Beyond the Veil Read Online Free PDF Page A

its skull as if I’d stuck a
firecracker in a bowl of toxic Jell-O. I’m pretty sure I giggled, but as
interesting as it was to watch the spew of colors, the wall of aliens surged
and came barreling down on me.
    There was no place to run so I raised both
guns and turned them loose directly ahead of me. Three or four of the aliens
stumbled and crashed, the rest of my shots punching a hole in the line to give
me some breathing room. It wasn’t much, but it looked like all I was gonna get.
They ran by, not bothering to truly engage, and swiped at me with makeshift
swords and clubs. I could have sworn I saw a pitchfork fly past. This was no
organized army; it was a damn rabble.
    That fact didn’t stop them from trying to
kill me, however half-assed. I put an elbow into the temple of one who stabbed
at me and instantly regretted my attempt at hand-to-hand. Lactic acid seared
through my muscles as if I’d mainlined the sun. My fingers tingled all the way
to my ass, and I could barely feel the grips of my pistols, my hands going
numb. I put a bullet in the alien’s dome to keep him down, grateful I could still
hold onto my gun against the kick.
    A few more shots deterred those closest to
me, and gave me a few seconds to reload. Fresh clips clicked into the .45s, a gout of fire roared to life not ten feet
from where I stood. A number of the aliens screamed and curled up beneath the
flames, bugs wilting under a torch as it burned through the ranks. The essence
of the fire pinged against my senses, telling me the source of it was magical.
My eyes trailed along the spout and saw the hand it spewed from.
    I was surprised to recognize an angel at
the end of it. She wasn’t some alien concoction like Xyx or Black and White, Lucifer’s
freaky minions out here, but an honest-to-goodness angel from back home…well,
not exactly my home but Heaven. Close enough for government work.
    Her magenta eyes turned to appraise me.
There was an obvious confusion that washed across her face, the lines doing
nothing to dampen her beauty. Like my cousin Scarlett, the angel was the
personification of human gorgeousness; all the curves in proper proportion to
my libido. She probably didn’t know who I was, but she certainly knew what I was, just as I did her. One of these things isn’t like the other. She strafed the area around me, giving my position a wide berth, making it clear
she had no intention of coming any closer. The aliens, however, weren’t given
any other choice.
    The point of a short spear drew a red
crease along my biceps before I’d even realized it had been thrown. Too busy
trying to look up the angel’s fluttering skirts, I’d nearly been skewered. Yet
another unfortunate epitaph I missed out on. Pissed at my ruined effort, I
followed the trajectory and capped the bastard who’d thrown it and shot the one
next to him for shits-and-giggles. They both dropped just before Longinus
barreled through the remainder. Bloody pieces flew apart in his wake. He skirted
around the flames and dove deeper into the enemy lines, which had stalled about
a hundred feet from where I stood.
    None of the aliens on top of me, I had a chance
to look around a little. My original sense that the aliens attacking us were
actually running away was confirmed. There wasn’t just one angel, but dozens.
They fluttered in the misty air like malevolent lightning bugs, bursts of fire
and magical light streaking downward to scorch extraterrestrial ass. A small
ground force was just visible beyond the mass of aliens, covered by the angels
above, but it was impossible to pick out any details. Bodies slumped and
striped people kept running as the group pressed forward.
    “It seems we’ve interrupted something,”
Longinus said at my side. I hadn’t even realized he’d returned. “So much for
stealth.”
    He was right. An uncomfortable sigh slipped
from my lips. Given that I’d recognized the angels as those from Earth, it was
pretty clear that these were