by Steve McHugh
I squeezed the still raw stump that used to be attached to his hand, and he screamed out, swearing he was the last one. I believed him. “Excellent. One question down. Two to go. Who sent you? Who did you release?”
“You forgot something,” he sneered. “Those who sent us here today will want to finish the job. Maybe that werewolf and his lovely daughter. She’s about old enough to have some fun with. I’m sure—”
I grabbed Wayne by his hair and dragged him over to the metal table, using my free hand to swipe the blades onto the floor with a loud clatter. I pushed the side of Wayne’s face against the cold metal. “It doesn’t matter who you threaten. Eventually you’ll tell me what I want to know. Who sent you?”
“Hades’s whore of a red-skinned daughter,” he said with a maniac laugh.
I wrapped a tendril of air around his ear and snapped it shut, tearing part of the lobe off. Blood spilled freely over his face and onto the table.
Once Wayne had finished cursing me, blood covered the side of his face. “My friends are going to find that little werewolf bitch and have their way with her.”
I picked his head off the table by his hair and slammed it back down, over and over again. “You dumb fucking idiot. You think I’m playing? You think this is a fucking game? Well, if that’s the case, let me know when you want me to stop.”
I used air magic to once again make sure that Wayne couldn’t wriggle, and then I placed one hand on the table and started to heat it up. It went from cool to the touch to white hot within seconds and soon the sound of sizzling flesh on the side of Wayne’s face accompanied his shrieks. He screamed and tried to get free as my magic kept his face pushed down against the heat.
“Don’t know!” he shouted after a few minutes of agony. “Don’t . . . know . . . who sent us. Not . . . name. Vanguard. Vanguard.”
I pulled Wayne away from the table, leaving part of his skin attached to its still hot surface, and dropped him on the floor, where he whimpered softly.
“The Vanguard sent you?”
“We are Vanguard,” he managed between ragged breaths.
“You’re Vanguard? That’s not possible.”
“But we . . . we are. I promise you.”
“But you’re meant to be pro-Avalon. How does attacking Tartarus accomplish that?”
“I only did as ordered. We all did. We don’t know why.”
I grabbed Wayne’s arm, causing him to cry out as I lifted it up and saw the mark of the Vanguard on his armpit. That small shield with two swords creating a “V.” He wasn’t lying.
“Who gave the order for today’s attack?” I asked.
“The siphon,” Wayne said. “He was my commanding officer.”
“Who did you release today?”
“A god!” he screamed at me, seemingly finding new strength with which to fuel his rage.
I knelt down next to him on the floor, placing my knee on his and pushing down. “Which one?”
“Just kill me,” he said, wincing. “I won’t tell you. Just kill me and be done with it.”
I glanced at the watch on my hand. “I’ve told you repeatedly that you’re not going to die today. But, if you’re still unwilling to tell me everything I want to know, I’m sure I can change your mind. We’ve got a long way to go yet, and you’ve still got plenty of body parts.”
CHAPTER 17
How long were you in there?” Sky asked me as I walked into the mess room, which sat beside the garage. It was usually full of people, but today the mess was empty except for Sky, who sat on one of the many dark-purple sofas, eating a sandwich.
“Is that good?” I asked.
“Got angry. It was either eat this sandwich or punch someone.”
“That’s an odd set of opposites,” I said with a slight chuckle, grabbing a chocolate bar from one of the many trays that sat beside the table where the food would normally be served.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
I glanced up at the clock above the serving station. “Forty-five minutes.”
“Did he tell you everything you wanted him to?”
I tossed the unopened chocolate bar back onto the tray. “No, but most of it.”
“You changed your clothes.”
“Had blood on mine. These were in one of the lockers and they fit.” The dark-blue jeans and orange T-shirt with a picture of an anime-style death on the front were the first things I’d found. My underwear, socks, and shoes were still my own, however. There are some things I’d rather not borrow from a stranger.
“You want to talk about it?”
“He killed his wife and kids,” I divulged. “Drowned them while they slept. The young boy woke while his father was murdering him.” I paused as my mind replayed the images of their bodies, and I only continued when I’d pushed them aside, “He used his own water magic to drown his family.”
Sky was silent for a while. “I find it odd that killing and torturing are just things you do, but that you have problems with the slaughter of innocents.”
I turned to look at Sky. “Not in the mood for jokes.”
“Wasn’t one. If you didn’t care when fucking cunts like Wayne Branch murdered their family in cold blood, I’d be a lot more concerned about you.”
“In my life I’ve seen countless people murdered, families torn apart, children . . . horrific things. But hearing that their own dad or mum or anyone who was meant to protect them did it? It always gets to me.”
“How badly did you hurt Wayne?”
I opened my mouth to speak, when Persephone stormed in, saw me, and walked over. I stood, prepared for what I was sure would be a fight about me going too far. Instead, she hugged me tightly, holding me against her, her hand pressed against the back of my neck.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“We’ve done that bit,” Sky said with a smile.
“This isn’t a joke, Sky.”
“I’m fine,” I said and saw Sky take a bite of her sandwich instead of saying whatever retort she’d planned.
