by Amy Braun
Ciaran smiled, tipping his chin. “Yes, you did.”
Honestly, I couldn’t see the point in lying about that. I’d been hunting for Ciaran, wanting to kill him and take out all his Soulless in one shot. But the fucker had found me first, and trapped me in a position I wasn’t sure I could escape.
Shouts and hisses began to build upstairs. All of us, even Ciaran and Vance, looked up. Vance sighed. “Fucking useless tic,” he muttered. “Probably hungry again.” He looked at Ciaran. “Should I feed them?”
“No,” replied the Paladin. “Go see what they want, then silence them however you see fit.”
Vance grinned, coal eyes flashing with excitement. Give a demon a chance to torture and mutilate something, and he’ll be your most loyal friend.
After Vance left the room, Ciaran locked his burning eyes on me.
“While I’m sure Vance would love to be here for the grand reveal, why don’t you share the truth with your new friends, Avery? Their minds are probably swimming right now.”
I set my jaw, wishing I could use my anger as a weapon. It could have turned Ciaran inside out.
“Avery?” Maddy’s voice was softer now. She was getting scared. “What is he accusing you of?”
I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t. The moment I did, I would probably end up telling the truth. And then she would hate me.
Ciaran didn’t have any qualms about that.
“Why, I’m accusing him of starting the end of the world, my dear girl. I’m saying that he’s the one who poisoned that patient in the science lab. He was the creator of the virus that desolated everything you know.”
The pounding feet over our heads became the only sound.
“No,” Maddy breathed. “Avery’s human, and he wouldn’t…”
She trailed off when Ciaran looked at her. “Is he? I’m assuming he told you about some disease that spared him from that Soulless. An easy lie for him, considering he can create any disease he wishes to create. Even retroviruses that infect and reanimate the dead. A Pestilence, you might say.”
My heart was pounding in my chest. It should have been easy to refute what he was saying. All I had to do was look scared and call him crazy. But Ciaran would be one step ahead of me, because he was telling the truth.
“The Horsemen don’t exist,” Ricardo whispered.
Ciaran laughed. “Oh, I assure you they do. Two of them are before you. The human skin they wear is nothing more than a disguise. It’s nothing compared to their true form. Why do you think I didn’t allow them to sit on the wall beside you? I wouldn’t put such valuable human lives next to two of the universe’s most terrifying creations.”
“You can’t prove this,” Maddy said. But I heard the doubt in her voice.
Ciaran grinned. “Of course I can. Allow me to demonstrate.”
Before I could say anything, before I could even process the fucking demon’s words, Ciaran raised his right hand. Black edged demonfire spiraled out of his palms, turning into small spears as he spread his fingers. He clenched his hand and released the flames, every single one of them blurring past me and digging into Simon’s chest.
My brother screamed and collapsed onto his back, the blistering flames eating at his clothes and into his skin. Demonfire wasn’t like regular fire. It burned until the demon controlling it decided to put out the blaze. Ciaran could make it burn Simon forever if he wanted to. My brother screamed and twisted on the ground, trying to put the flames out. I ran for him, but the Soulless guards holding me yanked me back, one of them digging his claws into my shoulder and searing my arm with pain.
Ciaran stood calmly, ignoring the shouts of mercy from the humans. He twisted his hand, drawing up the smoke from Simon’s burning skin and clothes. He manipulated it with ease, sending it onto Simon’s mouth and nose. Simon clenched his eyes shut and tried to cough, but the black smoke was smothering him. Every time he opened his mouth, I saw it churning in there, like fog over an endless abyss.
I thrashed against my captors, trying to take Ciaran’s attention off my brother.
“As much as I want you and the rest of your brothers, Avery, this one here is expendable.” Ciaran moved his hand again, spreading the demonfire over Simon. My brother opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He was starting to turn blue. The heavy noises over us became more aggressive.
“What the fuck do you want?!” I shouted.
Ciaran’s smile was heartless when he turned it on me.
“I want you to save him, of course. Unless you enjoy watching him suffer.”
The smell of Simon’s burning skin filled the air. His eyes were closed. He was barely moving anymore.
Giving in and showing my true self was what Ciaran wanted. To save my brother meant another victory from him. But Simon was being tortured to death.
Power surged inside me, pushing out through my skin and twisting around my body. Someone breathed sharply and swore. Ciaran grinned.
I stopped caring what the humans saw and didn’t see. Let them hate me. I wouldn’t let my brother die–
A loud crack rumbled above us, sending a violent ripple through the ceiling and shaking dust onto our heads. No way would Ciaran let Vance break his toys, and no Soulless was strong enough to make the floorboards shake like that.
