Diablero

by Toby Tate

  “Us two?” Jonathan said, rubbing his jaw for effect. “Hubby here is the one doing all the beating.”

  “I guess I don’t have to ask if you got my message. I can see you did,” Hunter said, eyeing his estranged wife.

  “Yes, I did. And I think you’re crazy for even thinking about trying to get a story out of this. You don‘t know what you’re up against, Hunter. This is for the law to handle.”

  Everyone in the room focused on the pair, watching one then the other like a crowd at a tennis match.

  “Ha! The law? You mean you?” Hunter turned his back and walked to the other side of the room, then turned to face Lisa. “This guy Blackbeard or whoever he is, is a maniac. I believe he has some kind of supernatural power and no law in the world is going to stop him.”

  “I realize that. That’s why Jonathan and I are here.”

  Hunter glanced at Jonathan, suspicion in his eyes. “What is he, your new boyfriend?”

  Lisa walked a straight line to Hunter, grabbed his head in both hands, and gave him a kiss that Jonathan figured probably hit him like a bolt of lightning. When she stepped back, there was a look of slack-jawed confusion on Hunter’s face. Jonathan and Caesar snickered, as Jason let out a good-natured “woo!”

  Lisa said, “I tried to call you, Hunter, to tell you not to come to Charleston, and to tell you how I feel about you. But junior over here,” she jerked a thumb back over her shoulder at Jonathan, “interrupted me.”

  Hunter looked over at Jonathan, obviously still not quite comprehending the whole thing.

  “Hunter,” Lisa said, regaining his attention, “I just wanted to tell you that I still love you. I want to start over again, if you’ll have me.”

  Hunter looked completely thunderstruck. He stood there for a moment and then smiled and said, “Of course I’ll take you back.”.

  Hunter barely got the words out when the front door crashed open against the wall and a hulking figure with flowing black hair and a wide, yellow-toothed grin filled the doorframe.

  Forty-five

  Hunter couldn‘t believe what he was seeing. The man standing in the doorway was huge, bigger than he had imagined. He didn’t seem to be carrying any weapons, which relieved him somewhat. The man wore khaki pants, a white button down shirt and black shoes, but in spite of the modern, casual dress, Teach was still an intimidating presence. His skin was white, but wind and sun had scorched it red. He looked to be no more than thirty years old, let alone three-hundred. The group stood, eyeing one another, waiting for someone to make the first move.

  Caesar finally spoke in his African-accented English. “It didn’t take long for you to find me.”

  Teach narrowed his eyes at Caesar and spoke slowly, deliberately. But Hunter knew it was the demon, the Diablero, that spoke and not Teach himself.

  “For almost three-hundred years I have been trapped inside the bones of this…mortal. The sea is like a tomb, cold and dark, the sand shifting with the tides, burying me alive slowly, inch by painful inch. If I were human I would have been driven mad. But I have been freed from the chains that bound me, and now I have come for you.”

  To Hunter, the words flowed from the demon’s mouth almost like some macabre poetry.

  They all turned to face Caesar, who stared directly at Blackbeard with an unflinching gaze.

  “I am ready. But know that I do not go willingly and I will fight you if I have the chance.”

  Blackbeard grinned a deadly, lopsided grin.

  “You won’t have the chance,” he replied.

  John Aiden stepped through the open doorway with his Glock drawn and pointed straight at Caesar. A ripple of surprise went through the room at the man’s sudden appearance.

  Instinctively, Lisa drew the pistol from her shoulder holster. She crouched and held the gun steady with both hands, ready to fire, ready to blow away the intruder if need be. “Drop your weapon, sir!” she yelled, “Or I’ll be forced to shoot.”

  Teach turned on Lisa, as if seeing her for the first time, and waved a hand at Aiden to lower his gun. Aiden lowered the Glock reluctantly.

  “Well, what do we have here?” Teach whispered, slowly moving toward Lisa.

  Lisa decided to shift her aim from Aiden to Teach. “Stop right there, or I’ll shoot you where it counts.”

