Read Online Summoner of Storms by Jordan L. Hawk - Free Book Online Page B

a
half-crouch, ready for the first assault.
    A werewolf careens into him, snarling like a
mad thing—but he can smell its terror, beneath the delicious scent
of demon. Its claws slide off the leather of his coat, and it tries
to bite, but its strength is nothing compared to his. He seizes its
head, wrenching it to one side so hard ligaments pop, and sinks his
fangs into its throat.
    The grooves on the back of his teeth channel
blood straight into his mouth, an intense rush of ecstasy, which
makes him moan. Energy floods into him, invigorating every nerve,
adding to his strength even as the demon weakens.
    The flow of blood and etheric energy
slackens, and he lets the lycanthrope’s body fall. Rot already
slicks its skin, setting in as if the host died the day the demon
moved in. He turns, searching for more prey.
    The werewolves race in from every direction,
no doubt hoping to overwhelm with force. Tiffany holds her gun in
one hand, fire blooming around the other, charring away her suit
sleeve and writhing around her skin. John has dropped to one knee,
both hands braced on his weapon.
    A werewolf comes from an angle, dodging even
as John shoots the one directly beside it. It surges forward, jaws
open, pitting its reflexes against his.
    It is faster, clawed hands impacting with
John’s shoulders, bearing him down. His gun spins away.
    “No!” Gray roars, and lightning flashes into
being around him, but he is too late, too slow, and can do nothing
to stop it.
     
    * * *
     
    John’s back slammed into the driveway, dirt
and gravel shredding his t-shirt and skin. The werewolf’s weight
landed on him, one knee in his gut. Its mouth gaped, inhumanly
large, revealing sharp teeth and hot breath stinking of rancid
flesh.
    Beyond all physical sensations, he sensed the
throb and pulse of its etheric energy, more clearly than ever
before in his life, even in a banishing circle. Dark and heavy, it
intertwined with the human it possessed, like a kudzu vine slowly
smothering a tree.
    He’d lost his gun when his wrist hit the
ground, and his athame was in some SPECTR evidence vault. Only his
bare hands remained for a weapon, and although the lycanthrope
didn’t have the strength it would once possession became complete,
it had more than enough to kill him.
    He fought anyway, grabbing it around the
throat in an attempt to hold back the slavering jaws. Etheric
energy pulsed beneath his fingers. Why did he feel it so
clearly?
    To hell with that. The real question was
could he use it?
    Claws punctured his shirt, digging into the
skin over his ribs. The thing would rip him to pieces and eat his
heart out right there. Nothing to lose.
    John let go of its throat and slammed the
heel of his hand into its forehead. At the same moment, he
envisioned a barbed rope shooting out of his palm, hooking and
ensnaring the NHE.
    It worked. He saw his own energy,
tinged with purple, grasping the angry red infection of the
lycanthrope’s energy. It screamed and thrashed, but its body seemed
glued to his, unable to tear itself away.
    With a shout of effort, he pulled, not
just with his hand but with his entire being. Incredibly, the NHE
began to emerge, although its twisted, misshapen form would be
invisible to anyone unable to sense etheric energy.
    Another crackle of energy, this one familiar
and much, much larger than the werewolf held in his snare. Gray’s
angry roar vibrated in John’s chest. John tried to find the breath
to shout at Gray not to hurt the formerly possessed soldier on top
of him.
    He needn’t have bothered. Gray swooped in,
all black leather and thrashing hair, the lightning a storm in his
eyes. Ignoring the soldier, he grasped the tangle of etheric
energy, which was the lycanthrope, yanked it to his mouth—
    And, as far as John could tell, simply ate
it.
    The now exorcised soldier scrambled back, his
mouth stretched wide in a purely human scream. “God! Oh God! That
thing—I didn’t even realize—oh my God!”
    He rolled to