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“No,” she muttered.
Milo glanced at her. “What?”
“Nothing,” she said, and immediately the pain started.
She whacked her closed fist against the dash. Milo didn’t say anything, but he looked displeased.
“Got another one,” she said through clenched teeth. “That way.”
“South.”
“Yeah.”
“So we’re letting your folks get away again?”
“It’s not my choice, Milo. Like you said, Astaroth’s the boss, and when the boss tells you to do a job you do the job, or you’re put through a hell of a lot of pain.”
Milo nodded, and when they came to the next off-ramp they left the highway. Immediately, the pain went away.
“Who is it?” Milo asked.
She closed her eyes, pushed her irritation to one side, and focused. A face and a name swam into her thoughts.
“Your old buddy,” she said. “Elias Mauk. I have to collect his offering.”
Milo grunted. “This ought to be fun.”
It was torture, to deviate from their mission when her parents were so close, but they got to where they were going by nightfall, and Amber fired up the iPad to find out where exactly that was. Apparently, they were just outside of Senoia, Georgia. From what she could see, their immediate surroundings consisted mostly of trees.
They got out. The air was sweet with the scent of pine. Amber shifted and the smell got even sharper.
“Now where?” Milo asked.
“Not sure,” she said. “When I’m miles away, I know exactly which direction to go in, but when I’m this close it all goes kinda vague. What do you say we follow the path?”
It was little more than a trail through the trees, and Amber led the way. They heard shouts in the distance and knew they were going in the right direction.
They came to a clearing. Elias Mauk stood with his back to them. He wore a faded boiler suit and a grubby baseball cap, and he was looking up the hill at a cabin surrounded by moaning, groaning, shuffling dead people. Amber waited for Milo to get in position, and then she shifted and stepped out.
“Hello, Elias.”
Mauk whirled, eyes widening. His hand went to the claw hammer in his belt, but Milo was suddenly behind him, gun pressed to his head.
Mauk froze.
“So good to see you again,” Amber said, smiling brightly. “The last time we spoke was, like, ages ago. Remember that? Remember when you broke all my fingers? You remember?”
Wary of the gun to his head, Mauk sneered. “Yeah,” he said, in that hoarse voice of his. “I remember.”
Amber took the hammer from his belt. “This is it, isn’t it? This is the one you used? It definitely looks like the one you used to break my fingers, but what do I know? I’m no hammer expert. I barely know how to use one.” She held it up. “This is the end you hammer with, right?”
Without waiting for an answer, she ducked down and swung the hammer into his right knee. Mauk howled, clutching his leg even as he collapsed. His cap fell off and he rolled over it.
“Yep,” said Amber, “that’s the end you hammer with.”
“You little bitch!” Mauk yelled. “I’ll beat your head in! I’ll crack your skull like an egg!”
“Like this?” she asked, and tapped the hammer off his forehead, right on the band of burnt skin that ran around his skull. He rolled back, hands alternating between his head and knee, like he couldn’t decide which hurt more. Eventually, he settled on his head.
“I don’t like being called names, Elias. Don’t do it again, you understand me?”
He glared up at her.
“You can’t kill me,” he said. “You tried shooting me and I got right back up again, didn’t I?”
“Technically, it was Milo who shot you,” Amber said.
Mauk switched his gaze to Milo. “Traitor. We used to be partners.”
“I don’t remember anything about that,” said Milo, “but I doubt it’s true. Even when I was a bad guy, you would have annoyed me.”
Mauk barked a laugh. “And what are you now – a hero? That’s laughable! Laughable!”
Amber nodded. “Laughable, he says.”
“Repeated it, too,” said Milo.
“So you just know he meant it.”
Mauk glared at them both, but the hammer and the gun kept his retorts unspoken. He got up slowly, and they didn’t move to stop him. “So that’s why you’re here, is it?” he asked, straightening. “You want a little revenge? What are you gonna do – you gonna break my fingers now? Maybe my toes, too?”
Amber made a face. “I do not want to see your feet, Elias. That’s gross. Feet are the worst part of the human body. We’re not here to get revenge on you. This isn’t personal. It’s business. I see you looking around as I’m talking. First of all, that’s very rude. Second, are you expecting someone?”
Mauk smiled. “You could say that.”
“And you think the arrival of this person will, what, save you? So obviously it’s someone pretty scary, am I right?”
Mauk’s smile grew wider.
Amber’s matched it. “You’re not waiting for the Shining Demon’s representative, are you?”
Mauk’s smile faltered. “How did you know?”
“Because that’s why we’re here. You’re talking to Astaroth’s new representative.”
“Bullshit.”
“Afraid not.”
Mauk turned to Milo. “Bullshit.”
When Milo didn’t bother to respond, Mauk looked back at Amber. “How?”
