Cortisol courses through my blood, flushing all of the good feelings out of my body. I feel like I'm on fire. No - the world is on fire.
Is this what death feels like?
Loki snaps his finger in front of my eyes. "Hey, captain. You okay?"
Usually, I'm terrified by these visions, but today is a much different day. Raven looks into my eyes and smiles, giving me the courage I need to get through it.
As the fog clears inside my head, I swallow and reach into my pocket.
Feel the gun. Lucifer's gun. Why I keep it, I have no clue. There's no way I'm doing what he told me to do. Killing Raven is the last thing on my mind.
I pull it out and press the barrel against the back of his head. "Are you working for that bastard?"
I don't know anything about the man from that limousine, but his name seems to explain what he's about.
The bringer of light. The fallen one. Lucifer, the morning star...
"Whoa, hey now!" he shouts and swerves into another lane before recalibrating. "I ain't working for nobody but myself. Back the fuck off."
I have to admit that it feels good
to be in control.
Grinning, I pull the hammer back and relish in the sound of the metallic click. "Time to choose. Good vs. evil. The world's fate is in your hands."
That's what the vision showed me, right? The end of the world? Maybe I'm crazy. Or maybe all of this god shit is really... real.
Raven's eyes fill with tears, and I know she's thinking the same thing I am. In this moment, we are together. It might not be in holy matrimony, but there's a common bond between us.
In a loveless world, I feel our hearts beating as one. I hold the devil's pistol in my hands and swallow, nodding my head at her.
"Is this real?" she asks me.
"You feel it too," I say.
"Finally, I am acting on something, but I can't say what that something is. It's flowing through me, Ash," she says.
Loki groans and rolls his head away from the barrel of the gun. "You're both out of your fucking mind."
"Where are you taking us?" I ask.
"Put the gun down. I'm not going to hurt or turn you into that devil worshipper. I’ve come to save your asses,“ he says. "Right now, we need to make a pact. We need to head somewhere safe."
Raven looks mistrusting. "Don't listen to him," she says. "We don't know if we can trust him. For all we know, he's lying to us."
But Loki appears to be an honest actor. Anyway, it's not like we have a choice.
"Look, if someone is offering a stranger a cold million to find you two, you're probably more valuable than he's letting on," he says.
"Meaning?" I ask.
"Meaning, we work together. I've been looking for a reason to get away for a while. I don't know what you both are getting into, but I got a feeling you're going to need a little muscle," he says.
Raven looks at me and snorts. I try my hardest not to turn red. Now is not the time to flex.
"Fine."
Loki shuts off the lights to the car and rounds a corner. He pulls into an old parking garage of a condominium complex that has seen better days. I should be worried. For someone who's just seen glimpses of the end of the world, I'm pretty calm and collected.