“No,” he huffed after several more seconds of laughter. He wiped his eyes with the back of one grubby hand. “Your job is to protect your car by any means necessary.” He smirked. “It’s the protector who wins the race more often than not.”
“Awesome,” I muttered, wishing Sam had bothered to explain this to me. “So where do we go?”
“This way,” He waved at me with his clipboard before walking off toward a door along the far wall of the structure. “Everyone else is already out there. Race starts in a few minutes.”
As we moved, I realized the parking garage was filled with tools and parts littered everywhere. A few random normal looking cars were parked here and there, and I realized this must be where they got the cars ready to go.
I had another few seconds to ponder that before we arrived at the door. The dwarf slid his hand over a sensor and it opened, revealing bright sunlight that made me shield my eyes.
“There’s only a few cars for this race because Mammon’s team is racing.” The dwarf shrugged. “They almost always win, so most of the others bowed out.”
“This gets better and better,” I said as he led me through the doorway. I could hear the crowd now, roaring with delight as an announcer gave an overview of the race in a way I couldn’t quite make out over their cheering. It sounded like he was interviewing someone, but I couldn’t tell who over the din.
Either way, after a few moments we exited onto a stretch of pavement. Only three other people were standing in the small, chain-linked cage the dwarf led me toward.
One was one of those ogre people, one was a pteranodon, and the other was one of the bikers. A quick glance at the starting line revealed a trike led by occupants similar to the ones in the cage. Sam’s trike stood at the end, and I was surprised to see all the trikes were equally crappy.
“Do you guys supply the racing trikes?” I asked as the dwarf opened the door to the cage and gestured for me to enter.
“Yeah, to ensure fairness. Otherwise the rich guys always win.” He grinned as I stepped through. “I mean, they still win ‘cause they cheat better, but yeah.” He shut the door. “The appearance of fairness and what not. Makes the betting better.”
He walked away then, leaving me standing there in a room with a dinosaur, an ogre, and a horned biker. Fucking awesome.
24
“Hey,” I said, waving to the three monsters as they looked me up and down.
“Never seen you around here before, pal,” the biker said, taking a step toward me. Without thinking, I drew my Glock and put a bullet between his big stupid eyes. The back of his skull blew out in a crimson spray that splattered across the pteranodon and the ogre.
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” I said, holding the gun casually in front of me as the biker collapsed to the ground. It might have been silly, but it was strangely satisfying to shoot something and actually have it die for once. “And I don’t much like the cut of your jib.”
The pteranodon began to laugh as the biker’s body began to slowly fade away, dissolving into an amorphous black sludge and leaving the three of us standing in the cage. Well, that was new, but then again, I’d never actually looked at the bodies of those I’d killed. Maybe this happened to all of them?
“That’s gonna suck for Joe. Reprocessing is gonna be a bitch.” The ogre shook his head as he went back to staring out of the cage. Several meters away the trikes were lining up on a track filled with jets of fire, broken glass, and axe-like pendulums.
“Yeah,” the pteranodon replied, still looking at me in a way that made it clear my gun didn’t bother him much. It made sense, since I’d seen bullets bounce off the creatures before. “His trike’s as good as lost.”
“How about we just let them race?” I offered as I holstered my piece because I wanted my hands free in case something crazy that couldn’t be solved with bullets happened. Yeah, it was hard for me to believe it was possible too.
“How about I punch you in the stomach so hard, your head shoots off your shoulders and goes flying off into the crowd?” the ogre replied, still not looking at me. “I make good money doing this, and I’ve got a reputation to keep.”
“Fair enough,” I said, moving up to the big lug. I didn’t get the sense he actually wanted to hurt me. No, indifference filled the air around him like a cloud. I was sure that’d change once the race started, but for the moment, I wasn’t too worried.
“You know Mammon is gonna win, right?” the pteranodon said from behind me. The urge to turn around and look at him was incredible, but I resisted it so I could survey the trikes. It was a little weird because I could tell he was looking at me curiously. “He owns the guy who monitors the obstacles on the track.”
