The Lariat (Finding Justus Series)

by Ashley Dotson

  “They’ll be fine,” Cyrus said grabbing my hand. One problem down. Mom would take care of Ben. She would be okay. Now to get the rest of them out of the way.

  “Dammit, Orias. She trusted you,” My father called out.

  “That was her mistake, hunter. She and I have already come to terms over this situation,” he said flatly, barely audible over the continued rumbling.

  “Dad, go. The three of us are trapped, but you need to get out of here.” I tried to convince him, but my words fell on deaf ears. It was like he couldn’t hear me through the fog. His frantic human eyes never met mine. Maybe he couldn’t see me either.

  “He won’t leave, Layla. What father would?”

  “Get him out of here, Cyrus. You can fly over. Get him and Kevin out of here and let me handle Samael.”

  “No. Do not ask it of me.”

  “Cyrus,” Orrin called out but said nothing else. His eyes were trained on his father and Samael. Cyrus stared at Orrin’s profile for two, then three seconds. Until it hit me- Cyrus was reading his thoughts.

  They’re planning something.

  He sighed, his expression hesitant and pained, “Do it.” Cyrus called back and rushed to him. Orrin held out his hand and Cyrus took it, “I am trusting you with my soul.”

  Orrin looked at me, his eyes unreadable. “I know. I’ll protect her with my life.”

  Cyrus’ eyes landed on mine one last time, wishing he could say something I’m sure. But he had already said everything that was on his heart. Now wasn’t the time for words, it was time for action. His wings burst out of his back and he moved like lightning, exploding from the ground up, the pavement cracked where he lifted off.

  A familiar noise, like a swarm of locusts, leaked from the openings on the Montrose. Like angry clouds, Vagabonds, the lowest form of daemons, flew out of the building and after Cyrus. He was out of my sight and so were they in a matter of seconds.

  Vagabonds were hideous bug-like creatures with no eyes and large gaping human mouths. They fed on the blood and emotions of human beings. They were usually seen only when they were in possession of a human body. They were not strong enough to enter Earth’s plane in corporeal form- unless a portal had been opened and they were free to enter unbound.

  “This complicates things,” Orrin muttered. “I love you, Layla. You know what to do.” His eyes held the same look that Cyrus’ had, as if he wanted to say more, but there wasn’t time. With that, he ran, headed straight for Samael and right into the black poisonous fog.

  Orrin collided with it as if it was a solid brick wall. He was only inches from touching Samael. His father watched, unmoved to anyone who wasn’t familiar with him. Orrin screamed as the fog held and lifted him, wrapping around his body and burning his skin to ash wherever it touched. This would not be the second time I watched him die.

  I could feel our soul-tie burn as if it was my skin disintegrating instead of Orrin’s, and still I hesitated. Just like I had done on the beach when Lillith attacked Orrin. Panic gripped my heart like it did when I watched Kevin’s life slip away in Balmorhea. I felt the same fear when Ben was falling down the elevator shaft. But this time, my instincts kicked in where my brain wouldn’t.

  A power fueled from deep inside me rippled out like a wave crashing onto the shore. My body ignited like a firefly while pulses of white light hit the black barrier, burning it away like the sun burned the early morning haze. I gave no care to Samael, Orias, my father or Kevin. It was Orrin I needed to free from death. And then I would deal with Samael. Three strong pulses emanated from me. I don’t know what it was, only that the blooming black nightmare was seeping into the cracks in the pavement around Samael’s feet.

  Orrin hit the pavement and then stood on shaky legs. He was hurt. His body looked worse than my arms, but he nodded trying to assure me he was okay. I didn’t know whether to believe him, but I couldn’t go to him now. I had to let him go, just like I had every other time we had been together. With Samael’s cage now gone, Orrin jumped to places unknown.

  And so too did Orias, but his was more of an explosion. Thousands of grey moths burst forth from where he stood. Instead of invading me as they had done before they flew straight up and disappeared into the dark night sky.

