Macario's Salvation [Milson Valley 10] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

by Jo Penn

  He worked in silence for the next half hour, debating with himself what he should do, arguing about the pros and cons, and remembering the heat that had filled Mac’s tone when talking about Milson City and wanting to move on.

  By the time the hour was up, he was a bit anxious and still no closer to a decision. Fale was sure whatever he chose to do, he would just mess up. When leaving, Mac gave him a cheeky smile, a wink and thanked him for the “best massage,” Fale stumbling over himself when leaving the room to let Mac dress.

  He felt like a fool and a coward. After tidying up and hiding, he watched Mac leave, noting the navy blue polo shirt fitting so well and going with the tan chinos and the expensive loafers.

  “You had Macario Aston today?” Tilla, another masseuse, tossed some towels in the laundry trolley and glanced toward the doorway. “For a human, he’s a hotty, but I’ll give you a bit of advice. Drool from a distance that one is a one-time deal only. All surface, nothing underneath.”

  A shot of anger at the other masseuse’s words flooded him, Fale clenching his jaw from snapping at her.

  “Why do you say that?” he asked quietly instead.

  She smirked. “Been there, done that. Don’t get me wrong, kid, Macario’s an okay guy, but he’s shallow and only interested in a good time. So don’t get attached and don’t expect anything.”

  “Y-you and Mac?” he practically whimpered.

  She laughed, patting his shoulder as she left the room. “Yep, so have a few others here. And you have to go through his family before you can spend a little time with him and believe me, it’s like interviewing for a job.”

  “Who are they?” he squeaked out, pointing at the two creatures who joined Mac in the waiting area, one opening the door and scarily watching everyone, daring them to move.

  “His bodyguards. Oh, you don’t know the Aston’s, do you?” She seemed to be taking a bit of malicious joy in talking to him, or maybe she was just always like this. “They’re high class, extremely wealthy, and only move in the top circles. He’s got eight brothers and one sister, and they have this huge place in the Village, the Aston Estate. One brother is a lawyer. A brother and the sister are doctors, there is a gargoyle prince, and another’s a frigging demon! I don’t know about the rest, they’re kept secret and locked away, but the big pincher, one of his brothers is an Avenger. Tootles.”

  Fale shivered. He wasn’t sure if it was from what Tilla said, or from the woman herself. Anyway, he didn’t think it mattered in the long run, so until he figured everything out he’d keep his head down, learn some things, and take a little time making a very important decision.

  Chapter Two

  “I do not see what the problem is.”

  Mac quirked a brow at the large creature beside him. “Seriously? You don’t see what the problem could be?”

  Bruno Surkov, Prince of the Surkov gargoyle domain, slapped his hands together and shook his head, smiling wide.

  “No. It is a smart, innovative idea. The training facility requires more training space, so build up.”

  “And the council regulations for how high buildings can be in this area? That just means nothing?” Mac said calmly, though inside he was ticked off. Why was he even involved in this discussion? He was a CPA, not a builder or whoever it was that dealt with building regulations, extra space, and the like.

  “Blah, a minor detail. Come, let us have a late lunch. I am starving!”

  Mac’s stomach rebelled at the thought of food, but he went along with Bruno because he was sick of standing here discussing building plans and ideas. He felt tired, grouchy, and his skin literally itched! Why it itched, Macario didn’t know. Probably a reaction to one of the drugs he always seemed to be taking the last few years for his condition.

  “How are the fae at training?” Bruno asked as they passed through the walkway that overlooked part of the training arena.

  Mac glared down at a group of fae opening portals. “They have yet to grasp the concept that there is more to training than opening a few portals and hurrying away from a fight.”

  He noticed a large group of fae in the stands watching the training sessions, and his mind automatically went to a particular fae he met yesterday.

  Fale Taucher. He didn’t know what it was about the fae popping into Macario’s mind, but he kept remembering the young fae’s hands on him, the way the creature smelt, the sound of his voice, and Fale’s smile. The man was way too young for Mac, and far too sweet for the likes of him. Yet he was intrigued and couldn’t stop thinking of Fale.

