Sazar suddenly became visible, standing just to the left of Goodwill. She stared at Gray with mounting interest, wondering what he would order her to do. Now that the spell had been spoken, she was his to command.
"Blood demon," Gray said loudly, "capture him — but do not kill him!"
Goodwill snarled, spinning away from Sazar. He held the papers in his hand — if he could just have the time to read the words on them, he could try to wrest control of her from Gray. Or banish her, if need be. But before he got more than three steps away, Sazar was on, throwing him to the ground and crouching over his chest. Her mouth was open near his neck, close enough that he could feel the heat of her breath and feel the spittle that dripped from her tongue. "No! Please!" he whispered.
At that moment, the Black Heart ninja sprang into action. They had held off, waiting for a signal from Goodwill, but now it appeared that he was in no position to summon them. They rushed forward, leaping and spinning impressively. Their swords flashed in the murky Sovereign sunlight. Eun moved into view, clashing with several, but it was Morgan who did the most damage. From his vantage point, he was able to pick them off at will, pausing only long enough to reload his rifle. During the bloodshed, Gray remained exactly where he’d started out, though he now had Samantha clinging to him. The girl buried her face in his shoulder, averting her eyes from the mayhem. The Black Heart assassins died in droves, bullets riddling their bodies, save for the few that Eun killed by hand.
When the sounds of gunfire had faded, Gray ordered Sazar to step away. She did so but was obviously hungering for a taste of Goodwill’s blood. Now that all remnants of his hold over her had faded, she saw Goodwill as nothing more than food.
Goodwill rose to his knees, looking up at Gray in astonishment. "You’re not human, are you? You’re just as much of a demon as she is. Nobody human could stand there and be so calm."
"I’m as human as you," Gray responded. "But I’ve chosen to live my life with meaning. For those who traffic in death, there is only more death. But those who live for others will find a richer meaning."
"How trite," Goodwill said with a laugh. "You don’t really believe that, do you?"
"I do. It’s a lesson that Harry Nance learned at the end. That’s why he risked his life to make sure that someone learned what you were up to."
Goodwill glanced over at Sazar. "Kill me if you want but don’t let her do it. Please."
"I don’t plan to kill you at all. I’m going to turn you over to the authorities. But before I do, I want answers. What do you know about Walther Lunt?"
"Not much. He wanted to buy these papers. That’s it."
Gray looked disappointed and Samantha knew that he was more troubled by Lunt’s resurrection than he’d let on. She could sympathize — here was an actual piece of his past and he couldn’t make sense of it.
At that moment a crack rang out and Goodwill’s body lurched to the side. Blood sprayed from his head and Samantha instinctively looked up at Morgan, thinking he had fired the deadly shot. Gray, however, knew that someone else had been behind the blast. He pushed Samantha behind him and drew his own handgun, looking in the direction of the shot.
There he saw him, standing beside a black sedan. The German held a Mauser in one hand and his walking stick in the other. It was Walther Lunt, who gave a mocking salute before sitting back behind the wheel.
Eun sprinted up beside his employer. "Should I?" he began but Lazarus shook his head.
"You’d never make it in time," Gray muttered as Lunt spun his vehicle away from them, kicking up gravel as he did so. "All you’d do is get yourself shot."
"Why did he kill him?" Samantha wondered. "Goodwill didn’t know anything about him."
"Maybe he was angry over not getting the papers," Eun suggested.
Gray said nothing, not even when Sazar lunged on Goodwill’s bleeding corpse, lapping it lustily. He knew the real reason why Lunt had done it: because there was something dark and cold inside Lunt’s soul and he wanted Gray to know that he could have done that very same thing to Samantha or Eun or Morgan. It was a taunt, the proverbial ‘you can’t stop me.’
"Chief? You gonna get rid of her?"
Gray glanced at Morgan and then at Sazar. "Yes. You’re right." He walked forward and repeated the rest of the spell, this time banishing her from this plane. Unlike Goodwill, his sharp mind allowed him to remember such details. The blood demon howled in disappointment but she vanished in a puff of dark-tinged smoke, leaving the odor of brimstone in her wake.
Gray bent down and plucked up the missing pages from the Codex Gigas. "So much death, all over these." He quickly ripped them to shreds, tossing the remains into the air, where they were quickly snatched up by the wind and carried away.
"Those were priceless," Samantha reminded him. "Shouldn’t we have turned them into a museum or something?"
"They were created by the devil," Gray retorted. When he stood up, Samantha shrank away from the fury in his mismatched eyes. It didn’t reach his features, which remained unmoved, making it all the worse. "When we find things like that, we have to destroy them. No matter the cost."
"Sure, Chief," Morgan said. "We got it."
Gray nodded, walking away from them. He felt like this case had gone awry. They had accomplished nothing, save for destroying the cursed papers. Lunt was still free, as was Pemberley. Harry Nance and his girlfriend were both dead. It left a sour taste in his mouth but it did solidify his desire to see things through to the end. He would not rest until the monsters of the world were slain and the truth about his past had been laid bare.
No matter the cost.
Miya Shimada sat silently in the passenger seat while Lunt drove back to their rooms. She had hidden out of sight during their confrontation, knowing that it wasn’t quite time for her to confront her former lover. She had managed to sneak a peek at him and she was reminded again of all that she’d found so intoxicating about him in the past: his determination, his well-formed physique and his smoldering eyes. They were almost enough to make a corrupted woman believe in redemption.
Almost.
A smile touched her lips and she whispered to herself, "Lazarus Gray." She repeated the name a few more times, as if tasting it. "I wonder what you’ll do when you find out about yourself."
She laughed then, startling Lunt, who looked at her as if she were insane. She sat back in her seat and closed her eyes, imagining the days to come. She wasn’t sure how it would resolve itself but she knew that it was going to be fascinating to watch.
THE CORPSE SCREAMS AT MIDNIGHT
Chapter I
The Lady in White
"God is dead."
Samantha Grace shifted uncomfortably, casting a nervous glance at Morgan Watts, who sat beside her. They were the only members of Assistance Unlimited at headquarters, so it had been they who had been tasked with interviewing the young woman who had come to their door, seeking help. No one came to Assistance Unlimited unless they had exhausted all other means of aid, for Lazarus Gray and his followers were as feared as they were loved. This wasn’t because any member of Assistance Unlimited cultivated an aura of fear; it was simply a result of Sovereign City’s innate nature. The city was as corrupt as any in the United States and even good-hearted people tended to be distrustful of anyone who seemed to operate out of a spirit of altruism, as Gray and his people did. When everyone seemed corrupt, the virtuous were regarded with suspicion.