Demon Squad 7: Exit Wounds Read online

  I was about to argue that the two DSI operatives were about as far from human as possible—one being a Nephilim and the other a wight, a supernatural killing machine—but I let it go. No point arguing semantics.

  Everyone glanced about as if expecting an ambush any second, and I had to admit, I did the same thing. Trapped in an alien prison dimension with only two weapons between all of us, we weren’t exactly prepared for a fight, the first of the day having left the majority of us nursing wounds and completely bereft of magic. We were the dictionary definition of unprepared, our smiling faces pictured in the margin. That thought must have invaded everyone’s head at the same time as we all went quiet like we were playing an impromptu game of Stoplight.

  Chatterbox broke the uneasy still a few moments later by humming the opening riff to Iron Maiden’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” in a subdued voice.

  I couldn’t agree more.

  “Let’s find someplace to hunker down where we’re not so exposed,” Rahim said, motioning for Katon to do just as the enforcer had suggested a few minutes back. “We can figure out where to go from there.” His maudlin monotone made Ben Stein seem emotive.

  The decision made, Katon started off, the rest of us at his heels without comment. What was left to say?

  Two

  (Scarlett)

  Reality blurred as I was pulled between dimensions by strange hands, too weak to resist. Stars of white filled my vision, but these weren’t Father’s lights on high. There was no comfort to their brightness, no mercy in their brilliance.

  A quiet, feminine voice drifted to my ears as the worlds collided one after another, the message a mystery hidden behind the veil of misery that clouded my every thought. Right there, right then, there was only pain.

  I screamed but couldn’t hear my voice. A warm wetness bubbled up instead. It spilled from my throat and oozed over my lips, threatening to drown me. I couldn’t breathe. My side burned as though it lay submersed within a bed of raging coals, and I vaguely remembered a shape hovering over me, reaching, tearing… Agony!

  Frank?

  My head spun with the name, memories flitting past in a mercurial haze. Could he have truly…?

  “Be still.” The command pierced the chaos like sharp steel, drawing me from my distorted reveries. “You’re going to hurt yourself worse,” I heard the unseen woman say and realized my fingers were clasped about hers, my teeth bared as my subconscious fought against her restraining grip. Blood gurgled somewhere in the distance. My ears roared. The woman drew a haggard breath above me, worry and impatience seeping into her voice with equal fervor. “Please, stop. I’m taking you to get help, Scarlett; taking you to Heaven.”

  My head lolled at hearing her speak of Heaven, a sudden gush of grateful tears washing the stars from my eyes. I was going home…

  To die.

  “So…tired.” Coldness settled over me like a shroud as we spilled through the shimmering orifice cut between realms, the gritty sand against my flesh nearly too hot to bear. I feared I might melt and drain into its depths.

  “Stay with me, Scarlett,” the woman whispered, the hazy warp of her face appearing above mine, slowly resolving into coherence.

  Dark, wild hair formed a halo about the concerned expression that looked seared upon her features. Her words of comfort tumbled over me. They were mindless yet soothing, a parent murmuring nonsense to a child to salve its hurt. Of their own accord, my lips peeled back into a smile, memories of God pulling me into His embrace, accepting me as one of His own. The taint of my past fell away in that embrace, I remembered. There was no other moment in my life, save this one. For all His distance, I was a part of Him. Once I was done, I would return to the whole.

  The moment that thought filled my head, the weight lifted from my chest. My fingers and toes tingled, the feeling creeping up my limbs, inch by inch numbing 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 to listen. “There’s no way around that, and my excuses are all smoke and shit. I don’t have any that matter.” I longed to draw in a deep breath, to feel the cold stir my lungs and gird my courage, but Hobbs’ body wasn’t designed for such simple comforts. My gri
p tightened on Karra’s hand, and I straightened. More literally than I could ever have imagined, the old Frank was gone. It was time to find out who had taken his place. My gaze shifted from Katon to Karra.

  “I’m not simply related to Lucifer, some wayward nephew he took a fancy to,” I told her, stiffening with the expectation of violence. “I’m his son.”

  Her eyes narrowed but there was a sparkle in her hazel orbs I couldn’t define. I stood there frozen, unsure, when her hand gave mine a gentle shake, a flicker of crow’s feet landing at the corner of her eyes. A quiet chuckle slipped from her smiling lips.

