Free Blood of Heroes (The Ember War Saga Book 3) by Richard Fox Page A

again as a white flash from the end of its rifle sent another snap past her.
    She heard the noorla roar in pain and felt the ground shake. The noorla lay dead, its claws contracting against its chest.
    Their savior got closer, and Caas saw that it wasn’t a noorla . Its armor, once white, was fire blackened and covered in soot. Flames still licked at its arms and the back of its helmet… and there were more just like it coming through the fire.
    “Caas, what’s happening? Can I look?” Ar’ri asked.
    “I think…I think more demons are here,” she said.
    The new demon fired over their heads, and Ar’ri squealed and tried to worm his way back beneath the tree.
    “I count three more around the barn!” the demon shouted in Dotok and ran toward them. Terror petrified Caas as it got closer and then went to a knee next to them. The armor wasn’t anything like the noorla ; it looked more like what her father wore to the monthly battle training.
    It turned a mirrored faceplate to them, and the helmet expanded slightly with a hiss of air. The visor swung up and a pale-skinned alien with short blond hair looked at her with pale blue eyes.
    “Are you OK?” The words came from a speaker attached to its throat.
    Caas took a deep breath and screamed at the top of her lungs. Ar’ri joined in sympathetic fright.
    “No! No!” Torni raised a hand and tried to calm the children. “I’m human, a Marine from the Breitenfeld . We’re here to help. Please stop screaming. I’m a friend. Ugh … meln. Meln .”
    Caas recoiled from Torni’s touch and finally stopped screaming.
    “ Breitenfeld ?” she said. She remembered the word from the news broadcasts that her parents had watched over and over again. Ancient Pa’lon said help would come from the Breitenfeld .
    “Yes, Breitenfeld . Is this thing not working?” Torni grabbed the speaker against her neck and flicked it with her finger.
    “You’re ugly,” Ar’ri said. He peeked over Caas’ shoulder with tear-streaked eyes.
    “It is working. You see that shelter over there?” Torni pointed to the squat building the village used to weather storm squalls. “Go in there and wait for me. We’ll get you out of here once it’s safe.”
    Caas and Ar’ri shook their heads.
    “No! Monsters,” Ar’ri said.
    “There are noorla inside,” Caas said.
    “Inside the shelter?”
    The children nodded.
    The Marine put two fingers to her ear. “Sir, this is Torni…”
     
    ****
     
    Hale vaulted over a low stone wall and spotted a banshee holding an iron bar like it was a club. The banshee stood along a canal, poking into the water with the tip of the bar.
    “Contact! One on the canal,” Hale said. He slowed to aim when the banshee swung around and hurled the bar at him like it was a javelin. Pain exploded across his arms and forehead as the bar deflected off his rifle and smashed into him. Hale staggered back and tripped against the wall he’d just jumped over.
    The banshee roared a challenge and lumbered toward him.
    A crack in the air from a gauss pistol sent a round into the banshee’s arm. The thing looked at the source of the annoyance and snarled. Bailey fired her pistol faster than anyone else Hale had known until it clicked empty. She replaced the noise of her shots with a string of profanity as she reloaded.
    The banshee turned its attention to her and swung an overhand strike down on the squat Marine. Bailey rolled to the side and put a round in the banshee’s exposed jaw. The bullet shattered bone and tendrils of gray blood dripped from the wound. The banshee gagged on its own blood and lashed out at Bailey.
    Hale found his rifle in the dirt and got off a shot, hitting the banshee in the stomach. The beast fell to its knees, then to its elbows. Bailey jammed the muzzle of her pistol into an eye slit and sent a bullet careening through its skull.
    “What I wouldn’t give for a real weapon right now,” she said. She looked at her pistol like it was a child’s