Path of the Horseman (35 page)

No thanks,
I thought quickly. I lashed
out with my left foot, catching Vance in the ribs. He absorbed the
hit and loosened his hold enough for me to get my arm free. I
kicked out again, but Vance knocked my foot away then darted in
close, plowing his elbow into my chest.

I felt the bruise form instantly, my body
still reacting to this newest pain as Vance launched an uppercut
into my chin. My teeth rattled and I tasted blood from where I bit
into my tongue, but nothing I felt externally was as strong as the
adrenaline-laced anger coursing through my veins.

When I brought my head down, Vance was
smiling at me. His wide brimmed hat darkened his face, illuminating
his burning coal eyes. He almost looked stoned from the excitement
pumping through him. He could have finished me any time with his
demonfire, but he wanted this to last. Vance enjoyed hurting
anything and anyone. It got him off in ways I didn’t want to think
about.

Vance was a sick, mad fuck, and needed to be
put down.

“Avery, Avery, Avery,” taunted the demon, his
eyes sparking like distantly exploding stars, “you’re making this
too easy. Give me a challenge.”

I narrowed my eyes and balled my fists.
“Okay.”

I didn’t wait for him to charge me. Vance let
me come at him, easily blocking my punches and kicks with a
conniving smile on his face. He didn’t try to fight back, just let
me attack him like we were having a friendly spar. He wanted me to
wear myself out so I wouldn’t be able to defend myself, much less
move when he started really beating me to death.

It was nice of him to think I’d fight
honorably. That I didn’t have it in me to cheat.

I spun a wide roundhouse kick at his head,
knowing he would block it. The move exposed my back dangerously,
but Vance was still playing with me. I took a risk, and drew out
some venomous black smoke to coil around my fist. I kept my
momentum going even after I finished the kick, and planted a solid
right cross into Vance’s jaw.

Normally, it would have been nice just to
punch the asshole. But I gave him a dose of catalepsy. The smoke
that slipped into the demon’s skin immediately targeted his nerves,
shocking them until Vance’s body went rigid. Keeping the flow of
smoke coming from my body, I sent his muscles into spasms until he
lost control over them. Vance scowled, and tried to move, but I
didn’t give him the chance. Once the smoke moved his body through
the basics of catalepsy, I tweaked my design. Instead of following
the rules and letting the nervous disorder dull Vance’s pain
sensory, I amplified it.

I wanted everything around him to be an
agonizing shock. I wanted him to suffer like all those humans he
captured and tortured had suffered. I wanted him to pay for the
Vermilions he killed. I wanted him to see that the high and mighty
often fell harder than those they stepped on.

Once I was sure the disorder had completely
corrupted Vance’s nerves, I stepped back. He was struggling to
stand, anger pulsing off him so heavily I could almost see it. I
would have been amused at how I’d turned the tables, even though
Logan had warned me not to use my powers. But it had been the only
way I could beat Vance. He was physically stronger than me, and my
powers wouldn’t shield me from demonfire.

As it was, I didn’t have time to reflect on
my achievement. I just leaped and snapped a kick into his chin as
hard as I could.

Vance collapsed, his body hitting the ground
hard. If it weren’t for the disease I put into him, I don’t think
he would have screamed as loud as he did. After what I did to him,
a paper cut would feel like a knife wound.

Keeping Vance in my peripherals, I glanced at
my brothers. The pile of bodies they’d created was incredible.
There were hundreds of them, some of them heaped and charred like
logs after a bonfire, some of them as thin as twigs, and the rest
simply not moving. Some of the bodies were piled five feet high. A
few of the remaining Soulless were writhing on the ground. I winced
at their cries. These were the ones connected to Vance. They felt
whatever he was feeling.

I didn’t feel too guilty about kicking their
asses– it was them or me– but that didn’t mean I enjoyed
listening to their pain.

My brothers heard Vance’s agonized howls and
made their way over to me. Kade and Simon were their usual selves,
furious and nervous respectively. Logan looked disappointed.

