Die and Stay Dead

by Nicholas Kaufmann

  “That must have been Erickson Arkwright,” Bethany said. “I don’t suppose you remember what he looked like?”

  The demon shrugged again. “As all men do.”

  “Great,” I said. “How the hell are we supposed to find either of them?”

  The Mad Affliction laughed at that. “You cannot find Nahash-Dred. Even I could not recognize my lord in another form. He cannot be found if he does not wish to be.”

  “Okay, but maybe you know where he would have gone,” Bethany suggested.

  “I have no inkling why he would stay in this awful realm when our home awaits,” the Mad Affliction replied. “But I am sure he plans to return one day. I pray it is soon, and that he takes me with him.”

  “How would he go back?” I asked. “I thought you needed the Codex, the—the key to open the door between worlds.”

  “Ah, but he had the key,” the Mad Affliction said. “Nahash-Dred took it with him.”

  I wasn’t expecting that. I looked at Bethany, who appeared just as shocked.

  “Nahash-Dred took the Codex Goetia?” Bethany asked.

  “Aye, though how that piece of it got back here I do not know,” the Mad Affliction said. “Perhaps it happened while I slept. I slept many of the years away.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “Nahash-Dred took the Codex. He could have used it to go home, but he didn’t?”

  The Mad Affliction nodded. “You share my confusion. All I know is he must have had good reason. Nahash-Dred is a prince in my realm. He would not abandon that role for nothing.”

  “Can you help us find him?” I asked.

  The Mad Affliction laughed so hard I thought he was going to choke. “Why would I? Did you not hear me when I said Nahash-Dred is a prince? He is of royal blood—my lord and master! Clearly he does not wish to be found. I would not betray him for the likes of you. Nor for anyone.”

  “But he left you behind,” I pointed out. “He betrayed you.”

  The Mad Affliction shook his head vehemently. “Never. I would sooner eat the disgusting flesh of this female than go against my lord.”

  “Fine,” Bethany said. “Leave him. We’ve gotten everything out of him we’re going to. If he doesn’t know where Nahash-Dred is, there’s nothing else we can learn from him.”

  She started to walk away. I turned to follow her.

  “No, wait!” the Mad Affliction cried, his voice rising with panic. “You cannot just leave me here! I beg of you! I have no one left to talk to! You are the only ones who have talked with me in years! Please, come back! Do not leave me in this cage!”

  Bethany didn’t turn around, but I did. Something about the creature’s desperate loneliness made me feel sorry for him. The Mad Affliction was caged and alone, the last of his kind in this dark and airless chamber. I’d been locked in a cage once myself, not knowing if I would ever get out. It was a fate I didn’t wish on anyone. I didn’t like feeling this kind of connection with a demon, but there it was. I couldn’t ignore it. I went to the side of the cage where the door was secured by a heavy padlock.

  “What are you doing?” Bethany asked, walking back toward me.

  “He’s right,” I said. “We can’t just leave him here.”

  “The lock is weak,” the Mad Affliction said, watching me eagerly. “One good tug could break it. I cannot do it myself. When I touch it, it burns.”

  I bent down to inspect the padlock. A pentagram had been etched into the metal. Was that why it burned him? Did pentagrams hurt demons? It was another thing I needed to ask Jordana when I had the chance. I reached for the lock.

  Bethany put her hand over mine, stopping me.

  “You can’t let him out, Trent,” she said. “He’s a demon, not a stray dog. You can’t just set him free into the world.”

  “We could send him back to his dimension instead,” I said. “What do you call it? Banishing?”

  “We can’t banish anyone without the other pieces of the Codex,” she pointed out. “And even if we could, it’s too risky. When you open a door between worlds like that, you don’t know what’s going to take the opportunity to sneak through into ours.”

  “So what are you saying? We’re just going to leave him here to starve like the others?”

  She didn’t answer me. She didn’t have to. I could see her mind was made up. Sometimes I forgot just how coldhearted Bethany could be when she was on the job.

  The Mad Affliction’s arm shot out of the cage, grasping for me. I jumped back. His long, ragged talons swiped the air in front of me.

