The Stars Never Rise (The Midnight Defenders Book 2)

by Joey Ruff

  “Hemocyanin would be blue. It would turn his blood purple.” I was only half-listening when he said, “Jono, that actually makes a lot of sense. Some mollusks use internal fertilization or are hermaphrodites, functioning as both sexes. Hypothetically, Jamie could conceive life on his own and grow it in the make-shift wombs on the outside of his body. They would grow fast due to the rapid healing and…” I heard shuffling in the background and the clapping open and shut of several heavy books, probably encyclopedias. “Oh, where the hell is that? I came across something this morning almost by accident. Wait.”

  “Would you hurry?”

  “Hold on. Hold on. Here. I’m quoting: Eventually the larva sinks to the seafloor and metamorphoses into the adult form. Whilst metamorphosis is the usual state in mollusks, the cephalopods differ in exhibiting direct development: the hatchling is a 'miniaturized' form of the adult.”

  “Miniaturized, huh?” I said.

  “That’s what it says.”

  “So, his momma gets a little randy and starts fucking squids? Squid people?”

  “No,” Ape said. “Hang on.”

  “He’s a purple-blooded hermaphrodite,” I said. I fell silent for a moment. “Shit.”

  “What?”

  “You know who else had purple blood?”

  “The queen of England?” he said.

  “Seven.”

  “Oh.”

  “Do you think…? Ape, the gargoyle was at his house.”

  “That goes with another theory I was working with.” He was silent for a minute as he closed one book and opened another. I heard him rifling through pages. “Well, originally, I was leaning towards a doppleganger or possibly a fetch, but now I think he might be a spriggan. I mean, at least in part. A quarter, maybe.”

  “That’s enough for a scholarship.”

  “Are you coming home yet?”

  “I’m on my way.”

  “You’re not bringing that harpy, are you?”

  Shit. I’d forgotten about Kinnara.

  “Uh, no,” I said. “I’ll see you in a minute.”

  I hung up and got in the car. I looked at the clock. It was nearly lunch time. Kinnara was supposed to talk to Victor and get back to me. I hadn’t expected Victor to help, but it didn’t seem like Kinnara would just abandon me. Not after…

  I had a bad feeling, a knot building in the pit of my stomach.

  I called Lorelei’s penthouse, thinking she might’ve gone back there to wait for me, but there was no answer. I called the Song. It rang and rang. There was usually someone there.

  “Sorry, Ape,” I said. “One more stop, first.”

  I peeled out of my parking spot and headed north.

  26

  The Siren’s Song looked like a warzone.

  The building’s façade was broken. Hunks of brick were taken out of the corner sections of wall. The glass of the front door was shattered, and the metal frame hung across the entrance by a single hinge. The mermaid on the neon sign had been cut clean in two at her waist, dividing fish from female.

  Bits of glass and trash littered the parking lot. Some cars were overturned, another had its interior set aflame. Chunks were missing in the asphalt as if someone had taken a pickaxe to it.

  In the center of it all was a gargoyle.

  Its skin was dirty bronze, and it stood larger and wider than the troll, making the last gargoyle I’d fought look like a child in comparison. Either of its long, apish arms was as thick as my waist and equipped at the end with ebony talons that curved like Arabian swords. Its head was circled with a crown of small horns and bone plates swept back from its forehead and over its pointed ears like the fins of a shark.

  It was dead.

  Someone had taken a telephone pole, snapped it in half, and sharpened it into a large stake. They’d buried the blunt end into the pavement about ten yards from the entrance. Then they’d impaled the gargoyle from the tender bits of flesh between its legs to the nape at the back of its neck. Its head hung heavy and ghastly. Its wings were torn and spread as wide as sails, held open by smaller spears that pierced just below its ribs on either side. Its gaunt, vacant eyes penetrated me as I approached.

  What was more disturbing was the way it was put on display. Torches, each as tall as a man, burned in a ring around it like an altar.

