Simon Green - The Bride Wore Black Leather

“Yes, but how did it feel, John? Did it break your heart? Well, now you know how I feel. The world, the future that I gave my heart and soul to, betrayed me by not becoming what it was supposed to.”

“Wallow in self-pity on your own time,” I said. “Where’s the Lord of Thorns?”

The Sun King shrugged easily. “I had the Entities lure him away, with urgent news. Though I can’t believe anyone his age still believes in angels. Only room for one living god in this church, and that’s me.”

“But why here?” said Cathy bluntly. “Come on; you know you want to tell us. Your sort always likes to make speeches and justify yourself.”

“Girl side-kicks should be seen and not heard,” said the Sun King. “If they like having their tongues attached. But she’s right, John; I always have loved addressing an audience. Those were my happiest days, preaching in Haight-Ashbury. So why St. Jude’s? Because this particular place was here before the Nightside was here. A holy place, where Heaven touched Earth, briefly, and made a connection. This location was sacred long before someone built a church here, and made it Christian with a saint’s name. Think of St. Jude’s as a conduit, where here meets the hereafter. Where reality itself can be overwritten, by a greater power.

“I will call on the Aquarians, and they will fill me with their power, in this place where miracles happen and dreams come true. I will bring the sun here, and let the sun shine in, and it will shed its natural light over this unnatural darkness and make it what it should always have been. Sunnyside! Let us all hail the Age of Aquarius, and the soul’s true liberation! All things shall be made well, all hurts healed, and good things will happen every day.”

“You can’t do that,” I said.

He glared at me, irritated at being interrupted in midflow. “Oh, I think you’ll find I can. I must. I have to save the world. From itself, if need be.”

“You don’t understand!” I said. “You’ve never understood how important the Nightside is, just as it is! We are the last-ditch defence, against things like the Aquarians, or whatever they really are. What the good guys can’t do, we will. The Nightside is here to do whatever needs doing, to defend Humanity, and the world. Your Aquarian masters need you to destroy us, so they can invade our reality. You must see that! They’re not Entities, they’re Enemies!”

At the end I was shouting at him, but he didn’t flinch. None of it touched him. He smiled coldly, condescendingly.

“You’re so desperate now you’d say anything, anything at all to stop me, wouldn’t you? Well, tough. Here comes the Sun.”

At that moment, the shotgun blast hit him square in the chest, punching him right off his feet, and backwards over the stone altar. Blood flew on the air, and the Sun King hit the floor behind the altar. He hit it hard, and didn’t move again. And while the sound of the shotgun blast was still ringing on the close air of the church, I turned to look; and there was Shotgun Suzie, my Suzie, standing behind me. Smoke still rising from both barrels of her pump-action shotgun. She stood tall and proud in her black motorcycle leathers, my blonde-haired Valkyrie. She smiled at me.

“You didn’t really think I’d leave you to do all this on your own, did you?”

“I thought you’d never get here,” I said. Because I had to say something.

Suzie racked new shells into place and strode forward to join me, tilting the gun up and back to rest on her leather-clad shoulder. I made myself stand very still. Hope was a small and fragile thing in my heart, and I didn’t want to do anything to disturb it.

“I knew someone would be listening in on my phone,” she said, in her cool, calm voice. “It’s what I would have done. So I said what they expected me to say. And once everyone knew I was pursuing you for the bounty on your head, most of the other would-be bounty hunters quietly dropped out of the race. Rather than go up against me. I’ve been trailing you at a distance for ages, taking out anyone who looked like getting too close. You’ve no idea how many times I’ve saved your life, tonight. You didn’t even notice, did you? All caught up in the thrill of the chase. You always did need me to watch your back. And now here we are, at the end of the trail. Together again.” She cocked her head slightly to one side. “You’re being very quiet, John. You didn’t really think I’d turned against you, did you?”

“Of course not,” I lied.

Suzie looked at me, for a long moment. “It must have been very hard for you, out there on your own. All your friends turned against you. I’m glad you found Cathy.”

“More like I found him!” Cathy said cheerfully. “So you never wanted the bounty on John’s head?”

“There’s only ever been one bounty, as far as I was concerned,” said Suzie. “And that was on the Sun King. No-one messes with my man and gets away with it.”

“You are a very frightening person,” said Cathy. “Don’t know what he sees in you.”

But they were both smiling. They never doubted me for a moment. They were always better people than me.

We all stopped, and looked around, as we heard sounds of movement from behind the altar. And there was the Sun King, rising to his feet, brushing himself down in a fussy sort of way. He turned to face us and smiled, completely unharmed. His Coat of Vivid Colours had no bullet-holes in it, and no blood-stains. His gaze was very cold.

“I can’t believe he’s getting up again,” said Suzie. “I must be losing my touch.”

She stepped forward and shot him in the face with both barrels, at point-blank range. The sound was deafening, and smoke filled the air. But when it cleared, he was still standing there, untouched. He smiled at Suzie, showing his teeth, defying her. I’d always suspected that with the power of the Entities behind him, no mortal weapon could stop the Sun King. Suzie lowered her shotgun, not even bothering to rack fresh shells. Oddly, she didn’t seem that upset. She looked at me and surprised me with a quick wink.

“Good thing I brought a few friends along,” said Suzie.

Razor Eddie and Dead Boy strode into St. Jude’s as though they’d been waiting at the door all along, ready for their cue. Which they probably had been, though only Suzie could have persuaded them to go along with such a plan. (Because Razor Eddie doesn’t take orders, and Dead Boy always wants to be the first into any dangerous situation.) Razor Eddie looked uneasily about him. As far as I knew, he’d never seen the inside of St. Jude’s before. He might be the Punk God of the Straight Razor, but he was in the presence of a greater power now, and he knew it. He nodded brusquely to me.

“I would have beaten you in the cemetery if something hadn’t been messing with my head. Not my fault if my heart wasn’t really in it.” He smiled at me for a moment, then turned to glare at the Sun King. “As for you, when I decide to kill John Taylor, it will be my idea and no-one else’s.”

“Can’t take you anywhere,” said Dead Boy. He pushed in beside Eddie and smiled ruefully at me. “We would have been here sooner, but it took me a while to put myself back together again. Did you have to take me apart quite so thoroughly? You know I’ve never been any good at sewing. Still, I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know that you didn’t damage my car in the least.”

“Are you both clear in your minds towards me now?” I said, smiling despite myself. “Are we all friends again?”

“Move on,” said Razor Eddie. “I wasn’t myself.” It was as close to an apology as he could get.

“Being dead means never having to say you’re sorry,” Dead Boy said solemnly. “It was Suzie here that did it. Having her around was enough to break the influence. She is a very . . . single-minded person, and very attached to you, in her own endearing and really quite scary way.”