“Uh, Eric,” he said, his mouth agape.
“Eric, I need your help. Do you know who this is?”
The kid looked at the body I was carrying and nodded. I went to the back of his pickup, dropped the gate, and flopped Chronos down. Eric remained at a safe distance as if afraid of me. I hadn’t checked myself in a mirror in a while but I imagined I was a sight.
“Relax, I won’t bite,” I said. “Right now, Eric, you can do a world of good by lending me your truck keys.”
I actually felt guilty driving away but dismissed the thought. The service station vanished in the rearview mirror as I sped down the onramp. The truck’s engine was a beast and the modified muffler roared as I accelerated beyond the speed limit. Chronos was laid out in the truck bed with the gate closed. I felt calm as I passed a few cars. A half-finished energy drink in one of the cupholders was lukewarm and nasty but I chugged it down. Perhaps I could make up for the lack of Mercy’s special food with a jolt of caffeine.
Once off the highway and on the frontage road, I found a place to stop. It was another few miles to Dogwood. No one was on the road. The only sounds came from traffic on the highway. I got out and climbed into the truck bed.
Chronos’s skin was clammy and cool. His joints had grown stiff. I found a zipper on his collar and began to remove his uniform. It had no pockets. He carried nothing with him. The craftsmanship of his costume was exquisite, not that I was much of a judge on the finer points of superhero haberdashery. But I wasn’t stripping him down to upgrade my wardrobe.
I sniffed the cape. It smelled surprisingly clean. Surely he must launder the uniform, or perhaps he had spares. Had Mercy made it for him? That was what I was counting on. Perhaps a couple of pounds of clothing native to Dogwood would give me some sort of advantage. Putting it all on was out of the question, though. Chronos was much taller and broader and wearing it would only impede my motion. I folded the uniform in half and wrapped it around my waist. Then I clipped the cape around my neck. It hung long and draped on the bed of the truck like a bridal train.
“Time for your last act,” I said.
I got back behind the steering wheel and headed to Dogwood. As I navigated the bumpy, potholed road, I laid on the horn. Between the roar of the engine and the honking, the whole neighborhood would hear me coming.
Eight of them stood in the road as I came around the final bend, with Mercy standing in front. The sun shone down through the treetops. The scattered homes of the forgotten village looked especially drab and tired, with the three-story red house the dilapidated centerpiece. I stopped the truck far enough away so I could keep an eye on them and the walls of foliage along the edge of the road.
Temp was nowhere in sight.
I got out. Mercy was marching my direction.
“Stop!” I called. I swung myself up into the truck and picked up Chronos.
Mercy’s eyes went wide.
“One more step and I hurt him. Bring me my friends.”
“What did you do?” Mercy asked. She stepped closer.
I got Chronos into a headlock. “I said stop!”
The others were walking my way slowly, less certain. But Mercy was almost to the front of the truck.
“What have you done?” she asked, a tremor in her voice. “What did you do to my boy?”
I tightened my grip. My arm was squeezing his head. Mercy placed a hand on the front fender but then paused. Could she tell he was dead? If she had enhanced senses she might know, and my flimsy ruse would cost Carter and Megan their lives.
“I beat your precious Diligence,” I said. “He wouldn’t come when asked. If I don’t see my friends right now, I’m going to pop his head off.”
Mercy nodded carefully. “My poor dear.” I couldn’t tell at first who she was talking to, but then decided she was addressing me. “I’ll bring you your friends. That was the deal. But have you thought this through? You’re sick and will only get sicker. Even now I see it in your eyes and can hear your labored breath. You’re tired and hurt. Bring my boy down and come with me and let me help you feel better. You won’t make it out there on your own and it will be most painful.”
“I don’t care.”
“But you will. The discomfort you’ve experienced is nothing compared to when your very bones begin to burn. No doctor will be able to save you from that. Diligence tried several times before and he’s strong, much stronger than you. He always returned to me. At least here you’ll live. We can find a place for you. It will mean a new life much different than the one you lead now, but we will embrace you as one of our own.”
