The stranger nabbed the bags out of the air with deft fingers. He opened them briefly, taking a quick peek inside before closing the bags and tucking them away inside of his cloak. “There wasn’t anything else in the chest? Perhaps a stone that seemed to glow?”
There it was right out there in the open. Something about this deal seemed too good to be true from the moment he walked into the tavern and laid it at our feet. The stone was what he wanted all along. A stone that I still had tucked safely away inside of my cloak.
“If it was there, I’d be willing to give you, say, roughly four times the amount of gold you recovered tonight, as well as my share of tonight’s profits.”
There he went again, using those flowery words. Recovered, as if it was missing and we just returned it to him. Before I would be willing to part with the stone, I had to ascertain the true value of it, and that couldn’t be done tonight under the eyes of a stranger. If he was willing to pay that much for it now, he might be willing to pay even more for it later. “There wasn’t a stone.” I made a show of thinking about it some more, rubbing the stubble on my chin with a look of confusion. “But there was a setting in the box that could have been used to hold a stone.”
“Damn, he must have sensed someone was coming for it.” He looked at me, and a blue flame burst to life around his fingers. “If I find out you lied to me, I’ll be back.” The blue flames encircling his fingers winked out, and he turned and left.
Not even a thank you for the gold. Some people thought just because they knew where it was, that it didn’t take any damn effort to get it. If everyone could steal like I did, we’d all be poor. That was enough gold to feed the villages under our care for the entire winter and then some. Some people just weren’t grateful for anything.
“So you’ve got the stone,” Dunstin said from behind me.
“Of course I do.”
“Maybe we should just give it to him? There is a lot of good we could do with that gold.”
“I’m not ready to part with it just yet, old friend.” I didn’t turn to look at him; I kept my eyes firmly on the door of the barn. There was something about this stone, something he hadn’t told us. If there was one thing I loved, it was a mystery.
“Fine, but don’t come crawling to me when it’s the death of us all.”
Finally turning away from the door, I tossed Dunstin the three bags of gold. “See that one of those goes to the men and the other two are added to our stash for distribution.” He smiled and turned away.
Sometimes I wished it was that easy for me. People said curiosity killed the cat. It was lucky, then, that I wasn’t feline. The stranger and the stone had sparked my interest, and that probably wasn’t good for anybody. There was only one person I knew of who would be able to tell me if it was a magical item. The hermit would know, but it was too late for such folly right now. Now I was going back to our sanctuary, hopefully I would be able to secure to company of a lovely lady along the way. A simple kiss was another thing that I didn’t mind stealing.
Chapter Two
Jackson, Present
Jesus, what in the hell happened? One second I was diving for that cloaked bastard’s leg, and the next, I was falling through the sky. Safety glass crunched as I rolled off of my side and pushed myself back to my feet. There weren’t many times in your life when you felt thankful you got hit by a car, but this was one of them. Technically I hit the car, but I was willing to set that logic aside, if you will. The car’s hood had to be more forgiving than the broken and chipped asphalt next to it. I’d have to find some way to get the owner money to cover the damage.
Turning around, I realized that finding the owner was the least of my problems. That was if there was any chance of him still being alive. Things had changed since the last time I had been to Vegas, and none of them made me want to stay. I was just outside of downtown Las Vegas, and the entire strip was burning. What the hell had happened here? An earthquake, maybe a bomb. I hadn’t seen anything this horrific before, at least not if it wasn’t in a movie. Maybe there was something I could do to help.
As much as I wanted to get back to April, I couldn’t leave without at least trying to help. Jogging toward downtown, several things jumped out at me. There was more destruction around where I was now, so the fire I was seeing was just the worst of it. Blood trails leading from the streets and back into the dark buildings were becoming a normal occurrence. The icing on the cake was just the lack of people. If a bomb went off in Vegas, there would be a million looky-loos. What in the fuck was going on?
The strip came into view, and it was total devastation. The only way I could help would be to call on my gift, and people might see that. I was tempted to do it anyway, but Adam would fucking kill me. It would serve him right since it was his fault I was here in the first place. It started to settle in that there was something really wrong happening here. There was no sound, no one was talking, and there wasn’t any traffic, not even a goddamned car alarm was going off. The utter lack of sirens really started to throw me. If nothing else, this place should be swamped with first responders.
This might have been the strangest thing I had encountered so far. I mean, who had the power to shut down Vegas? It was fucking Vegas, man. Every gangster in the world had a thumb in the pie here. More money changed hands in Vegas on a given day than anywhere in the world. I bet during Super Bowl weekend, they might even give the NYSE a run for their money.
I started to wonder if this was the apocalypse. Was I the last man alive, and if I was, why Vegas? If this were The Stand, I would hope I’d be out in Colorado with Mother Abigail rather than stuck in Vegas working for Randall Flagg. It was the strangest thing I had ever encountered. Just my luck, my first trip to Vegas where I could legally have a drink, and the place had been wiped out. I mean, come on man, even Mad Max got to get his drink on.
