Chapter Forty-Four – Luke

 

I followed the trail of citrus and vanilla down into the damp caves, sidearm gripped in one hand, flashlight tactically gripped in the other so the beam shone wherever my barrel was pointed. Confident I could get to it when I needed, I’d sheathed the horn away in my jacket pocket as I advanced down the twists and turns of the slowly descending halls.

I couldn’t tell how deep I was beneath the rock formation, or how far I’d come already, but I did know one thing: the scent of Molly’s perfume grew stronger and fresher with every step.

“I’m coming, Molly,” I said under my breath, almost as a mantra. “I’m coming. I’m coming.”

I passed stalagmites, beautiful and amazing geological phenomena, and a small stream that disappeared off into the wall and trickled off to join some underground river hundreds and thousands of feet below me. But I never wavered as I continued forward.

“You’re a fucking monster!”

I stopped and spun around with my sidearm raised, the echoes of Molly reverberating back to me like memories from a former life. Even with my better-than-average hearing, the sound of her voice didn’t help. It only confused things. I lifted my nose to the air, sniffed again, and caught her scent as it entwined with the weird, rotten-plum fragrance of the zmeu. I headed off, following after it down another passage.

I must have gone a hundred feet, the only sound the shuffling of my booted feet. I took a bend in the tunnel and stopped as I saw a glimmer of unnaturally glowing light ahead.

In the soft light radiating out, I could suddenly see my hand in front of my face without the flashlight. I killed it, stuffing it away in my pocket, and drew the unicorn horn from the inside of my coat. Gripping my pistol more tightly, I proceeded down the hallway in a light crouch, rolling the soles of my boots with each step to make the least amount of noise possible.

“You can’t do this to me,” Molly said from up ahead, her voice finally not coming to me only in echoes. “You can’t do this to all these women.”

My heart pounded harder, and my mouth dried out. I licked my cracked lips as I edged forward down the tunnel.

“And why not?” the zmeu asked. “Why don’t you just accept this gift for what it is? A gift beyond the material world, a gift of timeless beauty. You’ll be hung on the wall next to the most gorgeous of them all.”

“But I’m a person,” Molly sobbed, “not a work of art!”

“Oh, I beg to differ. All people are a work of art. So unique, so awe-inspiring. You lead your little lives, having no idea when you’ll live or die, but always willing to continue on. And such passion some of you have, for such silly things. How are you not art? No greater goals in life, only to desperately reach out to another soul and commune with them, to find some sort of empathy in the people around you. This is art at its core!”

My back to the tunnel wall, I continued my shuffling march, the light growing brighter and brighter with every step. Till, finally, I was there.

Nearly eight feet tall, its wings outspread and the tips brushing the surface of the weirdly lit walls, it loomed over Molly as she stood defiantly in the center with her head tilted back, and her finger poking at its chest.

“You don’t get to determine who lives forever! You don’t get to give gifts that women want to refuse! You’re no better than those men upstairs, who think just because they have the power, they have the right to do whatever they want!”

The zmeu threw its head back and laughed. “In this world, Molly Long, it’s the strong who own the weak. Even if the strong do not oppress them, the weak are only able to continue their lives because we deem it possible. They exist on borrowed time, just waiting for someone strong enough to snatch their lives away. I am your better, all these women’s better, and by virtue of that, even my unwanted gifts cannot be refused. Because I will not allow it!”

Teeth grinding against each other, I stepped out from the tunnel wall, raising my gun.

Molly’s tear-streaked eyes flickered to mine as she caught my movement, the faintest of smiles flashing on her lips. “Well, you know what?” she growled, stepping back from the creature. “Screw you!”

I needed to distract the zmeu so she could get away.

I opened fire.

The gun jumped in my hand as I shot three times, the discharge echoing through the chamber like the explosion of a bomb.

The zmeu roared, stumbling forward with each successive shot slamming into its back like a leaden fist. Wings outspread, he spun to face me as I advanced into the cave. If I’d thought Stryos was fast, he’d had nothing on the zmeu. In the space of a blink, he was across the cave, knocking my pistol aside and sending it skittering across the floor.

