Path of the Horseman (18 page)

“Foul…” rasped the poisoned monster.

He let go of me and scrambled to his feet. I
was happy to collapse onto my back. The bite wound was nasty, but
it wasn’t lethal. That didn’t make it hurt any less.

“Poison!” shouted Frankenstein.
Great.
“You’re poison!”

Without bothering to explain any further, he
scuttled to his feet and bolted for the stairs. I closed my eyes
and listened to him stomp around, leaving the humans to be confused
about the piss-scared Soulless, and why he didn’t want to drink
pints of me.

Chains shook by my side. “Avery? Are you
okay?”

By my shining stars. He actually sounds
concerned.

“Next time you want payback, can you do
something that doesn’t get me bitten?”

I could almost see Simon flinch. “I’m sorry,
man. I didn’t know what else to–”

“Stop talking, Simon.”

He did. I was getting drowned in miracles
lately.

“Avery?”

I lolled my head in the direction of Maddy’s
voice. “I’m good.”
Too bad I sound drunk.
“I don’t think he
liked me.”

“Why?”

Now Josh was talking. Damn it. I rolled and
got into a sitting position, careful not to aggravate my latest
bite or broken wrist.

“Why what?” I grumbled.

“Why didn’t he drain you? Why did he say you
were poisonous?”

“He’s the blood drinking monster. Ask
him.”

“No, I want an answer from you right
now.”

I sighed. I was not in the mood for this. I
was bleeding, bruised, probably concussed, unable to heal myself,
chained to a floor, and now a human was asking me to tell my
dirtiest, darkest secret.

Color me unlucky. And a liar.

“I’m sick,” I said. “Got some kind of
septicemia when I was a kid. Been on a shitload of drugs ever
since.”

“And you’re still alive?” Ricardo
exclaimed.

“I was a tough kid.”

Josh tried to bore holes into me with his
eyes. “This is not the time to be lying. My people’s lives are a
stake here.”

“What the fuck do you want me to say, Josh?”
Tell me, because I can’t tell you the truth.

“I want to know who you are, and why a
fucking Soulless thinks you’re poisonous.”

That was my biggest problem with Josh. He
couldn’t accept anything without knowing its inner workings and
getting an instruction manual. I found it amazing that he was still
willing to go on the blind hunt for the haven, though I figured
being obviously in love with Maddy overrode his reason. Everyone
else he was ready to go in circles with.

Too bad I wasn’t.

“I’m Superman, all right?” I snarked, but I
was starting to wish I was, and not just for the keener eyesight.
“I came from another planet and diseases can’t kill me.”

Josh’s expression could have cut glass. He
took a deep breath to fire either another argument or a string of
insults at me, but the heavy metal door creaking open stopped him.
We all became silent as the grave as footsteps plodded down.

These ones had a different tone. They weren’t
as heavy as Frankenstein’s, and I swore they had a slight jingle to
them.

Christ.

Vance was more than happy to make his grand
entrance into the light. He beamed at us, showing his fangs. The
black coat on his shoulders hung over him like a shadow. The shade
under the brim of his hat made it look like he was wearing a Zorro
mask. His burning coal eyes were as bright as the sun.

I hoped the humans weren’t as scared as they
should have been. I would rather have them confused. Demons like
Vance would pick the fear out of them in a heartbeat, and exploit
it until they cut their chests open and let him rip the terror from
their bodies.

Vance stalked deeper into the room, the
lights overhead turning the shadows darker around him. He finally
locked eyes with me.

“Avery,” he crooned. “So good to see you
again.”

“Vance,” I grumbled. “It hasn’t been long
enough.”

The demon chuckled and knelt in front of me.
“I see you’ve picked up some strays since we last met. Quite the
collection.”

“I also ran into a friend of yours. Hope you
guys aren’t planning a tea party. He’s gonna be late.”

“Oh, you mean Armin?” Vance shrugged. “Can’t
say I was surprised. That prick always loved to jump the gun.”

Vance finally turned his head, acknowledging
Simon for the first time. “You’re looking healthy, Simon. Plump,
almost. I guess Armin didn’t get past the fat?”

Simon didn’t say anything. Ciaran could see
everything his club members did. They all knew exactly how badly
Simon had been hurt.

“Why are you here, Vance?” my brother
asked.

The demon pushed himself up so he towered
above us again. “Oh, you know. Following the boss’s orders. Seems
one of our peons coughed up all his internal organs just now. Hell
of a mess. Don’t suppose you had anything to do with that, did you,
Avery?”

I stared up at the Butch Cassidy wannabe.
“It’s not my fault if he doesn’t pay attention to his
allergies.”

Vance chuckled again. “Excellent point. I’ll
make sure the rest of Ciaran’s minions see their doctors.” He
clicked his tongue. “Speaking of Ciaran,” he tilted his chin and
grinned, “you know who’d like to see you right now?”

“Please say Santa.”

“Sorry. Maybe next time.”

Vance snapped his fingers. A split second
later, two more behemoth sized Soulless ran into the basement. They
all but tripped over themselves to get to their master, probably
thinking they’d get a treat like all good doggies do.

“Now, I know what you’re going to try and do
when we unchain you, Avery. You’ll try to fight, maybe throw a
magic trick or two, but my friends here,” Vance nudged the Soulless
meatheads forward, one of them moving for my ankles while the other
stood by my shoulders, “well, you can see they take up a lot of
space. Even if you killed them, I’d have more than enough time to
cook your brother and one of the humans. Say…” he turned and looked
around, “that one.”

Maddy shuffled back, pressing herself as
close to the wall as she could. Vance laughed. “She’s probably
caused some trouble down here, hasn’t she? The prettiest ones
always do.” Vance twisted in my direction again. “So my pony
friend, are you going to co-operate? Or are we going to play heads
or tails over who gets their spine ripped out first?”

