by C L Walker
She said she had seen the danger of Chaos roaming the streets, and she wanted to talk to me about what we could do about it. That had been exactly why I was calling her, which should make things easier.
“You found a real place within the heavens,” Buddy said. It was like he’d only just realized what I’d said in the HND. “I spent years combing the heavens for variety and I never ran across such a place.”
“I only found it because I was searching through them, racing and using the shortcuts.” And when I’d found it I had run the other way as quickly as possible.
“Where, though?” He saw the questioning look I shot him and continued. “Knowing the elder-gods hid an actual piece of earth in the afterlives is momentous news. I want to visit it, to see it.”
“If Bannon gets his way you might get the chance.” I wanted to stop the former soldier before he had a chance to set foot on the mountaintop, but there were scenarios where the war happened there. If he made it that far I didn’t think it would be possible to beat him. In his position I would be able to guarantee victory if I made it that far.
We stopped in the parking lot of a large hardware chain store. Hundreds of cars filled the lot, and people were streaming in and out the front doors. Nikolette had picked the location and I could only imagine she thought it would provide safety if I tried to make good on any of my threats. It was smart, but I had wanted a little more privacy, and trust.
We entered and made our way to the coffee shop. I eyed the shelves and tried to make sense of the endless iterations on tools and compounds I had known in my youth. My father had been a smith and I’d looked down on the farmers and builders, much to his chagrin. But I understood the basic tools of the trade and to see so many different options was mind-boggling. What was even more surprising was the number of people interested in them, as though everyone had decided to take up the old ways at once.
The modern world was amazing, but completely confusing.
“Wait here,” I told Buddy when we were close. “I don’t want to overwhelm her by introducing an angel before going over what we need to talk about.”
“You think I am overwhelming to a witch?”
“I think you’re a variable I can’t account for just yet. Once she agrees to help I’ll let you get to know each other.”
Nikolette was waiting in the corner of the shop. Patrons filled most of the tables, eating a snack and drinking their coffee before heading back out into the store. The tables around the witch were empty and I felt a ward prickle across my skin as I stepped into the empty area.
“I was worried we might not get the chance to speak again,” she said as I sat down. She had ordered me a coffee. “I have been looking into your friend’s request.”
“Can you help?” I needed to find a way to break the tattoos Bannon had working for him, and I couldn’t go back to the cleric. With Roman gone the witches were my only hope.
“Unfortunately I can’t. There simply isn’t enough information. If I had access to a tome with some instructions I might be able to make headway.”
I considered telling her about the cleric, but dismissed it right away. I had no interest in going back, and I didn’t want to gift her with the knowledge that such great power was so close.
I took a sip of my coffee and launched into the reason for the meeting. “I want to talk to you about Chaos and their leader, Anarchy.”
“It was my suggestion,” she said. “Fire away.”
She was checking the room constantly. She was either uncomfortable with crowds or she was worried about an attack in a public place.
“Their threat is about to increase,” I said. “I believe they are using magic to enrage people, and I’ve met their leader. He is an unstable man with delusions of power.”
I wasn’t ready to tell her that I’d known him before coming back to Fairbridge, or that his power came from my own tattoos. Not yet, anyway; I needed to build up some trust first.
She was staring at the enormous warehouse of tools behind me and I had to stop myself from turning to see what she was looking at. The tattoos were running lower on life-force than I would have liked, but I sent them to search the area anyway so I could maintain my focus on the witch.
“I agree,” she said, a little distracted. “We’ve been monitoring them for a while and their recent uptick in street violence is worrying. There are concerns that your arrival precipitated it, though.”
“I can’t help it if they’re obsessed with me.” I could see it was the wrong thing to say. She stopped looking behind me and turned her attention back to the meeting. It didn’t look like she had enjoyed my attempt at humor.
At least she was focusing on me again. The tattoos returned no useful information; a number of the patrons in the aisles were carrying weapons, but I’d found that in the city many times. It wasn’t something to worry about in itself, as long as they kept their weapons to themselves.
“I want to get to know you better,” Nikolette said. “Tell me about your history.”
“I…I don’t think this is the right time,” I said. “We have more important things to discuss.”
“But I need to know who you are as a person, Mr. Agmundr. I need to know before I can work with you. It’s a witch thing.”
It wasn’t a witch thing, and now I was suspicious. Having the meeting in so crowded a space worked as a deterrent to a random attack, or it helped hide the attackers in a crowd. She was a witch and if she had come to take me down she would have brought other magic users. My search for weapons wouldn’t cover the range of threats I might be facing.
“Why are we here?” I said.
“To talk, of course.” She was back to checking the store, looking everywhere but at me. “If we are to be allies we need to communicate.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave.” I stood and she raised her hand in response.
