From a Drood to a Kill - Simon R. Green Page 0,154

bald head snapped back in a flurry of blood, and he crumpled to the pavement and lay still. I shot him twice more, in the chest, just to be on the safe side. None of the people passing by so much as glanced down at the body, even when they had to step over him. I put my Colt away again, and realised Molly was staring at me.

“I thought you’d decided you weren’t going to kill any more . . . ,” she said carefully.

“Some shit I just won’t put up with,” I said. “Even if it does comes from my subconscious. Perhaps especially from there . . .”

“But . . .”

“I won’t kill people. He was just . . . scenery.”

“Quite right,” said Crow Lee, from the pavement. But by the time I’d looked down, he’d disappeared.

And then, quite suddenly, all of the people hurrying up and down the street slammed to an abrupt halt. They stood still and silent for a long moment, and then they all turned their heads to look at me, and Molly. Hellfire burned in all their eyes, infernal flames dancing in their eye sockets. They were all wearing exactly the same smile. As though they were looking forward to something. I didn’t need to look around me to know we were surrounded. Hundreds of men and women, and some that might have been both or neither, were staring at me and Molly . . . with Hell’s eyes and bad intent.

“They’re possessed,” Molly said quietly. “Every damned one of them.”

“I had spotted that, yes,” I said.

“But who could possess that many people all at the same time?”

“Him,” I said, pointing.

The Sin Eater was hanging on the air above us, in his shining white preacher’s suit. Arms outstretched as though crucified, nailed to the night, blood dripping thickly from the stigmata in his wrists and ankles. He smiled down at us, looking very pleased with himself.

“Don’t make a fuss, please,” he said. “There’s no need for this to get unpleasant. Just admit you’re beaten, and it will all be over very quickly. I can’t promise it will be painless, but I can make it quick. You should have known you couldn’t win, not against me. I walk in Heaven’s sight, with Heaven’s strength. I have released all the demons contained within me and sent them out to occupy these passing sinners. My own little army. And since they aren’t really people, but as you have already pointed out, merely animated scraps of scenery . . . the demons can’t do any real damage, or hope to escape my control. I can have them do my bidding and then just call them home again. Where they belong. After they’ve dealt with you two. Why should I get my hands dirty when I already have so many burdens weighing down my poor benighted soul?”

“Just once,” said Molly, “I really would like to meet a villain who doesn’t feel the need to lecture us, or impress us with how clever they’re being.”

“Never happen,” I said. I looked thoughtfully at the Sin Eater. “All . . . of your demons?”

He smiled. “Well, perhaps I kept a few back. To keep me warm inside.”

The possessed army surged forward, lurching and staggering, as though the things inside them were still getting used to their new bodies. Bitter yellow flames rose from their staring eyes, and their hands had clawed fingers. Many of them tore at their own flesh, giggling as they disfigured their helpless hosts. Blood fell from their wounds, to hiss and steam on the pavement. Many of them produced weapons; it was the Nightside, after all.

“Leave it to me,” said Molly. “I’ve got this.”

She stepped forward and carefully pronounced several disturbing Words of Power, but nothing happened. Molly scowled, and tried a whole series of impressive gestures, some of which I’d seen tear the material world apart before . . . But to no avail. She called down the elements, as she had so many times in the past, but nothing answered her. Molly stamped a foot in sheer frustration and looked at me with tears in her eyes.

“They’ve left me nothing!”

A man stepped up to her and pointed a gun at her head. Molly leapt on him, punched him out, and grabbed the gun from his hand as he fell to the ground. A woman with cat’s eyes and long, curving fingernails jumped at her, and Molly shot the woman dead. She shot three more of the