Summoned to Rule

by C L Walker

  I stepped around the car and froze. Roman had a handgun ready, aimed at my chest. He fired as I raised my hand to warn him off. My chest burst open as the bullet tore through, exiting my back and driving me to my knees.

  “I’m not the enemy,” I managed to say, looking up at his terrified face.

  “I’m sorry,” he replied, raising the gun to fire again.

  I moved quickly, trying to slap the gun from his hand and only managing to shift it away from me. He fired as my hand touched the gun and the bullet hit the ground beside me.

  I forced myself to stand. I should have killed him. It was what I would have done had almost anyone else betrayed me. Instead I backed away and stepped through the gate.

  I collapsed on the grass in the mild heat and squeezed my eyes shut. There was blood in my mouth and I could feel my heart laboring to deal with the internal blood loss.

  The world grew dark as my eyes failed me, but there was one thing I could still see. Despite the sunlight fading and my heart getting ready to beat its last, I could see the single drop of blood within grasping distance. I knew what it was, knew that it had come from Roman before we stepped through.

  I couldn’t touch it, couldn’t let the tattoos feed on it. I wanted to die, rather than let myself give in to it. It was her blood, preserved and presented to me, and I wanted nothing to do with it.

  But I wasn’t in control; my curse was. I didn’t always get to decide what I did; the tattoos did.

  Or maybe that was an excuse, I thought as I reached out for the tiny red drop in the endless darkness of death around me. Maybe that was the thing I told myself so I could live with the things I’d done.

  I touched the drop and the tattoos shone bright.

  Chapter 26

  I had to get to Bec before Bannon did. If Roman was working with him, as seemed likely, that’s where they’d strike next.

  My wounds were healed and I had power enough to fight. I stepped through the gate, magical shield raised and ready.

  The lot was empty. I’d been gone five minutes and the dying were still groaning and writhing in the sun. I didn’t care about their fates, though. I ran, jumping the high fence and racing through a city that was a still picture beside my speed.

  I stopped outside the apartment building, sending the tattoos out to scout the street for sign of enemies. If Chaos had been waiting for me at the gate they might already be in the building.

  One man seemed suspicious, standing outside her door speaking to her. The image was an impression in my mind, vague blobs and auras telling a story. He was angry and she was…whatever she normally was. Dead inside, a cool presence in a world of emotion.

  I raced up the stairs, slowing only when I reached the top. I was still angry and I wanted to feel the man’s blood on my hands, but I had to be sure. I wasn’t the monster I had been, even with the red mist waiting to fall.

  “Come on,” the man was saying with a whine in his voice. “Just let me in. We can have a good time, promise.”

  “If you don’t stop bugging me I’m going to get my boyfriend to tear your arms off,” Bec said. It made me smile.

  “I’m all about the woman, I swear. You can go first.”

  I approached him and he turned at the sound. He was a drunk, dressed in dirty clothes and smelling like a man who’d been force-marched across a desert. He wasn’t a threat to Bec, except in his intentions.

  “You should leave now,” I said.

  “You the boyfriend?” His breath smelled worse than the rest of him. “We can share, if you like.”

  I grabbed his shirt and threw him at the wall behind me. He hit with a yelp and collapsed to the floor. Bec let me in.

  “See,” she said. “I need you around.”

  “I think you would have handled that without me.”

  “This is true. Why are you covered in blood again? I’ve got some more spare clothes in the room, but we’re going to run out at this rate.”

  “Roman betrayed us.” I closed the door behind me and looked around the room for things she had to pack. “We need to go before Bannon and his minions turn up.”

  I was surprised they weren’t there already. If he’d planned to ambush me at the gate there was no reason for him to leave her there. There was no reason to take her, either, but he thought the same way I did and he would have covered his bases.

  “Roman…what?” She was holding my arm, keeping me from searching for her things. “He wouldn’t.”

