Legacies Read online

They had machines that could kill thousands of demons from miles away. But all of that firepower counted for little when they didn’t understand the enemy, when instead of firing those weapons at demons, they turned and fled, screaming, some pulling their eyes and hair out.

  As the humans lost land and fled from the countryside to the major cities, they were encircled by the demons on side, and by the angels on the other side. It was the Immortals that came to the rescue.

  It started in London, when they appeared from nowhere, these beautiful and tall humans with long swords in hand, they cut a path through the demons to allow the humans to escape.

  The tide turned from that day. Somehow, the Immortals managed to turn the demons and angels against each other. All the while, as the two other races fought, the humans gained their strength, and inevitably, when the angels and demons turned their attention back onto the humans, they were ready.

  Aided by the Immortals, they won many battles.

  They lost many too.

  In the end, they managed to negotiate a treaty that brough relative peace amongst the human lands.

  This man that was to come, Cassie was certain he was a Legacy.

  Legacies being the descendants of Immortals, they did not live forever.

  But they did live much longer than your average human. Their aging slowed as they hit their twenties. From there on, some aged a year every five years, some a year every ten years.

  It was rumoured those born between two Immortals, after hitting their early twenties, aged a year every fifty years.

  Legacies were strong and fast, much stronger and faster than humans, but not as strong or fast as Immortals.

  There weren’t many Immortals left anymore.

  No one knew where they came from, but it seemed their number was finite and final. Once an Immortal fell in battle, he or she did not rise, nor did another Immortal appear from some magical place to replace them.

  Cassie continued to stare past the trees and at the bridge that crossed the river. This man that was coming to save their town, he had to be a Legacy. He was going to change her life. It was all Cassie could think of when she heard the man would be coming.

  That is, after he killed all the demons.

  Chapter 3

  It was later that evening, and Cassie still sat perched on the top of the church tower, staring out beyond the wall and the road that curved around the woodlands and onto the bridge. In the time she had been sitting there, not a single person had crossed the bridge.

  The settlement was surrounded by farms to the south. In recent times, with demon attacks increasing, most of the farmers had left their farms. Only one remained. The Skinners. Their farm was half a day’s ride by horse. Cassie knew them well, knew their daughter Ellie.

  She remembered the last time Ellie had come to Coldstream with her parents. She had been worried. A day earlier, when she had been watering the tomatoes, in the trees beyond the fields, she was certain she’d seen something move.

  She couldn’t be sure what it was, but she thought she saw a flash of red amongst the brown and green of the forest. She hadn’t told her parents. She didn’t want them to worry.

  Cassie sighed as she continued to stare at the bridge. It was a Legacy that was coming to save them. Legacies were rare, Immortals even rarer. But this village was somewhat fortunate in that there were two Legacies already living here.

  Cassie was one, Michelle the other.

  Growing up, Cassie didn’t know she was a Legacy. She’d been left abandoned outside the pub, her and Michelle, both three years old. Not knowing her parents growing up, she’d assumed she was a normal child.

  It was at the age of seven, when she beat up Tony who was three years older than her and twice her size did the people in the village start to wonder. What they suspected turned out to be true for her and Michelle.

  She was forty-three years of age now but didn’t look a day above eighteen.

  Unlike Immortals, Legacies did age, but much slower. It differed for Legacies, the rate they aged at, their strength and speed. Those that were born of two Immortals were much stronger than one born of an Immortal and an ordinary human, who in turn was stronger than a Legacy born of two Legacies, or one born of a Legacy and a human.

  Cassie had no idea what sort of Legacy she was. She was strong and fast, much stronger and faster than the humans of Coldstream. But she didn’t know her parents and hadn’t met any other Legacies to compare with.

  That would change today, when the man coming to fight the demons would arrive.

  “I thought I’d find you there,” Michelle said. The other Legacy of their little settlement stood by the wall off the church, leaning against the concrete slabs, she stared up, her arms folded across her chest. “Aren’t you hungry?”

