat and foulness. The flow was already lessening.
    Zack got the knife up, shielding his face and throat.
    The hound didn’t go for either, again defying his expectations. With the last of its strength, it turned its head and tore at his thigh.
    This time, Zack screamed. The pain was astonishing, stealing his thoughts, his vision, even his hearing for a muffled, silvered moment.
    The heavy weight laying over him didn’t move and he gasped, trying to sit up. The hound was dead, sprawled over his lower legs, the red in its eyes gone. The eyes were just black, now.
    Zack pushed it off, trying to move fast. Aubrey was still struggling with the other hound. He was on his