Death Doesn't Bargain: A Deadman's Cross Novel

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  As if! William laughed while Cameron let out a squeak of horror at his indelicate language.

  “Well, well,” a deep, sultry voice said beside them. “I can see the rumors that your newly married state has mellowed you have been greatly exaggerated. You’re still the same rotten beast, mon cher, you’ve always been.”

  All the humor died on Bane’s face. A tic started in his jaw. “Menyara. You old sea hag. What are you doing here?”

  Will blinked, then blinked again and rubbed his eyes that had to be deceiving him.

  Unless Bane was drunk, and the man had never been such that Will had ever witnessed, there was nothing old or ugly about the tiny little island woman in front of them. Indeed, her caramel skin was flawless. Her braided hair intertwined with expensive beads and colorful ribbons. And though she barely reached mid-chest on him, her voluptuous body said she was certainly no girl, yet by no means was she matronly.

  Fortunately, she took Bane’s insult in stride. “Is that any way to greet an old friend, cher?”

  “Friends? You stabbed me. Thrice.”

  Unabashed, she smiled as she brushed her hand over his arm in a tender gesture of affection. “Well, what did you expect? Your army was destroying mine. I had to do something to distract you before you killed every last one of my soldiers.”

  With a rude dismissive noise, he stepped back to make room for Cameron. “And that’s why you sent an innocent young girl to me? Punishment or revenge?”

  “Neither. I knew you would protect her.”

  “Hell of a gamble, given my proclivity for feasting on the hearts of innocents.”

  Menyara inclined her head to him. “Not when I knew how much you loved your sister. And I was right. You protected our Miss Cameron. As I knew you would. Thank you for not disappointing me.”

  Bane made a gruff “heh” sound in the back of his throat. “You still haven’t answered me question. Why are you here?”

  “To warn you.”

  He passed an annoyed do-you-see-what-I-mean glare at William. “About?” he prompted when she failed to continue her sentence.

  And even then Menyara waited before she answered. “Kadar knows the truth about your missing mermaid … and so does Shyamala.”

  The blood drained from his face at those ominous words. “Do they have him?”

  “Not yet. But they’re trying to find him, same as you.”

  “Who’s Kadar and Shyamala?” William asked, baffled by the unfamiliar names. And he wasn’t the only one. Cameron didn’t appear any more familiar with them than he was.

  Devyl ground his teeth. “Only the deepest, darkest evil you can imagine. They were the snake in the Garden of Eden, Mr. Death. The shiver that goes down your spine whenever you think you’re being watched in the night. They are the whisper that tempts good men to the animal side of corruption. That lapse of conscience that drives humanity to do its worst.”

  “Oh, fun! Sounds like our kind of people.”

  But the grim expression on Devyl’s face said that he didn’t appreciate Will’s sarcasm.

  “Actually, they were once Du’s people. He fought long and hard for their cause and killed many in their name.”

  That took the humor right out of William’s spirit. “Beg pardon?”

  Menyara nodded. “Your good captain once led his army for them.”

  “And what did it get me? A knife in me gullet and bled out at the feet of the bitch who betrayed me to serve them, until I killed her and locked her in a special hell for it.”

  The same hell that was now breaking open and that they had hopefully sent Vine back to when they’d killed her for trying to murder Bane’s new wife, Mara.

  The Carian Gate.

  His eyes flared as he stepped back. “Come, Lady Cameron and Mr. Death, let’s see about our mission.”

  As he started away, Menyara stopped him. “Before you leave, there’s something else I must tell you.”

  Devyl placed his hand high on his black baldric of three flintlocks. “And that is?”

  Menyara turned toward William with a beautiful, dazzling smile. Beguiling and sweet. Without a word, she approached him slowly and reached for his belt.

  Stunned, he didn’t move. Not until she reached for his daggers. In one fluid motion, she grabbed them, kicked him back, and spun toward Devyl.

  As she closed the distance between them, her entire being changed from the petite Menyara into a tall, graceful, red-headed beauty.

