by C L Walker
“What?” the woman said.
“What are you doing?” Artem added.
“The first one of you to agree to my terms and stop all this violence gets to live, as do their followers. Whoever that is can fight with the rest of you over who gets to be king in Fairbridge.”
The crowd was silent, stunned. The rebel woman and Artem were no less so, sneaking glances at each other and at their supporters.
“What if we just kill you?” the woman said quietly like she was afraid I’d hear her.
“You are welcome to try.”
It was a gamble; I could probably best the weakest of them in a pinch, but the weakest wouldn’t attack me. It would be Artem or the woman, and I didn’t stand a chance against them as I was.
The vampires were communicating, speaking so softly that normal ears couldn’t pick up what they said. I could tell from the crowd it was a vigorous conversation though.
“Time’s up,” I said, and all eyes turned to me again. “I have to go stop the god that caused all this, and I don’t have time to be looking after you people. What’ll it be? Who lives and who dies?”
Eyes turned to the two leaders staring at each other in bewilderment. I’d gambled and in that moment I knew I’d won.
“We’ll work it out,” Artem said without taking his eyes off the woman.
“And you?” I said.
“Agreed,” she replied through clenched teeth. “We’ll stop fighting while you do what you have to do.”
“Good. Thanks.”
I jumped off the stage and signaled for the two leaders to follow me to the back room, which they did, surprisingly.
Before I left I stopped and said one more thing. “Also, if any of you mess with this bar I won’t care what else you do. King or new-born, you’re dead.”
I led them out and into the back room and slammed the door shut behind me.
“We’ve agreed to your terms,” the woman said. There was only a hint of fear in her voice, but it was there.
“He wants something,” Artem said. “Can’t you smell it? There’s something different.”
I’d hoped to bluff my way through this conversation too, but if they could tell something was off they weren’t going to buy it. I’d have to gamble again.
“I need your help,” I began. I’d locked everyone else out in the bar; if I got this wrong there wouldn’t be anyone to get between me and the vampires.
I sat on the bed and waited for them to settle down and stop glaring at each other.
“I don’t know your name,” I said to the woman.
“That’s because I didn’t tell you.”
“Fine. I don’t care. I wasn’t lying about what I have to do now. There’s a god about to start destroying a lot of things in a bid for power, and I don’t think anyone else can stop him.”
“What did you lie about?” Artem said. He was looking at me differently, looking at me the way he might look at any other human.
“I’m powerless.” I paused, letting the words rest on their own and waiting to see if anyone was going to pounce. When they didn’t react I continued. “I’ve got to get somewhere in the city and I suspect I’ll have to fight when I get there. And then I have to go face a god who already beat me today. I need your help to make sure I don’t die before I even face him.”
“I don’t buy any of this,” the woman said. “You’re full of it. What the hell are you asking us to do?”
“You feed on people,” Artem said slowly. “Just like us. You need us to feed you.”
I nodded, still waiting for an attack.
“Wait,” the woman said. A smile grew on her face and exposed her fangs again. “Wait, wait, wait. You’re asking us to give you our blood? So you can go fight some made-up god?”
“He isn’t made up,” Artem said. “You’ve seen what’s happened in the last few days. The witches haven’t shown more than a cursory interest in us and what we do in this city in fifty years.”
“They hate us.”
“They don’t like us, but as long as we don’t mess with them they leave us alone. Suddenly they’re trying to wipe us out, trying to make alliances and turn us against each other.”
“They offered me no alliance,” she said, taken aback. “You’ve joined with the witches?”
“No, I told them to go away. But if there isn’t a god roaming around then something else is happening. Do you have a better idea?”
Her mouth was open in surprise and she looked at him like he’d gone mad. “About a million. A billion. A bad breeze blowing through the city and making everyone crazy is a better explanation for what’s going on that what he’s spouting.”
“I don’t need you both to help me,” I said. “I’m pressed for time and I’ll take whatever I can get. I just wanted to give you both equal chance to be my friend.”
“Friend?” the woman said. “You just threatened to kill us. Shit, you can’t even back that up.”
“No, but if I survive I will be able to again.”
“You’ve got it,” Artem said. “Whatever you need.”
“I’m not bleeding for this human,” the woman said.
“Are you sure?” Artem replied. “Are you sure you want me to be the only one helping him tonight?”
She paced back and forth as much as she could in the small space, always on the edge of saying something before thinking better of it. She didn’t like either of us and she had no trouble showing it, but she didn’t know how much she didn’t know, and she was smart enough to worry about it.
“Fine, dammit. What do you need?”
They bled for me, powering me and making me as strong as their blood could. It wasn’t the blood of a god or even an angel, but it was a start. Once I got into the heavens I could speak to one of the angels. If I could get them on board then I stood a slightly better chance of actually winning the day.
Before I left I called Bec, Roman, and Erindis into the already crowded room.
