Dark Legion by Rob Cornell Read Free Book Online Page A

attackers shirt, but the silver rounds neither drew blood or stopped his charge. Before Lockman had time to react, the massive figure slammed into him like a line backer, shoulder into Lockman’s gut, pinching him against the wall.
    A spray of bile shot out from Lockman’s mouth, the taste bitter and hot. All air burst out of his lungs. He felt both his guns slip from his hands.
    The attacker lifted Lockman over his head with the ease of a professional wrestler on the choicest brand of steroids. A second later, Lockman found himself floating through the air, an instant of weightlessness rudely cut short by the impact against the opposite wall. He dropped onto a short bookcase that toppled to the floor with him. All sorts of agony flared in his body, the worst of it the band of pain across his ribcage where the oversized-vamp had first barreled into him.
    Teresa shouted and her gun thundered twice before going silent.
    Lockman tried to get to his feet, but barely made it up to his hands and knees. He looked up, saw a second black-clad vamp even bigger than the first rush into the cabin. The first one had Teresa around the waist.
    She donkey kicked him in the crotch and he dropped her. But when she tried to make a break for it, the second one grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder as if she were nothing more substantial than a stuffed teddy bear.
    “Craig!”
    He ground his teeth together and willed himself to his feet. Every joint felt like an ember. Each breath sent a spark of pain through his chest.
    With Teresa over his shoulder, the giant vamp turned and regarded Craig through its dark lenses. Teresa kicked and struggled, but the vamp held tight. Then he turned and walked out the front door.
    Lockman started after him. A hand the size of a baseball mitt landed on his shoulder and spun him around.
    The first vamp had recovered from Teresa’s kick. He drew back a fist and swung at Lockman’s head.
    The beast’s size made him slow. Especially for a vampire. Lockman easily ducked the punch and followed up with three quick jabs to the vamp’s ribcage.
    The jabs had no effect. The vamp simply took another slow swing.
    Lockman ducked again, then scurried back out of range. He noticed the bullet wounds in the vamp’s chest bled no more than a few cuts would. The silver rounds should have burned through the vamp’s flesh, turned those holes into craters.
    “What do you want?” he shouted.
    The hulk did not answer. He charged instead.
    Lockman backed away until he came against the wall.
    The vamp reached him, swung.
    Lockman ducked, but the attack was a feint and the vamp had him by the neck with his opposite hand. He tried to pry the vamp’s gloved fingers loose to no effect.
    The vamp threw his punch again, this time with Lockman unable to duck.
    The last thing Lockman saw was a set of black-clad knuckles headed straight for his face.
    Then darkness.

Chapter Twelve
    Something isn’t right.
    The thought echoed in Lockman’s mind as he swam out of the dark. When he opened his eyes, Kate’s face looked down at him. He blinked while trying to remember how he ended up on the floor.
    Something isn’t right.
    The vamps. Teresa.
    He sat up. Too fast. The room swirled. Nausea flooded his stomach.
    “Easy,” Kate said and put an arm around him.
    “They took Teresa.” He glanced around the living room—or what was left of it. They had left behind the van, still half-parked inside the cabin. The mixed smells of drywall dust, stale exhaust, and cordite didn’t help with the nausea. “Where’s Jess?”
    “At the rendezvous point.”
    “Why aren’t you with her?”
    “I came back for you.”
    “That wasn’t part of our plan.”
    She patted the rifle on the floor beside her. “I came prepared.”
    Lockman shook his head. There was no preparing for an attack like that. It was like they knew exactly what to expect and made all the right moves to get in. Then they defied everything Lockman thought he knew about