by Steve McHugh
Layla landed on the ground next to an injured Chloe as Remy stood in front of them, his fur matted with his own blood and his sword pointed at Nergal. “Come try,” Remy said.
Nergal’s laughter was all Layla could hear. She forced herself back to a kneeling position as her body began to heal itself. All four of them were hurt, all four had thrown everything they had, and Nergal had barely suffered a single injury.
He walked slowly toward the three of them, but when he was two feet away, a slab of rock the size of an SUV smashed into Nergal’s side, throwing him across the street. He landed on a patch of soil that quickly exploded as roots buried deep beneath the topsoil shot up and wrapped around him, keeping him in place.
“Who dares?” Nergal demanded to know, screaming in rage as he used his considerable strength to rip free from the roots, only to find fresh ones wrapping around him.
“You four did well,” Persephone said as she walked toward Nergal. “But now it’s my turn.”
Persephone tore huge pieces of earth from the ground and threw them at Nergal, who managed to dodge most with ease even as he struggled with the roots. But with each piece thrown, Persephone got closer and closer to him until she dropped to the ground and the concrete beneath Nergal’s feet split open, swallowing him up in an instant. Persephone sank down into the dirt a few seconds later.
Layla and her friends didn’t bother trying to help. The best thing they could do was to heal the myriad of injuries they’d suffered. Otherwise they were just going to get in Persephone’s way. Layla’s chest still felt on fire, and she wondered just how long it would be before she was able to take a breath without it hurting.
“How are you doing, Remy?” Chloe asked.
“I ache,” he told her. “Until a while ago, I could only heal about as fast as a human, so even with my newfound abilities, this is going to take a while. I could kill myself and be back in no time, but that seems excessive. Or, I could turn into my human form and heal instantly. But then I’m stuck as a human for several hours.”
Remy had managed to learn how to turn back into his human form just over a year ago. Once he was human, his power to heal was incredible, but that was pretty much all he could do. As a fox, Remy was stronger, faster, and much more dangerous.
“How long have they been gone for now?” Kase asked.
“Two and a half minutes,” Chloe said as the ground shook.
“That didn’t feel good,” Remy said. “We should leave the street.”
A hand punched through the dirt close to where they sat, and a second later the dirt exploded all around them, revealing Nergal. Persephone crouched beside him, her face a picture of terror.
“She forgot about that,” Nergal said, looking up just in time to see Chloe’s fist coming for his jaw. He fell to the side, rolling across the dirt as Chloe stalked after him. She took one step and crashed to her knees, screaming out in fear. Nergal kicked her to the ground, but was tackled by Remy before he could do anything else. Remy drove his sword into Nergal’s chest, but Nergal flung Remy off, pulled the sword out, and threw it at Layla as she got to her feet.
Kase ran forward and collapsed mid-step.
“Just you left now,” Nergal said.
Layla took a deep breath. She couldn’t win this. If Persephone couldn’t beat him, she had no hope. She sought out Terhal in her mind. If she was going to die, she was going to go down swinging.
“You need some help?” Terhal asked with a slight chuckle.
Layla was about to tell her to take control when the earth shifted and Nergal sank into it up to his knees. “Maybe next time,” Terhal said before she vanished from Layla’s mind.
Persephone punched Nergal in the face, ripping his lips open and causing him to spit blood over the dirt. She went to hit him again, but immediately crashed to her knees, scrambling away in fear.
“There is nothing quite as pleasant as a woman knowing her place,” Nergal said as the dirt around him fell away. He looked over at Layla and waved his hand toward her. An overwhelming sense of terror smashed into her, almost knocking her over. She wanted to run, to hide, and to scream out in fear. She forced her mind to think of the spirits who resided inside, but each of them gave off wave after wave of fear, none answering her call. Even Terhal, who normally reveled in fear, was uncontactable.
“The spirits not responding?” Nergal asked Layla with a laugh. “They don’t like the fear. It moves through you to them. I discovered that a few years ago when testing on the subjects we brought in to make into umbra. I find it quite interesting.”
