by Ciara Graves
“I’m sure Zeraxin and Hadariel are busy destroying everything the demon lords built.” My arms tightened around her, thinking of that bastard sitting in Koreth’s throne. Of being in Olem at all.
After Hell fell, we received messages that more demons had escaped Zeraxin’s army but were scattered across the continent. Finding them should be my top priority, but how was I supposed to leave Dakota? Ilran and I were the last demon lords alive. If we left and died, hope would die with us. There was that. Plus, I couldn’t bear the thought of walking away from Lela.
Though Hell was lost, the war was not over. Not yet. Hadariel and his spawn weren’t finished.
“I brought some whiskey,” she said as she looked up at me. “Thought we could use a drink.”
“How’s everyone?” I asked as she pulled away to pour the amber liquor into two glasses.
“Acting like it’s their last night on earth. Defenses are in place, though, don’t worry. If they attack, we’ll know.”
In the days that followed the fall of Hell, those left alive in Dakota went through various stages of grief, anger, defeat. I wondered if we’d have the strength to keep fighting. If anyone had the will to continue. I blamed no one for feeling like that since I was equally as guilty of those emotions. To hear that people were finding a way to embrace life was better news than walking around like zombies, no offense to Bobby. It meant they had a spark left in them and maybe the determination to not let our defeat be an easy one.
Lela handed me a glass and clinked hers against mine. “Cheers to the end, I guess.” She emptied hers and poured a second.
I did the same, and we downed two more rounds. I waited for the whiskey to hit her. Her cheeks reddened. A giggle slipped out. Music drifted in through an open window. Someone was playing a guitar. I spun Lela around our makeshift home as we laughed and danced like we things were normal. If only we could survive this war, then I could give her the life she deserved. Instead, an image of me burning her dead body rose in my mind. When I drew her in close and held her, she clung to me. I hadn’t wanted her to sense my sudden anxiety. Too late now.
She stood on her toes, held my face in her hands, and smiled as she scratched at the scruff I had yet to shave. “No matter what happens, just remember tonight.”
“Why does it sound like you’re saying good-bye?” My heart lurched. I covered her hands with mine, searching her eyes for any hint of plotting to take matters into her own hands.
Her cheeks were still bright red, and all I saw in her gaze was exactly what I felt in that moment. I brushed my thumb over her bottom lip then leaned down and captured her mouth with mine. As heat surrounded us, my very being seemed to catch alight, and there was no one else in the world except Lela and me.
She buried her hands in my hair as I nuzzled her neck, breathing her in. I’d never grow tired of her scent, or the sensation of her hands on my shoulders, the sound of her laughter.
As the music continued to flow through the open window, I forgot about all we’d lost so far. I blocked out any images of one of us dying, or the horrors we’d witnessed. We made it through another day. And we’d make it through another one and another—
A scream of terror cut off the music.
It was followed by an explosion that lit up the night.
I clutched Lela to me as the building shook. Dust and debris fell around us. I covered her with my body as a second explosion erupted. The walls trembled and the floor began to give way. Holding her against my chest, I sprinted for the door and leaped down the last few stairs to make it outside as the building collapsed. Fires spread throughout Dakota and as I set Lela on her feet. Disbelief followed by rage burst within me.
“No,” Lela whispered. Then louder, “No! You bastard!”
Dakota was under siege. The alarms just started to ring out, but they stopped just as quickly.
“The armory.” Lela took off in a sprint.
“Lela, wait!”
I ran after her, catching sight of the walls as zombies, abominations, and wraiths poured over them. Another horde of demonoid children was among their numbers. As were faceless monsters with claws instead of hands.
The defenses we had powered with hellfire weren’t nearly as effective as they should’ve been against the creatures from Hell. Evil tore through the metal walls like paper. Right alongside Zeraxin’s forces were angels bearing the tarnished armor of Hadariel.
Fighting had broken out everywhere and I lost sight of Lela. I lowered my head, hurried for the armory when something solid crashed into my side. We went down in a heap of tangled limbs.
