Better Off Dead (25 page)

“Aye, ’at’s because th
ey aer movin’ sae quickly.”

Tallis held his arm out against the blasting wind and continued pushing forward until we were only feet away from the vacillating lights.

“Are you going into it?” I screamed out against the blast of wind that nearly knocked me off my feet.

“Aye!” Tallis yelled back. Finding courage from somewhere, I dropped my face to shield it from the pouring rain. Then, with Bill at my heels, I entered the surging tempest. As soon as we were in it, the wind increased tenfold. I felt like any second would be my last before I was pulled off my feet and whipped into the maelstrom. The rain seemed less of a problem inside the wind tunnel, probably because the wind blew the rain right out. I took a deep breath and forced my face upward, ready to inspect my surroundings.

Before I could so much as blink, a face suddenly appeared in the circling wind. It was that of a woman who appeared to be screaming, even though no sound came from her mouth. I wasn’t sure if that was because the wind swallowed her voice, or she simply didn’t have one. Large and small holes appeared in her skin, as if the wind was blowing right through her face and tearing her skin apart. A split second later, she vanished back into the spinning lights.

“We moost push frough tae t
h’oother side!” Tallis yelled out. Now that we were directly in the eye of the storm, it was easier to hear him. The wind and rain still raged, but they weren’t as strong as when we were in the walls of the storm. Another face emerged from the circling lights; this one a man’s. His face was easier to identify, more delineated. I could clearly see his open mouth, also mid-scream, even though he didn’t make a sound either. He held his hands to his face, and I watched the skin of his hands eaten away by the wind.

“
Holy crapanoly!” Bill roared out behind me. “Did you see that dude’s hands?”

I didn’t respond, but shielded my face against the wind as Tallis held his arm in front of him and forged his way through the blasting wind. I wondered why he didn’t just use his shield but then figured maybe it would be more of a hindrance in the wind. I started forward again, prepared to fight
my way through the other side of the hurricane in order to get beyond it. As soon as we entered the opposite wall of the hurricane of souls, I felt my hair blasted away from my face as an onslaught of freezing rain peppered my skin. The drops were so large and coming down so hard, I half wondered if we were being pelted with hail. I gripped my sword as hard as I could, afraid the gusts of wind might snatch it from me. I tried my best to stay a step behind Tallis, which proved progressively more difficult the further we went. The demon skull blew a few feet off his back but he must have done a good job tying it down because it never broke free.

You’re almost there
! I said to myself, wishing and hoping it was the truth. I couldn’t really see anything because Tallis’s body completely obstructed my view. The rain and wind that relentlessly attacked me from all sides made it difficult to keep my eyes open long enough to get a good idea of where we were.

I took another step forward and
got blasted by a gust of wind that came from directly in front of me which was odd, considering Tallis was standing there and should have blocked its force. I tried to open my eyes, but found it impossible as long as the wind kept beating against me. I held my hands up to ward off the elements and tried to peek through my fingers, only to find no one shielding me at all.

“Tallis!” I screamed out, my heart dropping to my feet.

The lights on the wind continued to encircle me, and when I glanced behind me, to make sure Bill was still there, I was dumbfounded and petrified to find he wasn’t.

“Bill!” I yelled, now terrified to find I was standing alone in the middle of the soul storm. The wind and the rain continued
assaulting me as the lights of souls flew past my body. Every now and then, a face popped out of the storm in mid-scream, but again, made no sound.

“Tallis!” I repeated, feeling the bitter sting of rain on my face as I half wondered if maybe
the rain was really my tears instead. I searched around, trying to find out if maybe Bill and Tallis had somehow gotten sucked up into the maelstrom. But the merciless assault of rain and wind prevented me from seeing anything. I could barely even open my eyes.

I suddenly felt a hand around my arm at the same time that I was yanked forward. I gasped and tried to pull away from it, not knowing who it was, or what was happening. The wind continued blasting against my face with renewed intensity, as if trying to keep me within its confines. The hand on my arm tightened and pulled me even harder until I was yanked right out of the wind funnel. Finally managing to open my eyes, I found Tallis facing me impatiently, with a frown etched on his face.

