by G. P. Ching
But every muscle in his body ached with fatigue. He belonged here. He’d been a terrible person. He’d bullied Jacob and Malini mercilessly and almost got them killed helping Auriel. He’d led Amy Barger on, when deep inside he knew he didn’t like girls. Plus, there were his parents. He was such a disappointment to his family. What would they think of him when they found out he was gay?
If he wanted to help things, he should collapse on the floor this minute and stay there. He dropped to his knees and allowed his head to loll to his chest. In this position, he couldn’t help but notice a green smudge on the tail of his gray plaid shirt. A small thing, a simple thing, dirt and something green. A vivid memory of Archibald’s face, his chubby hand staining the material weeks ago, filled his mind. It had been a kindness to allow him that. What had the gnome said? The mark of a Soulkeeper wasn’t the power he possessed but the true gifts of kindness, loyalty, friendship, courage, and love.
The stain on his shirt reminded him of his true power. Dane raised his head to look at Cheveyo’s body. He thought of Ethan, the way he’d volunteered to help Bonnie fill in with his family. Malini needed him, too. Yes, he’d done some things he wasn’t proud of, and this cage was good at reminding him of those things, but his true gifts shown like stars against the backdrop of his past. Right now, he couldn’t waste another minute on the darkness.
Fortunately, the zoo was empty of Watchers; he supposed they were all distracted with Malini. Channeling Ghost, he blinked through the bars and into Cheveyo’s cell. With conviction, he pushed aside the neck of the rag sack the boy wore and lowered his hand to his bare chest.
“Come on, Cheveyo. Wake the hell up! It’s time to go home,” Dane said. He pressed his palm over the guy’s heart.
The tiniest niggle wormed at the back of his skull and then stilled.
“No way, my friend. I feel you back there. You can’t die on me, dude. Get the hell out of my head.” Dane reached deep inside and dragged the slip of a soul out, psychically tossing Cheveyo into his own body. The flesh jerked beneath his palm, and the boy gasped a bit, but nothing more. No matter how hard Dane shook Cheveyo or thumped his chest, he was unresponsive. Cheveyo’s soul had entered the body. He wasn’t dead. His heart beat steadily under Dane’s touch, and his chest rose and fell with every breath. But something was wrong. The Soulkeeper wouldn’t wake up.
“Damn. Looks like we do this the hard way.” Using Jacob’s water trick, Dane popped the lock to Cheveyo’s cell, careful to return every drop of the precious water to his flask. With brute strength, he heaved Cheveyo over his shoulder and stepped out of the cage. At the sight of the unguarded gate, compassion for the other prisoners got the best of him. Setting Cheveyo down, he bolted from cage to cage, unlocking the doors. Even with Soulkeeper speed, it took several minutes to reach them all. Of course, none of the prisoners moved. Based on how the cage had affected Dane, he suspected the long-term residents were permanently damaged. He didn’t have time to help them, but was comforted by the thought they might, somehow, be able to free themselves.
“Let’s go save the princess,” Dane said to Cheveyo’s limp body. He rolled the boy onto his back and started walking toward the entrance. “It would be a big help if you could carry your own weight. I mean that literally. Wake the eff up and give me a hand.”
Cheveyo didn’t even twitch in response.
“You weighed a lot less inside my head,” Dane said. He stepped into the empty train car, dumping Cheveyo’s body on the seats not meant for humans. The thought made him laugh. Nod was about to learn just how many rules he intended to break.
* * * * *
“Oh, darling, I can replace this for you if you swear your allegiance to me.” Lucifer pulled at the roots of Malini’s hair. All that was left were the roots. They’d cut the rest off in jagged chunks. Malini didn’t answer him or make eye contact. She knew better. Giving the devil the use of your words or your attention was never a good idea.
“I have to say, I’m disappointed.” Lucifer paced away from her, toward Auriel who sat on the throne rubbing her fingertips together. “I’d have thought you would fight harder. I overestimated your intelligence. Auriel and I had a bet on whether or not you’d fall for the Trojan horse routine. It’s been done to death, after all. But then, you’re young. You don’t remember, do you?”
