Seth sat in the back of a military Humvee, squeezed in against two soldiers from Hunter-33. Rain pounded on the roof as they drove. He was numb. Numb and covered in blood. A bandage was wrapped around his forearm. The strange powder they had poured in the wound had stung, but he didn’t care. In fact, it still stung a little. But the demon had retreated into the swirling void inside him, and he just felt empty now as he stared ahead.

One of the other two soldiers, on the other side of the transport portion of the vehicle, spoke. He was a dark-skinned man with a clean-shaved face and hard but kind brown eyes. “It gets better,” he said. “She tricked you, didn’t she?”

Seth swallowed.

“She did the same to a kid in Missouri. That time, we were too late to stop her. Only found the kid on the altar, cut open. You had to save yourself from that, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It was your life or hers and you made a justified decision. The blood is on her hands, not yours. It wouldn’t be there if she hadn’t brought you here.”

Seth met the soldier’s gaze. “I just want to go home.”

“And that’s where we’re going to take you,” said the soldier. “You’re safe now, and by the time she reforms, we’ll have her phylactery. She’s not coming after you again.”

Seth nodded. As they continued along the highway, he still felt numb. No, he felt something now. Tears began to well in his eyes. He blocked them back at first, but they flowed over his mental blocks and down his face. His breath became shaky.

Wordlessly, the soldier unbuckled and knelt on the cabin floor in front of him, holding him by the shoulders. “It’s alright to cry,” he said. “Let it out. I cried too, on my first deployment. My friend got hit by an IED. We didn’t have a medic close enough and he bled out in my arms. It’s not weakness to cry. It just means you care, and caring is not weakness. Come here.” The soldier wrapped Seth in an unexpected hug and Seth couldn’t hold it back. He cried and cried, his tears soaking the green and brown of the soldier’s body armor.

After a long moment, the tears slowed, and finally stopped. The soldier moved back. “It gets better. Not right away. Maybe not for a while. But you will feel whole again, I promise.” Seth nodded, wiping the saltwater from his face, now able to take some small solace in the fact he would see home again. He would see CFA. He would see Andrew, and maybe he could fix things with Emma. Things would be right with the world again, even if they hadn’t been right for so long.

***

Nicole floated in the void, any sense of her body gone. She was an it, a thing. Only a consciousness. No sight, no sound, no taste, no smell, no touch. Just the thought of the agony of a bullet breaching her skull and splattering her brain stem all over the floor. Just the thought of crushing despair at her failure to bring her family back. She had failed him and now he wouldn’t uphold his end of the deal.

Do you know why I chose you?

Nicole’s thoughts shifted from pain.

Lord?

I accepted your offering because of what you are. Liches. Don’t. Die. Your family suffers, but they do not perish. One year, Nicole, one year and you shall reform on the mortal plane. And this time, you will succeed in your quest.

The feeling of hope flooded her consciousness.

I will not fail you, my Lord.

I know you won’t.

The void enveloped her and left her with one single thought. That Seth Blackwell must die.