Defiance

by R. S. Broadhead

  Something hit me in the side of the head, followed by a blow to the middle of my back. My muscle locked, making me drop the scythe. Desperately, I thought for a way out of this mess. The copper taste of blood hit my lip as it trickled down the side of my face. I lashed out, attempting to hit three others coming up on my left. Someone kicked my knee, which landed me on the ground with torn flesh. Gripping my arms, they dragged me back to the car where they were now holding Izzy and an unconscious Ryker. She struggled against them.

  The leader slowly walked toward me. There was no need for him to hurry. I was at his disposal. A useless Reaper that had failed again. This time they would finish the job of beating me to death.

  “Cade, don’t give up!” Izzy’s desperate cries ached my insides. “I need you!”

  My head dropped. This was not only a fight for my life, but hers too. A power rippled up my back, reaching the tips of my fingers as I flung my arms to the sides. A loud noise released from my throat, sounding like a deep, terrifying growl. I jumped to my feet and punched the leader in the solar plexus, knocking the wind from his lungs. The gaps closed in as others jumped to attack. I weaved left, dipping to knock several into a near-by car. Their bodies obliterated the windshield, sending glass over the streets and denting the metal hood. I twisted around, behind two others, and wrapped my arms around their necks. They were pulled off their feet as I dropped, smashing their faces into the ground. A foot barreled toward my head, as I rolled to the right, just missing it. I grabbed the ankle, twisting and pulling at the same time before, flipping to my feet.

  I held my hand out, calling the scythe. In a matter of seconds it was gripped tightly in my hand. I sliced through the air, cutting a few across the midsections and connecting with another Stalker’s scythe, sending sparks in the air. With a quick sidekick to his ribs, he skidded and tumbled along the ground, uncontrolled.

  My body was exhausted, but the adrenaline rush refused to let me rest. I heaved, trying to calm my breathing and pounding pulse. Bodies were all around me, and I was the only one left standing. I needed to make sure each one was dead; otherwise, we would have to deal with them later.

  After my dirty work was done, I stood staring at the car where Izzy was waiting. She was shaking, looking around her. So much for listening to my command. Sixty seconds had come and gone and she was still here.

  “How did you do all this?” She looked up to me, her eyes glassy. “There were so many…you saved us.”

  Before I could take another step, a ripping sensation tore through me. It pulled at my midsection, as if my spine were about to burst through. I buckled, wrapping my arms around me.

  “What’s wrong?” Izzy asked, panicked.

  “I’m being summoned.”

  Seventeen

  The tug was getting progressively worse, causing my eyes to burn with tears of pain. “Faster,” I commanded, lurching back against the leather seat. In an instant, the cool surface absorbed the heat radiating off my skin. It seemed to be scolding my flesh within seconds.

  “Cade?” Izzy said in a small voice. “Are you okay?”

  I didn’t want her to see me like this. I was supposed to be strong for her. I was supposed to be the one to save her from the people after her. I didn’t need her to ever doubt that I could do that. No matter how much I wanted to tell her I was fine, I couldn’t do it. Never had a summoning spell been cast against me.

  I wrestled my eyes open to see where we were. “Exit on the next ramp and take a right. Follow it all the way down until you see an old gas station at the caution light. You need to take the dirt road running beside it until it ends at a house.” The sensation was pulling me the way I needed to go. I tried to block everything out, think about anything else, but it was impossible. My mouth salivated while my body shook uncontrollably. I swallowed, struggling not to throw up.

  “We’re here, but I think something happened to the house,” Izzy said. I could barely hear her due to the pain. Her voice sounded as though she were speaking through a long, empty tunnel.

  Embers still burned a deep red as smoke curled through the air. Nothing was left of Shiloh’s house except for charred pieces. The little house Ryker was kept in was destroyed. I opened the car door, the smell of smoke making it hard to breathe. A small piece of ash glided aimlessly in front of me until it rested on the tip of my nose, followed by several more pieces collecting on my skin and hair.

