by C L Walker
I smiled and hung up. Sammy’s concerns were so normal, and her life so small. I wondered what it would be like to have such simple problems.
I caught a cab and drove across the city, preparing myself. I had a lot of power stored from the demon’s blood, enough that any fight with Chaos would be one-sided, but I didn’t know who he had on his side. The sun was low enough in the sky that I could be sure the vampires would be there, if he was thinking ahead.
He’d guessed my every move so far; it was a good bet he’d guess I was coming. Why else move James to earth? He wanted this, and I was more than happy to give it to him.
I had the cab drop me off a few blocks away from the Chaos building. Even here I found gang members on alert, watching the street and trying to hide their guns. I slipped into the shadow of a shopfront and waited for the nearest one to look away.
I stepped out and jumped, trusting the tattoos to know what I wanted. I rose into the air, speeding up the side of the building to land on its roof. I crouched and checked for enemies.
Hollow men stood on the tops of the buildings closer to Chaos. Old corpses in long coats, standing guard over the street, still as statues.
This was going to be more difficult than I’d hoped. I hadn’t planned on hurting anyone if I didn’t have to, but in a fight with a hollow man I was going to have to tear them apart, or be torn apart.
I moved down the street, jumping between buildings and trying to keep quiet. If I could sneak up on the watchers on the roof I could delay the moment they all saw me. Or so I thought.
I set foot on the last building before my first quarry, and every hollow man I could see turned to face me. It was like I’d set off an alarm and, in retrospect, I should have expected it. They had Nikolette and who knew how many other witches on their side. Wards were simple spells and I couldn’t detect them.
They came at me all at once. They lifted into the air and flew a foot above the roof, crossing the gaps between buildings with ease. They were silent, all focused on me and all ready to fight. The first sped toward me and the tattoos glowed in readiness.
A magic shield went up a moment before the hollow man lifted his hand and sent a wave of destruction my way. The roof beneath my feet broke apart and lurched into the sky, sending me with it. Chunks of concrete and metal bars slammed against the shield, darkening it as the tattoos worked to protect me.
I landed on my feet, ready to face the hollow man. But now there were three and they all raised their hands at once. More were approaching, a handful within a few seconds and ten more a few seconds after that.
Where had he found all the hollow men? Had Buddy rounded them up for him?
I had no time. The waves of power from the nearest enemies slammed into my shield and drove me back. I tried to step forward but their concentrated attack was too much.
The tattoos glowed brighter as I sped up. The world around me slowed down to a crawl and I quickly sidestepped the three attacks, only to run into two more hollow men who had prepared for my actions. They too were moving at great speed, ready to face me.
I lashed out at one but he retreated, raising his hand to fire. I leapt at the other but he twisted aside and out of my grasp.
They were keeping their distance. They knew where my power came from and they were trying to withhold it from me for as long as possible.
The rooftop had been torn open by the first attack. I backed away from the fast angels and dropped into the building below. I was in a large apartment, the occupants sitting on a couch watching TV; they hadn’t had time to react to the situation and were now frozen in time.
I was still moving quickly, still burning through the demon’s life-force. I smashed through the living room wall and entered the bedroom, positioning myself directly below the first wave of hollow men. I leapt up, sending the shield out ahead of me to clear the way.
Hollow men were blasted aside as I rose into the air. I slowed down and time began moving at its normal, lethargic pace. I descended from the arc of my jump and landed on the nearest enemy.
He looked up at me and started to yell. I silenced him by punching a hole in his face.
More power flowed into the tattoos, and now I turned with my own hand raised. Angels had a limited suite of powers and a lot of energy to burn. I had every magical trick in the book and now had access to their life-force.
I sent my own wave of destruction across the rooftop. The hollow men toppled and were blown away by it, but there were more incoming, dashing toward me from all directions. I had to find a better way, a smarter way, or I was going to be overwhelmed.
The red rage was waiting inside like a great cat ready to pounce. I could feel the fury burning, desperate for an escalation of violence.
I rushed to the nearest of the angels and grabbed him by the neck, twisted and broke it, and let him fall to the ground. But I was only one man and they were many. A punch to my kidneys threw me to the ground in agony, barely able to rise in time to face the coming threat.
I was going to lose. I could see it coming. Bannon had prepared for me and made sure his troops were ready. He was a soldier and a commander, and he had the best army any human had ever assembled.
I was Agmundr, though. I didn’t lose.
I launched at them, swinging and sending wave after wave of red-tinged magic at them. They danced aside when they could but I hit more than I missed. I collided with one and drove him to the ground. I raised my hand to bury it in his chest and recharge.
A hollow man grabbed my fist and tore me off his brother. My arm dislocated and I was thrown into the air. I came down between two buildings, crashing into the walls as I fell, bouncing from one side of the alley to the other until I smashed into the hard ground below.
They were above me, looking down, and I could barely see for the blood in my eyes. I wasn’t going to beat them like this, I knew. I wasn’t going to win if I didn’t let myself do it the way I knew. I was going to lose, and Bannon was going take everything from me and destroy it.
