As they fell, Discord got a few more punches in before using Alistair as a springboard, launching him to the ground while Discord rose slightly, preparing for a graceful landing.
Alistair landed with a loud crunch as he slammed into the pile of corpses. He was impaled on several bones jutting out from the mass of flesh he landed on. He writhed in pain as Discord climbed the mound, standing over him as he brandished his revolver. Alistair coughed up blood as he struggled to laugh, staring Discord in the eye as he spoke.
“You may kill me,” he said, doing his best to keep his eyes open, “but this hotel will never recover. Nothing will bring this back.”
“Was it worth it?” Discord asked, unloading his revolver and refilling it with fresh bullets.
Alistair paused for a moment, then managed to let out a single, “Yes.”
“I sure hope so,” Discord said as he slammed the cylinder back into place. “I never really had any family. Not for long enough to make any major family-splitting feuds, at least. Always just a marriage that lasted a couple of decades. Then somebody like you comes along and wipes them out just to piss me off.”
Alistair laughed again. “Then you’ll never know what it’s like to be betrayed as I have by my own sister.”
Discord fired a round into Alistair’s leg, causing him to scream out in pain.
“Yeah, silver’s a real bitch. And she didn’t betray you. She left you to deal with your own mess. All this shit you do is your own damn fault, no matter how much you want to blame someone else.”
“You’re … one to talk,” Alistair said as he attempted to clutch at his leg with his ruined arms, “Look … at all you’ve done. All this carnage made by your hands, and you say I’m to blame.”
“Yeah, I killed them, but at least I own it. You slaughtered your kin. You burned your town. All in the name of the Black Hand. You consumed yourself with this pain and anger, and you blamed it all on the only person with a pulse who still cares whether you live or die. You made your bed. Lie in it.”
He took aim at Alistair’s head and cocked his hammer.
“Any last words?” he coldly asked.
Alistair coughed several more times, spurting blood with each hack. After finally catching his breath, he stared Discord in the eye and spoke.
“Long live the Black Hand, and may you someday perish as I have.”
“I’m sure I will, one of these days.”
He fired, putting a hole between Alistair’s eyes as a piercing scream filled the lobby.
He turned to see Mila as she stepped out of the elevator, closely followed by everyone else. She looked around in horror at her home, the once marble-clad haven she had worked so hard to build, now standing as a monument to violence.
Discord tucked his gun into his coat and stepped down from the mound as Mila ran toward him, dagger in hand, which she stabbed upward into his chest, going under his ribs into his heart. He didn’t flinch, but she didn’t expect him to. She ripped the dagger out and proceeded to stab him several more times, slowing with each thrust as he maintained a stoic expression until she finally stopped and dropped to her knees, letting the dagger clatter across the floor.
“Feel better?” he asked as his wounds closed over.
She said nothing, but she did look up at him in disgust before climbing to her feet. She walked past him toward the parking lot but made a point to slam her shoulder into him as she passed. He glanced back at her as she walked away, then shifted his gaze forward at Derrek as he approached him, followed by the rest of the group. There was a bandage over his facial wound, already soaked through.
“I know that wasn’t easy,” Discord said, looking at Victor and Sana as he scooped up Mila’s dagger, “especially for you two. I’m sorry you had to do that.”
“It had to be done,” Sana said, clearly trying to remain calm. “Even after everything, he was still her brother. I just hope she can find it in her heart to forgive us.”
“She will,” Discord said, turning away from them and casually walking toward the entrance. “As far as she’s concerned, y’all are her family. Don’t know how she’ll think of Havok and Jeffy, though.”
“I hope she’ll understand,” Derrek said as he followed.
“She does. But that doesn’t mean she’s OK with it.”
As the group exited the building, they finally understood the state of the hotel. The few burning windows had spread, and several floors were now wreathed in flames too bright to directly look at. The structural integrity had been compromised, as the roof was visibly sagging. The S on the neon sign was hanging by a thread and looked as though it could fall at any second. In the parking lot, they saw the fangs, Mila included, huddled around Emmett, who was now laying on the ground several feet from Jeffrey’s truck, his wounds being tended to.
