Demon Squad 6 The Best of Enemies (23 page)
Read Demon Squad 6 The Best of Enemies Online
Authors: Tim Marquitz
I spun in a circle to find the little alien, and sighed when I saw her. She stood near the portal, staring into it. Her ever-present companions—the book and dead guy—were with her.
“Hey,” I called out to her.
She turned at the sound of my voice and grinned. Terror swept the smile away as soon as it bloomed.
I spun just in time to catch two clenched fists atop my head. Once more the world went white and I hit the ground, shards of broken rock and glass cutting across my palm as my fingers unconsciously seized on anything it could find that might feel like a weapon. The basso curses of Rahim started but were cut short. There was a sullen
thum
p as I rolled to see what was happening. The wizard was already in the air, spinning like a misshapen Frisbee as he flew into the portal. A flash of light met him, and he was gone. Azrael turned back to me, the wound at his neck almost fully healed. It closed as I stared at it in sickened awe. The angel held out his hand, something reflective in his palm drawing my eyes.
It was a vial of Lucifer’s blood.
My heart sank at seeing it. Azrael had won.
“You did not think you could keep such secrets from me, did you, Triggaltheron?”
He walked over as I got to my feet for what I imagined would be the last time, a rock in each hand. ‘Better to die on your feet than live on your knees,’ some masochist once said. Right then I wanted to shoot the bastard for defining courage in a way that obligated me to suffer a horrible death so I could feel like a man. Fuck that guy.
“Get it over with,” I told the angel as he came to stop in front of me. My voice didn’t sound courageous; it simply sounded tired.
“You are clearly not paying attention, child,” he answered, my face grinning at me. It was seriously annoying. No wonder people tried to kill me all the time. “My revenge means nothing if you’re dead.” He shook his head. “No, I want you to suffer, Triggaltheron. You can only do that if you are alive.”
I hocked up a ball of bloody phlegm and spit it in his face. “Suffer that.”
He didn’t even blink. “The last resort of a beaten man is the acceptance of his fate.” Azrael smirked and let the spit roll wetly down his cheek. “Your penance has only begun. We have all of eternity to ensure you understand how offended I have been by your bloodline. That eternity begins now.”
The angel glanced over at Rala. “Close the portal.”
She looked at me for a lingering second, and then dropped her eyes, the book flipping open with a fluttering sigh. That’s when I realized what Azrael intended. He meant to lock everyone I cared about inside the other dimension while he held me here, with no way of ever seeing them again. My cheeks warmed, my gaze snapping to Azrael’s. He wore a broad smile, clearly reading my thoughts in the fury that reddened my face.
“No…”
“It is already done.” He waved a hand in the alien’s direction, the portal drawing in on itself, growing smaller with every passing second. “It’s over.”
Rala read on, her sing-song voice spurring the portal into motion. Already it was half the size it had been moments before. Azrael laughed and watched as it shrank away. Soon there would be nothing left of it, and I would be trapped on this side while Karra and out baby were trapped on the other, the realm full of weird and dangerous monsters. My legs trembled at the thought, nearly giving way beneath me. I would never see them again. A low, mournful howl welled up in my throat.
“Don’t be so dramatic, Triggaltheron,” Azrael told me as he turned to face me.
I drove a piece of sharpened rock into his eye.
Azrael cried out and claw at the stone. I knew it was more from instinct than actual pain, but I didn’t give a shit right then. The angel shouting and cursing my name, I bolted across the street toward the portal. Rala looked at me with fear-widened eyes and stumbled back. The stink of Brimstone filled the air as Azrael came after me.
He was too late.
I scooped up Rala as she clung to Chatterbox and the tome, and jumped…
…straight into the portal.
Azrael’s voice rang out like thunder as the emerald doorway sealed shut behind us.
On the other side of the gateway, we fell and fell and fell some more. Apparently the two dimensions weren’t connected on a level plane. Gravity, however, worked the same; it still didn’t like me very much.
I spun in the air, turning so Rala was above me. The unfortunate memory of the scene in the first Conan movie came to mind right then. Sure, flesh could break stone, but that asshole Thusla Doom kind of glossed over the fact that the stone also broke the woman. I hoped Hobbs’ rental-body was made of sterner stuff.
I tossed Rala sideways before my back slammed into the ground, hoping to blunt the momentum for her, but there was nothing I could do for me. The hard, rocky earth spread its embrace across the whole of my body as though I’d jumped in front of a speeding bullet train. Agony turned the lights off.
It was too bad the pain was still there when they came back on. A weak moan spilled from my mouth unwanted, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. At least I wasn’t dead, I didn’t think. That was something. My eyes stared upward while I lie there unable to move. It was pleasant to see slow-moving cumulus clouds drifting easily across the pale auburn sky, their whiteness standing out in distinct contrast. It was a beautiful view, and I wondered if maybe I’d been wrong about my earlier thought. There was no way I’d escaped Azrael only to end up alive in some inter-dimensional paradise. Just when I starting to believe that maybe I had died, a shadow fell over me and the sharp point of a sword was pressed against my forehead.
