Balance (The Divine, Book One) (6 page)

I saw
him at the same time the driver did, a lone man in a fine pinstriped suit,
sitting on the steps of one of the condemned buildings. When he saw the cab he
stood and reached behind his back, retrieving a sword that even from the
distance looked similar to the one the dark angel in Purgatory had almost
halved me with.

"I
don't suppose I can talk you out of dropping me here?" I asked.

"Go
to Hell," he said. He stopped the cab at the sidewalk in front of the
building. The door opened of its own accord. I wasn't about to get out.

"No
sense in making this difficult," the man in the suit said. "My
associate has already marked you as a demon."

A
demon? Dante had said that they would be able to recognize me. That only seemed
to be half-true, as both Rebecca and now this guy had seen me only as their
direct opposite. I wasn't going to escape, so I slid over and got out of the
cab. As soon as I was clear the door slammed shut, and the driver took off.

"That's
better," the man said. He looked at me curiously. "You took quite a risk
being out during the day. You must have some pretty important information to
deliver."

Information?
He had taken a look at me and judged me to be no more than a messenger. I did
my best to play the part.

"Like
I would tell you, asshole," I said.

His
eyes narrowed. "Mind your tongue, worm. You can tell me what you know, or
I can spit you like a pig."

The
eyes. They were brown, simple, human. He wasn't an angel. This had to be what
Dante had referred to as the Touched. I decided to change tactics.

"Do
you take me for some kind of minor spawn," I shouted. "You have no
idea who you are dealing with. The light means nothing to me."

I
forced my will, just enough to make my eyes flash red like they do in horror
movies. I didn't know if it would work or not, but the tug told me I had been
successful. The Touched man's eyes widened and he held the sword up to defend
himself
. I could tell he felt overmatched, now all I could
do was hope he wouldn't call for backup.

He
did the other thing I had hoped he wouldn't. Fight or flight, he decided to
fight. He came at me in a rush, committing himself and all his power to a
single downward cut. Even as unskilled as I was, the desire to not be cut in
half was more than enough for my brain to move my body out of the way. I danced
to the side as the blade slammed into the cement, throwing up chips of
concrete.

He
surprised me by adjusting and getting back into a defensive posture. The
trouble was, I hadn't even considered attacking him back. His maneuver left him
a good four feet away, out of sword reach. It was my turn for fight or flight.
I turned and ran.

I had
six steps on him before he overcame his surprise and started giving chase. I
dashed up the stairs and into the abandoned building, catapulting up the inner
stairwell at a speed that I didn't know I had. I could hear his shoes landing
on the steps below me, getting fainter and fainter as I rose at a pace he
couldn't match. I was winning the footrace, but where was I going to go? The
building was a bad decision, because I was going to run out of up, and I
couldn't get back down without passing Samurai Joe. All too soon, I pushed open
the door at the top of steps and found myself out on the roof, fifteen stories
up.

"God
dammit," I cried, seeing that there was nowhere to hide. If the building
had ever had an air conditioner it had already been removed. The rest of the
rooftop was solid cement. I spun in a three sixty. There was another roof about
twenty feet away. No way I could jump that. I was considering other options
when he emerged from the stairwell in a smoothly executed roll and came to his
feet. He had been expecting an ambush. The moment he spotted me, he charged
again.

All I
could think as I raced towards the edge of the rooftop was that everybody falls
the first time. Except here, there was no rubber street to bounce me back up.
Here, if I fell… I wasn't actually sure if I would die, but I didn't want to
find out. I willed myself to make it across, and I almost shouted with joy in
midair as I felt my mind get tugged and my
body soar
across the gap. I watched the empty street pass under me, and then get replaced
by cement. I hit the ground, hard.

I
wasn't prepared for the momentum I had built up. I slammed onto the roof and
fell, my body bouncing and rolling along the hard ground. The pain was
immediate and intense, registering from a dozen places. My shoulder was broken.
It had to be. So was my ankle. I may have gotten away from my attacker, but I
had completely messed myself up in the process.

Once
I had stopped moving, I started trying to assess the damage. I lifted my head
and looked down at my splayed out carcass, saw a lot of tears in my clothes and
blood trickling out through them. If I could bleed, I could die. I needed to
figure out some way to stand up, to start moving, to get myself to a hospital.
I needed to do it fast, because there was nothing preventing the man in the
suit from going back down the steps, and coming up here.

I
heard a faint rustle, and then the familiar sound of Italian leather shoes
walking towards me. So the Touched had some mojo. I wish I had known that
before my leap of faith. I looked at him. He was smiling broadly, confident of
his triumph.

"Care
to talk now, worm?" he asked me.

I
coughed up some blood in response.

"Guess
not," he said. He stood right over me and raised his sword two handed,
prepared to bury it like Excalibur. I caught a hint of motion behind his right
shoulder.

"Wait,"
I said, raising my hand. He hesitated for just a fraction of a second. It was
the longest fraction of the rest of his short life.

She
was on him in a blink, yanking the sword from his hands and throwing it across
the rooftop, then spinning him around so he could see her face before she
buried her teeth in his neck. His body writhed as he was overcome by the
assault, a soft groan of pain, or was it pleasure, escaping his lips. As she
fed, she looked up at me and winked.

I
didn't know if I should be relieved, or more afraid. What was Rebecca doing
here? I had a feeling she was following me, but why? There seemed to be more to
this than I understood. Watching her drain her victim, my body wracked with
pain, I could feel my stomach churning again.

