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

pondered what his next move should be, even as Pasarin ordered his van der Decken to lead the zombies in search of him. Without weapons, Max wasn’t sure he could handle the pirate and four undead fighters, but maybe he didn’t need to. If he managed to get Pasarin alone, they could settle this one-on-one. Van der Decken had already made it clear that he wouldn’t mind seeing Pasarin dead, so he was unlikely to force an intervention.
    Max saw van der Decken disappear into the woods not far from his hiding place, one of the zombies in tow. The other three were moving in various directions, including one that was shambling directly towards Max. The Peregrine swore under his breath, realizing that his plan might not come to fruition; there didn’t seem much chance of him reaching Pasarin without alerting at least one of the man’s protectors.
    Just suck it up, the Peregrine told himself, and do what you have to do.
    Max looked around and spied a thin but sturdy-looking stick nearby. One end was jagged and sharp, but the Peregrine had no idea if it would be strong enough to aid him. Nevertheless, he picked it up and waited until the zombie was within striking distance. The Peregrine jumped for him, emerging from the darkness like a bird in flight, the stick raised high.
    Pasarin looked over just in time to see the Peregrine bring the point of the stick down hard between the zombie’s eyes. The force behind it drove the point through the skin, but it was stopped short of the creature’s brain by the thick bone of its skull. Still, the blow was enough to drive the zombie to the ground, where it whipped about in a frenzy of pain. Max knew the only way to truly stop this breed of monster was to damage its brain, and thus he began ramming his foot down upon the stick, driving it harder and harder against the skull until, with a popping sound, the wood drove into the brain pan.
    Pasarin stared as the Peregrine pulled his shoe free of the zombie’s ruined face, the shoe speckled with bone and gray matter. “Van der Decken! Get back here!” he bellowed, a cold knot of fear welling up in his heart. He still held the Peregrine’s weapons in one hand, the head of his walking stick clutched in the other.
    “I know all about you, Fernando.” The Peregrine stopped a few feet away and tried to clear his face of anger. He wanted Pasarin to believe what he was about to say. “I’m sorry that your father and your son have some inflated view of me. So far, all you’ve done is try to kill me. I can forgive that. But you need to call off your zombies and surrender.”
    “You don’t actually expect me to agree to that, do you?” Pasarin asked. His eyes were glowing with malice, and Max was momentarily taken aback by the level of personal distaste that this man held for him. “You brainwashed my dying father and turned my own son against me. I don’t even want to know how you found all that out. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I’m going to prove to my son which of us is the better man… I’m going to kill you and take that damned ring of yours to him as a souvenir!”
    The Peregrine glanced over his shoulder to see that van der Decken and the three remaining zombies were returning to the scene. It was obvious to Max that van der Decken was taking his time in responding, moving as slowly as he could while still responding to his master’s call.
    Pasarin noticed that Max was looking away and the act caused something to snap within the businessman. He couldn’t stand the notion that the Peregrine would act as if he weren’t a dangerous foe—to virtually ignore him in favor of the undead monsters was insulting.
    Max turned back just in time to see Pasarin’s fist hurtling towards his face. The Peregrine threw up an arm and caught Pasarin’s hand in his own, twisting the villain’s arm painfully to the side.
    “You can’t fight me,” the Peregrine warned. “Not hand-to-hand. You have no training.”
    “I