The Demon-Eater: Hunting Shadows (Book One, Part One Read Free

it had. The hunter lingered, betting
the demon still had yet to leave.
    He glanced up at the moon, a thin,
silvery beam shining enough into the alley to illuminate the
one-armed corpse. Although, the narrow beam was quickly fading as
the moon inched across the night sky.
    Quick at work, he
positioned himself between the silver glow and the limp body, so
that his shadow was cast over the body. Blade sang against scabbard
as he, once more, drew his sword, peering down on the two shadows cast over
the corpse.
    Now, which shadow was his and which
one was not?
    The moonlight was fading already, as
the silvery disk passed over the gap between the buildings of the
alleyway. With it, the two shadows were steadily fading. The hunter
lifted an arm above his head, suddenly. Both shadows moved, but one
was slightly off key. Demons, in their natural form were not
shadows, but they were semi-amorphous and so they could imitate the
shadows. But they could not read minds, and their movements showed
this.
    The light ebbed further, the shadows
hardly distinguishable from the general darkness now. The hunter
slammed his sword toward one of the shadows. The shadow moved to
flee, the light faded completely just as he heard the tip of his
blade break against the stone, and the demon disappeared somewhere
beneath the hunter.
    The hunter stood unmoving, heart
thumping wildly in his chest, pressing his sword down against the
stone with both hands. The silence seemed to last an
eternity.
    “ Demon-Eater,” a hiss like
the whisper of the wind finally sounded from the darkness at the
end of his blade. There was a slight tremble of fear and
realization to the voice. Demon-Eater. It was the name by
which the demons knew him. They had given him the name. He found
himself forgetting his true name at times, these days.
    Your name is
Demon-Eater, the others whispered in his
mind.
    I am the hunter... he reminded himself. I
am Gabriel Hall.
    “ You cannot kill me,” the
demon went on. It was almost a question.
    The hunter, Gabriel, remained silent,
but knelt down, still gripping the hilt of his sword, with one hand
now. Demon-kind were immortal, as far as the hunter knew, but he
wished he could kill them. They deserved death, every one of
them.
    He leaned in toward the ground, until
he could see the dark mass of the demon's form, just slightly
darker than the night. He had never fully understood how they could
be so formless, yet still be impaled by a sword. He leaned still
lower until his face was nearly touching the monster beneath
him.
    They could not physically harm anybody
in their natural forms—unless one considered possession physical
harm, of course. He did not know why, except to guess that it was
because they did not belong to his world, but to another. After
years of hunting demons, Gabriel still felt like he knew nothing
about them.
    And that was well with him.
    “ I will find a way,” he
said to the demon after a few moments. He kept telling himself
that.
    The demon laughed. A slow, deliberate
cackle, lacking all humor. Gabriel frowned.
    “ You know, laughing is an
odd thing for a demon to do when facing me,” he said.
    “ Yes,” the demon said,
sounded oddly amused. “The great Demon-Eater. He who has yet to actually
rid any of us
from this place. We are still a part of your world, still among the
people. Through you. ”
    Gabriel's frown deepened.
    “ How many of us are inside you?” the
demon asked. “A hundred. More. Why, I would bet you are more demon
than you even are human anymore. What is it in that head of yours
still keeping you from being just another monster—because, that is
what we demon-kind are right, monsters, Demon-Eater ?”
    “ Don't call me that!” An
image flashed in his mind. Of a long, pallid corridor, and a demon
wearing a ring. A memory. A reminder of why he did what he
did.
    I am Gabriel Hall, he told himself. The
hunter. The human.
    No, the others whispered in his head, the way a mother might correct