  “Did you think I didn’t know that?” Her answer was a bullet slamming into my chest. The place where Hobbs’ shriveled heart lurked seemed to warm a degree, and her smiled widened even further at my obvious surprise. “Oh…you truly did.” She motioned toward the others gathered about. “I think everyone knew, Frankie. Everyone but Scarlett, of course. Why else would Lucifer treat you like he did?”

  Katon, still smoldering, gave a curt nod of agreement. Rahim was more cordial, but he, too, confirmed my greatest fear, that the secret I’d been struggling with was a secret to no one but me and my naïve little cousin, but even she knew now. That was yet another trial waiting for me if we managed to get out of here. I slumped a little thinking about it, and Karra wrapped an arm around my waist, keeping me steady. I glanced to the others behind the enforcer and wizard.

  Veronica definitely knew as she’d been the one to give Karra up to Gorath via Baalth—the same act that led to me killing the demon lieutenant once I found out he helped kidnap Karra. She looked away sheepishly, not willing to meet my eyes, but that was to be expected. She knew exactly what she was; always had.

  A succubus, daughter of Lilith, her world revolved around power and betrayal, the two so closely related in her mind as to be inseparable. Information was a weapon to her, coin of the realm. It was hard to stay pissed at her because of it. The shit was ingrained. She’d sell herself out for the right price.

  As for Chatterbox, he knew only what Karra allowed him to, so his blank stare was pretty much par for the course. Rala’s matching blank stare, however, was simply because she didn’t give a damn who had squirted me out. None of that mattered to her. The Devil was just one more dictator screwing up the world she lived in, big emphasis on dick.

  “I’m sorry,” I told them all, wishing I were capable of expressing the feelings leashed inside my mind.

  “That doesn’t change anything, Frank.” Katon wasn’t gonna let it go, and as much as it rankled to hear the disgust in his voice, I understood where he was coming from.

  “You’re absolutely right,” I answered. “I betrayed you, betrayed DRAC, exactly like you always thought I would.” Resolve stiffened my spine, and I peeled myself from Karra’s protective embrace, taking a casual step toward the enforcer. “Maybe all of you knew I was the spawn of Satan and knew what to expect, but I sure didn’t. I killed the man I believed to be my father years ago; killed him with my bare hands, ripping the life from him only to learn he wasn’t the man who murdered my mother. My own father did.” My knuckles popped as I clenched my fists. Karra set a restraining hand on my shoulder, but I’d come too far to stop now.

  “I’d only just found out that the man I’d grown up admiring, the man who’d taken me in and gave me a home, treated me like family without reservation, was every bit the liar the world was led to believe.” The confession was acid on my tongue. “He stole my mother and used me to exact revenge against his brother simply so I would feel obligated to him, indebted. And I fucking bought into it. That was where I came from, Katon.”

  The enforcer shook his head, but I cut him off before he could say anything.

  “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not making excuses. This isn’t a pity poor little Frank speech. I don’t give a fuck about your pity or anyone else’s, for that matter,” I said. “When I felt I lost Karra, nothing else meant anything, no matter how much it should have. I felt betrayed by DRAC, by you and Rahim, specifically.”

  “You could have—”

  “Could have what, Katon? Could have told you how important it was that I find her, how desperately I needed to know where she’d been taken?” I asked while closing the short distance between us until our noses almost touched. “I did, if you remember, but you were so caught up in your distrust of me that none of that mattered. It was just Longinus’ daughter and pathetic ol’ me involved, so how important could it have been, right?”

  The enforcer bared his teeth, but his fury didn’t quite reach his eyes. There was something cooler, more calculating hidden beneath his glare, but I ignored it and went on. He was gonna have to deal with it.

  “Had it been Scarlett who was taken, you would have torn Heaven and Hell asunder looking for her, looking for a way to bring her home no matter who got in the way.”

  Katon’s curled lip eased shut at hearing my cousin’s name. I’d struck a nerve.

  “But because it was the daughter of the bad guy carted off to another world you felt compelled to stand on your principles, whatever the fuck those are these days. What good could possibly come of my bringing Karra home, right? That had to be what you were thinking. You knew damn well Longinus would go after her whether you provided me with information or not. Nothing was gonna stop him, and that was a bonus in the whole thing, right? Two birds down without having to even toss a stone.”