A flash of steel was the only warning I had. A blade was aimed at my face. I caught the angel’s wrist at the last second. He sneered as he pushed down harder. I grabbed him by his chest piece and headbutted him. His eyes rolled back in his head. I threw him off, wrenched the blade from his hand, and plunged it through his heart.
Two zombies threw themselves at me. I decapitated them with one quick swing of the fallen angel’s blade. Gunfire erupted around me. I spotted Bryan with a rifle pressed against his shoulder, firing into the enemy charging toward him. Behind him were several more fighters, demons and humans. They were covering another group of humans. Most of them were already bloody.
I rushed to them until an abomination stepped into my path. The blade in my hands was not large enough to do much harm.
“Mech! Duck!”
At Kexan’s yell, I hit the ground.
A fireball soared through the air and struck the abomination. Another followed, and another, until a gory gap appeared in its chest. The beast glanced down, a dumb look on its twisted face. Then it fell over, shaking the ground.
Kexan yanked me to my feet, Ilran and Bobby right behind him. “Where’s Lela?” he asked, glancing around.
“I lost her in the chaos. She was headed to the armory.”
“They hit that first,” he informed me.
I cursed as more angels charged us.
Not too far away, I spotted Nathaniel and Remiel leading the angel force against wraiths and a massive pack of hellhounds. Their added numbers wouldn’t be enough. We couldn’t hold Dakota. The damned city was lost. Fighting off angels, I maneuvered us closer to Nathaniel. Kexan stayed at my back as Ilran and Bobby carved a bloody swath around us.
“We have to make a run for it,” I shouted to Nathaniel as we both took on a hellhound three times the size of a bear, finally taking it down. “Get who anyone can and run. Bobby knows where to go.”
“I do?” Bobby asked as he limped over. His left leg was barely hanging on by a tendon.
“The caves. Take them to the caves.”
“You sure?”
The shrieks of metal tearing drew our attention. The entire wall on the east side of Dakota had split right down the middle and was being dragged outward. I gripped the sword in my palm, slicked with the blood of the enemy, growling at the two figures who approached.
Hadariel and Zeraxin.
They were here after all. As they entered the compound, demons, angels, and humans alike tried to stop them, but they were swatted away like flies. There’d be no one left to stand against them if we didn’t get out of here. I shoved Bobby toward Nathaniel.
“Round up who you can and go. We’ll try to send them your way. Head for the southern wall and the escape hatch.”
They wasted no more time arguing and set off into the compound.
Ilran and Kexan appeared ready to stand by me, but I shook my head. “We are not leaving you here to face them alone,” Ilran argued.
“I’m not. I’m going to grab Lela and get out of here. We’ll be right behind you. I need you to clear a path for those coming your way.”
She nodded and then they were off into the fray. I blocked out the screams of the dying and grabbed the living, shouting for them to get moving toward the southern wall. The dead numbered too many to count. I jumped over their corpses and silently prayed they’d forgive us for failing to keep them safe. How
many were we even going to save?
And Lela? Where the hell was she?
I killed more angels and zombies rushing into my path. The enemy was quickly overrunning this part of the compound. I rounded a corner and skidded to a stop in the blood-soaked ground.
“No, Lela,” I whispered, staring at the hole that had been the armory. I bellowed her name, searching the remains for her.
The ammo ignited, and a fireball shot into the sky. If she was in there, she was dead.
“Help!”
I whipped around, but it wasn’t Lela. A hand reached out from under a pile of wooden beams and metal corrugated walls. I shifted and shoved the debris out of the way revealing Melinda, Xavier, Tim, and a few others. Some were kids. Carefully, I helped them out one after the other. Melinda held her right side as blood seeped from a puncture wound. Xavier put an arm under her shoulder to keep her upright. The others had some minor cuts and scrapes but miraculously were mostly unharmed.
“Head for the escape hatch,” I told them. “Keep moving. Don’t stop for anything. Nathaniel and Bobby will be there.”
