Claire couldn’t keep her eyes open for much longer than a few seconds at a time; the yellow lights rushing past, the momentum and sway of Jesse’s body beneath her, every step he took jarred splinters of pain through her bones. She couldn’t even cling to him due to the broken ones; her head simply lay limp on his shoulder.
“The others,” she whispered into his shirt. “There are others they took.”
“We’ll come back for them,” he said firmly. “First, I’m getting you out.”
The basements were quiet as they went through, but when he came up on the first floor, it was obvious the cavalry had been notified.
The lobby was packed. People of all shapes and sizes, colors and ages stood in silent attention, all staring directly at Jesse and the unconscious woman in his arms. Some had the dull, lifeless gaze of the familiar human slaves. Others, their eyes were completely black.
[-- him him it’s him --]
[-- serve him --]
[-- love him --]
Jesse could feel the Nephilim among them, shifting closer, their eyes bright. Despite the adrenaline racing through him, he could pick out the beats of his heart, slowing, steady. Gently, he set Claire on the floor, giving her one last look before he stepped over her. She didn’t move; she was barely breathing.
“I am your master. You were born to serve me,” he said, his voice echoing in the high-ceilinged room. He pulled his gun and knife from his belt. “Forget all other orders. You protect me, you protect the girl. And you kill anyone and anything that’s between us and the door.”
The slaves started swarming forward as one, without instructions ever being given aloud. They’d barely taken four steps when they were knocked back as though from a blast wave. The source was a twelve-year-old girl, her black hair pulled back sharply from her temples into a high ponytail away from her face, hands outstretched in front of her as though she were holding back an invisible force. The other two -- children, all of them, barely having hit puberty -- rushed forward to Jesse, flanking him as the demons still standing balked.
“Insolent children!” one of the demons shrieked. “He will kill you where you stand!”
[ follow him wherever he goes --]
[ -- follow him whatever he says born to serve --]
[-- follow him follow him born to be his always his always --]
“You, guard her!” Jesse shouted at one of the boys before slicing through the throat of a man trying to rush him. “Demons, to Hell!”
As black smoke filled the room, he surged forward, shooting and slashing through every body he could find. They deserved it, they deserved to die. Look what they had done. Bodies collapsed at all sides as the two Nephilim not guarding Claire joined in the fray. They moved with surprising grace and agility, flashes of something silver in their hands glinting in the poor light as their opponents fell dead to the floor with their furious movement.
Jesse moved seamlessly with them, but the sheer numbers overwhelmed. When he pulled the trigger only to hear an empty click, two guards grabbed his arms, trying to get him pinned. He struggled with a snarl. Off, off, OFF! And suddenly the men went flying. He didn’t stop, didn’t question it, throwing down his empty gun as he stabbed another through the heart.
The numbers rabidly dwindled until only Jesse and the three children were left standing. His breath not even coming hard, Jesse’s eyes surveyed the room before coming to rest on his allies. His servants. Or slaves. They were just as mindless as the men they had helped slaughter. Only difference was, they listened to him. When I’m here.
And they had power. He thought of the boy downstairs, what he had done to Claire, and how he hadn’t even cared. These weren’t people, they were sheep. And they were dangerous. He wasn’t about to bring them with him, but he couldn’t just leave them here. Not when Belial would be there to snatch them up again.
It’s a kindness, really. Doing them a favor.
He walked up to the first boy, his shining, happy eyes focused unblinking on Jesse’s face. With a steadying breath, Jesse rested a hand on the boy’s head.
“You did well,” he said softly. “Thank you.”
Then he grabbed either side of the boy’s head and snapped his neck. The other two children immediately dropped to their knees, as if to make it easier for him.
[-- happily die for you --]
[-- live to serve born to die anything you want master --]
Love and adoration radiated out of them like tidal waves, relentless and limitless. There wasn’t even a flicker of fear or remorse.
Jesse’s stomach roiled, and he hesitated, but he knew what was right. He snapped the girl’s neck first, and then the boy nearer Claire. Just keep going. He didn’t look back as he hefted Claire back into his arms before heading for the door, picking his way carefully on the blood-slicked floor.
“--have to run...” Claire’s emaciated voice almost completely disappeared in her breath. Her eyes were barely open, catching dull light between her lashes.
“Shh,” Jesse soothed as he tried to hold her and open the door. “It’s okay, we’re safe now.”
Three bloody fingers twisted into his shirt. Reality was an explosion of painful light and color, nothing was solid except for the phrase that weakly rode her breath, and the thought on loop behind it; get away, get away as fast as you can. Claire had never been told exactly why, but as Jesse’s feet crossed the hotel threshold, instincts buried too deep to define switched on.
