Message Bearer (The Auran Chronicles Book 1) by M. S. Dobing Read Free Book Online

again as
he rounded the bend that turned onto a little-used side road that led to the
park. Flickers here and there came back, but nothing coherent. He kept his
probes gentle; sheol couldn’t sense , but they could feel it when others
scanned them if one wasn’t careful.
    He parked up at a small
car park around the back of Stanley Park. It made the route back to the Way, hidden
in the base of the clock tower, further than was ideal, but it gave them less
chance of being spotted by any other being, be it human or Sheol.
    ‘Seb, wake up.’ He gave
Seb a kick, the boy mumbling something that sounded vaguely like a curse. He
kicked him again, hard.
    ‘Ow!’ Seb sat bolt
upright, his face a mask of anger. His memory caught up with him and he visibly
sank back into the car.
    ‘Come on, we have to
move.’
    ‘Where are we going?’
    ‘Out of here. To safety.’
    To his credit, Seb
climbed out of the car without further protest. He had to be terrified, worse
even. Perhaps shock had kicked in, protecting his mind from what its senses
were telling it. Maybe he was hoping it was just a dream, that he’d just wake
up in a minute and all of this would be nothing but a nightmare.
    Tough luck, kid.
    They entered the park,
keeping off the main road that led into the centre where the clock tower stood.
They kept to the trees on the left, the elevated ground providing a vantage
point to spy any potential Sheol before they could have chance to act.
    They’d come a few hundred
yards along the ridge, the trees thinning as the nearest building, a café by
day, formed out of the gloom. Cade waved a hand, motioning Seb to keep low. He
scanned the surroundings, his eyes providing a green-tinted night vision, the
vista before him almost as clear as day. Nothing there. He cast his sense forward, straining it to its limits, but picked up nothing. He made as if to
rise when he felt Seb move behind him.
    ‘Hello there, fella, who’re
you with?’ Seb said.
    Cade spun round, blades
out in a flash. A small dog, a terrier, was nuzzling the boy’s hand. The boy
returned the affection, stroking the animal into a frenzy.
    ‘Seb,’ Cade hissed, ‘Come
on, before…’
    Too late.
    ‘Ruffie? Ruffie?’
    An elderly couple emerged
from the gloom, their voice tinged with a vague sense of urgency. The woman
smiled when she saw the dog rubbing Seb’s hands. The man stopped, noticing Seb,
before glancing up, seeing Cade as he squatted against the tree.
    ‘Who are -’
    Cade’s sense flared. The man’s aura snuffed out and was instantly replaced by a black cloud.
Somewhere, in the gap between realities, he heard a scream. The change was
almost instant.
    The man froze in
mid-sentence. His head twitched, cocking sideways. His arms snapped up, hands
drawn up towards his chest as a guttural growl rumbled from his throat. He
blinked once, his eyes turning black. He bared his teeth, raising clawed hands
as he dropped to a squat.
    The dog suddenly stopped its
play and turned towards the possessed man. It growled in return before
launching itself at the man as the woman began to scream. The sheol caught the
animal in one hand, the poor creature wriggling in a futile gesture as razor-sharp
talons tore through fur into soft flesh.
    ‘Go.’ Cade said.
    ‘What, where?’ Seb said,
eyes wide, locked on the still twitching animal.
    ‘Towards the tower! Now
run!’
    Cade didn’t turn as the
boy scrambled away. Instead he held his gaze on the sheol as it ripped the dog
in half. The woman’s cries had turned into a mindless babble now as she slumped
to the floor.
    The possessed man leapt
at him without pause, staggering as one of Cade’s daggers found itself embedded
in his throat. He spun wildly, clawing at the open wound as black ichor sprayed
out in a grotesque fountain that covered the woman.
    Without hesitating, Cade
pivoted towards the woman, the gurgled growls that had suddenly replaced her
terrified babbling telling him all he needed to know. She