Read No Enemy But Time (A Brandywine Investigations Universe Story) Online

Authors: Angel Martinez

Tags: #Gay, #Romance, #SciFi, #Fantasy, #Angels, #Demons

No Enemy But Time (A Brandywine Investigations Universe Story) (7 page)

BOOK: No Enemy But Time (A Brandywine Investigations Universe Story)
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"Right."

"I'll check on you every few hours, but I have to see what's happening." She rose in one fluid motion, then cocked her head at him. "Maybe think about his first change. How it happened. What happened. I don't know. There has to be something."

"And if there isn't?"

"I'll take care of it if you can't." Her frown said she didn't like that option, but that she would do what she had to.

Zack lay on his bed of moss, staring at the leaves. He had to resolve this before Artemis or any of the family decided to step in. Michael wouldn't survive if they did.

* * * * *

Two days later, Zack met a small, worried contingent in the parking lot of White Clay Creek State Park. While he could walk in and out of Arcadia at any green spot he wished, this was the most convenient for everyone involved. While he recuperated, he'd sent messages back and forth with Artemis, asking the family to gather what he needed.

While he healed quickly in the human world and even faster in his own domain, he still limped. His ribs were still a misery, but he was out of time. Artemis reported ziggurats rising up inside the walls, and she was becoming edgier by the hour, her fingers twitching on her silver bow. Zack couldn't delay any longer.

"But I could help," Dionysus insisted again, as he settled the pack frame on Zack's shoulders. "You know I'm good with the wilderness shit."

"I know. Thanks. I can't… ask anyone to be there for this." Zack pulled his youngest cousin into an awkward one-armed hug. "I got this, Dio. Promise."

Only younger gods were present, Hermes, Dionysus, and Artemis, Zack's favorite cousins whom he could trust not to run to the older gods unless the situation was hopeless, and trust not to interfere if he asked them not to.

Hermes shoulder-bumped Dionysus. "Besides, you'd forget you were supposed to be in stealth mode five minutes in."

"Would not!" Dio was outraged for a third of a second. "Okay, yeah, probably."

Artemis tapped Zack on the forehead. "Think, all right? No more rushing in."

"I got it. Love you guys, but you're a pain in the ass sometimes." Zack gave them a final wave as he limped off into the trees to make the transition back to Arcadia. While they had all wanted to help and Hermes had even offered to lend his winged shoes, Zack needed to do this his way, with the methods and tools in his comfort zone.

Dusk was gathering in Arcadia as he limped toward the ever-growing city bisecting its heart. Zack settled in a thicket within sight of the walls but hidden from above by a thick canopy of blackberry brambles. Here he waited and rested. First light was the best time to catch Michael unaware. He never had been a morning person.

With false dawn shading the sky leaden pewter, one of the nightjars confirmed by dropping an acorn that Michael still slept soundly atop his new ziggurat. He had, according to Artemis, built his first two towers by flying granite blocks in from hell-only-knew-where and assembling them with blinding speed. Clearly, Michael's new wings were more than just wings…

This was the thought that had brought Zack up short a day and a half ago. He mulled through Michael's original fall, all that had occurred, the horror of that moment when the angels had descended on him with blazing swords. Horrible as it was, the solution had presented itself.

Zack just hoped he would be able to do it. The thought alone made him ill.

This was Michael's last chance, though. What he wished and what he must do were about to collide like two runaway Eurostar trains. With a lead ball threatening to drag his heart down to the Underworld, Zack hobbled out of his hiding place and set up his net cannon. It wasn't a precise instrument, but the net opened up to cover a wide area and he had a lot of experience aiming the thing. He whispered a mantra to forgiveness, knowing he might never know its blessing, and loosened his long knife in its sheath.

Dawn began to paint the sky in long veins of red. "Michael, I'm sorry. I wish… I wish I could have done something to stop this sooner."

He dropped to one knee behind the cannon and bellowed, "Michael! Yo, Michael! Time to get up!"

His voice echoed crazily off the walls of New Uruk, ricocheting back at him like shrapnel. For a moment, he wondered if he'd misjudged, if the new Michael might be too wary and suspicious. But no, within two minutes the beating of huge wings floated down to him, Michael's sleep-tousled hair silhouetted against the sky.

"Zack?" he called down, his voice sleepy and uncertain.