  Just then, Lisa’s gun started moving, writhing in her hand like a steel snake trying to escape her grip. She yelped and dropped the gun to the floor. She made a move to try to pick it up, but when she did, the pistol began writhing again, the barrel and the butt of the gun moving up and down as if they were alive and angry. The group stared, dumbfounded at the pistol as it bounced around on the floor.

  The demon smiled and glanced down at the gun. “I don’t think your weapon is going to cooperate.”

  The gun twisted itself butt to barrel, forming a half-circle, and then lay still on the floor.

  Teach looked up at Lisa, and Hunter thought he could see fire in the demon’s eyes.

  “I would like you to accompany me on my journey. I’m sure your presence would make the trip most enjoyable.”

  Hunter felt an angry heat burning in his chest. He stepped in front of Lisa and held up a hand toward Blackbeard. “Oh no you don’t, Captain Hook. You’ll have to go through me first.”

  Hunter saw the look in Teach’s eyes go from lust to fury in a split second.

  “Who are you?” Teach bellowed, but the sound was like several voices speaking in unison, the multi-voiced utterances of a demon.

  But Hunter’s pride would never allow him to back down from a fight, even with a demon. “I’m her husband, motherfucker! Now back off!” he bellowed back.

  Lisa was frantic. “Hunter, please. This is no ordinary man. He can do things to you—”

  Hunter didn’t let her finish. He took two quick steps and let loose with a flying kick to Blackbeard’s face.

  But the pirate moved amazingly fast, faster than Hunter thought possible, and he grabbed Hunter by the heel and gave it a yank, putting him down hard on his back. Hunter had the wind knocked out of him and lay on the floor, gasping for breath.

  Blackbeard didn’t hide his contempt for him and his efforts at protecting his wife. “Is that the best you can do?”

  Hunter finally caught his breath and looked up at the demon, then suddenly felt a charge of adrenaline course through his body. “No, it’s not,” he growled, jumping up off the floor with one fluid movement. He stood in a fighting stance, ready for Blackbeard to come at him.

  Instead, Hunter himself began to move, but not under his own power. His feet slid across the floor toward Blackbeard as if they were being pulled by an invisible rope. Hunter was helpless to stop it. He looked down at his feet, then back up at the pirate, who was getting closer by the second.

  No one in the room knew what to do, all watching as the inevitable played out.

  Teach held out a meaty hand and wrapped it around Hunter’s throat, then lifted him straight up off the floor. Hunter’s feet dangled like a man hanging from a noose. Stars began to fill his vision as he struggled for air. He grabbed at the pirate’s arm, but it was as solid and unyielding as a flesh-covered steel pipe.

  Lisa ran toward the pair, screaming her plea at Teach. “Stop it! You’re killing him!”

  Teach looked down at Lisa as if she were a child being punished for bad behavior. “What do you offer in return?”

  “I’ll go with you. But promise me you’ll let him live.”

  “I promise nothing,” Teach growled.

  Hunter could hear Teach’s voice, then Lisa’s voice, but the words faded in and out like a dream. Was it a dream? He didn’t know; he only knew that he desperately needed to draw a breath.

  Just one heavenly breath was all he asked.

  But instead, darkness slowly began to envelop him like a warm blanket, and he welcomed it with open arms.

  Part II

  The Great Old Ones

  …And I saw a star fall from heaven unto the
Earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

  And he opened the bottomless pit…

  Revelation 9: 1-2

  Before me things create were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I endure.

  All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

  Dante—The Inferno

  Forty-six

  Lisa sat in the back of Caesar’s huge Buick, wedged between the creepy little man and Jonathan, whom Teach had insisted come along. Lisa was actually glad he had come. Caesar drove the car while Teach sat up front, and Aiden’s Glock kept the odds even. Of course, no one wanted to go up against a man with supernatural powers, so Lisa thought the Glock was probably unnecessary under the circumstances. Aiden’s leg kept inadvertently rubbing up against hers. She shuddered at his touch and tried scooting closer to Jonathan, hoping she wasn’t sending the wrong message.

