Heroes

by David Leadbeater

  “Like it or not, I’m a part of this family.”

  “That’s not true,” I said. “You abandoned your daughter. Your husband. You left us without a word. You fundamentally changed the person Lucy would grow up to be. That’s what happens when a person leaves a home. You twist everything that’s right and good and true. The person Lucy should have become, she’ll never be.”

  “Maybe she’ll be stronger.”

  “That’s not the point. It’s not even relevant. You killed our daughter’s best future. It’s unforgiveable.”

  Lucy had looked up during our exchange, and now stared at her mother. Raychel gazed back, and I could see the tears glimmering in her eyes.

  “I love you now as much as I ever did. You’re still my Lucy, and my Dean. For me, it’s like time stopped. And it was a calling. I left you to help save the world. You can see it now, all around you. What would you have done?”

  “Dad’s right.” Lucy nodded at the door. “You should go.”

  “It’s not my fault you became a vampire. Not my fault the Devil chose our timeline to bring hell to earth. Not my fault the world’s in ashes.”

  “You don’t listen,” I said. “The door’s to your right.”

  We waited a few moments more before Raychel made her first move to leave. I was angry at myself for feeling a sliver of guilt at the sight of tears rolling down her face. I was angry that she showed her emotions, and angry that both Lucy and I chose to ignore them.

  “Leaving was my way of saving you,” she said by the door. “I only wanted you both to be safe. Please remember that.”

  She left and I faced Lucy. We were together again just as we had been since the last time Raychel left.

  “She won’t come back,” I said. “It’s over now.”

  “Good,” Lucy said, though by her tone I knew she wasn’t convinced.

  “And you and me?” I asked the question lightly, but my heart was well and truly in my mouth.

  “I’m a big girl now,” Lucy said. “I don’t need parents any more. I can go my own way. Is it guidance you offer, or supervision?”

  “The first,” I said. “Definitely the first.”

  “You should go to Belinda,” she said. “She makes you whole now.”

  I stared at her. It was a profound statement from my daughter and a slightly disturbing one. But even I knew Belinda was my future, despite my short-sightedness.

  “We good?” I asked, turning away.

  “Thank you for saving Ceriden,” she said, “and for telling me about Ethan.”

  I nodded and left the room. It was all I could do not to stay, not to hold her, but I knew she wouldn’t let me. I wondered if I’d ever hug my daughter again. Before I got too morose though, I went to my room and knocked twice at the door.

  “Is that you, Logan?” Belinda shouted. “It’s open.”

  I pushed open the door. She was sitting at the window, staring out. Being on an army base and inside a warehouse, there wasn’t much of a view, but there was grass and a small patch of blue sky. That was enough.

  “How about you?” I said. “Do you see a life after all this?”

  She shrugged. “I’m just happy to be alive. Still alive. I thought my time would be up months ago.”

  “There she is,” I said, moving toward her. “My philosophical girlfriend. Resigned to the end.”

  “I can’t help who I am. Who I was trained to be. Giles knew what might come and what we’d be facing. That’s what Aegis was created for. So the world could be ready.”

  I leaned over her, crossing my arms around her stomach. “I love you, you know.”

  She looked up, big eyes meeting mine. “I love you too, Dean Logan.”

  My phone beeped, a message from Lysette. It was the final muster call.

  “This is it,” I said. “It’s about to begin.”

  She grabbed my hand. “We still have three minutes right?”

  “I’m sure they’ll wait,” I said.

  “They’d better. Because I want you for as long as I can have you.”

  *

  “The world is lost,” Ceriden said. “This is our last chance to save the world.”

  I was seated amid my friends and colleagues in a wide auditorium. Lysette, Ceriden and half a dozen commanders sat on a dais before us. TV screens and monitors hung on the wall behind them.

