by C L Walker
She turned back to me, waiting for me to explain how I planned on getting up at all, let alone fight angels. Roman held the bottom of my bed, his knuckles white.
“I need vampire blood,” I said. I hadn’t planned on telling Roman about the power I’d gained the night outside ACDCs, but I couldn’t think of any other way.
Bec said she could get some from her friends and Roman remained locked in angry silence. They left me alone in the dim room and I could hear them arguing as they walked down the hall outside.
Was I right about Seng? Could I truly see a plot through the few words we’d exchanged, or was I looking for a reason to get back to fighting? Was Roman right?
I stilled my mind and focused on what came next. There was no time for hesitation or introspection. I was right about Seng and what the hollow men were doing in Fairbridge, and I could use it to my advantage.
My master believed I wanted to stop them to keep Seng from attacking her to get to the locket, and that was true. But I could arrange for her death in the fight and make sure Roman got the locket instead. I didn’t know what he’d do with it for the rest of his life, but I could be assured he wouldn’t summon me again.
I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the aches and pains wracking my body. They would be gone soon, and I had work to do.
Chapter 18
I took the glass tube of blood and poured it into my hands. Bec and Roman stood a few feet away, watching with rapt attention. The doctor waited at the door, a disapproving look on his face. He’d refused to leave, and Bec didn’t seem to care whether he saw what I was doing or not.
It took a moment, the same as it had before. The blood pooled in my palms, still warm somehow, despite being brought from across the city. Bec had said it cost her more than she had and that she now owed someone she would have to deal with later. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.
The blood-tattoos began to glow. First the ones covering my hands, barely visible normally, erupted with red light, then the ones covering my arms, then my chest. Then I was completely aglow, brightening until the others had to avert their eyes.
The aches and pains that had filled my consciousness for hours flared in unison and I barely suppressed a groan. It was like I’d been beaten again. Even the wounds from my first night returned in force.
The effect of the vampire blood wasn’t as powerful as the blood that had been used to etch the tattoos into my skin. It wasn’t even the same effect, just a faded echo of it. But I knew it was working within seconds.
The pain vanished, replaced by an overwhelming calm. I’d been on edge, dealing with feelings I hadn’t experienced in thousands of years, and now I was returned to normal.
The glow faded as I swung my legs out of bed and stood, whole and well.
“That’s impossible,” the doctor said. He was a young black man, tied to the underworld of Fairbridge for some past transgression. He did good work and I was pleased to have met him.
“Very little is impossible, doctor,” I said.
I was naked and the clothes I’d been wearing were damaged and filthy. Bec had brought me fresh attire and I crossed the room to fetch it.
“You had a collapsed lung, massive internal bleeding.” The doctor took a step toward me, his hand raised as though he planned on touching me. I looked at his hand and it dissuaded him. “Your skull was cracked. I didn’t think you’d wake up.”
I smiled at him. “The world is a wonderful place, isn’t it?”
I pulled on the clothes – jeans, a shirt, a jacket, and boots, all black – and waited to see if the doctor was going to be a problem while I wiped the spent blood from my hands with a damp cloth. I liked him – he’d saved my life, after all – but I couldn’t have him turning into a problem.
“It’s impossible,” he said again, his hand covering his mouth. “Impossible.”
“Yes, so you’ve said.” I turned to Bec. “Is he going to be alright?”
“He’s cool. Just give him a moment.”
“We don’t have a moment.”
I made for the door and the doctor backed away and into a cart with arcane equipment on it. He averted his eyes as I pulled the door open and left the room.
Bec had a car waiting outside. Roman had brought all the paraphernalia he said he needed to accomplish his goal. I was as well as I could be, healed and ready, even though the tattoos seemed to have absorbed all the power from the blood that they were going to.
I would have to find a more generous donor if I was to pick a fight with the hollow men. From what Bec said there were only a few vampires in the city to begin with and most of them were looking out for me now, but I was sure I could find one.
“I don’t know if this is going to work,” Roman said. He and Bec were having trouble keeping up as we left the hairdressers the doctor used a front for his practice. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Nobody alive has, hedge-mage.” I opened the door and sat in the back of the car. “There have been no angels to work with, after all.”
Bec climbed behind the wheel and Roman took the front passenger seat beside her. The car was a large, old contraption, with wood and cracked leather everywhere.
“I’ve never even heard of half the things you want me to chant.” He was rifling through his hastily scrawled notes as Bec wrestled the car into action and onto the road. “What language is this?”
“Does it matter?” I shook my head at the exasperated and fearful look he shot me. “It’s in a language that no longer exists, from a people who have been written out of history by the elder gods themselves. It only exists in one place, now.” I tapped my head.
“That’s really comforting.”
Roman returned to examining his notes and Bec focused on driving. She was biting her lip and she had a death grip on the wheel, but I figured she’d be alright. She was doing this for herself, for her own wellbeing.
