I didn’t find cause to doubt my friends’ intentions as they were obviously talking about killing this creature, as well as ending the war. So then why would they...
“I know I would face the fires of Hell if you were by my side.”
My heart sank as I heard Sally’s voice. I risked a glance around the rubble, and my suspicions were confirmed as she took hold of Bill’s hand in her own.
Despite the importance of what was being discussed, a sudden and overpowering urge to flee took hold of me. I needed to get away from this. It was too much.
I quietly crept out, having seen and heard enough. Once outside the door, I quickened my pace, not caring which way I headed. I couldn’t blame Bill’s heart for turning elsewhere. I’d certainly done my fair share to encourage that. Up until now, however, I hadn’t realized just how much damage I’d done.
I wasn’t sure if they didn’t trust me or didn’t even bother to consider me in their circle. The thing was, I wasn’t sure which was worse. Yet the blame for either scenario could be laid squarely at my own feet.
The things I’d done, the words I’d spoken, the actions I’d taken ... whether consciously or not. The realization that I wasn’t worthy of their trust hit home hard, and it was all I could do to not find an empty room, lock myself in, and cry until the tears would no longer come.
All of the battles of the past months, culminating in today’s fight for survival, played out in my mind in the space of a second. I saw plainly every fear, every obstacle I’d had to overcome in life, and with them I saw every failure. Every time I’d run away, exactly as I was doing right now.
The irony of my station sunk in. My honorific title was the last defender of humanity, but didn’t last also translate to alone?
So it would seem.
My hand had once again crept down to the pommel of my sword, almost as if it were some sort of wicked edged security blanket, and once more I felt the angry vibrations coming from the not-so-inanimate object.
I quickened my pace, racing up flights of stairs, and turning down corridors, trying to lose myself. I had no goal other than to get away. And thus, I wasn’t paying attention when I turned a corner and collided with someone.
♦ ♦ ♦
My aura flared out, muting the kinetic energy of the collision. I merely backed up a few steps. Kelly, however, landed squarely on her butt in front of me.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she replied, reaching up a hand. “Serves me right for woolgathering when I should have been paying attention.”
I pulled her to her feet. “It was my fault.”
“It’s probably safe to share the blame. Where were you headed in such a hurry?”
I shrugged and averted my eyes. “Just trying to get rid of some nervous energy. You?”
“Looking to see if this place has a coffee maker somewhere, or maybe an unused bed. I’m dead on my feet.”
“How’d the scrying go?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation from turning back to me.
“A big fat bowl of fuck all. Meg thinks it’s because we’re running on empty, so she called it off, at least until we can get some down time. Not sure I agree with her, but I wasn’t about to argue with a break.” Her eyes narrowed and she leaned in closer. “Are you okay?”
“Fine, why?”
“You look a bit puffy. Have you been cr...”
“It’s just exertion. Lots of work going on below, digging through the rubble and all. I guess I’m tired, too.”
The expression on her face said she didn’t buy my excuse, but she only nodded. “Did you get a chance to talk to Bill?”
“A little, not much.”
“Well you should, and before you say anything, I’m planning on taking my own advice, too.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Vincent?”
She gave me a wry smile. “Maybe. He’s got a pretty major stick up his ass, but I think there might be something there worth trying to corrupt.”
“You’re terrible,” I joked.
“You’re not, though,” she replied, turning serious. “And if your man can’t see that, he’s an idiot.” I didn’t know how to answer, but thankfully she wasn’t finished yet. “You did good today. I just wanted to say that, in case nobody else had.”
A bitter laugh escaped my lips before I could stop it. “I almost got us all killed.”
“Pretty sure that was the scary monsters. You were the one who turned the tide.”
“I got lucky.”
“I highly doubt that.”
Once again, I turned away from her gaze. “I let them get away. Cynthia, all of those things, and not just out there. I wasn’t here when they needed me.”
“That’s because we needed you more. You healed V and the others. That’s how a real hero does it.”
I drummed my fingers against the pommel of the blade at my side, feeling it vibrate every time I made contact. “I don’t know. I think about the heroes of old, people like Joan of Arc, Achilles, all the Icons who came before me, and I can’t help but feel they would have done things differently.”
“Yeah, they might have,” she said, “and probably gotten us all killed in the process.”
“They wouldn’t have flinched in the face of danger. They would have marched into that tunnel after those things and...”
Kelly let out an exasperated sigh. “And probably not come back out because they didn’t bother to stop and think first. Forget about them. You’re better than that.”
“I’m nothing more than a shadow of what they were.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
“No, I’m...”
“Just shut up and let me talk,” she interrupted. “You said it yourself. Your power is a drug. Well, you managed to resist it where they’d have kept on happily snorting.” She put one hand on my shoulder and the other under my chin, making sure I couldn’t look away. “You didn’t. You stopped yourself and came back to us because you knew we needed you. You’re not weaker than they were. If anything, you’re a lot stronger. You just need to believe it.”
