Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 39991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
They ran through a living area to a room that could have been part of a museum. Display cases filled the large room, but it wasn’t the cases that captured his attention. Three humans were there—two women with red hair and freckles, who cowered in another doorway, and an older man who was being held up against a wall by the draugr.
Seemed they’d arrived just in time.
The draugr looked like a ragged zombie from someone’s worst nightmare. Tattered clothes barely hung from a bone frame that still had bits of dry, leathery skin. Its head was mostly skull, though there were still a bit of leathery scalp and a few tufts of white hair. The worst was the smell. Like garbage that had been left to rot on the hottest summer day.
The man against the wall was turning purple as he struggled for air with the draugr’s hand around his throat. He was kicking, strangled gasping noises escaping his mouth.
Ivor hefted his daggers and ran toward the draugr while Emory shot around to attack it from the other side. They’d fought many times together over the years, their movements like dance partners seamlessly following each other’s lead.
The draugr turned eyeless sockets Ivor’s way as he reached it and slashed out with one dagger, the metal hitting the exposed bone of its back. It let go of the man, who slumped to the floor, gasping in air.
Emory leaped high and sent his foot into the side of its head, and it swung around to face him just as Ivor sank both blades into its sides.
The draugr misted.
It reappeared behind Ivor, and he spun around and jumped, aiming a kick at its chest. It flew back into one of the display cases, crashing through the glass. But it misted again, and this time when it solidified, it grabbed one of the women—the younger one.
She screamed, but it was cut off into a ragged choke when the draugr snapped her arm with an audible crack.
Ivor and Emory ran at them from opposite directions, making the draugr’s head turn right and left. It had no eyes, but Ivor knew it somehow sensed them. It dropped the woman and lashed out at Emory with bony fingers curled like claws.
Emory dodged to the right before he leaped again with another of his deadly kicks. Ivor had seen the angel fight many times, and it always left him in awe. Emory might not be able to fly long distances anymore, and inside the house he couldn’t get a lot of height, but he could still perform amazing fight moves in the air, using his wings to suspend himself enough for powerful kicks.
This time, he sent the draugr Ivor’s way. Gripping both daggers, Ivor knelt and slashed at its legs, his blades slicing through the leathery skin. The draugr screeched as it staggered, but the fucking thing just disappeared again.
When it solidified, it was across the room in front of one of the display cases. It smashed through the glass and grabbed a necklace.
Then it misted and disappeared.
Ivor ran to the window, but it was long gone.
“Is it gone?” the older woman yelled as she knelt next to the younger woman, who was sobbing on the floor. The two women resembled each other so much, it was obvious they were mother and daughter.
“Yes, it got what it was really here for,” Ivor answered her. He kept watching outside, though he knew it wasn’t coming back.
“What the fuck was that creature?”
Ivor turned to the man, who was now rubbing his blood-red throat. His face was unnaturally pale, which made the flush of his throat all the more stark.
“That was a draugr,” Ivor replied as he stepped over broken glass and walked up to the man.
“I don’t understand,” the man said. “It was like something out of a horror movie. And you two! How did you get in here, and why are you in here?”
“We were coming to warn you about the draugr when we heard screams. It’s lucky we arrived when we did because that thing wouldn’t have hesitated to kill you all.”
“It was after my necklace?” the older woman asked as she patted her daughter’s shoulder.
“Where did you get the necklace?” Emory asked.
“I had it made about twenty years ago.”
“Did you melt something down to have it made?”
She shook her head. “No. The amber stone is a family heirloom, and I had it set into the piece.”
“It was after the amber.”
“Buy why?” She waved her hand toward the other cases. “There is far more expensive jewelry on display in here.” She looked toward the broken window. “How was it moving? It looked like a corpse!”
“It basically is a corpse,” Ivor explained as he walked to the younger woman, who had tears streaking her face as she cradled her arm. “You should get to a hospital and have that set.”