Defiant Guardians Anthology
Page 45
My eyes dropped to the feet of the devil as I accepted my fate. I shook my head. “Never.”
I awaited one of his spears through my heart. I waited for the swishing noise of his final strike but all I could hear was the constant buzzing and stomping of demons making their way into Auracle.
Suddenly, a battle cry broke through the noise and the devil’s body slammed into my face. I fell backward hard, my head smacking against stone debris from the church as the devil’s heavy body landed on mine.
Kneeling on the back of the devil was Gauss, his face covered in dirt that had stuck to his sweat. He was yelling something at me, but I just couldn’t make out the words as my brain was all fuzzy. It was as though everything was moving in slow motion.
Again, through the grace of the Almighty rather than through the help of my brain, my hand wrenched itself out from the weight of the devil and pulled out the book from my chest plate. Gauss’ eyes widened to the size of large grapes. He was again yelling something at me.
I opened the book and popped the devil on the side of the head with it, and in a moment it was over.
The book closed itself and fell onto my chest as did Gauss’ body. I could feel air being forced through my nose, but at least the fuzziness was melting away as the demonic blood healed me.
Slowly, Gauss’ words became audible.
“I-I-I cannot believe it!” he yelled, his voice a rougher accent than usual. “You did it! You’ve saved Auracle!”
Gauss jumped up to his feet and offered me his hand. I took it and he pulled me up. He gave me a big hug which hurt my bruised chest. He threw off one of his gloves and used the side of his thumb to wipe dirt from the corner of my eyes, a big smile on his face.
“You did it, Ira… You did it. The devil is—” Gauss’ mouth dropped open, “but what of Deborah? She’s still in the Stillness—,”
Gauss’ words stopped with a choke, a red bloody spear sticking through his chest plate and penetrating mine. I could feel the tip of the devil’s spear scratch my skin.
I looked up from the red spear and at Gauss’ face. His eyes were dead and so was he. Blood dripped from the corners of his circular mouth and onto my boots.
“Nooo!” I screamed, my hands clasping at the man’s face. I shook it, but all it did was sprinkle blood onto that of my own face. I shook my head in disbelief just as the devil flung Gauss off to the side with incredible speed.
“Ira, Ira, Ira, I thought better of you,” said the guttural sloppy voice. “I can create portals, don’t you remember?”
I punched the devil with my human hand and felt some of the bones of my knuckles break on impact. I pulled back and struck again, this time with half the strength.
The devil’s head didn’t even budge.
He lifted up the same bloody spear of a hand and put the tip of it to my head. I tried to punch at him again but my body obeyed the pain and would not lift my arm to do so.
“You,” said the devil, “were an utter waste of my time.” The very small mouth at the bottom of the devil’s pointed triangle face curved up into a smile. “Goodbye, son.”
I didn’t close my eyes. Not this time. I was not the man I was back when I was still a preacher at the church. No, I had changed. I was no longer a coward. I was no longer a stranger to pain. I would not run from my destiny any longer. If I was to die today, then let it be. I would soon be with my true father, the Almighty… and I would not shut my eyes to this.
I couldn’t help but tense my body yet again for the finishing blow. I could feel myself shaking from fear as I faced my death. I couldn’t help from looking down at the devil’s mouth… one that was slowly losing its smile.
Something was wrong.
The devil tripped forward on wobbly legs. I tried to back up but couldn’t escape a nasty scratch to my forehead.
“What th—,” escaped my mouth as I looked down at a blackened fist, one that looked exactly like mine, protruding from the monster’s chest cavity.
The devil’s tiny mouth opened as much as it could as he looked down. In the grip of the demonic hand was a beating black heart, one with red veins which were still beating a life source that poured onto the ground.
The devil looked back up at me, and with one final breath he hissed, “Fuck you.”
At just this moment, the hand crushed the heart and the devil disintegrated into black dust that floated off into the wind as did the large portal, cutting a few demons in half as they tried to exit.
Behind this beautiful demonic mist was no other than Deborah. She was glistening with sweat, her white training shirt stuck to her pale skin. Her eyes were on me and mine on hers as she took a step towards me.
Then she too fell on top of me.
***
We laid there for a while, our chests pushing against one another as we breathed in heavily. Her sweaty face was pressed against mine as were part of our lips. This brought me back to the words of the devil. If all things with souls only craved bliss in this limited life of ours, then I had found mine.
After a while, I could feel that my demonic hand had come back to me and I used it to grasp the hand of hers, which was also in a demonic form. It felt like I was grabbing onto a cold rough stone.
I used my other hand to lift her head from mine and kissed her gently. Ten seconds later and she was aggressively kissing back.
And so, I took back what I thought earlier. This was my bliss.
But then my thoughts fell back to reality. One with my mentor Gauss dead. One with a city filled with demons who I could still hear terrorizing it. Part of me wanted to say that I’d done enough for this world, but I knew that wasn’t true.
“There’s still more work to be done,” I said, laying myself up and Deborah taking a seat next to me.
She nodded. “And it’s going to be that much harder with Gauss gone.”
I saw a tear escape the corner of her eye and I wiped it away. “We can cry when Auracle is free. Gauss would want it that way.”
She sniffed and wiped her opposite eye. She laid her head on my shoulder. We at least deserved five more minutes of rest. Just… five more minutes.
And as we stared off down the street, a building began to collapse. Something about it, although terrible, was still beautiful. And again, I grabbed hold of Deborah’s demonic hand as we watched our city come crashing down.
-The End-
About the Author
Stevie Collier is the author of The Dark Assassin series and The Lionheart.
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You can also visit his website at https://www.steviecollier.com/
A Note from the Editors
We hope you’ve enjoyed this collection of fantasy novellas. We’ve gathered tales about renegade assassins, dragons, sellswords, and magic. We’ve taken you from dangerous alleys to soaring heights, from small towns full of secrets to chapels full of frightened parishioners. Each story was a labor of love by the author who wrote it, and on behalf of everyone in the collection, we extend our sincere gratitude.
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Thanks for Reading!
For more from the authors in this collection, check out the websites below:
Jacob Peppers, author of The Silent Blade: https://www.jacoppeppersauthor.com/
D.W. Hawkins, author of The Killings at Rockman’s Ford: https://www.dwhawkins.com/
Andy Peloquin
, author of The Renegade Apprentice: https://www.andypeloquin.com/
Aaron Hodges, author of Dragon Born: https://www.aaronhodges.co.nz/
Stevie Collier, author of Cambion: https://www.steviecollier.com/