I let her words sink in until I once again felt my eyes growing wet. This time, though, they were tears of joy, of gratitude. After a moment, I stepped in and hugged her hard. “Thank you.”
Twice this day, I’d loaned her my power. However, what she was doing now, sharing her strength with me, was so much more.
“Not saying anything that I don’t mean. Have some faith in yourself. I know I do.”
As I continued to hold on to Kelly, I let one hand fall back to my sword. The weapon vibrated once weakly before settling down, almost as if in agreement with her.
It was then I realized that everything that had occurred this day was yet another in perhaps a never-ending cycle of challenges. The difference now was that I knew I had to stop worrying about how everyone else expected me to face those still to come.
And there would be many, of that I had no doubt.
I thought about Bill. So many prophecies had been laid at our feet, that perhaps any hope I’d seen there had been false from the very beginning. If I’d lost his trust, though, then it was up to me to win it back. Some things might be beyond my ability to repair, but I could at least do that much.
I envied what he had with his friends, yearned to be a part of it, but also realized it might not be possible.
But if that was not to be, I would survive.
I was the last defender of humanity, and it was time I had the faith in myself that others did.
It would be enough.
It had to be.
THE END
Sheila O’Connell and Bill Ryder will return in
THE LAST COVEN (The Tome of Bill, part 8)
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♦ ♦ ♦
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BONUS CHAPTER
THE LAST COVEN
The Tome of Bill, Part 8
With The Destroyer dead, I thought things would get better. I was wrong and, judging by the current hail of gunfire, on multiple fronts, too.
“Jeez. How many fucking bullets do these assholes have anyway?”
“They’re not assholes,” Sheila chided, crouched behind the barrier with me despite being impervious. “They’re just scared.”
“Can we maybe meet halfway and agree that they’re scared assholes?”
Had her return gaze been weaponized, it would have easily cut me to pieces.
I probably deserved it, too.
After everything we’d been through, I was still keeping secrets from her. I kept telling myself they weren’t my secrets to tell, but that didn’t make me feel much better about it.
Still, I’d hoped that after some food, maybe a shower, and definitely some sleep, everything would...
Hah! Would what? Get back to normal?
Normal was about as far from my reality as it could get these days. Hell, there was a good possibility what I used to consider “normal” would never grace my doorstep again.
Truth be told, I wasn’t even sure I wanted it to.
Part of the reason why was on my other side, just itching to return fire.
“This would be a lot easier if we shot back,” Sally remarked, casually polishing the muzzle of her ridiculously oversized handgun as if bullets weren’t ricocheting around us.
“No!” Sheila turned toward us and paused, her eyes dropping to Sally’s big-ass Desert Eagle for a long moment. She was probably thinking the same thing I was: talk about fucking overkill. “We’re here to help these people, reassure them that the threat is over. That they no longer have to fear their loved ones being dragged off into the night.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “And who better to convince them than a bunch of weirdos wandering the streets after dark?”
Sheila’s aura flared up, and I scooted back until I bumped into Sally ... who unceremoniously shoved me away. “Personal space, dickhead.”
And yet I’d been happy, for God knows whatever reason, when her memories had been restored.
Sheila reeled her aura in before it could incinerate me. “We’re out here after dark because it was your idea to do this.”
Oh yeah, that.
♦ ♦ ♦
Following the fight with Vehron and subsequent escape by Calibra, AKA Ib the first vampire, we’d been stuck in a bit of a quagmire.
While we had some idea as to where she’d gone, we had no clue how to follow. And following her was at the top of our priority list. The stone-aged bitch had kidnapped my roommate Ed, along with James, Gan, my fucking DM Dave, and nearly everyone else who’d been in the Boston complex at the time. Some people just loved to make a dramatic exit.
Christy and her coven sisters were working on tracking Calibra, but that had left the rest of us to plant our thumbs squarely up our asses until then.
Sitting and waiting was simply out of the question. There was too much to do and I had far too much on my mind. There wasn’t even a working wet bar on the premises to keep me otherwise occupied.
Turns out I hadn’t been the only one antsy to do something.
The Templar who’d come up to Boston with Sheila had opted to return to the city streets. They had wanted to assess the damage Vehron had done during his rule here while also doing what they could to help anyone in need.
Though they’d professed their reasons to be entirely altruistic in nature, I had a feeling part of it was because they didn’t want to wait around in the former vampire stronghold of the northeast. Oddly enough, despite being humorless shitheads of the highest caliber, it was one area where the Templar and I saw eye to eye.
