Defiance

by R. S. Broadhead

  “I’m gonna drive one of those cars. It looks pretty fun.” He lay back down, still scratching at the oversized whelps on his arms.

  I pushed myself back into a seated position and dusted the dirt off my arm. “Maybe you’ll get your chance.”

  “What are you going to do when we find her?” His question brought me back to the reality of why we were here. It was something that ever since the old man’s words filled me with doubt, I fought to detach myself from. My fingers slightly trembled, as I thought about every outcome possible. Ryker hummed as if silently counting to ten before pestering me for an answer.

  I cleared my throat as I shifted to lie down beside him. “My plan was to just find her and watch after her, but I don’t know now… I think it was a mistake coming here. Unless something changes my mind, we’re not going to find her.”

  Ryker let out a disgruntled sigh and rolled away from me. Silence surrounded us, and soon Earth’s natural sounds eased me into a deep sleep.

  The howls woke me like someone stuck a scolding piece of metal to my back. Ryker was still asleep, talking to himself about tiny Earth vampires. I sat, listening, and waiting. Maybe it was a dream. It had to be. Surly, they couldn’t be here. Before I could assume it was my mind playing a cruel trick on me, another howling scream slashed like a whip through the night. It was close, very close. I shook Ryker and as he looked to me, I put my finger to my lips. He sat up, confused. Their paws pounded against the bridge as they ran overhead, stopping to scratch at the old stone with their claws. Another howl erupted, causing Ryker and I to cover our ears. His face, gray and pinched, was terrified.

  “Hellhounds?” he mouthed silently.

  Gravelly, I nodded. Afraid to move, we sat perfectly motionless. They pounded down the other side of the bridge, running away from us. Demons were the only ones that could have sent Hellhounds. Fate had more ties than I realized.

  I jumped to my feet and grabbed the collar of Ryker’s shirt. He staggered back a few steps, clearly disoriented. I wasn’t sure if it was the shock of what we’d just heard or the lack of color his face held. He wasn’t doing well. “We need to run. Now.” Without waiting on his reaction, I tore up the bank along the side of the bridge, casting a look over my shoulder for the beasts hunting us. The sidewalks were empty, but using better judgment, I opted to dart into the trees for more cover. After running for several minutes, a noise from behind caused me to stop. Ryker was lying on the ground, struggling for air. I kneeled beside him, grasping the back of his head. His hair was slick with sweat while his skin was ice cold.

  “Leave me. I can’t go anymore. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’ve never felt this way before.” The thought of leaving him was a concept I considered, but he helped me through some of the toughest years of my life. Without Ryker, I would be crazy. I wasn’t leaving him, even if that meant both of us would die at the hungry mouths of Hellhounds tonight.

  I pulled him to his feet. He was dead weight. “I’m not leaving you.” I looked around for an answer. I needed to put him somewhere, so I could lead them away from him.

  “How are you going to stop them? You know as well as I do that Hellhounds don’t stop until they’ve killed what they’re tracking. We have no weapons, and the only ones that can kill them are from Nekroun Earth.” His words weren’t something I didn’t already know, but I’d have to think of something as I ran. I didn’t have time to stop.

  I glanced to a tree with branches low enough to help him climb. I shadowed him until he was far enough up the tree to hide. “I’ll come back for you.” His protests were interrupted as another howl pierced through our conversation. I lowered myself quickly until my feet hit the soft grass below. It was hard to tell which direction they were, so I kept going the way we were running to begin with. A large line of bushes, reaching well over my head, was ahead of me. I prepared to push through them, but something snatched the hood of my Demoral suit and sent me forward with impeccable force.

  The Hellhound and I tumbled to the other side of the brush as it bit and snarled at my face. Using my forearm, I managed to push it just out of range from tearing the skin off my bones. I rolled over on top of it and jammed a finger deep into its red eye. They were the eyes of Hell and every tortured soul that lived there. It whimpered and pushed away from me, blinking several times. I slowly rose to my feet, never taking my eyes off the beast in front of me. It stood to my waist on all fours, its muscles were covered by coarse hair so sharp it could slice skin, and it fervently pawed at the grass with its long, gritty claws. Its tail, ending with spiked nail-like protrusions flicked, as the back arched preparing to attack again.

