Vanquished

by Vivi Anna

  But Kat could see a difference. The carefree look in his eye was gone. And she wasn’t quite sure what it was that had replaced it.

  * * *

  As they approached the tavern, Kat spied Hades leaning casually on his motorcycle smoking a cigar. She also noticed that the bike was bigger than hers was and packed well with supplies.

  She pulled the bike up next to his and stopped. “Nice ride. Must of cost you.”

  Hades winked. “Who says I paid for it.” He straddled the machine and kicked it over. The engine roared to life. “We should ride till midday, and then find shade to eat and rest.”

  Kat nodded. No point in arguing…yet. The same thoughts had crossed her mind. It was smart and logical. Kat revved the engine and pulled it forward.

  “Wait!” Damian yelled over the clamor.

  Kat peered beyond her shoulder at him. “For what?”

  “For me.” From around the tavern’s corner, Darquiel appeared, dressed in a long, gray cloak. The hood covered her head and she wore dark tinted sun goggles to protect her eyes. A small pack hung over her shoulder.

  “What do you want?” Kat demanded.

  “I’ll guide you to a safe place to enter the city. I would hate to see you fall into the wrong hands.” She glanced at Damian as she spoke.

  Kat eyed Hades. Shrugging, he held out his hand to Darquiel. “Get on.”

  Before hopping onto his bike, Darquiel strapped her bag onto her back. Jumping onto the seat, she wrapped her arms around Hades’ waist. Kat thought she appeared to be like a little, pale, porcelain dolly behind his massive form. She wondered if the girl would be an asset or a liability. As they could not afford any liabilities on this trip, she hoped desperately for the former.

  After five hours driving down a depleted road full of holes and fallen timber, they pulled off near a meager, trickling stream of water and a clump of tall trees. The trees would provide the much-needed shade and the stream much needed water.

  Kat rubbed her ass after she dismounted the bike. The ride had been bumpy to say the least. Around the third hour, her left cheek had gone numb.

  Hades parked his bike beside hers, watching as she rubbed her rear-end. She glared at him.

  “Want me to do that?”

  “Fat chance in hell of that happening.” Kat unstrapped her bag off the bike and carried it to a shady spot on the yellowing grass beneath an oak tree. She took out her water canteen and drank greedily from it. Sweat already trickled down her back, and the sun was not yet at its zenith.

  Hades helped Darquiel off his bike. She stumbled slightly, and he had to right her.

  “What’s with her?” Kat asked.

  Rushing to her aid, Damian helped Darquiel to a shaded spot on the ground. “She’s not usually out in the sun. It makes her sick.” Damian pulled down her hood and laid her on the grass. Her face glistened, sickly with sweat. Kat handed him the canteen. He put it to her lips and she drank.

  Kat watched her, caution ringing a few bells in her mind. “Is she sick? Does she have some disease?”

  “Not a disease. It’s like she’s allergic to the sun’s rays.” Damian stroked her hair, like a parent with a child or a lover with his mate.

  Uneasiness twisted her gut as Kat watched him soothe her. “Did she tell you how she got like this?”

  Damian shook his head and continued to stroke Darquiel’s white hair.

  “Just don’t let her drink all the water.”

  Damian glared at her. “You’re really cold, you know.”

  “Oh please, Damian, don’t tell me you just figured that out.”

  Kat walked away and followed the trail down to the little stream. Kneeling, she cupped the fresh water into her hands and took a little sip. It was cool and tasted untainted. Of course, she couldn’t be absolutely sure. Some poisons had no taste. She splashed the rest over her face and neck.

  A black boot came into her frame of vision. She glanced up while Hades wrapped a white kerchief around his head.

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  She stood up and rubbed her wet hands on her shirt. “I think she’ll be more trouble than she’s worth.”

  “Maybe.” He bent down and splashed water over his face and head.

  “I’m sorry, Hades, I just can’t believe in ghoulies. She must have been born that way.”