Nergal clenched his hand into a fist and turned it slightly, causing the abstract terror she felt to take on a more solid definition. She was back at the day her mom died. The day Nergal murdered her. Layla’s mom and her husband were forced off the road and killed in the accident. She relived the moment she was told, the moment her world crumbled around her, and she almost couldn’t breathe. And as quickly as the fear started, it stopped.
Bathed in sweat, Layla tried to figure out what was going on, and saw that Nergal was no longer standing close by. She blinked and heard voices. Anger and hate mixed with the sounds of someone being hit over and over again. Layla shook her head and forced herself to her feet, to see what had happened to Nergal.
Irkalla had happened.
“Your fear doesn’t work on me,” Irkalla said as she blocked his punch and broke his arm, throwing him over her shoulder and through a nearby wall.
“Ah, wife of mine,” Nergal said, getting to his feet, his face a mass of blood. He threw a rock at her and charged, but Irkalla caught the rock in mid-air, crushing it with her hand as she drove a fist into Nergal’s face, spinning him around and dumping him on the dirt.
“This has been a long time coming, Nergal,” Irkalla told him.
“I knew you couldn’t stay away,” Nergal said as Irkalla took one step forward. He hit her hard enough to send her flying back toward Layla, who caught her friend at the same time as the sound of a gunshot reached her ears. Layla kept hold of Irkalla as she dove behind a mass of rubble, putting them both next to Chloe and Remy, who looked as though they’d had better days. More shots rang out.
“How long before the fear goes?” Chloe asked through gritted teeth.
Persephone was on her feet, creating a thick wall of stone that separated them all from their surroundings. “The shot came from the larger building at the end of the road,” she said. “I hate this fear shit. It makes me see things I don’t want to see.”
Irkalla coughed up blood, and everyone moved toward her, thankful that their heads were clearing of Nergal’s muck.
“Silver bullet,” Irkalla said through pain-clenched teeth. “Needs taking out. It hit a lung, went through some ribs, I imagine.”
Everyone looked at Layla.
“I’ve never removed a bullet from someone before,” she said.
“No time like the present,” Persephone told her. “We’ll go hunting for the shooter, you help Irkalla.”
Layla risked peering around the edge of the rubble and watched Nergal run toward a building at the end of the street. There was another shot, and another, and Nergal crumpled to the ground.
“Nergal’s been shot,” Layla told Persephone.
“I’ll check,” Kase said, running off toward where Layla had seen Nergal collapse.
“I’ll go with her,” Remy said. “Make sure there are no more bullets heading our way.”
Layla looked down at Irkalla. “Right, I guess we need to get that bullet out. Will you be able to heal once this is done?”
“I have a lot of souls stored up,” Irkalla said. “They’ll heal me fine once the bullet is gone.”
Layla got Persephone and Chloe to help move Irkalla onto her side so that she could cut away the leather straps of her armor. The rune-inscribed armor was designed to stop normal bullets and some magical attacks, but the armor had a weakness. A silver bullet hitting the runes at the right place would shatter the protection
and allow the bullet through. It was deemed an acceptable risk as the odds of such a shot were astronomical, but unfortunately the bullet that had hit Irkalla had torn through the outer part of the rune. Thankfully that meant it had only lost some of its power and didn’t just plow into her, but it still had enough force to do considerable damage.
Once the armor was off, Layla cut through Irkalla’s t-shirt and took a look at where the bullet went in. It had struck her friend in the ribcage about halfway down, just under her bra, causing a hole no bigger than Layla’s thumb. The bottom of the bra wasn’t going to do anything but get in the way, so Layla cut through it, causing Irkalla to groan in pain. Blood pumped from the hole and Irkalla couldn’t stop a cry from leaving her lips.
Persephone moved the earth around Irkalla, propping up the injured woman’s back and supporting her.
“This is going to hurt like a son-of-a-bitch,” Layla said.
