Path of the Horseman

by Amy Braun

  I shouldn’t have broken my own rules, but I wanted her to be comfortable. Being the happy, hopeful girl she always was must have been exhausting. She could pretend otherwise, but this world was fucked. Hope took its toll on even the truest believer.

  My hand gently rested on the side of Maddy’s temple. Her hair was amazingly soft.

  I let just a hint of black smoke seep from my fingers into her head. I concentrated on the neurons in Maddy’s brain, switching them off so her sleep became heavier. She sighed and slumped under my touch, but wasn’t hurt.

  Maddy was the first person I’d ever used my powers on without trying to hurt them. It felt good to remember that I didn’t have to poison everything I touched. I just wished I could do more for everyone else.

  My thumb moved down to the skin of Maddy’s temple. I stroked it gently, moving closer to her eyebrow and enjoying the softness of her skin.

  I knew I shouldn’t be touching her without permission, that it was weird to watch her sleep, and that Josh would flay me alive if he woke up and saw this, but I couldn’t help myself. When I deepened Maddy’s sleep, I was able to feel her strong heartbeat. Her vitality and life. She was healthy and pure, beautiful inside and out. I didn’t have to see her soul to know it was there, and just as perfect as the rest of her.

  I was drawn to Maddy. Every time I saw her, my heart seemed to lift. I listened to everything she said, just to hear her voice. When she was near me, I wanted her to be closer.

  If my implanted memories were telling me this was growing into what I thought it was, I was in big trouble.

  “What are you doing?”

  I jumped and pulled my hand back from Maddy when I heard Simon. I glanced over my shoulder at him, probably looking like the kid whose hand was in the cookie jar. I slid back to my place by the pillow wall.

  “Helping her sleep,” I said. “Thought it was obvious.”

  “Bullshit,” argued Simon.

  I looked at him, and could tell he was still pissed at me.

  “You’re getting attached. That is the worst possible thing you can do.”

  “Care to explain?”

  “I shouldn’t have to. Think about where we live. Think about who our enemies are. Hell, think about our damn brothers. Do you really think she can survive all that?”

  I gave him a warning glare. “She’s stronger than you think.”

  “I’m not saying she isn’t. But she’s human, Avery. One of these days, Logan’s going to come for her, and you won’t be able to stop him.”

  Simon leaned back against the shelves and crossed his arms.

  “And even if none of that was an issue, do you think she’d be okay with knowing you destroyed her world and everyone in it? Maddy’s a girl with a heart of gold, but you can’t tell me she would forgive that.”

  At that moment, I hated Simon. I hated him because he was right. I was even a little peeved at Maddy. She put good feelings in me, and made me think about the positives in life.

  I should have started talking to Josh more. Or Logan, the pessimist.

  “We need to walk away, Ave,” continued Simon. His voice was gentler than before. “Now, before it’s too late. You’re hooked on Maddy, and soon enough I might start giving a shit. I don’t want to do that.”

  “Because you’re a happy introvert?”

  “No,” Simon replied without too much impatience. “Because when these humans start dying, I don’t want to feel the pain of missing them.”

  My expression was neutral, but my heart and mind were shot. I couldn’t imagine a world without Maddy. Even though I didn’t believe in this haven she was desperate to find, I wanted Maddy to survive. She was the kind of person we’d been hoping would arrive for the Second Coming.

  A strong, good innocent soul.

  But Simon had a point. The longer I stayed with these humans, the higher the chance that Ciaran would find them and kill them. Though on the flip side, if we left, they would be vulnerable to not just demons, but Plagued and Soulless again. One of Ciaran’s lackeys might be eating dirt at the resort right now, but Ciaran probably knew there were fresh human souls on the run.

  No matter what we did, people would die.

  “Let’s get them to this haven thing,” I muttered. “If it’s a trap, maybe we can take out Ciaran and his Lost Boys. If not, then they’ll be mostly safe. We’ll go from there.”

  I wasn’t going to ask Simon if he wanted to go with me. I knew what his answer would be.

  He read my expression, knowing that I couldn’t come up with a decision. Not now. Not after I’d seen Maddy sleep, touched her face, felt all the life inside of her. Simon was right about getting attached. But the more I let it happen, the less I wanted to let go.

  “You’re going to regret this, Avery.”

  “Probably,” I admitted, taking a firm pillow from the shelf behind me and tossing it onto the ground. I took out a knife from my belt and slid it under the pillow. “But I’ll worry about that when shit starts hitting the fan.”

  I put my back to Maddy and lay down with the top of my head pointed at Simon. I folded my arms across my chest and closed my eyes.

