The Tempting

by V J J Dunn

K INGSTON PROVED to be a breeding ground for insanity. It wasn’t as chaotic as the riots had been, with the fires and rapes and people running around screaming, but it was possibly worse.

  Instead of the mayhem, it was deathly quiet. As the Remnants watched from the edge of the town, it appeared that the place was deserted. But then they noticed people, adults and children, aimlessly stumbling around. They weren’t interacting with each other, weren’t speaking or even making any sounds.

  In fact, they seemed to be in a daze.

  It reminded Allie of the fictional zombie movies from the Old Age. They were just staring blankly ahead, moving toward what looked like no real destination, practically bouncing off one another blindly when they’d cross paths.

  And, admittedly, it was kind of funny to watch.

  “I’m assuming it’s a demon illusion,” Allie told the others. “While our uniforms will protect us from most of their special abilities, we need to watch out for them.”

  “Where is Alejandro supposed to be?” Robin asked from Allie’s side.

  Allie shrugged. Usually she had some sort of an idea where their “target” might be, but that was when they were looking for a “Judas,” a sinner. Now that they were seeking a “friendly,” she wasn’t sure where to start.

  “Not really sure,” she admitted as she glanced at her second. Robin’s sharp eyes were taking in the area, as if she were trying to see Alejandro through the buildings’ walls. Allie watched her for a moment. She seemed more at ease now that Ed wasn’t breathing down her neck. Of course, he wasn’t far away, and his dark chocolate eyes were on Robin.

  Allie had told the teams that they would no longer separate in the towns when they were called out on assignments, but the individual teams would remain together while within the larger group. She’d reassigned the teams too, because of couples like Robin and Ed — and, she admitted only to herself, she and Nick — so they would be forced to be on different teams. They needed to concentrate on their surroundings, and fighting if need be, and not on each other.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “You all know as much as I do. He could be anywhere here,” she muttered as she looked around the city that was thankfully a lot smaller than some of the others in the Zone. She shrugged and looked back at the others who were staring at her, awaiting instructions and frowned when she realized the angels hadn’t appeared.

  Why didn’t Abba send them to help us?

  Allie sighed. Zad and Metatron were the team leaders for B and C teams, which meant that those two teams would be on their own without the angels.

  Judging by the non-violent mindless zombies, maybe they aren’t needed.

  “Since there aren’t any demons pouring out of buildings, I guess we can spread out and search. But stay within earshot!” she instructed as the teams started to move out in different directions.

  Allie didn’t miss the way Ed looked back at Robin as he moved off with B Team, like he was torn over leaving her behind.

  “Eyes on your own team, Eduardo,” Allie called with amusement.

  “Yeah, move along, Eddie,” Robin called when her husband turned reluctantly and stomped off.

  “Whew, it’ll definitely be nice not to have to stare at his back the whole time we’re here. The guy never lets me go anywhere that he hasn’t cleared first. Super annoying.”

  Allie patted her on the back as they moved toward the nearest building. It was surprisingly better built than most of the buildings in the Zone. In fact, Allie thought as she looked around, most of the buildings here look sturdier. It was an oddity, for sure.

  She motioned for the team to search the rooms on the first floor and, per their training, they broke off in groups of four.

  The first room her group came to wasn’t occupied, neither was the second. Nor the third. In fact, Allie was starting to think the building was abandoned. All the residents must have been outside, wandering around with no real direction.

  When they got to the top floor, six stories up, they found a woman in one of the rooms. She looked like she’d been sick, judging by the various things on the table by the bed. Empty bottles, half-full glasses, dirty plates. It reminded Allie so much of the time she’d been a little girl when her mother had been dying of cancer that it shocked her for a moment.

  The odor in the room told them that the woman was no longer among the living and the group was fascinated to see a dead body. Allie didn’t really blame them; it was something they never got to see, since death wasn’t something that happened often in The City or the Gardens. And the few times they’d had to dole out a death sentence for a murderer, the person’s body had instantly disintegrated after being hit with a full-power bolt from a sword.

  Allie had absolutely no desire to see that up close and personal, so she stayed in the hall. She thought about how strange it was for someone to die from a sickness, even in the Zone. In the new age, their bodies were heartier, stronger and as far as Allie knew, all diseases had been eradicated.

  But maybe now that The Releasing had occurred, Lucifer had found a way to bring some of those diseases back. She cringed, wondering if cancer would be one of them. It had been horrible to watch her mother waste away with that disease when she’d been too young to know what was going on.

  They hadn’t had money for treatment. When the disease had progressed to the point that her prostitute mother could no longer “work,” they didn’t even have money for food. Allie had taken to begging from the tourists that came to Belize City.

  Sometimes she’d get enough money to buy a basic painkiller to keep her mother as comfortable as possible while she waited for her body to eat itself. Most times, though, she’d have to listen to her mother moan in agony while she cursed everyone she’d ever known while in the throes of her pain.

  Allie had stayed in the house for days after her mother had finally succumbed to the disease. She’d had no idea what to do, where to go. She had been terrified of being alone, although for the better part of a year she basically had been while her mother was bedridden. She’d had to learn how to fend for herself in a scary and dangerous city while still trying to care for a woman who lashed out at her.