I let go, and the red mist fell over my eyes.
Chapter 34
For most of my long life I was powered by the endless life-force of the elder-god Ohm. She had possessed my wife and I had tapped into her essence to save them both. I had been unstoppable and unthinking, a merciless font of violence and destruction.
I got to my feet as the angels descended. I could have waited and engaged them on the ground, but that wasn’t how I did things. That wasn’t how the red rage wanted to do things.
I leapt into the air, powering myself with the life of the angel I’d beaten. The hollow men began to scatter, to avoid me and to keep me from stealing their life-force too. Their plans were built to combat someone else, though, someone who wasn’t willing to do anything to win.
I reached out with the last of the stolen power and took hold of the buildings surrounding us. It only took a single pull on their outer walls to demolish them.
I fell through the debris, powerless and vulnerable, but the hollow men fell with me. They were pelted by bricks and the metal of fire escapes, buried under the debris of my destruction.
I landed hard and felt my leg break. The pain would have come later, when I was done. Instead I staggered to the nearest fallen hollow man and put my hand against his wounds. The tattoos fed, and I was healed in an instant.
The remaining hollow men I’d brought down with the buildings were getting up, their wounds healing as they hunted for me in the clouds of dust. They were preparing to fight someone who would hold back, who would keep some strength in reserve for if he won. They were fighting a different battle.
I threw everything in the tattoos at the nearest hollow men and laughed as they were obliterated. I ran through the remains hanging in the air like fog and the tattoos recharged again.
They realized what was happening and began to run, but not fast enough. I ran them down one by one, breaking their spines and feeding the tattoos by burying my hands in their entrails. In moments
they were all down, groaning and bleeding.
I needed more power to face Bannon, and I knew what to do. I ordered the tattoos to pack my reserves and they went to work, bending magic to my whim and building a net around the hollow men. As I stepped out of the remains of the alley I dragged them behind me, a screaming, pitiful mass of fallen angels grinding against the road ten feet behind me.
Chaos members opened fire and I sent red lightning out to stop them. They jerked for a moment in pain before evaporating under the strain. I fed off the captured angels to refuel myself and continued down the street.
Five hollow men dropped from the rooftops and stood in the street. They were scared, their stolen bodies practically shaking at the sight of me. I was a smiling madman and I didn’t stop when I saw them.
One sent a blast of angelic magic my way. I threw all my power at the shield and barely felt the attack. I sent my own in response, putting everything I had stored into it.
The road exploded in a line between me and the hollow men. Concrete rose up to swallow them, crushing them as I clenched my fist. The tattoos extracted their broken bodies from the mess and added them to the invisible web dragging my power source behind me.
The Chaos building stood before me and I felt only anticipation. Nothing could stand in my way; nobody could possibly stop me. This was like the old days, the good days. This was me at my best, able to defeat gods with ease.
Humans flooded from the front of the building as streetlights bent away from the powerful shield I had protecting me. Cars were pushed along the street, forced to smash into other parked cars until they were piled up before me, and still I continued. No more hollow men challenged me, and nothing stood between me and my master.
“Bring him out, now.” My voice was amplified to a bone-rattling volume. Glass shattered in the buildings nearby. The coffee shop’s front window exploded into the store.
I gave them a moment to comply, and to panic. They had never faced me like this before. I doubted they had ever imagined facing something like me.
“Last chance,” I said. The glass in the cars nearest me shattered now too, unable to stand up to the pressure of my voice. “Bring him out or I’ll fetch him myself.”
The last of the panicked Chaos members had run away and whoever was still in the building didn’t have the courage to answer my call. They were fools if they thought they could hide.
I drew on my captured power supply. Blood erupted from their skin, tearing out of their bodies to pool in a ball behind me. I reached back with one hand, slipping into the warm red mess, and with the other I reached out and used the tattoos to grab hold of the front of the building.
It was five floors with brick walls, and my master was within. I had to be careful. I strengthened the building throughout, leaving only the façade weak. When I was sure the whole thing wouldn’t fall down, I pulled the front of the building off and let it fall in pieces around me.
Someone approached through the growing cloud of dust and debris. A woman, taller than Bec and with longer hair, but I couldn’t make her out at first. I wanted the clouds to part and the tattoos took care of it, conjuring a wind that cut a path between me and the new arrival.
It was Sammy, the waitress. She wore one of the Anarchy jackets all Chaos members wore. She approached me hesitantly, terrified of what I might do.
“Where is James?” I said, lowering my voice so I didn’t kill her. “Where are Bec and Bannon?”
“They aren’t here,” she said, but the tattoos told me she was lying. Her words seemed to hang in the air before me, analyzed for content and displayed as false.
“Why would you lie to me?” I said, though I didn’t care.
“I’m telling you, they aren’t here.”
I reached out with a glowing tendril of energy, wrapped it around her, and obliterated her.
“I warned you,” I said, my voice at full volume again, each syllable shaking the buildings around me until they began to fail.
