Lord of Ends

by Sam Ryder

  The man rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact with me.

  “Come on,” I said, “just a loaf of bread. Then we’ll be out of your hair.”

  Without saying another word, he walked through the doorway to the kitchen. Moments later, he returned with a warm loaf of bread and slammed it on the counter.

  “Here, take it.”

  I pulled my change out of my pocket. “How much?”

  The man waved his hand. “Just take it and get out.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Buddy, we’re not looking for a freebie. Let us pay for the damn loaf. How much?”

  He leaned in closely and lowered his voice. “You’re upsetting my customers. Please, just take the bread and leave.”

  Upsetting your customers? Who are you bullshitting?

  A quick glance at the dining area proved him right. Everyone sitting at tables stared at us anxiously. Nobody was eating—they wanted to see what we would do next. Through the large glass window, they’d all seen what had happened outside. We were outcasts now. I wasn’t used to a place where defending yourself would make you lose respect rather than gain it.

  Gehn shot me a nervous nod. She wanted out.

  I squinted my eyes at the man and dropped a quarter on the counter. Hannah snatched the bread, and we walked out.

  All the excitement of the day left us famished, but we didn’t stop to eat until we were out of the city and well hidden amongst the fallen trees and foliage. We found a spot to sit on a log so I could take the weight off my knee—which was throbbing something fierce—and we could eat.

  I tore off larger pieces and handed one each to Hannah and Gehn, then dropped another chunk on the ground for Chuck.

  The bread tasted damn good. Steam wafted up from the middle when I tore it. Fresh. Crusty. Chewy. The taste alone was enough for me to consider moving here and ditching the outpost entirely.

  Imagine eating this every day. I chuckled at the thought given what we’d had to go through just to get it. Nobody spoke. We were all busy chewing. But two thoughts repeated in my head:

  First, how badass is Hannah? That girl can kick a little ass, and that’s turning me on more than it should.

  And second, are we going to just be fighting people off constantly? I thought Geneva was “live and let live”, but people sure seem to have a problem with us.

  Normally, I would’ve responded to the second thought with Not my problem, but now I wasn’t so sure. What if I could do something to change things? It’s not like I believed I was some “Chosen One” from Gehn’s dreams, but that didn’t mean I was a no one.

  If change was needed, perhaps I could be the catalyst with the help of the two beautiful, intelligent, capable women whose company I currently kept.

  Chapter 12

  A Change of Plans

  I limped along the worn paths through the debris, hoping my knee would begin to feel better. Every step was agony. The more we walked, the slower I moved. This was no walk-it-off kind of injury.

  “We need to stop,” Hannah said. “You’re not going to make it to Rome like this.”

  My lips pressed into a slash, partially from the pain and partially from my growing frustration.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I just have to take it easy. We’ll travel slow, make camp early. In a few days I’ll be right as rain.”

  Hannah pointed at my leg. “Look at you,” she said. “You’re a mess. At the least you should stay off it today. We can see how you’re feeling tomorrow. Maybe a good sleep would give it a chance to heal up.”

  I could be a stubborn asshole sometimes. “No, thanks, I’m good.” The thought of standing still was worse than the pain. It was like now that I’d seen how fucked up Geneva was, I could think of nothing but getting to Rome to assess the situation there.

  “Stupid fucking man,” Hannah said.

  I laughed. “Tell me what you really think,” I said.

  She didn’t respond, picking up the pace while Gehn lingered by my side. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she said, placing a hand on my arm. God, how good her touch felt and I was reminded of the closeness we’d shared the night before.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Thanks.”

  I hurried to catch up to Hannah, to prove to her that I was in better shape than she suspected. A fresh wave of agony hit me, making stars dance before my eyes. Suddenly I felt nauseous. A wave of shadows rushed over me, the world turning fuzzy. “I think I need to sit down for a minute,” I said. But before I could do anything, the world spun and I felt myself falling.