  She thought of Hunter and hoped he was all right. She had checked his pulse after Teach dropped him on the floor. Weak but steady. She wished he had come with them; for some reason, he and Jason had been spared. She just prayed he didn’t try to follow them. But Lisa just knew Hunter would try. He would follow them to Hell and back if need be.

  Lisa eyed Caesar in the front seat and knew from his set jaw and steely gaze that he was conflicted. The man wanted to stop Blackbeard, but knew he would be jeopardizing his grandson’s life and possibly hers if he wasn’t compliant. Lisa wondered what kind of power Caesar could possess that was greater than that of a demon, so much so that the demon would raise a body from the dead and walk the earth to find him. What was Teach after? What kind of force could be so powerful? What could be in this book of his that was so important that death itself could not even keep Teach from it? Lisa thought back to her dream and the demonic eyes that stared up from under the water, the skeletal hand that reached up and pulled her into the blackness. On other nights, voices—dark and disembodied—spoke to her of profane and monstrous things that she dared not remember when she woke up, for fear that she may never sleep again.

  As Lisa thought of these things, Blackbeard craned his neck and looked at her, a nearly imperceptible smile playing on his lips. Her stomach turned to a knot with the look and she had to avert her eyes, training them on Caesar once again.

  Lisa had had enough of the silence. “Caesar, can you tell me where we’re going?”

  Caesar looked over at Teach, who said nothing, but turned to stare out the windshield once again.

  “If I had to guess, I’d say San Salvador.”

  “San Salvador? Where is that?”

  Jonathan answered. “I believe it’s called Cat Island now. Part of the outer islands of the Bahamas. Lots of caves there. A good place to hide treasure and…other things.”

  Caesar glanced at Blackbeard, who remained stoic.

  Suddenly, Lisa got an idea. She casually slipped her right hand into her pocket and found the cell phone. She clicked it on and slid open the keypad, secretly thanking God that she was in the habit of keeping it on vibrate. With her thumb, she slowly began punching in numbers on the keypad.

  Forty-seven

  Hunter woke up on the floor of Caesar’s house, wondering where the freight train was that had hit him. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Jason began to come into focus.

  “What…what the hell happened?” he rasped as he tried to sit up.

  Jason gently pushed him back down and onto the pillow. “Don’t try to get up yet. You need to rest for a moment. You’re lucky you weren’t killed.”

  Hunter was struck with a sudden realization. “Lisa. We have to save Lisa,” he said, trying to sit up.

  Jason pushed him back down.

  Hunter looked around and realized they were the only two in the room. “Where are the others?”

  “Gone. Blackbeard took Lisa, and Jonathan and Caesar went with them. I think Blackbeard said he had a boat somewhere, waiting to pick them up.”

  “Pick them up?” Hunter managed to sit up straight, his head swimming with the effort. He grimaced at the sudden pain. “And take them where? Do you know where they were going?” Hunter was almost ready to grab Jason by the shoulders and shake him.

  “I think so. I think they’re going to an island, a place in the Bahamas called Providence. It was a port frequented by Blackbeard during his lifetime. If the accounts I’ve read are true, I believe that what he’s looking for may be there.”

  “How can we be sure? Is there a way to follow them?”

  Jason grinned. “Funny you should ask. It just so happens I know of a place where we can get a boat. Or, I should say, a yacht. A forty-footer, very well-equipped for the high seas.”

  Hunter shook his head in wonder. “Why am I not surprised?” He held out a hand, and Jason stood and gave Hunter a lift up off the floor. Hunter’s head reeled, and he steadied himself like a man trying to get his sea legs.

  “Remind me not to pick fights with guys who can lift you from the floor with one hand.”

  “Yeah, you looked kind of like a rag doll hanging there. He could have crushed your throat if he wanted to, you know.”

  Hunter rubbed his neck, wincing at the raw tenderness there. “Yeah. He could have taken my soul, too. How long was I out, anyway?”

  “I don’t know; ten minutes, maybe less. I thought you were dead when you hit the floor.”