She
was finished within a couple of minutes. As the last of the life force left the
poor saps body, she dropped the empty shell to the ground and carefully wiped
the excess blood from around her mouth with a handkerchief. She was wearing a
lot more clothes now; a form hugging long sleeve hooded sweater that dropped
over a pair of black tights, knee high boots and long black gloves. She looked
just as good, but much better protected from the sun. She pulled her hood up
over her head before she spoke to me.

"Looks
like your luck is holding out, worm," she said. I guess she had heard the
way the Touched had referred to me.

"You're
following me," I said. "Why?"

I was
too beat up to be afraid. If she had wanted to take me, she would have done it
already. I suppose I should have been disgusted by what I had just seen, and in
the back of my mind I was, but she had just saved my life. I could be really
forgiving for that.

She
waved her arm towards the sun, shining down on the rooftop with a ferocity that
was sure to be unpleasant for her, despite the attire.

"Can
we talk somewhere else?" she asked.

"I'm
a little indisposed at the moment," I replied.

"Come
off it diuscrucis,” she said. “You did a great albatross impersonation, but you
should be fine by now." She came over and grabbed my arm, pulling me to my
feet with a harsh jerk.

I had
expected it to hurt. I had expected to see stars. It twinged a little where my
ribs had broken, but otherwise I was feeling a lot better. I rotated my ankle,
tested my shoulder.

"I'm
healed," I said.

"Seriously,
I know you said you were new in town, but didn’t they teach you anything?"
She let go of my arm and walked over to where the Touched's sword had landed.
She scooped it up in a gloved hand and tossed it to me. "I think you might
need this," she said.

I
caught the sword, and then held it out so I could take a look at it. It looked
like a Japanese katana, with a narrow, slightly curved blade and a guard less
hilt. There were symbols running along the entire length of the steel, symbols
I couldn't read.

"Do
you know what these mean?" I asked.

I was
so busy looking at the sword I hadn't noticed that Rebecca was standing by the
doorway to the stairs, waiting impatiently to get out of the sun.

"Sorry,"
I said, and ran over.

We
went down a couple of flights, then busted through a locked door into a
dilapidated apartment that had been stripped bare of almost everything except a
bed, an empty fridge, and a couch. Rebecca hopped up onto the couch and perched
on the back, her legs bent and spread like a roosting gargoyle. The stillness
of her form in that position was more than a little intimidating. Fighting back
the reflex to run again, I sat on the far arm of the couch facing her. She
started to speak, and I raised my hand to quiet her. Fear was one thing, but
she was right - nobody had taught me anything. I wasn't about to let her
dominate the conversation. She was following me. She wanted something from me.
I wasn't about to provide it without some info in return.

"Question
for a question," I said.

She
furrowed her brow. "I don't understand?"

"I
ask you a question, you answer it,” I said. “Then you can ask me a question,
and I'll answer it. Deal?"

She
sat motionless for long enough that I started to think she really had turned to
stone. "Very well," she said. "You have a deal. What is your
question?"

"Why
are you following me?"

She
was thoughtful before answering. "I'm curious about you."

"Curious?"

She
raised her hand and chided me. "You got your answer. It's my turn."
She had a point. I started to feel like I may have suckered myself with this
deal. "Where did you come from?"

If
she was going to be obtuse, I could play that game too. "I grew up in New
Jersey, but I was born in London, England."

There
was a hint of frustration in her eyes, but she smiled. The game was afoot.
"Why are you curious about me?" I asked.

"I've
been nesting in the Statue for over fifty years. No one has ever gotten onto
the island at night without me knowing it. Yet, there you were. Out of
nowhere." There was something about my appearance that was bothering her.
I could tell by the way she spoke about it. "How did you get onto the
island?"

I
spent a few minutes thinking about the best way to answer the question. While I
thought, I looked into her eyes; so blue, almost gentle looking. Captivating. I
suddenly had the bright idea to try to look into her the way she had tried to
look into me. I felt the tug in my mind, and then my body slammed into the wall
behind the couch. She had hit me before I had even seen her move.

"Don't
do that again," she said. The blow had knocked the wind out of me. I stumbled
to my feet and sat down in my spot on the couch.

"I'm
sorry," I said. "Your eyes are beautiful."

It
caught her off guard. So much so that she slipped from her crouching position
and had to scramble to rebalance herself. I could have pressed the issue, made
some other smart remark. I answered her question instead.

"I
was dropped off there, on the torch, by a man named Ross." I watched her
closely to see how she reacted to the name drop. Her eyebrows raised just a
smidge, but it was enough. "What can you tell me about him?"

She
got super uncomfortable. "I'm not supposed to speak about those
things," she said. "I'm not allowed to say that name."

I
pressed her. "We had a deal."

I
didn't think vampires could sweat, but she did. She was fighting the war
between her fear and our deal.

"Please,"
she begged. "Ask me something else."

I
wanted to push her further, but I didn't have the heart. Maybe if I had been a
little more evil, but then I wouldn't have been here.

"What
did you just learn about me?" It was a similar question, but it would let
her off the hook.

The
relief was palpable. "I know where you came from. I know why you are here.
There was another like you. Please don't ask me, because I'm not allowed to
speak of her either. I had a feeling after we met that was your purpose. I
wanted to know for sure. Do YOU know why you are here?"

It
was my turn to be caught off guard. I started laughing. Rebecca looked at me
with a confused expression.

"I
have the thousand mile overview," I said. "But as you saw, I'm
completely unprepared for this gig. How do you intend to use this
information?"