That befuddled morning voice nearly made Zack hesitate a moment too long. He just wanted to take Michael into his arms, huge black wings and all. The moment shattered when Michael's cold, sharp laugh drifted down to him.

"Trying again, love? You really sh—"

With a prayer sent up to the laws of physics, Zack fired the cannon, the net whistling up through the morning mist and spreading out as it flew. If he misjudged the distance, if Michael reacted in time and simply flew higher, he would have lost his first chance. He had other contingency plans, though, rather more horrible ones.

With the first piece of luck to come Zack's way in weeks, Michael turned his head toward the sound and was only able to jerk sideways as the net hit him, tangling in his right wing. Chirping and cawing gathered behind Zack in the trees. The birds were flocking in to watch, perhaps cheering him on or simply curious about the outcome.

"Really, Zagreus? This is the best you could come up with?" Michael tsked in annoyance, struggling to keep aloft as he twisted to grab hold of the net.

Unlike the birds, Zack hadn't simply been watching, though. He pulled back his bow of black yew, held the string at his ear while he aimed, and let fly. Michael shrieked as the arrow flew at him, but with his wing fouled, he was unable to maneuver properly. The shriek turned into a bark of laughter when Zack's arrow only pierced the net.

"I'm so sorry, darling! I think that fall ruined your aim!"

Jaw set in grim determination, Zack wrapped the rope tied to his arrow around his forearm and began to pull, dragging Michael out of the sky. Michael cursed but went back to the task of methodically freeing his wing. If he succeeded before Zack could ground him, Zack had laid out other arrows to use, barbed tipped, hemlock laced, thick-shafted arrows designed to pierce bone if necessary.

Great mother, don't make me use them
.
Michael, please, please…

Still thirty feet in the air, Michael shot him a triumphant grin, his wing nearly free of the net. Zack's heart plunged into his feet. This would be the end of both of them.

Just as he reached for his next arrow, a tremendous chattering went up behind him. The air buffeted him as hundreds of birds took flight at once—jackdaws, crows, grackles, starlings, ravens—a sea of black converging on Michael with single-minded intent. Zack froze, bow half-drawn as the birds swarmed Michael's wings, fouling them with their sheer numbers, weighing him down under their collective greater mass.

Michael twisted and contorted in mid-air, trying to swat the birds away, but there were too many, always more to take the place of any one dislodged. Shrieking, Michael plummeted to the ground outside the wall, the birds lifting from him in a giant cloud the moment before impact. Still stunned, Zack flung his bow aside and rushed forward to flip Michael onto his stomach before he could draw a full breath.

He jammed his left knee against the middle of Michael's back, his right foot stomping down on Michael's wrist to keep him down. Cursing, battering at him with his wings, Michael writhed under him. Zack knew he didn't have long before he lost the advantage.

"You'll never forgive me, so I won't ask," Zack whispered. "But for fuck's sake, I wish I didn't have to do this."

He pulled his knife and took hold of Michael's left wing, trying to keep it from his face so he could see. Wings, legs, free arm all striving to break free, Zack wasn't sure he could do this without a misplaced knife stroke. Suddenly, Michael screamed in rage and his struggles lessened.

"Do it, Zack!" Artemis yelled at him while she held Michael's legs down.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Helping you, you jerk! Do it!"

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of both Dionysus and Hermes nearby, as well, though Dio faced away from them, staring into the trees, and Hermes simply stood there with an unhappy frown.

"Zack!"

Back teeth clenched hard, Zack lifted the knife and stabbed it down into Michael's back, right at the joining of wing and bone. Michael's screams bled over from fury to anguish as the serrated edge carved into him. Trying to keep his heart locked away in a terrible cold place, Zack sawed at the wing joint, ignoring the awful sounds of metal against bone. The wing snapped in an ugly, split fracture like a tree branch under too much stress, but Zack kept at his sawing, tears filling his eyes as Michael's cries faded and his struggles ceased.

"He's passed out," Artemis told him softly, but Zack didn't lift his head from his grisly work.

"Thank fuck."

He dug out the stub of bone from below Michael's shoulder blade, carving into his back to work it free. Flinging the broken, wilted wing away from him, he twisted to begin on the second one. He reasoned that he had to get all of it, like a tumor, if Michael was to have a chance.

