Summoned to Defend

by C L Walker

  He hadn’t been ordered not to tell me his purpose, and he’d seen a way out of his orders. He was a distraction, nothing more.

  “Call Mr. Jones,” I said to Merikh. He was already dialing.

  “If you release me I will attack again,” he said. “If you leave I will follow, and I will let my god know you are on your way.”

  Clever angel, I thought. I had spent centuries finding ways around my orders, but I wasn’t as smart as an angel. They were quick studies.

  “He isn’t picking up,” Merikh said. “Finish him and let’s go.”

  Merikh didn’t wait for me, running out the door with the phone still in his hand. I was alone with the angel.

  “What should I do?” I said. “Thank you for your help, but I can’t let you warn him.”

  The angel took a deep breath and hung his head. “Kill me.”

  I knew I should. It was the smart thing to do. But he had helped me when he didn’t have to and I couldn’t repay that by ending him.

  “This is going to hurt,” I said. “But you’ll live.”

  I tore him apart, working methodically and with as much care as I could. I snapped the bones in his limbs, ignoring his whimpers of pain. I cracked his spine and tore out his intestines. I was bathed in his blood and the tattoos glowed in response.

  I stopped before he died. The tattoos covering my skin were brilliant in the small room, almost too bright for even me to stand. But when I tied what was left of him to a chair he turned his broken face toward me and smiled.

  I followed Merikh and found him waiting impatiently in the van. He barely glanced at the gore covering me.

  “Let’s go,” he said, accelerating before I was fully in the car.

  The drive was tense. Merikh sped the entire way, unconcerned with law enforcement as he dodged between cars. At one point he pulled into oncoming traffic and expertly avoided killing anyone.

  When we were nearing his apartment he finally slowed down.

  “Do you have a plan?” I asked.

  “I say we see what those tattoos of yours can do.”

  The tattoos were squirming, anxious to get to Bec and make sure she was alright. I was practically vibrating in my seat. I had left her without protection, as Seng had known I would.

  We entered the building through the front, making no attempt to hide. The few people we passed got out of our way quickly; seeing the blood on me and the determination on Merikh’s face was enough for them to know what was best for them.

  Merikh’s door hung off its hinges. Stepping into the apartment, it was clear Mr. Jones had given them a good fight. Blood waited on overturned furniture. The kitchen counter had been caved in and there were head-shaped holes in the wall.

  Mr. Jones lay on the floor by the broken window. Merikh rushed to his side while I searched the other rooms for Bec.

  She had been taken in the bedroom. She’d been hiding under the bed and clutching the locket. When they dragged her out she’d left her fingernails in the carpet and the locket on the floor. I slipped my prison into my pocket, beside the cracked stone mask.

  She’d been calling to me. Holding the locket and calling to me, hoping I would arrive before they finished with the assassin I’d left to guard her. But I hadn’t been there and they’d taken her.

  Seng had played me, doing exactly what he needed to in order to move me around and get what he wanted. He had leverage now. He could get the piece of his key and give me nothing, and I couldn’t stop him.

  I punched the wall and put another hole in it. The tattoos didn’t respond to my anger, or the building might have collapsed.

  “Will he live?” I asked as I stormed into the room. Merikh was crouched on the floor with his hand on his partner’s neck.

  “He will. It’ll take a long time for him to heal, but—”

  “Take me to the gate,” I said.

  Merikh didn’t argue. He brushed some shattered glass from his partner’s face, then stood and turned to me.

  I had never seen someone so utterly still and yet so clearly furious. I could see the thoughts racing through his head and they were the same as mine.

  We turned to leave but stopped when the first vampire walked in, blocking our exit.

  “The king would like a word,” he said.

  Chapter 32

  The sun shone through the broken window behind me. The vampire avoided it, clearly discomforted. But they were here anyway.

  The tattoos sent out their feelers, searching the building for enemies and finding plenty. The king had brought an army this time and attacked during the day to catch me off-guard.

  “We don’t have time for this, Agmundr,” Merikh said.

  We could leap from the window. I would be fine and I could catch Merikh. That would leave the vampires unable to follow us and free us to take care of more important things.

  But if I saved Bec it would leave her in danger when I was gone. The vampires weren’t going to let their grievance go and I was going to have to face them at some point. I had power to burn and I couldn’t guarantee that would be true in the future.

  “Follow me down,” I said over my shoulder.

  The tattoos lit up and I was moving, smashing through the first vampire and entering the hallway with his blood on my fist. The second was waiting for me and didn’t see me coming. He fell, broken and bleeding.

  I had a map in my head of the building; the tattoos showed me where my enemy was and I was methodical. I worked my way down, floor by floor, disabling my enemy as I went. Their king hadn’t warned them what to expect and they weren’t prepared. But then, nobody was ever prepared to face me, even if they thought they were.

  I topped up the tattoos as I ran, replacing my spent energy with the blood of the fallen. I would lose some before I was done but it wouldn’t be enough to stop me when we faced Seng. I could do both.

  I arrived in the lobby of the building. Ten vampires waited for me there, ready to fight whatever was decimating their fellows. Jeremiah and Artem stood at the rear of the room.

