Die and Stay Dead

by Nicholas Kaufmann

  “I didn’t know,” I repeated, looking up at Isaac. He, Philip, and Gabrielle stared at me, agape. I turned to Bethany. Reached out for her. “Please…”

  She backed away in fear and confusion. If I could have willed myself dead, I would have done it in that moment. But then she paused. Collected herself. She took a step toward me—and another, quicker, and then she had her arms around me. She helped me to my feet. I held her close.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I repeated.

  “You don’t have to be,” she said, her voice breaking. “I told you before, it doesn’t matter who you used to be. All that matters is who you are now. We all have choices to make. We all have to decide who we want to be. But that comes from inside, not from anyone else.”

  “How touching,” Reve Azrael said. “A shame time is about to run out. Do you remember what Behemoth told you, little fly, right before he died? The memory is still fresh in this body’s mind.”

  The sky flashed then, brightly and repeatedly, but it wasn’t lightning. Balls of fire fell out of the rift like comets. They splashed down into the Hudson River, rocking the boat with their waves.

  “The Selenian Legion,” Reve Azrael said. “Behemoth’s personal guard. A force so destructive, so unrelenting that Behemoth’s enemies, including you, imprisoned them out of terror. They are the demons that even demons fear, and they obey only Behemoth. To them, I am Behemoth. When they look upon me, they will see their master, and they will obey me. Only me.”

  Where each of the comets had splashed down, a gigantic shape burst up from the water. There were seven of them in all, each as tall as Behemoth. Their charcoal-black bodies looked more like stone than flesh, run through with glowing veins of fire. Enormous, bull-like horns crowned their foreheads. Slabs of iron had been bolted over their eyes, and huge iron collars circled their necks. They wore iron manacles on their wrists, from which dangled the broken ends of huge, iron chains.

  “Run, little fly,” Reve Azrael said.

  We backed away from her. When her army of revenants started to climb out of the water and onto the ship, we broke into a run. My ankle slowed me down, but Bethany held onto me, pulling me along.

  “Run!” Reve Azrael called after us.

  The seven demons of the Selenian Legion threw back their enormous, horned heads and bellowed. They waded toward the Intrepid, their colossal legs churning up waves that rocked the ship. Isaac lost his footing and fell. The Guardians’ scroll fell out of the inside pocket of his duster. It rolled across the floor and into one of the small fires still burning on the deck. The old, crisp parchment caught fire immediately, its ashes blowing away on the wind, just like the Guardian of Time had said it would.

  Philip and Gabrielle helped Isaac to his feet. We kept moving as the Selenian Legion waded closer to the ship. Their stony bodies burned. Their immense horns seemed to scrape the sky.

  “Run far and run fast,” Reve Azrael shouted after us. “Because this city, this world, is mine!”

  Forty-Four

  I tried to save the world. I tried, and I failed.

  I was wrong about the horrors the oracles foresaw. I was wrong about what Calliope and the others knew was coming. It wasn’t Nahash-Dred. It wasn’t even Behemoth. It was Reve Azrael and the Selenian Legion. The city would crumble. Countless people would die. It was what some had seen and others sensed. It was why they ran. It was what Calliope had tried to stop, before Reve Azrael killed her. For nothing. For me.

  And it was why we ran. With the Selenian Legion wading closer at our backs, we ran off the wreckage of the USS Intrepid. Already the towering demons were kicking up waves that crashed across the piers and onto Twelfth Avenue. Or what was left of Twelfth Avenue. The rubble from the destroyed overpass and the damaged storage facility had fallen to the street. Our Escalade lay somewhere beneath mounds of debris. Other cars did, too. And people. Pedestrians, drivers, the police and EMTs who had responded to the catastrophe. All of them killed by Behemoth.

  Something stirred in the rubble. A block of concrete fell away from a crushed police car, and a uniformed officer pulled himself out. He straightened, standing on a hill of debris. Blood soaked his clothing and his face. One side of his body had been mashed to a pulp. A bright red glow emanated from his eyes.

