From Hell with Love (3 page)

“Little Nico, the world is simple, just like me!  I like my wine, I like my blood.  I don’t see why either should ever stop flowing.  And don’t even talk to me about what it’s like when they swirl together,” Ajax said, shivering at his own memories before tipping his jug, threatening to pour its contents on Niccolo’s shoulders.  “I could show you right now, Horseboy.”  Niccolo rolled his eye before using his hand to wave away the warrior’s threat.

“I appreciate the offer, Ajax, but I have no desire to cut you open and drink wine at your defeat.  I just
respect
you too much.  C’mon, Cadmus, let’s stop wasting time.”  Ajax scoffed at Niccolo’s dismissal as he waved around his jug, red wine sloshing out from the lip of the container.

“The only use you
have
, little Nico, is wasting time.  What are you doing in my quarter anyway?  Had enough of your rotting friends and skeletons?  Wanted to spend some time with real men and real demons in the Pits?” Ajax asked before losing his balance and stumbling to the side, his giant body falling into the wall of the hovel nearby.  The roads leading toward the massive pavilion, the complex devoted to the fighting pits, were lined with layers upon layers of small homes and bigger buildings all nesting into one another.  When Ajax slammed into the wall, three stories of shanties shuddered.

“You’re drunk, Ajax.  Go sleep it off,” Cadmus said as he shook his head, but the other Horseman regained himself and pushed off the wall, standing over the cloaked soul.

“You will NOT tell me what to do in my own domain!  If…” Ajax burped before continuing, “if you tell me what to do in my quarter again you will know just what happened to all those damn Trojans!” he shouted, his right hand flying to the handle of his weapon.  Cadmus looked at him and narrowed his eyes, unimpressed by the warrior’s antics.

“I seem to remember you died in that war, Ajax.  Not the best example,” the cloaked Horseman said, drawing a growl from the warrior’s throat.  “In any case, we’re going to be gone from here soon enough.  We won’t get in the way of your perversion.  And don’t forget, Ajax,” Cadmus said with a certain note of disdain.  “Our quarters don’t belong to us.  I’m not sure Eligos would take kindly to your threats.”

At the reminder, Ajax seemed to shrink; it only took his master’s name to make him regain what little sense he had.  After a moment of consideration, however, the warrior puffed out his chest and tried to assert himself once more.

“Fine.  What are you doing here, anyway?” he asked.  “It’s not often I see either of you walking around here.”

“Why do I ever go anywhere, Ajax?” Cadmus asked before starting back down the street, the view of the War Quarter’s brightly-lit pavilion dominating the horizon.  Ajax sighed as he stepped back just as bundles of muscle and flesh manifested in the air, steadily becoming bits and pieces of Ajax’s steed.

“You carry bad luck with you wherever you go, Pale Rider,” Ajax said as he mounted the beast still coming into existence.  When the red horse fully materialized, the warrior urged it away from his fellow Horsemen and rode out of earshot.

“No, I just happen to find it,” Cadmus said under his breath.  He looked to his right and found that Niccolo was stealing glances at him as they walked, neither of them wanting to summon their own horses for this conversation, although the creatures were almost certainly eavesdropping.  Cadmus sighed as he tapped his scythe along the cobblestones.

“You have something to say?”

“Still having a problem with it?” Niccolo asked as he shoved his thumbs under his belt again.  He avoided eye contact by looking down at his scaled armor, yellowed by age and complemented by the red tunic he wore underneath.  Due to the awkwardness of the conversation, Niccolo almost wanted to reach behind him and pull up the red material bundled near his neck and hide his face beneath the hood.

“With what?  The reaping?  The guilt?  The blame?  I have no shortage of problems.”

“I just figured you might want to talk about it,” the leper muttered, drawing the black nails of his left hand through his scraggly hair, feeling the ruined skin obstructing his left eye.  When Cadmus saw Niccolo’s reaction, which was something the leper would do when he felt especially out-of-place, he realized that his friend was just trying to help.

“It’s gotten easier to deal with, Nico, it has, but for the last thirty years there are just more and more of them,” Cadmus said as he broke out of his normally-stoic behavior, desperation seeping into his words.  “Every other day I have one of these damned hunches and I have to go reap the soul of a feral demon.  I mean, Nico, they used to be
human
.  We don’t really need to worry about the Fallen, only some of them ever went feral and that was before my time, but it’s a little rough.  My job while we’re down here is to…send people to oblivion.”

