by Amy Braun
It suddenly became easier to move, and I could hear voices overhead. I stopped slicing and started pushing, finally seeing the light of day and getting a taste of slightly fresher air.
Hands shoved past the rotting, poisonous dead and fumbled along my face. It tickled, and I started laugh. Or I tried to, anyway. It was more of a hack. The bodies continued to be pushed and pulled off of us, and then the hands were back, grabbing my shirt and pulling me to my feet. I was dizzy when I managed to stand, a small palm pressing against my gore covered chest to hold me up. I blinked to clear my vision, and looked at the person holding me up.
Maddy’s cute, angry pout made me grin. She scowled and pushed me.
“You crazy jerk,” she snapped. “I thought you were dead.”
“Nah,” I replied. “Just getting my Carrie costume ready.”
I smiled, and amazingly, she didn’t scream. She just rolled her eyes and went to check on Simon. Josh was helping him up while eyeing me suspiciously. Behind them, I saw the remaining humans huddling by the bus. A few Plagued corpses were nearby, but the majority were behind me. Looked like Simon and I had done our jobs as exterminators.
“How the hell are you two still breathing?” he asked.
“We’re badasses. Duh.”
Josh wasn’t amused. I didn’t care. I stood by Simon and put my hand on his shoulder. “You okay, Sime?”
Splotches of blood matted his dark hair and stained his face. His clothes were torn and scratched. His neck had been healed to keep from dying, but there were still small bite marks and bruises on his throat. He clutched his stake tightly, looking ready to drive it through my eye.
“This is why I don’t like hanging out with you.”
I took my hand back and smirked. “At least you’ll never be bored around me.”
Simon scoffed and stomped away. I felt a little guilty. Simon had wanted to be left alone, but I blew up his home and food stash and nearly got him killed. Somehow I didn’t think a box of Cheerios could fix this anymore.
Maddy slipped in front of me, looking at my injuries. I felt a little bit better than road kill since I cheated with my powers, but I was still dizzy and a little tender.
“Please tell me the bus is almost ready,” I said.
Her deep blue eyes went to mine. “Yeah. Ricardo and Jerry are working on the last tires. The exhaust leak is fixed.” She frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Peachy keen, Mads.”
She blinked. “Mads?”
“Yeah. Everybody calls you Maddy and you probably get called Madeline when you’re in trouble, so I want to call you something else. You don’t like it?”
Maddy smirked. “I could get used to it.” Her smile didn’t last long. “Seriously, how did you survive that? It was weird. One minute you were moving normally, then the next you’re the freaking Terminator. You walked off that first bite like nothing, and you’re still standing after being clawed and pummeled. There’s no way a normal person can survive that.”
I liked Maddy. I really did. She was tough, smart, and fun. It made lying to her a real pain in the ass.
“You’ve seen the way the world is. If you’re not rough with it, you die in it.”
She couldn’t argue that, but she didn’t seem to believe me. I was too exhausted and sore to think of anything else, and I didn’t like the way Josh was hovering behind Maddy. He looked like he was just waiting for me to slip up and make an excuse so he could punch me.
If he knew the truth though, he wouldn’t punch me. He would shoot me.
“Well, I don’t know about you kids, but I’m ready to blow this lemonade stand,” I said, brushing past them and making my way for the bus. Simon stood by the door, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared impatiently at me. “The lemons here turned out to be too sour to–”
I didn’t see him coming until it was too late. Neither did Simon.
The demon appeared in a spiral of snowy ash, and stabbed my brother in the ribs.
Chapter 7
Right then, I didn’t give a fuck about hiding the truth from the humans. I cared about the fucker holding the knife in my big brother’s ribs, and the agony painted on Simon’s face.
It was a demon I had never seen before, but I knew he belonged to Ciaran and Vance’s crew. As far as I knew, they were the only demons on this side of the earth. I didn’t know how many Ciaran had for his roll call, but he was going to be short one tonight.
The demon, a barrel chested man wearing a black overcoat ripped off from The Matrix, looked away from Simon when he saw me running. He grinned and twisted the blade deeper into my brother’s side. Simon clutched at the demon’s wrist and tried to pull the weapon out, but the demon was stronger than he was. He waited until I was just feet away before he pushed Simon onto the ground.
I swung my machete as hard as I could, but the demon ducked the blow. The blade smashed into the side of the bus with a loud screech as metal bit into metal. The demon stepped back, laughing as I tried to pull out the blade.