  William gasped as he realized that this was Devyl’s ex-wife they’d destroyed.

  Or at least, they thought they had.

  How was this possible? Even though the Carian Gate had broken open, how could she have returned to life?

  Yet there was no denying that this was the very sorceress they’d fought, and she was back from her grave to take vengeance on them all for killing her.

  Hissing, she rushed at Devyl. “You didn’t end me, you worthless bastard! But I will see you back to hell for what you’ve done! And I plan to send that sniveling little Myrcian bitch there with you!”

  2

  Cameron Jack cursed as Captain Bane was forced to reveal his powers before the humans in the pub. Something strictly forbidden to them by Thorn. The Hellchasers and Deadmen were to never let a mortal know they’d been brought back to life under any circumstances. Nor were they to put their preternatural abilities on display for the public.

  Never mind the laws that governed her own breed of Necrodemians, or Hell-Hunters as they were more commonly known. The Sarim Council that she and her brother answered to had an even stricter code of conduct they were required to follow.

  The worst rule being that Hell-Hunters couldn’t fight dirty.

  For any reason.

  Or endanger a human life, or reveal their powers to mundanes.

  Yet had the captain failed to reveal his powers, Vine would have consumed them with her unholy fire that she launched behind the daggers.

  But by unleashing his fire, the captain deflected hers with his own. The humans ran, screaming, for cover.

  Wiser ones, for the door.

  Sad to say, Cameron wasn’t so smart. She chose to stay and fight, as was her nature. But then that was all she’d ever known. Fighting ran thick within her Celtic blood. And twice as deep in her Necrodemian bloodline. So she unsheathed her sword and made ready to cover the good captain’s back with William as more of Vine’s allies moved in for them.

  “Well,” William said to her. “Makes me so glad I volunteered for this, eh? Could have stayed onboard the ship with Bart, Kat, and Simon and the rest. But, nay. Had to stick me foot in the fodder. ‘Got your back, Captain,’ had to say. Aye, a fool I be for sure, and then some. Next time I speak up, Miss Jack, feel free to run me through and save these devils the trouble of it.”

  Laughing at his surly tone that belied the fact he was loyal to the bone and meant none of it, she parried against the first demon to reach her and twisted away from the beast. “If there is a next time, Mr. Death. Not so sure we’ll make it out.” She barely caught the next demon as he tried to sink his fangs into her shoulder. Luckily, she beheaded the beast before he drew her blood and turned her into who knew what.

  Then, kicking up the abandoned heads the peddler had left behind, she let them sink their fangs into the wanker, who screeched mightily from the pain of their bites.

  “Anyone have a good idea on how to survive this?” she asked while Captain Bane continued to fight with his ex-wife. And if they’d fought like that while married, it was easy to see how their marriage had ended in murder.

  Multiple times.

  William knocked his opponent into the fire. The demon shrieked then burst into flames. Cinders rained down all over them and threatened to set fire to the pub. “I vote we join a new crew. Preferably a human one that hell itself isn’t trying to kill at every turn. That should increase our chances of survival exponentially.”

  She snorted, knowing he was japing. “Aye, but it won’t redeem
your soul, now, will it?”

  And unlike her and the captain, Will wasn’t free to leave the Sea Witch’s crew. The Deadman’s mark on his wrist bound him tight to their enchanted band and prevented him from seeking new company until he’d regained his freedom from Thorn’s bargain. Not that it mattered.

  When it came to the Deadmen who sailed onboard the Sea Witch, they weren’t about to abandon each other, no matter what. Through thick and thin, and demons galore, they were one united insane family.

  At least that was her thought until the demon in front of her burst apart with a stench so foul it caused her to choke and gasp. Ugh! Never had she smelled anything more putrid, and given some of the hovels where she and her brother had taken refuge after their parents had orphaned them, that said a lot.

