“Sabine! Sabine! Come to me!”
Marvin continued to orate, and soon Rémy, too, was kneeling beside him. It was now obvious there was some internal clamouring going on in the grave, some sort of life-and-death struggle. Rémy dug his fingers into the soil like shovels, and Niko did the same as they fought to stay upright, the ground heaving beneath them. Now Heidi fell down and helped, just as the first big holes appeared in the soil. Niko thrust a hand into a hole, sifting around for anything that didn’t feel like soil. His fingertips struck warm flesh.
“Here! Rémy, Heidi, right here!”
A week ago, if you would have told Niko he’d be eagerly unearthing a body with his bare hands, he would have thought you were a few gunmen short of a posse. Now he dug as though his life depended on it, which it did. His friends pitched in, tossing clods of dirt and weeds everywhere heedlessly.
“She moved!” shrieked Heidi. “She’s coming out!”
Tears of joy burned Niko’s eyes as he wrapped a hand around Sabine’s warm waist. When her torso burst through the soil and she gasped for air, Niko wanted nothing more than to throw his arms around her, to tumble and squeeze and hold her forever.
But he recalled from recently being in the same position that that wouldn’t help, and he held himself back. He finger-combed the dirt from her hair as Heidi and Rémy helped dig out her legs.
“Sabine, my love! You’re back! You’re here with us, with me, and you’re going to stay, thanks to these lovely, kind people!”
“Yes!” added Heidi. “We’re not going to let anyone take you away ever again, Sabine! Come, come! Stay with us!”
Sabine’s first breaths were understandably ragged, wheezy. She clutched Niko’s forearm to her breast as she panted, trying to free her legs. “Niko,” was her very first word.
“Yes, ma chère sœur! We are together again!”
Now Niko couldn’t help himself. He did crush Sabine to his chest. With every cell in his body, he told himself not to squash her, that she was newly reborn and very fragile, but his excitement and enthusiasm overwhelmed him. Now Marvin’s words were just background droning, and he whispered intensely into his sister’s ear.
“Never again, Sabine. We will never be parted. You stay here with me and my friends.”
“Yes,” she gasped. “I’m never going back to Everlost.”
Within the next second, Niko was wrenched to his feet. Some powerful force had grabbed the back of his collar, ripping him from Sabine’s embrace. He was jammed onto his bare feet, utterly shocked to find he was facing down the evil sugar plantation owner himself, Leclerc.
Now not hiding behind the glass windscreen of his snobby landau, the fresh activity of Sabine’s resurrection had also stirred that lowdown critter from the bottomless pit. Leclerc didn’t look any the worse for wear, as Niko and Sabine had coming out of their graves. Was Leclerc really reborn again into the present? Hadn’t Marvin said that was impossible, something about Leclerc being broken pottery that can never be recycled? Why was Leclerc looking so dapper and vigorous? He had to be a shadow from 1855, a ghost, a reflection of his reality in Everlost. As such, he couldn’t possibly have much power.
Or could he? “Niko Valdés!” snarled Leclerc. “I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again so soon. Ephippas didn’t scare the daylights out of you before? Well, then, I’m here to do it all over again!”
Chortling evilly with a plan only he knew of, suddenly it seemed that Leclerc’s legs were made of rubber. Without taking his feet from the ground, he stretched his torso until he loomed over Niko, snarling and chortling down on him. But could he touch him? Niko would find out.
“I forgive you, Leclerc!” he shouted up at the rubbery mask. He knew the image of Leclerc was phony, yet he couldn’t forget Marvin’s insistence on repentance. “It was an error of judgment murdering you! I was reacting out of rage, protecting my sister. Don’t you understand? You’d do the same for your sister. You’d do the same any day of the week!”
However, the rubbery Leclerc was surrounding Niko, suffocating him with its bendable arms, its leering face. Now the mouth wasn’t moving so much, but he could hear the bastard’s taunts. “Your sister is bountiful and beauteous. Only a dead fool would fail to want her breasts, her waist, her ass!”
That was it! Niko lashed out at the springy fiend. It even felt like rubber when he hit the long limbs, arms that encircled him under a dome of vitriol.