I didn’t waste a lot of time on that. Taking out the blade meant turning my eyes to where Simon was lying. That meant looking at the knife sticking from him, and all the blood pooling under his body.
So I left the machete in the side of the bus, and fought back with my hands. My elbow swung wide, just grazing the demon’s jaw. He kept his hands loose, smiling wide while his eyes glittered like hot coals. I kicked for his ribs, but he blocked me. I punched at his head, and he blocked that too.
Demons never held back. They were proud of what they were, and had no trouble showing off in front of humans. I was starting to get to that point, rage splintering through my self-control. If I lost it, I would end up killing every single person on the resort grounds, and not have enough power to save Simon.
The demon surprised me by grabbing my outstretched wrist and pulling me closer. He punched me solidly in the chest. I was surprised his fist didn’t go straight through me. I launched my fist into his ribs. The strike connected, but the demon held my arm in place. He yanked me closer again to head-butt me, but I lifted my knee and drove it into his stomach. Air left him in a huff, and the grip on my arms loosened. I swept my arms around to free them, then clamped both hands around the demon’s neck.
Try your disappearing act now, asshole.
I slammed the demon into the side of the bus making sure his head pounded against the rusted metal. I dashed him with it again and again and again, until his head was lolling around on his shoulders. Then I tightened my grip, swung him around, and drove him into the ground.
I pinned him easily, and he was too stunned to stop anything I did. I held his neck with one hand, then pounded my other fist into his face.
I let myself lose control. I wanted to break him. I wanted him to be in just as much pain as my brother was. I wanted him to suffer. It had been a long time since I felt this kind of anger, and now I refused to let it go.
The only thing that stopped me was the weak, desperate cry behind me. I stopped the beating, holding my fist in mid-air and looked at my brother.
He was lying on his back, his hands at his side, struggling to push Maddy and the others away. He didn’t want them to help, either because he didn’t trust them, or he knew they couldn’t save him.
I turned back to the demon, made sure no one was watching me, and pulled down the collar of the black shirt the demon was wearing. I shoved my hand into his chest, and let him have a hearty dose of costochondritis. The demon reacted immediately, clutching his chest and gasping for air. Every time he did, he coughed. Every time he coughed, the pain increased, and the cycle started again. I leaned down until our noses were almost touching.
“Stay right fucking here, coal-eater. I’m coming back.”
I punched him in the right lung, and dosed him with round two of the disease. The fucker wouldn’t be able to escape thanks to the pain.
Barking an order for Ricardo and Gwen to watch him, I rushed to Simon’s side. The closer
I got, the better I could hear what he was mumbling.
“Don’t… Go… Leave… don’t want…”
I shouldered past the humans and knelt beside him. Maddy looked at me with confusion. She was holding a white strip of gauze in her hand, eager to apply it to Simon’s steadily bleeding side.
“He’s not letting me touch him,” she told me. “Why isn’t he letting me help?”
I looked at Simon’s face, and immediately understood.
When we lost control of our emotions, we lost control of our powers. Anger, fear, desperation, they made us forget about the human bodies we were in and reminded us of what we really were. Venting for us usually meant something catastrophic. Simon was on the edge. The single touch of a human would remind him how fragile he was, something he didn’t want to be. My sharper eyesight let me see the tiny wisps of smoke leeching out of his pores. He opened his dark eyes to mine, begging me to help him. I was in relative control now that I’d turned the coal-eater back there into a punching bag.
“Go watch the other guy,” I told Maddy. “I’ll look after him.”
“Avery,” she hesitated.
I raised my head and looked at her sharply. She flinched.
“I said go. Take the others with you.”
Maddy didn’t need to be told twice. She placed the gauze onto the ground and hurried away. She whispered to the human pack, who followed her without complaint or question. Once they were gone, I reached over Simon’s body and placed my hands on the hilt of the knife. I looked at Simon.
“I have to take the knife out,” I told him grimly, silently praying that Logan wasn’t lurking over my shoulder.
“Then… do it…”
I didn’t wait for him to tell me again. I yanked the blade free. Simon gasped and gritted his teeth while I slapped my hands over his side. Sticky blood warmed my hands.
I didn’t hesitate with my power. The humans couldn’t see me, and my smoke wouldn’t hurt Simon. I concentrated on the damaged skin, torn muscle, and bleeding kidney. I let the black smoke filter into his body and repair it all. Simon winced, but didn’t try to move my hands. I concentrated, feeling every ripped part of him knit back together.
In a couple minutes, Simon’s injury was healed over to a simple knotted scar. It would take me too long to replace the blood his body had lost, but I also knew that we had appearances to keep. I grabbed the gauze that Maddy had dropped and started wrapping Simon’s wound.
