by Chloe Garner
“Standard rules,” Samantha said. “You draw blood, you lose. Got it?”
Kelly nodded and Jason shrugged, more feeling his weight than agreement. Samantha nodded and Sam pulled himself into a vision, stepping back to be able to see all four of them. He snugged up his grip on his awareness of Samantha and they both settled into the light sense of mutual control that they used to direct each other’s motion and simultaneously follow instruction. Jason launched the first tentative attack and Lahn and Anadidd’na rang against each other. Sam took a pair of steps sideways to cover her back without getting in the way as Kelly squared off against him. He wasn’t sure what he expected out of the skinny angel, but he knew he’d never hear the end of it if he embarrassed himself. He’d seen slighter demons demonstrate lethal cunning; he kept his guard up, widening his awareness of the fight to cover all four of them and bending time to give himself time to process the details.
Almost as soon as metal struck metal, Samantha and Jason were twisted in a vicious exchange. Sam kept his feet moving to stay behind her, not wanting Jason to get a cheap shot on him as Kelly circled at a wider radius. Sam kept the hatchet out, level, and Wrath low by his thigh. Samantha braced him subtly, warning him that Kelly would surprise him if he gave him a chance. Sam tightened the distance between himself and Samantha to its absolute minimum, leaving no room for the angel to glitch in between them without being an easy stab.
Kelly glitched to Sam’s elbow and Sam ducked forward, feeling the air move above his head as the curved blade the angel wielded went over him. He twisted, cutting across with the hatchet, and the angel disappeared. He had his balance still, and anticipated that the angel would hop to his other side, looking for exposed skin, but Wrath was there defensively. Instead, Kelly backed back out, not pressing the advantage he should have thought he had. He should have had, if it weren’t for Sam’s experience fighting demons. Sam didn’t come out of his crouch, sliding over another half step to cover Samantha. The kid didn’t know how to use his ability to glitch to fight. He was going to have to recalibrate his assumptions.
Metal clashed against metal behind him as Samantha and Jason both refused to give ground. Kelly stalked. Sam covered.
Samantha was bending time as hard as he was, and in a fractional moment that he waited for, he called her attention to the building gathering of demons across the vacant store from them. She set him humor and resignation. It wasn’t like they were trying to be secretive with what they could do. Let them enjoy the show.
Kelly darted in and out twice more, and Sam blocked. He realized the kid wasn’t bending time. He had the advantage of being able to jump across space, but he broadcast where he was going to end up before he glitched by moving his body in anticipation of where he was going to hit Sam. After the third attempt, it was possible he could have gotten a hit in by feinting where he was going to try, Sam was so confident predicting it and blocking preemptively. It didn’t seem to occur to him.
Shaking his head in frustration, Kelly stepped into him, arm sweeping an overhead arc that showed commitment. This was what he knew how to do; the rest had been experimentation.
Sam blocked and went for a stomach gash with Wrath, but Kelly spun away, bringing his blade down toward Sam’s shoulder. Sam twisted, taking stock of where Samantha was in her fight with Jason and adapting to keep his back to her. He was a little out of position, but not much. He tugged her back, a suggestion if she got the opportunity. She answered with a small step back that Jason read as ceding ground. She punished him with a trio of hard blows that he was off-balance to answer, and he stepped back away, recollecting himself and going at her again. Both of them were sweating, where Sam and Kelly were still just feeling each other out, though Kelly was after Sam now with a sequence of smooth, practiced motions that Sam let go by, simply enjoying the artistry of them.
He deflected the next, looking for a window to put the angel off-balance for a strike, but Kelly was truly in his element, now, and Sam wasn’t the expert he would need to be to better him. He was happy with just keeping up, looking for a mistake. Samantha and Jason rained blows on each other, but neither had scored yet. Samantha was tiring. Jason was stronger than she was, and he bent time as well as she did. Sam thought that the extra reach Jason got out of Anadidd’na helped, but he wasn’t sure, and he wasn’t going to ask Samantha. It was too close to suggesting Lahn was inferior.