  “There is no more time to bargain, Layla. What I offered you is no longer on the table. What happens now, well, you have only yourself to blame.”

  Vagabonds descended on my father and Kevin and my heart stopped. I had never seen either of the older men move so quickly or fight so fiercely. They each had pulled short sabers I had never before seen, and were fighting off their attackers. As soon as their blades hit the spindly creatures they were gone, and they moved onto the next threat. I ran to them sweeping my arms back, pushing all daemons away from them, but they just kept coming. My father screamed as one of the pale milky daemons latched onto his back and sunk its long teeth into his shoulder.

  I wanted them dead. To Hell with Samael. He didn’t want to hurt me, he wanted to kill everyone else and make me watch. I couldn’t let that happen. I flew up above them, my daemon was no longer concealed. I couldn’t hold it back any longer. I released the fire within me and aimed it at every Vagabond in my sight. But it didn’t work.

  I can’t kill them. I can’t kill anything.

  That next realization hit me. No power within me would help me kill. I couldn’t do it. With every daemon I pushed back from my father and Kevin another two descended. My fire bubbled up again and left my body forming a circle around them and held. A wall of flames eight feet high slowed the Vagabonds down. I calmed down only a fraction, remembering I could only protect, not attack.

  Look for the simple solution. Put your faith where it belongs. Protect. Don’t attack.

  Protect.

  “You cannot protect them all. It’s a big world, and right now I have opened a portal letting out my daemon hoards to lay waste to all of humanity. You thought it was Lillith you needed to worry about. You believed that your prophecy was the only thing that would bring the destruction of this world. But you always forgot about one thing.”

  I hovered in the air and watched as he began to rise, floating on his own evil, selfish, black ego.

  “I am destruction. I am pain. And I am the only fate worse than death.” He threw his arms out and more black fog dripped from his dangling robes and the tips of his fingers and his now empty eye sockets. His face, which was so compelling only moments ago, slid into a ghastly display of his true nature.

  His attention was trained on me as he drew closer and closer. He didn’t notice anything around him any longer, he was in full theatrical mode, putting on a mighty display.

  “Your two friends are gone. I have their souls even now.”

  Wait. Please follow me. Don’t fight me. Not now when I finally know what to do. I told my daemon. It wanted to attack Samael, but he would only get pleasure from his pain and my folly. That wasn’t the way. We had to play along.

  “You’re lying,” I let my eyes glaze over with tears. “My mother saved them. She wouldn’t let you take them without a fight.”

  “I have her too,” He laughed and held up his hands. He held a scene in the palms of his pale hands of my mother, Bennet and Ava screaming as they were being eaten alive by his Vagabonds. I shut my eyes, telling myself it was a lie.

  Oh God, please be a lie.

  I looked back to my father and Kevin who were still reasonably safe within my circle of fire.

  “Let them go.”

  “No. You had your chance. I needed my Porter, but you took him from his father. You took him from me.”

  “He still does his job. I helped him remember. You haven’t lost anything.”

  Samael shook his head, “He has stepped away from me. Never before have I had a Porter choose a mortal life over the immortality I could provide. It is because of you I have lost my most powerful weapon. So now you are out of options. And like I told you before, I will have you or I will have him. In the end ther
e is no difference.”

  That damned cryptic message.

  He had sent a Vagabond with those words so long ago, I almost forgot about them. I now understood their meaning perfectly.

  “But you just opened a portal. You don’t even need Orrin.”

  “Unfortunately, I do. And you took him from me. If I couldn’t get him back, then I chose to come after you. If I could control you, then I can control him.”

  I needed to keep him talking, didn’t I? The moment would come. I would feel it, I would know. My surrender. My defeat. My death would end all of this. I could beat him and make the world safe again.

  “You have me.”

  Samael flashed to hover only a breath in front of me. My heart shuddered, my wings faltered, but I held my ground. He was so close I could see the shiny beetles crawling behind the holes where his eyes and nose should have been. His breath smelled of sulphur.

