by Ciara Graves
He tilted his head back and forth, scratching at his bare skull as he grumbled under his breath. “Fine, fine, but we need a demon. I’m not shuffling my zombie ass all the way to Blood Falls.”
“I’ll find someone. Meet me at the main gate.”
At the gate, I paced anxiously for Bobby to join me. Every second we wasted was another second Mech and the others could be in trouble. The wound throbbed, and I pressed my palm to it. Part of me said it hurt because of Mech. He was in trouble. Instinct yelled at me to get to him. I’d grabbed my shotgun, loaded a bandolier with shells, and a halberd on my way to the gate.
“Come on, Bobby,” I whispered. “Come on.”
“Lela!”
I spun around to find Bobby running to me as fast as he could, a confused demon behind him.
“We need a portal to Blood Falls.”
The demon stopped short. “You’re kidding, right?” He crossed his arms. “Lela, Mech gave us all orders to keep you safe here in Dakota. You are not to go to the falls. Mech will send word soon enough.” His eyes narrowed and shifted from me to something behind me.
Glancing over my shoulder, I spotted Bobby frantically shaking his head. As soon as he realized I was looking, he stopped and gave me a large, crooked grin.
I gave Bobby a dirty look. “I don’t care what Mech said,” I told the demon. “I’m saying we need to check on him.”
He shook his head, jaw set.
“Fine, you know what, you take me there, and as soon as we see that everything’s fine, you can bring me back, and I’ll sit and behave. If you don’t, I’ll make the next few hours a real living Hell for you.”
His lips thinned, as if he doubted I could make him that miserable. I grinned, and he gave in, throwing his hands in the air. “Fine, but if Mech yells at us, I’m blaming it all on you.” He waved his hand and a fiery portal formed in front of us. “Bobby, you’re coming, too.”
The zombie had been creeping away and stopped when the demon said his name. With the shotgun in hand, I walked into the portal behind the demon, with Bobby bringing up the rear. When we stepped out at Blood Falls, the demon cursed, Bobby sputtered, and I thought I was going to be sick. Numbly, I walked across the muddy ground.
Mud that was now drenched in blood.
“Where is he?” My words sounded hollow in my ears. “Bobby, where’s Mech?”
“I don’t know. I don’t see him.”
“Mech,” I shouted, hands fumbling with the shotgun. “Mech! Damn it, answer me!”
“Go back and get help,” Bobby yelled to the demon.
“What if they’re still here?” he asked, but Bobby shouted at him to get back to Dakota. I sensed no presence of evil lingering nearby. Or angels, for that matter. The only thing at Blood Falls was death.
Bodies of zombies, abominations, and demons littered the ground. The once-beautiful ravine was now a scene from a nightmare.
I slipped in the mud and fell onto a dead demon, his eyes frozen open in horror. His throat had been slit, and he was missing an arm. I scrambled to get back up, oblivious to the mud and gore. Mech had to be alive. We did not go through all this shit for him to die now.
Bobby’s shout jarred me out of my disbelief.
I wiped a hand down my face and told myself to get my shit together. Each demon I passed, I checked for a pulse. After the first ten, I feared we wouldn’t find anyone left alive. Heart in my throat, I heard someone muttering the word no, over and over again, then realized it was me.
Mech. Where was he?
“Lela, I got one alive,” Bobby yelled.
The demon grunted and was trying to talk, but Bobby told him to stop.
The first demon rushed back through the portal. More came with him. They all had the same reaction we did. What was meant to be a successful trap had turned into a slaughter instead.
“Spread out,” I told them. “Find survivors. Any survivors.”
I continued my search, pushing closer to the pool of water—
A hand snatched my ankle.
I yelped, ready to blow someone’s head off until I recognized the dark red hair beneath a heavy layer of mud.
“Remiel.” I crouched and cleared the mud away from his face.
It looked like he’d fallen face down and had been breathing it in while he was unconscious. Blood smeared across his chest plate. The whole right side of him was blackened and stank of abomination.
“What happened?”
“Hadariel,” he said hoarsely. “He knew… somehow he knew.”
“We’re going to get you out of here,” I assured him, hands shaking with fear at Mech’s. “Hold on, Remiel. I need help,” I yelled to another demon. “Get him back to Dakota.”
“Lela,” Remiel said as he grabbed hold of my hand, “I’m sorry.”
The demons were carrying him away, not giving me a chance to ask him what he was sorry for. I wiped my hands on my jeans, not sure what the point was, since all that did was spread the mess around. I picked up the shotgun and sloshed into the pool. The current was interrupted by the number of bodies floating in the water.