  The king looked worried. He should have been terrified.

  They attacked as one, their movements betraying the hint of the hive mind they could use when in danger. I was faster than them and stronger, but they outnumbered me. One clawed the flesh away from my leg before a shield was in place. Another managed to shoot me in the stomach.

  None of it stopped me. None of it even slowed me down; the tattoos were powered and I had prepared to face a god. They didn’t stand a chance.

  I stood in the center of the lobby, the splayed bodies of the vampires around me. They were groaning, bleeding, but I had let them live. I wanted to make a point but I also wanted to leave the king with a kingdom.

  “Whichever one of you swears to leave Bec and I alone,” I said to Jeremiah and Artem as I approached them.

  “What?” Artem said.

  Jeremiah was powering up for the fight; I could feel the power of his blood rolling off him.

  “That’s the new king of Fairbridge.”

  “What?” Jeremiah said, momentarily confused.

  “I’m going to kill one of you. You get to decide which one.”

  I stopped six feet from them, far enough that they couldn’t surprise me but close enough that I could destroy them if I needed to. The tattoos were shining bright and I was covered in blood, angel and vampire.

  “We will never bow to you,” Jeremiah said.

  I could see Artem had a different idea and I let him pluck up the courage to say it.

  “I will leave you both alone,” Artem said. He backed away from the look his former king gave him, but he’d said the words and that was enough for me.

  “You betray me again?” Jeremiah said. He turned to face Artem, his claws out and his intention clear. “I let you live.”

  “And the witches will kill us all if you have your way.” Artem’s claws were out too, his illusion slipping and letting some of his true form bleed through. He was a withered husk of a
man, barely recognizable as human.

  I’d expected that from Jeremiah, but Artem was powerful in his own right. He was too old not to be.

  “We can defeat him,” Jeremiah said.

  “Why would he want to?” I asked.

  “I am his king,” Jeremiah roared, moving fast and launching his attack.

  The vampire king was more than his minions: faster and stronger, smarter. He would be a terror to anyone else, but I had fought gods and I had the power of angels in the etchings on my skin.

  I plucked him from the air with both hands, grabbing his head and crushing it. He fell to the floor at my feet.

  “I believe you’re supposed to devour his essence,” I said to Artem. The new vampire king nodded. “Then you better hurry before he cools.”

  Artem waited for me to move before dropping to the ground and draining his former king. He was so engrossed that he didn’t notice when Merikh walked past him, admiring the carnage I’d left in my wake.

  “Can we leave now?” he asked. “You’ve changed the politics in the city for the next few hundred years. Is that enough to make you happy?”

  We left and ran for the van, and Merikh somehow managed to drive it faster than before.

  Chapter 33

  The construction site was surrounded by hollow men. They stood guard, watching all angles, ready for any attack. They would not be ready for me.

  I stepped out of the van onto the curiously empty street. I didn’t know what people thought was happening when they felt the combined energy of a legion of angels, but it had driven them away. It was for the best, because I was about to get violent.

  “Agmundr,” one of the hollow men said, stepping forward and away from the rest. “Our god suggests you hand over the key and await your turn.”

  “And my master?”

  The tattoos were running hot, spending energy faster than was wise. They reached out and touched the world around me, showing me everything as they watched for surprises. I could feel Merikh behind me, a strange dead space in the background magic of the world, moving into fighting position far enough away that we wouldn’t interfere with each other.

  “Stand aside, angel,” I said. He had to see what I was, what I would be capable of. I wasn’t the being I’d been but I was more than a match for him.

  “You know I cannot. Do as Seng wishes and your master will be safe. He gives you his word.”

  I was moving before the last sound left his mouth, beside him before he realized what was happening. I grabbed his head and tore it from his shoulders as recognition arrived on his face.

  The remaining hollow men attacked as one, and the battle began.

  The tattoos alerted me to the attacks before they came, lashing out when they had to in order to save me. The second angel went down without me laying a finger on him, but the third required my intervention. I knocked him down and crushed his head beneath my boot.

  Merikh was in the thick of it as well, surrounded by enemies and moving as fast as he could. He had no powers, only training, but for the moment he was holding his own. I trusted him to survive until I was able to help him.

  Another angel fell when I jammed my fingers into his eye sockets and tore the top of his head off. One made it through in the crush and fired a heavy revolver with the barrel pressed against my chest. The bullet defeated the tattoos. For a moment.

  I turned to the one who had wounded me and tore the gun from his hands. Before he could mount a defense I returned the favor, blasting the shriveled, dead brain from his pasty head. He went down as the hole in my chest healed and I turned to meet the next threat.

  There were too many for me to face all at once. Even with the power the tattoos were syphoning off as I struck the angels down I was running out of steam. An attack made it through and broke my arm. Before it could heal another snapped the bones in my thigh with a vicious kick and drove me to the ground.

  They were everywhere, filling all the space around me. Kicking and punching, stabbing and shooting, and now I wasn’t fighting back. Now it was all I could do stop the worst of their attacks while the tattoos ran down their supply of energy protecting me from the attacks I didn’t see in time.

