Her eyes popped open and the first thing she saw was me standing there beside the bed, my hands wrapped around the handle of the blade that was now embedded deep in her chest.
I saw the fear and pain and disbelief cross her face at the sight of me and I desperately longed for the chance to explain, to tell her what we’d gone through to bring her back again, but time was a luxury I did not have. Hands grabbed me, pulling me away from the bed, just as someone hit the lights, stealing my sight from me as swiftly as the darkness faded.
My legs were kicked out from under me and I found myself face down on the floor with something cold and metallic shoved against the back of my head.
“Don’t fuckin’ move, asshole, or I’ll blow your damned head off. Understand?”
I didn’t recognize the voice, but I could tell from its tone that whoever it was, they were just looking for an excuse to pull that trigger. I made damn sure not to give them one.
A knee was slammed into my back without warning, shoving me harder against the floor, but I kept my mouth shut and didn’t complain as I was pressed into the cold linoleum floor.
The medical equipment monitoring Denise’s condition was shrieking wildly, and as I lay there I heard a doctor begin giving orders, stat this and hurry up with that. It went on for a minute, maybe two, and then the command was given to get Denise to surgery. They must have wheeled her out of the room, for it got very quiet.
Hands grabbed me, pulling me to my feet, and Gallagher was suddenly there, whispering in my ear in a voice full of murder and mayhem.
“I don’t know where you’ve been for the last three days or what the fuck you think you were doing, but you’d better hope she lives through this,” he said, “or I’ll gut you like a pig and feed you to the gators piece by piece.”
He turned away and said to the men holding me, “He’s all yours, Officers. Get him out of here.”
I knew arguing with him would be useless, so I didn’t bother. Besides, I didn’t care what happened to me as long as Denise pulled through. I just prayed that the doctors would be able to stabilize her long enough for Gallagher to use his powers to save her life.
My arms were grabbed by a cop on either side of me and I was hustled out of the room and down the hall to the elevator. When it arrived, they hauled me inside and waited for the doors to close behind us.
No sooner had they done so than one of them laid into me, slamming his fist into my stomach until I doubled over and then ramming his knee into my face when I had. I collapsed to the floor, blood pouring out of my nose.
“We don’t take kindly to murdering sons of bitches in our town,” one of them said, and then both proceeded to stomp and kick the shit out of me with their thick-soled boots. Unable to see the blows coming, I had no way to defend myself other than to curl up in a ball and wait for it to stop.
The ride down from the sixth floor seemed to take years rather than minutes, and by the time the bell dinged, indicating we’d reached our destination, I was on the verge of passing out.
The bestial roar that filled the elevator car the minute the door opened shocked me back into alertness, however. I felt the guards on either side going for their weapons and decided the floor was the safest place for a blind man at that moment. There was a short but violent struggle and then Dmitri was human again and helping me to my feet.
“Can you walk?” he asked.
“Depends on where we’re going,” I mumbled around swollen lips and at least one cracked tooth.
He draped my arm over his shoulders and helped me out of the elevator. As the doors closed behind us, shutting out most of the light, my sight partially returned and I could see that we weren’t on the first floor, as I’d expected, but were in the dimly lit parking garage instead.
Dmitri headed for a dark-colored car parked in the last row, talking as he helped me along.
“I’ve known you long enough to believe that you wouldn’t do anything to hurt Denise,” he said, “Which means what you did up there you did for a reason.”
Score one for the good guys, I thought.
“They were about to pull her off life support, so you returned just in the nick of time. Whatever you did must have worked, too, for she was conscious when they rolled her into surgery a few minutes ago.”
Thank you, God.
As we got closer to the car I recognized it as Denise’s Charger and wasn’t surprised when Dmitri used the keys in his hand to deactivate the alarm. The chirp sounded overly loud to my pounding head and I was sure it was going to bring others running, but thankfully that didn’t happen. We were still alone for the time being.
Dmitri opened the door and eased me into the driver’s seat.
“It’s still an hour or two before dawn. Can you drive?”
I felt like a herd of elephants had used me as a dance floor, but there was no way I was waiting around to see what Gallagher had in store for me. Not after the way his people treated me back there. It was time to get the hell out of Dodge as fast as possible. I could always reconnect with Denise later.
“Yeah,” I said. “I can drive.”
“Good. Take these.” He thrust a small roll of bills, a cell phone, and the keys to the car into my hands. “If you hurry, you should be able to get out of the city and a good jump down the road before it gets too light for you to see. Find somewhere to hole up for the day, and I’ll call you when Denise is out of surgery.”
I nodded, then instantly regretted it as the pounding in my head intensified. “Don’t let anything happen to her, Dmitri. And tell her I’m sorry.”
He shook the suggestion off.
“You’ll see her again, so tell her yourself. And in the meantime don’t worry, I’ll be right there with her. Nothing else is going to happen to her, not on my watch.”
After that, there wasn’t much else to say. He clapped me on the shoulder and then backed away from the car as the engine started with a throaty roar.
I hoped like hell that he was right, that Denise would be all right and that I’d get the chance to see her again, but right now I needed to get the hell out of there before the cops started wondering what happened to their buddies and came looking for me.
Five minutes later I was headed west, chasing the darkness ahead of the rising sun with only the ghosts of New Orleans as my witnesses and the Preacher’s frenzied laughter echoing in my ears.
TOR BOOKS BY JOSEPH NASSISE
THE JEREMIAH HUNT CHRONICLE
Eyes to See
King of the Dead
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph Nassise is the author of more than a dozen novels, including the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles series, the Jeremiah Hunt Chronicle, and the Great Undead War series. He has also written several books in the popular Rogue Angel action-adventure series.
His work has been short-listed for both Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Awards and has been translated into a half dozen languages to date. He has written for both comics and role-playing games and also served two terms as president of the Horror Writers Association, the world’s largest organization of professional horror and dark fantasy writers.
For more information about Joe’s work, visit him on the Web at www.josephnassise.com.
This 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.
KING OF THE DEAD
Copyright © 2012 by Joseph Nassise
All rights reserved.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Nassise, Joseph.
King of the dead / Joseph Nassise. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (The J
eremiah Hunt chronicle; bk. 2)
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-2719-2 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4299-4683-4 (e-book)
I. Title.
PS3614.A785K56 2012
813'.6—dc23
2012024535
e-ISBN 9781429946834
First Edition: November 2012
King of the Dead (Jeremiah Hunt Chronicle) Page 28