  “Have you?” He stroked my face his black eye sockets darkening further with a strange desire, “Not yet. But I will.”

  Samael grunted and grabbed my neck. His face changed. Pain. His body slid onto mine trying to remain upright. I pulled at his hands, like a lariat, around my neck, tightening with my struggles. His long, sharp bony fingers dug into my flesh, breaking through my skin and into my throat and growing, winding tighter and tighter.

  Cyrus swooped down and hovered a few feet behind me. Surely he couldn’t see what was happening or he would have attacked again. And I couldn’t have said anything if I wanted to. He had scratches on his face, wings and several pieces of torn skin on his torso. He held tightly to his sword as it dripped black bile from the tip.

  “Now you’ll wear my mark for all eternity, just as I wear yours.” He breathed heavily, “Now release her, and back to Hell with you, daemon.”

  Samael’s eyes were wide. He was incredulous, angry. By Samael’s slack body, I could tell he was wounded, but not dead, Evil could never die, but it could be sent back to Hell. I only needed to hang on a little longer.

  “You did this,” His eyes were trained on me.

  I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. Better he think it was all my plan than Cyrus’.

  Samael began to fall taking me with him. His face changed and before I knew what he was doing he clamped his teeth onto the torn skin where his hand used to be. A bright light emanated from gouges in my neck, too bright for even my eyes. My skin had been torn away and my blood flowed into his cavernous mouth. If he kept it up, he might regain his strength by stealing mine.

  Cyrus advanced, his sword held high, but it was only a moment and Samael lifted his head and stopped Cyrus before he could attack again. Samael held him, immobile. His human features returned and so did his strength. “Even better than yours, Angel.”

  I tried to pull free, tearing my skin, picturing him on fire was hopeless. I imagined the bony manacles of his fingers breaking away, but it didn’t happen. I could only see that lariat that haunted my dreams, the rope that grew tighter around my neck with even the smallest of struggles.

  Why couldn’t I even help myself? Where was my strength? How could I let him do this to me? He just put his head back down and kept drinking the life blood created to protect.

  This is what he meant when he said he would have me.

  Samael knew what I did not. He had been smarter even than Lillith and me- but not Orias. The words Orias had shared with me all fit together now. It was the war within me that would be my victory or my defeat, but either way it would be my death.

  If I didn’t give in to my inner darkness, if I didn’t let my daemon soul free, Samael would drain the life from me. My other choice was to give in to my daemon, to rise up and kill Samael. With my daemon free, there would be nothing left of my humanity. The Beacon would be destroyed and it would be Lillith who would then take her place on the throne of Hell and lay waste to all the world.

  It was my choice. My life or theirs. But either way, I was dead. I knew which path I would choose, and it was now or never.

  The world began to spin and my vision began to blur. A strange peace flowed through me as I embraced my future and the future of this world I was bound to protect. My daemon’s voice began to lessen as I pushed it down and locked it into the deepest cavern of my body. I could hear screaming. I could see Cyrus only feet away, frozen and incapable of helping me- the love of his life. Fading away.

  I’m sorry. I know how long you waited. It had to be this way.

  This was my surrender. Samael thought he was killing me, stealing my soul along with my life, but it would never be his to claim. Cyrus’ eyes, the brightest heavenly blue, understood and his struggles increased. He yelled down below and my eyes drifted to someone below.

  Orrin had returned too. I could see him, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was standing at the base of the Montrose, arms stretched wide. And as if they had no will of their own, the daemons that poured out from the broken windows of the building now were sucked back into it. This is why Samael needed Orrin. Although Samael could open a small portal, he only piggybacked on Orrin’s power, he was not the Porter. He could not command daemons like this. Orrin had the free will that Samael never could possess. He craved it. And he thought if he could take Orrin’s, then he could use it- just as he thought he was taking mine.

  The building began to crack, but Samael didn’t notice, his whole attention was focused on draining me dry. His fingers that wound through the flesh on my wrists grew, sinking in to my stomach. I could feel them winding their way through my insides and out again. They moved like snakes pulling me close to him and closer to death.

