Wasteland

by Lynn Rush

  “Is she well?”

  “Her broken leg healed, of course. We Guardians are not so fragile. But hearts do not heal as easily, even for us.”

  I had to see her. If only one last time before I left with my Mark. “Take me to her.”

  “You would come with Jessica?”

  “Yes. Only to learn more about her. I shall not allow you to take her. She is my Mark and I will complete my contract.”

  “Demon.”

  “Decide.” I twirled his blade in my hand.

  “It is not far from here.”

  “Then we shall walk.”

  “But it’s mid-day.” Russell rubbed his eyes. “Do you not have an aversion to daylight?”

  “I rather enjoy the sunlight. I can see things so clearly. But you are right, we will wait until the cover of dusk.”

  My thoughts fell immediately to Beka. The day in the restaurant. My first vision of her in daylight. It will be forever etched in my mind, which would be torture if confined to solitary for the rest of eternity for killing Gage and loving a Guardian.

  CHAPTER 16

  “Would you like me to carry her?” Russell asked as the shadows of evening crept around us.

  “Thank you, yes.” I handed the limp girl to the Guardian.

  He received her with wide eyes and raised brows. “You trust me to carry her without running.”

  “You couldn’t outrun me, even if you were not carrying an eighty-pound girl. I am not worried.” I eyed him. “And I know you do not want to die, which you would if you chose to run, as I mentioned earlier in the hotel. Jessica is mine, and I will kill you if you try to kill me or take her.”

  “Demon.”

  I almost said, ‘not yet’ but held off. That revelation will be made at the appropriate time, should I make the last resort choice.

  “Have you been with Beka for all of your four hundred years?”

  Silence. Russell stared down at the girl in his arms. He rested his cheek against her forehead.

  “You refuse to betray any information about Beka to me.”

  Russell’s lips pressed into a thin line.

  “I respect that.”

  He looked at me. “I told you too much as it is already.”

  “I shall not betray your confidence to her. I must see her. Ensure she is well. Your slip has left me worried. The will is a very powerful thing. Without it, one would surely crumble.” The familiar hardware store near the club came into view. “We are near your club.”

  “Yes.”

  “I am sure it will be under surveillance.”

  “We are not going in the front door.” He cast a glare over his shoulder. “Give me some credit.”

  I stopped on the sidewalk in front of a vacant building across the street. The For Sale sign cluttered the front door and boards covered the main picture window. Possibly an old gas station or drive thru in a former life.

  I turned to Russell. “Give me the girl.”

  “No. I’m fine.”

  “I was not inquiring about your status. I was instructing you, which means you do not get to choose. You do it.”

  He faced me. “If I might be so bold to say, I sense great conflict in you, David. I know you will make the right choice, despite what you are.” He handed me the treasure.

  The breath rushed from my lungs as Jessica’s limp body sagged against mine. “I am not afforded the luxury of choice.”

  “I believe you made one by taking the girl and not giving her to your Master yet.”

  Choice. He knew nothing of my choices. One was to bring the girl in, complete my assignment and move on to the next, continuing my enslavement. Second choice would be to give her to the Guardians and declare my Mark missed, earning me another two hundred and fifty years in sensory deprivation. Third, keep Jessica, and discuss a trade with Master for my contract.

  Not much for choices. All had dire consequences.

  Shuffling to our left paralyzed me. Russell must have sensed it, or my sudden slowing, and mimed my reaction. He reached behind him, but grabbed only air and cursed. I still had possession of his sword. It was bound snug to my back while I held Jessica to my chest.

  Not exactly a great position for battle.

  It was only a matter of time until Master sent a legion after the girl and me. It appeared my choice was being made for me.

  “David.” Someone called out to me from around the corner of the vacant building.

  “How close are we to your fort?” I whispered to Russell.

  “Two blocks down, through the side door of the Coffee Grind.”

  “Then where?”

  Silence.

  He still didn’t trust me. I could hold no fault in that. I’d earned it.