“It was a fucking demon,” Simon said. His voice returning to a shaky whisper was a sign of improvement.
“I know,” I muttered back.
“First one I’ve seen since the Tribulation. He scared the shit out of me. I could feel myself losing it, and then all those people were crowding me…” Simon closed his eyes. “I almost fucking lost it, Avery. I was ready to kill them all.”
I kept silent as I finished wrapping his now nonexistent wound. There was enough blood on his clothes and skin to be absorbed into the bandage and make it look like he was still hurt.
“But you didn’t,” I pointed out. “That’s all that matters.”
Simon opened his eyes and looked at me. “What the fuck do they want?”
“Good question.” I tightened the bandage then stood up and held out my hand. Simon took it and let me pull him to his feet. He grunted and swayed, placing one hand on his hurting ribs. But he could stand on his own, and he was still breathing.
“Let’s go ask.”
I let go of my brother and walked toward the humans crowding the writing demon.
“Thank you, Avery.”
I turned my head ever so slightly and nodded once. Then I walked toward the demon that was circled by the humans. I brushed shoulders with them again, but they were more than happy to back away from me. I was covered in blood, armed, and pissed. I had the universal look “Fuck Off Or Die” plastered on my face.
Josh had his rifle trained on the demon’s pulped face, but the demon was in too much pain to notice. His breath sounded like it was coming out of a metal can. He rolled and coughed and gagged, turning onto his side and coughing up blood.
“Jesus, man,” Ricardo said. “You fucked him up.”
“He stabbed my brother,” I replied without looking at the human. “What did you think I was going to do?”
Nobody argued with me, and now they knew how far I would go to protect my family. Even if we didn’t get along. I took another step into the circle and knelt by the demon. I pushed him roughly onto his back, then flicked the side of his head. The demon sputtered, tiny drops of blood flipping up from his lips. I hoped he could picture my hate filled stare even with his eyes closed.
“Talk,” I demanded.
The demon groaned, screwing his face so his lips curled upward. The coal-eater was trying to smile at me.
“Ciaran has… been looking… for you,” he wheezed. “He’ll… have you all… soon.”
Simon and I were the only ones who knew what Ciaran was, so I didn’t know if this Neo-wannabe meant the super demon was coming after Simon, me, or the humans we’d been hanging out with.
Or all of the above. Demons wanted anything they could sink their rotten claws into.
“What does he want?” I asked. The costochondritis would have stagnated by now, the intensity of the pain now reaching his central organs. He was in the middle of a full-blown heart attack.
Yet the sulfur sucking prick still found the will to open his eyes and smile at me.
“Everything.”
The demon started laughing again, purposefully causing himself more pain until his coughs became his only source of inhalation. He gagged and hacked, spewing blood and choking on it. Finally, his wheezes became too sharp for his body to endure. He shuddered out one more gasp, then went still. I watched his burning coal eyes glaze over and stare vacantly at the sun burning a hole in the sky.
“What the fuck was he?” Josh’s strong voice had a shake to it.
There was no point in lying. He saw the man appear from a sudden pillar of ash, heard what he said, and saw the strangeness of his eyes. He knew this dead thing lying on the resort grounds wasn’t human any more than it was another monster he’d seen.
“He was a demon,” I confessed.
The air was still. Everyone was staring at me. I looked up and saw Simon putting a hand on his side. His jaw was set like he wanted to argue with me, but he was too tired to make the effort.
“Did you say ‘demon’?” Theo repeated. He must have come up behind us after the drama finished.
“Yeah. It’s a long story. Best told on a drive.”
Josh’s expression was harder than steel. He didn’t want me along for the ride, but I knew things he didn’t know. He couldn’t protect his people if he didn’t know about all the dangers in the world.
“Then we’d better start the road trip,” he said.
***
Simon was able to play the part of a wounded warrior to a tee. He sat by the window near the front of the bus with me. Ricardo was driving the newly repaired Rust Bus, while the others stayed in the front to listen with rapt attention. Josh was gripping the tattered seats of the bus, like it was all he could do to keep from hitting something. Maddy was hunched over, taking every word we said with a dose or horror and a pinch of fascination.
Simon wasn’t really in a talking mood, so I explained most of the truths about demons. I told them they’d come out during the Tribulation, they were smart and devious, and summoning them took some blood and knowing their true name. I then advised them that if they ever did it, I’d personally track them down and beat them to a pulp.
