by E. A. Copen
Until Death
Book 12 of The Lazarus Codex
E.A. Copen
Until Death is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2019 E.A. Copen
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US edition, December 2019
ebook ISBN: 978-1-64202-641-2
Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-642-9
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
Get an Exclusive Story from The Lazarus Codex
A Note from E.A. Copen
Connect with the Author
Other Series by E.A. Copen
Other LMBPN Publishing Books
Chapter One
Scientists agree that the sun will swallow the Earth in about five billion years. That means there’ll be at least five billion more years of Christmas music, which felt like five billion years too many to me. If I had to listen to George Michael sing Last Christmas one more time, I really was going to rip out my still-beating heart and hand it over.
On December 26th, exactly five days before I was to marry the woman of my dreams, I foolishly decided to subject myself to the tortures of the season and hit the mall to buy Emma a gift. We’d decided to forgo Christmas because of the wedding and all the expenses that came with it, but I didn’t want to show up at my own wedding empty-handed. I had the rings, of course, and the honeymoon all planned out and paid for, but something had possessed me to think I needed to give her a little something extra.
It was the dumbest thing I’d ever done.
Tired masses of people with their bags of returns became a sea, waves breaking against storefronts. Overwhelmed toddlers screamed while parents—exhausted and hungover from too much eggnog, perhaps—bargained with promises of candy canes and hot chocolate. Plastic trees drooped under the weight of artificial lights while strange men in saggy red suits rang bells at every entrance. Hidden speakers belted out music, encouraging merriment, snow, and general reminders that, despite appearances, this was supposed to be a joyous time of year.
I stood in front of a Bed, Bath and Beyond store, choking on the peppermint and sugarplum scented candles while shoving an overpriced pretzel down my throat.
“I’m telling you,” Nate said, draining the last of his Coke, “we should’ve just gone to the Quarter.”
I slid sideways past a mom stopped with her double stroller. “The French Quarter is probably even busier. Everyone’s down there for brunch.”
“This is why I do as much of my shopping as possible online.”
“And get stuck with some cheap Chinese knockoff? No thanks. Emma deserves better.” We came upon a trash can and pitched our trash before continuing. “I still have no idea what to get her, Nate. It’s like ring shopping all over again, except this time the ring could be any shape. Why is it I feel like I know everything about her until it’s time to buy her a present?”
Nate shrugged. “Maybe she doesn’t need a present.”
I stopped. We both looked at each other and burst out laughing at the same time. Pro tip: whenever a woman says you don’t have to get her anything, you absolutely do. It was some sort of trick women liked to play on us men, though I couldn’t tell you why. Maybe it was some test of loyalty. I tried to imagine cavemen back in the day, frantically chasing squirrels so he didn’t have to sleep in the damp part of the cave next to the dung heap. Yeah, it felt a lot like that.
I sighed and stared at the directory, willing it to tell me where to go. “Sometimes I wonder if all this was a bad idea, you know?”
Nate frowned. “Getting married?”
“No, I mean all the fuss. The fanfare. The matching tuxedos, the floral arrangements, the music and menus and how we wanted napkins folded. It’s been a nightmare.”
He nodded and stuck his hands in his pockets. “At least you don’t have your side of the family to worry about. Try having a traditional Jewish wedding when your wife’s family is Catholic. Now that went over well.”
I cringed. “No, instead, I just have to listen to Emma’s mom passive-aggressively suggest Emma call things off and find a nice black man to have babies with. I’m telling you, nothing brings out the awful in people like a wedding. Nothing except for maybe a wedding at Christmastime.”
A shrill scream suddenly punctuated the din of voices and festive music. Heads popped up all around the food court, and people craned their necks like prairie dogs at the first sign of danger. Familiar, oily magic slithered through the air, running alongside my face. Nate shivered.
Another scream and the sea of people flowed back toward us.
Glass shattered. The checkered tile floor shook. Giant, clawed fingers gripped the wall at the corner and tore open the side of an Asian eatery. The creature that stomped into view was as far from human as you could get and still stand on two legs, even if those legs ended in goat-like hooves.
The rest of him was a mass of bloodstained, black fur. A leonine tail—also black—waved in the air behind him. Sharp horns, at least a foot long, protruded from his forehead while a long, serpentine tongue flicked into the air.
The creature scooped up a nearby kid who’d fallen out of his seat, roared in his face, and tossed him into a giant sack on his back.
I dropped the plastic bag of t-shirts I’d bought on sale, opened my coat and brought out my staff. “Keep an eye on my stuff.”