  I held up my hand in front of my face. “Missing something?” I nonchalantly asked. I opened my fist and let the eye fall to the ground with a sick thud, before I kicked it at the killer in front of me. The wrinkles in its oversized forehead deepened as the ears lay back. The mouth, which was low to the ground, opened to sides as its long teeth, covered in salivation, snapped in my direction. Suddenly another one came at me from the right, through the darkness, and latched onto my arm. I fell back, hitting my head against a metal bench, which made the beast release me. Thanks to the adrenaline rushing into every inch of my body, the pain was minimal. I shot up and took off again, glancing at my arm. It had ripped off the forearm guard. Meat was torn away from the bone, right above my Demoral tattoo. Of course! I didn’t have any weapons to kill them, but I did have something else. I jumped into a fountain, sending water everywhere like a chaotic wave with no direction. The water was instantly stained from the blood oozing from my wound like an unraveling thread. I jumped out to the other side just as my two pursuers reached the stone sitting area surrounding the fountain. They burst through a statue of a lady holding her arm out delicately to a bird as I drew the Reaper symbol. The portal opened, as I dove clear of the beasts hurtling to attack. Unable to stop themselves, they were sucked into the black nothingness and disappeared.

  Nine

  I lay on the ground, breathing heavy, staring up at the sky. I closed my eyes, trying to calm down from the attack. Since the adrenaline was starting to dwindle, the pain in my arm was so bad it was making me shake. A Hellhound’s bite was more than just bloody. It was poisonous. They meant to kill whatever they were after. I looked at my arm and groaned. What was I going to do? I had no way to get rid of the deadly substance coursing through my body. I could feel it already starting to weaken me on top of the blood oozing from the open wound. I rolled over to my knees, struggling to stand. My entire body ached. I went through the hole we had created in the large bushes and slowly walked back to the tree I had left Ryker in.

  “Ryker, get up. We need to go,” I called up the tree. Silence was the only response I got. “Ryker?” I called again as my heart rate increased slightly. I didn’t wait for his answer. I skirted up the tree as fast as I could, worry sickening my stomach every inch I climbed. When I reached him, his eyes were closed. His breathing was rapid and very shallow. I gently patted his cheek, trying to make him open his eyes. He needed help, but who in the hell could I get to help a Reaper from another realm? I wrapped his arm around my shoulders and carefully eased him down the tree. I practically dragged him through the park until we were out on the streets. They were pretty bare due to the early hours of the morning.

  “Ya need some help?” a shaky voice called. Three older men sat on a bench under the awning of a building. They passed a pipe between the three of them and from the funny smell, I didn’t think it was tobacco. One stood and started to walk over. My jaw locked, not knowing what to expect, when he caught sight of Ryker and my arm that was bleeding all over the place. I was starting to get a little light-headed myself.

  “I…uh. I think we can mana…” Everything went black as I fell.

  My shoulder slammed against something hard, causing me to stir. Streams of sunlight grazed my eyes through the cracks of a car’s trunk. It was so hard to think. I was disoriented, and my vision was still hazy. I tr
ied to move my arms, but was far too weak. I needed to fight this. I needed to stay conscious to get us out of whatever we had gotten into. I had no idea where we were or where we were going. No matter how much I fought, I could feel myself slipping. I closed my eyes and once again lost consciousness.

  “Where you find dese two?” a woman’s voice said.

  It sounded like I was listening through a deep tunnel. Her New Orleans accent was thick, very thick. Each human accent was an innate ability Reapers were programmed with, so we could tell where someone was from.

  “They were comin’ out tha park. No doubt after seein’ ‘em, it’s what those beasts were after.”