The noise surprised even Ciaran, who looked up from killing my brother.
I didn’t hesitate, and I let go. Power exploded off of me, a thick black smoke peeling away and burning into the Soulless holding me. They screamed as black smoke slipped into their pores, hunting down their organs and twisting into them. I filled every organ I could find, then made it explode. Blood spewed out of the Soulless mouths, their screams turning into horrible gurgles as they collapsed and convulsed in agony. All the humans screamed.
I didn’t pay attention to them. I couldn’t even see them with all the power flowing off of me. I couldn’t hold onto this power for much longer. I needed to find the demon and kill him.
He found me first.
He moved too fast for me to see, and I didn’t know how close he was until his hand coiled around my throat. Ciaran created the Soulless, and he had built up an immunity to my poison. It would take all of my strength to kill him, and I didn’t have that much left to spare. He knew this, and squeezed my neck so hard I thought he snapped it. Ciaran lifted me like I was a ragdoll, and slammed me onto the floor.
My hands were still cuffed behind my back, so I couldn’t stop Ciaran when he filled his hand with demonfire and punched me in the chest. Something inside my human body cracked, and it was hard to breathe. The ball of demonfire around Ciaran’s fist suddenly twitched. Thin spikes of fire exploded off the edges and sank into me. I gasped, my scream catching in my throat. More people were shouting, but I didn’t know who or where they were.
Ciaran kept his fist on my chest, letting the blazing spikes twist and churn into me until they became hooks. I could feel them digging under layers of skin while boiling my blood and searing my nerves. The pain was so sharp and intense that my control slipped. I lost hold of my power, cursing my human body again. The moment the smoke slipped back into my skin, the agony tripled. It felt like someone was trying to sew molten lava into my chest.
“I was going to feed you to the wolves, Avery. But it looks like Simon will have to take your place.”
Ciaran pulled his hand up, drawing the demonfire hooks with him. He pulled slowly, making me give in and scream. Then he smiled, and gave one hard, final yank. This time he pulled the hooks out, along with chunks of my skin. Hot blood pumped out of the thumb sized wounds in my chest, my heart stuttering in a panic as it tried to figure out what to do. I kept hearing screams and even louder bangs, but it was all white noise to me. I could barely see, let alone understand what was going on around me.
Then Ciaran’s weight was pulled from me. I was almost numb from the pain swelling over my heart, but through my blurring eyes, I noticed someone hovering over me. It looked like Simon. Whoever it was put their hands on
my chest.
“Hang on, Ave.”
I felt his smoke drift into me. I don’t know where he got the strength to do it, but I would have jumped for joy if I could have moved. The smoke tingled like icy frost, pulling my damaged muscles together and freezing them in place. That and all the pain was a sensory overload, and I nearly blacked out.
Simon grabbed my shoulders and shook me.
“Hey, stay awake, Ave. We need you awake. You need to–”
“Well, well, well, look what we have here.”
I cringed at the deep, rough voice in the background, and wished I would pass out. Instead, I opened my eyes, let my vision clear, and looked past my worried brother to the hulking man behind him. The man grinned and stepped into my line of sight. He was almost seven feet tall with muscles so big they could have been taken from King Kong. He was dressed in a black Kevlar motorcycle getup, complete with steel-toed boots and thick leather gloves. A heavy war hammer hung by his side, dripping blood as red as his cropped hair.
Simon stood up, reaching down to take my arm and pull me up. I didn’t want to move, but he was stronger than me, and there was no point in fighting back. So I shrugged off my brother and looked into eyes black with murder and perverse rage.
He smiled at me. “Pest.” He turned his head to the right. “Slime.” His grin widened. “Isn’t this a nice family reunion?”
Chapter 11
Younger brothers will complain about their older ones bullying them. They should be lucky that Kade isn’t their brother.
There are some things you can’t question about him. First, he’s the best fighter in the world. Possibly the universe. No one can touch him, because he knows every move there is to know. Add on his pyrokinesis, ability to instigate anger and fear into his enemies and endless strength, and you have the greatest warrior ever known.
He’s also a complete psychopath with an ego the size of the Atlantic.
Simon scurried around my back, hastily unlocking the shackles from my wrists. Now that he’d healed me, the pain in my chest was dulling and my shoulder was at a dull throb. Once the shackles were gone, Simon touched my broken wrist and used some of his white smoke to knit the bones back in place. It would be stiff for a while, but at least I’d be able to use it.
My eyes never left Kade’s. His smile could outmatch the grin of every kid at Christmas. I’d only ever seen him frown once. Kade believed that nothing could touch him, and I couldn’t help but think he was right.