  “Now that you mention it, a little bit,” Cassie replied. She’d been sitting up here since morning, and now, it was the evening.

  “Are you going to come down?”

  “I don’t want to miss him.”

  Michelle rolled her eyes. “How will you miss him? He’s going to be staying the night in Coldstream. He’ll probably get a room at the pub, have his dinner there. Why don’t we go and wait there?”

  It was true. The Legacy would probably stay at the pub before they headed out tomorrow morning to kill the demons. And she could do with some food. Cassie climbed to her feet and stretched. She glanced down at the ground. It was a twenty-foot drop.

  Cassie stepped off the edge and closed her eyes, opening them as her feet hit the ground, her knees bent, she raised her head and smiled.

  “Show off,” Michelle said.

  Cassie grinned. She took Michelle’s hand and walked down the street towards the pub. It was a nice summers evening, and the road between the rows of houses was packed with people walking towards the village centre, towards the pub and the little stalls of shops that set up outside.

  Cassie knew everyone in the village, and she smiled at some of the girls that looked her age. But she was older than every one of those girls. She’d seen them as babies, as children, and now as women. She wasn’t friends with them, not really.

  The women who had looked after her and Michelle when they had been abandoned here were dead, and everyone else in the village, the new generation, Cassie knew they looked at them with caution, with fear, with jealousy too. Michelle and her, they had been in this settlement for longer than most, but they were both seen as outsiders.

  Michelle squeezed her hand. “You’re lost in thought again.”

  “Oh, sorry. I was…” she stopped.

  “Thinking about the Legacy?”

  Michelle knew her too well. “Aren’t you thinking about him too?”

  “It could be a her.”

  “Him, her, doesn’t matter. This could be our chance to leave. To finally get away from Coldstream, get away from the stares, the whispers. Imagine if he took us as apprentices. We could live to our potential, we could travel with him and see the world, we could be useful.”

  “It would be nice,” Michelle said wistfully. “He could say no to taking us with him. He could die at the hands of the demons…”

  Cassie was about to scold Michelle for saying that, but it was something that had crossed her mind too.

  The Legacy that was coming to their aid had travelled along the border, allegedly beating back demons in numerous villages and settlements. But the demon that waited him a few miles from Coldstream, where it had set up camp, he was stronger than the average demon.

  Michelle and Cassie knew, because they had seen him first-hand.

  A week ago, the girls had left the village behind and headed up north, past the forest, past the charred fields and up to the foot of the low hills, where the demons had set up camp.

  Taking cover behind the trees, crouched on their knees, they caught a glimpse of the demon in charge. Cassie had seen demons before. They were shaped like humans, and of a similar size. Some of the women demons were even pretty. They had red skin,
or blue, black, green. Some had horns on their heads, just as some had sharp teeth.

  Demons weren’t like humans though. They varied in strength and power. The average demon was a little stronger than a human. But a powerful demon could be ten times as strong, or even more. Cassie had heard stories of the demon god Satan. It was alleged he could grow a hundred meters tall and that he could breathe fire.

  He was immortal too, and not in the same sense as the Immortal humans.

  Satan couldn’t be killed.

  Cassie wondered why Satan hadn’t joined the war when the demons, humans and angels battled. She imagined him sitting in Hell, on his throne of fire, lording over the damned souls of the humans, just waiting.

  Waiting for what?

  They arrived at the pub. It was busy inside. Every table was taken. Most of the men in the village were here, waiting for the Legacy to arrive. Cassie and Michelle took seats by the bar. It was Audrey working behind the wooden counter.

  She was a pretty eighteen-year-old girl with black hair and blue eyes. She smiled at them, but that was all.

  That was all Cassie and Michelle ever got from the girls that looked their age. They got little from those older than them.

  It was only the elders in the village that spoke with them, and that too because they were needed. Despite having little training in the way of fighting, both Michelle and Cassie were very capable on account of being Legacies. They kept the peace within the settlement. Sometimes that meant breaking up drunken fights. More recently, they’d chased away a small pack of demons.

