by T. F. Walsh
Bending his legs to his chest, he rammed his heels into the front windshield. The whole car was shaking, smoking, struggling. Levi refused to go down with the demon.
Another kick. The glass groaned. Again and again. Still nothing. He smashed the hilt of the knife against the windshield and a tiny crack snaked. His fingers and toes had frosted, his heart pounded too fast.
He hit the window again, but his strength wavered.
Once, he had read that death by drowning was peaceful. Just take that first intake of water into his lungs, and the rest of the pain would fade away. So tempting to put the anguish behind him, to stop the buzz in his head as asphyxia took hold.
Outside the car, the inky water swirled around the car as if swimmers did laps. It couldn’t be. His mind was dying. He was dying. That wasn’t how he imagined his last moment on earth. Alone and silent. But fighting was too hard and surrendering to his agony appeared easier.
He had so many unfinished goals. His final thought floated to Cary along with regret he’d never be able to spend his life with her.
Chapter 15
A loud bang resonated. Cary’s eyes snapped open as the front door to Levi’s hotel room clicked shut. The last thing she remembered was Levi mounted on top of her, driving her insane with another orgasm, but then she must have fallen asleep.
Now she lay alone in his bed, and Levi most likely gone out on his own most to hunt. While that pissed her off, she understood his motivation. Destroying demons was priority.
But she wasn’t going to sit around while he was out there alone fighting. The speck wasn’t a pushover and Levi shouldn’t battle the fiend alone. Plus, she needed a stone to impress Brent. Two birds. One stone. She laughed at her own pun.
After climbing out of bed and getting dressed, she bolted outside, and flagged a cab outside the hotel. “Follow the grunting sound of the motorbike. Go right.” She sat in the back, winding down her window, listening. A couple of blocks away, she came to a dead-end street, when she spotted Levi’s bike parked behind a tree. “Stop here,” she called out to the driver and got out of the car.
“That’s ten bucks.”
“Oh, right.” She pulled out her wallet and plucked one of the few remaining notes, staring at the money. She should have asked the hotel to drive her, but the damage was done. She handed over the money and rushed through the warped gates of the property. Her stomach churned with unease. The doors to the building lay smashed open. Shards of wood remained attached to the entrance, resembling an open mouth with fangs. She raced past bolt cutters discarded on the ground and a backpack she recognized as Levi’s. He’d better not have done something stupid. The guy would throw himself into a pit of danger without a second thought.
Inside the building, the room was still. Too silent. No sign of the car or Levi. She glanced behind her. Had they left the place? She would have seen them.
She hurried toward the pool, her body trembling at what she might find. A dark shadow lay beneath the water. A few steps from the edge, she found the Corvette at the bottom, and every hair on her body stood on end.
Dread iced her veins as she scanned the room, peering into the shadows. She was alone all right.
“Levi? Are you here?” She’d intended for her words to sound strong, piercing. Instead they came out pleading, begging for Levi to answer.
A distorted reality slowly came into focus. Levi wasn’t responding, but no way would he leave the building without his bike? A terrifying thought hit her: was he in the car, underwater, drowning?
Shit.
With her boots kicked off, she took a deep inhale and dove into the water, praying to whatever higher power listened to keep Levi save. For those first few seconds, she expected her body to start boiling from the salt, but aside from a wicked sting across her flesh, she’d survive.
Through the side window of the car, she spotted a dark figure inside. Levi!
Her heart slammed against her sternum. She pressed her hands to the door and peered closer. Levi, twitching, had his eyes wide open, staring ahead.
The moment seemed to freeze in time. Like her bleak, evil thoughts, picturing her father’s death dozens of times, the moment smothered her in grief.
She banged into the glass. Levi didn’t appear to hear. Her fingers grappled with the handle. Locked. She’d need something stronger than her fist to break the window. Hold on, Levi.
At once, the car came to life, groaning, wheels spinning in place. A flurry of waves and air bubbles surrounded her. Still alive. Fucking demon.