  He picked up a rock and skipped it across the water. “Radiation can do a lot of damage. Mutations are normal. You know that. It’s just been in the last twenty years that the cattle have been normal. When I was a kid I saw a cow give birth to a two-headed calf.”

  She chuckled. “Did you get to name it?”

  He stood up and wiped at his face. “I didn’t get a chance. It went nuts and tried to tear me apart.” He turned his arm over. A long white scar dissected his forearm, from elbow to wrist. “It also had fangs. I had to stab it in the throat with a stick before it ripped me apart.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Nine.”

  Kat looked up from his injury to his face to study him for a moment. There was more to him than she realized. More than she wanted to imagine. The thought made her uncomfortable and she dropped her gaze to stare across the stream.

  “Sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “That you didn’t get a chance to have a two-headed cow as a pet.”

  Hades chuckled. “Yeah, that would have been cool.”

  “We should go back and eat, then rest. We’ve got at least six good hours left on the road before we stop to camp.”

  Before she could ascend the hill, Hades touched her arm to halt her movement. “We have to talk about the possibilities. We need to be prepared for anything.”

  “I know.” And that fact caused shivers of dread to race down her spine. There was more than treasure waiting for them in the dark of the Vanquished City.

  * * *

  Hades watched as she scrambled up the embankment. She was a tough and disciplined woman. Her reputation as a hunter was unparalleled even with his own. But behind all that bravado, Hades could still see the fear, the uncertainty. It was the same feeling he had. That the point they were so desperately trying to get to might be the one place that they all secretly feared. Hell itself.

  He never expected to hook up with Kat when he walked into that bar in Burnsbow. His intentions had been to outbid her offer of payment, steal the guide from her and eventually the big score. She had taken him by surprise. He didn’t expect to see a woman like her, with darkly sexy looks and a killer body. Nor did he expect to be completely stunned by everything about her. No woman had had that effect on him before. He was quickly learning that Hell Kat was not just any woman.

  * * *

  Kat glared down at Darquiel as she slept. The girl’s face twitched erratically, and she moaned as if in pain. Damian sat beside her and stroked her hair.

  “We should leave her,” Kat prompted. “She’s too much of a liability.”

  Damian jumped to his feet. “You want to leave her here? She’ll die.”

  “She’ll endanger us all. We could all die because of her…her fragility.”

  “It’s not a flaw, Kat. She can’t help the way she is.”

  “It is a flaw. A detrimental one. There’s no room in this world for weakness, Damian. You of all people should realize that.” Kat regretted the words even before they came spewing out.

  Damian flinched. “You’re right, Kat, as usual. But if it were not for my weakness, whom would you have at your command? No one. My weakness ensures your strength. Remember that.”

  Pain flashed across Damian's pale, angular, face. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. He’d been nothing but loyal to her. A lover and a friend. He didn’t deserve her cold appraisal. Neither did the frail, sickly, girl groaning at his feet. But she could not allow them to jeopardize the mission.

  The Monolith was her link to the freedom she craved. The freedom to escape the desolate wastelands and find her way up north to a cleaner, more sanit
ized way of life. To find her daughter.

  Together they could find a place to settle down in a little cabin in the middle of forgotten land. Where disease and violence had, long ago, evaporated in the cool fresh air of a land reborn. But this dream cost money. And the Monolith would grant her those riches.

  Damian sat back down beside Darquiel and continued to caress her sweaty brow. As he murmured soft words to her, her face calmed and her twitching ceased.

  “If you leave her, I’m staying, too,” Damian stammered.

  Watching him with Darquiel produced a strange twinge in Kat’s gut. Was this jealousy? Damian had never touched her like that. Never murmured soft words or touched her with such tenderness. She supposed she had never let him. Her brick walls were erected high and thick. No one had ever gotten in.

  “Fine. Keep your pet. But she’s your responsibility.”

  Kat picked up her pack and found another spot to hunker down in the shade, away from Damian, distancing herself as she always did. Before they continued on their journey, she would require rest. She suspected that she was going to need all her wits and strength if she was going to survive this hunt.

