Live and Let Drood

London Town.”
    “Hell likes to stick with things that work,” I said. “The Eton Irregulars are the urban legends that serial killers talk about. They exist on the fringes of the hidden world, hiring themselves out to people with no scruples who still have ties to the Old School. The Uptown Razor Boys: bodyguards, assassins, frighteners…and occasionally the first line of defence. I think someone at the club knew we were coming.”
    “But why them?” said Molly. “Why set them against us?”
    “Because they still look like children,” I said. “Which makes it that much harder to fight them. Question is: Do they work for the club or Crow Lee himself?”
    “What difference does that make?” said Molly.
    “I don’t want to bring the whole might of the Establishment Club down on us,” I said. “Not while I’m the Last Drood. I can’t afford to let myself be stopped before I can reach my family and bring them home.…But, no, it doesn’t really matter. Some things are just too vile to be allowed to continue. Some vermin just need putting down.”
    “Wow, Eddie,” said Molly. “Hard-core.”
    The Uptown Razor Boys swept suddenly, savagely forward, headingright for us like the pack of wild things they really were. Half a dozen teenage boys who’d thrown away their Futures in return for the hideous strength that drove them and the supernaturally bright blades they brandished. They shouted and hooted gleefully, moving in perfect symmetry, six minds with a single thought. Their eyes glittered in the dim lighting as they circled Molly and me, jumping and leaping and addressing us with high, harsh voices, one after another.
    “Drood. Thought you were dead. Should be dead. Always meddling in the affairs of your betters. Interfering in things that are none of your concern. Heavenly armour versus infernal blades. Good intentions versus Hell on Earth. Going down, Drood. All the way down.”
    “It’s not enough that they’ve been made over into hellspawn,” Molly said steadily. “They’re still the worst part of boys. Did you notice they only addressed themselves to you, Eddie? Because they’re still scared of girls.…”
    “Shut up! Shut up!” howled the Eton Irregulars, leaping and capering around us, brandishing their razors fiercely. “Nasty! Nasty thing! Cut you up! Eat you up! Wear your insides as scarves!”
    “The more they speak,” said Molly, “the less scary they seem. Funny, that.”
    “Take them seriously,” I said. “They’ve killed a lot of good people in their time. Probably people who didn’t take them seriously enough.”
    “Drood,” said the Uptown Razor Boys, speaking together in one voice. “Cut you up. Kill you, and your little bitch, too.”
    “Now, that’s just rude,” I said.
    They surged forward, and I went to meet them with a cold rage in my heart. Because they stood between me and the rescue of my family. They swarmed all over me in a living wave, hitting me from every side at once, cutting and slicing at my head and throat with their shimmering razors.…But even these supernatural blades just skidded harmlessly off my golden armour in showers of sparks. Moxton had made his mistake well. The boys cried out like wolves as they cut at me again and again, cried out like thwarted children, but for all their speed and fury they couldn’t hurt me. I chose my timing carefully and punched one ofthe Eton Irregulars in the head with my golden fist. His whole head exploded, showering gore and fragments of bone across the nearby wall. The sheer force of the blow threw the headless body several feet down the hallway. The remaining Eton Irregulars cried out in shock and rage, a savage howl from human mouths. They only had one another. They threw themselves at me like feral cats, hitting me with all their Hell-given strength, as though they could force their blades through my armour.
    I grabbed another of them and slammed his face into the nearest wall. His whole head collapsed and shattered under the force of the impact, and when I let go, the headless body just slid limply down the wall, leaving a heavy trail of blood and bone behind. More howls and screams from the remaining Uptown Razor Boys, and behind my featureless golden face mask I was smiling a fierce grin of my own. It felt good to be killing things that needed killing.
    One of the Eton Irregulars broke away from me and went for Molly. She was waiting for him. She had a small flat box in her hand, with a