Wicked Legends: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by hamilton, rebecca

  "The mayor," he croaked. "What you saw, what you gave me," a swollen tongue stabbed at his bloody bottom lip. "It changed me."

  Changed him. What did that mean? Was he no longer the Pale Rider, the man destined to reap blood and death as though it was an autumn harvest? She thought of the Beast's son. How young he had been when she'd given him his vision. College-age. She'd had no idea who he was at the time, only that he came to her after the Holocaust, offering her enough money to eat for the day. She'd not told anyone about the contents of that revision. She thought he'd walked away thinking it was just the magic of her ride. She had no idea it had changed him until Ezekiel had come searching for her, had set in motion her own eventual demise. And now this man who had tried to protect her with his own body, a man who belonged to an order of ruthless soldiers, he was admitting the same thing to her.

  Religion mongering. Indeed, that's what she'd been doing all along although she had no idea. Something inside her squeezed.

  "I'm sorry I couldn't save you," he said and she heard regret in his voice, remorse and something else. Failure?

  She had to work at forming words: each time her synapses fired, they reminded her that she was hanging by her wrists, struggling to breathe, thinking it must have been the same way for Christ on his cross, wanting retribution when he returned. Craving vengeance. Because that was how it had seemed during the Holocaust. He'd ravaged the Earth like a man tormented by memories too agonizing to articulate. He'd stolen his precious few and rained down vengeance in his retreat, like the earth was thirsty for it.

  Then the Beast had set loose his horsemen as though the earth had to pay the price of that vengeance, scouring it clean of any sense of divinity. Those days had been worse than the one when the god had come.

  And here this one horseman hung next to her. Changed, he said. But no one needed to know that. He could recover. He could explain any of this away to his superiors. There was no need for him to die here for the sake of a spindly girl who was too foolish to let her power go dormant. She owed him that. She wanted to give him that.

  She wanted to form words but they wouldn't come. Not until the door rattled open and a man stood in front of her, staring her down as though she was the one who had invited the god in the first place.

  "I'm guilty," she mumbled.

  She heard the intake of breath from next to her but ignored it. "I'm the one you're looking for."

  "It's not me who's looking for you, love." The man stepped closer and she could see something beneath the stubble on his jaw that reminded her of wax mannequins and chaise lounges and the thrill of bliss hitting her tongue.

  "Sasha," she muttered.

  Sasha struck a pose. "In the flesh," he said.

  She thought she heard Ezekiel croak out an order that sounded very much like a protest.

  "Take me," she said. "Get Ezekiel safe and you can have me."

  "You know what you're asking?" Sasha asked carefully.

  She tried to nod but all she managed was a curt movement of her chin.

  "We don't have much time. He's entered the den."

  She nodded again and a thoughtful look streaked across Sasha's face that told Theda he'd already thought this out. He'd already made plans and was just hoping she'd play into them. It didn't matter. She'd made her decision.

  Sasha twisted sideways, nodding to someone in the doorway. Theda wasn't surprised when she saw a bleeding Salima being led in by the horseman who had captured her in the apartment building. She couldn't imagine the amount of money Sasha must have paid him to betray his order. He sent Theda a twisted grin but didn't so much as look as Ezekiel as he unlocked Theda's restraints and let her collapse to the floor.

  She caught Salima's sloe-eyed gaze and saw within its depths a craving so acute she understood immediately that the girl had been repeatedly fed godspit and then left to dry out until now. She must have fought them for a smear, bitten her own lip as she jonesed out. Theda's stomach twisted just thinking how miserable the girl must feel.

  "Theda?"

  She looked up at Ezekiel who was shaking his head at her vehemently. "Don't," he said.

  She thought of his hands on her body, of the taste of him. She realized, looking at his battered body, that nothing would be the same. She wanted him to live. The Pale Rider, the man who lived to deliver death, trying to save a life. The least she could do was return the favor.

