Order of the Black Sun Box Set 10

by Preston William Child

  “You should have let them take that. Maybe it would have driven them all crazy enough to off themselves.” Aya's suggestion was grim but admittedly made Purdue laugh. It was a ridiculous idea, but maybe she was right. “Find me a better book, captain.”

  “I will,” Purdue said. “Now get the hell out of my room.”

  Aya hopped off the bed and started walking toward the door but stopped before she stepped out. She turned to Purdue, suddenly looking very worried. “Some of the crew didn't come back. We messaged everyone.”

  “I know,” Purdue said. “But they don't owe me anything. They followed me to that pirate's gold. I gave them their cut. They wanted out. I don't blame them for not coming along for another ride.”

  Aya didn't look so sure. She looked downright scared.

  “It's not like them. Everyone on this crew would have been happy to come for another search. Especially after you were so generous with the rewards last time. They would not have passed this up. None of them. The Wharf Man must have got them.”

  “Stop that,” Purdue said. “We got away from him. You, and the rest of the crew, are finally free from being under his thumb. Stop letting him keep a hold on you.”

  Aya shook her head. “The Wharf Man does not forgive people who take from him. He always evens the score.”

  “The guy is in the past,” Purdue said. “We need to focus on the future. The Order of the Black Sun make the Wharf Man look like a harmless little kitten. Trust me. That's what we should be concerned with. We need to free my friends from them.”

  “Do you think they are still alive?” Aya asked.

  Purdue was honestly not sure, but he wanted to stay hopeful. He needed to. He wanted to get all of his possessions back from the Black Sun, but even more than that he wanted to free Nina, Charles, and Jean. None of them should have been taken in the first place. They didn't deserve whatever horrible acts Julian was putting them—or had put them—through.

  Purdue tried to sound as optimistic as he could. “Yes. I do.”

  3

  CHAPTER THREE – THE PRISONERS

  “You're a monster.”

  It was the first thing Dr. Nina Gould said to Julian Corvus since he set Purdue's house on fire and killed her friend. She had been utterly helpless in stopping him and all she could do was watch that enormous home be swallowed by flames.

  Since then, she remained the Order of the Black Sun's prisoner, stuck in a dark cell, with no idea where she even was geographically. The facility she was being held captive in could have been in any country, on any continent. At first she thought they were going to kill her after they killed Purdue, but she quickly realized that Julian wanted her misery to last. He wanted her to rot. All of this was Julian's way of getting back at her for stabbing him with the Spear of Destiny some time ago. That spear had killed him, but then its power revived him. She wished more than anything she had stabbed him with something else ... anything else.

  “It's me again,” Julian said, coming to her cell and standing on the other side of the door. “The big, bad monster.”

  Julian's visits were far too frequent for her. He loved coming down to the holding cells and taunting her, reminding her of his victory and the loss of Purdue.

  “Why don't you just kill me? Get it over with already. At least Purdue didn't have to sit in a cell and talk to you any more than he had to.”

  “You would prefer that we just erase you? Like we did to your friend? My apologies, Dr. Gould, but that would be a terrible waste. Mr. Purdue was a problem and a stubborn fool who just wouldn't stay out of our way. He was driven by his inflated ego. You're not like that. So why should we treat you the same as him? You're far more important to us alive.”

  “Oh I am?” Nina balked. “So important that you keep me down here. Alone.”

  “Only for now,” Julian said. “To be honest, I hope these are only temporary arrangements. It would be wonderful to have you come around to our side. I mean, with Purdue gone, there's not much of an opposition anymore. There's no reason that we must continue to be enemies. What's that saying about joining those you can't beat?”

  Nina couldn't believe what he was suggesting. “You can't be serious.”

  “Very,” Julian said with a shrug. “David Purdue was a thrill seeker only interested in performing daring feats and hoarding trophies. You're different. You have a love of history and a respect for the past. Much like the Order of the Black Sun.”

  “Your order doesn't respect history!” Nina snapped. He was trying to twist the narrative, all for some moronic idea that he was going to be able to recruit her. “Who do you think you're talking to?! I've seen how the Order of the Black Sun treats the past. You all desecrate and taint history, using it as an excuse ... a launching pad for whatever twisted agenda you're trying to force on the world.”

  “History is a launching pad, is it not? It's something to take into account with each and every action we take. It's something to learn from. You can't deny that. So history should show you that joining our ranks would be a wise decision.”

  Julian's argument was ludicrous and he wasn't nearly as convincing as he thought he was. Nina had enough encounters with this secret society to know that they weren't good people. She'd much rather slave away in a holding cell than join up with them. Especially after what they did to Purdue.

  “You think that if you keep me here long enough, I'll what? Start seeing this place as my home? Sorry, I don't make friends with murderers and psychopaths. And I can assure you that I'm immune to Stockholm syndrome.”

  “You are a prisoner only because I thought it best to give you some time to decompress. You've been through quite a lot.”

  “Because of you! You took me hostage! You killed Purdue! Why would you think I could ever forgive that?”

