“You know you can’t,” Greg said.
“Of course I can. You remember how it’s done, right?” I replied.
“I didn’t mean you’re not capable, I meant you shouldn’t.” He fixed me with a steady gaze. “I was wrong before. We get one life, and except for a few of us, we’re not supposed to live more than that. Nester made a good life. He deserves to enjoy the rewards of it.”
“So did Mike, and you fought me on that like it was your own life!” I growled and pulled at Greg.
“Yeah, and I told you, I was wrong. Sweet Jesus, Jimmy, I was so wrong. And right now, you’re wrong. Let him go. He deserves better than this,” Greg pointed to himself, then at me.
I looked down at Nester. “It’s your call, buddy. Do you want me to turn you?” I wasn’t sure he was with us, but his eyes locked on mine, and he pulled his arm back. He held his hand up, and I took it. Abby took the other hand, and I stared into his eyes as he slowly shook his head side to side, and drifted off to death. He took one last deep breath, then his face relaxed into a smile, and he was gone.
I reached down and closed his eyes, then Abby leaned down and kissed his forehead. We stood up, and I turned back to where Zepheril now stood flanked by two flickering images ringed in golden light. One of them was a robust young man in jeans and a Batman T-shirt, an easy grin on his face like he never had a care in the world. On the other side of the angel stood an older man, shorter, stockier, with white hair and a nose that spoke of perhaps one too many scotches after dinner.
“Thank you,” Zepheril said. “As you see, I got your message.”
“I thought my messenger was pretty good,” I said, fighting back tears at the sight of my best friend standing next to an angel.
“Lilith has been working to bring Heaven to its knees for centuries, and it took someone very special to stop her. Heaven is indebted to you, James Black.”
“Keep my friends in scotch and comic books, and we’ll call it even,” I said. I heard sirens and turned to see several ambulances and police cruisers roaring onto the field. Milandra and Tivernius, now a tall blond man in jeans and a dress shirt instead of a twenty-foot-tall golden dragon, waved to us from the top of the stands, then stepped through a portal of their own back to Faerie. King and the werewolves were long gone, having heard the sirens before I noticed them, and Anna and her coven were tending the wounded. I could see a hint of glamour around them and understood that anyone looking at them would see emergency workers unless they knew better.
Lieutenant McDaniel climbed out of the lead patrol car and made a beeline for the mobile command unit, where Trey, Dusty, and a couple of other nerds I didn’t know were clambering out and running for the hills. Perhaps their “borrowing” of a tank from the police department wasn’t quite as authorized as I thought. I glanced over at Greg and raised an eyebrow.
“Dude, I don’t ask those guys questions. I just trust their results,” he replied.
Fair enough. With the authorities on hand dealing with the wounded, and the supernatural threat vanquished for the moment, I turned back to Zepheril, looking for the answers to a few things.
Except Zepheril wasn’t there. He was gone, and his ethereal sidekicks were fading fast. I stepped to Mike and held up a hand. He held his up to mine, and we touched palms. Of course, his was incorporeal, but I swore I could feel his hand in mine again. Nester stepped forward and held his hand up. Abby pressed her palm to his, and I could feel some of the tension flow out of her as her shoulders visibly relaxed, even as the tears flowed down her face.
“I guess by now we know better than to say good-bye, don’t we?” I asked, and the spirits smiled.
Greg put a hand on each of our shoulders and said, “Yeah, it takes more than dying to get Jimmy to leave you alone. Trust me.” We laughed, then my heart leapt in my chest as a familiar voice came from behind us.
“Let’s not put that theory to the test, shall we? I really think I like being the one on the team with a heartbeat. That is, if I’m still on the team?” I turned to see Sabrina walking toward me, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and tucked into a black hoodie. She wore black jeans, combat boots, and a dark maroon shirt under her hoodie, and I thought she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
She ran the last few steps to me, and I picked her up and spun her around, kissing her thoroughly before I set her down again.
“I guess she’s still on the team,” Abby said with a smile.
“I guess so,” I agreed, grinning from ear to ear.
“I’m still not cool with a lot of what you’ve done in the last month,” Sabrina said, looking me straight in the eye. “But I know two things. One, this city is in better hands with you at the wheel than with Tiram, and two . . .” Her voice trailed off and she looked away.
“Yeah,” I said. “Me, too.”
“One question, though,” Sabrina said, looking back at me with a mist in her eyes. “How did you know I was there? At the end, when Lilith had you cold?”
“I didn’t,” I said. “But I knew when I started down this road tonight that if I was going to see another sunset, I was gonna have to trust the people I care about. And there’s nobody on this earth I trust more than you.”
She looked up at me with that half-smile that she wore whenever we sparred and said, “Well, you might want to trust somebody named William, too; because he’s been sending me texts ever since you took over for Tiram telling me where you were most likely to get killed.”
A black Suburban rolled through the gates, past all the emergency vehicles, and to a stop in front of us.
“Speak of the devil,” I said as William rolled down the driver’s window.
“Anyone here need a lift? Sorry I’m late. There seems to have been a disturbance of some sort. Traffic is terrible.” We all laughed and climbed into the car, with Abby calling shotgun and Greg fiddling with all the climate control buttons from the backseat. I sat in the middle with my arm around Sabrina, thinking over the events of the night.
We drove for a minute or two, then Sabrina leaned over and whispered, “A penny for ’em,” into my ear.
“Just thinking about Mike and Nester and Lilith, and how death is normal and natural, and how Lilith dedicated so much time to revenge, and Mike dedicated his whole life to the Church, and Nester dedicated his life to service. I just wonder if I can dedicate my whole life to something.”
Sabrina snuggled closer then looked up at me. “I think you can, but there’s only one way to find out.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“I dunno,” she said. “Ask me again in thirty years.”
THE END
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About the Author
Author John G. Hartness is the Epic and Manly Wade Wellman Award winning writer behind The Black Knight Chronicles from Bell Bridge Books, Bubba the Monster Hunter and Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter series. In his copious free time John enjoys long walks on the beach, rescuing kittens from trees, and playing Magic: the Gathering.
Table of Contents
Bell Bridge Books Titles by John G. Hartness
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Man in Black
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Please visit these websites for more information about John G. Hartness
About the Author
The Black Knight Chronicles (Book 6): Man in Black Page 22
