Until Death

by E. A. Copen

  “Read it,” she urged.

  I unfolded the page. In Emma’s perfect handwriting, I read:

  Dear Lazarus,

  Screw the seating charts, florists, and wedding planners. We’ve been shirking tradition and expectations since the beginning. Why stop now? I invited someone to do the ceremony this afternoon in my living room. What do you say?

  Love,

  Em

  “Well?” she asked anxiously. “What do you think?”

  I smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  We had a small ceremony in the living room shortly after everyone arrived for dinner. It was crowded in there with so many people, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Emma’s family was there, and so was mine. Remy stood off to the side, smiling. She punched Finn in the arm when he leaned over to whisper something to her. Nate still got to be my best man and did a better job at holding onto the rings and calming my nerves than I would’ve in his position.

  I didn’t tell Emma it was the second time I’d married her. Didn’t matter. I’d have done it a thousand and one times in the North Pole, in her living room in New Orleans, or halfway around the world if she wanted. The only thing that mattered to me was that we were together, and she was happy. She beamed all through the ceremony.

  While Leah, Emma, Grammy, and Emma’s mom, Joyce, went to the kitchen to finish preparing dinner, Nate and I slid into the back yard to conclude our business.

  “Congratulations.” Nate pushed his glasses up his nose with a finger. “Glad you made it.”

  “I almost didn’t a few times.” I sighed and leaned against the house. “You have no idea how close I came.”

  He patted my back. “Well, in any case, I’m glad you did. You and Emma deserve each other.”

  I swallowed and nodded. “Are you sure you want to do this? To take the Pale Horseman mantle? I mean, I could hold onto it if you wanted. Just for a few weeks.”

  Nate laughed. “All this time, you’ve been trying to get rid of it, and now you want to keep it?”

  “I don’t. It’s just…” I sighed. “I’m afraid of what I’ll be without it. What if that power is the only reason any of you like me?”

  “Right, because we’re all that shallow.” Nate slapped the back of my head. “You idiot. Just accept that we’re family now. There’s no escaping that easily. Who you are has nothing to do with the Pale Horseman mantle. You’re still you without it. The mantle didn’t make the choices you made, didn’t form the bonds you have. We like you because we’ve been through hell together. All of us have been right there with you, Laz. That doesn’t go away just because you’re transferring power to me.”

  “I guess it is sort of an irrational fear, isn’t it?”

  He nodded. “Besides. I think you’ve been the center of attention for long enough. I’d like to have a shot at being someone important for once.”

  I grunted and took a long pull from my beer. “You won’t like the hero gig. The pay is awful. Long hours. No appreciation.”

  “Sounds a lot like my life now.”

  We shared a laugh and lifted our beers in a toast.

  “To being overworked and underpaid,” I said.

  “To being Death.” Nate tapped his bottle against mine.

  We called Samedi in a swirl of dead leaves and purple magic. He appeared in his normal dress. Top hat. White face paint. He planted his cane in the dirt. “I understand congratulations are in order.”

  “Thanks. Now all I need is for you to make good on your promise. Nate here is ready to take the position.” I gestured to Nate. “I trained him, taught him everything I know. He’ll be good at it. Better than I ever was.”

  Samedi studied Nate. “You did well during the trial run, but this will last longer.”

  Nate shrugged. “I know what I’m getting into. I’m ready for this. I feel like I’ve been preparing for it my whole life.”

  “In that case, perhaps Lazarus has made a wise decision.” He tucked his cane against his chest and extended his arms. “Take my hands, Lazarus.”

  Samedi’s hands were as cold as the grave. He clasped his fingers tight around mine, closed his eyes, and sucked in a breath. With that breath went my power. It lifted off of my shoulders like a heavy coat, pulled to Samedi with little more will than it would’ve taken me to sneeze. He let me go.

  I shrugged my shoulders and cracked my neck. For the first time in almost two years, I could breathe. “That’s it?”