  “Free me!” the Mad Affliction cried. He grasped for Bethany, but she backed away, too. “Free me and know the living nightmare that is unending madness!”

  “You’re not doing yourself any favors,” I told him.

  Bethany grabbed my arm and started leading me away from the cage. “Come on, we can’t stay.”

  I went with her, reluctantly. I didn’t want to leave the Mad Affliction in that cage, but she was right. He was a demon. A hungry demon with a taste for human flesh. I couldn’t just let that out into the world.

  “Please, do not leave me here!” the Mad Affliction called after us as we walked back the way we came. I tried not to listen. I tried not to think of myself in the cage. We began to climb the stairs back toward the surface. As the secret door in the wall of the library slid open for us at the top of the stairs, I heard the Mad Affliction call out, “You will never find Nahash-Dred if he does not want to be found!”

  Then we were back outside. The wall slid closed behind us, abruptly cutting off the demon’s voice.

  “I’m sorry,” Bethany said. “There was nothing else we could do.”

  “It’s not right, Bethany. I understand the reasons, but there should have been another way.”

  She started down the front steps of the library. “Come on. We have to get the fragment back to Citadel. If Nahash-Dred is still somewhere in New York City, we have to tell Isaac. We need a new plan.”

  The sun was up as we descended to the sidewalk. There were more people out now, heading to work. In the bleary morning rush, and with our vests camouflaging us as city workers, none of them gave a second glance our way, or at the Codex fragment tucked under Bethany’s arm.

  One down, two to go.

  I watched people hurry past us on the sidewalk. Any of them could be Nahash-Dred. The gray-haired man in the long coat with the newspaper folded under his arm. The woman in the smart pantsuit drinking from a takeout coffee cup. The young man in the puffy winter coat. I studied everyone’s face as they walked by, but if there was a way to tell if someone was a demon in hiding I didn’t know it. Everyone looked normal to me. Well, New York normal, I thought as a man walked by with facial tattoos and stretched-out earlobes.

  On the walk back to the Escalade, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Jordana’s number. It rang until her voice mail picked up. I checked my watch and saw it was only seven thirty in the morning. Probably, she was in the shower or getting ready for work.

  At the beep, I said, “Hey, it’s me. My hunch was right. We found one of the fragments. But there’s something else I need to tell you, something important about Nahash-Dred. Call me as soon as you get this, okay?” I was about to hang up when I realized there was more I wanted to say. Personal things. But as always, I found that to be a lot harder. “I, um, I’m really glad we got a chance to talk last night. I wish we could have talked longer. Maybe we can get together again soon. Besides, I’m pretty sure I owe you another drink.” I ended the call and put the phone away. Bethany was watching me. “Jordana,” I explained.

  “I figured,” she said. She kept looking at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I didn’t say anything,” she said.

  “But you want to.”

  We reached the Escalade. I opened the driver’s door. She opened the passenger door and took a seat.

  “You already made it clear it’s none of my business,” she said.

  I tossed
my orange construction vest in the back of the Escalade, put my trench coat back on, and sat down behind the wheel. I started the car.

  “But if you must know,” Bethany continued, “this whole Lucas West thing…”

  I glared at her.

  She raised her hands in surrender. “Staying out of it.”

  I pulled into traffic and drove toward Central Park and Citadel. We took Sixth Avenue, riding in silence. That was fine with me. Whatever else Bethany had to say on the subject, I didn’t want to hear it.

  The traffic light turned red at Forty-Fourth Street. I braked at the edge of the crosswalk, directly beneath the arching metal post where the traffic light hung. A sudden movement in the periphery of my field of vision made me glance up. A shape was perched on the metal post, crouching on his hands and feet. Without warning, he sprang up, somersaulted through the air, and landed expertly on all fours on the hood of the Escalade. The car rocked with the impact.

  I recognized the black sweats and ski mask right away, even before I saw the metal gauntlet on his hand.

  Arkwright.