I was frozen in place, wrapped in the strands of the magic she had woven. I tried to step away, putting all my human strength behind it, but found I couldn’t budge.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“The lord Anarchy wants your skin,” she said. The words were matter of fact, as though she wasn’t spouting craziness.
“You’re working for Bannon?” I said.
“With, dear man. With. He has a vision for this city that I find compelling, one that would eradicate the vampires and leave it for regular people, and those of us with vision.”
She didn’t believe the words she was speaking; there was a vagueness to it, as though they were lines she was reciting from memory rather than beliefs she held.
I decided I had to leave, whatever the cost. She was working with or for Bannon and she’d been searching the building, which meant she expected him to arrive soon. I couldn’t be there when they did.
I allowed the tattoos to do what they’d wanted to do all along. They glowed bright, scaring the people seated around us. I flexed against the bonds again and they shattered.
“Not so fast,” Nikolette said. She stood as well and I found I couldn’t move again. A flash of concentration and the magic bonds surrounding me began to constrict.
“You’re making a mistake, witch.” I allowed the tattoos to pour more life-force into my escape. I was starting to get desperate.
The bonds once again shattered, this time spectacularly. A wave of energy broke free of me, blasting the nearby tables away. The one between us was held in place by the witch, but everything blew away as though caught in a hurricane. People were thrown across the floor and the glass of the counter exploded.
“I will enjoy discovering how those marks work,” she said. She waved her hand and the table between joined the others.
“I’m going to give you one warning,” I said, allowing the tattoos to power up for what was about to be a major fight.
“Your power is waning, and the dark god’s power is growing.” She raised her hands and now I was being thrown backward. The tattoos reacted, holding m
e in place. “Anarchy will reign as soon as you are removed from the picture.”
This was all wrong; she was a steward of the city, a guardian by her own admission. To side with Bannon made no sense, even if it meant getting rid of the vampires. She was too powerful to be that desperate.
Or I had misunderstood her completely, and all she cared about was power. There was no way to tell.
I had to leave. Buddy was nowhere to be seen and I worried he’d been attacked in the aisles somewhere, but I was the target and if I didn’t run I would have to deal with not only Nikolette, but whoever she was waiting for.
I struck back, channeling the power at my disposal into a blade of fire and sending it hurtling toward her. She erected an intricate shield that shimmered in the air before her, and I used her distraction as a way to escape.
I sped for the exit. The world slowed down around me. It was a terrible waste of what little life-force the tattoos had left, but standing my ground would have wasted more.
Buddy stood at the entrance watching the parking lot. I grabbed him and ran for a cab that was waiting for passengers. I had us inside before I slowed down enough for the driver to notice.
“Go,” I said. “Now.”
He took my order to heart and put his foot down. We screeched from the lot and onto the road, and then away.
Chapter 29
The sun was setting and I knew where I had to go next. If the witches were compromised then there was only one other force in the city I could turn to: the vampire court, or what was left of it.
And if the vampires were also against me…
“So she attacked you?” Buddy said. I’d hurt him when I grabbed him, but he was healing quickly. He didn’t look happy about it, though.
“She’s chosen a side,” I said. I couldn’t see why, though. There was nothing to gain from it and Bannon was a self-admitted crazy person.
I had another nagging voice in the back of my head, one that wouldn’t stop telling me I had underestimated his power. I had seen him and his followers turn rooms full of lesser vampires crazy, but what if he’d been hiding the true extent of his power? What if he could actually control people, and that was why Nikolette had joined his side?
If Nikolette could be controlled then so could the elder-vampires, and if the elder-vampires could be controlled then the only people I knew were on my side were the in-fighting demons and angels of the afterlife. But could I trust them either?
I searched Buddy’s face, trying to decide if he was compromised. He’d had plenty of opportunity to attack me, plenty of chances to advance Bannon’s agenda if he wanted to. To think that he was being controlled seemed ludicrous, but then Nikolette had just attacked me, and that didn’t make any sense otherwise.
“I need you to back me up in the court,” I said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“I am at your beck and call, Agmundr.”
I wished I could believe him. I wished I didn’t suddenly distrust everyone. I needed allies or I was going to lose, or run away. And running away was the same as losing, because it meant Bannon could get whatever he wanted. If he could control everyone but me then he could have whatever he wanted, including the mountaintop and all the power waiting for him there.
We arrived outside the nightclub. Police tape covered the door and there was no line waiting outside. I wasn’t sure they would be there but I didn’t want to phone ahead and let them know to expect me, just in case.
We tore the tape down and entered. The bodies in the club had been removed but the blood was still on the floor. The door to the hall was open and I led Buddy downstairs.
“We are not accepting visitors,” Artem said when he saw me. He and Ashe were pacing the center of the hall, as though they’d been having an argument and we’d interrupted.
“We need to talk,” I said. I stepped between them to get their attention. “The witches have joined Chaos and if we don’t mount a defense soon we’re not going to stand a chance.”