  “You killed Gage.” The demon that had been with Gage came into focus. Two demons on either side.

  Okay, five was manageable. Maybe the rest hadn’t gotten to town yet.

  “Now you walk with Guardians?”

  “What is your name?” I asked while scanning the darkness to the sides and behind us. Russell did the same.

  “They call me Ignis.”

  “That’s too bad. Do you dare challenge me, Ignis?”

  He bared his fangs.

  “You saw what happened to Gage. Six hundred years of servitude to Master, and he fell within seconds. You cannot harm me.” I glanced at Russell. “Keep moving.”

  I hugged Jessica tight. For the first time since I’d grabbed her, she moved. Her glowing chest pulsed brighter, and it shimmered against me. She must sense my demon starting to surface. Starting to sizzle and claw at my chest.

  “You hold the Mark in your arms, you must return to Master.” Ignis drifted closer, a dagger in each hand. Three more demons rounded the corner.

  Eight wasn’t so easily manageable.

  “I shall. I am not in breach,” I said.

  “We will escort you.”

  “No thank you. Be gone. I will return in a few days time. After I learn more about her.”

  “You are a runner. Not a researcher, there is no need. Come now.”

  I twitched my lip over my descended fangs. “You do not command me.”

  “I speak on Master’s authority.”

  Pain seared my heart. I couldn’t hold back a grunt. “I will return.”

  “David, don’t,” Russell said.

  “I must.” I nailed Ignis with a glare. “Come help me with the girl, but the Guardian lives.”

  “We cannot allow that.”

  “He is of no consequence. He cannot hurt me, and I have the child. He can go.” I glanced at Russell. “I suggest leaving now.”

  “I will not.”

  “Stubborn fool.” I backed toward him. “Don’t forget your sword.”

  He shot me a look of utter surprise. Hopefully that meant he understood what I was about to do, though I was unsure I did. I couldn’t turn this girl over, yet if I didn’t, I would be punished. Again. But if she had the power to free me, make me human, somehow . . .

  “Ignis. Give me your word the Guardian lives.”

  He offered a brief nod.

  “I will come with you.”

  The demons crept forward, like timid dogs. I let my evil surface enough to give me the long nails, fangs, and heightened senses. Two more demons stayed back in the thicket across the street. Their outlines barely visible, even with my sight.

  I lifted Jessica to Ignis. Delight brightened his tar-black eyes, and a smile creased the red skin at the corners of his mouth. He reached for the girl.

  With lightning speed, Russell withdrew his sword from its sheath, circled me, and sliced the hands from Ignis. Another spin decapitated him with the ease of a true warrior. Russell stood in front of me, facing four demons while I held the girl. A Guardian protected me. A demon.

  Four demons stepped out from the darkness. They wore the badges of my Master on the left breast of their shirts. Elite warriors. Ones sent to impose punishment. They could incapacitate me enough to get the coll
ar activated, rendering me weak enough for transport.

  Their all too familiar seven-foot-frames sent the hair prickling on my forearms. Metal to metal clanked as Russell engaged three demons.

  One got through.

  I shifted my treasure to my hip and finished morphing into my evil half. I held my big hand out and ducked at the first swing of the sword. My fingers slashed his neck. His head tipped, and thudded to the ground.

  Two of the Elite approached. “You have missed your Mark. We have come to impose punishment.”

  “I have not. She is in my arms. By contract, you cannot.”

  The warriors stopped. “You agree to return with her?”

  “Yes. I am not in breach of contract.”

  “You must return with us,” they said in unison, like programmed robots.

  “I shall return in two days. On my own, as I always do.”

  They surged like lightning bolts of energy. Flashes of silver ignited as they drew their swords. I raised my forearm to meet their strikes, holding Jessica with my other arm.

  Their swords rushed me, but they were intercepted by two others and sparks rained. Russell on my left, Beka on my right.

