by Peach, Hanna
“I do believe we are now even,” Jordan said as he stepped to Alyx’s side to face the last Darkened. “Which makes him the tiebreaker.”
“No, don’t kill him,” Alyx said as she eyed the Darkened’s Black Stone blade in the last Darkened’s hand. “He’s one of Samyara’s. He may know where Mini is being held.”
Alyx heard the Darkened swear. Then he turned on his heel and began to run. Alyx looked at Jordan.
“Do you want to fetch him or shall I?” he asked.
“I’ll fetch him. I don’t trust that you won’t accidentally kill him just to get a win.”
He made an indignant sound. “I would never… actually, I would. But so would you.”
“Fine. We’ll both get him.”
They both launched at the runaway Darkened. He hadn’t managed three more steps before Alyx had disarmed him and Jordan held him from behind. Alyx stepped in front of the Darkened. The demon underneath – green-skinned and horned – had chosen a gruff-looking bearded man. Alyx guessed that he had been in his mid-forties before he was turned, from the lines around his dark brown eyes now crinkled with anger.
He spat at her. “I ain’t saying shit.”
Alyx scraped the spit off her shirt with her blood-stained dagger, then smeared the side of her blade against his cheek. The mix of blood and spit leaving a dark pink brand. “Tell me where Samyara took the girl.”
“I’m not scared of you,” the Darkened growled. “Go on, kill me.”
Alyx frowned, remembering what Passar had said to her when he had been revealed as a traitor.
“Demons don’t die. No, no. When their host bodies are killed the demon gets sucked right back into hell. Then they brush themselves off and come right back to earth in another human host.”
Could what Passar said be true?
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Alyx said, not letting on to the Darkened that she was testing him. “Then you’d get a cushy little trip back to Hell where you can then find another mortal to worm your way back to earth.”
The Darkened’s eyes widened as if surprised at her knowledge. He had given her the answer. Passar had been telling the truth. While the mortal host died, the demon survived.
“Aren’t you a smarty pants,” the Darkened said, his voice thick with sarcasm.
Jordan tightened his grip on the man, causing him to grunt. “Be polite to the lady.”
“She ain’t no lady.”
“Damn straight, I’m no lady.” Alyx pressed the end of her blade to the Darkened’s throat. She lowered her voice so it oozed out like blood. “I can make you wish you were dead.”
He swallowed, causing his Adam’s apple to roll down against the blade tip. A small line of blood appeared.
“Now, you will tell us where Samyara is hiding her.”
The Darkened’s face twisted into a snarl. “Or you’ll what? Torture me? If you hurt me, you hurt the mortal, remember? Then when I leave this body… he’ll be the one who has to recover. Are you prepared to do that?”
Alyx froze as her mind went over all the Darkened they had just killed… all those mortals whose lives they just took. All those wasted lives. And for what? She shook these thoughts off. What choice did they have?
The Darkened looked smug. “Fool. Wasting your pity on these wretched humans.”
“Then go. Leave this body and go back to where you came from.” She leaned forward, her voice a growl, “You tell Samyara that if he touches one little hair on her body, so help me God…”
The Darkened laughed. “Even God can’t help you now.”
His face began to shake and blur underneath his skin. A wretched howling came from deep within the depths of the Darkened’s mouth.
“What the hell is happening?” cried Jordan. He leaned his body away as he continued to grip the Darkened.
A black light burst from the man’s eyes and ears and mouth and from under his clothes. Alyx had to shield her eyes against this inhuman glare. Through her squinted vision she could see ghostly faces reaching out from his eyes and mouth, twisting their demented mouths and clutching their spindly arms out towards her as if to drag her back to Hell with them. Her stomach turned.
* * *
He watched from within his fleshy prison as this dark angel, dressed in black – black like night, like dried blood, like death – leaned forward, pressing the tip of her blade to his throat. He felt the blade but he couldn’t react to it. But the Evil could.
Yes, he screamed, but nobody heard him. Nobody saw him kicking at nothing, screaming, kicking. Yes, please kill me. Please, release me.
But she couldn’t hear him. No one could.
She spoke, “You tell Samyara that if he touches one little hair on her body, so help me God…”
The Evil who now owned him laughed. It was his laughter, sounding so familiar and odd coming from his mouth. But it wasn’t his laughter and it wasn’t his mouth anymore.
The Evil spoke, “Even God can’t help you now.”
God definitely stopped helping him long ago. He had stopped deserving God’s help long before that.
He felt a shockwave exploding through his body and a searing heat as if his soul had been cast into an open inferno. Then the noise started – the screams and crying – and the anguish. He felt every life his Evil had taken while controlling his body dripping through his essence like melting candlewax. Every single one of their screams for him to stop was like a jagged claw against his body. He felt the torment sutured under his skin.
He prayed he was dying.
Then he felt the searing pain suck away. And the screams and the cries and the noise faded until they were whispers. He sagged and he felt the strong arms of the one who held him lowering him to the dirt. The dark angel kneeled down in front of him.
“The demon’s gone,” he heard her say.