  Hunter looked around the room once more, and realized there was something gleaming on the floor in front of the living room door. He walked over and picked it up, recognition sweeping across his face. It was a small silver cross encrusted with diamonds.

  “Lisa’s necklace. I gave this to her on our very first wedding anniversary. But how did it fall off?”

  Jason looked at Hunter as if he didn’t know how to frame the words. “It didn’t fall off, exactly. Blackbeard saw it and ripped it off of her just before they left.”

  Hunter stiffened, and then closed his fist tightly around the pendant. “Why would he do that?”

  “Why do you think? He’s a demon. Demons abhor anything that reminds them of who they are, of what they are. The old battle of good versus evil.”

  Hunter’s heart ached for Lisa and he couldn’t stand the thought of her with that…thing. His veins burned with fire as he tried to focus his mind on a solution, a way to get his wife back. Nothing else mattered.

  “We have to find them,” he said. “I don’t care what it takes or what it costs, we have to find them. Where is this boat you were talking about? Is it close?”

  “It’s in the harbor, fueled up and ready to go.”

  “We have to leave as soon as possible. Do we need to get anyone to pilot the boat?”

  His friend took a small bow. “I’m ready when you are, my captain.”

  Forty-eight

  The night in Charleston harbor was black and moonless, and the further away from the city they traveled, the smaller Aiden’s sixty-foot yacht seemed to Lisa. The darkness was like an endless void, swallowing them whole. The twin engines hummed as the knife-edge of the bow cut a path through the inky water. The lights of passing boats dotted the landscape like fireflies.

  Lisa was glad she had decided to wear jeans. It was chilly on the water, and the pants also hid her legs. Though Blackbeard had not made a move to touch her or even speak to her, she did not want to be ogled by him or Jonathan, or that other weird little guy driving the boat, John Aiden, who seemed to be along just for the ride.

  Lisa couldn’t believe all the things that had happened the last few hours. If she had not been the one living it, and someone else had told her the story, she would have said they were nuts. But here she was, on a boat with a demon, a psycho, a shaman, and his grandson. What a motley crew, she thought. She regretted the fact that there had been so little time to work out things with Hunter. She hoped there would be more time in the future. But things at the moment were looking bleak. What did they hope to accomplish by finding this book? Was it really as powerful as Jonathan made it out to be? If the lure was enough to brin
g back a man from the dead, then Lisa guessed the stories about the book probably were true.

  And that scared her.

  She looked around the boat from her place at the stern. Blackbeard stood motionless on the bow, his black hair and beard tossed in the wind, gazing, as if he could see what lay ahead in the darkness. Perhaps he can, Lisa thought. With the powers of a demon, he could most likely see things the rest of them only had nightmares about. She wondered what he was thinking, what he was really after, and his ultimate goal. Then again, maybe she was better off not knowing.

  Suddenly, he looked at her. She stood still as a statue, transfixed by his gaze. Was he putting her under some kind of spell? Was this the same thing women had felt when Blackbeard once had a female in every port? His intense, hazel eyes made her feel naked, like there was nothing she could hide, nowhere she could run to escape his scrutiny. Yet, somehow, his eyes also spoke to her, told her things she didn’t want to hear, called her name, whispering…Lisa, Lisa…

  A sudden touch on her arm startled her. She glanced up to see Jonathan smiling down at her, then turned back to see that Blackbeard had looked away. Had the whole thing been her imagination?

  “Hey, you should go down below and check out the amenities,” Jonathan said. “Aiden said you could have the big stateroom with the queen-sized bed.”

  “I’m flattered.”

  “There’s even a shower and a kitchen. Come on, I’ll show you around.”

  Jonathan opened the door to the lower deck, and he and Lisa disappeared inside.

  Forty-nine

  Liang Wu tried his daughter’s cell phone a second time, and once again his gut instinct, honed from his years in law enforcement, told him something was wrong. The text message she had sent him only hours after her phone call left him with a feeling of apprehension. It had said only two words—Cat Island.