Mathieu

by Irene Ferris

  “As I suspected,” he muttered under his breath. There would have been no way to take Gaap from this direction without killing Amanda as well.

  Gaap raised what passed for eyebrows, the fluttering of its scales becoming more agitated. “I’m waiting.”

  Mathieu started a little at the voice and then closed his eyes. He exerted his will and twisted.

  Cold. Piercing bitter cold burrowed into his neck, tightened around his throat. He gasped for breath around the hated constriction, tasted the bitter tang of rust in the air.

  His hand now rested on the hollow of Amanda’s throat, where his fingers tingled with the power that traveled from her body to his. It pulsed and burned, made his skin feel tight and hot and overstretched.

  He hated that feeling more than any other feeling he had ever felt, even the feeling of being bound, of being taken by Gadreel.

  Mathieu leaned forward and gently traced his hand up to Amanda’s cheek. “Amanda, can you hear me?”

  The eyes remained flat and dead, the face still and emotionless.

  Gently rubbing the girl’s bruised cheek, Mathieu spoke again, “Amanda, it’s over now. Your pain is over. It’s time to wake up and live again.” His voice tightened. “You are of my line—I pray through your mother—and you must be strong and brave and…”

  A sob closed off his throat, so he simply shook his head before he leaned forward and gently kissed her forehead. He found his voice again and whispered to her, “Tell them to do the right thing.”

  Amanda blinked once, blinked twice. Her eyes slowly focused on him. “Daddy?” Her voice was thin and weak. “Daddy, where are you?”

  Mathieu cocked his head over to Hugh. “He’s here. He’s waiting for you.”

  Hugh answered from the far side of the second circle, “I’m here, baby. I’m here.”

  Amanda staggered and looked past Mathieu. “Daddy?” Her voice got higher and shriller. “Daddy?”

  Mathieu laid a hand on her shoulder to calm her. Amanda convulsed at his touch. She knocked his hand away, fell to the floor and screamed.

  There were no words in her screams, just a vocalization of fear and terror and pain, over and over and over.

  Hugh fell to his knees and crawled to as close to her as the barrier would allow. “I’m here, baby. I’m here. I’m so sorry. I’m so very sorry. I didn’t mean…” He leaned his forehead against the wall and energy flashed and flared around it.

  Her screams continued unabated, terrifying in the depths of their agony and mindless fear.

  Mathieu moved once again to comfort her, but Gaap roughly grabbed the chain at his neck and pulled him back. The Demon threw him easily aside to land against the barrier of the circle and then to the floor with a hiss of pain. Gaap walked over to Amanda and punched her hard in the face—once, then twice.

  She shuddered and then fell to the floor, limp and silent.

  Gaap walked back over to Mathieu, hauled him up by the chain and said, “I hate screaming. It would behoove you to remember that. Now get us out of here. This place reeks of humanity.”

  Mathieu took one last long lingering look at the people on the other side of the circle, fixing Dwayne with the longest and most meaningful.

  Then he raised his hands, drew a sigil in the air, drew the power from the circle into himself and disappeared with his new master.

  Chapter Thirty - Six

  “SON OF A BITCH!” Marcus punched the floor. “SON OF A BITCH,” he added for good measure.

  “That wasn’t in the plan.” Susan sounded numb. “I’m really sure that wasn’t the plan.”

  “It wasn’t in our plan, that’s for sure.” Eddie reached over and lightly gripped Susan’s hand. “I don’t know about his, though.”

  “That son of a bitch tricked us.” Marcus still raged, this time turning his attention towards destroying the salt construct he and Jenn had been building. “He fucking lied to my face and fucking tricked us. Why?”

  “Because there wasn’t any other way.” Dwayne’s voice was flat. “There wasn’t any other way to give you what you wanted and he didn’t have the heart to tell you.”

  “You knew about this?” Jenn grabbed Marcus’ hands and held them tight while turning to face Dwayne. “You knew about this and didn’t tell us?”

  Dwayne studied his own shoes. “I knew it as a possibility. Hell, more than that. But I wasn’t sure.” After a pause, he spoke again. “He wouldn’t tell me what he was doing.”