  Beka spun, snipping the legs out from the warriors while Russell worked simultaneously to run his sword over their necks, toppling their heads. The two remaining bolted into the air and came down on us.

  One collided with Russell, knocking him to the side. The other sliced his weapon down the side of Beka’s arm. She sprung back onto her hands, and her foot rammed the demon’s face, knocking him off balance.

  I charged, reaching for his neck. He swung his sword. I ducked and slashed his mid-section. The demon darted toward Beka, drawing a second sword. He crossed it over the other, aiming for her throat.

  I vaulted over Jessica's small body, into the path of the crossed swords, familiar with their lethality. I planted my palm in Beka’s chest, knocking her over. The blades connected with my neck. Sparks sprayed.

  I dug my fingers into the demon’s chest and lifted him from the ground. His swords grated against my neck again, rendering more sparks into the air. With my other hand, I swiped at his neck, and he faded into the ground.

  I snatched Jessica into my arms. A prick stung my throat.

  I looked down a long, silver blade and met Beka’s vibrant eyes. Blood followed the curve of her high cheekbones and dribbled off her jaw.

  Her moist eyes flickered and chin quivered. “Give her to me, Demon.”

  I’d been called demon many times, yet it stung more than ever coming from Beka. “I cannot.”

  Beka’s blade waivered. “Please. David,” she whispered. Her shoulders sagged.

  “I cannot.”

  A tear escaped from the corner of her eye as the tip of Beka’s sword dented my flesh. “Then I have no choice but to kill you.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Beka swung, and I blocked the blade with my wrist. Sparks flared. Her eyes widened, but she forged onward.

  Jessica’s weight held me captive, not that I intended to fight Beka. She surged forward, full strength, with another swing. The demon burst from inside me with a roar.

  “How could you do this?” She swung, and I ducked.

  She turned, aiming for my legs, I jumped, but with her speed, she got in another revolution. The tip of her blade nipped my hip. Metal to metal behind us told me Russell still fought off demons. I hadn’t tracked how many were there. My focus was on Beka.

  I had to concentrate very hard to keep my demon from killing her.

  “Stop. I do not wish to harm you.” I backed away.

  The demonic instinct for self-preservation warred with the conflicting instinct to save that which I viewed as mine. Holding Jessica was the only thing preventing me from mounting a full force attack. I couldn’t get the momentum carrying eighty extra pounds.

  “Give her to me.” Beka and I circled each other. Her sword pointed at me, but I remained weaponless. I had a dagger bound to my ankle, but I couldn’t make myself grab it. I would kill her if I let my demon have a chance.

  But I loved her and couldn’t allow him to harm her.

  An impossible union. She was Light. I was darkness. I’d only met her days earlier. Maybe the two hundred and forty-five years of solitary had dented my sanity, not that I was exactly sane to begin with.

  “Back away, Beka. I do not trust my control.” My nose twitched at the metallic tainted lilac scent. “Please.”

  “Never.” The anger and hate for me rippled the air around her. I’d stabbed her to the core with what I was. A demon. A thing she killed to preserve all that was good. The betrayal she must feel.

  I despised what I was. All I could hope for was to get the contract removed and try to exist in this world as a human, somehow. Some way.

  It would be much better with her by my side.

  She struck again, and I dodged the sword aimed for my neck. “You will hurt Jessica. Please stop.”

  “Give her to me, Demon.”

  “I cannot.”

  “Why?”

  “She is my Mark. I’m contracted to turn her in.”

  “You speak riddles and deception, David. How could—” Her breath caught. “I—”

  Russell grunted from the side. A sword pierced his stomach. I lunged and buried my claws in his attacker’s shoulder. Beka leapt to the demon and beheaded him, then trained her weapon on me again.

  “You fight both sides. I do not understand this.” She inched forward.

  I backed away, gravel shifting beneath my boots. The beast overwhelmed my heart the longer I stayed in my demon form. Jessica felt like a thousand pounds in my arms. I set her down under Beka’s scrutiny. “Please, Beka. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Too late.”

