The Tome of Bill (Book 7): The Wicked Dead (43 page)

“Sorry. Thought I heard you mumble something under your breath.”

The s... er ... mar s ... fall ... die!

We glanced at each other for a moment before realization hit. “Hold on a sec.” Tom pulled off his backpack and opened it up. “Forgot I stuffed him back in there.” He yanked out Decker’s skull; apparently all charged up and ready to yammer nonsense again.

“What was that, Harry?” I asked without much enthusiasm.

I said the power of prophecy is still mine to command, fool, so you would do well to listen.

“It didn’t sound like that’s what you said.”

Then allow me to repeat, simpleton. The Sun Strider marches. Tears will fall for those about to die, drowned in the flow of false life.

What the...? “Translation please, asshole. I’m not Gollum. I don’t like riddles.”

“The Sun Strider?” Gan asked. “The totem speaks of Vehron.”

“Huh? Oh yeah. Didn’t Colin say something about that?”

“Yeah,” Tom replied. “That was one of Chuck’s many nicknames, I think.”

“Chuck?”

“Inside joke, Gan. Either way, Decker’s crap makes no sense. Hell, for all we know, the guy is just marching to the bathroom to take a shit. I...” Whoa! I felt the back of my head tingle just a moment before the mass compulsion washed over us.

“
BROTHER, I HAVE COME FOR YOU!!
”

Okay. So much for that theory.

Though there was no command given – the compulsion having been sent out to catch our attention only – the power behind it still caused the leaves in the trees to quiver.

Where in the name of Flash Gordon’s used condoms had that come from?

“There!” Sally said, pointing.

No fucking way. He stood facing our direction, standing beyond the tree line in the middle of the fucking street – not too far from where Tom had approached just a short while ago.

Vehron was dressed in a much more contemporary fashion than when last I’d seen him. He wore boots, jeans, and actually had on a shirt for a change. Sure, it was just a t-shirt – doing little to hide his hulking frame – but it was better than the Conan the Barbarian look he’d been trying to cultivate during our previous encounter. Hell, his hair was even in a ponytail. If he’d had a guitar, he wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Bruce Springsteen tribute band.

It wasn’t his outfit or that he’d seemingly come alone, though, that really caused my eyes to bug out. It was the fact that he was standing out in the daylight with no cover. Small wisps of smoke rose from his bare arms, but that was it.

“Dude must have some killer sunscreen back home.”

“Do not be foolish, human,” Gan said to Tom.

That’s when realization hit. This wasn’t the first time he’d done something like this. Back in New York, I’d sent him out a window on a hundred-foot freefall into a bright New York day, and he’d shrugged it off like it was nothing. Then, it finally hit me. “Wait, Sun Strider? Holy crap, you mean this fucker can walk around in the daylight?”

“In a sense. However, I believe that is self-evident, beloved,” she replied.

“But how?”

She glanced at me, a mix of love in her eye mixed with something else. Oh, never mind, I recognized it – pity. “We shall discuss this later. After we have dispatched him.”

“We?”

“I, of course, mean my men.”

She made the barest of movements, and all at once, over a dozen crossbows were leveled in Vehron’s direction. I heard the clack of metal and turned to see some of her people doing one better, aiming high-powered sniper rifles. Gan was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.

“
BE AT PEACE, MY FRIENDS!!
”

I winced, as if someone had just stabbed my frontal lobe with an ice pick. Unlike the last one, this compulsion had some meat behind it. It wasn’t full strength, I could tell that since I hadn’t been knocked on my ass, but it was more than enough.

All around me, vampires lowered their weapons. Hell, even Gan appeared under his spell. Although their eyes didn’t completely glaze over, he’d eliminated the threat – basically tossing the equivalent of a Calm Emotions spell over the crowd, something Carl’s cleric used to do when he was in the mood to fuck with us.

Holy crap, even Sally – who’d been in the middle of grabbing one of the weapons discarded by the Salem Coven vamps – ceased what she was doing.

Aside from myself, Ed and Christy seemed to be the only ones not in the process of getting ready to sing Kumbaya. On that latter front, she quickly scrambled over to Tom, no doubt trying to snap him out of it. Good luck there.

