by C L Walker
I needed a better plan, but without allies I couldn’t think of one. As far as I knew everyone who might rescue me was already in the building, in a cell. Or they were unaware, or they were powerless to stop it. I could presume a lot of things, but none of them ended with a daring rescue.
I lost consciousness again as blood poured from my stomach. When I awoke again it had slowed to a dribble, but my chin and chest were caked in the blood I’d coughed up.
I was not in good shape, but I noticed something different: the tattoos were twitching on my skin, trying to get themselves moving and useful. It could have been the desperation of my situation but I thought it was something else, and I hoped I was right.
They had fed off me before, when I desperately needed them to. They had taken from my soul when the alternative was death, and I wondered if they were preparing to do it again. All I needed was a few minutes to find a source of power and I’d destroy the entire complex. And I knew they had vampires somewhere onsite; Keith had confirmed it.
Whatever they were doing they weren’t doing it fast enough. I could feel myself healing, faster than a normal man but too slow to do me any good. I couldn’t fight back and wouldn’t have the strength to consider it for a while still. I’d told Keith weeks but I suspected it was days. The difference didn’t matter.
When he returned he brought Erindis with him. I didn’t know how long he’d been gone but they had both changed clothes. Erindis looked at me with disgust and no pity, while Keith was merely interested in the mess he’d left.
“This isn’t what we discussed,” he said to Erindis. “This is, in fact, pretty damn different to the scenario you sold us.”
She stood before me and waited until I focused on her face. It was difficult to do, as though my eyes were no longer connected to my brain and the messages between the two had to be done by carrier pigeon.
“Heal yourself,” she said, as though her order could somehow change my abilities. She genuinely didn’t know what was happening.
“What little…sympathy you had,” I began, coughing halfway through; there was no blood this time, which was a good sign. “Is now gone. Your demise is…imminent.”
It was the sort of line I’d said to masters a thousand times and it always meant the end was coming for them. I didn’t know if I could make good on the threat this time.
“You’ve misled us,” Keith said. “I’ve poured a lot of effort into getting him here and I’ll have to answer for that. So will you.”
Erindis was glaring at me, on the verge of lashing out. Angry, but there was fear in there too. This was her gambit and it wasn’t paying off, and she was in a building full of armed men she didn’t control. Things could go badly for her at a moment’s notice and there was nothing she could do about it.
“You’ve seen the videos,” she said, turning to face Keith. She was inches away from me and I didn’t have the strength to do anything about it. “You know what he can do. You’ve seen it.”
“But you’ve suggested that feeding him what he needs to do those things would be a very bad idea.”
“I…gave you an option,” I managed to say. “It was your choice.”
“You can shut up,” Keith said. “Erindis, you’ve done good things for us, pointed us in the right directions, but this is no longer working out.”
“He can heal himself,” she said earnestly. “He just needs to be motivated.”
“I had Rebecca Fletcher murdered in front of him,” he said softly. “If that isn’t motivation enough then I am out of ideas.”
She turned in shock to look at me; she hadn’t known about Bec. I smiled through the blood and she backed away.
“This is all very convincing,” Keith said. “You being frightened by the dying man strapped to a table. It’s very good.”
“He’s the devil,” she said.
“He’s about to be a corpse. Make something happen here or we’re done.”
She thought about it, desperately wracking her brain for something to say that would delay what looked like it was inevitable. I saw the moment she came up with something, but it didn’t make her any happier.
“How long does it take for someone to die of a wound like that?” she said at last.
“A long time. Longer than you have.”
“Give me until he dies, then make your judgment.”
Keith leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “You’re suggesting that I withhold medical attention until the patient dies?”
“He isn’t a patient,” she said. “He’s a subject. Treat him like one and give me the time to prove my case.”
“And if he dies?”
“Then he dies, and I’ll find something else to sell you.”
How could she hate me so much? How could she want to see me suffer? She didn’t know my death would probably result in me being reborn near the locket. As far as she was aware it would be the end of me.
More importantly, as far as she was aware it would be the end of her immortality. We were tied to one another and her longevity was only because of mine.
Was that what she wanted? To finally die after all these years? Had she engineered everything to ensure her own eventual death? It seemed unlikely; there were easier ways to bring about my death than this. But I’d been wrong about her before.
“I…have a suggestion,” I said. I was feeling a little better, a little more lucid. “Give me what I’ve asked for and I’ll work with you. No tricks or surprises.”
“He’s lying,” Erindis said. “You killed Rebecca Fletcher. He’s never going to stop until you pay for that.”
“She makes a compelling argument,” Keith said. He pushed away from the wall and walked over to the gurney. “I’m afraid that if what we’ve heard and seen on video is true, giving you power would make you impossible to control. I can’t have that.”
“Bec was a former master,” I said. “Nothing more.”
“So my attempt to convince you to heal was doomed from the start.”