  Cade. I jerked around at the sound of my name. Shiloh’s voice sounded as if it were in my ear. I could practically feel the heat from her breath. I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find her. Cade. My eyes flicked toward her grandmother’s house. She was there.

  “Help me get Ryker. We need to go through the woods. There’s another house on the other side of the creek. I think that’s where we need to go.” Izzy didn’t say a word, but rushed to the back door of the car and wrapped Ryker’s arm around her delicate shoulders. Every step we took closer to the house the pain eased away until it was barely noticeable.

  I shoved the door open. Shiloh sat in the middle of the room on the floor with a chalked circle and symbols around her. Her eyes were rolled back, until only the whites were visible. Her lips moved quickly, repeating something I couldn’t understand.

  “Shi,” I said, trying to pull her back to our reality. I stepped forward, my foot touching the drawing, smearing it slightly. Her head dropped as her back arched out, throwing her arms out to the sides. The circles erupted into raging flames, blowing her hair in every direction.

  “Cadeus, you don’t have much time,” she said. Her voice was much lower than normal. Her face turned to look at me, opening her eyes to reveal a brilliant purple.

  “Grim?” I asked with uncertainty. The voice vaguely resembled his, but it was mixed with her thick New Orleans accent. I tried to take another step in her direction, but that only caused the flames to reach higher.

  “Things are only going to get worse. I can’t believe what she’s done already. The Reaper world is exposing themselves too much in this Realm. If they aren’t stopped there will be nothing to do but destroy it. Use the key. It’s your only way back so they can’t follow you. You have to stop this.” Shiloh dropped down, her back landing hard against the floor. Izzy left me standing, holding Ryker while she kneeled to check on her. Where was everyone else?

  “She’s okay, just sleeping,” she said. I pulled Ryker until I got him to the couch, propped his head up with a pillow, and stood not knowing what else to do. “I’ll see if I can find a kitchen or something for ice.” She darted out the door, leaving me alone with the two of them. It seemed like we were right back to where we started a few days ago. Ryker was unable to continue unless we waited for him to heal enough to go. Obviously, Shiloh didn’t need to be alone here. As if reading my thoughts, she sat up, gasping.

  “Shi?” I ran to her side as she crawled into a small ball, burying her head under her hands. She gripped fistfuls of her hair so tight her knuckles turned white. “Shi?” I asked more gently. She cried, so hard she wasn’t even making a sound. It was difficult to watch. Shiloh always put on a brave front, trying to act tough. She was broken. Izzy returned and eyed the two of us. She took a step back. From the look on her face, she wanted nothing to do with the situation. Hell, I didn’t either. I didn’t know the first thing about how to comfort her.

  “Be-before I could do anything de house was in flames. Dher-dere was nothin’ I could do.” With her being the only one I saw here, I couldn’t help but worry the worst had happened. She rolled around, side to side. I reached out, touching her shoulder.

  Izzy must have sensed my desperation. She kneeled close to Shiloh’s shoulders and rubbed damp hair away from her streaked face. “Can I help you get somewhere more comfortable?”

  She held her breath, managing the escalating sobs, and looked back to me. “You found her?”

  “This is Izzy,” I said, nodding.

  Through her pain, she smiled.

  I reached under her
arm, pulling her to a sitting position. “What happened?”

  “Reapers.” She squeezed her eyes shut before standing in one shift movement. She screamed, grabbing an antique vase from a nearby shelf and chunked it at the wall. The pieces fell over the floor as she turned toward the couch, her eyes landing on Ryker. She turned back to me with a questionable stare. Before I could tell her what happened, she rushed to his side.

  “Here. I got this for his face.” Izzy handed her a damp cloth and a bag full of ice.

  Footsteps shuffled into the room. “Dat man needs somethin’ more dan ice. I’ll whip him up some paste,” an old, scratchy voice said from the shadows. Her grandmother disappeared just as quickly and quietly as she’d appeared. So that only left Justice.

  “Where’s Justice?”

  Shiloh’s face fell, and the tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. Without saying a word, she motioned me to follow her down a hall. She stopped outside a closed door, taking a deep breath, and pushed it open.

