“Nero has it bad for you. I thought a little fun could cure him, but it seems he only wants one cure. You. And now he’s stringing up dead criminals to let you know.” She shook her head. “Why couldn’t he have gone with chocolate?”
“Because he’s an angel, that’s why,” Morrows said from his seat behind the cannon. “And you know chocolate isn’t the same. Not at all.”
“Chocolate is less complicated.”
I felt like I was missing part of the conversation—a conversation about my love life that now involved everyone in the truck except for me. I glanced at Drake, who shrugged. Well, at least I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get it.
“It is a fine line between loopholes and the path to self-destruction. What game are you playing?” Captain Somerset demanded.
“I’m not playing any game.”
Captain Somerset gave me a critical look. “This is how angels fall. And you just might be the catalyst to his downfall. I like you, Pandora, but if you ruin Nero, I will kill you.”
I could see it in her eyes that she meant every word. With Harker gone, she was Nero’s best friend, and she was fiercely loyal to him.
“I haven’t done anything,” I told her.
She continued to glare.
“What would you have me do?” I demanded.
“Honey, I think you know what you need to do to make him stop stringing up dead bodies.”
I returned her glare. I was not going to have sex with Nero just so Captain Somerset would stop sharpening her knives—literally. She had her weapon out and was sharpening the blade. Ok, so it wasn’t a knife. It was a sword. Which was even worse, actually.
“So, what kind of sword is that?” I asked her, trying to change the subject.
“A fire sword.” Flames burst to life, sliding in silken waves across the blade. “A fine weapon. They’re sharp and cut through flesh easily, especially when they’re nice and hot.”
I had a feeling she was talking about my flesh. “I’d better go guide our driver.” Before this conversation turned any further downhill.
6
The Lost City
I stared out across the Black Plains, the expanse of scorched earth where nothing natural grew. There were plenty of unnatural things growing, though, products of magic gone wrong. We passed a forest of black trees, their trunks shining like hot bubbling oil. From their alien branches, crunchy leaves rustled in the wind, creaking like an old staircase.
Ten minutes into our journey, a giant beast that looked an awful lot like a tyrannosaurus rex tore out of the forest, hurling splintered tree trunks aside. Two of the Pilgrims in our truck began to shout hysterically, like they’d not actually expected to be attacked by monsters on the plains of monsters. Actually, I was surprised. I’d heard the beasts’ numbers were growing, that they were venturing closer to the wall, but this close? It looked like the rise of the crime lords was just one the problems Purgatory was facing.
The truck’s cannon roared, and Morrows laughed with glee as he shot the red beast full of ammunition designed to penetrate tanks and the scales of giant dinosaur-like monsters that shook the earth as they ran. The dinosaur went down, but there were three more already closing in on us—and even our Magitech-powered trucks weren’t fast enough to outrun them.
The green tyrannosaurus rex crouched into its legs, its muscles tightening. It sprang up, then came down with a resounding thud right behind us. I looked back. The second truck screeched as it swerved to avoid the beast’s swinging tail. Ben, the Pilgrim sitting behind me, fainted. Morrows turned the cannon toward the monster and shot a magic bullet right through its chest. Greenie tipped and hit the ground like an earthquake, missing our truck by mere inches.
The third dinosaur leapt over the fallen beast. Another of the Pilgrims peed his pants as its giant jaws snapped at the truck. Not that I blamed him. I might have peed my pants too if I’d thought it would have done any good.
The monster spun, going for the other truck. Claudia was behind their cannon. Our shooter Morrows preferred the brute force attack: shoot the target as many times as possible until it went down. Claudia preferred a more efficient method. She hit the beast where it hurt. And if it truly did hurt, she shot it there again.
“That is one sexy woman,” Morrows commented as the beast hit the dirt.
I smirked at him. “The dinosaur?”
“No, you smart ass. Sergeant Vance. I love a woman who knows how to handle a big cannon.”
“I really did not need to hear that.”
“None of us did,” Captain Somerset said. “Morrows, keep your hobbies to yourself. And your cannon too.”
I snorted.
“Hey, wasn’t there another monster?” Drake said, looking around.
A heavy object dropped out of the sky. It landed with a sickening crunch inside a deep ditch to the side of the dilapidated road we were driving on.
“Never mind,” said Drake.
“What happened to it?” I asked.
“Colonel Windstriker happened to it,” Captain Somerset said as Nero coasted down from the sky and landed in the other truck. “Or, more specifically, one of his telekinetic bursts.”
“I think your angel left you another present, sweetheart,” Morrows told me.
Lovely.
“I bet the colonel appreciates a woman who knows how to handle a big cannon too,” Morrows added.
“Oh, shut up.”
He chuckled.
“Is everyone all right?” Drake asked the Pilgrims in the truck.
“We’re just fine, dear, thank you,” replied Grace, a woman who appeared to be in her early sixties.
Drake had been talking to her before the monsters attacked. She was actually over a hundred years old, one of the Pilgrims the gods’ had gifted with long life. Her great act had happened late in her mortal life. She’d recovered the Diamond Heart, a necklace that belonged to the goddess Kiara, from the Wilds. So braving monsters and hunting down ancient magical relics were nothing new to her.
“The beasts that live on the plains of monsters have grown bold of late,” Valiant said. “And big. We saw only a few small fire lizards during my journey across the Western Wilderness last summer. I’ve never seen a dinosaur before. And certainly not four of them together.”
“As you venture deeper into the wild lands, the beasts grow nastier and more abundant,” I told him.
“Those dinosaurs attacked us within twenty miles of the wall,” he replied. “It sounds like they are the ones venturing. Just like in the early days, the days before the wall.”
He stroked his hand across his smooth chin. He looked like he was in his twenties, but his eyes were older. Much older. They’d seen horrors the rest of us could only dream of.
“Were you there before the wall was built?” I asked him.
“Yes. I saw the monsters consume the Earth, destroying towns, toppling cities.”
“Oh, now you’ve gotten Gramps started,” Grace teased me.
I almost laughed at hearing the elderly lady call him Gramps, a man who looked young enough to be her grandson.