He thought he could vaguely hear Marvin yelling. “He’s just trying to get to you, Niko! Don’t react! Summon to your aid courage, that truly great Masonic quality which puts on a fearless and courageous attitude!”
“Yes!” Rémy shouted. “Ignore that rubber band man! He’s only trying to irritate you!”
Heidi seemed to be actually trying to peel the rubbery demon off of him. “He doesn’t really have the superpower of elasticity. You have already repented, Niko! There is nothing left for you to do!”
“Get him off of me!” bellowed Niko.
As Rémy grabbed one of the elastic demon’s limbs, Marvin yelled in their faces. “Scorn the acts of a coward but imitate the conduct of a hero! Be initiated with all the forms and ceremonies of our ancient and honourable institution. Do you assent to this trial of fortitude?”
What in the name of God was Marvin talking about? Initiating Niko into his brotherhood at a time like this? “Yes, yes!” Niko shrieked. It was becoming harder to breathe in the demon’s pliable grip. Leclerc was like a jellyfish that would not let go with its various arms slithering about, and Niko felt he would suffocate, just as Sabine had been recently, before being unearthed.
“Use the ring, Marvin!” shrieked Heidi. “The ring!”
Niko heard the box tone at Rémy’s waist, but it didn’t seem to lessen Leclerc’s hold on him. Niko’s eyes were rolling back into his head, and he feared he was losing consciousness. The unholy stench that Leclerc reeked of was soaking into his lungs, his skin, his very pores. Rémy’s and Heidi’s fingers clutched at the smelly thing that engulfed him, but their most frantic powers were ineffective against the power that was determined to bring him back to Everlost.
“We forward triumphantly!” Marvin sang tunelessly at the top of his voice.
“The sword, Rémy!” panted Heidi.
Rémy’s hands vanished. The next thing Niko felt was a sharp glint of metal and dull thud. He thought he could hear Rémy’s blade slice into one of the rubbery demon arms before he removed it. Again the blade sliced in a slightly different spot, and the tension around Niko eased.
“Mon Dieu!” Niko stepped back from the elastic octopus, swiping at it in disgust. Now Heidi helped, her hands peeling away tentacles and arms and God knew what else. It all poured into a pile of blobs at their feet, green-grey in the firelight, and Heidi practically sobbed.
“Shiznit! What in the name of Holy Jesus on a stick was that? Marvin, that wasn’t really Leclerc, was it? At least, I hope not.”
Niko couldn’t step far away enough from the pool of melted goo, but he wanted to grab Sabine, to make sure she was still there. He clutched her to his chest, kissing the top of her head. She felt and looked all right, just as he hoped he had after crawling from the crypt.
“No, no,” said Marvin, “that was only a reflection of Leclerc, an image conjured up by the potent and intense karma between the two men. A test for Niko, if you will. The real Leclerc has been sent into al hotama.”
Niko breathed. “A pretty damned realistic reflection, if you ask me.”
Marvin was remarkably calm, as usual. “Many tricks are played once you pass through Hellmouth. Sabine, dear, how do you feel?”
Sabine looked about with her doe’s eyes. And she hadn’t even seen any of the remarkable and frightening things about the twenty-first century yet! “Hungry.”
Everyone laughed, reducing the tension. But Heidi looked at her watch, announcing, “It’s eleven-fifty. Almost midnight.”
Rémy said, “Let’s get out of here. Back t
he way we came, Marvin?”
Marvin shrugged. “How the hell would I know? I’ve never gotten past Hellmouth. This is fun! That must be the baddest-ass demon I’ve ever seen. Niko, it looked like Mr. Fantastic coming to smother you to death.” He nudged the pile of gelatinous stuff with his toe. “Now it just looks like vomit. I have to say, though. I think we need to have a final run-in with our old friend Baal-Berith. The book says you have to throw the ring at Baal-Berith and imprint the Duke of Demons with it so you can command all demons. I really feel strongly that in order to assure Sabine stays with us in the present we need to accomplish this, especially since we only have”—Marvin looked at his cell—“eight minutes, during which his power will be increasing.”
Rémy said, “But how do I imprint him with a phone?”