  And then there was darkness.

  ~~~

  When I awoke, the scenery was strangely familiar. What the hell? I thought. Am I dreaming?

  It was the loft over Barley’s bar. I blinked, still wondering if it was real. Gehn was sitting on the windowsill, the exact spot where we’d fucked the night before. Hannah was nowhere to be found. Chuck licked my face and I smiled.

  I tried to get up. Gehn said, “Cutter? Wait,” but I’d already turned my body perpendicular to the mattress, starting to put pressure on my good leg. I hobbled to a one-legged standing position. I tried a little pressure on my injured leg.

  I crashed to the floor.

  “Shit!” I yelled.

  Footsteps creaked on the floorboards, as well as the steps that led from the bar below up to the second story loft.

  Soon Gehn was at my side, looking worried. Hannah appeared over her, arms crossed.

  “You’re fine, huh?” Hannah said.

  “Maybe not,” I admitted. “How did you get me back here?”

  “We carried your heavy ass back to Geneva but stuck to the shadows once we got close,” Hannah said. “Then I snuck in and got our favorite tavern owner to help me. He brought a covered cart and we hid you in there with a bunch of potatoes around you. He closed his place and we carried you in the back way and up the stairs.”

  Shit. “Thanks. I’m sorry you had to deal with all that. How long was I out?” Chuck was hovering around me too, wagging his tail a mile a minute and licking me from time to time.

  “A couple hours,” she said, bending down. The two women helped me back onto the mattress. “Apparently the Council has gotten wind of the disturbances in their city. We’ve been banned.”

  “And yet here we are.”

  “Yeah, but nobody can know or we’ll find ourselves in hot water.”

  “No worries,” I said, “your sister will alert us to danger, right?”

  Gehn nodded. “I only hope we’ll be able to escape. With your leg the way it is…”

  I winced in pain as I shifted my position. Damn, it hurt. “We’ll just hunker down for a while until I recover. We have plenty of coin to pay our host. He can bring us food and drink. It’ll be a real party.”

  “Yeah, right,” Hannah said. “Look, we need to get out of here. They’re searching for us door to door because no one saw us leave the city. You can’t walk. We need a vehicle. We can’t make it to Rome if you can’t use one of your legs. And we can’t stay here.”

  She was right. I couldn’t walk. It was useless arguing with her. I resigned myself to the fact that we needed a ride. We were stuck until we could get one.

  “We’ll talk to Barley when he comes back to check on us.”

  “I’ve already talked to him,” Hannah said. “He’s working on it. But it’s going to cost us. I don’t know if I can afford to keep paying you if I have to use a bunch of my coin on a ride.”

  Normally, that would be my cue to end employment somewhere. No pay, no play. But this had already morphed into something more than just a business relationship, and not just because of the sex. These women needed me, and I felt like I was beginning to need them too, and not just because of my bum leg.

  “Don’t worry about the money,” I said. Relief spread across Hannah’s face. I didn’t blame her. She probably thought I was the type of person who would insist on the money upfront before I did anything. Usually I was. “You can pay me later,
once we meet up with your Guild friends or whatever.”

  “Thank you,” she said, the scolding tone erased from her voice. “Now get some rest. We’ll wake you if our situation changes.”

  “I wouldn’t mind some company,” I said, smirking. I was honestly referring to nothing more than sleep—two gorgeous warm bodies beside me would be comforting right now.

  “You’ve already slept with both of us,” Hannah said. Oh boy, I thought. She knows what Gehn and I did last night. I glanced at Gehn, but she was as surprised as me. Hannah must’ve been pretending to be asleep. Which made sense, considering the ruckus we’d made. It would’ve woken the dead. “Relax,” she said. “I don’t care. I already said Gehn could’ve joined us the last time. In the future I’d appreciate an invitation though.”

  Holy actual fuck, I thought. “No problem,” I said, playing it cool. “Consider it a standing invitation.” Gehn blushed, while Hannah gave a sly smile, licking her lips.