Sam was giving steps now, and Samantha was having to push Jason back to keep their spacing where they both wanted it. Eventually she gave up, taking a step to the side to give Sam room to back up without running into her. She started correcting his motions as he came into her view, and he corrected hers with the broader view he had of Jason. For a few minutes, Jason started to lose ground, and Sam halted Kelly, but it wouldn’t hold. Samantha tugged at Sam that she had a plan, and she rolled calm over him. Just go with it. He dropped his resistance further and she pulled his foot out too far so that when he tried to step next, his toe caught and he stumbled forward.
The world moved with a glasslike slowness as he tipped. Samantha’s mind worked as fast as his did, and she suppressed his jerk reaction to steady himself. Jason saw it and altered his attack at Samantha, looking instead for a kill against Sam. Sam felt Samantha crow victory and he mentally laughed. Kelly was bearing down on him, as well, and he focused on getting his weapons clear of where he was going to land - embarrassing to stab himself, falling during an exercise like this - a simple, third-party spectator to Samantha’s win. Samantha spun out and behind Jason, drawing Lahn across his neck as he took his killing stroke at Sam, then, as Kelly drove his sword point-down toward Sam, Sam rolled to the side, and the blade missed him by a fraction of an inch. Kelly stood up with Lahn’s dual points sharp in his back.
“Dead and dead,” Samantha said, grinning.
“You guys actually set that up?” Jason asked, running his hand along his throat. Sam sat up, rolling his shoulder.
“Told you,” Samantha said. She was breathless, high on the win. Jason clapped Kelly on the shoulder.
“You’re not bad, kid.”
“He should be good,” Samantha said. “He did train with the best.”
Kelly ducked his head in acknowledgment. There was a smattering of applause from the other end of the store, and Jason looked over.
“Hell,” he said. “When did they get there?”
“Been there the whole time,” Sam said. The numbers had grown to include most of Argo’s people who weren’t directly involved in closing the gate.
“Back to work,” Argo roared, rounding the corner and walking directly toward them. “Everyone working.”
He stopped a dozen paces off.
“Including you,” he said. Samantha’s careful control was slow.
“Really,” she said. “Tell me exactly what it is you’d like us to be doing, and we’ll go do it.” She paused. “Yeah, there’s nothing to do, Argo. We were all just sitting around.”
“Insubordinate, spoiled, weak-willed woman,” Argo raged at her, coming closer. “You may be one of us by a technicality, but in my range, you are my subordinate, and you will act like it.”
Samantha sneered.
“You have no authority over me.”
She pushed Sam away as Argo charged, and Sam grabbed Jason as Argo drew a thick longsword. She was relieved. This had been building for too long.
“It’s okay,” he said. “She’s not in danger.”
“Stay close anyway,” Lange said, materializing from nowhere. There was a loud crack of metal against metal, and then a furious exchange of blows. Samantha seemed to be as angry as Argo. Kelly flitted around, too close, but staying out of range. Jason’s eyes were sharp on the exchange, and Lange’s face was tight. Sam dropped back into a vision to be able to see everything, slowing time some to improve his response time if he needed it.
It was over as fast as it started. Argo threw Samantha back and stood staring at her. Sam felt Samantha’s temptation to re-engage,
but she stood where she had landed, on her toes, ready, but not provoking him any further. Without a word, Argo spun and left and Samantha glanced at Jason.
“I’m fine.”
“You were holding back against me,” he said. She shook her head.
“He pushes me harder.”
“Damn,” Lange said. “I haven’t seen anyone push his buttons like that in a long time. That was worth the price of the plane ticket.”
Samantha waved him off, bending over her knees.
“I’m just glad we’re going to be done tonight.”
<><><>
In the end, the gate closed with a soft pop, and they found themselves standing in the middle of a profound expanse of dried blood.