  It was because of them the demons camped by the mountains hadn’t attacked yet, because they let it be known that the settlement was protected by two Legacies.

  Though it was true, Michelle and Cassie weren’t real Legacies. They hadn’t had the training, couldn’t fight like one.

  But today, a true Legacy would be coming to town.

  Cassie ate a large dinner of roasted beef and mashed potatoes. She was on her fourth pint of beer when she heard the commotion outside.

  She jumped off her stool and headed towards the door. Cassie opened the door of the pub to see a small crowd. They stood around a black stallion, sitting upon which was a man.

  He was tall and had dark hair. He was wearing a leather jacket that had a cut in one of the arms. By his waist was a sword with a black handle that had gold swirling lines engraved in it.

  He was the Legacy, Cassie knew instantly.

  She stared at his face. It radiated a strength and power she had never felt before. The man surveyed the crowd surrounding him, and then, his eyes locked onto hers, and he smiled. He had gorgeous white teeth and Cassie felt a flutter in her chest.

  Their eyes remained locked for a while, only moving away when she realised the man wasn’t alone on the horse. There was a girl sitting on the horse behind him. A girl that was mostly naked, wearing only a thin t-shirt through which her nipples could be seen, her legs completely bare.

  “Ellie,” Cassie murmured.

  She knew the girl. It was Ellie, the girl who lived with her parents in one of the farms that surrounded the settlement. Cassie pushed her way through the crowd.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Demons,” the man replied, his voice deep. “Wasn’t able to save her parents.”

  Cassie held her arms out to take Ellie. The girl had a hazed look in her eyes as she dropped from the saddle of the horse and into Cassie’s open arms. Around them, the crowd started talking, fear in their voices.

  Cassie wrapped her arms around Ellie and pushed through the crowd. “Are you okay?” she asked, as she rested the girl gently onto the ground.

  Ellie’s eyes were red. She shook her head and buried it in her hands. Her body trembled. “My mum and dad are dead,” she sobbed.

  Cassie wrapped her arms around the girl and hugged her tight. She raised her arm instinctively, using it to shield herself as the door to the pub slammed open, the wooden edge struck her on the elbow. Men poured out from the pub and surrounded the Legacy sitting atop his horse.

  He looked like everything Cassie had imagined a Legacy to look like. Tall, dark and handsome, he’d already rescued Ellie from demons. He was certainly capable.

  Michelle came to sit on the other side on Ellie. She placed a comforting arm around the girl. “He’s handsome,” Michelle murmured.

  The mayor of their little settlement was a stoutly man aptly named Mayor Stout. Bald on the top, he had a large beard. He wore a long grey leather coat at all times, despite the warm summer evening.

  He pushed his way past the crowd and stood a foot away from the black stallion.

  “You must be the Legacy,” Mayor Stout said.

  “Not a Legacy,” the man replied. “I am so much more than a mere Legacy. I am Martial the Great, the Destroyer of Planets, the Killer of God, the Vengeance of Humanity, the-” he stopped talking as he slid down his horse and landed awkwardly on his feet, stumbling back against his stallion. “I’m fine,” he raised his hands quickly. “I just need some wine.”

  “I think he’s had enough wine,” Cassie said, a frown on her face.

  “I know, right,” Michelle chuckled.

  The Mayor led Martial the Legacy through the crowd and into the pub. As he passed by her, Martial flashed them a smile. It was a gorgeous smile. He had perfect teeth. And his face, it was like it had been designed by an artist. She hadn’t seen anyone that handsome around.

  “He’s as good looking as those Immortals are supposedly,” Michelle gushed.

  She was right. The Immortals were supposedly perfect humans. This Legacy, Martial, he would have matched that description.

  “Can you watch Ellie? They’re going to need one of us inside,” Cassie said.

  She left the two girls and walked into the pub. It was as full as ever, but this time, the table in the centre was surrounded by a large crowd. Cassie pushed her way through the crowd to come to the front.

