The Stars Never Rise (The Midnight Defenders Book 2)

by Joey Ruff

  “Your friend’s doing better, I see,” she said with a smile. “The one with the blood work.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “He’s okay.”

  We wheeled past a reception desk and people turned to gawk at me. “What are they looking at?”

  “You’re bleeding pretty bad,” she said, looking me over.

  I shrugged. It hurt.

  “Let me get your friend to a room, then I’ll look you over.”

  She did.

  My gunshot wound had broken open in the fray, and she treated that. My leg was pretty messed up from where the gargoyle had tackled me. I had cuts and bruises all over, not to mention a pretty nasty gash in my side. I’d been so high on adrenaline I hadn’t noticed. Once I was patched up, she ran some x-rays on the rest of me. I was admitted and put in the room with Ape.

  As Cooper got me settled in, I said, “How’s he doing?”

  “He’s alive,” she said. “But he’s lost a lot of blood. He was lucky to get here when he did.”

  “And Stone?”

  Cooper nodded. “She’s doing fine. A concussion, a little shock. We can probably send her home in the morning.” She wheeled a stand around and hung a bag of fluid on it, then she fished along for the tube. “She’s two doors down. You might be able to see her later.”

  I was dressed in a hospital gown with my arse hanging out, and she tucked me in. “I’m not sure all of this is necessary,” I said.

  “You’ve been through a lot today. I wanna keep you here until the x-rays come back, just to monitor you. You’ve lost quite a bit of blood, too. I’m gonna put you on fluids and give you something to help you sleep.”

  “Fine. Can I ask you a question?”

  She eyed me curiously. “Okay?”

  “You see anything weird last night?”

  “Like what?”

  “I can level with you, right? You’ve seen crazy shit. Centaurs and the like.” She nodded. “You see any gargoyles last night?”

  She laughed.

  “I’m sure the storm covered most of it up, but… The last thing I want is hysteria in the city because of gargoyles. It’s going to really fuck up the status quo. Paranoid people would make the Midnight paranoid, blokes like Seven, especially, trying to live mostly normal lives. I don’t know what kind of shit that would start.”

  Her face grew more serious. “I never thought about that.” She shrugged. “No. I didn’t see anything. Nothing on the news, either.”

  “Good.”

  She finished hooking up the tubes and hung the bag. “Are you hungry?”

  “Starving.”

  “They served dinner a while ago. I’ll see if someone can throw something together for you. It might be a little bit.”

  I nodded, and as she turned to go, I grabbed her elbow. She turned to me. “Thank you,” I said.

  She shrugged. “It’s just food.”

  “No. For taking care of Ape.”

  She nodded and walked out of the room.

  I meant what I said. I appreciated her. Not just her, but the entire hospital. They knew what happened that day with the centaur. They didn’t have a problem helping me out on occasion, keeping everything on the down-low, even using some of the generous donation Ape made to buy adult-sized gowns and equipment to have on hand.

  I hadn’t been able to relax before. Something wouldn’t let me, but my eyes started to feel very heavy. Maybe it was the drugs taking effect already. It was just good knowing that Ape was okay...Stone, too.

  I must have slept. When I woke, the TV was on and the lights were out. Groggily, I rolled over to see Ape, his eyes cracked just a little. He was hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV. When I’d come in, he was on a breathing machine. That was gone now.

  “Hey,” I said.

  He turned to look at me. He didn’t say anything.

  “Glad you’re okay, mate.”

  “Did you get that son of a bitch?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. Rino can at least rest easy.”

  “Rino was a wanker.”

  “He was still my friend, Jono. Maybe he veered off course a little at the end, but I’m going to remember him for the good he did.”

  I thought of a dozen nasty comebacks, but I looked over at him, at his broken body and the pain in his eyes. I just nodded. “Fair enough.”

  “Why are you in here?”

  “Thought maybe you wanted some company.”

  “It was quieter before.”

  We were silent for a minute after that. I watched the TV, even though it was too quiet to hear. The only sound was from the speakers on Ape’s bed. I didn’t know how to turn mine up. It was one of those home video shows where people get hit by baseball bats and babies play with puppies.

  As I watched, I noticed the ring on my finger. “Ape,” I said. He turned to look at me. “I couldn’t use the Ring of Solomon. I didn’t know how.”

  “Okay…”

  “But I was able to communicate with the bonnacon.”