  I drew near enough that I could reach out and touch the gargoyle, but before I could, the sky darkened. Great, billowing grey clouds had migrated in and swallowed the daylight.

  “It is quite impressive, I have to admit.”

  I hadn’t heard footsteps approach. The voice caught me off-guard.

  Behind me stood a man in a black cloak. I couldn’t tell how old he was. While his hair and beard were white and so long he might’ve just woken from a twenty-year slumber under a tree, his skin was smooth and free of wrinkles. He carried himself with a spry youth that defied his apparent years.

  “You?” I said.

  He smiled, and his eyes shone like jade. His hands rose from the folds in his robe. As they appeared, they shone red and yellow and were the shape of lobster claws, but when he held them out to me, they looked no different than my own hands. The transition was seamless.

  “You were on the road the other night. I almost hit you with my car before…”

  “Yes,” he said. “It would appear that I owe you a measure of thanks. Had you and your troll not come along when you did, the winged assassin might have struck its intended target.” His voice was rich and deep, calming.

  I watched him intently. “Who are you?”

  He flashed me a cheeky smile. “You amuse me.”

  “Do I?” I said. It felt like we were carrying on two different conversations. “I’m sorry?”

  “Ah, Jonothan. You forget how to compose yourself in my presence. Has it been so long?”

  “Apart from the road the other night, mate, we’ve never met. I’d remember someone with your, ah, beard.”

  He took a few steps forward, and I saw the air behind him ripple as if with desert heat. I felt…something…as he neared me, an energy in the air that stood my every hair on end.

  “You know the storms, Jonothan. You remember sitting against the dock as a boy and watching the clouds over the channel with your father. You remember the way you felt as you saw lightning strike over the ocean.

  “When you were ten years old and at sea with your father in his fishing boat, the tempest came and tousled you. You hid in the belly of the ship and cried. You were right to be scared. Then your father came to you and spoke gentle words and took you in his arms. He calmed the fears in your heart that raged more violently than the waves.”

  “How do you…?” As he spoke, something dark snaked its oily tentacles around my insides and began to squirm and squeeze. Who was this man?

  “When Anna was sick, you would sit with Lara frequently and stare off at the waves and wonder about different lands, places where maybe life made more sense to you. You wanted a cure for what consumed her.

  “But that was a simpler time. The man you once were is of no use to me. You were chattel like all the rest.”

  I tried to speak, but my tongue felt so heavy.

  “I was a child and she was a child, in this kingdom by the sea; but we loved with a love that was more than love – I and my Anna, my Belle.”

  I felt the air choke from my lungs, and the oily tendrils squeezed tighter around me.

  “For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams of the beautiful Annabel Lee. And the stars never rise, but I…” He stopped, cocking his head to the side. “Now that’s a curious line. A third of the stars were hurled from the sky, Jonothan. Why should they not rise?”

  “How do you know all of this?” I managed to say. I felt anger boil up inside. “About my life? About…Anna?”

  His smile was cold. “I was there.”

  He moved past me, and I watched him closely. I didn’t trust him. In fact, I wanted to fucking hurt him. Bad.

  “Bu
t I digress. When I speak of the way you compose yourself, I refer not to our meetings,” he continued. “Of course, I am speaking of Tiamut, of Aemon, of Olmec. You have bragged of going toe-to-toe with the old gods, yet you forget your place in their presence.”

  “So that’s you?”

  “There, you do it again.”

  “Do what?”

  “Pretend you are not aware of who I am. You fought for me on the road. Again, you and your troll waged war against my enemy on a rooftop. Even your harlot takes up arms in my honor.”

  The man stood before the gargoyle and placed an open palm almost lovingly against the dead thing’s cheek. “Why else would you fight against my enemies? You seek to honor me. I accept your tribute, Jonothan. I am most pleased.”

  He turned his eyes back to me, and I dared to meet them, seeing a depth as ancient as the sea.

