The Cupid War Page 14

  “She has the potential,” Caleb said, “to become a monster.”

  Fallon nodded silently. He’d feared Caleb would say something like that.

  “She can hurt us bad,” Owen said, filling the silence. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

  “There’s more,” Caleb said. “A Suicide draws power from the people they sicken. Susan can destroy a Cupid with only a few moments’ contact. To the living, she may be an even greater danger.”

  “You mean … she can kill people with a touch?” Fallon asked.

  “I don’t believe she can kill,” Caleb said. “But she might be able to inflict severe depression on the living without physical contact.”

  The gravity of that statement was lost on no one.

  “No wonder the Suicides wanted Louis to look the other way,” Fallon said.

  “We gotta take her down,” Owen said. “Hey, Fallon, that shield thing you were doing before I … ”

  “ … beat me to a pulp?”

  “Yeah,” Owen said, looking sheepish. “Look, uh, you could do that thing again, right? Mush her against a wall?”

  “That would kill her,” Fallon told him.

  “So?” said Owen.

  “That’s not what we do,” Fallon said. “We’re Cupids. We bring love, not death.”

  “You mentioned a plan?” Caleb said, cutting Owen’s next remark off.

  “We get her to love herself,” Fallon said. “It worked on Ryan, the boy Trina and I were helping. We get Susan to see herself in a mirror, I fire Love into her heart, and her Suicide aspect will be reversed.”

  “You sure about that?” Jada asked.

  “It came from the Source,” Fallon told her.

  “Then our task is clear,” Caleb said. “Let’s go.”

  27

  Fallon, Caleb, Jada, and Owen emerged from the portal and stood in front of Susan Sides’s house. According to the Source, it was where Susan was. Fallon had been skeptical—he remembered Susan ranting to him about how “my demon mother won’t let me miss a day of school, even if I’m sick!”—but he trusted the Source’s accuracy.

  “Let me go first,” Fallon said. “You guys can back me up.”

  “We go in together,” Caleb said firmly.

  “I can shield myself against her,” Fallon pointed out.

  “So can I, remember?” Jada added.

  “I can’t,” said Owen.

  “Nor I,” Caleb said. “And we haven’t time to learn. If we split up, we’ll be in more danger. We go in together.”

  “Fine, but stay close to Jada and me,” Fallon said.

  They walked two at a time through the front door, Fallon and Caleb first. Bad memories came back to Fallon straight away—all the times he’d come to this place during the last year of his life. The invitations had always been under the guise of something fun, like renting a video. When he arrived, however, she’d always say, “Mind if we just talk?” And there would go four hours of his life, sometimes six, as she dished on her latest emotional crisis. He remembered the sensation of his life draining away, and now he knew she’d literally been doing exactly that.

  “Fallon?” Caleb said gently, bringing him back to the present. “Those memories won’t help you.”

  “I know,” Fallon replied. “But I can’t stop them.”

  “Focus on the here and now,” Caleb said. “And what we have to do.”

  “Right,” Fallon said. “She’s probably in her room. This way.”

  For the first time, Fallon was grateful that Susan lived in a bungalow. Her room was at the end of a hallway that branched off from the living room and kitchen. He tried to stay focused in the present as he walked toward her room, but memories kept jarring their way back in. The bedroom door was closed; Fallon wasn’t sure he could take seeing that place again.

  “Do you want to wait out here?” Caleb asked.

  “Yes, I do,” Fallon said, “but I’m going in with you anyway. I have to do this.”

  Caleb nodded, and they both walked through the door.

  Susan wasn’t there. Fallon didn’t know if he felt relieved or disappointed. The room was exactly the way he remembered it; messy but functional, with no trace of personality. She had a desk, covered in schoolbooks, next to her bed, which was unmade. The hamper in the corner overflowed with clothes, and the closet was packed full of all kinds of odds and ends from her seventeen years. A dim bulb cast just enough illumination to give the room its full effect.

  “I feel despondent just looking at this,” Caleb said.