Kade shouldered past me, dropped to his knees
and hoisted Vance up by the collar of his shirt. He started raining
down blows with so much speed and force I backed out of his way,
worried he’d lose control and hit me instead. I stood next to
Simon, watching Kade pummel the demon. I winced at the sound of
every cracking bone, shuddered as hard knuckles split skin, and had
to look away when I saw a single white tooth tumble from the corner
of Vance’s mouth.

There was no way to get used to seeing Kade
beat on someone like that, but what made it even worse were the
screams. Not just the ones coming from Vance, whose pain reception
was amplified tenfold, making every punch feel like it was being
delivered by a wrecking ball, but the voices of the Soulless who
were feeling the same pain as the creature they’d given their souls
to. I shouldn’t have cared, since both the demon and his minions
would’ve torn my throat out with giddy enthusiasm, but they
shouldn’t suffer the way their master was. They made their choice,
to give up their souls and live longer lives, and it was a mistake
they had to pay for, but not like this. They couldn’t be saved, but
they could at least have a quick death.

Kade finally stopped pulverizing Vance,
though not because he had the same moral issues I did.

“How the fuck did you pull this off?” my
brother screamed in the demon’s face. “Tell me!”

Vance hung limply in Kade’s grip, his head
lolled back until it was nearly touching his spine. Vance made a
weird gurgling noise that made me think he was choking. Then I saw
the upward curve of his lips, and knew he wasn’t choking at
all.

“Shoulda known it would happen,” Vance
mumbled. “We were always gonna win. Hell was getting too crowded.
Just had too wait. Earth was the best part of the deal.”

“Deal?” I asked, stepping closer. “What
deal?”

Vance chuckled again, a fresh dribble of
blood oozing out of his mouth. “Asking the wrong demon. But you
made it easy. Got us new alliances. Gave us even more.” Vance
smiled at Kade. “Knew you’d break one, didn’t you?” The demon slid
his eyes over to me, still grinning with bloody teeth. “Thanks for
giving him the push. Wasn’t sure how noble his heart really
was.”

I stared, not sure who he was talking about.
But then I looked at Kade, and the pieces fell into place.

“Josh…” Simon breathed. “He wouldn’t… He
wouldn’t do that.”

Vance laughed, coughing and hacking up flecks
of blood onto Kade’s hands. My brother was too furious to
notice.

“Ask him yourself. He’s out now.”

Kade snarled. “Bullshit. I locked him up
tight. He didn’t have the strength to escape.”

“Not alone. But I’m not the only demon
here.”

Kade lost the last slivers of his control. He
placed his hands on either side of Vance’s face, and pushed his
thumbs into the demon’s eyes.

My brother’s face was like a rabid wolf’s,
his lips peeled back in a ferocious snarl, wildness and savagery
turning his eyes pitch black. The veins on his neck bulged as he
strained his muscles, shoving his thumbs deeper into Vance’s now
bleeding eyes.

The demon screamed one moment and laughed the
next, skipping between agony and mirth like a broken record. The
tortured Soulless wailed around us, reminding me too much of
memories I was desperately trying to forget.

Logan couldn’t take it any more. His
uncovered hand darted forward and pressed against Vance’s forehead.
Pale smoke drifted out of his hand and sank into Vance, killing him
instantly. Kade took his bloody hands back, snapping wildly at his
brother. Logan held his stare without blinking once.

“Get your priorities straight, Kade,” he
said. “Ciaran is here.”

My heart became a rock that plummeted into my
stomach.
Maddy.

I grabbed my machete, got to my feet, and
starting running before we could form a plan. I didn’t care about
one. If Josh really had sold Kade and his people out to the demons,
then she was in terrible danger.

And I had sent her to it.

Simon was shouting my name, telling me to
slow down and wait, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. All I could think
about were the images Kade had taunted me with a few days ago, and
how they could become a reality right now.

I shoved open the hotel entrance with no clue
where to start looking. I slowed down and moved in a circle,
searching for any sign of where she’d have gone. All I saw were
bodies.

Nothing had gotten past us, I was damn
certain about that, but the guards inside were slabs of burnt meat
nonetheless. The heavy, sickening smell of torched skin kicked in
my gag reflex, stopping only when I forced myself to look away.

