Strange Days (Bill of the Dead Book 1)

by Rick Gualtieri

  God, what a joke. There I was, falling into the old mindset. She was right. I wasn’t the Freewill anymore. I was William Anderson Ryder, a regular guy who stood absolutely zero chance against anyone with “strike force” on their resume.

  Once we made sure Sally was safe, that was it. I needed to back away from this shit. This was a big boy game, and I was all out of quarters.

  Komak turned back toward Ed, apparently not done monologuing yet. “I’m not entirely sure what happened, but when we finally awoke, it was in darkness. At first, we didn’t know what to think. All we knew was that there were a handful of us ... alive among a veritable sea of dead bodies.”

  I remembered it well. Corpses – Magi, human, and other – had littered the place by the end, and that wasn’t even counting the mounds of ash. But we’d rounded up any survivors and brought them with us. Komak and his buddies must have revived after the rest of us escaped.

  “Judging by the smell of decomposition,” he continued, “we’d been lying there for days, far longer than it should have taken us to turn. But, as we all now realize, the old rules went out the window that day. I suppose we were lucky to have woken up at all.”

  “Let me guess,” Ed replied. “You were all surprised as hell to discover you were human again, right?”

  “Hell yeah. Talk about being terrified. Before we got our shit together, at least a few of our number lost it and ran off screaming in the dark. No idea what eventually happened to those poor fools.”

  “What did you do?” Christy asked, no doubt hoping to keep them talking.

  “The only thing we could. We searched every corpse in the area until we got lucky and found one with a working flashlight. As for finding a way out, I didn’t know it at the time, but this little lady here was our savior.”

  I turned my head toward Gan, wondering if this was confession time, the part where we learned she was the mastermind behind everything. However, she merely raised an eyebrow, about as close as she came to looking confused.

  “Your footprints, Prefect Gansetseg,” Komak said. “We would have been lost down there, would have surely starved to death. But, while looking for a way out, one of us happened to spot a tiny pair of footprints leading into one of the tunnels. Lo and behold, it wasn’t a dead end.”

  “So as way of celebration, you guys decided to call yourselves the Last Coven?” I asked. “Catchy name, by the way.”

  Rather than kick me in the teeth, as I probably deserved, Komak laughed. “No, sir. That came a lot later. We were too busy enjoying the sun again. We traded the supplies we’d scavenged and got drunk as fuck in broad daylight.”

  Despite our predicament, I couldn’t help but crack a smile. I remembered those early days, drinking Coronas at the beach like there was no tomorrow, even as the world was still scratching its head as to what happened. And I fucking hate the beach. Can’t say I could blame these guys ... for that part anyway.

  “But eventually the cash ran out and with it came damning sobriety,” Komak continued, starting to get lost in his tale. Pity I wasn’t in much shape to do anything about it. “It soon became obvious we were alone, lost in a world that no longer feared us. Everything we knew, all of it, was gone. But eventually we began to realize we weren’t as alone as we thought.” He reached out and took Liz’s hand.

  Uh huh, so that’s how it was.

  “When Ernest first confessed to me what he was,” Liz replied, giving him goo-goo eyes, “I was taken aback, frightened. How could such a thing be? But, I soon realized this was a sign, that there was still hope for the Magi ... for both our people ... to be whole again.”

  Son of a bitch. Why couldn’t these assholes just fuck their problems away like everyone else instead of trying to screw the world in the process? But I guess what they say is true: crazy attracts crazy.

  “It didn’t start off that way, of course,” Komak said, returning her gaze. I swear, if these two started making out in front of us, I was going to ask to be put out of my misery. “At first it was just talk, trying to understand our place in this world.”

  “Yes.” Liz turned to face Christy. “But whereas some tried to convince us to accept the hand fate had dealt us, to live the rest of our lives as less than what we once were...”

  “We saved the world,” Christy countered.

  “You’re talking to a brick wall,” Kelly said to her. “I already tried that.”

