Ersatz Read online

  ***

  I flexed my fingers. Feeling was returning to my arms and the rest of my body.

  My arm… what is that?

  I was still in a daze from the sedatives they filled me with. A blue wire ran down the length of my right arm and disappeared into my palm beside an artery. It seemed to come directly from my band, and it was almost invisible if I turned my hand over.

  Is this even my hand? I feel… different.

  “The surgery’s complete. How do you feel, Mister Forres—ah, I forgot. We can’t keep calling you that.” Augustus stood behind a woman in dark scrubs and a face mask. She pulled off her gloves, handed him a clipboard and walked to the sink at the back of the room. I was on an operating room table, lights still pouring over every inch of my body, so she must have done the procedure herself. The room seemed clean enough, nothing too shifty for an underground organization, but I still had my concerns. Then the sedatives weighed my eyelids down again, and I stopped caring.

  “Now that you’ve technically died, we can’t keep using your living name.” Augustus flipped to the second sheet on the clipboard. “Since a taser is what did you in and your Reaper’s name begins with ‘E,’ how about… Ersatz?”

  I inhaled. Held the air in my lungs. The wind escaped as I repeated the name to myself. “Ersatz. German?”

  “Call it a happy coincidence, or an unhappy one. Typical nomenclature at Saints dictates the use of the first letter in the Reaper’s name. We can change it if you want.”

  “Ersatz. Ersatz. Malcolm. Ersatz.” The name was different, but nothing I couldn’t get used to. I shook my head. “It’s fine. I’ll take it.” I flexed my fingers again. Stretched my whole arm. The wire curved and shifted like it was part of my skin. “What is this thing?”

  “Black Bands tend to do well with weapons that their bodies remember. Retractable blades for stabbing victims, compression blasts for bombing victims, that sort of thing. Tragically, your body has an acute recollection of electricity, so we’ve implanted you with a souped-up stun gun of sorts. It actually uses a small battery to function, but its strength can be augmented with your astral levels.”

  “Augmented?”

  The woman in the back tossed her mask in the garbage and sauntered across the room to shake my hand.

  “Mirella Wexler. I performed the procedure, so if you have any questions about the technology, feel free to ask me.”

  “Ersatz—”

  “I know your name.” She glared at Augustus. “Anyway, the default setting is around the same voltage that killed you, so you can use it like a taser at close range. A charge at level one is enough to flash fry a sixteen-pound turkey, so be careful with that.”

  I was laughing in my mind, but my doped-up muscles only allowed for a dopey chuckle. “How high does it go?”

  She sucked her teeth and glanced at Augustus, who shrugged in return. “That really depends on what your body can handle. At charge two, your astral should give you enough of a boost to carry both the speed and power of a thunderbolt. Beyond that… well, I’d love to hear the results.”

  “Don’t get carried away.” Augustus put the clipboard down and shoved his hands into his pockets. “You may not express it, but I saw that look in your eyes. Know your body’s limits before you try to exceed them.”

  “Fine, fine. So what’s my first mission?”

  “That’s actually my domain as well,” Mirella said. “Augustus here is all about new recruits, but the rest of your training will be under me.”

  Heh. I nodded again. Her aura was bright orange, though I didn’t know what that meant at the time. I wish Augustus had done more to warn me.

  “Your first mission is to get some rest,” she continued. “We’ll resume training in the evening. I can’t give you a real target until we see how you perform in a controlled environment.”

  I’ve got lightning in the palm of my hand. I clenched my fist tighter. Just try and stop me.

  ERSATZ is one of several short stories intended to flesh out the urban fantasy universe of Devil Have Mercy. For more details on other shorts, please visit www.DevilHaveMercy.com, or follow the author’s Twitter: @Michael_Horton_.

  Find out what Michael Horton is working on at his blog:

  www.mhortonbooks.blogspot.com

  Enjoy the author’s other titles wherever ebooks are sold!

  Hypocrite (Devil Have Mercy, Book 1)

  Heretic (Devil Have Mercy, Book 2)

  IRIS (A Devil Have Mercy Side Story)

  The Jerk

  James Eldritch and the Day Something Happened

  James Eldritch and the Misogynistic Ghost

  In His Shadow

  Into Thin Eyr

  Eyr Apparent