Past Be Damned

  “Good luck,” Mason called out behind me.

  We’d need it.

  * * *

  I sat alone in a carriage cabin with Thaddeus. This was highly unusual. As my number One, he’d always been outside guarding us from attack. But since things weren’t at all as they used to be, I decided not to worry about Thaddeus’ presence inside with me. Everything else had changed. Why shouldn’t this?

  “When they dragged you from your bed,” his voice was low, “and out into the darkness, away from where I could protect you”—I tried to interrupt him, I really didn’t want to do this right now, but he didn’t stop—“I was fighting for my life in the back of the Sisterhood.”

  He stared out the window when he spoke. “We didn’t know you were gone or taken until Aidan woke up. Before that, we were searching for you all over the Sisterhood. A terrible waste of time. Amazingly, I never saw any of the guards we just left behind. I might have had to beat them or kill them if they’d been there. They were in the other section at the time, I think.” He shook his head. “The place was so huge. By the time Aidan woke and told us, you were gone.”

  I stopped trying to keep him from talking. This was a new part of the story I’d never heard. I could picture it. “Go on.”

  He cleared his throat. “We thought we knew where they’d take you. There was a holding area near the train station. That’s where they took criminals. When we got there, it was on fire.” His eyes were distant, like he wasn’t really seeing me. Was he reliving that night? “The flames were orange, but then they burned blue, in a way that they usually don’t. I tried to get inside. Over and over. We all did.” He looked away. “Couldn’t. When it was over, they pulled bodies out. And one of them was so burned we couldn’t make out any features on the face, anything at all. The size was right, and there was this.” He extended his hand, and in it was my necklace.

  When we joined the Sisterhood, we were all given necklaces that were ours alone. Mine had been an infinity symbol. It had not left my neck until Katrina’s guards ripped it from my body the night they stole me away. It was the last thing I remembered. Like everything else, I figured it was lost along with who I’d been.

  The shape had warped slightly from the heat, yet the onyx remained. Black and silver, twisted together—forever flawed. The scratch in the center that had always adorned the piece was still visible.

  When he relinquished the piece, it sat against my palm, neither cold nor warm. Just there. “It was on the body.”

  A solitary nod was his answer. “You were dead. Burned to death.” His voice broke when he said burned. “Gone. Teagan, if I had the slightest idea that it was even possible that you were alive, that the charred remains weren’t you—I’d never have stopped searching. You want to be angry that none of us had any extrasensory abilities like others did to know you weren’t dead? Be angry. But don’t ever think—or dare say—that I don’t love you. I can assure you, I love you and will for the rest of my life. We’re not being dismissed. Hate us. But we’re here, and here we will remain.”

  I turned my gaze from him, focusing on the land beyond the window. Searching for some reaction to his news, some ounce of grief to bridge the hollow. The heat in Thaddeus’ eye promised swift retribution should I persist in the goal of removing him. Perhaps it had once been desire which provoked the searing stare, but now it was anger.

  The betrayer felt betrayed. Turning the concept over, even the darkness seemed to understand the reaction.

  Understanding didn’t secure forgiveness.

  Finally, I had to speak. “Why do you suppose that the others knew their Sister was still alive and you didn’t feel it? Doesn’t that speak to something being inherently wrong with us? Wouldn’t it be better to put this to bed?”

  “I think it speaks to something having gone wrong, to a wound done to all of us. But the way we loved each other? That was never wrong. Trust me or not, sweetheart, I love everything about you, even your temper. We didn’t die that night, and we didn’t fade away.”

  “Clearly. You are with me.”

  He ignored me, or maybe he didn’t listen to what I’d said. “Our devotion never wavered. We failed to defend you that night, but we have been working against the Sisterhood ever since, and we’ll take it apart—brick by brick—until we destroy what tried to destroy us.”

  Hope. The man still possessed hope. I wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or sorrowful.

