Mercy for the Wicked (31 page)

“Adam!”  A wave of relief swept through me so strongly, I thought I might pass out.  Did he not see the gun, or did he not care? 

Adam looked between the two of us, noting the growing bloodstain on Ben’s shirt.  “I’m guessing the talk didn’t go so well, huh?”

“That’s not Ben, it’s Azazael,” I retorted, hoping to God that made some kind of a distinction to him. 

“Even better.  I get to kill two birds with one stone.” Adam’s grin turned positively bloodthirsty.  A flicker of worry crossed Ben’s features at the interruption before he regained his easy smile.

“Very fortuitous timing, Brother.  But before you start gauging the strength and speed you’ll need to overpower me, know this - I will shoot her with this contraption before you silence this body.  If I have to remain in torment for all eternity, so shall you.”

“That’s assuming you live long enough to pull the trigger,” Adam growled.

“Even in this human shell, I doubt you could get here fast enough to stop me.  Even in death the muscles would contract, carrying out my last orders.”

“How about nobody kills anybody?” I interjected.  “Azazael, you can’t win this round.  Why don’t you let Ben go and we’ll forget this happened?”  It wasn’t that I was worried about getting shot.  Not with Adam there.  I knew he’d do whatever it took to keep me from getting hurt.  But I was pretty sure even he wasn’t strong enough to survive getting shot in the head or the heart. 

“I will not simply let this go,” Ben replied, his eyes a little wild.

“Works for me,” Adam shrugged.  In the space of a heartbeat, he rushed Ben and the two crashed to the ground.  The sound of gunfire muffled by bodies went off once, twice… three shots, and I stood in a shocked stupor, expecting one or both of them to get up and keep at it. 

But neither of them moved.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t think. 

The pounding of my heart sounded loud in the resulting silence as I stared at the pair of them gone still on the floor.  And then there was the faintest of groans, too low to distinguish which one of them made it.  Tears pricked at my eyes as I ran to Adam’s side, pulling him off of Ben, a rush of relief flooding me when he groaned in pain at the movement.  Twin spots of blood emerged on his chest, on either side of his heart, spreading faster than I liked.  Grabbing the bottom of his shirt, I pressed it against the wounds to get the bleeding to stop, because I couldn’t think of anything else to do.  

Adam’s face contorted with pain, but the corner of his mouth still twitched up in a semblance of his usual smirk.  “What are you trying to do, kill me?”    

“I’m trying to save you, you moron.”

“Then heal me, genius.  Don’t just lean on my wounds.”

“Oh, right!”  Feeling like an idiot, I took a few precious seconds to center myself, because I wouldn’t do either of us any good if I was too scattered to focus the Grace.  Satisfied I was as grounded as I was going to get, I pushed the healing power out of my hands and into his chest, blocking out everything else.  I’d never tried healing anything so difficult before, and for the first time, I felt some resistance, as if the wound was so grave, it didn’t want to be healed.  Dimly, I was aware of his breathing becoming more labored, and grunts of pain as I pushed through the barrier and felt the healing Grace start to knit his wounds together.  It felt like it went on and on, but when at last I opened my eyes, the skin was smooth and unblemished, the crust of drying blood the only indication he’d been hurt at all. 

My vision swam as a wave of dizziness hit me with enough force to knock me onto my back.  “Mercy?”  I heard Adam calling to me, but it sounded far away.  Through the fog I tried to puzzle out why I was so affected.  I’d grounded like I was supposed to, why did I feel like I was nailed to the floor?

“Here,” I replied, turning my head weakly to find Adam bent over Ben’s body.  “Is Ben okay?”  With a pang I realized I hadn’t once thought about healing Ben first, Adam’s safety had completely consumed my thoughts.   

“He’ll live.”

Adam blocked most of my view of Ben, busy doing something I couldn’t quite manage to figure out.  “What are you doing?  Does he need healing?”  After he sat back on his heels, I could see he’d bound Ben’s arms behind his back with thick ropes.  He looked incredibly uncomfortable, even in his unconscious state.  “Is that really necessary?”  I tried pushing myself up to a sitting position, but thought better of it as a new wave of dizziness hit me. 

“This… is the only thing keeping Azazael in there when he wakes up,” Adam replied smugly, nudging him with his boot before he came back to me.  “Are you okay?”

