by Tes Hilaire
Maybe she does. Maybe this is what she was warning you about.
The beast growled, not liking the path of his thoughts. He shut it down. Focus on the present. Get Mia. Then they could re-evaluate. He’d know awfully quickly if there was anything there based on how fast she ran after.
No run. Mine!
“Mike?”
He looked over at her, her brow drawn in concern.
“Sorry.” He pointed to his head. “Just some monkeys, you know?” Or rather one big obstinate beast.
She nodded, clearing her throat. “You’re going to want to get off on Gun Hill Road. Then we can hop over to Bainbridge and find a place to park.”
“And where are we going once we get there?” he asked. She’d been sketchy on the details, though he admitted he hadn’t bothered to ask much until he’d realized they weren’t heading to the area of town where they’d first met.
“Subway entrance at Norwood.”
“The subway,” he deadpanned.
She shrugged. “It’s the easiest way into hell that I know of.”
And wasn’t that the truth, though he doubted the standard human metaphor for the subway being hell was what she meant in this case.
“This is awfully far from the alley we met in,” he said, pulling off onto Gun Hill.
She nodded. “Easy is a relative term. I can get in, but he’ll know the moment I cross the line, unless I can slip through behind someone else. Most of his minions are too attuned to their surroundings to hope I can shadow them undetected.”
“So how were you hoping to get in?”
“The men you, uh…”
Dismembered, destroyed, devoured… “Killed?”
She swallowed but nodded. “I had caught sight of a couple of those men at work the other day. I’d hoped a human, even a tainted one, wouldn’t be able to notice me. So I set out to track them, hoping they’d eventually report in directly or to someone I could trail.”
Mike’s jaw tightened, thinking of those men ogling her as she stripped for them. Was it just him or did the day have a distinctive hazy cast to it all of a sudden?
“How did you find them that night?” he managed to ask, surprised at how calm he sounded.
She shrugged. “They had a pretty distinct signature. I had planned to go to, uh, work and see if they showed again, but I sensed them before I hit the bus stop and trailed them to that alley. And the rest, as they say, is history.”
“So I killed what you thought might be your only chance of sneaking in to hell.”
“Basically, yeah.”
He turned onto Bainbridge, sighted a spot halfway down the avenue. “And then I kidnapped you, took advantage of you, and then dragged you like an offering to a handful of Paladin who are supposed to kill you on sight.”
Her lip quirked up wryly. “You do know how to show a girl a good time.”
He maneuvered the car into the spot, putting it in park, and then turned to her. “Why did you come back?”
He sensed she was going to try for sarcasm again, but when she opened her mouth and he continued to stare are her, she sagged, shaking her head. “I don’t know, Mike. A bit desperation, a bit lack of options, and a bit…”
“A bit what?”
“Hope. I hoped you’d still help me.” She looked down at her hands. She wrung them uneasily. “You’re a good man, Mike. You don’t deserve to be dragged into this mess.” She raised her gaze back to his, thick pools threatening to fall from the bottoms of her wide eyes. “You don’t have to do this. But I hope you will. If not for me, then for Mia. She’s good. She deserves a chance.”
Mike held her gaze, his chest practically caving with the same sort of infinite sadness he’d felt when she’d asked him to help find Mia as they lay together in his bed less than two hours before. “I would have helped you even if you hadn’t slept with me.”
She sucked in a breath. “I didn’t sleep with you so you’d help Mia.”
He arched his brow. Hard to believe, considering she’d already admitted to trying to influence him once. And, yeah, he hadn’t felt the push that suggested any manipulation of his thoughts, nor any itch at the back of his neck, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that her instincts would be to use sex as a bargaining chip.
Red infused her cheeks but she lifted her chin. “What happened in your apartment had no bearing on the bargain I offered you.”
“Then why did you sleep with me that second time?”
She looked away, not answering. Still he caught the thought.
Because I’m selfish.
