persona, that he'd honestly forgotten he still had it on. And as he hesitated, I stepped slightly to one side to get the full force of the wind blowing behind me, and threw the handful of pepper I'd sneaked out of my coat pocket into Walker's face. The wind blasted the vicious stuff into his eyes and up his nose, and he cried out in shock and pain before sneezing convulsively. He staggered backwards, sneezing so hard it shook his whole body, while tears streamed down his face. It was the easiest thing in the world for me to step forward and snatch the circlet out of his hand, then step quickly back out of reach.
Being the tough old bird he was, Walker quickly had control of himself again. He glared at me through puffed-up eyes.
'You bastard, John! You bastard… You and your damned tricks!'
'Keep it simple,' I said. 'You taught me that, remember?'
'You don't know how to work the device!'
'I don't want it,' I said, slipping it inside my coat. 'Now, after everything I've heard, what am I to do with you? You were going to walk around in my body, killing Suzie and Cathy and Alex and Eddie, and everyone else who knew me; to keep yourself safe. You were going to walk up and down the Nightside, with my face and my reputation, dispensing your own idea of justice. Undoing everything I ever achieved and believed in. Could there be any greater betrayal?'
'Oh, grow up, John,' said Walker. He had his old calm back again, but his voice was flat and cold. 'I do what needs doing. Always have done. What are you going to do?'
'Well, first, I'm going to try and get this time-travel device back to where it belongs. It's far too dangerous, and too tempting a thing, to have here.'
'And then? What will you do, John, to the man who always tried to be a father to you?'
'I've never had much luck with fathers,' I said. 'Probably why I've always done my best to go my own way.'
Walker sighed, looked out over the Nightside, then back at me. He smiled briefly. 'We always knew it would come to this; didn't we, John? That eventually one of us would have to kill the other.'
'You always were a closet drama queen, Walker. It doesn't have to end like this.'
'Yes, it does.'
I thought about it for a while and nodded slowly. 'Yes; it does. You crossed the line.'
'Two good men and true, who never could agree to disagree. And here we are, at the end of a very long road, standing on the edge of the pit. How very Nightside. So, what's it to be? My secret weapons against yours?'
'No,' I said. 'For all you've done, and for all that you meant to do, I'm going to beat you to death with my bare hands.'
'Excellent,' said Walker. 'Wouldn't have it any other way.'
I moved forward, and Walker came to meet me, drawing his long, narrow sword from where it lay hidden inside his umbrella. He threw the shell away, and I stopped abruptly. Walker smiled widely as he swept the long blade back and forth.
'Did I mention I was captain of the school fencing team? I had this lined with silver, John, just for you. No werewolf blood regenerations for you this time. My enemies stay dead.'
'Good-bye, Walker,' I said.
We went for each other like fighting dogs, as angry and vicious as only two old friends can be. I was young and fast and strong, but he had his blade, and his expertise, and a lifetime's hard-earned tricks and tactics. He stabbed and cut at me with his sword, and I evaded it, forcing my way closer. Again and again I went for him, and every time he drove me back, with blood streaming from cuts that wouldn't close. He cut chunks out of my reaching hands, and hacked at my arms when I lifted them to defend my throat or breast. Soon enough my white trench coat was soaked with blood. I was almost too angry to feel the pain, and what I did feel drove me on. I wasn't fighting for myself, but for Suzie, and for all my friends who would inevitably die at Walker's hands. At my hands, driven by his will. I thought of Suzie; and the blood and the pain didn't matter a damn.
We stamped back and forth on the edge of the pit, with me fighting to get to Walker, and him fighting to hold me off. But in the end, I was willing to die to bring him down, and he… was dying. He stumbled, just briefly, as he mistimed a lunge, and I hit him in the head. His foot turned under him, and he fell suddenly sideways into the pit. He reached out instinctively to me for help, and just as instinctively I lunged forward to grab his hand. But it was too late.
Walker fell into the pit. I knelt at the side, reaching helplessly after him. He didn't scream, didn't cry out, and in a moment he was gone. Nothing left but the darkness. I called after him, but there was no reply. He was gone. Swallowed up at last, by the dark.
ELEVEN
Bringing Them All Back Home I sat on the edge of the pit, my legs dangling over the impenetrable darkness. The cold wind was still blowing, ruffling my hair and striking tears from my eyes. I watched blood drops slowly form on the bottom edge of my trench coat, then fall into the pit. I felt tired, and hurt, and strangely numb. As though a major part of my life was finally over. For good or for bad, Walker had always been there in the background, defining my life by my resistance to everything he stood for. He protected me and threatened me, but he never once ignored me, like my father did. I could always depend on Walker… to be Walker. I'd gone out walking earlier in the night because I was unsure about my life, and now I had just destroyed the one sure thing in it. I'd wanted change, and now I had it. You should always be careful of wishing for things in the Nightside because you never know who might be listening. There was the slightest of sounds to my left, and when I looked around, there was Hadleigh, standing next to me.
'Hello, John. You look like shit.'
'How the hell did you get here?'
He shrugged. 'There are short cuts in reality if you know where to look.'
'How did you know I was here?'
'I know what I need to know when I need to know it'
'That answer is getting really irritating.'
'I know.' He looked thoughtfully down into the pit, leaning dangerously far over. 'So Walker's really gone, then?'
'Yes.' I studied him thoughtfully. 'Did you know this was going to happen?'
'Not as such. The future's not set in stone; there are many possible futures. Which one we end up in depends on the decisions we make. And you and Walker have always been very difficult to predict. You're hurt, John. Allow me.'
He took a firm hold on my shoulder, and a sudden shock ran through me, like a bucket of cold water thrown right in my soul. I gasped, and the pain was gone; and I knew without having to check that all my wounds had been healed, all damage repaired. I scrambled up onto my feet, suddenly full of energy. Hadleigh chuckled briefly.
'You see, I'm not only here for the bad things in life.'
I arched my back and stretched my arms, relishing the freedom from pain and tiredness. I didn't feel numb any more. I felt like kicking the whole damned world in the arse and making it take notice. I gave Hadleigh one of my best hard looks.
'What did you do to me? I'm not used to feeling this good. It feels… strange.'
'Let's just say I jump-started you. The technicalities would only upset you.'
'What is your job, exactly, Detective Inspectre?'
'I could tell you,' said Hadleigh. 'But then I'd have to haunt you. Some secrets cannot be revealed because the burden is not mine to share. To put it simply, I walk between life and death, the better to deal with crimes against reality itself. Because somebody has to.'
I looked down at my once-white trench coat, now tattered and torn and soaked with drying blood. I looked at Hadleigh. 'Could you…?'
