With Silent Screams (The Hellequin Chronicles, Book 3)

by Steve McHugh

“Because you’re itching to. You want to tell everyone how smart you were, and how easy it was to string all those people along.”

  “Fine, you’re right. I told them they were Vanguard to give them a purpose. Make them think they were doing something they consider worthwhile. They were a band of misfits and murderers when I came along, it didn’t take much to convince them that the world’s ills stemmed from the people I wanted dead.”

  “So, why did you want those people dead?”

  “Ah, that’s for me to know. Let me ask you something, why did Galahad get you to bring me in? Why not do it himself?” He glanced around as if checking for anyone who may overhear us. “Why ask Merlin’s Assassin to come get me?”

  I stared at Simon as a thought popped into my head. “Have we met before?”

  “Oh, yes, although it took me a little while to remember you. The last time we met you were trying to kill me.”

  “Clearly I didn’t do the best of jobs.”

  “Milan, 1709. You remember it now? Do you remember those dead kids?”

  Reality dawned on me as the memory of dead teenagers found in snowy woods flashed in my brain. “You were the assassin.”

  Simon nodded, apparently proud of his work. “You almost had me. Almost.”

  “So, who do you work for? Did you work for Shadow Falls back then?”

  “No, I was freelance. I came under the notice of the old king of Shadow Falls a century ago. He made me very rich. And will continue to do so again when the impostor who stole his crown is removed.”

  “So, all of these murders was to, what? Make Galahad look bad?”

  “I think we’re done talking now. If you stick around town you’ll find out exactly what I have planned.”

  I stood and looked down at Simon who had closed his eyes.

  “Please do close the door behind you. I’m sure Galahad’s men will be in here shortly to rough me up; I’d like a nap before then.”

  “Make sure we don’t meet again, Simon,” I told him.

  Simon opened one eye and stared at me. “Oh, we’ll meet again. And next time, I don’t plan on letting you win.”

  I found Galahad outside the police station talking to the mayor, who scowled and walked off the second he saw me. “That man is a weaselly little bastard,” Galahad said before taking a drink of what smelled like coffee.

  “Why’d you hire me?” I asked. “No more bullshit. Why have me go after him? He’s clearly working for the ex-king. So, what is he really doing here?”

  Galahad drank his coffee and dropped the polystyrene cup into the bin next to him. “I have no idea. I’m hoping our interrogators will be able to figure it out. But know this, Simon never does anything for the fun of it. If he is working for Charles Whitehorn, the ex-king, and I’m certain he is, there’s a game plan here.”

  “Why not go to Charles and threaten him off?”

  “There’s a rumor that he’s about to run for Senator.”

  “As in a United States Senator?”

  “Unfortunately, yes. If we go after him and there’s any link back to Shadow Falls, it could cause problems for us. Avalon certainly wouldn’t be happy that we’re threatening people who are in the neutral territory of D.C. My position isn’t solidified enough that I can risk it. Besides, Simon was killing on my own doorstep—that was more important than threatening someone and maybe creating more support for him in the long run.”

  “How was everyone from the house?”

  “We took the three remaining members of Simon’s gang to a nearby cabin. Once Simon’s been taken back to Shadow Falls, they’ll be given over to the SPD to do with as they see fit. Bill and the rest of the inhabitants of the house are at a nearby hospital. They’re mostly suffering from shock and minor injuries. The psychological impact is going to be the big thing for them.”

  “Simon was asking about tattoos,” I said. “Is there a parlor in town?”

  Galahad shook his head. “What type of tattoos?”

  “No idea, he wouldn’t say. But he only grabbed people with tattoos. It’s why Sally-Ann was disposed of; she didn’t have any. But then, why did they think she might have?”

  I walked back into the station and made my way to Simon, who was still alone. “Why’d you grab Sally-Ann?” I asked.

  “Who?” Simon asked without opening his eyes.

  “The girl you threw out of a car?”

  “She fit my type.”

  “Bullshit. You wanted tattoos, why her? She didn’t have any.”

  Simon sighed. “Two of my boys grabbed her before I could stop them. I checked her for marks and discarded her. Then I killed one of the boys to make sure we didn’t have any more stupid errors. Is she why you’re here?”

  “She was the daughter of a friend of Avalon’s.”

  Simon sat bolt upright. “Are you fucking kidding me? You’re here because of some bitch my idiot group grabbed because they couldn’t keep their shit together?”

  “You’re in here because you murdered someone important to an Avalon official. You very much killed the wrong girl.”

  “Those fucking idiots!” Simon screamed and launched himself at the bars, which ignited his hands he touched them, causing him to scream in pain and drop to the floor. “It’s a good thing you killed them.”

  “Looks like you picked the wrong people to trust.”

  Simon seethed silently for a few seconds. “Speaking of trust. You see that miserable fucking wood troll who set me up, tell him I’m going to make him watch as I butcher his clan. I promised him what would happen. And now I plan to follow through.”

  “Well, good luck with getting out of there without cooking yourself. I’m sure he’ll be up all night concerned that the mighty Simon Olson, char-grilled to perfection, is going to come for him.”

