Gorgon

by Chloe Garner

  “Kelly,” Jason said. “Kelly, talk to me, man.”

  The girl cried, and Samantha found Kara and Isobel at either arm, helping her up the hillside to where the girl struggled to get out from under Kelly’s prone figure.

  “He couldn’t do the human stuff,” Jason said, turning to look at Samantha with confusion. “He couldn’t.”

  “He’s okay,” Samantha said, perhaps a shade of denial. “He’s okay.”

  Jason set a guard, alert to what was going on around them as Samantha fell onto her knees, pulling Kelly’s shirt up higher to see the wounds on his back.

  She dropped her head and gasped. It was too much, and she was too tired.

  The gashes were already closing.

  “He’s okay,” she said again as Kara made an exasperated noise at her. “They aren’t designed to kill an angel.” It was harder than it looked.

  Kelly dragged himself up onto his knees and coughed.

  “Is she okay?” he asked raggedly.

  The girl was scrambling backwards on her hands. She was covered in Kelly’s unworldly red blood.

  “It’s okay,” Samantha said, standing slowly and going to kneel by the girl, who abruptly changed directions and clung to Samantha. “It’s okay,” Samantha said again. “That’s the blood of the angel who saved you. You’re going to be okay.”

  She held the girl’s head against her chest, settling lower onto the ground and rocking both of them back and forth slowly as the girl cried.

  She couldn’t have been older than ten, golden hair marked with mud and Kelly’s blood, but Samantha couldn’t see any human blood on her.

  “They…” the girl gasped.

  “I know,” Samantha said. “It’s okay.”

  The fights around them grew more infrequent as the hellhounds died or gave up, and Samantha rocked quietly.

  “It’s okay,” she said again.

  “My parents,” the girl said. Samantha nodded. Put up an arm. From behind her, Jason pulled her to her feet.

  “I’ll take care of her,” Isobel said. “We’ll be at the boat.”

  Samantha nodded to her gratefully and went with Jason toward the hellfactory. Kelly and Kara fell into step with them.

  “I thought the kid couldn’t do the human stuff,” Jason said.

  “He can’t,” Samantha said, frowning. She turned to Kelly.

  “Take off your shirt.”

  “No,” he said.

  She stopped walking.

  “Take off your shirt,” she said.

  “No,” he said again, trying to brush past her. “We need to go get her parents.”

  “Kelly. Right now. Take off your shirt.”

  He sighed at her, exasperated and looking for another way to argue with her, then he stopped and tore his shirt off one-armed in a swift peeling motion.

  “Let me see them,” Samantha said quietly. He looked angry, but he opened his wings with the sound of an unfolding sheet. Samantha heard Kara gasp. The brilliant white feathers caught the sunlight, but Samantha saw it.

  She walked quietly to the side, holding out her hand just a fraction away from the feathers, fingers describing the shape of the quills.

  “Gray,” she whispered, her fingertip tracing the seep of hue into the pristine quills of his largest feathers. Kelly pulled the other wing around to look at it. She turned her head and he looked at her, despair.

  “You needed to know,” she said, turning away and continuing on toward the hellfactory.

  The ground here was churned over with claw marks.

  “Watch your knees,” Samantha said wryly. They followed the tracks down into the dark, and Samantha pulled out a flashlight, scanning for any signs of the people left down here. Ahead of them, there was an agitated chattering, bits and pieces of hellspeak in between hisses and growls.

  “We’ve got this one,” Jason said, nodding to Kara with a grin. Samantha pulled out her gun and handed it to Kara.

  “Have fun,” she said. Kara flashed her a quick smile, then looked over at Kelly.

  “Take care of her.”

  “You got it,” the angel responded, stepping closer to Samantha. Samantha started to argue, but she could still feel how deep the pit of exhaustion under her was and she kept her mouth shut.

