Just a Little Death (Children of the Apocalypse Book 1) (25 page)

Ruthie pressed up against my back. “I’m going to try something. I have no promise that it’s going to work.”

“What do you mean?” I gripped my scythe. “We can win this. They don’t have an advantage over us.”

“That’s Pride talking. I’m taking us to Death’s realm. If it works, I think we can get home.”

I shook my head. “We’re going to need a sacrifice for even that.”

“Nothing can be killed right now. I don’t know if those rules apply anymore.”

Envy smiled and her slick skin started to turn to a green hue and stretch out. A demon tail whipped from side to side from behind her. Ruthie went to grab my arm, but Envy’s tail caught her and threw her away.

I snarled and struck with my scythe, the blade caught the demon across the chest but bounced off, sparking as the tip ran down to the ground.

“You know the saying, ‘Jealousy is a green eyed monster?’” Envy hissed and her feet grew to taloned claws and leathery green wings unrolled from her back. “It’s not just a saying.”

I jumped away from her, trying to get to Ruthie. I risked a glance over my shoulder to find my angel pinning Pride up against the wall. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Envy’s tail move. I jumped to avoid it and turned towards Ruthie. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

I rushed to her and grabbed her arm. Pain shot through my leg, but I couldn’t let it stop me. I trusted Ruthie to do what we needed. The world around us switched from stone walls to dead fields, my momentum carried us a few feet into the dead plants and I fell to the ground, letting my scythe disappear.

I couldn’t help the crazy laughter that bubbled up my throat and spilled through my lips. I closed my eyes and lay on my back. “I can’t believe that worked.”

“Neither can I.”

I opened my eyes and saw Ruthie standing over me. “We can go home now and tell the boys about the locations. I’ll tell the archangels about it and we can stop the apocalypse.”

“Your leg is bleeding.” Ruthie knelt down by me.

“So is my shoulder. I’m not sure what happened to my leg, but my shoulder took a dagger.”

Ruthie tore my pant leg and looked down at it. “Can you wiggle your toes?”

I sat up and cringed as I put pressure on my shoulder. “I think so.” I looked at my toes and demanded that they wiggle. One toe twitched and it pulled on the muscle that had been wounded. Pain shot through me and stole my vision. The world swirled for a moment until I stopped trying to wiggle my toes. “It moves, but it hurts. A lot.”

“The bolt went through your leg.” Ruthie sat back. “I need Pete or Kaleb for this. Maybe even Aeron.”

“He doesn’t like me, do you think he’s really going to want to patch my leg up?” I lay back down on the ground. “Sloth wasn’t with Lust when we came here. Do you think he went and attacked the boys?”

“Probably, but I’m sure they could handle it.” She held her hand out to help me up. “Let’s get going.”

I took her hand and let her help me up. I leaned heavily on her. My body shook as the adrenaline faded from me and the pain took over. “This is going to suck to heal.”

“Yes, it is. Let’s just be glad it was Envy and not Sloth.” The world swirled around us and the human realm built back up. We both covered our mouths as we realized we were standing in the City on Fire. Smoke rose around us as the wind ripped through the deserted city.

“Lovely.” I started forward, limping away from Ruthie. “Couldn’t we have gone to the hotel?”

She shook her head. “Let’s just get out of here. If we hurry, we can leave without any effects of the gasses. I’ll call the boys once we get to the barriers.”

She came to my side and I summoned my scythe, using it to lean on. “If we’re attacked again, I need you to be able to fight, not having to hold me up.”

“Fair enough, let’s hope that everyone is regrouping right now.” We followed the cracked road back to the barriers. The car was still parked a few feet away. My heart pounded, the four doors were open and a pair of booted feet dangled from the back passenger side door.

My breath hitched and I flung myself over the barrier and rushed to the door, adrenaline once again shooting through my veins. Pete laid back in the car, blood had soaked his chest and I tried not to panic. Death couldn’t happen right now, but if his body wasn’t able to heal the wound then he’d die the moment Death was free.

