Will Be Done

by Ciara Graves

  “And let you two fight off an army?”

  I had to give the man credit. He took everything in stride, not faltering for a second now that we’d proved the warding was gone.

  “We’re not alone.”

  Bryan sighed. “More demons?”

  “Believe it or not, Bryan, they’re the good guys.”

  His gaze turned curious as it went from Lela to me then back. “And Hadariel is a traitor. You know, all those times you told me something was wrong in the Heavens, I hoped you were wrong.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “We have a lot to catch up on.”

  “And we will as soon as we make it through tonight,” Lela assured him. “The demons are waiting for our signal. They can get those who don’t want to fight out of Dakota and to safety. There are other humans at a new outpost. They’ll be safe there. It’s warded heavily against evil and angels.”

  He mouthed her last words and shook his head. “Guess we let the demons in.”

  “Bryan,” one of the men standing nearby argued.

  “You saying you don’t want their help?”

  “How do we know they’re telling the truth?”

  “Bryan,” a woman shouted from one of the watchtowers. She had binoculars in her hand. “We got a shit ton of trouble headed our way.”

  The man who’d been arguing slunk back into the ranks.

  “Mech, give the signal. I’ll start getting the people together to evacuate,” Lela told me.

  I left her with Bryan and hustled out the side door again. I waved my arm over my head and the demons I brought with me emerged from the trees. Depending on how many humans stayed to defend their homes, it might be enough.

  If not, at least we’d get the humans to safety. Their lives were more important.

  Kexan led the way then stopped beside me as I ushered the rest of the demons into the gate that had been thrown open wide for them. The humans eyed the demons warily, but no shots were fired. It was better than I could’ve hoped for thus far.

  “I don’t like this,” Kexan whispered.

  “If it was a trap, it would’ve sprung by now.”

  “Unless they’re waiting for us to be fully engaged with the enemy.”

  Overhead, the grey cloud cover that never seemed to change darkened.

  “You think Hadariel would go to all this trouble just to draw Lela out of hiding?”

  “Who said he’s only after Lela? Could be coming for you, too.”

  “Hadariel knows nothing about me.”

  “You’re the son of a demon lord,” he said. “He might be trying to force the issue. Kill you and Koreth might make a bad move.”

  “Then we keep our eyes peeled.”

  “You don’t want to take everyone out of here and abandon the city?”

  “You look at those men and women and tell me you’ll convince them to leave their home? A home they built after the war started. A home they’ve shed years of blood to defend.”

  Kexan placed his hands on his hips, frowning. “Humans are complicated.”

  I laughed quietly. “Yeah, no shit. Not like we’re any better.”

  He patted me on the back then entered the city. I’d be more than happy to take every living soul away from this place, but we had a chance to take out a decent amount of evil. If we could keep making dents in their numbers, it would help us in the long run.

  Unless Kexan was right about this being a trap and we all died. Then again, we’d be dead, and we wouldn’t have to care about the state of the world anymore.

  Bobby was one of the last to shuffle inside. He was met with a few glares until Lela called him over and introduced him to Bryan. The man shook the zombie’s hand gingerly. Then Bobby said something, and Bryan burst out laughing. If we could get more humans on our side, we’d stand a better chance of winning the war, too. Convincing the angels was not going to be as easy. We’d deal with that issue later.

  For now, we’d do what we could to save Dakota and let those damned evil bastards know we weren’t going down easy.

  I checked the rifle in my hands to ensure it was loaded. Lela stood atop another rooftop to my right. Bobby and Kexan were at her sides. Night was falling fast, and the army of evil would be here any second now.

  We added hellfire to the outer walls and placed our own warding to replace the holy light that would have kept Dakota safe. It would hold them back hopefully long enough for us to pick them off. Once they were through the gate, we had plans in place to cut off their numbers. The kids, the wounded, and any others who hadn’t wanted to fight were back at the waterfall safe house. More stayed than I’d expected. They now stood side by side with demons they’d called their enemy only a couple of hours ago.

