twice cursed mage 05 - claimed

by J. A. Cipriano

  “So what?” I said, and as I did, I tried to ignore her point. My demon, like the imprint, was the elephant in the room. She’d been able to take hold of me several times now, and what’s more, she’d killed people who seemed like they would get in her way without a second thought. What if she felt Ricky was getting in the way? What would happen then?

  “This is where you tell me, I should leave so I don’t get hurt, huh?” she asked, looking up at me and her eyes were filled with unshed tears. “I’d like to say ‘no,’ to say I wouldn’t do it, but truth be told, I know that’s the smart play. Staying with you is going to hurt in a way I don’t think I can survive, but even knowing that, I’m willing to try.” She shut her eyes. “If you tell me to go, I’ll go. I’ll hate you until time ends, but I’ll go because we’re doomed. I know that.” A tear spilled down her cheek. “Only, I still want to try. Knowing all of that, I still want to be with you, Mac. Imprint or not. Demon or not. Does that make me a fool?”

  Instead of responding, I kissed her, pulling her body into me. It was kind of weird given that we were surrounded by the wreckage of the junkyard, but then again, I hadn’t seen her in what felt like forever.

  Her fingers dug into my back as our lips mashed together. I was just glad to have her back, and if that meant we had to make out while our enemies were strewn around us in bloody heaps, well, weirder shit had happened. I mean, it wasn’t like we were fucking on top of their corpses or anything.

  As her nails raked down my back, her phone started ringing. It was a little odd since I hadn’t really expected her to have it, and well, mood.

  She broke off and stared down at the blood-smeared pocket of her blue jeans in disbelief. “I haven’t had signal since I came to this godforsaken hellhole.” She fished it out of her pocket, and a picture of her brother Bobby blazed on the screen. Man, I was really starting to hate that guy.

  “Yeah, so why did you come here?” I asked as she hit the answer button and put the phone to her ear. Admittedly, it sort of pissed me off. After all, the last time she’d gotten a phone call following a harrowing escape from demonic forces she’d fucking ditched me for shifter business. Guess I wasn’t as over that as I thought.

  “Bobby?” she asked the phone, while completely ignoring me. Someone on the other end of the phone spoke, and Ricky’s face drew into a tight knot of agitation. Then she held the phone out in front of her and punched the speaker button with one finger.

  “Hey, Mac. How are things?” Sargent asked through the phone’s tiny speaker.

  “Sargent?” I asked like a complete dumbass.

  “I’m good. Thanks for asking.” He paused for a moment as if to build suspense before continuing on. “So, while I have you on the phone, I feel like you could help me out with a pickle I’m in. See, I have this shifter, and I keep shooting him, but he doesn’t die. What do you suggest I do?” The way he asked made my blood run cold because I knew Sargent wouldn’t hesitate to kill Bobby. No, if he was calling than this was a trap plain and simple, and the sad thing was, there was no way we wouldn’t walk right into it.

  “If you hurt my brother, I will fucking kill you!” Ricky snarled into the phone, her green eyes filling with amber as she spoke.

  “Patience love. There’s plenty of time for that, and by plenty of time, I mean not a lot because once I run out of these bullets I’m going to be forced to move to the silver ones, and if I reckon right, those won’t heal up quite so easily.”

  “How do I know you actually have Bobby?” I asked even though I was pretty sure Sargent wasn’t the type of guy who would bluff. Guys like him tended to follow through on what they said. It’s what made them so fucking scary.

  “That is an excellent point.” The phone grew quiet for a moment. “Say something, boy. Your sister and her beau are waiting.”

  “Ricky, don’t come for me. There’s like fifty guys here and most of the pack is down. I’m not sure what kind of ammo they’re using, but it dropped almost everyone in a shot,” Bobby cried into the phone as quickly as possible as though he expected to get cut off at any moment.

  “See, does that sound like dear old, Brother Bobby?” Sargent asked when he was done, and I heard the smirk in his voice. “Go on, son. Tell ‘em we’re at the corner of Madison and Sixth in the abandoned cold storage building. Oops, did I do that? Oh well.”

