Diablero

by Toby Tate

  Was that where she was heading? And why send him a text and not call him? It wasn‘t like her, unless she was trying to hide the message from someone. That had to be it. And if that was true, that meant she was likely under some sort of duress.

  As he pulled up close to Lisa’s apartment, he saw the complex in his headlights. Liang steered his Jeep Cherokee into a parking space a few spaces down from Lisa’s apartment and turned off the engine. He reached into his glove compartment and pulled out his .44 Magnum, checked the chambers, and stepped out of the car. He closed the door quietly, and then bumped it shut with his hip so as not to make noise.

  Liang stuck the gun into his waistband and carefully walked toward the apartment. From where he was, he could see there were no lights inside, which could mean Lisa either left before dark or was still inside and somehow disabled.

  Or, God forbid, dead.

  He made his way up the steps and peered through the door window. There didn’t seem to be anyone inside and the furniture was still in place. No broken lamps or overturned chairs. He pulled out his key and let himself in.

  Once inside, Liang made his way to every room in the house, every closet and the utility room. His daughter was nowhere to be found.

  On the bar sat a glass of half-finished tea. Liang remembered the message she had left earlier in the day, telling him about Jonathan and the message from Hunter. If only he had picked up the phone instead of sleeping like the old man he was becoming. He could have kicked himself.

  He looked over at Lisa’s phone, then walked to it and pressed the play button on the answering machine. The last few messages played, some from him, others from friends, but the one from Hunter was the one that he found the most interesting. Liang stood, listening with intense interest, trying to put together what he was hearing with what Lisa had told him on the phone and the text message she had sent. It didn’t quite add up, but he knew something had to be done. As an ex-cop, he knew the consequences of waiting until it was too late. Time to be proactive.

  The message finished playing through twice, and Liang picked up the phone and punched in the number of an old friend. After a few rings, a familiar voice sounded on the other end, and Liang felt a wave of relief. He did his best to keep his voice as calm as possible.

  “Jimmy, I think we have a problem.”

  Fifty

  Teach had been taught in the Royal Navy that women and ships did not belong together, that women were bad luck. As a pirate, however, he had seen more than one woman bring a man to his knees with a cutlass or a well-aimed pistol shot. Female pirates were rare, but he had found them to be as formidable as their male counterparts.

  Lisa could easily be one of these women. As beautiful as any he had ever seen, with her mix of Asian and African features, she was also lethal and would make either a loyal friend or a deadly enemy. He decided that to take her by force would be unwise. To truly have her loyalty, he would have to allow her to come to him of her own free will. He was doubtful of whether this would happen, since she seemed to be happily married. But Blackbeard had always had a way with women. He’d never met one he couldn’t eventually seduce, whether she was married or not.

  As for Jonathan and Caesar, they would become part of his crew. He knew they had no loyalty towards him, but it wouldn’t matter once they were dead. Then, he would raise them and they would be his followers. He would have a crew such as the world had never seen; an army of the dead. They would walk the earth, enforcing his will, and he would reign supreme. The spell from the book would make him invincible, forever tying him to this world, giving him powers beyond anything these mortals could ever imagine. Even now, his power was great enough to withstand any force the humans could throw at him.

  It was laughable to think that one of them had been stupid enough to bring him back from the dead, to evoke the spell of reincarnation, but he had. For now, that person still held sway over his spirit, but not for long. Soon, that would change, and the man would pay with his life.

  He reveled in the senses of this body, this new, yet old, body that had been rebuilt cell-upon-cell from virtually nothing. Even he, as a demon, did not fully understand how it worked, but knew he had been allowed to do many things not usually given to those of his kind. Their place had been reserved in the pit, in the darkness, behind the veil where light and love and goodness are merely concepts, things that exist in principle. For him and his brethren, they did not exist at all. Only hate and fear and pain were realities in their world.