  With one hand gripping Jessica’s shoulder, I knelt before Beka and showed my human form. “Tell me of her importance. What is she?”

  “A treasure. Purity at its finest. Something you know nothing about.”

  “Purity?”

  “Her goodness is so potent, it leaks from within her. See how her chest glows?”

  The light pulsed.

  Beka stood tall and widened her stance. “I will not let you have her, David.”

  “You have no choice in the matter.”

  “I believe I am holding the sword.”

  I bent at the waist, exposing my neck. “Try it.”

  She whimpered. “Don’t make me do this, David. Just give me the girl.”

  “I cannot.”

  “You keep saying that. Tell me why. Tell me what you are. You evaded my senses. Drew me in.”

  She’d drawn me in as well. I’d come so close to giving myself to her, which would condemn me to darkness. “I did not mean for that.”

  “But you did.” She straightened her back. “You’re a—” She sagged to the ground, dropping her sword, shoulders shaking. “Demon.”

  Sadness oozed off her and nearly flattened me like a steamroller. I looked at Jessica’s limp body.

  “Beka!” Russell’s panicked voice tore me from my stare. A sword penetrated Beka’s torso from behind and stayed planted, while another blade rested across her throat.

  I lunged to my feet and phased to full demonic form so forcefully my human bones protested. A roar ripped through the air, one so deep and raspy I wouldn’t have known it as mine had I not felt it leave my throat. “Release her.”

  “Walk away from the girl,” the demon said. One of Master’s Elite. Must have been hiding in the darkness awaiting his opportunity. He held a collar in his hand. If it touched my wrist or neck, I would be rendered immobile and returned to Master for sentencing.

  Another quarter millennia of darkness.

  I diverted my gaze from Jessica to Beka. Tears spilled from her wide eyes, and her hand gripped the demon’s blade. Blood flowed from her palms, oozed down her wrists and dribbled off her forearm to the gravel. She was holding the sword, preventing it from severing her neck.

  Russell
appeared by my side, sword drawn. Beka alternated her attention between us. My chest heaved as I debated. I needed the girl. Somehow I knew she could free me from my contract if she was purity like Beka declared.

  Nails pierced my throbbing heart. The demon took hold. I scanned the darkness. Not a thing moved. The air hung heavy and still. No demons left. Just this one. I could best him, but he would detach Beka’s head before I reached him. If I walked away from Jessica, I prolonged the inevitable.

  Russell stood tall by my side, as if my partner in fighting the very thing I was. Or at least partially was. His shoulder nudged mine. Light and dark with a similar objective.

  To save the one we loved. And I did love Beka. But did I love her enough to hand Jessica over to the demon to spare Beka’s life? Or let Russell take the girl and watch the demon behead my woman.

  Beka whimpered. Tears streamed down her face as her gaze stayed focused on me. “Don’t let them get her. David. I beg you.”

  Blood spurted from her neck, igniting a hurricane of fury raging through my body.

  “Stop.” My voice thundered. “You will trade.”

  The demon laughed. “The girl for this Guardian.”

  “No. The Guardian for me.”

  “You are of no consequence to me, half-breed. I want the girl.”

  “For what?”

  “Master shall be her mentor. Now step away or your Guardian’s head will roll.”

  My demon’s talons punctured my heart. Beka’s hands and neck ran crimson, and her body struggled against the blade.

  I lifted my hands in surrender. “Your word she lives if I step away.”

  “No, David,” Beka said with a rasp. “Girl. More. Important.”

  “Not to me.”

  There, I’d decided. I choose Beka’s life. Once free, she and Russell would get to Jessica somehow. I had to believe that. But Russell alone would not survive this demon. Beka and Russell would get the girl. While I got solitary.

  “I will step aside. You release the Guardian when I do.”

  “Why do you care for this one? She is of the Light. You are demon.”

  I reared my fangs, and inched to the side.

  “The other Guardian as well,” the demon said to Russell.