  “You and Lela,” Bryan said suddenly. “Something going on with you two?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “I might be human, but I’m not stupid. I watched how you acted out there,” he said, nodding toward the gate. “Think we all heard that growl come out of you when she showed us her wounds.”

  I rested the rifle against my shoulder and peered through the scope. The wastelands were empty. Too bad. I was getting anxious to shoot something. “It’s complicated.”

  Bryan chuckled. “Complicated, huh? Think every male alive has said that at one time or another.”

  “We tried to kill each other a few times.”

  “Happens to the best of us. Wait,” he said and gave me a sideways glance, “you were the one who stabbed her in the side.”

  My mouth screwed to the side. “Threw a dagger. But yeah, that was me.”

  “She get you back for it?”

  “She kneed me in the gonads beforehand. I’d say I was getting her back.”

  Bryan laughed louder, and I found myself joining in. He quieted down after a moment and sighed. “How bad is she doing, really?”

  “You could tell?” I asked, surprised.

  “Her eyes,” he said quietly, “they’re cold. She might be a damned good warrior, but she was never cold. He did a number on her.”

  “Yeah, he did.”

  “She told you?”

  “I’m the one who found her afterward.” I looked across the rooftops at Lela. With the oncoming night, she was lit up by the burning fires in blue barrels nearby. She nodded to something Bobby said. “I didn’t think she was going to make it.”

  “But she did, and I’m going to assume it’s because of you.”

  “Partially.” My heart sank, thinking back to those days when I waited for her to give in to her wounds and let go. “She beat an angel to death,” I told him. “It changed something in her, and I’m not sure yet if it’s for the better.”

  “She’s alive. I’d say it is.”

  “But at what cost?”

  “Don’t you dare give up on her,” Bryan said roughly and when I turned back to him, found his rifle aimed at my face. “She’s sacrificed so much for us all and for that bastard to betray her as he did…” He lowered his gun. “Don’t let her die.”

  “I won’t,” I promised. “You knew then, about the angels being corrupt?”

  “Lela’s had suspicions of something being wrong for a while now. She hadn’t wanted to tell me; thought it’d get me killed.” He smirked as he looked through his scope. “All I care about are the people inside these walls. If the angels want to abandon us, then screw them, too.”

  A loud whistle from the eastern side of the compound told us our time was up. I lifted the rifle and rested my hand on the edge of the roof. “Damn.”

  Through the scope, I could clearly see the mass of bodies moving toward Dakota. Gangling, decaying zombies made up the center of the force with ten—no twelve—abominations behind them. Hounds were in front.

  A second whistle went up from another watchtower. My head shot up.

  “Well this is going to be fun,” Bryan muttered as he hurried to the other side of the roof. “Second force coming this way.”

  A third whistle, then a fou
rth resounded.

  Gut clenching, I put my eye to the scope and did a slow 360. We were surrounded. The small army was not so small anymore, and Dakota was right smack in the middle of a kill box. It had been a trap alright, just not one where the angels were going to be coming down from the Heavens to attack.

  “They must’ve done something to draw them here,” I told Bryan.

  “Great. I was in the mood to die tonight.”

  “We’re not going to die,” I told him, but he arched his brow. “Alright, not all of us are going to die.”

  “You know, I think I might like you after all, demon.”

  We did not have a big enough force to take on this army. “Kexan,” I shouted across the rooftop.

  He rushed to the ledge, jumped the gap with ease, and landed in front of me. “Not liking our odds, Mech.”

  “I know. Which is why I need you to go to Hell. Find Koreth and tell him we need reinforcements.”

  “Why don’t we just evacuate everyone?”

  Bryan turned toward us at his words, probably to argue, until a sharp crack made us jump.

  The warding around Dakota shimmered in and out of view. It held, barely. I tried to draw on my hellfire, and all I managed was a spark.

  “What was that?” Kexan asked.