Irkalla reached out with one bloody hand and retrieved a piece of rubber hose that probably belonged in someone’s garden. She put it between her teeth and bit down. Layla placed her hands just above the bullet hole and reached out with her power. Silver felt different to her than other metals. Getting it into her system would kill her, just as it would kill a sorcerer, were, or necromancer, and just reaching out for it felt hot. Not burning hot, but the kind of residual heat found in a fireplace after it’s been out for a while. There was no mistaking it.
She wrapped her power around the bullet, and Irkalla screamed in pain and shock.
“I can’t possibly find the same path that the bullet took,” Layla told her. “And pulling it back toward me is a bad idea, so I’m going to push it out the other side. It’s close to your ribs on the other side of your body.”
Layla gathered more power around the bullet, wrapping it around the projectile as smoothly as she could manage so that it caused as little discomfort as possible given the circumstances.
When she was certain that she’d used enough power, she took a deep breath and snapped it forward with everything she had, pouring more and more power into the wound to push out the bullet with as much force as she could manage.
Layla sensed that the bullet had fragmented slightly after hitting Irkalla, forcing her to reach out and control all of the pieces. Layla felt the bullet leave Irkalla’s body a second later, but it went through another rib. Irkalla’s hand crushed the rock she had been holding.
Layla felt the bullet fragments strike the dirt. Persephone removed the earth keeping Irkalla propped up and lowered her to the ground. Irkalla’s skin was clammy, and she’d lost a lot of blood, but Layla hoped she’d be okay.
She picked up the largest piece of flattened projectile, turned it over in her hand, and saw a red marking on it.
“Rune,” Persephone said. “That’s what’s on there, yes?”
Layla passed it to her. “Shooter gone?”
“Long gone. Chloe and Remy are scouting still, but there’s no trace of them. They got into a car further up the road.” Persephone looked down at her friend. “The armor saved her life. Without it, this would have done a lot worse.” She picked up the leather and turned it over, removing a portion of the bullet and dropping it onto Layla’s hand. “The bullet partially fragmented in the armor, so only a part of it went into Irkalla.”
“It destroyed a few of her ribs and did a lot of internal damage, too,” Layla said. “Can she heal that?”
Persephone nodded. “She’s too stubborn to let a bullet kill her.”
“It’s silver and fragments upon impact. This wasn’t designed to be a kill shot. She was meant to die from the dozens of tiny fragments of silver in her body. It was supposed to be a slow, painful death. What does the rune do?”
“Bypasses the armor protection runes. I’ve seen their kind before.”
“So even if the bullet hadn’t hit the rune itself, it still would have gone through?” Layla asked.
Persephone nodded.
Irkalla let out a gasp, followed quickly by a groan of pain. “I want to tear the throat out of whoever shot me,” she said softly.
“Told you she was too stubborn,” Persephone said. “Can you stand?”
Irkalla nodded. “I’ve used up every spirit I have to heal myself, so I’d rather not fight again for a while.”
“We’ll get you out of here,” Persephone told her. “There are a few cars at the end of the street, in a parking lot behind the houses. They all seem to be untouched. If we can get one working, we can move Irkalla out of here, and hopefully go help everyone in Red Rock.”
“How bad is it there?”
Kase reappeared with Remy. “Nergal is dead,” she said.
“What?” Persephone asked. A second later, she was running up the road with everyone but Irkalla, who was being helped by Layla. Irkalla practically had to shove Layla to go and see what had happened.
Nergal had two bullet holes in his head and one in his heart. Layla reached out and found the fragments of the bullets that had been used. The first two were the same as the ones that had hit Irkalla, but the last was of a different caliber. She handed it over to Persephone.
“Gorgon venom,” Remy said. “I can smell it. It’s from a handgun. I tracked the scent of the killer to a car further up the road, but they sped off, so they could be anywhere now.”
Kase rolled Nergal onto his stomach, revealing that most of the back of his head was missing.
“That was close range,” Remy said.
