Run the Day by Matthew C. Davis Read Free Book Online Page B

that was in the room began to...blossom, growing and spreading until the whole kitchen was filled with an otherworldly radiance as Swift stood.
    "Malakhim is only one of the names the Children of Dust have given us across millennia. We do not serve the Crippled God; we are messengers of entities that pre-date this iteration of reality. Know that I mean you no harm, Thomas, and be content. Question no further, for your own safety, and your sanity. Had I wished for your destruction, you'd have as much hope stopping me as an ant standing against the sun. The old vessel knows this to be true; it is why he fears me." Swift's voice rang like a bell that vibrated in my bones.
    It scared the living shit out of me
    .
    Hack had risen to his feet, a nimbus of flickering light growing around his upraised hands, his eyes burning like flares. As much as some sick little part of me wanted so badly to see the two of them go head-to-head, I was pretty sure that would end very, very badly. I did the first thing that came to mind and slung the freshly brewed pot of coffee across the kitchen to go crashing into the table. Scalding liquid and glass flew everywhere, but both Hack and Swift leapt back, turning to look from each other to me with two pairs of unsettling eyes.
    "Knock it off, the both of you." I came around the counter and looked at the both of them like bad children; I even had my hands on my hips. "Not in my house, damn it. This is venturing dangerously close to a whole new realm of crazy that I'm not prepared to deal with."
    For a moment Hack and Swift just stared at me and I felt like all the air had left the room and I was standing at ground zero, waiting for the ominous whistle of impending nuclear destruction. Hack's eyes dimmed, the color slowly returned to Swift's and I took a shallow breath. The two turned to look at each other and gave a mutual nod, a slight dip of their chins.
    "Hack, level with me, what the hell's going on? I've come closer in one day to taking a dirt nap than I have in years. Too much shit's flying precariously close to the fan for it to all be coincidence, and your letter was chock full of doom and gloom." I felt more exhausted at that moment than I had all day.
    I revised my earlier estimate; I was going to be dead before noon.
    "I'm going for lunch. I'll be back." Swift snagged his sunglasses off the table, instantly looking more human, like those mirrored lenses were holding something in. Without another word, he ducked out of the kitchen.
    "Dangerous company you're keeping these days, boy," Hack said.
    "He's helped me out of some rough spots before. He makes a good meat shield and has a knack for dismantling things," I said, staring at the mess I'd made. Unfortunately, I didn't know any fantastical methods for making coffee explosions disappear. I ducked into the pantry to retrieve a broom and rags, "You're deflecting. Why'd you come back, Hack? What's going on?"
    "Didn't you read that blasted email? The end of the damn world, that's what," Hack spoke slowly, "Things that have been asleep are starting to get restless, and they're pushing their influence out into the world. The Sleeper's trying to wake up, and its agents are working to bring it over."
    I had no idea what that meant, and it did nothing to put me at ease. It did shed a bit of light on the Libro Nihil's supposed appearance in town, though. A book reputed for containing the secrets of breaching the membrane between worlds would have every cult in the tri-county area on the hunt.
    "What the hell is the Sleeper?"
    "An Entropic, the worst possible kind of trouble. An avatar of one of the prime universal forces, it's the embodiment of chaos and death." Hack's deadpan delivery really did it for me. "The thing's been asleep for centuries. I don't know what got it stirring, but I felt it shift in its sleep all the way up in Washington. If it wakes up, that's it. Game over. Its followers will pull it into this world, and it won't stop 'til it's