  “That’s it. Shedding the mantle in this way is easier than taking it on.” He turned to Nate. “Nathaniel Frieder. Are you ready?”

  “Just breathe through it,” I advised. “It’ll feel awful, but you’re going to be okay.”

  Nate put his hands on the Baron’s waiting palms. “I’ve done this before, Laz.”

  “Right,” I grunted and took a step back.

  Samedi was right about one thing. It was much easier to take the mantle off than to put it on since the Pale Horseman position meant suffering through every death imaginable in quick succession without dying. He’d drown, burn, die of cancer, be shot, stabbed, fall from a tall building. Nothing would happen to Nate physically, but his brain would be convinced that it was real.

  He took it like a champ and lasted a whole five seconds before he whimpered and fell to his knees. Probably longer than I had.

  When it was done, Nate was a weeping mess. Samedi stepped back. “It is done. I look forward to working with you, Horseman Frieder.”

  “Just one question before you go, Samedi,” I said. “What about the other three Horsemen?”

  I’d been the only one left. Famine, War, and Pestilence had all died during my tenure and needed replacing.

  Samedi shrugged. “There will be new Horsemen. There must always be four. A new War has already been named, thanks to the Tengu. He’s a little more reserved than Haru, but I think he’ll do a fine job. I hear a new Famine was named by a consensus of gods somewhere in Africa. The new Pestilence is a physician, of all things. Can you believe it?”

  “Who’s the new Namer?”

  He sighed. “They didn’t want to have another tournament so soon after the last one. Since Loki and Xipetotec are both dead…”

  “So, there isn’t a single Namer for Famine anymore?” Nate grunted and sat up, wiping tears from his cheeks.

  “For any of the Horsemen now.” Samedi sounded disappointed. “Even I must consult with a group of Loa now before I name anyone. I had to approve your choice with several gods. It was all a very long and boring process.”

  I crossed my arms. “Good. No one god should ever have that much power. Horsemen can’t be weapons, Samedi. They have to be peacekeepers.”

  Samedi nodded. “And so they shall be for a time. Eventually, we will forget that. No peace is permanent. And when we do, I’m certain the new batch of Horsemen will be there to remind us.” He lifted his top hat. “I’m afraid I must go. With the new system, I’m much busier. Less leisure time for me. Unfortunately, that means I will be slow to answer direct inquiries. However, should you have questions, Mr. Frieder, you can always consult Lazarus.”

  Nate nodded. “I will.”

  “I bid you farewell,” said the Baron to Nate. He simply grinned at me. “Good luck with your new life, Lazarus. You’ve earned it.”

  The Baron disappeared in a puff of foul-smelling purple smoke, the same way he always did.

  I turned to Nate. “You okay?”

  “I think so.” He patted himself down. “I could use another beer, though.”

  “Coming right up.”

  We ducked back inside and I stole another kiss from Emma, briefly interrupting her chat with her dad. Grammy snickered and pinched my ass. Good ol’ Grammy. Everyone thought she was harmless because she was an old lady, but I’d seen that old lady kick serious ass. I just wished she’d stop pinching mine.

  As I was pulling the beers out of the fridge, there was a knock at the door. The happy chatter in the room died.


  “I’ll get it,” I volunteered and tucked both bottles in one hand.

  Guy stood on the other side of the door in his trench coat and fedora. He removed his hat. “Hey, kid.”

  “Hey.” I was too stunned to say much else.

  “I wanted to let you know I made it out okay. Mask is really gone. The time rewind thing couldn’t really be avoided, like I said. Wanted to check in and make sure everything turned out okay. It seems to have.” He leaned to the side to glance past me.

  “Do you want to come in? We have plenty of leftovers to warm up.” I pushed the door open wider.

  He pressed his lips into a thin line and sighed through his nose. “Nah. I can’t stay. I just wanted to check in. I will take one of those beers, though.” He pulled one of the bottles from my grip and lifted it in a salute. Rather than pop the cap off, he bit the bottle, then upended the whole thing and gulped it like the bottomless pit he was.

