Chapter Forty-Four

One Final Encounter

The early morning spring sunlight began to filter in through the wheelhouse windows as the sun rose from the ocean beyond the house. Daniel sat at his desk, going over his final plans to confront and finally defeat a demon.

He'd stirred up the living room fire and left his wife sleeping on the couch as he returned to the top of the house. Soon it would be time to do battle with George Turner and despite his assurances to Carolyn, he had no plans of putting his beloved in harm's way.

Daniel lifted his frowning gaze from his plans when he heard the telephone ringing and wondered who could be calling at this time of the morning. Then the strident summons stopped as the call was answered.

He put it out of his mind. There were more important issues to be discussed and there was too little time left if they were the keep the element of surprise.

"May damnation take Turner's blasted eternal soul…" Lucius frowned at the sheathed knife lying on the wheelhouse desk. "I must say it looks harmless enough. I'm amazed you got the old Bey to part with it. That old boy clung to it like a leach for years. He'd thought to be buried with it."

"I managed to persuade him it was worth his while to allow me to take it. In the end, he had no choice. I beat him fair and square at his own beloved game."

Lucius shrugged as he frowned at his friend. "How will we do this?" he demanded to know, clamping his teeth around the final remnant of his cigar. "I mean, how will we get the drop on the demon before he knows we're there?"

"The demon's out there somewhere, beyond the spirit screen. I can feel him moving about," Daniel replied, stubbing out his own cigar in the ashtray. "Soon his impatience will overpower his hesitation to attack. Then he will make his move, so we must get out ahead of him while we still can. You remember what we discussed?"

"I remember…" Lucius reached to run a questing fingertip along the sharkskin sheath. "This is an amazing weapon. I wouldn't mind having it in my collection."

"Turner will see that I possess it and it will be the worse for him if he tries to interfere with us ever again. We will send him scuttling back to his master with his blasted tail well tucked between his legs."

Lucius grimaced as he looked up. "Personally, I would still rather run it through him and send him back where he belongs on a more permanent basis. Then he bothers no one ever again."

Daniel shook his head. "A very tempting idea. But I think not. If it hadn't been for the demon's interference in my spirit life in the first place, I wouldn't be here now with as much as I have. A family and a pregnant wife. It's more than I ever thought to have in any life. For that fact, I do owe him a small boon. A very small one."

"Fair enough, I suppose." Lucius shrugged. "But I still don't like it. Turner's too devious to ever be trusted to play fair. Next time he may bring along some of his nasty friends to play his little demon games. I still say he should be sent away for good. Then you will all be safe."

Before Daniel could reply the wheelhouse door opened and Carolyn walked in. Her hands were clasped together and her expression held a mixture of concern and anger. She nodded to Lucius when he stood from his chair to bow to her courteously.

"Good morning, Mrs Gregg."

"Good morning, Captain," she replied, crossing the floor to her husband's side. "I woke up and you were gone. I worried you'd decided to confront Turner without me. You know I don't want that. And nothing you can say will change my mind. I'm going with you."

"As stubborn as you are beautiful…" Daniel whispered with a regretful shake of his head as he put aside his quill pen.

"He's full of concern for your welfare," Lucius added quickly. "This is not a fight for a woman. You need to stay here and allow us to handle it."

Carolyn turned her critical green eyes on him, looking him up and down. "I'm sorry, Captain Beaumont. But when I need your opinion I will ask for it. I am going with my husband and that's the end of it."

"Fair enough…" Lucius raised both hands in appeasement, dropping back into his chair.

He reached to light a fresh cigar, quickly wreathing his head in fragrant smoke. "Sometimes I do wonder at these new times we've found ourselves in."

He shrugged, settling deeper into his chair. "Women knew their place back in our time," he muttered quietly.

Daniel rose from behind the desk. "I'm sorry, my love. But I cannot risk your safety in this dangerous encounter. There's too much at stake. I must do this alone. It will only embolden Turner if he sees you with me."

