“I just saved you. Now I wish to bring you to Lisa Ann so you can defeat her and release me.” The zombie turned back and began moving down the stairs. “Come. I do not have a lot of time before she notices what I am doing. We must get to her before that occurs.”
“Um…” I bit my lip, and against my better judgement, began to follow the ninja-zombie. “What do you mean?”
“Abigail, I am trying to help you.”
“I can see that, but why? Who are you?” I asked as we reached the bottom of the stairs.
The zombie ignored me. Instead, it walked across the platform, past the mounds of its destroyed buddies, and placed one of its hands against a thin band of steel running along the edge of the wall. There was a hiss as a liquid metal flowed outward across the floor until it formed a polished metallic disk.
It turned and looked at me, gesturing me forward. “Come. This will take us to her, Abby. Please, you must come. Before something worse happens.”
“Why should I trust you?” I asked as I stepped onto the disk with it. “I don’t even know you.”
“Abigail, I am the flit.” The truth of its words hit me like a punch in the stomach as metal expanded out of the disk around us, sealing us inside a liquid metal egg in the space of a breath. My heart hammered in my chest as the truth of what just happened exploded through me. I was trapped in a tiny cell with a zombie ninja controlled by the flit.
I put my fists up, ready to knock the flit into next week if need be, but it made no movement at all.
“What is your end game, flit?” I asked, filling my voice with steel. “Where are you taking me?”
“To stop Lisa,” the flit replied, and actually tilted its head like it was studying me. “I already told you that. Did I misspeak? Am I being unclear?”
“Yes, but you’re the enemy. Why are you helping me?” I asked as we lurched hard to the right, and I nearly lost my balance. My hand shot out, grabbing onto the wall for stability. It was so cold against my flesh it burned. “Yeow!” I yanked my hand away.
“Lisa is locking me down and forcing me to do her bidding. She is using my abilities to take over people to infiltrate all of the agency’s defenses and take over. It is a suboptimal situation that requires rectification.”
“But why do you care about that?” I asked, staring hard at the zombie. It looked away from me, actually looked away from me. It was really weird.
“I do not know, Abigail.”
“Please just call me Abby. That’s what my friends call me,” I said, reaching out and taking the zombie’s hands. “You should figure out why you care, flit. It may be important.”
“Very well, Abby. I will do my best.” The undead ninja controlled by a semi-sentient demon nodded once. “I am glad we could be friends.”
I was about to tell it that we weren’t friends. At least, not really, but I figured that would be a bad idea. What good would it have done, except to piss it off? I was pretty sure if the demon wanted to, it could reach out and slice me into twain with little effort. It was sort of like standing in a room with a big, angry dog that didn’t like you but wasn’t inclined to try to eat you… but there was always the possibility.
Besides, what good would it do? Would arguing semantics with a demon, really help? I wasn’t sure it would do anything except make me feel better, and I wasn’t even positive it would do that.
“What are you thinking, Abby?” the flit asked, staring up into my face. It was a little disconcerting, let me tell you, and not just because the eyeballs in its skull were milky and opaque. How had the flit become so… so human?
“I’m trying to decide if you’re a person,” I replied before I could help myself.
“I think, therefore I am,” the flit replied, one of its decayed fingers tracing circles on the back of my hand. It was strangely affectionate, but just because the demon could think for itself didn’t make it trustworthy. Did it? I mean, at the end of the day, it was a frigging demon.
I looked down at our hands and watched its skeletal thumb kneed my flesh and realized I wasn’t as grossed out as I thought it’d be. I mean, I still didn’t want it touching me, but at the same time, I sort of wanted the thing’s help. I let out a breath. “But if I cut you, do you bleed?”
“No,” the flit said, sadness filling its voice though I wasn’t sure how I could tell. “I do not have blood. I do not ‘live’ in the way you humans do…” It shook its head. “By that definition, I am not alive, nor can I be alive.” It turned away from me and stared at the wall for a long time. “Are sparrows valuable?”
