Wren

And Death rides a pale horse.

I couldn’t recall exactly where I’d heard that. Probably during one of my Sundays sitting in a church pew while listening to the minister speak. I hadn’t been good at sitting still and often fidgeted much to my parents’ chagrin. I’d spent most of my church time daydreaming of riding spaceships to Mars rather than paying attention, but something from those sermons, or my Sunday school days, must have sunk in.

The head of Death’s horse was nothing but bone with two red orbs glowing from its eye sockets. Pale white flesh covered the rest of the horse’s body. Death didn’t use a saddle as he sat tall on the horse’s back. Broad through the shoulders and torso, the black clothes Death wore hugged his frame. I would have considered the clothes skin tight, but if Death’s body was anything like his bony fingers and detached head, there was no skin beneath that clothing.

The skeletal head Death cradled was made up mostly of glistening bone, but its eye sockets weren’t empty and because there was no flesh on the skull, those eyes bulged grotesquely. Some white ligaments ran across Death’s skull, moving with his jaw and pulling it into a macabre smile as, like an evil pendulum, Death’s eyes swung back and forth over the clearing.

Death said something I couldn’t hear, but his jawbone moved again. More of the horsemen emerged from the woods. It took all I had not to cower as my shoulders hunched and my head bowed. I clenched my bladder when it threatened to let loose. I hadn’t felt this visceral a reaction to something since I’d been huddled beneath the sink, trying not to sob.

I cursed myself as a coward even as the others all slouched a little more. Erin edged back, and Vargas’s knuckles turned white from his grip on his cross. Corson tensed as he edged protectively in front of me.

Taking a deep breath, I lifted my head and forced myself to gaze at the eleven horsemen spreading out behind the angels. Some of the things they rode couldn’t be considered horses with their double heads, multi-hued eyes, and just plain non-horse-like physiques. Others rode horses that could have only come from Hell.

I recognized Lust as she was gorgeous with her flowing white hair tumbling down her shoulders and spilling over the ass end of the gray horse she rode. The horse was beautiful with its thick neck and its head curved so its chin was tucked against its chest. Lust wore nothing, her voluptuous body on full display to all those nearby.

Some of the demons closest to her stroked themselves through their clothes as they stared at her, while others dipped their hands into their pants and blatantly fondled themselves. The angels all unfurled their wings and drew them forward as if they were trying to ward something off.

My skin prickled, and my heart rate increased as Corson’s hand burned into mine. Memories of the way he’d caressed me ran through my mind. Mine, he’d breathed in my ear, and I could feel the warmth of his breath against me once more.

Beads of sweat lined Corson’s forehead as his eyes held mine and his thumb ran over the back of my hand. I could feel his restraint running through his taut muscles, and I found myself hoping he would let it go. I would welcome him into my arms right now without caring who watched us. Hawk lowered his head into his hands. Bale made a move for him but stopped herself before she could touch him.

Death said something and Lust laughed as she tossed back some of her white hair. Like the fog retreating from the sun, my hunger for Corson eased from my body. It didn’t leave completely, but what remained had nothing to do with Lust’s spell; I would always crave Corson’s touch.

Corson’s citrine eyes filled with fury as he stared at the horsemen. Hawk lifted his head and shuddered. Lines etched the corners of his mouth as he gazed across the clearing with hatred in his indigo eyes. The demons closest to Lust stopped pleasuring themselves and backed away from her. We weren’t close to the horsemen, yet I felt the lingering effect of whatever it was that bitch had done to me. To all of us.

I wanted out of here, I opened my mouth to say so, but closed it again. I couldn’t run and hide from this.

One of the horsemen said something else, and they all nodded. If they could all do something like what Lust had done, we were in for a nasty battle. For the first time, I wasn’t sure it was a fight we could win. I suspected Lust had been playing with everyone, giving them only a hint of what she could do. And if War, Wrath, or Death unleashed their malevolence, then what?

I studied all of them again. Some were easy to recognize, like Pestilence with the hundreds of flies buzzing around his head. Large, white, blistering sores marred his cheeks. Black rot surrounded where the end of his nose should have been. The tips of his fingers were also covered in black rot as if he had gangrene or some plague. I didn’t want to know what the things squirming beneath his putrid flesh were.

Pestilence’s horse was the greenish-brown color of bile and also had white sores festering on its flesh. Some of those abscesses ran so deep they revealed the bone beneath. What Pestilence could do to the human race was something I couldn’t think about right now.

The horsemen made such a conflicting range of emotions flutter through me that I could barely think. I focused on Astaroth as he continued to point to different demons, Hell creatures, and riders. From the corner of my eye, I noticed hooves shifting as something more was said, and then one of the horses reared back and turned away from the clearing. The scarlet animal disappeared into the trees with a dozen lower-level demons, a handful of upper levels, and some of the Hell creatures. A few angels rose to swoop out behind them.

