Benny wondered if there was even the slightest chance that Brother Peter was not going to kill him the moment he handed over the bag. Riot said that the reaper had a dozen knives hidden in special pockets and that he could draw and cut faster than lightning. She’d seen him do it too many times.
So Benny slung the satchel at him instead of handing it over. He slung it hard, hoping to catch Peter in the mouth, but the man simply snatched it out of the air. He opened the flap, and the dry wind rifled the pages. Brother Peter nodded approval.
“Now give me what you stole from my reaper yesterday,” he said.
“Ah,” said Benny. “That’s going to be a problem.”
Brother Peter lifted an eyebrow.
“I don’t actually have that stuff,” said Benny. “I gave it to Captain Ledger. Maybe you know him? Big guy, real grumpy, has this huge dog?”
“Joe Ledger.” Brother Peter pronounced the name slowly, tasting it, hating it but enjoying it too. Benny could see all that flicker through Peter’s dark eyes, and he also enjoyed the look of profound discomfort that rippled across the faces of the other reapers.
Joe scares the pee of out them, he thought. It elevated the ranger another notch in his book.
“That’s the guy,” Benny said. “So… you’re going to have to ask him for it.”
“No,” said Brother Peter, “I think you’ll go and get it from him and bring it back to me here.”
“You think I’d really do something that stupid just because you ask?”
“I’m not asking you, little brother. I’m telling you.”
Benny shook his head. “No. I played fair. I gave you what we took from the zom. Not going to argue jurisdiction over that stuff. But the stuff I took off the reaper yesterday belongs to me. Your reaper attacked me. That means that anything I took from him is mine by rights. Spoils of war.”
“This isn’t a war, boy.”
“Well, what the hell do you call it?”
“You are defying god’s will.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m not.”
Brother Peter sighed. “Then let me simplify things for you. I’ll send you back to Sanctuary. You’ll get whatever you gave to Joe Ledger and bring it back here to me.”
“Why on earth would I do something stupid like that?”
Brother Peter did not answer. Not in words.
He stood a yard away from Nix, apparently ignoring the gun pointed at his head. And then he moved. So hideously fast that there was no time to react or cry out. Brother Peter snatched the pistol from Nix’s hand, spun her, and wrapped an arm around her throat. He let the pistol fall and suddenly there was a knife in his hand, the edge of the blade pressed against the soft flesh beneath Nix’s jaw.
Benny’s sword flashed from its scabbard, but Brother Peter froze him in place with seven horrible words.
“I will paint you with her blood.”
The pistol lay on the ground by Brother Peter’s foot. He kicked it into the ravine.
“And now,” he said calmly, “tell me again that you refuse to get what belongs to me. Tell me, boy, and watch this girl’s life flow out of her.”
“No!” cried Benny.
Nix stared at Benny with wide eyes filled with total terror.
The reapers began climbing off their quads, grins forming on their tattooed faces.
Riot pivoted and aimed her slingshot at the nearest one, but Benny knew that it was no good. She could bring the man down, Benny could take the next few with his sword, but that knife was already at Nix’s throat.
Then suddenly there was a sharp metallic sound behind the reapers. A sound so specific that everyone knew what it was before they turned and looked.
A slide being racked on an automatic pistol.
The Lost Girl rose up out of the tall grass behind the half circle of reapers, her big automatic pistol held in a two-handed grip.
“Let Nix go,” she said in her graveyard whisper of a voice, “or I’ll blow your head off.”
The reapers froze in place, some with weapons half-drawn. Brother Peter turned to face Lilah.
“Kill me and she dies too.”
“You’re threatening to kill her anyway. Might as well kill you first.”
“My reapers of the Red Brotherhood will slaughter you.”
Lilah said, “Look into my eyes. Tell me if you think I care.”
Brother Peter did look into her eyes, and Benny thought he could see something shift in the man’s expression. It was not fear — Benny didn’t think this man was capable of that emotion — but perhaps it was a kind of understanding, of acceptance.
He lowered his knife and gave Nix a small push. She staggered forward, and Benny caught her with one arm. Nix immediately wheeled and tried to kick Brother Peter in the groin. He parried the kick as effortlessly as if he was swatting a fly.
“Nix,” cautioned Benny as he pulled her away from the reaper. She jerked free of his grip and drew her sword. Dojigiri glittered in the bright sunlight, but for all its deadly promise, Brother Peter seemed not to care in the slightest.
Lilah’s pistol was rock-steady in her grip. “Get out of here.”
Without an iota of haste, Brother Peter slid his knife back into its sheath. “Listen to me,” he said softly. “We all walk away from this moment. But understand me — I want what you gave to Captain Ledger. You will bring it to me.”
“Why do you think we’d even consider it?” snapped Nix.
Brother Peter held out his arm, pointing across the miles toward Sanctuary. “Because I think you care about those people at Sanctuary. The sick, the helpless.” He paused. “The children.”
Benny heard Riot’s sharp intake of breath.
“You think that Sanctuary is a fortress,” said the reaper, “that you’re safe there.”
“We are,” said Nix firmly.
Brother Peter picked up the satchel and stowed it in the rear compartment of his quad. “Fail to bring me what you stole and you’ll learn exactly how safe Sanctuary is.”
“She’s right,” said Benny. “Try anything and the army will stop you.”
Brother Peter snorted. The reapers laughed. Harsh, brutal laughs that seemed to be fueled by some certain knowledge of what Brother Peter was suggesting. They winked at one another and traded high fives.
“You’re a strange boy,” said Brother Peter. “Do you really think the ‘army’ will rise to your defense?”
“Me personally? Probably not,” admitted Benny. “I’m no one. But if you try to take it from Captain Ledger, then, sure, they’ll have his back. But it’s stupid. You have knives, they’ve got guns.”
Brother Peter shook his head. “There aren’t enough bullets in the world to stop the will of Thanatos — all praise to his darkness.”
The reapers echoed his words.
“I’ll give you until sunset tomorrow,” said Brother Peter as he climbed onto his quad. “That should be more than enough time to find a way to trick Joe Ledger into returning what you stole. Bring it here and leave it on the edge of the ravine weighted down with a rock. We won’t interfere with you delivering it.”
“Hey, man, I gave you the satchel,” said Benny. “Like I said, I get to keep whatever I found yesterday. Call it a draw.”
“No,” said Brother Peter, “let’s not.”
Lilah edged around to stand with Benny and the others. “Get out of here,” she said.
Brother Peter’s eyes were filled with dark mystery. “There is a storm coming,” he said. “It is the breath of my god, and it will be more powerful than any hurricane you’ve ever seen. The clouds will open and a rain of blood will pour down upon you. The coming storm will blow down the structures of your old world; it will seek out the blasphemers no matter where they hide. It will cleanse the earth, and when it has passed there will be no proof that you — that any of you — ever even lived.”