  “In that case…” she said, reaching out to touch my good leg, just above the knee. With a slow sensuality that made my blood flow, she slid her hand up toward my crouch, touching me through my pants. “You can sleep with Chuck,” she said, pulling her hand away, laughing.

  “Hilarious,” I said.

  “I thought so.” She stood and headed toward the stairs. “I’m going to check on the status of our ride. You sleep.”

  With that, she was gone. I was guessing the bar was still closed, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to move freely throughout the building. I looked at Gehn. “You didn’t tell her?”

  She shook her head, looking somewhat sheepish still. “I’m not as…open…about such things.”

  I grinned and took her hand, stroking the back of it with one finger. “You seemed to be last night.”

  Her blush deepened. I wondered if her horns were glowing beneath her hat again. “In the moment, yes, I cannot control my desire. It’s different than when I was human. Yes, I had those kinds of urges and attractions, but after I transformed…” She shook her head, seeming to not want to say more.

  “Tell me,” I said. “I want to know your every thought and feeling.”

  Her eyes met mine once more, and I felt tethered to her. “My instincts, at times, feel almost animal,” she said. I could tell using that word scared her, especially considering that’s how many non-Enders thought of Enders. As barely a step above animals. The males certainly fit the mold. But I had trouble thinking of Gehn in that way. Like, at all. She was smart, beautiful. Then again, the way she’d given herself to me the night before did feel a bit animal. But wasn’t that what we were when everything was stripped away? Animals with needs? To eat, to sleep, to fuck.

  “You’re no different than me,” I said, giving voice to my thoughts. “I wanted you as much as you wanted me. I could’ve stopped, but I didn’t want to. Not for one second.”

  “You are kind to say that, but you don’t understand.”

  “Then explain it to me.”

  She sighed, one of her fingers entwining with mine. Her hand felt warm in mine. I was supposed to be sleeping, but this felt so much more important right now. She spoke: “I have urges to do other things too.”

  “What things?”

  She licked her lips, closed her eyes. Opened them. “Violent things,” she said.

  I raised my eyebrows. “Seriously? You seem like the meekest person I’ve every met.” I clarified my statement when I realized how it sounded. “In a good way. You are gentle. This world needs a bit more gentle.”

  “I’m overcompensating,” she said. “Inside, a storm rages. When those men in The Last Stop were threatening me, it was all I could do to contain my rage. It has taken me much practice.”

  This was an insane revelation. Not once had she shown any outward signs of wanting to hurt another, human or not. Hannah, on the other sign, had proven to have the ability to defend herself and her sister, but Gehn had cowered behind her. This entire time I’d mistaken her unwillingness to fight to be fear of those who threatened her. Instead… “You’re scared of what you might do if you give into your urges?”

  She nodded. “Women Enders are still Enders. Unlike the males, we haven’t lost the ability to think, but our animal urges are just as strong.”

  “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t defend yourself,” I said, trying to understand.

  “Yes, it does,” she said. “If I do what everyone expects me to do—kill, slaughter—then I become, at least in their minds, the monster they believe me to be. It would only further the Rising’s agenda.”

  It made some sense, but still bothered me. So she was just supposed to take the abuse? Two men had now threatened to rape her and she’d done nothing to protect herself because killing the men would look bad for Enders? Those men deserved to die. The entire situation was even more fucked up than I ever knew.

  “Come here,” I said, because I didn’t have advice for her. Not yet anyway. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t be there for her.

  She blinked, surprised by the offer. She eased down next to me, letting me wrap an arm around her and pull her in tight. I just held her until our breathing fell into sync. Locked together, we drifted away.