When he finished, he fell back on his ass, sobbing, hands covered in blood and gore. Gentle hands pulled him back out of the way, and now he understood why Hermes had come as his cousin began packing Michael's gaping wounds, pulling energy from the life around him to lend to the broken angel sprawled in the dirt.

Strange, tuneless humming came from behind Zack, and he turned to see Dio with his head flung back, eyes closed, singing an unearthly, dual-toned aria, as the plants crept around his feet—ivy and flowered vines reaching around them—moving inexorably toward the wall.

Zack wiped his hands on his jeans, though he was certain a gallon of bleach wouldn't clean off the blood. He walked on his knees to Michael's head and lay down so their foreheads touched. "I'm so sorry. That was so fucking awful. I'm not even going to say it was for your own good, 'cause right now? I don't even know. I'm here, though. I'm here. No matter what."

"I don't think he can hear you," Hermes said gently.

"Don't care. Not even a little." Zack stroked Michael's blood-flecked hair, watching his corpse-pale face for any movement.
Not even an eyelid twitch.

The vines reached the wall and began to climb in slow increments, working hairy root tendrils in between stones, crawling ever upward as if storming a fortress in slow motion. The wall would crumble. The fledgling city would be left a strange ruin in the heart of Arcadia, an eerie reminder of what happened to ill-advised invasions of another god's domain.

Hermes took heavy gauze from his messenger bag and Zack helped to lift Michael so he could bandage the bleeding wounds tightly. "That'll do for now. Are you staying here with him?"

"No." Zack shook his head. "No, I don't think it would do him much good." He slid his arms under Michael, cradling him close to his chest. "Let's get him back to Dad's, get him in a warm bed."

Hades asked no questions when Zack and his cousins trooped back into the condo later that morning. He took one look at Michael and led the way to the spare bedroom, bringing extra blankets and water while he shooed the cousins out.

"Shower," he said pointedly when Zack wanted to crawl into bed next to Michael. "I'll watch over him."

With a nod, Zack moved to obey, unable to meet his father's eyes. A heavy hand fell on his shoulder.

"We'll do all we can, Zagreus. You're not alone."

The family had made that abundantly clear that day. But some burdens he still would have to carry alone. "Thanks, Dad. I… I'm glad you were all here."

He couldn't get the water hot enough in the shower, trying to scald away the stain of Michael's blood. It looked like it washed off, but he could still feel it on his skin. He probably always would. When he got back to the bedroom, he was surprised to find his father perched on the edge of the bed, stroking Michael's hair.

"Did he wake up?" Zack whispered.

"Briefly."

"Did he… say anything?"

Hades heaved a slow breath. "I'm not certain he was truly awake. He said he couldn't move his legs."

Zack sat down hard on the bed, shaking. "What did I do? Dad…"

"Hush. We can only wait. Time, Zagreus. He needs time."

* * * * *

"You're certain he's ready to travel?" Hades stood with his arms crossed over his chest in a belligerent stance that bellowed how much he didn't agree.

"Maybe. Probably not." Zack rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "I just think he'd be more comfortable at home."

"Let Charon drive you, then."

"It's all right, Dad. Really. Just a couple of hours. We'll be okay."

"Has he said anything to you yet?" Ti called over from the kitchen where he'd insisted on packing them lunch.

"No."

Michael had said nothing since the first time he'd woken two weeks before to say he couldn't move his legs. The family had reacted with typical outraged drama to the whole incident. Both of Zack's uncles and his least favorite cousin, Ares, were all for hunting Mammetun down and making her pay. Hades didn't often play the big brother card, but this time he did, insisting that they leave Mammetun in peace. Her slow fading was more than punishment enough. Every family member who had a stake in the healing arts wanted to help with Michael, too—Apollo, Auntie Hestia, Athena—but Zack wouldn't let anyone in to see Michael besides Hermes. His shame over what he'd done weighed on him so heavily, it felt like a mountain had decided to perch on his head.

"Zack…" Ti put the cooler by the door. "You're not really in great shape yourself. We'd all feel better if someone, at least, went with you."

An automatic, irritated denial was on Zack's tongue before he stopped himself and tried to regroup. If he didn't sound reasonable, no way in hell were they letting him go. "Thanks, Ti. Look, everyone's been wonderful and I'm really grateful. I know it hasn't always seemed like it."

BOOK: No Enemy But Time (A Brandywine Investigations Universe Story)
8.05Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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