  “Run, rabbits,” Reve Azrael said through the dead officer’s mouth. “Run!”

  More rubble shifted. Dozens of red-glowing eyes opened beneath the concrete and twisted rebar. More maimed, blood-soaked revenants pulled free of the ruins. I kept running, taking a moment to glance back at the Intrepid. On the ruined flight deck, Reve Azrael in Behemoth’s body gathered the Selenian Legion to her. Below, revenants climbed out of the Hudson River and onto shore.

  We scrambled over the chunks of concrete and twisted scraps of metal in our path, but it felt futile. We didn’t have a car. We had no place to go. We’d never reach Citadel before we were overtaken.

  “Look!” Gabrielle shouted, pointing.

  It was Thornton. The glowing ghost wolf stood atop a mound of rubble, watching us.

  “He wants us to follow him,” Gabrielle said.

  “How do you know?” Isaac asked as Philip helped him over the debris.

  Gabrielle knit her brow. “I—I can hear him in my head.”

  “It’s your gift,” Isaac said. “Your ability to read minds. Somehow, he’s using the connection between you to tap into it.”

  “I don’t care how he’s doing it,” Gabrielle said, her eyes tearing up. “I’m just glad to hear his voice again.”

  We followed Thornton up Twelfth Avenue, away from the Intrepid. Slowly I began to recognize the neighborhood. I realized then where he was taking us. The only safe place left in New York City.

  I heard screams behind us. The screeching of tires, the blasts of car horns. The unmistakable rumble of a building collapsing. I turned around in time to see the brown, brick UPS building across from the Intrepid fall over. The Selenian Legion had come ashore.

  Bethany grabbed my hand. “We have to keep moving!”

  I stared at the devastation unfolding behind us. Towering, horned shapes moved against the skyline. Another building collapsed into a cloud of dust and debris. More screams. I went cold. There was no one to help them. There was no one to stop this.

  Bethany pulled me forward. “Trent, we have to go! There’s nothing we can do!”

  I ran with her to catch up to the others. She was right. There was nothing we could do. But what if there was something I could do?

  A squad of police cars raced past us down Twelfth Avenue, their sirens screaming. Behind them came fire trucks and ambulances, and then the news vans. Police choppers zoomed overhead. I wanted to tell them all to turn around. They didn’t stand a chance. They were rushing to their deaths. But they flew past me too quickly, and there was no way to reach them.

  Isaac was feeling strong enough to walk on his own, so Philip let go of him. The mage didn’t fall. He had regained at least some of his strength. I broke away from Bethany and pulled Philip aside, out of earshot of the others. I asked him for two favors. The first was to go back to Citadel to pick up a couple of important items. Knowing how fast he could move, he was the only one who could do it safely. The second favor was much more dangerous, but again, he was the only one I could ask. He agreed to both without hesitation. He ran off in a blur. I rejoined the others and continued up Twelfth Avenue with them. When they asked me where Philip had gone, I told them he would be right back.

  A few minutes later, we reached the hollow ruins of an old apartment building across from De Witt Clinton Park. I remembered this place. Thornton led us into the overgrown field behind it. A metal door sat in the ground. The wolf passed through it and disappeared. Gabrielle didn’t need to translate that one for us. Thornton wanted us to follow him down to Tsotha Zin, the Nethercity.

  I pulled open the door for the others and held it as they climbed down into the darkness. Gabrielle went first. Isaac followed, maneuvering hims
elf slowly down the rungs of the ladder with his one hand. Bethany went next. I was about to go in last when I saw a shape watching us from the shadows of the overgrown field.

  It was the cloaked man. The crow perched on his shoulder cocked its head at me.

  Fuck this guy. I wanted answers and I wanted them now. I stormed over to him. The cloaked man waited for me. A grin grew on his pale lips beneath the black hood.

  “Who are you?” I demanded. “What do you want from me?”

  “You have paved the way,” he said. “It has begun.”

  “You knew this would happen?”