Lust turned and went in a separate direction with an entourage following her.

“What are they doing?” I whispered.

“Smaller groups,” Corson replied. “By spreading out, they can affect more humans and demons.”

The other horsemen vanished into the woods until all that remained in the clearing was Astaroth, Death, and a few dozen others. Death lifted his skull and settled it into place on his shoulders. He twisted it to the side, and with a crack of bone, it remained there when he removed his hands.

Astaroth said something more and took to the air. Death stared at him before pulling back on his horse’s reigns. Sunlight glinted off its bony front legs when the skeletal horse reared before running into the air. I gawked after him as Death rose higher, its horse’s hooves thundering across unseen particles of air as Death followed Astaroth into the sky.

“Death can…?” I didn’t know how to describe what I’d witnessed. “Fly?”

“Not fly so much as travel on air,” Magnus answered.

“It’s the only horseman that can,” Corson said. “We have to return to the others.”

The crack of a branch sounded from somewhere on our left. Before I could blink, Corson spun toward the sound and planted himself firmly in front of me. The tips of his talons rested on the ground, and his body became that of a predator tensed to spring.

Through the thin tree trunks, I spotted thirteen upper and lower-level demons strolling through the trees. They didn’t notice us as they drew closer.

“The horsemen are dangerous,” one of the upper levels said.

“They locked us away because we were dangerous too,” another one retorted.

“Not like them. And they locked us away because we broke the laws. We didn’t belong sealed away, the horsemen did. Astaroth won’t be able to control them like he thinks he can.”

“So what do you want to do? Slink meekly away and spend the rest of our lives hiding from Kobal or perhaps join his side?”

“Never would I join him!” The other one’s hatred was evident in those hissed words. “But I think working with the horsemen could result in all our deaths. You saw what Lust did back there, and she wasn’t even trying.”

“Let the angels and horsemen have their fun. Let them ruin Kobal and the palitons, and then we’ll rise to take control of what remains. It’s not like the horsemen can level the entire planet in a day or even a year. They aren’t that powerful. Besides, the angels and horsemen also need the human race and demons if they’re to survive. They won’t kill them all.”

“They’re determined to rule everyone, including us. We’re the ones they’ll turn on after they’ve accomplished what they wanted to with everyone else.”

“I won’t be ruled again,” one of the uppers stated. “Let them come for us, and we’ll tear them apart.”

The lower levels all nodded their agreement. Corson looked toward all of us and gave a jerk of his head in the direction of the demons. Bale reached over her back and gripped the handle of her sword. Hawk, Erin, and Vargas pulled their knives free. Shax smiled while Caim rocked on his heels, and Raphael’s face remained blank. I recoiled when identical images of us shimmered to life nearby, before realizing that they were all a product of Magnus’s ability to weave illusions.

Turning to me, Corson rested his lips against my ear as he spoke, “No guns.”

I put my gun away and removed the knife strapped to my side. Following Corson through the woods, we edged closer until we were within feet of the demons. One of them lifted its head; its dog snout wrinkled as it sniffed the air. With the speed and silence of a ghost, Corson rose out of the shadows and plunged his talons straight through the lower-level demon’s throat, severing its head from its shoulders before it could shout a warning.

The thud of the head hitting the ground drew the attention of its companions. The blade of Bale’s sword glinted in the sunlight when it swung out to sever the head of another one. Hawk and Vargas leapt out to take two lower levels down, while Caim drove one of his spikes through the eye of an upper level, and Raphael hit an upper level with a ball of pure white energy. The energy tore through the demon’s chest and took out the one behind it.

Leaping up, Lix hacked the head from another demon. Magnus did some fluid dance around another lower level until he could get behind it and twist its head off with a strange, sucking pop. Shax hit another one so hard its head half tore off before Erin severed it the rest of the way with her knife.

Rising, I jumped onto the back of one turning toward Corson and sliced my knife across the demon’s vocal cords before he could make a sound. My hand wrapped around his forehead, drawing his head back as I finished my kill. I jumped off the demon when its body went limp beneath me. Corson spun and sank his talons into the chest of another. Lifting it, he smashed the creature into the ground and sliced its head off with a swipe of his other hand.

I bent to wipe the blood off my blade as Lix killed the last demon. Sitting back on my heels, I studied the trees and shifting shadows while I searched for any hint that something else might be coming.

“We have to go,” Corson stated. “The blood will bring more of them.”

“If their bodies are discovered the angels and horsemen will know something is hunting them,” Lix said.

“I know of a cave nearby,” I replied. “We can stash the bodies there.”

“We’ll take them there,” Corson said.