  “Is that a question?”

  “Do you know why?”

  “No. I wasn’t there. And your power’s been fading…”

  “Aegir,” I said. “Aegir jump-started my ability. Do you think that’s how?”

  “Sounds good.” He went silent for a moment and turned back to the TV. “My spine’s been severed. Dr. Cooper said they were able to save me from permanent paralysis, but the recovery’s going to be long and grueling, painful. Months, at least. Maybe a year.”

  “Lorelei…”

  “Isn’t in town.”

  “Maybe not, but the other sirens, Ape. Noelle might be able to help.”

  “Would you trust any of the dancers to fix you?”

  He had a point.

  “Jono, I don’t mean to be a dick or anything, but I just need the quiet for a while, okay?”

  I didn’t say anything. He needed quiet, after all.

  A short time later, someone came to bring dinner: macaroni and cheese with little hot dogs and sliced carrots, a pudding cup, some fruit snacks. The joys of a children’s hospital. By special request, I got a coffee.

  After dinner, I walked down to see Stone.

  She was watching the same show Ape was, and I sat on the bed opposite her. She turned to look at me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Ya know, I’ve been laying here for the past few hours wondering if what I remembered really happened. I was hoping it had all just been a bad dream. The fact that you’re here now, saying this, means that it was real.”

  I nodded. “And nobody feels worse than I do.”

  “You should feel bad.”

  “Nat, it wasn’t my fault.”

  “Maybe you didn’t pull the trigger…” Her voice was steady, even. It wasn’t mad. She wasn’t yelling. Maybe she was too tired for that. In her mind, she was simply stating a fact. “Maybe it wasn’t at your hand. Hell, I don’t know what happened, Jono. You better fucking believe that I’m going to want a play-by-play when we get out of here. But even if it wasn’t directly your fault….” She closed her eyes. “He liked you. I don’t know why. He vouched for you. He said you knew what you were talking about, that I should listen, give you the benefit of the doubt. It was that belief in you that caused him to follow you. It was that belief that got him killed.”

  Naturally, she blamed me for Chuck. She was angry by nature. I supposed I preferred her blaming me over herself, though in reality, it was neither of our faults. Deep down, I think she understood that. It just helped her to deal, having someone to carry that blame. In one night, her entire world had come crashing down around her. After years of hating me, suddenly, she realized I was right. She had undeniable proof now, and that was hard on her pride.

  I walked the halls for a while before going back to my room. I don’t know what time it was, but it was late.

  Crestmohr was waiting for me. He sat in a chair on the other side of the bed, watching out the window. He was dressed in clean o
veralls and a t-shirt so white it must’ve been new. His flannel lay across his lap. He turned to me as I entered and smiled.

  “John Swyftt,” he said, standing.

  “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in bed…?”

  “I wanted to ask a favor of you.”

  “Okay?”

  “I have to go away for a little while. Will you take care of Thai and Taboo while I am away?”

  I watched him for a minute. He didn’t even blink. His silver eyes just held me in a warm glow.

  “You could have told me,” I said. “What you are.”

  He smiled. “You have not even begun to understand what I am, John Swyftt.”

  “You’re a bloody thunderbird. Probably the last one.”

  He nodded slowly. “Yes, I am the last. But I am also the first.”

  “And that shit with Aegir…?”

  “It is a feud that goes back to ancient times,” he said. “The Slavs called us Perun and Veles. He was the sea god, the great dragon. They called me a thunder god and built temples for me on the mountain tops.”

  He stopped and studied me, making sure I was paying attention. I nodded for him to continue.

  “You have heard of the Grigori,” he said. “And how they were bound in the low places of the Earth. The bottomless pit, called Tartarus. Veles…Aegir was among them. He was one of the earliest to escape, along with another known as Amalek. I was charged with bringing them back.”

  “A thunderbird bounty hunter?”

  He didn’t say any more.

  “So where are you going?”

  “To gather my strength. I cannot recover by human means, not in a place like this, despite the best efforts of your Dr. Cooper.”

  “Well, when you get back, we better have a fucking talk. How long are you gone?”

  “As long as it takes.”

  I sighed. “Fine. I’ll watch the fucking dogs. Don’t feel obligated to give me a single straight answer.”

  “There is much you do not yet understand.”

  “I don’t suppose this has anything to do with Echidna and Lori…?”