Nate nodded, grabbed my bag, and slid under a table.
I stepped on a chair, then a table, and then onto the little divider wall. “Hey, Ugly!”
He didn’t pay any attention to me, instead grabbing a stroller. The mom tried desperately to pull it away from the monster, but he just tossed her aside as if she weighed nothing at all. I looked around for something to throw and settled on an abandoned tray of tacos. It flew at him like a frisbee and conked him right between the horns. He snarled and turned, looking for whoever had been brave enough to throw it. Brave…or stupid. Either way, he found me.
I lifted my staff in challenge. “That’s right, Ugly. I threw it. You want a piece of me?”
He snorted and dropped the stroller, which luckily landed upright. Big, hairy fists slammed into the floor as he propelled himself forward, moving like a pissed off orangutan. Tables and chairs slid aside as he made his way toward me.
Great. Now what do I do? I looked around. There were too many people hunched behind counters and crowded behind pillars or inside storefronts f
or me to go unleashing magic willy-nilly. Someone could get hurt. A flash caught my eye. Some teenager held his phone horizontally out in front of him, probably recording the whole thing. With this many witnesses, how the hell was anyone going to spin this so it made sense to the general population? Better yet, how the hell was I going to kill Ugly without outing myself?
A fist smashed into the table in front of me. Ugly threw another table into the divider wall, knocking me off balance and into the creature’s open palm. Hairy fingers closed around my torso, squeezing out all the air and pinning my arms to my sides. He lifted me to his nose and sniffed, huge nostrils flaring.
“Gross. Goat demon boogers,” I wheezed.
Yellow teeth chomped at empty air. He pushed me toward them. Guess I wasn’t going in the bag.
Magic flared all of a sudden from nowhere and everywhere at once. Ugly roared in pain and dropped me. An overturned chair broke my fall. I’d have preferred a nice, even surface like the floor, but I take what I can get. With a roar, Ugly turned toward the jewelry boutique.
There stood the tallest man I’d ever seen, lean and dark-skinned. He wielded a staff, not unlike mine, except his was made of much darker wood, and he looked like he knew what he was doing. He slammed the end of his staff to the floor, the power of his magic billowing in the long black coat he wore. An invisible spell tore out of him and raced across the food court floor, slicing through tables and chairs like a saw blade. It struck Ugly and tore a large, red gash in the creature’s belly. Ugly howled and went to his knees.
I pushed myself up and tapped my staff against the floor, summoning a tremor that sent glass raining from the ceiling. Several large pieces hit the monster in the face, carving deep, bloody lines.
“Stop!” shouted the other wizard. “One more bonehead move like that, and you’ll hurt the kids.”
“Then what’s your plan to take him out, huh?” I shouted back.
He raised a hand parallel to his face and extended it outward. Another blast of magic from the stranger hit Ugly and moved right through him, exploding behind the monster into a dark chasm, a tear between Earth and some other realm. Like a black hole, it sucked everything toward it. Tables, chairs, pennies from the nearby fountain, Ugly, the other wizard’s fedora...and me.
I dug my fingers into the tile floor, trying to keep from flying through the portal, but there wasn’t anything to grab. As I slid past an overturned table, Nate’s hand shot out and closed around my wrist.
The strange wizard took two steps forward, making circular motions with his hand and tapping his staff on the ground rhythmically. A sweep of his hand and the string holding the sack on Ugly’s back tore in two. The giant bag tumbled to the ground and stayed where it was as the portal dragged Ugly back toward it.
Ugly dug his clawed fingers into the floor, tearing up the tile and all the cement underneath to keep from sliding through the portal, but the wizard didn’t let up. He kept spinning his hand and advancing until all but one of Ugly’s claws had disappeared. Then the wizard closed a fist, and with it the portal. It sliced through Ugly’s finger, leaving the twitching digit behind while the rest of the monster disappeared safely back to wherever it’d come from.
With the portal closed, I fell face-first to the floor.
Nate let go of my hand. “Who the hell is that?”
I groaned and turned over. “I don’t know,” I said, sitting up, “but I think I’d better go introduce myself.”
Just as I got to my feet, the giant bag opened, and an older kid crawled out, holding a baby. The crowd erupted into cheers as the strange wizard smiled and helped the kids out of the sack.
I stomped over to the wizard. “Hey! What the hell was that? And who the hell are you?”
“Guy,” he answered and then gestured to the claw. “And that was a Krampus. You’re welcome, by the way. For saving your life?”
“Saving me? You almost got me sucked into wherever that portal went! I had this handled before you showed up.” I stepped closer.
