Blood of Heroes (The Ember War Saga Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

Shoot it!” Yarrow screamed.
    Hale felt like his feet were stuck in wet concrete as he struggled forward. He brought his rifle up, but Yarrow’s body blocked his shot. Trembling with exertion, Yarrow was losing the battle against the monster’s grip, its claws digging into his armor.
    With one hand, Steuben reached out and slapped Yarrow’s right arm from the door. With the other, the Karigole brought his short sword down and hacked into the banshee’s wrist. The blade embedded with a wet thunk . The banshee’s howl changed and it let Yarrow go. The banshee jerked its hand back and the blade went with it. The hilt and flat of the weapon slammed into the sides of the open door, jamming the banshee’s hand in the opening. The arm reached toward the Marines and slammed back against the door, like a wolf struggling against a trap.
    The third strike broke the blade. Pieces clattered to the deck as the banshee’s footfalls echoed away from the door, its screams fading away.
    Yarrow rolled onto his hands and knees and scrambled away from the open door.
    “Anyone else not like these things?” Standish asked.
    “Where’d it go?” Torni asked.
    Orozco stuck his carbine into the opening. “Looks like it went down the ammo elevator…blood trail goes that way at least.” The Spaniard beamed the footage from the camera on his carbine to Hale.
    “Get the doors open enough for us to get through,” Hale said. “It went to the armory and we have to go after it.” He flipped open the control panel on his gauntlet and sent commands to seal the armory.
    “Can we bring in some backup?” Standish asked. “Maybe Elias and his armored super-friends? Bet they’d love something like this.”
    “They’re all in their travel coffins. By the time they get here it’ll be too late. What’s in armory bay three, Standish?” Hale asked.
    “A bunch of inert kinetic rounds for the rail cannons … and that giant omnium reactor we found on Anthalas.” Standish ran over to the dogs and helped Orozco twist it open. The doors lurched open another few inches and Hale saw the elevator platform to the armory, the plating ripped aside like it was made of tissue paper. He tried to open a channel to the XO, which stayed open for a second before cutting out.
    Yarrow grabbed the dog Steuben was on. The medic glanced at the broken blade and then at Steuben, he alien’s mouth twisted in a snarl as he worked.
    “Hey, thanks for saving me and not cutting my arm off to do it,” Yarrow said.
    Steuben grunted and managed to move the door another half inch.
    “You are welcome, young one,” Steuben said. “I believe Gunnery Sergeant Cortaro is still angry over the loss of his leg, or suffering some manner of post-traumatic stress. Corpsman Yarrow, what is a pendejo ?”
    “Ugh,” Yarrow said. “Sorry about your sword.”
    “Lafayette will fix it,” Steuben muttered.
    “We’re good,” Bailey announced and squeezed through the opening. Orozco shook his head at the slight woman, and the barrel-chested Marine opened the doors wider.
    Bailey peeked down the exposed shaft. “Blood trail goes all the way down,” she said to Hale.
    Hale joined her at the edge. The twenty-foot descent ended on the armory deck. Gray smears of blood against the exposed machinery of the lift.
    “Damn thing’s like a croc,” she said, “and we’ve got it wounded and cornered.”
    “Sir,” Torni said, “you see this?” Hale turned around and found Torni poking through the door control panel. A half-dozen mutilated crewmen lay dead along the bulkhead near her. Torni knelt next to a dark skinned crewman and opened his hand, revealing a circuit board.
    “That’s Master Chief Hutchinson,” Torni said. “He must have tripped the emergency locks. Trapped that thing in here.”
    “That was a good idea, how?” Standish asked.
    Torni reached up and closed the dead sailor’s eyes. “It must have got in before they could secure the doors. The gunnery team were