No, he hadn't. She hated that Julian thought he was above grudges when it was so obvious that he was relishing every second of her helplessness and pain over the course of her imprisonment. He was a sadistic bastard with far too big of an ego.
“Wait outside the vault,” Julian said to his armed guards. “There's no other way out for them. And now ... well ... they don't have any weapons.” The guards turned and walked toward the chamber's exit.
“Let's just put all of this tension away. It should have been laid to rest beside Mr. Purdue.”
“I'm not going to forgive you. Ever.” Nina stood her ground, despite feeling every inch of this loss. “Criminals like you don't deserve forgiveness. Defilers...”
Julian smiled and then glanced down at the long weapon in his hands. “Trying to steal the Spear of Destiny from us ... I didn't think you had it in you, Dr. Gould. So this is the second time a conflict has stirred between us for this weapon. First time ended with my death at your hands and then my rebirth. I can assure you that this one will end differently.” Julian looked calm on the surface, but she knew him well by this point. His fury was simmering just below his skin. “So you think you can what...? Revive David Purdue? Bold. I applaud your imagination and your efforts. Part of me wants to let you just to see if it would work ... but then the other part of me really prefers this world without him in it. There are far better people we could try to bring back.”
Julian walked up to them threateningly.
“You say I have no regard for history, but as I've told you, the past is essential for my plans for this world. History is full of powerful people who changed the world and are now long dead. People who weren't afraid to take necessary steps to make change. What if those people walked this earth again? What if we could bring them back? Pluck these powerful figures from death ... and let them join the cause...?”
“You want to what—bring Adolf Hitler back as a zombie?”
“Hitler? No, no. I would never consider revived a deranged buffoon like him. No. Besides, his remains would be far too difficult to find, I think.”
“So you're not just desecrating artifacts anymore. Now you're actually desecrating graves. Disturbing resting places and robbing them. And yet you claim you respect history...”
“I am not robbing anything,” Julian said defiantly. “This world was robbed when it lost these figures. Names that have been remembered for centuries, millennia. There aren't names like that around anymore. No one who is willing to truly carve their names into everlasting memory.”
“This plan is crazy,” Nina said. “Even for you.”
“Is it?” Julian's lips contorted into a crooked grin.
“Necromancy is not something you should mess with,” Jean interjected. “Waking the dead never ends well for anyone. That sleep should be permanent. Or does the term RIP mean nothing to you?”
“This isn't necromancy, Mr. Gerard. This isn't dark magic.” Julian displayed the spear in both his hands, showcasing it to his prisoners. “This is the power of God.”
“You're not God.” Nina hissed. “And bringing Winston Churchill and John Lennon back to life isn't going to change that.”
Julian laughed, biting his lip. “Well, when you put it like that, it makes it all sound so ludicrous...”
Nina saw her opening and she took it. She pulled out the gun tucked against the small of her back and brought it around to her front. She surprised herself with her own agility and aimed the barrel at Julian. His gray eyes widened as they looked down the barrel. Julian didn't often look surprised but now his expression was filling with alarm. Nina didn't give him a chance to try and protect himself. She squeezed the trigger repeated, unloading the magazine.
The bullets ripped through the air one after the other and struck Julian a number of times. He staggered backward with each impact as the bullets smashed into his torso. The final bullet in the clip flew a bit higher and planted itself in his head.
Julian tumbled onto his back, his body limp and laying in a heap. He was a far cry from the dominate enemy he'd been moments before. The Spear of Destiny lay at his side and Jean hurried over to pick it up, to avoid anyone jamming it into Julian to revive him.
The pistol shook in Nina's hand. She'd done it. She had really killed him, and not with a sacred spear this time. It was for good. Julian Corvus was really gone.
“Ow.”
Nina flinched and the pistol slipped through her fingers and clattered onto the floor. That couldn't be right. That voice came from Julian's bullet-riddled corpse, and that lifeless body started to stir. Julian slowly sat up, looking himself over. Blood seeped through his shirt from the bullet holes and some ran down his nose from the hole in his brow.
“That hurt.” His eyes were wide with crazed hatred. He plunged his fingers into the bullet holes and one by one, started plucking the bullets from his flesh. When the bullets were out, the holes in his body slowly starting sealing themselves up. “That hurt ... a lot.”
Nina was speechless. None of this made sense. No one had stabbed him with the Spear of Destiny. Its power of reanimation shouldn't be able to work on him ... unless ... her mind was reeling and she felt the world spinning around her.
The revival was permanent. Its power had made Julian immortal. Death couldn't touch him.
She glanced at Charles, wondering if he was now the same way. Based on Julian's anger, he hadn't known this either ... but now he did, thanks to her murder attempt. He was smiling but his teeth looked more like sharp fangs ready to tear his enemies' throats out.
“It seems ... it seems that my revival came with a few more benefits than I thought.” Julian's venomous gaze shifted to Charles and they squinted happily. “I wonder if yours did as well. Let's test it, shall we.
Julian stormed toward them, shoving the still stunned Nina out of the way. He grabbed hold of Charles' collar and pushed him back toward the deep vault, stopping at the very edge of the pit just before the drop-off.
