Torment (Soul Savers Book 6) (40 page)

Despair colored her
tone, and her bottom lip trembled with emotion. I put an arm around
her shoulders. She sighed.

“After the
bombings, there was no power, no water, no phones. Nothing. We went
from capitol of the free world to a third-world country in days.
Chaos broke out. Looters were everywhere. Ex-military guys tried to
settle things down, but people fought back, and then the so-called
real military came in and killed them! Their former comrades and
civilians alike.” She paused to take another deep breath and
shook her head again. “The monsters sat back and watched as
humans killed each other over a carton of milk or a loaf of bread.
Some people formed gangs to protect themselves against others, and
their fights were deadlier than ever. But then people began leaving
in droves, running for the hills, I guess. I stayed, still hoping to
find my sister.”

“Did you?”
I asked, bracing for more bad news.

She nodded. “Yeah,
she showed up here a week ago, with about thirty friends and
neighbors, calling themselves A.K.’s Angels. She knew to come
here because of the holy grounds. She’d learned that from your
books. I’d noticed the vampires and other evil monsters
wouldn’t come on campus, but didn’t know why.” She
glanced at me and blushed. “I hadn’t had time to read
your books yet, with med school and everything.”

“I’d say
you had more important reading to do.”

She chuckled, the sound
flat and hollow. “Did I? If I’d read your books instead
of medical textbooks, I might have saved more lives than I ever will
as a surgeon. I could’ve tried to keep everyone here. But the
entire campus cleared out the day after the monsters attacked,
running for families and home. They would have survived here. They
most likely didn’t out there.” Her voice had become
watery, and she paused to suck in a ragged breath. “Do you know
the last we heard anything, a quarter of the world’s population
had been killed? They estimated another quarter had been infected and
turned into those monsters. And look out there.” She waved at
the city before us, where cars should have been clogging the roads
and people crowding the sidewalks—live people, not corpses.
“Anyone left is in those camps or have gone underground, except
for the few here or in the gangs. One-fourth of humans dead. Gone.
Wiped out. Just like it says in the Bible. I can’t wrap my mind
around that many people. And pretty much everyone I know is included
in that. My sister’s the only family I know who’s still
alive. The rest probably died trying to get out of here.”

“We have people
out there who could have helped them,” Tristan said.

“Did you ever see
any good creatures?” I asked. “Supernaturals like us,
trying to help?”

She stuffed her hands
into her pockets. “I did at first. That’s how I knew my
sister was right about everything she believed. But the humans went
after them, especially the gangs. They killed some, but I think the
rest just bolted.”

My heart shriveled at
the thought of some of my people dying out there in the streets
before me. Murdered when they’d only been trying to save lives
and souls. And where were the rest? Had any escaped? Did any work
covertly, still trying to help, or had they all given up?

“It’s not
safe out there, Alexis,” Carlie said as she turned for the
steps. “No matter what special things you can do. It’s
not safe
anywhere
. Some people here think help is coming, but
it’s not. There’s nobody left to help us. We stayed to
find survivors and give them a safe place, but there are none of
those left. Now we stay because there’s nowhere to go. We have
enough food to last us another week or so, and then what? We become
one of them?” She blew out a heavy breath. “Supernatural
or human, they’re all monsters out there.”

She descended the
stairs, disappearing from sight. I turned back to the view before us.
Besides the destruction and weird emptiness, which were bad enough in
themselves, the sight was marred by strange symbols everywhere. Burnt
into grass. Spray-painted on buildings and streets. Smeared in blood.
Ugly lines that I couldn’t interpret, but nevertheless made the
hairs on my arms stand up.

“Signs of the
devil,” Tristan said. “Symbols calling out to Satan.”

And they were
everywhere.

Lucas and his Daemoni
owned
this city. And who knew where else? How long had they
been infiltrating, worming their ways in like the snakes they were?
How far did they plan to go still? The Satanic symbols sent my body
into a full shudder.

My legs nearly gave out
by the weight of it all. The death and destruction. The loss of
lives, of hope, of humanity. The promise of a future filled with only
evil. The reality that Dorian could be headed straight into it, and
that the baby in my womb would never know differently.