  Which was foolish. Mac was in no condition to hook up with anyone. Hell, he was barely in any condition to be spending an hour walking around the Alliance training grounds discussing finances and building plans, and arguing with Bruno about cafeteria food. But Mac kept his mouth shut and got on with his job. It was what he could do, so he did it.

  “You okay?” Bruno asked quietly, directing them to the car parking area.

  “Yeah,” Macario sighed.

  The Surkov’s knew he was ill. One of Mac’s many siblings, Eber, was a cousin to the Surkov’s and eighteen months ago Mac, Eber, and their brother Vinn were visiting the gargoyles at their stronghold in Prague when Mac collapsed. Bruno’s brother Davir was a doctor and treated Mac before shipping him home on the Aston’s private jet to his family. Mac had started radiation treatment a few days after that. Now he was undergoing chemotherapy. It wasn’t fun times.

  Mac climbed into the front passenger seat of Bruno’s surprisingly sedate sedan, and they left the Alliance soldier training facility with Aston and Surkov security following behind. The training center was northwest of Milson City and was in a reasonably isolated area. There was nothing but forest around for miles, but there were always soldiers patrolling. Nothing was infallible though, and today proved the point when a large SUV with a massive bumper on the front came directly toward them from the other direction. Bruno swerved to avoid a collision and ended up in a ditch on the other side of the road.

  Gargoyles were big and excellent fighters. He tossed Mac a gun, told him to get out and stay down behind the car. While Mac had been bitching about the fae during training lately, he did like their portal opening ability. He wasn’t afraid of a fight, but with a fae on the Aston security team, if things went south, they could get out safely via a portal.

  As soon as Mac got out of the car, he was under fire. He fired blindly, whoever attacking them remaining hidden in the tree line beside the road. The sound of trucks coming fast toward them from the direction of the Alliance training facility meant help was on its way.

  Mac saw movement to his left and fired just as something hit him in the left shoulder. He kept shooting until his vision blurred. When the gun slipped limply from his hand, and his body slumped to the ground, Mac weakly managed to pull out what had hit him in the shoulder and hold it up. A dart. Fuck.

  * * * *

  Groaning, Mac lifted his hands to his aching head wondering what he’d had to drink last night, and how much he’d drunk. Whatever it was, he was never touching the stuff again.

  A rattling noise had him struggling to open his eyes, and he began to notice his bed was lumpy, and the room smelled like someone had stepped in dog shit and not cleaned their shoes before coming inside. Peering through blurry eyes, he blinked a few times before trying again, his heart beating just a bit faster, his breath catching.

  He wasn’t lying on his bed, and this wasn’t his room. It was a cell, complete with bars and a toilet sticking out of the wall.

  Gross.

  Sitting up and clutching his head as it spun and caused nausea to rise up, Mac breathed through it hoping he wouldn’t have to use the disgusting looking toilet. He ignored the thick shackles around his right wrist and the chain attached.

  “Macario, you okay?”

  Mac looked sharply to his right. “Bruno. What—what happened?”

  “We were ambushed. Shot with tranquilizer darts. A quick snatch and grab. The only ot
her creature I’ve seen is a wolf, and she was in bad shape.”

  “Shit. Where the hell are we?” Mac struggled to move past the nausea and slightly blurred vision to focus on what was going on.

  “We got snatched by Hunters,” Bruno grunted. “I was out of it so no idea where we are being held. Fortunately for us, all you Aston’s have a tracking device implanted in your asses, so the cavalry will be here soon.” Bruno scowled. “No dart should be able to penetrate my skin so easily and bring me down though.”

  “No, but the Hunters are becoming much more aggressive. They went after the Croggen’s not long ago in an attempt to kill them off and get Trent Sanchez so they could have his strategizing gift. They have new types of bullets and utilized magic.”

  “Hmm, I heard about that. Well, if the bastards wish to fight us, I say we creatures show them exactly how we retaliate.”

