Chapter 31 #4
In seconds, the guy was upon them, but Sean was prepared. He’d been training for months, and the Indy went down with a single blow, allowing Isobel to purge the creature inside the human. Another replaced him, spitting insults in Lux.
Glowfreak. Fairy Duster. Lightfucker.
In any other circumstance, Sean would have laughed, but the asshole aimed a fist at his jaw. He ducked and slapped an open palm over his chest, soaking him with the Light until he howled.
Shouts rose from the crowd as the scuffle escalated, and families fled the ruckus. Down the midway, police officers sprinted their way.
A woman jumped onto Sean’s back, her fingernails digging into his neck.
Pain like none he’d ever known drove through his skin, somehow cold and fiery all at once.
He flipped her to her back, her body thunking hard on the asphalt.
Before she recovered, he slammed both hands over her chest and shred the Indy from her body, ignoring her screams. When she blinked up with human, frightened eyes, a well of bitter sadness rose.
These people had no idea their bodies were being used. Abused. Wasted.
“I’m sorry,” he said, wishing he could do more. He jumped to his feet, rubbing at the pain in his neck while the midway transformed to pandemonium.
David appeared, sweat dotting his brow. “What did you do?”
“Bad aim,” Sean said, pushing back the jostling bodies with a grin. “Whoops.”
“Are you excited about this? What kind of a pain goblin are you?”
“The kind who likes a good fight.”
“Fucking pixies,” David muttered under his breath before his gaze darted behind Sean. “Don’t do that,” he said with a voice that was more like rock candy than honey—the kind of sugar that shreds.
Sean spun to find a purple-eyed man pause in the act of pulling a gun from a hidden holster. Autumn leapt behind him and drove the creature from his body. The gun dropped to the ground.
The police arrived, shouting at the crowd.
Kywyn grabbed Sean’s wrist. “There are too many now. We must go.”
The five of them pushed through the frenzied crowds. Behind them, a gunshot rang out, and Sean tried to see who or what was hit, but David urged him onward. “They thrive on emotion, remember? This is how they get it. Just run.”
The creatures gave chase. Outnumbered, Sean’s group battled through at least a dozen possessed humans, many with deadly weapons, who only dropped them because David compelled them to.
Sweat soaked Sean’s clothes, and ahead of him, he noticed a dark stain and a rip in Bel’s dress. She’d been hurt and healed.
How had he missed it?
Fairway rides and food trucks flew past as they ran with the swarms, and it seemed the police had been diverted by the fight—or the gunshot—because none followed.
The exit loomed in the distance.
Autumn appeared next to him, winded. Her white shirt was stained bright pink in places. “We just have to make it to some trees, and the mist will appear.”
She pulled up short as a horde of purple-eyed humans formed a line, impeding their exit. Sean skidded to a stop, and Bel stepped in front of him like a human shield.
“I know you,” said a girl in the middle, her short, dark curls soaked with sweat. “I know your face.”
Sean said nothing, but he sensed David sidle closer.
“You are the scourge,” she said to a chorus of hisses from the others.
“Well, that should put a dent in your ego, Savior,” David murmured beside him. Unpossessed humans bolted for the exit around them, and the creatures let them go without a glance, too focused on Sean. Their hands rested on weapons beneath their clothes.
“Move aside!” Bel snapped, but none paid her any attention.
Sean swore inwardly. Why had they come unarmed? The puny blade at his ankle would do very little against firearms. No wonder the Exorcism was failing.
Maybe this was why Bowenn seemed to have given up. This war was strangled by logistics and morality clauses. Loss was a given in these circumstances.
Fuck, his neck hurt.
“A gun would be nice right about now,” David muttered, mirroring his thoughts.
Sean had never even shot a gun, but he’d vastly underestimated the danger of hunting Indies. Lhynion made it look so easy…
Kywyn stepped forward. “Let us pass, and we will leave in peace.”
The woman ignored him, too. “So the rumors of your return are true?”
Again, Sean said nothing.
A teenaged boy nudged the girl’s shoulder. “Kill him now and save us all. Release the plague and let the Followers reign!”
There was that word again. Plague. Were the Indies Followers, too? Why would they want to enslave humans when they’d already invaded them so covertly?
Each Indy hissed in approval, cheering for his death.
For the first time that day, true fear swirled in Sean’s gut. His gaze darted to and fro, searching for a safe path through.
He found none.
Before he’d decided how to proceed or what to say, they lurched for him.
Sean rose his arms to fight, but Bel barred the way, and she barely flinched when one jammed a blade into her stomach.
