Yes. There was lightning.

. . .

That’s a stupid question . . . No. The book is not very accurate. She wasn’t there. She hadn’t even been born yet. I met her while I was on a mission in London once. I think she had a thing for me . . . Yes . . . I have at times had groupies. Sensitive? Shelley’s romanticized account has been a pain in my ass ever since. Bring it up again and you’ll be digesting teeth.

With the Elixir of Life being pumped through the veins and the arcane animation of the tissues, the body returned to life. This would have only been a temporary victory—the creation of an empty shell—if I hadn’t been there to take advantage of it.

I do not like to admit it, but Cursed was stronger than I was. But like most demons, he was proud, and his pride made him stupid. I rushed in and cut him off. I possessed Dippel’s new body before he could. He was furious. He tried to follow me in. But I was there first, and I’d observed how humans withstood possession, so I pushed him out.

It turns out he has held a grudge ever since.

What was getting a body like? Hmmm . . .

Like putting on a glove made of fire.

8 Days Ago

Franks had been spending time in Washington, DC, since they’d drained the marsh to build the place. He would have preferred the swamp. However, because of his history with the city Franks knew the well and he especially knew its secrets. For two days after the attack, he had hidden in a chamber beneath the Rammage building. It was a historical landmark now, but Franks had been there when engineers had dug the secret bunker beneath it to stockpile gunpowder in case the Confederates had laid siege to the city. It had been forgotten after that war. Now it was a moist hole in the earth and his only company was the rats and spiders.

That suited him just fine.

Franks spent the time plotting and digging bullet fragments out of his body. There had been a field surgery kit inside the cache he’d left with the gnomes, so he had forceps and scalpels, but the angle made it extremely awkward to get everything out. Once the wound was clean, he had taken another hit of the Elixir of Life and it had burned his flesh pure. In the privacy of the hidden passage, Franks was free to scream as it ate through him, but he still didn’t, just on principle.