Or so she thought. I allowed myself another moment of introspection, while we were driving and I had nothing better to focus on. Would I regret killing Bec? Would it hurt me to see Roman’s face when I handed him the locket? And, more importantly, why was I having these sorts of thoughts now, when they had never troubled my mind before?
It was my weakness, my mortality. It changed my perspective on things and made these people seem more real to me. Knowing that I could die made me empathize with them in a way I hadn’t with anyone since I’d been cursed.
We were driving to the one place we could guarantee we’d find a hollow man: Bec’s hedge-mage friends in their dark house. I’d given Roman all he needed to craft a trap for an angel and I was sure he’d do well, if only because he was going to be there when we attempted it and he valued his life.
I put the thought of my current weakness aside and focused on the quest. We were going to capture an angel and beat the scheme out of him, then I was going to find Seng and kill him, again.
It was a daunting plan, but I could see it play out in my mind. There would be unexpected moments, sure, there always were, but this shouldn’t be difficult.
We parked the car in an alley beside a flower shop, a block away from the brownstone.
“Get to work,” I told Roman, pointing to the space behind the car where I wanted the trap set. Bec looked up at me expectantly. “Help him. I have to go entice our quarry.”
“I’d rather come with you,” she said. Her tone had changed, losing some of its imperiousness and gaining a childlike anxiety. Seeing her that way meant good things for my plans, but I missed the old Bec for some reason.
“I cannot protect you and deal with a hollow man at the same time.” I nodded toward Roman. “Besides, if he doesn’t do the job properly you’ll be seeing more action than you like soon enough.”
She nodded and went to do as she was told. I left them to it and exited onto the street.
It was the same time of day as the last time we’d seen the hollow man and Bec’s friends had said he was fairly regular in h
is patterns. The streets had more people on them than I would have liked, but it couldn’t be helped. I was confident, but wary.
A timeline of Seng’s work was forming in my head: The end of days had come and been defeated, which led to the blood-tattoos no longer having the power of Ohm backing them, which meant she was dead. But something else had happened as well; the remaining elder gods had stopped maintaining the seals on the heavens. There were angels roaming the world again, so they weren’t maintaining anything.
Could they be dead too? Did the force that killed Ohm kill the other two as well?
It seemed unlikely but then, so did Ohm’s death. The end of days had been a constant point in my future, a destination that would end my otherwise endless imprisonment, and now it was gone. Anything seemed possible.
Across the street were the brownstones, private residences and small offices for professionals. On my side were a collection of stores and some newer housing. In front of the bar Bec and I had sat in was the hollow man.
It was a different angel than the first time; same pallid skin and long coat, but this one was bald and looked older, like the angel had been forced to inhabit someone in retirement. Which meant nothing to me, really, as his power wouldn’t be dependent on his physical shell.
I joined a group of people walking and talking on their lunch breaks, trusting that the angel wouldn’t be looking for an attack. The hollow men were arrogant, and they’d had the run of the city for a while. I approached him and went with the flow of traffic, which skirted behind him when it became obvious he wasn’t going to move.
He was making notes in his notepad. I stopped behind him, waited for the last of the people to move away, then reached over his shoulder and snatched the notepad from his hands.
He spun in a moment, his features betraying no emotion as his hands rose to grab it back from me. I punched him in the nose to get his attention.
His head rocked back from the force but he otherwise showed no sign of the attack. I smiled, held up the notepad, and ran for the alleyway. I pushed a woman out of my way but managed to dodge the other oncoming pedestrians.
The hollow man felt no need to dodge. I risked a hasty look over my shoulder and found him a foot in the air, racing toward me as anyone in his way was blasted aside by an invisible bow wave that ran before him. He was fast, far faster than me, but I had a tiny lead.
The alley was twenty feet away when he caught up to me. I felt his cold hand on my shoulder and then I was running into a wall at full force. There was an explosion, pain, and then I was on the ground and he stood over me with his hands resting at his sides, as relaxed as if chasing me had been the easiest thing in the world.
“That hurt,” I said through the blood dripping from my re-broken nose. It was the only thing I could think of to say. The hollow man was a cypher standing over me, without expression, without life. More powerful than anything, and nowhere near my trap.
I was afraid again. I was getting tired of that feeling.
Chapter 19
“You are a fool,” he said. “You could have run. We would not have chased you. We have no reason to.”
“I’ve worked out what you’re up to.” I still had the small black book gripped in my hand. It was cold to the touch, like something fresh from the freezer.
“And?”
He had a point. I was no more a threat than any other human now, which meant no threat at all.
“And I’m going to stop you. I don’t like your boss.”
A rough chuckle like a death rattle came from the hollow man’s throat. He reached down and grabbed my arm, yanking me up and putting me on my feet. He held out his hand for the notepad.
“I’d love to help you out,” I said. I put the notepad behind my back. “But your new boss isn’t going to let me go as easily as you. I have to kill him or he’ll kill me.”
The hollow man was too fast; one moment he was standing, motionless, and the next I was doubled over in pain, unable to catch my breath, and the notepad was in his hand.