“You shouldn’t feel guilty about that,” Nico suggested, but Cadmus shook his head.

“Why
not
?  They had
eternity
until this madness took their minds away from them.  Rumors are going around that it just means the Apocalypse is getting close, but that doesn’t exactly make it better.  Hell, I’m one of the Horsemen, same as you.  You can’t tell me they don’t stare at you and you don’t feel the slightest bit guilty that you’re part of the process.”

“Yeah, well,” Nico started, but he had no argument against his friend.

“Just imagine what it’s like to be the guy who kills the people who get out of control.  I’m just… I’m tired of all that.  And that’s not even mentioning the reaping.”

“I can’t imagine,” Niccolo added, listening intently to his friend, the awkwardness he felt melting away as Cadmus opened up.  The Pale Rider kept so much inside, but there was a bond between the two Horsemen; they could talk about anything, so long as Cadmus would let him listen.

“You really can’t.  Whatever they used to be, whatever powers they had, whatever pain, it all flows into me in those brutal seconds.  The other day I had to reap a soul who was two
thousand
years old, Nico.  He had forgotten everything about Earth; it was a past filled almost entirely with living in Hell.  That was one of the worst headaches I’ve ever had, and I get little flashes of his memories even now.”

“Doesn’t sound pleasant,” Niccolo said softly, hoping that his friend was feeling better after the exchange, though the scowl on his face was not a good sign.  Cadmus looked at him and sighed before hurrying his pace.

“No, it doesn’t.  And in about ten minutes I’m going to have to do it again.”

***

They heard the battle before they saw it.  The two Horsemen were walking down the main avenue when the shriek of a wild animal drew their attention.

“There,” Cadmus urged before turning down a side alley and walking briskly, gripping his scythe tightly with his bare hands.  Niccolo knew the reaper could take care of himself, but that did not stop him from grabbing his bow with his ruined hand.  When they turned a corner and approached the clearing, they were able to see what his hunch had been about.

A massive bird-like creature burned its way through the sky, streaming green fire as it flew past the lone demon in the clearing and making a terrifying screech as it went.  Niccolo readied his bow, which magically strung itself, while Cadmus brought his scythe down to ward off any incoming blows.

“Who the hell is that?” Niccolo asked in wonder, watching as the gigantic demon rose into the dark air, trailing feathers that burst into flame once they left the bird’s body.

“I’m not sure,” Cadmus stated, but his gaze fell to the warrior picking himself up in the clearing.  The lone demon, bare-chested and wearing a pair of black trousers tied down by a blue sash, seemed to gather darkness around him, but trails of blue lightning flowed from the center of his torso, streaking throughout his arms.  He wore a set of silver bracers, but otherwise the only equipment he held was a plain spear in his right hand.  “Crocell seems to be having a tough time with him.”

“The slayer is already here?” Niccolo asked before looking back to the clearing.  The fallen angel, his blue skin reflecting the lightning wrapping around his body, had stood up to his full height by then and was readying himself for the next assault.  “Of course,” Niccolo said as he reached for an arrow from his quiver, “he would have to be.”

Before the two of them were able to say another word, the feral demon swooped down from the sky and slammed into Crocell, who pushed back hard at the impact.  The blue demon’s feet skidded along the surface, but eventually they found purchase and he was able to use his left hand to direct the demon into the ground.  The tremors were enough to shake the Horsemen at their position, but they were not particularly worried.  Crocell had a talent for dispatching feral demons, not to mention millennia of experience as a slayer.

“Do you need help?” Niccolo asked, making sure that the enigmatic demon was not in over his head.  From over the feral demon’s body, Crocell glared at the Horsemen before shaking his head. 

“Just stay back!” Crocell shouted before turning his attention back to the former demon.  Now that the creature was not burning its way through the sky, Niccolo and Cadmus were finally able to get a good look at it.  Though it was essentially just a big, black bird, its wings ended with human hands, the fingers extended and decorated with curled black talons, and streams of black cloth were wrapped around its neck.  Whoever it had been, they had only recently turned, not fully capitalizing on their full potential.