“The wife and children will be buried with honors. Hades is arranging it.”
“What did Kay and Lucie have to say?” I asked.
“Lucie is still talking to Hades, and Kay has left. He was less than happy that Hades decided to use Hellequin in this matter and was even angrier that he wasn’t allowed to see the prisoner.”
“What will happen here because of that?” Sky asked.
“That’s what Lucie and your father are discussing. When I left them, Lucie was advocating her going to Tartarus to ascertain how he escaped.”
The second I’d left the interrogation building and had seen Hades standing there, his guards all nervous and concerned as I dropped Wayne Branch’s hands onto the ground, I’d spoken only one word: Cronus. Tartarus is a massive place, and the residents there live freely, for the most part. It could have taken days or weeks to figure out who’d escaped.
“I’m going too,” Sky said.
“Yes, you are,” Persephone told her. “You’re going to be Lucie’s guide.”
“Me too,” I said. “I need to see how it happened. I need to know where he’s gone and what he plans on doing.”
“This doesn’t involve you, Nate,” Persephone said. “You can walk away.”
“No, not anymore.”
We stared at one another for a few heartbeats; then she smiled. “I assumed you’d say that.”
After I’d spent time with Wayne and heard what he’d done and why, there was no way in hell I was going to just walk away from it. I was going to find the people responsible, and I was going to make sure they paid.
Hades entered the mess room a few seconds later.
“Can we have a moment alone?” Hades asked his wife and daughter, who both got up and left the room.
“I’ve never seen you do that before,” I said.
Hades sat in Sky’s vacated chair, motioning for me to be seated opposite him. “Oh, I’ll tell Persephone everything later. But
right now, I need to know what Wayne told you. And not just Cronus’s name.”
I sat down and sighed. “He was tasked, along with those who died here today, to keep you busy while a smaller team went in to get the realm gate open. There were other teams too, to ensure that no one tried to use the lift to get to the realm gate, but Tommy and I took them out. Another man he couldn’t identify—the sorcerer from the control room, I imagine—took one of the guards into Tartarus and retrieved Cronus. The guardian gave information to Cronus so he could escape from this compound. Wayne didn’t know the means of Cronus’s escape or even how they got past the guards on the Tartarus side.
“The attackers were supposed to either escape or die here. When three were captured, Wayne took it upon himself to end them so they couldn’t talk. He expected you to kill him during his botched assassination attempt. He was given no information about where to regroup, just told that he would be contacted. Presumably with a bullet to the head.”
“And who is his liege?”
“No idea. He didn’t say, and trust me if he could have he would have. My guess is someone has forcibly ensured that he never utters the man’s name. That’s a level of power that’s fucking scary. We’re talking Merlin level of power to remove a person’s name but still have that person be referred to as something else. It’s usually all or nothing. If someone with less power had done it, Wayne wouldn’t have even been able to say the word ‘liege,’ let alone have any idea who he was talking about.”
“You believe he knew his liege?”
I nodded. “He mentioned it over and over.”
“So, we don’t know why Cronus was released or who ordered it, or what they want him to do? We’re not exactly neck deep in information here.”
“We know it was Vanguard, which makes no sense. They’re pro-Avalon—they’re almost zealots in their devotion to them. They normally attack Shadow Falls or someone who has denounced Avalon, but you’re an active and powerful member of the Avalon council.”
“You think they were being used, like those people in Maine last year?”
I shook my head. “Those in Maine weren’t real Vanguard. They were being told what they needed to in order to ensure they’d behave. They’d never set foot in a Vanguard training camp, let alone been allowed to join. The Vanguard are extremists, but they’re not idiots. No, these guys are the real deal. Wayne has the tattoo. Ink with liquid silver in it. Burns like hell, but it won’t ever fade like a normal tattoo.”
“You took his hands,” Hades said after a moment.
“He wouldn’t give me what I needed. Taking his second hand was what made him give up Cronus. Before then he was just giving me tidbits of info about how long he’d worked for Vanguard or why he was never supposed to get married. They’ve been planning this for a long time—years.”
“That’s not why you took his hands and cauterized the wounds to ensure they could never be reattached.”
I looked at my old friend, and I knew he wasn’t going to let it go until I’d told him why I’d done it. “He used those hands to hold his family while he told them he loved them, to wipe away their tears and share their joys. Then he used those same hands to murder them all in one of the worst betrayals imaginable. He doesn’t deserve to keep them. That’s why I took them.”
“Kay wasn’t happy.”
“Kay once flayed a man alive in front of his family and forced them to eat their lunch while he did it. Kay can go fuck himself.”
“That was pretty much my response too. Still, he was less than happy about the use of Hellequin. I assume Kay knows you and Hellequin are one and the same.”
Very few of the knights knew I was Hellequin. Until a few years ago, the fact that we are one and the same wasn’t exactly widely known to anyone but a handful of people. Hellequin was the shadowy killer of monsters, someone to be feared, and someone without an obvious allegiance. Nathan Garrett was the guy who worked for Merlin. Sure, people knew that I was a killer, that I’d been highly trained and was capable of taking care of myself, but the two beings were seen as different entities.