Marvin looked up at the black vault above them. It was as though they were in a giant, darkened warehouse, as there were no stars. “Baal-Berith! Come forward and meet your nemesis!”
Niko frowned. “What? That’s how we’re supposed to call him?”
Marvin looked blankly at Niko. “Why not? Sometimes the most basic stuff works the best.”
They all shrugged and commenced to wailing at Baal-Berith. Sure enough, from the other side of the farthest bonfire, hooves pounded the dirt. Instantaneously, Niko shoved Sabine back behind her own headstone, the first shelter he could find. He returned to plant himself in the horse’s path, boldly. Why not confront his own destiny head-on? Marvin Simon, who didn’t even know them, was willing to come along for the ride. He was willing to endanger himself for the sake of a few strangers who had done some stupid and selfish things. Rémy was only here because he had wanted gold. Heidi had accused her close friend of dallying with a man she wasn’t even courting, as far as Niko could tell. And Niko had stabbed to death a man who—well, there weren’t many excuses for Leclerc, but Niko could have handled it more discreetly, he now knew.
Baal-Berith himself in his red armor and gold helmet seemed larger than last time, like a Mongolian warrior with scale-like leggings, pointed boots, and a back quiver full of deadly arrows.
The horse thundered up. The closer it got, the higher Baal-Berith stood in the stirrups, until he was fully three times as tall as the insignificant Niko, standing in his dressing gown without even a sword.
“Dial my phone, Marvin!” hissed Rémy.
“No!” Marvin insisted. “They need to confront each other, to ensure Sabine stays with us.”
Niko wanted to be the first to speak, so he yelled, “Baal-Berith! We have placed the nine stones as you asked us. The ninth stone is here, on the grave of my sister! We ask you allow her to stay with us in the twenty-first century, and not continue to harass us.”
Baal-Berith said, “I know you have finished solving the pentalpha puzzle. That is why I’m here.”
“Ooh,” said Marvin. “This is good.”
Baal-Berith evidently heard Marvin, for he swivelled his helmeted head to look at him. “You! What are you doing here?” His voice was clear and confident.
Marvin meekly took one step forward. “I have passed through the ordeal of the hot sands undismayed. I wished to return for the final reckoning. I wish to be invested with the knowledge of your secrets.”
Even beneath the helmet, it seemed Niko could see Baal-Berith sneer. His voice rose in anger and emotion when he said, “You wish to take an active part in our drama, in our theatre? Then accept this!” The horse strode forward as Baal-Berith raised his sword arm.
Niko gasped. It all took place so suddenly, he wasn’t able to move one muscle. He would forever remember the look of placid acceptance on Marvin’s face. Marvin even bowed his head. It seemed Niko could hear his final words. Although on later reflection, that seemed impossible.
“My mission is to help the distressed and crush intolerance. I wish to strike terror into the element of crime.”
With one swipe of Baal-Berith’s broadsword, Marvin’s head rolled.
“No!” It was Heidi who dashed toward the body, nearly impaling herself on the point of Baal-Berith’s blade on his upswing. The body had stayed upright for a split second after losing its head, and it now collapsed sideways, a pile of empty laundry. Heidi scrabbled for Marvin’s box, and she frantically thumbed a button. “Rémy! Throw the damned phone at the demon! Throw the damned phone!”
Rémy had to wait for his box to start chiming. Perhaps to distract Baal-Berith, he shouted, “You and your damned fucking pentalpha puzzles! You can’t play games with us anymore, Baal-Berith! Niko Valdés was resurrected by the power of my ancestors, my egun, not you. His sister has been revived through no help from you, and she’s going to stay that way with no help from you!”
Niko got the picture. He stepped forward and shouted, “Your power is nothing—weak, feeble, as frail as a fly on the wall!”
The knight seemed to be cringing back in horror. This was verified when the first tones came from Rémy’s box. Baal-Berith was afraid of the ring tone, and probably aware of his own demise at midnight. Niko knew they had to extinguish him before he could escape, otherwise he might return at a later date to steal Sabine.
Now Niko urged Rémy. “Throw it, Rémy! Imprint him!”