“Quit stalling.”
Mercy sighed. “Very well.”
She must have signaled one of the villagers but I didn’t see it. A man with a long-sleeve green shirt tucked into his rough wool pants peeled off from the group and trotted away out of sight.
Mercy had a strange smile on her face as she stared up at me. “Such fierceness,” she said. “You have a fire burning in your veins. Be careful, dear, that it doesn’t burn you up, neh?”
I saw motion at the periphery of my vision. Quiet as an owl, Temperance came flying straight at me from out of the trees lining the road. I ducked in time for him to crash into the back of the cab. He was quick.
He pushed off the truck and swiped at me with his curved knife. I dropped Chronos and lunged out of the way, vaulting over the tailgate as the knife sliced the air. I flew a few paces away but came to a sudden stop when he landed in front of me. I dropped to the ground, turned, and was about to jump back onto the truck when he leaped over my head and blocked my path. He was a blur and too close. His mouth was twisted into a vicious grin. The knife was a flurry of motion and it took all my effort to avoid it. He thrust up at my face. I reeled back and caught his knife arm with both hands. The steel touched my cheek. Then I kicked him. My foot caught him dead center and sent him rocketing back, crunching into the back end of the truck and bending it inward.
He gasped and fell forward but the bent metal of the truck kept him propped upright. His right arm was twisted and it dangled out in front of him. I cinched the uniform around my waist tight and readied my fists. But Temperance wasn’t moving. I jumped back into the truck where Chronos lay.
“You think you’re clever,” Mercy said. Her calm demeanor was maddening. “Feigning weakness. That’s what little birds do. Is that what you are? A little bird?”
“Enough games,” I hissed.
She rounded the truck and knelt by Temperance. With obvious affection she gently placed her hands on his head and chest. Suddenly he sucked in a lungful of air, as if he had been holding his breath. Then she gently straightened his arm. The bones popped. Temperance moaned. Then, inch by inch, he began peeling himself out of the crumpled truck.
I was stunned. If she could heal, could she bring Chronos back? As if sensing my thoughts, she looked at the body sprawled in the bed of the truck. I grabbed Chronos up into my arms. As I tried to fly upward, she launched herself after me and grabbed my ankle, thrusting me downward. I crashed hard into the ground, Chronos spilling from my grip.
“She’ll never be one of us,” Temp said.
“We must always hold out hope for all our sons and daughters,” Mercy said. “But now I see you’re right. Such a pity.”
The impact left me stunned and I couldn’t move. Flee, I told myself. Fly away. Even as I felt my strength slowly draining from me, I knew I could at least make a break for it. But Temp was moving my direction. He twisted his head back and forth and his neck popped as if he were still straightening himself out.
“You can wear his clothes and breathe his air,” he said. “Even taste his power. But your kind will always be fragile vessels.”
“He’s the one who’s dead,” I said.
I flew straight at him and hooked my arms under his. Then I turned upward and rocketed us high into the sky. He grabbed at my face and arm. I tried to get him in a hold but he was too strong. He only laughed as I struck the heel of my han
d against his face. I had no leverage, but we were still going upward. He bared his nubby brown teeth as if to bite me. But then I stopped. We floated for the briefest moment before I reversed direction, flying straight down.
“See if she’ll rebuild you this time,” I hissed.
His hands were gripping me through Chronos’s cape as we hurtled towards the ground. With my free hand I undid the clasp. At the last moment before impact I changed direction again, applying all of my energy to move me skyward. Temperance slipped away with the cape and smashed into the top of the truck. The side windows blew out in a spray of safety glass as the cab imploded. I was descending too fast. I landed hard on top of him.
Dazed, I knew I had to move, but the twisted metal didn’t let me go.
