Ascension (21 page)

“No,” Laura said, shaking her head.  “No.  You cannot say that!  The angels can heal you!  They healed Alexander before.  They can do the same for you!”

“Nobody can fix what has happened to me,” Logan said in a fatalistic tone.  Hearing him say that ripped Laura’s heart in two.  It was like he had already accepted his death.     

“You can’t say that!” Laura screamed at him.  “No!  I won’t let you go!  You can’t do this to me!”

“Laura, listen,” Logan said in a low but calm voice.  Every word that escaped his lips was a terrible struggle, but he was able to form full sentences without pausing now.  Surely, that was an improvement?  “My back is broken.  I’ve lost a lot of blood, and losing even more, fast.  Even a
Vassiz
cannot survive such injuries.  I’m going to die.”

“No!” Laura screamed again.  Tears streamed down her face.  “No, you cannot!”  She grabbed his face with her hands and pulled him into her.  Every bit of resolve she had about finding the elder vanished.  Everything she had thought she needed to do disappeared in the wake of seeing Logan like this. 

“It’s okay,” Logan whispered beneath her.  She let him go, and framed his cheeks with her hands.  He looked so weak now.  So very fragile.  “Laura, I’ve come to terms with it.  You are… the last person I wanted to see.”

“No!  You can’t say that!  No!”

“Laura.  There’s something… I need you to do for me.  Please?”

“Anything.”  The word flew out of her mouth.  “I’ll do anything you want.  So long as you don’t go.”

“The pain is unbearable,” Logan whispered, “but it’s been worth it to see your face again.”  He brought his good hand up to her cheek and traced the outline of her jaw.  He strained even to complete that movement.  Then his hand fell back down.  “Laura, I’m going to die.  I need you… to set me free.”

Laura blinked.  “What do you mean?”  Then understanding of what he was asking dawned on her, and her eyes widened.  She held in a gasp.  Surely, he couldn’t mean—

“Laura,” Logan repeated, stronger this time.  “I cannot walk.  I’m going to die.  Slowly, and in agony.  You need to end it.  Put me out of my misery. 
Please
.”

Laura drew away.  She was completely taken aback.  “No, you can’t ask that!  No, I can’t!”

“Laura you
must
,” Logan repeated.  “Use the
torrial
.  Bring the knife to you again.  Only with that can you set me free.”

“I won’t do it!” Laura screamed at him, and as if to emphasize her words, took a large step back from him.  The loss of blood must be playing tricks with his mind.  He couldn’t possibly be asking for what she thought he was asking if he were sane.  How did he know about the knife?

Laura heard movement behind her, and whipped her head back.  She had been half-expecting the elder, and would have even perhaps welcomed his presence at this very moment.  But it was just Gray.  He was looking at her oddly, but stayed at the edge of the clearing.  Laura paid him no further mind.  She turned her attention back to Logan.

Logan still couldn’t meet her eyes.  He was looking somewhere far in the distance.  His face had already taken on an absent look, as if he were not fully there.  Laura felt his pain acutely.  She could not even begin to imagine what he was going through.  To ask her to do such a horrific thing… it was madness!

“Laura,” Logan said again.  “Please.  You need to do it.  Do you not love me?”

How could he question that, at this very moment?  “Of course I do,” Laura said, and half-took a step forward, but then stopped herself.  Logan was delusional, and if she came closer he might think that she had acquiesced to his request. 

“Then I beg of you,
please
,
please
kill me.  You are the only thing left living for, and now that I have seen you, there is nothing left.  My death will surely come, but without your help, my last moments will be spent in sheer agony.  I will be at peace if I die at your hand.  Please.  For our love.”

Laura shook her head wildly.  A torrent of tears was streaming down her cheeks.  No matter what Logan said, she could not
kill
him!  How could he even ask for such a thing?