“I’m… kinda woozy, but I think I’m fine.  That took a lot out of me.  What about you?  Did I get it all?  You’re not still bleeding on the inside are you?”

“No, I’m peachy keen, jellybean,” he grinned cheerily.  “You did a bang up job there. I think you might have a real gift for healing.  I’ve never seen anyone push these babies out that fast before.”  Adam opened my hand and laid two lead slugs in the palm, the bullets that had been in his chest minutes before. 

I stared down at the little lumps, so small, but capable of so much damage.  What a weird souvenir to end up with.  “Where’s the third one?  I heard three shots.”

“Oh, that one’s still in old Ben’s belly.”

I sat up, despite the dizziness to stare down at Ben in alarm.  “What?  You left the bullet in there?  We have to get it out!”

“It’ll keep for now.”

“What do you mean it’ll keep for now, he’ll die if we leave it in there.”

“I need him docile for transport, but don’t worry, I won’t let him die.  If he dies, we have to start this all over again.”

“Huh?”  I had the makings of a headache, but I was starting to feel a little stronger at least. 

“Am I going too fast for you, kitten?”  He brushed the hair away from my face and tucked it behind my ear which was partially infuriating and partially soothing.  And if that makes any sense to you, I wish like hell you’d explain it to me…

Catching his hand and pulling it down into my lap, I silently willed him to make sense.  “Please tell me what’s going on, where are you transporting him?”

“I made a deal to keep him out of our hair for good, and I’d rather he didn’t try to take my head off along the way.  So, the weaker he is, the better for now.  Trust me, if he starts to slip away, I’ll hit him with a dose of Grace and he’ll be fine.”

“Out of our hair, where?”

“In Midian.”

“In Midian,” I repeated, sure I must have misheard him.  “You made a deal with Raum to take him to Midian?  For what?”

“Raum agreed to keep him on ice for us.  No more Azazael, no more Ben, no more problem,” his smile was beatific. 

“You went to see Raum?  Is that where you were this whole time?”

“Well no, I had to go upstairs to steal the ropes first.  Sorry, I kinda forgot about the time difference.”

“Why didn’t you tell me where you were going?  I was worried sick!”

Adam stroked his thumb over the back of my hand soothingly.  “I’m sorry, Mercy.  I didn’t want anyone else to know what I was up to in case Azazael figured it out, and worked out a way to counter it.”

I accepted that with a nod, taking a moment to digest everything before coming up with my next set of questions.  “What’s to keep Azazael from jumping out of Ben’s body the moment he wakes up?”

“The ropes have been specially blessed, he won’t be pulling a Houdini on us as long as we keep him tied up.”

He sounded so reasonable, I was at a loss as to why the morality of the situation completely eluded him.  “You can’t keep him trapped in Ben’s body.”

“The hell I can’t, do you know what a rare opportunity this is?  I was just getting back from making the deal and I was gonna have to lie in wait until he tried something like this.  This is a phenomenally lucky break.” 

“But what about Ben?  He doesn’t deserve this.  He didn’t do anything wrong, why should he have to spend eternity in Midian?”

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles, baby.  Maybe it’s karma…”

“It is not!”  I started to lose it as things spun out of control.  “I can’t let you do this.”

“It’s already done.” 

“I won’t let you keep Ben locked up forever because of me.”

“It’s not forever, it’s just until he dies.  But under the right conditions, I think we’ve got at least a fifty year window to work with and come up with something else.”  Letting go of my hand, he started to peel off his sticky shirt.  “Damn, this shirt cost me a hundred and fifty bucks.”

“This isn’t funny.”

Adam looked up, losing his glib tone, his eyes deadly serious.  “No, it’s not.  But it’s the only thing I could think of to keep you safe.  This way Azazael is trapped in Midian.  He can’t hurt you here, he can’t hurt you in the Ether, and no demons will be coming after you either.  Now I wish I could say I was sorry about this happening to good old Ben, but I’m not.  As far as I can see this is a win/win scenario.”  With that he got up, tossing the shirt in the garbage can and grabbing a handful of paper towels to clean up the mess on his chest.

There were so many things wrong with that statement I wasn’t sure where to start.  But one detail caught my attention.  “Why are no demons more coming after me?”

“What?”

“I understand why Azazael will be trapped, but what does that have to do with demons coming after me?”