  I closed my eyes and willed the tattoos to do as I asked. They complied, channeling all their stored power into one final move. As the horde covering me began to sense their impending victory I let it all out in one tremendous blast.

  Hollow men went flying amidst the debris from the crater surrounding me. The ground trembled as I stood, tremors setting off car alarms and shattering windows. Their broken bodies fell around me with dull, wet thuds.

  I limped over to the nearest and put my hand on the mess that had been its torso. The tattoos fed before healing me.

  “You could have hit me with that,” Merikh said from behind the van. He was battered and bleeding but on his feet.

  “I’m surprised I didn’t.”

  I climbed out of the crater and jogged into the construction site. Whenever I passed a fallen angel I made sure to touch it, refueling for the bigger fight that awaited me. Merikh shadowed me, watching the enemy warily.

  The gate was waiting for me, a twinkle of mother-of-pearl in the darkness when I closed my eyes. The hollow men in the street were starting to get up and I knew there would be more waiting for me on the other side.

  “You should run,” I told Merikh, sparing him a glance. “You can’t stand against them all, and I won’t be here to save you.”

  “I’ll manage, thanks.” He had a pistol in one hand and a dagger he’d taken from an angel in the other. He looked surprisingly healthy, considering.

  “No, you won’t. Find a place to hide.” He began to object and I turned on him, looking down on him and raising my voice. “If you stay you will die, and that isn’t helping anyone.”

  He held his ground, looking up at me with only a hint of annoyance. No fear; he was either stupid or…no, he had to be stupid.

  “Kill him,” Merikh said at last. “And I don’t mean it as a test, or some way to tell if you’re a bad guy or not. I want you to actually kill him.”

  “I did not hesitate the first time I did it, and I won’t now.”

  “Fine, then. I’ll go. Stop screwing around and go kick his ass.”

  I closed my eyes, focused on the gate, and stepped through.

  The heaven on the far side was in turmoil. Souls that had been walking in circles for a thousand years now knelt in the grass, staring at the impossible vision before them. Dark clouds covered the sky for the first time since its creation.

  Angels circled the now visible angry red tear that hung in the air and led to a hell. They flew slowly, watching the heaven for signs of attack as their god waited on the ground below wearing the armor I’d killed him in. I couldn’t see Bec or Roman, but in the moment it didn’t matter. I knew why I was there.

  The souls beyond the gate called to me, exciting the tattoos and making them press harder on my flesh. They forced me forward, one step, two, until I was running and screaming an incomprehensible battle cry.

  Seng turned to face me and for a moment his smile faltered. Then he raised his hand and Bec fell from the sky.

  Chapter 34

  The angels passed her around like carrion birds fighting over scraps. Her screams echoed over the plain as they tossed her up and let her fall, catching her at the last moment to drag her back into the sky.

  I approached the burnt circle in the grass beneath the gate to hell. Seng stood at its center, his smile back in place, confident of his victory.

  “What do you think?” he said, waving at the nightmare he’d turned the heaven into. “Good changes, or bad?”

  “Let her go,” I said, knowing it was futile. He had all the power here.

  “I spent a long time dreaming of this day, Agmundr. Let me enjoy it for a moment longer.”

  I willed the tattoos to calm down, to stop glowing and giving away their power. The ruse probably wouldn’t work on Seng but I had to ke
ep every weapon available to me.

  “Here’s the plan,” Seng said. He paced toward me until he was close enough for me to strike. I could have taken his head off with one hand, if not for the threat to Bec’s death. “You give me the locket and the fragment of my key, and let me do what I came here to do.”

  “And then you’ll return her to me?”

  “No.” He laughed and patted my shoulder. The muscles beneath the spot his hand touched tensed. “Of course not. I’m going to get my power back first, and then I’m going to kill you. Then, once that’s all done, I’ll let her go.”

  “I cannot trust you.”

  “Fine, do it the hard way.”

  He moved away from me and signaled to the angels in the sky. One of them caught Bec and brought her closer to the ground, stopping twenty feet in the air.

  “Rebecca,” Seng called. “Tell your barbarian to hand over what I asked for, then tell him to go wait on the other side of the world for further orders.”

  “Agmundr, rip out—”

  Her scream pierced the heaven. The angel had stabbed her. Her blood dripped down to the burnt grass beneath our feet.

  “Don’t try to be smart,” Seng said. “If you won’t cooperate then I don’t need you. Say what I told you to say.”

  Bec was in agony. She clenched her teeth against more crying out, and against doing as she was told.

  “Fine, then you can die.”

  I made my move, launching into the air to intercept the angel. But it knew what I was planning and rose out of reach far more quickly than I’d expected, more quickly than I’d thought possible. Bec screamed again at the forces her body was subjected to.

  I landed and turned on Seng. The god stood with his arms crossed, an impatient look on his face.

  “Rebecca,” he yelled. “Do it now or I’ll have you torn apart.”

  “Agmundr.” She was too high for me to hear her voice, but I heard it anyway. “Do as he says. Do whatever he says.”

  Seng held out his hands and smiled at me, sure of his victory. I walked slowly toward him and removed what he wanted from the pocket of my gore-covered jacket: the locket gripped in my right hand and the stone half-mask held in my left.