  “Go fuck yourself.”

  The door opened and two large men stepped inside. One was pushing a table, the contents of which were covered by a black sheet. “I think you’ve got bigger problems,” I told him and left him alone with his newfound friends.

  CHAPTER 16

  The fact that Simon had been removing tattoos, and only taking those sporting them, was something that was still bouncing around my brain when I finally managed to fall asleep later that night. Galahad had assured me that he would get to the bottom of whatever Simon was after, and it was no longer my job to worry. But even so, something bothered me and at the time of 2:34 AM, I decided to go for a walk to clear my head.

  Apparently I wasn’t the only one, as I bumped into Bill only a few minutes later.

  “Couldn’t sleep?” he asked and sat on a park bench.

  I shook my head and sat beside him. “Something is bothering me about all of this. I can’t figure out what it is. But it was all too easy.”

  “That Simon bastard surrendered without a fight. Does that seem normal to you?”

  I shook my head. “Apparently we met in Milan a few hundred years ago. He didn’t go without a fight then. In fact, he escaped the first chance he got.”

  “So, why give up now? Why would anyone want to be captured and taken somewhere where they can have the shit kicked out of them by people looking for answers?”

  “That’s a good question.”

  I stood up and started walking toward the police station, with Bill beside me.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “When was the last time you spoke to someone in the station?”

  “A few hours ago, why?”

  I didn’t answer; instead, I went into a flat out sprint, leaving Bill far behind as my magic made me much faster than any human could hope to be.

  I reached the police stations front door and gave it a push. Locked. A second push was accompanied with a magical blast, which removed not only the lock, but most of one door, which then swung open.

&nbs
p; “You armed?” I asked Bill, who’d caught me up.

  He drew his revolver and I stepped into the police station. The desk sergeant had been pulled over the desk, where a metal rod had been stabbed through the back of his head, pinning him to the now-red floor. Behind him, three more bodies sat, each of them covered in blood.

  I motioned for Bill to open the door to the cells, which we found were also devoid of life. One of the two men I’d seen enter the cells earlier in the day was hanging from one of the cages, metal bars wrapped tightly around his throat while several more had been inserted into his chest and then pulled out of his back. Blood was everywhere, covering every part of the cell.

  I turned to talk to Bill, but he’d already ran out of the cell and back through the door to the front of the police station. I followed and found him in the main part of the police station, where we’d first met. Three more bodies lay on the floor, one with gun in hand.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “These were good people, why’d he do this. Why not just leave?”

  “He wants to make a point.”

  “But—”

  “Oh, shit,” I whispered. “Bill, get Galahad and his people up to where we met the wood trolls. Get them there now.”

  “Where are you going?” Bill asked as I grabbed some car keys from the desk beside me.

  “Where are the cars kept?”

  “It’ll be parked outside. Where are you going?”

  “The woods. Simon told me he was going to go kill Rean’s clan. I’m going to go stop him.”

  “And if it’s too late, like it was here?”

  I didn’t have time to answer, as I was already running back toward the front exit, and a few seconds later I’d found the right police cruiser and had set off toward the woods.

  I parked the car where Bill and I had stopped the previous day and began running through the woods, using my night vision to avoid branches and trip hazards. I didn’t find anything wrong until I reached the stream. There were bodies, half in the water, and another two on the boulders, which were covered in dozens of sharp, foot-long rock blades. I stopped by the three bodies in the water and found that they were a mother and two of the adolescent wood trolls. They’d probably been ambushed by Simon.

  I crossed the stream and continued to run in the direction of the muffled cries I heard from further in the woods. It didn’t take log before I found more dead wood trolls. Two men were couched over one of them, laughing as they stabbed the troll over and over. I didn’t even stop sprinting as I buried a blade of fire in the neck of the man closest to me. The second man turned toward me and caught the same blade between his eyes, almost cutting off the top of his head. I left them both to die and continued toward the cries, which had turned into louder and louder screams with every step.

  As I entered the clearing where Rean and his colony had welcomed Bill and me, all I could see were the bodies of trolls. Most had been torn apart by a bladed weapon, and it didn’t take long for me to find what was responsible.

  Simon was couched in front of Rean, who had been tied to a tree, forced to watch as the psychotic madman in front of him butchered his colony. While I couldn’t see the front of him, I could tell that Simon was wearing a gauntlet with a long blade protruding from one end. It was covered in blood, and as I walked toward him I noticed that Rean’s mate and son were already dead.

  I stepped on a branch, which broke, causing Simon’s head to snap toward me. He smiled.

  “You’re a bit late,” he said and stood, showing me the almost entirely red gauntlet, which stretched up to his elbow. “I took some silver from the police station to make this, it’s quite effective.”

  I glanced past him at Rean, whose eyes were glazed over, seemingly unable to focus on anything.

  “I guess it’s surrendering time.” Simon removed the gauntlet and threw it onto the ground before placing his hands on his head and kneeling on the blood-soaked earth.

  “No,” I said and ran at him.

  He tried to move, but it was too late. I kicked him hard enough in the chest to dump him on his back. He tried to push me away, to get distance between us, but I locked his elbow tight and broke his wrist before snapping his arm. I wrapped air around my fists and kept on punching him, over and over again, tearing his face apart from the impact from each blow.