He softened his refusal by walking up to her and drawing her into his close embrace. Carolyn accepted him for a moment then pushed back against him with two hands on his chest.

She shook her head. "I knew you would try to go on without me. But, I think it's already too late to catch Turner unprepared. He's gotten out ahead of you, it seems."

"Tell me…" Daniel urged, looking down at her. "What do you know?"

Carolyn's lips compressed. "I worried for Madame Tibaldi's safety and you reassured me she would come to no harm."

She shook her head. "But we forgot about poor Claymore."

She turned her head and waved one hand helplessly toward the open door. "He phoned just now to say Turner's in his office and he's waiting for us both. He said he will hurt him badly if we don't go right now. He was terrified."

"Blast!" Daniel struck a nearby piece of furniture with his closed fist. "I'd forgotten about Claymore. Turner is more devious than we thought. He has found the only one outside the protection of the spirit screen."

"He has the cunning and wily guile of all those of his kind," Lucius stood up, to stub out his cigar. "What are your orders, Captain Gregg?"

"Confront a demon and send him back to where he came from." Daniel turned away to pick up the knife and tuck it into his belt. "Claymore will not survive long in the demon's uncaring hands. He's not strong enough to weather such an intense storm."

Carolyn took his hand between his own. "Then we'd better not leave him waiting. And yes, I am coming with you. There's no more time left for you to try and argue me out of it."

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Claymore sat behind his desk watching the demon walking back and forward before his desk with wide, frightened eyes. He'd been rudely awakened from his slumbers and ordered to telephone Gull Cottage immediately to tell of the entity's plans for him if Daniel did not comply with his demands.

Claymore quailed inwardly as he watched his assailant stalk across the room and back impatiently. The prominent red horns growing from the demon's temples were the first things Claymore saw when he opened his eyes after being rudely shaken from his slumbers. He'd nearly fainted away from sheer fright at the sight that met his confused gaze.

He shivered with fear. He wanted to be brave but he couldn't force his body to uncurl from its cringing position deep in his desk chair. He'd made himself as small as possible, hoping to avoid being targeted anew.

"I don't know what you want with me," he muttered miserably, adjusting his glasses. "I've done nothing to you. Why are you here?"

"I care nothing for your worthless hide," Turner replied sharply, his black eyes filled with disgust. "You're a means to an end. If you keep your mouth shut you may yet survive. It's your relative whose company I seek. That and his woman."

"I telephoned the house like you told me to. They're coming. Carolyn said so. Why can't I just leave you to your reunion?" Claymore bleated miserably. "I won't tell a single soul."

He pressed two trembling fingers to his right temple. "Scout's honour."

He brightened. "I have a lot of money. I… could pay you to leave me alone."

"Keep your ill-gotten gains," Turner snapped, glaring at him. "What's money to me? I should've removed your double-dealing, cowardly soul years ago. But I have a legion or more just like you. I have no use for any of your kind. You're not worth my time."

Claymore cringed lower in his chair. "If it's all the same to you then, I'll keep my soul. I still have a use for it."

He gasped as he turned his eyes toward the front door, seeing it opening. He breathed a long sigh of relief as he watched his great-uncle walk in with his wife close behind him.

"Oh, thank God…" he whispered brokenly before he fainted dead away, sliding off his chair and falling into a heap beneath the concealment of his desk.

Turner waved a disgusted hand toward him. "The rest of your family seems to have been woven from a very weak material, Gregg. The miserable wretch has done nothing but bleat at me. I was about to smite him where he sat just to shut up his babbling. He was giving me a headache."

"Claymore's never been known for his courage," Daniel replied evenly. "But he is not for the likes of you, demon. He has his uses for me."

"You couldn't get to us. So you decided to pick on a poor, defenceless man for your own ends." Carolyn frowned at him. "It's just like the coward you are."