“Didnae ye hear me?” he demanded, shaking his head with obvious disapproval.

“Hear you? You just disappeared!” I protested, glancing first at Tallis and then at Bill who stood beside him. “Both of you did! I thought you both got sucked up into the whirlwind!”

“Um, honey loaves, you were the one who pulled the Bermuda Triangle,” Bill said, frowning at me. “Not us.”

“Nevermin’,” Tallis interjected. “We need tae foocus oan findin’ th
’ sool.” His expression was stern. “It shoods be haur,” he finished. By the way he was searching around himself, it looked like he had no idea where the missing soul was. He reached inside his sporran and produced Bill’s phone, glancing down at it and shaking his head in what appeared to be confusion. Then he took stock of our surroundings again, shrugging before facing the hurricane of souls.

“You think our soul is in there?!” Bill asked, in a tone of disbelief, his eyes wide.

“Ah hoope noot,” Tallis answered succinctly even though his lingering gaze on the hurricane suggested that he thought that was exactly where we’d find the missing soul.

“Talk about a needle in a haystack, yo!” Bill yelled, throwing his arms up in the air as he shook his head. “We’d have better luck tryin’ ta find your sense of humor!”

“Looking for something?” The voice came from another clown who simply materialized in front of Tallis, just as the first one had. “Or should I say, looking for someone?” the thing smiled up at Tallis with an expression of absolute lunacy in its eyes.

This clown wasn’t quite as frightening as Ragur, but was a close second. Its head was hairless, and completely white, its skin puckered in places. Seeing a wide arc of blue around its eyes, I couldn’t tell if the blue was natural or painted. Its mouth was red, filled with yellowed human teeth and blood stained its chin. Its eyes were completely black, and the white surrounding the irises was severely bloodshot.

“Ye ken why Ah am haur, Kipor,” Tallis shouted at the thing. The creature darted this way and that, around all of us, appearing and disappearing as if the air sucked it in and spat it out again.

“Of course I know,” it replied in a voice that sounded very different to Ragur’s. Instead of a constant hissing sound, this creature’s voice kept echoing. “A misplaced soul, ah the tragedy!” It clapped its hands together before its eyes fell on me. When it moved a few steps closer, I had to force myself to hold my ground. Just like Ragur, this creature’s face immediately took on an expression of complete captivation, as if having never seen a human before. It walked around me to inspect me from the other side. All the while, I gripped my sword and stared straight ahead.

“What being have you captured, bladesmith?” it asked, never pulling its eyes from me.

“Doona make thess mair trooble th
an it needs tae be,” Tallis spat back, turning slightly so the clown could feast its eyes on the demon skull he wore on his back. At the sight of the skull, the creature backed up and seemed in less of a daze somehow. It studied the skull for a few moments, resting its hand beneath its chin before glancing up at Tallis with a frown.

“Betret, is it?” the creature asked. It
showed no indication of being upset by the death of Betret or not.

“Aye,” Tallis nodded. “He gae me trooble an’ Ah doona fink ye woods want tae dae th
’ same.”

The clown tsked and shook its head. “I would never think to give
you
trouble, bladesmith,” it said as it laughed a horrible, tinny sound.

“Th
en dae as Ah say,” Tallis insisted.

The clown, in opposition to Tallis’s demand, didn’t do anything for a few seconds. Instead, it stared at Tallis, as if deciding whether or not to obey or give him a hard time. Finally it brought its hand forward and rotated it so its palm faced upward. It opened its hand, revealing a tiny glowing ball, maybe the size of a quarter, in its palm. The ball was a pure white and bounced around the clown’s hand, looking like a Mexican jumping bean
, only on fire.

Tallis immediately reached for the glowing ball, but the clown closed its fingers around it, pulling its hand out of Tallis’s reach. Its smile would haunt my dreams for years to come.

