by JL Terra
Two men were next. Peter Bayleigh, a man he’d let live, and another. He’d let them live for this?
A dagger to the chest.
Mud in the wound.
In the midst of it, Grant shifted. Passed Ben a pocket knife.
The new golems herded to the corner, while he reached down and snapped the ties around his feet.
Then the Teacher approached Mei. “We wouldn’t want to leave you out now, would we?”
“We?” She cocked her head to the side. “You mean, you and the stick that’s up your butt?”
Ben had to give her credit. She didn’t even look scared. The young woman betrayed no trace of fear. Not because she felt none, but because she had faced evil before. She had learned it could rarely be controlled. What she could control was her reaction to it.
Ben could only see the Teacher’s back. Not whatever expression Mei saw on his face. She tugged on the remaining man’s hold on her. One guy. She could get loose if she wanted to. Ben twisted the knife. Gritted his teeth. Cut through the wrist ties. He cut Taya’s even though she wasn’t awake. Why wasn’t she awake yet?
The Teacher lifted his knife.
Ben launched himself up. The gunman met him halfway. Ben sideswiped the gun at the same moment the trigger depressed under the man’s finger. Bullets erupted, peppering the wall behind him.
Mei kicked the man holding her. She grabbed the Teacher’s wrist. They both struggled for control of the knife.
Ben couldn’t help her.
The golems erupted from their corner. Two men and two women fanned out across the room. He punched the first, laid her out flat. The second launched at him like a wild thing. It tackled Ben to his back. Air expelled from his lungs.
All around the room the grunt and thud of hand-to-hand combat could be heard. He kicked the golem off him and shoved it away. Turned to Taya.
A golem had her by the neck. Still unconscious. It was choking the life from her.
Her fingers uncurled, and the medallion fell to the floor.
Truth.
Beyond her, a golem fought with Grant. Elaine swung wildly, and his brother defended against each blow. Dauntless had one of her legs in his mouth. Mud and fluids trailed from his bite on her ankle. Ben swiped up the M4 and loosed a barrage of bullets. He moved as he fired, closing in on the golem. Determined to distract it long enough that it might let go of her to deal with the more pressing problem of widespread bodily destruction.
It barely flinched.
He’d known bullets wouldn’t kill it, but still.
Taya’s eyes flashed open.
Behind him, Mei cried out. Ben couldn’t go to her. Taya needed his help. He rushed across the room and slammed the butt of the rifle into the golem’s forehead. Its head snapped back, but it returned. Twice as determined.
The golem stretched out its hand.
Ben backed up. This wasn’t going to end with him having a heart attack.
The golem froze.
The Teacher’s chant grew to an audible level. Ben turned to see Mei on the floor. Blood trailed from her forehead to the floor. Taya whispered, “Mei.” Her voice part sob.
Ben couldn’t let this end with his family dead.
The golems stood fast while the gunman collected his M4. He waved it at Taya, then at Ben, taunting them. Ben moved so he stood in front of Taya. It wasn’t much, but it was something he could do.
The gunman said, “Back over by the wall.”
Ben shook his head. He lifted both hands and took two steps toward the Teacher. “Don’t do this to Mei. Don’t make her one of those things.”
The Teacher’s eyes flashed red. Like a part of the golem was inside him as well. But he wasn’t one of them. He would never give up that control, right? The Teacher wanted to be their general, not a soldier himself.
“Don’t do this.” Ben had no leverage. Nothing to bargain with. All he had was his own life, permeated by the existence of that golem. Terror that had forged a steel will inside him. He’d always protected his family. The golem had made that an obtainable goal, making the world safe. One evil at a time. His whole life.
Ben stepped closer to him. That was the truth. Golem or not, Ben had been born for this. Born to stop his uncle from creating an army of mindless creatures.
“I’ll shoot you,” the gunman said.
“I believe you.” Ben didn’t take his attention from the Teacher. “I’m not going to let you do this.”
“I’d like to see you try.” He waved at Mei with that knife. “In due time she will be one of mine.”
Ben moved back to the wall. A retreat. But he hadn’t given up, he needed these few minutes to figure out how to save Mei. He sank to the floor beside Taya, clasped the medallion, and lifted the pocket knife. Knowing what he had to do, he squeezed the handle, so hard it was painful. Once he did it, someone would have to get the mud. Say the words.
Grant moved closer. He whispered, “What are you doing?”
“Leveling the playing field.” He locked gazes with his brother. “I’ll need your help with the mud.”