I collapsed to my knees
and buried my head in my hands.

I’d completely
and utterly failed. I hadn’t protected the humans, and now
their souls were already lost or would be soon to the evil still
coming, for Lucas wasn’t done yet, I knew. Anything left of
humanity was barely worth fighting for. The Amadis showed no signs of
existence anymore. They’d probably given up on us ever
accomplishing our mission. And I couldn’t blame them. I’d
failed them, too. Solomon had been killed, and Sheree lingered in
death’s grip. How many more loved ones would I lose?

Tristan crouched beside
me and wrapped his arms around me.

“We’ve
lost, Tristan,” I cried. “I’ve failed everyone, and
we’ve lost. There’s no hope of us winning. There’s
no
us
to win. It’s …” I blew out a harsh,
tearful breath, and whispered with a soul-crushing sense of
hopelessness, “It’s all over.”

“As long as you
and I are alive to fight, it’s not over,” Tristan said.
“Remember what we promised each other? We fight together, hand
in hand ... ? The ultimate warrior and fierce protector …”

“Nobody can beat
us. Yeah, I remember. That’s back when I was stupid enough to
believe that good always wins. That the Amadis were all-powerful. But
we don’t have the power, Tristan.”

“No,
we
don’t,” he admitted. “But we have everything to
fight for.”

I shook my head. “How
can you say that? What’s still left that’s worth fighting
for?”

“This.” He
took my hands and pulled me to my feet, and then he walked me around
the steps in the center of the tower, to the far side that looked out
over campus instead of the city. “This is how I can say that.
This is what’s worth fighting for.”

Down below, a couple
dozen people were busy at work. Some chopped wood while others hauled
armfuls of it off to the buildings. A small handful of college-aged
guys had gathered around some kind of mechanical contraption,
studying it, and tinkering. I didn’t know what the object was,
but the vague clips of thoughts I managed to grab told me that
whatever it had been before, they wanted to turn it into a water
purifier now. A few hunters with compound bows or swords on their
backs jogged into the quad carrying pillowcases stuffed full of
something bulky. One reached in his bag, pulled out a package of
Twinkies and tossed it at Heather who sat with Teal, Teah, and some
other Norman girls about their ages. They ripped the bag open and
divided the two snacks to share among them. Dorian still sat under
the tree while Sasha and a couple of little kids ran circles around
him and threw dead leaves in the air. Their laughter carried up to
us.

Tristan stood behind me
as I watched and slid his arms around me. He leaned down and murmured
in my ear, “You were so focused on the devastation out there,
you missed the beautiful part of the view.”

I knew what he meant,
but I could only sigh. “Except they won’t be around much
longer. You heard Carlie—they don’t have enough food to
last forever. They won’t survive.”

“Yeah, you’re
right,” he said. “If we give up and roll over. If we
don’t fight for them, they have little chance of survival. But
if we do, we increase their odds greatly. If we can free the Norman
soldiers from the Daemoni’s control, they’ll fight for
the right side. They’ll protect their fellow humans instead of
locking them up to be served for dinner. These people will have hope,
Alexis. But only if we do our part. Only if we don’t give up.
They need us.”

I leaned back against
him, trying to soak up his positive energy by osmosis.

“The Amadis need
you, too,” said a female voice from the top of the stairs
behind us. “Sorry, but I’d been sitting on the roof over
there and couldn’t help but overhear.”

Alys came over and
stood next to us, gazing down at the scene below.

“I’m afraid
the Amadis have given up on us,” I said dejectedly. “We’ve
had no way of communicating with anyone. No way of telling my council
we’re still alive. Half of them didn’t believe in me
anyway, and they were right not to. I’ve failed them. And now
they’re just trying to do their best to survive.”

