Downside Rain: Downside book one by Linda Welch Read Free Book Online

follow. We can’t allow it on the street.
    “Fuck,”
Castle spits, and lunges forward. His blade carves through human and hellion
flesh, opening a diagonal gash in the demon’s chest. It roars and claws at him.
Instead of darting back, Castle follows through, revolving to bring his sword
curving up to hack the beast’s neck. But it catches the blade and holds on,
ignoring blood leaking from its fingers. It jerks Castle forward, its free hand
clamps on his throat. Thick nails like yellow horn puncture his skin.
    Fade
out, idiot! But Castle holds onto flesh as he tries
to wrest his blade from the hellion’s hand.
    Pulling
the obsidian dagger, dropping a smaller blade into my other hand, I dart behind
the beast, take a flying leap to its back and plunge both blades in its neck. Dangling
the length of its knotted spine, I hang on the knives and pull my knees up till
they are braced on the hellion’s back. It roars again, jerks upright, releases
Castle and his sword and twirls. I lose my grip on hafts slippery with hot,
sizzling black blood and flip across the kitchen. My spine smacks into the
breakfast bar; I bounce off and land on my face.
    The
pain is agonizing; something in my back is broken. I fade out as a heavy taloned
foot aims for my head. Marble tile cracks. I pull flesh and come back good as
new inches from a scaled ankle, and scurry behind the bar as Castle charges the
demon from the rear.
    Its
back arcs and corded arms shoot up as the point of Castle’s sword punches from
its chest. It turns and he turns with it, hopping on one foot, the other
planted on its back. He wrenches his sword free and jumps back. It whirls, hand
lashing out. The spikes on its hand open up Castle’s face from jaw to ear. He stumbles,
hits a window and falls down, the blind concertinaing on top of him.
    Rain
sheets the window, the sky’s red light streams in.
    The
hellion tears to the window and stomps on the blind, but Castle is no longer
there.
    I
swoop in, snatch the dagger from the floor and thrust the black glass into the
hellion’s spine. It turns on me and the knife is jerked from my hand.
    Black
blood sizzles on tile, eating in, pitting the smooth surface. What does it take
to bring this thing down?
    I
lose flesh and scramble behind the kitchen island. Castle is solid again over
in the west corner, but the demon stands between him and his sword. I look around,
desperate for something I can use.
    Knives
stick in a wooden block; clean, high-quality steel. Yelling something wordless,
I snatch up a filleting knife, flip it and rise up behind the island.
    Risking
sliced fingers from the keen blade, I throw overhand. The steel punctures the
demon’s right eye.
    Screeching,
it tugs the blade free. Mucus dribbles like discolored egg white from its eye
socket.
    Castle
is behind the monster and he has his sword. With a roar, he chops at the
demon’s nape.
    Keening,
the demon flails at its neck with both hands. It revolves and goes after
Castle. Who disappears.
    Threshing
at air, the beast advances to where Castle had been as I realize . . . Gods
dammit, I’m in a kitchen! I rip open cabinet doors till I find the pantry. Raking
at the shelves, cans and packages hit the floor until I pull out a large white paper
package and tear off the top.
    “Yo!
Big fellah!” I come from behind the counter with the bag in both hands.
    It
faces me unhurriedly, head hanging, hands relaxed at its sides. I sense
amusement in its posture. Its voice is deep and guttural and grates inside my
head like sliding shale. “Little one.”
    “ Little ?
Now you’ve really pissed me off.” I throw the bag; it bursts on the hellion’s
chest and salt sprays everywhere.
    The
hellion roars again and shakes fists in the air as its body disintegrates,
becomes fissured gray matter, then dust which sifts to smoke and disperses.
    Hellions
don’t die in the mortal realm, the atrocity has just gone back to where it came
from.
    I
reach for the counter, miss, and smack