“Look after my wife,” I said. “All of you. They might come for her and I want her in one piece when I get back.”
The vampires nodded and everyone shifted aside to let me out. The vampire woman didn’t stop glaring for a second.
I climbed in the car and cursed the gods, then accelerated and headed for the empty lot and the gate to the heavens.
Chapter 35
There were ten soldiers guarding the gate, all with rifles and all enhanced with the power of their god.
I could see it, now that the tattoos were back in action. There was an aura of strength about them that made them stand out in the night. I could examine them now and find out their abilities and weaknesses.
Their enhancements weren’t like mine. All they had was strength and durability. They were fighters, faster and stronger than a human but no more. Where the tattoos gave me access to magic I would otherwise have no idea how to weave, these men were just muscle. I could handle that.
I stopped the car on the street, opposite the lot and in full view. I wanted them to see me coming. More importantly, I didn’t want them to catch me by surprise if I tried to sneak in. They raised their rifles and took aim.
“You can all leave,” I said. The streets around the gate were in chaos, citizens at each other’s throats. People had been thrown off roofs and their crumpled remains had been left where they lay.
“No one gets in,” the lead soldier said. It was O’Leary, looking a lot less worried than the last time I’d seen him. “The colonel’s orders.”
“I’m going through that gate whether I have to go through you or not.”
“We’ll take our chances.”
I walked toward them, my hands at my sides in an attempt to look less intimidating. I didn’t pull it off.
O’Leary wasn’t the first man to fire, but he fired second. A moment later they were all firing, emptying their rifles before realizing it wasn’t doing anything.
I wanted to talk to them again, to try and reason with them, but the lon
ger I left it the longer Invehl had to himself in the heavens. I didn’t know what he could do, if he could take the heartstone from them all the way he’d planned, but I couldn’t take the risk.
I ran as the tattoos strengthened the shields that had stopped the enemy’s bullets. I hit O’Leary first, hoping to demoralize the others by taking down their leader.
He was ready. He dodged the blast of magic I sent at him to soften him up and caught my arm as my fist sailed toward his face. He twisted me around into an arm lock as the other soldiers approached.
“Last chance,” I said, knowing it would do no good; once a person got the kind of power Invehl had given them, they started to think they were unbeatable.
I sent a wave of intense heat out from my skin. O’Leary let go and backed away, his flesh burning. He didn’t scream or try to put out an imaginary fire, but he kept his distance.
“Alright,” I said. “Let’s do this.”
I had no intention of fighting them and wasting what life-force I had on people who couldn’t follow me through the gate. I ran at them, pushing the heat wave ahead of me and driving them back. In their disarray they let a gap open and I ran for it with all the speed the tattoos could muster.
The world slowed down around me and the soldiers became statues. I would have no problem slipping by them and getting to the gate.
O’Leary moved as soon as I was within reaching distance, his hand snapping out and grabbing my arm again. The other soldiers slowly caught up as well, managing to get to the same speed as me a second after their leader.
“Surprise, asshole,” O’Leary said, punching me in the jaw and throwing me backward into the arms of one of his men.
O’Leary had taken me by surprise but I was ready for the man I crashed into. I went low and grabbed his legs before lifting him in the air and slamming him to the ground. I didn’t let go of his legs, though, and so I could use his body as a weapon against the nearest soldiers. I swung him at them, slamming his head into arms raised in defense. I let him go to sail through the air and crash into O’Leary.
They were fighting defensively and I was getting angry. The order from my master, from Erindis, forced me to advance no matter what. She wanted the god dead and spending my power on his henchmen wasn’t going to get me any closer.
I ran at the nearest soldier and knocked his hands aside when he tried to keep me back. I broke his face with one punch, putting the full might of the tattoos behind it. He crumpled in on himself and fell to the ground as I drew his pistol from his belt.
I attacked the next one, firing as I approached. The man started dodging before realizing we were all moving too fast for the bullets to ever reach him. By the time he noticed I was already on top of him with my knee colliding with his face. Another man fell with a caved-in head.
O’Leary hit me, hard enough to rock me forward. But the shields were holding and they were no match as long as that was true. I turned to face him and another soldier tackled me to the ground. He punched me over and over, pounding at my midsection with all his strength. Invehl’s men were strong, almost as strong as vampires, but I could have beaten them anyway on any other day.
I punched back, again throwing all the power I had into it. His head snapped back and went limp. I rolled him off me and got to my feet.
I was burning through the vampire’s gift too quickly. If I didn’t run into an angel willing to help once I made it through the gate then I was going to have to face the god as a normal man.
The gap they’d left between me and the gate was still there; was wider in fact. I ran for the man on the edge of the gap, roaring incoherently. He raised his rifle and fired, suffering from the same error as his friend.
The bullets hung in the air before him and he stared at them for the second before I bashed him aside and sent him flying.
I had a straight run to the gate and I took it, putting more of my precious power into going even faster. The world was a blur around me when I closed my eyes to see the gate.