  Liz wasn’t done yet, though. “You killed the White Mother!”

  “She wasn’t the White Mother,” Christy replied through gritted teeth. “At least not the one whose teachings we’d been taught to revere.”

  ‘You don’t know that.”

  “She was beyond redemption and there was too much at stake to do otherwise. The war would have consumed us all had it continued.”

  Liz narrowed her eyes. “So rather than work with your brothers and sisters, you instead sided with our destroyer, condemning us to a half-life. You may as well have cut off our legs when you cut off our magic.”

  “Don’t speak to me of loss.”

  “You act all smug and righteous,” Liz replied, “but who were you to decide what was right for the rest of us?”

  “This is all truly fascinating,” Ed interrupted. “And I’d love to continue debating the ethics of saving the world versus letting it turn into a cesspool of infinite darkness. But I’m going to venture there’s a point to all this exposition.”

  “The point, sire...” Komak said.

  “Could you maybe not call me that?”

  Komak shrugged. “The point is that we all thought we’d have to accept this new world, but we were wrong and, ironically enough, hope came in the form we least expected.”

  “The Icon,” Liz said, grinning at Christy. “Believe me, it wasn’t easy to accept. Hell, I wanted to spit in her face the first time you brought her to one of our meetings. But it was the best thing that could have happened to us. Unlike you, she genuinely wanted to help.”

  She was right. Sheila did care, a unique trait among Icons apparently, most of whom history remembered as arrogant jackasses. Sadly, her caring for others had come at the cost of her caring for me.

  I shook my head. Enough of that shit. I’d already thrown myself plenty of pity parties. Now was not the time for another, especially not while these two dick biscuits were busy spilling the beans.

  “Okay, I think we get it,” Ed replied. “She was all ‘hey, let’s go invite all the ancient evil back into this world.’”

  Even Gan rolled her eyes at that one.

  “Hardly,” Liz said with a huff. “The truth is, all she offered was hope. She listened, talked to us, cried with us over what was lost, and eventually a few of us started to listen. The tenet of an Icon is that faith in oneself can overcome all obstacles. Once we got past feeling sorry for ourselves, it was easy to internalize that.”

  Komak put an arm around her. “I think she meant for us to use our unique knowledge to move forward with our lives, but instead it kick started discussion between our peoples. Imagine, the mystic knowledge of the Magi combined with the wisdom of the ages.”

  I perked up, feeling a slight sliver of hope. According to this clown, Sheila had merely been trying to tell these guys to get jobs as history professors or something, but he’d taken it as a cue to get the old band back together. Of course, that still didn’t answer why she’d been with them in Damascus.

  “We must have gone over it thousands of times,” Komak continued. “We filled whole rooms with charts, maps, and theories. It was maddening ... until we eventually stumbled onto something that might work.”

  “How?” Christy asked, sounding genuinely curious.

  “You were the key,” Liz said, her grin wider than ever. “Sheila, she told us how you got everyone out once The Source collapsed. How you realized there was still power in...”

  At this, Komak put a hand on her shoulder. “I think we’ve said enough.”

  Now? He decided now was enough? They
’d just talked our ears off, but then, right as shit was getting interesting, they decided to play it coy? Fucking A!

  “So what now?” I prodded, hoping to open the floodgates of his lips again ... and really wishing I’d come up with a better analogy.

  “For you, nothing,” Komak told me. “Your former coven mistress gave us what we needed.”

  “Is Sally...”

  “She’s okay, for now. Think what you will of us, Freewill, but the old ways are no more. We are the injured party here, seeking only to right our grievances. Should we succeed, there’s no reason to think we won’t show mercy.”

  “How generous of you,” Gan said. “Know that if we find our positions reversed, the same shall not be offered.”

  Gotta love Gan. Always striving to make our situation better.

  “I would expect no less, Prefect,” Komak replied. “But then, you are a product of a dead era, I suppose.”