I tried to keep tears from forming in my eyes as I lifted his shirt to see how bad the wound was. The fabric resisted, sticking to his skin with the seal of drying blood. He put a hand over mine. “Hey stranger, I thought Lust killed you.”

Something lifted my heart at the sound of his voice. “No, why would you think that?”

“I saw your head roll away.” His eyes flickered open and he met my gaze. “Boy, do you look odd in your Horseman form.”

“I’m a skeleton.” I glared at him. “What do you mean you saw my head taken off? Lust sucks at fighting.”

“Sammy, heads up, Sloth is around.” Ruthie’s voice came through the car.

It clicked then. Sloth had poisoned Pete. “It’s okay. I’m alive and we’re all getting out of here as soon as we figure out where the others are. I’m going to sit you up.”

He tried to help me to get him sat up, but he was just a bunch of fumbling limbs and not able to hold his own weight. I got him sat up and closed the door. The moment the door connected to the car, his weight fell on it, but at least if we needed to make a quick escape he was in the car.

I turned with my scythe and my gaze scanned the area. Ruthie stood at the front of the car, her staff at the ready. Footsteps and cracking branches could be heard in the area. I could make out Aeron’s voice calling for Kaleb. My heart pounded in my chest and the tension mounted as I waited for someone to break through the surrounding tree line, but no one came.

The dead trees provided more cover than I thought was possible for a bunch of chemically dead branches. With cracking sounds and a grunt, Aeron came flying through the trees and connected with the pavement. He lay on the ground, stunned for a moment. I jumped in front of him as Sloth came rushing forward. I brought my scythe down, catching Sloth across the shoulder.

He met my eyes with black holes. “Hello, little Death.”

“Hello Sloth, I see you found my friends. Guess you guys are a bit more clever than I thought.” I flicked the scythe so that his blood splattered off the blade and on to the ground.

“The one in the car, he’s a goner. I heard he was your favorite.” His voice came out more like a hiss. “You’re next. What a world this will be without Death.”

A smirk pulled my lips up and I shifted my hold on the scythe. The pain in my leg faded as I focused on my target. “Come get me.”

He held his hand out and throwing knives appeared. He flung one after another and I ran to dodge them all.

Aeron stood and summoned his bow. He gave me a slight bob of his head and I assumed he was thanking me for covering his ass. “Ruthie, Kaleb’s in the woods still.”

“Got him.” She called out and sprinted to the trees.

“You’ve got my back, little Death?” Aeron called and drew his bow back. An arrow appeared and he took aim.

I twirled my scythe. “Until the end, little War.”

“Don’t.” He took aim.

I rushed Sloth from behind as Aeron drew back the arrow to the fullest reach. Sloth turned to me, more knives in his hand, but his body jerked and the knives fell from his hands when the arrow shot through his chest.

The momentum of the shot drove him forward a few feet. I licked my lips. “Aeron, follow my lead. I have an idea.” I ran towards a large tree, the bark just now flaking off from the death that climbed through it thanks to the chemicals in the air.

Sloth followed me, a knife whistled by my ear, taking a few strands of hair with it. I spun when I reached the tree. “Come on…” I whispered and saw Aeron tracking Sloth with his bow and arrow, ready.

Sloth rushed me and I slid under his parted legs. I pinned him to the tree using the handle of my scythe. He snarled in my face, spit flying from his pointed teeth.

“Now.” Aeron called and I rolled to the ground. The arrow flew above me piercing Sloth’s chest and embedding itself into the tree. Sloth snarled and reached to pull the arrow out. Aeron let loose another one, pinning Sloth’s hand to the tree followed by another one. The thunk of the arrow piercing the wood and the splintering of the wood sounded through the forest.

“That’ll hold him for a bit. Let’s go.” Aeron let his bow disappear and I used my scythe to help me off the ground. He met me halfway to the car and wrapped his arm around my waist to help me take the weight off of my leg. “Impressive, I’m surprised you aren’t passed out from the pain.”

I took a deep breath. “That’s still an option when we drive back.”

