Read Eater of Lives(SPECTR #4) for Free Online Page A

near.
“Why did you follow him?”
    “Well, he smells…huh.” Caleb looked down at
the man, who kept howling. People had started to come to see what
was going on; Sean hurriedly pulled out his badge and yelled at
them to stay back.
    The poor guy looked homeless, covered in
grime and wearing five layers of clothes, including an
expensive-looking silver parka trimmed with fur. A pile of cans,
bicycle parts, and broken toys overflowed a nearby shopping
cart.
    But the meat-locker stink of a demon still
wafted faintly from him.
    “Sir,” John said, using his
calm-but-authoritative voice. “Sir, look at me, please.”
    The man’s howls faded, and he blinked rheumy
eyes at John. Then he looked at Caleb, flinched back…and frowned.
“What the hell? I thought you was some kind of monster. Damn,
must’ve been some bad shit I got into.”
    “Must’ve been,” Caleb agreed, deadpan.
    “Why you dressed all funny? You going to one
of those, wha’d’ya call ‘em, raves?”
    “Sir,” John said, capturing the man’s
wandering attention. “I’m Special Agent John Starkweather, with
SPECTR.” He flashed his badge. “Do you mind if I ask some
questions?”
    “His jacket,” Caleb said abruptly. He grabbed
the man’s arm; the guy tried to pull away, but Gray leant him a
strength even a bodybuilder would have a hard time overcoming.
“It’s been in contact with the demon. Um, NHE, I mean,” he
corrected, with a nervous glance at Forsyth.
    “Interesting,” Forsyth said. “Perhaps our
friend here would like to come back to headquarters for a little
chat.”
    * * *
    The scent drifted to Valerie as she crossed
Broad St., not far from the bar. Normally, the street smelled like
the nearby ocean, spiced with whiffs of cooking food, human sweat,
and restaurant trash. This perfume didn’t belong: ozone and
incense, mingled with the exhalation of earth touched by rain, and
she instinctively took a deeper breath to savor it.
    Revulsion twisted her stomach, even as fear
sent little spikes of ice into her veins. Every muscle threatened
to lock, the cold place in her chest twisting and clawing for
escape, her hindbrain screaming at her to run. There was something
here, something big, something which wanted to eat her.
    She took another breath, fighting for calm,
but that only intensified the scent. Faded, gone—but it had passed
through here not long ago. If they’d woken up just a little
earlier, started on the day too soon, it would have found them.
    What is it? Fear had become alien to
her, after finding the cold voice. She wasn’t scared of anything
anymore: not men, the mirror, her own body, or food, but this…she’d
almost peed herself. Like she’d turned a corner and suddenly found
herself face-to-face with a tiger, or a polar bear.
    “ It is danger.” An indistinct image
accompanied the warning, just the impression of something vast and
dark. It hadn’t seen them, not yet, but when it did…
    Valerie found herself walking quickly away,
back in the direction she’d come. Away from the man who’d arranged
to meet her there later, and damn it, the hunger gnawed at her
belly, her spine…
    “ We must leave. Run. Get far away from
here.”
    No . She forced herself to slow, her
heart pounding madly. Not yet! I’ll lose everything!
    Images sparked through her mind, the cold
thing inside her trying to find some way to make her understand.
The thing they scented wasn’t just some guy who handcuffed her to a
bed and beat her up while they fucked, because she couldn’t feel
anything unless it hurt.
    This was the Wolf from Little Red Riding
Hood. This was Charybdis, sucking a thousand sailors into her open
maw. Something primal, something of unending hunger, something
inhuman which couldn’t be reasoned with.
    For the first time in her life, she
understood the fear of prey for its predator.
    But she would defeat even this.
    Just a few days more, and we’ll go—to
Milan, or Paris, or wherever you want. We can’t let