The knight’s voice wasn’t so relaxed and in control anymore. “I am the Duke of Demons!” he shouted, in a last desperate attempt at power. “You can no more control me than you can control the winds, the seas, the—”
Rémy threw the box with all the power of his rage, and it bashed Baal-Berith squarely on the forehead. A weird illumination arose from where the box had hit the helmet. As the tinny music continued to jangle from the box now on the ground, the knight as well as its horse froze in place.
The illumination spread over the knight’s visor, down his breastplate and gauntlets. The four humans stared in wonder.
“Will he vanish?” Heidi wondered. “Rémy, whack him with your sword.”
“No!” said Niko. “I think he will disintegrate or vanish on his own.”
“Do we want to find out?” queried Sabine.
“I don’t want to find out,” Rémy stated, and he strode forward.
Just as the light lit up the inside of the horse’s frozen head, revealing its skull and the fine needlework of its veins and arteries, Rémy raised his scimitar and brought the blade down against the knight’s waist. That was the highest part of the body he could reach with reasonable strength, but it did well enough. The demon cleaved in half like a statue made of clay, the torso toppling like a dictator brought to justice.
The bonfires burned brighter, leaping to the lower branches of the oak trees, almost singeing the moss that hung like curtains. All four humans gaped at the base of the clay statue. Niko was not surprised at all when a crack began to form on the horse’s forehead.
The crack rapidly spread, crackling with a dry snap like lightning. Soon the entire figure was constructed of one spider web of cracks, and the entire structure collapsed. Niko drew Sabine back from it so as not to breathe the dust, and Rémy wrapped Heidi in his arms. The dust cloud floated off. Niko expected it to form another figure, but it didn’t. It stayed a cloud until it cleared the tops of the trees and vanished into the blackness.
“Whoa,” said Heidi. “I can’t believe Marvin did that.”
Rémy stroked her head. “He seemed to want to. He seemed to know what would happen, and willingly accepted it.”
Heidi sobbed now. “I liked him! Why did he have to leave? He understood us!”
Niko said, “He wanted to return for the final reckoning, to help the distressed. Maybe he can do that better in whatever plane he’s progressing to.”
Sabine noted, “Baal-Berith seemed to already know who he was. He was familiar with him, asking if he wanted to participate in his theatre. Who was he? He seemed to be a guardian angel.”
“Yes!” cried Heidi. “He was a noble, selfless, giving angel. Without him we never would’ve gotten you back!”
“Oh, dear,” sighed Sabine.
Niko stroked his sister’s hair. “Don’t feel bad, my dear. It was his job in life. He was a redeemer who walked hand in hand with Elegua.”
Rémy added, “He could speak between humans and gods.”
Heidi said hopefully, “He could also be a trickster. Do you think this is a trick?” She pointed at the headless body.
Niko gripped his sister tighter. “No. No trick. Heidi, do you have Marvin’s box? Let us get back to the present, so Sabine can get some rest and start acclimating herself.”
Heidi exhaled with relief. “Yes! Excellent idea. I’ve got Marvin’s phone. Back the way we came?”
“That’s as good a place as any,” said Rémy, and they started shuffling off.
Heidi said, “What the hell is anyone back in the real world going to think happened to Marvin? They won’t have a body, will they?”
Sabine asked, “How can we send him onto the next plane if he isn’t given a proper funeral?”
Niko thought. “Maybe Michael Angel will tell us.”
Rémy added, “Maybe Marvin is Michael Angel.”
Heidi sang her redemption song, and Niko joined in.
Epilogue
“I love you too, Rémy.”
If you would have told Heidi Purdue even a month ago that she would be lying naked in the arms of the most eligible playboy in New Orleans, she would have slapped your face. Now here she was, being wined and dined by Rémy Lafitte, billionaire tycoon and heir to a thousand gold bars.
Rémy rubbed the tip of his swollen glans against Heidi’s slick pussy lips. “Don’t move, Heidi. I want to drink in and absorb every tiny detail of your body. If we’re bound together for all eternity, I want to imprint you on the inside of my eyelids, on my soul.”
Redemption Song [Midnight, New Orleans Style 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 15