Path of the Horseman

by Amy Braun

  “Stop getting so close.”

  What? Then I figured it out. Oh.

  “I said she wasn’t in my sights, and she’s not. But she will be someday, Avery. I can’t see when, but she’s mortal, and she will die long before you. Even with our fading powers, we will outlive every human on this dying planet. Spare yourself pain, and let her go now.”

  I scowled. “There are two people in this relationship you think is happening,” I informed him. “And you must have realized by now that Maddy makes her own choices.”

  “Oh, I gathered that,” Logan replied. “I like that about her. But ask yourself this.” He tilted forward, jet black hair dangling in front of him.

  “When it’s her time, will you accept that I have to do my job and take her away from you, or will you fight me and force her to endure more suffering?”

  The first thought that crossed my mind was how hard it would be to reach over both our horses and smack him. The second thought was that Logan was older, faster, stronger, and way more deadly than me on my most ruthless day.

  The third thought was that he made a crushingly good point. I liked Maddy. Cared about her, way more than I should. If I kept these feelings up, would I be able to let her go when it was time for her to die?

  I wasn’t so sure about my answer.

  Logan leaned back and clicked his tongue, gripping Orcus’ mane with both hands to turn him in the proper direction.

  I hesitated, trying to tell myself that I would deal with it when the time came. I had more important things to deal with right now.

  Too bad I couldn’t remember what any of them were.

  ***

  For the entire slog to the campground, my mood was bitter to say the least. I stayed at the back of the column, putting small sentences in conversations to make it look like I wasn’t in a mood. Simon didn’t notice, but Maddy was suspicious. I faked smiles at her, forcing myself not to remember the feel of her hair in my fingers, or the way she’d listened to my confession on the hilltop. How we both wanted to kiss each other, even if it was just to see what happened. It all seemed tainted now, memories of what could have been aching my heart.

  I spent half the ride glaring at Logan’s back. At least until he and Orcus trotted to the front of the group and led us to another rocky hill. He stopped at the base of the hill and jumped off his Horse. We copied him, though Maddy was hesitant about leaving the horses in the dark.

  “They’ll be safe with Orcus,” Logan assured her. He looked at Simon and me. “Turn off your flashlights. You won’t need them.”

  We did as he asked. Logan never made requests like that without a damn good reason.

  Darkness cloaked us again, most of the light coming from the stars dotting the sky above us.

  Most of the light, but not all of it.

  The hill Logan was climbing had a dull orange glow to it, as if there was a huge fire just beyond it. My gut tightened, and I hurried to follow my brother. Logan got on his stomach just before he reached the hilltop, then crawled the rest of the way up. Reaching his destination, he went into his jacket and pulled out a set of foldout binoculars. I lay on my stomach beside him, Maddy and Simon settling down beside me.

  Because of the orange glow that had shone above the hill, I expected a huge fire. Sure enough, there was a massive blaze dancing in the middle of the campground. But there was more to what I was seeing. I yanked the binoculars out of Logan’s hand. He didn’t try to take them back. My heart plummeted.

  I hadn’t expected to see a circus for the damned. I hadn’t expected to see the humans we were seeking out being tortured by the demons I was trying to stop.

  Chapter 18

  There was so much going on I could barely comprehend it all. Rusted, dirty RVs circled the bonfire, each one them surrounded by a group of Soulless and humans. It looked like a Soulless party, and the humans were the main attraction in the horror show.

  A cluster of Soulless were shoving a man back and forth, shouting taunts at him. When he fell, the monsters kicked him and demanded that he get back up. Beside them, a nervous woman was walking over to a trio of Soulless with a tray of glasses. She handed them out, but had nothing to fill them with. That was when one of the Soulless men grabbed her and sank his fangs into her neck. She screamed as he drank her blood while his two friends bit her wrists and poured her blood into their glasses.

  Across from them was a small fighting pit. Soulless shouted and encouraged two burly human men to fight each other. Both humans were bruised and bloody, and from the way the crowd of vampires closed in, I knew the fight wasn’t going to have a winner.

  Two Soulless women were dragging another woman with long hair toward the bonfire. The woman dug her bare heels into the sand and screamed. One of the Soulless slammed her fist into the victim’s stomach, doubling her over and taking away her fight. The Soulless women laughed and hit her again, forcing her onto the ground. They grabbed the woman’s hair again and yanked her across the dirt toward the fire. The human woman kicked, screamed, and cried, but none of it stopped her captors from pulling her hair into the bonfire.