“I knew it was too good to be true,” I muttered, my eyes trailing up the length of the sword to the dark hand that held it. A smile peeled my charred lips. It was just like home.
“Who are you?” Katon growled when he asked.
A flash of silver and the
clank
of steel colliding right above my face caused me to blink. When I opened my eyes, the sword was gone and Karra hovered over me protectively.
“Back away from him.” There was no mistaking the threat in her voice.
Katon stood his ground a moment, which looked very awkward given the way I was sprawled out, before finally stepping back.
Karra dropped down alongside me and helped me into a seated position. Rala came over and dropped down beside me, Chatterbox in her lap.
“
Bbooooobbss?
”
“Yup,” I answered him as best I could, my voice pretty much shot. “Everything is just boobs, my friend.”
CB grinned, his maggots doing happy somersaults in his eyes.
“Frank?” Katon asked, making the connection, he dark eyes narrowing.
I nodded in confirmation, though I wasn’t sure admitting it was any better than denying it. While my memory was still playing hopscotch, I seemed to recall we hadn’t exactly parted on good terms the last time we’d crossed paths.
The sudden sneer told me I was right. “You little piece of—”
“It wasn’t him,” Veronica said as she came to stand beside me. “Not most of it, at least.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“It was Azrael,” Rahim added from where he sat on a rocky outcrop that rose up over the barren shelf we were on. The wizard glanced at his stump and sighed. “I felt his essence as we fought. It was him in Frank’s body.” His gaze fell on me. “As for how…”
“It’s kind of a long story.”
“We’ve got nothing but time, thanks to you,” Katon answered, gesturing to the strange world around us. The emerald green sheen I’d seen through the portal was gone, leaving behind a dim bleakness. Gray stone and dusty brown earth were the dominant terrain where we lingered. Spurts of brown grass erupted between the stones and grew in patches across the dirt, but there wasn’t much in the way of foliage. I glanced around the plateau we’d landed on, noticing that everyone who’d gone through the portal was gathered around except for Venai and Rebecca Shaw. No telling where they’d gone. I didn’t bother to ask.
“That’s not entirely true.” Veronica shook her head, countering Katon’s presumption. Worry carved lines of her face. “We’re not safe here.”
“Where is
here
?” Karra asked, which was probably the question on everyone’s mind right then.
Veronica sighed. “This is God’s…trash bin, as Azrael tells it.”
All eyes snapped to the ex-wife.
“
Whhhaaaaaattttccchhuuuuutttalllkkkinggbbbbboooouuutttwwwillliiiisssss.
”
“This is where God exiled all His failures, the creatures and beings that weren’t able to live up to His purpose for them. The things that should never have been. The rejects He couldn’t bring Himself to delete, to destroy, for they are all a part of Him.”
“Like the ones that came into our world through the portal?” I asked.
“No, those are different. They are the guardians between the planes. Their job is to keep people out, not to keep anyone in.”
“But there
are
things designed to keep people in, right?” Katon asked, pretty much picking up on the assumption in Veronica’s statement.
She nodded.
“So, this is a prison for God’s fuck ups?” I asked.
She nodded again. “Essentially, yeah.”
“Good thing we’ve got the key.” I glanced over at Rala, glad I’d snatched her up before diving into the portal.
Rala sighed and snuggled up to Chatterbox, all my gladness withering to raisins at her reticence to agree with me.
“It doesn’t work that way, Frank,” Veronica continued. Karra plopped down beside me as the ex-wife went on. “The spells in the tome only work from the outside without the cypher.”
“And the cypher is where?”
“Somewhere not here.” She shrugged, the simple gesture casting a shroud of despair over all present. I slumped against Karra, and she let me without argument. The delicate wisp of her perfume eased into my nose as I drew in a deep breath. I slid my hand to her belly, and she sighed, letting my fingertips linger. That was all I had wanted. What a hell of a way to get it.
“So we’re in a prison filled with God’s castaway creatures that are all very likely to be pissed about being thrown away by the Almighty, all with no way out,” Katon said as more of a statement than a question.
“Pretty much,” Veronica answered him, her throat bobbing as she swallowed hard against the reality of our situation.
“So, what do we do now?
Rahim pointed off toward the horizon, a dozen black dots moving against the sky. They grew bigger with each passing moment, wings forming against the pale backdrop, clearly coming our way. “I suggest we hide.”
Tim Marquitz is the author of the Demon Squad series, the Blood War Trilogy, co-author of the Dead West series, as well as several standalone books, and numerous anthology appearances including Triumph Over Tragedy, Corrupts Absolutely?, Demonic Dolls, and the upcoming Neverland's Library, and No Place Like Home.
The Editor in Chief of Ragnarok Publications, Tim most recently compiled and edited the Angelic Knight Press anthologies, Fading Light: An Anthology of the Monstrous and Manifesto: UF, as well as Ragnarok Publications’ Kaiju Rising.
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