A guard entered the room with a message for Keith. He stepped away and leaned in so it could be whispered in his ear. I was watching Erindis, trying to predict what she’d try next; she practically flinched when she saw the guard.
My eyesight was almost too fuzzy to make out the man’s features, but I squinted and focused until I realized who it was.
Peter, the hollow man who’d once been an unwilling subordinate. And Erindis knew who he was and didn’t want me to.
More puzzle pieces, more clues as to what was really going on. I didn’t have it all but I almost had enough. All I needed now was time.
Keith came back with a bored look on his face. He looked at both of us, then at the floor, then back to her, before speaking.
“I don’t know what he did to you when you first summoned him, but it must have been bad. I respect your desire to get some vengeance, I do.”
Confirmation that he had no idea who she really was.
“This little project is over unless I produce results, and I don’t see that happening here.”
“She’s right,” I said, surprising Erindis. “Give me time. Without a source of life-force I will heal, even from this, but it will take time.”
“You’re going to play ball?” Keith said, his eyebrows raised.
“I need to be alive to rip your balls off, don’t I?”
“I like you, Agmundr, I do.” He stepped back, looking me up and down like a prize horse. “Tell you what, I’ll give you both what you’ve asked for. Two days to die. Does that sound fair?”
Erindis nodded, shooting me questioning looks the entire time. She knew I was up to something and she was scared.
She knew me well.
“One request,” I said. “I want her to visit me each day.”
“So she can slip you something to speed your recovery. We know she’s a witch, Agmundr.”
“I assume you will be monitoring us. You’ll see if she cheats on your test.”
He nodded.
“Agreed. We’ll reconvene tomorrow for an update.”
We stood in silence for a moment before he waved Erindis toward the door and followed her out.
Neither of the guards who came for me was the hollow man, but now I knew he was out there.
I closed my eyes and dealt with the bumping and the pain. I had the beginnings of a plan. It was stupid and involved too many uncontrollable variables, but it was a plan.
The tattoos squirmed as we passed the doors before mine, as though they knew something about the contents of the room that I didn’t.
They put me in my room and helped me lie down in bed. I smiled the entire time.
Chapter 6
The first day took a year. They never turned the lights off, bathing me in bright white all day and night. I couldn’t tell how long I’d been there or if I was coming up on the deadline.
The healing was moving along, slowly but surely. Part of the curse had been to make me a bit more resilient, but the cleric had never expected me to be without the power of the tattoos, so it hadn’t been a priority. I should have been able to simply will the wounds to heal. Hell, I hadn’t had to do even that; the tattoos would take care of it for me.
I was delirious, falling in and out of consciousness constantly. I couldn’t sleep and I had trouble staying aware of my surroundings. The bright white world around me was a hazy cloud I felt like I was drifting through.
Keith thought Erindis was simply a witch who had summoned me once. He didn’t know she was my wife or that my curse protected her. He didn’t really know anything about us. This was the first step.
Erindis had Peter working for her. She recognized him in the room and she didn’t tell anyone, seeming afraid, in fact, that I would recognize him. That meant she had some plan in place, and she probably had others in the facility. That was the second step.
They hadn’t killed Bec, I was sure. It was all a show. They had no real reason to kill her, and there might still be some use for her. So they’d play-acted an execution to get my attention and then wheeled her off to be revived. I could accept that; it made sense and it was a good ploy.
And if they had killed her…I knew ways to hurt people that could last for eternity, had access to places no mortal mind could comprehend, where torment would last until your brain snapped, and then fresh torment would be built to cater to your new state. Or you could be healed so the denizens of that place could start over. I could be inventive in my revenge, absolute and terrifying.
I was drifting off, losing track of what I was meant to be doing. I had to plan, even if planning wasn’t what I did best.
Bec. She would know more about the situation because she paid more attention and they didn’t fear her enough to hide things. The third step.
There were vampires in the rooms around me, captured in Keith’s web. They had power in their blood. He had to be feeding them or he wouldn’t get anything out of them. Which meant I could use them. The fourth step.
What if they had Artem, the vampire king of Fairbridge? Could I save him in the midst of everything? Should I, given his notoriety? I’d be better off simply taking Bec and whomever else they had and running for the afterlives. No government agency could reach me there, or anyone else, for that matter. I knew the many heavens and hells better than anyone else involved, and I could find somewhere we would be safe forever.
I remembered the heavens I’d seen, from the simple cottages to the grand continents filled with happiness. I would even take a hell, if it meant I didn’t have to feel the way Erindis had made me feel, both by shooting me and constantly betraying me. I’d take anything.
I was getting off track. I thought I might have slipped into unconsciousness again, but I had no way to be sure. I put my hands on the wound in my stomach to check on progress.
It wasn’t bleeding anymore and the wound felt hard, the skin puckered like it was partly healed. I hadn’t coughed up any blood and my head was clearing. Things were looking up.
Four steps, and no known support. Four steps that I had little control over, that I could only hope would fall into place as I needed them to, or provide useful additional options.
