Revenant (The Midnight Society #3)

by Logan Patricks

  Isadora’s was next to have a round with the assassin. She had armed herself with a letter opener, lying on one of the oak countertops in the foyer. She targeted his neck and, with the speed of a coiled cobra, struck at him. Duckface was faster, however, and his reflexes saved him from a lethal blow.

  Watching the quickness as these two sparred was surreal. Every attack was met with a counter as the two moved around the foyer like dancing partners. But in the end, Duckface managed to catch Isadora off guard as he secured her by the wrist and knocked her to the ground with a heavy shoulder. Duckface grabbed her by one foot, and then swung her into the Heintzman piano as if she were nothing more than a doll, taking her completely out of the fight.

  And then there was me.

  Duckface smiled as he made his way towards me, his prey, stalking me like a famished predator. This wasn’t going to end well.

  There was no way I could take down this psychopath in armed combat. My only chance was the salvation on the ground in the form of a gun.

  I lunged for the weapon again, reaching out for it with my remaining good arm.

  My efforts were met with a stifling blow to my ribs from Duckface’s boot. I sucked in wind as I found myself lying flat on my back, wondering how many ribs he had just broken.

  He stood over me and snarled.

  “I knew I should have shelled out some cash for Kung Fu lessons,” I muttered aloud.

  Duckface’s mouth contorted into something that was a cross between a grin and a scowl. He showed me his clenched fist and then pointed it at my face.

  “Yes, yes. That’s a lovely fist,” I said as I staggered to my knees, my good arm clutching my ribs. It was a struggle to breathe, let alone stand. But I wouldn’t give this asshole the satisfaction of killing me in anyway other than on my feet.

  “Are you going to get that gun?” I asked. “If not, then I’d appreciate it if you stepped aside for a moment so I could—”

  My words were cut short as a brick, in the form of his fist, smashed into the side of my face. That one was definitely going to leave a mark.

  I staggered backwards, determined not to fall to ground again. It was a little tiring getting my ass kicked on a regular basis.

  If I made it out alive, Kung Fu lessons were definitely high on my list of priorities.

  And then the moron started laughing.

  “Heh heh heh heh heh.” It was the laugh of someone who was either mocking me or genuinely out of his mind. I voted for the latter.

  Still shaking off the effects of his fist while trying to regain my composure, I accidentally backed into the little girl, knocking her to the ground.

  Instantly the demeanor of Duckface changed into pure, unhinged rage. The man had a strong affinity to the girl.

  Before I could say anything, he smashed into me with a hard shoulder, driving me into a wall. Internal bleeding wasn’t out of the question at this point.

  “No touch her!” he grumbled as he drove his forehead straight into my chest. “No touch her.”

  Meanwhile, the girl on the ground was back on her feet and crying, despite me not even knocking her over that hard. She was a sensitive one, though I suppose at that age, they all were, weren’t they?

  There were so many things I didn’t know about children.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Isadora climb to her feet. My eyes darted in the direction of the girl, hoping she understood what I was getting at.

  All the while, Duckface continued his brutal assault on my body, liquefying organs and shattering bones with each strike of his fist. Several times, I wanted to collapse to the ground but I steadied my legs and endured the pain.

  I would die on my feet like a man.

  Duckface grabbed me by the neck with one hand while the other one wound up for one final blow.

  I guess this was it. Goodnight cruel world. Silent kisses to all those I love or have loved.

  With my thoughts halfway to the heavens, it was Isadora’s voice that pulled me back down to earth.

  Perhaps I wasn’t done yet.

  “Hey asshole,” she said in an authoritative voice.

  Duckface released his grip on me and turned around to see Isadora holding the knife to the little girl’s throat.

  “No!” he shouted. “No! No! No! No! No!”

  And for a second, I almost felt sorry for the man. Someone who loved another that much couldn’t possibly be all that bad, could they?

  I struggled to stay awake, allowing the cries of the little girl and Duckface’s hysterical pleading to keep me conscious.