Three more Vermilions lay on the floor near
the entrance to the canal shops, the blood pooling under them
nearly matching their crimson coats. A trail of blood led into the
shops, beckoning me to come closer.

I heard my brothers come in, and Kade let out
a string of violent curses too fast for me to keep up with, but I
still didn’t wait for them. I ran for the entrance to the shops,
and stepped into another slaughter.

Broken glass and bloodstains tarnished the
smooth floor. The corpses of Kade’s innocent humans were strewn on
the walkways, some of them even tossed into the empty canal or
lying half over the bridge. I could see some Soulless had made it
inside, their mouths latched onto the throats of the few humans
with blood to spare. The humans weren’t protesting, because they
weren’t alive.

But not all of the bodies in the shops
belonged to the dead. In the middle of the hall, across the bridge
at a crossroads, stood a group of Soulless holding human captives.
There were about seven survivors, and I recognized Ricardo and
Laurel among them. Only one human was untouched by the
Soulless.

I knew Kade had been angry with Josh for
causing a fire and attempting to escape. I knew he would punish the
human after he protected his fortress. But even I was shocked that
Josh looked the way he did, and was still able to breathe.

Both of the human’s eyes were puffy and
ringed in black bruises. His lip was swollen and split. Blood
streamed down from a cut above his left eyebrow while a huge bruise
formed over the right. Josh’s nose seemed to have been broken more
than once. Distorted contusions ringed Josh’s arms, and he seemed
to be favoring his right leg. Josh’s right arm was wrapped around
his left side, probably to cover up the battered ribs underneath.
Patches of blood seeped through his shirt, evidence of torture I
couldn’t see.

Standing confidently next to him in his long
black overcoat, was Ciaran. There was blood on his clothes as well,
but none of it was his, and unlike Josh, it didn’t take away from
his appearance. It only made him look stronger. The Paladin had the
smug look of someone who knew they had achieved a great victory,
and who didn’t care about what he’d sacrificed.

But I didn’t pay as much attention to them as
I should have. I couldn’t. Not when he was holding Maddy.

The human girl had been forced onto her knees
with Ciaran at her back. One of his hands was stroking the side of
her hair, while his other one was gripping her throat. Maddy was
sporting a few new bruises on her face and was breathing hard, but
at least she was breathing. Her navy blue eyes were big and wild,
looking at me with fear.

But not for herself. For me.

Past them, I could see the anger hiding
underneath her complacency. Maddy wanted to fight, but if she so
much as twitched, Ciaran would kill her. Even if she did get free,
the Soulless standing beside their master would subdue her. And it
was clear Josh was no longer an ally.

“I’m assuming Vance won’t be joining us,”
Ciaran said casually when we crossed the bridge to stand a few feet
away from him.

“Not a fucking chance,” growled Kade. “And
you’re going to be joining him soon, coal-eater.” He turned his
head slightly, focusing on the humans. “Right after I deal with
those two fucking traitors.”

Ciaran chuckled. “Oh, Kade, don’t tell me
you’re going to punish poor, sweet Madeline here,” he stroked the
side of her face as he said her name. She cringed, and his smile
widened. “She has nothing but loyalty to your brother. If you
really want to point the finger at someone, simply touch your
chest. It was your actions that brought this little circus into
town.”

“You dare–”

“Spare me, Horseman,” snapped the Paladin at
Kade. “You crave the pain of others. You feed on their screams. Why
do you think it was so easy for me to slip inside during that
Plagued attack? I saw what you were doing to this human,” Ciaran
nodded in Josh’s direction. He didn’t flinch, but he edged away
from the demon. “Once I saw what you’d done to him, all I had to do
was offer him respite. He knows my name, because I had Vance
whisper it into his ear when he was captured with your brothers.
You were unconscious and none of the other humans seemed strong
enough to handle my gifts. I knew it was just matter of time before
he lost his temper. Having Kade torture him just made him give in
quicker.” Ciaran tilted his head, considering Kade. “He’s a little
less torn up than when you left him, isn’t he? Watch this.”