by M. R. Forbes
The Beast stood up, still looking back. I followed his gaze to the rear of Sarah's head, covered by the black hood of her sweatshirt.
"I don't want my prize getting hurt in the accident," he said. "I'll pick her up after the fun."
I don't know what he did to her then, but I could see her head stiffen, and Charis look up. Whatever was going on, it caused her to jump to her feet. She looked past Sarah then and saw the Beast standing there, that wicked smile on his meat puppet's face.
"Better try to find something to hold onto," the Beast said. "She's not the worst choice, but I don't think she'll soften the impact much. See you soon." The body went slack and collapsed. Dead.
I was still trying to make the connection between the Beast sitting me down to talk and his foreshadowing of the train's impending doom when a bell began to ring from somewhere in the car, and a second later the change of the locomotive's momentum forced me to put a hand against the wall to stop my inequivalent deceleration. I glanced back to Charis, our eyes catching, and that's when it hit me. Stupid. I was so stupid.
I focused, throwing my Sight forward to the front of the train. We were in the fourth car, and there was nothing on the train. Past the train was another story. I nearly collapsed from the powerful heat that blasted my soul. The Beast was sly, and he'd duped me into useless banter while we'd sped headlong into his net.
Except the train was slowing, and the demonic assault group was too far away to force the train off its rails before we ground to a stop. I hadn't been the one to throw the emergency brake. Had Charis?
I dashed to the back of the train, ignoring the looks of the confused mortals who thought I was batty for even being out of my chair while the machine whined and shuddered to a stop. Reaching them, I saw the Beast had belted Sarah in tight.
"What's going on?" Charis asked.
"You didn't throw the emergency brake?"
"No!"
Someone had, but that would have to wait. "He was looking to crash the train," I said. "There's a serious ambush up ahead."
I grabbed the knife from behind Charis' back and focused, keeping my hand steady enough to slice through the straps of nylon that were holding Sarah in while the car vibrated and slowed.
"There's no way to escape it," Charis said. "We have to fight."
I could still See them up in front of the train, but they had started moving towards it. "Come on," I said. "We need to head them off, or they're going to rip all of these people apart."
I swung around, past the luggage racks to the train doors. It was trivial to push them open. Izak went first, jumping out and rolling to a stop. We were in the middle of farmland, so at least he had found some grass.
Sarah and Charis joined me at the doors. "I'll break our fall," she said. Izak would heal from any breaks or scrapes he had just suffered. Sarah wasn't so fortunate. I felt the pressure of Charis' power, and then she jumped from the train, floating parallel to the doors for an instant before they began to lose speed and lower gently to the ground. I saw Izak running past them, surpassing the velocity of the train and catching up as I threw myself out.
I didn't want to waste energy breaking my fall, so I hit pretty hard. First came the smell of the grass, and then it dug into my mouth and nose when I face-planted into it. The nose broke, and I was sure I felt a tooth pop free, and then I was rolling and tumbling, getting bruised but not feeling the agony of any more breakage on my way to a stop. I was healing before Izak helped me up with his good hand.
"You okay to fight?" I asked him. He gave me the finger, and we both ran.
Somewhere between one running step and another, I starting shifting, and my sprint became an awkward bipedal hop, and then a smooth and fast four-legged sprint. Somewhere between the hop and the sprint, Izak had gotten his arms around my neck, and when I launched ahead at monster speed, he was along for the ride.
"Hey Ullie," I said. "Take the wheel."
The demon was hungry for the power, and he grabbed it without hesitation. Knowing he wouldn't use the opportunity against me made it easier to give it up to him, and giving it up made me a more effective force. I could concentrate on the Divine attack, while the Were took care of the physical.
"Stop freakin' calling me Ullie," he growled, his finer control pushing us faster than I could manage. "And tell Izak if he ever does this again I'm going to rip his throat out."
"Like you could," I replied.