Vehron was no idiot. Forcing someone to do something that went against their nature, something they’d fight tooth and nail against, was difficult. But it had been Jeff himself who’d taught me that a neutral compulsion, something that did little more than ask someone to chill out, required much less effort because it didn’t give much impetus to resist.

I glanced back. Vehron still stood where he was, his hands in his pockets, looking quite relaxed. The smoke rising from his arms appeared thicker now, but he paid it no heed.

“
MUCH BETTER!! COME OUT AND SPEAK, LITTLE BROTHER!! WE HAVE MUCH TO TALK ABOUT!!
”

I turned to Ed, but he just shrugged and mimed handing me a phone. “Looks like it’s for you.”

Great. One of the few times I would have welcomed a telemarketer.

* * *

“Stay back,” I said to Ed.

“How’s that gonna help?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t know you’re here.”

“Great plan, Mussolini.”

“Sue me. I’m making it up as I go.”

I walked past the small legion of oddly calm warriors. I hadn’t seen anyone so mellow since the last time Tom and I had passed a couple of blunts around. Hell, even Sally was just sitting on the ground, looking like she was at a picnic.

“Snap out of it!” Christy’s voice, and the yellow flash that accompanied it, caught my attention.

I glanced over to find her hands around Tom’s head. He was reaching up to pull her off. “Okay, okay. You don’t have to set my fucking hair on fire.”

She glanced my way, and I tried my best to mouth to her, “If this goes bad, get out of here.”

“What was that?” Tom asked, but Christy merely nodded in my direction. Thank goodness I had one member on my team with her wits about her. I only had to hope she had enough left in her to take Sally and Ed too.

Vehron continued to stand where he was, patiently waiting for me. He could have covered the distance between us and probably snapped everyone’s neck in the process before I could so much as spit. Thus, I found his current level of inaction to be far creepier.

I walked to the edge of the trees and faced him. A grin broke out on his dumb fucking face as I did.

Oh well, time to break out the compulsions if this was going to be any sort of meaningful conversation. “
WHAT DO YOU WANT?!
”

Probably not the best opening line of all time, but he’d caught me by surprise.

Speaking of which, I was caught even more off guard when he replied, “There is no need for that, brother.” His voice was heavily accented, but he was understandable.

“You speak English?”

“This is a new world for me. It would be unwise to not learn its ways. Do you not agree?”

“Well, um, yeah.”

“I have no wish for us to be enemies, brother,” he said, taking a casual step in my direction.

I tensed in order to bolt the opposite way, but then I remembered this guy could have caught me without breaking a sweat. I forced myself to remain where I was, even leaning against a tree as if we were doing little more than discussing who was the keynote at Comic Con this year. “Oh? So I guess I just imagined you turning one of my friends, killing another, chasing me halfway across Manhattan, enslaving my coven, oh, and let’s not forget when you decided one of my other friends was a filthy abomination who needed to be erased from existence.”

Okay, perhaps that was a bit overkill for someone I was trying not to provoke.

If he took offense, he didn’t show it. He simply lifted his arms as if to say “What are you gonna do? Shit happens.” I noticed blisters beginning to form on his flesh, his arms taking on a badly sunburned look. “Put yourself in my place, brother,” he said. “Imprisoned for centuries, having no body but being unable to die. Then to be freed, yet driven mad by thirst. When at last I came to my senses, I was alone in a place I knew not. I merely did what comes natural – waged war against any who attacked me.”

Maybe he did have a point. There was definitely a chance that, if our positions had been reversed, I might have also acted out a bit. I can’t say for certain that a thousand years spent on Alex’s bookshelf wouldn’t drive me batshit crazy too. Still, this guy’s reputation preceded him.

“So, you’re ready to talk sense, then?” I asked. “Okay, let’s start by you surrendering the Boston complex and letting everyone go.”

“It is not that simple, brother.”

Ugh, that was gonna get old real quick. Not quite as bad as Gan calling me “beloved,” but definitely annoying.

“My people are dead, hunted to extinction by your so-called First Coven. Do you think the Macedonian would show mercy to me? Would he allow me to live in peace and sing the praises of the true First?”

“Ib?”

“Many names have been claimed by our progenitor. That is but one of them.”

