by Krista Walsh
She hadn’t been trained to fight, and her moves were clumsy, but as her heart hammered and fear turned her tongue to cotton, she knew she had no other choice but to keep moving. Steadying her breath, doing her best to tap into her archery training for concentration and stance, she’d focused only on the gentle press of air against her body as the creatures danced circles around her. Whenever they backed off, she’d tried to shoot them down. She’d used her bow to punch and her arrows as knives when the monsters pressed too close for her to nock another shot, but even still, her arrows had dwindled. Four, then three, then two.
Sensing a gentle pressure above her right shoulder as something moved behind her, she’d turned on her heel and let another arrow loose. One.
It was as though her spatial awareness had been flung into overdrive. The faint pressures moving against her, her perceptions pinging off of everything around her — so much faster than usual, so much more defined.
She hadn’t had time to consider what it all meant. Grabbing her last arrow, she’d stabbed at the creature with her bow and then thrust the arrow into its body. Another piercing scream, another thud.
But she was out of arrows.
She’d sensed the rest of the monsters closing in on her, the air growing heavier. An acidic stench of rot had filled her nostrils, and her stomach had twisted as fear threatened to take over. Panic had swept over her to steal her thoughts, but her years of training had dragged it back.
She hadn’t allowed it to overwhelm her. Her entire life could be scary if she let it, but she was stronger and braver than that. At least that’s what she told herself.
Then one of the creatures had landed on her back, forcing her to her knees and crushing her spine into the ground. Another one leapt at her right arm, weighing it down so she couldn’t make use of the bow in her hand. As Molly tried to move toward it, a third one captured her left wrist and twisted it against the ground. The frozen cement cut like ice through her skin, up her arm, and into her neck. She bucked and tried to yank away, but she couldn’t get any leverage on the weight on her back.
Any self-confidence Molly had been able to muster had oozed out of her. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she found herself wishing she’d taken Steve’s advice. Her stupid decision had led to this moment, and now she would never be able to tell him he was right. Her mother would be heartbroken, her father would be devastated, and it would all be her fault. All because she wanted to know the truth about the world that was about to kill her.
She waited for the monsters to tear her apart, but before they had a chance, a deep growl cut through the hisses and shrieks of the creatures surrounding her. The sound vibrated through her chest and grabbed hold of her lungs.
A moment later, the beast on her back was gone. Its sharp cry pierced the night and then lapsed into silence. All around her, shrill screams fought against the low rumble of her savior, and hope soared through her that she would live to hear her mother nagging her about homework after all.
With her hope came a resurgence of determination. She leaned her weight on her left hand and kicked out with her right foot. The monster keeping her bow-hand down shifted, and Molly jerked her arm away. Then she punched out, her knuckles making contact with what might have been the creature’s nose, and something crunched with the impact. Pain shot up her arm with the blow, and she was grateful the face hadn’t been any firmer or she was sure she would have broken some bones.
The shape vanished, and she shifted her focus to the monster on her left. It had loosened its hold on her, no doubt distracted by the new threat, and she slid herself out of its grip with a sharp yank of her elbow. She grabbed her bow and spun to her feet. Having no arrows, she saw no reason to put her bow at greater risk, so she returned the sling to rest against her back and brought her hands up in front of her.
She was ready to see this through. Casting her awareness into the space around her, she sensed movement on her left. Following it, she swung out her arm, catching the monster in the neck, and then swept her left leg to the outside. Her foot made contact with its knee, and it dropped. Molly breathed in the sweeter air as the path before her cleared.
More movement caught her attention to her right, but when she went in to attack, something larger stepped in her way. The shriek that followed was louder than any she’d yet heard. It was followed closely by the sound of bones snapping and the zippering rip of cloth, as though something were being torn in two. After that came two separate splats against the asphalt.
After the second splat, silence reigned across the parking lot, and all Molly could take in was the vibration of her own breath sucking in and out of her lungs and the unsteady beat of her heart.
Her legs were shaking, and she squeezed her trembling hands at her sides. Now that it was over, the real stupidity of her decision was sinking in, but she couldn’t lose herself to those worries yet. Not when she’d come this far. There would be time enough in the morning for regrets thanks to the person who had stepped in to help her.
“Thank you,” she said.
When the only response she received was continued silence, she wondered if her savior had already left, but when she opened her mind, she detected him about three feet to her right.
As her breath slowed, she had time to appreciate what had just happened. All her life she’d been aware of her ability to sense things, but this was the first time she’d experienced the full range of her skill. When Antony had attacked her, he’d moved so quickly she hadn’t had time to react before he’d slammed her to the ground. With these monsters, she’d actually been able to track them. Even now that they were gone, she felt more sensitive to her surroundings. It was almost like her skin could sense each vibrating molecule, connecting her with everything. As though some part of her mind had been opened, stretching her spatial awareness farther than it had ever reached before.