  Hot tears scalded my eyes, but they didn’t fall. The wild emotion was smothered in ice before it could slip free. My guards loved to bring up my temper; they’d browbeat me with it. As if they were without flaw. The cold reminder dashed the fire. Thaddeus, for example, had to have the last word. Always.

  If I said nothing more, then he might be quiet for the rest of the ride. If I refuted his statement, he’d hammer away again.

  Tactically it was better to let him win and say nothing. I had demons to fight. I couldn’t afford to let Thaddeus, Aidan, Noah, Eric, or Brody make me vulnerable. The ride passed in seething silence, but I kept my focus attuned to what came next—the next rut in the road, the next click of the carriage—the next battle. The darkness within me coiled, a viper prepared to strike.

  When we arrived at our destination, I got out of the carriage and headed north. The shabby little town consisted of rundown houses, storefronts with signs dangling with the word Closed on them, and stray animals wandering the streets.

  Darkness slicked over the light as it flooded me. My powers responded to the town. My hands buzzed, and my vision blurred around the edges. The world narrowed. There was me, and there was the upcoming battle.

  The guys walked around with me, Thaddeus in front of me, which proved a challenge since only I knew where I was going. Still, he seemed to take his cues from my shifting direction and maintained his position ahead of me.

  Aidan was to my left. He was always intense, and no more so than during a demon encounter. Noah stayed right of me. He peered east then west over and over.

  Behind me, side-by-side, were Eric and Brody. My body buzzed, the vibration seeming to come to life in the air. I was the divining rod, following the path to its inevitable conclusion. We walked until I finally found my target. A little girl. Blond, blue-eyed, with a round face. She sobbed with her hands over her ears as she rocked back and forth.

  A demon possessing a young person was a special kind of evil—there really weren’t words for how bad it was. I wished I could make it hurt when I battled them. It was a special kind of disgusting evil that decided to come after children. Yet amidst the ache to harm what did harm came the shrug. It was the apocalypse. Everyone was fair game.

  The men arrayed themselves around us as I knelt before the slender child. Painfully thin, the little girl needed a meal—or several. The townsfolk were missing, probably hiding. Sometimes, I could make this simple. I held her against my chest. With my arms around her, I let my energy pass into her. This wouldn’t work with an adult. They were too guarded and had too many issues to let me in easily. Still, as I cradled that fragile body, the light twisting in the dark slid past the girl’s meager defenses and thrust like a blade into the demon. Yanking it free would only hurt the child’s soul. Slaughtering it in place dissipated the nothingness, and the cloud of shadow erupted, purging the innocent.

  The girl shuddered, and I continued to hug her for a second. “Darling.” That was what I called Daniella’s girls, and they liked it. “Can you tell me where the big problem is? Where is the thing that did this to you? Where are the people being hurt even worse than you?” The creature possessing her had been minor, but it was a follower. A follower told me the problem was far larger than one, insignificant child. No child is insignificant. The uncharitable darkness roamed along the inside of my skin, shrugging off the rebuke.

  Then the emaciated blond waif nodded. Her eyes were so large, the pupils dilated and shocky. With a painfully thin arm, she pointed to the central building with its peeling paint and dilapidate
d roof—at least the part still standing. Perhaps it had been their town hall when Clark thrived, now it was a town husk.

  I was familiar with the sensation.

  “Got it.” I smoothed her hair off her face. “Are your mommy and daddy okay?” She shook her head, a fat tear tracking through the dirt on her face. “No? Well, don’t worry.” Of course they weren’t. None of us would be okay again, but she was young and didn’t need to hear the truth of the world, not after the demon. So I lied. “They will be.”

  The darkness twined along the silver threads winding through me as if to remind me that lies could be kindness, too.

  4

  I wasn’t wrong. What must have been an impressive structure had become a run-down mess. Inside was an incubus, holding court like some deranged king of old. I shook my head. He had to know I was here, and how little he cared would be his downfall. They always underestimated me at first. It was the blond hair and blue eyes coupled with my slender frame. I looked dainty. As demons judged each other based on power scale—and the bigger were always the better—they made the mistake of thinking size mattered in a Sister. As if our femininity made us weak.