  “The President of the United States, the premiers of most European countries and of New Zealand are safe,” he said. “Others are lost. Through the underground network we have coordinated a vast, worldwide strike for two days from now, at noon. Of course, our enemy knows we’re here. They know what we’re planning to some extent. But they can’t know everything. Lucifer is still building, still expanding. Even in Vienna . . .” He faltered. “It is taking his minions days to come through the hellgate. We can wait no longer.”

  We saw new communications from Kinkade.

  “Cities from Seattle to Boston, Torquay to Edinburgh, and Paris to Tokyo are already empty. Desolate cities are being deliberately modified, terraformed. Their architecture, their foundation, even their air. Already, the demons are turning these places into the eighth hell.”

  “We’ve spoken to Amber and Jade,” Lysette said, “who are in the polar wastes, searching for the Old Ones, but we fear they will be too late. We’ve spoken to Ken’s army’s captains. We have a secret means of communication. We’re ready.”

  She didn’t have to say, “as ready as we’ll ever be.” We all knew the odds. I took a deep breath and looked at everyone I’d met since York; since two men called Giles and Ryan knocked at my door and spouted some improbable words at me. Since we walked to the house of Aegis, it had all been coming down to this. It felt like ten years ago to me.

  Belinda clasped my hand. Her T-shirt today read: Stand By Me.

  For once, it couldn’t be more appropriate.

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  Ken Hamilton slowed down several miles from their destination. It had been a long trek through some of America’s dark byways. They’d crossed deserts and natural wonders, crashed alongside forests and found passes through more than one high mountain range. It had been hot, cool and downright cold. But the nights had been warm under sleeping bags, the stars so bright and sparkling you could stare at them for hours.

  And they’d only been attacked twice.

  Other times, they’d surprised their enemy, using their resources to take them out quickly or from a distance. They’d avoided all but the smallest of towns and had put the word out on the underground radio that they were marching.

  Thousands had swelled their ranks. Ken guessed that by now he and their eight army commanders had a quarter of a million men and women at their backs. Most were military trained, carrying guns and spare ammo, but some were butchers or bankers, others were teachers or authors. There were even movie stars among them, and Ken recognized two older rock chicks from bygone days.

  He paid them no mind, knowing Felicia was here. He was content with that. So now, as the entire army slowed, the vanguard topped a dusty brown hill and stared down at the vast bowl housing the city of Las Vegas.

  It was a stunning sight. The sun was waning, and the casino’s lights blazed like gemstones in a sand bowl. Their brightness was made even more intense by the darkness of the town that surrounded them. Ken had heard about the terraforming being wrought upon some parts of Europe. It was happening here too.

  He sat down in the sand, brushing at the knees of his jeans, and brought the sword around so it wasn’t uncomfortable.

  “What is that?” Milo sat beside him, staring into the city.

  “They’re terraforming the streets, but in a perverse way. They’re modifying earth to be similar to hell, so it’s easier for them to live here. The atmosphere, topography, temperature and ecology. Like Giles and Cheyne and the others said, they’re literally bringing hell to earth.”

  Milo pulled out a bag of chocolates and offered one to Ken and Felicia. “Last three,�
�� he said. “Might as well share.”

  Ken nodded at the big vampire, grateful he’d accepted his part in their little trio. “Hey, these are good. Where’d you get them?”

  “I made them a while ago,” Milo said. “I’m a chef, remember?”

  “And you will be again.” Ken nodded at the city. “I remember there are some great restaurants in there that you could take over. In a good way, I mean.”

  Milo smiled at the joke. “That would be my dream. But how do we win?”

  Felicia ran a hand through her hair as the wind tousled it. “We haven’t lost a battle yet,” she said.

  “It’s not that,” Milo said. “It’s more the fact that we’ve marched a huge army to the Devil’s door in about six days and he hasn’t noticed. Why? Because he has nothing to worry about?”

  “He’s noticed,” Ken said. “The Devil is a lot of things but he’s no idiot. We’ve been targeted, Milo. Didn’t you notice?”

  “Yeah, but I expected more.”

