Rob Thurman - Grimrose path

"One tentative RSVP from Heaven," Leo said. "Now what about Hell?"

"That's going to be a roll of the dice. Cronus needs only one more demon. I'm hoping that's not because he caught Eli peeking out of Hell and took his wings. Without Eli, we're pretty well screwed." I put the sword down on the couch. It magnified the weave of the material beneath it. "He's the only high-level demon I know…"

"Since you killed the others," he interrupted.

That was unfair. How was I supposed to know I'd need one or two later on? You didn't keep around a rabid dog on the off chance that Hollywood would call you to make Cujo 2, Wrath of the Motherpupper. "He's the only one I know," I went on, "and of all the ones I have known, the only one silver-tongued enough to have a hope at getting us what we needed. Not many demons could deliver up Hell itself."

"Maybe not even Eligos."

"Maybe not." I shook my head. There was no point in worrying about it as there was nothing we could do about it. "We'll have to keep our fingers crossed."

"You don't think that no matter how this ends, Heaven and Hell are going to think we didn't do our share?" he asked, knocking once against the wall in punctuation.

"They have a trickster and a god playing on the team. What more could they want?" I knew what I wanted. Paien kind as far from Cronus as they could get. Cronus was the sole remaining Titan. The others, like him, couldn't be killed… except by their own hand. Only a Titan was powerful enough to kill a Titan and they'd all eventually done just that, but to themselves. All that unending power, it led nowhere but to insanity. The other Titans had turned that insanity inward and died of it. Cronus was the only one who had turned it outward, which was apparently the ticket to escaping suicide. Unfortunately, outward also equaled homicide. Two "cides" to every story, but with a Titan the story was always a horror. I didn't want our kind near that horror. We were too few as it was.

"I don't know. Perhaps a functional trickster and god?" Leo said with a wry lift of his eyebrows.

"Picky, picky, picky." I narrowed my eyes as the raven tattoo on his chest appeared to move when he shifted positions. "Why don't you put on a shirt, Captain Kirk? Or are you going to try distracting Cronus by having him put dollar bills in your pants?"

"Oh, now you notice. It's the end of the world and suddenly you can see. It's good to know what it takes. Next time we shower together, I'll arrange an Armageddon." He turned and headed back to the bedroom. That was serious talk from someone who had at one point and could again in the future when his powers returned. You had to feel flattered when someone was ready to end the world for a romp in the shower. Or that might just be me.

Yes, it probably was just me. I didn't mind.

You took your fantasies where you could get them.

We skipped lunch at the diner. While I would've liked to have my potential last meal there, it was too close to Trixsta, or what was left of it. I didn't want the boys to see it, and I didn't want to see it either. It was best to fight on an empty stomach anyway. When there's a possibility someone plans on stringing you up by your own intestines, it's much less messy. Or a more mundane penetrating wound to the abdomen… Did you honestly want someone looking at the ground at your feet and asking if that was biscuits and gravy pouring out of the gaping hole in your stomach? No, that sort of thing took you right off your game.

Before we got into yet another stolen car, I had to ask Griffin a question. It wasn't one I wanted to ask, but it was part of the plan, the most important part. If he said no, I wouldn't blame him, except I knew he wouldn't say that. I also knew who would, and I respected him all the more for doing it.

"No fucking way," Zeke said. I hadn't seen him angry with me before. That made this the first time and it was memorable. He was doing it up right. Green eyes were always among the most beautiful, I thought, and yet they could turn hard in an instant, the deepest and coldest of ice, merciless as a riptide. "No fucking way you are putting a bull's-eye on Griffin's chest. You're not singling him out to that goddamn freak. We can all face Cronus, but you're not dangling Griffin like a piece of meat for an alligator."

"Zeke, it's not like that," Griffin countered.

"Griffin, it is like that." I had put the sword in the car and now stood, hip against the metallic blue of the SUV, a four-wheel-drive felony. "Don't think it's no different than Zeke playing demon bait when you're on the hunt, because it is. If Cronus gets to you, you won't be able to fight him off and we won't be able to pull you back. He's not a demon. If he touches you, it's over." For Griffin and for us all.

"But you won't let him, will you?" he said with a certainty in his voice that was the best gift anyone could've given me, and few, because of what I was, did. Unwavering trust.

"No, I won't." I touched his face and the bruise that hadn't had time to fade. "But don't agree to this because you think you have something to make up for. If you do, I'll know it, and we'll go right back upstairs and let the Apocalypse come. I mean it."

He shook his head. "I've seen the error of my ways there. Ex-demon is now politically correct in my book. It might be why Azrael finds me so disgusting. If I can rise up and change my ways, others could as well. I want to do this because it's the right thing to do." He bumped Zeke's shoulder with his own. "It is, Zeke. You know it, and you would do it too."

"I don't care. You almost let demons kill you. Demons. That's goddamn pathetic." Zeke pushed him with enough force to shove him back a step. "How can I look after you if you won't look after yourself, huh? How? I fucking can't, can I?"

"Trixa won't let Cronus kill me." Griffin didn't push back. Zeke had been pushed enough this week, emotionally. He would've tolerated physically better. "And if she can't stop him, then I will. I promise, Zeke, and I've never broken a promise to you. Hell, I couldn't. You know that."

"Damn it. Damn it." Zeke hung his head. "Just… shit. If you get yourself killed, I'm not speaking to you again, and this time I mean it." He got into the back of the car and slammed the door hard.

"It's not fair to him." I was wearing the same clothes I'd worn yesterday to rob the museum. All black, but the fall while running from the museum guards had taken its toll. I had washed them this morning. There was something ignoble about showing up to a battle wearing muddy streaks on your shirt and gum on your knee. "But then again I guess it's not fair to any of us."

"I think you and Leo have had it easy for too long." Griffin curled his lips. "Time to know what it is to fight with a baseball bat instead of an Uzi." He opened the same door Zeke had shut. "Move over, you cranky bastard. Don't make me PDA you in front of God and everybody."

As the door closed again. Leo cracked his knuckles in the palm of his other hand. "An Uzi. I think that boy vastly underestimates who we are."

"Who we were," I reminded him. "Are you ready to be human?" I'd learned over the past few days that playing human was easy, but being human was a bitch. I'd lost a home I'd never thought I'd want, and I was a person I never thought I'd be. Still, I hadn't once in my life let a lack of resources stop me from doing what had to be done. That wasn't going to change now. Being human would only make the victory that much sweeter, life itself that much sweeter.

"We're going to get our asses handed to us," Leo said with grim humor.

"Oh, without a doubt." I sighed as I started around the car. "Cronus will need a shopping cart to haul them around in."

Because life… It wasn't always sweet.

Arrow Canyon is about an hour northeast of Vegas. I'd hiked it before, on feet and paws. A narrow canyon that runs several miles long with petroglyphs painted on the walls and a dam at the end; it's a good place to commune with nature or end it. Cronus wouldn't care how picturesque the battlefield was, but during the week and work hours, the location would guarantee hopefully that no bystanders happened to wander into the middle of something they couldn't imagine no matter how much acid they'd taken in their misspent youth. The hikers tended to stick to weekends… whether they had a history of wild drug-induced hallucinations or not.