  Chapter Five

  After rest and food, Kat and Hades drove for another six hours, stopping only for water and small bits of dried meat. When the sun went down, they pulled off the road and made camp for the night against a couple of large jagged boulders that blocked out the chilled wind. Kat and Hades each had a small nylon tent. They set them up side by side close to the fire Hades had constructed out of twigs and moss. The smoke stank, but the flames would serve their purpose. The night would get cold, and predators would soon be in search of a hearty meal.

  Kat, Hades, and the others ate dried fruit and meat in silence around the fire. Darquiel seemed to have perked up since the sun went down. She no longer appeared sickly. She was still pale, translucent almost. Glowing would be an exaggeration, but it was close to the truth. Close enough to be unnerving.

  Kat watched her. The girl made her nervous. She was unpredictable with her changes in physical condition, and that made Kat apprehensive and on edge. The attraction that Damian seemed to have for Darquiel, also bothered her. It seemed unnatural. During the time they’d been together, Damian had had other lovers, as had she. The women he usually went for were full-bodied, and empty-headed. This girl was neither. It was possible that he liked her because she was everything Kat was not, pale, delicate, submissive. Maybe their time together had finally ended. Kat was a firm believer that nothing lasted forever.

  After this job, Kat was certain of one thing. Their relationship would never be the same.

  Glancing up, Darquiel caught Kat’s stare, and held it. “Something the matter?”

  “You seem different.”

  “How so?”

  “Bolder, more alive.”

  “The sun makes me…” Darquiel paused, as if searching for the right word. “…sick. At night, I feel much more myself, whole.”

  Kat tossed a stick into the fire, sending sparks up into the air. “It’s more than that. You’re even different from when we saw you in the bar.”

  Darquiel smiled. “Must be the outdoors. Nature obviously agrees with me.”

  “Yes, obviously.” Kat stood. “Time for sleep. We’ll need to be up and gone by sunrise. It’s still another day’s ride until we reach the wastelands. I’ll be first watch.” Picking up her shotgun, she cradled it against her side. She felt more secure with it in her hands.

  Hades pushed to his feet. “Sounds good to me. Wake me in a few hours to relieve you.” He unzipped his tent and crawled in. “Sure you don’t want to join me and let them keep watch?”

  Kat shook her head. “Tempting, but not likely.”

  He winked then did up the flap.

  Damian glanced to the other tent then back to Kat. He studied her for a moment, and then looked away, turning to Darquiel. “I guess we’ll share the other one.”

  They both stood and moved to the nylon structure. Damian unzipped it, and Darquiel crawled in. Before he slid through, he regarded Kat. “G’night.”

  “Sure,” she responded, avoiding his gaze.

  “Kat, I…”

  She put up her hand to stop his next words. She didn’t want to hear any apologies. Regrets only made things more complicated. From day one, she had told him he was free to be with whomever he wanted. That they were not a married couple and never would be. Still, to see him with this particularly woman twisted Kat’s insides.

  Without another word, Damian went through the opening, zipping it up behind him.

  Kat tossed some more sticks onto the waning fire and settled down beside it. She didn’t want to be too comfortable, or she might doze off. The predators in the surrounding trees weren’t the only things that worried her.

  She had a dreadful feeling that their guide, Darquiel, was hiding something. Something that could prove to be more dangerous than any starving, vicious four-legged beast.

  * * *

  Hades startled awake. Sitting up, he strained to listen. Had something outside woken him, or was it the dreams again? He rubbed a hand over his face to scrub away the residuals of the images he had been fighting with for the past few nights. Nightmares. The same ones he’d been having since the night before meeting up with Kat in the bar.

  He replayed the twisted images of his sleeping mind. A dark damp room, lots of blood, and a naked woman hanging in chains from the lofty ceiling. Every time, he could only see her back, but whoever it was, she had the nicest roundest ass he’d ever seen. The dream must have been triggered by having Kat’s leather clad backside against his groin.