Emmett and Discord briefly made eye contact before Mila stepped between them, her arms crossed tightly.
“Leave,” she sternly said.
“Just like that? Not even a goodbye hug?” Discord asked with his arms outstretched.
“This,” she said, gesturing to the scene around her, “is all your fault. I want you gone, and I want you to stay that way.”
“It’s not my fault you let Alistair live.”
Mila’s eyes turned bright yellow as she approached him, and she moved mere inches from his face, even though he towered over her.
“You should have stayed,” she said, each word chilling everyone around her to the bone, “or better yet, you should have paid an ounce of attention instead of gallivanting around the forest with a Hauch Von Tod.” She turned to Derrek and said in a much more neutral tone, “No offense, Derrek. You’ve been nothing but courteous your entire stay.”
Derrek flashed a smile but quickly faded back into the feeling of discomfort that filled the crowd.
“How the hell was I supposed to know this would happen?”
“Because you’re supposed to know everything!”
She had yelled so loud that for a brief moment, the world around these people seemed frozen in place. She took a second to compose herself, then continued.
“You’re supposed to know everything. You’re supposed to know everybody. You’re the sharpest, most capable person I’ve ever met, and you still managed to completely mess everything up.”
Discord was silent for a moment, but before he could speak, Mila took his place in the conversation.
“You made a promise when I founded the Schadenfreude. You swore to me you would be here to stop these people. You promised you’d be here to protect us, and the one time we needed you, you were nowhere to be seen.”
Discord gave out a long sigh, then handed the dagger back toward her, handle first.
“You’re right. I should’ve been here. And because I fucked that up, a lot of good people died. For whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
He wore a face of sincerity, but Mila was unfazed. She snatched the dagger from his hand, slicing his palm as she did, and sheathed it under her skirt. She turned away from him and faced what remained of her staff.
“Emmett cannot properly move in his state, so I, along with Victor and two others, will transport him to Zakopane in one of the poacher’s vehicles while the rest of you, following Sana’s lead, will move through the forest. Hopefully, the tint on the windows will give us the extra time we will need.”
“Frau Müller,” Emmett said, trying unsuccessfully to pull himself to his feet until one of the fangs assisted him. “This was not his fault.”
She looked at him with exhaustion in her eyes. “Emmett …”
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“We agreed to let him go, it isn’t fair to blame him for—”
“Choir boy.”
Emmett shifted his gaze to Discord, waiting for what he had to say.
“I screwed up, and I’ve got a price to pay. That’s just how it is. No matter how much you protest, Mila’s word is final. It’s better to accept it than to just drag it all out.”
“But—”
“But nothing. You’ve been given a command, and that’s that.”
Emmett looked at him for several more seconds, hoping for him to drop this stone-faced act, but he came to realize he wasn’t going to. He turned to Derrek and pulled out his pistol, holding it out by two fingers on the grip toward him.
“Herr Snowe, I thought you might want this back.”
Derrek was briefly surprised, as the fact he still had the gun had slipped his mind, but he quickly made his way up to Emmett and collected it, tucking it into his belt. Emmett then reached out for a handshake, which Derrek accepted. As he did, however, he heard a voice in his head.
Watch his back. He’s lost so much already. I don’t want him to lose himself. And thank you for all you tried to do.
Derrek was surprised but understood it was Emmett speaking to him, based on the way he looked at him. They released hands, and Emmett flashed a smile before turning to Mila, with the assist of the fang holding him up, and following her to the closest SUV.
They had loaded up, and Mila gave a final dirty look to Discord before peeling out, speeding down the long driveway. Sana gave the men a knowing look and a faint smile before leading the rest of the fangs into the woods, heading east, leaving the three alone in the parking lot, as the building behind them roared with flames.
