“Charmian? Charmian!”

Some small part of her brain managed to acknowledge that somebody was shaking her shoulders and calling her name. The trouble was responding. It was too hard to concentrate on anything other than the pounding in her skull. Her head lolled to the side, struggling to raise itself.

“Come on, come on, wake up!”

Strong fingers grasped her chin and tugged at it. Groggily she managed to open her eyes a crack to see Justin’s panicked face staring back at her. It swirled before her and she blinked rapidly in an attempt to focus.

“Oh thank fuck, Charmian? Can you hear me?”

“What’s going on?” She mumbled.

What she’d like to have done was sit up straighter, but her body was taking time to reawaken. Her limbs were heavy with pain. It wasn’t until she felt Justin’s arms shifting her further upright that she realised she was slumped on a chair – though she’d probably have been on the floor if he wasn’t keeping her there. He was crouched next to her, one arm around her shoulders to keep her up. The other was smoothing her tangled and snarled hair back out of her face.

“Your guys busted in and broke up the fight. Anton dumped us in here and locked us in. We need to get out of here, Charmian, can you walk?”

“Does it matter if we’re locked in?” She mumbled.

“There’s a window I think we can reach if I drag the table over.”

She looked upwards and saw what he was referring to. It was probably big enough for them to wiggle through if they went one at a time. Even with the promise of freedom, the idea of climbing through a window and then having to suffer the drop back to the ground on the other side was not appealing. Her torso felt like it was on fire as it was.

“Did you see Lucas?” She had a vague recollection of hearing his voice.

“I saw him and Carmel and Zac, and some guy I didn’t recognise. They were kicking ass but I think there were too many demons for them to bust through before Anton took us.”

Inhaling as deeply as she could manage (she suspected a busted rib or two) she tried to clear her mind and think. There had been a number of demons, probably a variety of skills and abilities. Nobody that her guys couldn’t handle but the sheer volume would slow them down. The real danger was if somebody managed to alert Bob and get him in there. The other problem was that even if they could fight through they’d then still have to locate them; it would all take time. There was every chance Anton would manage to move them again in the interim. Justin was probably right, they needed to try and get out themselves.

She clutched onto the arms of the chair as best she could and braced herself to try and bear her own weight. “Try the window.”

It was excruciating. Her vision blurred again and she could barely focus on what Justin was doing. He didn’t show any signs of weight loss or injury so clearly they’d been looking after him. That was good; at least one of them had some strength left. The table looked heavy (certainly sounded it from the scraping on the floor) but he managed to push it the necessary five or six feet. He hopped easily up onto it. She wasn’t sure why he was looking so hopeful, he wasn’t nearly tall enough to reach the window.

“It’s doable. I can boost you up, you can check if it’s open and then you can pull me up behind you.”

Charmian let out a choked laugh. She didn’t mean to sound condescending but he was being a little over optimistic. “Maybe half an hour ago - look at me, Justin. Even if you can get me up there without me passing out I can’t lift you.”

Justin let out a string of expletives. She wasn’t wrong. She looked like the tail end of a horror movie and he could see the effort she was exerting just to remain upright. His eyes scanned the room, looking for anything they could pile onto the table to help, but there was just the chair she was sitting on and that wouldn’t be enough. If she hadn’t been so beaten up he’d have done the altruistic thing and got her out even if she couldn’t lift him, but in her current state she wouldn’t get very far without him. He doubted her ability to stay conscious as it was.

“Fuck. You mean we just gotta hope Lucas gets here before Anton does?”

“He will.” Amazingly, she said it with total conviction. He didn’t share it. “They’re coming for us.”

“Not exactly a given, is it? What if they get here second?”

As best she was able with her lip newly split back open, Charmian gave a small smile. “I trained them myself. They’re getting here first.”

