Happy End of the World (Demon-Hearted Book 3)

by Ambrose Ibsen

  Before Percy's blade could cleave him in two, Whiro had held out a single hand and generated a sudden burst of power. It flashed out in every direction, a bomb with him at its epicenter, and knocked Percy away with ease. He spiraled through the air, past the swooping form of the Manticore, past Kubo, who'd unearthed his paper sigils, and off the side of the building.

  “Percy!” I cried, sprinting past the others.

  He was headed for a free-fall, his legs kicking out in search of ground that wasn't there. Letting go of his bone sword, Percy's eyes widened and his hands reached for anything of substance. By some miracle his fingers closed around the very lip of the roof, and he avoided a deadly spill of several stories. I rushed over and took him by the forearms, hauling him back up onto the roof as the others tried to decide who to attack.

  In one corner, flying over the building and taking long, sweeping passes with its tail, was the Manticore. In the other was Whiro, standing still and appraising all of us from behind his white mask.

  “Hey!” I barked. “You're Whiro, aren't you? The asshole who's summoned this big guy to Earth, right? What's your deal?”

  The Lord of Darkness turned his featureless gaze my way, replying only with a bob of the head.

  A man of few words, this one.

  The Manticore promptly dropped out of the sky, perching gingerly upon the lip of the roof just behind its master. Its tail was still raised, ready for a lightning-fast jab should any of us wander closer.

  Gun raised, Kubo kept one eye on Whiro and the other on his stack of seals. “So, you're the one who sent the letter. Nice of you to finally show yourself. Care to explain why you've unleashed this terrible thing?”

  Joe had another fireball queued up, but hesitated to throw it. He looked over to Kubo, as if waiting for permission, but things had come to a standstill. The Chief was preoccupied with the masked man who now took a few steps towards us.

  “Why have I done it?” came Whiro's quiet voice. It sounded thin, watery, almost feeble. “Why have I decided to bring this world to its end? That's a very simple thing. It's because the Veiled Order has taken something from me.”

  Kubo shook his head, dark brows knit in confusion. “No, that's not right. The Order hasn't had any dealings with you, Whiro. Certainly not recently. You're mistaken.”

  I felt Germaine shifting in my pocket, stealing glances at the dark lord. I think I heard him reciting a breathless Hail Mary, too. “Seems to me that this is all some kind of misunderstanding, Whiro,” said I. “Maybe... maybe you just call off this big ol' pet of yours and we look the other way, yeah?”

  Whiro came closer however, showed no signs of relenting. “You are the ones who are mistaken. The Veiled Order has taken something very dear to me. My son, Tane.”

  “I don't know any Tane. You're full of shit,” I blurted. I was weighing my chances of rushing the guy before his big bodyguard could react. Maybe I could sucker-punch him, deliver a sweeping kick.

  But to my surprise, Kubo and Joe both seemed to recognize the name.

  An uncomfortable silence reigned as the two glanced at one another.

  “What?” I asked, voice low. “Do... do you two know who he's talking about?”

  Joe stepped forward. “You're... you're talking about that sorcerer? The one we took out a month or two back? The one who was...” He stole a nervous look to Kubo, who met him with a solemn nod. “I was there. We took care of him because he was rounding up the city's homeless population, using them in some spell of his.”

  With the exception of one fact, Joe's words seemed to have no worth to Whiro. The dark lord stepped towards us, extending a warped, grey finger at Joe. “So, you were there, were you?”

  The signal was given so quickly that I nearly missed it. Whiro glanced back at the Manticore, and with the wagging of his finger the beast bounded past him, towards Joe.

  The next thing I heard was the clatter of Joe's Zippo as it skipped across the roof, landing near my feet.

  Malcolm's boomstick went off. Kubo used up another clip. But it was all for nothing.

  There wasn't a single person on that roof who could have blocked the Manticore's tail as it whipped towards Joe. He hadn't even been able to get one last fireball in before the stinger landed in his belly.

  “Joe!” I sprinted towards the beast, narrowly avoiding the tail as it left Joe's abdomen. Already the Manticore was choosing its next target.

  Unable to stand, Joe hit the floor and began to convulse. The wound in his stomach was neat, almost surgical, and it didn't start to bleed until I picked him up and tried to get him to come to.

