Back From Hell (Revenant Files Book 1)
Page 22
“Is that what you call it?” Vic lowered his weapon. “Why the hell are you here? Who are you and what do you mean we got it wrong?”
The stranger walked to a tree, leaned against it, and faced away from them. “That ‘Axman’ you found? He was not the real Axman. He was his little underling masquerading as his boss.” One of his hands curled into a fist and the rings rattled against one another. “This Axman is annoyingly clever. You messed his plans up but he thinks on the fly. He found another way to get his power.”
“So we obliterated his goon. That’s still something,” Vic pointed out, then frowned. “Wait, we did obliterate him, right?”
“No, that was never the plan,” he stated. “That bullet brought him to me. I made sure to bury him right. Hell would have been too good for him and Oblivion too easy.” He looked at one of his hands as it glowed with a purple light. “He was a spirit already so I could have condemned him to Hell or Oblivion. Instead, I filled his grave and trapped him there, forever lost in the darkness with only the wails of other trapped souls to keep him company for eternity.” He chuckled with wicked mirth. “He probably thought his boss could save him from his fate in Hell but I’m sure he regrets that decision now.”
The two partners considered this and looked questioningly at each other before they asked the same question. “Who the hell are you?”
Finally, the man turned to face them and adjusted his top hat again. “I am a keeper and if you look in the right places in this very city, you will find out who I am. My worshippers aren’t as large here as in other places but they are around.”
“Can you hold off on the whole mystery nonsense?” Johnny demanded. “It’s not helping us and it took us a while to come around to thinking your bullet could maybe help us in the first place. And you can cross over, so why didn’t you help us to obliterate him—or even help now for that matter?”
He looked at them snidely, partially amused but mostly annoyed like a king looking at peasants. “We all have our parts to play in the cycle of life and death, boy,” he answered solemnly. “And I am potentially making things worse by being here. That’s why I set things in motion to get you two here.”
Vic almost dropped his gun in surprise. “I’m sorry—run that by me again.”
“I got you here,” he stated again, much louder this time. “I was the one who put that gig into the system that led you to Sulfur where you discovered the letter that brought you here. It was easy enough with the promise of a big payday, no?”
“But there wasn’t a payday. That was us thinking we could make something out of it,” Johnny recalled.
The keeper nodded. “It worked out for me. Otherwise, I would have had to be more involved and a keeper should keep their meddling down in the land of the living. It doesn’t mean we don’t have a little fun, but we know when to cut off.” He brought the brim of his hat down over his eyes. “Most of us do, anyway.”
“So why bring us in?” the ghost asked. “We’re detectives and the kid has only been doing this for a couple of years. This seems like something you would need a group of bounty hunters on—those who don’t mind getting messy.”
“Because I thought you would be more subtle,” he admitted. “And I was desperate. But given your ability to travel freely through the Veil, I thought it would prove useful since this is a fight on both planes.”
Johnny shook his head as he tried to take this all in. “All right, fine, you’re a great puppeteer. Whatever. If we got it wrong, can’t you make us another bullet and we’ll take him out when we find the real one?”
The man shook his head. “He’ll be prepared now. My essence will no longer be enough.”
“The Axman?”
For a long moment, the keeper remained silent before he bared his teeth slightly. “My brother. The only reason other keepers haven’t gotten involved is that they don’t know he is acting out and they are loath to do so without evidence.”
Vic folded his arms. “What? They don’t take your word?”
He snorted and looked away. “This is far from the first time he and I have squabbled, but never with these stakes. He is not doing anything out of the ordinary for him, and since he is not exploiting his privileges and powers openly, they pay him no mind as long as he continues his function.”
“Not using his powers openly?” Johnny demanded. “How is he not? He had to have been the one to bring the Axman back and—”
“He did not. The Axman did that himself,” the keeper interrupted and twirled his hand, and a black-and-gold cane appeared. “My brother found him and saw the opportunity.”
“To do what exactly?”
The man looked into the night sky. “My brother has not been happy in his role for some time. He has looked for a way to separate the Veil between life and death.”
Vic waved a hand. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed me or a good chunk of the population, but that’s already happened, buddy.”
“There is a tear, but the Veil is not broken,” the keeper corrected and pointed his cane at them. “And you two are as much one of those tears as any portal, but that is beside the point.” He lowered his cane and closed his eyes. “If this is not corrected soon, all realms will be in chaos— not something I can imagine can be repaired. The Wild Hunt is not on the prowl for now, but if they should come, they will reap every ghost along with the Axman. They will purge New Orleans of every undead spirit as they are called to do. Even innocent spirits with a chance of making it to Paradise or to be reincarnated will be cast into Oblivion.” He peered in their direction. “That would include Vic. What would happen, I wonder, if you were severed?”
