Pandora's Ring (15 page)

Eli had to admit later, they ran damn well. After some sleep, Samantha managed to drive long enough to get them to the Canadian border, where Eli glamoured the guards into letting them through, and they just kept trekking north. She stretched and meditated as much as possible.

They were six hours past Toronto when Eli’s phone beeped. She glanced at the message. “Eli, it’s Francis.”

“Let me see,” he said. Samantha held the phone up.

PULL OVER AND MAKE A STAND. WE’RE AN HOUR BEHIND YOU.

He frowned. “He’s right. Time to find a cornfield.”

“A cornfield,” Samantha repeated, “I guess there’s nothing else.”

“You wanted something else?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She chuckled grimly. “Seems to me legendary battles should take place in castles, or vast forests.”

“Kind of short on both in Canada,” he pointed out, but smiled.

“Corn it is.”

They pulled onto a lot and left the car as far away as Samantha thought they could walk. If they made it out, she said, she definitely wouldn’t be in a shape to hitchhike. Eli nodded, but the set of his lips made her wonder if they had any hope at all.

Still, they were nothing if they didn’t try, so she took his hand in the middle of the cornfield and held it fast, tilted her head up to watch the sky. “Is there a devil?” she asked. “A Lucifer?”

“Yeah,” he said, dreamily. “But it’s not the same guy you read about.”

“It’s not?”

“Nah. He retires after a century or two. And by retire I mean someone gets sick of the bureaucracy and kills him to take his place.”

Samantha chuckled. “What about God?”
 

Eli was silent for a few moments.
 
It was a nice thought.
 
He wished he knew for sure. “I’d imagine so,” he finally said. “But I don’t have the inside information on him. Could be the same situation as down below.”

“Have you ever seen an Angel?”

“Yes.”

“What are they like?”

“Beautiful. Awe-striking. Terrible in their power.”

“Do they sing nice?”

“No idea.” He leaned over, kissed her temple. “Don’t worry. There’s no way you’re going under.”

“Mom said I was an in-betweener now. What’s that mean?”

“Think of yourself as an un-contracted mercenary,” he said, stroking her hair. He smiled. “You take all the risk, make all the decisions, take all the blame, but also get all the glory.”

She couldn’t help but smile with him. “Except for the bits that go to you for helping me.”

He kissed her lips gently, and she savored the way his hair slipped through her fingers, the softness of his lips, the way she could feel her soul singing with swelled possibility and strength, and the support of his soul beside her. “My glory rests with you.”

A howl sounded far off and they stepped apart again, keeping their hands joined. “Let’s do this,” Samantha murmured, and Eli only nodded.

There was a streak of red across the knee-high corn, and a scream. Samantha narrowed her eyes to try and focus on the blur and stepped forward. Trying to rush them? “Not gonna work,” she cried, and set a foot back, arm bent in front of her to meet the Damned woman head on.

Cyrene slammed into her, leaned forward and snarled into her face. “See you figured out some tricks,” she spat.

“Yeah,” Samantha replied, and heaved forward. Cyrene jumped back, tossing her hair.

“Doesn’t matter. You’re going to die and we’ll balance the scales.”

“Not a chance, Cyrene,” Eli said, stepping up beside Samantha.

Cyrene gave them a look, her eyes going wide. She threw her head back and laughed. “So that’s how you’re alive. Oh Eli, you simpering child.”

Samantha growled. “Shut it, twat whistle,” she snapped. “Let’s settle this.” She lunged at the other woman, raising fists instead of the nails which Cyrene brought up like spears. The Damned laughed as Samantha fended her off, but was unable to land a single attack.

“You think it’s about us?” she hissed as she crouched and jumped at Samantha. Samantha dodged, and Cyrene slashed in, locking arms with Samantha. “Oh no, girly. You’ve caught the administrative eye. Not only for your power, but for what you know.” She glanced at Eli, smirking.