  Fine. I’d exploited that ridiculousness to my advantage many times. My imprisonment hadn’t removed me from the game, it had simply taken my powers to a much deeper level.

  Anne got the credit for the destruction of the mine itself, as she should. I had been pretty weak then. She’d done most of the work. But I’d been there. I’d helped and that mattered. How many other places on the way back had we bypassed who needed us? The darkness whipped at me. Maybe there were simply too many people to help.

  We can’t save everyone, just those we encounter. That was one of Daniella’s idioms. I shook my head. If I told her I’d thought of it on the eve of battle, she’d never stop giving me advice. Not that hearing her insights was a bad thing. I needed all the help I could get.

  Anne had killed an incubus once, and she was famous for it. Mostly, they killed us. I wasn’t afraid. My power flowed like a river, unfettered and wild. The darkness floated along the top of it, like something bobbed on the top of my drink and I couldn’t get it out. I’d either have to pour the whole thing out or live with the intrusion. Where it crested, my power redoubled. My lack of use made me stronger. Interesting. Or maybe I’d simply forgotten how battle felt.

  If I couldn’t take down this incubus, I didn’t deserve the privilege of calling myself Sister. Somewhere with my own pain, I’d forgotten. But taking the demon out of the little girl? It reminded me. I could have had any existence, and I’d be chosen for this.

  How lucky was I?

  “Hello,” I called out to the perversion of darkness. The incubus was a beautiful demon. Funny to use those two words together: beautiful and demon. They didn’t often go hand-in-hand. Still, it was true. Other demons were the stuff of nightmares to view. I’d known Sisters who had thrown up simply by seeing one of them. The incubus, however, used its beauty to seduce women into sleeping with him. From there, he siphoned their energy and then killed them. Or changed them into demons, depending on his mood.

  I suspected this one wasn’t making demons. Instead, around him, were all sorts of unclean spirits. He’d brought them with him to possess the people of this town. I could see them dancing around him in the air. They were giddy. My guards would see the incubus but not his little friends.

  Around him, women were naked and most of them chained. They ground themselves on the floor and touched their own bodies, seeking pleasure they wouldn’t find unless the incubus paid them attention. They were already in his thrall. This was how he killed them. He was like a drug they had to have, and the more he fed the need, the faster they died.

  I turned to Aidan and caught his eye. “Guard yourselves as best you can. There are tons of free floating demons in here who would love a host. You can’t see them, but they are certainly aware of you.”

  Aidan rocked back on his feet. “Same as before? Feel a cold presence pushing up against us, and we need to block with thoughts of warmth?”

  “Or light. Warmth is an easier sensation to quickly get. Reminding yourself of something you care about bathed in light is a more complicated sensation. I’m not sure I could come up with anything to bathe in light off the bat myself.” Not anymore. My light bathed in the darkness, and the void within me roused fully as the scene before me played out.

  The void was hungry.

  I turned my attention from the men to the demon. He appeared human. That was how they got people. It was impossible to live during this time of apocalypse and not know that you had to be careful of demons. They preyed on the weak, sick, lonely, and ill-informed. The poor were always particularly vulnerable. A rich person could afford to get help, usually by paying the Sisterhood. Until Anne had opened her Sisterhood in the Deadlands, no one had helped the people here.

  He was tall, red-headed, and blue eyed. Or at least that was his human body. The twinkle in his eye could be called charming and his face boyish. Oh, how the women must flock to him.

  I shook my head. The void wanted to stretch out and caress his beautiful face—then eat it. He hadn’t answered my first salutation so I tried again. “Hello, incubus. I think you’ve caused enough trouble for these people.”

  He rose, the power cloaking him swirling out as though to taste me. “It’s been a while since I saw your kind. Never out here. How remarkable. Are the rumors true? Have you all deluded yourselves into thinking you have a shot here?”