That didn’t bode well, but then again, there were four trikes. Maybe the others would stop Mammon? It actually didn’t seem that unlikely. Anyone down there would know he’d be the guy to take out. After all, while two of the trikes down there were just as shitty as Sam’s trike was, the last one was bright pink and quite a bit better looking than the others in that it didn’t seem to be held together by duct tape and chewing gum.
“Mammon is not going to win,” the ogre replied, glancing back at the dinosaur. “Dante’s only got one more win, and I’m damned sure going to make sure he gets it.” He smirked. “I’ll be able to triple my price if I’ve got a pardon under my belt.”
“You’re certainly welcome to try,” the dinosaur said, boredom filling his voice as he paced back and forth inside the cage. “But at the end of the day, even if you beat Mammon, you still lose.”
“Why is that?” I asked, tearing my eyes from the pink trike in the center. I wasn’t sure how I was going to stop that one, but I was hoping the ogre would help me. After all, I was willing to bet he’d be way more concerned with Mammon since Dante only needed one more win.
“He’s the Prince of Greed. He doesn’t like to lose.” The pteranodon grinned, doing that weird beak thing that gave me the heebie jeebies. “You do the math.”
“So he holds a grudge?” I asked, somehow not surprised. I’d hoped to get out of here and never see Mammon again, but deep down I knew the two of us would one day have a reckoning. I also wasn’t dumb enough to think that when he came at me for real, he wouldn’t have a plan in place.
The ogre laughed so loud, it actually hurt my ear drums. Huge chuckles spilled from his lips as he finally turned to regard me, tears in his eyes as he slapped his thighs. “Grudge would be a huge understatement.” He guffawed again as the announcer came over the speaker.
I couldn’t understand what he said, mostly because it was in that grating demonic speech that tore at my eardrums. My temples began to throb as I covered my eardrums. Thankfully, it ended after a few moments, and as I leaned on the bars of our cage, I found the ogre looking at me.
He rubbed his chin with one huge hand. “You’re the live one, huh?” he asked, and I got the feeling there was a good reason for the answer.
“Yeah,” I said, shaking my head in an effort to get the cobwebs out. It just made my skull pound more, so I was clearly an idiot.
“Figured.” He sidled closer, glancing at the pteranodon, who was watching us both with beady eyes. “I’ll make you a deal.”
“What kind of deal?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” His grin widened, right before he spun and decked the pteranodon. The creature fell backward against the cage, and as it did, a bullhorn exploded behind us. The trikes took off in a squeal of rubber as the cage began to open.
Dante’s trike surged ahead, and as it did, he twisted hard, veering right into Mammon’s trike. As the back of his bumper caught the nose of the pink trike, Sam hit his brake and threw his own trike into a slide, causing the front of it to slam into Mammon’s back end. As that happened, Jenna leaned out and tossed a grenade into Mammon’s trike
The pink trike spun in a shriek of tortured steel as both Dante and Sam tore free of the wreckage, ripping it in
half moments before the grenade exploded, sending shrapnel flying in every direction. As that happened, the ogre went flying past me. He slammed into the asphalt a few feet from me, and I spun to see the pteranodon, readying to leap into the air.
I wasn’t sure what his game plan was, but obviously Sam and Dante had worked something out or the ogre wouldn’t have helped us.
“Ignis!” I cried, calling upon my power and flinging a fistful of fire at the dinosaur. It caught him in the chest and blew him backward off the platform screeching.
The smell of burnt meat hit my nose, moments before the bird came rocketing up through the air past the platform. It was smoking, and its chest looked charbroiled, but since it was flying like nothing had happened, I was guessing it hadn’t actually hurt the creature much.
“Get him before he reaches the cannons!” the ogre cried from behind me, and I craned my head up to see what he was talking about. A huge ion cannon straight out of Star Wars was mounted to a post high above, and unless you were a world class pole climber, I was pretty sure only flying was getting you up there.
“Necto!” I cried, pointing my hand at the cannon as the pteranodon landed lightly on the platform and grabbed ahold of it. My thin tendril of energy hit the front of the cannon, jerking it free of the dinosaur’s grip.