  “Joe!” Kubo covered me as I shook Joe's shoulders, searched in his eyes for signs of cognizance. There weren't any to be found, though. No signs of life at all, in fact. If not for the pained gurgling in his throat and the spasmotic tremors that shot through him, I'd have been sure he was dead. Pulling him several feet back towards the fire escape, I heard the dark lord laughing.

  “It won't be long now,” said Whiro. “The Veiled Order stuck its nose where it didn't belong. Took something from me that I can never replace. The world will end, and you will all perish trying to save it.”

  If Whiro said anything further, his voice was cut off by the report of guns. Malcolm sent a round speeding his way, but it was knocked off the mark before it posed any serious risk to him. Kubo's shots, too, were flicked away by an invisible hand, wasted.

  With theatrical flourish, Whiro gave a half-bow and then began to disappear, his black form melting into the shadows on the rooftop and then slithering off. The Manticore, perhaps tired of the noise, pushed off of the roof and took flight, leaving the building quaking in its wake. It circled overhead until it gained sufficient altitude and made itself home in the clouds, effectively disappearing.

  All the while, I'd been trying to get Joe to wake up. No dice. Pinching him, shaking him, calling his name... nothing was working. As the others came up to appraise him, he was hardly moving, hardly breathing.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder. Kubo's probably. I turned but couldn't make out more than a dark, man-shaped splotch behind the veneer of tears clinging to my eyes.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  18

  I laid Joe across the second row of seats and climbed into the SUV. Percy and Kubo weren't far behind.

  The Chief gave a weary shake of his head. “Lucy, I don't think...”

  I already knew what he was going to say. “He's still breathing. There's a pulse, OK? And the bleeding's stopped, too. If anyone can patch him up, it's Mona, right? Please, just drive.” I ran my fingers along the inside of Joe's wrist, searching for a pulse. As we sped down the road, I felt it register dully against my fingertips and watched his diaphragm rise and fall in a shallow breath.

  Still alive.

  Germaine was sharing the pocket of my coat with Joe's Zippo. “Lucy,” I heard him say from within, “just try to relax. If it's in the cards, he'll pull through. And if it ain't...” He hesitated. “Better to let him relax in his final moments.”

  “He's going to make it,” I insisted.

  Considering Joe had been stung by a legendary beast, an “eater of worlds”, it was a miracle he was still alive at all. The blow should probably have killed him on the spot, but it hadn't. He was still holding on, was still putting up a fight against whatever awful venom now circulated throughout his system. I wasn't sure just how much strength he had in him, but I was determined to get him help before he fully succumbed.

  From up front came the ringing of Kubo's phone. Even from the back seat I could hear Arson's voice as the Chief answered. “What's happened? Why haven't you answered my calls? I want a status report.”

  “Certainly,” replied Kubo. “We just encountered both Whiro and the Manticore. The dark lord's admitted to the whole thing as a plot to gain revenge. I guess we killed one of his sons during a recent job and he's got a vendetta against us now.”

  Arson chewed this
over for a moment. “Any casualties?” he asked.

  Unsure how to answer, Kubo fumbled. “Uh... well, there was one of ours that got hit by the Manticore's stinger, dead-on. Joe.” He looked back at the body filling the second row. “He's... he's still breathing, barely. We're going to get him some help now. But... I don't know if there's anything we can do for him at this point.”

  I already didn't think much of this Arson guy, but his answer to this bit of news left me absolutely floored. “This is no time for sentimentality, Kubo. If he's dead, he's dead. That's not our chief concern here. What of the Manticore? Where did it go? And Whiro?”

  It took all the strength I had not to reach out and tear the phone out of Kubo's hands. I had some choice words for the guy, but sensing my anger, Percy tugged on my collar and helped me rein it in. The Chief finished giving Arson the rundown and then hung up, focusing on the road and plunging the car once again into uncomfortable silence.

  Malcolm was sitting in the front passenger seat, eyes closed, feet up on the dash, with his boomstick held between his thighs. Percy looked out the window mournfully, shaken up after having been thrown around by the Manticore. Sensing the urgency of the situation, Germaine knew better than to make a peep and just stayed put, his arms caressing the Zippo's silver finish.