  He didn’t answer. Of course he knew. He’d shown me the future. He’d shown me what I had inadvertently set in motion tonight by killing Behemoth. I felt a growing urge to punch him in the face, but I resisted it. He knew something, and I wanted to know what it was.

  “What’s begun?” I asked. “What have I paved the way for?”

  “The return of the true masters,” he said. “And the end of everything.”

  I grabbed his hood and yanked it down. His white skin was veined with black all the way to the top of his bald head. He had dark, empty holes where his eyes should be. Eyes that were on the backs of his hands instead. He laughed and laughed.

  Bethany called my name. I turned around. She was poking her head out of the doorway in the ground. “Are you coming?”

  I turned back to the cloaked man. He was gone.

  The end of everything. Just like they’d always said. The Immortal Storm would bring about the end of everything.

  I climbed down the ladder after Bethany. I left the door open for Philip. I hoped he wouldn’t be too much longer.

  Bethany waited for me at the bottom of the steps. “What were you doing up there?”

  I looked back up at the open doorway far above us. “Did you see him?”

  “See who?” she asked. “All I saw was you.”

  “The cloaked man came back,” I said. “He told me it was the end of everything. Then he was gone. Who is he? Why does he keep showing up?”

  “I don’t know, but we need to find the others. Come on.” She took my hand and pulled me into the sewer tunnels.

  We caught up to them as Thornton led the way through the tunnels. I knew now why he’d come back. Why he’d been following me all this time. To stop me from making a crucial mistake. But it hadn’t worked. I’d killed Behemoth. Just like the cloaked man said, I’d paved the way for Reve Azrael to take control of his body and the Selenian Legion. I’d paved the way for the end of everything.

  Deep in the lower levels of the sewer system, the secret doors that led to Tsotha Zin were already open. Eventually, we came to the ice bridge that was the entrance to the Nethercity. My breath clouded in front of me. I gathered my trench coat around me to keep out the chill. In the distance an impossible, snow-capped mountain range sat far below the streets of New York City.

  Gregor was waiting for us by the bridge. His massive, reptilian head emerged half-shrouded from the mists below. The cold, white fires of his eyes burned from within his stone-gray scales.

  “There is little time left,” the dragon said. “Tsotha Zin is already swollen with refugees. We have opened our doors to more topsiders than I ever imagined. Were you not Thornton’s friends, I would have turned you away.”

  It occurred to me this was where Thornton had disappeared to. After he warned me to stop and I didn’t, he knew what would happen. He’d come here to make preparations. His own Plan B. How many times did I owe my hide to that crazy, dead werewolf? I’d lost count already.

  An open iron door waited in the rock wall on the other side of the bridge. Thornton sat on his haunches in front of it. Gabrielle crouched down beside him. Thornton tipped his head toward her. She did the same. Their foreheads passed right through each other, but Gabrielle laughed as tears streamed down her cheeks.

  “I can hear you,” she murmured. “Oh God, I missed your voice. I missed you so much.”

  Philip came running onto the bridge to join us. He was wearing a new shirt and coat, and was holding one of the items I’d sent him to Citadel for. Kali, secure inside her carry case. The cat was wide-eyed with fear, mewling and pressing herself against the back wall of the case. Philip was sopping wet, but he spoke before I could ask him why.

  “It’s a shit show up there,” he said. “They’ve moved inland from the Hudson River. They’re already in Hell’s Kitchen, destroying everything they come across. I saw whole apartment buildings come down. There are bodies in the street, but they don’t stay down long. Reve Azrael is reanimating them. People are trying to get away, but if the demons don’t get them the revenants do. It’s bedlam.”

  “I always knew this day would come,” Gregor said. “I always knew the darkness on the surface would grow too strong to be contained. I warned you topsiders of this many, many times, and yet you chose to continue living on the surface. If only you had come down to Tsotha Zin long ago, as so many others did.” He swung his massive, horn-crowned head toward the door. “I must close the door soon. When I do, it will remain closed. Enter now, and be quick. There is nothing we can do but wait out this madness, and try to survive until it is over.”