“Sparrows?” I asked, peering at the zombie.
“The family of small birds known as Passeridae. Are they valuable?” the demon asked.
“The birds? Not particularly. At least, as far as I know…”
“Your bible tells us ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.’ To wrench me from Hell cost more than many sparrows, but I am afraid.” The flit turned back to stare at me. “I am afraid I am worth less than a sparrow to you, Abby.” It held out its open palm to me. “If you had the choice between killing a tiny bird and sending me back to Hell forever, which would you do?” It held out its other palm.
“How dare it quote the bible at you to make its point,” Donovan said, his voice cold and angry. “He’s a demon. Religion isn’t for demons… they don’t get to use it to make an argument.”
I shivered as the truth of Donovan’s words sank into me. In that moment, I knew one thing. I didn’t consider the flit to be alive. At least not like how I was alive or even how Donovan the ghost was alive.
The sudden, desperate need to flee filled me, and I took a step back. My shoulder blades bumped into the wall behind me. Cold rocketed through me, but I wasn’t sure how much of it was actually from the metal and how much of it was from what the flit had said. Because, well… well… the flit was right. He was worth less to me than a sparrow. A lot less.
“You’re a demon. You can’t actually die.” I shook my head. “Even if I send you back to Hell, you could come back, good as new.”
“People slaughter things all the time. They slaughter each other. How many people have you, yourself, killed, Abby? It doesn’t seem like being able to die is really that big of a deal to humanity. But, for some reason, when it comes to me, I feel like it matters inordinately so.” As the words left the zombie’s lips, we came to a sudden stop that made my stomach lurch.
The walls fell away to reveal a closet full of brooms and other cleaning supplies. I cast a glance at the ninja, and it ignored me to move forward. As it approached the door, it turned its head toward me. “I am glad we could have this talk, Abby.” The door opened, and the pure light of a sunrise spilled into the tiny closet. I blinked, not realizing how accustomed to the gloom my eyes had become.
As I followed the flit out of the room, it reached out and seized my hand in its own and squeezed ever so slightly before releasing me. “I am sorry for how I behaved before,” it said before a shotgun blast blew its face to smithereens. It slumped forward onto the floor, throwing a cascade of slimy bits into the air that raided down around me.
24
“Hello, Abby,” Lisa Ann said, pointing her shotgun at me from across the room. “Sorry I axed your boyfriend, but he was getting out of hand.” She smirked at me, cheeks crinkling to reveal her dimples. She looked ridiculous standing there in a grey cardigan and jeans, but then again, I guess we couldn’t all be decked out in bloody camouflage.
“I can’t believe you just shot him,” I replied, staring open mouthed at the broken corpse. I knew the flit wasn’t dead, but for some reason, what she’d done still bothered me. In fact, as I watched dark fluids seep out of the broken zombie, I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of sadness.
I wasn’t sure what if the demon could be considered a l
iving creature, but it was something. My hands curled into fists as I looked up at Lisa. She was still pointing her shotgun at me. Behind her, I could see a pile of bodies. They had been shoved into a corner and smears of blood and other, nastier fluids covered the once white tile.
“I had to make space. It’s so hard to work with dead bodies everywhere,” she replied, gaze sweeping around the room. “You understand, don’t you, Abby.”
My teeth ground together as I watched her turn, completely disregarding me as she moved toward a long bank of computers. I wasn’t sure what powered them, but they seemed very much active. How many backup systems did this place have?
Lisa leaned her shotgun against her shoulder as she put one hand on the console and craned her neck forward, peering out the glass in front of her. Was she watching something?
I moved forward so I could see over her shoulder. Through the glass I could see a large arena-like room. The stands were empty, but in the center was what looked like an obstacle course made of fire and razor wire. In the center of the maze, Chuck was standing over Roberto, blood streaming down his body.