  I saw the barest twitch of Katon’s lip as he processed my words, but it was Rahim who broke the standoff.

  “You’re right, Frank,” he said, finally a hint of color in his voice. “We let you down.”

  I spun on him. “You’re damn right you did. I—”

  He waved me to silence, and despite my rage and disappointment, the authority I’d always granted him took hold. My tongue stilled.

  “There were no grand plans or schemes involved, no malice or ill will intended. We simply overstepped our bounds in our need for control and even more unfortunately, underestimated how important Karra was to you.”

  “How the hell could you have possibly done that when I…?”

  “Because you’re a fucking drama queen, Frank,” Katon shouted. “We saw what your marriage to Veronica did to you,” he cast a sideways glance at the ex, who conveniently looked the other way, “and we lived through the fallout. ‘Twas a bitter season of whine we were made to live through. You’ve never been sane or reasonable when it comes to women, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

  “We felt you might go off and do something stupid, for which the consequences would be too great for you—and for the rest of the world—to deal with.” Rahim spread his arms, gesturing to our current location, the sight of his waggling stump souring my stomach. As much as if I’d cut it off myself, I was to blame.

  Worse still, he had me there. I’d done exactly that, but in my defense, they’d pushed me into it. Had they been upfront with me and told me what they thought…

  Yeah, who am I kidding? It wouldn’t have changed shit. Even if Azrael hadn’t been mashing buttons in my brainpan, I would have done the same thing. They knew me better than I did.

  “We only wanted to give you a little time to cool off, Frank, to think things through while we pressed Mihheer for information,” the enforcer said, his expression less feral than it had been a few moments before, but to say he was friendly would be a stretch.

  “And that was wrong of us,” Rahim finished. “And for that, I apologize: to both of you.” He glanced toward Karra and gave a curt bow. He let out a slow, uneasy sigh. “We had no idea how much you meant to Frank, or your circumstances,” he pointed to her belly, “and believed we were doing right by him, however cruelly it might have appeared. I hope you understand.”

  Karra gave a conciliatory nod. “I’ve spent my life as the outcast, the daughter of Longinus, the Anti-Christ, who was unwelcome even in Hell. I get it, for what my opinion’s worth.” Though quicker to forgive than I would be, her tone still quavered with the loss of her
father, the wound still fresh. Nothing Rahim or Katon did precipitated that unfortunate situation, but it was hard for me to separate the two events. Had we gone after Karra as a team, I might not have had to kill Longinus.

  Rahim gave a sympathetic nod. “I’m grateful we—”

  Katon hissed, a guillotine shush that severed Rahim’s word mid-statement. The enforcer’s blade was in his hand.

  “What the hell is your problem, man?” Hostility still thick in the air, I snarled at Katon for his rudeness, but his eyes were elsewhere.

  His problem turned out to be the army of midget monkey motherfuckers who spilled into our little hideaway like ants over a pair of sugared tits. Steel rang out as Karra drew her sword, but the enforcer met the advance head on before anyone else could react. Rala shrieked a duet with Chatterbox and barreled deeper into the crevice while the rest of us turned to face the weird creatures.

  Two and half, maybe three feet tall at most, the things were like furry linebackers on the Arnold Schwarzenegger diet of old. Muscles were piled on top of muscles layered with bristly orange-brown hair. Bright gold eyes, narrowed into slits, glared as they stormed Katon. Stuttered grunts, growls, and chittered squeaks stung my ears, and a wall of yellowed fangs gnashed in anticipation.

  The first of the bunch was met with Katon’s fist. There was the sharp crack of its snout being folded into its face, which was immediately drowned out by its agonized yowl. Katon silenced it with a vicious slash, knocking it into its companions as the rest of us formed a ragged, defensive line alongside the enforcer.

  “Keep them off the girl,” Katon called out to Rahim, clearly not worried about hurting the wizard’s feelings in his effort to protect the one person capable of reading the portal book that landed us in Oz.

  I had no doubt Rahim was still dangerous, but without his magic or lycanthropy and unarmed—however unfortunate that particular phrasing—he would be more effective as backup, not that I was in much better shape. Katon had taken into account his friend’s circumstances but not mine. I guess that was to be expected, but maybe he knew something I didn’t. Once more, Rahim didn’t seem to mind as he dropped back beside the alien.