Luckily the quicksand was only in a small, localized area and Leo was able to grab onto solid ground. But he wasn’t strong enough to haul himself and Faith out of the mess at the same time, so he had to let go of her and pull himself up. He dug in and grabbed for her. But as soon as he had her on solid ground Chatha cast the spell again. Leo didn’t even have time or energy to waste on swearing the blue streak of words raging through his mind. The quicksand was cold because the soil was cold, and that made him aware of the warm liquid sensation spilling over his arm as he hauled Faith up, yet again, to solid ground.
And Chatha cast the spell again.
“Fuck! Faith, I have to put him down!” he growled in impotent fury.
“Do it!”
He pulled his weapon, the thing filthy with mud and dirt, and aimed it.
Oh, but he wanted to pull the trigger and blow his brain out his nostrils, but part of him screamed that that was the easy way. That Chatha deserved the hard way. He didn’t want to listen to himself, but just the same the second bullet hit Chatha in his collarbone. Leo had broken his collarbone once, during parachuting training in the Rangers. And he knew it was the most agonizing pain he could have imagined…but that had been before Chatha.
Chatha fell onto the ground screaming, curling up and rocking like a child with a badly skinned knee.
“That should f**k with his concentration long enough for me to get you out of here,” he said to Faith, making sure they were both on solid ground before reaching to swing her up into his arms.
“I’ve got her,” a low, masculine voice assured him. Leo looked up into Kamenwati’s eyes, the Bodywalker having lowered into a crouch in front of him, graceful hands moving to take hold of Faith. Leo’s first instinct was to grab Faith and hold her tighter, more protectively than ever.
“Why don’t you worry about that tool from your torturer’s emergency kit?” he said, jerking his head toward Chatha. “Because I sure as hell am not giving her to you! So keep your hands to yourself before I pick a part of your anatomy for target practice!”
“Give her to me then,” Ahnvil said, coming to kneel in front of him. Leo watched a little numbly as the Gargoyle, his slate-gray stone skin gleaming over the contours of his body and his amber eyes glowing with a deep fiery warmth that belied the cold marble look of his skin, lifted Faith while gaining his full height. It was as if he carried a baby, a doll so light and insignificant.
Once he saw them heading to safety, he gained his feet, whirled around and marched to where Chatha lay on the ground moaning and whimpering. Kamen and Grey were standing over him, guarding to make sure he didn’t budge. Kamen looked up at Leo’s approach.
“Come,” Grey said, pointing down at Chatha. “It’s time we put this monster back in the Ether for another hundred years. It is the best we can do, but no one deserves the honor more than you. Perhaps you will find some of the closure you desire.”
Leo laughed sardonically. “In order for me to come close to giving him equal payback, I would have to become the same animal that he is. I’ll be happy to prove I’m better than him by doing the one thing he refused to do for me. I’ll be putting him out of his misery.”
Leo pointed the gun at Chatha’s head, aiming right between his eyes. The rounded eyes and cheeks of Down syndrome innocence glared up at him, and he had to remind himself that this was the only way. His finger tensed around the trigger, but he did not pull it even though everything inside of him, everything angry and violent and scared to f**king death inside of him was reaching so hard for it that his hand was shaking.
This is a good death, he reminded himself hotly. It’s justice as well as vengeance and a far sight more humane than the other half of Andy deserves.
“Goddammit!” he ground out, stepping back and turning in a hard about-face. He paced away just three short steps, turned back and pointed the gun at him again.
And still he could not shoot. Why? he demanded of himself. How often had you prayed for this opportunity? Why can’t you do it?
“Here, let me do it,” Kamen said quietly reaching to take Leo’s weapon from him.
“No!” Leo jerked back from him. “Just…just let me think! God!”
He looked toward the direction Faith had been taken, a part of him knowing that she was a source of peace and focus, something he desperately needed right then. If anyone could set him straight, it would be Faith. But she was long gone. That left only one other potential source of comfort and that was Grey. But he hardly knew or understood Grey so the likelihood of finding any solace…
Leo stilled, his eyes swinging back to Chatha…then back to Grey.
“I want to make a wish,” he said with sudden inspiration.