“What do you say, old man? Up for being my lab rat again? It was so much fun the first time, wasn't it?”
“Don't do this!” Nina shouted from the floor. “Stop!”
Julian peered back at her and she saw that there wouldn't be any reasoning with him. His brush with death unlocked the feral side of him that he usually only let bubble to the surface every so often. The demon that was underneath was taking full control.
“Why not?” he hissed. “If he survives, then I'll have the answer to my question. If he dies ... well ... then he dies. A dead old man isn't exactly a tragic loss, is it?”
“Please!” Nina begged frantically. She looked to Jean for help but he was frozen where he stood, still stunned by Julian's miraculous recovery. Charles didn't try to get out of Julian's grip. He just looked past him at Nina and gave an uncertain, wrinkly smile. He was trying to be brave, maybe for her or maybe even for himself. There might have even been a part of him that wanted to know the answer to Julian's question. He wanted to know if he was just as hard to kill as Julian.
Julian gripped Charles' shirt tighter. “Happy landings.”
Julian shoved Charles into the large hole and he plummeted into the pit. Nina let out a scream. That was a long way down. Even if the power of the spear kept him alive, Charles would be stuck down in that chasm. There was a distant crash that echoed up from the bottom of the deep vault.
Julian peeked over the edge of the pit and called down. “You alive down there? Or have you joined your old master?”
There was silence. Julian looked a bit torn by the lack of response; a little disappointed, maybe, but there was also a mix of relief as well, like he was happy to know that there was no one else on Earth like him. He would be in a league of his own.
“I'm ... alive ... I'm alive.” Charles's voice climbed up the pit. It was weak and filled with pain. Whatever damage had been done from the fall was clearly still in the process of mending. “I'm ... I'm still here ... I'm still...”
Julian looked exh
ilarated by the confirmation. He thought he had discovered the secret to resurrection but instead he had stumbled upon the secret of invincibility—maybe even immortality.
It was all thanks to the bullets that Nina put in him. Her actions had pulled away the curtains and shown everyone what the spear's power was really capable of. Now Julian knew nothing could hurt him. He'd even be more hostile, since he knew he had nothing to worry about. There wouldn't be any real consequences that could be given to him. Nina had inadvertently stripped away Julian's fear, and made him even more dangerous than he already was.
Julian turned back to everyone else in the vault chamber and threw his arms up. “It's a strange feeling ... accidentally attaining immortality. Nothing quite like it.” He turned back to the deep vault on the floor nearby. He yelled down it. “Truly nothing like it ... is there, Charles?!”
It was true that Julian seemed impervious to death now, at least by unnatural means. Any sort of injury would heal itself within moments, even ones that would have otherwise killed him immediately. Maybe he could still die from old age or illness She hoped for that much, at least. The world didn't deserve to be cursed with Julian Corvus for the rest of eternity.
“Take them back to their rooms.”
The guards grabbed both Nina and Jean. Neither tried to resist since there wasn't much of a point to anymore. They had both already accepted that their chance to escape was gone. That plan had turned to ash in their hands. They were being shoved toward the exit and slowly started walking across the vault chamber.
“Oh, Dr. Gould,” Julian called from behind her. He walked up to her with that sick smile still pasted on his face. She flinched when he put his palm on hers and dropped something into her hand. He used his other hand to tuck her fingers over what he dropped like it was something precious. “A little souvenir for you. A keepsake. You could use it just to help you remember that you've tried to kill me twice and both times it hasn't ended well for you. I wouldn't try your luck at a third time.”
Nina opened her hand and saw a bullet resting there. It was still warm from being fired and covered with little red specks of blood—the same bullet that had been lodged in Julian's skull.
It should have worked. That bullet should have ended the threat of Julian Corvus for good, but it didn't. She had failed yet again. All she had to show for all of her planning and efforts were Charles trapped in a hole and this bloody bullet in her hand.
She stared at the bullet as she was led out of the vault chamber. She could feel Elijah's stare as she was pushed past him. She refused to look at him and hoped he was proud of helping decimate their plans. That time that spent together, taking care of the stolen items and putting them in the deep vault meant nothing. Any good she saw in him was her just hoping there was some good to be found. There wasn't. There was no debating it anymore; Elijah Dane was just as bad as the rest of the people he worked with.
As they exited the vault chamber and the gargantuan door started to close behind them, she could hear Julian bursting into a fit of laughter. It was a disturbed, manic cackle that he couldn't contain anymore. Those horrid laughs were only silenced by the vault door sealing shut behind her.
She was thankful to not have to hear any more of his victory.
They would never have an opportunity to do anything like that again. The bullet was a bleak reminder that they had no way of beating the Black Sun anymore. Their best chance had burned to death, and there was no getting him back now.
15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN – ENOUGH
Purdue sat in his cabin inside of the ship. The last few days had been far from easy, and he wanted to just crash on his bed and sleep—but despite how tired he was, he couldn't find any rest. He was far too anxious about what was going to happen next. As difficult it had been to take down the Wharf Man, he was nothing compared to the Order of the Black Sun. They were going to have to face them at some point, and that point was approaching soon. It had to be.