He helped me get in the passenger side of the seat and shut the door. Ruthie came out with a limping Kaleb and they got situated. Sloth snarled as he tugged on the arrows. “This isn’t the end. I will take your head from your body.”

Aeron started the car. “But you’ll have to recover first.” He backed up fast enough to make the tires squeal as we left the City on Fire.

The charred trees gave way to rotten trees. I closed my eyes as pain climbed up my leg and through my shoulder. The type of pain that churned my stomach and made me want to just chop the limb off. “How’s Pete doing back there?”

“We need to get him the antidote. I have the stuff back at the hotel, but he’s pretty far gone. If Death was here we would have lost him by now.” Kaleb said.

I closed my eyes. “We located all the seals. All we need now is an archangel to get in there and release them.”

“I feel like that is going to be easier said than done.”

I glanced back at Ruthie, wedged between Pete and Kaleb. She met my gaze. “We need to get back, regroup and get patched up. My suggestion is we spend some time in Death’s realm to make sure we can’t be attacked while we’re healing up.”

“I agree.” I didn’t want to be there with the reminder of my failure to my dad, but it was at least safe. “But what about the apocalypse?”

“It’s not in full force yet, so evil isn’t completely running amok.” She leaned her head back. “There is only so much we can do if that’s the case.”

I closed my eyes. “It’s our job to fix this. We’re not going to be able to do that from Death’s realm.”

“I’m not talking about hiding. I’m talking about healing. You can barely use your leg and Pete is poisoned. Kaleb has a shattered knee. Like I said, regroup and heal.”

“Okay. We’ll do that while you speak to the angels.”

Aeron pulled the car into the hotel parking lot. “Let’s go get the antidote made and we’ll go from there. We have to do our checkout and at least get our stuff out of the room.”

I slowly got out of the car. Ruthie and Aeron pulled Pete out. His color had disappeared from his face. Sweat dripped down his brow and he groaned at the movements. I never thought I’d be grateful for Death being gone.

Kaleb and I limped along next to each other. “Good job in hell.”

I snorted. “It would have been better if I could have actually killed or maimed one of the Sins.”

“They're immortal, they can’t be destroyed.” That would have been nice to know before. “If only it was the same way for us. But they are powered by the emotions that weave through the world. The more people who fall to their temptations the stronger they get.”

I paused and looked at him. “Can they be locked away? Like the horsemen?”

“I don’t know. Lucile controls them, so we’d need someone like an archangel or maybe one of the actual horsemen, and maybe they could be locked away.” He smiled. “I never thought of that. It’d also cut down on this happening in another few years.”

“Good, because I don’t think I could handle doing this again in a few years.” I limped to the hotel and into the empty lobby. The receptionist gave us wide eyes and reached for the phone, but then stopped when Kaleb held his hand up as if to say that we were fine. Ruthie and Aeron were already down the hall where our room was.

Kaleb and I limped along together in silence. Exhaustion crept through my body with the pain, my eyes wanted to close and claim me to the darkness, but I needed to make it to the bed first.

The Apocalypse

I lay back on the bed and sighed. “I can’t feel my toes.”

“I’ll mix up the antidote for Pete, Aeron, patch her leg, and then we’ll worry about my knee.” Kaleb moved towards his suitcase. “I’m glad I thought to bring the stuff with me.”

I closed my eyes as Aeron moved the shreds of my pants away. “You’re going to have to stay off this for at least a week, if not longer. I think Ruthie was wise in wanting us to go to Death’s realm for a while.”

“No kidding.” I ground out. The lights flickered and I shot up in the bed. “What the hell was that?”

Darkness surrounded us and I looked around the room, waiting for my eyes to adjust. Aeron threw open the curtains and looked over the darkened city. “I think the power is out.”

Ruthie reached for her phone and tapped the screen a few times. “Looks like something happened all across the country. It’ll just be a matter of time before we lose everything else.” She met my gaze.

And with that thought, I knew the apocalypse was officially happening.

The end