  It wasn’t easy to pull my eyes away from the barbarity, but I forced myself to. When I did, I noticed the cages on the far left of the camp. Each one looked like it had been taken from an animal pound, barely able to fit a large dog, let a full grown human. But in every single cage huddled a cramped, barely clothed mortal. In front of the cages were even more Soulless, and a man in a black cowboy hat pointing to the terrified humans.

  Rage boiled in my chest when I saw Vance. I would have growled if I thought it would do any good, or keep him from unlocking the cage so the Soulless could grab the young man inside and drag him toward one of the RVs. I didn’t want to know what was going to happen to the man in there, only that it would be horrible and that he would probably be meeting Logan soon.

  A rumbling engine caught my attention. I looked at the north end of the camp, seeing another well-dressed man standing by a big rig with a blocky trailer. He stood back, folding his arms over his chest as he commanded strong, Soulless men to drag a chain gang of humans into the back of the rig.

  I could almost see Ciaran’s smug expression from here.

  Once the chain gang was loaded up, Vance joined his master. The demons spoke to each other, though what they were saying was anyone’s guess. While the big rig spun its wheels and drove away, Vance beckoned another man with a long black braid over to him. This man carried himself differently, and something in my gut told me he wasn’t Soulless. Braid Guy nodded after Ciaran spoke to him, and then both he and Vance burst into ashy snowflakes and vanished from sight.

  Cursing, I ducked down from the hilltop and slid to where the horses were. The only one that didn’t startle or back away from me was Orcus. But the Horse was used to being around furious, supernatural beings.

  Footsteps came down the hill behind me. I turned and found myself facing Logan. Simon and Maddy were on their way down, both of them too shocked to speak. I marched up to Logan and shoved the binoculars against his chest. Logan just stared at me.

  “That trailer,” I said. “Where does it go?”

  My brother folded the binoculars up and slid them into his trench coat. “I don’t know.”

  I believed him, and knew it wasn’t his fault. That was the only reason I didn’t lose control of my anger. Maddy didn’t show the same restraint.

  She marched up to Logan, put both hands on his chest, and shoved him backward. He only moved back one step, but I was still stunned she’d done that. She had pushed one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe, and didn’t seem to care.

  “You bastard!” she cried. Actual tears were streaming down her face. “You knew this was happening! Why didn’t you do anything?”

  Logan looked at her for a long time before answering. “I couldn’t.”

  That was the wrong thing to say to Maddy. She screamed, “Liar!” and lunged at him again.

  I darted forward and grabbed M
addy by the waist, pulling her to my back and wrapping my other arm around her chest. She was shaking, even though my arms were tight around her.

  “I could have gone down to the campground and killed the demons and the Soulless with a single touch,” explained Logan. “I could have liberated them all. I nearly did. But I saw the outcome of attacking them by myself. All of the humans would have died, whether by my indirect hand, or as a quick, final slaughter from the Soulless. I would have been the only thing that walked out of the campground alive.”

  Maddy was still shaking and crying.

  “He’s telling the truth,” I guaranteed her. “Calm down.”

  Finally, her trembling stopped, but I could still feel the tension in her muscles. I loosened my arms, but didn’t let go of Maddy just yet. She was teetering on the edge of rage. If she went over, she’d forfeit her safety and do something that would get her killed. I looked at my brother.

  “Well, you’re not alone anymore,” I told Logan. “There’s three of us.”

  “And at least thirty of them,” Simon pointed out unhelpfully from behind me. I glared at him, but it went right over his head. Simon was used to my glares by now. “Don’t forget the demon down there will have control over the Soulless. He can use them to distract us, vanish, and come back with Ciaran and Vance.”

  I let go of Maddy and turned on my brother. “So you’re saying we should just walk away? Leave all those people to die?”

  Simon hesitated, not sure how to answer this question without getting punched in the face for it.

  “Avery.”

  Logan’s slow baritone caught my attention. It was never a good sign when he used his reasoning voice.

  “Did you ever consider that this was the plan for the Second Coming all along? That Heaven found the humans unworthy to live any more, and that we were meant to pave the way for the demons?”

  I would have been less surprised if he’d sliced open my stomach with my own knife. “You don’t honestly believe that,” I said, stunned.

  Logan seemed resigned as he approached me. “I’ve been thinking about it. Why were the demons able to escape Hell so easily? Why didn’t Heaven send anyone to stop them? If they cared about giving the humans a second chance on earth, wouldn’t they have done something to keep the demons away from it?”

  I balled my fists. “The demons got out because they’re conniving fucks. They were just waiting for the right chance. They could have been planning this for centuries.”