We blew past the front of the train, which had nearly stopped. The demon force was close enough to see now, a small army of the many-armed half-man, half-snake naga, a dozen trolls, an earth elemental, and a fallen angel Commanding them. It was the massive earth elemental that would have been the one to smash the train from its tracks, and the signal that there had to be a witch somewhere close. The rest had been brought in to keep us busy while the Beast picked up his prize. I didn't need to see the fallen angel's face, to see him smile, to know the Beast had taken over.
"The angel is the Beast," I growled to Izak through Ulnyx's toothy snout.
Our speed brought us yards closer in seconds, and now I could see his face. He wasn't smiling at all.
"Can you take the elemental?" I asked Izak.
He grunted and let go, hitting the ground on his feet and sliding impressively to a stop. The last thing I saw before pouncing onto a troll was the demon conjuring a sword of hellfire into his good hand. Heaven and Hell had good reason to worry about him.
The troll toppled to the ground under our weight, and before I knew it I had a huge chunk of it's throat in my jaws. We spat it out and dove away, just in time to avoid being crushed under a second troll's heavy iron mace. Ulnyx pounced on that one too, and I used my Sight to track a third about to flatten us. I focused on the mace handle, corroding and rusting the iron thousands of years in an instant.
We'd dropped two more of the trolls and were in the thick of it with the rest by the time Charis and Sarah reached us. Charis had Callus' sword in hand, and she charged towards the naga. They had more arms and more swords, but they couldn't make up for her speed and focus. Pebbles from the ground swirled tightly around her as she twisted into the reptilian mass. Most of them bounced harmlessly off the naga's scaly skin, but enough found their eyes, giving her the split-second she needed to break their defenses and put the blessed blade into their hearts.
I heard Sarah's voice shout out, and one of the demons turned on the others. It didn't survive long, but as soon as it had fallen, she Commanded another to take its place.
"Ulnyx, get the angel," I said. I had expected that once Sarah arrived the Beast would make to salvage the mess that had been made of his plan. We were fortunate that he was limited to the physical prowess offered by his host, but we were way too far away, the battle with the trolls pulling us across the farmland.
I needn't have worried.
I hadn't seen him do it, but somehow Izak had toppled the earth elemental and set it to melting, as he had with the monster at the airport. He'd already started moving towards Sarah, and he cut the fallen angel off on the way. There was a flash of heat as the Beast lashed out with cursed metal against the demon's blade of hellfire, and then the hellfire was gone and Izak was on the ground.
"Ulnyx!"
The Were finished ripping the throat from a troll, using its falling body as an anchor to spring from. Powerful legs coiled and launched, and we were off. The Beast was quickly approaching Sarah, his host running full speed towards her. She was concentrating too hard on controlling the naga, and didn't see him coming.
Charis did, and she broke off her attack, leaping back away from the demons and putting herself in front of Sarah, Callus' blade over her head, ready to attack or defend. Sarah saw what was happening now, her brow creasing while two of the naga slithered over and launched their assault against the Beast. He skewered them without slowing.
We pounded the grass, the Were stepping easily over Izak, still sprawled on the ground. We were closing the gap in record time, but the g
ap to Sarah was closing just as fast. Dark wings unfurled then, pushing through the black linen shirt the fallen angel was wearing, spreading wide into the air.
"No," I shouted. Charis was still standing between the Beast and Sarah, and she didn't disappoint. Her sword was a blur, whipping around, meeting his. The contact rang out across the countryside, then again, and again. She had gotten between them and put up a wall, slowing the Beast's assault.
It wasn't enough.
Charis swung her blade again, and the Beast caught it. He caught it with the angel's bare hand, the metal digging deep into the flesh. In an instant, it had disintegrated to nothing, the power running down the weapon's length and causing Charis to drop it with a cry of pain. A follow up blow, and Charis tumbled away.
Ulnyx's leap was strong and true. The Beast was only yards away, Sarah a few yards further ahead. We would get to him before he got to her.