“I wasn’t going to give in to your torture anyway,” Samantha snarled. “And right now, this is between me and you. I’ll take you on, and then move up.”

“Confident, isn’t she?” Cyrene mutteredas Samantha blocked a kick and dodged another punch. “Let’s see how long that holds, shall we?”

Samantha wasn’t even breathing hard, but she was beginning to worry. Cyrene hadn’t landed a hit, but neither had she. How long before Cyrene got reinforcements? They fought silently for several minutes, each unable to dominate the fight.

Eli watched the fight closely, and Samantha could feel him studying their moves. She knew he could fight too, and if she got on the defense and he the offense, maybe they could stop Cyrene. So she moved to give him an opening, and he jumped on it.

Cyrene laughed. “Took you long enough,” she cried, turned and kicked Eli viciously across the field. “Don’t rely on him! He is beyond weak, beyond idiotic. That was your first mistake, girl, bonding yourself to him. You could have become something if you’d come with me.”

“I already am something,” Samantha snarled, and moved to put herself between Cyrene and Eli again.

“Never mind, you can’t seem to fight me properly,” Cyrene chided, laughing. “Your defense is fine but… oops!” She feinted and slipped past Samantha. Suddenly next to Eli, she lifted him from the dirt by the throat. “Look what I found, all discarded and dirty,” Cyrene crooned, dusting off Eli’s pants. She laughed as he struggled, and Samantha stepped forward. Eli! How could she have forgotten Eli? “Don’t move,” Cyrene called, beaming and waggling Eli around for her to see.

There was a caw, and Cyrene’s crow lofted in, landed on Cyrene’s shoulder. “There you are, pet,” she said, and scratched under the bird’s wing. The beady-eyed animal glanced at Eli then Samantha, and screeched, opening a view to the inferno within.

Samantha’s clenched her jaw. “Let him go.”

“Why?” Cyrene laughed. “You’ve got nothing on me and I, everything on him.” She leaned in. “Come on, Eli, wouldn’t you like to join your beloved? You have told the girl about her, right?” She eyed Samantha, who looked on stone-faced. “Darn, you have. Still. You know she’s in here, don’t you? So close, yet so far beyond reach?” Eli’s face twisted, but his voice was stilled by Cyrene’s hold on his throat, and so he could only glare at her helplessly. Cyrene chuckled merrily. “Yes. You know. I keep her very close, Eli. She’s one of my favorites–always so ready to scream for me–”

“Bitch,” Eli choked out, swinging his arm at her, but Cyrene batted it aside, grinning at Samantha who stood twenty feet away, unable to work out how they could possibly get out of this.

“Come on, girly. Where’s your confidence? At least give saving your lover a try, won’t you? He’s not going anywhere.” She sighed whimsically. “He was so easy to entice, weren’t you Eli? Standing in a hospital room, begging me to sign you up.” She chuckled. “It was almost too easy. I almost didn’t do it, but you were so perfect for the job. It’s a pity she brought your mind back. You were shaping up to become one of the greater ravagers, but her sacrifice castrated you, tossed you into the scavenger’s ring.”

Eli writhed, choking as she tightened her hold and kicking at Cyrene uselessly. His eyes rolled, lips forming curses unvoiced. Samantha longed to contest her words, to leap to Eli’s defense but knew it would just be hot air, a fruitless contest of words leading nowhere. This fight wouldn’t be settled with words.

“Come on,” Cyrene murmured invitingly. “Let’s do it, girl.”

Samantha set her shoulders. “Fine,” she snarled. “Let’s do it.”

She leaned forward, shot at Cyrene as fast as she could, but was knocked aside without pause. Unhurt, she whipped around and tried again, only to be foiled again. When she raised a fist, Cyrene shoved Eli forward, and Samantha was forced to back off. “I don’t know what he sees in you,” Cyrene chided. “You seem to have the worst of the races–the souls of a Damned, the idiotic poise of an Angel, the hesitance of a human. Who cares whether you keep those souls if you can’t use them!”