  It was the man who had asked if we needed help. Someone grabbed under my arms and another grabbed around my ankles and lifted. I wanted to protest for them to release me, but I couldn’t fight it. My eyes rolled open, catching moss hanging delicately from the overlying trees. Something was cooking nearby. I couldn’t distinguish the smell.

  “Close yo eyes, child. I’ll make it all better.” Her skin was a warm honey color with dark eyes that burned into me. She brushed a soft hand over my face, and instantly I was gone again.

  I wasn’t sure how she did it, but my mind soared away from my body and in the next moment, I was back in Nekroun Earth. It was Ryker’s apartment to be exact. Everything was how we left it, I noted, glancing around the room. Suddenly, the front door burst open, and two Demorals came through. One grabbed some papers Ryker had stacked on the counter and started tearing through them while the other disappeared into the back.

  “Anything?” the one standing near me asked while he opened the cabinet and stuffed his face with food.

  “No.” The second one reappeared and shoved the first out of the way to help himself to whatever he had found to eat. “I don’t get it,” he said with a full mouth. “I thought they knew where they are. They traced where he went using the Demoral tat, right?”

  The first one nodded.

  “So why did they send us here. I feel dirty just standing in a Grudger’s home.”

  But not dirty enough to not help yourself to his food, obviously. I fought the urge to scream at them. Not like they would hear me.

  “They’re looking to see if this dumb-ass knew anything about where Grim is. I guess they figure that him breaking out Cade was for Grim. Not sure how they gathered that, but hell, I just followed orders.”

  The other cocked his head and racked a hand through his jet-black hair. “How did you know that and I didn’t?” The jealousy in his question was sour. His companion didn’t seem to notice or care. “Why don’t they tell me stuff like that? Instead of just going out blind on all these shit jobs they give me.”

  “Well, they didn’t exactly tell me that.”

  “What do you mean they didn’t exactly tell you that? How else would you know that?” he asked as he narrowed his eyes.

  “It’s called lurking. They don’t tell me anything either, so don’t let that bother you. You have to learn to just kind of hang out when you see Paradan and Fate get together. You learn a lot if you just listen.” He stretched his broad shoulders as he made his way over to the living area and plopped on the worn out couch with a grunt.

  “So what else do you know about it? This could be our way to prove ourselves to Fate. Maybe she’ll let us in this close little group her and Paradan have.” He walked over and looked out the sliding glass door as if someone might be eavesdropping. His paranoia was spot on as I leaned against the counter, waiting for the larger one to answer.

  He wrinkled his pale, freckled nose as he picked up Ryker’s copy of Star Wars. “What the hell? This dude was such a weirdo.” He threw it down, looking bored. “They didn’t say much other than that. Just that Grim had been missing since a few years after Cade went in, and no one has seen or heard from him. It’s like they think he’s going to reappear now. I highly doubt that happens. I personally think he’s dead.”

  His companion turned to him, his mouth hanging open. “You really think he’s dead?”

  Laughter filled the room. “Yeah, I do. And for your hopes of getting in on what Paradan and Fate have…well, I’m not about a threesome with that weird bitch.” They both laughed.

  The room started to rock, and it was hard to tell what they said next. Something pulled at my midsection, dragging me through the glass door to the balcony, and plummeting toward the ground. Suddenly, an instant before I blasted the ground’s surface, I turned, soaring through the city at a gut- wrenching speed. The buildings and people were a mixture of colors blurred together as I jetted around them unnoticed.

  Soon, I had left the city and was flying around the Decaying Forrest, still in my out of body vision. No one left the city. The forest and what was beyond were something we didn’t explore. The things that skulked there needed to be left alone, or so Grim always warned everyone. It was so dark I could barely make anything out. A mist collected over the floor beneath me, snaking around. The bright red moon with three circles surrounding it illuminated black mountain peaks as I burst out the lining of the woods.

  The Valley of Sin came into view. Cold, hard, jagged rocks stuck up in all directions beneath the mountains’ ascending haunting climb into the sky. I went in between two, the passage was barely wide enough for me, and at times, I knew I would hit something, but never did. Rocks tumbled in front of me and to the sides. They were being thrown. Some type of large creature made of stone stood on the side of the mountain, throwing rocks at something on the other side.

