Anne Winchell - The Last War

They were also taking advantage of the doctors and medicine he brought each time and he was grateful. Most of them had only suffered thermal burns and minimal radiation, since the wind had been going in a different direction that day. It was the firestorms that had done the most damage. But a few had been close enough to suffer radiation poisoning and they were beginning to show signs beyond constant vomiting and hair loss. They would have died if they didn’t receive medical care. He still hadn’t convinced them to leave NeoLondon, where everything quivered with radioactivity, but at least they were getting help.

When he arrived, Jess showed him into Nalia’s room as usual. And as usual, she was white as a corpse and he had to change to a human to make sure she was still alive. She was, but it seemed like she was deteriorating rapidly. He looked at his own hand, still scarred from where he had touched the bracelet. If a simple touch had done that to him, he couldn’t imagine what it was doing to her. Yet she looked untouched. Whatever chaos the bracelet was wreaking on her insides, it wasn’t visible to the naked eye.

“Why do you come here?” Jess asked.

“To make sure she’s alive.”

“Why?”

Medane sighed. “She is a friend of my friend. That makes her my friend, and I protect my friends.”

Jess was silent, then she left the room. It was the first time they had left him alone with Nalia. He stroked Nalia’s hair, careful to keep a safe distance from the bracelet. Then he became aware of talking outside the room. He quieted his breathing and could just make it out.

“I don’t like him coming here.”

“We don't have a choice. He’s here to help her and if he cares that much, I’m not going to stop him. Besides, I don’t think we could stop him if he really wanted to get in.”

“It still isn’t right for him to be here. He’s our enemy.”

“He was our enemy,” a new voice said. “I’m starting to wonder if we can afford that.”

“Giving in to his demands?”

“No, just considering the possibility that maybe he does want to help Nalia. And if he wants to help her, maybe he’ll help us. Maybe, instead of fighting him right now, we should be helping him.”

There was a long silence as Medane stroked Nalia’s forehead. This was exactly what he wanted, exactly why he had sent Nalia back to the rebellion. He wanted them to realize that he wasn’t the enemy—at least, not the current enemy—so that they would side with him in the world war and not distract him while he fought Atheus. But he never would have sent Nalia here if he knew the cost. Gaining the rebels was not worth losing Nalia, not by a long shot. Not if she was Raven’s love, and her illness pushed him to do something reckless or insane as Medane suspected was the case. He just prayed the boy didn’t get himself killed.

The moon kept a pitiless watch over the night as Raven entered the old Seattle Center. The city had seemed dark as they drove up, speeding through the night, and when they came closer the reason for that darkness had become apparent. Seattle had been bombed, and recently. The old Space Needle, once the only remnant of the great city, now lay shattered on the ground. Raven leapt over the debris as he went to the center of the field, on the lookout for Atheus. He didn’t know exactly where to find the díamont, but this was the most likely place.

Kaela waited in the car, or at least Raven had instructed her to. He suspected he would need to make a hasty exit and she was an ideal getaway driver. He just hoped she didn’t try to join in the battle. He could reason with Atheus on his own. He examined the area, and then the moonlight glinted off something crimson and the díamont appeared at the center of the crater where the base of the Space Needle still stood. Atheus.

The sight of him filled Raven with rage and he practically flew down to the base, forgetting all of his careful plans about staying emotionless and not showing how much Nalia’s life meant to him.

“You bastard,” Raven cried. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing,” Atheus said with a feral grin. “She did it all to herself.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Raven’s voice dropped, growing cold and deadly. Most men shuddered when they heard him speak like this because they knew death was near, but Atheus just looked amused.

“That bracelet she’s wearing. My people made it, of course, on the moon. It was supposed to end up with Medane, but this is so much better, don’t you think?”

He laughed and Raven grit his teeth. The urge to attack was unbearably strong but he couldn’t fight Atheus yet. He had been shocked and horrified to learn that Nalia was in a coma, and he wasn’t leaving until he learned how to reverse it.

“It finds DNA bonded with díamont elements,” Atheus explained, “and tears it apart. On a real díamont, death would follow rapidly, but she’s mostly human. She’s lasted quite a while. As it destroys the DNA, a lot of energy is created and released in the form of a light wave. Well, a gamma ray actually, quite capable of killing everything within miles when fully unleashed. She’s managed to control it so far, but when it kills her,” he paused. “She’ll manage to take out most of Europe with her.”

Raven’s heart shuddered in his breast and he took a deep breath. He remembered the light that had shot out of Galley’s hand in the fight with Atheus so long ago. He had assumed it was a laser, but she had passed out right afterward. Was she dying even then? He bit his lip until he felt blood, but he had to resist the urge to fight until he knew the cure.

“There’s only one solution,” Atheus said, clearly enjoying Raven’s reaction. “The bracelet can only be taken off by a díamont. A true díamont,” he added with relish. “Medane would be able to take it off her, but unfortunately, it will kill him.”

Atheus laughed as Raven drew away from him. A true díamont… Medane. It was the only solution. Atheus would never remove the bracelet and Lethe probably couldn’t and wouldn’t. Only Medane could do it, but that would leave the world defenseless against Atheus’s attacks.

“So glad you’ve decided to rejoin my service, Raven,” Atheus said. “I look forward to you doing my bidding in this matter and ridding the world of Medane once and for all.”

Something snapped inside of Raven. He would never do this monster’s bidding. There had to be another way.

“Never, you bastard. I don’t give a damn, I’ll never help you!”

The smile on Atheus’s face faded. “Then you’ve killed her, and signed your own death warrant.”

Raven took a deep breath. Nalia, he thought. Nalia, I’m sorry. But if he wins, he’ll kill us all anyway.

He narrowed his eyes and tried to look as confident as possible. “So be it.”

Atheus scowled and leapt forward, one fist raised. Raven barely moved out of the way in time and stared in shock as Atheus’s fist slammed into the ground less than an inch from his face and continued into the ground. If he had been there, he would be dead. Raven scrambled backwards as Atheus advanced. Raven braced himself, then charged. He topped Atheus over but the díamont struck him in the side and he felt his ribs cracking. None of his blows made a dent in the diamond sheath covering the díamont and he realized that he was doomed to lose this fight, but he would go down fighting.

Raven heard his name and look up in shock to see Kaela silhouetted against the edge of the crater. Medane drew a gun and fired it at her without a second thought. Her eyes widened and in an instant, the world seemed to slow around Raven. He saw the bullet traveling through the air towards Kaela and knew she would be unable to dodge it. But he seemed to exist in a place where he could move faster than the bullet—he knew that if he tried, he could push her out of the way before the bullet struck her. He ran and it felt as though his body were trudging through water but he kept going, knowing it was a race between him and the bullet to reach Kaela. He reached her an instant before the bullet and as he pushed her aside, the bullet tore through his belly.