Apocalypse's Horsemen (Devil's Assistant Series - Book 3)

Apocalypse's Horsemen [8]

Chapter Eight

Finding trouble was not difficult. In a matter of hours we were packed up on the road once more. My heart ached and my head throbbed but the maladies seemed to be unrelated. My heart was aching as yet again I was jumping feet first into a fight without first checking to see if there was danger waiting for  us.  I was once more without my son and left wondering whether I would ever live to see my baby boy again. There had been many get out of jail free cards so far but I had died and come back too many times. There could only be a limited number of free passes so that a person can be resurrected before the changes don’t stick.

I shuddered and looked out of the window.

The motor ways were boring as a driver but as a passenger they were even worse. Stuck in the back with everyone’s bags and coats, there was barely any room to move. There was certainly not enough room to get comfortable enough to have a nap. And the waning light meant that there was not enough light for me to even make an attempt at reading the magazines that Lucius had thoughtfully provided at the beginning of the journey.

He was being thoughtful. It was a stark contrast to the man he had been before I moved into his life – quite literally. I think there have been only a few days where I have not seen the man since the first day I met him. That was the day my entire life before a mass of bloodshed and the supernatural.

As I watched the other cars go by with ordinary people and ordinary families in them – I couldn’t help but wonder what my life would have been like. Would my best friend still be alive? I felt a pang in my heart as I realised that I had barely even spared a thought for my friend in months. Only when I had attended her memorial had I allowed myself to truly grieve for Mari. But since then – I hadn’t stopped. There was always one fight after another. There was little opportunity to sit back and grieve – we were either fighting or dealing with the aftermath.

I released the breath I had been holding, watching as it fogged up the glass and obscured my view of the world beyond.

Even if I had not gone to the interview and become Lucius’ assistant – something told me that I would not have come out of this mess unscathed and unaware. It was my destiny to be part of this strange magical world and no path I chose would have lead me to the blissful ignorant world that normal people existed in.

It took hours of suffering through peak hour traffic and being squashed up against the car door before we came to the site. Small events had begun in the area only weeks ago but there was something else lingering there – converging on the area and bringing hell to earth.

As the car rolled to a stop, I allowed my eyes to take in the devastation outside. It was almost apocalyptic. Burnt out cars littered the streets and about five hundred metres down the road a group of men and boys were fighting one another. Their faces were covered in black dirt and red blood. Most of them had sustained enough injuries that it would be difficult to know if they were friends or strangers.

“Well we know that there is definitely trouble here.” Lucius muttered from the driver’s seat.

I nodded my head in agreement, not that he could actually see me.

We were in Cardiff. It was a place that I had visited once many years ago with Marianna. The details were still a little hazy. We had consumed a lot of drinks that weekend. It was one of the few times in my life that I could remember letting go. I worked hard and when I partied – the rare occasions that I did so – I partied hard.

I gulped and tried to push back the nostalgia and other emotions that were clawing their way up my throat. I had no idea what was happening within me. I was turning into the biggest softie that I knew.