  “No, of course not.” Marcus sighed. “He didn’t trust any of us.”

  “Bullshit,” Dwayne shot back. “He’s trusted us with everything he has left. You know what he trusts us to do.” He jerked his head in the general direction of the woods. “He trusts us to do it before that thing has him for too long. He trusts us to do the right thing.”

  “He wants us to all get out of here alive and then kill both of them,” Carol said. “I don’t know if I can do that.”

  “If you’d seen what I’d seen, you’d have no problems with it.” Dwayne shook his head. “I saw what that thing was going to do to make him like her.” He pointed at Amanda’s slumped form. Hugh crouched over her body, trying to wake her without physical contact.

  “Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit.” Marcus chanted the word over and over as he pounded the floor with his fist. “There has got to be another answer. There has to be another way.”

  Jenn braced herself on her husband’s shoulder and stood up. She made her way over to where Amanda lay. “How is she?”

  Hugh looked up at her. “How do you think she is? Look at her.”

  The bites and bruises on Amanda’s skin were livid. Scars crisscrossed her sides and legs. Her lovely face had a fresh welt that was even now swelling and purpling. “Is she going to be okay?” Jenn winced as she asked the question because the answer was not only obvious, it was obviously ‘no’.

  “I don’t know.” Hugh sighed and then spoke again. “That bastard not only tricked us and left her like this, he took her power before he went. She’s got nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

  “She’s got her life. And her freedom. Isn’t that enough?” Jenn gingerly reached over and touched a lock of Amanda’s lank hair.

  “It’s not what we came for.” Hugh was seething. “All of this and she’s has nothing to show for it. Nothing.”

  Jenn bit back her angry response and then asked quietly, “Do you want me to help you put her in your circle?”

  Hugh snorted. “Of course not. There’s nothing here to bind, no power, nothing.”

  “Nothing but your daughter.”

  “What’s left of her, you mean?” Hugh shook his head and turned his attention back to the limp but still breathing form on the floor.

  Jenn stood and numbly walked back to her husband. “There has got to be another way,” Marcus was repeating. “Dwayne, what other endings did you see?”

  “Lots of them. Some bad. Some very bad. Some very, very bad.” Dwayne put his hands in his pockets and began to rock back and forth.

  “Dwayne, focus.” Jenn took a deep breath so she too could focus. “Did you see any good endings? How about mediocre? I’ll take that.”

  Dwayne’s rocking paused and then started up again. “Maybe. Maybe something kind of good, but only if you redefine ‘good’ into something else.”

  “Like what? What did you see?”

  “Possibilities. How many times do I have to tell you that?” Dwayne’s voice got shriller and he began to dance in place as he rocked. “Possibilities on possibilities on top of possibilities and I can’t do anything to help anyone and people are gonna die and I can’t stop any of it and…”

  “DWAYNE!” Both Jenn and Marcus yelled the name at the same time but Marcus was the one who kept talking after the other man stilled. “What do we do?”

  A small weak voice answered him. “Do the right thing.” Amanda’s head was only a few inches from the floor but her eyes were open and clear. “That’s what he told me to tell you: Tell
them to do the right thing.” She closed her eyes and rested her head on the floor again.

  Dwayne turned to Marcus. “You know what he thinks the right thing is.” He jerked his head again in the direction of the woods. “You know he wants you to hurry.”

  “He’s crazier than you are. No offense. His idea of the right thing is completely fucked.” Marcus stood and started pacing.

  “No offense taken.” Dwayne shrugged and then spoke again, “There’s a chance—I’m not saying it’s a big one—but a chance that you can make this right. But you’re going to have to sacrifice some of your high and mighty morals to make it happen.”

  “I think a few lofty ideals are a small sacrifice to make, especially after what he sacrificed to get her back.” Carol wandered over to wrap an arm around Dwayne’s waist. “What do we need to do? We’re all behind you.”

  Marcus ran a hand though his sweaty hair, making it stand up in sharp spikes. He took a deep breath, straightened and nodded. “Okay. I’m going to need a shovel and some flashlights. Dwayne and Eddie are with me. Carol, I need your experience with the forbidden knowledge. We need to take an old spell and alter it for our use.

