Acheron Highway: A Jonathan Shade Novel (15 page)

“She needs to understand it doesn’t matter anymore.
 
She doesn’t need to avenge me.
 
It’s all right.”

“I don’t know what you’re saying.
 
Is Kelly the Chinese woman?”

I nodded, which hurt, but I knew the pain would be gone soon.

“I’ll call her from the hospital.”
 
Walter hopped into the driver’s seat and started driving.
 
“Lou, find the nearest hospital.”

“No hospital,” I said.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood, Jonathan.
 
You need a doctor.”

I didn’t want a doctor.
 
“No.
 
Too many skeletons.
 
People will be killed.”

“You think they’ll follow you?”

“More will come.”

“But you need help.”

“Fine.
 
Take me to Kelly’s.”

I gave him the address to Kelly’s dojo and fought to keep my eyes open.
 
My throat felt like someone had ripped it apart.
 
Oh wait, someone had.

I focused on breathing.

“Good to say good-bye.”

“What was that?” Lou asked.

I realized I’d spoken the words aloud.
 
“I’m all right,” I said.

“You don’t look all right,” Lou said.
 
He shrugged out of his coat and reached over the seat to spread it over my torso.
 
“The heater’s on, but it’s going to take a few minutes to heat up.
 
This should help.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”
 
He turned toward Walter and lowered his voice.
 
“Good thing I don’t like that coat.
 
He’s getting blood all over it.”

“I’m thinking about my seats,” Walter said.
 
“But think of the story we can tell the ladies at the bar tomorrow night.”

“You got that right.”

“Keep talking to him, Lou.
 
He might be going into shock.”

Lou turned in his seat and rested his forearm around the headrest.
 
“How you doing back there, Jonathan?”

“Peachy.”

“Good to know,” he said.
 
“Good to know.
 
Uh, you warm enough?”

“I’ll buy you a new coat.”

“I have other coats.
 
Don’t worry about it.”
 
He put on his best English accent.
 
“I could wear it tomorrow and ask the ladies what they think of me bloody coat.”

His accent sucked.
 
“Jolly good,” I said.

The GPS spoke out directions in a snotty woman’s voice.
 
Walter ran into road construction and turned off on a side street to go around it.
 
The GPS sounded like it was rolling its nonexistent eyes.
 
“Recalculating,” it said as if it thought Walter were a complete idiot.

A few minutes later, Walter pulled into the lot and parked.

As they helped me out of the car, I heard a lot of distant clacking like bones on concrete.

I looked down the road.
 
More skeletons marched toward us.

A glance the other direction revealed more skeletons on the march.
 
They must have anticipated where I’d go, or maybe Persephone was still keeping tabs on me.
 
I couldn’t think about it.

“The fun never ends,” I said.

Walter and Lou helped me inside the dojo.

Kelly and Brand had several long folding tables set up with dozens of weapons on them.
 
Swords, sais, axes, daggers,
katars
, you name it.
 
Kelly looked over and saw me.
 
Her eyes went wide, and she raced over to me.

“You’re bleeding,” she said.
 
“You should be in the hospital.”

“He insisted we bring him here,” Walter said.

“We’re going to have company,” I said.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Kelly stepped outside for a moment.

When she came back into the dojo, she pointed to the far back corner of the room.
 
“You two, get Jonathan over there.
 
One of you grab a bottle of water from the back room.
 
He needs liquids.”

“What’s the fuss all about?” Brand asked as he continued to polish a sword.

“We’re about to have a big fight on our hands.”

Brand smiled.
 
“Awesome!”

“Don’t get too excited.
 
We need to handle the attackers as fast as we can.
 
Jonathan needs a doctor.”

I didn’t want a doctor.
 
Why couldn’t they understand that?
 
I was ready to go.
 
I was confused and cold, but I felt perspiration breaking out on my forehead.

“Why don’t they take him to the hospital while we fight?”

“I think those guys are drawn to him,” Walter said.
 
“If we go to the hospital, they’ll leave you alone and go after him there.
 
They ignored pretty much everyone at the bowling alley except for him.
 
Well, they hurt a few people getting to him, but once they were past the people, they focused exclusively on him.”

“Hmm,” Brand said.
 