  I wasn’t sure exactly what he was talking about, but it was clear he considered the gargoyles his enemies. He was too egotistical to be a Halfling, and his line about the stars was a reference to Revelation chapter twelve, verse four. Which meant only one thing.

  “You’re one of the Fallen,” I said. I did my best to keep the surprise from my voice, and instead, tried to play to his weakness: his pride. “Yeah, mate. I did that for you. I’d be a fucking idiot not to do you a solid, mate.”

  “Yes,” he said. “Indeed you would.” He moved his hand down the gargoyle’s cheek until he held its chin in a gentle caress. Then his fingers snaked up along its jaw, and he twisted his hand in a simple, smooth motion. The head came away in his hand, and he turned from the body to face me. He held the head up before him. It was the size of a globe, and yet he balanced it perfectly without effort.

  “You are a man of great power. The Almighty was remiss to let you get away. He had…big plans for you, after all.”

  I shuddered.

  “Any man who can harness the power of a troll would be a vassal worthy of my gifts.”

  He dropped the gargoyle’s head into the dust at his feet and planted his boot against its temple. It was swollen like a pumpkin beneath his foot.

  “Do you seek to be my disciple?” he asked. “Do you wish to be my herald?”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I said.

  “If you do not side with me, Jonothan, you will be against me. I will not suffer my enemies to stand.” Without lifting his foot, he applied just the right amount of pressure and his boot sank through the middle of the severed gargoyle head. There was a horrific crunching noise and a sudden gush of oozing black fluid as thick as used motor oil. The rest of the head deflated like a balloon, and his boot heel sat flat against the asphalt.

  “Join me or die, huh?” I said. “Can I sleep on it?”

  “The wind is changing. The time is soon upon us when each must align with their masters or be swept away like the chattel they are.”

  I thought of Lorelei being called to her Mother. “You wanna be a little more specific?”

  “Do not tempt fate. You deny one master with every rebel breath you take. Join with me. Do not be foolish enough to believe that you will stand on your own once the wind begins to blow.”

  “Angels, demons or Korrigan princes…you blokes are all the same. It’s all ego with you. Bow down to me, worship me, have no other gods before me. Fuck all that. No wonder the world’s fucked up, and everybody’s saying, ‘My god’s got a bigger dick than your god.’ The wankers we worship are just as mental as we are.” I took a deep breath. “I’m a free agent, mate. You want to sign me, make me a bloody offer.”

  He fought to contain himself, to maintain his composure, and yet, I could see the rage boiling over in his eyes, the cool jade turning murky with turmoil. “Men like you need affection. I can give you more women than a thousand sultans. You can have a different beauty with each risen sun, and each will know how to pleasure you. They will drip with desire for you at your very beckoning. Upon your will, they will fornicate with each other.”

  “While I do love a good fornicating, you’ll have to do better than that.”

  “I can raise for you kingdoms from the depths of the oceans. Civilizations have crumbled beneath my waves, and I can bring you riches and knowledge. You want the secrets of Atlantis? I can give them to you.”

  “No.” Remembering an old saying I heard so long ago, I said, “There is no hope in Atlantis.” I fell silent and looked past the old man to the Sound. I saw the rippling waves and thought of a different kingdom by the sea. “The only thing I want is Anna.”

  He sneered at me, but said nothing.

  “Why so quiet? A second ago you were offering backstage passes to Creation.”

  “Your daughter…is beyond my reach.”

  “Then no deal.”

  “I can give you something else.”

  “Don’t you listen, old man? I don’t bloody want anything else.”

  “You are an arrow notched to a bowstring. I can pull you back and aim you at the target, give you power and direction to achieve your goal.”

  “For me to get Anna?”

  He nodded.

  “What will it cost me?”

  “Swear fealty to me. Become my vassal. Destroy my enemies.”

  “You mean the gargoyles?”

  He maintained his icy gaze.

  “I get rid of the rest of the gargoyles and you help me get Anna back?” I thought about it a moment. “A fucking deal with the devil.”