I rose into the air, supported on more tendrils of power. The tattoos took care of the extra life-force I needed, drawing from the hollow men as required. They screamed and squirmed, but their own magic was being used to entrap them. They weren’t going anywhere.
The tattoos searched the building, their power filling every space and discovering every hiding place. In a back room, protected from my destruction, I found Bec and James cowering in a corner behind a heavy safe.
I tore the building apart, demolishing the rooms between my master and me until only the small piece of floor remained with James, Bec, and the safe. I melted the safe and they backed up as far as they could to avoid the liquid metal pooling at their feet.
“Give him to me,” I said. The building rocked with my command and the floor beneath her feet cracked.
She didn’t let the boy go. She seemed incapable of letting him go, as though the grip she had on him was the only thing keeping her alive. She might have been right in thinking that.
I floated closer and grabbed her arms, tearing them from my master as I lifted him away with magic. She fought, but my strength was more than she could imagine, let alone fight.
“Where is Bannon?” I said in a whisper through clenched teeth. I wanted this to end, now.
She looked up at me, terrified and in pain, and my anger faltered. The red mist over my sight began to fade.
“No,” I yelled. “You don’t get to be a victim here, Rebecca. Where is Bannon?”
“He…he left, when you arrived. He’s gone.” She tried to bury her head in her arm, but I had her hands in mine and spread her arms out so she had to look at me.
“Where did he go?”
“I don’t know,” she cried. Tears streamed down her face. “Please. Please don’t kill me.”
My anger flagged, punctured by the tears of someone I cared for. Even if she’d betrayed me she was still the same woman I’d killed a god to defend. She’d been under the spell of a mad man, but that wasn’t her fault.
I didn’t want to think this, didn’t want to let go of the anger that made me who I was. I wanted to end this, to end all the ties to my burgeoning humanity. I was Agmundr, and I was stronger than simple human emotions.
But I couldn’t. She looked at me and all I wanted to do was hold her, make her feel better, say I was sorry for frightening her. We would never be what she’d suggested, never be together like that. That was no doubt Bannon’s work, but she was still my friend.
I let her go and turned away, lowering to the ground and grabbing James from the air as I put my feet on the tortured, broken street.
I looked around at the destruction I’d wrought, at the death I’d dealt, and I wanted to scream. At myself and at Bannon.
Mostly at myself.
This had to end. I had the power and I had the need.
I lifted from the ground again, leaving my web of hollow men behind, and flew through the air across the city to the gate.
Chapter 35
I surrounded James in a shield to protect him, and I ran through the heavens at full speed. World after world flashed by, barely perceptible, an endlessly flickering impression of colors and sounds.
James was screaming, terrified. He buried his face in my chest and tried to push himself through my skin. Only when the tattoos glowed brighter and their heat became unbearable did he pull away.
I didn’t know what I was looking for, or even if I was looking for anything. I wanted to get lost, to make it impossible for anyone to find him. He had to be safe for me to do what I had to do. No matter my anger or the danger to my friends, the tattoos bound me to him and that made him the most important thing in the universe.
I stopped on a beach. Enormous trees hung over the sand, a dense jungle that covered the small island until it ran into a mountain range at the center of the landmass. Other islands sat on the horizon, each a copy of the one on which I stood.
“Agmundr,” the angel of the island said as he approached. He was a dark-skinned, naked ma
n with almost as many tattoos as me, although his were far more noticeable. He seemed friendly, but I fortified my shield anyway.
“Angel,” I replied. “I need a favor.”
“I know. I will do it, and your master will be safe until you return.”
“Then I will return?” I hated the hope in my voice, the pitiful wish that I might live beyond the coming fight.
“Perhaps. It is unclear, as these things sometimes are.” He sat on the sand before me and shielded his eyes from the sun to look up at me.
“You’re supposed to know the future,” I said. “You should know whether I return or not.”
“Do you really want to know? Most people don’t, even if they think they do.”
“Tell me.” He couldn’t see beyond the boundary of his heaven, but anything that happened within, from the birth of the realm to its death, was an open book to him. If I came back then he’d know it.
“This is where I tell you that you don’t, and you get angry.” He said it calmly, but I could see the tension in his muscles. “This is where things get unpredictable.”
“No they don’t,” I said. I put James down and the boy ran to the trees to hide. I let him; he’d be safe here, if he could be safe anywhere. “You can see what will happen, and you’re just telling me what you’re meant to tell me.”
“And if I am?”
I reached out with the power I’d stolen from the hollow men and I lifted him from the sand. I froze him in place the way Nikolette had frozen me. He was helpless, and I wanted to hurt him badly.
“Tell me, or I will tear you apart, feed on your dying blood, and find another angel who will talk.”
“This is where I confirm that you are not the one who comes to collect the boy.” The angel was still calm and his lack of fear was pissing me off. I expected respect from those less than me, and everyone was less than me.
“Who comes here?” I said, barely containing the scream that was building inside me. I knew if I let go, as I had in the city, I would destroy the island entirely.
“A woman and a fallen angel. I give him to them, because that’s what is meant to happen.”
