Path of the Horseman (6 page)

Not everything I touch gets a disease.
Sometimes I can take them out of people. I know everything there is
to know about human anatomy, and can either fix or break it. I can
cure someone’s cancer as easily as I can infect their lungs. I can
mend splintered bones or drain their calcium to make them as strong
as paper. It just takes a bit of time and finesse. So healing the
bites and bruises of my meat-suit wasn’t hard. It would exhaust me,
but doing it slowly would keep me from passing out.

I closed my eyes and let the magic flow over
my wounds, feeling the skin on my back tightening together and the
throbbing pain of my bruises fade away.

After we split up, the first thing I did was
try to find a cure for the Plague. I knew the Bosses Upstairs had
abandoned us while humans went the way of the dodo, but I figured I
could fix all the lives I broke. I mean, it was a virus I created.
I knew it inside and out, my motor-skill killing disease with hints
of rabies. One bite instantly inflamed the brain, spiking your body
temperature until you thought you were melting. The next step was
delirium. You assumed everything and everything you saw wanted to
kill you, so you acted on self-defense and attacked it first. The
harder you fought, the more you pushed your body, the hotter the
burn in your muscles. After six hours, you lost the ability to
speak and your heart rate jumped to the speed of a hummingbird’s.
By then, your insides felt like Mount Vesuvius the day it decided
it hated Pompeii. Every inch of you burned and when you threw up,
it felt like someone was grabbing your stomach and trying to pull
it out of your throat. Your lungs were heavy with tar and your
heart tried to escape your chest. Finally, at eight hours, your
body gave up. Your brain shut down and your heart stopped working.
You dropped where you stood, and it was lights out before you hit
the ground.

Four hours later, you got up and started
walking around again. I designed the Plague so it would spread like
fire in a gasoline soaked forest, but even I was shocked that it
moved so quickly. And I sure as hell wasn’t expecting the moral
repercussions of it.

In the last six months, I tried everything. I
grabbed old Plagued and fresher Plagued, tying them down and trying
to suck the infection back into me. I was able to take the virus
out, but the poor suckers I tried to save just slumped over and
remained lifeless as a rock.

I could practically hear Logan sighing over
my shoulder every time I tried to reverse the Plague, so I gave up.
I’d been too good at my job, and now the only thing I could offer
the Plagued were mercy killings.

“You should watch how much power you
use.”

I opened my eyes and took my hand away from
my chest, looking over the couch at Simon. He stood in the doorway
near the dining room with an armful of food. He walked into the
living room and placed juice boxes, beef jerky, crackers, and
canned fruit in front of me. It was practically Christmas. Simon
reclined back on the sofa across from me, holding onto the box of
Cheerios he’d also brought with him. He opened the box and starting
eating the circular cereal by the handful.

Simon was a nervous eater. Yet again, he was
unintentionally hilarious.

Feeling a little stiff but no longer in pain,
I reached across the table and grabbed a juice box. I tore it open
and downed the whole thing. Two more followed it. Then I went at
the beef jerky, crackers, and canned fruit like an animal.

“Christ, will you slow down?” my brother
protested. “I don’t have a lot to spare.”

I rolled my eyes and spoke while savoring the
stale saltiness of the crackers. “Give me a break, Simon. You were
always hoarding food.”

Simon’s nervous graphite stare darkened with
just hint of anger. “Yeah, because we’re turning human, and humans
die.”

I slowed down. He was holding the box of
cereal like it was a lifeline. I held Simon’s eyes as I slowly slid
the remaining food into my rucksack. He didn’t stop me. I took a
piece of beef jerky from its plastic bag and started picking at it,
processing what Simon had been getting at earlier.

When we first rose up from the pit, we were
forces of nature. Being put in human bodies helped us blend in and
spread the chaos, but it also meant we ate up a lot of energy. The
more power we used, the more human we became. Turns out the Bosses
gave us a single tank of supernatural gas without leaving us a
petrol station. They probably did it so we wouldn’t get out of
control, which made sense where Kade was concerned. The only thing
he loved more than instilling fear and anger into human hearts was
trying to tear out those hearts with his bare hands. Infinite power
for him would mean the destruction of the whole damn universe.