  But here, in this mortal body, he experienced things that had, at first, confused him, because they were beyond his understanding, beyond his experience. He knew that at one time, they had lived in the light, had known peace and joy, but that had been many forgotten eons ago. This thing he was feeling for the woman was something he had no inkling of, because it didn’t come from him. It came from the other, from Edward Teach, the one who was supposed to have been killed.

  But the demon knew he was more powerful than the man, and he would keep it under his power, as he had when he first wrested control of this body from its original owner.

  Teach looked up at the night sky and recognized every constellation, every star, every planet. He knew exactly where they were and exactly how far they had to go. But he had no desire to sleep. He found he didn’t need more than four hours a night, sometimes less. And eating or drinking was almost non-existent, being more of a pleasure than an outright necessity. He thought he might at some point go to the boat’s galley and try to see what type of food was aboard. Whatever it was, he was sure it would be much better than the salted pork and hardtack that passed for a sailor’s sustenance in his day.

  He turned to look at the pilothouse and saw that Aiden was gone and Caesar had taken over the wheel.

  Fifty-one

  Lisa lay fully dressed in the darkness, the hum of the boat’s twin diesels a little louder than she would have liked. But then again, none of this was to her liking. The boat bobbed and rocked in the waves. The surf seemed to grow choppier as they sailed south to the Bahamas. At first, she felt a little seasick, but the feeling soon passed. She was too exhausted to let it affect her. Lisa had been out on boats many times in the Albemarle Sound as a ranger, and was an ardent kayaker, as well. She knew the water, had grown up around it.

  The boat’s shower had felt good on her skin, the warm water washing away the grime, cleansing away the dirtiness she felt. Was she a traitor, or a hero? She wasn’t sure. She only hoped she was doing the right thing and that everything would work out for the best. She had to have faith that it would.

  Lisa was glad she had brought along a change of clothes. It would have been nice to have her gun, as well, but after the demon had twisted it into a pretzel, it was useless, anyway. Besides, how could you kill something that was already dead?

  She thought about the events at Caesar’s house and wondered what had happened to Hunter. Jason swore to her that he would look after Hunter, and she knew he would.

  After the ordeal at Caesar’s, the ride in his car felt as if she was riding to her death. She had never been so afraid. Once they got to the boat, she wondered what Blackbeard, or any of the others, would do to her.

  So far, it seemed, her fears had been unfounded, though she had caught Aiden eyeing her on more than one occasion. He was a seedy little man, looking at everyone and everything with suspicion in his eyes. She wondered what his game was.

  She listened to the waves lapping the side of the boat outside her open portal, the wind gently blowing her hair. The moonlight cast a faint glow upon the bed, and she wished Hunter was there beside her, telling her everything would be all right, that there was nothing to fear, no dead pirates walking around, no demons, no secret books, just the two of them.

  She smiled for the first time in days, and then glanced at the stateroom door.

  The brass doorknob slowly began to turn.

  Fifty-two

  Hunter eyed the beat-up old Buick sitting by the docks and
had a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Although he knew how brave Lisa was, he also realized she was probably terrified, wondering to herself if she would live to see another day. He swore that if Blackbeard or Jonathan so much as touched her, he would rip out their beating hearts and shove them down their throats. He was pretty sure Caesar was trustworthy, but he knew that sometimes a person you trusted most could turn out to be your worst enemy.

  He glanced at Jason. “I hope you’re right about where they’re headed. What if we get there and find out you were wrong? Then what?”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not wrong. And besides, I have a foolproof means of tracking them to their destination, whatever it might be.”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black box with a large LCD, several buttons, and the words MAGELLAN written in big block letters.

  Hunter recognized the device immediately. “A GPS system,” he said, a knowing smile crossing his lips.

  “Yep. We can track their location, speed, and direction.”

  “Where is the transmitter?”

  “In the best place I could think of to put it—Caesar’s pocket.”

  Hunter slowly nodded his head. “Good move, as long as Blackbeard doesn’t decide to throw him overboard, that is.”

