Soulfire (A Magic Bullet Novel Book 4)

by A. Blythe

  “You are to those who care about you.”

  “And what about those who care about you?” I asked, fixing him with a hard stare. “What about Tessa? She should be your special snowflake.”

  “She is,” he said. “She’s my world.”

  “Get a good night’s sleep tonight, Flynn,” I said. “When you wake up tomorrow, go buy a dozen roses and beg forgiveness.”

  “Tessa prefers stargazer lilies.”

  “Kinda missing the point.”

  He grinned. “I’ll take it under advisement. In the meantime, I’m single tonight and heading back to your place…”

  I didn’t have the strength to punch him in the face. Instead, I carried on walking. “I’m buying you a muzzle as a wedding present.”

  “But that goes over my mouth.”

  “Then I’ll buy two.”

  8

  My phone rang and I shot off the sofa. I was so engrossed in what I was doing, the unexpected ringtone was like a bomb in my back pocket.

  I fumbled for the phone. “Mix?”

  “Are you busy?” he asked.

  I’d been sifting through the information I had on Mikaela Boyd, while Farah was in the kitchen, wrestling with a defiant blender. From the sound of it, the blender was winning.

  “I’m trying to feel productive,” I said. “I guess that counts as busy.”

  “Hopefully this will help,” Mix said. “I managed to pinpoint the location of Mikaela’s phone.”

  Hallelujah. Finally a shred of good news. “Where?”

  “You’re not going to like it.”

  “Spit it out, Mix. I can take it.” I had to take it—the life of a young girl was at stake.

  “The field next to Pennsbury Hospital.”

  I swallowed hard. Unfortunately, I was acquainted with the area, thanks to a run-in with Vito Nocita, the head of organ trafficking for the crime syndicate. Vito was the worst of the worst. Whereas Serena’s evil was tempered by a soft side, Vito’s malevolence was pure and unadulterated.

  “I guess it’s time for a field trip,” I said. Literally. “Thanks, Mix.”

  Farah poked her head out of the kitchen. “Did I hear you say field trip?”

  “Don’t use me as an excuse to walk away from your project.”

  “There’s no project,” she replied. “The blender has a bright future being reincarnated as some other household item.”

  “In other words, you’ve put it in recycling.”

  She nodded crisply. “I need a field trip, Alyse. Don’t deny a girl’s simple request.”

  “Suits me,” I said. “I could use the company.”

  We took her Prius to the sketchy neighborhood and parked a few blocks away before heading toward the open field.

  “We should have Pinky do a spell on my car to make it look like a heap of scrap metal,” Farah said. “Then I don’t need to worry about where I park it.”

  “Hey,” I said. “You insisted on coming.”

  “I needed an outlet for my frustration.”

  “I thought that’s what Luciano was for.” Luciano Bendetti was Farah’s boyfriend. He also happened to be the head of drug trafficking for the crime syndicate. He was no angel, but he seemed to have genuine feelings for her and treated her well. And she was nuts about him. Who was I to judge?

  Farah giggled. “I wore him out the other night. I think he’s still recovering.” She glanced around the darkened field. “Maybe we should have told him what we’re doing. He could probably talk to Vito for us.”

  “Absolutely not,” I snapped. “If Mikaela’s phone is here, then I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Mikaela is inside that hospital.” Hopefully alive, although it wasn’t a guarantee.

  “So Lucky will help us get her out,” Farah argued.

  “No,” I insisted. “It would only cause problems for Luciano in the crime syndicate.” And problems in the crime syndicate usually got resolved the hard way.

  Farah huffed. “Fine, we’ll do it your way, but, for once, couldn’t your way be the easy way?”

  “From your lips to the ears of the gods.” We stood at the edge of the field. The hospital loomed ahead of us, dark and threatening. I shivered. “Remember, no lights.”

  We couldn’t risk drawing the attention of Vito’s security team. Unpleasant didn’t begin to describe them.

  “Okay, no light doesn’t make this easier,” Farah grumbled.

  “No, but it makes it more likely that we don’t die tonight,” I replied.

  “Point taken.”

  Farah shifted to her fox form. It was lower to the ground and she could work her way through the overgrowth more easily. She disappeared from view while I pushed aside the tall weeds, trying to search the ground for any sign of Mikaela’s phone.

  I crouched as low as I could and kept one eye trained on the hospital at all times. If that side door opened, I knew we were in trouble. About a quarter of the way through the field, the hair on the back of my neck pricked.

  Great balls of essential fire.

  Ghuls.

  “Why now?” I hissed, and unsheathed my yantoks. I had to warn Farah. Reed’s telepathy would come in handy right now.

  The wind shifted course and a putrid smell hit my nostrils. I turned slowly toward the source. A Ghul stood no more than three feet away. I remained perfectly still and held my breath. My fingers curled tightly around the yantoks and I whispered, “Burn.”