  My movements were slow and hindered, as if I were wading through molasses. Gravity was not my friend at the moment but I needed to fight through it and do this one last thing.

  “You hurt her, I kill you. You no hurt her, you no die,” he screamed.

  “I was never one for negotiations,” Isadora said as he pressed the knife tighter to the little girl’s throat.

  Don’t cross that line Isadora, I thought to myself. Let me finish this so you don’t have to do anything you’ll regret.

  With every ounce of energy I had left in my broken body, I picked up the gun on the ground, and then aimed it at Duckface’s big fat head.

  “Don’t be afraid,” Duckface said to the girl in a reassuring voice. It almost sounded father-like. “Don’t be afraid.”

  I pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet smashed into the back of his head, dropping the assassin to the ground.

  Isadora immediately dropped the knife in her hands and held the girl in an embrace.

  “I’m sorry, little one,” she whispered into her ear. “I’m sorry.”

  I was starting to like this woman more and more. Isadora was a demon in both battle and in the sack and a woman with a golden heart the rest of the time.

  I allowed the gun to drop to the ground while the rest of my body followed.

  “Lincoln,” I heard Isadora cry as she rushed to me. “Lincoln, stay with me.”

  It was getting late. It was midnight and there was nothing left to do but sleep.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Shadow

  Beau had made a mad dash for his car, blindly spraying bullets in my direction desperately hoping that one would find its target. He had come close; a bullet skimming the side of my head, but close wasn’t enough to keep me out of this fight.

  Just before the bastard leapt into the driver’s side of the BMW, I managed to fire off a single clumsy shot. I watched with frustration as the tail lights of his car came to life like evil red eyes glowing in the darkness.

  Beau wasn’t gentle with the gas pedal as he floored it, nearly plowing me over.

  I dusted myself off and hopped into the Aston Martin DB9 which I had left parked in the driveway months ago.

  The acceleration of the DB9 proved enough to catch up to Beau as I tailed his ass throughout the hilly side roads of Moral City’s Mansion Heights district. Our cars drifted through the dirt roads, wheels spinning furiously as they tried to find traction. A few times, after taking a tight turn, I thought Beau’s car was going to spin off the road. However, each time he managed to recover.

  He was a good driver, I’d give him that.

  It wasn’t long before we left Mansion Heights altogether and merged onto the I47 freeway.

  This chase had gone on long enough. I dialed Beau’s number on my cell.

  Surprisingly, he answered. “Hello, the person who you think is Beau, speaking,” he said on his phone. I noticed on the speedometer that I was doing close to a buck twenty-five in order to keep up to Beau, evading all the other vehicles with pin point precision.

  To oncoming traffic, we must have looked like bolts of lightning—wild and reckless, unfazed by anything in our path. At the speeds we were going, one single error in judgment surely resulted in death.

  Beau drove his vehicle like a deranged stuntman and I had no choice but to follow him in pursuit. Aria’s life was at stake.

  “Pull over asshole,�
�� I screamed into the cell phone.

  “Sorry, I don’t hear a siren on your car and even if I did, I’m not really good at listening to authority.”

  “Where is Aria?” I demanded as I cut lanes, narrowly avoiding a Toyota Sienna by mere inches. Beau was still a few good yards away and he had no intentions of slowing down.

  “I thought we went over this?” he said. “Aria is safe for the time being. As I stated before, I have no intention of harming her. It’s your sister and you that are my targets.”

  “I watched you murder Leah. Do you think I’m going to take you at your word that you won’t harm Aria?”

  “No, Leah dying was her own doing,” Beau said. “I didn’t want to shoot her. If you recall, I was aiming for you. I suppose things rarely play out as they’re scripted. She ended up taking the bullet and now here you are, chasing after me on the I47.”

  “You’re a dead man, you hear me?” I seethed.