“What do we do now?” Derrek asked as he and Jeffrey approached Discord.
Discord was silent as he stared into the distance, fixated on the road Mila drove down. After several seconds of this, he turned back to the men.
“You guys should probably get back to the states. I’ve got some other business to attend to, but I oughta be heading your way soon enough.”
“Seriously?” Jeffrey said, “You’re just gonna dip out on us like that?”
Discord looked away from them and reached into his coat, producing a duffle bag, which Derrek recognized as his own. He tossed it to the men, and it landed at their feet.
“You’ve got a flight to catch, and I could only get two tickets. A buddy of mine will meet you at the gate and get your truck back across the pond, free of charge. Oh, I found your gun in the elevator, so I put that in there too.”
Jeffrey stared him down until eventually realizing he wasn’t going to get anywhere. He knelt down, opened the bag, and retrieved his pistol, which he placed back into his leg. He then closed the bag and slung it over his shoulder.
“All right. But I’m gonna have some questions when you make your way over there.”
Discord smiled. “I don’t doubt it.”
Jeffrey patted him on the shoulder as he passed, making his way to the truck, tossing the bag into the truck bed before strapping himself into the driver’s seat and firing up the engine.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Derrek asked with a worried expression.
Discord put on a brave face. “I’m a lot older than I look. I’ve gotten pretty good at compartmentalizing things like this. I’ve just got some answers to find, some affairs to get in order, the works. Don’t worry about me.”
He gave a thumbs-up. Derrek didn’t quite buy it, but he could tell Discord needed some time. He opened his arms and invited him in for a hug.
Pleasantly surprised, Discord accepted and lifted him into the air in a bone-crushing bear hug, sending a shooting pain into Derrek’s stomach wound. He doubled over as soon as he was let go but quickly stood back up straight, clutching his gut.
“Oh, shit,” Discord said, noticing the blood soaked through his shirt. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. One of them just had knife after knife. It’s only a flesh wound.”
“If you say so. Just make sure it doesn’t get infected.”
The two smiled and shook hands, and Derrek followed Jeffrey’s lead, taking his place in the passenger seat as the motor ran. They gave a final look and wave to Discord, his flowing coat silhouetted against the roaring fire behind him. As they drove down the driveway, the hotel slowly disappearing in the rearview mirror, neither of them said a word, the silence only pierced by the steady hum of the engine and the sound of the tires running across the road.
The exhaustion hit Derrek all at once, and his eyelids suddenly hung heavy. Before he even realized it, he had passed out, drifting deep into a dreamless sleep.
Discord watched as they drove away, waving until they were out of sight. As soon as they were, he dropped his arm as well as the smile he wore and turned back to the burning hotel, greeted by a well-dressed silhouette with its arms crossed, facing the blaze.
“Mind explaining to me what the hell just happened?” he said as he approached the figure.
“I could ask you the same, Kahli.”
“Don’t you ‘I could ask you the same ’ me, you interdimensional asshole. I know damn well you’re behind all of this.”
The figure slowly turned its head, looking back at Discord with a pitch-black eye.
“Is that so?” he asked as he turned around, facing Discord as the flames danced behind him. “Last I checked, it was you who forced my hand.”
“Don’t give me that Lucifer-esque backdrop guilt trip, you knew one of these days I’d catch on to your bullshit.”
“Then please, enlighten me.”
“After the Sumerians fell, you told me no mortal could handle hosting the Devourer without going power-mad. Time and time again, you told me to trust you. You told me to have faith. You told me that every single one of them I put down was for the greater good. Bullshit, all of it.”
“I never lied to you.”
“I know you saw Havok. He told me about that dream of his. He can handle the power, and yet you stand there and lie to me, and then lie to me about lying to me!”
Discord got close to the figure and grabbed him by the collar of his suit jacket, and spoke sternly.