I looked past my older brother to the people behind him. There were seven of them, each one looking like bloody ninjas in dusty red trench coats. They were armed to the teeth with knives and automatic rifles. Red scarves covered their heads and mouths, leaving only their eyes visible.
“Who are the flunkies?” I croaked out, nodding to the ninjas. As I watched the ninjas unchain the humans, I rubbed my thumb over the patch of skin that had been ripped from my chest. It still burned when I touched it, but it was scarred over thanks to my brother. My shoulder was feeling a lot better, and my wrist was set back in its proper place. On a whole, I was sore and a bit dizzy, but the key word was ‘whole’.
“That’s what you have to say?” said Kade, feigning astonishment. “Not ‘Hi, Kade, how are you? Long time no see? I missed you?’”
I glared at him. “You want me to be a liar?”
Kade’s grin was dangerous. “Careful, Pest. I’m still not a fan of arrogant pricks.”
He stared at me, hoping I would point out the obvious. I was smart, and kept my mouth shut. I looked past him again, seeing the ninjas backing up from the humans. They all scurried to their feet and huddled together, rubbing their sore arms and watching us nervously.
“If you really want to know, they’re my followers.”
“Followers?” Simon asked. “What are they?”
Our brother laughed harshly. “You’ll love the answer when I decide to tell it. By the way, you’re welcome.”
He made a show of putting his foot on the corpse of a Soulless, one of the mountainous monsters I had infected. At least I think that’s who it was. It was difficult to tell since his entire face was caved in like a cinder block had been dropped on it. Kade looked down, spinning the hammer in his hand. He never passed up the chance to smash something.
But it didn’t matter that Kade desecrated a corpse or soon-to-be-corpse. I had infected it first, blowing apart each of its organs, torturing it to death with a single touch.
Right in front of the humans.
Fuck, I thought. They know.
“How’d you find us?” Simon’s next question pulled me out of the blur my mind was in.
“I’ve been tracking Ciaran, Vance, and the whole coal-eater crew for months now. The son of a bitch doesn’t hide as well as he thinks he does. Finding you two lost souls and the meat-sacks was the icing on the cake.”
Kade didn’t look surprised to see the humans with us. That bothered me. He should have been just as stunned as we were. But he just stood on the Soulless body, spinning his war hammer and looking disappointed that there was nothing left for him to break.
“Are they still alive?” I asked. My throat still hurt from being strangled, but it was getting better the more I spoke.
“Yeah. They pulled that ashy disappearing trick of theirs. But don’t worry. They’ll come looking for me soon. I have something they want.”
“What are you talking about?”
Kade grinned. He stepped over the Soulless corpse and made his way toward us. Simon and I both tensed. I didn’t think Kade would ever kill us, not unless he knew we were the last beings alive and he lost complete control of his sanity, but he wasn’t opposed to hurting us.
“See my pets back there?” he whispered, nudging his thumb over his shoulder. “Guess what they are.”
We looked at them, watching their movements, the way Maddy, Josh, Ricardo, and Laurel talked to them. My eyes started to widen.
“They’re human.”
“Points to you, Pest. And I have more where they came from.”
I snapped my head to him. “Where?”
Kade smiled. “You’ll see, since I’m taking you there. Unless you think it’s smart to stay out in the open where Ciaran and Vance can find you and get some revenge.” Kade tapped his hammer on my sore chest. I stumbled back, but didn’t make a sound.
“That’s what I thought. Your shit’s upstairs. Get it and we’ll meet outside.”
Kade turned and started walking away. His human soldiers took my friends up the stairs. As they were dragged along, they tried to look at me. Laurel and Ricardo looked terrified. Josh was furious. Maddy seemed stunned, staring at me like she couldn’t understand what happened. Or what I was. I lowered my head.
“Kade,” Simon asked. “Where are we going?”
I could hear the smile in my older sibling’s voice when he said, “Sin City, brother. Where else?”
***
Ciaran and his pet monstrosities had been holding us in a bunker in the desert a few miles behind McCarran Airport. The drive wasn’t far, though Kade had his red ninjas– the Vermilion, he called them– bring two SUV’s. Kade’s expedition had been a success, as all of the Soulless in the bunker were dead, but he’d lost some men.
All he did when I pointed that out was shrug and say, “At least you have a place to sit. I was going to tie you to the roof.”
I didn’t have a chance to check on the humans. They were shuffled up by the Vermilion and tucked into the black vehicles before I could explain anything. All I saw of Maddy was her honey blonde hair and Josh’s arm curling protectively around her shoulder.