“I proved myself,” said Amber. “Now I speak with Astaroth’s voice. You get that? I’m like a red, sexy pope with horns, so you’d better not tick me off, bearing in mind that I already don’t like you.”
“You think I’m gonna cower?” said Mauk. “You think I’m gonna bow and scrape to you, you little tramp? You screwed up my plans and it’s because of you, it is because of you, that I am back here in this Podunk little nowhere town!”
Amber took a step forward. “I’m sorry,” she said, “did you just call me a tramp?”
Mauk faltered. “What?”
“Did you just call me a tramp?” she repeated. “After I just told you not to call me any more names, you actually stood there and called me that?”
“It’s just a word—”
“No,” said Amber. “It is a word targeted at women. It’s meant to demean and belittle. Are you trying to belittle me, Elias?”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
“Because it looks like you’re trying to belittle me, Astaroth’s representative here on this mortal plane,” she interrupted. “It looks like you’re trying to insult me, even though to insult me is to insult the Shining Demon.”
“No, it isn’t,” Mauk said quickly.
“Yes, it is,” said Amber. “Even though his fury is my fury and his wrath is my wrath, you still insulted me.”
“I’m … I’m not gonna bow or—”
“Yeah, you said that already.”
“What, uh, what do you—?”
“What do I want?” she interrupted. “Is that what you were going to say? What do I want? What do you mean, what do I want? I’m Astaroth’s representative. What do you think I want?”
He swallowed. “The, uh, the offering?”
“Yes, Elias. Exactly. I’m here to collect the offering.”
“Well, I have it,” said Mauk. “I have it ready for you.”
“You think,” said Amber.
Mauk looked puzzled. “What?”
“You think you have the offering,” Amber said. “You think you’ve done enough to satisfy the Shining Demon for another year. It’s my decision as to whether or not that’s true.”
“Oh,” said Mauk.
“You’d better hope it’s a good offering, Elias. I am not in a forgiving mood right now.”
He nodded, and took a leather pouch from his boiler suit. Amber snatched it from his hand, opened it and peered in. She didn’t wrinkle her nose in disgust, even though she wanted to. She pulled the strings, closing the pouch.
“It’ll do,” she said.
“What’s going on up there?” Milo asked, nodding towards the cabin.
“Just, uh, just a little bit of fun I’m having,” Mauk said.
Amber showed him her fangs. “What kind of fun?”
Mauk cleared his throat. “Uh, just a bunch of college kids. They think they’re surrounded by zombies who want to eat their flesh. Those dead bodies up there don’t want to eat anything. They’re just doing what I tell ’em.”
“And what’s the point of this display?”
“The point? I don’t know what you …” Mauk suddenly chuckled. “One of the boyfriends, he got bit, and you know what the others did? They smashed his skull in. Even his girlfriend.” Mauk laughed. “Goddamn morons.”
Amber watched the corpses as they pounded on the boarded-up windows. “You’re going to kill everyone in that cabin?”
“It’s what I do,” said Mauk. “Although this is the first time I’ve done it like this. I thought it’d be a nice change from bashing their brains in with a hammer, and it is, but I don’t think I’ll be doing it again. Takes a lot of effort to keep the dead bodies going, especially when I’m having a conversation.”
“So sorry for distracting you,” said Amber. “Any particular reason you’re going after the people in that cabin?”
“Do I need reasons?” he asked. “Hell, no, I don’t, and you can’t say that I do. Astaroth made it very clear when we agreed to this deal that I can kill whoever the hell I want to. You ask him, you go ahead and ask him.”
“I don’t have to,” said Amber. “I know the terms of your contract better than you. I’m just curious as to who would deserve this kind of death.”
“Deserve’s got nothing to do with it,” said Mauk. “They were there. That’s all the reason I need.” He frowned. “What, you got a bleeding heart for these morons? How can you be Astaroth’s representative if you’ve got a bleeding heart for the innocent?”
“Better a bleeding heart than a bleeding nose,” Amber said, and banged the hammer into his face.
Mauk stumbled back, blood pumping, and she dropped the hammer and took the trail back to the Charger. Once she was there, she cleared a space in the grass around her.
“What do you reckon?” she asked Milo as he walked up.
“About what?”
“The kids in the cabin.”
He frowned. “Your parents are close, and we’ve already spent enough time on this little detour.”
“But we can’t just leave, can we? Come on. Kelly was right – being Astaroth’s representative is, like …”
“Morally reprehensible,” said Milo.
“Jesus,” she said. “You don’t have to be a dick about it.”
“That’s what she said.”
“She didn’t use those exact words, though. But anyway, yeah … It is kind of, y’know, reprehensible, in a way. Even if I was forced into it – which I most definitely was – and even if I am searching for a way to stab him in the back and get out of it – which I most definitely am. But just because I’m working for the bad guy does not mean I can’t do good things when I see the opportunity. In fact, I kinda have to, to make up for it.”