  “I’m sure after hearing those words, I’m more enticed to pull over for you,” Beau mocked. “And seriously, I don’t understand why you’re so pissed. If anything, I’m doing you—and Aria for that matter—a favor. Friendships with ex-girlfriends never bode well for any healthy relationship.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Hey, you were the one that dialed my number.”

  This guy had a way of getting onto every last nerve in my body.

  “I’m going to ask you again, where is Aria?”

  There was a moment of silence on the other end, as if Beau was considering answering my question.

  “I’ll tell you what I’ll—whoa shit.” I watched as his car narrowly escaped crashing into a transport truck in front of him. I deftly maneuvered into his lane.

  “Now that was a close call,” Beau said. “I guess that’s why they recommend not talking and driving at the same time. You’re distracting me, Shadow. If I should die during this little car chase of ours, you have no one to blame but yourself. You asked me where Aria is? Rephrase your question, and perhaps I’ll be more inclined to give you an answer.”

  I noticed his breathing was getting a little heavier. Was Beau getting a little nervous?

  “What will it take to get Aria back?” I asked.

  I could hear Beau’s smile while he talked. “Ah, now you’re singing my tune,” he said. “First and foremost, I want Calisto’s head, served to me on a silver platter. Of course not literally—I just want that bitch dead.”

  “So does everyone else. Get in line,” I replied. “She’ll get what’s coming to her, whenever I say it’s time.”

  “Time is something I don’t have much of these days,” Beau said. “I want that bitch dead, like yesterday. She murdered my dad, you know.”

  “That’s a sad story,” I replied. “She murdered mine as well.”

  “Why are you protecting Calisto?” Beau asked.

  “I’m not protecting her.”

  “You are.”

  He was right. I was.

  The reason was very obvious to me.

  She had life inside of her, a baby whose father was potentially my best friend’s.

  I wish I could say that love was a factor in delaying her punishment as well, but the truth was, my love for her died the second I discovered the twisted evil that existed within her.

  We both entered into the Alexander Tunnel, which eventually led into the heart of Moral City. Where the hell was Beau heading?

  “I’m not one without empathy, Shadow,” Beau said as he continued weaving through a slew of vehicles. I kept up the pace without skipping a beat. “I had a brother once as well. I loved him dearly. He died during that senseless war between the Ascension and the Midnight Society.”

  “And you’re going to blame me for that as well?” I asked.

  He laughed, before taking a strained breath. “No. Believe it or not, I’m actually a reasonable man. I actually don’t fault the Midnight Society for my brother’s death. I blame my daddy for that one.”

  “You’re full of it,” I said.

  “No, no. Hear me out. You see, the man known to you as Elias Rose always was an ambitious man. He was determined to build himself an empire that could surpass that of the Midnight Society. He was smart, he was charming and his voice—lord when he spoke, you’d think he had the voice of God himself. That was the Elias Rose that everyone saw…except his family. Elias Rose to me was a neglectful father. You know the type of father I’m talking about; the one who wouldn’t drop what he was doing for just five minutes just to enjoy the sight of his kids playing. That all changed when the stupid war cost him his eldest son’s life along with that of his wife.

  “Oh how I hated my daddy at that moment, with every moral fiber of my being. When I heard that Joseph and my mom were gone, all I could think of was that now I was officially alone in this world. I honestly believed that my dad couldn’t give two shits about me. I was wrong.”

  He took a moment to breathe, while we both emerged out of the tunnel and into Moral City—a kingdom of monolithic towers and lights which lit up the night sky.

  The first sight of this metropolis after exiting the tunnel never failed to take my breath away.

  “Sometimes, all it takes is one single moment to change things forever; you know what I’m saying?”

  I thought about those horrifying few seconds when I discovered my parent’s bodies and then my thoughts transitioned to seeing Aria for the first time, and then to watching Sinister—my sister—escape in that helicopter atop of the Inferno hotel.

  “Go on,” I said.