  “You shouldn’t have done what you did,” Kelly said quietly, after a minute. Somewhere ahead of them, they heard Jason yell ‘kha’shing’ and saw the roll of orange light as the dragonsword lit off.

  “I did what I had to,” Samantha said.

  “You could have died,” Kelly said.

  “Kelly, when isn’t that true?” Samantha asked.

  “She’s wrong,” Kelly said. “You are important.”

  “What?” Samantha asked, shining her flashlight into an empty room.

  “What?” Kelly answered.

  “How did you…” She put the beam of the light on his face. “How did you know she said that to me? You weren’t there.”

  “Who said what?” Kelly asked.

  “You said she was wrong,” Samantha said.

  “She is,” Kelly answered.

  “Who is?” Samantha asked.

  “Miranda.”

  “How do you know she said I wasn’t?” Samantha asked. Kelly seemed to suddenly realize something.

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  “Were you listening?” Samantha asked.

  He searched, eyes roving.

  “I don’t know what she said. Or when. I just know…” he started, confusing himself more.

  Samantha shook her head.

  “That’s weird. We’re going to need to talk about it, when we aren’t walking through a demon hive.”

  “You are, though,” Kelly said.

  “No, I’m not,” Samantha said. “Not any more important than anyone else.”

  “I think you’re wrong,” Kelly said. “Look at the rest of the people you work with. They’re all terrible people who do things for the wrong reasons. If you weren’t here, would any of them have come for her?”

  Samantha laughed, once, with maybe just a shade of bitterness.

  “You’re headed down that path pretty quickly, aren’t you? Would you have ever said something like that, when you first got here?”

  “I stayed because you’re important,” Kelly said.

  “You stayed because what I’m doing is important. Never assume that I’m the one who’s important. Never say that I’m the one who’s important. Someone else could step up and do everything I’m doing, if I died. Assuming that I’m the only one who could do it is just pride.”

  Kelly appeared to be troubled as he considered that.

  “I feel… strange,” Kelly said.

  “I expect you do,” Samantha said, realizing slowly what she was going to have to do next. She didn’t know anything about gray angels, not compared to everything Kelly was going to need to learn. She was up to her armpits in gray demons, but gray angels were rare. She was going to have to track one down and leave Kelly with him. Kelly would come back when he was ready to come back, but Samantha had no idea what he would be like.

  Gray angels hated humans, as often as not.

  The thought of Kelly being like that made her queasy.

  He was such a sweet kid.

  They heard a muffled sob, and Samantha glanced at Kelly as they both broke into a jog, dodging into a small room off of the hall. There were two forms there, pressed against the wall. Samantha lit the wall with her flashlight, and two muddy humans looked up at her, the woman’s face streaked with tears.

  The woman yelped a strangled scream, and her husband put his hand over her mouth.

  “We’re getting you out,” Samantha said. “We have your daughter. It’s going to be okay.”

  “Winnie,” the woman said, breaking into fresh tears.

  “She’s okay,” Samantha said. “Can you walk?”

  “If it means getting out of here, we can,” the young man said, pushing himself to his feet.

&
nbsp; He was certainly sore, but he didn’t move like he had broken bones. The woman limped along next to him, broken in spirit, but more or less intact, physically. The floor was wet with blood, but not slick with it. Samantha looked at Kelly and nodded. They’d gotten here in time.

  “Where did they all go?” the woman asked. “They just…”

  “They all just left,” the man said.

  “They figured out we were going to win,” Samantha said, turning her head as the sound of screeching screams came up from below them. “That will be my friends taking care of them. We need to move quickly, in case any of them try to get away.”

  “Do you want me to go help?” Kelly asked.

  “I need you to cover my back,” Samantha said. She was still weak, much as she knew neither she nor Kelly wanted to acknowledge it.

  Kelly nodded, backing away several steps and walking backwards. Samantha encouraged the couple as quickly as she dared, wondering who would give out first.