“Where are you going?” Tim asked. “Mech?”
“Lela was headed this way,”
Tim’s eyes widened. He wasn’t looking at me, though. He was staring at something behind me. His face paled, and those with him cowered. None of them had any weapons. All I had was the sword I stole from the angel.
“Start moving,” I told Tim and the others. “Now.”
He swallowed hard and nodded, urging the group of survivors. The presence of intense evil crashed into my back like a colossal wave of hatred. Gritting my teeth and taking one last glance around for any sign of Lela, I spun around.
Hadariel and Zeraxin were twenty yards away. Their gazes locked onto me.
“Not so hard to find in this shithole after all,” Zeraxin commented, casually spinning a sword in his right hand. His left rested on the head of a mace tucked at his belt.
“Good of you to stand out in the open for us,” Hadariel agreed. “I was sad to hear you didn’t stick around in Hell. Would’ve made this so much easier for all of us.”
“You think I’d hide from you?”
I braced my feet in the mud, sensing more beings closing in around me and the group of people behind me. They weren’t going to make it to the southern wall. Shit. I could call on my hellfire, but the glint in Zeraxin’s eyes said he was more than ready to place those damned bonds on my power. The second I called on it, he’d douse the flames.
“You should. Might give you a few more minutes to live.” Hadariel stalked closer as his wings, no longer white, now black and grey, spread wide behind him. They appeared slick, as if they’d been dipped in oil. The evil that had tainted his soul was no longer staying hidden beneath the skin. “Not that there’s anything worthwhile about this life, not for you. Although,” he paused as his head turned from right to left, “where is that little bitch of yours?”
I snarled in reply.
Hadariel and Zeraxin laughed.
“My, you do have quite a temper. You know, it would’ve been better for if you would’ve simply died at the falls,” Zeraxin informed me, finally stopping his sword so he could aim the point at me. “Now, I’ll be certain to kill her in front of you, and then make you suffer. Clearly, the first time wasn’t enough.”
“Try it, and it’ll be your head,” I warned.
“Is that so?” Zeraxin stepped forward, but Hadariel held out his arm, blocking his demonic lookalike from coming any closer. “What are you waiting for?”
“Where is she?” Hadariel asked me, ignoring Zeraxin.
“Who?”
“Lela. Where is she? I would like the pleasure of killing her myself. I know she’s here.” He sniffed the air loudly. “I smell her mortal soul.”
Suddenly I sensed her presence. She was close. Not wanting to give her away, wherever she was, I continued the stare-down with Hadariel and Zeraxin. “Not here.”
“You lie.”
“Enough talking,” I said and took a step closer. “We going to try and kill each other or what?”
Zeraxin glanced to Hadariel as if asking permission.
It was the opening I needed. With fire burning in my left hand, I charged forward, slashing the sword downward. I shouted for Melinda to get out of there as my blade clashed with Zeraxin’s. We spun away from Hadariel, and just as I reared back to lob a ball of fire at the bastard’s face, those bonds were cast around my power. I winced at how tight he yanked the invisible chains, but there was no time to back down.
Screams of the dying filled the night air.
Behind me, Melinda was yelling. Tim was already on the ground, a hole punched through his chest by an abomination. Melinda’s words became garbled. I only made it a step toward her when a sword was driven through her throat. Xavier threw himself bodily at the angel who attacked her, but it was no use. Another swiftly moved in and his head was severed from his body. He died with a shocked expression on his face. Those they’d been trying to save quickly rushed back toward me even though I was fighting one of the worst monsters around.
Zeraxin’s fist crashed into my face, sending me sprawling to the ground. The sword was kicked from my hand. He reached for my throat. I let him lift me up until my feet dangled.
“Too easy,” he spat. “What would your father say if he could see you now?”
I grinned.
Zeraxin frowned.
I brought my boots up and nailed him in the chest. He didn’t drop me, lowering me instead.