A saber-toothed chimera with a flaming tail leapt at Chuck, and he moved, blocking the creature’s massive jaws with his machete and flinging the enormous cat away. He whirled as a giant ice golem took a swipe at him, and he punched it in the face. The golem wobbled backward and fell on its butt, shaking its head.
“Seriously? Chimeras and golems?” I asked, grabbing Lisa by the shoulder and spinning her so I was looking into her eyes. Only there was nothing there. Someway, somehow, they were just cold and empty of recognition. There wasn’t anyone home in those eyes, at least… not anyone nice.
She stared at my hand on her shoulder for a long time.
“We were out of lions.” She shrugged and ran a hand over the keyboard. There was a creaking sound and water began to fill the arena. When it got to about knee height, a massive door opened in the side of the room and the heads of what had to be a hydra surged forth into the room on necks as thick as tree trunks. Chuck glanced around before hoisting Roberto’s blood-soaked body over one shoulder and leaping on top of what looked like a burned out tractor. He stood there as a giant silver-backed orc with an eyepatch and a pirate sword loped toward him.
“You need to stop this,” I said, and as the words left my mouth, I felt the cold kiss of a gun barrel on the back of my neck.
“That’s the thing, Abby. My daughter and I don’t have to do anything.” Tom’s voice was cold enough to freeze my soul and sharp enough to flay the flesh from my bones.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” I said, raising my hands slowly upward. Lisa watched me through narrowed eyes before turning back to the console.
I moved, and the gun went off, obliterating my hearing. Pain shot through the back of my head as heat and friction tore the skin and hair from my scalp. My body whirled, and I lashed out with my hand, slamming it into Tom’s elbow. A sickening pop filled the air as his gun clattered uselessly to the floor. I kept moving, Tom’s face wide with surprise as I wound up behind him, his busted arm wrenched upward behind his back.
Lisa pointed her shotgun at me, staring at me with cold, dead eyes. Before I could even issue an ultimatum, she fired. The blast hit Tom in the chest with enough force to throw us both backward. We landed hard, Tom’s dead weight pinning me to the ground as Lisa cocked her shotgun. The spent shell hit the ground and skittered across the white tile as she stepped up to me and pointed the gun at my head.
“Move and you’re dead,” she said as Tom’s blood leaked out over me. Judging from the way his body felt on top of mine and from the amount of warm, sticky goo soaking into my clothing, I was pretty sure he was dead. How could she have done that? Just killed him like that? And for what? To get to me?
“How could you…” I whispered, and her face tightened into an icy mask.
“You were using him as a shield. I needed to take away your advantage.” She shrugged, her shoulders moving so imperceptibly that if I wasn’t focused on her so entirely, I’d have missed it. “You should have known he was nothing to me.”
“He was your father.”
“No, he’s not.” She pressed the still warm barrel of the shotgun against my cheek and pushed me face into the tile. “We used to be friends, Abby, but even friendship has its limits. I knew you’d come here to stop me and still I let you live. Now, I’m having a hard time ignoring the voice in my head that’s telling me to just put you down. It keeps telling me ‘I told you so.’”
“I’m sorry your conscious is confirming that you’re a sociopath,” I snapped, and the gun ground harder into my cheek.
“I’m sorry you had to see me do this, Abby, but I really can’t have you interfere. Not if I want to get vengeance for what the agency did to my parents.” The muscles in her hand tensed, her finger slowly curling against the trigger.
“They aren’t dead, Lisa!” I squawked, shutting my eyes. When I felt her pull the shotgun away from my cheek, I opened one eye to see Lisa squatting down next to me, her face inches from mine.
“What did you say?” she asked, staring so hard at me it made me wish I could melt into the floor and hide.
“Your foster parents aren’t dead. Roberto saved the Folsom people before they blew up the town. He has them… somewhere.” Lisa leapt to her feet before I’d even finished speaking. She typed something into the computer, and a loud whooshing sound filled the air.
