flew in from nowhere, twinkling and fading. Then, Charlie’s voice, cold and seething, “What would you know about what he would have wanted?”
“An old bastard like me gets to know a lot of people in his time. Some are bad, most are just trying to get by however they can, and a few are good—the kind of selfless good guys who don’t seem real, like they’re out of some book. Your dad was one of those.” Lucian swallowed hard. His throat was parched dry, and his tongue rasped the back of his throat, but that wasn’t why it was hard to talk. A hard orb had formed in his gullet, trembling and whispering evil things. “I killed him,” he said. “I did. And I’m sorry. I took your father away from you, and there’s nothing I can ever do to put it right—”
“No, there isn’t,” Charlie said. His fingers had grown still again. There was noise outside, a lot of noise. His eyes darted away towards the concrete walls, as though he were seeing through them, and his brow furrowed. “Save your breath. We’re going to have to cut this short. We’re moving.”
“I take it I’m not alone?”
A smile flickered on Charlie’s face. “The End might have kicked us to the dirt, but you’d be surprised just how many pockets of the Old World are still out there. Like cockroaches. And I have to hand it to your kind: we burned plenty places to the ground and they still won’t bow, won’t sign up, and won’t even look at us like we’re men and women. They see us just like you do, like cavemen.”
“Think there’s a clue somewhere in there?”
“Don’t get smart. You get another day of living, but I can still make that day ugly.” Charlie pushed the door closed as someone shuffled past outside. He suddenly looked alert, perhaps even afraid.
Lucian frowned, but waited until the shuffling dissipated before he said, “I’m not supposed to be here, am I?”
Charlie didn’t answer, his ear pressed to the door.
“Do the others know who I am?”
Charlie was very still, facing the door. Lucian thought he caught a single muscle spasm in his neck.
I’m onto something, he thought. But don’t push it, not yet.
He let it pass and waited in silence. Eventually, Charlie seemed satisfied and turned back to face him, the half-healed slashes in his cheek thrown into sharp relief by the scant light shining in through the crack in the doorway. “We’ve been real busy, burning up all those little quaint villages and towns. A fair few sign right up with us to keep breathing, but you wouldn’t believe how many swear fealty to your ilk, to New Canterbury and your blessed little council in London.” He leaned in close, so close that Lucian could smell the dry, musky excitement on his breath. “It’s like you’re gods or something. They think you’ll swoop in and save them.” He smiled. “But we have faith in them. They just take a little convincing.”
“And this humble abode is where you do your convincing? With a hammer and chisel, no doubt?”
“Pliers, too, if the occasion calls for it.”
Lucian shook his head. He thought of Alexander and Norman, and all the others counting on him back home. He had to get back to them somehow. And if he couldn’t get back, he’d have to find a way to put an end to it all fast. He would have liked to say he would never hurt any of them, would never turn, but he knew better than that.
He had seen some bad things. People could do horrific things to one another in the name of beliefs, ideals, even love. Especially love. And men were fickle creatures. Even the strongest broke eventually. In his experience, you could make anyone do pretty much anything, if you took enough away from them, and made them hurt enough.
Charlie was the perfect example of that.
What have I done to him?
Charlie was watching him carefully, hovering only a few inches away, waiting for Lucian to make a move. But Lucian kept still and kept his gaze level. He wouldn’t give him his trigger. After almost a full minute Charlie licked his chapped lips and muttered, “Like I said, we’re moving you.”
“Where?”
“Far away. We’re done with this place. Nowhere left but your little bastions.”
Lucian swallowed. “So why not finish it? Just get things over with?”
“Because He has plans for your friends. And He hasn’t led us astray yet.”