PANDORA

by Rebecca Hamilton

  “An abomination,” I said.

  “Can I kill it?”

  “We don’t have another choice.”

  It raised its fist to smash me over the head. I dodged under its arm and slashed the tendons. The demon faltered as its appendage constricted. It grabbed me with its other hand and tossed me, roaring. My right shoulder slammed into the wall before my head did. A star exploded into a supernova in front of my eyes, and I fell to the ground with a moan. I sat up and blinked, trying to clear the double vision in my eyes.

  Marge fired the gun again and caught the demon in its lower jaw and neck. Blood exploded out the back of its head, and its bulk toppled forward. Marge jumped to the side and pressed her back to the wall opposite of me to keep from being crushed. I pulled myself up with the help of the wall and wobbled over to the fallen mass.

  “Is it dead?” John asked.

  “One way to be sure,” I said.

  I hacked my way through the remainder of the neck. Even with the large hole in the middle there was still a lot left. I stood when I finished and moved back into the room with Marge. John had wrapped the bed sheet around Charlotte. She sat in a chair, rocking back and forth. I kneeled in front of her. Her gaze remained unfocused, and her body trembled.

  I snapped my fingers in front of her face. “Charlotte.”

  She blinked and looked at me. “Gabby?”

  “Where is Esais?”

  “I don’t know. The whole hospital went down, and those things came out of nowhere.” She covered her face with her hands.

  I sighed and rubbed my forehead. They had to be in the third floor lab with Ose and God knew what he was doing to them.

  “All right,” I said. “John is going to get you out of here.”

  “I am?” he asked.

  “Wait, what about the others?” Charlotte asked. “What about Nancy?”

  I bowed my head. “Nancy’s not here.”

  “She’s safe?” Charlotte’s shoulders relaxed.

  I bit my lip. The woman had been through a lot tonight. She looked on the verge of a breakdown. Would now be the best time to shatter the hope in those mascara-smeared eyes? Still, if I waited, it could make this worse for her.

  “She didn’t make it,” I said. “She was becoming something like the thing chasing you.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “I had to kill her. I had no other way to save her.”

  Charlotte jerked like she’d been slapped. Her head fell forward and her shoulders slumped. I put my hand over hers, but she slapped it away. My head bent. What had I expected? She wouldn’t want comfort from the one responsible for her cousin’s death. I hadn’t tried hard enough to save Nancy, and she knew it. I stood and turned to John.

  “Get her out of here,” I said. “Marge and I will deal with Ose.”

  “I’m not leaving these people here,” she said. “You can’t be counted on to help them.”

  Marge snorted as she leaned against the doorframe with her gun trained on the hallway. I could imagine the smirk on her face.

  “You have nothing to fight these things with,” I said.

  “Then I suppose I will die. Better that than living as a coward.”

  I rubbed the bridge of my nose. Charlotte stared at me with narrowed eyes and her jaw firm. She wasn’t going to give in. The minutes ticked away as I argued with her.

  “Fine,” I said. “Where are these survivors?”

  “Hiding in a doctor’s office in Ward C. It’s on this floor.”

  “Marge, go with them. Clear out the remaining demon hybrids. Charlotte and John can organize the survivors and escape. Does that sound good to everyone?”

  “What about you?” John said.

  “I’m going after Ose and getting the brothers back.”

  “Alone?”

  “I won’t be alone. I’ll have the Van Helsings.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  I took the stairs two at a time. The faster I got out of the staircase, the better. I used the keys I’d obtained from an orderly and opened the door. The hall was quiet and empty. It was like a different hospital from the floor below. Nothing had been broken or destroyed in the hall. The double doors stood open. I headed down the hall and used the key card. The metal door slid open into the wall with a swoosh sound.

  I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the light. The smell of chemicals pervaded the room, and it traveled down my nose and throat, leaving a burning sensation.