  This was the perfect position to fake sleep in. Maddy wouldn’t know I’d been watching her, and Simon wouldn’t see that I was getting nervous and paranoid.

  ***

  My human body must have been exhausted because I did get a few hours of sleep. I only woke up because someone was screaming.

  I pitched upward, holding the knife and letting my senses sharpen. Maddy and Josh were gone, but Simon was standing at the end of the aisle looking into the store. He heard me moving and glanced back.

  “Someone’s missing.”

  I pushed to my feet and grabbed my rucksack. “Is it Maddy?”

  “No,” Simon replied, shaking his head. “One of the other ones. That Theo kid, I think.”

  Holstering my knife, I walked out of the aisle and followed the raised voice. Simon was walking behind me, because what else was he going to do?

  The humans were freaking out at the front of the store. Maddy and Gwen were huddling around Laurel, who had turned into a personification of panic. She was shaking and crying. Her breathing was basically a string of sharp gasps, and her eyes were as red as her mussed hair.

  Jerry, Ricardo, and Josh were standing away from Laurel, looking at the ground like they were incredibly uncomfortable around the hysterical woman. It was shitty of me, but I couldn’t say I blamed them. Then I realized it wasn’t Laurel that was making the guys look awkward.

  It was the dragging, bloody stain leading out of the door.

  “He said he’d be right back,” Laurel choked out. “I was getting my stuff to go with him, and then when I came back, he was gone.”

  “Why was he going anywhere?” Simon asked.

  The humans turned sharply, not having heard us come up. Maddy’s eyes cut to mine. I knew she’d gotten a much deeper sleep, but she still looked tired as hell. I didn’t look at her for longer than a couple seconds. Simon’s words continued to do-si-do through my head.

  “He thought he heard a noise,” Josh answered, likely having heard this already from Laurel and not wanting to make her repeat herself. “Laurel was about to go with him when she saw the blood. She ran for us and woke us up.”

  “How long has he been gone?” was my question.

  “She woke us up about five minutes ago,” Ricardo said. “Can’t imagine he could have gotten that far, but he’s not in the parking lot.”

  “And you haven’t been outside yet.”

  Josh’s gaze narrowed to the point of laser beams. “We were just about to.”

  “Well, now you’ve got two extra hands. Let’s go.”

  “Shouldn’t someone stay here?” asked Jerry nervously.

  “The whole disappearing thing kinda kills the appeal of the supermarket, don’t you think?” I pointed out as I walked to the front door.

  It was already open, so crossing the threshold and gettin
g back outside was a piece of cake. Josh’s crew hadn’t barricaded the door, because we never had any intention of staying here longer than a night, and if we needed an exit, we always intended to use the back doors that were closer to where we’d hunkered down. The front doors had been nothing more than locked, and the Plagued weren’t smart enough to flick a switch, let alone find a door lock.

  The night air was cold but welcome to my lungs. None of the streetlights worked any more, so I was staring into near pitch blackness. My vision was better than your average mortal’s, but it didn’t make me Superman.

  I stood there for a long time, staring at darkness but listening for the real dangers. Shuffling feet. Low hissing. A distant scream. I got nothing but a whole lot of darkness.

  Halogen lights exploded behind me. The front half of the parking filled with a spooky, pale glow that created tall shadows in abandoned cars. Now that I was really looking, I could see bloody fingerprints smeared on their dusty windows.

  But the amount of blood in the forgotten vehicles was minimal compared to the fresh blood stained on the ground. It trailed deeper in the shadows on the left of the store like a gory red carpet. Things weren’t looking good for Theo. Laurel whimpered.

  Someone lifted a torch and illuminated the strip mall in front of the bus. The bloody path narrowed and curved again, going into one of the shops. I started walking beside the trail.

  Simon picked up the pace until he was walking right at my side with his bow.

  “What do you think it is?” he asked quietly.

  “Can’t be a Plagued,” I mumbled back. “They’d just attack him. They wouldn’t drag him around. If he were bitten, we’d have found him beginning to turn by now.”

  “So it’s Soulless.”

  I looked at Simon. “Could be.”

  His dark eye found mine. He caught the “or demons” missing from that sentence.

  “Do you think he’s still alive?” Maddy asked from behind me.

  I hated the urgent hope in her voice. At least I didn’t have to look at her, so I could mostly skip the truth. I slowed down in front of the shop where the blood trail began to turn. My hand went over my shoulder, grabbed the handle of the machete, and pulled it free.

  “We’re about to find out.”