  “I forgave you for killing me,” Julian said with a wicked smile.

  That wasn't the truth. She knew her treatment and this torture were solely because of what happened with his death. He could sugarcoat it as much as he liked, but this was at least partially for the sake of his own retribution.

  Julian continued. “Why waste away when you have a chance to change the world? To alter the course of history?”

  His cold gaze wavered on her and Nina just looked to the floor.

  “I will give you more time to mull it over, Dr. Gould. Perhaps I'll even show you what exactly I'm working on. Maybe then you will understand that I share your reverence of history.”

  Julian strode away and she heard the door slam in the cell block, leaving Nina alone with her thoughts and her grief. She didn't doubt that she would spend the rest of her life—maybe years or even decades—as a prisoner. Julian Corvus had no qualms with prolonging her suffering. Maybe selling her soul and joining the Order of the Black Sun would be the only way to ever see the actual sun again. If she was out of this cell, then maybe ... no. No, she could never accept his offer even as part of a ruse. She would never give that monster of a man the satisfaction of thinking he'd beaten her. She would rather die than let that happen.

  Nina would sit in that cell as long as necessary to protect and honor Purdue's memory, and as a middle finger to the Order of the Black Sun.

  Charles had seen many threats come to the front door of David Purdue's estate over the years of serving him. His late employer's work tended to draw all kinds of problems and all kinds of enemies. He would travel all over the world and bring back more than just souvenirs sometimes. But no one had ever done so much damage to David Purdue's home before; Charles had been very protective of it over the years. But now ... now that house was gone, and Charles had failed.

  The Order of the Black Sun didn't knock on the door of the estate. They had immediately destroyed the house with their home invasion, crashing through the walls with those enormous trucks and removing the many ancient possessions that the home had kept safe until then.

  Charles had to watch that house, the house he tended to and kept clean, burn to the ground thanks t
o Julian Corvus and the Black Sun. They forced him to see his years of hard work and service be made absolutely pointless. Everything he had done had all just led to the house being destroyed anyway, along with its owner.

  There were times when Purdue's ego got on Charles' nerves but the billionaire had almost always been kind to him, and at the very least, treated him with respect. They always shared a fondness for one another and that helped them work so well. They trusted each other up until the very end, but Charles could do nothing to help him when Purdue was trapped in the fire that destroyed his home. He wasn't even able to escape capture.

  As such, he was stuck in a dusty old cell, a prisoner of the secret society that Purdue had battled for so long. The griminess of his holding cell was starting to drive him crazy. He had no way of really cleaning it, so instead he had to just put up with the dirt and the stench, as disgusting as it was.

  A figure came up to the bars of his door and he recognized him as Purdue's murderer and the leader of the Black Sun, Julian Corvus. He had barely ever spoken to that man but hated him with every fiber of his being. He had watched as Julian led the attack on Purdue's estate. He had seen the glee on his face when he set fire to the house.

  “I hope your accommodations are comfortable enough,” Julian said snidely, with a layer of fake friendliness. “Unfortunately we don't have any caretakers to really make sure the place is in good condition. No one like you with your level of experience and skills, I'm sure. I saw how nice of a job you had done with Purdue's home before ... well, before what happened.”

  Charles didn't look at him. His opinion on his captor was clear enough.

  Julian tried again. “You served Mr. Purdue for a long time...”

  “Yes,” Charles said. “I served that house for many years. Until you and your thieves trespassed and ransacked it. Then you burnt it to the ground.” Charles was furious but his aging mind wasn't letting him voice his fury as effectively as he wanted. He was clumsily stringing together thoughts rather than making the bold and cutting remarks that he intended. “Those artifacts you so callously stole were not yours to take! They were house property.”

  “Are we really going to have this debate?” Julian laughed. “Your late master of the house didn't get permission to take those items from where he found them, did he? So were they really his property? It seems to me, that your boss was just as much of a thief as you claim I am.”

  “David Purdue salvaged those relics from where they had been left behind for years. From where they had been lost to time. He found them, not stole them! He never pried them from another man's hands and then burned him and his home to the ground.”

  “Well ... he did fight my order over those relics quite frequently ... so he did pry them from someone else's hands.”

  Charles ignored Julian's defense. “You killed him because you are a gutless coward. You knew he would always beat you to those artifacts because he was worthy of them, and you were not. He would always win.”

  Julian looked around, like he was expecting to find Purdue standing in the room. “Clearly ... he didn't always win.”

  “You went after a man when he was at home at supper. You could never have beaten him without such spineless tactics.”

  “You keep acting like I'm a coward. I would call it being smart. You're right, in a way. If the Order of the Black Sun kept trying the same old things, then Mr. Purdue was going to keep beating us time and time again. That's why I took charge. It was time for change, and evidently, I made the right decisions.”

  Charles spat on the floor of his cell. Julian looked down at the damp blotch it left and then at the old butler. He was tough and resilient for his advanced age, and clearly, not fond of Julian.

  “I admire your loyalty,” Julian said honestly. “I can see now why Purdue relied on you. But there's no need to keep serving him. He's gone. You're loyal to a ghost. Even the house you took care of is gone.”