  Three medical beds filled the room, each held a Van Helsing. All of them were hooked to an IV bag filled with a yellow liquid. I moved to the closest table and began inspecting the leather straps. Adrian groaned, and his head rolled to one side when I touched him. His eye half opened before closing again. Tres didn’t move. A yellow bruise decorated half of his face. Esais’s eyes fluttered opened.

  “I’m going to get you out of here,” I said.

  “Help my brothers first,” he said.

  I moved to Adrian again and cut the straps. I slipped his gun in his hand and shook him. The door swooshed open behind me. I turned halfway before a rush of air slammed me into the lab table on the side of the room. Bottles broke underneath me, their shards jabbing into my back.

  “You’re supposed to be in the tomb.” Ose clamped his hand around my neck. “I’ll have to get another bed.”

  I reached back and grasped one of the glass bottles on the table. I threw it at him. He moved his head to the side, and the bottle flew past him. It shattered on the ground. Steam rose from the liquid with a hiss. Ose shook his head with a sigh. He raised me up and slammed my head into the table. I swallowed as nausea rose from my stomach from the pain in my head.

  “There’s no fighting it. In a few hours, you will be my new daughter,” he said.

  “I already told you others have tried,” I said.

  “They were fools to think your curse would break you. You’re too special. I’ll do it in time for you to help me choose which Van Helsing to take as a host.”

  “You’re not going to touch them.”

  “Yes, yes. You’ll stop me.” He waved his hand. “Now, which one? The one touched by fate or the one touched by inspiration?”

  He looked over his shoulder at Esais. I clawed at his fingers, but they remained locked around my throat. He ignored me.

  “That one is dangerous. I should kill him now, but the idea of taking one an angel has chosen is delicious.” His grin spread across his face.

  “Your doctor is not going to be happy.”

  “He’s outlived his usefulness. I have the drug perfected. I can take it to a bigger venue.”

  “So you can turn people into demons?”

  “No, those are failures. You killed the perfected forms, including my daughter. But you will make up for that.”

  He took the talisman in his hand and squeezed. Dust poured out of the bottom. He grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. I looked deep into his eyes, and the world faded away to black. Only he and I remained. The dark began to crowd around me until there was nowhere for me to go. I squirmed under him. I had to get out. It was too tight here. My fists pounded on his chest, but he just laughed as he released my throat. I tried to turn my head, but my gaze strayed back to the depths of his eyes. I began to fall.

  Ice crept along my skin, sinking deeper until my bones ached. I reached out, trying to find some surface to break my fall, but my fingers met air. I tried to scream. but the darkness reached in my throat and stole my breath. Allegra’s laugh filled my ears.

  “I always knew you would be one of us,” she said. “You could have been great at my side, now you will just be a slave to another demon. Either way, I won.”

  Tears pricked my eyes again. Maybe she was right. I had chased her for over five hundred years. Every time I had gotten close, I failed. The exorcisms, the sigils all failed against her. Even with the sword I’d sought in order to kill her, I’d failed.

  “And of course, you’ve gotten people killed,” A
llegra put in. “Innocents, your husband, your lover.”

  And now Esais, Adrian, and Tres would die as well. They would pay the price for my mad need to kill demons. I slid down the wall and turned my head in their direction. I choked back a scream. The brothers' forms had changed. Tres’s pretty face had peeled back to reveal his skull. The teeth had been replaced by fangs, and tiny spikes lined his cheek-bones. Two black ram horns curled around each side of his head. Tanned leather replaced his once smooth skin, with bony ridges running along his shoulders and forearms. Adrian’s face had elongated to that of a lizard with ridges running up both sides of his snout. Green-brown scales, like bog muck, covered his face until they reached the hair line. Course tufts of chlorophyll-colored fur covered his body. Bat like wings wrapped around Esais’s body like a cloak. Some sort of black bone mask covered his face, coming down into a point at his chin. I sobbed, bringing my hand to my mouth. The drug already had them in its grip. I’d been too slow. I stood and walked to them, with Ose following behind me.

  “So, which do you choose?” he asked. “I want the best host.”