“Isobel!” Sean shouted, reaching for her shoulders.
David grabbed her and practically threw her at Sean, then placed himself in the path of the Indies.
“I’m fine,” Isobel said, straightening. “It’s already healed.”
“Stop.” David’s voice wasn’t loud, but it ricocheted off every object, every body, lodging in Sean’s ears.
Bodies stilled, both human and possessed, and every pair of eyes turned to look at him, eager for their next instructions.
David’s voice trick had never worked on Sean, despite his many attempts as kids, but Sean heard the magic tainting it, saw the exact moment David’s will became their own.
“Move out of the way,” he said, sweeping two fingers subtly to the right. Dozens of people obeyed, shuffling until the exit was unblocked. David pushed Autumn’s shoulder, then Sean’s, urging them toward the exit.
Isobel stayed by Sean’s side as he took small steps away from the Indies, ensuring none broke through David’s coercion and attacked.
David kept his body language deceptively apathetic, but tension had coiled down deep, tightening Sean’s chest. A ripple of fire passed down his neck, and the world spun.
“Now you’ll let us leave,” David said, sugary and hard. “And you won’t follow.”
None of them spoke, but their gazes were riveted to him.
“Say you understand.”
“I understand,” they chanted in unison. Even the unpossessed humans.
David turned to meet Sean’s eyes and hissed, “Go—now.”
The others moved, but despite the coercion, the threat of violence spread through the restrained creatures. David could make them stay. He couldn’t make them want to.
Fear for his other half kept Sean glued to the spot.
He couldn’t go.
Not without David.
David rolled his eyes. “Stay,” he said one last time to the creatures, the power of his voice rippling several feet in a shimmer of disturbed air.
And then he turned to run, grabbing Sean’s arm on the way. Just outside the exit, Sean noticed the tremble in David’s grip. Turning to look, Sean found his soulmate’s face stark white and strained. A gray tinge colored the spaces beneath his eyes.
“Are you okay?”
“When I say go,” he said, practically dragging Sean toward the parking lot. “That means go.”
Sean took up a jog. “I couldn’t leave you.”
David panted as he ran, clearly spent. How much power had that taken? To coerce dozens of people to act against their own wishes in this place where magical energy barely existed?
“David—”
“Just run.”
Sean held a hand to his burning neck, forcing his clumsy feet forward. “How long will the coercion last?”
David shrugged, breathing hard. “Definitely not long since I had to spread it so wide.”
Sean fell into step behind Autumn as she retraced their steps toward the sparse forest. The sun had waned to evening, and the lights of the fair blinked to life, though sirens and screams had replaced the joyful cacophony from before.
Past the parking lot, trees loomed.
“Think of home,” Kywyn said. “Let the Great Mother know you want to go home.”
Sean imagined home, and within seconds, tendrils of fog crept through the trees.
“Trippy,” David said, his sarcasm blunted by the weakness in his voice.
Sean assessed him but lost visualization as they plunged into the mist.
On the other side, David lost his footing.
Autumn caught him before he fell. “Let’s get you home, okay?”
It spoke volumes that the man had no witty quip or sharp argument. He merely nodded and followed Autumn with heavy feet.
Sean stayed close behind, his gaze trained on David, his neck burning with frigid fire. A wave of dizziness tilted the world, and he teetered sideways.
David waved a lazy hand his way. “Somebody fix him before I pass out.”
Isobel spun Sean to face her. Her face wavered in and out of focus, but her gaze landed on the place the fire burned coldest. “Bless the Light,” she muttered, eyes wide. “Is that Shade?”
Ah. Shade.
That made sense, actually.
If he could turn Luster into a weapon against them, of course they could counter with Shade. He wished someone would have told him though.
Burned like a motherfucker. The world darkened, and he was no longer certain he could feel his feet.
Ahead, David and Autumn paused to get a better look.
Kywyn gripped Sean’s shoulder to examine the wound, distress evident in the strained lines of his face. “Great Mother. Shade is poison, Sean. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I was kind of busy—” The words came out slurred and strange.
Isobel’s lips crashed against his, and the pain mercifully faded. His faculties returned, and it was only then that he realized he’d been disoriented.
When she pulled back, the Shade burn faded from her neck, and he touched her healed skin. “You okay?”
She released a slow breath, still staring at the spot the Shade had poisoned him. “I am now. For the Light’s sake, Sean! You can’t just walk around with lethal wounds on your body.”
He patted her cheek, hating the small part of him that wondered whether she’d been concerned for him or concerned for herself.