Alys turned toward me
and tilted her head. “You’re wrong, Alexis. They’re
still out there, fighting the Daemoni and protecting the Normans.
They’re still doing all they can to convert the newly turned. I
hadn’t come across any for several days before today, but that
doesn’t mean they aren’t out there—that
we
aren’t out there. We’re scattered around the world,
making it hard to be detected even by each other, but that was the
point of your orders, right? They’re still expecting you to
succeed at whatever it is you need to do and to give them new
directives. In the meantime, they’re fighting like they’re
supposed to. Don’t give up on them. I promise they haven’t
given up on you.”

My brows pushed
together, and I scowled as I considered this news. “When was
the last time you saw the Amadis actually fighting?”

“About a week
ago, in the mountains. Right before I found Lesley. I went back to
find those guys, thinking they could help me with her, but they’d
moved on. Staying under the radar, just like we’d been told to
do. If they knew you were pregnant, Alexis, you’d probably see
them everywhere, showing their commitment to you and each other. So
please,
please
don’t give up.”

I
gazed down at the scene below as I let this sink in and imagined it
being replayed all over the country, all over the world. Were there
other pockets of Normans like this, simply trying to survive and help
others and not trying to kill each other? Were my Amadis truly still
out there, following my orders? Or, at least, serving their purpose
of protecting souls?
Of course they are.

I wished we’d
developed some old-school way for the Amadis to stay in communication
with each other, such as using messengers. Of course, when we’d
given the orders, we hadn’t expected the world to fall apart at
the seams as it had. And perhaps such a scheme to keep us in contact
would have only made things worse by jeopardizing the messengers if
they’d ever been caught by the Daemoni. So relying on
accidental run-ins, such as Alys with the others and now with us, had
become our only means of passing on news. And I appreciated the
coincidence of her finding us while chasing Lesley, because her
update was exactly what I needed to hear to be reminded of my own
commitment.

Nothing is
coincidental
. The words echoed in my mind, a quiet whisper no
doubt from Mom or Rina or Cassandra. Perhaps a hint that Alys was
meant to deliver this news to keep me going.

“Well, then,”
I said, trying to sound more chipper than I felt deep down, “we
promised our people that this would all be worth it. We’d
better give it our damnedest, since they’ve given theirs.”

The three of us leapt
off the tower straight to the ground, catching everyone’s
attention, which was the point. At Tristan’s direction, Carlie
gathered them into the auditorium inside the gray-stoned building,
sending a few to round up those who were scattered across the
grounds. Only patients in the hospital were left alone. Forty, maybe
fifty people had come out of the woodwork and stood in the aisles and
in front of the seats, nobody bothering to sit down.

Physically, they’d
obviously seen better days. Many faces were smudged with dirt, some
scratched and bruised from flying debris. Bandages covered arms and
hands, probably burnt from the bombings and resulting fires. Knit
hats and baseball caps covered some heads, but everyone’s hair
could use a good washing. So could their clothes, which could also
use some mending, already showing lots of wear and tear. I couldn’t
imagine everything these people had been through to make it this far
and everything they’d still have to face.

Yet, they looked up at
us on the stage through eyes lit with hope.

It was up to us to
ensure they had the best chances of survival we could possibly
provide. It was up to us to give them that hope for a future.

Tristan had Carlie
introduce me, but introductions proved to be unnecessary. As soon as
she said my name, everyone began clapping and wolf whistling. I
wanted to throw up. This felt worse than the coronation, because then
I’d been too wrapped up in grief to care. At least Tristan kept
hold of my hand and walked out on stage with me, standing by my side
as I cleared my throat and began.

“I’m, uh,
pretty overwhelmed by all of this,” I admitted, trying to make
my voice loud enough to be heard, but it was impossible over the lump
in my throat that wicked all of the moisture from my mouth. Blossom
waved her hands at me, and my voice suddenly amplified across the
auditorium as though I spoke into a microphone.

“You all are
truly amazing,” I started again. A few people cheered when they
could hear me this time. “You’ve really blown my mind.
When I wrote those books, I honestly had no idea about all of this. I
thought I wrote fantasy, nothing more than fiction. I’d just
needed an escape from my own real life and had hoped my stories would
provide an escape for others, too. I had no clue my tales would lead
to this.”