To the south, the city looked like it was in better shape. Maybe I could find someone there and get some answers. I started jogging again, pulling on my magic to increase my speed. If things were this messed up, it wouldn’t matter if someone saw me running faster than it should have been possible to. I felt the familiar tug of hell as I activated the spell. If this wasn’t home, where was I? Or had hell finally come to earth?
The city started to clear up as I moved further away from the strip, but I still hadn’t seen a single person. There had to be someone left, and if there wasn’t, there had to be demons somewhere. Breaking into a sprint, I made my way into a park. Five steps inside of the gate, I hit the brakes. This couldn’t be real. I had to still be in hell. This couldn’t have happened back home unless everyone I knew was dead. Maybe this was just another dimension of hell, another prince’s kingdom.
The park had turned into a killing field. Bodies were stacked fifteen feet high on the left side of the park. All of them had been badly disfigured, or maybe eaten. Spikes had been set up at intervals around the park, and some of the bodies impaled on them were still twitching. So not everything that I had seen today happened a long time ago. Some of this devastation was recent.
A large demon walked out from behind the pile of bodies. His red skin almost seemed to shimmer in the light. He was eight feet tall and as wide as a car. None of that mattered to me as much as the blood-stained apron he had tied around his waist and the four-foot-long meat cleaver that he kept clenched in one hand. Corded muscles rippled with every step he took.
I didn’t move an inch. Something about this demon had me riveted in place. It was like witnessing a car run over someone from the side of the road. You knew it was bad, but you just couldn’t make yourself turn away from it. The demon pulled a man out from some sort of cage, lifting him into the air as if he weighed less than nothing, and then tossed him down hard onto the blood-soaked stones at his feet. The cleaver went up and came down with a meaty thunk.
Laughter erupted from the demon’s mouth. At least, I assumed it was laughter. The throaty and gravelly nature of it made it hard to tell. The demon
picked up the bisected body and tossed one half over his shoulder into the pile. The other half he threw into a hole on the opposite side of the stones. The sounds of flesh and bone being ripped apart drifted across the park. Whatever was down there was hungry.
This butcher needed to be stopped, but could I risk fighting him without backup? I was still feeling weak from my battle with Adramelech, and this demon looked like he would put up one hell of a fight. That knife was fearsome, and I didn’t know what kind of magic he might have access to. The Butcher reached out and grabbed another human. Her clothes were ripped and stained with blood. She looked up at the demon, completely defeated. He raised his cleaver, and she started to scream.
“Hey, asshole, over here,” I shouted, and then cast a fireball out at him.
The demon turned, and he moved his cleaver down, using it as a shield to block the fireball. Slowly, he turned toward me. As he did, the woman got up and ran. The demon only spared her a quick glance before he took the first slow, lumbering step toward me. He might not be fast, but this demon had plenty of power. One hit from that knife, and I wasn’t coming back. His massive shoulder hunched, and then he straightened, letting out a roar that sent the birds flying away from their meals.
There was no way I was going to just sit back and watch while that woman was cut in half, despite how bad this might end up for me. At the same time, I was utterly exhausted. The last twenty-four hours had been a whirlwind. I was pretty impressed with myself for still standing, let alone being able to use my magic. Destroying the demons outside of the keep had taken a significant amount of power. That and the fight with the hooded stranger, and I was damn near running on empty. Now I had a demon with a huge cleaver running straight for me and gaining speed with each step.
Another roar erupted from deep in the demon's throat as he raised the giant cleaver above his head. I moved forward to meet his charge. There was no way I could use my swords to deflect the power of that blow, so I was just going to have to dodge it. I feinted to the left and rolled to the right as the cleaver came down. The earth erupted where it hit the ground, sending grass and dirt tumbling through the air around us. The demon’s muscles flexed as he tried to tear the cleaver free.
A small bit of earth magic kept the cleaver trapped in the ground, despite the brute’s strength. Dashing forward, I lashed out with a blade, slicing into one of his arms before spinning behind him and sinking my blade to the hilt just under his ribs. He spun with speed that his bulk should have made impossible. One of his meaty arms lashed out, sending me flying back through the air. I landed on my back twenty feet away.
The smell was the first thing that got me. Then it was the flies. Unwashed meat sitting in the sun tended to rot rather quickly. I never knew exactly where flies came from. I mean, sure, we all knew they started as disgusting little maggots and turned into flying pests that tried to destroy picnics and barbecues alike. But it always astounded me how they just showed up. No food on the table, no flies. Bring out a pie, and ten flies show up. Out walking the dog, no bugs in sight. Dog takes a crap, three flies land on it almost instantly.
It was easier for me to think of the pile of rotting human carcasses as meat than it was to focus on what they really were. Something about seeing that pile of flesh was just too horrible to contemplate, even for me. The Butcher had retrieved his cleaver, and the wound in his back was knitting back together. Blood littered the grass around him as he spun to face me again. This time, I let out a scream as I charged forward. I’m sure he was intimidated.
The demon seemed to smile as he awaited my charge. I knew it was reckless, but I just didn’t care. How could I, when I was surrounded by so much death? This was just another obstacle keeping me away from my home, from April. The demon’s laughter reached my ears, and his giant belly shook with the power of it. He held the cleaver easily in one hand, and with the other, he pulled a giant fillet knife from his belt.