“No-we have to run,” she said, her timbre going gritty. “They’re coming--”
Jesse upped his pace even as he frowned. “Who?”
“Angels,” Claire rasped. “She’s--as soon as... escape the Lion’s Den, when you leave, we will bring it down.”
It felt like Jesse’s spine turned to cold steel. He gripped Claire tighter to him as he sped up into a run. Though he tried to be careful, every step jostled her, but he couldn’t slow down. He couldn’t let them find him.
Ducking into the woods around the hotel, he didn’t so much as stumble in the dark undergrowth, his focus and footing steady as they ran.
Until it heaved underneath him. There was a vibration that built to a roar and he stumbled, rolling to stop from falling on Claire. He held her close as the whole world shook around them. Everywhere there was the sound of trees uprooting, several coming dangerously close to falling altogether. Not too far away from where they had fallen, a deep fissure split across the ground. The horizon seemed to glow through the trees like a miniature sunrise. Terror raced through him, but Jesse just held Claire tighter.
It seemed to go on for an eternity, but then everything just stopped. The air seemed to vibrate with silence. Jesse opened his eyes, looking down at Claire. She wasn’t looking back.
“No! No, Claire, c’mon.” He felt at her throat and found a pulse, but it didn’t ease the panic. It didn’t matter if angels were still around, he had to help her. “Ruth! Ruth, I need you right now!”
The blonde popped into existence mere inches away from him, eyes wild and wide.
[ Please don’t be angry with me please don’t be angry with me can’t stand it when you’re angry with me I’ll do anything you ask anything just want you happy love you love you love you -- ]
“Jess?”
“Help me!” Trying to sit up as he cradled Claire, his eyes were frantic. “Heal her, she’s hurt bad!”
Ruth put her hands on Claire’s face, eyes closing and head bowing. Just like with Ben’s injuries back in the hospital, they seemed to shimmer before fading away entirely. Ruth gave an all-over shiver and pulled her hands away, giving them a hard flick off to the side and away from her.
[ hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts so much ]
Jesse’s gaze flickered to Ruth just for a moment before back to Claire. He shifted her higher, her head cradled against his shoulder. He could see her chest move with each breath. “She’s okay? She’s okay now?”
“Yes,” Ruth breathed. Then her head suddenly rose and her face paled as she took a sharp breath. Pure an unadulterated fear poured out of her and into Jesse.
[ RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN THEY’RE HERE THEY’RE HERE ]
She didn’t even explain herself before once again disappearing from sight.
Jesse’s heart jumped immediately to double time and he hefted Claire back into his arms before taking off. He couldn’t hear anything behind him, but that meant squat with angels. It seemed like ages before the steps in front of him sharply inclined and he broke free of the trees to stumble on asphalt. The road made easier going, and it wasn’t like trees could hide them anyway, so he stuck to it.
Then a glow rose behind him. Giving a whimpered gasp, he chanced a look over his shoulder. Lights. Two lights. Headlights, idiot. Stopping short, he turned to face them. The car halted in front of them, and Jesse headed for the driver’s door.
“Whoa, dude, you alright?” The driver looked a little younger than Jesse and had a surfboard strapped to the top of his car.
“We’re fine,” Jesse said, power behind his voice. “You’re going to give us a ride to the Phoenix Inn. Help me with her.”
“Right, yeah,” the man said, quickly rushing forward to ease Claire into the backseat. Jesse got in with her, pulling his phone out once he was settled and the car was moving. He tried calling Ben, but it wouldn’t go through. Jesse’s stomach turned. He wanted to let Ben know they were okay, but he wasn’t about to leave Claire unconscious. It would have to wait until they were at the hotel.
***
It was as though the world was coming to an end. Ben had never been in an earthquake before, and outside of an exhibit at a museum once when he was a kid and all the drills they’d been forced to participate in, he hadn’t even known how to respond. Luckily Kat and Lucas were quite familiar, and he barely had time enough to throw his bag over his shoulder before they were barreling out of the shaking building as fast as their legs could carry them. He’d watched as a crack through the ceiling chased them all the way out the door, just in time for the building to start to collapse inward on itself.
Sarah hadn’t made it. Ellis had to bodily hold Rebecca back from going in after her mother, but there was no way she could have survived that kind of impact. Car alarms were blaring everywhere; the few people who had gotten out of their own homes safely sobbed openly in the street. It was pure chaos, and Jesse and Claire were both gone. The cell networks were down in the area. Ben was completely helpless.