  “Don’t worry, that won’t happen. Blackbeard needs Caesar to decipher the book for him and to cast the proper spell. Otherwise, it’s just meaningless words.”

  Hunter walked beside Jason as they moved toward the pier. “What kind of boat did you say you had? Is it a rental?”

  “No, it belonged to my father. When he passed away, he left it to me, along with the payments. Luckily, it was mostly paid off.”

  “I never knew you had a boat. Why do you keep it here? Why not bring it to River City, put it in the marina?”

  “Since Dad lived in Myrtle Beach, he liked to keep it parked in Charleston to avoid the tourist traffic, as if there’s no tourist traffic here. I just never got around to moving it, I guess. Too much trouble. And besides, I spend a lot of time down here. Reminds me of my childhood.”

  They came to a boardwalk lined with long wooden piers, the various berths occupied with everything from small fishing boats and trawlers to yachts and twin-hulled catamarans. Since it was night, the boardwalk was mostly deserted. Dim lights shone from the windows of some of the boats, providing subtle signs of occupancy. A true boat-lover’s paradise. Hunter shook his head in amazement.

  “So, which one’s ours?” he asked.

  Jason turned down one of the piers. Hunter followed close behind, and then stopped in front of the sleekest, most aerodynamic boat he had ever seen. They walked down a short gangplank to the main deck. Being ex-navy, Hunter was familiar with most types of boats. He could see this one had an eighteen-to-twenty-foot beam and was about forty feet long from stem to stern. The pilothouse sat atop a bridge surrounded by dark, Plexiglas windows and a lower deck that likely held a berthing area and probably a galley and a head. The bow swept to a perfect knife-edge, topped by a stainless steel railing that encircled the boat. On the stern, a ladder led down to a deck for diving.

  On the starboard side, near the water line, was a name, which was a little too dark to make out.

  Jason suddenly appeared from the pilothouse and looked down at Hunter. “Welcome aboard the Gertrude, named after my mother,” he said.

  Hunter was awestruck. “Nice boat,” he said, nodding approvingly.

  Then he flung his backpack over his shoulder and walked across the gangplank.

  Fifty-three

  Lisa stared at the brass door handle of her stateroom.

  She lay as still as the dead, holding her breath until she thought she might turn blue. She had the same feeling she did when she was a little girl living in the country in northeastern North Carolina and a particularly nasty nor’easter had come up. The near-hurricane-force winds howled relentlessly, the branches from a nearby willow tree slapping out a rhythm against the side of her house like a ghost beating out Morse code, signaling it was time to die. But as she watched the door swing wide and the dim light pour inside, she knew this was much more real than a little girl’s frightened imagination.

  She couldn’t tell if it was relief or just a lower level of fear when she realized it was John Aiden—and not the Death Defier—standing in the doorway. He looked at her and smiled, and the smile reminded her of something she had once seen on the face of a wanted sex-offender.

  “Sorry to bother you, but I was in the galley and wondered if maybe you might want something to eat. I have plenty of food and plenty to drink. Even some wine. Good stuff from a local Williamsburg winery.”

  Lisa could feel her heart racing. She wondered who was piloting the boat. Somehow she managed to keep her voice calm. “No, thanks. I was just about to go to sleep, actually.”

  “That’s why I didn’t knock. I was afraid I might wake you. But since you weren’t asleep, I thought I’d offer some food. While I’m here, though, let me just show you how the ventilation system works in this room, in case you get cold.”

  Quicker than she could react, Aiden was in her room, the door closed behind him. He flicked on the light and began fiddling with a device on her wall that looked somewhat like a thermostat. She sat up in the bed and watched with rising alarm.

  “It looks like it’s set. I think you should be pretty comfortable,” Aiden said, his back turned to her.

  “Thanks, but the window’s open anyway and I really would like to go to sleep now, if you don’t…”

  When Aiden turned, Lisa saw him clutching a large butcher knife in his hand. She couldn’t imagine where he had concealed it. Instinctively, she jumped against the backboard of her bed.