But the rest of us weren’t that bad, were we?
For all his grim determination and strength, Logan wasn’t
homicidal. Simon might want to eat everything known to man, but he
would have left some scraps behind. As for me, I admit that at
first it was fun to watch the humans run like junior Roadrunners
from creatures so slow it took them ten minutes to cross the
street, but I liked experimenting with my powers. Pushing the
limits and trying new things. The original idea had been for me to
simply conquer the humans. Simon would subdue them, Kade would
instigate riots, and Logan would clean up the mess.

As time went on, we learned that humans
tended to have a shoot-first-ask-questions-later philosophy when it
came to anything they didn’t understand. Showing up like glorious,
Heavenly conquerors would have been a great way to meet missiles
and bullets.

So I went with a more subtle approach. A
Plague I knew would destroy the world. The only one who got any
upfront action was Kade, but that was what he’d been created for.
Simon, Logan, and I worked behind the scenes, watching the world
burn and knowing it was too late to go back.

After the Tribulation, I could feel how much
weaker I’d become. When I tried to cure the Plague, it only got
worse. I refrained from using my power as much as I could, but
sometimes I couldn’t help it. When you fight to keep your mortal
shell, you jump to last resorts. Mine happened to be on a hair
trigger.

“I thought I’d sent them off,” Simon said
when he couldn’t stand the silence anymore. I looked at my brother.
He was leaning back against the yellowed couch, munching on the
Cheerios the way a brokenhearted teenage girl eats ice cream after
being dumped.

“The Soulless?” I asked.

Simon nodded. “A few of them came by a couple
weeks ago. I managed to shoot them all and dump the bodies, but
more came back the next day, and the day after that, and after
that, and… You get it.”

I did. I waited for him to continue.

“Eventually I had to go down there and dry
out all the Plagued bodies. You know how the Soulless can get. If
they’re hungry enough, they’ll suck the brain juices from a
corpse.”

Sad. And true.

“Why didn’t you come looking for me? I was in
Boulder City. I wasn’t far.”

Simon raised his head, revealing a flash of
guilt. He lowered his gaze quickly. “You really think I would have
made it that far?”

“For fuck’s sake, Simon, are you kidding? You
know who you used to be? Don’t tell me you couldn’t have made
it.”

He set the box of Cheerios down on the table.
I could see that he was getting agitated.

“I’m not like you,” he told me as patiently
as his temper would allow. “I never have been. I wouldn’t have made
it without getting eaten or lost or whatever. Especially if you’re
right, and Ciaran and Vance are out there.”

“But you didn’t even try,” I protested. “The
demons aren’t that tough. We could have taken them.” I took a
breath and scanned his face. “How many Soulless have you gotten rid
of in the last six months?”

“Not enough to matter. They’re getting
bolder, Avery. I don’t know what Ciaran’s doing to them, but
they’re more vicious than ever. If what Vance told you is true,
there’s no point in hunting them. If there are any humans left
around, they’re not going to be alive much longer.”

I’d told Simon everything about my meeting
with Vance on the way up to the suite. Now I was regretting it.

“The demons have plans for us. I can’t
imagine they’ll be setting up a picnic with strippers and beer. You
really want to hide until they find you and kill you?”

“They’re welcome to try. You only knew where
I was because I told you before I left. I’m hard to find.”

“That’s what I thought too,” I growled.

Simon scoffed. “Yeah, right. You’re about as
subtle as Kade is, and he thinks he’s King Kong.”

I couldn’t believe this. Vance’s master,
Ciaran, was plotting something for us, basically a scripted note
saying he was going to blast us off the planet. Simon seemed
content with their attempts. He thought he could outrun them.