Every muscle was coiled and he kept eyeing up the window like he still thought that was a better plan. Still, Justin jumped down from the table and crossed the room back to her side. If she trusted Lucas so much then he would just have to hope she was right. He had to hurry the last few steps as she started to slump sideways, nearly falling off the chair.

“Is it easier if you lie down?”

“Probably.”

Justin knelt down on the floor next to the chair and gently helped her ease herself out of it onto the floor. He laid her head in his lap and stroked her hair, eyes flicking up and down her body as he surveyed the damage. The floor was hard and doubtless about as comfortable as a rock, but at least she didn’t have to expend precious energy trying to hold herself.

“Please promise me you won’t get in any more boxing rings. I know it’s your sacred duty to protect me and all but the Rocky thing was taking your job a little too seriously.”

“Don’t make me laugh, it hurts.” Charmian grimaced.

A strand of dark hair slid through his fingers. “I’m sorry. This is all because of me.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“They did that to you to get to me.”

“I know you’re some big deal to teenage girls but it’s not always about you, you know.” He gave a strained snort in response. “They did that because I killed a whole bunch of their best pals.”

“Yeah but it’s all so they can make me their bitch. I never wanted you to get hurt, I’m so sorry. It’s not fair, you shouldn’t have to take that for me because some asshole with wings or whatever made you responsible for me!”

Justin felt like a kid on the playground, yelling about things being unfair, but he was brimming with ineffective fury. This whole thing was so screwed up he couldn’t even keep a lid on his anger any more. They made her responsible for him and then they took away everything that protected her, removed all the tools and still expected her to finish the job. They were supposed to be the good guys and they had left her helpless while still requiring her to watch out for him. It was stupid and senseless and counter-productive. It was cruel, and more than anything it seemed like shooting yourself in the foot to disarm your best warrior. His body shook with the indignation. Every cut and every bruise currently disfiguring her face was fuelling his outrage.

He was also inwardly fuming at himself (though he was projecting all of that onto her superiors right now). Why had he listened to her? Why had he respected her wishes? Her wishes were suicidal. It had seemed like macho pride at the time so Justin had squashed it down and decided to trust her lead and experience, but now he was thinking that maybe he should have followed his instincts. It felt wrong to be sitting there so unscathed while she looked like she’d been thrown through a windshield.

Charmian couldn’t muster the energy to lift her hand to his face, but she managed to curl her arm around so her fingers brushed his knee. She was becoming drowsy again; her reserves were being rapidly spent.

“Silly boy. I’ve never done this because I have to.”

“What, you enjoy being beaten half to death? I should never have listened to you telling me to not to fight, I should have done something!”

It wasn’t much more than a mutter. “I just love you, that’s all.”

It felt like his blood temperature soared in response. Certainly his heartbeat was thudding in his ears.

“Then you’re an idiot because I’m so not fucking worth this. Look at you!”

“You are to me. And if it stops them twisting everything I love out of you, then they can do what they damn well like.”

She was slipping back into unconsciousness now, so she probably wouldn’t have heard Justin’s response even if he’d had time to make it.  Unfortunately they were interrupted by the door bursting open and Lillith stomping through it with Anton in tow. Charmian had been horribly wrong about who made it first.

If there was one thing guaranteed to wake you up, it was pain. Lillith had yanked her up off the floor with no care. It was the third or fourth time that had been done to her today and this time, on top of all those other injuries, she was unable to withhold a scream. Never mind if it gave the demons satisfaction, she was incapable of holding the agony in at this stage.

“Honestly, you avengers are so fucking rude. This should have been much more entertaining but I guess I’ll just have to kill you the boring way.”

“For the millionth time, Lillith, you do not want to do that.”

Justin was scrambling to his feet, looking frantically at Anton. Lillith currently had one arm around Charmian’s neck and a knife poised at her gut. Should he try to intervene, should he just let him talk his stupid bitch of a sister down, what could he do to help? Would rushing her only make her press the point home? Was it smarter to let Anton talk or to distract her himself?

