Die and Stay Dead (52 page)

I blinked in surprise. The black hole was gone. What happened?

I let go of the chain and stood up. At the ship’s stern, Behemoth swayed back and forth like he was drunk. I didn’t understand until I saw Isaac and Philip. Philip was holding onto the railing at the edge of the flight deck with one hand, and with the other he was holding Isaac by the leg. The mage was right behind Behemoth, his hand wrapped around Nightclaw’s hilt. The dagger’s blade was sunk deep through the armor of the demon’s hindmost centipede segment.

Thick black veins spiderwebbed out from the stab wound. Behemoth teetered precariously on the edge of the
Intrepid,
then fell backward into the river with an enormous splash. A huge wave washed over the deck. Philip pulled Isaac back, still holding tight to the railing so they wouldn’t be swept off the ship.

I started running toward Bethany and Gabrielle, ignoring the pain in my ankle, my shoulders, everywhere. The two of them were sore and sopping wet from the wave, but they were alive. I slid to a stop and knelt down over Bethany.

“You’re alive!” I shouted.

She smiled up at me. “Now who’s Captain Obvious?”

She sat up. I hugged her tight. Her wet clothes soaked into mine, but I didn’t care. “I thought I lost you again. Don’t scare me like that.”

Hugging her was impulsive, spontaneous. I did it without thinking. It surprised me when she hugged me back. I didn’t expect her to, but suddenly her arms were tight around me. She was more shaken by her brush with death than she was willing to say, but the way she trembled and held onto me couldn’t mask it.

Gabrielle tapped me on the shoulder. “What am I, chopped liver?”

Bethany and I laughed, and we hugged her, too. I helped them both to their feet.

Philip helped Isaac walk over to us. Both of them were sopping wet, but Isaac looked dangerously pale. He blinked rapidly, like he was having trouble keeping his eyes open.

“Something is wrong,” Isaac said. “Behemoth’s body hasn’t surfaced.”

“He’s dead, he has to be,” I said. “Nightclaw can kill anything. You said so.”

Isaac nodded. “I know, but something’s … not right…”

He slumped against Philip then, finally passing out after fighting to stay conscious for so long. Philip caught him. He tried to wake Isaac, but the mage was unresponsive.

“Is he all right?” Bethany asked.

Philip scooped Isaac up in both arms. “He will be. In the meantime, Bethany, Gabrielle, spread out and keep an eye on the water. I won’t believe Behemoth is dead until I see his body come up.”

“What about me?” I asked.

“I’m told you have a plan to take out Arkwright,” Philip said. “Make it happen.”

I looked up at vulture’s row. My hands curled into fists. Finally.

Bethany touched my arm, bringing my attention back to her. “Be careful. This plan of yours is dangerous.”

“Aren’t I always careful?” I asked.

She arched an eyebrow. “Don’t make me answer that.”

I left them and ran up the steps of the island. The pain in my ankle was forgotten as I focused on Arkwright. No demons came down to greet me this time. The stairway ended on the second level. I was forced to run through the narrow hallways and cramped rooms of the navigation bridge, past banks of old, brass equipment and through small, oval doorways, before I could continue climbing to the top. Arkwright had left a trail of smashed open doors and gates for me to follow. The trail led me to a rusty ladder, and at the top, vulture’s row.

The demons were waiting for me there. As soon as I reached the top of the ladder, they swarmed me. I didn’t even have time to light up the fire sword. They pulled me off the ladder and pushed me down onto my knees. I felt a sword at the back of my neck.

Then I waited for Arkwright. I knew his type. He wouldn’t let them kill me. Not before he had the chance to spit in my face first.

The demon lifted its sword, preparing to chop my head off.

Come on, Arkwright …

“Wait!” Arkwright’s voice boomed. “Not yet! Bring him here!”

I smiled to myself. The demons hauled me to my feet and dragged me before him. They threw me to my knees again and held me there.

“I take it you’ve come to gloat,” Arkwright snarled.

I shrugged. “Gloating is more
your
style. Although, it looks like your plan isn’t going very well. Behemoth was a bust.”

“It’s not over.” He couldn’t hide the angry desperation in his voice. He shook the Codex Goetia in his hand. “I still have the only thing that matters. The Codex names almost a thousand other demons I can summon tonight. I don’t need Behemoth to end the world. I don’t even need Nahash-Dred.
This
is all I need. I can bring
all
of demonkind here!” He smiled at me, but it was a vicious smile. “Jordana did her job very well, leading me to it.”