  I came to a grinding halt at the sight of Justice lying in the bed with bloody bandages wrapped around his head. I couldn’t help but relive our conversation by the creek. All he wanted was to go peacefully. Now his body was suffering, begging to be released from this world. Despite the certainty of his death, there were no Reapers but me. I crossed the room, apprehension growing in my gut, until I reached his side. If I was able I would end his life now, but along with the Reaper being missing, so were his Angel and Demon. There was no one to give his soul too. Without them, he would wander this Earth never finding peace. This meant he wasn’t supposed to be marked for death. It wasn’t his time.

  “Sorry.” The word felt forced. I cleared my throat, looking down at his expressionless face. This is why we weren’t supposed to become attached to humans. It was bad enough I did it with Izzy and her family, but now I had done it again. All I wanted was Justice to wake up and yell at me for not “taking” him the way he wanted. I wrapped my hand around his. It felt lifeless, barely warm. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here.” I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling nothing but guilt. I should have never allowed him to bring me here. This was my fault. I was the reason Shiloh had no home now. I was the reason Justice laid in this bed. “Justice…I don’t know what to say.”

  “This isn’t your fault, Cade. Justice knew the dangers of bringing you here, and he didn’t care. We’ll get him back up and going before long,” Shiloh said from behind me as if reading my thoughts. She stopped at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, looking at me with bloodshot eyes. The spell had taken a major toll on her. Lines hugged the corners of her mouth as a deep frown set in. “Don’t be beatin’ yourself up over dis. Do what you got to do to make dis right.” She turned and left.

  “She’s right. I’m going to make this right.” I patted his hand before leaving, trying to extinguish my feelings. I went directly to the back room to find the door closed and locked. I tapped a few times, hoping Shiloh’s grandmother would open it. I needed to know if she had seen anything regarding the tree. It was the only lead I had. After a few minutes, I walked out to the porch for a bit of fresh air. The door slammed behind me as I stopped, resting my hand against one of the wooden poles. All I could smell was smoke. It burned my nose, watering my eyes. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. Everything was going wrong. People were constantly getting hurt when I was supposed to be the one who protected them. No matter what I did, everything seemed to fall apart around me twice as fast. The door opened and closed. I wasn’t in the mood to be around anyone. I was still wrestling with my anger from earlier, and the fact that friends were hurt, made it worse.

  “No worries ‘bout dis,” Shiloh said. She sniffled into a tissue, the tip of her nose red and raw.

  I spun around, coming within a few inches of her face. “You lied to me. You told me the vision you saw was Izzy getting killed. A Stalker told me they have strict orders to bring her in, so that couldn’t have been what you saw.” I spat the accusation with little remorse. She studied a ladybug scurrying up one of the beams, looked out at the trees, and squinted at the sky. She looked anywhere, but me. “Answer me.”

  “I’m sorry.” I jerked away, stomping to the end of the porch, and considered running through the field to burn off steam. “I knew you wouldn’t leave if I told you de truth,” she tried to reason, her tone strained. “You had to leave. Finding her was the whole reason you came here. I thought I could stop it alone. I know what I saw, and I tried to prevent it, but I still failed. I even got Justice hurt. We were only supposed to lose de house. He wasn’t supposed to get hurt. He wasn’t supposed to get hurt,” she repeated over and over. Not sure if she was trying to convince me or herself. She reached for my arm, which I instinctively jerked away. “Cade, de only reason we all didn’t get killed is because of dat thing. It protected me.”

  Once again, a visit from this mysterious creature. I needed to find out what bond it had with her, but not now. I couldn’t concentrate on anything right now. I did the only thing I could. I fled. My feet hit the ground before I heard another word. The only thing I wanted to hear was the pounding of my feet. Not crying. Not excuses.