“Did you forget the part where the Soulless
are connected to the demons? Every time one of those tics looks at
you, you might as well be waving hello to Ciaran.”

“Of course I didn’t forget that,” he snapped.
“But I’m not making it my personal mission to start Tribulation
two-point-oh. I’m not a threat to Ciaran, and he knows it.”

“Are you listening to yourself, Simon? You’re
really just going to roll on your back and let Ciaran run over you?
That coal-eater is after us for a reason, and it’s not just because
he hates competition. He’s planning something for any humans left
alive. He might have the numbers and a head start, but that doesn’t
mean we can’t stop him.” I held my breath, then pulled the Ace from
my sleeve.

“We need to find Kade and Logan.”

My brother raised his head again, shock and
horror trading places in his eyes.

“You’re joking,” Simon said.

I looked at him seriously. “You see me
laughing?”

“Okay, two things,” Simon leaned forward,
holding up his index finger. “First, Logan won’t be found if he
doesn’t want to be, and he does not want to be.”

I couldn’t argue that. Even when we’d been
destroying the world together, Logan had walked a reclusive path.
He didn’t have people around him, and that was how he liked it.

“Two,” continued Simon, raising a second
finger. “Kade? Do I really have to tell you how terrible that idea
is? You can’t reason with that asshole.” Simon lowered his hand.
“Seriously, I’d rather have some Plagued fucker chew my face off
than talk to him.”

I narrowed my eyes, but didn’t argue his
point. Logan killed because he had to. Kade killed because he
wanted to.

“He’ll do it,” I assured him. “Kade can’t
resist a fight. If we’re going up against demons, can you think of
anyone better to have on our side?”

Simon’s eyes were serious. “No. But I can’t
think of anyone worse, either.”

“Come on, Sime. We have to do this.”

“What the fuck for? We served our purpose.
The humans are dead, and if there are any alive, they’ll either die
from the conditions, the Plagued, or they’ll give Ciaran their
souls. There is no Second Coming, Avery. If there is, we’re not
going to be alive to see it.”

I clenched my fists. “You don’t know
that.”

“Fine, but you know what I
do
know?
That I was doing okay before you showed up. I didn’t want to be
found. I saved your life because you’re my brother, and this stupid
mortal brain they put in my head won’t let me forget it. I can’t
make myself care about humans. The last time I saw any of them
walking around was when I was drying up their lakes. I went into
their camps when they were sleeping and tainted their food. I
brushed shoulders with them so my touch would make them starve. I
murdered thousands of them, Avery. Because that was what I was told
to do.”

Any arguments I’d been working on were killed
as I watched Simon give his speech. He meant what he said, getting
angry at even the suggestion that we’d made a mistake. Simon had
been smart and lethal. He was the black widow slipping down from
the ceiling, landing on your shoulder without you knowing, then
biting you when you least expected it. You went to knock him off,
but he was already gone, and you were already dying.

Kade saw Simon as a coward, but the truth was
that Simon had killed twice as many people as Kade had on his most
savage day. Yet under all that anger and conviction, I saw it. The
same gnawing pain that was eating me up inside was starting to
devour Simon.

Guilt. It can kill you just as easily as any
Plagued, Soulless, demon, or natural element in this fucked up
world.

“We can at least stop Ciaran and Vance,” I
tried. My voice sounded smaller than I wanted it to. “Let the
humans die on their own. If they are still around, they deserve to
die with their souls.”

Simon wasn’t looking at me when he shook his
head. “No.”

He spoke it as a whisper. I would have
preferred that he screamed.

“I saved your life,” Simon repeated. “I don’t
want to save anyone else.”

Physically, I was stronger than Simon. I
could have leapt over the couch and overpowered him, pulled a few
punches that would have made Kade proud and forced him to do what I
asked. If I’d been angrier, maybe I would have. But right now, I
was too tired. My stomach was half full and my body was healed, but
my heart felt heavy. My brain couldn’t deal with everything my
brother said.