Demon Squad 6 The Best of Enemies by Tim Marquitz Read Free Book Online

across the sidewalks, a Normandy Beach re-creation gone way too real. The hoary moans of their suffering crashed against my ears in undulating, pitiful waves. The men were loyal. I had to give them that. Not all of them would die tonight, but none of them would go home unscarred.
    One of the sturdier mercenaries crawled ahead of me, a leg severed at the knee, his opposite arm yanked free at the shoulder. He wormed forward, shrieking into the radio he held clasped in a crimson hand, begging for someone at the other end to send help. I grinned, hoping his boss was listening in, and reached down, grabbing the stump of bone that protruded from his leg. He screamed as I yanked him to me, flipping him onto his back. The mercenary stared at me with eyes so wide I could see the back his skull through the gaping sockets.
    One hand buried in his armpit and the other making use of the oozing stump of his shoulder, I picked him up so we were face to face. The sour scent of death rolled off him as he squirmed, agony distorting his features while my fingers dug for purchase.
    “Is your boss coming?”
    The only answer I received was a fecund grunt, warm bile spattering my cheeks and dripping serpentine down his chin. I exhaled hard against his nastiness and tossed him over my shoulders so I could find someone else more talkative.
    It took a moment to realize I hadn’t heard him hit.
    I turned as a shadow rolled over me, its deep, fetid darkness blocking out the pasty glow of the streetlights. A sound like stones being ground together reverberated off the nearby buildings, and the toe-curling stink of tar and brimstone assailed my nose. The shadow was growing. My eyes inched upward until I could see the vague edge of the darkness and apply some definition to the thing I was seeing. It was one of those moments I wish I could take back.
    Two massive eyes, each easily twice the size of my chest, loomed nearly twenty feet above my head. Hunks of multi-faceted coal, they shimmered. It was if a thousand fireflies had taken up residence in each orb, dots of yellow-orange lights flickering to a rhythm too random to sort out. They glared at me with palpable disgust. In its distended maw were row upon row of serrated teeth, which splintered out in every direction. My gaze zeroed in on something squirming inside the mouth of razored saws. It was the mercenary I’d tossed aside. His terror was etched across his face.
    As I watched him soundlessly plead for help, the creature bit down, and I heard the brittle crunch of bone as he disappeared behind the mass of yellowed fangs. Blood and gore and meaty little bits I couldn’t identify rained down over me, moist plops splattering across the asphalt. I closed my eyes until the worst of it had passed, then looked back up at the disgusting thing hovering above, chewing the mercenary into mushy little bits with slow, deliberate bites.
    It was the unfortunate cross between a snail, a worm, and a rabid dinosaur. The night of its conception must have been one hell of a party. I wondered who swallowed that worm. A vague memory at the back of my mind made me think I’d seen something like this before, but damned if I knew where. Regardless, there was no pulling my eyes from it.
    Bubbled black flesh covered what I assumed was its midsection. Tufts of fur sprouted beneath each and every bump; little Fu Manchus of green bristles that wiggled at its every sloth-like movement. Furry T-Rex arms sprouted from its side in legion. There were so many of them I didn’t bother to count, but they swung back and forth in mesmerizing unison as though forming a wave at a football game. Silver claws tipped each and every one.
    The creature roared, feeling the sound more than hearing it, deep vibrations rattling my rib cage. Gory spittle colored the air, and that was right about the time I decided I should probably hit the thing before it chewed my head off.
    My power welled up as the monstrosity loomed closer, and I let loose