  “She’s not in here,” Fallon said. “Let’s try … ”

  “Hey! Over here!”

  Fallon and Caleb hurried through the door and went into the room across the hallway. Owen and Jada were inside, looking at a body on the bed.

  “It’s her mother,” Fallon said, looking her over as best he could. She looked dead, even though Fallon could see no mark on her body. Her face bore a look of utter hopelessness, and the tears on her face were still wet.

  She managed a blink. Not dead then, Fallon realized, just too depressed to move.

  “Susan knows how powerful she is,” Caleb said. “And she is still here. She must be.”

  “One of the other bedrooms?” Jada suggested.

  “Her brother,” Fallon said, and he ran into the room next to Susan’s. This bedroom was much tidier and more cheerful. And, Fallon was relieved to note, there was no body. Of course, Fallon realized, Susan’s brother was still at school. Then where … ?

  “Never do that again,” Caleb said as he entered. “We stay together.”

  “Right, sorry,” Fallon said. “I had to make sure … ”

  “We’ve lost enough people.”

  “Okay, I get it,” Fallon said. “I’ll check with the Source, see where Susan is … ”

  He had a vision of Susan’s basement. She was sitting on the floor, her hands outstretched into darkness … no, not darkness. Suicides. She was surrounded by dozens of Suicides!

  Her eyes flashed open. She smiled. She raised her hands over her head, and the Suicides flew up through the ceiling.

  “Incoming!” Fallon shouted as the room suddenly filled with dark entities. He heard two screams from the other room; Jada and Owen were in trouble.

  And so was he. Fallon blasted two Suicides back, then threw up his shield. He turned to Caleb and expanded the shield outward, protecting his friend from the attack. He hoped Jada had the presence of mind to do the same.

  The Suicides didn’t flee from the two Cupids. Rather, they hammered on the shield with gusto. It held, but Fallon didn’t think it could take much more. He was reluctant to shoot Love at them, though—he needed it all for the shield.

  Caleb was not so reluctant; he fired near constant streams of pink. For every Suicide he knocked back, however, another moved in to take its place.

  “I’ve never seen so many in one place,” he told Fallon. “Suicides are loners by nature. Susan must have rallied them.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” Fallon suggested. “Make a portal and … ”

  “No!” Caleb shouted, startling Fallon. “We must defeat them. It is our duty.”

  “There’s too many!” Fallon protested.

  “Then help me reduce their numbers!” Caleb replied.

  I hope you know what you’re doing, Fallon thought, and he dropped the shield and started blasting. As he expected, the Suicides swarmed in. Fallon fought furiously, panic rising inside him. This was crazy, and Caleb was crazy, and they had to escape …

  And then Fallon destroyed a Suicide and it was not replaced by another. Their numbers thinned, and many chose to flee.

  “We are stronger,” Caleb said as he blasted the last of them. “We are always stronger. Let’s hel
p the others.”

  They ran across the hall into the master bedroom to find another thick fog of Suicides beating on a shield encompassing Jada and Owen. Jada looked beat; Owen was blasting with one hand and trying to help her up with the other.

  “Little help?” he said.

  Fallon and Caleb entered the fray, and the Suicides found themselves caught between the four Cupids. A few chose to fight, and were quickly destroyed. Most fled through the walls and ceiling.

  “This is more like it!” Owen said, and he charged out into the hall after two of the dark spirits.

  “Owen!” Caleb shouted, running after him. “Does no one ever listen?”

  Fallon helped Jada to her feet, and they were passing through the wall into the hallway when Owen screamed. They ran to the living room and saw Susan Sides, both arms buried in Owen’s chest while he screamed hysterically.

  Caleb slammed hard into Owen’s side, jarring him free. Before he could retreat, however, Susan caught him in the same deadly grip. Fallon and Jada rushed toward him, but Caleb waved them back.

  “Save Owen,” he groaned, already slumping in Susan’s arms.

  “No!” Fallon shouted, grabbing his hand and pulling. “Jada, help me!”