  “If you hurt even a hair on my brother’s head—”

  Ricky’s threat was cut off by a gunshot.

  “Hmm, how quickly do head wounds heal?” Sargent asked. “Anyone?”

  “I’ll be there,” I said as Ricky gasped so hard the sound made my heart twist into a painful ball of agony. I knew Bobby would be more or less fine because Sargent wanted me to come to him. If he was dead, I wouldn’t. Still, his terms were fine because I wanted to find him. Hey, sometimes everyone gets what they want.

  “Good. We’ll be waiting, Mac.” Sargent clicked off the phone and the silence of it stretched between Ricky and I like a living, breathing thing. Still, something about the way he’d said we bugged me. I got the distinct impression he wasn’t referring to the guards with him. No, I definitely felt like he meant someone in particular. Someone like Jenna. Fuck.

  “We’ll get him back,” I said, and as I reached out to comfort my girlfriend, she pushed my arm away and took a step backward.

  “Mac, did you bring these fuckers here?” she asked, staring at me so hard I tried to squirm away. “That girl who shot you said something about the council of seven, and I’m guessing these jackasses are them. I’m not quite positive because I made it about a block from the hospital when a bunch of dick hats rammed my car off the road. I woke up here, but I’m guessing it’s all connected to the girl who shot you. Mac, who is she?”

  “My ex-girlfriend,” I said, and because I didn’t want to get into it with Ricky right now, I stepped past her and made my way toward the exit. I wasn’t sure how Jack was doing, but I wanted to check on him before I went after Bobby.

  “Your ex-girlfriend is one of the seven?” Ricky asked, and the edge in her voice would have scared me if I was a lesser man. “And she’s here to kill you?”

  As her words filled my ears, worry and guilt threatened to drown me. Why? Because I didn’t want to give her cause for jealousy even though I knew she might have a good reason for it. I mean, I wanted to kill Jenna for what she’d done, but at the same time, everything that had happened to me was my fault for failing to protect her, and it would be a lie to say I didn’t want to avenge what had happened to her, but I couldn’t tell Ricky that.

  Sure, she’d understand, but given my relationship with the demon bound to me, I wasn’t sure pushing her away wouldn’t be the best thing for her. I was damaged in a way beyond reckoning and when I went down, well, let’s just say I was going to take a lot of people with me. I really didn’t want Ricky to be one of those people.

  “What can I say, breakups are a bitch.”

  Chapter 26

  “What do we do about Jack?” I asked as I shoved the desiccated vampire into the back of the extended cab.

  “Man, fuck Jack,” Ricky said, thumping her hand on the steering wheel impatiently.

  “I’m not sure how that will help unless there’s some kind of Cursed sexual healing thing I’m unaware of,” I replied, glancing at her as I shut the back door. “Besides, I don’t really swing that way.”

  She shot me a sidelong glare that let me know her patience was dangerously close to the limit. “He’s a vampire. Once he gets some blood, he’ll be fit as a fiddle and twice as fucking annoying.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Although not as annoying as you currently are.”

  Ricky slammed the car into gear, and not for the first time, I wondered why she got to drive. I mean, okay, she knew the way there, had supernatural reflexes, and I didn’t like to drive, but then again I was the man. Wasn’t I supposed to drive? Still, I was all about giving women what they wanted.

  “Won’t we want his help?” I asked, glanc
ing back at the vampire. He didn’t look very good.

  “Look, Mac. Your ex-girlfriend’s buddy has my brother and is taking potshots at him for fun. I’m going after him right now. You of all people should understand that.” The sad thing was, she had a point. I did understand that. Only, let’s be fair. My way of doing things hadn’t exactly been super effective. I was a hammer and so everything looked like a nail. Ricky was supposed to be the rational one in this relationship, which yes, is particularly sad because she was a red-headed werewolf spitfire, but yeah.

  “I do understand,” I said trying to talk sense into her. As I spoke, I realized I was totally unsuited for it. Before I could follow up that statement, she turned on the radio. “Hungry like the Wolf” by Duran Duran blasted over the speakers, and as it did, Ricky snarled loud enough to make me want to hide in the back of the cab with Jack, or you know what, the bed of the truck seemed fine too. Hell, I could walk.