  Simon raised his bow, taking out an arrow from the quiver on his back and placing it against the string. Josh came up to my left, his AR-15 raised. He didn’t turn his head in my direction, but I was glad he was in total military mode. There was a strange comfort in knowing even people who hate you will back you up for the greater good.

  Since I was prepared for close combat, I took the first steps. I pressed my side to the wall of the shop, which turned out to be a bank. The doors were open, and the blood was loosely smeared near the entrance. Looked like Theo escaped his attackers and tried to run, but was beaten and dragged again. The windows of the bank were boarded up, so while the things in the bank couldn’t see us, we couldn’t see them either.

  I lifted the machete to the side of my arm, perfect for swinging, and turned into the bank.

  Nothing jumped out at me, but I nearly slipped in all the bloodstains.

  The tile floor was covered in dark red splotches, though only one of them was still fresh. Angry red lines were slashed on the walls, like someone had cut a thousand throats in this building and wanted to leave their work on display.

  Copper and sour rot stung my nose. Some of the humans behind me gagged or coughed into their hands. The light from their torches brightened the shadows in the bank, revealing lifeless arms and chunks of human meat in corners and behind desks, and more blood smears on the office doors. The bodies in here were probably a sad mix of the people who’d been trapped in here when the horror show started, and those who thought they’d found a safe place to escape it.

  I took a couple more slow, but confident steps when I heard the muffled, wet crunching noise. I turned my head sharply in its direction. It was coming from one of the offices in the narrow hallway. One of the flashlight beams began shaking, thanks to someone’s nervous hand. Someone else lowered their light, and showed a giant pool of blood staining the tile. It looked like the end of the trail we’d been following.

  Sorry, Theo.

  I walked into the hallway, following the noise, ready to make some angry swings and let undead heads roll.

  Funny thing I learned about anger right then. It makes humans, and beings implanted with human brains, incredibly fucking stupid.

  The office door behind me exploded open, and the Soulless was on me before I had even fully turned around. He was a heavy motherfucker, and his way of greeting new people was to drive his claws into their ribs and start tearing.

  I landed on my right side, the machete trapped underneath me. It was agony to move thanks to the claws stabbing my side, but I swung my elbow back and clocked the Soulless in the jaw. He snarled, and after a sharp burst of gunfire, his head exploded.

  Too bad he wasn’t the only one playing hide and seek.

  Every office door smashed open, making the humans scream and turning the silent bank into a room of chaos. Soulless men and women shrieked and flung themselves at the humans. The group quickly moved back to back, a technique Josh had probably drilled into them on day one. They were brave and as organized as they could be under the circumstances, but the Soulless were tough and fast.

  I was rolling to my feet, ignoring the pain in my side, when one of the Soulless lunged forward and grabbed Jerry’s outstretched arm. The man screamed as he was yanked away, thrown from the circle and headfirst into a glass window. There was a sharp, sickening crack that spider-webbed the glass, and blood slicked down the broken pane as Jerry landed face first on the floor.

  The Soulless shouldered its way into Jerry’s place, getting into the center of the circle to devour his kill. The humans turned their backs on the other monsters, panicking now that they had a hungry tic at their backs. Simon looped the string of his bow around the Soulless’ neck and yanked him back, driving his knee into the monster’s spine to bend him further, and finally pulled the metal stake from his belt and stabbed it into the eye of the Soulless.

  While he was taking care of the group’s back, I was getting some vengeance from the front. I rushed a the Soulless woman charging for Gwen, grabbing a fistful of her hair and pulling her back. She thrashed and screamed, stopping when I shoved my machete through her spine and out of her chest. I twisted the blade, yanked it free, and hacked off her head, saving the human woman.

  I heard Josh’s rifle click empty and turned in his direction. He was going for another weapon, but the lanky Soulless teenager rushing him was going to be much faster. I gave into my quicker reflexes, and yanked a combat knife from my belt and hurled it at the Soulless teen. The monster skidded to a stop when the knife slammed into the side of his throat. Josh finished pulling out his sidearm, and put a bullet right between the Soulless teen’s eyes.

  For a split second, I thought we’d be okay. Sure, we walked into a devastating trap and two of the humans were now dead, but we were fighting back. The Soulless that Ricardo, Gwen, and Laurel couldn’t hit were being taken care of by Maddy and Josh. Simon was a machine, blocking punches and kicks with his bow, then coming back with brutal stabs with his stake. I was in the thick of it all, taking on the larger parts of the crowd and cutting off anything I could. We were wounding and killing Soulless, and there couldn’t have been that many of them in the bank.