  When there was no way Allie could stand the smell of death and decay any longer, and when her stomach started protesting too loudly from the days she’d gone without food, she’d finally left her mother behind.

  So, no, she had no desire to see a dead body.

  Allie was just about to tell the group to move out of the room, when a loud voice rang out through the building. It was a male voice and it was hard to tell where it had come from. Before she could say anything to her group about coming out, they were already in the hall, swords unsheathed and ready for a fight.

  Silently, they moved to the areas they hadn’t searched themselves. The top floor was clear, so the hurried to the floor below. It was on the fifth floor that a group of Remnants could be seen at the end of a long hallway and they seemed to be fighting… nothing.

  But they were going at it… whatever it was. She could see Colette and Ty fighting side-by-side, and Abdel seemed to be helping Kate, who looked like she’d been pushed against the wall and was being held there.

  By some invisible force.

  “What’s going on?” Allie called as their group ran up to the others. Just as soon as the words had left her mouth, though, she was hit in the gut. By nothing. It reminded her of the day they’d gone to Puebla to stop a riot and that freaking demon, Sherone, had been raping a woman. While invisible.

  But this time, there didn’t seem to be anything sexual going on. Thankfully. And while Kate didn’t seem to be getting molested, her face was starting to turn a bit blue, so Allie assumed the girl was being choked.

  Allie stepped toward her teammate, but another blow had her reeling backwards, into the wall behind her. She hit so hard she could hear the plaster crack under her body.

  Shaking off the pain, Allie pushed forward again, but this time she opened her senses as Metatro
n was always telling her to do, and felt the evil presence coming toward her. At the last second, she ducked and felt the brush of another powerful blow against the top of her head. She immediately spun and shot a bolt toward the area she thought the blow had come from.

  A demon “lit up” for a brief second, jerking from the effects of the bolt. Then she shot another one at him and watched him disintegrate.

  She jumped up then and aimed her sword at Kate, who was now a lovely shade of purple. Allie caught the girl’s eye and gave her what she hoped looked like an apologetic look before she fired a bolt toward her. As before, a demon’s body lit up on the impact. Allie didn’t want to chance shooting the kill bolt at him when Kate was right behind him, so she sent another jolt, enough to make him release his hold on the girl. When Kate slid down the wall, sucking in great gulps of air, Allie shot the kill bolt at the demon.

  Once the others saw what she was doing, they quickly did the same — shocking bolt first to light them up, then a kill bolt. When they were done, they’d killed six invisible demons. Well, not technically killed, since they’re immortal, but at least they’re back in The Pit for now.

  “Come on, let’s find the others,” she told the group.

  After they’d gotten the rest of D Team together and ascertained that every room had been searched in the building, they headed back outside to see how the others were doing. The “zombies” were still meandering, and one bumped into Robin, then veered toward Allie. Her eyes were unseeing and almost seemed to have a film over them. Allie looked a little closer and noticed that the woman had sores on her skin, almost like she’d gotten bitten hundreds of times by little insects.

  Only the insects in the Millennium didn’t bite.

  It wasn’t just that woman, either. Once she started looking around, Allie noticed that all the other “zombies” had the same symptoms — filmy looking eyes, oozing sores, and all seemed to be in a complete daze.

  With horror, she realized they were diseased.

  Allie’s skin crawled at that realization. She wondered if the Remnants could catch the disease too, and, more importantly, if the Healers could treat whatever it was.

  For the past thousand years, there hadn’t been any disease on the planet. One week after Lucifer was released, a whole city was infected. Maybe more.

  When they found Alejandro, she decided that she’d make the announcement that they couldn’t return to The City, not even to the Gardens; not until she talked to Abba.

  But first, finding her old friend took precedence.

  The other teams were already outside of the buildings they’d searched and Allie was disappointed to see they hadn’t had any better luck.

  “Did any of you come across invisible demons?” Robin asked the others. Allie almost laughed when she saw how Ed was curled around his wife, holding her close to him. It was kind of ridiculous, considering they’d only been separated for maybe an hour.

  Allie considered giving the guy a break and putting them back on the same team again, but considering how happy Robin had been to have a little freedom, she nixed it.

  The others hadn’t “seen” any invisible — or visible, for that matter — demons, and Allie hoped her team had dispatched the only ones in Kingston.

  “Okay, let’s move one block over and check those buildings,” she sighed. She’d really hoped they’d find Alejandro right away. The longer they stayed in the diseased town with all the zombies bumping into them, the greater the chance of becoming infected.

  If she wasn’t so worried about the disease, she would have laughed at the way Robin had to peel Ed off of her. “Dang it, Eddie, go bug someone else!”

  Allie actually felt sorry for Ed in that moment; the guy looked devastated as he turned away from Robin and left with his team. Robin sighed so heavily her shoulders lifted several inches and she gave Allie an “ugh!” look. Allie smiled sympathetically at her.