  “Bad news. I don’t think our hellfire’s going to work much longer.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  I focused on a figure moving through the ranks of zombies, large enough to see without having to look through the scope. “That’s why,” I told Bryan.

  Kexan cursed. “He’s here.”

  “Who is that?” Bryan asked.

  “That is the question of the week. Kexan, hurry.”

  He waved his hand to make a portal, but nothing happened. “Problem.”

  I stood beside him and waved my hand. The tiniest sliver in the air appeared, then vanished. “Together. On three.”

  Sweat broke out on my forehead as I fought to open a portal to Hell with Kexan. He sputtered curses, veins bulging in his neck from the strain. Together, we managed to open a gap only a foot wide, but it’d have to do. I yelled for him to get through it. The moment he was clear, I let go, and the portal snapped shut with a pop.

  “Think he’ll make it back in time?”

  I locked eyes with Lela, who watched us from the other rooftop, holding her shotgun at the ready. “If he doesn’t, I don’t think we’re going to survive the night.”

  I nodded to her, and she did the same back to me.

  “First waves about to hit the warding.” Bryan scowled.

  I returned to my post at the edge of the roof and watched as Dakota was quickly surrounded.

  The angelic demon, since I had no idea what else to call him, stopped a few yards away from the main gate. He stood at least eight feet tall and his black wings spread wide on either side of his heavily muscled form. His body was covered in black and silver chain mail. The rest of him bore leather armor. He raised his hand, then let it drop.

  Zombies and hounds charged the walls, only to be repelled by the warding. Their bodies caught fire, and they stumbled into their comrades, screaming and screeching as they burned to death.

  “Hold fire,” Bryan shouted when someone let loose a shot.

  We needed to conserve bullets as long as possible. The warding held for now, but we had to make it until Kexan returned with help.

  The winged bastard I’d decided to dub Hadariel Junior—Junior, for short—raised both arms over his head. He clapped his hands, and a second crack echoed across the wastelands. It jolted my spine, and I doubled over, sucking in air. It was like he stripped a part of my soul away and left me with a sensation of iron bars locked around my chest.

  What had he done?

  “Mech?”

  I waved Bryan off and straightened, pressing my eye to the scope.

  Junior looked right back at me with a dark smile. I jerked away from the rifle as another line of zombies charged the walls. The warding burst to life in a fiery explosion, but then fizzled out all around the compound. When the last spark disappeared, Junior bellowed in rage and his army attacked with full force.

  “Open fire,” Bryan shouted.

  The demons and humans in the watchtowers and along the walls unleashed, firing at the zombies on the wall. The demons charged forward with their swords and made quick work of them, but there were too many. The abominations charged the gate, and any other door they could find. They battered them with fists, and no number of bullets seemed to bring them down easily. I picked off as many zombies and hounds as I could from my perch on the rooftop. We needed some sort of explosion to take the monsters down.

  “You got any grenades in this place?” I yelled at Bryan over the sounds of gunfire and shouting.

  “On it.” Bryan charged back inside the building.

  I continued to fire until Lela’s shout of rage caught my attention. Several zombies had leapt from the wall to the building she was on with Bobby and two other demons. She had her sights set on the ones in front of her, the shotgun blasts taking them down easily, until two more snuck up behind her. I swung the rifle around and shot one after the other in the head. They dropped to the gravel roof. Lela whirled around, ready to fire, saw the dead bodies, then nodded to me.

  I turned my attention back to the main gate. The first abomination broke through, and right behind him was Junior. The evil, smug-faced bastard walked through the broken-down gate as if he already owned Dakota. I lined up a shot for his forehead, right between the crimson horns protruding from his forehead, and squeezed the trigger.

  The shot struck home, and he staggered back. Black blood seeped from the perfectly circular hole in his forehead. The shot would’ve taken down a zombie in seconds. An abomination would’ve at least fallen to its knees.

  This bastard only shook his head and held his hand up to the wound. The bullet hadn’t been infused with hellfire, but still, I expected it to slow him down. His lips turned up in a sneer, and the bullet popped out of his head.

