The Liberator

I am hit and bitten and clawed so many times I lose count. The pain wraps me in a cocoon until it is everything. I hold my own for as long as I can, picking demons at random and taking them to the ground. My wings are a more powerful weapon than I anticipated, but in this closed space it’s difficult to use them.

Still, I fight like a champion. Like someone who might just defeat a horde of devils to save the girl he loves. It’s the worst part—hope. Even when I realize that I’m drowning in demons, that they are crawling over me like fire ants, I still hang onto the idea that I could make it out. I know it’s untrue. I acknowledged as much before I ever launched my attack. But it’s still there, hanging on like a loose tooth.

When a demon bites down on my shoulder, and I feel the joint separate, I know it’s over. A warm current seeps from my chest and into my limbs. It enters my mind and whispers words of reassurance. I will die a final death or suffer for eternity, but either way, it is okay. It is okay because she was mine for a little while.

Inside my head, I send her a message. One I know she’ll never hear. I love you, Charlie. I would have fought a thousand hells for any part of you. My angel.

When I open my eyes, all I see is a swirl of black and yellow, of teeth and saliva. And I know I’m losing my grip on reality, because between the demons’ bodies, I spot the ghost of the girl I love.

Her shirt is stained with red and her face is shadowed with rage and she doesn’t look like the person I remember.

She looks like an assassin.

Clenched in her palm is a knife. She tosses it to her right hand. “You want me?” she screams.

The demons turn their gruesome heads toward her.

“Come and get me!”

Charlie rushes down the stairs like a militia of angels are at her side. She slices the throat of the first demon she sees and cries out as the red-black blood washes down her hands.

It’s her. It’s truly her.

The sight of Charlie Copper, of my only love, lifts me from my agony. And even though many of my bones are broken and I can hardly see out of my left eye, I climb to my feet. I don’t understand how this is happening, how she’s really here. But I can’t question it for long because the demons are moving toward her too quickly for me to hesitate.

My pulse races as I push past one demon after another. They don’t try and stop me. They’re too curious about this small girl and her glittering knife.

I leap in front of Charlie, wanting so bad to touch her, to make sure she’s flesh and blood. Instead, I launch a new attack. I fight as best I can with my right arm, since my left swings uselessly at my side. With the motivation of keeping Charlie safe behind me, I’m able to hold them back. My girlfriend slashes at demons’ outstretched arms with her blade, and I’m impressed by how viciously she does so.

Despite the odds, Charlie and I are able to take a step toward the surface. And then another. And another. Once again, hope dances in my peripheral vision, just out of reach. But it’s there, and that’s all I care about.

“Charlie, keep moving toward the top.” They’re the first words I’ve been able to speak. I don’t know if she responds; the whistling sound is too loud. I step back and collide into her. A moment later, she moves away. We do this a step at a time, back-to-back. Charlie whips her blade across the few demons farther up the stairs, and I fight the ones below us. We don’t take any out, but we hold them back. And that’s enough.

The faces in the walls watch us retreat. Some seem happy to see our progress, others appear infuriated. We ignore them and keep battling. After what feels like hours, we near the top. Only a few dozen steps remain between us and the world above. It’s then that I realize only one of us is getting out of here—that one of us will have to hold them off while the other flees.

My heart plunges to my feet.

Charlie came here for nothing. I was never going to make it out alive. But seeing her one last time, watching her fight to save me, it reminds me who I’m dying for. It reminds me that this is the way it should be.

“Charlie,” I yell. “When I say ‘go,’ I need you to run past the demons. Don’t stop until you’ve reached the top.”

“I won’t leave you,” she cries, her back still pressed to mine.

Her words make me want to spin around and press my mouth to hers. “You’re not leaving me. I’ll go when you go.”

Charlie doesn’t respond, and I pray she’ll do as I ask.

I grab the closest demon to free the path in front of her. “Run!”

She runs.

She runs for several seconds without looking back. Just as I’d hoped, the demons don’t chase her. Instead, they turn their attention to me.

Good-bye, angel.

Charlie turns. Our eyes meet, and unadulterated sorrow crosses her face.

Then her expression changes. Her eyes widen so that she almost looks crazy, like she’s lost her mind to fear. I shove the demon in front of me aside so I can see her face one last time.

She races toward me.

“No!” I holler. “Keep going!”

But she doesn’t stop. She flies down the stairs like she has wings of her own.

My heart hammers in my chest because I feel it—I feel that something big is about to happen.

Charlie Cooper reaches the demon closest to me and lays her hands on it. She screams so loud, I’m sure my eardrums must burst.

An electric white light forms beneath her palms. “Get back!” she roars.

The demon soars through the air.

It lands a hundred feet below and doesn’t move. The other demons study Charlie for a moment. Then they retreat. They click down the stairs to get away from whatever power just came out of her hands. The faces in the walls pull back one by one and disappear from view. Pop-pop-pop!

I watch the demons’ flight for a split second, my head spinning, then grab Charlie’s hand and scramble upward, out of hell and into the afternoon sky. She gasps when my black wings spread out against the snowy backdrop, a storm of feathers arching over our bodies.

Her eyes roll back in her head.

I catch her when she falls.

44 Kiss You in the Dark

As Charlie sleeps and the Quiet Ones dress my wounds, Valery explains again what happened. Charlie had eavesdropped on Red’s and Max’s discussion about what he needed to get to hell’s entrance. Then she jacked Valery’s credit card and went after me.

I guess there’s a loophole when the men you hire to transport you to hell don’t ask questions.

But I’m still pissed at Max. I don’t believe Charlie was as “crazy in the face” as he describes. Apparently, she jumped off her snowmobile, found the knife, and threatened to kill herself if he didn’t tell her how to find me. Once Charlie descended, he says he called Valery for reinforcements.

Max is my best friend, and he cares about Charlie, but I guess I don’t blame him for not wanting to be tortured for eternity because my girlfriend wanted a joyride in hell.

Valery hasn’t left Max’s side since we’ve been back at the Hive. Though they still aren’t allowed to be married, the way she looks at him says she’s happy that he didn’t enter hell with me or even Charlie, and word on the street is that Big Guy is pleased with the potential Max has shown. This doesn’t resolve Valery’s and Max’s relationship issues, because those two won’t be pleased until they’re allowed to be together entirely. But it’s a start.