  Ken didn’t want to keep the thread of conversation going, so let it drop. In truth, he’d been wondering the same thing. Nobody, no matter how confident, allowed a massive army time to mass on their doorstep. And here they were – just an hour’s march from the heart of Las Vegas.

  The commanders were all on their phones, coordinating tomorrow’s assault. Ken decided it would be good to give Logan and the other Chosen, one final call. Within a minute he’d taken the number from one of the communications guys.

  “Hey,” he said when Logan answered. “It’s me.”

  “Ken.” Logan sounded pleased. “Still chasing chicks, surfing and waving that sword about?”

  Ken glanced at Felicia before answering. “Just the sword now,” he answered. “It’s been a long, hard journey.”

  “Us too. One day, we’ll exchange horror stories.”

  Ken shuddered. “Yeah, but the 12A versions please.”

  “Are you in place?”

  “We are. And unmolested by the enemy, for now.”

  “Us too. Tonight’s similar to the last night we spent in York. Do you remember?”

  “I do. The Chosen and their teachers and captains sat around the table, attending a final feast. Feels like a decade ago.”

  Belinda must have plucked the phone from Logan’s grasp because she spoke next. “I hope to see you on the battlefield tomorrow, Ken. We’ll celebrate together.”

  “Another lap dance?” Ken couldn’t help it.

  Felicia swatted at him and Belinda’s laugh told him Logan had done something similar. “Maybe just a hug,” he said.

  Lysette came on. “It’s good to hear your voice again, Ken. Did you miss me?”

  “Still too far away to read my mind, Lysette?”

  “Luckily for you, yes.”

  They laughed. Ken and Felicia took turns talking to Tanya Jordan, Natalie Trevochet and Marian Cleaver, all stalwarts who’d been there from the beginning. He missed and regretted not being able to talk to Cheyne and Giles, to Devon Summers, Johnny Trevochet and Ryan. Finally, Logan came back on the line.

  “Yeah, until tomorrow then.”

  “Until tomorrow, mate.”

  It was the last time they would speak before the battle. Ken hoped they would all speak again.

  He ended the call and turned back to the city, losing his thoughts in the intensity of what was happening down there rather than facing them. Many minutes passed whilst the three companions took solace in each other’s company, not needing to speak, just content that the people they’d gone through so much together with continued to survive.

  By two in the morning it was getting quiet up on the hill. Ken didn’t want to waste this final night on sleep and neither did Felicia. When Milo stared to snore, they slid their bodies together and hugged. Felicia put her head on his left shoulder. Ken gripped her waist.

  “I really do love you,” he said.

  He heard a commotion start behind him then. It wasn’t urgent, or aggressive, just a movement of men and arms. Two commanders went to see what was happening and then one called out his name.

  “Ken? Do you know this woman?”

  A shiver of trepidation shot down his spine. There were many women he’d rather not see now. Including dead ones who’d come back to life before, if you included Dementia. But he rose and walked down the other side of the slope until he came to a group of twelve men. They all carried guns and torches and were surrounding what appeared to be a short female with dark hair, wearing black leggings.

  Ken remembered. “Oh, wow,” he said. “Is it you? Is it really you?”

  The woman looked up, her unmarked, youthful face contradicting the vastly intelligent eyes that locked on to him.

  “Lilith?” he asked. “I don’t . . . how are you? How did you get here?”

  “I came to find you,” she said. “I have a plan.”

  Ken let his smile grow wider, all the while wondering at fate and how it had brought the Devil’s daughter to his door in the midnight hour of humanity’s last stand.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Amber and Jade arrived in Vernadsky, one of the last human outposts in Antarctica. It was a small, rough garrison, made up of a few buildings in need of desperate maintenance and a few storage areas. The elves didn’t feel the cold, but they did feel the harsh gale that blew in straight from the freezing polar wastes.

  Finding no one willing to help, they flew on to the Shetland Islands, making their final call to Aegis before reception faded and, after much bartering, chartered a boat that took them across the Drake Passage to Graham Land, where the vast white archipelago waited. Their captain wouldn’t wait, and they didn’t need him to. He didn’t trust them. It was clear from the way they dressed in the Antarctic that they were far from human.