It glared down at me, and then hocked a loogie in my general direction. I ignored it and called upon my power. The tendril of magic ripped me forward like I was fucking Batman. Only my shoulder hurt a hell of a lot more from the maneuver.
My body crashed into the cannon as the dinosaur tried to fire. A burst of green plasma lit up the night sky, missing the trikes by a mile. I released my magical hold on the cannon and used my upward momentum to dropkick the dinosaur in the face. It tumbled backward off the platform, and as it did, the ogre leapt through the air, grabbing it around the neck and slamming it down into the pavement.
Guess he really didn’t like the pteranodon. Either way, I was going to take advantage of the situation. Far below, I could see Dante racing neck and neck with Mammon’s sputtering trike far behind them. Only, there was a problem. The other trike was way ahead. A smirk crossed my lips. Well, I could deal with that.
I spared a quick glance at the ogre-dinosaur MMA match below before grabbing the cannon and looking through the sights. I pointed it at the far trike, waited half a second for it to lock on, and fired.
The blast sailed through the air, and as it did, a gelatinous orb rippled out of the lead trike in a puff of amber smoke. My plasma bolt hit the orb and erupted into a geyser of flame that lit the whole track up like a Fourth of July spectacular.
The turret on the back of the trike swiveled toward me and fired, shooting bolts of sapphire energy at me. I had half a second to throw myself from the platform before it turned into a flaming slag heap. I careened toward the ground, and as I did, I twisted my body toward the starting gate and reached out my hand.
“Necto!” I cried. The tendril shot forth and struck the top of the gate, immediately stopping my descent with a bone-shuddering screech inside my shoulder. Spots flashed across my eyes as my thread of energy began to unravel. A profound emptiness struck me, and as it did, my blackened arm turned white as snow, and I fell the last several feet to the ground.
I landed hard on my back, and as I lay there trying to remember how to breathe, the ogre stepped up to me. He was so huge, he seemed to block out the sky. Worse, the look on his face told me the truth. Our alliance was over. Fuck. I needed to do something, but at the moment, I could barely breathe.
“It’s nothing personal, bub,” the ogre said and raised one huge boot into the air.
25
I rolled sideways, narrowly avoiding the ogre’s boot as it slammed down next to me with enough force to crack the pavement. He grunted in frustration, eyes narrowing on me as he shifted his weight to kick me with his other foot.
As he reared back to punt me like a football, I reached out and grabbed his leg and called on what remained of my magic. “Sorbeo!”
My tattoos exploded to life as a surge of energy ripped from the ogre and filled me up. It rampaged through my veins like Red bull-infused Espresso. A scream of agony tore from the ogre as his muscled leg withered beneath my touch, and his mottled skin sloughed off of him like bits of gelatinous goo.
As my own arm darkened back to its black as coal luster, the ogre collapsed into writhing heap on the floor. From within its massive body, a thin wiry arm burst forth from its torso like a macabre butterfly pulling itself free of a cocoon.
“What the fuck?” I cried, scrambling backward on my hands as a guy who reminded me of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory pulled himself free of the ogre and glared at me.
“Did you seriously suck all my Hellion magic out?” he snarled, leaping to his feet even though he was naked and covered in slime. He took an angry, menacing step toward me. “Do you know how much that shit cost?”
“Wait, you mean to tell me all this crazy bullshit was something you paid to have done?” I replied, still too shocked by what I’d just seen to properly comprehend it. “You guys are just augmenting yourselves?”
“Yes!” He held out his hand to me. “Now give it back!”
As he said it, I realized I could do that. The feel of his power was unlike any I’d stolen before, and I’d sucked hardcore demons dry. Wow that sounded better when I first thought it. Either way, I realized I could give it back, but unfortunately, that wouldn’t help me stop that lead trike. It also seemed like a stupid thing to do since he’d tried to stomp a mud hole in my ass. Call me crazy, but I wasn’t exactly feeling terribly charitable at the moment.
