by Brey Willows
“For the moment. Some cuts and bruises, but things are pretty fucking bad here. Can you find me?”
“I can and I will. I don’t think I’m too far away.” Kera sounded tired, defeated, and Tis ached to hold her.
“One of the kids here told me there are a lot of trees, and a massive lake. I think I’m near one of the Great Lakes, but I don’t know which one. A lot of this place is underground. Whenever they take me out of my room I can’t reach you.”
“That’s great. It will narrow things down for me.” Tis flew as fast as she could, holding on to Kera’s energy as tightly as she could. “What kids?”
“They’re holding a bunch of kids hostage to get me to do what they want me to do.”
Tis understood the hopeless feeling in Kera’s tone now. There was no way she’d allow children to die. “Yeah, well, I’ll deal with that when I get there.” Tis closed her eyes and focused on Kera’s energy, which was stronger with every mile that passed. She pulled back slightly and concentrated on the location.
“Tis? I’m sorry. I’ve been an ass, and if I don’t make it out of this, I hope you know you’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, and by far the best lay I’ve ever had.”
“Well, then I guess I’d better save your obstinate ass. She felt Kera’s energy waver. What’s going on?”
“They’ve come for me. Tis…I love you. I should have told you sooner.”
Abruptly, Kera’s energy shut off, like a switch being flipped. Tis’s stomach lurched at the break in contact, as well as at her final words. She loves me.
* * *
Kera followed her guard dutifully down the maze of corridors, memorizing them the way she had been from the first. She’d been left in that dining room after breakfast for hours, and eventually she’d moved to a couch and gone to sleep. When she woke, there was no guard, so she’d moved quickly back to her room, managing to guess correctly the few times she wasn’t sure which way to go. Now, on her way back to her kidnappers, she hoped like hell it had given Tis enough time to track her. At least I got to tell her. She hadn’t planned on it, but the seriousness of the situation was weighing heavy. She kept thinking about Greg and the way he’d protected the other kids, and had even given her his sweatshirt to use as a pillow. The lives of the many or the lives of the few? It was an impossible question, and she prayed she wouldn’t have to answer it.
They entered the lab, and this time there were several techs waiting for them. Sasha motioned her to a seat.
“Good morning, Doctor. I trust you slept well? My apologies you weren’t taken back to your room sooner. It seems the man guarding you fell asleep on duty.”
Kera felt the guard next to her tense. Degrovesnik didn’t take incompetence lightly, and she was willing to bet his batshit crazy counterpart didn’t either.
“Fortunately, he’s given us an excellent opportunity.”
Kera barely registered the gun in Sasha’s hand before it went off, the bullet punching a small, neat hole directly in the middle of the guard’s forehead. The tech staff all jumped, and one of them turned away to vomit. The guard fell to the ground with barely a sound.
“We’re going to place him outside your bedroom window, so you can watch firsthand what will happen to those sweet little children should you fail to do as we ask.” She motioned with the gun, and two other guards stepped forward to take their comrade’s body away.
“That’s very kind of you, but unnecessary. I’ve seen what animals can do to people.” Kera let the implication hang in the air, but as usual, Sasha failed to bite.
“The team has been assembled so you can begin discussing your previous work and how you’re going to continue your research. Detail for them what you’ll need, and if you need supplies, we’ll get them in.”
She walked out of the lab, almost daintily sidestepping the small pool of blood still on the floor, and Kera looked at the team in front of her. All young, all scared. “I think we should get drunk while we talk.” She turned to the guard at the door. “She said we could have what we need. I think we need beer.”
He stared at her and then looked at his colleague, who shrugged and nodded slightly. The guard turned to leave and she said, “That’s right, bellboy, off you go.” She turned back to the team. “I’m guessing you know who I am. Who are you?”