  She struggled to a wobbly stand and leaned into Ezekiel, slipping her hands behind his neck, pulling him close. She whispered a kiss onto his earlobe, slipping her hands into his pocket. As she withdrew, she caught his green eyed gaze and held it, begging him not to speak.

  "Use it," he croaked, and she knew he meant the smear. When she got a chance, she should slip into oblivion, avoid the agony of whatever the Beast had in store for her. She placed her finger on his lips, shushing him.

  "You are my addiction, remember?" she said.

  "Not this way, Minou." His eyes went glassy as he tried to keep his gaze locked on hers.

  "How touching," Sasha said, his finger to his lips in a parody of a cherub's kiss.

  Theda whirled on him. "Tell your man to release him," she said. "My life for his."

  It was liberating, this feeling of offering salvation. Far more absolving than the tickle of godspit on her tongue. She felt giddy, almost euphoric.

  She thought she heard Ezekiel groan aloud, but the sound was muted by the rattling of Salima's hands into the manacles, of Sasha complaining that they were taking too long, that the Beast would find them stealing his treasure, that they had to get out while the getting was good.

  As covertly as she could, Theda tottered close enough to Salima that she could catch her eye. She lifted her hand in a weak salute, twisting the palm forward just enough that the girl caught sight of the smear between her fingers. Theda's heart broke watching the excitement gleam in her eyes.

  "Thank you," she said to the girl and leaned forward, aiming her ear for the lips that fumbled around a tongue working to speak.

  "I want a do over," the girl whispered.

  "I know," Theda said, placing trembling lips on the girl's cheek. As sneakily as she could she slipped the smear onto the girl's tongue. She didn't need to watch the girl succumb to know that the tingle had swept through the girl's palette and into her synapses. She knew the experience far too well to have to see it happen. She turned away from the girl who had played Cleopatra for the Councilman and yet survived. Theda faced Sasha, pointing to Ezekiel, knowing that even if Sasha realized Salima was blissed out, it wouldn't matter now.

  "Do it," she said.

  Sasha motioned for his companion to unhinge Ezekiel and the horseman fell to the floor in a heap where the soldier prodded him with his toe. At first, Ezekiel bolted to his feet, flying toward the soldier with his hands stretching for the man's throat. The soldier Tasered him almost casually, watching as Ezekiel's legs shot out straight and his mouth clicked shut.

  The soldier kicked Ezekiel in the head before Theda could protest. "Out of it," the brute said, aiming his boot at Ezekiel's head.

  "What kind of bargain do you make, Sasha," Theda said, afraid the soldier would inflict further harm. She wasn't sure how much more Ezekiel could take; his face already ballooned out at his cheekbones, the nose a disjointed twist of broken cartilage. "Keep your promise or I withdraw my offer."

  "Get him out of here," Sasha said with a nod to the man. "I don't care how you do it."

  Theda nodded mutely. There was stickiness at the corner of her mouth that felt liquid and flaky at the same time. She touched it, stared at the pad of her index finger. Blood. Salima's blood.

  A do over. That's what the girl wanted. It's what every addict wanted when they grew ashamed of their weakness: a do over. So the girl had known she was going to die, that she was offering herself in Theda's place, and that she was okay with it. Theda would see that her sacrifice wasn't wasted.

  Without thinking about the consequences, she stuck her fin
ger in her mouth.

  Agni: Act 6

  Nothing. Not a single blip of vision, no wash of color to lead Theda to believe she was slipping into another time, another place, a life lived generations ago by the girl whose blood tingled in her mouth. Rather than relief, Theda felt fear. She'd tasted the lives of others for as long as she could remember. The ability to help them through it themselves, to find some meaning in the lives they lived before, that had come later with much training from her mother. But, to not see anything now? That was more terrifying than the idea of facing the Beast. Because if she saw no lives from before, then did it mean there were no lives to come? Did they mean that Salima would not get her do over?