“No,” Jackson said, pacing the room in a sharp, tight circuit, ignoring Marissa who followed him every single step as if to catch him should he grow suddenly weak. It wasn’t so far-fetched an idea. Leo’s friend had looked much better. “It can’t be done.”
They had bundled Chatha up into the main parlor of the residence, leaving him moaning behind a gag, so he couldn’t cast any spells, and tied up so he couldn’t physically fight either, although it was clear that there was no physical fight left in him. He, like Faith, had lost a great deal of blood.
“Why not?” Leo demanded of him. “If he can tie a soul down,” he pointed to Grey, “and Apep can sever a soul, why can’t a wish sever one soul and leave the other intact?”
“That’s too simplistic! The souls aren’t two independent entities! They’ve Blended…”
“That’s not how I understand it,” Leo shot back. “As I understand it Templars suppress their hosts, rather then Blend with them.”
“He is correct.” The arguing men whipped about to look at Kamenwati. He was standing in the parlor entryway, leaning a shoulder against the wall. “We do not Blend. Even now, in spite of the terms I have come to, I have very little awareness of the original soul inside me. He has been beaten down so often, my soul overshadowing his, that I don’t think we could ever easily reverse it…that we could ever Blend us after so much time. There are times when the host soul ‘leaks’ out past our more dominant souls, but it’s more like a prison break than it is the flip side of the same coin.”
“Then that settles it.” Leo turned to Grey who had remained quiet and observant all of this time. “Grey, I know what that wish is. The one you said was waiting for me.”
“Careful,” Jackson hissed, unable to help himself. “Leo, please…”
“I wish,” Leo repeated, “for the Bodywalker soul, Chatha, to be ejected from Andy’s body and sent back into the Ether indefinitely. Once Chatha’s soul is purged, I want Andy’s soul to remain and I want his memories of all that has happened since Chatha took possession of him to be completely erased so that he doesn’t have to suffer with the memories of what Chatha has done. I wish all of this to be done without killing Andy. I want him to be able to lead a normal life once he is free.”
Grey took a deep breath and released it in a slow sigh. “That’s a very…complex wish,” Grey noted.
“Can you do it?” Leo asked, his tone hard and his determination evident.
“There will be—”
“A price to pay. Yes, I know. Can you do it?”
Grey smiled a very devilish sort of smile. “I’m the Djynn of the Western states who owns a flatulent Pegasus. I can do damn near anything.”
Faith opened her eyes, groaned at the heavy weight pressing down on her chest and rolled over. She didn’t move more than a half an inch before pain blossomed through her body from several different locations.
“Ow,” she whimpered piteously.
“Shh,” came the warm rumbling sound of Leo’s voice up against her ear. “Don’t move too much. Grey said you lost too much blood to properly regenerate using your natural healing abilities. It’ll be another day or two before you can start getting around.”
“How’s Andy?” she asked suddenly, her eyes flying open so she could look into the warm brown of his concerned gaze. He was lying in bed with her, holding her snugly to the right side of his body. She sighed with contentment at the intimate feel of him, at how close it made her feel with him.
“It worked,” he assured her, knowing exactly what she meant. She had asked him about it every time she’d woken up since he’d told her about the wish. Apparently every time she fell asleep she thought she had only dreamed it all up. “Andy is a very normal, very stable Down syndrome adult male. Actually”—he cleared his throat—“he’s a really cool kid. Completely different than I had expected. I guess I’d expected him to be more like the farce Chatha used to reel his victims in. He’s actually quite bright and very mature. I only wish—”
“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked when she saw him frown darkly.
“I wish I didn’t feel the way his face still makes me feel. No matter how much I try to explain to myself that Chatha is gone, every time I see Andy’s face I’m…I still feeling this choking fear…”
“Give it some time,” Faith soothed him softly, her warm hand reaching out to pet his arm. “You can’t expect yourself to just shrug all of your trauma off. Andy’s face is a trigger. It’s going to bring a lot of memories up for a very long time. You might not ever be able to develop a long-term relationship with Andy.”
“I don’t want a long-term relationship with anyone, believe me. I am going to find a good place for him that’s as far away from this deadly circus as possible.”
Faith quieted significantly, enough for him to sense it.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“You’re right. This is no place for an innocent human to be,” she said quietly. “And it’s best that you stay as far from the dangers of this place as you can possibly manage.”