As I approached, the cleaver swung out in an arc at waist level. Throwing myself onto my back, I watched in horror as the blade sliced over me. If that strike had hit, I would have been cut in half. Rolling to the side, I just missed being crushed by a kick. I spun away from the demon, slashing his leg again, but this time, his fillet knife found my shoulder. Pain exploded across my senses, and my world was reduced to the knife sticking out of my arm.
The demon yanked the blade free, and my sword fell from my now useless arm. The demon started to chuckle again as it brought the cleaver back toward me. I had to stop the bleeding, but there wasn’t time for that now. My right arm still worked. My blade seemed to know what I needed to do before I even had the thought. It jumped forward, slicing cleanly into the demon's wrist. The giant cleaver fell from his hand and tumbled away until it rested against the black wrought iron fence.
A flash of light was the only indication I had that the fillet knife was moving toward me again, but that was all I needed. I swatted the blade aside and sliced deep into the demon's arm as it passed. He roared in rage as my blade bit deep into his hamstring. Before he could react, I had darted around the blow he had aimed at me and sunk my blade into his other leg. He fell to his knees. A scream of fury died on his lips as I shoved my blade through his throat from behind.
It wasn’t enough damage to kill him; the Butcher had some kind of powerful healing magic. Already his wounds were healing. It reminded me of what I needed to do to my arm, but first, I had to end this. The demon had slumped forward, supporting himself just off the ground with his hands and knees. I called on my gift and started to build a ball of intense blue fire in front of me. Swirls of red and orange tickled the edges. I pushed more and more oxygen into the flames. When I couldn’t stand the heat anymore, I cast the flames toward the demon.
His skin blistered immediately as the flames licked at him, consuming his flesh for fuel. Amazingly, he rose to his feet and turned toward me. If he touched me now, this would have all been for nothing. I wondered if instead of using a shield to protect myself, I could use it to trap someone else. I cast the spell around the demon, and he raged against the shield separating us. Slowly, I closed the shield around him and then started a small dust devil below his feet. As the windstorm grew in power, so did the flames. Bright blue flames raced upward, and the demon screamed. It was the last sound he ever made.
The fire consumed him, leaving nothing but ash behind. I was starting to fade fast now that the battle was over. My magic found the wound in my arm and helped to close it. Hopefully, with enough rest, my other, more wolfy half could heal the rest of the damage. Picking up my fallen sword, I sheathed the blade. My left arm was still nearly useless. I walked toward where the demon had been standing when I entered the park, and found a giant cage hidden behind the stack of corpses.
My blade came down on the lock, cutting cleanly through it. I sheathed it and then pulled the door open. A mixture of men and women flooded out. None of them said a word. They cast me furtive glances and then started running. I didn’t want to know what was in the pit, but I also didn’t want to leave any of these bodies behind. Calling on the last of my strength, I summoned a jet of fire. I bathed the piles of corpses in flames and then turned to walk away. The dark billowing smoke had already started to rise into the air, and the scent of burning meat filled my nostrils.
I had to find somewhere to lie low for a bit. I needed to rest and regain some of my lost power. I could already feel it coming back to me, but I would need at least a few hours to recharge. I turned the corner, exiting the park, and stopped. A group of human-like demons crowded the streets.
“He killed the Butcher!” one of them shouted.
“How are we supposed to feed our families now?” added another.
“Kill him!” screamed a woman with a red hat.
They started to charge almost as soon as the words left her mouth.
Jesus, how did this keep happening to me? I needed to rest, and I needed it now. I had forty demons on my tail. Whatever I had thought about the hell that
Adramelech had carved out for himself, this place was so much worse. It took our world and turned it on its head. My feet picked up speed as I turned the corner. My magic didn’t want to come when I called it, but slowly it started to trickle into my limbs, making me faster. I ran, but I had no idea where to go.
I turned from one street and down another, seemingly at random. The angry shouts from behind me started to fade away. Finally, I jumped through a shattered window into a building. I found the door to the stairwell and started to make my way up. When I hit the tenth floor, I nearly passed out from the strain. I kicked open the door and hoped for the best. Moving through the hallway, I waited until I found a door that was still whole.
Jiggling the handle let me know the door was still locked. My magic fought against me, but somehow I called on enough to melt the lock. I closed the door behind me, and I cooled the metal, sealing the door again. Twenty steps into the office, I fell to the ground. Somehow I managed to claw my way under a desk. When the darkness came, it consumed me completely.
Chapter Three
April
I could hear them outside my door. The loud breathing and scuffling of footsteps gave them away. After hours—or was it days?—of isolation, the faintest noise seemed like it reverberated around my tiny cell. The door opened, and the light that streamed in blinded me. Something heavy and made out of metal landed at my feet.
“Strap them on and get up, girl. We don’t have all day,” a male voice bellowed into the tiny space.
Somehow I had always known it would come to this. She hadn’t been lying when she said she was going to fight me if I didn’t bring her Jackson. Well, fuck her. I didn’t know where Jackson was any more than she did. If she wanted me to fight, I’d fight. It was what I did best, after all.
Redemption (Ascendancy Legacy 6) Page 2