“He’ll control you, like he does them.” Grant motioned to the golems.
Ben handed the medallion to Taya. “Do this for me.”
She could control him. A weapon in her hand. Ben would have it no other way.
Taya nodded. “I understand.”
“Ben—”
He lifted the knife. Was he really going to do this? Could he really accept that corruption back into his heart, his soul? Become like one of them?
Grant moved closer. The gunman was occupied corralling the golems. The Teacher moved to the last white-robed acolyte. Mei lay still, her eyes closed. Please don’t be dead. He thought he saw her chest move. What if it was just wishful thinking?
A tear rolled down his cheek.
Ben swiped it away with his free hand. “It’s time.”
“Yes,” Grant said. “It is.”
His brother snatched the knife from Ben’s hand and plunged it into his own chest.
Chapter 46
North of Charleston, WV. Tuesday, 00:34hrs EDT
Taya gasped. Ben grabbed his brother before he fell and lowered him to the floor. “Grant.” He groaned his brother’s name.
Grant coughed. Blood lined his lips. In a choked voice he said, “My turn.”
“No, no.”
“We have to get the mud.” Taya’s hand lighted on his shoulder. “I’ll get it.”
Because Grant would be dead soon. “I won’t let you go.”
“Then figure out how to get me back.”
Taya raced to the table. Ben saw movement across the room. Not her. Someone had entered the door.
His mom stood in simple jeans and a jacket, her hair wild. Not her usual put-together self. She surveyed the scene. Finally taking in Ben, clutching his dying brother.
“Mom.”
Her jaw hardened. She glanced at the Teacher. “That’s enough, Hans.”
The Teacher jumped back. Shoved the golem he’d just created over Mei’s prone form toward the gunman. “Charlota.” Hatred oozed between the syllables. “You aren’t going to stop me. Not now, when I’ve already achieved my greatness.”
“It has corrupted you. I knew that years ago, when you did all those experiments on me hoping to create the ultimate golem. I had hoped that God would take care of you, but it seems He would ask one final thing of me.”
Hans said, “Justice cannot corrupt. It is pure. And I will bring a tide of it across this world in a wave unlike any before. I will conquer it. Set it free.”
“And finally destroy my family?” She lifted a gun. “No, you won’t.”
The gun trembled in her hand. She squeezed the trigger. Ben ducked to cover Grant as the shot rang out across the room. The gunman returned fire. Ben swiped up the knife and ran. He didn’t look at the door, but heard his mom hit the floor.
Ben shoved the knife between two ribs. The gun went off.
Taya cried out.
The gunman fell to the floor. Ben retrieved the weapon. Dauntless raced over and barked at the golems. Held them in their corner.
Ben spun to the Teacher.
Mei had her hands around his neck, despite her injuries. Tears raced down her cheeks, desperate to escape the turmoil inside. Her face red, she grasped the Teacher with an implacable grip.
Beyond her, his mother lay in a pool of blood.
“Mei.”
She didn’t even blink. The Teacher pawed at her hand, scratched lines down her forearms. She never adjusted her grip.
The dog barked.
“Mei, he needs to let the dead go. He has to release these people from his hold on them.”
“No.” Her teeth pressed together. “He dies, they’ll die. Right?”
“We don’t know that.”
“I feel like finding out.” She sucked in a breath. Swallowed a sob.
He stepped closer to her. “Mei, let him go. He has to answer for this.”
“No one is going to believe us. They’ll think we’re crazy.”
“I don’t care.” Nothing would ever be the same again. But Ben would do everything he could to help her through the transition. To help the team, and his family.
Taya called over from beside Grant, “It’s the right thing to do.”
“She’s right.”
Mei shook her head. The Teacher had stopped fighting. She let go of him, and he fell to the floor. “I don’t do mercy. It’s not in my nature.”
“It’s not in mine, either. That’s why we need it so badly.”
Chapter 47
North of Charleston, WV. Tuesday, 01:17hrs EDT
The golems snapped and snarled against the bounds of Mei’s will.
Ben said, “Are you sure that will hold them?”
“Long enough to destroy them.”
“Fire?”
She nodded. Touched her earpiece. “Remy? Thank goodness. We need an ambulance.”
“No ambulance,” Grant said. His face was pale, he was sweating, and blood covered the front of his shirt.
“Hospital.”
“Fine.” Grant gritted his teeth as Taya helped him to his feet, and his brother shot him a look. Brother. Karl and Hans had terrorized their family, and nearly the world. He liked to think he and Grant would never have gone that far. But had they fought, it would have been on an equally destructive scale.