A voice roared from the left. “Because she gives us hope!” As Samantha reached in to try to grab Eli directly, the voice boomed between them and Francis appeared, using his clenched hands to hammer at Cyrene’s grip on Eli.

Cyrene screeched in anger and pain, dropping Eli to the ground. Francis grabbed him under the arms. “Hammy!” he shouted. The hell hound leaped over him to Samantha’s side, snarling.

For a moment, Samantha was too shocked to do anything, but then Cyrene lunged forward at Eli and Francis, and Hammy head-butted her. “Damn dog!” Cyrene shouted as Hammy bit at her leg. She tried to kick him off, but the hound was already back at Samantha’s side.

“I thought that was the point,” Samantha said, recouped and jumped in front of Eli and Francis’s retreat before Cyrene could recover. “Hi, Hammy.”

The dog’s tongue lolled out, and he howled shortly. It sounded like a greeting, and Samantha’s smile came back. “So you’re on our side, huh?”

Panting seemed to mean agreement.

“Traitors, all of you,” Cyrene screeched, gasping. “This is impossible. This is unthinkable! How could they?” She whirled on them. “How dare you go against your very nature!”

“How dare they?” Samantha asked, frowning. “You’re the one who did it. You shoved their humanity back on them and expect them just to take being Damned lying down?”

“And what are you going to do about it?” Cyrene snarled.

Samantha lifted her chin. “I am the bridge between. I am the mortal who saves. And I am going to right the balance. So fuck off!”

Her eyes lit with rage, Cyrene screamed with such force Samantha felt it echo in her soul. Then the twenty thousand within her screamed in return, drowning out the terror of the Damned and reinforcing Samantha’s spirit. When Cyrene attacked her in a whirl of claws, fists and feet, Samantha was ready, effortlessly pushing past and aside. Cyrene grew more and more frenzied, but with the cries of encouragement from those within, Samantha did not falter until Hammy took the opportunity afforded by their fight and jumped at Cyrene.

Without missing a beat, the Damned woman held out her hand and caught the hell hound by the skull, nails sinking into burning skin and bone. Despite the hissing heat released as she punctured Hammy’s skin, Cyrene held fast. The hell hound yipped and thrashed as Cyrene cackled in glee. “The mortal savior?” she crowed. “Don’t make me laugh! You cannot save those already in hell’s claws!”

And before Samantha could speak, she whipped Hammy into both hands and tore the hound in half.

Samantha fell back, breathless in horror. Behind her, Francis loosed a guttural scream, his loss and pain echoing over the field further than Cyrene’s anger.

Cyrene laughed as she tossed the smoldering pieces of the dog to the ground, where her crow flitted down from on high and pecked at the corpse. Samantha heaved for breath, staring at Cyrene in growing rage. “You…”

“Give up!” Cyrene snapped, holding up a hand still filled with steaming embers, Hammy’s last remains. “You’re hopeless, the lot of you.”

* * * *

Francis staggered to the ground, his eyes stricken and dull. Eli caught him, aching in sympathy as he watched his friend shudder through the shock of loss. Cyrene was right. Their hope of winning, of even surviving, was waning rapidly.

“Eli.” Francis’s voice was strained, quiet. He groped at the air until Eli found his hand and squeezed. Francis wheezed. “Kill me.”

Eli frowned. “What?”

“Kill me. Don’t let me die of the loss, or she’ll inherit.”

Eli’s eyes widened. “You can still pull through.”

“Shut up, Eli.” Francis smiled, as if at peace with his wounds. “We didn’t come here expecting to live.”

“Then why did you come?”

Francis’s gaze wandered from Eli to Samantha. “When I was a boy, someone told me I’d know a savior when I saw it. They didn’t mention it would be a her, but I think I get the picture.” He groaned, half rolled over and pulled out a knife. “Do it before Cyrene can take advantage of her anger.”