"If you'd only agree to give me what I want, then I will happily leave the rest of your puny relatives in peace." Turner frowned at her with intense dislike.

He turned to Daniel. "Surely you must know that you've breached the terms of the agreement we made. My master's not at all pleased."

"I know no such thing," Daniel replied as he crossed the room, keeping Carolyn close to his side with his body between her and Turner. "Your master is not a party to any of this. The pact we made stands and it always will."

The demon's disgruntled gaze followed him, his dark eyes glittering behind his heavy-framed spectacles. "I really was looking forward to visiting you in that swinging penthouse with its eleven fireplaces and collection of beautiful young ladies all vying for your masculine attentions. We would have all of eternity to get to know each other really, really well."

"That confounded temptation has never worked and you know it," Daniel replied harshly. "You've tried it before. There was our battle off Tenerife and then again when I sailed from Port-O-Prince. You never won then and you will never win this time. I have more now than you could ever promise me in a million years."

"Such pathetic human gratification is so fleeting and soon gone," Turner sneered. "I'm promising you an eternity filled with all manner of earthly pleasures."

"As nothing more than your blasted slave." Daniel bent quickly to check on Claymore. He sighed with relief to find him breathing and unharmed.

"We're not here to bargain with you," Carolyn told Turner starkly. "You'd do better to go on your way while you still can."

"Oh ho, do you allow your woman to speak for you?" Turner demanded of Daniel loftily. "I would muzzle her if I were you. She's starting to annoy me."

Daniel straightened. "Thankfully you're not me. And never will be. My wife is free to express her own opinions. And we happen to agree on this one. You are a worthless, pathetic wretch who needs to learn his place."

"Do not attempt to provoke me!" Turner snarled.

He grimaced and moderated his tone. "It won't work. Come with me now, quietly and without making a fuss and I will allow your precious world to go on unmolested. It's the best I can offer."

"That's very generous of you, indeed." Daniel laid his hand on the hilt of the magical knife concealed beneath his waistband. "But we're here to settle the score between us once and for all. You will agree to leave us in peace and you will never return."

Turner regarded him suspiciously. "What are you about that you think you may speak so boldly to me?"

He raised a hand toward Carolyn, spreading his fingers wide. "I could strike her down where she stands. She's your ultimate weakness, your beautiful Achilles heel."

He smiled. "For all your much-vaunted powers, even you would not be quick to prevent me from taking my revenge."

"You snivelling, base demon!" Daniel drew the knife from its sheath in one fluid movement. "This will stop you!"

The daylight flashed along the razor edge as the knife whickered eagerly in flight and the sound of a faint humming began to fill the room. Daniel quickly placed himself between Carolyn and Turner to shield her from his threat.

"Where did you find that!" Turner spat, his whole demeanour changing to baffled chagrin. "You have no right to it! Put it away!"

"You've presumed to interfere where you have no business," Daniel told him, weaving a figure-eight pattern with the knife. "Your boss and I made a binding pact between us. He does not interfere with us and he will leave us alone."

He pointed the tip of the knife at his opponent. "It was you who broke it, not I. Now you will leave me and mine alone. That's the only bargain I will make with you. For now and always."

"You've grown over-large in your opinion of yourself," Turner complained, recovering from his shock quickly enough to begin moving stealthily sideways. "And your abilities to protect what's yours."

He looked from Carolyn to Claymore and back again. "You can only save one of them and I should make you choose. But I already know which one you truly care for."

He pointed with his chin toward the hapless Claymore. "You will not miss that sad sack of useless humanity. I will take his pathetic soul in payment and you will thank me for it. I cannot return empty-handed. You must allow me that much, at least."

He raised his hand again, this time toward Claymore's sprawled body. "He may not be much, but he's better than nothing."

"You will not touch him!" Daniel shouted, raising the knife in defiance.

Turner snarled at him, turning at bay. He spread both arms wide and hissed his defiance, suddenly launching himself at Daniel, seemingly intent on getting beyond him to attack Carolyn.