For all my paranoia, I didn’t think the vampires were in on it. They had lost more than anyone to Bannon and his followers. Their entire court had been decimated by the man, and to think they had allowed that to happen was ridiculous. To think they had allowed that to happen but hadn’t tried to attack me the way Chaos did was beyond comprehension.
So when Ashe’s claws came out and she leaped toward me, I was barely able to step aside. When Artem joined in, baring his fangs and running at me with vampire speed, I momentarily froze.
The tattoos didn’t; shields were erected and the vampire king collided with an energy barrier and fell to the side. Ashe slashed at me and her claws raked along the invisible wall.
This was madness. It made no sense. I tried to run, to get away from the attack before I had to do something I’d regret later, but Buddy was blocking my way.
“The lord god Anarchy requests your attention,” Buddy said, as though the words made any sense coming from his mouth.
“I don’t understand,” I said. I was frozen again, unable to decide what to do next, unwilling to attack a hollow man I’d thought was my friend. The world was collapsing around me and I didn’t know how to deal with it.
“His way is the way,” Ashe said, stalking the perimeter of the shields.
“His way is the only true way,” Artem said from the opposite side of me.
“His way will be your way,” Buddy said.
They attacked as one and something in my mind finally let go. My humanity, my ties to the world…everything was buried in a tide of rage.
These were my enemies, though I hadn’t known it. They were an army arrayed against me, striking from the shadows. And I knew what to do with an enemy army.
I needed the strength of Buddy’s blood, so I went after him first. I sidestepped the vampires and raced at top speed for the hollow man. He took a while to speed himself up, and by the time I reached him he was barely moving. I rammed my fist through his chest, missing the heart but letting the tattoos feed on his blood nonetheless.
The shields strengthened, empowered by angelic life-force. The hollow man fell at my feet, gasping for air as blood bubbled in his throat. The vampires were still coming, blurs in the darkness of the hall.
I was too quick for them; Ashe fell with half her skull caved in and Artem narrowly avoided a devastating kick to the chest.
“You can’t defeat all of us,” the king of the vampires said as he circled for another attack. “We are legion.”
“Every army of evil says they are legion,” I replied. I watched him circle me as he looked for an opening. I was looking for one too. “It’s the default answer and sometimes it’s even true. It never matters, though. It always ends the same way.”
“Not this time.”
Artem was on me, moving faster than I’d expected, smashing my shield aside at the expense of his flesh. His bones crushed and his skull was exposed, but he was through and his claws tore jagged tears in my body.
I healed faster than him, and I was stronger than him. I was stronger than anyone, and my rage fueled me.
I grabbed his exposed skull and tried to crush it. The bones cracked and he began to scream.
You picked the wrong side,” I said.
But had he, I wondered. If he was being controlled then this wasn’t his fault. And if it wasn’t his fault then what I was doing was wrong.
I threw him away into the darkness of the hall. The red rage was on me but I wasn’t the same person I had been. I could control my fury. I had to control it, or I would tear the world apart to get to Bannon.
Artem attacked once more, his broken body flying through the air. I wanted to crush him, to make my enemy bleed, but I was thinking again. I couldn’t do it, not until I was sure of his true allegiance.
I punched him from the air and sent him back where he’d come. He lay still for a moment before dragging himself up again.
I ran, speeding out of the club and onto the darkened street. Cars were pulling
up, large black SUVs. They were coming for me and I had the strength to destroy them. I should have destroyed them. I wanted to destroy them.
I kept running, heading for the empty lot and the heavenly gate. I had to check on the settlement. I had to check on my people, my master, and Bec.
I had to make sure all wasn’t lost.
Chapter 30
The gate was surrounded by Chaos, their guns ready and waiting. I had seen them as a small gang, a group of people who were following a madman, but now I had to entertain another possibility: they were being controlled, being made to do the things they were doing.
It explained how he had so many foot soldiers when he was clearly insane. It explained why they never got demoralized, when I had seen even prime disciples of major gods run in terror from my presence.
And it meant I had been killing innocent people, victims of my true enemy.
I ran through them without them seeing me and leapt through the gate. The heaven of the fish-people statues was a calm, welcoming space after the streets of Fairbridge.
I stopped for a moment, checking my reserves and thinking of my next step. I had spent a lot of the angelic power I’d stolen but I had more than enough to keep me fighting for the moment. A normal human would stand no chance against me, and I only had to face anything stronger long enough to make them bleed. Then I would have more power if I needed it.
I was a leech, a parasite, I realized. I had fully become a vampire, now that I was desperate. I had to weigh up how much blood I could spill to keep me fighting, and all the while I knew there was a hell waiting for me with all the power I needed.
Not yet, I decided. I wasn’t that desperate yet. To go there was to let myself fall to the madness, and I still had hope. She waited for me with my master in the settlement in the HND, and as long as she was there I couldn’t risk losing myself.
