Path of the Horseman Read Free Page B

either. I couldn’t squeeze out of the side windows and there
was no way I was getting out of the front. I twisted around and
clambered to the end of the SUV. Their shouts were louder now.
     
    I stumbled when I made it past the seats,
landing on my ass in the trunk. The back window was cracked from
the crash, so it spider-webbed when I kicked it.
     
    Soon as the back window popped from its
casing, I pushed it out. I shoved the glass until I could crawl
underneath it onto the road. The glass scraping my back pretty much
guaranteed my shirt would look like it went through a shredder.
     
    Now freed from the Cherokee, I stood up and
swayed on my feet. The pain in my head was an angry throb, and it
only got worse when someone rushed my side and punched me in the
head. I twisted with the hit, watching the world spin again. But I
didn’t hit the ground. Instead, I ended up in the claws of a
Soulless, who wasted no time in sinking his fangs into my
throat.
     
    I cursed as his teeth clamped onto my neck,
tightening his grip until my skin broke and my blood poured into
his mouth. It hurt like a motherfucker, but his teeth hadn’t
punctured any vitals yet. I shoved his shoulders but he didn’t let
go.
     
    But the moment my blood touched his tongue,
he got a heavy taste of suicide.
     
    The Soulless jerked back, yanking his fangs
out of my throat. I pressed my hand to my neck. The blood flow was
sluggish, not enough to kill me. Still felt like I’d been stabbed
in the neck with jagged rocks.
     
    Meanwhile, the Soulless’ black clawed hands
went to his throat, tearing at it as he tried to get the poison out
of his system. He gagged and choked, his bloodshot eyes going wide
as his jet-black pupils dilated. The prominent blue veins under his
paper white skin began to turn black. He looked at his friends for
help, but they were too stunned to do anything but stare.
     
    I stood there and smiled, watching the
monster turn the color of a slug. The Soulless took one more heavy
gasp, then bent double and vomited up all of his internal
fluids.
     
    His chest bulged as his stomach heaved up a
disgusting rainbow of slimy red, piss yellow, shit brown, and my
personal inky poison. He didn’t stop to breathe, because he
couldn’t. The body fluids splattered into a pool in front of him as
his skin turned a solid grey. As soon as he was done puking his
life out, he collapsed into the puddle of disease, deader than a
doornail.
     
    Killing the Soulless wasn’t easy, but I was a
walking weapon.
     
    I turned my head ever so slightly to the
other three Soulless that were staring at their finally dead
friend, horrified and confused about what had happened to him. When
they heard me take the machete from its leather scabbard on my back
and a combat knife from my belt, they looked at me. I was bleeding
and struggling to keep myself upright, but that didn’t stop me from
smiling.
     
    “Still hungry, tics? I dare you to take
another bite.”
     
    The Soulless hesitated. The three of them, a
middle aged man in blue jeans, a dark-skinned man in a grey suit,
and a ‘roided up jock still wearing the jacket of his college
football team, gawked at me like I was the tiger whose tail had
been pulled one too many times.
     
    Soulless weren’t mentally challenged like the
walking Plagued out there. They still had a functioning brain. They
could speak, understand, and feel physical pain. They were also
extremely fast and had heightened senses. Definitely the more
dangerous of the two, but not half as dangerous as the other
monster lurking out there. I didn’t want to look away from the
Soulless, but I needed to find him. He could actually kill me,
whereas the Soulless would be hunting for my pain.
     
    Some sort of switch must have flicked in
their heads, because they charged me at the same time. Jock was the
quickest, darting forward to throw a harsh punch. I moved at the
last second, spinning around his side and planting a hard kick into
his stomach.