She sensed the air moving around the area where her savior stood, leaving a vacuum that pushed back against her. Based on that negative space, she knew he was tall — well over a foot taller than she was — and very wide. Familiar, somehow.
She shifted her feet toward him and continued waiting. What else was there to say? If he didn’t want to accept her thanks, there was no point in repeating it.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, a deep voice said, “You’re welcome.”
Molly sucked in a breath as her fingers turned to pins and needles and her trembling legs nearly gave out. She reached for the brick wall behind her to keep herself standing.
She recognized that voice. It had been nine months since she’d heard it, but how could she ever forget?
“Zachariel?” she asked.
A sharp noise that might have been a grunt.
A different kind of shock settled over her, this one creeping back toward fear. She’d been apprehensive enough about running into him, but now she was alone with him in an alley. The possibility that she’d jumped out of a demon frying pan and into a demon fire couldn’t be ignored.
She swallowed her pounding heart and curled her fingers into the grooves of the brick wall, wishing she had something to defend herself with if she needed to.
“Fancy meeting you here,” she said, offering him a shaking smile. “What are the odds that we would get to fight shoulder to shoulder once again, huh?”
She kicked herself for saying something so stupid, but her history homework had surged in her thoughts, stuff about brothers standing arm to arm in a world war. What she had just faced was far from brother beside brother, a thousand abreast, climbing through muddy trenches, but she was certain her heart had been racing just as quickly as theirs had.
When Zach neither answered nor moved, something in her chest relaxed. If he was going to come after her, surely he would have done it by now.
“What were those things?” she asked.
“Ghouls,” he replied.
His voice rumbled through her cochlears, the unfamiliar pitch requiring some effort to process. She p
ictured him as a barrel-chested man who probably stood hunched over, cutting a few inches off his actual height. Not someone most people would care to run into on a dark street in the middle of the night. And yet he had been the man she’d set out to meet. Again, the question of her own stupidity entered her head, and she pushed it away.
“What are ghouls?” she asked.
“You ask a lot of questions.”
“Those are easy ones. And questions are why I’m here.” She drew in a breath and straightened her shoulders, working to show an air of confidence she didn’t really feel. “I wanted to find you so I could ask a whole bunch more.”
The air between them changed with her answer, and she sensed his heightened tension. Her own shoulders tightened in response.
“That wasn’t smart,” he said.
Was that a threat? A warning that he was about to turn on her? Her head swam, and she had to put more weight against the wall. Still, she worked to sound calm and casual. Like she had everything under control. “I know, but who’s ever accused me of being smart? Well, okay, my teachers, but what do they know? There’s a difference between being book smart and street smart, and I think I’ve just proved I’m not the latter.”
Apparently, glib remarks were her way of dealing with nerve-wracking situations. She knew it wasn’t the best way to make friends, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.
“You should go home,” Zach said.
Molly squeezed her hands at her sides, trying to summon courage into her muscles before it pooled onto the ground through her sneakers. “I didn’t come this far just to turn around and go home without anything to show for it but a few scrapes and bruises. I want to talk to you.”
“No.”
She heard the rustle of material as he shifted in front of her, the scuff of the soles of his shoes on the concrete. Concerned that he was walking away, taking her opportunity with him, Molly stepped forward to call him back. Her foot caught in something slick and she teetered backward, but he caught her arm and drew her forward until she steadied herself.
“Thank you again,” she said, her courage fading fast.
Why had she come out here like this? Nothing was going according to plan. She’d nearly gotten killed and now she was being sent back to bed like a reprimanded child.
“We had an agreement. You saved my life, and I vowed to save yours,” Zach said. “I think we can agree I’ve now fulfilled that oath.”
She detected something in his voice. Was it relief? She wouldn’t go as far as to say happiness, but then he didn’t strike her as the kind of man to do “happy.” He certainly didn’t sound displeased that their connection was at an end.
He also didn’t sound like he was about to tear her head off. While Zachariel might be walking a line between both sides of his nature, it seemed as though he hadn’t given his demon the priority. The rest of her tension drained out of her.
“That’s fine,” she said. “I agree that you no longer need to watch my back, but that still doesn’t mean I’m going to walk away.”
Silence.
Molly ground her teeth and exhaled sharply through her nose. “Look, this is all just everyday life for you. Ghouls and getting locked in rooms and whatnot, but for me, it’s incredible. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of, not to mention nightmares. Now that the door is open, I can’t just close it again. If I have to live knowing this world exists, I need to understand it.”
“There is nothing to understand. It’s a big world full of all sorts of monsters who want to kill you. Whether it’s creeps on the street or ghouls in the shadows doesn’t make any difference. It’s better for you if you stay in your safe little life and leave the demons to play in their own.”