With all my strength I pushed one way, then the other. Just as I freed myself, a hand grabbed me. I was wrenched off the truck and thrown. I couldn’t tell which way was up to fly and my reflexes failed me. I struck a tree with enough force that my vision faded to black and my teeth clacked together painfully. Everything hurt and none of my limbs responded. I spat out a mouthful of blood. The world swam, but I forced myself to find the truck and locate Chronos.
Mercy walked towards me. My eyes fluttered as I struggled to not black out.
“What did you do to my boy?”
She turned and went to Chronos. With the greatest care she straightened his body out and laid his arms beside him. Kneeling, she began to probe Chronos carefully, her fingers moving from point to point along his body as if searching for something.
“Look what they did to you, my sweet boy,” she said with a rising quaver in her voice. “Mama’s going to make you better.” She caressed his cheek and smoothed down his hair.
I had to move. Had to get up. If she brought him back, it would all start again. My bringing him here would have saved him. The group of villagers gathered around them. I was now being ignored. I was nothing to them anymore. Their prodigal had returned and their twisted little community would plod on as it had forever.
A low growl started up near me. I hadn’t seen it approach, but a small dog with short, patchy brown-and-gray hair and splotchy skin was standing there staring. Its grizzled muzzle flared and it began to bark. Heads turned in my direction.
“What about her?” someone asked.
“She knows so she goes,” a woman said in a childish voice.
“Kill her,” Mercy said.
This time there were no smiles, only the hardened faces of threadbare men and women who had complied with similar orders many times before. Mercy’s attention returned to Chronos. The villagers closed in on me.
“This is a mistake,” I said. I tried to rise but winced. My busted rib had gotten worse. Perhaps I had broken more. Too many other parts hurt and nothing wanted to work. “Something happened to your boy out there. Something is happening to the world. Don’t you guys get the news? You won’t be able to hide from it. You have so much to offer. You could help, like Chronos did.”
My words had no effect. The dog kept barking. The villagers’ silence was eerie as their circle around me tightened.
“Your father is coming,” I blurted.
They stopped. Suddenly they were looking at each other as if confused by what they had heard.
I grabbed a rotting fence post and got up on shaky legs. “He’s coming. Chronos said so. This has everything to do with you, doesn’t it?”
Mercy was now staring at me. “She’s lying! Father is dead. I’m your mother now. This is our world and no one could ever follow us here.”
“Not according to Diligence,” I said. “We spoke before we fought, not that much of it made sense. You know anything about the giant meteors? Three of them have hit the Earth. And Chronos was scared.”
“What is she talking about, Mercy?” the woman with the child’s voice asked.
“She’s sick from her exposure to us is all. It’s affected her mind. It’s what’s happened to all of her kind that comes here. Kill her and we’ll deal with her friends and put everything back the way it was.”
“But what if she’s right and he’s finally followed us here?”
“That’s impossible. Father was left behind. He couldn’t have found us. Now enough of this nonsense.”
A couple of them nodded, and then they all did. The interlude was over and it was time for them to do as they had been told. Even the dog growled. They were packed together close, but there was a gap. I charged forward, pushing off the closest woman and knocking her into a large man in stained overalls. Hands grabbed at me but I was faster. I vaulted another man, and then there was no one between Mercy and me. She moved as if to protect Chronos.
Which was perfect. Because I was after her.
I collided with her dead center and carried her upward. Our low trajectory would take us straight into the trees. She got an arm locked around my head and another under one arm. She began applying pressure. It felt as if my shoulder was about to get ripped from my body. I flew us faster. We sailed over the village and rammed a maple tree just beyond her house. The trunk shook and tiny branches and leaves rained down as we tumbled and struck the ground.
Mercy screamed.
It was an unintelligible roar of anger. She clawed at me. I grappled with her and wrapped both arms around her. She pushed, twisted, and dug into my skin with her fingernails. I wouldn’t contain her for long. But I had my bearings. I took off straight upward as fast as I could. Dogwood fell away beneath us as the air rushed by.