  Thud. Thud. Thud. I raced as fast as my feet would carry me, making the woods a moving blur of greens and browns. Why was everything so difficult? I jumped over a boulder. Why me? Why was I picked to go against everything I was made to do? My paced quickened, sweat raced down my body like someone was pouring water over me. Why not me? Someone had to do it. Plenty of other Reapers would do as Fate and the Demorals pleased. They stood and watched— probably helping because they had no backbone. Someone had to stop them. Someone had to be the hero, but in the process feel like the bad guy for getting the ones he cared about hurt.

  I stopped and leaned over to rest my hands against my knees. It wasn’t Shiloh’s fault. She was only doing what I would have done. I plopped down, the grass towering over my head. There was no way I could go back to that house until I was one hundred percent sure I had my feelings in check. They didn’t deserve for me to take anything out on them.

  My breathing slowed. I closed my eyes, and thought about everything that had happened. There was nothing I could do to change it. I needed to accept it and move on, even grow from it. Things were going to happen that couldn’t be stopped. I wouldn’t be able to be everywhere at once. I was where I needed to be when this happened; there was no doubt in my mind.

  Looking up, I knew I needed to continue. Even though it was hard, I had to keep going. I finally stood, ready to face what I’d ran from. It was near dark when I got back to the little house.

  As soon as I came through the door Izzy gave me a relieved sigh from the couch. “I didn’t think you were ever going to come back.”

  “I was fighting my demons, but I’m back where I need to be.”

  “While you were gone, I checked on the car we brought here. It’s shot. I guess from when Ryker was burning all that rubber.” She chuckled softly, casting a glance at him lying on the couch, his face covered in the familiar gray paste Shiloh once put on me. “We’re going to need something else if you still want to go to Kentucky.”

  I crossed the room in a few short strides, sitting across from her in a rocking chair. “Why wouldn’t I still want to go?” I rubbed my clammy forehead; the sweat had dried, leaving an oily texture. If I could leave now, I would.

  “I just didn’t know if you still wanted to go with people being hurt and all,” Izzy said. She motioned her head toward Ryker and back toward the room Justice was in.

  “There’s another car you can take,” Shiloh said, coming into the room. “It’s old, but it should get you to where you have to go.” Her shoulders were tense, and she was still visibly upset.

  “Sounds good. I’m going to grab a shower and get some sleep, if that’s okay…” I stood from my chair as Shiloh nodded and guided me to the linen closet. I grabbed her arm, turning her toward me. “Shi, I’m sorry for the way I acted earlier. There’s really no excuse.”

&n
bsp; “No worries. Now go get cleaned and sleep. I have a feeling you’re going to need it.”

  After taking a long, hot shower, I wandered back to the room with the drawings. The door was open, so I went in to look at each one. The second time seeing them wasn’t any less shocking than the first. After not finding any regarding the tree, I went to bed and closed my eyes falling asleep instantly. I didn’t open them again until sunlight bled through the window. The sheets were balled up at the foot of the bed, and the comforter was wrapped around my thigh with the other half hanging to the floor. I rubbed my face, trying to wake up. Stumbling out of the bed, I dressed slowly.

  “Rise and shine,” Izzy said, handing me a cup of steaming liquid when I opened the door.

  I took it from her, savoring its nutty smell. “Were you just hanging around my door waiting on me to come out?”

  She bit her lip, looking down, hair falling over her eyes. “No. I just heard you in here moving, so I got you some coffee. I figured you’d want to hit the road as soon as you got up.”

  “Ryker up?” He should be healing.

  “Yeah. He got up in the middle of the night and started flirting with Shiloh. He was pretty upset about what happened with her house and Justice. He said Justice was his wingman.”

  “I’m sure Justice would concur.” I stepped out of the room and walked toward the living area. “Guess we need to tell him to get ready to leave.”

  “Umm…Cade?” I turned around, making her crash into the back of me. “I don’t think he’s going.” She obviously didn’t know what she was talking about. Ryker would never let me go on my own after all we had been through these past few weeks.

  “Where is he?” She pointed at the screen door. I yanked it open, finding him sitting on the step with Shiloh. “What’s this I hear about you not going with us?” His face was still swollen, but it looked tons better. He grimaced, touching his cheek slightly.