“All right, we get it!” The ghost detective growled. “Evil keeper doing evil things, fate of the cycle in balance, whatever. How do we stop your brother?”
“My brother? I brought you to deal with the Axman,” he replied and purple smoke began to billow around him. “Whatever he is doing allows my brother to exist here without the use of his abilities as a keeper. If you stop him, my brother has no way to remain and I will deal with him.”
The partners looked at one another before Johnny nodded and stepped forward. “Fine, we’ll work on it. But do you have a backup plan to kill him if your bullets no longer work?”
The smoke wrapped around the keeper as he grinned. “What do you mean? You are my backup plan, my friends.” He slammed his cane down and vanished in the smoke. “Do you fancy yourselves detectives rather than bounty hunters? I need you to be both, exactly as you are both alive and a ghost. I believe in you.”
They both waved the smoke away and Vic dug into his pocket for a couple of loose cigarettes. “Damn keepers. Now we’re in their mess.” He handed one to Johnny who looked at it for a moment before he shrugged and took it. The ghost lit both. “Before we proceed—”
“Yeah, I wanna stay,” the young detective said firmly. “That’s what you wanted to ask, right?”
His partner took a drag and chuckled. “Well, I intended to ask if you were hungry first and maybe talk about it over dinner, but sure. No hesitation?”
He shook his head. “No, you?”
Vic looked at the sky. “I don’t like being roped into someone else’s madness, but I should have chosen a different profession if it bothered me that much.”
Johnny laughed and focused on the moon. “Yeah, well, we’ve both had to deal with each other’s madness for a while. What’s a little more?” His companion didn’t answer and he wasn’t looking for one. They both simply took this time to stare at the moon and enjoy a moment of peace before it would inevitably turn into chaos.
But hey, they liked it that way.
The Story Continues
The story continues with Axeman: Cycle of Death, available at Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited.
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Author Notes - Michael Anderle
September 22, 2021
Thank you for not only reading this book but these author notes here in the
back as well.
For those who don’t know me, I’m going to drop a little “about me” down below after a few personal thoughts.
When my collaborator pitched this series to me, I can’t say I was overwhelmed with enthusiasm. I’m not normally a ghost story-type reader. However, he was willing to write the first few thousand words and flip them to me to see for myself what he was thinking.
Obviously, I became more enthralled once I got a chance to meet Johnny and Vic. Then, his whole idea of the new ghost world did something I hadn’t expected. It captivated my attention.
Normally, I’m a character guy. Give me great characters, and I’ll follow them anywhere. The world they inhabit isn’t as special to me. Therefore, when I started wondering about the world (and I could catch myself doing this as I was reading the first parts of the story), I realized he had done it.
My collaborator had nabbed me with a world. Well done. Well done, indeed!
I could imagine this world in a video game, a tv series, and/or a movie. I find it interesting to think about the ghosts of the past being able to “live” alongside present-day humans, and we’d get to interact with them.
Well, until you get something like the Axeman to have a chat with. That guy is a serious asshole.
I’ll see you in the next book. Don’t leave us hanging!
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
I wrote my first book Death Becomes Her (The Kurtherian Gambit) in September/October of 2015 and released it November 2, 2015. I wrote and released the next two books that same month and had three released by the end of November 2015.
So, just under six years ago.
Since then, I’ve written, collaborated, concepted, and/or created hundreds more in all sorts of genres.
My most successful genre is still my first, Paranormal Sci-Fi, followed quickly by Urban Fantasy. I have multiple pen names I produce under.
Some because I can be a bit crude in my humor at times or raw in my cynicism (Michael Todd). I have one I share with Martha Carr (Judith Berens, and another (not disclosed) that we use as a marketing test pen name.
In general, I just love to tell stories, and with success comes the opportunity to mix two things I love in my life.
Business and stories.
I’ve wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was a teenager. I was a very unsuccessful entrepreneur (I tried many times) until my publishing company LMBPN signed one author in 2015.
Me.
I was the president of the company, and I was the first author published. Funny how it worked out that way.
It was late 2016 before we had additional authors join me for publishing. Now we have a few dozen authors, a few hundred audiobooks by LMBPN published, a few hundred more licensed by six audio companies, and about a thousand titles in our company.
It’s been a busy five plus years.
Thanks for reading this story, and talk to you later!
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
Books By D'Artagnan Rey
The Astral Wanderer
A New Light (Book one)
Bloodflowers Bloom (Book two)
The Oblivion Trials (Book three)
The Revenant Files
Back from Hell (Book one)
Axeman: Cycle of Death (coming soon)
Jazz Funeral (Coming soon)
Books By Michael Anderle
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