My wrist snapped with the force of the blow, and I cried out as I went stumbling back to the wall. I tried to move the fingers of my right hand, but they wouldn’t respond to my commands.

It was on me again, claws flashing as they lashed my sides and chest. Molly screamed, her voice a screech.

Warmth flooded down my chest and sides as I brought up my arms, tried to fend it off. But it was too fast. Even my bullets hadn’t slowed it down in the slightest.

It struck again and again. I tried to catch one arm in my right, despite the agony of even jostling my wrist, but there was nothing I could do to ensnare him.

He just shrugged off my feeble arm lock, hammering into my chest again with a flurry of blows.

Wind knocked from my lungs, I slumped down and covered my vitals, the unicorn horn useless in my hand. I could see the gem shining out from his head, just begging me to stab through it, but I knew I’d never be able to sneak a thrust in. He was too fast, too strong.

Movement in the corner of my eye, within the glowing chamber. “Hey! Get off of him!”

Weak, gasping for breath, I turned and looked as the zmeu slowed its assault. It straightened up, turning its attention away from me.

Molly stood there, pistol raised with both hands. Only, the barrel wasn’t pointed at us. “Silver bullets in here, zmeu. Even though they didn’t do much to you, I imagine they’ll work on these hearts of yours.”

“No!” The zmeu roared, stepping towards her with one outstretched claw. “You can’t! You wouldn’t!”

“Oh, I fucking would,” Molly said, shuffling back a step with her eyes still on the demon. “You make a move towards me, and I’ll pull the trigger. As much as it ricochets, I might not hit it right away, but I’m bound to hit something.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I fucking would. You know I would, too. Now you get to see how it feels, to be powerless.”

“Wh-what can I do?” it asked after a moment, a demonic panic entering its voice. “Should I let the shifter go? Let you go?”

My breath heavy and labored, I pushed back against the wall and began to walk myself up, the horn still tightly grasped in my hand. Blood ran down my body, making my grip slick.

“That’s a start,” Molly said, shifting in her stance, adjusting her grip.

“A start?” the zmeu asked. “What else can I do?”

Mustering my strength, I straightened up entirely and pushed myself off the wall, moving closer to the zmeu on unsteady legs.

“Can you bring these women back?” Molly demanded.

“No, of course not. That’s beyond my power, beyond almost anyone’s power.”

“Then apologize to Luke. Apologize for hurting him, and I’ll consider it.”

I tensed my whole body, realizing this might be my only chance. I gripped the horn more tightly, raising it like a dagger.

The zmeu sighed, his great shoulders and wings shrugging as he did. “Yes, of course.” He tucked his wings back against his body and slowly turned back to me. “Luke?”

“Go to hell,” I gasped as I leapt forward and stabbed down.

Its eyes widened in surprise as it followed the tip of the horn coming down on the gem embedded in its forehead. A piercing shriek rose as the jewel shattered with a burst of bright white light, like a nova of a mini-sun that doused everything in a kind of purity that the mere existence of the zmeu defied.

I stumbled back as the shriek rose louder and louder, and I realized it was a whole tribe of women’s voices screaming along with it. But not screaming in fear or pain, but in anger and triumph and freedom. Hand up to shield my eyes from the blinding light, my back hit the wall and brought me to a halt. My boots slipped in something wet, my own blood, I realized, and I went to the ground in a tangle of limbs as I twisted my face away.

Moments later, there was nothing. No light. No screams. Just drips of water in the background, and the smell of a campfire wafting here from another room.

“Luke?” Molly asked, putting her arms around me. “Luke, are you okay? I can barely see anything. I think I’m blind.”

I put my arms around her, tried to embrace her, just to feel her warmth beneath my hands. In the darkness, my lips found hers, and we kissed and held each other.

“Don’t worry,” I said as we pulled apart. I reached into my pocket, retrieved my flashlight, and turned it on. “You’re not blind. See?”

She grinned down at me, her face illuminated horridly by the flashlight. But it didn’t matter. Because I saw what twinkled in her eyes.

“You saved me,” she whispered, kissing me again.

“Think it was kind of mutual.”

We kept our gazes locked for another moment.

“I love you,” we both said at the same time. And then we fell into each other’s arms again.