  “Of all the fucking songs,” she snapped and changed the station.

  “I’m not sure this is better,” I replied as One Direction’s “Wolves” blared from the radio.

  “I hate this fucking thing,” she said and violently shut it off. The silence between us stretched to fill the whole of the cab as she wove through the streets like a goddamned maniac.

  “This reminds me of the time Jet’s ‘Cold Hard Bitch’ came on the radio while I was in the car. I hate that song with a passion and tried to change the channel, but every other station was playing commercials so I just wound up turning off the radio, much to Jenna’s annoyance since she was driving.” I smacked my hands on my thighs. “I know, I know. The passenger shouldn’t fuck with the radio, but that song is just terrible.”

  “Who’s Jenna?” Ricky asked, and I immediately wished I hadn’t said a fucking word.

  “Jenna would be the ex-girlfriend who is the member of the seven,” I mumbled pointlessly because my current girlfriend who may or may not have imprinted on me with extreme jealousy, was a werewolf and in addition to having the ability to turn into a snarling rage beast, also had excellent hearing.

  “So tell me more about this Jenna,” she said, keeping her eyes fixed on the road as horns blared around us. The light ahead turned red and Ricky didn’t so much as slow down, eliciting a very annoyed flash from the camera at the intersection. I guess it was a good thing Jack hadn’t gotten his plates after all. Then again, the photo would show Rick’s glaring face. Assuming they did mail it to him, Jack could totally be like “nuh uh, I totally don’t know that crazy bitch.”

  “Like what?” I asked, and then went with the truth because I didn’t want to lie to her. “I really don’t remember much about her.”

  “Like how to fucking kill her, since evidently, I can’t do it and you can,” Ricky snapped and turned her eyes on me as she swung the car into a skid around an old lady in a wheelchair like some kind of drifting street racer. “Or is that going to be a problem?”

  “I promised Mammon I’d kill her,” I said, breaking eye contact and staring outside because part of me didn’t want to kill her, especially since I felt partially responsible for being in the position she was in. It didn’t help that I still had the feeling if Jenna wanted me dead, I’d fucking be dead. She could have shot me in the head so easily it wasn’t funny. Instead, she’d shot me in the gut in front of a fucking hospital, practically guaranteeing I’d survive. It didn’t make sense.

  “Like that fucking matters, Mac. You’re the type of guy who’d just kill Mammon if you decided Jenna needed to live and that asshole wouldn’t back down. So I ask again. Will you kill her?” Ricky wasn’t looking at me, and it was a good thing because I wouldn’t have been able to meet her eyes.

  “I don’t know.” As I said the words her shoulders slumped.

  “Okay,” she replied, but her voice had deflated a little. “Well, when it comes time, just stay of my way, okay?” Her grip tightened dangerously on the wheel. “I may not be able to kill her but encasing her in cement and dropping her in the middle of the ocean works just as well.”

  “It seems like it would,” I said, shutting my eyes and staring at the ceiling of the truck. As it stood, my demon seemed to have a vested interest in killing these fuckers. Granted, it seemed like she did it just when they were about to reveal who she was, but still. It was weird. Unless, of course, she was hiding something from me. But that was the thing. What would she be hiding from me?

  Presumably, I had sought her out and made a deal with her, and only lost my memory as a side effect to the deal. Or so she said. What if it’d been a lie? Still, thinking back to our talks, I didn’t get the impression she’d been lying to me. She didn’t seem like the type if only because she didn’t strike me as the type to care what I thought. No, the cat held all the cards, and she knew it. Still, something was up, and one way or another, the cat was going to get out of the bag.

  That said, right now didn’t seem like the best time to go pissing off my demon by demanding answers. If I did, I risked having her not help me at a pivotal event. Then I’d get my ass incinerated and spend my life getting ass-raped by a demon with fishhooks on his dick. That didn’t sound exactly pleasant.

