Sam pulled the hammer of the revolver back, as tears fell from his eyes. "You ruined my life, I have nothing now."
"So, kill me. Don't be a fucking pussy, just shoot me and be done with it. Because I'm not spending the rest of my life in some fucking prison, rotting for all to see."
Sam's shoulder tensed, as if he was willing himself to pull the trigger, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
"Sam," I said. "You have every reason in the world to kill him. Hell, no one out there would turn you over to the authorities if you did. This man deserves justice. Your dad believed in justice, I'm betting that's why he was a marshal. But this isn't justice, this is vengeance. And I know vengeance, Sam. I know it well. I know what it feels like to hold the life of a man who took someone important from you. To be able to decide if they live or die. And I know what it's like to kill him."
"Just let him fucking do-"
I kicked Sheriff Bourne in the head, knocking him to the floor. "Sam, look at him. Look at the man who tortured you and your dad. Look at this pathetic reason for a human. If you kill him, you're going to lose a part of yourself. His face will stay with you forever, the face of the man you executed. Whenever you think of your dad, that piece of shit on the floor will always be close by. I promise you, it will fester your memories until just thinking about your dad will cause you to remember what you did here. Or you can walk away, right now. Go live your life; do what your dad would have wanted for you. The choice is all yours."
There was no painfully slow wait to decide what he was going to do. He released the hammer and re-holstered the gun.
"Fucking pussy," the sheriff said as he got back to his knees. "I knew you were a gutless coward. Like father, like son."
Sam shook his head. "You had to tie my dad up and torture him to make you feel like a man. You were too scared to face him one on one. He will always be the better man, because you couldn't bring yourself to deal with him like anything but the tiny coward you are." Sam walked out of the bar and back outside.
The sheriff laughed. "I actually thought he might shoot me for a second. So, where are you going to take me to prison? Or do I get a hangman's noose? Because I have a whole lot to talk about to whoever wants to listen. The army’s involvement in murdering Indians, monsters roaming the lands killing ranch folk. It will be quite the tale."
I picked up an Army Colt that someone had dropped on the floor during the fight, and checked to see that it was loaded. Three shots left. It was an old piece and well used. I placed it on the table near me.
"Sam's a good person," I said, and glanced outside onto the street in front of the bar, but couldn't find him. "He's going to move on from this, get a nice job and settle down with someone who cares for him. Or not. His life is utterly open to live how he sees fit."
"Why do I care?"
"Why? Because, although Sam is a good person. I'm not." I picked up the Colt up and shot the sheriff through the eye. The bullet exited through the back of his skull and sprayed blood and brain matter over the destroyed room behind him, as he toppled to the floor. I emptied the last two bullets into his forehead. I didn't want him coming back as anything, just in case.
I dropped the gun on the ground and poured fire out of my hands all around me. The alcohol soaked room ignited and was quickly turned into an inferno. I stepped out of the fires of hell back onto the street, where I was greeted by Sky.
"Sam went for a walk with the Chief," she said. She passed me the leather book. "You dropped this."
"Thanks, I'll make sure that Merlin gets it."
"And then what?"
I flicked through the old pages and fought the urge to incinerate it. "If it's up to me, it'll never see the light of day again."
"So, do you have any recommendation as to what you want to do with this place?" Hades asked as he joined Sky and me.
The fire from the bar was hot against the back of my neck. "Burn it to the ground. Wipe it off the face of the earth."
Hades' smile contained no humour. "With pleasure."
Chapter 34
Winchester, England. Now.
Olivia asked me a question, but for the life of me I couldn't have said what it was. My attention was centred totally on the picture of the lich who had almost killed me over a hundred years ago. The realisation that I was unlikely to fair better against his great-great-grandfather hit me like a truck. I was grateful I was already sat down, because I was pretty certain that my legs had gone weak.
"Nate?" Olivia said, crouched before me, concern in her eyes.
I told her about the photo and what it meant.
"So, he's a fifth generation psychopath."
"Someone gave him these notes on how to become a lich. I'm glad we've got Sky here to help with this. Otherwise, we wouldn't stand a chance."
"Peter Jarvis was a misogynistic coward, who couldn't even kill those weaker than he unless they were tied up and powerless."
"He's not going to need to tie us up to kill us anymore," I pointed out, and threw the journal onto the desk.
"Yet he still has to tie women to trees in order to kill them. And he's now so physically hideous that he has to enlist someone to bring the women to him. He sounds pathetic. And he will be even more so once Sky gets done with him. You and Sky have history, I assume."
"You could call it that, but we're just friends." I didn't really want to discuss it, but was grateful for the excuse to get off the topic of liches and their psychotic tendencies.
"Sure, friends," Olivia said with a smile. "I'm going to check in on Tommy and get some more agents in this building. I want Peter's home gutted and searched from top to bottom."
She walked out of the room to make the call, leaving me alone with my thoughts. And with the fear of what was out there, waiting. I pushed it aside as I'd learnt to do long ago. " Fear is just a tool to be used like any other emotion," Merlin would say. " You need to control it. Do not let it control you."
It was a lesson he'd drilled into me, over and over again, making me face my fears until I could control them. But I never stopped feeling fear. No one can do that. No one sane anyway.
The vibration of my phone shook the memory away.
"Hello, Nathan," Peter's voice, his actual voice, was deep and wispy, the sort of voice you'd imagine a snake would have.
"I figured you might call at some point," I said. "You want to brag about something really impressive? Killed a few more defenceless werewolves or something?"
"Are you really upset over Neil's death? He was a rapist, a murderer and generally the scum of the earth. I did you a favour."
"Is that why you paid for his nice penthouse?"
"Paid for?' His laugher sent shivers up my spine. "I think you're overestimating the cash-flow of a man who recently returned from the dead. You need to look elsewhere for that answer."
"The answer will wait, then, I guess. So, what do you want, Peter?"
He laughed again, a humourless, evil noise that would have made fingernails on a chalkboard sound like a symphony of elegant beauty. "How's Olivia holding up?"
"She wants you dead. Again. Preferably on a more permanent basis."
"We both know she can't do that, but I'll give her the opportunity to try soon enough. But the reason I'm calling is you, Nathan. I warned you to leave this alone. That it didn't involve you. I warned you to run away and never come back. And you not only ignored me, you brought a necromancer with you to end my plans."
"Sorry about her, her father just insisted I bring someone along to kill you."
"Her father?"
"Hades," I said. "Her father is Hades. So even if you do manage to get away from Sky, what do you think Hades will do to you?"
There was silence for a few heartbeats. "You think I fear him?"