  Almost numbly, she followed Sasha from the room, leaving Ezekiel and the burly horseman behind to what she hoped was some sort of salvation. She didn't dare think about what might happen to him if Sasha decided not to keep his word. She had to trust the bounty hunter would be safe, that he'd find a way out when all was said and done. She had to believe he'd be okay because believing anything else would strip her of her resolve.

  She threaded her way behind, watching Sasha's sultry hips sway this way and that until they were striding through the common room. All manner of activity strangely quieted as they made their way across its expanse and through to a smaller alcove with a handful of suited men standing about, drinking from champagne flutes.

  In the corner waited an elaborate dais cloaked in shadow. Sasha closed the door behind them. Without turning to speak to her, he pressed a light switch on the wall, flooding the dais with a narrowed ray of silvery illumination.

  Theda's heart went to her mouth. Chains lay in a puddle on the floor, attached to grommets protruding from the carpet. She had the eerie feeling she'd be chained there like Jessica Lange in King Kong.

  "Gentlemen," Sasha's throaty voice turned strangely baritone as he walked Theda to the dais. He made her stand directly beneath the light as his arms swept out beside him magnanimously as though he was offering some sort of gift. A waiflike spitter emerged from the shadows and looped a wide leather belt around Theda's waist, clicking it locked as the ends joined. Theda strained to test the restraint and felt sick when she couldn't move more than an inch to either side.

  Sasha struck a pose for the audience. "How much am I bid for this young girl?"

  There was no pretense to the auction. Sasha demonstrated no hint of moral indignity as he cupped her ass through the gold lame material and twisted her so the crowd could catch a glimpse of her round cheek. "You'll find her healthy, free of disease, and able to copulate."

  A murmur of appraisal shuddered through the crowd. Theda tried to peer out into the darkness, but the lights blinded her. All she could see were her own trembling hands as she tangled her fingers together.

  "Come see for yourself," Sasha said. "If you don't believe me."

  Out of the darkness came a tall strip of a man who, in the light, reminded Theda of a string of copper wire tarnished by age and filth. His fingers invaded Theda's mouth, pulling down her lips and stretching them this way and that. He tasted of fish and she had to fight not to gag. Abruptly, those fingers left her mouth and ran down her chest, pinching her nipples through the dress.

  "Is she disfigured?" The man said to Sasha.

  "Strip her and see," Sasha replied.

  She heard her own whimper, but could do nothing as the man wrenched the dress down from the shoulders, tearing it as he twisted it over her torso, down past the belt, peeling her like fruit. He grunted as he studied her breasts, jiggled one in his palm, testing the weight. He looked faintly displeased at her paltry B cups and she tried to work down a lump that caught in her throat. His hand went beneath the dress, cupping her ass, then, frustrated, pulled free and twisted the dress up through the belt so it lay in a bunch on her waist. She had no choice, as he tugged further, but to lift her arms so he could pull it off. He tossed the garment to the floor and then both of his hands returned to her skin, poking, pinching. Three fingers at a time drove into her sex and extracted themselves. She clenched her thighs together against the sting they left.

  "Fifty thousand," he said thoughtfully. Someone in the back whistled.

  "Surely, you jest," Sasha said. "You do know there's a reserve?"

  The man looked wickedly chagrined. "Can't blame a man for trying," he said, shrugging.

  Sasha stepped into the light, pushing the man gently aside. "Gentlemen, in case you don't understand, the reserve is set at a quarter of a million." He eyed the bidder speculatively. "Care to look, again?"

  "Is she a virgin?" Someone from the darkness asked.

  "No," the bidder responded and turned to Sasha. "Too hefty a price, then," he said. "Even for your wares. Even for wares of this quality." He poked a finger at the corner of Theda's eye and pulled. "She could be a spitter like the rest of your goods."

  "All the easier to control if you're fortunate enough for her to be," Sasha explained. "She'd be far more docile."

  "Unless I want some fire," he corrected.

  "Fire can be bought like anything else."

  "Still too hefty."

  The snake of Sasha's smile slithered across his face. "You have before you the woman the Beast seeks. I'm sure that changes the value."