  Before too long, they came in range of the light from outside, and the couple accelerated, holding each other. Kelly killed a couple of crispy demons in flight, and then they were out. Spake was leaning on his cane out in the sunlight, and Lange had his arms crossed, just waiting.

  “Where is she?” the woman asked.

  “Other side of the hill,” Lange said, pointing.

  “I’ll take you,” Spake said, waving them on. In so few words, he actually sounded normal. They were gone faster than Spake could keep up. Samantha leaned on Kelly.

  “I’m tired, friend,” she said.

  “No surprise, there,” he answered, putting an arm around her waist.

  The sound of fighting kept on for a few minutes. Mostly, it sounded like Jason was having a good time. Samantha thought passively that it would be a nuisance if he hit a fragment, now.

  She might have to go in after him.

  “They’re having all the fun,” Lange said.

  “All done, now,” Jason called from somewhere out of sight. “They’re all gone.”

  Lange sighed and started forward.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  A hellhound sprung out of the darkness, driving Lange to the ground before the man had an opportunity to react. Samantha yelled, reaching for Lahn, but her body betrayed her. Kelly let her go and she fell as he sprinted and then glitched to Lange. A second hellhound came bounding out of the black, springing toward Samantha. She was still drawing Lahn, but the world felt funny. She landed, slow, time bent hard, but she was losing her grip on herself. She felt the dog’s teeth on her forearm, the one that wasn’t pinned behind her back, around the same time that her head hit the rock and she was out.

  <><><>

  “Sam. Sam, dammit, if you die on me, Sam’s going to kill me.”

  She pulled herself from the grippy dark, trying to remember what was going on.

  Kelly looked worried.

  She blinked, her head spinning.

  Why was Kelly worried?

  Why was Kelly in her bedroom?

  Why was Jason in her bedroom?

  Where was Sam?

  She tried to find Sam, but he wasn’t there. She was wearing her pin again. Had she fallen asleep with it in?

  She reached up to take it out, to tell Sam how annoyed she was that he’d let everyone in while she was sleeping, but her arm was stuck.

  That was when the pain hit her.

  She was trained to deal with pain. It was just a fact, an input. The problem was that when she was sleepy, that training didn’t help so much.

  Why was she so sleepy?

  “Sam,” Jason said again. “Keep your eyes open, Sam.”

  “She’s going into shock,” Kara said.

  “Kara?” Samantha asked. Her voice sounded thick and distant in her own head.

  “Anadidd’na Anu’dd,” Kelly said quietly. “The world still needs you.”

  Things cleared up quick.

  Kelly was bandaging her arm, and her head had a round feeling on the back of it that she needed to figure out how bad it was. Presumably, if Kelly was working on her arm, her head wasn’t that bad.

  On the other hand, she’d knocked herself unconscious with a hellhound gnawing on it. It could be pretty bad.

  She swallowed nausea as she tried to sit up.

  “Stay down,” Jason said. “Just stay down for a minute.”

  “Lange,” she said. She couldn’t see Jason. She couldn’t see anyone but Kelly. Kelly was working, not looking at her.

  “Lange,” she demanded again, struggling to get her limbs ordered so she could get them under her.

  “The damned dogs are dead,” Jason said. She tried to put her hand to her head, and the world swam. She thought she might lose it again, but she wobbled back from the edge.

  “Lange,” she said.

  “He’s dead, sweetheart,” Jason said.

  Kelly hadn’t apologized for dropping her.

  Because he’d been right. Lange had needed him more.

  “No,” she answered.

  “No.”

  The words came from somewhere else.

  She was tired and she was confused. He couldn’t have meant it. Lange didn’t die.

  “No.”

  “Be still, honey,” Kara said. “You don’t have much to spare. Kelly’s trying to keep it all in.”

  “No,” Samantha said, her hand finally getting free and finding her forehead. The pressure there was comforting.

  “Shhh,” Kara said. “Let’s take care of you first.”