  “Yeah, you gargoyles are always keen for a good fight. Just remember, I’m not a creature, I’m human and a fair bit weaker than you.” Mac winced and rubbed his chest, his breathing a little labored. He ignored Bruno’s narrowed eyed look. “Can you get us out of here? And the wolf shifter?”

  Hunters. Mac couldn’t believe how nasty they’d become. And they were human just like Mac, except their belief was that humans should rule the world and creatures should be caged, killed, or made into pets. They had become extreme in their views and horrifically violent.

  Mac wasn’t as concerned about himself as he was for Bruno and the other creature, the wolf shifter Bruno mentioned. After all, Mac was human, and though the Hunters didn’t mind sacrificing a few humans if it meant achieving their goal of eliminating and enslaving creatures, Mac was a valuable asset to have as a prisoner. He was an Aston and related to the most powerful creature in existence, Avenger Vicus Aston, Mac’s older brother.

  And as Bruno said, most of the Aston’s had a frigging locating chip implanted in their bodies, and yes, Mac’s was in his right ass cheek. Lacy, his older sister, had the chip put there because she said Mac was such a cheeky little bugger when he was a youngun.

  “The walls are solid. With a bit of work and time, I can break them. I do not believe we will be here for long though. My brethren will track us, and your brothers and mine will slaughter all those here.”

  “Yeah, that’s cool, but we should probably come up with a Plan B, and it might be a good idea to extract some information so we know what we’re up against in the future.”

  “You are always thinking, Macario, it is a good trait.” Bruno rumbled in his thick accent. He was pacing his cell, one hand pressing against the steel bars. “You do not look very well—”

  “Oh, thanks, you’re a charmer. Can you bend the bars and climb out?” Mac asked, ignoring the gargoyle. He needed to focus on getting out of here, not how his head was pounding and his chest felt heavy.

  “I am, but slowly so as not to make noise,” Bruno grunted and slowly, carefully, watching the doorway down the hall, pushed the bars apart inch by inch. “When I get this open, I will unlock your cell. I want you to get out immediately. Do not stop for me or the wolf shifter, I will go help her and deal with our abductors. Are you able to do this, Mac? Or will your condition cause problems?”

  “I’ll be okay, you just do what you need to do.”

  “Good. Get the teams here to deal with these pricks.”

  They stopped talking while Bruno worked on the cell bars. Mac was shocked that the Hunters had actually managed to abduct him, Bruno, and a wolf shifter. It meant they were more of a threat than previously estimated. Usually, it was the Renegades who were the danger, but now they had two major enemies to fight.

  “It will take you a long time to bend the cell bars enough to step through, gargoyle.” A stocky man with a handgun walked into the cell room, two others following close behind. “We don’t have enough time for you to do that.” The man waved a hand at one of the men. “And we can only take one of you with us. Not to worry though, the message we leave will be loud and clear. Humans will not be underestimated again.”

  One of the men stepped up to Bruno’s cell and fired through the bars. Mac jerked, afraid Bruno had been hit, but the gargoyle moved fast, springing out of the way. The next shot saw Bruno on the ceiling, and before another shot was fired, he’d reached through the bars, snatched the gun and punched the shooter in the throat.

  “Monster!” the leader yelled and began firing into the cell, the other man doing the same.

  If Mac had access to a weapon, even a spoon, he would have thrown it at the men to cause a distraction, but he had nothing and could only yell and grab the cell bars. Bruno was fast and agile, but he couldn’t avoid every bullet, and these ones were deadly, designed to tear through creature flesh and bone with ease. Soon, in front of Mac’s horrified eyes, Bruno was riddled with holes.

  “Get in there and cut off his head,” the leader snarled as two more Hunters ran into the cell room. “Get Aston out of the cell, we need to move before the rest of these monsters find us.”

  Mac struggled the moment his cell door opened. He’d been taught from a very young age to fight, and though he wasn’t as strong as a paranormal and didn’t have their speed, he was stronger than the average human and used what he possessed to become a good defensive fighter. With two against one, his head throbbing like a son of a bitch and a chunky shackle with a chain attached to his right hand, it was difficult, but he didn’t make it easy for them to undo the lock that kept him anchored to the floor and drag him out of the cell.