  A renewed hush fell over the room as the news struck each occupant differently. Theda didn't want to see the look of renewed hunger in the men's eyes and stared at her toes in the light.

  "If you don't want to satisfy your own cravings with this girl, feel free to resell her to the Beast."

  "You double crossing bitch," Theda hissed. "You were supposed to--"

  "Supposed to what?" Sasha inquired politely. "You knew what you were agreeing to. What does it matter the method of your demise?"

  "You were supposed to save Ezekiel."

  "I did," Sasha answered. "Even now, he's reclining ever so comfortably on a chaise lounge."

  "You gave him godspit?" Theda couldn't believe her ears.

  Sasha wouldn't answer. Instead he addressed the room again. "Come, now," he said. "Surely you can imagine the price of my risk. I do this for you, my most loyal patrons. I'm offering you a unique opportunity. Dress her as Joan of Arc, if you like, and burn her alive. Milk her like a vampire would. Shoot her an overdose and watch her slip away in a delirium. You're limited only by your imagination here at Sasha's Boutique."

  Theda's tongue stabbed at her parched lips as she tried to rekindle her resolve. The absolution she'd felt, the liberation at saving Ezekiel, felt like water in her veins, but it was the voice that came from immediately in front of her that made her legs turn to liquid.

  "I'll take her."

  She didn't have to search the faces to know the owner of the voice.

  "Councilman Prusser," Sasha drawled. "Ever a discerning choice as always."

  The Councilman stepped forward, his eyes greedy on Theda's face. "You have my account number."

  "Music to my ears," said Sasha and hooked his arm through the Councilman's, turning discreetly away from the crowd.

  "I know full well that you have cooperated with the Beast like you always do," Prusser said. He chuckled. "I'm even certain he has found the religion monger." He winked conspiratorially and Sasha smiled thinly.

  He stretched his arm out toward Theda. "Come along, child." He quirked his finger impatiently. "You have duties to attend to." He twisted his gaze to Sasha. "You do realize I'm paying double for her?" he said, pouting. "I never got to finish--"

  Sasha's neck snapped almost audibly. "You paid for a regular girl before, and you failed to complete your own fantasy. That has nothing to do with my business. I provided the canvas as required; all you had to do was lay down your paint."

  Don't worry," the Councilman said. "I intend to do just that. Lots and lots of red."

  Theda weaved along on her feet, struggling to keep even footing as she trailed along behind them. She had chosen this, she kept telling herself. She had chosen for Ezekiel. Just the thought that he migh
t change, that the Beast's horseman could evolve into something different than what he was. She would hold on to that thought. That would drive her forward.

  And if he hadn't changed, what then? Would it lessen her action any? She gave it consideration as she stumbled along, realizing that it didn't. She'd made the choice because she wanted him to live, couldn't imagine him facing an end like Salima's, with no do over, no peace.

  Maybe that's what their shared vision had been about. Maybe it was about her own absolution, her own evolution. Maybe her choice could help her find some peace, finally. She kept telling herself that deep within she received more satisfaction from knowing he was alive than thinking she could find peace. She wondered what that meant, why she would feel so strongly, and realized he'd changed her as much she'd changed him.

  They exited the room on the opposite side of the way they'd come in. Theda hadn't realized the complex was so large. The building itself must have stretched into several of the older buildings back before the Holocaust so that now it was a large complex of varying styles. The wing that she entered had a Gothic feel. Several gargoyle statues squatted beside doorways, and the wall sconces had a distinctly medieval temperament.

  The Councilman nearly squealed with delight when they stopped outside an ornately carved door with a brass knocker. He tested it by lifting it and letting it drop. The sound made Theda's teeth hurt.

  "You read my mind," he said to Sasha.

  "Your file, more likely," Sasha answered. "Our de-briefer takes very good notes. You did mention that the next time you visited you might like to have a medieval torture chamber?"

  The Councilman put a pudgy finger to his lip. "Yes, I did, but I'm thinking now that I might need to have a vent for smoke."