“I won’t,” she said, squaring her shoulders. In the face of his rejection, her fear over what had just happened faded, and her stubbornness flared to replace it. “I can’t. You don’t understand what it’s like for me. Everything around me has been kept padded and secure because people think I’m not capable of keeping up with everyone else. Everything I do is part of the same routine, week in and week out. When Jermaine caught me up in that room, I was given a taste of something extraordinary, and I have to follow where it’s led me.”
Now that she’d started, so many emotions and thoughts were rushing around in her head that she couldn’t settle them down. She wanted to scream and throw something. Anything that would make him hear her.
“I killed a man. Do you know what I’ve been through because of that? It doesn’t matter that he was trying to kill me, I killed him. Who did I hurt because of that? What did I set in motion because I didn’t understand what I was doing? You expect me to go back to what I had before? Trust me, if I could, I would. My life was fine. No matter what anyone else thought of me, I knew I was going places. Now all I can think about is how I’ve stumbled into something most people don’t know exists. For better or worse, it’s something I have that they don’t. I need to know more.”
More silence.
Molly huffed. “And if you don’t agree to teach me what I should know, then I’ll go looking for answers somewhere else. You’re my first choice because I trust you to tell me the truth, but you’re not my only option.”
She knew it was a gamble. He could easily tell her that he was happy she had someone else to talk to, so why didn’t she go do that? And then she would be left to walk home and hope Daphne was the sort of person who enjoyed answering emails and talking about some of her deepest darkest secrets with a relative stranger.
At least with Zach she believed she had some leverage.
“Or maybe I won’t bother,” she pushed. “Maybe I’ll just walk the streets on my own every night and try to get into trouble. The ghouls found me, and I’m sure they’re far from the worst monsters prowling in the dark. I can figure things out in my own way.”
She knew that saving Zach’s life had created a bond between them. At least, it had on her end, and she assumed it went both ways. Even though he’d called their debt a wash, surely some part of him wouldn’t want her to get killed. That was if he believed her ploy, of course — which was a definite if. She hadn’t exactly offered the threat with any real conviction.
The daemelus’s silence stretched out longer, and Molly shifted on her feet. Aches and pains from her battle with the ghouls were already kicking in, and her eyelids were starting to weigh down with fatigue. She didn’t want to move to check her watch in case it tugged Zach out of his deliberation, but she knew she’d been out of the house for a while. Had her parents come to check on her and found her missing? Were they panicking?
She should have stuffed her pillows under the blankets to make it look like she was still in bed, like teenagers did in books all the time before they ran away from home. She didn’t understand how it could work, of course, most parents weren’t stupid, but it might have given her a bit of breathing room before they called the National Guard to come looking for her.
A weight formed in the pit of her stomach as she imagined what sort of trouble she’d be in if they discovered she was gone. She crossed her fingers that Zach would make up his mind sooner rather than later.
After what felt like an eon, he spoke. “Fine, you have one night to ask me whatever you want, but then that’s it. You can take what you learn and find some other way to use it than sticking your nose in it. Understood?”
“Absolutely,” she said, with no intention of following through on the deal.
Anticipation fizzled inside her, bubbling through her blood like the tickle of a soft drink going through her belly. He’d agreed! After nine months, she was finally going to find out everything there was to know about his secret world.
She stepped forward, careful about keeping her balance in the goo beneath her feet, then reluctantly drew to a halt.
She had her own secrets, information she would fight to keep her parents from ever finding out, and as it stood right now, she was doing a lousy job of keeping them.
She wished she could strut out of this parking lot as coolly as some international super spy, but instead she bowed her head and asked, “Could you please help me find my arrows and my cane so my parents don’t notice they’re missing?”
4
Zach directed Molly to wait against the wall of the nail salon while he did a tour of the parking lot to gather up her discarded arrows. Of the six she’d released, he was able to find four, which he added to the one he’d pulled out of the ghoul fleeing toward him in the alley. The sixth arrow had snapped, but he collected the pieces, not wanting to leave evidence of the fight behind.
Her cane was lying in a puddle of ghoul carcass that hadn’t yet run off into the storm drain. He plucked it out between his fingers and wiped it on his coat. It didn’t seem right to give it back covered in what was essentially corpse rot.
Zach paused before handing it to her, watching as she adjusted the arrows in her quiver. Her curly hair was pulled into a ponytail on the side of her head, wisps of it sticking up in all directions thanks to the ghouls. Her brown eyes were filled with fear and uncertainty, focused intently on nothing, though by the way she’d shifted to face him as he moved from one end of the parking lot to the other, it was clear she had some idea of her surroundings.
Her red flannel jacket was torn at the collar, and her knees were streaked with oil and ghoul, but overall she didn’t appear the worse for wear.
He hated that she’d twisted his arm into prolonging their acquaintanceship. When fate had pushed him into joining her fight, he’d accepted it as a rare gift from the heavens. Saving her would mean he could leave town without any kind of regret. His ties would be severed, his only reason to stay would be removed. He could be gone within the next hour — however long it took him to round up Dusty and a bit of food for the road.