Layla stared at the body for several seconds without saying a word. Nergal had been responsible for her mother’s murder and for the murders of countless innocent people, including friends of hers. Because of him, Layla was now an umbra fighting for her life against Avalon. Because of Nergal, everything Layla had ever known had fallen apart. She thought she’d be happy to see him dead, but instead she just felt hollow. It didn’t feel like much of a victory.
“Someone did us a favor,” Chloe said. “Why shoot Irkalla, too?”
“They weren’t doing us any favors,” Layla said. “They want us all dead.”
“Abaddon,” Persephone said. “She’s always hated Nergal. I’d put large amounts of money on her involvement.”
Irkalla had made it to the group by then and glared at anyone who offered her assistance. “Well, the bastard is finally dead.”
Remy handed her the Gorgon-venom-coated bullet.
“Good,” Irkalla said. “He was an evil bastard.”
“I’ll go find us a ride,” Chloe said. “Hopefully there’s something that still works.” She ran off with Remy into the ruins of the town.
“We need to get to Red Rock,” Irkalla said. “Nergal was arrogant; he would have wanted to lord it over his enemies. Abaddon will just kill them all.”
“You think that was her game?” Kase asked. “Take Nergal’s forces for her own?”
Persephone nodded. “From what I understand about her, yes. She’ll have been working at this for some time. I don’t know just how much of Nergal’s force came up here to join the war. Avalon would certainly have sent people to help remove our influence from this place. It could make things more complicated now that he isn’t there to second-guess Abaddon’s plans. For the moment, though, I suggest we stick to the plan we have.”
A gray Honda SUV rolled into view with Chloe behind the wheel.
“Are you okay?” Rosa asked from beside Layla.
She nodded. “It wasn’t a fun experience back there.”
“I do not like being made to feel afraid. Even spirits have their weaknesses. It was like I was alive again, but everything was wrong. It was . . . unpleasant.”
Servius and Gyda appeared beside Rosa. “Let’s not do that again,” Gyda said. “It turns out there are more evil things than Terhal.”
“Not evil,” Terhal said from somewhere in her head.
Gyda opened her mouth and closed it as the Honda pulled level with Layla. The spirits vanished, and Remy opened the rear door of the SUV.
&nb
sp; “You stole a car,” Layla said, sounding somewhat impressed. Neither Remy nor Chloe had ever shown any ability to hotwire.
“I have skills,” Remy said from the front passenger seat. “Many, many skills.”
Layla smiled. “The keys were in the car, weren’t they?”
Remy nodded. “Yes, yes they were.”
“You good?” Chloe asked.
“It’s been a long few days,” Layla told her. “I need some vodka.”
“A bottle of vodka,” Remy said, “and a second one to chase down the first.”
It took them a while to get Irkalla in the back seat of the SUV, her head resting on Persephone’s lap and her feet across Layla’s on the other side.
“I do not like feeling weak,” Irkalla said as Chloe drove the Honda through what had once been a main street of Thunder Bay. She drove slowly to avoid craters in the road, passing more ruined buildings—some of which had collapsed onto what used to be a sidewalk. It looked like a bomb had been dropped on the town.
“No shit,” Remy said.
“It’s a good thing I like you,” Irkalla told him.
“You like me? I figured we were in some kind of feud.”
Irkalla laughed. “Ouch. You did that on purpose.”
“But you like me,” Remy said with a wink. “Just so you know, I think it was Kristin who took the shot. Smelled like her. Why would she kill Nergal? I thought she worked for him?”
“She got a better offer?” Chloe suggested.
“Thunder Bay was destroyed in a matter of hours,” Layla said as she looked out of the window. “What hope is there for anywhere else if Avalon’s army can do this to a place that was under our protection?”
“We will fight back,” Persephone assured her.
20
Kristin had intended to go to Nipigon where Abaddon was staying and stop at Red Rock on the way to find answers from one of Nergal’s people about why that realm gate was so damn important.