  Not that far.

  Amber stared at a beautiful, crisp, bright and deadly land. Black rocks covered in snow and ice reared ahead, rising out of dark blue waters. An ice shelf stretched away in one direction, a rolling series of icy mounds in the other. Amber heard a cacophony of noise from a nearby ridge and turned to see Jade already staring up there.

  “Penguins,” she said delightedly.

  “Let’s hope that’s not all we find,” Amber murmured and started walking.

  But in that moment, something swooped out of the sky. It was brown, ragged and ugly. It struck down at the penguin colony, screeching and spreading its spiny wings.

  “No!” Jade ran forward.

  Amber rolled her eyes. They didn’t have time for this. But when she saw the winged demon pick up a defenseless penguin in its beak, her own blood began to boil. She was suddenly hard on her sister’s heels. The packed ice crunched beneath their boots. They were swifter than the breeze, climbing onto the small ice shelf, then running at the winged demon as it landed to feast.

  It dropped the penguin to the ground. It dipped its beak. Jade hit it like a train, with no finesse. Just barreled straight into it and then fell head over heels. The demon screeched, rolling too as the penguin stood up and waddled away. Amber came up on the demon from the back.

  Jade scrambled toward it from the front. Its beak opened, its tongue flicking out. It had jagged teeth lined up like razors. She dodged its first strike and then punched it right in the eye.

  The demon stumbled, letting out a nightmare cry. Amber grabbed its neck from the back, twisted and snapped it. The demon flopped down dead and Amber and Jade sat on their behinds in the snow, staring at each other.

  “Save a penguin, save the world,” Jade said with a shrug and a smile.

  Amber helped her sister up, unable to hide a likeminded smile. She checked the landscape and the skies but there was no sign of other predators.

  “Where now?” Jade asked.

  Amber, like her sister, had a photographic memory. “You know where,” she said and nodded to the east. “The High Plateau is over there.”

  They crossed a fantastic landscape, battered by high winds. Bits of snow and gravel whipped up
at their faces. The sun passed into shadow above their heads, filtered through gray clouds and between high peaks, diffused into a mellow paste. There were hills and stretches of land where no snow lay and they saw soil, black rocks too, but mostly there was snow and ice.

  And now fog.

  It surrounded them, plucking at their clothes. Their Uber senses allowed them to head unerringly in the right direction, but the constant waft of white mist in front of their faces was unnerving.

  “We’re getting close,” Amber said.

  “Good. My flesh might not be able to feel this cold, but my bones are aching,” Jade said.

  Amber knew what she meant, but the perception was more than just sisterhood. It was elvish acuity. She imagined that if Ubers spent much time here, they would start to go numb, and not just in body.

  It was the perfect place for those who wanted to let the world go.

  They reached the High Plateau. They made as much noise as possible. They climbed to the higher ice shelf by hammering out handholds with their fingers, gripping the hard-packed ice and hauling themselves up a step at a time. Amber struggled, hiding her face from the scything wind. Jade helped her from below. The ice seemed to fight them, making the ascent harder with every step.

  “Look out!”

  Amber cried a warning as a chunk of ice sheared away from the plateau above. It flashed past her face as she swung to the left. It struck Jade’s shoulder a glancing blow, almost taking her from the ice face.

  “Jade!” Amber cried. “Are you all right?”

  There was a quick thumbs up. Amber heaved a sigh of relief. The sisters reached the top of the ice shelf and collapsed onto their backs, even their great strength exhausted by the climb.

  Then Jade rolled over. “Really?” she said. “I expected more up here.”

  Amber turned and raised her head. It was a mist-shrouded landscape but still, it was a seemingly endless flat plateau of ice with mounds dotted here and there. It was a barren waste where nothing should ever live.

  Jade turned to Amber. “Think they moved out?”