The Assassin and the Knight

by Rick Bonogofsky

  The old woman returned with the needle and thread, interrupting Adrian’s thoughts, and set to work stitching the wound shut. The thread sliding through his skin made Adrian wince, but he kept perfectly still while she worked.

  “So you don’t seem to have amnesia,” she said. “But what you say makes no sense. Are you human, or not?”

  “I am indeed not human,” Adrian replied flatly. “I am a god.”

  The woman shot a stern, unbelieving glare at him.

  “Fine,” Adrian sighed, wishing she had more of a sense of humor. “I’m not a god, either.”

  “Then, what exactly are you?” the old woman asked sarcastically.

  Adrian thought for a moment. “Do you promise not to overreact if I do tell you?”

  Again, she glared at him.

  “Geeze…” Adrian breathed. “I’m a demon.”

  This time, she looked at him with a dead stare, still not believing his words.

  “What?” Adrian smirked. “Shall I prove it?” With that, he produced a small, bright blue flame in his hand. Doing so took more effort than usual, but Adrian wanted to prove a point. He lifted it for her to see, then dismissed it with a thought.

  The old woman looked at him in shock, her hands shaking. In her surprise, she dropped the needle.

  “Hey, you may want to grab that,” Adrian quipped, watching the needle dangle from the thread still in his chest.

  The old woman backed away slowly, keeping her wide eyes on the demon the whole time. The men at the table stood up, sensing danger. Clearly, they did not understand Latin, but they knew the old woman’s body language well enough to know she was afraid, and the magical flame in Adrian’s hand had obviously startled them as well.

  “Come on, I haven’t ever seen this done before,” he pleaded, motioning to the unfinished work. Seeing that the humans were now unwilling to come near him out of fear for their lives, Adrian decided to give up on relying on them for help. “Fine, I’ll do it myself. It didn’t look all that hard to do anyway.” He picked up the needle and resumed the old woman’s work. The stitches came out looking haphazard and uneven, and he struggled at first to tie off the thread, but he managed to complete the job.

  The door slammed shut, causing Adrian to look up, causing him to realize the humans had left. “Damn…” he groaned. He looked back down to examine his handiwork and his shoulders slumped. “Not anywhere near as good as her work, but I’m sure it’ll work out just as well. Screw it, I’ll just stay here and rest until I can get back on my feet. How the hell to humans do this, anyway? They don’t live long enough to balance out the amount of time they need to heal.” He continued to muse to himself until he drifted off to sleep.

  Vincent left the café after finishing his coffee and walked around the city. He was fairly certain he was being followed, and had been for the last few days of his time on Earth. Every once in a while, he would spot a furtive figure out of the corner of his eye, but he made no indication he knew about the person. Whoever it was, seemed to only want to observe him. If the follower truly wished any ill will upon him, something would have happened by now. Still, he kept a wary eye out for any danger that may make its way to him. He did not know anyone on Earth who was not already affiliated with Hell, so his options were limited to wandering round and hoping to come up with a plan within a reasonable amount of time. Eventually, he would have to find a place to call home and find a way to live some sort of life befitting a man of his abilities. Another thought crept through his mind. He could contact the fat drifter who had approached him about going to Heaven. The credibility of the man seemed more than questionable to Vincent, but the concept of going to the place of his people was certainly appealing to the angel. It would not take much to contact the drifter about it, he figured. At the very least, he would have more information than he already had. His decision made, Vincent pulled the card the drifter had given him out of his pocket. There was a telephone number that could be used to reach him. The angel’s shoulders slumped, wishing there was some other way to contact the man. Being a newcomer to Earth, he had no phone. He shoved the card back into his pocket and continued down the alley, considering some of the options left to him. He could conjure more money, as he had in the café, but coffee was so cheap, it never bothered him. Phones were more expensive than coffee, so his conscience was heavy with the thought of paying with money he had not earned. If it was unavoidable, he would do it. Or he could simply wait until the drifter found him again. He was immortal, therefore had all the time in the world.

  Vincent was so deep in thought that he was oblivious to a man in a long, ragged coat approaching him from the side. The man came up to the distracted angel’s side and walked beside him, keeping pace. It took several minutes of walking before Vincent realized he had company. Startled, he swung around, nearly drawing his sword to attack. He realized before his hand reached his sword that it was the drifter. He calmed down and glared at the fat man.

  “I could have killed you,” Vincent growled.

  “And I’m incredibly glad you didn’t,” the drifter replied. “So, have you given any thought to my proposal? Was my appearance convenient enough for you?”

  “Surprisingly convenient,” Vincent said, thinking the drifter may have been the one who had been following him.

  “Well, you see, I’m a little bit psychic,” the drifter grinned. His tone led Vincent to think he may have been joking, but the possibility of a psychic human was easily within the realm of reality. Vincent gave the man an unamused glance and continued walking. The drifter followed, easily keeping pace with the angel.

  “How would you get me to Heaven?” Vincent asked.