  ~~~

  The nap refreshed me. When I awoke, it was dark, and Gehn was curled up beside me. To my surprise, Hannah was on my opposite side, her sleepy exhalations brushing my neck. I’d gotten my wish after all.

  Carefully, I eased myself out from between them, careful not to bump my bad knee as I slid to the end of the mattress and onto the hardwood floor. With a small grunt, I pushed to my feet and limped over to the windowsill.

  The stars were out, glowing. I leaned my head back and stared at them. They were beautiful that night, which surprised me given all the ugliness we’d seen since we started this journey. The Blast had robbed the world of much of its beauty, but it couldn’t take the stars.

  “Enjoying the view?” a voice said, drawing my attention back inside.

  Jesus. She moves like a ninja. Hannah stepped forward, sinuous curves painting her form across the shadows as she emerged into the moonlight.

  “I was never much of a stargazing man,” I said. “I was always focused on taking care of business here on the ground.”

  “Doesn’t seem like you’ve changed much then.” She stepped closer, and I could feel her warmth now. I longed to take her into my arms, but I’d leave that up to her.

  “Maybe. Maybe not,” I said, noncommittal.

  She made a gesture toward the sky. “So what makes you gaze at them now?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “Only a few beautiful things left in the world. But they’ve got nothing on you and Gehn.”

  “A smooth talker,” she said, smiling slightly. “There room for one more?”

  I bent my knee to clear a little space for her. I didn’t think she could see me grimace in pain. The tendons that were still hanging on creaked every inch I moved. Hannah crawled up onto the sill across from me.

  She looked up to admire the beauty of the stars, and I admired the beauty of her. The moonlight framed her perfectly. Though I’d used a line before, she truly was a hell of a lot more beautiful than the stars.

  A few moments passed as we each drank in our respective beauties.

  “Can I ask you something?” I said, breaking the silence. “You really took it to that son of a bitch giving you a hard time out there today.” She smirked, adding a little extra beauty to my view. “Kicked the shit out of him. How does a First Tier know how to do that? I thought you were all brains and no brawn.”

  “I spent a few years before the Blast learning self-defense. Some of that stuff sticks with you. Like riding a bike. Once I experienced the feeling of kicking somebody in the chops, I remembered it forever.” She took her eyes off the stars. “After the Blast and all hell broke loose, I figured I should brush up on my skills.”

  Badass. The world was literally on fire, everyone left was screaming in the streets, and she was making sure she co
uld kick some ass.

  “What made you take self-defense classes?” I asked. “Did you live in a rough neighborhood?”

  Hannah took a deep breath. “I was a lawyer.”

  That explained the one stud on her wrist. First Tiers were the smart ones—hard to beat a lawyer in that department.

  But damn, a lawyer? Was there anything this woman couldn’t do?

  “I know a few jokes about lawyers,” I said.

  “Yeah, so do I,” she said. “And they’re not all wrong. I represented criminals. Bad ones.”

  “Killers?”

  “Yeah. But I also defended innocent people—or at least people I believed were innocent. It was hard to tell sometimes. That’s the thing about being a lawyer; you can’t ask too many questions. If you walk into a courtroom with an inkling that your client is guilty, you will lose the case. I had to believe the bullshit I was spewing and just hope some of it was true and that I helped the good guys now and again.

  “Anyway, there was one client—a guy named Richard Henson. A real dirtbag. I got that vibe from him right from the start. I knew he wasn’t innocent, but I had to defend him anyway. It was my job. Anyway, this Henson fucker was sleazy, fat, and made you feel disgusting just by talking with him. He came onto me in our first meeting and it took all my restraint not to knock his teeth from his skull. The DA had charged him with murdering his wife. They found her stuffed in a freezer in the basement of their home. Somebody cut her throat. A hideous scene.

  “I managed to establish reasonable doubt. You couldn’t definitively place him at the house during the time the murder took place. Plus, his wife was cheating on him with another piece of shit. She had a real type. So we had enough to get him off, scot-free. We even won him a sizable payout from the state for character defamation and the emotional trauma of the trial. He walked, I got paid, but it never sat well with me.”

  Hannah pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “Six months later, Henson’s back in jail. Turned out his new girlfriend wound up dead. Same thing; slit throat. Because he was filthy rich now, he could post bond and walk free until his trial. So he came to me and said he wanted my representation again. I refused. I told him I thought he was guilty this time, and I wasn’t comfortable representing him. He pitched a fit, but he left.