Nightside 11 - A Hard Days Knight

the blood from his fingers like a small child with a treat.
    I had to physically stop Suzie from giving him both barrels in the face. I grabbed her arm and held it firmly, pitting all my strength against hers. Even her specially made blessed and cursed bullets wouldn’t touch Merlin Satanspawn. And I wasn’t ready to lose my Suzie the way Betty had lost her Lucy. Suzie stopped fighting me abruptly, her furious gaze still fixed on Merlin. She lowered her shotgun and nodded briefly. Not giving up; just waiting for a better chance. Behind me, I could hear Alex breathing heavily. I knew he had all kinds of weapons and protections stashed away, but I hoped he had more sense than to try to use any of them. He and the Coltranes had been together for years, but this was no time for grand gestures. This was a time for cold thought, and plans, and eventually some very cold revenge, when the opportunity presented itself. Merlin smiled on us all.
    “That wasn’t a demonstration of power. That was a little something to get your attention. This ... is the demonstration.”
    And Lucy Coltrane sat bolt upright in Betty’s arms, drawing in a deep breath of air. The great wound in her chest was gone, her eyes were wide open, and she grabbed on to Betty with desperate hands as she fought to get her breathing back under control again. She had been dead, and now she was alive again; and Merlin Satanspawn chuckled happily.
    “I am my father’s son, inflicted on the world to do his will; and I can do anything the Lamb could do.”
    (And I remembered Jerusalem Stark saying that his new allies could bring his dead wife back to life. That he’d seen proof ...)
    “What are you doing here?” I said to Merlin. “What do you want with us?”
    “This place called to me. My magic tells me that this world’s Merlin spent time here.”
    “Yes,” said Alex. “He was buried in the cellars under the bar. But he’s dead and gone now. You missed him.”
    “Pity,” said the living Merlin. “I would have enjoyed showing him what he could have become. If only he’d had more ambition.” He considered Alex thoughtfully. “You’re of his line, though the blood has been diluted through many generations. I have no descendents ... I kill them all as soon as they appear. I have no use for ... competition. But, there’s some of me in you, boy. I could just eat you up ...”
    I moved quickly forward to place myself between Merlin and Alex, doing my best to meet his terrible gaze with my best hard look.
    “Your King Artur isn’t here, and none of us have seen him in ages.”
    “Oh, I know that,” said Merlin. “He came to this Nightside against my wishes, and he has never returned. And I can’t have that. Can’t have people thinking they can go against my wishes. My magic tells me you have a gift for finding things, and people, John Taylor. I can see your gift, hiding within you. You only think you know what it is. Use that gift for me, find my missing Artur, and you and your friends can live.”
    “If I’m to find him,” I said steadily, “I need to know about him. What is Artur doing here? What is he looking for?”
    “A toy, a trinket,” said Merlin. “Something I’d already told him would do him no good.”
    “Excalibur,” I said. “He wanted Excalibur, didn’t he?”
    Merlin looked at me for a long moment, and I could feel my skin crawl, feel my legs shake. My heart was hammering in my chest. He could kill me in a moment, and we both knew it.
    “I want my Artur,” said Merlin. “Find him for me. Or you ... are no use to me.”
    “Don’t you threaten him,” Suzie said immediately, her shotgun trained on his face again.
    Merlin didn’t even look at her. “Or perhaps I’ll turn your little girlfriend inside out and leave her that way, alive and suffering, forever.”
    “Did you know I killed this world’s Merlin?” I said, my voice like a slap across his face. “Did you know I tore out his heart and watched him die by inches?”
    “You’re telling the truth,” said the living Merlin. “I can tell. How very amusing. Well, well ... Who knew such a small thing as you could kill a Merlin? But after all, he turned away from real power when he defied our father. I don’t have time for this. Someone else will find my missing King for me; and when Artur is back under my wing again ... I think perhaps I’ll destroy this whole stupid Nightside before I go home again.”
    He disappeared abruptly, gone in a moment,