“You will not do it?” Logan asked.  His voice had taken on a harsher edge.  “I lie here in agony because of you!  I came here for you, and I am in this condition because of you.  I’m going to
die
because of you!  Either way, you will be the one responsible for my death!  It will hang forever on your conscience, unless you
kill me now
!” He spat the last bit.  Then the rage that hit him seemed to simmer down, and he took a deep breath.  “Please, Laura.  Please, I beg of you.  Just set me free.”

Laura heard Gray growl behind her.  She didn’t pay him any mind.  All her focus was on Logan.  Slowly, as if walking underwater, she went to him.  Her mind went blank.  She did not know what she would do.  What she
could
do. 

As she came closer, Logan looked up at her, and his eyes met hers for the first time since his request.  They were red, dark, deep.  Poisonous. 

Not Logan’s eyes. 

Suddenly Laura remembered what Gabrielle said when she first entered this place. 
Nothing can be trusted.  Everything you see is false.
  Gray’s growling got louder behind her, as if in warning.  She looked down at Logan, and the illusion broke.

Chapter Seventeen

~The Second Cord~

It was not Logan lying there, but a representation of him, and a rather bad one at that.  It was as if it had been pieced together by fuzzy memories.  For a split-second, Laura saw the shining cord running out of this Logan’s back  and twisting through the trees deeper into the woods.  Logan snarled viciously and lunged at her with a knife.  The same knife he asked her to create with the
torrial
.

Laura jumped aside just in time.  All the sadness and emotions she had felt washed away, replaced by a irreconcilable anger.  At the elder, for tricking her like that.  At herself, for falling so easily to the deception.  The real Logan she knew would never have acted like that.  It was the direness of the situation that had so thrown her off. 

Her parry to the left caused Logan to stumble slightly, and that gave her just enough time to create more distance between her and him.  Well, it wasn’t
him
.  Not really.  Just a representation created by the elder to confuse her.  Much like the snake had been. 

Laura sought the connection in her mind, and felt that the elder was still some distance away.  But the shining cord she had seen extend from Logan’s back left no doubt he could see through his eyes. 

Logan stood, and tossed the knife provocatively from hand to hand.  He was only looking at her, now.  And when Laura looked into his eyes, all she saw were the evil, vile eyes of the elder.  Tainted with poison.

“So you are smarter than you appear,” Logan said.  Except now, the voice that escaped those lips was not Logan’s, but the elder’s.  “You would have made a great ally, girl, if you only made the right choice.  But now, you leave me no choice but to kill you.”

Logan rushed at her again, but Laura was ready.  She took two steps toward him and leapt through the air, catapulting herself over him and to the other side.  She used the
torrial
to make the knife appear in her hand, and slashed at the air where she thought the cord must be.  She flipped and landed on her feet, and spun around to see the result of her attack. 

Logan just stood there, not ten feet away, smiling at her.  There was a glimmer in his dark eyes.  Laura tensed.  She must have missed.  Suddenly, a great roar of laughter erupted from Logan’s throat, and continued for what seemed like eternity.

“You fool!” the elder spat through Logan’s lips.  “Did you really think I would be so careless twice in a row?  Maybe I was wrong about you.  You’re not smart at all.  You just got lucky!”  And out of nowhere, Logan dashed right at her.

Maybe it was the laugher, or maybe it was the mockery, but something threw her off, and Laura wasn’t ready for the attack.  Logan crashed into her with his shoulder, sending her toppling backwards.  As they fell to the ground, he tried to slash at her with the knife.  Laura caught his wrist just in time, leaving the blade mere inches from her neck. 

Logan snarled, and again Laura saw the elder in his eyes.  She struggled to keep the blade away from her.  Her other hand was pinned down by Logan, rendering her own version of the blade useless.  No matter what, though, this representation of Logan was stronger than she was.  She felt her strength quickly fading, her grip on his wrist slowly slipping.  If she lost hold, the sharp edge of the blade would implant itself into her bare skin.  She focused on keeping it away from her, but Logan had the advantage, here.  He was on top, while she was nearly helpless in a defensive position.  The feel of his body against hers repulsed Laura.  It was just as bad as if the elder were holding himself against her.