Leo was quiet for several beats of time. “I plan to,” he said. “I’m not an idiot, Faith, I know when I’m outgunned. I’ve got a life to get back to…there are things I can do out in the human world…I can help better out there if I stay away from here.”
“Then you should go as soon as your responsibilities to Jackson are over,” she said, refusing to let even a hint of hurt reflect into her voice. She rolled over, away from him, and pretended to snuggle back into sleep.
“Faith, I…I hope we’re okay. I mean…we’re from such different worlds and…you have to remember what Grey showed us, that it’s no longer a possibility. Things have changed and…”
“It’s okay,” she lied, squeezing her eyes shut tightly against the tears burning into them. “I know what you’re saying. It’s a different future now. I knew that all along. I mean, you said it yourself, you’d never even consider…”
“No, I wouldn’t,” he agreed. “Even if you were a human female, Faith, I am no good at long-term relationships. Hell, I’m not even good at short-term ones.”
“I know,” she said softly. “Leo, I’m exhausted.”
“Okay,” he said, but something sat uneasy with him and he hesitated from moving off the bed. He wanted to prod at her, to make sure she understood his perspective, to make sure she wasn’t…hurt, but he could tell she was still wiped out. And anyway, he had no real right to ask her for anything. He never really had.
Like he had said, even if she’d been human, he really sucked at relationships. Hell, the only reason Jackson and Docia put up with him was because they’d been anesthetized against his stupidity. They were more like family, and family had to take you in, flaws and all.
Realizing Faith had fallen asleep, Leo got up off the bed and looked around the room. There was hardly anything there outside of a couple of pairs of borrowed jeans and shirts in the room. He’d be giving those back to Jackson. He’d had nothing when he’d got there and would leave with nothing. It was his favorite way to live. No roots, no encumbrances. Even the gun lying on the nightstand wasn’t his.
He looked at Faith’s sleeping face. She wasn’t his either. She was yet another thing he’d borrowed from this strange path he’d been put on, and like everything else she would be left behind. As always, it was for the best.
He wished he could leave right then, rather than a month from now. He was afraid the longer he lingered near Faith the harder it would be when it came time to say goodbye. The longer he lingered the worse it would get. Faith was so remarkable, so damn special…he had to admit it was tempting to toy with the what-ifs of life. But that had never served him well. No. He had to keep a distance. Always.
And Chatha cast the spell again.
“Fuck! Faith, I have to put him down!” he growled in impotent fury.
“Do it!”
He pulled his weapon, the thing filthy with mud and dirt, and aimed it.
Oh, but he wanted to pull the trigger and blow his brain out his nostrils, but part of him screamed that that was the easy way. That Chatha deserved the hard way. He didn’t want to listen to himself, but just the same the second bullet hit Chatha in his collarbone. Leo had broken his collarbone once, during parachuting training in the Rangers. And he knew it was the most agonizing pain he could have imagined…but that had been before Chatha.
Chatha fell onto the ground screaming, curling up and rocking like a child with a badly skinned knee.
“That should f**k with his concentration long enough for me to get you out of here,” he said to Faith, making sure they were both on solid ground before reaching to swing her up into his arms.
“I’ve got her,” a low, masculine voice assured him. Leo looked up into Kamenwati’s eyes, the Bodywalker having lowered into a crouch in front of him, graceful hands moving to take hold of Faith. Leo’s first instinct was to grab Faith and hold her tighter, more protectively than ever.
“Why don’t you worry about that tool from your torturer’s emergency kit?” he said, jerking his head toward Chatha. “Because I sure as hell am not giving her to you! So keep your hands to yourself before I pick a part of your anatomy for target practice!”
“Give her to me then,” Ahnvil said, coming to kneel in front of him. Leo watched a little numbly as the Gargoyle, his slate-gray stone skin gleaming over the contours of his body and his amber eyes glowing with a deep fiery warmth that belied the cold marble look of his skin, lifted Faith while gaining his full height. It was as if he carried a baby, a doll so light and insignificant.
Once he saw them heading to safety, he gained his feet, whirled around and marched to where Chatha lay on the ground moaning and whimpering. Kamen and Grey were standing over him, guarding to make sure he didn’t budge. Kamen looked up at Leo’s approach.