The beast growled. Mike shook his own head. Well on that all three of them seemed to be on the same page. Though was it truly selfishness if they all wanted the same thing? He just hoped that when this was all over, they’d still be co-existing somewhere in the same book.
Sighing he pulled open his door, moving around to help her out of the passenger side. Daylight was wasting, and they had an entrance to hell to stake out.
***
Four hours later, Mike was moving a whole lot quicker as he yanked open the passenger side door, his hand firm on Kat’s elbow as he guided her back into the car. He all but leaped over the hood, all senses on alert as he climbed behind the wheel and locked all the doors. Not that the flimsy mechanism would help. Not with the type of creatures he was determined to keep his fragile Katrina away from.
Mike took a deep breath, trying to calm his beast. Not that fragile. She was as much responsible for them getting out of there in one piece as he was. Not that the beast gave a shit. It sensed danger and wanted Katrina safe.
“What was that thing?” he asked, putting the car into gear and sliding out of the spot.
She rubbed her arms, her head twisting as she craned to look behind them. “A possessed human.”
“Possessed by what?” To him, the beast’s growl was all but apparent in the hoarse quality of his voice. Still too close to the surface. They both felt the instinctive urge to protect, either through flight or fight. Don’t matter, the beast growled. Protect what ours.
“Demon. They don’t have a specific name, but some refer to them as soul riders.” Kat’s own voice sounded far calmer than he knew she felt. She was shaking, too, her fear riding him like a cowboy rode a wild pony.
“And they do what?”
“Find a corruptible soul, use the person’s weaknesses to grab a toe hold, then lead them on a path that will eventually blacken their soul so positively that they’re unredeemable.”
He took another deep breath, flexing his fingers on the steering wheel as he tried to stroke the beast back down. That didn’t sound so bad, for them at least. He felt bad for the soul it rode, but maybe the danger hadn’t been that real. Only why was Katrina still afraid?
“When they’re riding in a human body, are they restricted to human capabilities?”
“Basically, yes. The demon might enhance their senses and give them some added strength, but they are still human.”
He nodded, deciding he may have overacted, until Katrina expounded.
“But if they want they can shed that skin and take on their true form. Then they are just as bad as any merker, plus they have the added bonus of being able to jump into your skin if they find a crack in your armor, and there is not much you can do about it.”
“Well, doesn’t that sound pleasant?”
She folded her arms across her chest, looking straight ahead as they merged back onto the parkway. “Did that help at all?”
He knew she was asking about more than her description of the creature they’d seen. She was asking if spending the last four hours scoping out hell’s entrance had helped him come up with a plan. The answer to that was an irrevocable and resounding no.
The one entrance that Katrina knew about was buzzing with activity. Human and other alike. They couldn’t even get close enough for him to get a good look at the entrance without drawing attention. The one time the crowd had thinned out enough that he and Kat might h
ave snuck down into the track bed to approach the hidden entrance she claimed was there, had been the time his neck had exploded with a raw burn so bad he’d wanted to rip out into his beast form… or run. He sensed the danger was too close for the latter so he’d grabbed her and pulled her into an alcove… and then started making out with her.
Surprise had her resisting at first, but she must have caught onto his pointed thought: need a cover story.
A moment later, footsteps had approached their hidey-hole, then paused. He’d sensed more than saw the creature that stopped for a moment to look them over. He’d tensed, ready to spring on it if it so much as lifted a finger. At that moment he’d felt the push of Katrina’s mind as she’d growled a silent back off, my prey, to the creature.
For a moment Mike had thought they were screwed. The creature seemed to consider if it wanted to make an issue of her challenge, but eventually moved on, hopping off the platform down into the track bed. Mike had waited until the fire eased, then craned his head to look down the tunnel. It was too late to catch barely more than the outline of the creature as it seemed to walk right into the wall.
“How did it just disappear like that?”