Her teeth found my hand and bit down. I jerked my hand away. This freed one of her arms. She swung her arm back and slugged me in the jaw. I pulled her tight and put everything into climbing higher and going faster. The chilled air bit at my face so I closed my eyes. I began to level us off and took us approximately eastward. I couldn’t keep going for long. My tank was empty.
Mercy started laughing. “Is this meant to frighten me? Or do you believe you can drop me without me killing you first?”
My teeth were chattering. I felt myself fading with each passing moment. With renewed strength she pushed my hands away and went for my throat. I gripped one of her hands and suddenly I felt my fingers twisting and bending backwards. It was as if the bones themselves were being warped. I screamed in agony.
“Killing you is a kindness,” she said. “But I can give you pain beyond anything you have ever experienced.”
With savage strength she clapped a hand against my face. My very skin pulled off with her touch and she jammed the wad of flesh forward against my nose and mouth. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t scream. My face was on fire. The pain radiated through my jaw and into my teeth. All I could do was fly faster and higher away from Dogwood. Only one corner of my mouth remained unobstructed. I sucked greedily at what little air I could take in. But Mercy wasn’t finished. Her hands found my eyes. I felt a horrible pressure as her thumb pressed inward against my right eye.
“I’ll crush your brain like an egg,” she hissed. “Turn your heart into liquid. Peel the skin from your bones. And then bring you back and do it all again. Now take us down.”
Whatever power she had over flesh and bone didn’t translate into being able to fly. She hadn’t demonstrated that ability, and as we soared up and far away from the ground, I knew she might not recover if she killed me outright and we fell. She wanted to live.
The pain in my warped hand and face was indescribable. All my nerves were being dipped in acid. Mercy’s fingers continued to dig into my skin and skull. I felt as if I was about to pass out. The black abyss would have been welcome. Instead, I took us higher still, where the air froze. My remaining eye began to freeze over and I couldn’t see anything. Mercy was saying something, shouting, but I couldn’t understand the words. A thick layer of numbness descended upon me.
We were a mile up, maybe two. “Goodbye, Mercy,” I managed to croak. “You don’t get to have him back.”
Our momentum took us upward for another couple of seconds before we hung there in th
e sky. And then we fell.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Wake up!” Mercy shouted.
My face felt raw but I could breathe again. My eyes worked. The bones of my hand had snapped back into place. It was as if she had undone all of her damage in an instant, like tearing away a bandage. The pain continued to pulse from each point of contact. Now she clung on to me as we plummeted towards the highway. I could barely move to orient myself. The air itself felt solid, pressing in on all sides as the speed of our fall only increased.
All I had to do was nothing and it would all be over. Mercy gripped me tighter. I knew if I slowed us she would know I was awake, but I had no choice. With moments left before impact, I arrested our downward spiral. We floated there, suspended above several vehicles that zipped past, the drivers oblivious to the two figures flying above them.
Mercy was in the process of hyperventilating. It fed something inside me to know she felt fear. But in an instant the moment ended and she shifted her grip on me. Before she could renew her assault I slammed my forehead into her face and pushed her off me.
She fell straight down onto the highway. I heard bones break. She lay in a twitching heap. After a moment her entire body trembled as if an electric current was running through it. Despite her grievous injuries she fought to stand. Traffic whipped past in the center lane and a speeding two-door coupe just missed her. Then an oncoming cargo truck slammed into her. The truck swerved and slowed as the wheels struck her body. She tumbled underneath the vehicle as the driver hit the brakes. White smoke rose from the tires. The vehicle stopped and the panicking driver got out, looking stunned. Mercy was sprawled on the road behind his vehicle. Then the driver looked up at me.
I was shivering. Every part of me ached as I hung in the air looking down on the scene. Other vehicles slowed and put on their hazard lights. A few people were getting out of their cars. A woman lay before them, obviously run over, but they were looking at me. One of the motorists got out her phone and took my picture.
Blood of the Masked God (Book 1): Red Wrath Page 23