They gave her their names and seemed to relax slightly now that someone without a degree in international psychopath was in charge. She lowered her voice and whispered, “Okay. I say we discuss, at length, the best Marvel movie heroes. But use big, science sounding words to befuddle the masses. In fact, describe the movie and hero in science terms and see if we can guess who it is. Got it?”
There were a few smiles and nods. The guard brought back a box filled with bottles of beer, and she handed them out. If they were all going to die here, at least they’d have some fun first.
They spent most of the day playing their game, opening and closing notebooks as though they had something to do with the conversation and trying to keep a straight face any time Sasha walked through. Kera’s hands hurt, her wrist ached, and she was utterly exhausted, but she tried hard not to show it.
The far door opened, and Degrovesnik strode across the lab. He looked every inch the bastard she needed to deal with. She looked at her team. “You know how there’s always someone to help the guy in tights? People who step in give the hero the time he needs to do what needs to be done?” She made eye contact with each of them quickly. “I always hated the stormtroopers. I mean, who did they fight for? Whoever was strongest, right?” Degrovesnik was nearly with them. So close. “And is it one, two, three, go? Or go on three? Someone is always left scrambling. But that’s okay, I guess. Someone to tie up loose ends.”
When Degrovesnik was within striking distance, Kera tapped her fingers on a bottle, and made eye contact with each staff member. One. Two. Go. The guards were bored and inattentive, and totally unready for what happened next. Two staff members each jumped a guard and brought him down, managing to disarm them quickly. Kera’s attention was on Degrovesnik, though. She kicked a stool and sent it flying at him, and she was right behind it. He batted it away, but that left him open, and when she crashed into him, she managed to spin him so he landed face down. She rammed her knee so hard into his crotch she wondered if he could taste his balls. He screamed, and she straddled him, yanking his arms behind him. She slid the scalpel she’d secreted away the day before from her sleeve and held it to his neck.
“This ends now. No more child hostages, no more dark cells. I’ve owed you this for a long time.” She leaned back slightly to shove the blade into his neck.
The door crashed open, shattering the glass around it.
And there in the doorway stood the most beautiful woman Kera had ever set eyes on, in her truest, most terrifying form. The snakes on her head writhed and hissed, her eyes were the color of fresh blood, and her fangs were fully extended. Her wings glowed magnificently, spread out behind her.
She looked at Kera. “Don’t. He’s mine.”
Kera trembled. If she let him live, Tis would fill his mind with agony and horror, but he’d still be walking the planet. If she did what she had to do, she’d lose Tis forever, and potentially end up being the one with a gray matter makeover.
“The children are watching.” Tis didn’t take her eyes away from Kera, but Kera knew it was true. They’d already seen the guard from this morning killed, most likely. They didn’t need to see it happen again. They can get therapy. This fucktard will keep killing people.
“Please.”
Kera groaned and got off Degrovesnik, but not before giving him a quick punch in the kidneys. As much as she hated him, she wouldn’t risk losing Tis, and maybe she could save the kids’ innocence, if they had any left. She stumbled away, but heard a shout and turned.
Degrovesnik lunged at her with a hunting knife, his eyes wild with fear and rage. “I should have killed you years ago.”
Kera raised her hand
to deflect the knife at the same time as she jabbed with the other hand, her martial arts training kicking in automatically. She buried the knife in his neck, and he dropped his own weapon as he fell to the floor, gasping and holding the artery as blood pumped between his fingers.
Kera looked at Tis, panic engulfing her as the man who had tortured her dreams lay at her feet, very quickly dying.
“Self-defense. Doesn’t count.” Tis tilted her head and looked past Kera. “Down!”
Kera didn’t need to be told twice. She dropped to the ground and looked behind her. Sasha, her expression feral, pointed her gun at Kera.
“You’ve ruined everything! I told him you would, but he wouldn’t listen.”
Suddenly, Sasha flew backward, as though someone had punched her in the chest. She hit the back wall but didn’t let go of the gun. Even doubled over, she pointed it at Kera and pulled the trigger.
