Demon Squad 7: Exit Wounds (16 page)

Unsure I could circle and still end up anywhere near my destination, I thanked scaly for his service and twisted hard on the handlebars. He cornered like a brick, but I’d expected that. Counted on it actually. I drove his head sideways and pushed him into the canopy, using his massive girth to buffer what I knew would be a very unpleasant encounter between flora and fauna. Didn’t much care for which side won, just as long as the undead element made it through okay.

We hit the trees at a breakneck speed of holy shit, and it took all of my effort just to stay on the back of the guardian. There was a moment there where I wondered if jumping free and angling toward a tree branch might be the better option, but big boy was snapping limbs left and right, and I could see an array of jagged points just waiting to impale me should I leave the relative safety of the dragon’s fleshy shield. Images of old Dracula movies and sharp stakes lingered as we crashed through the canopy. By the time I’d decided to stay put, we broke through the last of the branches and were in free fall. That lasted all of a split-second before my ride hit the ground with a meaty
thump
. The impact knocked me loose and tossed me to the ground about ten feet from where the dragon
uurrked
his last. Flat on my back, every brittle bone in my body vibrating with the landing, I stared up at the wavering canopy and just lay there letting my eyes stop swimming in my head.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Karra’s voice was a sledgehammer slamming into my skull. Her face appeared right in front of mine, blocking out my view of the forest.

“Uh…” was all that came out, though I have to admit it came across fairly well.

“You’re taking a huge leap of faith by presuming he thought anything.” I recognized Veronica’s snark even though I couldn’t see her.

“You’re an idiot, you know?” Karra eased a hand under my head and helped me to a seated position. Once more I was grateful vampires couldn’t spew any sort of bodily fluids. I hurt everywhere, and I do mean
everywhere
, but other than that I seemed to be in pretty good shape for having just crash landed a dragon. I’d had worse slipping in the shower.

“Well, however stupid it was, it looks like your ploy worked in our favor,” Katon said, coming over to where I could see him. He gestured to the woods behind us.

My neck creaked as I glanced over my shoulder, but he was right. Dead greenies were scattered all over the place, more pieces than whole people, but there weren’t any of them up and about. I could only see my immediate vicinity, mind you, thanks to a certain corpse that looked more like a beached whale than a grounded dragon, and smelled about a million times worse. I got to my feet with Karra’s help and took a good long look at my conquest, noting a rash of blackened spots that had spread all across its flanks that hadn’t been there minutes before, let alone the stink.

“What in the hell is that stuff?” Venai asked, finally breaking her streak of three consecutive words spoken since we’d arrived.

“Step away from it,” Rahim warned as the growing stench got even worse.

“I’m not going to question what you two got up to while you were gone, but you should really keep your cooties to yourself, Frank.”

“
Heeeerrrrpppeeeessssssss, eeeeeewwwwwwwwww.
”

I ignored Rala’s and CB’s jibes as the darkness spread across the dragon’s skin, the sharp tang of smoke and what smelled like burning oil clinging to my nose. The moldy blackness split in places, and a flurry of dark mist steamed loose, glimmers of ashen light boiling in the widening crevices.

“It’s gonna blow,” I shouted, stepping in front of an unimpressed Karra.

And it did. Well, sort of.

It was more of what you’d call an implosion than anything else. One second the dragon corpse looked all puffed up and cracking at the seams as if it might burst, the next it simply collapsed in on itself with a whimper. It fell apart like a smoked cigarette, leaving behind a thick layer of gray-black dust where it had sat only moments before.

Fortunately the stink went with it.

“That’s…interesting.” Rahim stared at what was left of the guardian, wiggling the tip of his boot in the ashes, smearing them across the ground in sooty swaths.

“It would explain why it was so easily defeated,” Shaw added, giving me an amused grin when I turned to look at her.

“Easy?” It kind of was, but there was no way I was gonna admit that to her.

“Reincarnation,” Rahim muttered.

“Precisely.” Shaw nodded. “Why waste resources creating new ones when the original can be pressed back into service? The creature has likely returned to its domain to await its rebirth.”