  Why hadn't the Manticore targeted me instead? I'd have been able to handle a sting from that son of a bitch. Joe, though... he was human, and no amount of fire-play would have been enough to protect him against that nightmare on wings. I wished I'd stepped up to the plate and run my mouth, that I'd somehow positioned myself to become the punching bag, like always.

  I'd let him down.

  We were at Yao's before I knew it, and I was hitting the pavement with Joe's body over my shoulder before the car even stopped. Running into the alley behind the Chinese restaurant, I hooked a sharp right and started into that dim, apparently inter-dimensional space that would allow us to access the Beyond. I didn't wait for Kubo or the others, but pressed on at full speed until I came to the end of the passage and the wooden trapdoor. Pulling it open, I dove into the perfect darkness with Joe in my arms.

  Once, not so long ago, this trip into the Beyond had been a marvelous, mind-boggling and disorienting thing. Not today. Now it was just a hoop to jump through. Business as usual.

  “Give me a little warning before you do that next time!” groaned Germaine as our descent suddenly ended. Poking out of my pocket, he looked around at the dense pine forest surrounding us. “This the place?”

  I landed on solid ground and found myself faced with Mona's cottage. I rushed through the door, not bothering to knock, and bumped a few glass vessels off of their shelves in the process. Up ahead was a large wooden table covered in bowls and books. Quickly, I knocked everything off of it and laid Joe's body across it. The air was heavy with a foul smell. Burning wood was a part of the equation, but my familiarity with the scent ended there. There were hints of something acidic. Something sulfurous, too.

  Mona had evidently been preparing herself a meal when I barged in, and quickly slithered over to the table in an apron. She cast her craggy, pudgy face in my direction and then stopped. “Lucian?” She glanced at the table, at Joe's body. “What's happened?”

  Germaine skittered out of my pocket and onto the table, perching beside Joe's hand. “Where do you want us to start?”

  Mona eyed Germaine with curiosity as, from behind, the others poured into the cottage. Kubo and Percy stumbled in, out of breath. Malcolm wasn't with them. He'd likely stayed behind.

  “Goddammit, Lucy, why didn't you wait up?” asked the Chief.

  “Takeshi? What's happened?” Mona slithered over to him and motioned to Joe. “What happened to Joseph?”

  I answered before the Chief could get a word in edge-wise. “The Manticore. He's been stung by the Manticore.” I motioned to Joe's belly, where the stinger had gone in, to the rusty blood that stained his shirt. “Please, you've got to help him. He's barely breathing, and his pulse...”

  Mona's face was a series of wrinkles in a ball of plump clay, topped with a dash of thin, white hair. Her expressions didn't vary a whole lot, but as she looked at me I sensed a twinge of anger. “The Manticore? What's really happened here, Lucian? Time is of the essence.” Running a hand across Joe's forehead, she bent down to listen to his respirations. “He's in a bad way. Very gravely injured. His life is nearly depleted. What happened to him?”

  Kubo crossed his arms, sighing. “The kid's right. It was the Manticore.”

  Stunned into silence for a moment, Mona circled the table, looking to each of us in turn. “I don't... I don't understand,” she began. “The Manticore is a myth. Nothing but a legend.”

  Kubo shook his head. “Wish it were so, but I'm here to tell you it's as real as you and me. And we just got done throwing down with it. What can you do for him, Mona?”

  The old witch gulped, her olive green carapace dragging behind her. Her tongue tasted the air a moment, and then she continued. “If it truly is the Manticore, then there's nothing I can do for him,” was her rueful reply.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  19

  I was dumbfounded.

  Mona had rescued me from certain death when I'd gotten cut by the Scythe of Thanatos, had healed broken bones and other injuries for guys on our roster in a jiffy. To hear her say that there was nothing she could do for Joe seemed like an obvious lie, a joke in poor taste. “What do you mean you can't do anything for him? Patch him up!” I demanded.

  Mona sidled up to the table and felt for Joe's pulse, shaking her head sullenly. “It's been a long time since I've read anything of the mythical Manticore...”

  “Not so mythical, by the way,” interjected Germaine.

  “How is it possible?” she asked Kubo. “How did you meet the Manticore in battle? Such a thing is hard for me to believe. To drag a creature of that kind into the Earthly sphere would require a feat of magic the likes of which hasn't been seen since...” She trailed off.