  “You’re wrong. There is something,” I said. Bethany was pulling me toward the door, but I stopped her. “I can’t go with you.”

  “What?” she demanded. There was panic in her eyes.

  “Someone has to try to stop this,” I said.

  “But you can’t—”

  “Think about it,” I said. “They’re demons. Apparently I am, too. No one else can stop them.”

  She shook her head. “Trent, no, it’s too dangerous.”

  “If you’re going, you’re not going alone,” Isaac interjected. “I’m coming with you.”

  I looked at him. He was pale and stooped, drained and exhausted. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was still partially in shock. He wouldn’t be any use like this. He’d only get himself killed.

  “Forget it, Isaac,” I said. “You’re needed here. So are you, Bethany.”

  She shook her head again, harder this time. “I won’t stay if you’re not staying.”

  “You have to. I can’t do this if I don’t know you’re safe.”

  “I can’t stay here if I don’t know you’re safe,” she insisted.

  “I will be. I’m taking a bodyguard.” I turned to Philip. “I know you already said yes, but I have to ask again. Are you sure you’re up for this?”

  “Damn straight.” The vampire turned to Isaac. “As long as it’s okay with you, old man. It’s you I’ve pledged service to, not Trent. If you say the word, I’ll stay with you.”

  Isaac nodded. “Go. If anyone can help keep Trent safe, it’s you. After all, you’ve done it for me all these years.”

  “I won’t let you down, old man,” Philip said. He pointed at Bethany and Gabrielle. “I’m leaving him in your care. If anything happens to him, you’ll have to answer to me.” He pointed at Thornton. “You too, fuzz face. Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean I can’t fuck you up.”

  Thornton dipped his head in a nod. Then he turned around and loped through the open doorway.

  “Good luck, you two. Watch your backs out there,” Gabrielle said. She hugged us, took Kali’s carry case, and followed her fiancé through the door.

  “There are no phones or e-mail down here,” Isaac said. “If you two are going back topside, you’ll be completely on your own.”

  “I know,” I said.

  “If it doesn’t work,” Isaac said, “if you can’t stop them, come back.”

  “If we can’t stop them,” I said, “there won’t be anything to come back to.”

  Isaac nodded solemnly. He shook my hand, then went to Philip.

  “And you,” he said. “What can I say? You’ve come such a long way, Philip. The things you did in the past, the things you’ve tried to make up for…” He paused, his eyes growing teary. “Your bravery, your integrity, and yes, your goodness h
ave made me proud.”

  Philip frowned. “Cool it, old man. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”

  Isaac held out his hand. Philip shook it. They grasped hands for a long moment. Then Isaac let go and walked through the door.

  Bethany looked up at me. Her eyes were full of things she wanted to say, all fighting to come out first. Finally, she said, “Be careful.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” I said. “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s not dying. For long.”

  She threw her arms around me and hugged me tight. I hesitated to return the hug.

  “You know who I am now,” I said. “What I am.”

  “I don’t care.” She pulled my face down to hers and kissed me. “You’re Trent. You’ve always been Trent to me. Any other name, any other life you had, they don’t matter to me. You matter.”

  “You’re not scared of me?” I asked.

  She smirked. “How could I be scared of you? You can’t even beat me at gin rummy.”

  I laughed and kissed her again.

  The booming sound of an explosion from far above interrupted us. Dust and pebbles rained down onto the ice bridge.

  “They are close,” Gregor said. “I must close the door now.”

  “Trent,” Bethany said.

  “I’ll come back for you,” I said.

  We kissed again, one last time, and then Isaac and Gabrielle came back out and pulled her away from me. Pulled her through the doorway. She called my name one more time. The iron door slammed shut, cutting her off. I went to the door and put my hand on the cold metal. I hoped she would be safe here. I would do everything I could to make sure she was. To make sure they all were.

  “If you are going topside, you must go now,” Gregor said. “I will seal the doorways behind you. Good luck. I pray you succeed. But if you do not, then I pray your deaths are quick and without pain.” With that cheery farewell, the dragon sank back down into mists.