  Once out, he slapped the chain at a Hunter’s head and got the man good. As he went down, Mac grabbed the hunting knife from the utility belt around the man’s waist and swiped it across another Hunter’s arm. Unfortunately, he didn’t see the fist coming straight for him until it slammed into the side of his face, and then he went down hard, hitting the stone floor and cracking his shoulder.

  Biting his lip to stop the cry of pain and fighting not to pass out, he grimaced as he realized he’d dropped the knife when he fell.

  “Get him up and let’s go.”

  A pain filled scream came from the cell Bruno was in. The Hunter who was reaching for Mac exploded into a million pieces, bits of him raining down on the stone floor. The leader of the Hunters made a strange gurgling sound as his throat was torn out.

  “Bruno?” Mac groaned against the pain as his brother Eber sat him up.

  “Alive, but severely injured.” Avenger Vicus Aston held out a bloody hand. “Let’s go.”

  “There’s no way I’m taking your hand, bro. Aside from it being covered in that miserable excuse for a human’s blood, I dislocated my shoulder, and the double vision is making me see two hands.” Mac smiled weakly. “And I think something inside me ruptured.”

  “I will open a portal so you can take Macario directly to the Armstrong coven for healing.” Prince Caspar Morgan of the fae waved a hand, and a portal appeared. “Anton, bring Bruno through.”

  Anton and Dimitri, Bruno’s brothers, were carrying Bruno on a stretcher between them, Mac amazed the gargoyle was still breathing with that many holes in him. Eber and Vicus helped Mac up and through the portal into the Armstrong witch and wizard coven, Mac protesting the entire time that he should be taken home where Lacy or Layke could heal him.

  Unfortunately, neither Vicus nor Eber listened to him. Thankfully, one of the fae opened a portal and fetched Layke, who was at home.

  “What the fuck, Layke?!” Mac growled at his brother. “You can see it’s injured! Why do you need to poke at it?”

  Layke tutted and continued to poke. “I will need to give you a muscle relaxant. Do you think you can tolerate a needle poking you in the shoulder, Macario?”

  Pure sarcasm. Mac glared at his brother and got a little smirk in response. Layke was the difficult brother, but every now and then you saw his quirky, fun side, it was just buried deeply beneath a whole lot of arrogant attitude that had everyone wanting to strangle him.

  Placed on a large hea
ling bench in one of the coven clinic rooms, Mac didn’t complain, much, over the next forty minutes while Layke went through drawing blood, snapping Mac’s shoulder back into place, and helping him sit up when he began vomiting. Bruno was said to be doing well. The healers at the coven had extracted the bullets and repaired broken bones and torn tissue. Witches and wizards with the healing gift had amazing skills. While they could heal broken and battered bodies, they couldn’t cure disease, nor heal fatal wounds, though if gotten to quickly enough, they could reverse what was fatal.

  They couldn’t heal Mac’s cancer. Every day he died a little more, every day his witch sister Lacy and wizard brother Layke healed as best they could with their healing gifts and human medicine.

  “What ruptured inside me?” he asked Lacy, who had fallen asleep beside him.

  She raised her head, eyes tired. “You’ll be fine, Macario.”

  He hated to see his family suffering as they did. It was frustrating and filled him with pain.

  “Okay. What ruptured?”

  “Your spleen. It’s too damaged to repair fully. Though I managed to get it working again, it’s at limited strength. I’ll work on repairing the organ over the next few months. Vicus, why did the Hunters take Macario? Because he was with Bruno?”

  “No, they took Bruno because he is a high prize to eliminate. The Hunters were after you, brother, and not because of me.” Vicus gently brushed Mac’s hair from his face. “Humans occasionally think money is the cornerstone of society. That money is what makes the world thrive. They wanted Macario so they would have access to all the accounts feeding into the Alliance training facility.”

  Mac frowned. “They think by taking me I will give them the account codes? And what? They can shut down the facility by stopping funding?”