My balls shriveled to raisins at that.

“So it doesn’t matter if we manage to kill the guardians, they’ll just reform and return?” Katon asked with all sorts of displeasure in his voice. “Fantastic. And here I thought our journey couldn’t get any better.”

“The only uncertainty is how long it takes for them to regain their composure. If it’s instantaneous, we can only hope our leaving doesn’t depend on getting past them.”

Ilfaar’s annoying grin seemed to slap everyone in the face at once, the group glancing over at him before he’d even begun to speak. “I’m afraid to say it does, though, if you are determined enough, we might well avoid the worst of such an encounter.”

My brain fluttered through what I’d seen while taking my leisurely dragon cruise. The top of the mountain, where the strange gate sat, was exactly where the guardians had come from. I hadn’t gotten close enough to pick out any paths or passageways leading to it, so I was still in the dark as to exactly how we’d manage to get up there unseen and uneaten. But did we really need to?

The flickering portals that flew past might well have been tiny and fleeting, but they were open. If there was some way to take advantage of that fact, we’d be in much better situation than we were now, stuck depending on some angel Daddy wanted dead for some reason or another. And while I didn’t give much credence to Ilfaar’s stated point of view in the conflict, Lucifer and God supposedly fighting the good fight, I knew better than to think my father was some innocent victim in Ilfaar’s plot. That left me kind of torn.

If Ilfaar helped us out of here, he was doing so because it helped him. How did that affect Old Lou’s plans on the other side of the portal? Was escaping this prison worth possibly screwing up some grand scheme that involved defending the universe? My chest wallowed in a chill as I thought about that, but all it took was a single glance in Karra’s direction to help me make up my mind. There was no way I could leave her and the baby here. If Ilfaar knew how to get out, I’d drag him to the ends of the realm to see it for myself. What happened then, however, still remained to be seen. All that was in the future, though. There were things that needed to be dealt with now.

“We need to get going,” I told everyone, motioning for Rahim to help Ilfaar to his feet. The old guy might be better off in Venai’s loving embrace, but I really didn’t want to give her an opportunity to run off with our way home now that things had settled somewhat.

Shaw snorted and waved the Nephilim on, the two starting off the same way we’d been traveling.

“Hold on a second there, hot pants.” I gestured off in another direction. “We don’t want to go that way.”

“And why not? The aliens have been scattered, and surely they won’t attempt another ambush when it’s clear how little you care about your own life let alone theirs.” She grinned. “I believe it’s the safest way to go.”

“And you’d lose any sort of wager we put on it, too,” I answered. “While I was playing satellite, I spied an army of the little green folks headed that exact direction.” I pointed off the way she’d started. “Might take them a day or more to get here, but trust me, this little group of greenies is nothing compared to the force that’s marching our way. You keep going, and you’re going to find yourselves running right into them and saving them the effort of having to track you down.” I waved them on. “Feel free to make your own decision, though. Wouldn’t want to step on your civil liberties, or anything. Not like I have a sniper handy.”

“No, of course you wouldn’t.”

I turned from Shaw to look at Rala. “You doing all right?”

She nodded. “Much better, thanks.”

“Cool, then let’s get this traveling circus on the road.”

“Which way then?” Katon asked.

I took a second to reorient myself with what I’d seen above the canopy, and motioned off with my chin.

The enforcer glanced around at everyone real quick, likely gauging their willingness to let me lead them, and finally shook his head, starting off that way. “Risking the ire of Fate, I can’t imagine this direction being any worse than the last.”

I sure hoped that statement didn’t come back to haunt us, but he was spot on. We were in an alien world where we didn’t belong and pretty much everything here understood that. We were victims waiting to be victimized. With that hanging over our heads, we were gambling no matter what path we chose. So thinking, I headed off only pausing long enough to snatch up a couple replacement weapons and to make sure everyone was following along. We had a long way to go.

Hours later, we
still
had a long way to go. Maybe I had just become a lazy American, but it’d been forever since I’d had to walk somewhere further than the nearest liquor store or coffee shop.