He returned to her in a rush and ran a long fingernail up the side of her jaw. Lucifer was a blond Michelangelo’s David in a three-piece suit, attractive in a worldly way but equally deadly. He leaned his face in close to hers. “Do you know what Auriel wins for being right?” he whispered. “She gets the first taste of Healer flesh, your flesh.”
The smell of death surrounded her like a fog. He might look like art, but he smelled of decay. She closed her eyes and turned her head.
Auriel cackled from the platform. “Is it too early to indulge? I bet her blood is ambrosia.”
Lucifer grinned. “I’m afraid your prize is worthless. She’s extra spicy.”
“Oh? You think her insides will burn me the same as her outsides?” Auriel rose from her throne, adjusting the train of her gold dress behind her. She sighed and cocked her head. “What shall we do with her, if we can’t eat her?”
“I think our bird deserves a gilded cage.” He snapped his fingers and a gold birdcage formed around her. “We leave her in the street and go about our business while she slowly goes mad.”
Auriel circled her, dragging her fingers across the bars. “Won’t she die, Lucifer? We don’t want another Healer to be called because we didn’t feed her.”
He grabbed her by the chin roughly. “Not to worry, my sweet. Healers are ultra durable and, just to be safe, I’ve enchanted the bars to keep her alive without food, water, sleep, or anything else for that matter. Just alive, forever.”
Malini’s breathing quickened. Power or no power, the thought scared her. He was effectively burying her alive.
Lucifer inhaled deeply. “Mmmm, do you smell it, Auriel? Nothing is as intoxicating as a Healer’s fear.”
“Yummy,” she said. “But since I can’t eat her, I want something else.”
“What, my dear?”
“Her humiliation.”
“Done.”
Lucifer snapped his fingers and Malini was suddenly thankful for the cage. In the middle of Nod, thousands of Watchers closed in around her. And there was something else. The laughing and pointing wasn’t just about the cage or her shorn hair. Her clothes were gone. He’d left her naked inside her gilded tomb.
Lucifer had given Auriel exactly what she’d asked for.
Chapter 30
Revenge
Luck was on Dane’s side. The train car he’d chosen remained empty, and the few Watchers he spotted through the transparent walls seemed too distracted with their own business to notice him. Part of that could have been Ghost’s gift but, considering Cheveyo was laid out on the seat, he was apt to call it good fortune. But the real test of destiny was about to occur as the train stopped in the heart of Nod, and Dane exited near the back of a swarming mass of Watchers. Fortunately, they were swarming away from him, toward something in the street.
Holy shit! Malini, in a cage! What had they done to her? Her hair was gone, and she was naked.
Dane? Dane? Oh, God, please help me.
I’m coming, Malini. Hang on.
One good thing about Malini’s situation, the Watchers were completely distracted with her predicament. Dane dodged behind a building on the edge of the platform, wedging himself and Cheveyo between steel and a mass of thorny bushes. He jammed the boy’s body under the branches. “Sorry, buddy. You’re going to have a few scrapes, but it’s my best bet for saving you. Unless you’d rather wake up and help me kill these sons of bitches?”
Cheveyo stared unblinking.
“Okay, but you’re missing all the fun.”
As Jacob had taught him, Dane removed the flask from his ankle and poured the water into his hand, freezing it into the blade he was
most comfortable with. Unlike Jacob’s favorite broadsword, Dane, who was taller, found the long, curved blade of a katana more to his liking. He walked toward the crowd quite boldly, thinking he had one thing going for him that not even Lillian had predicted; the Watchers underestimated him.
His first strike sent two heads flying at the edge of the crowd of thousands. Destroyed, the Watchers crumpled to the sand, reduced to bubbling black pools. The other Watchers turned, panic erupting as they understood what was happening.
“Soulkeeper!” a female screeched.
“That’s right,” Dane growled. “Holy water. Now who’s next?” He circled right, moving along the edge of the crowd to put the city wall at his back.
Red fire rained in his direction, Watcher sorcery. He used Ethan’s gift to gently deter its course. It exploded harmlessly in the sand behind him. This small taste of success drove him forward into the slashing talons. Lillian’s gift surfaced as he spun and delivered a roundhouse kick to an attacking Watcher’s chest, flipped his sword under his arm, and sank his blade into the heart of another. The holy water did its duty, acting as an infection that spread from the inside out. The pierced Watcher imploded into ash. Dane flashed deeper into the crowd, avoiding a shower of cursed fire. He circled his blade, slicing three Watchers in half and blinking into thin air before the crowd could redirect their attack.