  I stared down at Adrian’s hands. Creator’s hands, now covered in hair and long, jagged claws. I placed my sword over his neck. If I couldn’t save them, at least I could free them to the best of my ability. Esais’s blue-gray eyes stared at me from behind the sockets of the mask.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I did this to you. I always bring death to your family.”

  “No,” Dimitri said. “You don’t.”

  I faltered as my head started spinning. The world faded to nothing. Candle-light flared up, the only source of light in the dark. I reached toward it and found myself sitting at a small table. The tables around us had their chairs resting on them. We were the only two people.

  “Do you remember this place?” he asked.

  I nodded. “We met here. You thought the demon was a vampire.”

  He chuckled. “And you showed me different.”

  “Then I almost got you killed.”

  “Gabby, I almost died many times. And when I did die, it wasn’t because of you.”

  He took my hand, and his warmth spread through me easing the ache in my bones. My heart slowed to a steady pace, and I felt at ease for once. I took a deep breath and wiped the tear from my eye.

  “They can only win if you let them,” he said. “Show them you have strength and can overcome this.”

  “I don’t know how,” I said.

  He looked around. “You are already doing so. The sword is in your hand.”

  My sundang was still in my hand. I hadn’t released it in all this time. I filled my eyes with Dimitri before I closed them. I stood over Adrian, beautiful and human again, with my sword at his throat. Ose stood inches behind me. I spun before the insanity caught a hold of me again, my blade swinging in an arc. A deep gash opened in a diagonal line across his chest. He hopped back in surprise before I could get another hit in. He looked down at the wound and laughed.

  “You think you can still beat me alone?” he asked.

  “She won’t be killing you alone,” Adrian said.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Adrian sat up and pulled the trigger. Ose dodged back in a blur of motion. He glared at his shooter, walking towards him. Not in the Seven Thrones of Hell. I intercepted him, my blade swinging in an upward arc. He sidestepped me, and my blow glanced off his side. Ose paused. He touched the wound and looked at the blood on his hand before looking up at me in puzzlement. He should have been fast enough to dodge that.

  “I’m making him think he’s using his speed, but he’s not,” Esais said.

  Esais lay on the bed with his head lifted. His brows knitted together in concentration. Adrian kept the gun trained on Ose as he moved to Tres. The youngest brother winced as he lifted his head up. I dipped down to catch Ose in his calf. He spun his leg out of the way and ended facing me. Now would have been a good time for a comeback, but I had no words for him.

  He grabbed for my wrist. I blocked with my left arm. He brought his other hand up to choke me. I ducked, but he was too fast. He lifted me and tossed me into the desk in the back of the lab. The computer caught my fall. I staggered to my feet.

  “I’m tired of being tossed into the scenery,” I said.

  Ose grabbed a scalpel off of the lab table. “Allow me a little bloodletting instead.”

  “Denied,” Adrian said.

  His gun fired again. The air shimmered around Ose and in a second, he was beside Adrian. He raised the scalpel and brought it down along Adrian’s jaw. Tres grabbed the devil’s arm with his right hand. Blood burst out as the flesh split open. Ose pulled his arm free and backed away. He looked from the two brothers to his arm, his scowl deepening. He still hadn’t figured out what was wrong.

  Tres slid off the bed and stood in front of the beds, putting himself between his brothers and Ose. Adrian moved to Esais to free him from the leather straps. I grabbed my knife from the floor and moved beside Tres.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked.

  “A bit lightheaded,” he said.

  “I know the feeling,” I said. “We can rest later.”

  “There will be no rest for you,” Ose said.

  Ose came at me in a rush, but I still could see him move. Esais’s trick seemed to work half the time. I blocked the scalpel with the knife and cut the devil across his gut with my sword. His eyes widened, and he leapt back. Tres darted forward.

  “Do you remember the boy you maimed after you killed his parents?” he asked.

  Ose sidestepped Tres and grabbed him by his neck. “Still weak, I see.”

  “Not as weak as you think,” Tres said.