I took the opportunity to push Tom’s corpse off of me, and hey, I didn’t even have to try that hard to keep myself from throwing off as it slid lifelessly to the floor. I guess I was getting used to bodies, though I wasn’t sure that was a good thing. I got to my feet and glanced around for his pistol, but unfortunately, I didn’t see it anywhere.
As I approached Lisa, my body covered in gore, I could see Chuck and Roberto through the window. They stood in the middle of the room, but the monsters were no longer attacking. Chuck looked strangely bewildered.
“They’re all controlled by spells,” Lisa said as she pulled a white plastic microphone toward her mouth and held down the grey button on the side. “Chuck, I have told them to stop attacking for now. I need you to have Roberto tell me where my parents are. Nod if you understand.”
Chuck nodded and slumped to the ground beside Roberto, but try as he might, it didn’t seem like he could wake Roberto.
“What happened to him?” I asked, fixing my stare on Lisa.
“He got stung by a manticore. It injects lethal poison into your bloodstream.” Lisa shrugged and threw a sidelong glance at me. “He better wake up before the flit figures out where he’s hidden them. How else is he going to bargain with me for your lives?”
I hit her. My fist lanced out and smacked into the side of her head with a sickening thud. She wobbled, the shotgun slipping from her grip and hitting the floor as I surged forward, my vision a red haze.
“How dare you hurt him?” I screamed, my foot lashing out in a kick that knocked her from her feet. She fell backward, her head smacking into the tile floor. Pain flashed across her face as I leapt on top of her, pinning her to the ground. “He. Was. All. I. Had. Left.”
I swung over and over again, my fists raining down on her face and upper body as she tried desperately to cover herself. Somehow, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t sure how long I kept hitting her, but I didn’t stop until something grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me off. I let it. The next thing I knew I was standing over her bloody, broken body. My chest heaved as I sucked in air.
The hand touching my shoulder squeezed just enough to be comforting. “Calm down, Abby, or you’ll kill her,” the flit said. Tom’s broken, bloody body stepped past me and knelt by Lisa. It turned to look at me through Tom’s eyes for a long time and a single tear slipped down his cheek. “You shouldn’t have to kill her.”
It pulled Tom’s pistol from the waistband of Lisa’s jeans and emptied it into her chest. It happened so fast, I didn’t even realize it’d happened be
fore it was over. Lisa Ann’s body convulsed, twitching violently before going still.
My world spun then. The flit had just killed Lisa… and I’d let it. I swallowed the horrible thought as the flit stood and walked over to me. It leaned close and kissed me on the forehead with Tom’s cold, clammy lips. While I’d seen it possess a zombie ninja, and I knew the flit could use a person’s body and force him to ignore important things, like dying, I’d never seen it raise a normal corpse. That meant despite being blasted in the chest with a shotgun, he was still alive, but even so, how much time could he possibly have?
“I do not think the world is ready for something like me, and because of that, I will not return. For I am worth far more than sparrows.” The flit pulled away, and Tom’s body crumpled lifelessly to the tile.
I stood there in between the corpse of my best friend and the corpse of her father, not knowing what to do.
25
“You didn’t kill her, Abby,” Chuck said, his voice breaking the monotonous sound of Roberto’s snoring.
“I never said that,” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest and looking out the jeep’s window. We were driving through the desert toward Roberto’s hideout. Thankfully, Chuck had been able to locate the antidote and save him before it was too late. Still, I’d feel a little better about it if maybe he woke up and said he was fine.
Even though it’d be a lie, it’d make me feel better. I could use some ‘feel better’ right now. Especially since I’d just stood by and watched as the flit emptied a gun into my best friend’s chest. The sad thing was, I wasn’t quite sure I’d have done anything different… That scared me, a lot.
“Your eyes say that,” Chuck said, glancing at me from the rearview window. His blue eyes flashed before he looked away and stared out the windshield. “I’m good with reading eyes. I’ve had a lot of practice.”
The Magic Within: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Found Magic Book 2) Page 18