  “Right to the point. I like that,” the drifter smiled. “I know of a place that is magically connected to the world you seek. There are a lot of places like that, some connected to Hell, others to Heaven, and some that lead elsewhere entirely. Those ones I avoid. Now, these aren’t exactly portals, such as demons and angels like to use, but they’re more like a subtle merging of the dimensions. These places are a bit, well, thinner in atmosphere, if you take my meaning. In these places, the different worlds kind of brush up against one another, making it easier to open a portal to the other world. Most humans can’t sense the energies of these places, which makes them a little safer for people like us trying to get somewhere. Fortunately for us, there’s a place like this that’s touching Heaven fairly close.”

  “And how did these places come to exist?” Vincent asked, curious to hear more about something he knew nothing about. He felt as if he should have at least heard about places like the ones the drifter was talking about.

  “Do you know about the big war that messed up a lot of stuff here on Earth? Well, all them nuclear bombs and demons and angels fighting and all that bad news? That weakened the dimensional boundaries, or something. I’m not too sure exactly how it all happened. I was told once, but I didn’t really understand the scientific magic of it.”

  Vincent rolled his eyes. “But you know how to get me from Earth to Heaven, right?”

  “Of course I do. I’ve done this a lot. Why?”

  Vincent considered answering by telling the fat man that he was an idiot, but decided to leave it to himself. Better to not insult the guide. “Just take me there. I want to see this place for myself.”

  “And you’re right to want to see it. So, if you’re not busy with anything, we can make our way there now.”

  Vincent nodded, motioning for the drifter to lead the way.

  “Oh, you stupid, naïve fool,” Zhun spat. She leapt from one rooftop to another to keep up with the young angel.

  “I’m hoping that wasn’t directed at me,” Berron said over the headset.

  “Maybe later,” Zhun replied. “Our angel just accepted to be led away by that drifter.”

  “Well, shit… I guess just keep following him, then. I’m still buried in a ton of useless information right now. Most of what I’ve found on the guy is complete garbage. Who
ever is covering for him really knows how to lead people like us astray.”

  “How high in the company does this go?” Zhun asked, vaulting over an air conditioning unit. “I’m assuming at this point that the head of the company is directly involved, if you’re having these problems.”

  “Not an unrealistic possibility,” Berron admitted. “Keep on his feathered ass and keep me posted.”

  “I’m on it,” Zhun sighed.

  Dante paced in the roof of the building he had gone to for his meeting with Amun-Ra. The building, located in New Manhattan, was the same one that held the monuments to his deceased parents. The obsidian obelisks stood seven feet tall and were etched with the names of Dante’s mother and father. The new twin monuments were erected after Dante had assumed command of Hell, replacing the worn granite slabs that once stood there. The building itself was a plain skyscraper in the downtown area on the outside, but was magically altered on the inside to resemble the interior of the royal tower in Hell. The entire place was warded to push away the attention of anyone not specifically invited. Passersby would simply not notice the building as they went about their business in the city. Very few people were ever invited to this place, as it was heavily protected by Dante’s forces, and it served as his embassy on Earth.

  The king was accompanied by Kizrack – the imp who once served as his advisor and now served as the new head of the assassins – and Doran – a knight who now commanded Hell’s armies in place of Vincent. They stood respectfully to one side, keeping a wary eye out for possible danger. Both of them stood somewhat uncomfortably, each one unused to being in the king’s presence, to say nothing of their current positions. It was thought that Adrian would command the assassins until it came time for him to assume the throne of Hell, and Vincent was supposed to be the general of Hell’s armies. The imp and the demon had accepted their lot in life, never expecting to rise above their respective masters. Now they stood awkwardly with their king on Earth, instead of taking care of the duties that required their attention.

  Dante stopped pacing. His sudden halt drew the attention of his companions, and the king looked into the sky

  “He’s here,” he stated.

  From the sky descended a robed angel with pearly wings and a flowing white beard. His robes shown as if by their own light and billowed on an unseen wind. The angel landed, making no sound at all, and looked at the king of Hell, his face a mask of stoic respect.

  “Hello, Lord Amun-Ra,” Dante greeted, bowing reverently. This was one more of the many times he had addressed the ancient being, but he was still feeling somewhat nervous. All angels were wary of demons after the war, and Dante was held under heavy scrutiny simply for being a direct descendant of Damien, the demon responsible for starting the war.

  Amun-Ra bowed his own head in greeting and said, “It is good to see you again, King Dante. I trust you are doing well? I had heard of your recent tragedy.”

  Dante felt his face twist into a grimace, but nodded. “I am well enough. Please, sit.” He motioned to a table and two chairs. The two kings sat across from one another.

  “Good,” Amun-Ra smiled warmly. “Now, onto business, if we may.”

  “Yes. As you know, I am unwilling to give up the weapons you handed down from Heaven to the humans. As much as I would like to put them in the hands of the humans, I fear that the other peoples of Earth will use the humans’ frailty to their own advantage and will take the weapons by force. You can see the problem that presents me, I hope. We’ve already had an invasion from the vampires, which is how we initially found out one of our caches was broken into. I nearly lost my eldest son in the battle. But, I have doubled the guards at each outpost and placed some of my assassins in the surrounding areas. The weapons will be safe.”