“For four thousand years, I’ve been doing your dirty work, blindly buying the line of crap you kept selling me. No more. I’m done.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Discord glared at the man. “What do you want, a written resignation? I QUIT. I even put it in all caps for you so you can get it on all your extra senses.”
“I don’t think you fully understand the position you’re in, Kahli.”
“No, I understand perfectly. I know you can’t directly interfere with mortal affairs, which is why you need poor schmucks like me to do your dance and make your moves. Now I don’t know who you picked up to tip Alistair off or how you got them to persuade Bernmore, but you’d better get it through your cosmic cranium that I’ll rip their heads off and mail them to you, wrapped in a dozen layers of tissue paper if you ever send any of them after Havok! Are we clear, desk guy?”
The man was unfazed by Discord’s threats and casually grabbed his wrists, pulling them away from his collar and proceeding to straighten his tie.
“It’s not that simple. You are bound by fate to kill the Devourer as it rises. All I’ve done is push you in the right direction.”
“Sure, keep changing the subject. I’m sure that’ll convince me.”
“The Devourer is an evil beyond mortal comprehension. No one, save for yourself, has ever faced one of its hosts and survived, let alone killed one. To let it roam free, as you’re attempting to do, is to put not only the entirety of earth but the very fabric of reality at risk. If you have any sense of what’s good for the universe, you’ll end that human’s short life.”
“Seriously, what part of ‘I quit’ don’t you get? I’m not pulling any more triggers for you, and if you send any freaks my way, I’ll make them deader than Humbaba.”
The man sighed deeply. “I see you won’t be reasoned with. Very well. Consider our work agreement terminated.”
“It’s about time.”
“But this does not mean I will simply let all you do slide. Whatever that Devourer ends up destroying, whoever it ends up killing, just remember that their blood will be on your hands.”
Discord waved his hands over himself, gesturing to his ensemble. “You’ve met me, right? Blood is nothing new to me.”
The man’s matte black eyes scanned him, eyeing him from head to toe. “So it would seem. How does it feel, then, to finally make a choice that was your own?”
“Pretty damn good, desk guy, pretty damn good.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Discord turned away from the man, as well as the towering blaze, and began walking down the path until he felt a stern hand on his shoulder.
“Before you leave, Kahli, I’d like to ask you something.”
“If it’s about the necklace, it’s still eternally attached to my neck.”
“No, not that.”
“Then shoot. I’ve gotta meet a guy about a thing in Omaha.”
“It isn’t the platinum relic, you know.”
Discord sighed. “Yeah, I know, but it looks cool. Are you gonna ask your question, or are we just gonna go back and forth with you knowing exactly what I’m trying to be vague about?”
He paused briefly and cleared his throat.
“Are we friends?”
Discord was caught off guard by this question but quickly turned around to face him.
“What does it matter?”
“I suppose it doesn’t. We’ve just had this working relationship for so long, and I realized I never bothered to ask.”
Discord paused as he composed his words, then, with as neutral a tone as he could muster, he spoke.
“You strong-armed me into becoming the only defense against the Devourer, lied to me for thousands of years, and tried to have a bunch of my friends killed, several of them successfully, as soon as I stopped following your orders. But I’ve had friends do a lot worse. If you want to call me a friend, it’s no hair off my ass. Just cut it out with the underhanded assassination attempts.”
The man smiled slightly and removed his arm from Discord’s shoulder. “I’ll do my best.”
Without saying another word, Discord turned away from the man and started walking down the road. He didn’t see as the man vanished into thin air, but he didn’t really care. He reached into his jacket, producing a small device with a long antenna, which he extended as far as it would go, and a large red button. As he pressed the button, a booming roar filled the air as the charges he placed around the building detonated and the Schadenfreude came crashing down behind him, crushing the mangled bodies that lay beneath the roof, sending tons upon tons of burning rubble into the parking lot and surrounding landscape, spreading the blaze as this, the former home to so many fangs, became nothing but a flaming heap.