  “Then why did you take me?”

  Julian let out a tired exhale. It was exhausting speaking to prisoners who had no intention of even considering new possibilities. “Well ... you aren't of much use to me, unlike Dr. Gould. Taking you prisoner was just another way to cut a little deeper into Purdue before he died ... just to pour some salt into that open wound. It was an admittedly selfish bit of theater for my own amusement.”

  “So you'll let me go then?”

  “I suppose I could, but where would you go?”

  “Anywhere but here.”

  “I won't hear of it,” Julian said with fake concern. “What good is a butler without a house to tend to? Hmm ... this is quite the conundrum. Truth be told, I have half a mind to just put a bullet in your brain and be done with this.”

  There it was. Charles had heard about Julian Corvus from Purdue, and he had heard all about this man's cruelty. Now he could see it, the demon behind the mask of civility. The leader of a dangerous collective of scum that was willing to hurt anyone in his way.

  “Do what you will,” Charles said. “I served David Purdue to the end. Whether that's his end or my end. So do you worst. I performed my duty and did my job.”

  Julian shook his head in disbelief. “As I said, loyalty like yours is very hard to come by.”

  “For horrendous people like you, perhaps. Evil tends to attract evil.”

  Julian snickered. “Maybe you'll live a bit longer. Give me time to consider other options. This place could sure use a good cleaning.”

  “It won't be getting one from me.”

  “We'll just have to see.”

  Jean-Luc Gerard hadn't spent long with David Purdue. They had traveled from New Orleans to Salem together in search of that powerful book of shadows and then back to Purdue's home in Scotland. It wasn't a long time together, but in that short time, they'd been through a lot. Also in that time, Jean had seen the end of Purdue's life as his enemies closed in around him, took his things, and destroyed his home. He knew that he was a prisoner of some very, very dangerous people.

  Though he couldn't figure out why they had taken him as a captive. They could just have easily killed him on the spot next to Purdue. They could have even let him go. He knew very little about them and whatever they did. He wasn't a threat, not really. So why were they still keeping him there? What use was he for them? Maybe there was a misunderstanding, or maybe their leader just liked imprisoning innocent people for fun.

  He stared at that leader, Julian Corvus, as he came down to his cell to visit him. He was more cordial than Jean expected, especially after seeing how violent he was when he killed Purdue. He knew that this man was capable of excessive bloodshed, yet here he seemed so well put together and proper. He wore his suit so comfortably, like he tried to avoid getting blood on his hands.

  “I must apologize for your treatment,” Julian said. “We had to be sure of who you were and why you were at David Purdue's when we found you. That took some time to make sure that you weren't going to be any sort of threat to us.”

  “I kept telling you, all of you, that I had nothing to do with this.”

  “You were right. This was never your fight, Mr. Gerard. You got caught up in the middle of a war that you had no part of, no stake in. All because of that business with the book of shadows. You just picked the wrong friends.”

  “My point exactly,” Jean said with some relief. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I shouldn't have been in Purdue's house when you and your pals came barreling in to take his things. That's on me. But like you said, I don't have a horse in this race. This whole secret society of yours has nothing to do with me.” He decided to just go for it. “So why not just let me go?”

  “I plan to, actually,” Julian said. “After all, you've got that book shop of yours to attend to. From what I hear, your store is one of the most respected among the occult community in New Orleans. I imagine that must be high praise considering that city's history.”

  “It is,” Jean said. “I do my best to make sure it is as good as
it can be.”

  “Respectable. The truth be told, I have never been overly well versed in the ... less conventional ... history of the world. The paranormal. The supernatural. Magics and hexes. All of that never really interested me that much. I was always much more fascinated by the things that were holy and blessed rather than the things that were cursed or haunted.”

  “Well that sounds boring,” Jean said with a small smirk. “And you're really missing out. You wouldn't believe some of the strange things that happen in life. The unexplained things are by far the best things to have to explain. The power I've seen, it can't just be attributed to God. There's always an earthly reason ... sometimes buried very deep in the past. But of course, a lot of those magics aren't exactly nice to see.”

  “I can imagine,” Julian said. “From what I heard, that book of shadows you found wasn't a comforting novel.”

  “No it wasn't...” Jean said, remembering everything he went through with Purdue, and that traitor Felicity, to get the book. “It scared the hell out of me. Scared the hell out of all of us. Purdue was a lot like you, you know.”

  “Was he?” Julian practically cackled at the idea. “How so?”

  “He wasn't very fond of the darker side of history either. That was why he brought me along with him to begin with. He needed someone with actual knowledge about the occult to help him find the book of shadows.”

  “I'm sure you regret that decision now...” Julian said. “Since it brought you here.”

  “Not really,” Jean said. “I had one of that book's pages for so long. I never expected to ever actually find the rest of it. Without Purdue, I never would have. We weren't friends. Hell, we didn't know each other long enough to really be friends ... but we did work well together and I do owe him for all of that ... I won't be able to repay that debt now, I guess.”