"Sable, would you put me down already?"

Finally, after having carried him like a baby for several minutes, Sable obliged. She carefully Alain on the ground, making sure not to disturb his injured leg. He looked around; the sun had just started to rise, illuminating the town all around them. For the first time since arriving there, Alain was able to see it clearly.

Dead bodies littered the area, both the fresh ones from the cultists they'd stopped as well as a few older ones – stray civilians who'd been murdered when the cult had first arrived in town, and whose bodies had yet to be moved. Bullet holes were clearly visible across many of the buildings in town, reminders of both the fight that had just occurred a short while ago as well as the earlier massacre. And through it all, the desecrated church loomed a short ways away, sticking out like a giant scar even in comparison to the rest of the town.

Alain stared at the church for a moment, then shook his head. He turned to Sable and was about to say something to her when Az came running up to them.

"Town's clear," he informed the two of them. "I've checked all the buildings. There's nothing alive in any of them, unfortunately."

"And the cultists?" Alain asked. "None of them came back to life?"

"A few did, but I put them down easily enough."Az stared down at Alain, frowning when he saw his leg was still injured. "We should get that fixed."

"I mean, hell, if you know where we can find a doctor around here, I'm all ears," Alain said. "Otherwise, one of you is going to be stuck carrying me back to the horses, because there's no fucking way I'm going to be able to walk on this thing."

"I can try something," Az said.

"What do you mean, try something?" Alain paused. "Actually, you know what? Knowing you, I probably don't want to know the specifics. Just, tell me if you think it'll actually get me fixed up."

"Oh, I'm sure it will. It won't be pleasant, but it will fix your leg."

Alain sighed tiredly. "Alright, fine."

"You might want to bite down on your belt," Az informed him. "And close your eyes, too. This is going to hurt like hell."

Alain did as he was told. He pulled off his belt and clamped it between his teeth, then closed his eyes. And not a moment later, his entire world erupted into pain and screaming. Alain bit back an agonized yell as he felt some otherworldly force begin to stitch his leg back together from the inside out. And through it all, there was that screaming – the same screaming he'd heard back in New Orleans, when Az had done something similar to fix himself up in the midst of the fighting.

Finally, the pain became too much to bear, and Alain passed out.

XXX

"Quiet, quiet! He's waking up!"

Alain let out a pained groan as he cracked both eyes open and angled his head up. "Eugh… Az? Sable? Danielle? That you?"

"Who else would it be?" Sable asked. "How do you feel?"

"Like I just went for ten rounds with a professional bare-knuckle boxer specifically hammering my leg and then had my blood drained by you." He let out another pained groan. "Fuck, my aching head…"

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah, just give me a moment…" Alain sucked in a breath, then nodded. "Alright. Help me up."

Sable did as he asked, carefully pulling him to his feet. Alain stumbled as he was pulled upright, wincing when he put weight onto his injured leg, though thankfully, it was simply more of a dull ache now rather than the surge of agony he'd been expecting. He breathed a sigh of relief at that.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Az, I don't know what the hell you did to me, but thanks," he said.

"Don't mention it," Az replied, in that same near-monotone grumble he used for almost everything. "Least I could do, really."

Alain gave him a nod, then turned to Sable. "So, what happened on the train, anyway?"

Sable's eyes narrowed. "I don't have much to report, though I will say what little there is… well, it's embarrassing for me. When the train was derailed, I was knocked unconscious; when I woke up, they already had me in the cell."

"And that begs the question: what caused the train to derail, anyway?"

"Cultists took out part of the rail line," Az informed him. "I'd wager that I woke up later than you both; it was already dark by the time I climbed out of the wreckage. How they didn't find me, I have no idea; perhaps the train car I was in was just too mangled for them to go digging through it at the time. I certainly had to fight my way out of it." He shook his head. "In any case, I happened to wake up near the cultists who'd taken out the train tracks. I fought with them until Danielle found me and directed me towards the town. You know the rest already."