“The entrance is camouflaged to look like part of the tunnel. If you know it’s there and have the right blood type, you can break the illusion. Otherwise you’ll walk right by.”
“The right blood type…You mean demon blood?”
She gave a curt nod.
“Is he going to report us to Ganelon?”
She gnawed her lip, even as she shook her head. “I didn’t recognize it and I don’t think it paid enough attention to me to recognize who I was or even that I wasn’t a full succubus.”
He noticed her use of it. Guess soul riders didn’t have a gender, even when the creature had been in an obviously male body. “Would it recognize what I was?”
“I doubt it. Soul demons don’t measure power, only levels of darkness within one’s soul. And when your beast comes out to play you run pretty gray on the radar.”
“Huh.” He gripped the wheel tighter. Not sure what to think about that.
They drove for a while in silence. He took the exit for Morrison Ave. Cracking his neck, he merged onto Bruckner Boulevard. Still itched. But he’d been watching his back trail. Nothing unusual. Probably just residual tension.
She sat up straighter in her seat. “Where we going?”
“My place.”
“Mike…” He could hear the tension in her voice. Made sense. Despite her earlier fear, she wouldn’t want to stop until she had Mia back. He was sorry for that.
He risked a glance at her. “We both need to catch a few hours of sleep. Real sleep.” Aka, not sex. “And then I thought I might pick Jessica’s brain some, see if she or her Paladin buddies have any ideas.”
She sucked in a breath. He reached out, finding her hand clenched tight in her lap, and worked his fingers so they threaded in between hers. “I won’t give you up to them, Katrina. And that has nothing to do with some damn bargain, but because I care too much to risk you.”
Emotions hit him like a finale of fireworks at the fourth of July. Some good, some not good; too many to decipher. Her lips parted, but whatever she was about to say was lost as something slammed into the back right fender of the car.
“Shit!” He tried to steer past the impact, but it wasn’t enough and they slammed up against the wall that divided them from the expressway, the forward momentum of the car combined with the hard hit flipping them over like a fucking beetle.
Air whooshed out of Mike’s lungs, his head wrapping against something hard. The car rocked, glass bursting. He tried to shield Katrina, but knew it was too little too late.
He twisted to see her. Saw her pupils were dilated. Small slashes bloomed across her face, the red blood stark against the ghost white paleness of her face. Shock.
Have to get to her.
Before he could snap his buckle, another force was hitting the car from behind. The Buick spun like a top, the metal of the roof grinding against the pavement as they accelerated, as if pushed, toward the north side of the road. Beside him Katrina screamed, her hands planted against the roof and side frame of the car. And then they were smacking into the side of a parked car, its alarms blaring as lights exploded before his eyes.
Chapter Fourteen
The world was spinning, lights flashing, ears ringing, the smell of copper. Katrina moaned, raising her hands to her throbbing head. Only one responded, pain sliced through her left arm. She screamed, couldn’t help it, so sharp was the bite of agony.
Despite the ringing in her ears, she became aware of a vast stillness in the car. Which wasn’t right. Mike wouldn’t just be sitting there, unless…
“Mike?”
No response.
She twisted her head, was rewarded with more flashing lights that forced her eyes shut. She tried again, caught the shadow of his outline through her tunnel vision. She tried to reach him with her good arm, but the way the car was crushed and how she hung upside down within it, she couldn’t even touch more than his elbow.
Whimpering she reached for her seatbelt.
Beside her metal ground.
The door creaked and crunched as it was forced open.
She swung her head around, saw two blurry outlines. “I’m okay, help Mike.”
Only they didn’t listen to her, hands grasped her under her armpits, one arm reaching across her to pop her seatbelt as the other person dragged her out.
Pain sliced through her body as her left arm was bumped against the frame of the car. For a moment she blacked out, but the need to help Mike had her clawing her way back to reality.
“Please, I need to help Mike…” She arched against the arms holding her, her attention all for the shadowy form in the car. Still hadn’t moved.