  “I’m glad you made it,” I said. “And the offer’s always open for you to stop by. You saved my life. I don’t know how to thank you.”

  He glanced past me again and pointed at Emma. “Take care of her. It’s not every day you meet a dame like that.” Guy replaced his hat, turned, and started down the walk.

  I was about to shut the door when he stopped.

  “Oh, one more thing,” he said. “That name you gave me to look into. Josiah Quinn?”

  “Yeah?” I hung on the door, expecting to hear the worst news.

  “I’ve got a source that says he’s alive. Don’t know much else, though. I’m still digging. You’ll know more when I do, I promise. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Thanks.”

  He nodded and strolled down the walk, through the gate, and up the street. I never actually saw him vanish, but I blinked and he was gone, too fast to have walked out of view.

  Emma was waiting for me when I shut the door. “Who was that?” she asked.

  I shrugged and put my arm around her. “Just some guy.”

  Epilogue

  Two weeks later…

  “All I’m saying is that we should consider it.” I dropped our suitcases on the sofa and sighed as sand dumped everywhere. There was no escaping it after ten days in Hawaii. Hawaii itself was great, but the sand… It got into places sand had no right to be. I’d be cleaning that up for weeks.

  “Do you really want to be a landlord?” Emma asked, pulling off her shoes.

  “It’s a good deal. I don’t even have to fix the place up. He offered to do it in lieu of a deposit. Honestly, I think we’re getting the better deal there.”

  The old house in Algiers was still in need of a remodel before I even put it on the market. While we were away on our honeymoon, I paid for someone to come in and assess the damage. The numbers they gave me weren’t encouraging. Updating the kitchen would cost me more than the whole house was probably worth. Part of me wanted to bulldoze the whole thing and just sell the lot, but that had been my home. There were memories in the walls.

  And then came the phone call from Guy. He wanted to rent the place, fix it up. Actually, live in it. I guess he hadn’t had a base of operations in years and was ready to quit moving from town to town. Settle down. Good for him.

  In my opinion, it was a win-win. We didn’t have to shell out tens of thousands of dollars we didn’t have to fix a house we didn’t want, and Guy got a place to live. Provided he didn’t eat any of the fixtures, it’d be easy, passive income. I’d make money, even if I had cut him a deal on the rent.

  I took Emma’s hands. “The shop has never been a lucrative business, and I don’t see me working for someone else. Not after everything. I know you’ve got your work for the department, but maybe we should have a little side income in real estate. Just in case.”

  She sighed and cupped my face in her hands. “It’s your house. If that’s what you want to do with it, I won’t stop you. But you have to promise me he’s a quiet guy. Normal. No funny business. You already said you were done with the supernatural outside the shop. Promise me he’s not going to bring that back to our doorstep.”

  I nodded. “I promise.”

  She dropped her hands and turned her back, unbuttoning her shirt and heading for the kitchen. “I suppose we will need the money if we’re going to retrofit the second bedroom into a nursery.”

  “Wait, what did you say?”

  Emma didn’t stop to explain. She beamed at me and went into the kitchen, leaving a confused necromancer alone in a room that seemed to be slowly filling with sand.

  I was about to go after her and ask for clarification, but a knock at the door stopped me in my tracks. I looked at the clock. It was after nine, too late in the evening for a random well-wisher to drop by. Besides, no one knew we were back yet. We’d caught an earlier flight so we’d have time to decompress before people started coming over. Whoever was at the door must’ve been watching the house, waiting for us to make an appearance.

  Emma appeared in the kitchen doorway at the second knock, eyes wide, her sidearm in her hand.

  I waved her off. “I’ve got this. You go.”

  “Over my dead body. If anything nasty comes through that door, I’m going to fire until I’m empty.”

  Typical Emma.

  I grabbed my staff from where it waited, collecting dust in the corner, and peeked through the peephole. “What in the world’s he doing here?”