“I have so enjoyed keeping her as my pet,” the creature whispered. It looked down at its hand again, and opened its long, skinny, white fingers to observe the ball of light.

“Hain it oover, noo,” Tallis ground out, his eyebrows knitting in the middle as his jaw tightened. He reached inside his sporran and produced what looked like a purple vial with a corked cap. He pulled the cork out of the vial and held the open end toward the clown. “Ah doona want tae fight ye, boot Ah will if Ah moost.”

The clown pouted as it brought its palm toward Tallis. When Tallis lowered the vial over the glowing orb, the thing eagerly moved into the vial. Tallis quickly recapped the vial and placed it directly into his sporran again. He glanced at me and motioned for me to stand behind him, which I did. Bill immediately fell into line behind me. We started forward, away from the hurricane of souls and toward the rear of the tent, the wall of which was now visible again.

“We miss you, bladesmith,” the clown called out behind Tallis’s retreating back. “You should visit us more often!”

I thought it a strange thing for the creature to say, but was even more floored that both clowns had not only recognized Tallis, but also knew the nature of his business, that he was a bladesmith. It was a level of intimacy I didn’t imagine Tallis sharing with creatures of the Underground City…

“So was that glowing ball the soul?” I asked, once we emerged from the tent.

“Aye,” Tallis answered dismissively.

“Amen to that!” Bill called out behind me. “Now we can get the hell outta this shithole!”

Looking around myself, I didn’t know where we were. Although I could say we were definitely still in the amusement park, judging by the flickering neon lights of the various hideous attractions; but we sure hadn’t come in this way. I could only hope that Tallis knew where he was going.

No sooner did the thought cross my mind than someone or something dropped from the ledge of a building right in front of us. She landed on her toes, and in the next instant, held the blade of her long sword at Tallis’s throat. He stopped short and I nearly walked headlong into him, but caught myself just in time. Bill, on the other hand, walked straight into my butt.

“Frickin’ walk blocker!” he yelled into my ear. “Don’t just stop walkin’ when I’m right behind you!” Any further arguments died on his tongue as soon as he realized we weren’t alone.

“Tallis Black,” the woman purred, the lilt in her voice a direct contradiction to the sword she held at Tallis’s throat. “Bet you aren’t too happy to see me.”

In the reflection of the brilliant lights, I could just make out her features. She looked like she was in her late twenties, maybe. She was tall, probably my height of five feet eight inches, and appeared quite slender in her dark blue jeans and zipped up leather jacket. Her skin and hair were the same shade of dark chocolate, and her large, round eyes and full lips made her very pretty. Her lips parted into the semblance of a smile as she beheld Tallis. Even with the smile, I couldn’t tell if she was happy to see him or not.

As for Tallis, I could only wonder what his reaction might be to having her sword parked precariously over his throat. I waited in heated anticipation for him to say or do something. When he chuckled and shook his head, I was more than a little surprised.

“Ah admit Ah am nae happy tae see ye, lass,” he said with genuine amusement.

The woman’s smile fell and she frowned instead, cocking a well-manicured eyebrow with obvious irritation. “Well, when you steal other people’s belongings, it’s best to lay low.”

“Steal?” I heard myself ask out loud.

The woman turned her attention from Tallis to me and nodded. “That’s right.” Then she glanced back at Tallis. “You want to tell your friends the story? Or shall I?”

“Be mah guest,” Tallis said, with the same lilt of amusement in his tone.

The woman nodded and faced me. “First off, introductions, I’m Sherita Eaton, and I’m also the unlucky SOB who fell victim to this jerk.” She inclined her head in Tallis’s direction.

“That isnae fair,” Tallis said, shaking his head and, apparently, finally standing up for himself. “We baith happened tae be efter th’ same sool. It coulds hae happened tae anyain.”

“No,” Sherita snapped at him, shaking her head as her eyes boiled with anger. “I was on AfterLife Enterprises business, and it was my mission to rescue that soul! Furthermore, you knew it then just as you know it now.” She took a breath and continued to glare at him. “You were just going after an easy win.”