She kicked to the surface, filled her starved lungs, and scrambled out of the water. Her wet clothes clung to her limbs. She darted to the gate and seized the bolt cutters. She pressed Levi’s lasso into her back pocket—it could burn a hole through her hand, she didn’t care. The pain paled in comparison to Levi dying.
With a long inhale, she leapt back into the pool, the salty water clawing at her flesh. Near the car, she cast the lasso and wrapped the loop around the car’s side mirror. She pulled. Her body shuddered, and a crushing pain from a headache pounded through her skull.
Inside the car, Levi’s head hung forward, his chin tucked into his chest, his body floating. No! Her mouth opened with his name at the front of her mind. Her thoughts were a ticking bomb. No, please don’t be dead.
The car jerked on the spot, its black frame shivering as if ready to detonate. Wheels spun and the Corvette traveled across the bottom of the pool back and forth, in slow motion.
She tossed the handle onto the hood and swam in of the front windshield. All the while her head throbbed like a toothache in her skull. With all her strength, she whacked the metal part of the bolt cutters into the glass. The car shook and kept driving in sudden jerky movements, so she held onto the wipers with one hand. Another strike and a spider crack spread across the glass pane.
On her next hit, not only did the glass shatter, but a black cloud exploded around her.
Moths floated around her. The car lights flatlined. Fucker was dead.
She wouldn’t let Levi end the same way. With her foot, she pushed away the glass around the window frame, creating a larger hole in the windshield. She reached in and snatched Levi’s shirt. Please hold on. Please don’t leave me. She tugged him out, head first. Kicking her legs hard, she hauled him to the surface.
Her head burst free, and she gulped for breath. Levi slumped against her, not breathing, his face blue.
She dragged him up the steps and lay him flat on his back near the pool. “Levi, listen to my voice. Don’t you dare go anywhere.” With two hands pushed down on the middle of his chest, she pumped up and down.
“Don’t you fucking leave me.” She blew air into his mouth. She never felt so alone, so lost.
She thumped a fist into his chest. “You bastard…” She cradled his head into her arms, her eyes flooded with tears. Her thoughts consumed with memories of his kisses, the way he took her into his home, how much he cared. She’d fallen for him, and of course, she shouldn’t, but she had. Her heart was in her mouth, hoping for a miracle, expecting Levi’s eyes to open and make a smart-ass comment. Instead, he lay there. She wiped her eyes, refusing to accept his fate.
She thrust her hands against his chest again.
Her insides bled, but on her next pump, a gurgling sound came from Levi. He choked, water spraying from his mouth.
Warmth squeezed her ribcage, her breaths froze in time. “Levi?”
She turned him on his side, tilting his chin upward. He vomited the water he’d swallowed.
A giddiness filled Cary. “You’re alive.”
After a few minutes of letting him clear his lungs, she helped him roll onto his back. A look of bewilderment caught his expression, the bridge of his nose creased. “Cary?”
She cupped the side of his face. “Don’t you ever pull a stunt like that again.”
He smirked, then broke into another coughing fit.
Her muscles quivered. She kissed his face repeatedly, and kept l
aughing while her tears fell. Yet her mind kept filling with images of Levi floating unconscious in the locked car. She’d never be able to stop picturing him that way. What if she hadn’t snuck out after him? What if she never chased the roar of his bike a few blocks from the hotel? What if… Stop it.
“I thought you were dead.” Her words shook, and Levi simply smiled at her admitting her feelings. “Scared the hell out of me.” That was an understatement. But the car had been exorcised, and she’d saved Levi.
With that thought, she pulled back, because there was one last element still unresolved. “I’ll be back in a sec.”
She turned to the water and jumped in, ready to gain the black stone to secure her a job at Argos. Soon, she’d have steady employment, and Levi was going to be okay. Yep, now the day was better.
Once out of the water, she stuffed the demon stone into her wet pocket.
She stared at Levi, still unable to believe how close he’d come to dying. “Might need to take you to the hospital.”
Sirens rang out in the distance. Cops.