“How many guys are coming?”

“Hundreds of skeletons.”

“Skeletons?”

Now, even through the doors of the dojo, we could hear the marching.

“You,” Kelly said.
 
“You’re Walter?”

“Yes.”

“Jonathan may be going into hypovolemic shock.
 
Try to keep him warm.
 
Have him lie on his back and elevate his feet to increase circulation.”

“What about the skeletons?”

“They won’t get through us.
 
You’ll all be safe there.”

“No offense, lady, but there are hundreds of them and only two of you.”

“They should have sent for reinforcements.”

Brand smiled.
 
“I finally get to kill some folks.”

Kelly shook her head.
 
“They’re already dead.”

“Fine, I’ll kill them again.”

“Really?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Just smash them apart and don’t let them get past us.
 
The faster we can dispatch them, the better.”

“I can get rid of a bunch of them fast with my truck, but that’s not as much fun.”

“Do it.
 
I’ll handle any that get past you.”

“The sacrifices I make for you,” he said.

He tossed the sword to her and walked out the door.
 
I heard a crashing sound.

Kelly raced over and peered out the door.
 
“They’re almost here,” she said.
 
“Brand is smashing some of them apart as he gets to his truck.”

The sound of his truck roaring to life drowned out the marching feet.
 
Then I heard a crashing, smashing, crunching sound that will stay with me for as long as I live.
 
It kept going.

Kelly backed up to the center of the dojo.
 
“He’s getting most of them, but we’ll be in the thick of it in three…two…one…”

The glass door shattered, and skeletons poured into the dojo.

As they passed the long tables, they each grabbed a weapon.
 
Skeletons armed with swords, sais, daggers, and scimitars moved forward, and only Kelly stood between us.

The clang of steel on steel rang loud in the room.

My breath came fast but shallow, and I couldn’t seem to get enough air.
 
Anxiety wrapped its loving arms around my brain, and I wanted to scream.
 
My body shivered but deep inside, I knew Kelly would never let anything happen to me.
 
Just this once, I wanted to tell her it was OK to let them through.
 
It didn’t matter anymore.
 
But I couldn’t find my voice, so she kept fighting.

As many times as I’ve seen her in action, she never failed to amaze me.
 
She swung the sword, lopping off arms and skulls.
 
She spun and kicked, and although there had to be thirty or forty armed skeletons attacking, she made it all look simple.
 
She blocked and parried and hacked.
 
She kicked and punched.
 
She swept legs.
 
One tried to slip past her while she parried a sword, but she spun quickly and punched through the rib cage with her left hand and clutched the bastard’s spine.
 
She braced her sword hand against the remains of the rib cage and pulled the spine free of the rest of the skeleton.
 
Bones skittered on the floor.
 
She tossed the sword aside and swung the spine around like Indiana Jones with his bullwhip.
 
She swung high and the spine shattered but took four or five skulls with it.

She grabbed one of the skeletons, flipped it sideways, and drove forward while twirling the entire skeleton in a figure eight.
 
One of them slipped past, but before it had taken three steps, she threw a skull and cracked its neck.
 
The skeleton hit the floor and shattered, and the bones slid toward us but stopped a few feet away.

About that time, Brand entered the dojo again carrying a baseball bat.
 
He smacked skulls.
 
At one point, I thought I heard him yell, “Hulk smash!” but that might be the delirium talking.

Moments later, the last skeleton hit the floor.
 
The dojo was littered with bones, most of them piled in a semicircle in front of Kelly.

“That was fun,” Brand said.
 
“My truck is dented all to hell, but sign me up for round two.”

“Later,” Kelly said.
 
“Right now we’re getting Jonathan to a hospital.”

Kelly lifted me and maneuvered around the piles of bones as she carried me to Walter’s car.
 
“You’re going to be all right,” she said.
 
“I’m here for you.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

When I first opened my eyes, Persephone stood above me, gazing down with her hair hanging around her like a dark waterfall of blood.
 
Was I dreaming?
 
Were my eyes even open?
 
Was I dead?
 
I tried to look around, but I couldn’t move my head.
 
She placed a finger on my lips.

“Don’t try to speak.
 
Just listen.”

I blinked but the world still seemed out of focus except for Persephone’s face.
 