Yes, the Evil had gone from him. But he wasn’t alone in here. The faded screams and bitter whispers of those that the Evil had taken remained in here with him. He would never be left alone in here.
He blacked out.
* * *
“The demon’s gone,” Alyx said as she knelt by the mortal. “We need to take him back with us. We may be able to get information from him about Samyara.”
Jordan nodded. Then looking around he said, “Let’s collect the Black Stone blades and see what else we can find on them. Then we can clean up the mess.”
Alyx checked her ribs. She had most of an Animale mark, parts of WaterBearer, AirWhisperer and EarthSifter, a sliver of FireTwirler and some of Moloko’s undiluted MirageWeaver blood left. “I barely have any FireTwirler left.”
“Burn what you can. I’ll do the rest,” Jordan said as he moved to the closest corpse. “I have Tobias’ Firestick.”
Alyx knelt by a Darkened body. She tried to not look at his face. He seemed too mortal now. She grabbed his discarded blade and hooked it onto her belt. She began to rummage through his pockets.
“So… thanks. For saving my life and all.” Alyx sent a quick smile over to Jordan.
He paused his own rummaging and looked up at her, a satisfied smile on his face. “And thanks. For saving mine. We make a good team, you know.”
“I know.”
“But I still won.”
Alyx burst into a mock outrage. “Seven levels of hell you did. It was a tie. Five and five.”
“I look forward to the tie-breaker then.”
“You were a Castus when you were in Michaelea, but you fight like a warrior. Where did you learn to fight?”
“Vix. She taught me everything I know. Then I taught her a thing or two.” He winked at Alyx.
She shook her head in amusement as she used the last of her FireTwirler mark on the Darkened body. If she didn’t already know that Vix was deeply in love with Xiang, she may have taken his bravado to heart.
The flickering of the Hell’s Fire sign caught her eye. Alyx frowned and stared at the bar entrance as something occurred to her. “Jordan, did you wond
er why nobody else came out of the bar even after we made all that noise outside?”
Jordan froze. “Most mortals want to stay out of a fight…” His voice trailed off as if he himself didn’t believe what he was saying. He frowned at the door, then glanced back at her. She nodded and as they stood in unison, unsheathed their blades.
They moved silently to the door, epileptic music still blaring through the gaps. Jordan stood to the left side, Alyx to the right.
“Ready?” he mouthed.
She nodded.
In one swift move, Jordan kicked the door of the bar open and stormed inside, Alyx close behind him. She almost bumped into him when he stopped.
“Jesus Christ,” he hissed.
Chapter 7
Mason strode through his station, weaving around Alyx’s supernatural friends who spilled across the platforms in clumps. There must be at least twenty of them or more. He ground his teeth. Supplies would not last if they had to keep feeding these people. And he had already met some resistance from his men, who were upset that he couldn’t give them a proper answer to who these people were and who they were running from. The only thing holding his men at bay from kicking all these newcomers out was their fondness for Alyx and Israel. He had to talk to Alyx.
He knocked on the door of Israel’s compartment and stuck his head in. “Alyx?” But she still wasn’t there. He had checked about a half an hour ago and she hadn’t been there. Mason frowned. Odd. That girl hadn’t left Israel’s side for more than five minutes since they had arrived here.
A wail caught his attention. He spun towards the station to see a ratty-looking female supernatural moving towards him. Her arms were outstretched and she was crying… Israel’s name?
She was going to attack Israel. Mason stood his ground in front of Israel’s compartment door as she reached him. “Get out of my way.” To Mason’s horror, she rose off the ground so she could claw at his face. Mason grabbed her wrists before she could scratch him. Mason pushed at her so that she was forced back onto the ground.
He glanced around to see whether anyone had noticed her momentary flight. There were a few faces that turned themselves away. Hopefully these men would ignore what they just saw or think that their eyes were fooling them. He then caught the wide eyes of Terrapin, the largest and tallest of his men, a giant south-Pacific Islander whose life had been spared by Alyx. Terrapin averted his eyes quickly enough. For once Mason was thankful that Terrapin couldn’t speak.
“Calm down, blasted woman,” he said to the female who continued to struggle against him.
“Israel, my love, Israel. You must let me go back to him. He needs me.”
Mason frowned. What was this woman talking about? Who was she? And why the hell did she call Israel her love?
He noticed Tobias was running over.
“Oh my God,” Tobias said as he reached him. “Did she touch your head?”
Mason shook his head.
“Thank Heavens.”
Mason turned his eyes from Tobias to the female struggling uselessly against his grip. “What would she have done to me? Wait, I don’t want to know.”
She gurgled incoherently.
Tobias shook his head. “She is not right in her head. She usually isn’t this much trouble but… it must be the new surroundings, the stress of what we’ve been through… I should have known better than to let her wander around here. I’m sorry.”
“No harm done… yet.”
“We should have her contained. To avoid any more… outbursts.”
Mason nodded and began to drag the female towards the back of the station. “I’ll put her in the cage next to Adere.”