I’d approached Sheila with some of my own thoughts on helping out, hoping it would also serve to break the ice between us a bit. The Templar could hand out sandwiches wrapped in Bible tracts during the day, but the night probably required a slightly different approach. There were possibly still minions of Ib about, including packs of feral zombies set loose in Boston during Vehron’s reign.
Sheila had agreed with my reasoning and, after a measured pause, offered to accompany me. Score one! I’d been hoping it would give us a chance to talk. Our last conversation had ended with a nasty reminder that she and I were once again destined to decide the world’s fate by way of combat. Maybe it was crazy of me, but that sounded like something worth at least a brief chitchat.
Much to my surprise, though, Sally had cock-blocked that idea and volunteered to tag along.
She claimed boredom, but her eyes said otherwise. Though her mannerisms seemed normal on the outside, I got the feeling that even though she was back to being her old self, she also ... wasn’t. The way she’d acted upon her memories being returned hadn’t gone unnoticed. Her tone and demeanor had been apologetic, afraid – in short, decisively not Sally.
Alex had fucked with her mind but good. Yet another in a long string of incidents I owed that asshole for, with interest piling up daily. That a truce had been called between us probably didn’t mean much to either party involved.
None of that really helped our current situation, though. We’d been out for a couple of hours. Aside from a legless zombie we’d found in an alleyway, it had been slow. Slow and awkward, actually, with little more than small talk passing between us. Honestly, it was starting to piss me off.
Not exactly the dream date my subconscious insisted our threesome would be.
I’d almost rejoiced aloud when the sound of a heated argument drifted through the open window of a nearby brownstone. Needless to say, my enthusiasm had waned ever so slightly once the bullets started flying.
♦ ♦ ♦
We’d walked over to investigate, only to be greeted by an angry face peering out from a ground floor window. “Who the fuck are you?” he’d called out, a gun barrel pointing our way giving the question extra emphasis.
Sheila’s aura had sprung to life in response. Not surprising, but perhaps not the best move, as the look on the man’s face quickly turned to one of surprise and panic.
A hail of lead followed his cry of “It’s one of those freaks!”
Thank goodness there’d been some concrete pilings in the lot next door, an abandoned construction effort of some sort, or Sally and I would have ended the night picking bullets out of each other’s ass. Kinky, but not quite a fetish I’d like to explore.
♦ ♦ ♦
“So are we going to sit here all night?” Sally asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” I replied. “It is a rather lovely evening.”
She rolled her eyes in disgust and looked past me at Sheila. “You’re the last defender of humanity. So do something before these fucktards need defending.” As if to emphasize her point, she checked the magazine of her gun before popping it back in.
The two locked eyes for a moment, glaring at each other as if I wasn’t even there, until Sheila broke contact and gave a single nod.
Before she could act, though, the gunfire ceased. “The whole neighborhood knows you freaks are out there,” the man called to us.
“No shit,” I whispered.
“If you want to live to see the next five minutes, throw any weapons out and then stand up. Nice and slow, and I’d better not see anything weird.”
“I think he means...”
“I know what he means,” Sheila hissed at me. She took a deep breath and the glow around her faded away.
“Yeah, well, fuck that shit,” Sally said. “If this asshole thinks we’re going to stand up and give him free potshots at us, he’s...” She trailed off and cocked her head to the side.
“Finally realized the po
int of this wasn’t a killing spree?” I asked.
“No, stupid,” she snapped. “Listen.”
That was easier said than done with my ears still ringing. It was probably only a matter of seconds before Doc Holliday there decided to go all O.K. Corral on us again, but I tried anyway.
Sally was right. Footsteps. No, not just footsteps ... feet marching in rhythm, a lot of them.
“What’s wrong?” Sheila asked.
“We’re not alone,” I said a moment before two columns of cops in riot gear came double-timing it toward us from either end of the block. About half were armed with assault rifles, while the rest...
Wait. Definitely not the police. Their uniforms were unmarked, completely black. Also, unless I’d missed something, silver stakes weren’t standard issue for police.
Vampires.
They quickly encircled us, but from a distance – no doubt aware that getting too close to the Icon was a bad way to end one’s night. Their weapons were at standby, but the meaning was clear. They could turn us into Swiss cheese before we could so much as scratch our asses.
One of them stepped forward toward the house, hands raised. “Please stand down. We have the situation under control.”
“I don’t want any trouble,” the man called from inside, his voice finally cracking and betraying the fear beneath.
“And I can assure you, neither do we,” someone answered from behind the line of vamps.
Oh no. Not him!
“Son of a bitch,” Sally spat, lowering her weapon.
The line of armed vampire guards parted to reveal a familiar greasy countenance draped in an overpriced suit.
Colin smiled as he approached, a look of utmost smugness etched upon his face that had me wishing his men had opened fire on us instead.
Shining Fury: from the Tome of Bill Series Page 18