by Declan Finn
Amanda sighed and leaned against Marco. “Perhaps later.” She rubbed her cheek against his arm. “We’re going to get married first.”
Marco put his arm around Amanda and held her against him. “If you want,” Marco said, “I could finish my PA education, then we can get married. I won’t object if you want to wait.”
Amanda looked up at him, curious. “Really?”
Marco smiled as he met her eye. “Of course, my love. Because now, with the Council dead, we have time. All the time in the world.”
Merle shrugged. “Here’s hoping. Let me know your decision. I’m going to spend lord knows how long hunting down the humans the Council was connected to.”
Marco chuckled. “Good luck with that.” He pressed his side against Amanda. “If no one minds, I’d like to get indoors. It’s starting to get cold out here.”
Amanda took his arm in hers. “Come. I’ll see what I can do to warm you up.”
As they walked away, Merle muttered, “And for God’s sake, someone get this guy some clothes.”
Epilogue
At a safe distance down the street, Dalf Kraft smiled at the progress. Yes, Merle had succeeded in thwarting a plot straight from Hell….
As had been expected.
As Dalf had said to his brother, he was an enforcer for the Army of Darkness, and could only do so much before being fired with extreme prejudice on the basis of mutiny.
“It’s over, now, tell me what the Hell this was about?”
Dalf sighed, looking at his brother over his shoulder. Merle was getting better about being subtle—he hadn’t even heard the man sneak up from down the street. “Merle, what do you want me to say? I am an archbishop of Hell, surely you don’t think that I would have anything to do with those demon wanna-bes called vampires, do you?”
Merle narrowed his eyes. “Dalf, when all of this started, you sent Amanda to me.”
Dalf nodded. “Yes, I did.” He shrugged. “Perhaps I did not want Amanda or Marco to live.” He grinned. “Perhaps I am simply taking the other side’s money as a double agent…” His eyes darkened, cold and angry. “Or perhaps…just perhaps…they decided to overstep their boundaries. The original mutiny, the First One, was over humans. Lucifer thought they weren’t worth saving—how could his Lord and Master think about sacrificing Himself for those petulant things? Ever since it has become a matter of proving God wrong.” Dalf’s eyes grew colder and harder now, even angry.
“Yes, the human race can destroy itself; yes, it can be tempted out of existence. That is our job. Not that idiotic James Bond plot the Council devised. We have no interest in taking over the world.”
Merle frowned, looking his brother up and down. “Why not? Hell on Earth sounds like what you’d be shooting for, isn’t it?”
Dalf shook his head as he slid a cigarette into his mouth. The end glowed without any visible flame. “Don’t you understand, Merle? Our job is to draw in the stupid and the weak-willed. To break the strong and sucker the smart. What does a world of Shadow bring? The strong become heroes, the smart become leaders, the weak flee to their God.” Dalf shook his head. “No, things are better for me and my kind this way. We prefer to subvert. To twist. Tell the academics there is no right or wrong, no objective reality. We teach pride to the holy and the smart, wrath to the strong, and teach everyone that freedom means being slaves to your own whims and desires.”
“But they were allowed to run loose for how many years?” Merle asked. “Centuries? I would have thought someone would have yanked their leash quite some time ago.”
Dalf waved it away, scoffing. “Please, Merle, haven’t you studied history at all? This isn’t about the short term. It’s about the long term. People are stupid, and they will give power to any random idiot who they think will give them what they want. The concept of Freedom centers around human beings. In America, the people decided that God granted Freedoms to human beings. They got around that by deciding that what made a human being was flexible—first with slaves, then with abortion. In Europe, they skipped over that step when they decided that freedom came to people from the state, and anyone the state decided was a non-person had no freedom.
“That’s what the Council did. And they did so much to encourage them. They’ve resurrected Moloch with the abortion industry, fed Day with the free love of the West and the wrath of the entire Middle East. With their nudges, they’ve laid the groundwork for a true Hell on Earth: not physical power, but a world of demons where you pitiful, shallow things do not cower before my master, but where you welcome him with open arms and invite him to rule.”
Dalf shrugged and pulled on his cigarette. “Then they stopped being useful.”
“And Day himself?”
Dalf rolled his eyes. “Always a hothead. He really wanted to kill you, and didn’t think farther ahead.” He flicked some ashes off of his cigarette. “You seem to forget Merle, the Bible itself says that my master is the Prince of this World. We’ve already won.”
Merle blinked. “On one hand, you talk like this, but on the other, you’ve destroyed a major force for evil, and set up a white vampire so powerful she can wipe out city blocks’ worth of vampires. Exactly whose side are you on?”
“My own, of course. Aren’t we all?”
Merle’s eyes narrowed. “Who exactly do you mean when you say ‘we’?”
Gandalf Kraft merely smiled.
With a solid whump, Dalf blinked, and took a step forward before he crumpled. Behind him, holding a rock, was Rory. He smiled, and tossed the rock on Dalf’s back.
“Don’t you just hate it when they monologue?” Rory laughed.
Rory slid a cigarette into his mouth, lit it, and turned, walking off into the night.
Author's Note
Hi. You’ve finished the series. Thanks for that. If you’d kindly review the novel over at Amazon.com, that would be amazingly helpful. And maybe a little review for the previous books, if you wouldn’t mind.
Now that the series is over, I have to admit that I didn't see it coming. What had started as an experiment in a new genre for me became a lot more epic than I thought it would be.
I would like to thank all of you for reading the book. For nominating Honor at Stake and Live and Let Bite for the Dragon Awards. And for giving me some vague hope that this job has not been in vain.
Speaking of the Dragon Awards, they take place every year over at awards.dragoncon.org – if you could remember Good to the Last Drop when the time comes in 2018, that would be appreciated.
I’d like to thank the Superversive SF crew, Silver Empire publishing, Russell Newquist, as well as my CLFA people.
Specific thanks go to Jason Sarten, for “Yipsters,” Dawn (DawnWitzke.com) for the covers, Tully, for being Tuckerized, Alfred Genneson (the Injustice Gamer) for all his support, and the beta reading. JD Cowan, for his reviews. Lori Bird, for her reviews. Matt Bowman, for letting me ramble on The Catholic Geeks. Greg Stern, for being a fan.
And Vanessa.
About the Author
Declan Finn lives in a part of New York City unreachable by bus or subway. Who’s Who has no record of him, his family, or his education. He has been trained in hand to hand combat and weapons at the most elite schools in Long Island, and figured out nine ways to kill with a pen when he was only fifteen. He escaped a free man from Fordham University’s PhD program, and has been on the run ever since. There was a brief incident where he was branded a terrorist, but only a court order can unseal those records, and really, why would you want to know?
He can be contacted at [email protected]
Read his personal blog:
http://apiusmannovel.blogspot.com
Listen to his podcast, The Catholic Geek, on Blog Talk Radio, Sunday evenings at 7:00 pm EST.
Also by Declan Finn
LOVE AT FIRST BITE
Honor At Stake
Demons Are Forever
Live and Let Bite
Good to the Last Drop
; THE PIUS TRILOGY
A Pius Man
A Pius Legacy
A Pius Stand
Pius Tales
Pius History
MORE URBAN FANTASY
FROM SILVER EMPIRE
THE PRODIGAL SON
by Russell Newquist
War Demons
Spirit Cooking (forthcoming)
LOVE AT FIRST BITE
by Declan Finn
Honor At Stake
Demons Are Forever
Live and Let Bite
Good to the Last Drop
PAXTON LOCKE
by Daniel Humphreys
Fade
Night’s Black Agents