Gremlin Night, Dale Smith [easy books to read in english .txt] 📗

The binding knife slipped from my fingers, I tried reaching down to snatch it a second time, but the room was suddenly small and stifling, and my skin crawled. I had to get away, upstairs, anywhere but in that room.

“One at a time,” the nymph murmured. “First the man, then the woman. Perhaps pleasure can still be had, in the end.” Her voice was a purr, reminding me of the whorl-kin I’d encountered earlier today in Illinois. Had that been today? It felt like a month ago.

The memory brought me back to reality. The nymph eyed Tully, sashayed her way to him, lifting her arms, as if to say, come to me, big boy.

I blinked. The terror thundering inside me abruptly subsided, as the nymph focused on Tully. Now was my chance.

I ran my hands over my jacket. I had to have something to deal with Miss Passion Princess.

My knife, suddenly I couldn’t find it. Tully’s gun had crashed behind something in the next room. I’d never have time to find it.

This was ridiculous. There had to be something.

That’s when my gaze fell on a fallen figurine of a unicorn, lying beside an over-turned cabinet in the dining room, just visible from where I crouched on the stairs. I slipped off the stairs as the nymph approached Tully, reminding me of a snake rather than a beauty queen. The mask had slipped off, and her true nature revealed. She was some kind of killer creature that looked like a nymph, but the nymphs I’d encountered weren’t sadistic murderers.

I snatched up the unicorn and gave my best hurling-the-ball-to-home plate throw. The unicorn smashed into the back of her pretty head and she staggered. I ran through the kitchen hall and into the trashed living room, frantically searching for Tully’s pistol. No sign of it.

“Not so fast, girl,” the fake-nymph snarled.

I scurried behind a fallen book case, but even short as I was, I was still exposed enough for her to see me.

Her eyes danced. “Time for you to lighten up.” She blew me a kiss.

My legs became rubber and I went down on my knees. Ecstatic joy filled me. The world was awesome, and I was awesome to be in it, and I just wanted to give thanks to the God I was no longer sure existed. Suddenly, I had holy fire burning within me.

I laughed wildly and the fake-nymph laughed along with me. She held my binding knife in her hands.

I nodded against my will. It belonged in her hands. She was far more fit to wield it than I.

I smiled and raised my arms higher, palms toward the ceiling. I felt warm and fuzzy.

She traipsed up to me, and stroked my cheek with her beautiful fingers.

“This won’t hurt a bit,” she assured me and brought the binding knife close to my throat. She was close enough I could see the purple aura around her, outlining her stunning face.

“Banish!” A deep male voice shouted in English, followed by a soft whoosh. Paper swirled around us, and my hair blew in my face.

Fear smashed back into me like an avalanche. My stomach clenched.

I scrambled backwards, smacking hard into the wall behind me.

The fake-nymph shrieked. Her skin blackened, ethereal smoke suddenly billowing from her flesh.

“Nooooo!” Her shriek made me slap my hands over my ears.

My hair shifted away from my eyes and I could see Tully standing six feet behind the dissolving manifestation, a rune-covered wooden rod in his hands.

Sweat dripped from his face.

The manifestation became a cloud of black vapor that faded away, leaving the two of us facing each other, breathing like steam engines.

“That was close,” I said. My heart wanted to explode. “Thanks,” I panted. “Glad you had that rod.” A rod of banishment, a one-shot artifact that could dissolve any manifestation that was newer than level five. I raised an eyebrow. “Say, how were you issued a rod of banishment?”

“I wasn’t,” Tully replied.

I grinned. “Borrowed it, did you? Didn’t think you had it in you.”

He shook his head. “You jump to conclusions way too fast, Marquez.”

I crossed my arms. “How did you get one, then?”

“I found it,” he said. “Here. Right now. I was desperate—I guess adrenalin gave my sight a boost, and I found it taped to the underside of a table in the reading room.”

“That was lucky.”

He nodded. “Therese planned ahead.” She must have, placing a very rare artifact that was deadly to manifestations, in easy reach. She must have been on guard for some time. It wouldn’t have been easy to have acquired the rod, or even to have “borrowed” it without asking.

We went to the living room window, pulled back the curtain and gazed out at the night. I didn’t see any mana or magical auras, but that was no surprise. Tully stared intently outside.

“Nothing,” he said.

I was tired, feeling like I’d been smacked by a giant. I wanted nothing more than to go get another mug of coffee and listen to some metal. But that wasn’t happening.

“We’ll need to check outside.” I opened the door.

“I should go first,” Tully said. He tapped his temple. “My sight.”

He had a point. I bowed and motioned at the door. Pretty hilarious if you ask me, a five-foot two woman bowing to a six-foot four guy. Tully didn’t crack a smile. He stepped outside, doing his seer scan—right, left, up, down, kneel, stand. He pivoted and looked at the roofline.

“I don’t sense anything arcane.” He sounded surprised. “No magic. Not even any residual mana.”

“No mana at all?”

“None.”

Something had to have summoned that fake-nymph. I shivered. Possibly even conjured it. The fake nymph had been a deadly killer. It didn’t just wander into the house. It had come with the purpose of killing us.

That’s not how nymphs worked, but someone had managed to send a new sort of manifestation at us.

Great. First super-powered gremlins, then fake-nymphs. What was next? Steel dragon assassins?

“We need to find Sylvas,” I told Tully.

He nodded. “We do. They loved each