  He pressed his right hand to Ose’s chest with his fingers formed into a claw. At the same time, I attacked, aiming for the back of his neck. In another blur I flew through the air with Tres. We bounced off one of the beds and landed in a heap on the floor.

  “You’re supposed to be stopping that,” I thought to Esais.

  “I’m trying,” he said.

  He kept his gaze locked on Ose as he climbed off the bed with Adrian’s help. Tres’s weight disappeared as Ose lifted him in the air. The devil slammed the boy on the bed hard enough to dent the metal. There was the sound of cracking bone and Tres’s scream. Ose had twisted Tres’s left arm back at an odd angle.

  “I started with your back before,” Ose said. “I think I’ll just take the arm this time.”

  I jabbed the knife through his ankle. He jerked his foot back with a yell and brought it forward to kick me in the face. I ducked. He yanked Tres’s shoulder, and there was a loud pop followed by another scream from Tres. He dropped the boy and scanned the room with a frown. His eyes fell on Esais, who was staring at him with his brows locked in concentration.

  “You are doing this,” Ose said.

  He slid the middle bed out of the way and stood beside Esais in an instant. He grabbed him by the face and lifted him. Adrian raised the gun, but Ose held his brother in front of him. Esais thrashed as the devil’s fingers tightened around his skull.

  “Your little trick won’t work if you can’t concentrate,” Ose said.

  He slammed Esais’s head against the corner of the bed, letting the boy fall to the ground in a heap. He swung his arm in a backhand and sent Adrian flying. Adrian landed, and Ose was already waiting for him. He crushed the hand that held the gun. Adrian yelled. I had to get Ose off him.

  “El Shaddai, Elohim, Elohi, Tzabaoth, Elim, Asher Eheieh, Yah, Tetragrammaton, Shaddai,” I said.

  Ose snapped his head in my direction, the veins in his skin bulging. He rushed me, but halfway he froze, but his momentum sent him stumbling past Tres and me into the opposite wall. Esais stood, his eyes glowing a soft gold-white light. He moved to help Adrian to his feet. Ose snarled as he turned around.

  “You should have stayed unconscious,” he said.

  He ran straight for Esais. On his way by, I slashed his calves with my sword, causing him to stum
ble. Tres leapt off the bed and grabbed Ose’s shoulder, near his neck. The skin split, and more blood rushed out. The demon staggered forward, right in front of Adrian’s gun, now held in his other hand.

  “For my family,” Adrian said.

  Adrian pulled the trigger. Yellow light exploded from the barrel. Ose tried to move, but his body seemed to refuse to obey, and he ended up making a stiff jerking motion. The bullet pierced the temple near his left eye. A sickly yellow light flared from his eyes and the wound. He collapsed, dead.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  Adrian stood over the body with his gun trained on it. Esais and Tres moved to stand beside him. They formed a circle around the body. I stood, rubbing my lower back. I threw my head back and took a deep breath. The world had become clear again. I hadn’t noticed how hazy it’d become while I’d been under Ose’s power.

  “Mama, Papa,” Tres said in Romanian. “Justice has been done.”

  “May your spirits rest in peace,” Esais said.

  They bowed their heads and even Adrian looked respectful. I inched away from the scene. This was their time. They didn’t need an outsider like me intruding. I moved to the table on the opposite wall. Several crates were stacked in two rows to the side of the table. I opened the lid of the top crate of the first row. I.V. bags of yellowish liquid lay on top of each other in neat stacks. The next crate held bags filled with little capsules.

  “Find anything interesting?” Tres asked.

  “Ose’s drugs,” I said.

  He walked to stand beside me, holding his shoulder the entire time. Adrian and Esais joined us.

  “He had quite a stash,” Adrian said.

  “So what are we going to do about it?” Tres asked.

  “Destroy it,” Esais said.

  “So, another fire?” Tres asked.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know what burning will do to it. I’ll have to take it to someone who handles things like this.”

  “You know someone that handles demon-made drugs?” Tres asked. “Does this happen a lot?”

  I smiled. “Jonah knows a few people that handle cursed objects. I think this is apt to fall under that category.”