Kera had no idea what happened to the bullet. All she knew was that one minute Sasha was there, the next she was a disgusting puddle of human goo on the floor. She looked like an egg put in a microwave too long, and her dead eyes suggested it wasn’t a pretty bright light she’d seen in her last moments.
Tis lowered her hands back to her sides, her eyes blazing, and her fangs glistening under the glow of the fluorescent lights. “Are you okay?”
Kera nodded and tried to ignore putrid smelling slush-human on the floor. “Thanks to you. We’ve got a lot of people here, though. Can we get them all out?”
Tis looked around the room. The tech staff were still on top of the guards, and all of them were looking at her in obvious terror. Several of the children were pressed up against the glass wall, staring in awed fascination. Greg stood with his arms around two younger children, his eyes wide, even as he tried to turn them so they couldn’t see the carnage in the lab. “I can hear the other guards fleeing. Were these the only two in charge?”
Kera nodded.
“In that case, Petra and Ajan can come help. We’ll let them know you’re at a ranch house in the Wilderness State Park in Michigan, on the edge of Sturgeon Bay. They can help clear everyone out.”
Kera hadn’t been able to think about Ajan without seeing him lying on the road, his daughter beside him. “He’s okay?”
“He’ll be fine once he heals. But I’m fairly certain he’s going to retire now.”
Tis moved closer, and Kera looked up at her. When she looked at Tis, she didn’t see a monster or an immortal. All she could see was the woman she loved. “You came for me.”
“You knew I was coming. All I needed was a good connection. Like you said, a lot of this place is not only underground, but it’s also got metal walls. It was built years ago by people hoping for extraterrestrial visitation, and then turned into a place for actual astronomical study, but it wasn’t on any register because of its history with the alien adherents. That’s why I could hear you so clearly sometimes and not others. I’m sorry it took me so long to get to you.”
Kera touched Tis’s face and winced slightly at the pain in her wrist. “But you had something going on, and you still came. You must have pissed someone off.”
Tis laughed, a strange but not unwelcome sound in her true form. “I’m sure I have. But I realized something important.” She pulled Kera close and wrapped her wings around her. “When it comes down to it, I’ll always choose you.”
Kera closed her eyes, the simple statement unraveling her emotions and making her weak-kneed.
“How badly are you hurt?”
Tis leaned back to look down at her, and Kera realized she’d never again be able to fib to someone whose hair stared at her as well. She decided to ignore the cloud of hissing snakes and focused on the crimson fire in Tis’s eyes. “Not too bad. My wrist, mostly. I’ll be fine. Especially if you sleep in my bed as soon as possible. For observational purposes, obviously.”
Tis looked behind Kera and smiled.
Kera turned around and pressed against Tis. “Okay. Now I need fresh underwear.”
The extremely tall figure in a black cloak, who also held an enormous scythe, moved gracefully toward them, almost delicately stepping over Sasha’s remains. “Geez, Tisera. Did you really need to make such a mess?”
The figure lowered its hood, and Kera felt like she could breathe again. “You’re way more attractive without the terrifying getup, you know.”
Tis hugged Kera to her. “Kera, Dani. Dani, Kera.”
“Nice to meet you, Kera. I’ve heard a lot about you. Forgive the uniform, but it’s part of the job.” Dani smiled and motioned at the bodies on the floor. “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”
Dani moved away to kneel over Degrovesnik’s body, and Tis gently turned her around to face her again. “Baby, I’m sorry, but I need to get back to the office. Things are pretty crazy. Are you sure there’s no one else here I need to worry about?”
“I’m pretty sure. I mean, there were guards, but we can deal with these two, and you said you heard the rest taking off. So, it’s just like taking care of business in the other countries we go to, right?” Kera hated the thought of Tis needing to leave so soon.
“In a way. I’d take you with me, but I have a feeling you’ll be needed here. Someone needs to take care of the children, as well as the staff. You should call the police, so they can confiscate whatever weapons are on the premises.”