  Martial sat at the table with an empty beer mug before him, a full one in hand. He’d drunk that fast, she thought.

  Beside him sat the Mayor, and moving from there was George, Andrew and Kalin. There was an empty chair and Cassie pushed past three to get to it.

  As she sat down, the men stopped talking and turned to look at her.

  “Well, hello,” Martial said, flashing that smile. “Who might you be?”

  “This is Cassie,” Mayor Stout said. “She’s our local… Legacy,” he said the word with hesitation.

  “You have a Legacy in your town?” Martial asked, an eyebrow expertly raised as he gulped down his second beer.

  “We have two Legacies,” Mayor Stout said, smiling. “You’ll have the best support on your mission tomorrow. Fifty of our men beside you, two Legacies, you’ll defeat them soundly, Martial the Great.”

  “Two Legacies,” Martial said. “That’s something. But I don’t need them. I can kill all the demons by myself. I battled Satan, you know. Stabbed him in the heart and threw him back down to hole he crawled out from.”

  “Battled the demon god himself?” Mayor Stout asked, laughing nervously as his eyes shifted about. “The demons get angry when their lord’s name is mentioned… some folk say it’s not wise to talk about him… demons are drawn to it, some say. Just the mention of his name, and his hordes come after you.”

  “Load of nonsense,” Martial said. He drained his mug and slammed it onto the wooden surface. “Another.”

  Mayor Stout smiled. “So, you’ll set off tomorrow?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “Sure… I’ll take your men too. Show em how it’s done. But I need payment.”

  “Of course!”

  Mayor Stout spoke to a man behind him, who dashed away, presumably to get this cash that they were offering Martial. In the meantime, the barmaid came with a tray full of beers. Martial cheered and took two. The rest was passed around the table. Cassie declined to have one. She watched the Legacy with interest and confusion.

 
He looked like everything she’d imagine., But his behaviour was lacking some. He was a drunk. There was no doubt about that. He’d staggered off his horse, and now, he was on his way to his fourth beer. He’d asked for payment. Cassie didn’t know that detail, but it seemed Mayor Stout was expecting it.

  She imagined he would do it for free. He was a Legacy, a hero to the world of humans. He was supposed to be their saviour… saviours didn’t charge money, did they?

  Also, Legacies, especially those that were first, second or even third generation, they usually had their own towns, and along with it, fuck tons of money. Was this Legacy broke?

  There was also the thing about how casually he’d said the word Satan.

  Every human knew not to say that word.

  It attracted demons. Somehow, they heard it, even if it was whispered. And they came. Only an idiot would say the name, a drunken arrogant idiot. The more Cassie stared at Martial, the more she wondered if that was what he was.

  “What sort of demon problem are we talking about?” Martial asked.

  “Cassie’s the one that spotted them,” Mayor Stout said.

  All eyes fell on her, including the Legacy’s. Cassie wasn’t a shy girl. She was almost as old as most of the men here, and a hell lot wiser. But with the Legacy watching her with his powerful eyes, she stared at him silently, losing herself in the depths, before remembering she was supposed to be talking.

  Cassie cleared her throat. “There’s about a hundred demons camped two days horse-ride from here. Their leader… he’s strong, a powerful demon. Never seen one so… big.”

  “And how many demons have you seen?” Martial chuckled.

  Cassie frowned. “I’ve seen my fair share. I’ve killed one before.”

  “That’s right,” Mayor Stout said. “Our Cassie, she killed a demon last week. A small raiding party of theirs came to our front gates. Our men fought them back. Cassie killed one. It sent the demons a message. We’ve got Legacies amongst us,” he reached around and slapped Cassie on the shoulder, laughing.

  Cassie knew Mayor Stout well. He was not a brave man. This was an act. He was trying to show he was brave. In reality, the Mayor was terrified. He was afraid of the demons, the fact that they hadn’t left, the fact that a hundred had set up camp a few miles from his settlement.