  He pointed at Susan and Jenn. “You two need to go find a place that’s open all night and get us some yellow, red and green paint. Enough of it to make a good sized circle and cover the walls down here.” He swiveled his finger to Hugh, pointed once, then twice as he thought. “You need to not be an asshole. I’ve had enough of you for the rest of my life. Get out of my sight. Help your daughter.”

  He paused and then pointed back at Dwayne. “And before we do anything else, I need you to brew coffee. The strongest, nastiest, most vile brew you can come up with. It’s going to be a long night and we’ll need it.”

  Chapter Thirty - Seven

  There was as cold and gray and featureless as Mathieu remembered. Possibly even colder.

  He knelt in the circle, waiting for his master to return from wherever it had gone. The chains on his wrists bit cruelly into the flesh, but he was able to mostly ignore that pain.

  The chain around his neck was another story. It was heavy and tight. Where the chains on his wrists merely bit, the one around his throat burrowed, burying itself into his very soul.

  “Did you miss me?” A voice sounded from behind Mathieu.

  “Of course.” Mathieu had learned long ago to keep sarcasm from his voice when dealing with Gadreel. Somehow he didn’t think it would work as well with Gaap.

  There was dry chuckle from behind. “I can see why some like to keep their property lively. It certainly does add a little spice to an otherwise dreary existence.”

  Mathieu kept his eyes to the ground as Gaap walked to stand in front of him. “You realize why we’re here like this, don’t you?”

  “Yes.” Mathieu whispered the word and dared a look up through his eyelashes.

  Gaap smiled down beatifically. “I figured you would. You seem fairly intelligent for one of your kind. You’d eventually realize that the binding you have isn’t yours at all. You might even think to try and escape it.”

  “The thought had occurred,” Mathieu admitted as he twisted his left arm, testing the chain to no avail.

  “Of course it had. I already knew that.” Gaap knelt down and tipped Mathieu’s chin to look directly in his eyes. “Just like I now know how you got all that lovely power and what you had to do to get it.”

  Mathieu met the gaze steadily but did not answer.

  Gaap’s smile turned so sharp and cold it seemed to cut the air. “And you won’t be doing such a thing again. I was tempted to keep you lively for a while for the sheer novelty of it. You’re not what I would normally choose for type or gender, but the variety could have been interesting. Sadly, you’re much too dangerous.”

  The grip on Mathieu’s chin grew tighter and then shifted to his chain at his throat--pulling it even tighter, making breathing painful. Gaap continued, “You’ve already experienced so much that I’ll have to be especially brutal, I think. I need to drive you so deep inside that you’ll never come back.” It cocked its head and said, “If it makes this any easier for you, I’ll tell you that I’m displeased that I have to do such a thing.”

  “Don’t lie on my account,” Mathieu gasped.

  The smile only got colder. “You’re not worth a lie. It really is a pity. You would have been interesting for the first few centuries.”

  The first blow took Mathieu by surprise, catching him across his temple. He rocked back, caught by his neck. The second blow fell in the same place and this time Gaap released the chain, allowing him to fall backwards while stepping on the shackles on his wrist.

  The next blow caused him to fall away and wrench his shoulder because there was no slack in the chain. He heard the small pain sound escape his lips before he realized he’d made it.

  Gaap paused and licked blood from its knuckles. “They won’t save you, you know. I don’t know why you keep thinking that.”

  Mathieu closed his eyes and focused on the throbbing pain in his face, turning his thoughts inward to ride the waves of sensation.

  Hissing in frustration, Gaap kicked him in the ribs. “Stop that. Stop hiding things from me.” Gaap kicked again and Mathieu felt something snap in his chest. “They got what they wanted when they got that useless girl back. You’re not worth it. You’re nothing to them.”

  Gasping for breath, Mathieu curled into as much of a ball as the chains would allow. There was still gray, but now it was limned with red and black around the edges.