  “If you so much as make a sound, I’ll cut your god damned head off,” he said.

  “I knew there was something wrong with you. What do you want, you freak?”

  “What any red-blooded male would want, of course. I’ve been watching you, prancing around in those tight jeans all night long. I can tell you have a great body, that you work out. I’ll bet you break a lot of hearts with that face, too, and those lips…” he trailed off as a bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face.

  “Listen, we can talk about this, just—”

  “Shut up, or I will rape you. Luckily for you, I’m in a hurry, so I’ll make it easy for you.”

  Aiden clamped the knife blade between his teeth like a B-movie Tarzan, and watching Lisa intently, he reached down and unfastened his pants, letting them fall to his knees. She saw with disgust that he wasn’t wearing underwear, and already had an erection. He grabbed the knife in his hand and pointed the blade at her. “Now let’s see what you can do with that mouth besides talk.”

  Lisa wasn’t sure what happened next, but somehow Teach appeared in her room, standing over Aiden like a mountain towering over a lone pine tree. The door to her stateroom remained closed.

  Lisa watched as the look on Aiden’s face changed from lust to fear as he sensed Blackbeard’s presence behind him. The knife fell from his hand and clattered uselessly on the teakwood deck as he slowly turned to face the demon.

  “I…I was just having a little fun, that’s all. I wasn’t going to hurt her, I swear.”

  Lisa could see two large hands grab Aiden by the shoulders, and the little man, his bare ass hanging out, was lifted up off the deck by almost a foot. But the hands weren’t hands at all; they were more like the claws of a bird, like those of a monstrous eagle. When the Death Defier spoke, his voice boomed so loudly Lisa thought the walls of the small stateroom might explode. But it wasn’t just one voice...there were many voices, speaking in unison.

  “Leave the woman alone, Aiden. And if I catch you again, I’ll flay you alive and send you straight to Hell, where you belong. Understood?”

  Aiden, grasping for the second time at the steel-muscled arms that held him, forced a feeble yes through his dry larynx before Teach released his grip and Aiden came crashing to the d
eck.

  “Now get out.”

  Aiden got up as quickly as he could, stumbling and pulling up his pants as he tried to open the stateroom door.

  When he got it open, Jonathan stood outside. “Is everything okay?” he asked. “I heard a crash and some yelling and thought somebody might be in trouble.”

  Aiden quickly shot past him, and Jonathan watched him go, then turned and went into the stateroom.

  On the bed, Lisa sat, staring at an empty wall.

  Blackbeard was gone.

  Fifty-four

  Hunter and Jason sat in the pilothouse of the forty-two-foot Regal Express yacht, which Hunter still couldn’t believe belonged to his friend. He knew the family had money. Jason‘s father had been a prominent physician in Myrtle Beach before he had contracted cancer and had to quit his practice. But still, the yacht had to be worth nearly a half-million, easy. Must be nice to be rich, he thought.

  The only boat Hunter’s family had ever owned was the one he and his father took to Lake Tenkiller in Muskogee, Oklahoma, when they went fishing. It had a small, single outboard Evinrude engine that coughed and sputtered when they tried to start it, but it got the job done. They usually managed to come back with a bass or two and an empty drink cooler.

  Hunter looked down over the side of the boat. They sliced through the water at about thirty knots. He could see the electrolytes glowing green as the hull generated friction in the salty sea.

  Hunter looked up at the stars and remembered his time in the navy, staring up at the same sky and feeling as small as a grain of sand on an endless beach. He was always amazed at the sheer number of stars that were visible once out and away from civilization and city lights. Sometimes, between standing watches in the engine room and sleeping, he would climb up to the top of the bridge and look out through the high-powered binoculars mounted there on a swivel stand. Through them he could see the craters on the moon, Mars, Saturn, and even the moons around Jupiter. He felt like he could almost reach out and touch them.