Ibenus (Valducan series) by Seth Skorkowsky Read Free Book Online

was a misunderstanding." Allan held out the keys and wallet to her. "You take her car. Follow us."
    "But—"
    "No buts," Allan scolded. "Do it. Call it in. Tell them everything." He mouthed, Get Uwe on it .
    Luc leaned toward him. "Are you sure about this?"
    "Yeah." Allan turned back to Victoria. "Let's go."
     

Chapter Five
     
    Within the darkened bedroom of his fourth-floor apartment, Gerhard slept beneath green cotton sheets and dreamed. He walked through the middle of lonely streets, canyoned between stone buildings, rising impossibly high toward an overcast sky that was neither night or day. Movement flickered beyond those blackened windows, but no matter how quickly he turned to see who might be watching them, they were empty. The air was still, silent, except for his own footsteps and a distant howling of wind through far away avenues.
    He clutched Umatri in his hand, his only companion is this deserted world, and the only one he'd ever crave. The smooth wood seemed to move beneath his grip like a flexing muscle. The movement continued up along the wavy blade. It flowed with serpentine grace, undulating back and forth, back and forth.
    Mesmerized, he held the weapon before him, eyes transfixed on the slithering blade. The rippling movement suddenly ceased. The edges bristled into serrated thorns. Umatri stretched and bent to the side like a sapling in a strong wind.
    Following its curve, Gerhard turned to see a bat-headed thing leering out from an open door. It shrieked, revealing crystalline fangs, like broken glass, and the monster charged.
    Gerhard wheeled to face it. The beast raced toward him, claws extended before it. He ducked the hungry claws and thrust the keris up, missing his mark, but the blade bent midair and plunged into the beast's chest. The bat-headed creature howled. Light swelled beneath its dark fur and it came apart, dissipating into a luminous cloud of vapor.
    Umatri's blade moved again like a dowsing rod. Gerhard turned to see another monster charging on all fours. It looked more dog than human. Behind it, a skeletal thing crawled out from an open sewer grate.
    The dog-thing leaped and Gerhard sprung to the side, lashing the keris toward it. The blade shifted like liquid metal into a L-shape and speared the monster straight through the ribs. Before he could withdraw the weapon from the still airborne corpse, the monster exploded into more glowing mist.
    Snarls and howls sounded through the now growing fog, but Gerhard was not afraid. He had Umatri and, together, they would conquer all. The skeletal creature loped toward him. A greasy black ball of worms or eels writhed within its yellowed ribcage, slithering between the bones. With a scream of exalted fury, Gerhard lunged. He thrust—
    Gerhard awoke to darkness. His sheets were soaked in sweat. Panting, he rolled over to check the bedside clock, the damp sheets clinging with the movement.
    1:57.
    He let out a long sigh, hoping to still his pounding heart. The dream lingered in the back of his mind like the afterglow of a bolt of lightning imprinted on the watching eye. Gerhard rolled from bed and padded naked across the cool laminate floor. He crossed to the window and opened the shade.
    Directly opposite the street, stone and brick façades of luxurious houses stared back at him with haughty indifference. Gerhard confessed some mild amusement that his own apartment building was what they had to see, nothing like their manicured shrubs and twisting cast iron railings. Above their roofs he could just make out the treetops of the park beyond, a park those wealthy enough to afford such luxuries could gaze out upon. Did those within their walls appreciate such a view? Not so long ago he had coveted such wealth, such decadent possessions: a house, a luxurious automobile, inlaid redwood floors buried beneath oriental rugs. Did they appreciate them? Would Umatri's anonymous owner appreciate him? Or would they merely hang him on a wall, another bauble