“What are you going to do about the blood?” Jason asked. “Stage a cult event?”
Argo was standing in the middle of the room, next to the mostly-demolished building.
“Burn it,” he called.
“Burn it?” Jason asked, leaning in to Samantha. “How? Are we just going to burn the whole place? I’m not sure it’ll go up right.”
Sam was trying not to stare at Samantha. Something was wrong, and he didn’t know what it was. Looking at her was a tell, though, and neither of them liked the involuntary checks they had somehow grown into the habit of, over the last months.
“No,” she answered, her voice soft. The workers stopped, and those of them with the ability glitched out. Argo turned to look at her.
“What did you say?”
“I won’t.”
He walked across the rust-colored floor and stopped in front of her, too-big cargo pants dusty and bloody, and his chest slick with a film of sweat.
“Say that again,” he said.
“I said I won’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t anymore.”
“You have the power. Don’t lie to me and say you don’t.”
“It’s a party trick for demons, Argo. I won’t.”
She didn’t feel as defiant as she sounded. He had surprised her.
“What does he want?” Jason asked.
“She has hellfire in her,” Argo said. “It will burn off the blood and leave the building. No one will ever know we’ve been here.”
“I haven’t done it since I left New York the first time,” she said. “I don’t want to.”
Argo’s mouth pulled in, suppressing anger.
“You look me in the eye and tell me it’s not the right plan, we’ll do something else,” he said. “But you’ll be wrong. You’ll be lying.”
Samantha closed her eyes.
“I’m not doing a party trick for a bunch of demons.”
Argo drew breath, and she held up a hand.
“Send them home.”
He blinked surprise, then stepped back.
“Everything born of Hell, gone. Now,” he roared. Samantha reached up and touched Sam’s face, and he closed his eyes, hopping out to check. The building was empty of demons. The closest one he found was a skinny, worn-out fire demon standing next to an interstate. He opened his eyes and nodded, and she sighed.
“I need music.”
They followed her out of the mall and to the Cruiser. Jason drove them to the loading dock and into the building. She had him stop before he reached the radius of blood. He left the key on, and she powered up her laptop and started up music. It one of her favorite groups, rock, with a dance beat underneath it. She went and sat on the ground, head low, grooving to the music.
“Clear everyone out,” she said.
A chain of yells went through the mall and one by one, people came to stand with Sam, Jason, and Argo. Lange was the last.
“Anyone else in there deserves it,” Argo said. “Do it.”
“Turn up my music,” she said. Sam went and boosted the volume as high as it would go. She rocked evenly to the beat, still sitting cross-legged on the floor, and then slowly rose, hands out, flat. Jason looked at Sam, and he shook his head. He hadn’t figured it out. She spun slowly on her toes hands palm-up.
“I’ve heard of this,” Kelly whispered to Sam. “I didn’t know anyone alive still knew how to do it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Flame dancing.”
The music transitioned, and Samantha closed her hands and flicked the fingers off the palms, like striking a pair of matches. In one palm, there was a flame, several inches tall, of bright white, and in the other palm one of black. Argo’s people whispered, and Jason edged into Sam.
“You seen her do this?”
“No.”
She turned, eyes closed, moving with the music, then turned over the palm with the white flame, and the floor split, shooting radiant white flame up toward her hand. She turned over the other hand and pointed, and a line of black shot out away from her curling around. She pointed at the ground, one, two, three, four, with the music, then tipped her head back and turned, and black and white flame raced in curling forms away from her, dotted along with white. It hurt Sam’s eyes to watch. She was bracing herself for something, and his instincts told him to get back. Her focus, already, was about as intense as he had ever known it to be, and what came next was harder.