  “You were saying, Miss Jack?” Will taunted her as he rested his sword on his shoulder. Pressing his hand to his nose, he made a face she was sure mirrored her own distaste of the stench. “I’m really not seeing much difference between here and hell lately.”

  Honestly? Neither was she.

  And it was indeed getting harder and harder to tell the demons from the humans at times, too. Which made her wonder at their mission. Why were they bothering to save a world that seemed hell-bent on remaking itself into the very visage of what they were trying to save it from?

  Don’t forget, you’re not fighting for the world right now.…

  True. Right now, she was fighting for the man who’d traded his life for hers. And that one decent, selfless act needed to be repaid in kindness, not treachery.

  Kalder deserved to be rescued and not abandoned. She would not do to him what everyone else had done.

  I will keep me word to you, Kalder. We will find you.

  If she had to break hell itself open and battle Lucifer to bring Kalder home, she would.

  And so Cameron renewed her fight against their enemies so that they could quickly behead the last three demons before they claimed another innocent human life or soul.

  Or even one of their not-so-innocent ones.

  Leaving only Vine to be dealt with.

  Her breathing ragged, the Titian-haired demon curled her lips at them. Vine was a great beauty, Cameron would give her that. It was easy to see why the captain had been duped into marrying her.

  Easier still to see how he’d been blinded enough to drop his guard long enough in their marriage that she’d been able to kill him.

  But Devyl Bane was no longer under her spell, and no longer was he fooled by her charms or enchantments.

  “You always favored your little water pet. And Kalder will pay dearly for your defiance here tonight, Duel. Take your comfort in that. And I’ll make sure he knows who caused it for him when I feed him to the Dark Powers myself.” Then she vanished with one last shrieking cry.

  Captain Bane cursed as she withdrew. “Come back and face me, you worthless bitchington!”

  It was too late. She was gone.

  “Shall I go after her, Captain?”

  He passed a droll stare at William and answered in a tone that dripped with utter sarcasm. “By all means, Mr. Death. I commend you to the task. On your way, lad. There’s the door. Off with you now. No need in dawdling.”

  “Oh, I didn’t mean alone. Not quite that stupid, sir.”

  Sheathing his sword, he glared at William. “You’re a cheeky bastard here lately, Mr. Death. If I didn’t know better, I’d think our Cimmerian enemies had already laid fang to you and converted you to their army.”

  Cameron ignored them while she studied the blood on the floor the demons had left behind. It was a strange brew indeed. Instead of staining the wood as most blood would, this was pooling quite a bit differently. As if it were a living creature trying to move on its own.

  Indeed, it seemed to defy gravity and slither like a bug. “Say, Captain? Have you ever seen the likes of this?”

  He moved to stand near her so that he could examine it.

  At first she thought she was imagining things. Given some of the knocks to her noggin she’d taken during their fight, it wouldn’t be unlikely that her vision would have been compromised.

  Or her wits.

  But as he stooped down to better study the goo, she knew this wasn’t the case.

  The scowl on his handsome face told her that she’d seen exactly what she thought she had.

  That was bad enough. Worse came when the good captain lifted a bit of the blood to his lips to taste it. Ew!

  Cameron cringed in distaste and had to fight back the urge to go a-heaving.

  “Should we ask?” William shivered visibly. “Or leave you alone for your feast, Captain?”

  The captain gave him an even more peeved glare. Rising to his feet, he licked his fingers clean. “This is a foul night, serving the foulest brew to be measured.” His features paled as he met their gazes one by one. “We needs get back to the ship and warn the others. They’ll be coming for Mara and the rest of the crew.”

  “They?” Cameron asked.

  “The plat-eyes we have yet to find. And the souls of those Vine is torturing.”

  Her heart sank at his words. The plat-eyes were vicious shapeshifters who took over the bodies of their victims and used them to attack others. Absolute soulless killing machines, they wouldn’t stop their insatiable mutilations until the bodies of their original victims were located and given a proper burial. They feasted on blood and souls.

  And just as the captain feared for his newly wedded wife, Mara, Cameron feared for their missing mate. “What of Mr. Dupree?”

