Death Masks

"There’s no way for you to be sure of that, Harry," Sanya said.

"Why are you giving him a fair chance? Which of them has ever turned away from their coins?"

Sanya put his dark hand on my shoulder and said, "I did."

I looked back at him, frowning.

"I was of their number," Sanya said. "I was less experienced. Foolish. Proud. I did not set out to be a monster, but that much power corrupts. Shiro faced the Fallen I had allowed in. He exposed its lies. And I made a better choice."

"Traitor," said Cassius, his voice cold. "We handed you the world. Power. Glory. Everything you could have wanted."

Sanya faced the man and said, "What I wanted you could never give me. I had to find it for myself." He extended a hand. "Cassius, you can leave them just as I did. Help us, please. And let us help you."

Cassius leaned back, as though Sanya’s hand might burn him, and hissed, "I will eat your eyes."

"We can’t leave him here," I said. "He’ll shoot us in the back. He’ll try to kill us."

"Maybe," Michael said quietly, and didn’t move.

I wanted to be angry with Sanya and Michael. But I couldn’t. I’m only human. I’d flirted with dark powers before. Made stupid deals. Bad choices. I’d been given a chance to work free of them, or I’d have been dead long ago.

I understood what Michael and Sanya were saying and doing. I understood why. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t really gainsay it without making a hypocrite of myself. There but for the lack of a demon-infested coin went I.

Cassius started wheezing and laughing his dry, contemptuous laugh. "Run along," he said. "Run along. I’ll think over your words. Reexamine my life. Walk the straight and narrow."

"Let’s go," Michael said quietly.

"We can’t leave him," I insisted.

"The police aren’t going to have anything on him, Harry. We’re not going to kill him. We’re finished here. Have faith. We’ll find an answer somehow."

Cassius laughed at Michael’s back as he walked out. Sanya followed him, lingering to look back over his shoulder at me.

"Fools," Cassius murmured, rising. "Weak fools."

I picked up the bat again and turned to the door. "You’re wrong," I said to Cassius.

"Weak," Cassius repeated. "The old man was screaming after only an hour, you know. Nicodemus started with his back. Lashed him with chains. Then Deirdre played with him."

I gave Cassius a hard look over my shoulder.

He was sneering, lip lifted from his teeth. "Deirdre likes to break fingers and toes. I wish I’d been able to stay longer. I only got to pull out his toenails." His smile widened, eyes gleaming. "The woman, the Fellowship woman. She is yours?"

I felt my lip lift away from my teeth.

Cassius’s eyes gleamed. "She bled prettily, didn’t she? The next time I catch her, you won’t be there to disrupt my conjuration. I’ll let the snakes eat her. Bite by bite."

I stared at him.

Cassius smiled again. "But there is mercy for me, is there not? Forgiveness. Indeed, God is great."

I turned away from him again and said, very quietly, "People like you always mistake compassion for weakness. Michael and Sanya aren’t weak. Fortunately for you, they’re good men."

Cassius laughed at me.

"Unfortunately for you, I’m not."

I spun around, swinging the bat as hard as I could, and broke Cassius’s right kneecap.

He screamed in shock and sudden surprise, and went down. Odd crackling sounds came from the joint.

I swung again and broke his right ankle.

Cassius screamed.

I broke his left knee for him too. And his left ankle. He was thrashing around and screaming a lot, so it took me maybe a dozen swings.

"Stop!" he managed to gasp. "Stop, stop, stop!"

I kicked him in the mouth to shut him up, stomped his right forearm to the floor, and crushed his hand with another half dozen swings.

I pinned his left arm down the same way, and put the bat on my shoulder. "Listen to me, you worthless piece of shit. You aren’t a victim. You chose to be one of them. You’ve been serving dark forces your whole life. Freddie Mercury would say Beelzebub has a devil put aside for you."

"What do you think you’re doing?" He gasped. "You can’t – you won’t -"

I leaned down and twisted his false priest’s collar, half choking him. "The Knights are good men. I’m not. And I won’t lose a second’s sleep over killing you." I shook him with each word, hard enough to rattle his bloodied teeth. "Where. Is. Nicodemus."

Cassius broke, sobbing. His bladder had let go at some point, and the room smelled like urine. He choked and spat out blood and a broken tooth. "I’ll tell." He gasped. "Please, don’t."

I let his collar go and straightened. "Where?"

"I don’t know," he said, cowering away from my eyes. "He didn’t tell me. Meeting him tonight. Was going to meet him tonight. Eight."

"Meet him where?"

"Airport," Cassius said. He started throwing up. I kept his arm pinned, so it mostly went all over himself. "I don’t know exactly where."

"What is he doing?"

"The curse. He’s going to unleash the curse. Use the Shroud. The old man’s blood. He has to be moving when he completes the ritual."

"Why?"

"Curse is a contagion. He has to spread it as far as he can. More exposure to it. Make himself stronger. A-apocalypse."

I took my foot off of his arm and smashed the motel’s phone to pieces with the bat. I found his cell phone and crushed it, too. Then I reached into my pocket and dropped a quarter on the floor near him. "There’s a pay phone on the other side of the parking lot, past a patch of broken glass. You’d better get yourself an ambulance." I turned and walked to the door without looking back. "If I see you again-ever-I’ll kill you."

Michael and Sanya waited for me outside the door. Sanya’s face held a certain amount of satisfaction. Michael’s expression was grave, worried, his eyes on mine.

"It had to be done," I said to Michael. My voice sounded cold. "He’s alive. It’s more than he deserves."

"Perhaps," Michael said. "But what you did, Harry. It was wrong."

A part of me felt sick. Another part felt satisfied. I wasn’t sure which of them was bigger. "You heard what he said about Shiro. About Susan."

Michael’s eyes darkened, and he nodded. "It doesn’t make it right."

"No. It doesn’t." I met his eyes. "Think God’ll forgive me?"