Amitiel, please, Ben prayed hands clasped hard and head bowed as Kat openly cursed up and down about her car having gotten destroyed by a nearby fallen light post. Help me. Tell me what to do.
“Ben!” The voice was a ways away, but it sure did carry, even over all the noise. “Ben! Where are you?!”
Ben would have heard that voice even if he were deaf, and he was pretty sure Jesse’s panic was fueling the volume, along with the added bonus of wanting to be heard. Relief flooded him.
“JESS!”
“Ben!” There, shoving past an ambulance, came Jesse. Claire lay in his arms and he had tears on his cheeks. He was covered in blood. Panic shoved the relief right out of Ben.
No no no no no, no, no! Please!
“Oh god--”
“She’s okay, she’s fine, I got her,” Jesse said quickly as he leaned against Ben. He wanted to hold him so much. “Fuck, what happened?”
“Claire!”
Kat came racing toward them, skin as white as a sheet at the sight of Jesse.
“She’s unconscious, don’t crowd her!” Ben shouted immediately, but Kat looked very near ready to murder him just at his tone.
“Give her to me!” she commanded with all the force in her voice of a mother bear roaring at an opponent.
Jesse automatically stepped back, his eyes narrowing and arms tightening around Claire. It didn’t matter that his arms ached, he wasn’t letting her go.
“Kat--” Ben started.
“You idiots are the ones who got her in this mess!” Kat hollered over him. “She’s never come this close to being dead before in all the years I’ve known her, and so help me God, if you killed her, I will end you! Now give her to me! I need to take her to a hospital--!”
“She’s fine! Leave us alone!” Jesse roared, but was interrupted by a hand twisting in his shirt.
Claire sucked in a breath like it was her first. The last thing imprinted solidly in her memory being flashes of the last few days; hellish nightmares, the evidence of which still matted her hair, caked on her skin, and hung heavy on the remains of her clothing--but the pain that had become familiar at that point was gone. Her eyes bolted open wide, sharp with animal panic until they focused on the first thing in their path: Jesse’s face.
Terror and anger and relief all swirled into one, and Jesse didn’t think twice before pressing his mouth to Claire’s. Her immediate thought flashed behind her eyes as they closed--that she was dead. She’d died along the way and this was the first thing the afterlife had in store for her, but after a half second’s thought, her senses started to return. She kissed him back, but gently put a bloodied hand on his cheek to separate them and put her feet on the ground.
“How--?” She was confused as all hell.
Ben felt like he’d been set adrift. Everything was so loud and confusing, and he had no idea what to feel anymore. Kat, under the influence of Jesse’s powerful fury, had turned right around and stomped off to Lucas.
Claire looked up at him as if he’d vanish into her dreamscape at any moment, then slowly began to process the chaos around her including -- finally -- Ben.
It was the sight of him that made it all real; something in her heart cracked and crumbled. Still clinging to Jess, she reached out for Ben and pulled them both into her with a hard, shuddering sob. Her touch seemed to bring Ben back to himself and his arm immediately circled around her, his whole body aching in empathy.
“I thought I’d never see you again--” Claire uttered tightly, though her grip on both of them was stronger than she knew it should have been.
Jesse felt his eyes well up and he gripped her tighter. “We’d always come for you, Claire. No matter what.”
“We gotta get outta here,” Ben breathed. “This place isn’t safe. There’ll be aftershocks soon and--”
Another body suddenly pushed through them, grabbing hold of Claire’s shoulders; they were immediately removed by her body’s hard twist and she shoved them away. Driven by instinct and deep, deep trauma, Claire’s eyes were wide and wild, sharp as broken glass on Lucas. The next instant, she recognized him--her gaze softened, but only a degree. Lucas’s apparent alarm, however, had been just as quickly quadrupled. “How? Fuck, Claire, you’re safe,” he breathed, eyes glued on her. “How did you get free?”
“I--I...” Claire looked every bit as stunned as the moment she woke up, her gaze darting from Lucas to the boys, then down at her own body, specifically at her hands. Her clothes looked like they’d come off of a piece of roadkill; shredded and saturated in her own dried blood. Her skin was coated and caked with it, just as it had been for however many days. But her fingers weren’t broken anymore. Her back wasn’t cut into ribbons that shifted and stretched every time she breathed. Her arm didn’t feel like it had a gaping hole in the skin.
“...I don’t know.” I should be dead. I couldn’t have survived. Claire found herself staring at the bloody bandage wrapped around her forearm, and immediately started to tear it off. Beneath was nothing but flawless, untouched skin. No surgically removed patch. No tattoo. A very real wave of fear replaced a lot of the blood in her face.