  “It’s possible,” Logan agreed. “It’s also possible someone let them out the same day they let us out.”

  I refused to believe it. I didn’t even want to consider it. It was absurd to think that the beings who commanded me to destroy the humans were the same ones that wanted the demons to take their place. Demons were creatures that took advantage whenever an opportunity presented itself. Nothing more. I wouldn’t accept any of these lies, even if my brothers told them.

  “Shit,” Simon hissed. I noticed him running up the hill. Chasing after Maddy.

  I followed them, watching Simon grab the human girl before she could reveal herself. She grunted and swung her arm away from him. By that time, Logan and I were up on the hill, though still concealed by it.

  “You three can sit here and whine about the way the world ended up if you want to,” she ranted, “but I’m going down there to help those people.”

  She turned to run again, but this time I caught her. She glared at me, but didn’t protest.

  “So am I, but we need a plan.”

  She gave me her full attention. “Like what?”

  “Like a bunch of wild horses suddenly running down the hill,” Logan offered.

  Maddy looked at him with horrified eyes. “You’re going to sacrifice the horses too?”

  Logan gave her a cold smile. “They won’t be caught. Those horses are faster than you can imagine, and Orcus is strong enough to defend them. It will buy us some time to sneak down the other side of the hill and surprise the Soulless.” He looked at me. “But we need to try and take care of the demon first.”

  I nodded my agreement. The demon could screw this entire plan if he ran home to Daddy.

  “Well, if we’re about to into the monster’s playground and start breaking things,” Simon said impatiently, “we should find the radio transmission and stop it. Keep any other humans from coming here.”

  “Sounds good.”

  While Logan and Simon went to spurn the horses, I looked at Maddy. Logan’s warning flashed through my mind, no matter how hard I tried to suppress it.

  “Don’t suppose I can ask you to stay here and be safe?” I asked.

  Maddy gave me an exasperated look, as if she couldn’t understand why I would ask that. It made sense to me, but treating her like a dainty flower would only push her to become the opposite.

  “Then stay close to us.”

  Maddy nodded. At least she understood that we had a better chance of staying alive together than apart.

  The horses suddenly screamed, catching our attention. They were flying up the hill, Orcus leading the way. He moved like a blur, far too fast for the normal horses to catch up. Still, all four of them ran like the fiends of Hell were on their tails. In a few moments, that’d probably be true.

  While the horses shot over the hilltop toward the campground, Maddy and I ran after my brothers. Logan was ahead of us, apparently knowing exactly where to strike. In minutes, we were coming around the bend of the hill, right behind the caged humans.

  The campground seemed way too open now that I was on the ground, but at least the gigantic fire, which roared fifty feet into the air, illuminated the open space. The horses were running around the campground, Orcus still leading and protecting them. The Soulless were hooting and hollering, trying to catch the horses for reasons I didn’t want to think about. As we snuck toward the cages, there were a couple times when I thought the Soulless would grab one of the horses. Then Orcus would appear and kick the Soulless away, knocking them onto the ground and turning their cries of excitement into screams of anger. I couldn’t see the demon, but I assumed he was behind the bonfire, watching his minions getting their asses literally kicked by a Horse.

  “We need to take out the guard first,” I muttered, referring to the Soulless man standing in front of the cages.

  The suggestion had barely left my mouth before Logan was on his feet, removing his gloves. He walked gracefully around the cages, getting a few startled gasps from the humans inside. The Soulless guard heard them and turned around. He barely finished turning when Logan placed both hands on the Soulless’ head. Pale grey smoke drifted out of my brother’s hands and swirled around the Soulless’ skull. The monster’s jaw dropped like he was going to scream, but all that came out was a dull rasp. The Soulless man twitched violently, his pale, blue-veined skin taking on a sickening grey. His eyes glazed over as he gasped his final breath. Logan dropped the body and stalked toward the other Soulless, who had given up on the horses and were beginning to see a new challenge.

  I pulled the machete off my back and rose to my feet.

  “Get them out,” I told Simon and Maddy.

  I didn’t wait for them to agree or disagree. Logan and I were the strongest fighters in the group. We had to hold off the Soulless for as long as possible while trying to find and kill the demon.

  At first, it was easy. The four Soulless closest to us charged at the same time, two going for Logan and two coming at me.

  These Soulless were faster than the other ones I’d faced, becoming blurs until they were in front of me. I barely caught a glimpse of them before they struck. All their blood drinking had probably boosted their senses and reflexes. The one on my left had a scar along his cheek, and the one on the right wore a camouflage shirt.