  “He did.” I put my finger in the hole in my shirt. “He shot me in the chest and ran. If I hadn’t…he would have killed me.”

  “Hadn’t what?” she asked, a brief flash of concern crossing her still face. “Did you kill him?”

  “I didn’t get the chance. I will, though.”

  I didn’t want to tell her about the blood waiting for me on the mountaintop. I felt ashamed at my need, at the way it was the only thing I could think about. One drop had healed me from certain death and given me more power than anything I’d experienced since arriving in this century. It would give me the strength to beat anyone, but in exchange I’d have to sacrifice who I’d become. I’d have to revert to the man I’d been.

  “He wouldn’t,” she said again. “He’s scared of you but he’s more scared of everything else. He knows you need to be here and he’s learning to accept what you need to do.”

  “He shot me!” I couldn’t stop myself from yelling at her. It was all I could do to keep from shaking her and telling her to hurry up. She was a girl and these were adult problems, and I needed to make her understand that.

  No, I thought, closing my eyes and trying to calm down. She was a woman and I was treating her unfairly. She had a right to know what was happening, and a right to question it.

  “Alright,” she said. “Then we kill him when we get the chance.”

  Just like that and her mind was changed. No sentimentality or remorse, just a logical progression from my wanting to hurt her friend to her agreeing with me. Bec was strange, but she was my kind of strange.

  “Get your stuff,” I said.

  “Get changed,” she replied.

  She grabbed a backpack by the door and leaned against the counter; evidently that was all she needed, and she’d been ready to go the entire time she’d been staying there.

  I entered the bedroom and found another set of clothes, the last she had ready for me. I knew she’d have more at the bar, because she was practical and she thought ahead.

  I paused. She thought far ahead, farther than she ever had before. She’d planned my movements for me since I arrived, predicting what I’d do every step of the way. She’d set up the meeting with the witches before I’d even arrived, and she’d roped me into caring with ease.

  My paranoia was strong, bolstered by Roman’s betrayal, but I couldn’t imagine she would do something like that. Bannon could affect emotions, I’d felt that and Ashe had confirmed it, but he couldn’t change people. Bec had no emotions to affect, and she wouldn’t choose to betray me as Roman had.

  Then again, I thought, I hadn’t thought Roman capable of it either.

  I shook my head and finished washing up in the bathroom, wiping the blood of my enemies from my skin.

  “Under all the blood you do look good,” Bec said. She was standing in the bedroom doorway, watching me with a hungry look on her face.

  “I don’t think this is appropriate,” I said, but I found I didn’t mind her seeing me. I stepped into the bedroom and let her get her fill.

  “Goddamn,” she said when she was done. “We are going to have to have that date when this is all done.”

  “I promised,” I said.

  “I don’t think we’ll make it to the restaurant.”

  She whistled and left the bedroom, and I finished getting dressed.

  I was smiling despite everything. It was what she did to me with ease, and I found that I liked it. I knew she wouldn’t betray me because, if I was honest with myself, she could control me wi
th ease.

  Also, she could have tried to kill me the way Roman had and I wouldn’t have fought back. Not now, and I suspect she knew it.

  “Where are we going?” she asked when I joined her. “I have some thoughts.”

  “I’m sure you do, but right now we just need to get out of here.”

  “Let’s go. We can talk on the way.”

  I left the apartment before her, searching the building ahead of us with the tattoos as we went. The drunk who’d been hassling her was where I’d left him, alive but unconscious. Otherwise there was nothing to see and no enemies to be wary of.

  “Let’s get James and go,” she said.

  “James?”

  “Your master,” she said, chuckling. “Let’s grab him and go find a beach heaven somewhere. You can make nice with the angels there and we can spend a bit of quality time together. Let this all sort itself out.”

  We left the building and I hailed a cab. Her suggestion was tempting and would be easy. I could get us lost in the heavens in hours and there was no way anyone could find us. The angels of the heavens didn’t speak to each other and there were so many of them there was no chance Bannon could find us. Even if he could cross through the gates, as I suspected, he’d spend the rest of his life searching.