“Come,” Grey said, pointing down at Chatha. “It’s time we put this monster back in the Ether for another hundred years. It is the best we can do, but no one deserves the honor more than you. Perhaps you will find some of the closure you desire.”
Leo laughed sardonically. “In order for me to come close to giving him equal payback, I would have to become the same animal that he is. I’ll be happy to prove I’m better than him by doing the one thing he refused to do for me. I’ll be putting him out of his misery.”
Leo pointed the gun at Chatha’s head, aiming right between his eyes. The rounded eyes and cheeks of Down syndrome innocence glared up at him, and he had to remind himself that this was the only way. His finger tensed around the trigger, but he did not pull it even though everything inside of him, everything angry and violent and scared to f**king death inside of him was reaching so hard for it that his hand was shaking.
This is a good death, he reminded himself hotly. It’s justice as well as vengeance and a far sight more humane than the other half of Andy deserves.
“Goddammit!” he ground out, stepping back and turning in a hard about-face. He paced away just three short steps, turned back and pointed the gun at him again.
And still he could not shoot. Why? he demanded of himself. How often had you prayed for this opportunity? Why can’t you do it?
“Here, let me do it,” Kamen said quietly reaching to take Leo’s weapon from him.
“No!” Leo jerked back from him. “Just…just let me think! God!”
He looked toward the direction Faith had been taken, a part of him knowing that she was a source of peace and focus, something he desperately needed right then. If anyone could set him straight, it would be Faith. But she was long gone. That left only one other potential source of comfort and that was Grey. But he hardly knew or understood Grey so the likelihood of finding any solace…
Leo stilled, his eyes swinging back to Chatha…then back to Grey.
“I want to make a wish,” he said with sudden inspiration.
“No,” Jackson said, pacing the room in a sharp, tight circuit, ignoring Marissa who followed him every single step as if to catch him should he grow suddenly weak. It wasn’t so far-fetched an idea. Leo’s friend had looked much better. “It can’t be done.”
They had bundled Chatha up into the main parlor of the residence, leaving him moaning behind a gag, so he couldn’t cast any spells, and tied up so he couldn’t physically fight either, although it was clear that there was no physical fight left in him. He, like Faith, had lost a great deal of blood.
“Why not?” Leo demanded of him. “If he can tie a soul down,” he pointed to Grey, “and Apep can sever a soul, why can’t a wish sever one soul and leave the other intact?”
“That’s too simplistic! The souls aren’t two independent entities! They’ve Blended…”
“That’s not how I understand it,” Leo shot back. “As I understand it Templars suppress their hosts, rather then Blend with them.”
“He is correct.” The arguing men whipped about to look at Kamenwati. He was standing in the parlor entryway, leaning a shoulder against the wall. “We do not Blend. Even now, in spite of the terms I have come to, I have very little awareness of the original soul inside me. He has been beaten down so often, my soul overshadowing his, that I don’t think we could ever easily reverse it…that we could ever Blend us after so much time. There are times when the host soul ‘leaks’ out past our more dominant souls, but it’s more like a prison break than it is the flip side of the same coin.”
“Then that settles it.” Leo turned to Grey who had remained quiet and observant all of this time. “Grey, I know what that wish is. The one you said was waiting for me.”
“Careful,” Jackson hissed, unable to help himself. “Leo, please…”
“I wish,” Leo repeated, “for the Bodywalker soul, Chatha, to be ejected from Andy’s body and sent back into the Ether indefinitely. Once Chatha’s soul is purged, I want Andy’s soul to remain and I want his memories of all that has happened since Chatha took possession of him to be completely erased so that he doesn’t have to suffer with the memories of what Chatha has done. I wish all of this to be done without killing Andy. I want him to be able to lead a normal life once he is free.”
Grey took a deep breath and released it in a slow sigh. “That’s a very…complex wish,” Grey noted.
“Can you do it?” Leo asked, his tone hard and his determination evident.
“There will be—”
“A price to pay. Yes, I know. Can you do it?”
Grey smiled a very devilish sort of smile. “I’m the Djynn of the Western states who owns a flatulent Pegasus. I can do damn near anything.”