  I turned in the direction of the creature. My heart pounded as I inched closer, unable to slow or stop the force moving me. Right before I was about to plow into its chest, I shot toward the ground into a tunnel running through the mountain. I blinked a few times, letting my eyes adjust to the blackness surrounding me. The air was significantly colder now, sending goose bumps over my body. Higher and higher, I went around each twist and turn until I slowed at the very top of the mountain.

  I stood, fighting to get my shaking legs under control. Where was I? Why did something bring me here? In my years of living in Nekroun Earth, I had only been told of these places. I walked into a large room, the ceiling at least thirty feet from me. Walls surrounded three sides of me leaving the front open to view out. My nerves were rattled from the uncertainty of what I might find here. My only comfort was that I was invisible, so nothing would know I was here. A candle burned on a small table with a book opened beside it.

  A small sound startled me from just outside the opening of the room. I walked toward it, hesitating slightly at the wall. I peeked around the corner and saw a man standing on the ledge. His long purple hair floated around him. The long gray robe he wore swept across the floor as he stood, staring off into the distance at the moon.

  “It’s about time you got out.”

  My jaw dropped. He knew I was here. I wanted to run to him. Grim had been waiting on me. Me!

  “Grim, what’s going on?” I asked.

  He never tuned around, only continued to stare ahead. “We haven’t got long, Cade. The fact that you’re here means you’re getting close to finding the girl.” He turned around and walked toward me, without looking at me. Grim still looked the same in essence, but there was something different about him. He was worn, like whatever weighed on him caused stressed beyond measure. Dark circles hugged his lower eyelids, while deep creases lined his mouth. He went past me to the table and grabbed a long, curved pipe, lighting it and taking a small puff. “You can’t let them find her first. She’s important. I didn’t realize why Fate manipulated the branding of her family until it was too late. She wasn’t meant to die. None of them were. Fate just wanted them out of her way.” He walked back to the ledge. His eyes dropped to the floor. He wasn’t the smooth, powerful Reaper who judged me all those years ago. Something was different now. He was weaker. “She’s turned everyone against me, but you and I are connected more than you know. Until I knew you were ready to escape that hell, I needed to hide. Your
conscience led you to me. I’m glad someone still trusts in me.” He looked ashamed by his last words.

  I never would have thought Grim would need to hide from someone. He was the most powerful Reaper I knew. He created us all to help him so it wouldn’t be so much of a burden. Grim was created by Dalco, to take humans out. More or less, he became a slave. Dalco was the creator of creatures considered flawed while his brother, Messa, created humans, the supreme race to all others because they had souls. Messa had to stop Grim from killing the race so he created Fate to balance the scales so to speak.

  “Once you get the girl. Find me. Just follow your instincts. I’ve left you a path to travel. It will be hard, but you can do it if you don’t let yourself get in the way. I have faith in you, Cade, so have faith in yourself. I’ll be waiting. We have to stop this from happening.”

  “Keep what from happening? Why do they need Izzy?” I cried. Dread seemed to be scratching and clawing out my insides. He was the second person who mentioned stopping this unknown future from happening. Grim didn’t look at me. My skin started to burn, and something was pulling at my body from all directions. I couldn’t help but scream. Grim never flinched.

  I burst into flames, the skin melting away from my bones. The agony was unbearable, the pain surreal.

  Ten

  I could still practically feel the flames that had engulfed me while I was with Grim. Panic rose until I heard a voice—I was somewhere different.

  “Justice, give me dat amethyst in de bottom of dat drawer over dere,” a woman said.

  It was the woman I saw before I lost conscience. Her accent coaxed my racing mind into a fetal state. I fought to open my eyes, but they felt like someone had glued them tight. Where was Ryker? I listened for any other voices or sounds, but heard nothing.

  “Thank ya,” she said.