Judgment Day (Templar Chronicles Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

overhearing what was going on inside the room; the ward by the door taking care of all that.
    The fact that Cade hadn’t put a bullet through her skull the moment he’d come through the door finally registered with the demon, for Cade could see the expression in her eyes change as she calculated her chances of survival if she gave in to his demands. Prudence apparently finally won out, for she climbed off her victim and shoved him out of bed with the flick of her hand.
    The man hit the floor, hard, and Cade quite clearly heard the loud crack as the man’s neck snapped from the angle of the impact.
    The demon looked at him in lazy defiance. ”Oops,” she said.
    Cade ignored her willful disobedience.
    “Tell me where the Adversary is,” he said calmly.
    The demon threw back its head and laughed at him, clearly not believing she was in any real danger,
    Cade quickly disabused her of that notion by shooting her in the kneecap.
    The bullet, blessed by the Holy Father himself, tore through the demon’s flesh, tumbling and breaking apart on impact, spreading the holy water it contained through the wound in its wake. Blood the color of dirty oil splashed across the bedsheets as the bullet fragments tore out of the other side of the creature’s leg, shredding flesh and bone as it went.
    This time when the demon screamed, it did so out of pain rather than defiance.
    The sound was still echoing around the room when Cade calmly switched targets and put a bullet through the demon’s other leg.
    Another howl of agony erupted, this one louder and longer than the last.
    As Cade looked on, the shape of the thing before him flickered and changed as the demon was no longer able to maintain its illusion. One moment there was a gorgeous woman kneeling naked in front of him, the next Cade was staring at a hunched creature with leathery skin and spidery limbs that had two small bat-like wings jutting from its back. The joints of its lower limbs had been shattered by the gunshots and the only way it was going to escape now was by crawling.
    Still, the demon refused to give in.
    It raised its wrinkled, pig-like snout and said, “I’ll not betray the Master to the likes of you, Templar.”
    The Master? Hardly.
    Cade laughed in response. ”Oh, I think you will,” he said, as he threw off his coat, revealing the sword that hung at his side, the sword fashioned from cold steel and blessed before every combat mission, including this one, the kind of weapon that was anathema to the demon before him.
    The sword rang against the scabbard as Cade drew it forth.
    He advanced on the injured demon before him, smiling as he did so, but there was nothing pleasant in that smile.
    “Oh, I think you will. I think you will tell me everything I want to know before we’re finished, demon.”
    The screaming inside that room went on for a very long time.

CHAPTER THREE

    Riley was in the ready room of the Ravensgate Commandery cleaning his gear when an initiate burst in, his face flushed with excitement.
    “Sir! Commander Williams was just spotted entering a hotel in New York City!”
    Riley took the proffered communications report and quickly skimmed it. The hotel was on the border of Harlem, in an area that the police tended to avoid unless there was a significant issue that needed to be addressed. His team should be able to get in and out again without too much trouble.
    “I want Echo on the pad in five minutes,” Riley told the initiate. ”Have Delta standing by as back-up. Now move!”
    The messenger took off at a run, leaving Riley alone to collect his gear and consider his next move. Gamma might have been given command of the search but that didn’t mean the other teams weren’t authorized to respond in a critical moment. If Riley moved quickly, he could contain what had the potential to turn into a major disaster. Both Echo and Delta teams were made up of veterans who had fought for Cade in the past and as such were far less likely to start a