  But I knew that wasn’t what he’d do next. No, his next move would be to have Roman take him back to the mountaintop. That was why the hedge-mage had finally sprung his trap, because he had everything he needed for his master to win. That mountaintop was everything anyone would need to win forever.

  “We’re going to the HND,” I said once the taxi was driving to the lot.

  Bec took that as confirmation I’d accepted her idea. The ghost of a smile crossed her lips.

  I wasn’t lying to her, I told myself. I was just making sure she’d go where I wanted her to so she could be safe.

  The fire in my chest needed an out, and once Bec was safe I was going to let it all go. I was going to destroy Bannon and anyone near him.

  I was going to become the Agmundr of old.

  Chapter 27

  The HND was as bleak as ever, but walking to it with Bec at my side felt good. It was a stronghold of sorts, filled with my people and protected from the random gang attacks of Chaos. Bec could be safe here.

  “You’re not going to hide, are you?” Bec said, somehow reading my mind. She didn’t seem hurt by the revelation; nothing ever hurt her.

  “I can’t. If Bannon gets to the mountaintop he’ll have all the power he could ever need. He could remake the world in his image and nothing will be able to stop him.”

  “There’s always someone stronger.”

  “No, not always.”

  I’d been powered by Ohm’s blood for thousands of years and there had never been anything that could stand in my way, not for long. There were trials and things got hard, but I never thought I might not succeed at my mission, whatever it was. That was what Bannon would be after.

  We stepped into the settlement and were met by the frightened eyes of the lost souls, the humans who had escaped their afterlives and had come looking for a fresh start. I had let them down, I knew, but there was still time. If I could eliminate the threats in Fairbridge I could still find them a home.

  “You’re going to stay here for safety,” I told Bec. “I can’t do what I have to if I’m worried about you.”

  “Aw, that’s sweet.”

  “I can’t be everywhere and—”

  “No, I mean it.” She put her hand in mine. “That’s really sweet.”

  I had a strange feeling wash over me and I didn’t like it; it felt like weakness, like I wanted to stop fighting and take her away. It was me wanting to give up, and I knew I couldn’t.

  I let go of her hand and she looked at me, puzzled. Not hurt by my action, just puzzled.

  Buddy was smiling as he approached us. His smile faded when he saw the look on my face.

  “What happened?”

  I told him, leaving out only my fear of using Ohm’s blood. He had a right to know what he was facing if I failed, and I needed him to look after Bec and James while I was away. If something happened to them I would truly be lost, and I didn’t know what the outcome of that would be. Something bad, probably.

  “I need you to set a perimeter,” I said. “I need you to arrange guards and make sure nobody gets in here that shouldn’t be here. I need you to look after everyone while I’m gone.”

  “I think I would be better at that,” Peter said. I hadn’t noticed him approach. “You should take one of us with you when you leave, and while I’m clearly the better choice, I suspect you’d be more comfortable with your pet angel.”

  “Stop that,” Buddy said. “Agmundr, I will do whatever you ask but I beg you to think this through. He will not come here. You will be safe here.”

  “He won’t come here but he will hurt the people of Fairbridge. If I don’t stop him then nobody will.”

  “That’s stupid,” Buddy said. “There are witches and vampires and all sorts there. Let them deal with it. You stay here with us.”

  “No.” I had nothing more to offer him that he would understand. I had to stop Bannon or I would go crazy, and that wasn’t something that would fit into a hollow man’s world-view.

  “I will start on the defenses immediately,” Peter said, already looking around as though he had men waiting on his orders.

  “I’m asking Buddy to do it,” I said sharply. “You are to do what he tells you.”

  Buddy actually smiled at the words, but they enraged Peter.