  “Get Owen out … ” Caleb said, and then he fell apart.

  Fallon stared in horror at the sight, and at the blissful look on Susan’s face. Her legs became jelly and she fell to her knees even as she cried out. Then she giggled, her world well and truly rocked.

  “That was awesome!” she said, opening her eyes. “Bet you will be, too.”

  “Fallon!” Jada cried. He ignored her.

  Instead, he threw up his shield and pushed forward, knocking Susan back into the kitchen. He pressed her up against the back door and gave it all he had. Susan pushed back with her hands, which took on a dark glow. Fallon felt himself becoming depressed—good God, he thought, she can do it at a distance now? He ignored the damage it was doing to him and kept pressing. One way or another …

  “Fallon! I need your help!”

  Jada’s voice called him back. Reluctantly, he had to admit he would lose this fight—his Love was nearly drained from the earlier fight with the Suicides, while Susan’s power was fresh. Plus, Jada probably did need his help. He lowered the shield and stepped back, and Susan recovered.

  Then Fallon flung his shield out like a fist, swatting her against the door. She cried out and fell, and Fallon left the kitchen quickly.

  Jada had a portal open and was pulling Owen in by his legs. Fallon grabbed Owen’s shoulders, and together they hauled him through the portal.

  28

  Fallon and Jada sat by the wall in the Healing Chamber, watching as Alexander tended to Owen. When Fallon had told the healer what had happened to Caleb, Alexander had nodded, once. At first Fallon thought he was being cold, but it occurred to him, as he sat with Jada, that the older spirit was just putting on a brave front. Everyone grieves differently, he thought, and wondered how his father and sister had grieved for him.

  Maybe it was time for a visit …

  The thought made him even more miserable. Caleb had been the one to tell him to stay away from family, for his own sake as much as theirs. Always looking out for everybody, Caleb was.

  And, Fallon realized suddenly, Caleb had been the best contender to take over Louis’s job as leader of the Cupids. Who could possibly fill that role now?

  “Is he a Suicide?” Jada asked suddenly.

  “You mean Caleb?” Fallon asked. “I don’t know.” And he didn’t want to. Susan’s power could drain the life from a soul, leave it so negative that a Suicide was all it could become. But Caleb … he was stronger than most, wasn’t he? But what alternative was there?

  “Maybe he’s, y’know … gone on to the next stage,” Jada said.

  “The next stage?”

  “Paid his karmic debt,” she said. “Gone to Heaven.”

  “Is that place even real?” Fallon asked.

  “Supposed to be,” Jada said. “At least, that’s what Caleb told me.”

  They sat in silence for a while, until Fallon could take it no longer.

  “I need some Love,” he said, and stood up and left the Healing Chamber. He walked back to his cube, which was now depressingly small. He hadn’t been out doing the job, and his cube reflected that. Fallon sighed and ate what little Love he had left, then sat down to meditate.

  While in his trance, it occurred to him to ask the Source about Caleb. He dismissed the thought at once, and begged the Source not to tell him. If the news was bad, he really didn’t want to know. Instead, he asked what Susan was currently up to.

  Images and emotions went through his mind quickly. Susan was really mad at him for hurting her during their last confrontation, and for revenge, she’d visited his family. Cold dread filled Fallon, but then he understood that Susan had failed to hurt his father and sister. His father hadn’t even opened the door—he’d yelled at her through the living room window to go away or he’d call the cops. “It’s your fault my son is dead, you little freak!” he’d said, surprising Fallon. Whenever Fallon had talked to his father about Susan, his father had said it was his duty to be her friend. “If you’re all she has, take that responsibility seriously!” It took my death to wake him up, Fallon thought. Too little, too late.

  Susan had left, angry and humiliated. She’d run into a group of teenage girls—the same ones, Fallon realized, who had mocked Trina in the changing room. Susan threw up her hands and blasted them with darkness, and the girls fell over. Susan left them there unable to move, barely able to breathe.