Suddenly Logan let out a piercing shriek and threw himself off.  Laura gasped, not understanding what happened.  Another few moments, and her grip would have surely failed. 

That was when she spotted Gray.  He was right beside her, his hulking mass moving with heavy breath.  Laura looked over, and saw a deep red gnash along Logan’s side.  That was where Gray’s claws had fallen.  Logan was hunched over, rubbing his hands over the wound.  This was her moment!  Laura picked herself up, and was just about to launch herself at Logan, another deep laugh erupted from his throat.

It sounded sick, twisted.  It was the elder’s laugh again, but it was different from before.  Logan straightened, and the most amazing thing happened.  The wound Gray had afflicted healed right before Laura’s eyes.  New skin sealed the gaping wound, stopping the outward flow of blood.  Laura watched, entranced, as the whole wound closed, like something out of the X-Men.  The only thing that would say anything had been there before was the bloodstain that lingered on the skin.

Logan looked at her, and smiled cruelly.  “Did you really think it would be so easy?” he laughed.  “I am in control of this world, not you!  Only I know the true dimensions of its fabric, and only I can pull the strings that shape reality.  I would not have left myself so vulnerable to your meager attacks!  And now, Laura, it is time to move beyond games.  You must die!”

The last sentence turned into a full-throated scream as Logan threw himself at her.  She was expecting it this time, and managed to sidestep the attack.  Her mind worked furiously.  Gray had saved her.  But the elder had not realized he was there.  Logan turned and slashed at Laura’s midsection with his blade, but Laura parried back to avoid the blow. 

Logan’s – the elder’s – entire attention was on her.  None of it was on Gray. 

Logan slashed at her again, and Laura used her own blade to deflect the blow.  Did he not know Gray was there?  Either Madison or Alexander had told her once that most
Vassiz
were not able to notice animals even if they were inches from their face.  She had never had such problems. 

Logan missed a step, stumbling for a moment, and Laura went at him with her knife.  He threw aside her blow and returned to his feet.  Laura knew the elder claimed he had the upper hand, but if he truly had that power, he would have finished her by now. 

As if to emphasize that point, Logan jabbed the knife at Laura, but was a touch slow.  She twisted sideways to avoid the attack, and at the same time pierced her own blade forward.  It caught Logan right in the shoulder.  She felt it go through muscle to plant into bone.  Logan jerked backwards, and the tip came out, stained completely red.  Blood pulsed out of the wound as if from a fountain. 

Logan shied back, and brought his other hand up to his shoulder.  He snarled at her as he rubbed the wound once, twice.  Laura watched from a distance.  Just like before, the cut started to close itself.  But the healing seemed to go a touch slower now.  Maybe the regeneration took more out of the elder than he let on.

The only way she could win was to sever the cord that connected this caricature of Logan to the elder.  Any wound she gave him would heal.  And she did not have the same advantage.  Fighting him this way, she was bound to lose.  It would only take one slip on her part for Logan’s knife to find her flesh.

Out of the corner of her eye, Laura saw Gray charge at Logan.  “No!” she screamed.  The bear halted as if understanding her words perfectly.  But it also drew Logan’s attention.  Logan looked in Gray’s direction, and his eyes widened as if seeing him for the first time.  Chances were, he
was
seeing him for the first time.  Logan snarled again, a primal, vicious noise, and launched himself at the animal.

Laura had no time to think.  Armed with the knife, Logan was more than a match for Gray.  Gray could not fight him off.

Laura launched herself toward them, but she was too far away.  She watched in horror as Logan closed the distance to the bear.  Laura moved her legs as fast as she could, but she was still not fast enough.  Logan was going to get to Gray before she could stop him.