Crocell walked toward the fallen bird and was about to pierce it with his spear, but then the demon picked itself up and jumped away, cawing as it went.  As the beast moved around the clearing, Cadmus was finally able to realize which demon Crocell was fighting.

“Oh no, it’s Räum,” he said under his breath, unaware he was saying the words aloud.  Niccolo immediately looked at him in shock before catching his breath and looking at the two demons locked in mortal combat.

“Wait, like… Räum the Seer?  He’s one of the Fallen!” he said, watching as Cadmus covered his mouth with his left hand.  “I thought you said it was usually humans that went feral.”

“
Usually
, Nico.  I’ve heard stories, but I’ve never seen it,” Cadmus said, trailing off and dropping the handle of his scythe, his resolve emptying out of him; he had not been prepared to reap a fallen angel.  As Cadmus lost his will, Räum’s feathers shifted and the demon became a mixture between man and bird, using its now mostly-human legs to jump forward and strike his talons against Crocell.

The slayer parried the deadly strikes from Räum with his bracer, sparks flying from the impact, but even though Räum had become such a vicious creature, Crocell did not seem to care.  Black feathers drifted about the clearing and lit their arena with green flame as Räum fought against his fellow demon, jumping back and forth and swiping at Crocell whenever he could.  The slayer merely kept up his guard and used his spear to ward off his opponent, which caused Niccolo to furrow his brow.

“Is he
playing
with him?  Why is Crocell taking so long?” he asked, but Cadmus shook his head before walking to the edge of the alleyway.

“You can’t underestimate the Fallen.  They were angels; Adonai’s servants.  Only over the countless millennia did any of them abandon their heavenly forms, but even after changing their bodies, they’re extremely powerful.  Although he’s feral, a demon like Räum could kill a thousand other souls.  Why do you think we haven’t joined Crocell over there?”

“Because we enjoy the show?” Niccolo said, doing his best to help his friend out of his desperation, but Cadmus was unable to lift himself out of his despair.

“In his right mind, Räum could kill
both
of us.  At least Crocell is another fallen,” Cadmus said in a soft voice, and they watched as the slayer stared at his prey.  Räum seemed to tire of their struggle and shifted back into the crow burning with green flame before flying up into the air.  Crocell stared for a moment before realizing that the demon was trying to escape, causing the slayer to reveal his true self. 

Water ebbed out of the fallen angel’s back before solidifying into dark, powerful wings and blue lightning accentuated every curve and line of the demon’s musculature.  It somehow emphasized the dark aura around him before light burst from the plain spear and, after it faded, the weapon was replaced by a magnificent, shining trident.

Niccolo had been prepared to shoot at the escaping demon but, as he nocked his arrow, he saw Crocell leap from the clearing and flap his wings to gain more speed.  Before the Horsemen could react, the blue demon slammed his trident through the torso of the humongous crow and continued through the newly-made hole, bursting through the demon’s back.  Lightning crackled out from the strike as Crocell passed through the demon, but it was over quickly.  The slayer watched from the air as his opponent’s ruined body fell back into the clearing with a bloody thump.

“Holy shit,” Niccolo muttered as Räum’s still-burning body twitched and the blood pooled around him.  After a few moments of taking in the carnage, Cadmus cleared his throat and approached Räum, who was starting to shift back into his normal, mostly human shape.  The only difference was the crow’s head.

“He’s still dangerous, reaper,” a whisper came from above them.  Niccolo was still holding his bow ready when the blue demon landed gracefully beside them, mist leaking from every pore.  The slayer cracked his neck as the wings retreated back into his body, but Cadmus was not paying attention to him.  Since he had become a reaper, Cadmus had plenty of experience dealing with slayers; he had
no
experience in taking the soul of an angel.

“They’re all dangerous until they become wandering spirits.  I just can’t… I don’t want to wait for that,” Cadmus almost whispered, his voice grim.  With his black eyes, Crocell looked at him disapprovingly, but eventually shrugged before heading toward the far alleyway.

“Then give him mercy, Horseman; the old crow deserves it.  Just be careful.  It will be different than dealing with one of you humans,” Crocell said as darkness surrounded him.  The lightning coursing through his veins grew dim and even the air seemed to turn away light.  Niccolo placed his bow back in its place before walking within a few yards of the whimpering demon.