Path of the Horseman (22 page)

Finally, the Vermilion troops led us out of
the shops and into the lobby of the Venetian. It was immaculate,
shining from the hand painted frescos on the ceiling to the golden
and brown checkered floor. The pillars on either side of the hall
made the lobby even more cavernous. Our footsteps could echo for
hours.

The one difference from this Venetian to the
one in my implanted memories was in the middle of the hall by the
front desk. There used to be a large golden globe mounted on a
marble pedestal. In its place was a massive high-backed chair made
of oak and blood red Victorian print.

I had to roll my eyes at that. Only Kade
would want a throne after the world ended.

“Wait here for the Emperor,” directed our
soldier/tour guide. “He’ll be with you at his earliest convenience.
He’ll make sure you’re fed and looked after.”

“What about the others that came with us?” I
asked as he turned away.

“As long as they can follow the same rules as
you, they won’t be harmed,” assured the Vermilion. “You can see
them when Emperor Kade allows it.”

I scowled at the boot-licker. Not seeing
Maddy or the others was making me antsy. I needed to know what they
were thinking, if I could explain it in such a way that they
wouldn’t freak out and lose faith in my protection over them. It
had worked for my brother. Kind of.

Kade’s subjects seemed okay, but it was
impossible to miss their tiredness and fear. I didn’t want to know
what Kade would do to fresh finds like the group we’d been
traveling with. Especially since I hadn’t seen many beautiful women
hustling and bustling through the shops.

The Vermilion nodded to his friends and led
them back the way we’d come. I watched them leave, half debating on
chasing down the brownnoser and throttling him until he told me
where Maddy and the others were.

Simon’s heavy sigh stopped me.

I turned around and found him slumped against
the side of the marble pedestal. His hoodie and jeans were covered
in dirt, grime, and blood, and his hair was a tangled brown mess.
He pulled his knees up to his chest and scrubbed his face with both
hands. I took a couple steps closer to him.

“You okay?”

Simon lowered his hands. “Yeah. Sure.”

I looked down. The patches of missing skin on
my chest was still raw, pinching when I moved. I shrugged off my
rucksack, took off my machete, and placed my hand on my chest.
There was no point in holding back now. Black smoke eased off my
fingertips and coated the wound, knitting the skin together. I’d
close the wound, but my human body would still gain a scar. Even
now, I could feel the limits of my power. In the past, I could have
healed this wound in an instant. Now it would take a couple
minutes.

“What did Ciaran tell you?” Simon asked after
I was healed.

“He wanted to know where Kade and Logan were.
He’s collecting us for something. The four of us, and the humans
too. He said he had something special planned.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Simon exhaled and shoved his hands through
his hair. He pulled his knees closer to his chest. “So we’re
fucked.”

“We don’t know that yet,” I countered. “We
don’t know what his plans are, and we escaped him.”

“For how long? Kade’s dying to fight him. All
he’s doing now is biding his time so he has something to distract
him from killing every person he sees.”

“Then we’ll have to wait and see if Ciaran
makes a move,” I said.

“If he does, you think he’s just going to put
his toe in the water? Demons don’t take offense lightly, and when
he comes back, he’s going to tear us to pieces.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No?” Simon’s voice was beginning to rise and
echo though the lobby. “Then what’s your theory, genius? Ciaran
practically told the humans what we were. You showed them the rest.
It won’t be long before they put it all together thanks to Ciaran’s
helpful theory.”

“What the fuck do you want me to say?” I
snapped. “I was trying to kill them and get us out.”

“Use your fucking brain for once, Avery! He
wasn’t doing that just for fun. Demons think big. He wanted them to
see what we are, and I don’t think it’s just because he wanted to
make them run for pitchforks and torches in exchange for their
souls.”

“I have no idea what he wants, Sime,” I shot.
“The asshole wouldn’t have told me if I begged and let him cut off
my hands. Ciaran’s going to stick behind the scenes and plot for a
while, so we just have to keep Kade from losing his shit.”

Simon scoffed. “Yeah, ‘cause that’ll be just
another walking in the park.” He curled his arms around his knees,
looking like a pitiful lost child. “This is a bad idea. The humans
know too much now. We shouldn’t be here.”

“Where else are we gonna go?”

“We can see what Canada’s like. We’re not
that far from the coast. Vancouver Island is on the west side. We’d
have water from the ocean, who knows what else.”

I crossed my arms. “So, what? We just ditch
Kade, Logan, and the humans to be fishermen? That’s the plan?”

Simon’s eyes flashed a deep, dangerous black.
He let go of his knees and got to his feet. “It’s better than you
waiting for suicide,” he shouted. “Not all of us have a
wannabe-hero complex.”

My own temper started to rise. “Least I’m not
scared to try and help people.”

“Jesus, Avery, why the fuck do you care?! We
were made to
kill them all
. What good is saving a handful of
them going to do? You think they’ll fucking thank us now that they
know you started the Plague?”

“I didn’t think they’d leave us here!” I
shouted back. “If the Bosses just opened the seal, let us do our
jobs, and took us home, I wouldn’t give a shit! But they left us
here, as goddamn humans, and it was for a reason! They must have
known some humans would have survived, and they’d be living the
Second–”

“Don’t start that Second Coming shit again!”
Simon interrupted. “You don’t know a fucking thing about it! You
ever think that they’re keeping us here so we can kill off the rest
of the humans? That maybe when each and every one of them is gone,
we can go home?”

“That’s not true.” I wasn’t shouting anymore,
but I was tipping to the point of fury.

“Did someone else tell you differently?
Because all I remember was being told that it was time to kill
all
of humanity. You were the only one that believed in that
redemption shit. The rest of us know the truth.”