I rubbed my thumb over the spot where the ring I’d been given had been and knew if I wanted to get back home, I’d have to keep it.
“Sorry,” I said, getting to my feet and looking past him toward the track. Sam and Dante were catching up to the lead trike, but I could tell there was no way they’d be able to pass it up in time to win. They were too far away, and the finish line was coming up too quickly. Fuck!
I couldn’t let that happen. If Sam lost, we wouldn’t be able to get home. The absolute last thing I wanted was to be stuck in Hell! No, I needed to do something, and as I watched the lead trike pull closer to the finish line, a crazy, desperate idea took hold in my brain. Fuck it. You only live once, right?
“Sorry?” he asked, taking a step toward me. From the way his hands were tightened into fists, I knew he was about to attack me. Couldn’t have that.
“Yeah, I’ve got shit to do!” I reached out my right hand toward the lead trike. “Necto!”
My vision went hazy and spots danced across my vision as magic surged forth from my hand in a way that was unlike how it’d ever worked before. Green tinged the edge of the flames wreathed around the tendril of power that shot forth from my palm. My heart hammered in my chest. My lungs heaved as the thin web of power smacked into the trike moments before I was pulled from my feet.
I slid across the pavement and agony filled every space inside of me as my clothes were instantly shredded, but I shut that shit down and pulled on the tendril. My body lifted from the ground as I whipped forward across the track so quickly my stomach fell into my toes. My eyes stung from the speed as I whipped past Sam and Dante and smashed into the back of the lead trike with so much force, the whole thing rocked up onto its left wheel.
It went into a skid as I clung to the top of it and drew my Glock. I pointed the weapon through the back window as the driver turned to look at me.
“Maya?” I asked as time seemed to stop. Her eyes widened at the sight of me.
“Mac, what the fuck are you doing here?” Maya’s voice was a high-pitched blur of noise as wind whipped around me.
“I came to save you!” I lied, only it wasn’t a lie. Now that I’d seen her, there was no way I was leaving her down here. After all, it really was my fault Maya was dead. I’d literally killed her when I’d used my power to stop her mid-flight after she’d gotten
thrown off a billboard high above the city. Unfortunately, I’d pulled a Spider-man on Gwen Stacy and snapped her fucking neck like a complete idiot.
It’d been so devastating, I’d nearly gotten myself killed when her mom came seeking vengeance. Now though… now, I had a chance to save her for real! I had to at least try to do it even though I knew at the end of the day it might not matter. After all, she really was dead, and maybe it was just me being selfish or stupid for thinking I could change things, but I knew if I didn’t, I’d never forgive myself.
“Mac, you can’t save me. I’m already dead!” she cried, shaking her head as she spun the wheel of her trike hard. Her trike shifted, squealing on the pavement before taking off in a cloud of choking black smoke. “No one can bring the dead back to life!”
“Jesus did it,” I said, making a show of not pointing my gun at her. “I need you to stop and trust me.”
“Mac…” she said right before she gunned the trike. We were so close to the finish line I was going to have to shoot her if she didn’t stop. Only, I wasn’t sure I could do that. After all, it was my fault she was dead, wasn’t it?
“Please don’t make me shoot you, Maya. My team has to win, or I’ll be stuck here.” It hurt to say the words, and as they left my lips, my vision clouded with tears. I could shoot her, but it’d cost something I’d never get back, and I really wanted to keep that small part of me. I mean, I’d throw it away to get Jenna and I out of Hell, but I’d think back to this moment for the rest of my life, and no amount of whiskey and distance would change what I knew myself to be deep down. A fucking monster. “Please.”
“Fuck you, Mac!” Maya said, glancing back at me, and I could see tears in her eyes. “How could you do this? It’s my only chance to get out of Hell.”
I wasn’t sure if she was right about it being her only chance, but I sort of believed it. After all, it’d been nigh impossible for us to get this far, and Maya had been down here doing God knows what by herself. The thought made me pause. Sam had talked about the Hell forges. He’d said it was dangerous… but maybe.
Hellbound: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Thrice Cursed Mage Book 6) Page 14