  “No fear there, Miss Jack. We’ll get him back, I promise you. Just as I promised him.”

  Her throat tightening even more than her stomach, she nodded. And she prayed he was right. That Kalder didn’t spend a single minute longer in hell than what was absolutely necessary.

  Because it’s all me fault that he’s there.

  The worst part was that she knew exactly what they were doing to Kalder.

  She involuntarily flinched at the memory of their cruelty, and their laughter while they’d done it. The demonic bastards had pitted her against her brother, the entire time she’d been among them. They had reveled in their unholy torture. Had done unspeakable things that had kept her from having a decent sleep since her return to the land of the living.

  No longer did she feel safe, at all. Every shadow left her terrified that it held one of them waiting to drag her back to their pits. Every laugh sounded sadistic.

  She wasn’t sure if she’d ever feel right or normal again. If she’d ever get rid of this feeling that every nook and cranny held danger for her.

  Cameron had thought her childhood had left her traumatized and defensive, but that was nothing compared to the latest horrors of their enemies’ tender, loving care. It was a nightmare she’d wish on none. And definitely not on someone as decent as Mr. Dupree.

  Most especially not after he’d allowed Thorn to cut his throat and had sacrificed himself like a slaughtered lamb to spare her and her brother, Paden, from the merciless cruelty of their enemies.

  Cameron was brutally aware of the fact that, for every minute she wallowed in safety, he suffered in agonizing hell.

  Why, Mr. Dupree?

  Why?

  But then she knew the answer. He held himself to blame for his own brother’s murder. That single event had scarred him to the bitterest depths of his soul. And no doubt he shouldered equal blame for her being taken by their enemies under his watch, even though it wasn’t his fault at all. None could have saved her that night—which was the source of her current unending nightmares—and he’d tried harder than any other would have even attempted in his fins.

  Wincing, she could still hear his agonized shouts as the water sprites had swept her overboard from their ship during the storm. See the anguished expression on his face. He’d lunged for her, trying his best to keep her from their grasps.

  In the raging sea, he’d taken her hand, and for one instant, she’d thought he
rself saved. Thought that all would be fine again.

  His grip had been so firm and steadfast that she’d let herself believe the impossible.

  That she was safe in the icy water.

  “I won’t let you go, Cameron! So help me!”

  Until their enemies had overwhelmed him, prying his hand away from hers. Even then, he’d fought against them with a fury the likes of which she’d never seen before.

  “Nay! Nay!” The insanity in his pale eyes as he’d desperately swum for her had been the last thing she’d beheld. His agonized cries as he searched had stayed with her every minute she’d been gone.

  Tears choked her as she clutched at the necklace he’d given the captain for her to keep in his absence.

  Tell her to pray for me brother’s soul.

  Not his. He thought himself too damned for redemption.

  Some days, so did Cameron. For Kalder held a darkness inside him that made a mockery of Captain Bane’s. A deep, soul-wrenching blackness that said it wouldn’t take much to lose him forever to the Cimmerian forces they fought against. But no one deserved what they were doing to him. And definitely not after he’d done a favor for someone else.

  Never be beholden. ’Twas what her parents and brother had raised her up on. It was what she lived her life by. And she owed Kalder a debt that could never be fully repaid. For he hadn’t just freed her, he’d given her back her brother, too.

  Closing her eyes, she could still see Kalder’s body the day he’d died to liberate them.

  Because of the torture and insanity, Paden had turned on her. His hands had been wrapped around her throat when all of a sudden Kalder had been there, pulling him back.

  At first, she’d thought herself dreaming.

  Until their gazes had locked in the misty nether realm between the worlds.

  There in that dark, vacuous place where light and dark mingled into one—where it was neither day nor night—good nor evil—Kalder had reached for her. And for the slightest second they’d almost touched.

  But just as his hand brushed against her skin, he’d faded from her reach like a whispered blur—torn from her side so fast that she couldn’t stop it.