  “Whiro, a dark lord, seems to be behind it. He's unleashed the thing upon the Earth as revenge. The Order killed one of his sons, you see.” Kubo cleared his throat. “We met the two of them in battle and Joe was severely wounded.”

  Mona brought a trembling stump of a hand to her mouth, pawing at her pasty lips in apparent fear. “Then the age of man is done. The end times are upon us.”

  “What do you mean by that?” asked Percy. “Once this thing is unleashed, it's curtains for mankind? For the Earth? What about everything else? I mean... the Beyond, too?”

  Mona was deep in thought about what the emergence of this terrible beast meant for both worlds when I gently interrupted. “Listen, I don't give a fuck about all of that. What can you do for Joe? Don't try and tell me that it's hopeless! He's got a pulse, doesn't he? The guy's breathing! Heal him up!”

  Kubo hooked an arm around my throat before I could give Mona a shake. “Lucy,” he growled into my ear, “I told you not to get your hopes up. I'm not happy to see Joe like this either, trust me. He's a good kid, and I know you're upset. But... but this is what happens when you work with the Order. Our work is dangerous, and sometimes good men pay the price.”

  I wasn't buying it and gave him a shove. “If he means something to our team, then why don't we try a little harder to fix him up, huh? You're just going to leave him here? Just going to let him die without trying anything at all?”

  “Lucy!” shouted Germaine, crawling to the edge of the table and raising his forelimbs. “Cool it! Sometimes that's the way things go in battle. Understand? You can't win 'em all. Joe knew what he was doing when he stepped into the ring against this thing, when he signed on the dotted line. Sometimes... sometimes people are just beyond saving.”

  Mona drew in a shaky breath. “I can keep his heart beating indefinitely. I can keep his flesh from decomposing. I can keep him, more or less, in exactly the same state he's in now. But that's all. The poison of the Manticor
e, you see, is extremely potent.” She slithered off into the cluttered depths of the cottage and returned minutes later with a book, which she dropped onto the table at Joe's feet. Flipping through it, she read a few passages under her breath.

  “There has to be some way for us to bring him back,” I demanded, wiping at my eyes. “Chief, come on. Can't we raise him somehow?”

  Kubo gripped my shoulder tightly. “I'm afraid not, Lucy. We aren't Agamemnon. We don't dabble in death magic.”

  Germaine was quick to add, “And I don't think we'd wanna get to know zombie Joe. When they come back, they ain't the same.”

  Mona looked up at us sharply. “The toxin is potent, seems to burden the nervous system of the victim. It remains in the body permanently, entering the brain and spine the way a heavy metal might. However...” Her atrophied fingers trembled as she patted the page before her. “There may be something here. A solution.”

  I looked down at the book. The pages were faded, cluttered in an ancient, alien script. “What is it?”

  “A way to cure him,” she replied, her voice wavering.

  I let out a breath I didn't even know I'd been holding. “Hell yeah! I knew there was a way! What is it, Mona?”

  Mona continued, reading and rereading the passage to make sure she had her facts straight. “The writer of this text wasn't certain if this would work. He writes that the only way to save anyone stung by the Manticore is to kill the beast and administer some of its blood to the afflicted.” She lapped up the air with her tongue. “A tall order.”

  I'd wanted some loophole and I'd gotten one. It was a real bitch of a loophole, granted, but if there was some way to get Joe back, I was going to try my damnedest to make it happen. “Hasn't that been the plan all along, to kill this thing?” I asked. “Nothing new there. We just need to make sure to scoop up some of his blood after we're finished. Simple enough.”

  “Right, except that we're not even sure yet whether it's possible to kill this creature,” replied Kubo. “For starters, we're facing off against a powerful monster that wasn't even known to actually exist until just recently. A monster that the gods of antiquity thought too powerful and decided to banish to a void between the two worlds. If the Manticore can be killed, then why didn't the gods kill it?” He ran a hand through his hair, lips pursed. “I'll tell you why: It's likely because they couldn't. The gods of yore banished it because trapping it in some other dimension was the best they could do. Like them, our plan has been to trap it and maybe use the Binding of Hekatonkheir, right? At least until we can figure out what to do with it. I have a feeling that killing it may not be an option. Containing it may be our only--”