Free Demon Squad 6 The Best of Enemies by Tim Marquitz Page A

steel cover slammed into Scarlett’s lower spine, the blow damn near bending her backward. She shrieked and dropped, bouncing ugly off the asphalt, her eyes spinning in their sockets.
    And then Shaw was in my face. A pale shade dressed in all black, the undead wraith raked her nails across my chest. I twisted away as best I could and fired back, winging a punch at her, but she was gone, having danced nimbly out of the way. Then it was all about the pain.
    It was as if she’d injected battery acid under the skin. My nerves screamed with the explosion of agony that surged through my system, eyes tearing up. I stumbled back. Thick black blood bubbled up out of the wounds, festering pops giving off a metallic stink. Having never fought the woman before, I didn’t know what to expect, but she’d proven herself dangerous.
    Shaw darted in again and ripped my side open as I glared at my injuries, her fingers tracing grooves between my ribs as if she were reenacting the Death Star scene, her nails the rebellious X-Wing scum. She dodged my follow up combo, both shots whiffing, and ducked in low to rip some more of me away.
    Fortunately, my subconscious decided it’d had enough. Power welled up on its own and shrugged her aside with a dull burst of energy. Shaw stumbled back, but that was when Venai jumped in.
    At least she tried.
    As she flew through the air, ready to bash my skull in, a gray-black tentacle flew out of the swirling dust clouds and wrapped itself around her thick waist and stopped her momentum cold. Her eyes jumped from me to the tendril, cold realization settling across her square-jawed face. Terror didn’t make her any prettier.
    The tentacle slammed her to the ground as the connected monstrosity floated out into the night’s darkness. Where there had been a smattering of opportunistic gunfire cracking off here and there, there was now silence. All eyes were on the beast as it revealed its dark mass, the last of Baalth’s hideaway crumbling in its wake. It spread its tentacles, a ring of serpentine eyes glaring at me from around a slathering mouth filled with shards of what looked like jagged black glass. The thing gurgled, something wet sloshing in the well of its throat, and advanced. It hurled Venai aside as it did, launching the Nephilim over the roof of the nearest building. She flew away to the fading soundtrack of her screams.
    I watched her go without thinking about it, turning my eyes back to the approaching monstrosity only to realize it wasn’t alone anymore. A second creature drifted at is back, my heart ramping up to an uncomfortable rhythm that thumped against my battered ribcage.
    “What have you done?” Shaw screamed at me from the other side of the creatures.
    “Why does it always have to be me?” I asked, but there wasn’t much in the way of conviction in my voice. On the heels—flipper thingies, whatever—of the first monster, the second turned and headed my direction. Even if I didn’t want to admit it, the things were honing in on me like the last one had.
    A quick sniff of my armpit told me I could use a shower, but I hadn’t quite started to funk so badly as to attract intergalactic sea monsters. I assumed it had something to do with the book, but it had been Rala doing all the work, so I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why the damn alien calamari were coming after me.
    A waft of mystical energy erupted a short distance away, and I felt the tingling sensation of a dimensional rift being opened. My senses pinged on three people who I knew without having to see.
    Katon and Rahim stepped out of Rachelle’s gate on the opposite side of Shaw and the shambling Jorn, who’d finally gotten back to his feet. The portal slammed shut behind them, leaving the enforcer and wizard alone.
    “Welcome to the party, folks. I hope you like sushi.”
     

Seven
     
    “What have you done, Frank?”
    “Is there an echo out here?” I asked, Rahim’s question mimicking Shaw’s.
    The