It was just enough for me to grab the mace at his hip. I bashed it into his elbow and was met with a satisfying crack of bone. He shrieked, the sound soul-piercing.
I swung the mace around, and his teeth clacked with the impact. Finally, his hand released its iron grip on my throat, and I rolled away.
“You fool, grab him,” Hadariel shouted.
Zeraxin, his left arm hanging at a funny angle, with blood dripping from his mouth, snarled at me. Leathery wings stretched from his back. With a hard flap, he took to the air. I remembered all too well how he’d attacked me last time. No chance was I letting him build up any sort of speed for an attack. I whirled about and launched the mace at him again. It struck him right in the groin, and he crumpled. Might be a monster, but he still had the parts, and clearly, they hurt when hit.
Zeraxin grunted and growled on the ground.
With Melinda and Xavier dead, I had to get the survivors to the southern wall. I raced toward the group to somehow get them out of here. The bonds on my hellfire loosened a bit, but it wasn’t enough to pull on my fire, not completely.
“Let’s move,” I said, gathering them together. “Grab whatever you can as a weapon.”
“We can’t get through that,” a young boy said, shaking from head to toe.
The array of zombies, hounds, and demonoids in our way gave me pause, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. We were going to get out of here. Or at least I’d get them out, then come back for Lela.
“We’ll make it,” I told him with a firm nod. “Be brave.”
Hadariel was marching toward us, his hands glowing a sickly blue. It was a mix of holy light and the evil he’d let corrupt him. Zeraxin was finding his feet.
I turned to get the group moving. We made it through the first line of zombies by barreling through them with my full body weight. The adults picked up chunks of metal or wood to use as bats and attacked. I kicked a hellhound out of the way and ripped a zombie apart with my bare hands when it went straight for the kids.
“Mech!”
Arms wrapped around my neck, rotting and bony. More grabbed my arms, and then I was on the ground. The hounds were closing in. From the panicked looks on the kids’ faces, Hadariel and Zeraxin weren’t far behind. I tried to tell them to keep going, but the zombie’s arms cut off my air. They were going to take me right to Zeraxin and then they’d find Lela. They’d torture us both, then eventually kill us.
And the res
t of the humans here would be slaughtered. The angels would be used to keep powering Hadariel’s device. This was going to be the end of us.
“What is that?” one of the kids asked.
“Get down!”
Lela’s voice?
Gunfire burst around us.
Zombies and hounds hit the ground, dead. Several fireballs launched into the zombies. They shrieked as they caught on fire and sprinted off.
“Grab them,” Lela yelled.
Then she was there, her hair covered in bits of flesh, blood, and black, viscous goo. She chopped the zombies to pieces, kicking their bodies away. She kissed me as soon as I was on my feet again, handed me a rifle, and winked.
“Why didn’t you just get out of here?”
“Why? Now I get to rub it in again that I saved your ass what, three times now?”
“Stop them!” Hadariel sent a blast of corrupt holy light right for us.
I shoved Lela ahead of me and found myself face to face with Bobby and Kexan. I’d give them a lecture later about disobeying orders. I should’ve known they’d never leave Dakota without me. Or without Lela, for that matter. There were ten other angels and demons with them, and together, we blasted a path through what was left of Dakota. The buildings we’d painstakingly rebuilt and fortified were pillars of melting metal and heaps of wood falling to ash. Dead bodies were in every direction I looked.
We didn’t slow down to check for anyone who might’ve survived the onslaught. There was no time.
And from the look of the compound and those urging us on at the southern escape hatch, we were the last to get out alive.
Lela shoved the survivors through first, then ordered the rest to go after them. Kexan, Bobby, Lela, and I were the last to reach the metal door we’d built into the southern wall. It led into an underground tunnel that came up a mile away from Dakota. I’d hoped we’d never have to use it.
Just as I was about to tell Lela to get inside, she jumped as if something struck her. She blinked, tilting her head confused, then looked down at her chest.
“No,” I gasped, the rifle falling from my numb hands.