Read Demon Squad 7: Exit Wounds Online
Authors: Tim Marquitz
Demon Squad 7: Exit Wounds (26 page)
All his bluster, all his strength, his defiance, were snuffed out like a candle once we slipped into the prison realm. He screamed, carried downward like a rag doll tossed from the roof, me clinging to his back the entire way. We crashed into the gate a moment later, and I spider webbed Azrael, wrapping my legs around his waist in a body lock and slipping my forearm under his throat before cinching it in. I didn’t want him going anywhere. He struggled, but here in Tenebrae, without his stolen power, I was stronger than he was.
“Now,” I screamed at Katon, but he’d already started tossing folks across the intervening space for them to vanish through the portal.
Karra stared down at me as the devourers closed with their hungry chants of
revenge
, worry creasing her beautiful face, but I just shook my head at what I knew was going on inside it. I hadn’t done all of this for her and the baby to remain trapped here. “Go!”
Katon didn’t give her a choice. He grabbed her and threw her through the portal before she even realized he’d done it. And before she could hit the ground and run back, Katon pulled the cipher from the pedestal.
I watched the portal closing above until the devourers stole the sight from my eyes.
The best part of being me is that everyone underestimates the depths of stupidity I’m willing to plumb in order to win out. Azrael certainly did.
Fortunately, I have the help of people way more competent than me, not to mention a mentalist who takes my idiocy at face value and doesn’t question. Michael passed along my messages exactly as I’d intended, and Katon had gone above and beyond in doing what I’d asked of him even though he didn’t have to.
He’s the reason I’m still alive, and I’m sure I’ll never hear the end of it.
As soon as the devourers finished their meal of me and Azrael, the enforcer fished the one who’d eaten the most and whipped us through the portal home. There, he peeled us gnawed twins out of the critter’s belly, interrupting the process and allowing our bodies to re-coalesce.
That was the part that concerned me the most when I’d committed to my last minute plan. While Katon had taken the cipher with us, Rachelle, with Michael and Scarlett’s help, had held the portal open just wide enough to keep the connection between the devourers intact. Good thing it worked.
And since I’d choked Azrael out before we got munched, he was a little slower getting off the mark. Once our souls split, I had a head start and reclaimed ol’ glorious me. He, on the other hand, ended up with the only body in range—seeing how Katon had taken Hobbs’ out of the equation—that didn’t already have a soul residing in it: A dead werehound.
He sat up with anger lighting his face. “You think I’m finished with you, Triggaltheron?” He shook his head, foamy spittle flying. “I’ll tear your heart out, rip your—”
A sword burst from his mouth, and his eyes went wide, thick, dark blood gushing through his yellowed teeth. He shuddered and went silent. Raguel stood behind him and kicked Azrael free of his blade.
“Your day is done, brother,” he said, sheathing his blade with the once archangel’s life still staining the steel.
Uriel turned his gaze to me, holding out Lucifer’s tome so I was sure to see it. “Should you continue along this path, there will come a time when Heaven calls you to judgment, Triggaltheron. Be warned.”
I simply nodded, for once choosing not to antagonize the guy. We’d have it out eventually, but for all intents and purposes, I was fresh and he was weary, worn to the quick by his battle with Azrael. Had he known just how much power had been lost to the devourers in the transition between bodies, however, he might well have tried anyway, but I certainly wasn’t gonna tell him anything about that.
He and Raguel leapt into the sky. Scarlett went with them without saying a word, a look in her eyes I couldn’t translate. They left golden trails behind but nothing else but questions. She and I would eventually have a talk, too, though I wasn’t looking forward to that one any more than Uriel’s
chat
.
Forcalor watched his brethren leave and set a hand on my shoulder. “You’ve been given a second chance, Frank. Make the most of it.” And then he, too, was gone.
That left me with DRAC, Karra, and Rala, CB clutched to her chest. Shaw and Venai had fled as soon as they’d hit Earth, as I’d been told. There was no doubting I’d see those two again, much sooner than I could ever want. It also appeared that Judas had vanished in the chaos without the angels so much as recognizing him. That was gonna make things interesting later on. At least he’d left Karra’s sword behind, still stained with blood.
Shortly after the angels left, DRAC went their way and the rest of us went ours. No one was up for discussing what had happened right then any more than we already had. And that was fine with me. Back to my old self, there was only one thing on my mind.
“Let’s go home, folks,” I said, scooping Karra into my arms. “I’ve got a lot of making up to do.”
“
Caaannnnn IIIIIIIII wwaaaattttcchhhh?
”
“Eeeeeewwww,” Rala muttered. “Got any earplugs?”
(Scarlett)
The wait was excruciating. We’d returned to Heaven in silence, but the storm of my mind was anything
but
silent. We’d disobeyed Metatron, though with Uriel as his eyes upon Earth, he had yet to learn of our actions. There would be a reckoning once he did.
But that wasn’t where my head was; nor my heart.
The moment I could shirk my responsibility to the archangels—each counseling I keep our secrets—I returned to Earth. Katon met me outside of DRAC mere seconds after I arrived. My breath froze in my lungs when I saw him. His dark eyes glimmered in the evening light, and I hesitated until I saw the smile break across his lips.
We ran to each other, colliding in an embrace that was more awkward than romantic, but I didn’t care. I only wanted to be held by him, to hold him, to know we were there, together. That was all that mattered then. Frank and Azrael and Metatron and all the cares of the world could wait. I had what I’d thought lost, and I was in no hurry to let it go.
It’d been six months since we’d escaped Tenebrae, and to my surprise, they’d been damn peaceful. Karra and I settled down in Hell where we could be certain no one we didn’t want would come knocking on our door to sell us religion or magazine subscriptions. Of course we took Rala and Chatterbox with us.
As it turned out, Azrael hadn’t even noticed the old man Vol stashed in the guest quarters. Blind, with a dread fiend to cater to him, he hadn’t once bothered to wander out of his room. Rala ran to him and gave the old man a monstrous hug. He had no clue about anything, so we left it that way. All that mattered was he and Rala were back together and I hadn’t gotten either of them killed. That’s a win most days.
I’d taken to cleaning up Hell and trying to make it a bit more presentable since our return. It wasn’t a bachelor’s abode anymore and needed a good dusting from the ground up. Fortunately Azrael had left me a ton of dread fiends I could take advantage of. They got to work immediately, and the place was starting to look spiffy.
I sat in a room with Chatterbox, blasting Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” and grooving to the heavy metal vibe, when I heard Karra calling to me. I lowered the volume with reluctance and glanced over the shoulder of my faithful recliner I’d brought from Earth, to see her clutching to her swollen belly, grim certainty on her face.
“It’s time,” she whispered, her short dress soaked at the crotch and her legs dripping.
“
Sssssppppppllloooossshhhhhh!
”
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, Neverland's Library, and the forthcoming No Place Like Home and Blackguards.
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: Age of Monsters.
Follow Tim on
Facebook
and
Twitter
.