The music reached a pause point, and the lines of flame dropped dead, revealing plain, unscorched cement floor around her. She turned her back to the assembly, facing the pattern of black and white flames gathered along the edge of the blood. She put her hands up in front of her, palms up, and then turned them out and gave a pushing motion. The flames raced into the structure, turning cherry red as they hit the blood. White and black alike turned the same color as Kelly’s blood, and Sam put up his hand to shield his eyes. The flames grew, burning high, radiating in converging patterns that eventually closed. Everything Sam could see was in flames, but he felt no heat. Samantha held up her hands above her head as the music grew to its final peak, and he felt the enormous strain she endured, controlling the fires. With artistic abruptness, the song fell silent, and Samantha dropped her hands. The flames extinguished, and where the floor had been mopped with blood, there was no sign of the stains. She’d burnt it off.
“Did you get all the way through the building?” Argo asked.
“No, I figured I’d leave a few spots so I’d have to go do them separately,” Samantha snapped. “We’re going. Thank you for your help.”
She turned down the music and slammed the back door of the Cruiser behind her. Sam realized that Kelly was still standing next to him.
“Better go get in,” he murmured to the angel, then turned to Argo.
“I guess we’re leaving,” Jason said. “Hope we don’t run into you any time soon.”
Argo folded his arms.
“Same to you.”
“Thank you,” Sam said. Argo grunted, and Sam jogged around to the passenger door on the Cruiser. Kelly was in the back seat next to Samantha, who was exhausted but satisfied. She did look like she wanted to kick Kelly and make him go be somewhere else so she could lay across the seat, but she kept her knees bent. Jason started the engine.
“Where to?”
“Kansas City,” Samantha said. “We’ve got people to go see.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jason said, putting the car in gear and backing out of the loading docks. Sam looked back at Samantha as she started to nod off.
“You should call Doris,” she said, shifting. “She’ll be glad to know we’re coming.”
<><><>
The house in Kansas City felt like home after a long time away. Doris greeted them at the door, and Carson was there, holding Samantha for longer than made Sam happy. They found Tanner in the living room. He muttered something about too many people standing around the door, but the hug he gave Sam was emphatic.
“It’s good to see you, man,” he said.
“You, too,” Sam said.
They passed Kelly off as one of Samantha’s contacts from New York, and no one asked many more questions. Sam wondered what guesses they made about him
.
Doris held Jason’s arm in hers and wouldn’t let go of him. They all politely pretended not to notice her crying.
“Tell us,” she said, sitting Jason on the couch next to her. “Tell us what happened.”
Jason gave them the short, optimistic version of the story, where things had never really gotten that bad and he’d been plotting his clever escape the whole time. He didn’t mention time shear or dying at all.
“Sam and Sam were convinced you were dead,” Doris said. Jason shrugged.
“It was a trick.”
She brushed herself off and stood.
“Well, I’m going to get started on dinner. Krista is going to be here in the morning.” She smiled to herself as she left. “I’m going to have a full house.”
Carson was sitting at Samantha’s feet, and he looked up at her.
“So let’s have the real story, now.”
“What?” Jason asked. “That was the truth.”
“You’re going to tell me that they left you sitting in a room for six months, and in all that time she and Sam couldn’t find you?”
“They thought I was dead,” Jason said. “You know that.”
Carson turned, looking up at Samantha for a moment before he spoke.
“You didn’t stop looking, did you?”
She pressed her lips, hiding a smile.
“No.”
Carson spun around, leaning back against the chair again.
“So where were you?”
“Big planet,” Jason said. Sam wasn’t sure why Jason was keeping it a secret. Doris, he understood, but not Carson and Tanner. They’d always told the boys everything.
“So they took you out of the country?” Tanner asked. “Why?”
Jason put his arms across the back of the couch and crossed his legs. Sighed.
“Look, guys. It was bad. I’m over it, but I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Sure,” Tanner said.
“Yeah, man,” Carson agreed. Sam was startled. He couldn’t tell if Jason was telling the truth or not. Tanner let it go. Carson looked like he would have backed Tanner up, if he had kept pushing, but didn’t want to do it on his own.