At the last possible moment, he turned, bringing the sword up and lashing into us, the blade ripping through flesh and bone and muscle, the force nearly splitting us in half and throwing us away. We landed and slid, the grass finding its way up into our nose again. The pain was intense, but I didn't care. It would heal. There was no one between Sarah and the Beast now. And he knew it.
He threw his sword away and approached her at a walk. She kept her eyes fixed to his, and stood still.
"Well, my dear," he said. "You're full of surprises. I had thought you'd be too much of an emotional wreck to have any kind of grip on reality, but here you are an effective member of Team D." He shot a look over at me, laying in the grass waiting for my body to be whole enough to rise. "This whole thing has been buckets of fun, but it's time you came with me, and fulfilled your destiny."
"No." A Command.
The Beast laughed. "You can't Command me. Why would you ever think you could?"
Sarah's eyes narrowed, her entire demeanor tight with intensity. "I don't need to Command you, asshole," she said. "Just your meat."
The Beast's eyes widened, and he tried to reach out and grab her. Every muscle moved in slow-motion, the possessed Divine's body caught in the middle of the opposing forces.
"Keep trying," Sarah said. "You aren't strong enough."
The Beast growled in frustration. "Don't be too certain," he said.
I wasn't too certain. Neither was Charis. She came up behind him and removed his head with a clean easy stroke of the cursed sword. The fallen angel dropped in two pieces, and both began to dissolve. The Beast had left the building.
I took my body back from Ulnyx and pushed myself upright. The hit had nearly severed my leg, but it had already made itself right again. I started running towards Sarah and Charis when I remembered the witch. Earth elementals weren't from Hell. They were created here. I sought her out with my Sight, feeling for the heat of her dark core. With their leader dead, the few surviving demons had begun to flee. She must have gone with them, because I couldn't pick her out.
"Well, that sucked," I said, reaching Charis and Sarah on the field. Izak joined us a few seconds later, none the worse for wear.
"I did it," Sarah said in a happy, singsong voice. "I really did it. We won!"
"Yeah, you did it." I gave her a hug, letting her enjoy her small victory. I wasn't going to tell her about the chill I was feeling. The dread of knowing the Beast was getting much stronger, much faster than even he had expected. The truth that she had taken him by surprise, and even then her Command had only slowed him. If Charis hadn't been there, she would be gone already.
We'd won the first three rounds because we'd been lucky. The Beast knew how to fight angels, and I knew from experience how predictable they could be. He was still learning how to fight us unpredictable, volatile, humans, and I had a feeling he was a fast learner.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
We were back on the train. Shortly after re-embarking, the conductor had made an announcement that someone had pulled the emergency brake, but it had been a false alarm, and the culprit couldn't be found. We'd continue on to London as planned, though we would be fifteen minutes late. The convenience of it confounded me, and occupied my thoughts while we skated along.
Someone was helping us, but who? My first thought was of Max, but if he was in communication with the Beast it would have been hard for him to sneak unnoticed onto the train. Even if he had, and had just shown his true colors, why not hook up with us now? In any case, I would have Seen him. It had to be someone who could avoid detection. Maybe even a mortal? There had to be someone else with something to gain, who knew about the Beast, and had stuck their needle into just the right spot. I was grateful for them, but I would have felt better to be able to thank them in person.
We had settled back in to our original seats. Izak looked dour, surely unused to being tossed aside with as little effort as the Beast seemed to have needed. He wouldn't have taken the excuse, but I knew it was at least in part due to the loss of his hand. When he had met up with us outside the train, Sarah had hugged him with the jubilance of a groupie at a rock concert, but he had just stared straight ahead, unspeaking in words, gesture, or emotion. Sarah was too high to even notice, but I had, and Izak's worry was enough to put me even more on guard.
She was still smiling, the hood of her sweatshirt around her neck, her face almost glowing from her excitement. She had changed so much since we had been reunited with Josette. It was hard to resist the naive voice in my head that was telling me what Father Tom had said wasn't true, that it didn't have to be that way. I had listened to the naive voice for too long though, and it had never led me in a good direction.