  Samael didn’t hear Cyrus’ screams. He didn’t hear the deafening cries as his own Vagabonds were pulled through the portal. He didn’t even feel the boom that ran through us all as the Montrose began to fall, the bottom first, and then the top leaning over. Orrin moved back ripping the portal wider and wider still, trying to send the entire building through.

  It pulled me too and I let it. With the last ounce of my strength I began to fall. I knew my body had to make it through. I knew what awaited souls down there and couldn’t do that to myself. If I could just wait a few more seconds. If I could just keep his attention trained on me until the last moment, my soul would be free. My human soul. The part of me that only God owned.

  I would miss them, but they would be safe. Orrin and Cyrus would never be the same. I will take part of their souls with me when I die, but there was no other choice. I would always be grateful for the time I shared with them, but no amount of time would ever be enough. I just hoped they felt secure in the knowledge that I did this for them. I did this for us. And I did it to right a wrong, to change the piece of fate that tied my life to the destruction of all man. Only one being had that power. And with my final breath I was giving it back and saying a prayer of thanks for the love in my life.

  I had done everything I could. I closed my eyes and let go of my last breath.

  32

  “What are they doing?” I looked onto the strange scene curiously.

  I was standing on the pavement littered with debris. The air was thick with dust from the fallen building. The large blonde one sat on his knees alongside the rubble. Another one with dark hair stood beside him breathing heavily clenching his fists. An older man was openly weeping, holding onto his friend’s shoulders.

  “All of them will grieve. Life will go on. As it was meant to be.” The very pretty female angel and two other taller angels stood beside me. She put her hand on my shoulder when I started to cry.

  “I don’t want to leave them. I’m not ready.” I didn’t know who they were, but I knew something terrible had happened here. I wanted to go to them and tell them everything was going to be okay. I wanted to hold them close. They were each in so much pain.

  “Can I at least talk to them?” I begged.

  She only shook her head. “I know you don’t understand this, but there is always a judgement involved when a soul ascends, and that is what awaits you.”


  “You mean because I died?” I felt it to be true. I felt the deep understanding that it was me who was buried beneath those tall piles of bricks.

  She nodded again. “Only part of you died here today. Your human soul is very much alive and your time on Earth is not done yet.”

  “What does that mean?” My eyes went round.

  She didn’t explain further. All three of them turned and walked away. I was torn between staying with these grieving people and following the elusive angels. She looked over her shoulder. Come, I heard the word in my head.

  I was so confused by the scene in front of me. I knew all of those people, but couldn’t recall their names or anything about them. I wracked my brain trying to come up with my own, but it was empty. The life I had just left had been completely erased from my memory. So I turned from it, feeling a stirring where my beating heart should have been. I was scared. I had never felt more alone, when I heard a soothing male voice, not the angels, ring through my mind.

  You need to put your faith where it belongs.

  My faith.

  My faith.

  My faith in myself. Faith in who?

  “Your faith in the Lord, Layla.” The angel said to me when I faltered. She held her hand out to me and all three waited. They looked at me expectantly. They were the only ones left who could see me. He had sent them here to help me. I had work left to do. His work.

  I said goodbye to the people I knew loved me more than life itself, took her hand and walked into the unknown.

  EPILOGUE

  I stepped out of the car and faced my new life in Providence, Rhode Island. I wasn’t nearly as excited as my father, but I was trying. I plastered on my happy face for most of the long car ride.

  402 Campbell Lane.

  I looked at the faded numbers on the front of our new house. Calling it quaint would have been too nice, and calling it new was just a lie. The yard was patchy, but the large imposing oak tree was the only redeeming quality. The front walkway was littered with cracks. After seeing the state of the house’s façade, I worried about what we would find on the other side of that front door. But what could I do? It was my senior year, and my dad got offered a teaching position at Providence College. I had no choice but to go with him whether I wanted to or not. Only one more year until I left for college, so this move was kind of like leaving home, just a year earlier.