Faith opened her eyes, groaned at the heavy weight pressing down on her chest and rolled over. She didn’t move more than a half an inch before pain blossomed through her body from several different locations.
“Ow,” she whimpered piteously.
“Shh,” came the warm rumbling sound of Leo’s voice up against her ear. “Don’t move too much. Grey said you lost too much blood to properly regenerate using your natural healing abilities. It’ll be another day or two before you can start getting around.”
“How’s Andy?” she asked suddenly, her eyes flying open so she could look into the warm brown of his concerned gaze. He was lying in bed with her, holding her snugly to the right side of his body. She sighed with contentment at the intimate feel of him, at how close it made her feel with him.
“It worked,” he assured her, knowing exactly what she meant. She had asked him about it every time she’d woken up since he’d told her about the wish. Apparently every time she fell asleep she thought she had only dreamed it all up. “Andy is a very normal, very stable Down syndrome adult male. Actually”—he cleared his throat—“he’s a really cool kid. Completely different than I had expected. I guess I’d expected him to be more like the farce Chatha used to reel his victims in. He’s actually quite bright and very mature. I only wish—”
“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked when she saw him frown darkly.
“I wish I didn’t feel the way his face still makes me feel. No matter how much I try to explain to myself that Chatha is gone, every time I see Andy’s face I’m…I still feeling this choking fear…”
“Give it some time,” Faith soothed him softly, her warm hand reaching out to pet his arm. “You can’t expect yourself to just shrug all of your trauma off. Andy’s face is a trigger. It’s going to bring a lot of memories up for a very long time. You might not ever be able to develop a long-term relationship with Andy.”
“I don’t want a long-term relationship with anyone, believe me. I am going to find a good place for him that’s as far away from this deadly circus as possible.”
Faith quieted significantly, enough for him to sense it.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“You’re right. This is no place for an innocent human to be,” she said quietly. “And it’s best that you stay as far from the dangers of this place as you can possibly manage.”
Leo was quiet for several beats of time. “I plan to,” he said. “I’m not an idiot, Faith, I know when I’m outgunned. I’ve got a life to get back to…there are things I can do out in the human world…I can help better out there if I stay away from here.”
“Then you should go as soon as your responsibilities to Jackson are over,” she said, refusing to let even a hint of hurt reflect into her voice. She rolled over, away from him, and pretended to snuggle back into sleep.
“Faith, I…I hope we’re okay. I mean…we’re from such different worlds and…you have to remember what Grey showed us, that it’s no longer a possibility. Things have changed and…”
“It’s okay,” she lied, squeezing her eyes shut tightly against the tears burning into them. “I know what you’re saying. It’s a different future now. I knew that all along. I mean, you said it yourself, you’d never even consider…”
“No, I wouldn’t,” he agreed. “Even if you were a human female, Faith, I am no good at long-term relationships. Hell, I’m not even good at short-term ones.”
“I know,” she said softly. “Leo, I’m exhausted.”
“Okay,” he said, but something sat uneasy with him and he hesitated from moving off the bed. He wanted to prod at her, to make sure she understood his perspective, to make sure she wasn’t…hurt, but he could tell she was still wiped out. And anyway, he had no real right to ask her for anything. He never really had.
Like he had said, even if she’d been human, he really sucked at relationships. Hell, the only reason Jackson and Docia put up with him was because they’d been anesthetized against his stupidity. They were more like family, and family had to take you in, flaws and all.
Realizing Faith had fallen asleep, Leo got up off the bed and looked around the room. There was hardly anything there outside of a couple of pairs of borrowed jeans and shirts in the room. He’d be giving those back to Jackson. He’d had nothing when he’d got there and would leave with nothing. It was his favorite way to live. No roots, no encumbrances. Even the gun lying on the nightstand wasn’t his.
He looked at Faith’s sleeping face. She wasn’t his either. She was yet another thing he’d borrowed from this strange path he’d been put on, and like everything else she would be left behind. As always, it was for the best.
He wished he could leave right then, rather than a month from now. He was afraid the longer he lingered near Faith the harder it would be when it came time to say goodbye. The longer he lingered the worse it would get. Faith was so remarkable, so damn special…he had to admit it was tempting to toy with the what-ifs of life. But that had never served him well. No. He had to keep a distance. Always.
