Blood Ties by Peter David Read Free Book Online Page B

face. The hobbe let out a screech of pain and backpedaled hurriedly. It seemed that its taste for battle had left it all at once.
    â€œWait! I’m not done with you!” I called, but it seemed in no mood to listen. Instead, it turned its back on me and sprinted toward the protective trees. I reached for my pistol and withdrew it, cocking the trigger and taking aim all in one movement. But the hobbe darted behind a tree so that I no longer had a clear shot at it. I stepped to one side, tried to find it again. It was too late. I heard the rustling of trees and branches, then it was gone, having disappeared into the woods.
    For a moment I thought it might try to circle around and come at me from a different direction, but then I dismissed the notion. It seemed most unlikely. Hobbes weren’t traditionally big fans of fair fights. They generally liked to outnumber their opponents at least two to one, and preferably five times that. When I had whittled down the odds to one-on-one, I had only needed to inflict the most minimal amount of damage on the hobbe to sour it on continuing the battle.
    Still, it would have been nice to be able to kill the thing and have one less hobbe running around Albion. On the other hand, even if I had managed to accomplish it, what did it really matter in the long run? No matter how many of the damned creatures that harassed the good (and even not-so-good) citizens of Albion were killed, there always seemed to be more ready to replace them. I didn’t know where these monstrosities came from. Whatever their origin, there certainly seemed to be an endless supply of them.
    Shoving the pistol back into my belt and the sword into its sheath, I promptly started checking through the flintlock rifle to make sure that another misfire didn’t occur. As I did so, checking over every moving piece, I remembered my unexpected, if acerbic, savior.
    â€œHe’s gone!” I called. “You can come out!”
    â€œYou think I’m hiding because I was afraid of a hobbe? You’re the one who’s more dangerous. The way you shoot, you would have hit me while trying to shoot the hobbe!”
    â€œWell, I think you’re doing me a disservice.” Whoever was taunting me from hiding, he clearly had a good deal of hostility. I needed to let him know that he had no reason to vent it toward me. “Actually, I’m quite a good shot.”
    â€œThen the last thing I need is to present you a target!”
    â€œWhy would I consider you a target? You saved my life!”
    â€œNot sure there’s anything there worth saving!”
    â€œThen why did you warn me?”
    â€œWasn’t my intent. Just observing that the way you were about to die was a bloody stupid one. I wasn’t out to prevent it. Simply comment on it.”
    I had to laugh at that. “You, sir, have a twisted sense of humor. I like that in a man.”
    â€œIs that what you like? Men? Had you figured for that type.”
    â€œWh-what?” My laughter faded. “No! I’m not that type at all!”
    â€œThat’s not what I hear.”
    I didn’t know what to make of that. “Why? What have you heard?”
    â€œWouldn’t you like to know?”
    By that point, I had cleared out the bullet that had jammed in the chamber. The problem hadn’t been the rifle but rather the ammunition, which apparently had been made irregularly. I was damned lucky the weapon hadn’t blown up in my face. “No. I wouldn’t like to know.”
    â€œCan’t stand to face the truth, eh?”
    â€œThere’s nothing to know. Look,” I said, once I was satisfied that Vanessa was in perfect working order. “Here’s the bottom line, good fellow—”
    â€œYou have a thing for the bottoms of good fellows? You just proved my point.”
    I ignored him. “You saved my life. Whatever your reason, and whatever your methods, and why ever you feel the need