Crusade (Eden Book 2) by Tony Monchinski Read Free Book Online

had said.
     
    “…and so White-Hairs and Stone-Hand joined the Devil Beast in defense of the Kirby universe…”
     
    “Enough of this bullshit.” The yellow skinned man glared at the wild man. “The world ends and this fucker lives through it? If we’re going to rebuild, we aren’t doing it with his kind.”
     
    “What are you talking about?” someone asked.
     
    “You know what I’m talking about.” The man started scanning the ground for a suitable weapon. “He doesn’t have to be here for the second act. He’ll just slow us down.”
     
    “No one touches that man.”
     
    All eyes were drawn to the outside of the circle. Bear loomed there, his abs thick slabs, the muscles of his pecs and shoulders like lumps of clay slapped together by a drunken artist. The saddle bags rested on the road next to his feet. In the crook of one massive arm rested the swaddled bundle. His other arm hung at his side, mace in his hand. The circle opened. People stepped gingerly from him, but he did not move.
     
    “…and from his mountain the god looked and saw two stand against many, the Cimmerian and the archer against the riders of Doom, and indeed he was pleased…”
     
    “Listen to him,” the jaundiced man said to Bear, indicating the wild one. “I’ve had to for the past god knows how many fucking months. Is that a baby you’ve got with you? For Christ’s sake…”
     
    He walked over to Bear to get a better look at the bundle. When he had done so he looked into Bear’s face, the dead eye and the live one. He was too foolish to heed what the good one revealed.
     
    “You are fucking crazy,” he said and turned his back on him, his yellowed-eyes squinting at the wild man. “And you…” He spied a large flat rock several yards away and went to retrieve it. “Gonna take care of this shit right fucking now.”
     
    He bent to take it up and stood, turning. Bear was upon him, his speed belying his massive size. The mace came down once, the blow breaking the arm the man raised to shield himself, then continuing unabated on its deadly trajectory to impact his skull. The yellowed body collapsed lifeless to the mud and muck.
     
    Bear stood with the bundle in his arm and the mace at his side. Nadjia had risen and one hand hovered over the 9mm, but none of the townsfolk appeared a threat. Their hollowed eyes reflected apathy and, in some, hope.
     
    “We’ll rest two or three days here,” said Nadjia, “then we will leave. Any of you who wish are free to join us, but you need to know the only thing on the road ahead of us is more of…this.” She gestured with an open palm to the carpet of corpses littered in varying displays of grotesquery.
     
    “…and Emmanuel Santana left the monster in the sky, sitting on top of the world, the general alone…”
     
    The evening crept into the sky and the night was lit by tremendous pyres. Dozens of fires ate the dead. Thick black smoking coils of cremated meat merged with the dark above and around. Everywhere the stink of singed dead flesh loomed. The men and women strong enough worked through the afternoon and night, their faces covered with rags against the noxious fumes as they disposed of the pestilential corpses.
     
    Kevin crossed the street, stepping clear of the puddles of gore and rain that had pooled, his path lit by the flames. He pulled the jacket he wore closer about him, shivering in the cool autumn night. He entered a darkened building and walked up two flights of stairs to the door of an apartment of rooms Bear and Nadjia had selected. He stood in front of the door and paused, considering, then knocked, not too loud. Perhaps they were asleep. He did not want to waken them, nor was he completely sure he wanted to discuss what he had come to talk about.
     
    Nadjia opened the door, backlit from a glow somewhere within the suite of rooms. She had the riot suit off and her hair down and she was the most beautiful woman Kevin had ever seen. The curves of