“He’s alive,” I told myself. “Mech has to be alive.”
I shut my eyes, took a deep breath steady myself. I was not going to fall apart. I was not going to fall apart. I was not—
“Lela.”
It was barely a breath, but it was my name. I was sure I heard my name. I kept my eyes closed and strained to hear it again. I waited, wondering if I was hearing things, when I heard it again.
I slowly turned to the right.
There, half in the pool, and half on the stone platform that had risen out of the water, was a large, broad-shouldered demon with tribal tattoos.
“Mech!”
I sloshed through the water. I rolled Mech onto his back, and he growled, face scrunched in agony. Claw marks covered his side, from forehead to his calf. Blood bubbled from deep gashes. I reached for the wounds but didn’t know where to put pressure to stop the bleeding.
“Mech, can you hear me?” I cupped his cheek, kissing him fiercely. He growled quietly and then he shifted beneath me. “Mech?”
His eyes opened, and he choked on whatever he was trying to say. His body stiffened, and he reached for his thigh.
“Shit,” I muttered, unsure how I missed a dagger the size of my forearm sticking out of it. “Bobby! I found Mech.”
I stood to get more help, but Mech caught my hand. His one eye widened, and his Adam’s apple bobbed in failed attempts to speak.
“Save it, alright? I’m getting you out of here. Just hold on.”
I had to keep it together. I had to. Bobby was at my side with four other demons. Carefully, they raised Mech between them. His growl turned to a bellow of agony as his body contorted as if he was trying to escape the pain. I grabbed his face in my hands and forced him to look at me when the demons nearly dropped him.
“Look at me,” I ordered, and his gaze latched onto mine. “They’re taking you back to Dakota. I know it hurts, but you have to let them carry you, alright? I am not leaving you here to die.”
He gritted his teeth and nodded. I kissed him again, then backed away. I wiped the hot tears burning in my eyes and faced the pool of water again. Lord Koreth should be here, too. I was not leaving until I found him. I owed Mech that much.
I turned over every single body in the pool, praying one of them would be Koreth. That he would be alive. When I finally spotted the long, black leather coat Koreth had been wearing when they left Dakota. I yanked it out of the water. It was torn to shreds and coated in blood and black globs of muck.
Koreth was not with it.
I circled the pool, all the way to the falls, and just when I was about to turn back to search the banks with the rest of the demons, I spotted movement.
“Lord Koreth.” I stomped through the water and fell to my knees at Koreth’s side, unmindful of the muck. I pressed my hands to the gaping wound in his chest to stem the blood gushing out. “You’
re going to make it.”
“No,” he grunted, covering my hands with his. He was pale, the tattoos standing out on his paling skin. “Hadariel saw to my end.”
“We can stop the bleeding. You’re going to be fine,” I argued, but he shoved my hands aside then took hold of my shoulders. He dragged me closer, those eyes so much like Mech’s sucking me in. “Your son needs you still.”
“My son is ready to take up the mantle of demon lord,” he whispered as his strength faded.
“Please, I have to bring you back to him alive,” I begged, feeling myself choke up. “I won’t let Hadariel kill you, too.”
Koreth huffed, but it turned into a harsh cough. “It’s up to you and Mech now, Lela. You two have to finish this war, whatever the cost.” He smiled sadly as his head fell back to the ground. “I have faith.”
“But I don’t. Koreth, you have to hang on. Koreth?”
There was no response. One final rattling breath escaped his lips. His body went limp.
He was dead at the hands of Hadariel. As my parents and countless others. I shook his body, shouting his name until Bobby dragged me away.
“See to Lord Koreth’s body,” Bobby ordered, pulling me back to the portal. “Lela, Mech needs you now. We can’t stay here.”
“He’s dead,” I whispered. “Lord Koreth is dead. How am I going to tell Mech?”
“Let’s get him through the day first.” Bobby gave one last disgusted look at the dead of Hadariel’s forces. “Then we can plot our revenge.”
“Not revenge,” I told him as we stepped into the fiery portal. “Obliteration. I’m going to ensure Hadariel and everything he’s ever corrupted is wiped from the face of the earth. No matter what the cost. I will see him destroyed if it’s the last thing I do.”
I stormed out of the portal and left Bobby in the dust as I stamped toward the clinic.
Bobby was right. Mech needed me right now.
I would be there for him every second until he was healed.
Hadariel would regret the day he cast me from the Heavens.
He should have killed me.
I hope you enjoyed Will Be Done!
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Copyright © 2019 by Ciara Graves
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