“Hey, now. This isn’t my first bad guy rodeo, you know. I mean, I’ve never had to explain an over-easy body, but I’ll work with it.” Tis’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “That serious, huh?”
“Pretty bad. As long as I know you’re safe, I can concentrate on what I need to do. When you’re done here, will you come to the Afterlife office? I have a feeling I could use your viewpoint on a few things.”
The thought that Tis, a fury who could pop people like a pimple, would need her help made Kera feel like she could conquer the world. “Of course. Do I just ring the bell?”
“I can take her,” Dani said as she moved away from Sasha, tucking a black sack into her backpack. “We’re busy, but my crew has things in hand at the moment, and the gods are doing what you told them to, so things are level at the moment. I can spare some time.”
Kera looked at Tis, unsure how to respond without offending the one being in the world she really didn’t want to piss off, ever. But the thought of traveling with Death made her distinctly uncomfortable.
“That would be incredible, Dani. Thank you so much.” Tis pulled Kera in for a hug and whispered, “She’s a good friend, and you’ll never be safer than you will be with her.” She looked into Kera’s eyes, and Kera saw the love in them.
“Yeah, okay. I’m sure I can keep from peeing myself long enough to come back with her. I’ll get done here as fast as I can.”
Tis closed her eyes and was silent for a moment before she reopened them. “Don’t bother calling Ajan and Petra. I’ve already had Meg let Petra know our plane is on its way to get them. They’ll be here as soon as they can.” She leaned down and gave Kera a lingering kiss. “I’m sorry, but I really have to go. I’ll see you back at the office soon.” She looked at Dani. “Take care of her, okay?”
Dani waved her off. “Go. Save the world. I’ll bring her back safe and sound, I promise.”
Tis sighed and stepped away. She looked back at Kera and smiled. “I love you, too.”
She disappeared down the hallway, and Kera felt bereft at Tis’s absence.
“I hope someone looks at me that way, one day,” Dani said from beside her.
She jumped and gave Dani a quick smile. Death is lonely. Who knew? “You never know. Maybe you just have to be ready to take the leap, you know?” Kera turned and surveyed the room, unable to cope with an existential conversation with Death about love. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
Chapter Twenty-nine
Tis flew through the night, so high up ice crystals formed on her wings. The beauty of the cold, clear night matched the clarity in her soul. With Ke
ra not only safe, but coming to her soon, she could truly focus on the job at hand. She let her gaze soften, and the stars blurred together. Think. It’s all related somehow. The kids and others with that black sludge and their souls already gone. The outbreaks of violence and the burning of religious centers…It was there, a niggle in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t quite grasp it. It felt familiar, but ancient, so long ago it was a memory buried in dust.
She flew lower, into warmer air, and smelled the faint acrid scent of fire. Below, a massive church was still smoking. Instinct told her to land, and she circled the glowing embers, searching for something, a hint of what was going on. She landed, making sure no one could see her, and walked the perimeter of the building. At the edge of the trees, she caught a sense of the thing, the something they’d been searching for, and her feathers trembled in the darkness.
She knelt and spread her hand in the dirt before she stood and pressed her hands to the tree next to her. But it wasn’t there, not really. It wasn’t a physical thing. Whatever it was had been inside someone, a person carrying something they didn’t understand. She looked at the ruined building, at the one wall still standing. There, framed by the empty window, stood a person in the shadows across the clearing. Tis leapt into the air and dashed across the space, but when she got to where the person had been, they were gone, leaving only the terrible empty feeling behind. She waited, watching, but the person didn’t reappear, and the strange feeling faded, leaving behind only a sense of confusion.
She spread her wings and headed for the office. She forced herself to put words to the feelings before they faded completely, and repeated them constantly, fighting off the strange disorientation she felt when she tried to picture the being. While she didn’t know what they were, or who the person was, at least she knew for certain someone was behind it all. No one can hide from every god on the planet. And if my sisters and I catch you…