  “Shit.” I grunted as I reached for a hellfire-infused bullet from the bandolier across my chest.

  I loaded the round as he dropped the spent bullet at his feet. I lifted the gun and aimed, but he tucked his wings in and shot up into the sky, out of my view. As I backed away from the edge of the roof, I glanced skyward, searching for any sign of the winged devil. Night had fully closed in, bringing towering thunderheads. Rain was on the way. The wind that blew across my face was ripe with it. I spun around slowly, tuning out the rest of the battle as I searched in vain for Junior to reappear.

  On the other rooftop, the blast of Lela’s shotgun punctuated the shouting. I spared a second to look her way. She swung the shotgun around like a bat, and a head went sailing over the roof, the body tumbled after it.

  With no sign of Junior yet, I backed up and made ready to leap across the gap. Lela and Bobby were now on their own. One of the demons had rushed to the adjoining rooftop to assist the humans there. The other demon was dead. His body hung limply over the ledge.

  Lela noticed me and swung the shotgun back around, loaded it, then she glanced upward. “Mech!”

  I followed her panicked look.

  The winged bastard crashed into the roof as I lifted the rifle to fire. The shot resounded in my ears just as Junior struck the building with enough force to send me slamming into the rooftop. I didn’t stop there. The impact broke through the beams, and we fell through all four stories to the ground level, taking out walls and ceilings on the way. Most of the building caved in, covering us with debris. I lifted my arms to protect my head as much as possible, but it was pointless. We were buried in seconds. Or at least I was. I had no idea where the asshole was.

  Ears ringing, I shoved a heavy wooden beam off my chest and rolled to my side.

  Shots echoed in the distance, but none were close to me. Wings fluttered, and I scanned the dust-filled air. I was alone, as far as I could tell. Where had he gone? I stru
ggled to get to my feet, but another beam was on my legs. I hadn’t even felt it from the battering, the rest of my body took. Grunting and heaving, I yanked my legs free, grimacing when blood rushed back to my feet. I used a broken wall to haul my sorry ass upright.

  With one arm wrapped around my side, I staggered forward through what remained of what had been an apartment building.

  “Just attack me then leave me,” I muttered as I kicked aside more bricks, using whatever walls I could to stay on my feet. “Couldn’t even buy me dinner first. You really are one evil son of a bitch.” I said the last bit louder, waiting for him to charge out of the shadows or attack from the hole overhead.

  But he didn’t.

  Some semblance of a door remained, and I changed course toward it. Another fluttering of wings made me stop. I’d lost the rifle on the ride down. Maybe the shot hit him after all, and he was dead. That’d be too damned easy. My luck wasn’t that good. Several yards of dark space stood between me and the exit. The building creaked and groaned. What was left of it wasn’t going to stay standing much longer.

  “Where are you, you piece of shit?” I yelled.

  There was no charging figure coming out of the gloom. I blew out a couple of unsteady and pained breaths then lunged away from the wall toward the door. Glass crunched underfoot. I stumbled over bricks and chunks of plaster but pushed onward as fast as I could hobble. If I’d been mortal, that hit would’ve killed me. Part of me wasn’t sure I had survived. Maybe this was some version of a nightmarish purgatory I was forced to dwell in for the rest of my days.

  I was at the door when my hearing returned enough for me to process the shouts of men and women dying. We were losing this fight and losing it fast. I had to get back out there. I shoved at the door with my shoulder, but it was stuck in the buckled, steel frame. I kicked it, but all that did was jar my hip and drain me of strength.

  Glass cracked behind me.

  The hair on my neck rose as I hung my head. “Shit.”

  I whirled around in time to see the bastard flying at me from the darkness. I drew two daggers just as he hit me and took us both out the door. I drove the blades into his shoulders. A screech burst from his mouth. We broke apart. I rolled head over heels, losing my grip on the blades in the process.