Guy gave me a bored look and bent over to collect his hat. “Really? It didn’t look like it to me. It looked like you were about to be crushed to death in front of everyone.”
“Listen, pal—”
Nate grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back. “Let’s just go, Laz.”
I glanced around. The crowd of onlookers had closed in, and none of them were giving me kind looks for threatening their savior. I shrugged Nate’s hand off. “You and me need to talk, pal. In private.”
Guy held up a hand, waving the crowd off. “Someone should call the cops if they haven’t already been notified. The rest of you should beat it.”
A young man stepped away from the line, the older kid who’d climbed out of the bag. “How’re we supposed to do that, mister? After what I just saw? After what I just went through? Monsters ain’t supposed to be real, you know?”
Guy leveled a fierce glare at the boy. “Monsters are real. You’re looking at one.”
The kid took a half step back.
“Easy, kid.” Guy raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Not every monster is a bad guy, and not every bad guy is a monster. The thing about monsters is, sometimes it takes one to know one. I’m on your side.”
“Are there more of those…things?” A fearful woman clutched her crying child to her chest.
“Sure, there are.”
Surprised and terrified gasps went up from the crowd.
“What you’ve seen is real,” Guy added and glanced at me. “And it’s only the beginning of what’s coming.”
Chapter Two
Guy agreed to meet me at the sports bar in the mall parking lot. I got a table big enough for the three of us and ordered the spiciest chicken wings they had. I was going to regret it later, but there’s nothing in the world like spicy food when you’re pissed off. The thing was, I couldn’t even put a finger on why the guy got under my skin so bad. He’d saved all those people, and yeah even helped me out. But the smug way he wielded his rescue rubbed me the wrong way.
Then there was the blatant disregard for the unspoken law that the public was never to know about the supernatural. He’d just tossed around magic like it was nothing, and didn’t even try to hide the fact that the Krampus was a monster. This guy was going to cause some serious trouble if he stayed in town. I had to get him to move on.
Nate picked the jalapeños off the top of his nachos. “People aren’t going to panic. They probably think he’s crazy. That’s why no one ever believes in the supernatural, Laz. You get told your whole life that it’s made up, so you dismiss it.”
“Hard to dismiss a giant child-stealing monster, especially when he left the claw right there for the cops to find.” I tore the meat from the wing and gnawed on the bone until it snapped before throwing it into the pile of broken bones at the center of the table. “What if he doesn’t come?”
Nate shrugged. “You can use magic to track him down, can’t you?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to. I’m getting married in five days. I don’t want to deal with this.”
“Then don’t, Laz. You’ll have to get used to turning the other cheek anyway. I’m taking the Pale Horseman mantle the night before your wedding, remember?”
How could I forget? I’d been doing my best to train Nate on how to deal with things, though I had a feeling he already knew more than me. He’d done a fine job during the test run while I was a disembodied spirit. Nate would be a far better Death than I could’ve ever been.
I mopped hot sauce from my face with the last of the napkins. “Just because I’m giving up being the Pale Horseman doesn’t mean I’m walking away from the supernatural community altogether, Nate. I’ll still be a necromancer. New Orleans’ only necromancer. I still have my shop to run, and I have to be around for you in case you need me.”
He smiled and pushed a couple of wet wipe packages toward me. “I won’t need you while you and Emma are in Hawaii. I already told you I wouldn’t bother you.”
“Right, but I’m going to keep my phone on the entire time, just in case.”
The door opened and Guy stepped in. I didn’t see his staff with him, but I doubted he’d ditched it. Maybe he was smart enough to leave it in the car like I’d done. People tended to give you funny looks if you went walking around with a big stick.
Guy scanned the bar, turned, and walked toward us. The guy had a way of walking that reminded me of action hero movie types. You know, that don’t-mess-with-me swagger. People moved out of his way without being conscious of it. It made me like the guy even less.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, pulling out the chair. “Had to give some curious people the slip. They had questions.”
“I’m sure the police have a lot of questions too.” I sucked some hot sauce off my thumb.
“I don’t like dealing with the coppers. Too closed-minded. You can dangle the truth right in front of ‘em, and they’ll choose to look the other way rather than face it.”
“I know a few cops who might surprise you,” I said. Even Drake and Emma wouldn’t be able to cover all this up, though. “What’s the deal with going public anyway? That’s bad for everyone.”
“Is it?” Guy shrugged. “It’s not bad for me, or for the people of this city. They need to be prepared.”
“For what?” Nate asked.
“For him.” Guy gestured to me with his chin.