“Shut up, Anton. This is my show now and I know what I’m doing.”

“It’s a dumb, petty waste. She’s far more valuable than this and you’re going to have a much harder time turning him without the leverage.”

“She’s an obstacle, not leverage. God only knows why but he wants to stay good for her.”

Charmian’s brown eyes met Justin’s blue ones, full of fear. That felt like a knife pressing to his gut not hers; for all his complaining about her solider mask, he couldn’t stand seeing her afraid.

“Which is predictable and easily manipulated. You have him right where we need him but you’re not thinking strategically, instead you’re concentrating on your bruised ego. That’s not how to get this done.”

“What would you know?”

“What would I know? Look who the fuck you’re talking to!” Anton scoffed at her, throwing his arms out to the sides and rolling his eyes. “I’ve spent centuries scrabbling around in the dirt because I knew it was better to play the long game than to get precious about shit. Now is the time that should all be coming to fruition, now is the moment that we’re right on the brink and you are about to stick a pin in that balloon, baby sis. Don’t be stupid.”

Lillith looked like she was wavering, so in her distraction Justin took his opportunity. He rushed past Anton and dived for her. The move would have succeeded, but almost immediately a solid body ploughed into his and knocked him off course. He landed elbow first on the concrete and all his weight came down on it, sending currents of pain shooting through his arm. He thought there was a good chance he’d broken it. His ankle had twisted painfully to the side as well, though less severely.

“What did I just say about people not being stupid?! Damn you!”

Justin’s eyes had involuntarily squeezed shut, and once he opened them again he wished he could just keep them shut forever. He would never be able to erase the sight of Charmian’s white face and the way her hands now clutched at the knife sticking out of her belly. Lillith had instinctively reacted to his attempted attack by lashing out.

“Charmian!” It was his voice sounding the scream and yet somehow he felt utterly disconnected from it.

Somehow Charmian knew she was dying, yet oddly it didn’t hurt. Contrary though it seemed her body now stood taller than it had before she’d got stabbed. She’d barely felt the knife going in and she couldn’t feel the blade in her stomach now, though she felt the hilt in her fingers. There wasn’t even much blood. She was curiously detached from the whole thing. Though she felt more awake than she had since they’d entered the room her mind was bizarrely devoid of thought. Besides some default setting telling her not to remove it because it would do more damage on its way out and she’d bleed out faster, there was little going on in her head. How very strange. She’d expected her life to flash before her eyes.

There was some thought insistently trying to gain her attention, possibly it was the pain, but she couldn’t seem to access it. Something was amiss, but it wasn’t Justin’s anguished face or the look of fury on Anton. None of it really seemed to be reaching her. Even as she took in the way Justin was clutching at his arm and rocking back and forth on the floor, nothing touched home.

God, what was it she was trying to think of? She felt like there was something important she was missing, and the more she unsuccessfully pondered it the surer she became that it wasn’t the lack of pain.

Pain.

She wasn’t in pain. Justin was in pain, she wasn’t. Even though she was the one with the mortal wound Justin was the one in pain.

He was in pain, she wasn’t. Was that important?

It wasn’t until a familiar heat began in the centre of her palm that she managed to remember. Yes, yes.

That was very important.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” She was surprisingly coherent.

“Blame your boy there. Though you had it coming anyway.” Lillith sneered. This wasn’t exactly how she’d wanted to do it, but did it really matter? Charmian was one of the greatest avengers of the lot and she was dying at her hand. She would go down in legend for this even if it wasn’t the most spectacular end. Besides, she could always embellish.

“Not you.”

Lillith was about to make a disparaging remark to Justin, start really hammering home the horrendous guilt he must be feeling, but then she realised that Charmian wasn’t looking at him. Her stare was a little unfocused, but it was directed at Anton.

“Huh?”

That was the last thing she managed to say before a flaming sword pierced her sternum.