  I dragged him to his feet and smashed his face into the nearest tree, punching him in the kidneys, and he cried out through ruined lips. A hand against his ribs created enough pressure to crush the bones, and when he tried to move away, I snapped his knee for good measure.

  Every time he tried to move or get away, I broke a bone. I was more than ready to beat him to death, but I wanted him to suffer, to feel some measure of the pain he’d inflicted on so many.

  “Nate,” someone behind me said, and I felt arms around my waist, dragging me away from Simon. I pulled my head forward and shot back, bringing the back of my skull against their nose. They released their grip and I dove on Simon, who was trying to crawl away, kicking and punching him with a rage that didn’t want to leave. It wasn’t until more hands grabbed me, that I finally calmed down and allowed myself to be removed. I noticed that the man I’d head butted was Bill, who was holding his now bleeding nose. A ping of guilt went through me.

  “I’m sorry, Bill,” I said.

  He waved my apology away. “Don’t grab you when you’re in the middle of killing someone, I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Galahad appeared in front of me and motioned for someone to see to Bill.

  “He killed so many people,” I said. “Innocent people. Children.”

  “I know. But we need him alive.”

  “Fuck you, Galahad. He deserves to die like a fucking rabid dog.”

  “Yes, he does, but it’s not about what he deserves. It’s not about what any of these people deserve. It’s about what’s best for my people. And his brain if full of information that we need.”

  “How’d he escape?”

  “One of the men I sent to interrogate him was working against me. Simon used him to get free and then killed him.”

  “Good, saves me the job.”

  “You son-of-a-bitch!” Rean screamed at Galahad as his hands were freed and he fell forward, holding the lifeless body of his mate against him. “I did everything you asked.”

  “Rean, not now,” Galahad said softly.

  “Go to hell,” Rean snarled, his bloody and beaten appearance made him look even more enraged. “When my son found those men, I told you what happened. You told me you’d protect my family. You promised.”

  “I’m sorry—”

  “Fuck you and your apologies. They’re dead and it’s your fault.”

  “What’s happening?” I asked.

  “Shadow Falls business,” Galahad snapped and someone tried to drag Rean away, but I put myself between him and the wood troll.

  “Anyone touches Rean until he says his piece answers to me. After what I just did to that puddle of crap on the floor, is there anyone here who wants to see what else I can do?”

  No one moved.

  “My son found the body of that girl,” Rean said to me. “He tracked Simon and his men down to that house. So I went to Galahad and told him. He told me that if I took you there, if I got you inside the house, he could make sure my clan remained safe from Simon and his people.”

  “That’s why you betrayed us?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry about that, it was the quickest way to get you in. And Galahad told me I was to mention nothing about it to you. So once you were in the house I got Galahad here to oversee the arrest.” Rean laid his wife’s head back onto the ground and rounded on Galahad. “You promised me they’d be safe.”

  “I did all I could. I had no idea the mayor was going to help Simon escape.”

  “But you knew that so
me people in this town were working against you. Surely the mayor must have been on your list?” I snapped.

  “He was but we assumed…I assumed there was time.”

  “Did you know Rean planned for me and Bill to be taken by Simon?”

  “It was my idea, yes,” Galahad said. “I knew you’d make it out. I just needed you to subdue Simon and his people.”

  “Rean, I’m sorry for your colony,” I said without taking my eyes off Galahad.

  “We found some survivors,” one of Galahad’s men said as he entered the clearing.

  Rean dragged himself upright and walked toward the newcomer, stopping by Galahad to wipe his wife’s blood on the clean white shirt of the king. “Her blood is your fault,” the wood troll said before refusing help and leaving the clearing.

  Galahad glanced down at the blood and closed his eyes.

  “The mayor is responsible for this?” I asked.

  Galahad nodded. “He works for the old king. We have eyewitness accounts of the mayor meeting with Simon once he left the police station.”

  Simon was having a sorcerer’s band—a small bracelet that was designed to negate the abilities of the wearer—placed on him. He’d still be able to heal quicker than a human, but his alchemy would be lost to him while he wore it. Simon smiled, showing missing teeth, and spat blood onto the leaves around him.

  “If I ever see him again, he dies,” I told Galahad, who nodded. “And me and you are going to have a conversation about your lies and using me to get to Simon. But it’ll be later, when my anger no longer blinds my judgment.”

  I walked passed Galahad to the edge of the clearing.

  “Where are you going?” Galahad called after me.

  “I’m going to go and make sure you have no further problems in this town.”

  CHAPTER 17

  En Route to Washington, D.C. Now.

  Felicia arranged everything exactly as she said she would, and once Caitlin and I arrived at the airport in New York, we were quickly placed on Felicia’s Learjet and soon in the sky.

  Caitlin managed to fall asleep almost immediately, leaving me to make a phone call to try and pre-empt what I was going to have to do once we’d landed. I managed to get a hold of his assistant and spent several minutes trying to convince her to give my contact a message for me, something it was clear she was less than interested in doing.