“A new age is dawning,” he said. “You might have had a place in it before you became weak.”
I forced myself to straighten, though I was having trouble breathing and there were stars floating before my eyes. Pedestrians were giving us a wide berth, everyone’s eyes averted.
“I don’t care about your new age.” I tried to breathe deeply and pain blossomed in my chest. “It will pass, eventually. I’ll still be here when it does.”
“No. Though the tiny trickster god Seng is not our leader, he has ordered your death. We were going to ignore him. Now, I don’t think so.”
He hit me again, though I only realized it when I came to. I was on the floor, blood oozing around the rib jutting from my chest. I was going to need to find a vampire sooner than expected, it seemed.
“Your time of interfering in the works of your betters is at an end, Agmundr.”
The angel’s voice came from far away and the end of a tunnel. Most of the world seemed to be at the end of that tunnel. I was badly hurt, again. I didn’t like it.
“Wait,” I sputtered, holding my hand up and hoping he didn’t rip it off. “I was just trying to get your attention.”
“You have it, I assure you.”
I laughed, unable to help myself. The dry tone and corpse-like demeanor were so at odds with the threats he was delivering that it threw me for a moment. I doubted he’d attempted humor, but it tickled me nonetheless.
“I want to join your side,” I said. “I’m done fighting for humans, so I thought I’d give the heavens a try.”
“You are lying,” the hollow man replied. I wished he’d emote a bit so I could try and read him, but he was a closed book.
“Do you think I want to keep living the way I have, now that the end of days has come and gone? I have nothing left to fight for.”
“You are a broken man, it seems.” The hollow man stared at me in silence for a moment; I hoped he was contemplating my words and not deciding the best way to dismantle me. “In more ways than we thought.”
“Friend, I’ve been broken for eons. And I don’t understand this world well enough to live in it. The strong are no more likely to be leaders than the weak. It’s all wrong.”
I had nowhere to go with the line of questioning, no grand reveal to offer that might convince him. I was stalling for time in the hope that I’d come up with something better. But nothing sprang to mind.
“Explain.”
I clambered to my feet again, this time more slowly. My chest was a mess of conflicted pains and I knew there was a good chance I’d be passing out again soon.
I checked up and down the street, hoping for some miracle to save me. If Roman was ready he could have at least distracted the hollow man with some small charm. If the police were in the area they might see the situation and attempt to help me, though I was being beating by an old man as far as they knew, so perhaps they’d let it happen.
“You are stalling,” he said, and I realized I hadn’t spoken yet.
“No, give me a minute to get my breath back.”
“Are you expecting rescue?” He copied me, checking the street for some unexpected attack.
Nothing unexpected was going to happen. I had no more luck left to call on. If I was going to survive I was going to have to do it on my own.
As his gaze returned to me I punched him again. He was practically invulnerable but he still inhabited the body of a tall, old man and the force knocked him back. I thought about running but I knew how fast he could be. I pressed the attack instead.
Another punch, this time to his stomach. It had little effect, simply driving him back another foot. His counterattack was devastating. The flat of his hand shot out, and a wave of force grabbed me by the chest and threw me back at the wall. Bricks crumbled as I crashed to a halt and slid back to the ground.
I couldn’t breathe and the world was a dim memory behind a maelstrom of pain. I knew the angel was standing over me only becaus
e I could feel his presence in the world like, an additional center of gravity.
He grabbed me and lifted me up. He wasn’t tall enough to lift me off the ground but he didn’t need to; my legs weren’t working.
“You are tenacious, Agmundr.” He looked into my eyes and I felt him rummaging around in my head. “You planned on trapping me?”
“It was worth a try,” I tried to say. It came out as a wheeze; my lungs still weren’t working.
“No, but let us go see what you’ve planned for me.” He turned to the alley and dragged me behind him effortlessly.
He was going to kill me; of that there was no doubt. Nothing I did made any difference, and I couldn’t summon the strength to protect myself anymore. But now he was approaching Bec and I knew what he’d do when he got there. He’d tie up loose ends and kill her.
The tattoos squirmed at the idea, fighting to make me protect her. They were spells and incantations etched into my skin and they didn’t understand that I was as powerless as they were. The movement was maddening, but it didn’t help.
We turned the corner and there was Roman, standing where I’d told him to, with the chalk circle on the ground before him. Bec had vanished.
“I haven’t seen one of those in a long time,” the hollow man said, admiring the circle. He tossed me to the ground inside it and focused his dead eyes on Roman.
I had a moment to roll to the side as I saw Bec swerving off the street and barreling toward the angel.
The old car hit the angel with enough force to throw him into the air. He landed beside me and finally gave some indication that he was able to feel anything from the body he’d stolen when he groaned in pain.
I reached out and grabbed the back of his neck as the world faded away around us. He tried to rise, his face dripping blood, and I smashed it back into the ground.
He lifted off the ground and dragged me with him, levitating until he could put his feet on the ground. His vise grip on my hand pulverized the bones but I could barely feel it.