“Jordana’s dead,” I told him.

Arkwright shrugged, unperturbed. “She served her purpose.”

That son of a bitch. If it weren’t for the lesser demons all around me, I would have throttled him until I saw the life drain out of his eyes.

“You lied to her,” I said, seething. “You infected her. You turned her into a killer.”

“She didn’t take much convincing. She took the magic into herself willingly.”

“Because she trusted you,” I said. “You were the only family she had left.”

“Ah yes, Jordana’s family. Such a shame what happened to them,” Arkwright said. “Her brother Pete was a smart man. He began piecing together my past before anyone else. Unfortunately, he started asking uncomfortable questions, so he had to be dealt with. I cut his throat in an alley downtown. It was an inelegant solution, but I was pressed for time. I thought I hid my tracks well. I even took Pete’s wallet so it looked like a common robbery gone wrong. But I suppose I didn’t do as good a job as I thought. Pete and Jordana’s mother, my wife at the time, grew suspicious. The insufferable cow started poking into his death. She got much too close to the truth for my liking.”

“So one night, in Aspen, you summoned a lesser demon to kill her,” I said. “Probably to kill Jordana, too. What happened? Why did you call it off?”

“So Jordana told you about Aspen, eh? What she saw there? You’re right, I summoned the demon, and I called it off. It would have been too public and gruesome a death to avoid a police investigation.” Arkwright grinned cruelly. “There were better ways to silence my wife’s suspicions. A quick and extremely painful wasting spell took care of everything. The doctors didn’t stand a chance of figuring it out in time to save the poor woman.”

I stared at Arkwright in horror. “You killed them both. Jordana’s brother. Her mother. You killed Jordana’s whole family, and she never knew.”

He was responsible for Jordana taking her own life, too. His evil had destroyed an entire family. Arkwright was no better than the predator Philip had been when he wiped out an entire bloodline, albeit with one big difference. Philip was trying to make up for what he’d done. Arkwright hadn’t changed at all in the fourteen years since he first tried to end the world. If anything, he’d become worse.

“You sick bastard,” I spat. “All Jordana wanted to do was hold onto what was left of her family. You. All she wanted to do was make you happy.”

Arkwright grinned. “And I assure you, after her mind was infected, she did. In so many ways.”

I struggled like an animal against the demons holding me. I wanted to tear Arkwright to pieces with my bare hands.

“You have no idea how disappointed I am in you,
Trent,
” he said, spitting my name like it was a joke. “That you would fall for a ruse that simple. That you would actually care about a pathetic half-succubus with daddy issues.”

My hands closed into fists so tight I thought the skin of my knuckles would split.

“But most of all,” he said, “I’m disappointed that you don’t remember me. Or why you were in the sanctum the night Nahash-Dred was summoned. It’s like a riddle, isn’t it? The world’s simplest riddle, and yet you can’t answer it because you
forgot
.”

“Why don’t you tell me, then?” I said through gritted teeth.

He shook his head in frustration. “It would be pointless. You have to figure it out for yourself. You have to remember. It only works if you
remember
.”

“
What
only works?” I demanded. “You’re not making sense—”

Arkwright silenced me with a punch to the face. I spat blood onto the floor, my jaw thundering with pain.

“Who are you? What is the
point
of you?” Arkwright raged. “If I could beat the memories back into you, I would, but you have to remember on your own!”

I glared up at him. “I knew it was a long shot, but I thought maybe you would tell me. If you’re not going to, I don’t see why I should wait any longer.”

Arkwright laughed derisively. “Wait any longer for what?”

“Apparently, you have the same problem I do, Arkwright,” I said. “You forgot something from that night, too.”

“And what would that be?” he scoffed.

“Your mistakes,” I said. “The other demons you accidentally summoned, because you and your brethren were too stupid to summon Nahash-Dred properly.”

Arkwright chuckled. “Too stupid? Nice try, but you’re not going to get under my skin that easily. And who cares about the other demons? They’re long dead by now.”

“Not all of them,” I said.

I whistled. A dark shape detached itself from the antenna array where it had been waiting, unseen. My Plan B dropped down and landed on Arkwright’s back, knocking him to the floor. Around us, the lesser demons gibbered and shifted their weight nervously, unsure what to do. Like before, they knew a greater demon when they saw one.