  Onward she walked. A few Suicides joined her, circling around her like excited puppies. The people across the street from her slowed down; those on the same side collapsed as she passed them. Cars went out of control as their drivers suddenly lost the will to live.

  And the Suicides fed.

  Susan kept walking, and Fallon recognized the street she turned on to. She’s going to Trina’s house, he realized. He wanted to leap into action right then.

  When Trina entered his focus, however, something happened. Suddenly he found himself looking through her eyes—he knew they were her eyes—and seeing what she was doing. She was sitting at a table in a fast-food restaurant with two of her friends from school, Cynthia and Lucy. He didn’t remember their names; he simply knew their names, as if he were taking them directly from Trina’s memory.

  What, he asked the Source, is happening? And then he understood. When he’d given Trina part of his soul, he’d linked himself to her in a way he’d never expected.

  “Trina?” Cynthia asked. “Are you okay?”

  “I … I’m not sure,” she replied.

  “Maybe her Rib’N’Cheese didn’t agree with her,” Lucy suggested.

  “C’mon, let’s get you home,” Cynthia suggested, and they got up from the table …

  “No!” Fallon screamed, and he was up and running before he realized he’d left the trance. He grabbed Love from cubes as he passed them—no time for niceties now, this was an emergency. If Susan was still there when Trina and her friends got to her house, he would lose her.

  Fallon was almost to the portals when Jada came running toward him. There was something different about her, but Fallon didn’t have time to reflect on it.

  “Fallon, where are you going?” she asked as she caught up with him.

  “Trina’s house,” Fallon said. “Susan’s there. And she’s got company. Lots of Suicides.”

  “And you’re going to take them all on by yourself?” Jada asked. “Is that why you’re stealing from all the Love cubes?”

  Fallon wondered how she knew about that, then decided he didn’t care.

  “Yeah, I am,” he said. “Sue me. I have lives to … ”

  He didn’t finish,
because a shock hit him on the right shoulder. It was very mild and didn’t hurt much, but it was enough of a surprise to stop him in his tracks.

  “Did you … ?”

  “Yes,” she said. “While you were off doing your own thing, an angel came to visit, and she appointed me the new leader of the Cupids.”

  “Really?” Fallon said. “That’s great, Jada, and I’d love to talk some more about it, but I’ve got to go and … ”

  “Stop,” she told him. “As leader, I decide who goes on what mission … ”

  “Jada, Susan is going to … ”

  “ … and I say you are not going alone,” Jada said. “We’re not going to lose any more Cupids.”

  Jada turned and raised her hands, and Fallon heard a sound like an intercom coming on.

  “Attention all Cupids, we have an emergency!” she said, and her voice broadcast across the entire Cupid Center. “I need every available Cupid to report to the portals for immediate deployment. This is a Suicide emergency! Eat your Love and let’s go go go!”

  Fallon watched, amazed, as Cupids rushed forth, stuffing Love into their mouths as they came. Jada saw him watching, and smiled.

  “Louis only did this once,” she told him. “I’ve always wanted to.”

  Fallon nodded, speechless. Jada was the Cupid leader; that in and of itself was a lot to take in. The fact that she was organizing a Cupid strike force to back him up, however, was blowing his mind.

  “Listen up!” Jada called to the first Cupids to reach them. “We’ll be facing a swarm of Suicides and a girl who is a Suicide in living form. Avoid the girl! She’s too dangerous. Leave her to Fallon and myself.

  “You.” She pointed at a male Cupid. “Stay here and tell the others exactly what I told you, then send them in after us. The rest of you, you’re my first wave. Let’s go!”

  Jada turned and strode purposefully toward the portals, and the Cupids followed.

  “Fallon, if you would do the honors,” she said, indicating the nearest portal arch.

  “Right,” Fallon said, and set the portal to open right in front of Trina’s house. He and Jada went through first, just in time to meet Susan coming up the driveway. The street behind her was almost completely blacked out by her Suicide army.