  “The night after my mom and brother died, I saw my dad cry for the first time, and shit, it was the most frightening thing I ever saw. My father, a man whom his followers anointed as a king, was sobbing like a little kid, snot running down his nose and his eyes swollen from tears. I remember thinking to myself: damn, this man is a human being after all.

  “When he saw me standing at the entrance to the room, staring at him dumbfounded, he walked over to me and knelt down to my level. Imagine that, Elias Rose kneeling to someone! You know what he said to me next, Shadow?”

  “You know I don’t,” I said. “If there’s a point to your story, best get to it.”

  “You’re an insensitive prick, you know that?” Beau pointed out.

  “Get over it.”

  I heard Beau sigh over the phone. “My dad told me he was sorry. The look on his face as he said it broke that little heart of mine because I knew it was the truth. My father was truly sorry for what he had done. And now, he wanted nothing more than to make things right with the only thing left in the world that truly was important—me, his last breathing heir.”

  I noticed that Beau had reduced his speed.

  “My dad promised to end the war and leave it all behind. He was going to take me to Vancouver, Canada where we could start anew. During that darkest point in my life, I finally saw hope. I saw my dad for the first time.”

  His breathing had grown more strained and erratic.

  He eased up on his speed and took the exit to his right, off of the freeway and towards the towering suspension bridge looking over the bay.

  “Sometimes, all it takes is one moment for someone who did a lot of wrong to make things right. All they need is that chance. Your friend, Abraham Constantine, gave us his word that we’d receive that chance; that if we ended the war and left the country for good there would be no repercussions from the Midnight Society. My daddy believed him. Three hours later, after he dissolved the Ascension for good, he was gunned down like some type of animal by the Crow Brothers, whom I later found out that Calisto had hired.”

  “The Crow brothers are both dead,” I pointed out, hoping that provided some form of solace to Beau.

  His BMW pulled to a stop, right at the peak of the bridge.

  I pulled up behind him and picked up my gun, which had been lying in the passenger seat.

  Luckily for us, it was a quiet night on the bridge, with minimal traffic. It gave me the oppo
rtunity to do what needed to be done without the watchful eyes of civilians.

  “Yes, the Crows are dead. I heard Aria was the one responsible for their deaths,” he said.

  “Aria the Crowkiller,” I replied.

  “She did me a big favor, that girl of yours,” Beau said. “I had those two cocksuckers on my hit list for the longest time. I’m mildly disappointed that I wasn’t the one who ended their lives, but I was highly entertained to hear that it was a pretty little piano girl that ended up doing them in. Their legacy went straight into the shitter afterwards. I loved it.”

  “Aria is more than just a pretty piano girl,” I said.

  “To which I whole-heartedly agree. I won’t harm Aria for the simple fact that she was the one who killed the Crows for me.”

  “Where is she now?” I asked.

  “She’s safe. They won’t harm her, unless you or Lincoln fails to do what is needed, which is to kill Calisto.”

  I watched as the BMW door opened and Beau staggered out. He was clutching his stomach, red blood oozing through the gaps in his fingers.

  I exited my vehicle as well.

  “Beau? You’re wounded,” I stated.

  “Well, yes I am, aren’t I? Congrats Shadow, it looks like you ended up killing me after all.”

  The single shot I had fired had found my target. During the entire car chase, Beau had been bleeding out—dying.

  “It’s a nice view of the water up here, isn’t it? Not as spectacular as your ocean mansion but not bad.” Beau asked.

  Seeing how Beau wasn’t armed and fatally wounded, I lowered my gun.

  “Where is Aria?” I asked again.

  “You know, this is where my mom and brother died. I’d come up here sometimes, thinking about them. And then I’d think about Mr. Elias Rose. He was an asshole for ninety-nine percent of his life but on that last day, he was a good man. And it was that one percent of goodness in him that drove me to live the way I did for the better part of my life.”

  “For a man that’s dying, you sure talk a lot.”

  “That’s me I guess. I always had a lot to say,” he grunted. “Fuck this hurts. It really hurts.”

  “Where’s Aria?” I asked him once more.