  “Let’s step it up but be smart. The demons are getting sneakier and I have no idea why the angels aren’t here. Just to let you know, if you do come across any invisible jerks, zap them with a shocker so you can see them, then the kill shot. Meet back here when you’re done.”

  D Team was first to finish searching their building and Allie was pacing restlessly when Nick’s team finally emerged. She realized then how Ed must have felt, although she was sure it was on a lesser scale than the devotion he had to Robin. But at that moment, all she wanted to do was wrap herself around Nick.

  Unfortunately, they didn’t have Alejandro either.

  A Team was still missing, so she made the decision that they’d go into the building the team was searching.

  All was quiet on the first floor, so she directed the teams to split and search each of the other stories, one team per floor. Allie’s team had the top floor and Nick’s, the third. They all ran up the stairs together and Allie gave Nick a hug at the landing before she dashed up the last flight, leaving him staring after her in shock.

  They split up into groups again so they could search faster. Allie, Josef, Trudi and Erech decided to start at the far end of the long hallway. They rushed through each room, with Allie calling “Andro,” her nickname for Alejandro, in each. Thankfully, the rooms were simple with very little furnishings and no other doors leading to closets or bathrooms. It made the search faster.

  They’d just left the third room they’d searched when she heard a shout coming from outside. The group ran to the window at the end of the hall and looked down. In the street below, she saw the leaderless B Team — and, somewhat shockingly, Charo — gathered. And they were fighting demons.

  Along with fallen angels.

  Chapter 6

  A LLIE’S TEAM ran down the stairs as fast as they could and once they were outside, she yelled to the other teams to join them. But even with the two hundred plus Remnants, she didn’t think it was going to be enough to fight a demon horde plus four newly fallen angels… who unfortunately would still retain all their powers and abilities.

  She’d tried to argue with Abba about that one, saying that it wasn’t fair that the rebelling jerks should be able to keep all their angelic abilities. Of course, just like every other time that she’d tried to argue with The Creator, she’d lost.

  At least they didn’t get to keep their swords… but, she noticed that the angels fighting B Team did have swords, just not the celestial type with the ability to shoot bolts. At least that was one good thing.

  She had recognized three of the angels. Imamiah, Haniel and Dumiel. Imamiah, she knew was fallen since she’d already fought him once, managing to win that battle all by herself. Well, with the help of Charo.

  Allie made a mental note to tell that cat that she might as well just come with them when they went into battle, since she insisted on continually showing up anyway.

  But the others were a bit of a shock. She didn’t really know Haniel, but she’d had some interaction with Dumiel. She always called him Dummy, which he, for some strange reason, didn’t think was funny.

  B Team was overwhelmed, to say the least, but once the other Remnants joined them, things evened out a bit. A very little bit.

  The angels, who could have done the giant thing, were still “human size.” Allie had no idea why, when they could have just shot up two stories and then wiped the whole lot of them out easily. She wondered if Abba had something to do with that, another “leveling” thing.

  Or maybe they were just cocky enough that they wanted to toy with the humans.

  Allie ran up to Carmine, who she’d known in the Old Age. He was fighting two demons and was bleeding quite a bit from a neck wound. In fact, she noticed as she glanced around that a lot of the Remnants were bleeding from head or neck wounds. It seemed that the demons figured out their uniforms were protecting them from the claws, so they were slashing at any exposed body part.

  Thankfully, the fight took Allie’s mind off her aversion to blood.

  She wondered if the demons were amped up on caffeine or
something, with the vicious way they were fighting. The Remnants would no sooner block a claw swipe when they’d stab at them with the other hand. The fallen angels were doing much of the same, except using their swords while taunting the Remnants.

  “Who has trained you? A toddler? You cannot even parry correctly!”

  “It is clear that a thousand years was not nearly long enough for you to learn to fight, human.”

  “I’m growing bored of this. Don’t you have any other moves?”

  Allie hoped her team didn’t fall for their tactics. She’d spent long hours telling the team how the demons would use their insecurities against them, just as Lucifer had for many millennia. She just never expected to hear the taunts from angels, even if they had chosen to fall from Abba’s grace.

  She hacked and stabbed at the demon in front of her, while Carmine fought the other. The sound of the battle was growing louder, the clanging of swords meeting, of claws screeching against the rubbery material of their uniforms, of the demons as they growled in frustration and the Remnant’s grunts of pain and exhaustion.

  The demon she was fighting wasn’t tiring, though, even though Allie was starting to sweat. She was thankful for so many long hours spent practicing in the hot sun of the Inner Circle, as it had built up the teams’ heat tolerance, but they’d never practiced fighting with such speed before. The demons were relentless.

  They were being attacked so quickly that there wasn’t any time to launch bolts, which Allie realized was a new tactic. The demons were definitely clever.

  Realizing that all her sword strikes were just for defense, Allie threw herself backwards in a flip that would have made the martial arts-loving Metatron proud, and immediately shot a bolt at the demon before he could charge at her. Unfortunately, he jumped out of the way and the bolt blew past him, but it hit another demon in the back, who had been fighting against Nick.

  The demon twitched and shook, giving Nick a chance to launch a kill shot at him.

  He caught her eye and they grinned at each other.