Katon darted around in front of us the entire time, slipping between the tree trunks and running off out of sight for a minute or two only for us to catch up to him standing quietly in some random place, eyeballing something or other that none of the rest of us were privy to. He held up a hand to bring us to a halt during one of these particular pauses.

“We’re coming on night again. I can feel it closing in.” He pointed at the sky. “I’d rather not risk being outside when it comes.”

I’d damn near forgotten what the darkness held, but at Katon’s declaration my brain filled to overflowing with memories of the platybeast and monkey-critters, not to mention the wonderful lot of devourers. While the latter proved to be less threatening than when I wasn’t chained to a table, the thought still sent a spider web chill up my spine. I’d never forget those damn three mouths coming at me.

“Uh, I’m thinking that might be a problem.”

Katon shook his head my direction. “No, not really.” He ran a hand along the tree beside him, fingers stopping alongside a trio of pale slashes. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Glad someone was paying attention,” Shaw offered.

I didn’t even bother to acknowledge her. “Then let’s get out of sight before squidfall.”

Katon circled the base of the tree, seeking out the trigger to open the hideout, but it was Rala who drew my attention. Her stomach rumbled like thunder. She hurried to cover it up, the book and Chatterbox whipped along in her rush.

“
Grrrrruuummmmbbblllle, ggrrruuuummmmbllllleee…
”

“Shush!” she told the head.

“Think we might find some food soon?” Karra asked, reminding me just how different my priorities had become since inheriting Hobbs’ body. Out of stomach, out of mind?

“We might have to get creative,” I answered, glancing around. “Hey, Venai, got any milk in them jugs?”

The Nephilim tensed and started forward, fists clenched.

“Don’t let him provoke you,” Shaw told her, keeping her flunky from trying to smash my teeth in. “Your opportunity will come.”

I just smiled. It probably wasn’t smart to rattle their cages, but I wanted the pair of them focused on me and no one else. A plan was ovulating inside my skull but it wasn’t quite ready to hatch just yet. I needed some more time to piece it all together, and I couldn’t be distracted by having to worry about what the twins had up their sleeves. As long as they were thinking about killing me, and only me, all was right with the world. That was a pressure I was used to. Hunting and gathering, however, ended with my ability to stuff a wad of cash in the hands of the clerk at the nearest grocery store or fast food joint.
I’ll take a number one, no onions, please.

The muffled click of the hidey hole’s rear entrance brought my salivating attention back to the
real
world. Night would be on us before too long, and the opportunity for a snack—however we ended up defining it—was creeping up on us.

“It’s clear,” Katon said, waving Rala and Rahim down into the shelter first.

Ilfaar patiently waited for his turn while I sent Venai down first to help buffer the angel when I lowered him inside. Once those two were in, Veronica ducked inside, followed by Shaw. As the wight’s feet hit the ground, Karra inched up close to me.

“The baby can’t go much longer without sustenance,” she told me, getting straight to the point as she was wont to do.

My stomach tightened into a hard knot at hearing it laid out so plainly. “I don’t know what there is, but the greenies had a bunch of giant rats strung out to dry so the critters around her must be edible, if you don’t mind vermin.”

She sighed. “At this point, Frankie, food is food. We can’t deprive the baby much longer without consequence.”

“I know.” The screw of responsibility twisted a little deeper. “Once night falls, I’ll find something. I promise.”

She nodded, leaving it at that, and slipped out of sight inside the tree hideout. I stared off through the canopy, hoping to catch a glimpse of the approaching gloom. As much as I didn’t want to run out in it again, choice had been taken from me.

The kid wasn’t even born yet, and I was already learning about the sacrifices parents were forced to make for their children. On the other hand, having a child meant there would always be ice cream around.

Always gotta look on the bright side.

Sixteen

(Scarlett)

“I sense them,” Michael Li shouted, his voice ragged with excitement.

The feeling was contagious. “Yes?”

Rachelle nearly bowled the mentalist over in her insistence to crowd beside him as the gate wavered and snapped shut, just as the previous four apertures had. Only this time, a smile gleamed across Michael’s lips.