  “I am not your servant,” he said, stepping into my space. “I am not your slave. I am a warrior and I have fought more wars than you can possible know. You think you’re old but that’s on earth, where the years pass at a steady pace. I have waged war across the heavens and I have lived a million lifetimes. Don’t presume to order me around.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” I said. “I’m going to presume that you will do as you’re told because that’s the agreement we have. I give orders and you follow them.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Then you are a terrible soldier. Your job is not to second guess me, your job is to make suggestions and do what I say.”

  He looked around for support, but Buddy and Bec were on my side. “You think you’re so much better than us. Why, because you used to be stronger? Because people are afraid of you? I am not afraid of you.”

  I was suddenly so tired. Tired of the constant fighting, the endless arguments. Tired of the life and death stakes of every decision I made. I didn’t want to make decisions any more. I didn’t want to be in charge of myself anymore. I wanted to be given a mission and to follow it.

  I wanted to be a slave. Even if it was only for a moment, I wanted back into my prison.

  “Do what you want,” I said, sighing. “All of you.” I raised my voice, amplifying it with the tattoos so everyone in the heaven could hear me. “Do whatever you want. I suggest you make ready for an attack, but it’s your choice. I don’t care.”

  I turned and walked away, intent on putting as much distance between the settlement and myself as possible. Bec hurried to keep up with me and I heard the others shuffling around, but I didn’t care. I had a mission – kill Bannon – and I wanted to complete it.

  “Talk to them,” Bec said, a little out of breath. “Don’t order them around like a king. You don’t rule them. You are their leader, not their master.”

  I stopped and looked down at her. She was tiny, I realized. Five foot nothing and scrawny, but her eyes were those of a smart woman and her words weren’t far behind. I wanted to tell her to leave me alone, that the town could take care of itself. But she didn’t want me to and I found myself turning back before I thought about it.

  When I got back Peter and Buddy were arguing.

  “Stop,” I yelled, and the heaven fell silent. “Thank you. Who wants to come with me, and who wants to stay and prepare defenses? I don’t care
which one does what.”

  “I would be best to stay,” Peter said. I could see Buddy starting to object, but he opened his mouth and nothing came out.

  “Fine. Buddy, he has a point. You come with me if you’re willing. I need all the help I can get.”

  “I would be honored to fight at your side once more.” Buddy sounded enthusiastic and I felt sorry for him.

  “I’ll look after James,” Bec said. “And I’ll keep an eye on this lot and make sure they don’t kill each other.”

  This time it was Peter’s turn to almost say something, but he too kept his mouth shut and accepted what Bec said.

  “Be careful,” Bec said, taking my hand again. She pulled on my arm until I lowered my head, and then she kissed my cheek. “For luck,” she whispered in my ear.

  “Thank you. Buddy, let’s go.”

  I started walking, trusting the hollow man to keep up. Bec was safe inside a ramshackle fortress of angels and demons, where Bannon couldn’t touch her or my master. I had an angel at my side and allies in the city.

  So why did I feel like I was walking toward a terrible end?

  Chapter 28

  “I think I love this world,” Buddy said as we were driven in a cab across the city. “So much variety and life. The heavens are nothing like this.”

  “They do seem to be a little one note,” I said.

  It was something I liked about the modern world as well; wherever I looked I saw something different, something new. People from across the world gathered in one place and working toward a common good, whether consciously or not.

  But within the mass of humanity there were people who wanted to topple it all, who wanted to return to the world as I had known it for most of my life. Bannon was such a person. While he would never have world-dominating aspirations, what he did want would upset the balance around me. I knew if there was something I could do I had to try.

  We were heading to Nikolette Sinclair. Bec had put her number in my phone before we met with her, and I’d given her a call when Buddy and I arrived back at the lot. She seemed pleased to hear from me, which I hadn’t expected. I’d expected her to hang up on me and for me to have to convince her that she needed to work with me, but instead she’d agreed to a meeting right away.