Alain let out a breath. "You got here just in time, I'll give you that much. I wasn't going to stand a chance for much longer, and who knows what would have happened after that." He looked around again. "Everyone's alright? Nobody else is injured?"

"We're all good," Sable informed him. "Az took care of his own injuries while you were out."

"Speaking of which," Danielle said, causing them all to turn towards her. She blanched a bit when Az's gaze landed on her, though she was quick to recover. "What was that, anyway?"

"Good question," Sable told her. "I doubt you'll get an answer; we've asked him before and he's been very reticent with that information."

"Speaking of which," Alain interrupted, turning back to Az. "I know you know something about what's going on around here – with the cult, and the books, and all that shit. I also know that you want to keep it to yourself, for some reason. I'm willing to respect that this is personal for you, but given that it nearly got us all killed, I think we're entitled to at least a little bit of an explanation."

Az's expression narrowed slightly. "You aren't entirely wrong," he admitted. "Though you have to understand… it isn't just that I want to keep this a secret, it's that I have to."

"You have to?" Sable echoed. "What does that mean?"

"Part of the terms of my contract with you, my lady. There are certain things I am forbidden from discussing openly. For the most part, this is one of them."

Alain and Sable exchanged a quick glance with one another. "Well, what can you tell us about it?" Alain ventured. "There has to be something."

"There is, but it's very little," Az specified. "What I can say is… the book is to fuel a summoning ritual of some kind. I can't tell you what they're trying to summon or from where, but that's what it's for."

Alain let out a low groan. "Fuck me, more ritualistic bullshit… I had enough of that garbage back in Los Banos, to say nothing of New Orleans…" He shook his head. "How dangerous is this? Can you tell us that much?"

"Normally? It'd be more of an annoyance than anything," Az explained. "Most humans are not capable of completing this ritual, and most of the creatures on the other side of the Veil know better than to mess with these kinds of forces. Earlier, I was under the impression that this was an isolated incident, and that it would be solved simply by destroying the book… I can see now that I was wrong. Someone is working to spread this cult and conduct this ritual, though for what purpose, I am unable to explain."

"As in, you don't know, or as in you can't tell us?" Alain questioned.

Naturally, Az provided no answer for that. Alain heaved a frustrated sigh. "Well, in any case, I suppose we'll just have to keep an eye out for more of these books. Father Keenan wasn't going to tell us much, and with him gone, our lead into the cultists is gone as well."

"So what do we do now?" Sable questioned.

"What we're being paid to do, I suppose. With any luck, we'll stumble on more of the cultists and figure out what they're doing, as well as how to stop them." Alain turned back to Danielle. "Unfortunately, it looks like this little detour cost us time more than anything. We're no closer to finding your father."

Her face darkened. "Believe me, if my father knew we'd known about these people and left them alive, he'd be furious."

"Well, be that as it may, we're now behind on schedule. The one silver lining, I suppose, is that the plan hasn't changed; we can still make it to San Antonio and start looking around there. Hopefully, whoever has him is still local and hasn't covered their tracks too professionally, otherwise we'll have some trouble."

"Are you trying to make me panic?" Danielle asked.

"Trying to temper expectations, more like," Alain said. He patted himself down, looking for a pack of cigarettes, and after finding it, popped one into his mouth and lit it. "I'll leave this decision up to you, Danielle – do you want to rest up here for a bit, or head straight into San Antonio?"

"Is that even a question?"

"It is, because if we get into another fight there, we're all still pretty beat from the last one. I'll need to buy more ammo as well, for my-" Alain suddenly paused. "Az, did you see my weapons around here somewhere?"

"No, but I'll help you look for them," he offered.

"That's fine. In any case, unless we take five, we're going to have to just hope nobody picks a fight with us once we get there, because otherwise, it might get ugly fast."

Danielle crossed her arms. "Well, since you're giving me a choice… I'd rather not wait on this. I say we head off now."

Alain shrugged. "Alright. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"You're being dramatic," Danielle chastised as they all began to head for where the cultists had left their horses tied up. "How bad could it be, anyway?"