New Title 1 by Eric S Brown Page B

stale blood, brimstone and human waste. The sheriff nearly gagged as he caught a whiff of it. There was no sign of Legion or his minions.
    “ Louis,” Nathan said quietly, “Check the upstairs.”
    O’Rouke took a position that gave him a clear shot at the front door as Louis crept up the stairs to the second floor. “Where are they?” O’Rouke complained, impatient.
    Nathan moved to the center of the huge saloon so that he could get a shot at both the rear of the bar and the main door if he needed to. As if in response to O’Rouke’s question, all Hell broke loose.
    Demons came pouring from both sides of the saloon, snarling and screaming their rage and hunger. The lawman and Nathan opened fire at the same time. O’Rouke’s Winchester cracked, sending the fastest of the creatures coming at him straight back to Hell as a bullet blew out the backside of its skull. It toppled to the floor, tripping up the ones following it. Nathan’s hands were a blur as his pistols dispensed his own blend of righteous justice upon the pack of demons charging at him from the rear of the bar.
    Seeing he didn’t have time to aim his shots, O’Rouke tossed his rifle aside and unslung his shotguns. He emptied the two double barreled weapons in a single, staggering blast. Three demons died as the heavy slugs ripped through their stolen bodies.
    Out of shells, the sheriff dropped one of the shotguns and swung the other like a club. It impacted with the jaw of the creature leaping at him with the sound of crunching bone. The demon smashed into a table to O’Rouke’s left, its broken and disjointed jaw hanging open as blood bubbled from its mouth. The blow shattered the rifle’s stock, rendering it useless as a club, so the sheriff flipped it around in his hands and impaled the next demon.
    As the broken shotgun slid into the thing’s chest like a spear, it grabbed at O’Rouke, slashing deep groves into the flesh of his arms through his jacket. The Irishman screamed, but held firm to his makeshift spear and twisted it inside the creature as it howled, its blood covering the front of O’Rouke’s shirt and hands. O’Rouke released the shotgun as the demon stumbled backwards, trying to pull the weapon out of its gut, and finally fell over. The sheriff drew his pistol like a professional gunfighter, but the remaining creatures were too close and too fast. He went down under a mass of clawing hands and gnashing teeth.
     
    Twenty-Eight
     
    When Nathan’s Colts clicked empty, twelve demons lay dead on the saloon floor. Only two of the ones who’d entered from the rear of the bar remained. He spun his smoking Colts into their holsters and held his ground as they charged at him. He caught the first one, using its own momentum against it, and smashed it into the bar behind him.
    Its face crumpled inward from the force of the impact and Nathan left it lying unconscious as he turned to meet the second monster. With a swift kick to the underside of its chin, its neck was snapped in a single, painful motion.
    Nathan knew he was far from being out of danger.
    He jumped over the bar and ducked behind it. His fingers flew as he reloaded one of his pistols with a chamber of silver bullets, each with the sign of the cross etched into their tips. He finished just as the second wave of demons charged, fueled on by feasting on O’Rouke’s soul.
    Nathan put a bullet into the first one’s right eye and rolled to his feet. He came up firing. Demons dropped like flies from his well aimed shots.
    “ Enough!” Lee shouted as he entered the saloon. The final seven demons inside the saloon sunk to their haunches and sat like cowering dogs in the presence of a cruel and violent master. Nathan and Lee stared at each other across the bar in silence.
     
    Twenty-Nine
     
    L ouis had barely reached the top of the stairs when the demons poured in and the fighting started. Knowing he couldn’t use the explosives he carried without killing Nathan and