“Nah, I’m good.” He climbed to his feet and staggered. “Damn, I’m thirsty.”
“That’s the salt water you swallowed. Makes you dehydrated. We need to get clean water into your system.” She closed the distance with a few steps. Picking up her boots with one hand, she wove an arm around Levi. “Time to go.”
He halted and twisted toward the pool. “The speck. Need to finish it.”
“Already taken care of. We need to leave.”
He didn’t respond at first.
She walked beside him, though her limbs moved as if someone else controlled them. “Next time, tell someone where you’ll be. Ask for backup. Something. You can’t be this reckless.”
“Yeah. For sure.” No defensive words, arguing, nothing. “You’re right.”
His shoulders curled forward, shadows gathering beneath his eyes, and his body trembled as if reality hit. Shit, she’d be freaked out too if death had come for her. Trapped in the car, waiting for the end… She shook away the images.
Trying to lighten the mood, she gave him a squeeze. “A hot shower and lots of water will do wonders.”
He glanced at her. His cheeks remained pale and his lips were a white line. “I owe you my life.”
A response refused to come to Cary because she wasn’t sure she could live with herself if Levi had drowned today. And saving someone’s life isn’t something to be owed. It was a moment to be cherished. She wasn’t a hero, but damn, she never should have fallen asleep after sex because tonight’s call was too close. Plus, Levi was stupid for taking down such a strong speck demon alone. But none of that mattered. Not when above everything else, she wanted to take Levi into her arms and keep him safe.
Chapter 16
Darkness clouded Levi’s vision and something heavy weighed on his chest. Each breath shallow. His arms flayed outward for escape. No walls. No furniture. Nothing. Just blackness. A scream pressed on the back of his throat as a sharp sting tore through his body.
His eyes snapped open to a bright light, and his empty lungs gasped for air. Sweat ran down the sides of his face. He glanced around the room, noting he was in bed in his hotel room. What a nightmare. Then, the reality of the previous night’s events rolled into his mind. The Corvette. Him dragged into the pool. He could have sworn his end was in sight and he’d meet his maker. Even now, his heart thumped beneath his ribcage at how close he came.
Cary saved him. He wished it could have been him who threw that final blow to the demon. The relief of the scum gone from the world was a gift in itself, and even better it had been Cary who helped.
Deep exhales sounded from across the bed. Cary was curled on her side, wrapped up in the entire sheet, fast asleep, her eyelids twitching. Lost in a dream.
Never in his life had he relied on anyone else, but without her aid, he’d be dust. In that moment, he could lay there for hours and watch how peacefully she slept, study the way her lower lip protruded out during sleep.
He swung his legs over the edge of the mattress and sat there, his head hanging low. Last night, after a shower and drinking a gallon of water, he’d crashed, and Cary joined him. Just having her lying alongside him brought him a calmness he hadn’t felt in a long while. Now he twisted around and glanced at her over his shoulder.
How did he luck out and get someone so incredible in his life?
He pushed himself to his feet, still wearing his sweatpants. Clothes were strewn on the floor around the bed. Black coffee would be perfect right now to clear the fog in his head. Tiptoeing across the room, he stepped on something hard. “Sweet, Jesus.”
He hopped back and lifted his foot. Cary’s jeans? He picked up the pants and something fell out of a pocket. A black demon stone tumbled across the carpeted floor.
Must be from the Corvette. Not only had Cary saved him, she’d taken the stone for him. Damn, yeah, she was a keeper. About time things went his way. He picked up the rock off the floor and clenched his fingers around its cold surface. The moment he handed it over to Brent, he’d tell the guy to go screw himself, then Levi was taking Cary to where he lived—Ann Arbor. He’d find her a safer job and give them a proper chance at being together. While last night should have scared the crap out of him, the near-death situation left him more determined than ever to take down as many demons as possible before his time was up.
While Cary slept in bed, he didn’t have it in him to wake her. Besides, it made perfect sense for him to get the shit with Brent out of the way. Then he’d bring back a boxful of pastries, fresh coffee, and rouse his minx with a kiss. Maybe more.
