The Peregrine Omnibus Volume One by Barry Reese Read Free Book Online Page A

draws near.
    Max sighed, closing his eyes. The voice… it had always urged him in one direction or another… but it had never held a conversation with him…
    “Who are you?” Max asked, knowing that he should keep moving but unable to force his legs to work.
    Open your eyes… and see.
    Max hesitated, but finally did so.
    There, before him in the same suit he’d worn the day he’d died, was Max’s father.

CHAPTER XI
    Shades of the Past
    The Peregrine was standing in a field of blinding white snow that whirled all about him. For a moment he could see no further than the hand in front of his face and the howling of the wind made it impossible to hear even the screaming of his own voice.
    He staggered forward, sensing warmth up ahead. Through the maelstrom he made out a small temple of some kind, hidden in the massive mountains he could now make out all around him.
    And his father—Warren Davies—stood before the temple, watching him with a mixture of exasperation and obvious pride. Max’s father had never been an emotional man and had always held himself at arm’s length, both figuratively and physically. But there had been a bond between the two that had always remained firm in Max’s memory.
    The Peregrine came to a stop before this man who could not exist and whispered through cracked lips, “This isn’t real. The bullet was drugged… wasn’t it?”
    “Considering all that you’ve seen… is it really so hard to believe that you might actually be speaking to me?”
    “I’m sure as hell not in… wherever this is. I’m in Atlanta.”
    “You’re in a dreamscape, Max. A mental projection. You’ve always been gifted… even when you were a little boy. That’s the reason I was able to guide you over the years. Make myself heard. But with the walls between the living and the dead becoming so weak these days…” Max’s father opened his arms. “Well, you can see that I’m capable of a lot more now.”
    “You’re telling me that the voice in my head… the source of my visions and the headaches… is my own dead father?” Max’s voice was dripping with disbelief. “This is a trick.”
    “No. It’s not.”
    Max paused, letting the implications sink in. “Why would you do this to me? Make me a vigilante?”
    “I didn’t make you do anything. I merely offered certain paths to you and you chose to take them.”
    “Or else suffer those headaches of yours! Not a fair choice, from where I’m standing!”
    “You sound like a little boy, Max. Stop. Listen.”
    Max seethed inside, still finding it hard to fathom. Could it be true? Could his father have been haunting him all these years? And if so… did that mean that someday Max would be free of his compulsions? Would his father leave him alone?
    “Pay attention!” his father snapped.
    “What do you want to say?”
    “What’s happening to the world is not just the work of Trench and his manservant. They are chess pieces, being maneuvered about by the source of all evil in this world. These men seek to unleash the father of demons from his cage.” Warren Davies moved towards his son, locking gazes with him. “The forces of sin know their day is coming closer and they’ve begun weakening the barriers between worlds. That’s why you’re able to see me now… that and your own telepathic powers are becoming stronger.”
    “Now I’m a telepath, too?”
    “You’ve always been good at sensing deceit in others… but it’s a gift you may not have the luxury of mastering. You have to stop Trench or the entire world will suffer.”
    “Why have you haunted me? Why did you make me into… what I am?”
    “The costuming bit was your own creation, Max. A bit too theatrical for my tastes. I was killed because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time… a victim of senseless violence. There are too many people in this world who escape the clutches of man’s law… my anger, my sense of vengeance, kept me on this plane… and I knew you could