Her breath caught, panic squeezing down on her ribs. No, no! Mike was okay, had to be. He just hit his head and passed out.
The arms wouldn’t let her go.
“Please…”
The chest she was pinned against vibrated, a rumble, no, a chuckle rising. “Precious, aren’t you?”
She twisted, trying to see the man who held her. No, not a man, a merker. His black eyes danced. His lips curled back, exposing a row of bloodied gums that looked like he’d recently lost the majority of his teeth.
“Save your pleas of mercy for later, darling,” he said, his words half mangled from his lack of teeth. “You’re going to need them for where you’re going.”
Her veins ran cold, but she refused to let the panic squeezing down on her freeze her. She fought, yelling and arching against them. Her arm shrieked in pain as she tried to use it despite the fact that it wouldn’t respond. Only she was no match for them. Even with her adrenaline induced fury. Because all the merker did was laugh, wrapping its hands around her throat as he squeezed the air right out of her body. Her last thought as her body went limp and the darkness claimed her was that she’d failed. She’d failed Mia, and Mike, God, Mike…she just hoped he was alive and that these bastards wouldn’t realize what he was.
***
Mike woke with a roar. Gripping pain tried to reclaim him back to darkness, but he refused to go. Instead he forced his eyes open—had to assess the situation—only a quick scan confirmed what he already feared: he was alone. No, not completely alone. There were a handful of humans outside the car, one on his cell calling for assistance, one trying to direct traffic, and the last bent on his knees, peering in at Mike.
“Hey, man, you okay?”
Fuck, no. But okay enough to not matter. What mattered was Katrina wasn’t here, only… He flared his nostrils, scenting the air. Katrina, scared, and other… that distinct scent of sulfur.
The beast growled, the sound rumbling in his throat and making the man shrink back a bit. That’s right, back off. Popping his seatbelt, Mike landed with a thud on the roof of car. Shit that hurt. Didn’t matter. Gritting his teeth, he crawled for the open door on Jes
sica’s side. The man who’d been peering in reached out, trying to help him maneuver through the bent up passenger seat and mangled frame.
He didn’t lose much skin in the process and staggered into an upright position, the Samaritan’s hands steading him. He looked around, took in the crumpled Buick, the beat up van that seemed all but attached to the back bumper, the crumpled 1990’s Mercedes that the van had rammed his flipped Buick into. He tried to turn, wobbled, but saw the first car that had hit them back in the intersection, its hood crumpled and front end angled in such a way to suggest major frame damage.
Mike started to step forward, but met with resistance. The man hadn’t released him, probably realizing he would fall if he did. “We’ve called an ambulance. Why don’t you have a seat and wait.”
Yeah, that would make sense, if he didn’t have something far more important to do. He brushed the hands aside, staggered a few steps towards the abandoned car that sat in the intersection of Evergreen and Bruckner. Nope, her scent was weaker this way. He spun back around. The world tilted. But then the hands were there again, steadying him.
“Whoa, man. You really need to sit.”
Mike fumbled in his back pocket, flipping open his badge. “Did you see a woman?”
The guy’s eyes widened as he took in the badge, but he shook his head negatory. He gestured toward an apartment beyond the crumpled car. “I came out when I heard the crash.”
The man on the cell came over. “I saw her. The driver of the van,” he gestured to the van with the crumpled in front end, its front tire shredded, its bumper hooked onto the Buick’s. “He went to pull her out. Only…”
“Only what?”
“It all got fuzzy. You know, like tunnel vision, kind of dark, but the opposite. By the time my vision cleared, it was just you in the car. Both the girl and the guy were gone.”
“And the driver of the car?” he asked, indicating the vehicle that was still back in the intersection, the entire front end crumpled.
The man blinked, as if just seeing the car for the first time.
“Huh, never saw that driver. Must have taken off in all the commotion.”