The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) by Brad Magnarella (best business books of all time txt) π
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- Author: Brad Magnarella
Read book online Β«The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) by Brad Magnarella (best business books of all time txt) πΒ». Author - Brad Magnarella
βAll teams clear,β the tech called.
I shifted my focus from the shields to the dragon sand scattered over the station floor. Four hundred ghouls versus a two thousand-degree inferno? I was putting my money on the inferno.
βFuoco!β I shouted.
In an explosive instant, the dragon sand ignited. The intersection shook. Up and down the street, red-orange flames jetted from vents. And now a roaring chorus took up, the dying cries of ghouls.
But I couldnβt relax just yet. Iβd felt the shields bow out from the explosion. If even one of the defenses failed, the ghouls could escape the inferno and regenerate. I went sigil to sigil, reinforcing the enclosure with spoken Words.
North and southbound lines β¦ check. Westbound line β¦ check. West entrance to the station β¦ check. East entrance to the staβ
Something rammed into my side, spinning me in a half circle. I lost my balance and fell to the street. I also lost the Word, having only uttered half of it. I looked around for my assailant and found one of the cameramen running toward the subway entrance. His half-exposed belly swung side to side as he moved in for a better shot. Thatβs what had felled me.
Swearing, I realigned my thoughts with the sigils over the stationβs East entrance. Oh, crap. My fragment of a Word had not only failed to reinforce the shield; it had dissolved it.
βCerrare!β I cried.
The shield crackled and spread back into being, but I felt it crunch through bone. Ghouls had already begun to escape. I opened my eyes to the stationβs east entrance. The shadowy pit glowed with fire.
The cameraman had reached the sidewalk and was aiming his backup camera down the stationβs steps. He couldnβt have known what he was looking at. He was still filming when the first blazing ghoul appeared. With a fiery slash, the ghoul opened the manβs stomach. The man dropped to his knees, his innards gushing out, then collapsed beside his smashed camera. Three more ghouls scrambled over him, igniting his hair and clothes.
Behind me, members of the news crews began to scream.
βGet back!β the mayor was hollering. βEverybody back!β
Driven to blind rage by fire and pain, the four ghouls oriented to the panicked soundsβand charged.
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βVigore!β I cried.
The force that shook from my sword slammed into the lead ghoul. He roared as he was blown backwards, red fire pluming upon his collision against the metal entranceway that framed the stairs to the station.
A moment later, he was back on his feet.
With a shouted βProtezione!β I threw up a shield across the street. Because of the energy Iβd just expended, the manifestation was weak. The charging ghouls crashed through it.
What now? I thought as I backpedaled.
The ghouls were close enough for me to smell their burning flesh. Flesh that, beneath the thinning flames, was beginning to regenerate. I cast my staff aside and gripped my sword in both hands. Attempting to decapitate four rampaging ghouls was tantamount to suicide, but there were innocents behind me.
Automatic gunfire chattered from either side. The ghouls flinched from the impact of bullets. Armored vehicles were rolling in, backup members of the Hundred firing from the vehiclesβ sides.
βTheir heads!β I shouted in reminder. βAim for their heads!β
If the hollow-point bullets could penetrate the creaturesβ dense skulls, they might inflict enough brain damage to drop them. At that thought, two of the ghoulsβ heads exploded in rapid succession. The flaming creatures collapsed to the street. A third ghoul joined them.
The ghoul Iβd knocked into the stationβs entranceway did not, however. With a bellow, he lowered his head, impervious to the bullets blowing bits of flaming flesh from his hide.
My backward jog turned into a backward run, until I rammed into the mayor. His broad back remained to the ghouls as he pushed his arms toward the news crews, yelling for them to disperse. He ignored his security detail, one of whom had wheeled the Escalade around while another was trying to pull him toward the vehicleβs open passenger door. I could see on Budgeβs corpse-white face that he believed he was watching his campaign swirl down the drain in front of the very opinion shapers heβd invited to the event.
I regained my footing as a foul heat seared the side of my face. Shoving Budge forward, I spun with my sword. The blade flashed, catching the ghoulβs incoming arm at the wrist. A flaming hand dropped to the street, not far from where Budge and the security man had tumbled down.
The ghoul jerked back his spouting arm and let out a window-shaking howl. The gunfire had stopped, I noticed, the ghoul too close to the mayor for the Hundred to risk another fusillade.
βChrist Almighty!β Budge exclaimed, seeing the creature up close for the first time.
The ghoul, who had been thrashing in a circle, oriented to the sound and lunged. I reacted, swinging my sword like a golfer teeing off. I saw immediately that Iβd gone too wide. The blade cleaved into shoulder but then rang off a knot of bone, implanting itself in the ghoulβs thick neck.
Yes!
The ghoul stumbled to his knees. I twisted and sawed, trying to complete the decapitation, but the blade became wedged between a pair of vertebrae. I grunted with effort as flames and noxious fumes burned around me.
Without warning, pain exploded through my left calf. I looked down to see the flaming hand Iβd severed seizing my lower leg. The detached appendages of ghouls, as well as various undead, could do that, but it was one of those things you always imagined happening to someone else.
I kicked my leg, but the fingers bit fast, nails sinking through skin and muscle. I shouted and reversed course, trying to yank the blade free now. But the vertebrae
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