The next moments were filled with confusion and shouting. Lucius materialised beside Daniel. He reached out to snatch the knife from his friend's outstretched hand and drove it deep into Turner's unprotected side as he lunged forward.

The demon screamed his outrage, clutching at his side as he stumbled backwards. He was still spitting his outrage when a single crack of lightning flashed and a vertical split opened up in the air behind him. Something dark and menacing within reached out to engulf him in flames. Turner suddenly vanished in a flash of light as if he had never been.

The powerful stench of burning sulphur filled the air, making Carolyn cough. The unsheathed knife clattered to the floor.

"What just happened?" Carolyn asked after she managed to regain her breath.

"Turner was never going to give up," Lucius told her with a shrug. "Your husband and I talked about this last night. The demon would come back and back until he finally got what he wanted."

He shrugged. "Your husband thought he owed him a very small boon for making him human again. I owed that blasted demon nothing. Not even my time."

Daniel nodded. "We finally agreed this was the only sure way to be finally rid of Turner for good. But it could not be at my hand."

"But where did he go?" Carolyn asked as she knelt down beside the recumbent Claymore, patting his hand and smoothing his brow with a concerned hand.

"Back where he belongs to face the wrath of his master," her husband told her, bending to pick up the knife and sheathing it. "Turner will fall all the way to the lowest level of the devil's displeasure. He will never be allowed to come this way again."

Lucius shrugged. "I know that's exactly what he so richly deserved."

"It all seems too surreal…" Carolyn frowned as Claymore stirred and opened his eyes. "Is it truly over? Are we finally free?"

"Free from the likes of Turner, yes." Daniel sighed as he tucked the knife back beneath his waistband. "Free from all such who may seek to harm us. As long as we retain ownership of the knife none will dare to come near us. Word will soon spread."

He reached down to assist a groggy Claymore to his feet with a hand beneath his arm. "But does that mean we are finally free from the attentions of your family?"

He shook his head. "Now there is an entirely different set of thorny problems."

His lips thinned with bleak humour. "Unfortunately the knife possesses no powers over the living."

Carolyn huffed a laugh as she shook her head. She helped a groggy Claymore to settle himself back in his chair. "Then we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it."

Her husband groaned as he took her in his arms, resting his chin on the top of her head and holding her close. "All we can hope for is that it won't be too soon. We've earned the right to have some peace."

※※※※※

Carolyn sighed as she nestled deeper into the comforting shelter of her husband's arms. Though they both lay exhausted in their bed, neither of them felt like sleeping. The day had been too filled with drama and an unexpected but welcome conclusion.

"I cannot truly believe it's finally over," Carolyn whispered, tracing the lines of firm muscle across her husband's chest with one forefinger. "After all this time and all we have been through."

"Believe it because it's true," Daniel counselled softly.

"Yes…" Carolyn drew circles around the hollow at the base of his throat until he caught her hand and held it.

"As soon as the weather improves we should take a holiday. Get away from it all."

"We have a new manuscript we need to get finished before we go anywhere. The children will have a week's holiday off school in April. Will that be long enough?"

"We'll just have to make it so..." Daniel whispered, drawing her slowly up along his naked body to kiss her with lingering intent.

"Where could we all go?" Carolyn asked when she'd caught her breath and could speak again.

"I think we both know the perfect place," her husband reassured her. "It's about time I checked in on Elroy to make sure he's not slacking off in his duties. It has been a long time since I last visited."

"Spirit Island it is, then." Carolyn smiled. "I think it's a wonderful idea. You've just read my mind."

"Oh, did I?"

"Yes. Tell me what I'm thinking now," she teased, running her hand down over the curve of his hip to the muscular hardness of his thigh.

"You're thinking the very same thing as I am…" Daniel caressed the line of her throat with his lips. "That we're wasting time talking when we could be doing other, more important things while we still can…"

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