There were a lot of stupid, macho things I
could have said. Most of them were on the tip of my tongue, arguing
about who would get to go first.

But then I looked at Simon’s nervous
shoulders, and Maddy’s wide, scared eyes, and all my threats and
insults died.

“Aww,” moaned Vance. “I was really hoping
you’d do something stupid. You were so much more fun in the old
days.”

I bit my tongue from saying anything else as
the Soulless mountains unchained me and roughly yanked me to my
feet. The humans were already suspicious and afraid. Josh would be
exploding with conspiracy theories, overloading Simon with them
until I came back.

If I came back. I was about to meet the
leader of this demonic brute squad, and we weren’t exactly pen
pals.

They put a bag over my head when I was
dragged to the top of the stairs, probably because they didn’t want
to ruin the surprise party. Demons are big on theatrics.

Personally, I thought it was pointless
overkill. I didn’t know where I was, so I couldn’t even guess at
the exits. I wasn’t counting my footsteps, since I would have to do
it all backwards to find my brother and the humans. That’d be a
tricky thing to do if the fiends of Hell were on my ass.

Demons could be killed, same as anything
else. But they gained power by absorbing souls and creating
Soulless. It powered them, boosted their strengths and skills until
they were nothing short of the Incredible Hulk.

Armin had been low on the food-chain. Maybe
he only got a few dozen Soulless made. Vance was a tough
motherfucker, and probably had around three hundred souls to his
name. In this pocket of the earthly crisp alone.

Ciaran on the other hand… I didn’t want to
think about how many souls he had taken. He wasn’t a big name in
Hell, not even with his true name, but rumor said he was a Paladin
who worked for one of the big guys. He must have been, because it
was considered a privilege to be topside.

During the Tribulation, I’d crossed paths
with Ciaran as he oversaw his minions and took innocent souls. I
tried to stop him, but the coal-eater was efficient. By the time I
reached him directly, he and the people he’d been terrorizing were
gone. He was always one step ahead of me, and I never thought I
would catch up. Now I was meeting him face-to-face for the first
time since the chaos started. I was looking forward to this like a
cavity looked forward to the dentist’s tools.

It took nearly ten minutes to get to our
destination. Wherever we were being held was a damn big place. A
door opened in front of me and I was hauled through. My bitten
shoulder swelled with pain, but I didn’t make a sound. They stomped
me inside then held me in place. My arms were pulled back and
shackled together. I grimaced again, almost wishing one of those
stupid Soulless would bite me.

Guess they saw what happened to their pal
Frank. That or they still had some brain cells.

The bag was taken off my head, and I prepared
to get my first clue about where I was.

This place was emptier than the basement.
Grey walls boxed me in. There were no windows, no furniture,
nothing distinctive or memorable about this room. Not even a stain
or smell. It reminded me of the cell in a psych ward, only without
the padding.

Standing in the dim light of the back wall
was a man in a long, black embroidered coat that looked like it
belonged in a high-class pirate’s closet. The three-piece pinstripe
suit was sharp as a blade. His shoes and were shiny and immaculate.
Thick dreadlocks of black and silver were tied in a knot near the
back of his neck, draping down like tentacles. His skin was
perfectly tanned and free of pores. It was easy to see why so many
people gave up their soul for him.

But if the eyes were windows to the soul, his
had a clear view of Hell. Black from lid to lid with two irises
that burned like hot coals, their fire ever more intense than
Vance’s.

Ciaran was a literal walking powerhouse.

“At last,” the Paladin said in a deep, smooth
baritone. He sounded like what Lucifer probably sounded like when
he had a chat with Eve about apples. “I was wondering when I would
see you again.”

“I was banking on never.”

Ciaran smirked and started walking closer.
The only reason I remained as calm as I did was because I knew how
to deal with demons. I even knew Ciaran’s true name. I didn’t think
he could do anything to me if I spoke it, but I wasn’t going to
test my luck with this human body.

He stopped a couple feet in front of me. He
smelled like bourbon and sulfur.

“You look well, ironically. And you’ve chosen
a human name as well. How charming.”

I shrugged, gritting my teeth against the
pain radiating from my hand and shoulder. “Never had a name before.
More like a title.”

“A suitable one too, I would say. You
certainly lived up to it. You and all your brothers. I have to say,
you’ve given me no small amount of grief over the last few months,
but the rest of your siblings have been just as aggravating.
Especially the second oldest one. Kade, I think he calls himself
now?”

I couldn’t stop my grin. “Sounds like him.
But I won’t talk to him for you. Kade’s not very good at
listening.”

“Of course not. But that doesn’t change the
fact that you and your kind have been getting in the way of my
plans.”

My smile widened. “I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m
really not.”

Ciaran’s eyes blazed, but he held onto his
anger way better than I ever could. “You may want to reconsider
your apology if you value the lives of those humans in the
basement.”

The smile died on my face while my blood went
cold. “What makes you think I care about what happens to them? I
just want to know how they survived.”

“Please, Avery. I have eyes everywhere. Every
Soulless you see communicates back to me. You value the lives of
those humans, and want to keep them alive.” Ciaran tilted his head,
tentacle-dreadlocks spilling off his shoulder. “Do you really
believe they were part of your Second Coming? The glorious purpose
you were supposed to fulfill?”

We both knew that I did. There was no point
in lying to a demon. Lies were oxygen to them. They breathed them,
smelled them, tasted them. Picking one out of me would be as easy
as finding a bowling ball in a pile of rice.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you take them
anywhere. I have very special plans for them, and they’ll be a
terrific living addition to my collection. In fact, you all will.
Once you tell me where your two older brothers are.”