Ben was glad they knew how to forgive each other. “You should have let me do it.”
“Never gonna happen.” Grant’s gaze fell on their mother. “She’s gone, isn’t she?”
Ben crossed to her. Crouched. “She came here to fight. She saved us.”
“She always did.” Grant looked at him. “So did you. For our family, and for this team.”
Their father had tried. Ben loved him for it.
The miracle was that any of them had succeeded. And now Ben was free of the golem. What did that even mean? He’d never lived as an adult without that thing in him.
He gathered his mom into his arms, wondering.
First things first.
Grant said, “The cops are going to have questions. She was shot, they’ll want an explanation.”
“You want me to leave her here?” That wasn’t what he was thinking, but maybe it was best.
Grant shrugged. “Ouch.” Then winced. “Not with those things.”
He stood, hugging his mom’s dead body against his chest. “You guys get out of here. And send Remy with all the explosives in the van.”
Mei said, “What are you going to—”
“You can’t leave her body—” Grant’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he slumped down in Taya’s arms.
She lowered him to the ground, then looked up at Ben. “Your other brothers will want to say goodbye.”
“We can’t have questions.” When she said nothing, he added, “I’ll make sure they understand.”
Ben wandered away down the hall. He ascended the stairs and found a nice room. Four-poster, floral sheets. Peach walls. The room had the feel of hotel soap—functional, but overly scented. His mom would have understood.
Ben laid her on the bed and closed her eyes.
“Mama.”
He winced at the sound of his own voice.
They would forever be connected. Bound by something unhuman, corrupted by man’s own greed and selfishness. Ben would never have wanted it otherwise. They had shared what no one else would ever know. The connection of a being that had strengthened them.
Forged in fire to be what they were: survivors. Protectors of the people they loved.
He was going to have to tell John and Nate that she was dead. He’d have to cause his nephew, Pat, grief. He’d have to tell them all that there was nothing left to say goodbye to.
Ben covered her with a sheet. Wiped the tear from his cheek and went downstairs to finish this. After he was done, he’d figure out who he was now. He’d have to figure out who Ben Mason was, apart from the golem’s influence.
He’d have to figure out whether he could even do this job without the golem inside him.
When he stepped onto the back patio, Remy met him, a duffel over her shoulder. “Special delivery.” She dropped the bag.
“Did you see Grant?”
She nodded. “He managed to miss his heart. Once he gets patched up he should be okay. There’s a hospital not too far from here.”
Ben said, “Thank you.”
“Did he really try to become a golem to save you?” When he said nothing, she shrugged. “I was listening in. I actually called the ambulance before Mei requested it.”
“Thank you.” He meant it. He would have become a golem as well, controlled by one of his team. Just to give them a fighting chance. It hadn’t come to that, but now he knew where he and Grant stood.
“You’re welcome.” She hesitated.
“Go. I’ve got this.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” She shivered. “I don’t want to meet those undead golems.”
Ben set the charges. Two minutes later he jogged up to the huddle of Taya, Grant, Mei, and Remy beside the van.
The house exploded.
Remy let out a squeak.
Mei rolled her eyes. “We’re going shooting. I’m thinking Saturday.”
“Let’s get Grant to the hospital before someone who heard that explosion shows up.”
Taya helped Grant into the van, then she turned back.
Ben swallowed. “I don’t know how to do this.”
She held out her hand, smiling. “I’ll help you figure it out.”
Ben took her hand and climbed in the van.
Epilogue
The airline steward leaned down. “Would you like me to stow that in the overhead bin?”
Daire glanced at his leather jacket folded on his lap, then back up at the uniformed guy. “No, thanks. How long will we be in the air?”
“About four hours.” He patted Daire’s shoulder. “Plenty of time for a nap.”
Did he look that bad? Maybe he needed the sleep, but he’d just woken up from a coma. How much rest did he need? Once they arrived in Reno he’d have to rent a car. Make his way to the bed and breakfast where his niece worked.
Later he could answer the team’s questions about how he’d woken up from the coma. About how the golem hadn’t managed to kill him.
Later.
The alternative was moving on, and Daire didn’t want to do that. He wasn’t ready to let the team go. He actually liked them. It was why he’d stuck around this long. Made friends when the last real friend he’d had betrayed him to the Nazis.
He’d been their captive for months. Until Brian Pilsen and his team released Daire from that research facility.
Despite all the tests, they never had figured out what he was.
And it was going to stay that way.
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