Watcher sorcery didn’t just burn. The fire would spread in him the way his holy water blade spread through them. But thanks to Ethan, he used his mind to push and shield while attacking with his katana. Control of the ice came from Jacob, but the art with which he wielded it was all Lillian’s. Wildly, he kicked, sliced, stabbed, and pushed until he was covered in black blood. He broke apart again, coming together even deeper inside the scrambling crowd.
“Dane! Behind you!” Malini yelled.
He dodged the spray of fire and relieved an ebony-haired Watcher of his head and then another of her wings. When he was knocked down, he stabbed and kicked his way back up. If he was attacked, he broke apart and came back together where they least expected. Lillian and Master Lee had taught him well. Pure instinct drove him on. The street ran with black blood.
How many had he killed? Twenty? Forty?
However many it was, the Watchers noticed, their self-serving natures kicking in. The circle around Dane widened as the fallen ran for safety, unwilling to risk their existence for each other. He made short work of the few who stayed behind. Driven by anger, they made rash errors and posed less of a challenge. He’d killed another half dozen by the time he reached the golden cage. With his back to the bars, he circled her.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Malini shiver. “Are you okay?”
“Dane, Lucifer is here, inside the building. You’re in great danger.”
Dane slashed another Watcher in two. And then, the challenge ended. None of them dared come within fifty feet. A few had flown to the tops of buildings, scanning the scene like vultures waiting for their prey to die. Others dodged inside, faces pressed to the windows. For a moment, Dane allowed himself to hope he might survive this suicide mission.
Like a wrecking ball, something big and black plowed into him, hauling him backward in the grip of a sulfur-smelling fog. When the haze settled, he was trapped behind glass like a bug. His catatonic body lay in a heap near his feet. Dane banged against the glass, but his ghostly hands were useless against his prison.
“No,” he cried, as the last frozen bits of the katana melted from his body’s hand into the streets of Nod.
Lucifer strode forward and delivered a kick to his lifeless ribs. “Didn’t remember I could do that, Dane?” Lucifer hissed. “I’ve tasted your soul. I can demand it at any time.” His black eyes took in the ruined streets of Nod, the black blood, ash, and writhing pieces of his army of darkness.
“You can’t hold him forever,” Malini said.
“I don’t need forever. Just long enough to tear his body apart.” Lucifer whistled. The nearest Watchers stopped their retreat and responded to his presence.
“Lucifer, how can we please you today,” a dark-haired Watcher said from a safe distance. His tone was disingenuous, and his eyes darted fearfully between Malini and Dane’s soul.
“All of this trouble must have left you quite hungry. Please.” Lucifer pointed a hand at Dane’s body. He brushed his wavy blond hair out of his blue eyes and smiled at his minions with an artificial radiance.
Slowly, the Watcher approached. He licked his lips. Another female stepped carefully behind him.
Lucifer tapped on the glass around Dane’s soul. “Enjoy the show. I know I will.” With a wave of his hand, two comfortable looking chairs appeared outside the closest building, and Auriel materialized at his side. He kissed her cheek and made himself comfortable. The Watchers took this as a sign and came out of hiding, cautiously closing in around them.
Dane stared across the mound of his body at Malini, still trapped inside her gilded cage. What was her plan? She was the Healer. She was supposed to know what to do. Right now, she just looked hopeless, collapsed in on herself in the center of her cage. Maybe it was what they’d done to her, the nudity and her hair. Or maybe the cage was like the one in the zoo, draining the hope from her. Decidedly, it didn’t matter the cause, as the two Watchers closed in and more filled the street around them, he needed her to snap out of it.
Malini, come on, he yelled inside his head. Snap out of it. Don’t you want to get out of here and show Jacob that sassy new haircut?
With her back turned to Lucifer, she began to weep. Her shoulders bobbed with each high-pitched sob.
“Malini. Don’t give up on me,” Dane pleaded.