  Liz nodded. “Agreed. Perhaps it’s time for you to join your ancestors in the...”

  “Now, now,” her boy toy interrupted. “We still have use for the Prefect. She’s staked a claim over what is rightfully ours. It would be a shame if something happened to her before we could rectify that.”

  Gan merely stared back, seemingly nonplussed by the threat.

  After a few moments, when nobody said anything, I finally snapped, “Okay, I’ll bite since no one else is asking. What does she have that you want?”

  Komak let out a chuckle. “Our birthright, of course.”

  “Not following.”

  “I’ll give you a hint. We are the Last Coven, rightful heirs of the First Coven.”

  “Okay, so? Is she holding on to your membership rings or something?”

  “Far more than that. Gansetseg here has appropriated the near limitless resources that the First once controlled.”

  It figured. “So is that what all of this is about? You’re nothing more than a supernatural Hans Gruber?”

  “Hans...?”

  “Hardly,” Liz said. “This isn’t some mere bank robbery...”

  She was interrupted by an electronic chirp from Komak’s side. He reached down and unclipped a satellite phone from his belt, then held up a hand as if beckoning us all to give him a minute.

  “We have her,” he said into the receiver, forgoing any basic pleasantries.

  Considering the way he was looking at Christy, I had to assume our assumptions were correct. They were aware of the spell and that she was the only one who knew it.

  And, hey, look at us. We’d waltzed right in and handed her over on a silver platter. Yep, just like old times.

  “Can you tell them to hold off?” he asked. “We’re not in a position to... What?! Three at once? No ... we’re not ready.”

  Huh? Three what?

  “Isn’t there any way to ... no, I understand. We’ll do what we can. Komak out.” He hung up and frantically clipped the phone back to his side. “Shit! Secure the prisoners. All weapons up and at the ready.”

  “What the hell are you...”

  But there was no opportunity or reason for me to finish my question. I knew what was happening a scant second later as my heart skipped a beat, then another, as I slumped over onto the floor.

  AND A CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM

  I almost certainly would have passed out – that sluggishness was worse than ever – but then I caught a boot to the side which cleared the cobwebs ever so slightly.

  “Stop playing games, Freewill. It won’t work.”

  I really wished that were the case. Pity I could barely pull in enough breath to tell the goon who’d shit-stomped me to go fuck himself.

  Sadly, I couldn’t even make for a decent distraction. My friends, on the other hand...

  Gan blinked and her eyes flashed yellow. However, even as there came a groan of metal fatigue from her cuffs, several weapons were leveled at her.

  In addition, Liz and another of the goon squad began to glow an angry red. “Don’t,” she warned.

  Powerful as my allies were, they were outmatched with little chance of breaking free before their brain pans could be perforated.

  One of our other captors stepped over to me and removed his helmet, revealing himself to be none other than Hipster McFucknugget, the other asshole who’d kicked my door down. I’d been wondering where he’d gotten off to. And, of course, he was now sporting yellow eyes and fangs. Lucky me. “It’s funny. Freewills were unique in their ability to feed upon others of our kind. Now, though, I have to admit to being curious what you taste like.”

  Oh fuck.

  “Don’t you dare...”

  “Or what?” Liz asked, pointing a glowing hand at Christy. “Give me an excuse, you traitorous bitch.”

  “You leave my mommy alone!”

  “All right, that’s enough,” Komak barked. “Nobody needs to get hurt, but know that if you try anything, we are more than capable of neutralizing any...”

  “Neutralize my cock, asshole!”

  Weak as I was, I was still able to smile. Komak and his buddies had captured seven of us, but were apparently unaware that we actually numbered eight. With the power back on, that meant so, too, was Tom. He stepped through the wall shouting obscenities and drawing their attention. Half their number turned their guns on him and one actually opened fire, the bullet striking the wall behind his ghostly form.

  Heh. Tom was definitely not part of their plan. But if I thought that was cool, what came next was icing on the cake.

