Read Online Shadow Borne by Angie West - Free Book Online Page B

eat.
    I didn't jump out of bed and leap across the
room; stringent training had made it so that sort of instinctual,
natural behavior didn't even tempt me anymore. In the long run,
shit like that wasn't faster because too often it gave you away.
Death probably would have claimed me before my boots were laced if
I'd made all kinds of noise crashing through the house. Plus,
whomever was out there could always double back and peer into the
window. It was entirely possible he was backing off to try and
trick me into showing my hand first, if he wanted to make sure I
was really asleep.
    So, after doing a silent countdown from
twenty, I rolled swiftly off the bed, bracing myself with my
forearms to muffle the slight sound. He wasn't at the window.
Yet.
    Truthfully, I didn't expect him to come back
to my bedroom window; it would have been terrible strategy. There
was no way to get through it without waking me, had I been asleep,
anyway.
    No, he was probably halfway around the house
by now. My midnight peeper would come in quietly through the back
door, or the kitchen window, maybe. Just in case, though, I took a
few seconds to shape the comforter into a lump that vaguely
resembled a person. It wouldn't stand up to close inspection, but
if he didn't study it too thoroughly...it was better than nothing,
anyway, I shrugged and turned my attention back to slipping from
the room in a low crawl. Once I cleared the door, I moved into a
crouch and inched up the wall next to the open bathroom door.
    There wasn't a window in that room so I
stood there with my back to the darkened room, listening. No sound
whispered through the small house, not even a telltale rustle of
clothing. He hadn't come in yet, then. I bent at the waist and
moved silently but swiftly through the cabin. Where in the hell had
I left my boots?
    I inhaled sharply, drew a blank, and bit
back one of Claire's more colorful curses, until I spotted them
lying haphazardly underneath the table. It took only half a minute
or so of tugging and twisting to get them on and laced, another few
seconds to strap on my dagger.
    The man still hadn't tried to come in and I
was beginning to wonder if maybe he'd gone when the shadows
gathered at the kitchen window, creating an unnatural blackness
that seemed to fill the space. This was it, then.
    A thin, high pitched but barely audible
screeching noise filled the silence of the kitchen. It was coming
from the window. What the hell? Curious now, I slunk to the other
side of the room and grabbed my bow and the quiver of arrows which
lay half on its side next to the sad looking coat rack that I
couldn't remember ever having used.
    The nails on a chalkboard sound intensified
until I winced, and then a large circle of glass slipped free of
the window and fell with a soft thud to the carpeted kitchen
floor.
    I watched a thin, pasty white arm hook
through the window where the glass had been, groping along the
frame until it reached the latch at the top. I stood there in the
middle of the room, staring in a kind of sick, fascinated horror as
that sinister chalk white arm flipped the latch in one fluid
motion, withdrew, and began to soundlessly raise the window.
Coatyl.
    A million thoughts screamed through my brain
just then, but only one mattered–what now? The answer was obvious
enough. Slipping a lethal, sharp tipped arrow onto the bow, I
gripped the end and the thick, pliable string between my fingers
and slid the fingers of my other hand up to rest just beneath the
arrow shaft near the tip. A few nimble steps to the side and I'd
danced into the shadows between the table and the front door.
    I kept my gaze pinned to the window and
waited. The damn thing was coming in. I took a deep breath and
slowly counted back from ten; the Coatyl navigated the open window
with a graceful speed that was at direct odds with its butt ugly
appearance. Nine, eight, seven, six.
    No, I frowned, bow cocked and ready as the
creature straightened and raised itself to its