The dark-haired male Watcher reached Dane’s body first and used his talon to strip a patch of skin from the shoulder. He slurped it down with a smack of his lips. The female caught up to him, hissing, “Save some for me.”
“Hey!” Dane yelled. “I have to live in that.”
Malini’s sobs picked up intensity. She stood, turning so he could see her face. She wasn’t crying at all, but laughing. “Leave the boy alone, or else.”
Her skeleton arm extended toward them, fingers bending, beckoning.
“Or else what? Your gift from Death can’t hurt them, Healer,” Lucifer said, rolling his eyes. “They’re not alive.”
“Neither are the people you’ve killed and buried here.” Malini’s husky voice had a badass quality worthy of her buzzed head. Dane’s heart leapt in his chest. She hadn’t given up. She’d simply stalled for time.
A heavy trudge came from the direction of the train, the sound of an advancing army. Thankfully, it was enough to make the Watchers look up from their meal. Dane tried to get a better look at the damage to his body from within his glass prison.
“Fu—” Lucifer’s curse was cut off by the howl of a Watcher at the back of the crowd.
Chaos broke out. Watchers scattered. At the edge of the crowd, unholy screams preceded geysers of black blood. Trapped under glass, Dane couldn’t see Malini’s army of the dead behind the crowd, but he could guess the damage. A head rolled near his feet, and a disembodied arm made an awful splat near Lucifer’s head.
Lucifer charged into his minions. With a powerful sweeping motion, he parted the crowd and sent Malini’s zombies tumbling like bowling pins. Dane had a clear view of the dead, mostly bones and half eaten flesh. Was this the end? Had Lucifer destroyed their last hope of escape?
Slowly, the bones stood back up. They kept coming. Lucifer ripped more apart, only for the bones to come back together. The other Watchers joined in the fight. Even Auriel got off her chair and attacked the dead. The two crouched over Dane’s body mercifully became distracted by the fight. They abandoned their meal to watch the dead be dismembered by the Watchers who’d filled the street—burned with sorcery or pulled limb from limb.
Dane cast a worried glance toward Malini, whose skin had begun to blister. She bared her teeth. He turned back toward the battle. Another wa
ve of dead joined the fray. Black blood sprayed across his glass enclosure.
“It’s working! Keep ‘em coming, Mal!” Dane cheered.
Auriel panicked, wielding a terrible flaming sword at the dead, and grinned broadly as they burst into flame. The burning dead didn’t run. Bones blazing, they continued forward, skeletons of death, tearing apart anything in their path. A few desperate howls rose up from Watchers who’d failed to escape in time, including the dark-haired Watcher and the female. They sizzled in the unholy flames before being shredded by the crowd of undead.
“My Lord, perhaps we should take shelter inside,” Auriel said, pulling on Lucifer’s elbow.
He cast her off of him, his fury filling the streets of Nod. Pivoting, he glared at the source of the army of dead, Malini. “Enough.” The force of his attack was so great that he dropped the spell around Dane, who slammed back into his body just in time to see the gilded cage ignite into green flames.
“Lord God, NO!” he yelled.
Chin to his chest, Lucifer spread his lips from his multitude of sharp teeth. He turned back toward the army of the dead. “Auriel, take care of our pest.”
Dane didn’t hesitate. He rolled to the nearest piece of junk he could use as a weapon, a section of metal scrap with a jagged edge. Flipping to the balls of his feet, he faced Auriel head on.
She laughed wickedly. “Oh, Dane, are you some kind of hero now. Please. I own you. I’ve always owned you. You are nothing, NOTHING, but a country bumpkin with a thing for boys.” She swung her sword of fire at his torso.
With Soulkeeper speed, he dodged her attack, stabbing toward her abdomen. He missed.
“The problem, Auriel,” he said, dodging her attack, “is you never really knew me at all.” He somersaulted backward. She drove him toward the wall of the city. “If you had, you would know not to underestimate me.”
He opened himself up, and she stabbed toward his torso. But just as her fiery blade threatened to skewer his heart, he used Ghost’s power to break apart and form behind her. He stabbed the chunk of metal through the center of her spine and twisted. The junk wasn’t blessed. It wouldn’t kill her. But Dane was sure it hurt.