She was lovely and I stared into her green eyes and thought how nice it would be to have a picnic with such a beautiful woman.
 
I wanted to reach up and caress her face, but my arms wouldn’t move.

I heard a steady beeping sound, but it seemed far away.

“I’m not known for my patience,” Persephone said.
 
“I’ve given you time to bring Charon to me, but instead you searched for a way to prevent my loyal spirits from having vessels.
 
I do not appreciate that.
 
I want Charon.
 
Bring him back to me, and everything will be fine.”

“You’re really pretty,” I said.

“You’re very annoying,” she said.
 
“Don’t try to speak.
 
You have three days to bring Charon to me.
 
If you fail, I will kill you.
 
Do you understand?”

“Why wait?
 
Go ahead and kill me now.”

She stared into my eyes for a long time then nodded.
 
“I changed my mind.
 
I won’t kill you.
 
Instead I’ll kill all of your friends.
 
Charon or Sharon may be your friend, but now you have the choice.
 
Do you want to lose one friend or all of your friends?”

“Is this a trick question?
 
What are you doing Friday night?”

“You have three days.”

She pulled back from me, and I saw light.
 
The light grew brighter for a moment then shimmered and faded.
 
I drifted back to sleep, not sure I’d even been awake at all.

#

The next time I opened my eyes, I saw Esther staring down at me.

“Poor little bunny,” she said.
 
“I thought we’d lost you.”

“Where am I?”

I felt a hand on my arm, and I slowly turned my head to see Kelly sitting on the edge of my hospital bed.
 
Tubes went from a metal stand into an IV in my hand.

“You’re at St. Anthony’s.
 
You lost a lot of blood,” Kelly said.

I blinked a few times.
 
“I feel like I was tossed off the Empire State Building...twice.”

“You got your ass kicked.”

“They almost bumped you off,” Esther said.

Kelly held a bottle of water for me.
 
It had a straw in it, and after a few attempts, I managed to get the damn thing in my mouth.
 
The water tasted like heaven.

“The nurse will be by in a few minutes to check on you,” Kelly said.
 
“They’re taking very good care of you.
 
You had a transfusion, so you should feel a lot better.
 
Well, except for the bruises.
 
And the stitches.”

“I thought I was going to die again.”

“I won’t let that happen.”

“Neither will I,” Esther said.

“Is it safe here?
 
No more skeletons?”

“So far it’s been quiet.”

I touched the bandage on my throat.
 
“This as bad as it feels?”

“It’s going to leave a pretty cool scar.”

“Chicks dig scars.”

Kelly nodded.
 
“And how many people can say they had their throat ripped open by a walking skeleton?”

The nurse entered the room.
 
She was a slender black woman with kind eyes.
 
“Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr. Shade.
 
I’m
Ree
and I’ll be on duty all night.
 
If you need anything, you hit the call button and either I or my CNA, Vanessa, will be right here.”

“When can I get out of here?” I asked.

She smiled.
 
“I think the doctor will release you tomorrow.
 
Your blood pressure is good; you don’t have a fever.”

“And I don’t have insurance.”

“As I understand it, your bill is covered.”

I looked at Kelly.

“I called Sharon,” Kelly said.

“Can I get you anything?
 
The kitchen is closed right now, but we have sandwiches.”

“I’m starving.”

“I’ll be right back,”
Ree
said.

“She’s cute,” I said after she left.

“She’s married,” Kelly said.

“Figures.
 
So what did Sharon say?”

“She wanted to come back, but I told her to hold off for now.”

“Good.”

Ree
returned with a roast beef sandwich.
 
It hurt to swallow, but that sandwich was surprisingly good.
 
She went back to her station.

“I’ll be right back,” Kelly said.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“I have a bad feeling that as soon as someone dies here, their body is going to be snatched by some Underworld spirit and you’ll be in danger.”

“As much as I don’t want anyone to die, if a body comes after me, don’t destroy it.
 
I want to send a message to Persephone if I can.”

She nodded.
 
“I can incapacitate any attackers.
 
No problem.”

She leaned over and kissed my cheek then turned to go.

“Kelly?”

She turned back to face me.
 
“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

She gave me a nod, held my hand for a moment, then left the room.