  There was a loud beeping from one of the rooms across the hall, that siren sound that signals a patient is flat-lining. Three nurses came running, crashed into a cart laden with dirty food dishes.

  I turned my attention to them for just a moment. When I looked back, Crestmohr was gone.

  “Fucking great.”

  I spent the rest of the night thinking about what he said, thinking about Lorelei, and wondering what it was that I still didn’t understand. Then I wondered how in the hell I got caught up in the middle of it all.

  EPILOGUE

  I was discharged from the hospital the next morning, along with Stone, and I led the investigators to the body.

  Chuck was buried within the week.

  It was a quiet service, as he didn’t have much family left. I stood on the opposite side of the grave site from Stone. She didn’t look at me, didn’t speak, doing her best not to cry, though her eyes were bloodshot and ringed with red. She stood on the edge of the grave while they lowered the casket into the ground.

  After the funeral, I went to see Anna.

  I sat there for a while, in the darkness, just watching her. Hours might have passed. Our book sat open in my lap, and occasionally I would read a line, a passage, a poem. Mainly, I just wanted to sit there. Beside her.

  At some point, my arm began to burn, and I felt a presence behind me. Turning, I saw an old man in a robe with a long white beard and claws for hands. I’d expected to see him again, though not so soon, and I was disappointed to see a lack of burn scars.

  “The fuck are you doing here?” I said. I tried not to sound like I’d been caught with my pants down. I didn’t carry weapons around Anna, not even Grace. She was a kid. She didn’t need that shit.

  Aegir just smiled. “You have nerve to defy me the way you did, after the offerings you presented and the gift I bestowed on you. There are gods that could learn a thing or two from your pride and arrogance.”

  “Stop calling yourself a god, mate. You’re a sodding fallen angel. And for the record, I didn’t kill any fucking gargoyles as an offering. I didn’t ask for any gifts. That was your mistake.”

  His eyes narrowed at me, and I could nearly see the fumes that rose from his anger. One day, maybe, I’d learn respect in dealing with creatures that could squash me with a look, but the worst I figured he could do was kill me.

  “You dare speak to me that way?”

  I shrugged. “You come to finish me then? Good job finding me.”

  “No. I have other plans for you.”

  “What?”

  His smile sent chills up and down my spine. “Wait, Mr. Swyftt. Just wait. The time is coming. I had hoped to put my enemy to rest, but no matter.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” I said. “He seems to have skipped town, as well.”

  “I’ve waited thousands of years already. This is just a set-back. Things will continue.”

  I couldn’t be sure what I was picking up on, but there was something in the undercurrent of his tone. Something suggested…weakness?

  “What do you want?” I said.

  He stepped closer to the pool and gazed into its depths. I moved to stand between him and Anna.

  “Your daughter. It’s a shame what happened to her. They say the brightest stars burn fastest.”

  “You would know, right? Being a star and all. Isn’t that what you said?”

  He ignored me. “It would be a shame were something else to happen to her.”

  My entire body burned with cold, electric energy. My eyes fell to the floor at his feet. He made a noise of approval and turned away.

  “Be seeing you, Mr. Swyftt.”

  When I looked up, he was gone.

  I could feel my body trembling. I didn’t know what his words meant, didn’t know what he could do, but I got the implied message. He was out for revenge. Maybe death wasn’t the worst thing, after all.

  I sat down beside the pool and studied Anna for a minute, watching her. She was so peaceful, so unaware. And I did the only thing I knew to comfort me. I read to her.

  “And neither the angels in heaven above, nor the demons down under the sea, can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee.”

  I stopped, took a deep breath and tried to steel my nerves. “For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes…”

  I couldn’t read anymore. My hand was shaking too badly.

  Swyftt’s adventure continues in book 3 of the Midnight Defenders.

  available 2014

  THE MIDNIGHT DEFENDERS:

  THE DARK COMMUNION

  THE STARS NEVER RISE

  SHORT STORIES:

  SYNDER

  THE CONFESSOR

  ONE OF THE DAMNED

  OTHER BOOKS BY JOEY RUFF:

  CONNOR (Spring 2014)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Joey Ruff lives in Franklin, Tennessee with his wife and two children.

  For questions, comments, and feedback, please write the author at: RuffWriter4@Gmail.com

  Or follow him on Twitter @ruffwriter4

  www.JoeyRuff.com