Demon Squad 7: Exit Wounds Read Free Page A

me, stealing away the misery that set flame to my flesh. I sunk deeper into the woman’s arms, her name coming to mind at last: Rachelle .
    “You can’t sleep yet,” she shouted, startling me into a vague awareness. “I need you to call to your people.”
    The sun hung overhead, but its majesty paled against the shadows that lapped at the edges of my sight, devouring me from within. Wisps of clouds wafted in the sky above, gray banners hung in mourning. They had come to see me home. It was time.
    “No!” Rachelle’s voice cut a swath through my wavering unconsciousness, anchoring me for just a moment to my dying shell. “No!” she screamed again. “Don’t…”
    Don’t…don’t…don’t…
    Her voice faded into static, pushed aside as another slid serpentine into my ears.
    “No. It is not yet your time, child.”
     

Three
     
    After a short, eerily quiet journey through the gargantuan forest of pink trunks, Katon had come across a ravine covered by a recently fallen tree. Still clinging to life, the branches held a good measure of their thickness, obscuring the deep crevice and leaving only one way clear without the clustered leaves and twigs barring entrance.
    The air beneath the makeshift roof was cool, closing in on chilly, the hidey hole even further from the sun than the cool forest above. The soil was soft and damp near the top but hardened as we trekked to the bottom, dirt trailing to a rocky surface. All it needed was a couple of cardboard boxes, an out of key warbler warming his hands over a trash can fire and it’d be just like home.
    “You sure about this?” I asked, motioning toward the sloping entrance. “Seems were just one flood away from being the deep end of the swimming pool.”
    “It’s possible, but I don’t think it was a flood that did this. It was more likely a tremor of some kind that caused the rent; probably the same one that felled our roof.” Katon pointed at the tree looming above us, leaves rustling gently in the light breeze.
    And I felt much better for knowing that. Not. My displeasure must have been reflected across the burnt toast that doubled as my face.
    “You have a better idea, Frank?”
    I raised my hands at the venom in his tone, hoping to head it off. “Nope, sure don’t.”
    Katon turned to help the others get settled without another word, but there was no mistaking the anger that boiled beneath the surface of his placid demeanor. We might well be stuck in a familiar position, both of us dependent on the other to survive, but Katon hadn’t let his fury go. He was still holding on to it, biding his time until he could let it loose. He was too much a professional to willfully let it get in the way of what we had to do, but there were a whole lot more people counting on us to do things the right way, and I couldn’t risk what might happen if his trust issues cropped up at the wrong time. As much as I didn’t want to get into right then, I needed to nip our squabble in the bud before it bit us all in the ass.
    I set my hand on his arm and felt him tense beneath my fingers. “I know you’re pissed at me, and I get it. I truly do.”
    He spun about with a smirk on his lips, eyeteeth glimmering in the gloom. “Do you now, Frank?”
    Karra inched forward, her hand on her hilt, but I waved her off as Rahim came to stand beside her. It wasn’t immediately clear whose cavalry he was planning to be, but I could guess. Veronica and Rala held back a bit, Chatterbox peering out over the alien’s furry forearm. None of them looked interested in getting into it. I couldn’t blame them, but it had to be done before the shit festered.
    “Yes, I do, actually.” I met his dark gaze, unwilling to back down. “It wouldn’t take much for me to dump everything that happened on Azrael, but that would be a lie.”
    Karra sighed and moved closer to me. Her warm hand slid into mine, our fingers clasping.
    “I fucked up,” I told the enforcer; told all of them who cared