“Because of the deal I made with Raum.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I knew, I
knew
there was even more to it that I wasn’t going to like at all.  “What did you do?”  My voice was barely above a whisper.

“I made a deal for your safety, that’s all.”  Adam tossed the sodden mess away and reached for the dishtowel to dry off.

“What did you do!” I demanded, pushing myself to my feet, swaying only slightly as I refused to let him brush it aside. 

“Hey, sit down before you fall down and hurt yourself.”  Adam wrapped an arm around my waist, but I refused to let go of him when he would have deposited me on the couch, pulling him down to sit beside me. 

“Please Adam, tell me whatever it is you think I can’t handle, I’m stronger than I look.”  I didn’t necessarily feel that way inside, but I couldn’t stand waiting for the other shoe to drop any longer.  Adam sighed, and I felt my stomach clench.  It wasn’t my imagination, there was something else he didn’t want to tell me. 

“I made a deal with Raum to keep you safe.”

“What kind of a deal.”

“I agreed to pinch hit in exchange for his promise to leave you alone.”

“Which means what exactly?”

“I agreed to stay in Midian for a while in your place.”

“You did what?”

“It’s not for that long, and he agreed no one under his command is to touch you ever again.  It seemed like a good deal at the time.”

“Are you totally deranged?  You volunteered to let Raum feed off of you?  For how long?”

“For a year and a day.”

My eyes closed, as if I could block out the meaning of those words that damned us to a year apart.  It was a long minute before I trusted myself to speak again without screeching like a fishwife.  “And you intend to go through with this?  Or are you planning on escaping once you drop off Ben?”

Adam managed to look offended at that.  “No matter what you’ve heard, I keep my word once it’s given.  I intend to hold up my end of the deal, it’s the only way I can make sure he holds up his.”

“Do you seriously think you can trust him to?”

“Yes, I’ve had dealings with him before.  He’s bound by his word, the same as I am.”

“Honor among the damned…” I murmured, feeling like I was drowning.  “What am I supposed to do, sit here and go on with my life while I know both you and Ben are going through unspeakable torment?” 

“Pretty much, yeah.”  Adam nodded and I caught his hand, panic welling within me as he rose to his feet.

“Don’t do this, Adam.  Please.  We’ll find another way.  Don’t leave me like this.”

“It’s just for a year, it’ll be over before you know it.”

“How can you say that?  Don’t you even care that we’ll be apart?”  My spirit fell in the face of his indifference and he framed my face with his hands, thumbs brushing against my cheeks.

“Of course I care, how can you even ask me that?  Being apart from you has been killing me for these past months, and this will be… worse,” his throat worked as he swallowed.  “But if this is what it takes to keep you safe, then this is what I’m gonna do.  That’s all there is to it.”

“And I don’t get any say in the matter?”  I turned my face into his touch, pressing a kiss to the palm of his hand. 

“You’ll be fine.”  Adam leaned down to press a soft kiss to my forehead.  “You’re right you know, you’re stronger than you look.”

“Adam please…”  The rest of my plea was cut off by the crush of his lips against mine as he branded me with a searing kiss, as though he was afraid I might forget him in the coming year.  I clung to him, determined to change his mind the only way I knew how, but it wasn’t enough. 

Finally, he pulled back.  Holding me tight, he whispered into my hair.  “I will always love you, Mercy.”

“I love you too, Adam, even if I feel like breaking your legs right now to keep you here.”

His warm chuckle rumbled through my body before he released me and I instantly felt the loss of his touch down to my soul.  “Good.  Try not to forget that.  If I come back in a year and there’s somebody else in your bed, there’ll be hell to pay.”  His voice was light as he tugged a coat on over his bare chest.

“Oh, I dunno, if another fallen angel stumbles into my bed I might keep him around for a while.  How else am I gonna keep myself out of trouble?” I teased back.  It was either that or cry, and I didn’t want our last moments together to be weepy and sad.

“I’m pretty sure that’d be the opposite of keeping out of trouble,” he gave me a sour look as he hauled Ben up to his feet, tossing him over his shoulder with ease. 

“What can I say, I’m a trouble magnet,” I shrugged, trying not to wince when I saw Ben’s face contort with pain before he slipped back into oblivion. 

“Good thing I like trouble,” Adam grinned, pausing by the door for one last look, he turned to go.