“Erickson Arkwright, meet the Mad Affliction,” I said. “He’s got a bone to pick with you.”

The Mad Affliction wrapped his long fingers around the top of Arkwright’s head. His enormous, saucer eyes sparkled with delight. “There is so much madness inside his mind already. So much raw clay I can mold.”

Arkwright trembled beneath him. “Get it off of me! Get it off!”

But though the lesser demons continued to hold me where I knelt, they were too frightened of the Mad Affliction to come to Arkwright’s rescue.

“You see, the Mad Affliction and I have a deal,” I continued. “He helps me, and I send him home.”

“You idiot!” Arkwright yelled. “Do you really think that’s why he’s obeying you—?”

The Mad Affliction slammed Arkwright’s face down against the floor, cutting him off and bloodying the man’s nose.

I looked at the Mad Affliction. “What does he mean?”

“Nothing. His words are trickery, that is all. Do not listen.” The Mad Affliction ran his fingers down the length of Arkwright’s skull. “Hold your peace, human, or I will make you pull out your own tongue. You think you know madness now? Believe me, you know only a taste.”

“Wait! Please!” Arkwright cried, terrified.

The Mad Affliction leaned closer, his tumescent nose brushing Arkwright’s ear and making the man shiver. “I can make you shit yourself and like it. I can bring you to the point where you will
live
to shit yourself. Or I can do worse. Much, much worse.”

“Wait!” Arkwright pleaded, looking at me. “If anything happens to me, you won’t know the answer! You—you won’t know why you were in the sanctum that night! And that means you won’t know who you are!”

“I already figured out the answer to your riddle, Arkwright,” I said. “I didn’t get it at first because it took me a while to understand the question. But I get it now. I know who else was there the night you summoned Nahash-Dred. But you’re wrong. That’s not me.”

“Are you sure?” Arkwright asked. “Tell me, what happened when you touched the lock on the Mad Affliction’s cage?”

The Mad Affliction slammed Arkwright’s face into the floor again. He yanked the man’s head back up. Arkwright looked dazed. Blood streamed from his broken nose, and from the corner of his mouth.

I looked into Arkwright’s glazed eyes. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Arkwright. The only reason my friends agreed to let the Mad Affliction out of his cage—the only reason they let him be a part of this at all—is because I told them he could get to you when no one else could. I told them how much he wanted revenge. But when we got to the sanctum, they waited in the car and I went in alone. I freed him from the cage you left him in. Then we had a little talk. We came to an understanding about the real reason I wanted him here. The reason my friends will never know.”

The Mad Affliction ran one finger through the blood on Arkwright’s face, then licked it. His eyes rolled back in his head ecstatically. “Oh, my stomach is a yawning chasm waiting to be filled. I can hold off no longer. Please tell me I get to eat him now.”

Terror made Arkwright’s glazed eyes sharpen again. “What?”

“Sorry, I forgot to mention,” I said. “I didn’t just promise him revenge. The Mad Affliction was starving to death when I found him. I also promised him a meal.”

“No, you—you wouldn’t! You can’t just let this—this
thing
eat me alive!”

“That’s the secret I wanted to let you in on, Arkwright,” I said. “I would, and I can. You see, up until now I thought you should die as painfully as Jordana did. Up until now, I thought that you didn’t deserve mercy.”

“And—and now?” he asked.

“Now I
know
you don’t,” I said. I nodded at the Mad Affliction. “Bon appétit.”

The Mad Affliction was barely able to contain his joy. His face split into a wide, toothy smile. Then he bit a chunk of flesh out of Arkwright’s shoulder. The lesser demons around us chittered fearfully.

Arkwright screamed as blood from the wound spilled across his coat. He glared at me, his face twisted in pain and rage. “Killing me won’t stop what I’ve already set in motion. It won’t change anything.”

“That’s not why I’m doing it,” I said.

The Mad Affliction stretched out his wings and tented them over himself and Arkwright. The nervous chitters from the lesser demons grew louder. I couldn’t see what was happening under the Mad Affliction’s wings, but there was something deeply satisfying about the terrible screams and the sound of tearing flesh and gnashing teeth. Each of Arkwright’s screams felt like retribution for what he’d done to Jordana. Each scream felt like vengeance for the lives he’d taken—Jordana’s brother, her mother, Yrouel, the
Intrepid
guards down below, the innocent bystanders Behemoth had killed tonight, the real Clarence Bergeron, and who knew how many countless others he’d killed along the way.