  Even as Komak shouted for his men to hold their fire, Tina cried out, “You hurt my daddy!”

  She began to glow, a chaotic mix of colors. With that belt around her, I was certain it would be little more than a light show, but Christy had been right. Her little girl was an atom bomb.

  The belt disintegrated from around her waist and, a moment later, her power lanced out in all directions, blasting us with a shockwave that blew out windows and knocked everyone, human or not, off their feet.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Fortunately, I was already on the floor. That was good, because someone could have bowled me over with a Nerf gun at that point.

  I quickly saw that nobody was spared an up close and personal meeting with the carpet, including – amazingly enough – Tom.

  “Holy shit,” he cried. “I actually felt that.”

  It was a safe bet that everyone had. That said, the overall effect wasn’t the same. Though most of his forces, Liz included, were slow to recover, Komak and Hipster – both neo-vamps – sat up and shook off the attack.

  Too bad they weren’t quick enough.

  Before either could reestablish control of the situation, there came the groan of metal sheering and then Gan was on the move. With one hand she ripped the cuffs off her ankles, while with the other she sliced through the manacles still holding Christy’s arms in place.

  “It would be prudent to not tarry, witch,” she said before launching herself toward Hipster, the nearest of the two vamps. Holy shit. I remembered Gan being fast beyond her years, but seeing it in action after all this time was still a mind-blower.

  But it wasn’t anyone’s mind I needed to worry about right then.

  Komak stood up right next to me. As he raised his weapon and prepared to pepper her with bullets, I managed to kick out at his leg.

  The result was next to nothing. Between my weakened state and his far more powerful one, I might as well have been trying to trip a mountain. At best, I barely bought Gan an extra second.

  But sometimes an extra second is enough.

  That was more than she needed. Even as Komak began to put pressure on the trigger, she tossed Hipster McFucknugget his way, knocking them both to the ground. Then, without missing a beat, she turned on another of his men, a mage who’d been powering up for an attack. Before he could hit her with so much as a single spark, she’d twisted his head around with a sickening snap of bone.

  “What have you done?” Liz cried.

  “You were warned my me
rcy would be nonexistent,” Gan said dispassionately. “Know that I do not make false promises.”

  It was as if time stopped to allow us all a moment to take this in. Back then, the casual erasure of life had been commonplace for us all. Outside of Tina, I doubted anyone in this room could claim innocence to the violence of the supernatural world.

  But that had been five years ago, giving us all time to readjust to a life without it.

  So much for that.

  Tina, interesting enough, was the first to react following this, seemingly unconcerned with anything except protecting her loved ones. A bright green orb of flame appeared in each of her hands, both looking far nastier than what she’d conjured in my apartment just a few days earlier. Goddamn, remind me to think twice about ever sending her to bed without supper.

  Mind you, her mother wasn’t chopped liver either. She screamed out an incantation and bright blue beams of force flew from her hands, striking Liz and another of our foes and sending both to the ground twitching – a stun spell, if I remembered my color coordination correctly.

  While this was going on, Gan leapt at Komak, taking two bullets in the gut for her troubles. Too bad for him that was barely a tickle fight for her. With her vamp powers back, an attack like that might hurt, but it wouldn’t stop her ... unless of course the power abruptly cut out.

  However, judging by Komak’s reaction while on the phone, I got the feeling whatever was happening was destined to last a bit longer than usual.

  Good for my friends. Less good for me. My eyelids were growing heavy, and I was finding it hard to draw breath. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. Even if this pulse ended, there was still the question of what would happen when the next one hit. I, for one, didn’t really care to place bets when the only options on the wheel were heart attack and stroke.

  Christy threw a concerned glance my way, but she was smart enough to realize that saving me wouldn’t mean much if we lost this fight. She let fly another incantation in that unintelligible language of hers and, this time, a purplish dome of energy rose up around her, Tina, and those of us still tied. Unsurprisingly, Gan didn’t rate in this equation, but then she probably didn’t need the help.