Might be early, but he knew where Brent lived and wasn’t beyond turning up on his doorstep. No time to waste. He studied the stone, tossed it into the air, and caught the black rock as he hurried out of the room. Today was a new start.
By the time he reached the Argos warehouse, his excitement levels were off the charts. After calling Brent, he’d discovered the guy was already at work, which suited Levi. He was ready to cut ties.
“Take a seat.” Brent lounged in his chair, wearing a smug smile. His hair was slicked back, and even at seven a.m. the guy wore his stupid pin-striped suit. Clearly, casual gear wasn’t a word in his vocabulary.
Voices floated into the office from within the warehouse where several hunters trained.
“I’m fine standing.” Nothing would ruin Levi’s day, and he rolled the black stone across the table toward Brent. “There’s the Corvette demon stone. Go get it checked out and you’ll see it’s a speck from last night. Cary helped.” Levi ran a hand through his hair, unable to stop the smile pulling his lips apart. “My end of our bargain is complete. You got the stone and now you’ll drop the charges. We part ways.”
Brent licked his lips, staring at the rock, and placed his interlaced hands on the table. “I heard about the mess at the local pool. Figured you had something to do with it.”
“Who gives a fuck?” He leaned forward and seized the stone, then slammed it on the desk, inches from Brent’s hand. “I got you what you wanted, and the speck is vanquished. That was our agreement.”
Brent picked up the rock, studying the object as if he was intrigued. Bullshit. “To show you I am a man of my word,” Brent said, “I won’t press charges against you.” His gaze lifted, yet something shifted behind his eyes. “But you still owe me for the damages.”
Levi’s posture stiffened, and his hands clenched. Suck it up, man. Money wasn’t a problem and if it got Brent off his back, then he’d swallow his pride and get it done. The farther he got from Argos, the better his life.
“I’ll write you a check now. How much?”
Brent pocketed the stone and ran a hand across his mouth, taking his time to respond.
Levi’s muscles twitched, but he didn’t move from his spot, just speared his soon-to-be ex-boss with a glare.
“No,” Brent said. “You’ll pay off your dues through demon catches for Argos. Ten percent of al
l your hit money will go toward reducing your debt.”
Levi’s body trembled with the urgency to shove his fist into Brent’s face. “Listen. As I said before. You and this job can go fuck yourselves. I’ve completed my end of our bargain, and you’ll drop the charges. I will pay you for damages and this ends now.” He hadn’t remembered moving, but the front of his thighs pressed against the edge of the table as he leaned closer, staring down at Brent from across the desk.
The guy didn’t even flinch. He sat in his chair as if he were chatting with a pal at a bar. “You will work for me on a contract basis until you pay off your debt. Simple.”
Levi gritted his teeth. “You seem to be having problems hearing me. This isn’t happening.” No way was he going to let Brent own him. He’d pay him double in cash to get away from the guy and his company.
Brent pulled open the drawer to his desk, took out a piece of paper, and slid it across the table.
On it was a photo. Levi snatched it off the table. The moment his brain made sense of the image, a rattle shook him at the core. “Are those my dog tags?” He stared at the silver badges on a matching chain, sitting inside a wooden box. The same trinket he’d bought when he visited Bali a few years back, but that wasn’t the issue. The dog tags belonged to his buddy, Marcos, who got them from his father. After Levi’s friend died at the hands of a demon, Levi claimed them as a token of his friendship and what he’d lost. His whole apartment could burn down, but not the tags.
“How the hell did you get them?” Levi had told a few people at Argos about the sentimental connection to the tags, but he should have known better. The place was a wicked gossip vine.
Wild fire catapulted through Levi’s veins and rage blurred his vision momentarily. “You broke into my place?” He rounded the table, his hands clenched.
Brent didn’t even recoil, but remained with hands folded across his chest. “A little guarantee to make sure you pay off what you owe by working for me. Shouldn’t be too hard for a great hunter like you.” The patronizing tone of his voice did nothing to calm Levi’s volcanic pulse.