  Right in the middle of his speech he’d changed from the common tongue to an ancient one. It was a good thing I was fluent.

  Amusement speared me. Everywhere his power tested the edges of mine, it dissipated. “Deluded? No. Prepared to send you on your way? Absolutely. Look at these people. You couldn’t believe, even for a second, that we would let you get away with this.”

  He smiled, the beckoning power of the incubus in his eyes. A lust which summoned lust. Sometimes Sisters fell in love with them. That’s how those Sisters died, seeking pleasure on the floor at his feet. Not even the divine within us was immune to the sensual promise. Not me. I wasn’t turned on, and I couldn’t have been less interested. All the void wanted was to feed.

  He would do nicely.

  “You’re not that cute.” I stared at him, letting my eyes trace him up and down. “These women must really be desperate for companionship. When they were making the incubus faces, did they mess up on yours?”

  He roared. Incubi fed off the desperation they generated, but they were vain little bastards. I’d pissed him off. Good, that was what I wanted. A mad demon was a careless demon. When he launched at me, I darted backward. “So, battle then? Too bad. I was sincerely hoping you’d know better and just kill yourself.”

  I lashed out, the snake, more like a rope now filled with the purity of the sun, the moon, and the divine gifts bestowed upon me. The silver pulsed with ebony. Not a rope, that wasn’t right either, but a hammer. It collided with him, smashing against his face and sending him reeling. The core of ice within me turned molten, and my body burned. I’d live with the pain. It was temporary, and the demon would soon be dead.

  We battled. My spirit left my body in a thousand pieces, all wrapping themselves around him. He cried out. The sensation scared other Sisters, but never me. This was what I’d been born to do. The first time I’d taken down a demon, I’d stretched like some warrior phoenix, erupting free of the jesses of my body. Time ceased to exist. I could see the universe, the stars, the planets, as though they were around me. This time, I rose. The pure light streaked with the darkness and framed my figure until I seemed comprised of a thousand blades. I pushed, digging the sharp edges into the incubus, and he exploded. He was dust. But weren’t we all really?

  The darkness within me sated, I tumbled to Earth and back into my body. The jar of reality colliding with divinity sent me stumbling. A roar sounded around us. Now away from the unclean creature, his female victims screamed. I hated the noise.
It was like so many dying animals.

  I grabbed Noah’s arm. “Get them help. Blankets. Don’t actually touch them. They’re vulnerable.”

  His eyes were huge. “Are you safe?”

  “Safe enough.” I whirled around, grasping Eric’s shoulder. “I’m still hot and cooking. Get every possessed person you can find. You and Brody find them.

  Eric shook his head. “That has to be enough, what you just did. You need to rest now.”

  How dare he? “Don’t tell me what you think the limits of my power are, Eric. You don’t have the slightest idea what I can do. Go. Now.”

  I marched away from him. In the past, I’d have needed to stop. But that was a different Teagan in a different time. At the mines, I either pushed forward or I died. These people could benefit from my experience.

  The first possessed I encountered was a small boy, blue-eyed. They were going to become nothing but numbers to me. There would be too many to keep track of who I helped. Instead, I lassoed the demon within the boy then fed the void. After, I lifted my face to the sky. The demons the now-very-deceased incubus had brought with him were still there. I shook my head. Foolish creatures. They should have run for their lives. Since they were here, they could be useful. “Listen up, you go back and tell the ones in charge... this place is protected. The people of this place are not here for your amusement. Go, before I rid the world of you, too.”

  Thaddeus and Aidan knelt down on both sides of me. “Teagan, are you sure you’re okay,” Thaddeus spoke low.

  “I’m great.”

  And I needed to get started.

  One after another, I cleared the demons out of the townsfolk. Removing demons was second nature. I’d been doing it from the moment I could walk. They’d had to teach me not to do it at the Sisterhood. Sisters weren’t supposed to clear demons from the possessed. We had larger targets—like the incubus. Of course, the Sisterhood did all kinds of things for profit. They probably had a secret group of Sisters who just did this.