  “No,” Samantha said, coughing a sob. It was all wrong. All out of control. She was supposed to bring everyone home. She wasn’t supposed to let him die.

  Lange didn’t die.

  Her body was shaking, trying to reject it, trying to be upset, but she was too weak, and the pressure of tears made her head scream.

  “No.”

  “Kelly?” Jason asked.

  “I’m almost done,” Kelly said, glancing up at Samantha.

  She let her head roll to the side, her face finding Jason’s leg where he was holding her head in his lap.

  She cried.

  Jason put his fingers through her hair, the loose strands that were glued to her face tugging as they pulled free.

  He didn’t say anything.

  There was nothing to say.

  <><><>

  She lay in a bed at Spake’s house.

  Someone called Sam and told him what had happened.

  No one bothered her.

  <><><>

  Carter was a bastard.

  Just a bastard.

  Sam hadn’t left the corner of the room in days, now, the line of white powder on the floor the extent of his range of motion.

  Carter said it was for his own good.

  Carter was a bastard.

  Samantha needed him, and he was stuck in this tiny circle, looking for a little blue-and-white gemstone.

  Carter needed him, too, certainly. That wasn’t the problem.

  Carter being a bastard was the problem.

  Sam was stewing in the corner of the apartment, searching half-heartedly and feeling sorry for himself, when suddenly he wasn’t alone anymore.

  “How long?” one voice asked.

  “Until he knows? Depends on if Pendleton screwed it up. If we got in clean, we’ve probably got a couple of hours,” a second answered.

  Sam brought his focus back to the building, the room where he sat, and found two demons going through the contents of the kitchen.

  “This is all just food,” the first one complained.

  “Don’t be so sure,” the second one said. “You have to think like him.”

  “I’m still surprised he isn’t keeping that new psychic here,” the first said.

  “He knows it’s compromised,” the second said. “That’s why he got rid of the first one.”

  Still in vision, Sam slid Wrath out of its sheath on his hip. Other than that, he was unarmed, and he was outclassed, anyway, wit
hout Samantha watching his back.

  It didn’t matter. He was going to have to figure out how to defend himself, regardless. He wasn’t a soft target, certainly.

  He didn’t breathe. It would only be moments until they saw him.

  “Can he track us?” the first one asked.

  “Not if Pendleton did it right,” the second one said with some exasperation. “I hate trusting him this much, but we aren’t going to get another shot at this.”

  They left the kitchen and went into Carter’s bedroom.

  Sam frowned to himself, shifting as quietly as he could to get his feet underneath him in case he needed them. He could hear them talking in the next room, then there was a loud noise, like tearing, and one of them started shouting.

  “Just hold still,” the other one said. “Hold still, I’ll put it out.”

  Wrath was angry, sending vibration up Sam’s arm hard enough to make him numb below the elbow.

  There was more yelping, and then an angry torrent in hellspeak.

  “I thought you said we were in.”

  “We are in. I never said he wouldn’t booby trap his stuff, in here.”

  “Why would he do that? He’s got the biggest stronghold on the planet.”

  “We’re here, aren’t we?”

  “Guess so.”

  There was more tearing, and a laugh.

  “Not this time.”

  And then more swearing as the other demon laughed.

  “Not like that. Hey, stay away from me.”

  The sounds of a fight.

  “You open the next one, then.”

  “Look what I found.”

  “You think he keeps anything in the outside wall?”

  “Go see.”

  One of the demons reappeared, and Sam braced himself. The demon went to the outside wall, hitting it with an axe and hopping away.

  Nothing happened.

  Sam stared.

  Nothing. Happened.

  The demon was less than ten feet away from him, but he didn’t so much as turn his head. Was it a trick? A game?

  The demon stepped forward, cautiously prying away the wooden boards that constituted the wall. There was a puff and gray powder exploded out of the wall, sending the demon stumbling back, crawling on hands and feet, coughing.