Free Demon Squad 7: Exit Wounds by Tim Marquitz Page A

wrapped tight about the wizard’s stump.
    “You, too, Katon,” I told the enforcer. “You’ve been running ragged since we landed, and I’ve had the benefit of a heal. I’ll take first watch.”
    He stared at me with his usual distrust. “I’m fine.”
    “Suit yourself,” I answered dropping down alongside Karra. She leaned into me, setting her head on my shoulder, her hand wrapped about my waist.
    Chatterbox whispered a lullaby: Helstar’s “To Sleep, Perchance to Scream.”
     

 
    Eight
     
    It took a long time for everyone to settle in, especially after CB’s less than considerate anthem, but they finally did. The tiny chamber echoed softly with snores and soft exhalations. Everyone’s but mine.
    And not just because I was vacationing in a corpse. As I’d told Katon, his little stunt to clean up my crust had filled me with energy, but it was more than just that. I couldn’t have slept if I wanted to. My brain was on full auto, thoughts spurting like a bukkake Gatling gun. I only needed opportunity.
    I glanced over at Katon and found him leaning against the wall by the netting. His eyes were squeezed into tiny slits, but there was no telling if he was still awake. I’d never seen the guy sleep before, and I couldn’t be sure he ever did. What the fuck did I know about vampires? Not enough, for sure, but if I was gonna do something, now was the time.
    I slipped loose of Karra and got to my feet as quietly as possible, leaning her onto Rala’s shoulder in hopes neither would notice. Both exhausted from the day’s misadventure, they didn’t so much as stir. Chatterbox lay in the alien’s lap, his face buried in her crotch, so I was certain he wouldn’t be turning around to spot me anytime soon. A quick glance at Rahim and Mia told me they were out, too, the wizard’s leg over the leash to ensure the green woman couldn’t go anywhere without alerting him. Hands and arms bound, she wasn’t much of a threat. She’d have to chew her way loose if she wanted to escape, and there was no way she could do that without folks noticing her gnawing on the thick ass cords she was bound by.
    Across the room, Veronica slept as she always did; like a baby. The woman might harbor the weight of the world in betrayal, but it never stopped her from getting in her allotted eight hours of beauty rest. She would sleep through a hurricane as long as no one mentioned sex or money in the midst of it. If she could bottle her lack of remorse as a sleep aid, she’d be a billionaire. I only wished I had some of it right then.
    Everyone was here because of me. If I hadn’t been so damn insistent on finding out the truth of my father and his bullshit, none of us would be here. Azrael would be withering away inside Limbo, and the rest of us would be laughing it up in the real world with only the usual group of folks trying to kill me. Instead, we were stuck in some alien prison created by God, with apparently no one knowing any way to get out but some mysterious group of others who’d trekked through at some indeterminate point in the past. I shook my head at that. As usual, I was in deep.
    I snuck by the ex-wife and gathered my spear and an extra dagger, and glanced back one last time at Katon. He hadn’t moved since I got up, so I figured that was as good a sign as I was gonna get. Without another glance back, I scampered up the root ladder and up to the secret tree door. It took me a minute to find the latch that opened it, but once I did, it was a simple procedure to pop the lock and slip outside without making too much noise.
    The darkness greeted me with a frigid embrace.
    I shivered and made sure I could find the outside latch when I came back— if I came back—and started off. Something vaguely resembling a plan floated inside my skull, but I needed more information to go on, and the only way to get that was to adventure out into the world. So I did, with hope in one hand and shit in the other. The odds of things