Chapter 8
Alyx stood frozen as she stared around Jordan at the inside of the bar, everything bathed in a harsh red light. A small strobe light was flickering in one corner, casting the scene in a series of horrid snapshots. There were mortals, over a dozen of them, all thrown in various prone positions with too much of their flesh exposed. The floor of the bar was covered with torn pieces of clothing and what looked like blood. There was a distinct smell of fresh vomit underneath the worn-in musk of stale beer and smoke.
Jordan pointed his knife at the bar and gave Alyx a flick of his head. She nodded and they began to move towards it. There was a body sprawled over the bar-top, his bare ass and legs hanging over the side. Several empty glass, one broken, and several more sticky shot glasses sat in a thin film of brown liquid that was already staining the wood where the lacquer had been rubbed away.
She waited at her end of the bar as Jordan moved to the other end. On Jordan’s motion, they both leapt over the bar, swords first. But there was just another dead mortal laying across the floor like a used rug.
Alyx and Jordan checked the toilets and the staff room before returning to the main bar. Jordan threw a knife at the black boxy sound system behind the bar. There was a zapping noise and sparks as the system shorted it out, leaving the bar in a deathly silence that rang in Alyx’s ears.
“That music was doing my head in,” he said in a low voice. “Plus, now we can hear anyone sneaking up on us.”
Alyx nodded. “Have you seen anything like this before?”
Jordan shook his head as he began to move to the closest mortal, a woman, kneeled over face down, with pale skin and beautiful green fish tattooed up her arms flung out in front of her, as if she were trying to claw away. Her bare ass had bloody handprints on them. Jordan crouched by her, brushed her hair, sweaty and matted, out of the way and felt for a pulse.
Pulse. Yes. She should check to see if any of them were alive. Alyx moved, albeit a little numbly, around to where a dark-skinned man was slumped. She saw his face, mouth slack and wooden eyes staring at nothing and knew before she reached him that he was dead.
Some moments later, they had checked all the bodies. They were all dead. Alyx was about to speak when the wail of sirens sounded outside.
Police. Mortal police.
Jordan swore. He grabbed her and pulled her down, out of sight. There was a screech of tires, and flashes of blue ebbed through the small barred windows and broken door, causing purple patches of color when mixing with the red light inside.
“Dammit,” Alyx hissed. “The survivor, the bodies outside, the blades.”
“We don’t have time to worry about that, Alyx. If they catch us they’ll want to arrest us. We don’t have time for that and I don’t want to have to fight them.”
Neither did she. If they had to fight against the police there would be casualties and she didn’t want to hurt these mortals.
“Staff entrance out the back,” Jordan hissed as he pushed her forward. “Go.”
They ran, crouched over, across the bar. She burst through the door into the small laneway at the back, Jordan behind her. The stench of the large industrial sized bin by the wall hit her in the face along with the cool air.
As they flew up into the blackened sky, Alyx couldn’t help a look back towards the carnage they were leaving behind.
* * *
Alyx was grumbling as she moved alongside Jordan through the safety of the Saint Joseph underground. “That was the messiest, most unprepared take-down of a Darkened nest ever.”
Her mind was ticking over the events that just happened, assessing each move they made, where they went wrong. Somebody must have heard them fighting and called the cops. Well, really. Almost a dozen dead bodies all over the street wasn’t very discreet, was it? Of course somebody noticed.
Dammit, they should have been faster with their search of the bar. They should have put a mirage up. They should have killed the Darkened quicker. They bloody shouldn’t have tried to take on so many with just the two of them in the first place. If that had been a patrole under Symon’s orders, things would have turned out much differently.
“We killed that nest of Darkened. And we got away,” Jordan said. “That’s the important bit.”
“We didn’t even dispose of all the Darkened bodies.”
&
nbsp; “So the mortals have the bodies. It’s not like they can prove anything about what they were.”
Alyx was barely listening to him. “And what about those blades that we lost?”
“At least the Darkened don’t have them now.”
“We never should have taken them on all on our own. We should have assessed the situation first and then—”
Jordan turned and grabbed her arm, startling her. “Jesus, Alyx. You’re not a lightwarrior anymore and that wasn’t patrole. Out here, right now, there are no rules, no precedence for whatever the hell is going on. We’re playing this by ear. It got messy. Deal with it. But we got out, alive. And we sent some of those damned creatures back to Hell. Right now, we need to take whatever win we can.”
Alyx stared at him. His forehead furrowed deeply and she could see the emotions behind those words swirling in his green eyes. Had they ever looked more complex and expressive, and… beautiful? “I-I’ve never seen you upset before.”
His grip on her arm loosened as he pressed his lips together. Then he snatched his hand away as if he just realized what he was doing. “I’m sorry. I just… I don’t know what came over me. The last few days…”
“It’s okay. I understand.”
He looked sheepishly at her as he took back her arm, holding it gently this time and studying it. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No.”
He didn’t move to take his hands away and she didn’t move to take her arm back either. His touch was soothing.
Alyx let a small smile loose on her lips. “I kinda like you this way.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What way?”
“All rage-y and emotional. You never show what you’re feeling.”
“It doesn’t serve anyone if I show my emotions off.”
She was beginning to understand this Rogue. He wasn’t cold and distant. He just couldn’t show his emotions. She understood what it was like to fear appearing weak.