“Jess went out to scope the place out a bit,” Ben said in a rush. “He must’ve found her escaping because of this crazy earthquake.”
“It was angels,” Jesse said quietly. His eyes focused about chest level. “They saved her. And everyone inside. They must’ve found a way through.”
Lucas stared at him, then back at Claire, then down at the unbandaged skin. He reached out, gentler this time. “We need to get you to an ambulance.”
Ben put his hand on Jesse’s arm and squeezed, trying to calm his own racing heart and equally pressing desire to leave.
“We’ll handle it, Luke,” he said. “This town hospital’s already gonna be swamped with civilians. We’ll make a point of hitting up a clinic on our way outta dodge, but we can’t stay here. You’n Kat should get out too, while you can.”
“I ain’t goin’ anywhere!” Kat shouted from a few feet away, having heard the whole conversation. She seemed physically repulsed from moving closer, but her body all but vibrated with obvious displeasure and frustration. “You know s’well as I do that this town’s gonna be painted black any second, and somebody’s gotta stay behind and clean up the damn mess! So get goin’ already!”
Claire’s eyes were having trouble taking in the level of carnage. The last thing she remembered clearly was looking on David’s face, listening to a voice that wasn’t his, spoken by a presence she could still feel like a disease. There were flashes of things since then, but they seemed to be fading like a distant dream. Kat’s voice snapped her focus up to the older woman, locking onto her words.
“She’s right,” she hushed to Ben and Jesse, though her eye contact with Kat didn’t break until a moment after. Suppressed terror sparked vividly in her eyes. “They’ll be coming--we gotta go.”
Jesse didn’t need to be told twice. He turned, taking Claire by the arm, and headed for the car.
Ben staggered back just a bit, lip between his teeth as he fished the keys out of his pocket and looked back up at a dazed Lucas.
“I know it’s crazy right now, man, but I promise I’ll explain when things are calm,” he said in a low voice. All the surrounding noises practically drowned out his words. “I’m sorry to leave all this crap in your lap. Be careful, yeah?”
Lucas’s lips pressed in a firm line and there was doubt in his eyes, but he nodded. “Will do. And I’m going to hold you to that one.”
“We’re headin’ to Kansas,” he said. “I’ll be sure to drop by your door after we’re done.” Giving Kat an apologetic look, he chased after Claire and Jesse.
***
Ben couldn’t help feel exhausted after the insane four days they’d had, but there was no way he had any intention of stopping until they were far enough away. After changing out of her destroyed clothing and mopping what she could off her skin with a handful of wet-naps, it hadn’t taken long for Claire to fall asleep, curled against Jesse in the back seat, his arms wrapped around her tightly. He drove with his foot all but embedded into the floor as he tried to put as much distance between them and La Grande as possible.
It had been six hours, but he wanted to put in at least four more before they made a pit stop. If it were up to him, he’d drive through the night. There was certainly urgency enough to move them. The radio played mutely in the background as they drove on through the darkness:
”...An estimated $8 billion worth of damage have been done to the streets and buildings in the neighboring towns. Reported death and missing are still on the rise, with the last recorded number in La Grande at 286 dead and over three thousand injured...”
Sarah had been among them. Ben hardly knew her, but guilt settled like a stone, heavy in his gut. If he hadn’t phoned Lucas and demanded that he help, Sarah might have lived.
Everyone you’ve ever loved, everyone you’ve ever known, will burn.
“You know that amulet from Rockville?” he asked aloud, turning the volume down so he didn’t have to speak loudly. His eyes lifted to the rearview, catching Jesse’s reflection in it.
Jesse didn’t look up from staring out the window, his hand gently running through Claire’s hair. “Yeah?”
Something in his chest hitched and Ben swallowed. His eyes moved back on the road again and his hand turned the radio completely off. “It was my dad’s.”
Jesse frowned. “What? Why didn’t you say?”
“Because I didn’t know until I saw it.” Ben let out a slow breath. “That’s... why I went out, the way I did. It’s like... it was like pulling the cork out of the dam. Everything came back to me.”
“You mean the mindwipe? It was reversed?” Jesse’s eyes locked on Ben’s through the mirror, but the other man wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“It was never a wipe,” Ben muttered. “It was... more like a wall.”
“But now it’s gone? You can...remember everything that happened?” Is it bad? hung on Jesse’s lips, but he couldn’t quite say it aloud.
“Better than that,” Ben said, a flicker of hope returning to his voice as he looked up into the mirror again. There was determination in his eyes. “I know how to find my dad.”