I’d once faced a warlock who channeled demonic power to enslave a kingdom. He’d been my master at one point but the locket had been stolen from him and I was tasked with defeating him. I was overjoyed at the chance, but didn’t have any idea how I’d do it. After all, I had designed his defenses and I was thorough.
I’d gone in anyway, relying on luck more than planning. I’d defeated his monsters and finally defeated him, and it had all been done on the fly. I didn’t know going in what I would ultimately face, but at least I’d known the general scope of the challenge.
In Keith’s Research Facility Gamma I had nothing to go on beyond what I’d seen in the halls, which was nothing. Just what they’d given away in conversation and action.
I was going to have to kill Erindis somehow. The time had come. She had done enough to warrant it, more than enough.
But how? We were linked, and as long as I lived so would she. I would live until the curse was broken. There had been some talk by Roman and the witch Nikolette about breaking the curse, but that had been a ruse and I didn’t think it was something they actually believed could be done.
So I would have to come up with something else. I would have to incapacitate her somehow and simply store her forever. I didn’t want to hurt her but I couldn’t have her running around in the world any more. It was fine when she was a teacher or a mechanic, but now she seemed to actively want to interfere in my life. She wanted to hurt me.
I couldn’t focus anymore. The pain was still a constant and concentration was elusive. The endless white light seemed to bore into my brain. Why would they need the endless light? It was like they were denying the reality of darkness, like they thought they could banish night forever.
I was going to turn off the lights permanently, and soon. All I needed was a little luck and to not die.
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying, and failing, to keep the light at bay.
Chapter 7
At some point the pain subsided and the world came back into focus. I awoke covered in sweat and blood, but it was old and dry, staining my skin, clothes, and bedding, but signifying a change for the better.
I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and groaned as the wound seemed to explode.
Slowly, I thought. Take everything slowly.
I stood and stripped off the clothes. Someone had brought me fresh attire, placing it on the floor beside the door. It was shrink-wrapped in plastic.
I used the sink to wash off what I could, wincing every time I had to pull a stomach muscle or twist in any way. When I was as clean as I was likely to get I tore open the pack of clothes and got dressed, gingerly bending and leaning and pulling until I was more presentable.
I couldn’t do anything about the bed, but I turned the mattress over anyway. It was stained on the bottom too, but it wasn’t as bad.
When I was done I sat down heavily on the bed and closed my eyes. It had taken all the energy my broken body had to do the simple tasks, and now all I wanted to do was sleep a bit more. I had nothing better to do, so I lay down and closed my eyes.
The door clanged open, waking me up. It felt like only a moment had passed but it could have been days for all I knew. I sat up quickly, tweaking the gunshot wound and groaning as a result.
Erindis walked in and the door was shut behind her. She had one of the shocking batons in her hand and her finger was on the button that made it work.
“They thought you needed protection,” I said. My voice was croaky and weak, but understandable.
“You tried to strangle me,” she replied. She put her back to the door, ready to send a signal quickly if required.
“I was proving a point,” I said. “You might be my master, but that doesn’t mean you control me.”
“That’s exactly what it means,” she said quickly. “That’s why you shut the gates
to the heavens and the hells. That’s why you killed all the gods. You were ordered to and you did it.”
“But I can interpret my orders and work around my limitations. You were there with Invehl. You know this.”
I had defied Invehl at every turn, because I didn’t like him and because I could. She’d watched me do it too, so she had no excuse.
“So, what do you want to talk about?” She took her finger off the button and crossed her arms, keeping the baton at the ready.
“Anything, everything. I don’t know. I just wanted to talk.” It wasn’t true, but it was close enough that it didn’t count as a lie.
“If you’re dragging me in here because you’re a love-sick puppy I’m going to leave, and to hell with Doctor Keith.”
“No,” I said, the ghost of a smile on my lips. “I think that part of our lives is done.”
“It’s been done for a long time, Agmundr.”
“I know.”
“So what, then? You’re going to have to come up with something, because I’d rather be anywhere else.”
“What are you doing here, Erindis? What’s the plan?”
“I was taken. You are my bargaining chip.” She didn’t look away or show any other sign of lying, but I knew her well enough to know that she was. Or I was cheating because I’d seen Peter, but I preferred to think I could still read her.
“You could leave any time you wanted to,” I said.
“They’ve got hedge-mages working for them. There are barriers on the doors. I can do some magic, but not much.”
“I expected you to come in here and take what you really want,” I said. I knew why she wanted me trapped, why she didn’t want to lose sight of me for too long. It was the tattoos, and the power they could give her.
“Cameras,” she said, pointing in the vague direction of the ceiling.
“Still. One taste and you’d own this place. One little touch and you’d have the power to destroy them all.”
Her eyes were growing wider as I spoke, as though the idea that I’d share secrets had never entered her head. Somehow she’d thought I would talk about the weather, or my feelings, or something. Instead I was going for substance and it was worrying her.