There, a flash of mother of pearl in the darkness. I dove through before the men could catch me and slow me down anymore.
The heaven was in turmoil again. When Invehl passed through he’d done some damage, blasting the fish-people statues out of the ground and setting the grass on fire as he went. He was being vindictive, attacking a heaven he couldn’t destroy because it was his only way back when he was finished.
The angel who had been guarding the gate lay on the grass surrounded by the blood pumping vigorously from his broken body.
“Agmundr,” he said through a broken mouth. “Are we here again?”
Before I’d faced Seng I’d used the angel’s blood to power me. Now I would use it again to face one of the new gods.
“This is becoming a habit,” I said. I put my hands on the ground in a puddle of his blood and let the tattoos feed.
“It is a habit I would gladly give up.” He laughed and ended by violently coughing, wracking his torn and broken body until he vomited more blood.
“Will you survive?” I said.
“I will, if any of us do.”
I stood as I sent the power of the tattoos out to find Invehl. The gate he’d used had been torn open, the seal I’d placed there millennia before blasted off.
“I believe you will win,” the angel said.
“Have you seen this? Is this what is meant to happen?”
He laughed again and I worried he’d choke on his blood, but he kept it under control and took deep, rasping breaths.
“I am fallen. I see nothing more than you.”
“I’ll see you on my return. Think about finding a name so I know who I’m feeding off the next time a god tries to break heaven.”
I didn’t wait for a reply, rushing to my confrontation with Invehl before the angel could muster the strength to answer.
Chapter 36
The shortcuts I’d used before were still there, except as he’d twisted the heavens he’d twisted them as well.
Beyond the first heaven things were different. Entire heavens were missing and others were warped beyond recognition. Cold ones had been melted down to their bedrock and emptied, tropical ones turned into swamps or drowned outright. Farmlands lay barren and seas were turned to sludge.
And yet he hadn’t taken the heartstones and consigned them to the void. He’d broken them and left them empty, but he hadn’t devoured the faith in all but a few.
Gates that had led to one heaven now led to another and I lost my way. I tried backtracking and using different gates, desperately following a trail that didn’t make sense. The tattoos reported on his destruction as though it came from everywhere at once, even if I thought I could see his path clearly.
I ran from gate to gate, rushing through the heavens and barely catching a glimpse of each: a canyon opened through an ivory city, swallowing buildings in slow motion; a room with no doors or windows, the floor on fire; a jungle with trees larger than any living thing had ever been, rot settling into the wood.
He was nowhere to be seen, and neither were the souls or their angels. Everywhere had been emptied and left broken, and it didn’t matter how quickly I ran or which gate I chose. Destruction and emptiness were all I found.
I ran faster, pumping the angelic energy through my muscles until the air began to feel heavy and solid. A sonic boom followed me now, exploding from one gate and vanishing into the next in a heartbeat. There was nobody there to hear it.
I was too late. I didn’t know what he was planning but I could see what he’d done. It had been for the joy of it, too. He hadn’t gained anything from the destruction he’d brought to the heavens. In fact, he’d spent some of the divinity he had already.
I ran through an enormous glass palace, every surface covered in barely visible cracks. My footfalls broke the floor more, widening the tiny cracks until they threatened the structure of the building. I stopped and listened as the entire heaven creaked and groaned. Then it cracked.
I ran again
, no longer caring about the destruction I left in my wake. I dove through the gate as the palace crumbled to shards around me.
I was in a desert beside an oasis. The water was contaminated and the trees were dying. Animal bodies littered the ground and there were no humans in sight. An angel sat on the edge of a blackened well and he waved to me before I could continue running.
“Agmundr,” he said. He appeared as an old man with a robe and head covering, and a little scrap of material for pulling over his face when there was a sand storm. The air was calm and I knew he wouldn’t need it again.
“Where is he?” My voice was little more than a growl and I realized how angry I was. Now that I wasn’t running aimlessly I found I had nothing to focus on, and the red mist was falling. Soon I’d lose control.
“He has the power of an elder god,” the old man said. “Or, he did, until he used it all up. Now he is simply more powerful than anyone in the heavens, but at least he can’t do this anymore.”
The man waved at the putrid water and the dying life all around. He closed his eyes and sighed.
“Where did he go?” I asked again.
“He is on the other side of every gate. He is waiting for you at every exit.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I was yelling at him and I didn’t care. His dead heaven was delaying me and I was once again running low on power.
“This was meant to happen now,” he said. He pointed to himself and then to me, and then to himself again. “I am the oasis on the way to your destination. I am here to bring you succor and make you well for your journey.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, but I did. “I can’t do this.”
“But you will, and I will die. And then you will run on.”
“And then?” I asked. I grabbed his robe and dragged him to his feet. “What happens then, angel?”
“I cannot see beyond the boundary of this heaven, so I don’t know.”