  “Who?” Emma demanded.

  I opened the door without answering her.

  Stefan Nikolaides, Josiah’s boyfriend, stood on the other side, paler than the last time I’d seen him. He looked like he’d lost about twenty pounds too, leaving him far too thin for his frame. His clothes hung off him, two sizes too big. He stood there with his arms loosely crossed, looking like he’d rather be anywhere other than at my doorstep.

  “Stefan,” I said, leaning on the door. “I’ve been trying to call you. Are you okay? Is Josiah okay?”

  Stefan’s throat worked. “That’s just the thing. I don’t know. I-I don’t know where he is. Lazarus, I need your help to find him. He’s hurt, Lazarus. Maybe dying. Please help me.”

  I glanced behind me. If it was anyone else, I would’ve shut the door in his face. I’d sworn to Emma I’d give up getting involved in supernatural squabbles so we could live the quiet life we both wanted, but this was Josiah. The man had helped me free Emma’s soul from Hell and taught me the magic I’d used to save Remy. My family wouldn’t be my family without him. He was practically a brother. I couldn’t just ignore him if he needed my help.

  “Go,” Emma said. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

  I turned back to Stefan. “You do know I’m not the Pale Horseman anymore? I’m just a regular necromancer now.”

  “You’re his friend,” he said. “That’s enough. Please, Lazarus.”

  I’d turned away the last person who came to my door looking for help. I wasn’t about to make that mistake again. After all, what was the point in having magic if I couldn’t use it to help a friend in need?

  I nodded. “Let me get my coat.”

  THE END

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  A Note from E.A. Copen

  When I first conceived The Lazarus Codex, it wasn’t in its current form. I knew I wanted to write a “good guy necromancer” story as soon as I read Jim Butcher’s Dead Beat. The book was great fun and used necromancy in a new way. Dresden got to be a good guy who resurrected a T-rex and rode her into battle. What’s more fun than that?

  Necromancers often get a bad reputation. They’re more frequently vilified than heroic in fiction, althoug
h their powers can be used for good. I think it comes from our society’s taboo around death and dying.

  I also wanted to write a series about the Four Horsemen and see if I could redeem them as characters. Turning bad guys into good guys and writing anti-heroes is something I’ve always enjoyed, so I felt I was up to the challenge.

  And then Lazarus went off and did his own thing, as book characters sometimes do. He wasn’t supposed to become Death in the beginning, just be friends with him. Yet, when I got to that part, it just made sense. Who better to be Death than a necromancer?

  The rest, as they say, is history.

  A lot of Lazarus’ stories have roots in reality. I grew up in the foster system and dealt with abusive and neglectful parents. I lost beloved pets and wished I could bring them back. I’ve dealt with anxiety, depression, and PTSD, all of which were personified as monsters at some point during the series. For me, there’s nothing more empowering than when I get to murder the things I’m afraid of. In a safe and controlled fictional environment, of course.

  The characters in The Lazarus Codex have been closer than family to me over the last eighteen months. I’ve laughed and cried with them, mourned their deaths, and gotten frustrated with their idiocy. Saying goodbye to them in this one wasn’t easy. I’m not sure I was ready, but it was time.

  While each book in The Lazarus Codex had its own standalone plot, there was always a larger story in mind. Lazarus’ overall goal hasn’t always been just to defeat the monster at the end of the book. Since the beginning, he’s been in search of his tribe, the people who love and support him. His biggest fear might’ve seemed like it was going back to prison, but when I really started to dig into his character, I realized he only feared that because of how isolating the experience was. It took him twelve books, but he finally found the people he could call family.

  Well, technically, it’ll take just one more.

  As you may have guessed, Lazarus’s story isn’t quite over, despite the end of the series. As I hinted at throughout Until Death, he still needs to go find Josiah. Lazarus will be making an appearance in the last Hellbent Halo book, Hell to Pay, so if you’re missing him already, that’s where you can find him for some closure.