Josette. She had been almost silent since I had woken up. Her presence was a constant familiar companion, and she had never been as outspoken as Ulnyx, but I knew there was something more to it.
"Josette." I called out to her.
"Yes, Landon." She responded right away.
"Is everything okay?"
She took more time to answer. "If I tell you it is, I think you'll know I'm lying."
"Sarah?" It wasn't a lucky guess. I knew we would have to have this conversation, but I had expected I would be the one to initiate it.
"I can feel what you feel. I can hear your thoughts. They are mumbles and whispers, and I don't understand them all, but I understand enough."
"You didn't know?"
She sighed, the action echoing in my soul. "I've always known. Every angel knows, whether it is something they ever think about or not. What angel falls in love with a demon, after all? Yet, there she sits, and look at how beautiful she is. It doesn't matter how she came to be. She still is."
I glanced up at Sarah. She was looking out the window now, watching the countryside, but I could still see the edge of her smile.
"I love her unconditionally. Yet, I know there can only be one true end for her. I had hoped to save her. I had hoped Izak could save her. A demon, a favorite of Lucifer himself, his heart softened and molded by love. I forgive her for releasing the Beast, but her complicity has shown me that Izak was not enough. Even you were not enough, and I can never be enough. The madness is in her, and there is no way to get it out."
"She told me that she has seen herself killing me, and Charis. That it's the future she felt will come to pass, and she was terrified of it. Looking at her now, I can't believe it is the future she's still seeing." Except, what if it was? How was there any way to know her mind, when it was shifting like a sand dune?
There was a long silence. It sat uncomfortably, but I knew Josette well enough to know what it meant. She was deciding how to say something she didn't want to have to say.
"I believe it is the future that will come to pass, if you let it."
"You mean I'll have to stop her?"
"Yes."
I glanced over at Sarah again, trying to picture myself pushing a knife into her chest, or taking her head in the Were's massive paws and snapping her neck. I had to fight against the tears that threatened to fall.
"How can I live wit
h that?" I asked. "How can you? How could we together, and have you never resent me for doing it?"
Another long silence. "I don't know," she said at last.
Three words were never harder to hear. Josette had always trusted in God, and had always pointed to His will and plan whenever I questioned the path we had to walk. She had even invoked His name the last time the thought of killing Sarah had entered the conversation. Had meeting her daughter eroded her faith? Or had her love of something tangible and real, a part of her, a mother's love, grown stronger than her love for her Lord?
"What if killing her was a kindness?" I asked. It was something I had thought about at length. I had seen the way Gervais had broken her, just by his very presence. I had been inside of her soul, and witnessed the way she battled herself. Given a choice, would she really want to live that way?
"Landon, I don't know." Her voice was soft and sad.
I didn't know if I could do it, either. Even as a kindness. I knew Charis could. She didn't have the connection to Sarah I did, even sharing my memories of her. I wanted more than anything for that to be good enough, but I had my own feelings getting in the way and turning the equation back on itself. Could I watch Charis kill her, and forgive her for it? Could I love her then?
The word came unbidden to my mind. Love? I snuck a glance over at her, leaned back in her seat, staring at the ceiling. My heart jumped just to look at her.
"What?" she asked, her eyes staying focused on the soft grey plastic above. She hadn't needed to see me, to know I was looking at her.
"Nothing," I said unconvincingly.
There was no doubt she had feelings for me too, but did they stretch as far into the horizon as my own? It seemed too soon, too fast for such a thought, but I knew everything about her, and she knew everything about me. There had been a connection since the first time I had set eyes on her, though at the time I couldn't begin to guess what it was. I had just thought she was insanely attractive. Now she was attractive, intelligent, cunning, loyal, smart... I could just keep rolling the adjectives all day. Which brought me back to love.