Demon Squad 7: Exit Wounds Read Online Free Page A

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.
    Beside me, Karra cleaved aside a trio of monkey paws as they reached for her, stubby little fingers filling the air. I took advantage of her swipe and blasted one of the critters in the face when it stared wide-eyed at its wounded hand. It crumpled unconscious with blood and gore splattered across its cheek from the ruin of my own hand. I heard my knuckles creak at the impact, followed by a short, quick pain that ran down my wrist, but I’d done a hell of a lot more damage to the monkey thing than I had myself. Hobbs hadn’t been a total wuss, which was a plus, but he hadn’t been a beast either. I felt slow and sluggish, every move hampered by the charred and brittle shell I was wearing, but I had to make do. Everyone else was.
    Across the way, Veronica launched a merciless barrage of strikes, her hands a blur in front of her. What she lacked in power, she made up for in precision. Monkey eyes squinted, follow up punches to the throat turned the group into a choir, the Hairball Symphony