“Seems to be a lot of that going on.”

“The Macedonian fears our ways. He always has. Sadly, we were fools. None of us suspected his ambitions. By the time we did, it was too late.”

“You talking about your fellow cultists?”

“I speak of them, yes, but I also speak of us, brother, our kind.”

“Freewills.”

“Yes, the Night Spawn. Once, we were legion. Now we are but two.”

“And a whole bunch of heads overlooking Alex’s private bath.”

He smiled as if sharing some secret with me. If I was hoping for enlightenment, though, it was not to be. “Yes, all that remains of a once great people. For now.”

“Whatever. Anyway, they told me about your cult. Said that you were all a bunch of fucking psychos.” Oh yeah. Once again, I proved to the universe why I wasn’t cut out for hostage negotiations.

“I follow a different path from the Macedonian. Is that so great a crime?”

Considering what a dick-nugget Alex was, there was something to be said about his words, but then I remembered what happened when last I’d been up here. “You killed Starlight.”

“Starlight?”

“My friend.”

“She was yours?”

“Yes ... no. She was in my coven.”

“I know not this name. I only know that all who come before me are given the choice. All choose their path.”

“And if it’s not the path you like, they get dusted.”

For a moment, his calm demeanor fell away and raw, naked annoyance showed on his face. Of course, it might have been the fact that the blisters on his arms were now becoming full-on third-degree burns. Ouch. What the hell was up with this guy? At this rate, maybe if I kept him talking he’d eventually incinerate. That would be awfully convenient.

“Tell me, brother, do you enjoy life under his reign?”

“Enough of this crap. My name is Bill. I’m an only child, so I sure as shit ain’t your brother.”

“I call you brother because that is what you are. You are both a brother in darkness and one who is able to resist the call.”

“The call?”

“The will of others.”

“Oh, compulsion.”

“The word itself is meaningless.” He waved his hand dismissively, the skin on it starting to look mighty crispy. “What I speak of is the brotherhood I feel for all who walk the path. Tell me,
Bill
, does the Macedonian consider you a brother?”

“Heh. I’m more like a punching bag mated with a scapegoat.”

He looked confused. I guess he’d just recently passed English 101 and hadn’t had time to catch up with the colloquialisms. “I will take that as a no. What of the rest, his so-called First Coven?”

“Well, he calls them brothers and sisters, but I’m not entirely convinced he means it.”

“I meant, how do they treat you?”

They mostly treated me like a pile of dogshit on the sidewalk, but that didn’t mean I cared to let this guy play Dr. Phil with me. “James treats me well.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“The Wanderer. The one whose arm you tore off.”

“I know of whom you speak. I have learned much since being freed.”

That didn’t sound good. It meant that Calibra had most likely been compromised. If so, I’d need to keep Gan on a short leash around her.

“Very well. That is one,” he continued. “Once the time comes, he will be given the choice as well – in deference to the favor he shows you. As for the rest...”

“Let me guess – heads in jars?”

“And give them a chance to be freed as I was? No. I will not make the same mistake the Macedonian made.”

Yeah, that sounded far more practical than what I suggested.

“I can sense the uncertainty in you.”

“Beats sensing the dark side, Palpatine.”

I was certain he had no fucking idea what I was talking about, but he continued as if I hadn’t interrupted. “They called us chaotic, dangerous. The truth was, we were not beholden to their rules. They could not control us, so they hunted us down. I seek to return the old ways. I seek to free us from our servitude. I wish for us to roam free, to do as we please, to blanket this world with our seed and let it sprout.”

“Saw that movie last week. Gave it three stars. Not enough tits.” I realized I was rambling, going off on tangents with a nutcase. That wasn’t going to help things. I also sensed a zero percent chance of convincing him to change his mind. The problem here was, one wrong word from me and he could snap me in half, shit in my torso, and then sew me back together without any real effort. I needed to use a little strategy. “Say I believe you. What then?”

“Then you will come with me. I will show you the future.”

“And we’ll rule the empire together as father and son?”

“No. Our kind shall only bow to the true First. But it will take time. There is need for us to lead for now, until our influence is wide, but then no more. Then we shall all be truly free. Does that not sound ideal to you?”