  Nineteen

  Even though the traffic light was still red, I slammed my foot down on the accelerator. The Escalade squealed out into the crosstown traffic on Forty-Fourth Street. Horns blared at us, drivers shouted, and people stared from the sidewalks. I swerved around a yellow cab and sped into the empty lanes of Sixth Avenue in front of me. All the while, Arkwright hung on, gripping the top seam of the hood.

  I twisted the steering wheel from side to side, trying to throw him off the car. He pulled back the Thracian Gauntlet. I braced myself for the blast, but instead he made a fist and smashed the gauntlet through the tinted windshield right in front of Bethany. She cried out as cubes of safety glass showered over her.

  I continued swerving the car from side to side, blowing through another intersection, but Arkwright held tight. He reached through the hole in the windshield with his gauntlet and grabbed the fragment in Bethany’s hands. She fought to keep it like a drowning woman holding onto a life preserver as the two of them tug-of-warred for the fragment. Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, I used the other to hit Arkwright’s arm, trying to force him back. More cars honked and swerved to avoid us as we blew past Forty-Fifth Street. Finally, Arkwright managed to yank the fragment out of Bethany’s hands. He pulled it out through the hole in the windshield.

  Fuck it. I’d had enough of this asshole. I pulled my gun from the holster in the back of my pants and aimed it at him through the windshield. Before I could pull the trigger, Arkwright leapt backward off the hood of the Escalade, clutching the fragment. He somersaulted through the air and landed on top of the station wagon in front of us. The son of a bitch didn’t even stumble.

  I rolled down my window. I transferred my gun to my left hand and pointed it out the window at Arkwright. I adjusted the speed of the Escalade to match that of the station wagon. I had a clear shot.

  “Don’t shoot!” Bethany yelled. “The kids!”

  I took my eyes off Arkwright. That was when I saw them, two little boys in the back cargo area of the station wagon, their faces and hands pressed against the rear window. One was looking up, trying to catch a glimpse of the man who had landed on top of their car. The other was staring at me. At my gun. His mouth was a round O of terror, his face as white as a sheet. Damn. There was no way I could guarantee my shot wouldn’t go wrong and hit one of those kids. Cursing, I put my gun away.

  Arkwright leapt off the roof of the station wagon and jumped from car to car, getting farther from us. If I didn’t catch him now, he would get away. I hit the gas, but the morning rush-hour traffic kept me slow. Up ahead, Arkwright jumped off a car and onto the rear of a charter bus. He used the big vent grille for handholds and the bumper for his feet. Then he started to climb up the bus, the fragment tucked under one arm. When he reached the roof, he ran the length of it, then jumped again. He landed on the back of a fifty-foot-long tractor-trailer.

  Damn, this guy was like a fucking gymnast. But if I wanted to stop him, I had to catch up. I spotted an opening in the traffic in front of me and floored it. I weaved the Escalade through traffic, cutting off vehicles as more angry drivers honked at me. A few seconds later, I pulled up alongside the truck. Through the window, I noticed a ladder running up the back of the trailer.

  “Take the wheel,” I told Bethany.

  Her eyes went wider than I’d ever seen them. “Tell me you’re not planning to do what I think you’re planning to do.”

  “Just take the damn wheel!”

  I let go of the steering wheel, giving her no choice but to lean over from the passenger seat and grab it. After everything we went through to get the fragment, there was no way I was letting that bastard take it from us. I opened the car door. Asphalt whipped by beneath me at flesh-ripping speed. Ahead, the early morning traffic thickened and slowed as we drew closer to Rockefeller Center. I crawled out the door, holding tight to the side of the Escalade to make sure I didn’t fall.

  “Trent!” Bethany shouted. “You’re crazy! Get back in here!”

  I squared my feet, readying myself.

  “Don’t you dare!” Bethany yelled.

  If we were going to catch Arkwright, it was now or never. I jumped. I grabbed hold of the ladder on the back of the truck and clung to it. The Escalade kept pace beside me. I saw Bethany crawl into the driver’s seat and close the door. She shook her head and mouthed something I was pretty sure wasn’t a compliment.

