12. Colt

Colt lunges, unable to stop himself, and flies directly at Vladimir. His attack runs through where the man was, and Colt nearly falls over as he collides with a man behind him. His hands grip his shoulders and push, and Colt falls backwards into Gabby's arms.

"You truly thought it would be that easy? You killed me once, demon, but it was only temporary." Vladimir crosses his arms and red magic flares in his palms. When he takes a battle stance, he's holding a Damascus short-sword in each of his hands. "My witch brought me back, and this time? This time I won't be so easy to defeat!"

"No witch can create immortality, Vlad!" Gabby snarls as Colt takes his own battle stance, summoning his sword. Gabby reaches for the Spear in her bag, but remembers a moment too late that she's no longer carrying it. "Guess I just get to pummel you with this!" Gabby grins and holds her hands out to her sides, summoning celestial fire in her palms.

For a second, hesitation flashes over Vladimir's face, but the look vanishes in a blink. "I don't fear you or your fire fingers, little girl!"

"You should," Colt laughs, shifting his weight to guard Gabby's back as she flaps her wings once and hovers off the ground. She's glowing so brightly he swears he can see a halo above her golden curls, but there isn't time to be sure.

One of Vladimir's lackeys lunges, swinging a dagger, triggering the others. All around them the enemy closes in, shrinking the circle, and the moment they fall to Colt's blade or Gabby's fire, another one replaces them.

Vladimir's laughter draws Colt's attention as he swings his arm and removes a useless head from an equally useless pair of shoulders. "You can never win," Vladimir calls in a sing-song voice. "My witch is bringing them back to life. Every single one you kill, the one behind rises back up!"

"Asshole," Gabby cries.

They see Vladimir sitting on a fallen beam and watching the battle rage. Colt narrows his eyes. There seems to be a glow of witchcraft around him, a glow that pulsates and dims for every man raised from the dead or killed.

"Funny, last time I faced you, you fought your own battles!" Colt snaps.

Vladmir curls his lip but doesn't move.

To test his theory, Colt turns and swings his sword in a wide arc, slashing through the center of four men in one blow. He turns his head before they fall and watches the glow around Vladimir spark and pop for a second before blazing back to power.

"Did you hear that?" Gabby hisses quietly, as she reaches over Colt's shoulder and blasts a fireball at a group of men running at them. The energy pops, disappears, and pops up again.

"Hear what?" Colt asks, turning and running his blade through a man running up behind her.

"Close your eyes and listen, I've got your back," Gabby whispers in his ear.

Colt obeys, feeling the heat of her fire growing behind his shoulder blades as she lets loose a significant beam of energy. He hears the pop, feels the magic dissipate, but when it recollects around Vladimir, Colt can hear a shrill scream of pain somewhere in the distance.

"The witch is near!" Colt gasps.

They both turn to Vlad as he unleashes a volley of vile curse words.

"You will never get to her. She's untouchable!" he snarls.

Colt spins Gabby out of his arms and impales man after man as he storms toward Vladimir. When they're close enough to see the whites of each other"s eyes, Colt grins and nods to Gabby. She nods back, rises in the air, and releases a ring of fire around her as she spins in place. A dozen men fall, the magic pops and vanishes, and Colt starts to count.

"One…two…"

"No, you can't!"

"Three…four…"

"You foul witch! Gather your powers and defend me!"

"Five…"

The scream comes, all the men in the room rise back up and charge at full strength.

"You know what that means, Vladimir?" Colt asks him, swinging his sword in a graceful arc as three men come at him at once.

They fall one after another, and Vladmir's face burns with rage as he stands up and spins his own swords warningly in his hands.

"That means that if we kill enough of them, I'll have at least five seconds to get close enough to run you through!"

"Kill them! Kill them now!" Vlad roars, and the men come at them all at once.

"Time for the big one, my angel!" Colt calls over his shoulder and ducks, flattening himself to the floor.

"Coming right up!" Gabby calls back.

Colt buries his head under his arms as Gabby turns her entire body into an inferno. Although he can't see, Colt knows what's happening. Her body will glow, flames licking up her arms and legs, and when she's completely encapsulated in celestial fire, she'll let out a burst of energy that will sizzle everything around her. In preparation, Colt tucks underneath his own wings and prays to any god who may hear him that the fire deterrent they sprayed on them does the job.

Scorching fire blazes over him and he can barely breathe. It comes out of Gabby in wave after wave, until everybody on the floor is reduced to ash. When it dissipates, Colt opens his eyes and sees Vladimir peeking at them from inside the door to the next room

"And they call me evil!" he snarls, turning to run.

But Colt lunges forward and grabs him by the collar. His magical aura is gone, and it's helpless human flesh that he drags back in the room and throws on the floor in front of Gabby's feet.

"No scream," Gabby points out, and Colt nods. The magic barrier hasn't come back either.

"Do you think she's okay?" Colt asks, and Gabby frowns with concern.

"What's this? You care about my witch?" Vladimir laughs. "If I had known that, she would have been protecting me with her body along with her magic!"

"She's the sister of someone very important to us, so I hope you never risk her life in such a stupid way!" Gabby glares at Vladimir. "I think it's time we had a little chat, don't you?"

Colt stands over him and places his boot on Vladimir's chest to hold him down. "Do you even have any men left to lose fighting us?"

"There is no limit to the amount of people willing to fight the righteous battle," Vladimir hisses, and Colt presses his foot down harder on his chest.

"You're on the wrong side of righteous, Vladimir," he snarls.

Gabby shakes her head as she walks around Vladimir's other side and kneels next to him with a dark look in her eyes. "I'm tired of fighting your men every time I turn around, so this ends here and now. What is it you think you're doing?"

"I have nothing to say to you childish fools!" Vladimir spits.

Colt raises an eyebrow. "I've been old longer than your grandfather's grandfather was alive. I am not childish."

"Yet you turn away the Grigori, the only one who has any chance of saving the human race," Vladimir growls, hatred burning his eyes.

"The Grigori want to erase the entirety of human history," Gabby says through clenched teeth.

Vladimir nods knowingly. "Such a fate is lifetimes better than what we face if they don't. You two think you're doing the right thing, that your path is the right one? The obsidian is evil! Anything you do with it will corrupt the world into darkness."

Gabby shakes her head. "Where there is dark," she says, looking at Colt with love in her eyes as she takes his hand, "there is always light!"

Vladimir answers with crazed laughter. "You think you're the light to his darkness? Well that's all well and good, angel, but there is no light bright enough to fight what's coming. The Grigori were your only chance to save the human race, and you said no!"

Gabby pushes to her feet. "I'll say no to them again, and a hundred times more. There's no darkness so great that I would ever condone erasing everyone who has ever been or who is now alive."

"Then you welcome the apocalypse with open arms."

Vladimir sighs, his chest deflating. His eyes drift, focusing on something in the distance, and then his lips spread with an ominous smile. Without warning, Vladimir's magic shield blazes back to full power and knocks both Gabby and Colt off their feet. They fly into the walls behind them, the air whooshing from their chest in unison. Stunned, they stare at Vladimir as he rises to his feet and straightens his coat.

"My witch has recovered, so I will take my leave. Heed my words, angel, by going against the Grigori you doom all of humanity. Better that you never existed, than letting humans live to suffer through the fate that's coming."

An explosion of smoke flares and Vladimir disappears.

Coughing as the smoke settles, Colt and Gabby turn away from the empty space where he once stood.

They've been warned.

And yet, their path won't veer.

They share one last intense look before they both nod. It's time to go back to Veritas.