  Amun-Ra nodded, understanding the king of Hell perfectly. “But, won’t the presence of more demons run the risk of drawing attention to your outposts? The other denizens of Earth are certainly able to spot a demon, even if the humans cannot. I fear you may lose good men to further attempts from the vampires to gain an edge over your people. Plus, they have the means to mass produce these weapons. What you fear has already come to pass.”

  “Then I no longer need to fear losing good men at the outposts. If the vampires are already outfitted with demon slaying weapons, they have no more need to steal from me. Now, all I have to watch out for are the more beast-like peoples of Earth. Werewolves are too reliant on their teeth and claws, so no real worries there. Minotaurs use weapons, but they keep to themselves. They are surprisingly peaceful for such a brutish species. The only other beings I may be worried about haven’t been seen in several millennia.”

  “You speak of the dragons,” Amun-Ra replied.

  Dante nodded. “Yes. I learned of them a long time ago, but I heard they disappeared.”

  “They did. It was shortly after I began my reign that they decided to leave. But we are getting off topic.”

  Dante nodded, grinning. “I apologize. That happens to me. But my stance remains the same. I do not want to give up those weapons.”

  “Even if it could lead to war between our kingdoms?”

  Dante leveled a hard stare at the king of Heaven. “Does it have to? Can we not come to some agreement here? Surely there is some way we can compromise.”

  Amun-Ra breathed a heavy sigh and shook his head. “Maybe. But as long as you still hold the weapons in your vaults, you are not compromising very much at all. If the weapons are taken back into Heaven, they will be held in our vaults, in the – hopefully unlikely – event that another war breaks out and we need to outfit the humans with a means to defend themselves again.”

  “What’s to say you won’t conscript the humans to fight my people?” Dante asked. His tone was even, and the idea was completely preposterous, but the fact that he would make such a bold claim put Amun-Ra on the defensive. “Those weapons can kill demons, but I bet they would be ineffective against an angel. Am I right?”

  “You listen to me, boy,” Amun-Ra growled, pointing a warning finger at the demon. “I want peace between my kingdom and the kingdom of my brother. You are directly descended from Osiris, therefore you are family, but I will not hesitate to send my archangels to defend that peace from a young demon at the beginning of his reign. Take my words to heart. I will not have a repeat of your grandfather’s war while I rule.”

  Dante nodded. His ploy worked. “So the weapons don’t kill angels. Good to know. I have no reason to relinquish the weapons to you, and even less reason to go to war with you. However, I do have a proposition for you.”

  Amun-Ra leaned back in his chair, taken aback by the demon’s calm demeanor. “And what is that, then?”

  “The vampires invaded my home. They have declared war on my people, and I do not wish to see them get away with that. Demon blood has been spilled on Hell’s soil, and I cannot allow that to go unpunished. I ask that you join me in my plans to attack the vampire high command and drive their people from this world. Let Lord Death have their souls.”

  “You want to go to war with the vampires?” Amun-Ra balked. “You would bring another war to Earth? You say you want peace, yet you plan to march to war in the same breath.”

  “Think about it,” Dante offered, leaning forward, elbows resting on the table. “How long until one of your angels gets dragged into the vampires’ clutches. It would only take a lucky vampire and a careless angel. They would eventually figure out how to kill one of your people. They’ve seen it happen in the past. What if they take one of my own people? What if they get their hands on demonic weapons? They would have the means to go to war with you, then. How many of your people do you plan to lose to a vampire invasion? Because I doubt they would be satisfied with Hell for long before setting their sights on your home. Be my ally in this, as with everything, and we can end their plans for domination. We can wipe them out.”

  “You’re talking about genocide,” Amun-Ra countered. “I will not have any part in wiping out an entir
e species.”

  Dante shrugged. “That’s fair. I misspoke. We may not need to wipe them all out. We just need to take out their command. There’s an old adage the humans are fond of; cut the head off the snake and the body will fall. We kill their leaders, and let the vampires rebuild from the ashes. They’re smart. Hopefully they’ll elect good leaders who won’t be so stupid as to attack my kingdom.”

  “That’s a much better proposition,” Amun-Ra commented. “However, I still see no reason to declare war.”

  “Fair enough. Here’s the best part, though: the vampires, to my knowledge, have not yet fashioned a way to kill angels. You could send a single archangel with his or her army to take out the vampires, and not lose a single angel. Of course, I’ll send in my own knights to fight alongside your soldiers. That show of unity would certainly give the vampires pause to attack again. Once they see that our two kingdoms are finally fully united, they may just give up altogether, without much bloodshed.”

  Amun-Ra nodded, considering the options. “In your case, fighting the vampires brings your fallen some justice. But there would be no justice in my people fighting them. My task is to help keep the balance among the worlds intact. That is what Heaven stands for.”

  Dante felt a twinge of annoyance creep into his mind. “Think of how unbalanced the world would be if the vampires ruled Earth and Hell. And then, what about when they try taking Heaven? How badly would that upset the balance? Even Artemis would have a hard time fixing that mess.”

  “I agree with your sentiment, Dante, but I still see no reason to send in even one of my archangels. Heaven’s military is still suffering from the losses it sustained during the war here on Earth.”