  “We’re here,” Ricky said as we pulled to a stop under a broken streetlight. The street we were on was completely deserted, probably because every building on the block looked to have been condemned. It struck me as one of those places that had built like crazy thinking they’d have tenants out the wazoo during some kind of industrial boom, but when the boom had crashed found themselves up to their eyeballs in debt as client after client bailed.

  “Looks inviting,” I said, eyeing the building. It had a bunch of overgrown hedges out front and while two of the windows were boarded up, the third one was just an empty maw of broken glass. Darkness seemed to emanate from the structure, and something about it gave me a bad feeling I couldn’t explain. And no, it wasn’t because crags of crabgrass stuck up from between the cracked cobblestones. That was just extra. No, it was mostly due to the creepy statues lining the walkway and filling the long forgotten remains of the flower beds.

  “Yeah,” she said, unfastening her seatbelt and throwing the car door open. She leapt onto the pavement with a crunch and started toward the entrance. “Next time we have to track down someone from your past, can we do it in a theme park or somewhere with pie?”

  “I’ll try my best, but I doubt I pissed off Mickey Mouse or his pastry chef,” I said, following her out of the car. Admittedly, I felt bad about leaving Jack in the car and was half-tempted to turn on the AC or crack the windows, but it wasn’t like he was a dog or a baby. He was a vampire, he’d be fine. Probably. I mean, the only thing I knew about vampires was that they were good at pool. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but either way, I had no idea if they could get heatstroke.

  Ricky glanced at me as I stepped up next to her on the sidewalk in front of the building. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen when you confront your girlfriend, but I trust you, Mac. If something seems weird, I’ll follow your lead, okay?” She tapped her forehead. “I’m imprinted on you. That’s for keeps.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I replied as a wave of relief crashed over me. I wasn’t sure what would happen when Ricky and Jenna actually met face to face after everything, but it was good to know, she would let me handle business my way. I couldn’t have asked for a better girlfriend, so what did I do? I smacked her on the ass because I hadn’t actually gotten to do that yet. It was everything I thought it’d be and more. “And not just because you’re an eleven out of ten smoking hottie.”

  “Even though I have braces?” she asked, looking at me, and I got the feeling it was a serious question.

  “Especially because you have braces,” I said and leaned in to kiss her. Alas, it was not to be because her fucking phone started ringing again. Man, that thing needed a long dip in a deep pool.

  “Seriously?” she growled, jerking it out of her pocket. Bobby’s picture smile
d up at her from the device, and without a second thought she hit the speaker button. “Hello?”

  Instead of a response, the sound of gunfire exploded from the device. It was weird because I heard it coming from both the phone and from the building. I wasn’t sure if it’d been on purpose but as people yelled in the background, I started to wonder if we’d gotten butt dialed.

  “Bobby?” Ricky asked as I stepped past the broken gate and onto the walkway leading toward the building. I fingered my Desert Eagle as I did so, but I didn’t draw it in case someone drove by and saw us. Then again, what would it matter? At worst, they’d call the cops who would storm the place and, well, probably get shot full of holes by Sargent. I couldn’t let that happen, even if I wasn’t super fond of cops.

  Bobby burst from the window on the third floor in a way that made me think he’d jumped through it. As he fell, I saw Jenna appear in the frame, her rifle aimed down at him. As she sighted on him, I whipped out the Deagle and fired in her general direction.

  The bullets crashed into the frame before she could fire, and she pulled back inside, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before she found another window to pop me from. Assuming she did.

  Bobby crashed into the brown lawn with the audible crunch of broken bones and fell flat on his face. His femur had punched through his skin, but he ignored it as he crawled toward us.

  “Bobby!” Ricky cried, rushing toward him, but before she reached him the statues filling the grounds around us launched themselves at the three of us. The sound of stone on flesh as the first one kicked Bobby in the ribs and sent him flying into the wall of the building filled my ears, but I’d fought more than enough gargoyles by now.

  Instead of running away, I called upon my magic and charged forward. I leapt onto the first one and smashed my right fist into its face. “Ignis!” Hellfire exploded from my knuckles like I was the Iron Fist. Flame punched a hole straight through its rocky face, and as the creature fell backward in a heap, I leapt off of it and dove over the canyon.