“Kay only found out a few centuries ago, just before I buried the name. He just isn’t happy that someone else was as feared as he was. But his reputation was down to cruelty and bullying, whereas mine was down to a more primal force. Kay could never do that. He doesn’t have the patience. Do you think he was involved, then?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. He comes across as a mindless brute, but he’s incredibly smart, with a lot of ears to a lot of surfaces.” Hades paused for a moment. “So are you okay?”
“Why is everyone asking me that?”
“Well, you walked out, said one word, and then went for a shower and came in here. You said nothing else to anyone, until, I assume, you spoke to my daughter, who could probably get a conversation out of rock.”
“As I’ve told everyone else, I’m fine. I was angry. Really angry. Angry about what he’d done and how he’d done it, and about the number of dead that releasing Cronus will cause if he’s not stopped. I needed to get Wayne’s blood off me. It stained me having to be that close to someone who had betrayed so many.”
“You want to go to Tartarus, I assume?”
I nodded.
“Good. I need your help on this one. I know the prisoner said he was the only one, but I can’t risk anyone else betraying me. Publically, I’m not about to start accusing people of anything, but between you and me, you’re one of the few people I trust to find and bring Cronus back without screwing me or anyone else over. You think you’re okay with that?”
“I think I’ll manage,” I said with a slight smile. “How’s Cerberus?”
“He’ll live, although he’s going to have a limp for a few days. He wanted me to tell you that you have his permission to kill whoever allowed Cronus to escape Tartarus. I’m not exactly convinced he was kidding.”
“Do you think Cronus is long gone?”
Hades nodded slowly. “Probably. Although I’ve no idea how he would have gotten across the compound without someone spotting him. I’m hoping someone in Tartarus will give us a clue as to his whereabouts, or at least tell us whatever the hell he’s after.”
“Rhea’s our best bet.”
“Agreed. We do have a few plus sides, though.”
“Oh, this should be good.”
“Well, Mr. Smart-ass, Tartarus limits a person’s power, which means that Cronus is nowhere near up to full strength. He’s also been gone a long time and so has no idea about a lot of the world around him, which means the second he does something stupid, we’ll know.”
“Except the second he does something stupid, Avalon and all of her allies and enemies will know too.”
“Yes, that’s what I consider to be the exceptionally fucked-up part.”
“Hera. Once she learns that Cronus is out, she’s going to petition everyone in Avalon for her to have a say in running this place. She’s been after it for years, and you kept her away with Pandora.”
“That’s certainly something in my head too. Lucie has agreed not to file the report for seventy-two hours. By then we either have Cronus recaptured, or Hera and her friends will be gearing up to march into this compound and take Tartarus as her own personal playground.”
I stood up and stretched. “We’d best make sure that doesn’t happen then. How long before we’re ready to go?”
“Ready when you are. I’ve sent guards down to the hotel. Those kids will never know what happened here until they’re long gone, and in the meantime, I don’t want them or their parents concerned.”
“How are Tommy and Kasey?”
“Tommy was pacing around, last I heard, and Kasey is fine. She was talking to a witch by the name of Emily Rowe, a lovely lady who seems to think highly of you.”
“That’s because I’m a fucking delight.”
Hades chuckled. “Ah, my friend, no matter what horrific events take place, you’re still able to make me laugh. I shall always value that.”
As time was of the essence, we were down at the control room within a few minutes of Hades and me walking out of the mess room, to be met by Sky and Lucie.
Outside the control room itself, a platoon of guards stood, all of whom were being yelled at by a very pissed-off Cerberus.
“Cerberus?” Hades asked.
Cerberus dismissed the guards and, when we were alone, turned to Hades. “Boss.”
“Aren’t you meant to be in Medical?”
“Don’t like to lie down for long,” he said, shaking the metal cane he was carrying. “Don’t want the men and women under my command to think I’m taking it easy.”
“Weren’t you stabbed with a silver blade?” Lucie asked.
“Yes, I was,” Cerberus said, as if that were no excuse for being lazy.
“Is everything ready for the departure?” Hades asked as we all walked into the control room.
The room held six people who were trying to get equipment working or looking over the gate itself, and another six who appeared to be armed enough to liberate a small country. They stood to the sides of the room and did their utmost to appear not there. It wasn’t working very well.
Considering the fourteen heavily armed guards that we’d passed on the way from the lift to the control room, the extra six seemed to be overkill.
Hades walked off and whispered something to one of the guardians looking over the realm gate, before turning to the six guards. “You can all go wait outside, I’m here now, and I think we can let these people work with a minimum of guns pointed around them.”
The guards all walked out, and Cerberus looked annoyed.
Apparently, Hades had noticed it too. “Cerberus, you are an incredible warrior and have been at my side for thousands of years, but you’re taking out your anger and frustration about what happened by posting an obscene number of guards. I assure you, we’re quite safe.”
“You’d have said that a few hours ago,” Cerberus said as Hades reached him.
“Yes, and I’d have been wrong. But I can’t let those who are loyal to us feel like we’re constantly waiting for the moment they choose betrayal. We have enough shit to deal with without having my people believe they’re not trusted.”
