Free Good Intentions (The Road to Hell Series, Book 1) by Brenda K. Davies

to unload us, and then we would find a doorway through to the other side, or maybe stay in this town for the night. Instead, we drove straight on through the large opening in the wall.
    For the first time, I felt more apprehension for myself than I did for the family I’d been torn away from.

CHAPTER 8
    Kobal
    “Kobal.”
    I glanced up from the book I’d been absorbed in when my name was spoken. I may not have much use for the human race, but I did enjoy these books they’d created. It had taken me a while to learn how to read them, but over the years, I’d become more adept at doing so. Humans were creative; that was the best I could say about their species.
    My gaze focused on Corson in the doorway, staring at me. His orange eyes were brightened by the lanterns flickering within the tent. His black hair, so dark a hue it appeared midnight blue in some lights, stood up in jagged spikes around his narrow face. He must have recently been with one of the human women again as his pointed ears had earrings dangling from the tips of them. Those women enjoyed decorating his ears, and he happily let them do it.
    “What is it?” I inquired, trying to ignore the dangling pink butterflies swinging from his ears when he stepped forward. I’d never understand why a demon as powerful as Corson, and nearly as old as me, would wear those ridiculous things. If I stared at them for too long, I’d rip them from his ears, and I’d been working on trying to curb my temper. The humans were apprehensive and timid enough around me on the best of days, never mind witnessing me tearing the earrings from one of their favorite demons.
    “They’ve returned,” Corson replied.
    “And?”
    “There is a possibility with them.”
    Closing the book, I dropped my legs from where I’d propped them on the table we often used for meetings and my feet hit the floor. “How good of a possibility?” I demanded.
    “I don’t know. I kept all the demons away from the new volunteers this time. That whole screaming and running thing is a real turn off.”
    “Don’t want a repeat of last time?”
    “No.”
    The last time, some of the new recruits had gotten a look at some of the more obviously demon kind among us before we could keep them penned in, and they had run screaming into the night. We found four of them, but two had been lost to the nightmare of the world the humans had created.
    It was often quite a shock for humans to learn of our existence, and our appearances didn’t help much, or at least some of our appearances didn’t. Some of us, like Corson and myself, were more human in appearance than others, but some of us were what humans would consider nightmarish.
    Personally, I considered the humans all pussies, but then I had little use for their species. Except for one, and if we ever located that one , I’d do everything in my power to make sure they accomplished what had to be done, even if I had to drag them kicking and screaming into the fray.
    “How do you know there is a possibility with them then?” I inquired.
    “There is someone riding in the cab with Mac and Bernadette.”
    A person separated from the other volunteers and riding with the soldiers was a good indication they had not come here willingly. Rising to my feet in the tent that stood over seven feet high to accommodate my size, I strode toward the flap that had been pulled back to allow air to flow through.
    “Take those earrings off,” I said to Corson before slipping outside.
    The cool air brushed over my skin as I surveyed the town nestled into the valley below us. There was far more going on down there than on a normal night at the military compound. The headlights from the newly arrived trucks were still on and facing what I’d been told was a human development.
    The dwellings all looked the same and had the same square yards. Apparently, this was what humans had once liked and strived to live in. To me, the development was just like humans, they all looked