  He hoped the dreams weren’t like the others he’d had through his life. His mother used to call him a Dream Seer, because of the premonitions he had as a boy. Hades didn’t believe in spooks, and ghouls, and witchcraft, but he couldn’t deny that as a boy he’d had many dreams of things that did come true. The events didn’t always happen exactly as he imagined, but close enough that he would sometimes fear going to sleep.

  The last one he had was in his thirteenth year, when he had dreamed of his mother. Two months later she died, just as he predicted. Ever since then, having agonized over the pain of his mother’s death, Hades had subconsciously chosen not to believe in his premonitions.

  He rubbed his eyes again. As long as he was awake, he might as well relieve Kat.

  He crawled out onto the ground and studied the fire, noting the low flickering flame in desperate need of attention. Eyes wide and alert, Kat sat cross-legged beside it staring off into the darkness. Moving towards her, he noted the glossy look in her dark blue eyes. A trance, possibly? She hadn’t made any notice of his presence.

  “Kat?” He snapped his fingers in front of her. She didn’t flinch. “Kat!” he repeated close to her ear. Still no response.

  He hunkered down in front of her and searched her face. She stared straight ahead, right through him. Touching her neck, he found her pulse, relieved to discover it strong. Certain drugs could send a person into la-la-land. But this seemed different. It was if she was in a state of suspended animation. He had not heard of anything that could do that.

  “This is going to sting, babe.”

  Hades slapped her hard across the face. As she fell over onto her side, her eyes closed and she went limp. Unsure of what to do, Hades stood over her and frowned. Did he hurt her? He didn’t hit her that hard. She had taken worse he was sure.

  Bending over, he touched her on the shoulder and shook her. “Kat?”

  Her eyes flashed open and she grabbed his hand. While she sat up, she twisted his wrist into an impossible position. Cringing from the pain, Hades dropped to his knees.

  “Kat, it’s me, Hades.”

  She looked at him, eyes focusing, and then she narrowed them and wriggled her jaw back and forth. “You hit me.”

  “I had to. You were in some sort of trance.”

  “What time is it?”

  “At least three hours has
gone by since you’ve been on watch.”

  Abruptly, Kat let go of his wrist. “Are you sure?”

  He examined the clear night sky, and nodded. “Pretty sure.”

  Jumping to her feet, Kat rushed over to Damian’s tent. She unzipped the flap and stuck her head in to find it empty.

  “They’re gone.”

  Hades peered into the opening. “Maybe they went for a walk. For privacy.”

  “Possibly. But someone put a hex on me, and I don’t think it was Damian.”

  She picked up her shotgun and slung it over her shoulder. Before she could march into the outlining trees, Hades grabbed her arm, pulling her back.

  “You’re going to get someone killed.”

  She yanked her arm away. “Yes, that’s the whole idea.”

  “What if Damian gets in the way? Do you want to kill him, too?”

  Kat stared up at him, her brow furrowed.

  “Well?” Hades prompted.

  “I’m thinking.”

  “Damn it, Kat. I’m going in first. You follow behind. I will assess the situation and determine the best course of action.”

  “Like hell you will.” She pushed past him.

  He grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back. She yelped indignantly. “You will do as I say, or you will wish you never met me.”

  “I already do.”

  Pulling her head down, he stared into her upturned face. Her full parted lips begged him to kiss her. She was the most aggravating and sexiest woman he had ever met.

  “Liar.” He pushed her away.

  Kat rubbed her head and frowned. “You didn’t have to pull so hard.”

  Before he entered the trees, Hades turned and grinned. “Yes, I did.”

  They crept through the trees, listening for any sign of Damian and Darquiel. Kat was unsure which way they went, but the woods were not that large. She and Hades would easily be able to cover every inch of it before sunrise. If Damian and Darquiel were in there, they’d find them.

  As Hades scanned the surrounding area, she watched him. She resented his earlier assessment but had to agree. She was angry and would let her emotions dictate the outcome of any altercation. If Damian got in the way of her attack on Darquiel, she might not kill him, but she would surely injure him.