“Which is?”

Simon’s eyes were blacker than I’d ever seen
them. He was as close to losing control as I was.

“That there is no Second Coming. There won’t
be any redemption. Earth is going to be wiped clean in a few years,
probably when Logan’s done with every living thing left. We’re
going to die, and there won’t be anything left behind. It’ll be
Heaven, Hell, and nothing in between.”

I’m not sure what exactly set me off or why.
I don’t even remember moving. One minute I was standing across from
my older brother with my fists balled at my side. Next thing I
knew, one of those fists was crashing into Simon’s cheek.

He stumbled with the hit, lightly touching
his cheek like he couldn’t believe I’d put the bruise there.
Frankly, I was just as shocked, but I didn’t apologize. Maybe that
was my mistake, because Simon came back swinging.

When Simon punched me in the gut, he gave it
a little extra firepower. The moment his fist drew back, I felt the
worst stomach cramp of my life. I staggered back, wrapping an arm
around my middle, and just barely seeing the white smoke twisting
around his knuckles.

The cramp shuddered, sending a ripple of
crushing pain through me. It wasn’t so much hunger pains as it was
my stomach twitching and shriveling to the size of a single fist. I
drew on some of my own power, working it through my clothes to
counter Simon’s magic. It worked, but the pain was still there. I
looked at him with murder in my eyes.

Before Simon could defend himself, I shot out
one of my hands and sent a wall of black smoke toward his face. It
slammed into his chest and nearly knocked him on his ass. He
twitched and shook, trying to scratch off bugs that weren’t there.
I straightened up as he placed his hand on his chest and reversed
my poison. By the time he stopped the dermatillomania, I was on him
again.

I clocked Simon in the side of the head, and
blocked his next punch. He tried to grab my wrist and use more
power, but I swept his arm around and shoved him back. Simon kicked
at me, but I batted his foot down and punched him in the kidney. He
winced and shuffled back, then rushed forward and tackled me
again.

I landed on my back, but rolled to keep him
from getting the upper hand. Simon swung his arms wildly, wrenching
away every time I thought I’d be able to catch him. I shoved my
hand under his neck and pushed him down, but one of his flailing
fists plowed into my chin and rocked my head back. That made it
easy for Simon to throw me off of him.

I scrambled back before he could hit me
again, getting into a fighting stance and balling black smoke into
my fists. Simon stood across from me, white smoke rippling from his
hands while his eyes burned black with hate.

“You won’t save anyone,” he shouted. “You’re
the reason they started dying in the first place.”

I snarled and lunged at him, not paying
attention to anything else around me.

Which is how I nearly got set on fire.

A blast of blood-red flame shot in between
Simon and me, stopping us from killing each other. We stared at the
flames as they slid across the smooth floor and churned back into
themselves. We both looked in the direction they had come.

Kade was leaning against one of the pillars
with a bored expression on his face. He had changed out of his
Kevlar motocross suit into a black t-shirt and green army cargo
pants. Old scars lined his arms as they folded over his chest, each
one seeming prouder than the next. Kade didn’t have his war-hammer
with him, but two thick hatchets hung on either side of his belt,
hunting blades were belted to his shins, and two Bowie knives were
nestled under his arms in shoulder holsters.

“You bitches done slapping each other yet?”
he asked a dull voice.

We knew better than to say anything childish.
I risked a glance at Simon, a twinge of guilt going through me as
he wiped blood from his split lip.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Kade drawled,
peeling himself away from the pillar and slowly walking toward us.
“You two better not start that shit again,” he grinned, “at least
not without me.”

Kade stopped next to us, putting us in an
uncomfortable Mexican standoff. He scrutinized us both for a long
time, daring us to make a move against him or each other. Kade
wouldn’t fight us unless we provoked him, and I sure as hell wasn’t
in the mood for another scuffle. Not when I knew that Kade would
take me apart without even trying.

“So what sparked the hissy fit?” our brother
finally asked. “Was it the pets you brought along?”

Thinking about them made my blood pound just
a little bit harder. I couldn’t seem to kill this overprotective
streak when it came to that group of humans. We had lost two
already. I wouldn’t forgive myself if we lost more.

“We need to keep them alive,” I blurted. To
my amazement, Kade didn’t immediately insult me. “Ciaran is
planning something for them, and us. He wanted me to find you and
Logan, and he tried to kill Simon.”

“If he wanted to find us, why’d he try to
kill him?”

“He said something about us being part of a
collection, but he made it sound like Simon wasn’t as
valuable.”

I looked at the brother I’d just attacked. He
was frowning intently at the ground, not sure whether to be
relieved or insulted that a demon didn’t want very much to do with
him.

“Slime’s got his tricks, but he’s never been
more than a magician. You make it sound like Ciaran is looking for
tougher game.” Kade clapped Simon on the shoulder and shook him
roughly. “That’s okay, Slime. Some people just don’t have the
skills that matter.”

“This is serious, Kade.”

“No it isn’t,” he argued, shoving Simon away.
“Ciaran hunting us is a challenge, and a damn good one. He’s been
hiding underground for too long. I want him to come out and take a
shot at me.”

“Why, so he can knock you off your stolen
throne?”

Simon flinched and backed away. Kade turned
and started walking closer to me.

“Oh, ye of little faith,” rumbled my brother.
“The only place that sulfuric shit-bag is going is back to Hell in
pieces. No one takes what belongs to me.”

While Simon’s eyes were starting to return to
their usual nervous graphite shade, Kade’s were almost always pitch
black. One more disrespecting word and he would break me like a
twig.

“There’s a bigger picture here,” I reasoned.
“If the humans die, we’ll have failed our mission.”