  Gaap made an irritated noise as it stepped on Mathieu’s left hand, grinding its heel hard into the ground. Mathieu gasped in pain but bit back the cry at the last minute. Gaap continued, “You’re filthy, you know. Even I can see the stain on your soul. No matter how much you wash, no matter how hard you scrub, no matter how clean you are, you’ll always be covered in it.” The heel continued grinding and Mathieu could feel the pop of small bones breaking one by one under the pressure. He concentrated on the sensation, moaning softly in pain. “You’ll always be nothing but filth.”

  The Demon stepped back, the scales fluttering up and down as it considered its next move. “They don’t want you,” it finally said. “Even if you feel something for them, they feel nothing for you.” It picked Mathieu up by his hair and hissed, “What are you hiding? You have no reason to protect them. You’re nothing but a used, soiled whore to them. If even I can see what you’ve done, what do you think they see? I’m amazed they weren’t nauseated by just looking at you.”

  Mathieu struggled to stay on his knees, looked at Gaap with immeasurably old eyes and then spat blood deliberately at the Demon. “Fuck you,” Mathieu rasped.

  Gaap paused in surprise and then smiled that same cold, sharp smile. “An excellent idea. After all, that’s what you’re best suited for, isn’t it?” It pushed Mathieu back to the cold, cold ground and straddled his unresisting body.

  Mathieu stared at a specific patch of gray to the left of and behind Gaap’s ear. This he could withstand. He’d withstood it countless times with Gadreel, and even though his skin crawled and his soul wept at the thought, he could withstand it again. The cold of the earth seeped up through his back and into his chest, making everything seem even more distant.

  “Oh, no.” Gaap slapped Mathieu hard, breaking his concentration. “You’re not going anywhere for this.” It leaned forward and delicately lapped blood from Mathieu’s lower lip. “You’re going to stay right here with me.”

  Mathieu focused on the Demon and watched with a growing sense of horror as the scales at first undulated and then slowly, gently stood up, revealing what was underneath. At first it seemed to merely be something glistening and white. Then it became clear that each scale covered a small mouth filled with gleaming, razor sharp teeth. Hundreds of them covered Gaap’s body and each mouth stretched forward, reaching and yearning for Mathieu’s flesh. The teeth made small clicking noises as they snapped and closed in mid-air and ropes of
saliva flew wildly.

  “Now is usually when the screaming starts. I hope you don’t. It’s very tiresome.” Gaap leaned forward and covered Mathieu’s body with its own, bending and contorting to allow each small mouth to make contact.

  The pain was immeasurable. Each bite burned as if acid and salt together were being rubbed into the wounds as they were being made. Mathieu struggled against the creature on top of him but the only response was a deep chuckle and more pain as more of his body came into contact with the stretching, yearning mouths. Venom worked its way into his muscles, tracing fire as it went.

  Mathieu wasn’t aware that he’d started screaming. He’d felt the tears running down his face, but the pain made the blood roar in his ears so loudly that he could hear nothing else until Gaap grabbed him by the neck and squeezed so that he could no longer breathe. “I told you I loathe screaming,” it gritted into his ear.

  Mathieu choked and gagged, the gray world around him now taking on colored spots as well as the hues of black and red. The grip loosened enough for him to take a breath and then tightened again. The small mouths ripped at his clothing and gnawed at his flesh as he struggled.

  It was only when he glanced down that he realized that Gaap was all hungry mouths and teeth all over its body, even there. His screams were strangled by the hand at his throat, but the assault continued, tender flesh inside torn and rent as cruelly, if not more so, than that on the outside.

  He could hear his strangled sobs escaping his throat, but he could no longer see. The world spun into blackness, into a place that he knew well. Deep inside, where there was no pain, no fear, no sensation. He fell into that place inside his mind and pulled the door in after him, cowering in the dark.

  He didn’t notice that the violation of his body continued long after his mind was gone, even to the point of being turned onto his stomach so the hungry mouths could have fresh, unmarked flesh. He didn’t notice when Gaap finished and carelessly healed the worst of the hurts so that his shell could live on. He didn’t notice when he was dragged onto his feet and forced to draw the circle to go to their next destination. As far as he knew he was curled into a small, sobbing ball in the dark, praying for the others to hurry. Praying for death.