Devon Monk - Hell Bent

The people above us, including Krogher, were gone. That wasn’t good.

The air cracked again and three holes in space materialized on the far side of the room. Gates.

Eli turned and limped toward one, holding his arm against his side and breathing hard. I hoped to hell one or a dozen of our bullets had hit him.

The second hole in space appeared right next to Davy. Men in black suits and black sunglasses stepped out of it and were quickly unchaining Davy and dragging him through that hole.

And the third . . . well, in the third stood a woman.

Terric turned to stare at her, his eyes gone alien again.

She wore a plain cotton nightgown. Looked like the room behind her was a hospital. She even held an IV bag in her hand. Her hair was dark and cut boy-short. She was about Eli’s age.

I’d seen her picture. I knew who she was. Brandy Scott. Eli’s Soul Complement. She looked lost. Confused.

“Brandy!” Eli yelled. “Save her, Shame! You must save her!”

He took what looked like an impossibly painful step toward her, one hand stretched out, but there were already men in black coming for him.

I had been standing there, getting a grip on the situation for two seconds, max.

Something cold punched my face. Eleanor floated in front of me, panicked. She pointed to my right. Dessa, she mouthed.

I turned away from Terric, who was already marching toward those gates, and looked for Dessa.

Dessa lay on the floor, holding her hand to the gaping hole in her chest. A hole put there by magic. A hole that was steadily growing larger. Eating away at her.

There are moments when you know your life is forever changed. You hold your breath and for that heartbeat wish it wasn’t true. You make promises. You offer sacrifices. You lie to yourself.

But you know your world will never be the same again. You know you are lost and will never find your way back home. You know you will never be who you were just a heartbeat ago. This was my moment.

The moment my world broke.

The entire damn room was blowing up around us. Eli was getting away.

I didn’t care.

I crossed to Dessa, knelt. Pulled her into my arms.

There was blood. Too damn much blood. Covering her. Covering me.

Her eyes searched mine. “Shame,” she said. “Kill him for me.”

“Shush, now,” I said. “You know I’ll do more than that. I will make his remaining breaths eternities of agony.”

Her eyes were sad, filled with thick shadows of fear. She managed a smile.

I yelled for Terric. He could heal her. Like he’d healed me. He could make the hole in her go away.

“Look at that,” she whispered as if she hadn’t heard me screaming. “Your boyish charms are showing.”

“Did they work?” I asked, smoothing her blood-soaked hair away from her face.

Don’t die, baby. Hold on. Just hold on for me.

Where the hell was Terric?

“Yes,” she said. “But then, they always have.”

I shouldn’t be touching her. The Death magic I held was only going to make her wounds worse. I shifted slightly, thinking I could ease her down to the floor.

She screamed in pain.

“God damn it, Terric!” I yelled again, holding still, holding her in my arms.

Her breathing had gone shallow and ragged.

“Dessa,” I said. “It’s going to be all right.” The hole in her chest was growing, leaving nothing behind. No flesh. No blood. No Dessa. She was dissolving in my arms, like sand falling through my fingers.

“Just,” she said. “Kiss me, Shame.”

I lowered my head and pressed my lips gently to hers. Kissed her even though my body was shaking. Kissed her even though tears mixed with our blood. Kissed her for the last time.

I could feel her heart straining. I knew how little life she had left.

“I think I could have loved . . . ” she mumbled against my mouth.

And then she exhaled. Her heart stilled.

I pulled back.

A flash of light devoured her body, the sudden, intense heat burning my hands, arms, face, chest, and legs. I yelled.

But Dessa was gone. No bones, no blood. Not even dust left behind. My arms were empty. Blistered.

I was alone.

“I told you!” Eli yelled. “I told you I’d kill everyone you love!”

I heard Terric snarl and call on magic.

Even though the storm of magic in the room tore at me, there was a stronger storm inside me.

I could keep her. I could keep her forever.

Her soul stood in front of me, a beautiful, ghostly image. She looked surprised and thoughtful but not sad.

“Please, Dessa,” I whispered. “Don’t go. Stay with me, love. Forever.”

Eleanor stood a short distance behind her. She was shaking her head and saying no. She didn’t approve of what I was about to do. I knew she wouldn’t. But I couldn’t let go of Dessa. I’d only just found her.

With mind and magic, I reached out for Dessa’s soul.

This I could do. Bind her to me forever. I’d done it once before.

Terric yelled again.

His pain shot through me like a hammer shattering glass. I tipped my head back and yelled at the agony that was not my own.

Instinct pushed me to my feet.

Fury made me turn.

Terric stumbled backward, clutching his gut. Blood flowed there. Three bullets. Not made of metal, made of Void stones. I could feel each one digging toward his spine, tearing him apart. Tearing apart his magic and his life.

Done. I was done with this. Done losing the people I loved.

Fuck Eli.

Fuck them all.

I threw my hands out to each side. And called on Death magic.

It leaped to my command, rushing into me, consuming me. Until I was no longer just Shame. No. Until I was no longer Shame at all.

I was darkness. Power. Death incarnate. And I was going to tear apart the world.

The room rumbled, metal girders screaming as I drank life out of the walls, out of the floor, out of the cliffside, stones, forest, and soil around us.

The hospital was so near. So full of life teetering on the edge of death. I could have that. Drink down those lives.

So I did. One, twenty, forty delicious sweet deaths burst through me with carnal pleasure. I laughed. It wasn’t all the people in the building—it was only a start.

Eli Collins was at the gate. The men in black were dragging him through.

That was all I could see. He was all I wanted.

So easy to destroy him. But I wanted time. An eternity to make him suffer.

I reached out for the men around him. Their hearts, their brains.

Magic whipped out, caught them, heart and brain. And squeezed.

The men screamed. I drank their lives, then consumed their bodies, flesh, muscle, and bone until there was nothing but dust left. Then I licked that up too.

But I hadn’t touched Eli, who still carried his protective spell and the torture controller. Eli, the Breaker.

I strode toward him. Lashed at him with so much magic the hill shook.

Before the magic hit, before I could break that protective spell, the gate he’d been standing in slammed shut. The hole in space was gone.

Taking Eli with it. Before I could hook him, before I could crush him, before I could kill him.

Leaving nothing but the wall of the warehouse where he had just stood.

I tore at the building, tore at the building with fury. Hatred. Rage.

“Shame,” Terric called to me from a far, far distance.

I wanted more to kill. I was not nearly done destroying. I wanted Eli.

Then Terric staggered to stand in front of me. Blood on his face, bullets in his chest, where his hand was clamped, the glow of yellow-white healing unable to stop the bleeding. His other hand was extended to one side, holding a spell there.

A bruise covered his temple to neck, but his blue eyes were so very, very sane.