The pearl he found at the bottom of the sea was beside him, resting on top of Mona Greer's book of shadows. He used to have an entire collection of old, sometimes powerful relics, that he could use to help him on his quests or get him out of tough situations. The only things he had now were those two artifacts. Both were powerful in their own ways, and both terrified him a little too ... but as powerful as they were, those two artifacts might not be enough. Especially while the Black Sun had all of those artifacts that used to be Purdue's at their disposal. He had magic from the book of shadows and he had control of the seas from the pearl, and as great as they were, he was still probably outgunned.
Despite the relief he felt that the pearl was real and really had so much power, part of him regretted spending all of that money to get to it. He still struggled with not having endless amounts of money at his disposal. The search for the pearl underwater had been an expensive expedition, and even though it was real, it might not be enough to figuratively turn the tides, even if it could do that literally. Maybe he should have spent that money elsewhere. What if this was the wrong choice of action? If it wasn't enough to make a real difference against the Order of the Black Sun?
The only real useful tool he had at the moment was the knowledge that the Black Sun thought he was dead. He took comfort in being a dead man sometimes. It meant that Julian Corvus and his band of fanatics weren't hunting him down. It meant he had time to try and prepare a really good plan that could take his enemies by surprise. Now he just needed to figure out what that plan was going to be. But, time wasn't completely on his side, especially if Nina was still alive and her time as prisoner was limited. He needed to get her, Charles, and Jean free sooner rather than later.
When that time came, he would at least have the element of surprise on his side. He would have Sam helping him, as well, and they had a fairly successful track record when they worked together on their quests. He also could wrangle Aya and some of the former crew under the Wharf Man to support his efforts. They may not feel like helping, but he could entice them with the riches that are no doubt held by the Order of the Black Sun.
Despite the progress he made, he knew it wasn't going to be easy. He could surprise them as much as he wanted, but no amount of surprise was going to suddenly lessen the Black Sun's numbers, or Julian's ferocity. He used to be able to defeat the Black Sun whenever they clashed but with a psychopath like Julian in charge, he had already seen that the order was far more dangerous than they had ever been before. They weren't the same group that he triumphed over. They were efficient, calculating, and extremely dangerous. One false step, and Purdue could lose everything again—this time including his life.
For now, he just had to keep laying low and maybe find a few more things that could help him in his journey to get back at the people who ruined his life, and to get his friends back. There had to be more in the world that could help even the odds in the coming fight he was going to be facing. The pearl was a good start, but he still needed more. He had been to the bottom of the sea to find that pearl. He would go anywhere if it meant getting more things to help him in his cause. He had proven that he'd go to any depth, but he would also go to any height if he had to.
That was the thing about David Purdue. He always found a way.
Nina was back in her cell. That cramped, little room was starting to feel like home—and she hated that. She couldn't stand that this cold dungeon was so familiar, and even somewhat comforting. Because, in the end, at least her cell was away from those lunatic Black Sun members. She was alone, but at least she was safe for the time being behind the bars.
She fiddled with the bloodstained bullet between her fingers. It was still so hard to believe that it was the same bullet that head breached Julian's skull. Any other person—besides Charles and Lennox now, she realized—would have been dead for good after taking that bullet to the face. But of course, the worst people on the planet always found a way to keep on being awful, and Julian was the worst of anyone she'd ever met. Cockroaches lik
e him could survive anything apparently.
There were footsteps coming down the hall. She expected it would be Julian, coming to gloat about his immunity to death again. He would have a laugh about beating her once more, try to convince her that any resistance was futile, and then would offer her a place in the order. She wouldn't give into his sick games. He could torment her as much as he liked but it wouldn't change that. It wouldn't change a thing.
A man stood on the other side of the bars but it wasn't Julian after all. It was the backstabbing curator himself—Elijah Dane.
“What do you want?” Nina practically spat on the floor at the sight of him.
“It is very quiet in the vault again,” Elijah said distantly, like he was still there now. “Just me, my breaths, and the occasional drop off of a new addition to the collection. It may come as a surprise to you ... you may even think I'm lying ... but I rather miss your company, Dr. Gould. I will see if Julian will allow you to assist me with my work again.”
“Wow, what a helpful and gracious guy you are,” Nina said dryly. “Do you want me to grovel at your feet for showing me this small hint of mercy?”
Elijah raised a brow behind his cracked spectacles, like he was struggling to determine what kind of interaction this conversation really was. He put his face closer to the bars, observing her like she was a caged animal and he was trying to figure out how her brain worked. He surmised, “You are angry with me. Why?”
“Why do you think?!” Nina snapped, more aggressively than she even intended—and she intended for it to be hostile. “You lured us into a trap. You ruined the one chance I had to get Purdue Back! And the one chance we had to escape from here!”
Elijah let her shouts echo around him for a moment and then spoke softly in response. “It didn't matter.”
Order of the Black Sun Box Set 10 Page 16