  Maybe it was my imagination, but a cold wind blew in over the water and chilled me thoroughly. I’d heard of deals made, souls traded, for wealth or power. They never ended well. But I wasn’t making a deal for my soul. He was talking about killing the gargoyles – monsters attacking my city and killing off my informants and innocents – which I was already planning to do anyway. Why not accept a little something for myself along the way? It’s not like this was even a paying gig.

  “What kind of power are we talking?”

  “You have grown weaker as of late,” the old man said. “I can fix that. And more.”

  I hated that he knew so much, but I couldn’t deny what he said. It had been harder to get a good reading, and it was getting harder still with every passing day. Plus, I was fucking tired. If I didn’t do something different, I’d be joining Anna sooner than later.

  “No tricks,” I said. “You’re not going to kill me so we can be reunited?”

  “That would not serve my purposes.”

  “Just so we’re clear, I kill the gargoyles, you recharge my ability and feed me intel on Anna? No tricks?” I looked him in the eye. “And I keep my soul?”

  He nodded.

  I didn’t feel good about it. In fact, my entire insides were practically screaming for me to say no, but logically, I couldn’t find a downside. The terms were clear.

  “Fine,” I said. “If it gives me Anna back, I’ll do it.”

  He smiled, stepped towards me, and touched my shoulder.

  My arm began to burn, and I struggled and writhed beneath his touch, but he refused to let go. Rather, he held tighter.

  The pain grew so intense I began to sweat and grow dizzy.

  Then everything became blackness.

  27

  I awoke to the sun.

  The clouds had parted, and shrieking gulls soared over the Sound nearby. I stood slowly. My arm ached. My head spun.

  I was alone.

  I stumbled over to the gargoyle and set my hand against its arm to stabilize myself while the world turned circles around me. Faintly, I heard music.

  I looked to the darkened doorway of the Song and moved towards it. My steps were quick, uneven things, but I was persistent. By the time I made it to the entrance, my head was a little clearer, my equilibrium returning, if only just a little.

  I ducked through the empty frame of the door and entered the cool of the club.

  As I passed from the shallow hall of the entryway into the larger room, my eyes moved instinctively to the littering rubble and gapin
g hole in the ceiling. It was about the size of a hot tub. Around it, light cans hung from exposed wires, other areas of the ceiling sagged and hung, and the main stage pole had been torn from the ceiling and leaned to one side. Tables were overturned towards the door as some makeshift barricade. Half of the lap-dance tents had been shredded or thrown carelessly on the floor. The glass shelves and mirrors that served as the bar’s backdrop, not to mention all the bottles of expensive liquor that had been on display, had been shattered.

  Kinnara sat on a stool at the bar.

  “What happened here?”

  I claimed the stool beside her, and my hand instinctively took to hers.

  “We came under attack. By the time I arrived back here, it was almost too late. Victor killed the largest and posted it out front as a warning to the others.”

  “Others? Fuck. How many were there?”

  “Six. Victor and Menkh took a group and went after them. We have holed up here waiting for their return.”

  “So, I guess you were right. There were others.”

  “Yes.”

  I looked around the room and then stared absently at the hole and the rays of sunlight streaming in through it. “They came inside.”

  “Yes,” she said. “It was an unexpected attack. We lost several of our girls and a few customers.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I am mostly unhurt. Lorelei will not be happy to learn of this.”

  I looked down at our intertwined hands. “No kidding,” I said. “A lot’s changed since she left.”

  “She will blame herself for not being here.”

  “Insurance should cover the damages.” I glanced towards the door. “Where are the others?”

  “A short while ago, this place was a circus. A few of our regulars accompanied Victor, and the ones who remained have ventured home. The girls have gone back to their rooms.” She cast a glance about at the broken tables. “Enough talk of tragedy. Did you find the troll?”

  “Yeah, but it’s still out there. What did Victor say?”

  “I have not had a chance to ask.”

  “Right.” I looked over at the crushed glass behind the bar. “Shame all that went to waste. I could go for a drink about now.”