  People shouted in alarm on the sidewalks. I saw cell phones and tablets lifting into the air as everyone snapped pictures of the lunatic holding onto the back of a moving truck. So much for keeping a low public profile. Isaac wasn’t going to like this.

  I climbed up the ladder toward the roof of the trailer. My arms already hurt from grabbing the ladder in mid-jump, and my boots barely fit on the rungs. I slipped, cursing, but held on and righted myself. Wasn’t this kind of thing usually Philip’s job? I started climbing again. I made it to the top of the ladder and pulled myself up onto the roof.

  Arkwright was standing at the front end of the trailer, his back to me. I moved forward, keeping my center of gravity low so I wouldn’t lose my balance. I pulled my gun and tried to line up a shot. I would shoot that son of a bitch right in the back if I had to.

  Arkwright spun around and pointed the Thracian Gauntlet in my direction. I heard the high-pitched whine and hit the deck. The blast from the gauntlet sizzled through the air over me, smelling of ozone. Across the street, an office building’s second-story window exploded as the blast struck it. Glass rained onto the sidewalk below. I heard screams.

  Shit. I got back on my feet. Arkwright was already running toward me. I couldn’t shoot without risking hitting a bystander. I holstered the gun and ran at him. Before he could get the gauntlet up for another blast, I tackled him. Our bodies hit the metal roof with a loud clang. We grappled on top of the trailer. I pinned the gauntlet down with one hand. With the other I tried to yank the fragment away from him. He kneed me in the gut, knocking the wind out of me. He broke away and got back on his feet. I did the same, struggling to catch my breath.

  From the corner of my eye I saw something rocket toward us. I turned my head and saw an advancing traffic light dangling from its long metal post, the rapidly approaching green circle shining like a comet. There was no clearance—it was heading right for us. Arkwright and I both dropped onto our stomachs as the truck passed under the traffic light.

  An instant later, we were both back on our feet. I reached for my gun, but the tractor-trailer beneath us changed lanes suddenly and I lost my balance. I fell, sliding toward the edge of the boxy trailer. My legs went off the side, then my torso, but I caught hold of the metal rim along the edge and hung on for dear life. As soon as one of my boots found purchase, I clambered back up.

  Arkwright was waiting for me. Before I could get back on my feet, he kicked me in the face. I fell onto my side, tasting blood.

  Arkw
right turned away and started moving down the length of the trailer. I could tell he was getting ready to jump again, to make his escape with the fragment. There was no way in hell I was going to let him.

  I was on my feet and chasing after him before I’d even finished the thought. I tackled Arkwright from behind. This time I got a good hold on him. The fragment fell out of his hands and landed a few feet away. Arkwright struggled, but I had both my arms around him tight.

  Something felt strange through his clothes. It was like he had bandages wrapped around his body. I thought of Lon Chaney, Jr. in the old Universal mummy sequels, covered head to toe in his wrappings. Was that what Arkwright looked like under the black sweats? I thought about what the demon might have done to him. It’d been a massacre in the cult’s sanctum under the library. Just because Arkwright survived didn’t mean he’d survived unharmed. But if that was the case, if he was that seriously injured, how the hell was he running, jumping, and flipping around like that? A spell?

  First things first. I had more pressing questions.

  “How did you know where to find us?” I demanded. “How did you know we had the fragment?”

  By way of an answer, he elbowed me in the face. My grip on him loosened, and he managed to wriggle away.

  Arkwright pointed the gauntlet at me again. I heard another high-pitched whine as it powered up. I kicked his hand up. The gauntlet discharged into the air, its blast disappearing into the sky above us. I didn’t know what its range was, but I hoped like hell there were no airplanes flying overhead just then.

  Arkwright ran for the fallen fragment and scooped it up. I threw myself at him, but he jumped out of my reach. My breath was coming hard and fast, but the bastard wasn’t even winded. His eyes, the only part of his face I could see thanks to the black ski mask, looked past me. I turned, saw another fast-approaching traffic light, and hit the deck.

  Arkwright didn’t. He jumped and landed on top of the metal post of the traffic light. He stayed perched there, falling farther and farther back as the truck carried me away from him.