  The yantoks whooshed through the air before he even realized I was standing there. The sticks sliced through his armpits with a satisfying sizzle, severing the arms from the body. He stood rooted to the ground, his face mangled by pain. As I ran past him in an effort to retrieve my yantoks, his foot made contact with my side and I went flying into the weeds. I crawled across the ground toward my glowing yantoks. The Ghul stomped over to me and brought his foot down hard on my lower back. I muffled my cry, not wanting to sound the alarm. The presence of Vito’s men would only complicate matters.

  I fought through the pain and flipped onto my back. As the Ghul brought his foot down again, I grabbed him by the thick ankle and twisted. He slammed onto the ground and I struggled to my feet before he could rise again. It wouldn’t be easy without arms. I limped over and plucked my yantoks from the ground. The Ghul wiggled helplessly on his back. I sheathed one yantok.

  “Thanks for ruining another field trip,” I said, lifting the other yantok with both hands before plunging it into his chest. Because of Esme, Ghuls would always hold a special place in my dark heart of vengeance.

  The Ghul burst into a blaze of gooey glory and I sheathed the other yantok before dropping to the ground to listen. I heard rustling in the weeds and stiffened. A blur of red fur rushed toward me and I sighed with relief.

  “Stay in your fox form and stay alert,” I whispered. “We’ve got company and not the kind that brings bottles of wine.”

  Her long, pointy ears perked up. In her fox form, her listening skills were far superior to mine.

  The problem was that even if we managed to not die at the hands of a Ghul, my antics were probably loud enough to grab the attention of Vito and friends inside the hospital. And we still didn’t have Mikaela’s phone. Talk about a botched assignment.

  A second Ghul appeared, much more obvious than his dead friend. He may as well have stomped around the field yelling, “Fee-fi-fo-fum.” I wasn’t the least bit surprised when a floodlight cast a bright glow over the field.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” I told Farah.

  I began to crawl on my hands and knees away from the hospital, crushing every weed in my path. When they came out and saw the Ghul, the security team would assume he triggered the alarm. They might query the other noises they heard, but I felt confident the Ghul would provide enough of a distraction.

  Farah’s fox trotted through the overgrowth beside me. I was going to need a long, hot shower after this. My hand clamped down on a piece of broken glass, drawing blood. Terrific.

 
Behind me the sound of voices grew louder. I tried to crawl faster, but I couldn’t see anything in front of me except tall grass and debris.

  Farah’s tail flicked me.

  “How about some elbow room?” I asked.

  Her tail flicked me again. I glanced over to see a flash of silver in place of her teeth. What on earth…?

  It was Mikaela’s phone. “Holy Plasma Plane, Farah. Don’t drop it, whatever you do.”

  We were almost to the edge of the field. Then we’d need to make a mad dash for the car. We wouldn’t be safe until the hospital was miles behind us. Even then, I wasn’t so sure.

  Streetlights beckoned in the distance. The end of the field was just ahead.

  I burst out of the overgrowth and ran smack into a brick wall. Or maybe a chest. I looked up into the face of one angry dude. He was easily the size of two NFL players. Several members of Vito’s security team stood alongside him.

  “Gosh, you’re an attractive group,” I said. “Have you ever considered modeling?” To my relief, Farah managed to avoid detection. She’d shot straight past the wall of muscle and continued toward the car, the phone still lodged in her mouth.

  “What are you doing out here?” NFL asked.

  “I lost an earring,” I said. “So I had to get down on my hands and knees to look for it.” I held up my bloody palm. “And this is the price I pay for accessorizing.”

  “Not the only price you’ll pay tonight,” he said ominously.

  Terrific.

  He gripped my arm and pulled me toward the hospital. I strained to break free.

  “Get your hands off me,” I said. I reached for a yantok, but the other goon snatched it before I could loop my fingers around it.

  “What’s a pretty thing like you need a fancy weapon like this?” he asked, inspecting the long stick. “This is a quality piece.”

  “This is a terrible neighborhood, in case you haven’t noticed,” I said. “You can run into all sorts of trouble if you’re not careful.”

  “Seems like you weren’t careful,” NFL said.

  They marched me straight through the side door and into the belly of the beast. I couldn’t wait to see my old pal Vito again and feel the chill of evil.

  “What happened to the Ghul?” I asked.

  One guy laughed. “We played a quick game of kick the can.”

  “Yeah,” another goon said. “And the can was his head.”

  The hospital was exactly as I remembered it. Cracked plaster in the walls. Water damage in the ceiling. A certifiable mess and the hub of the crime syndicate’s organ trafficking business in the Mid-Atlantic Colony.

  Another man approached us as we entered the lobby.

  “Where’s the boss?” NFL asked him.

  “Upstairs with a patient,” the man replied.

  A shiver ran down my spine. Vito was with a patient? That was like saying the devil was at your hospital beside ready to give you a sponge bath.

  “Tell him we’ve got an urgent matter,” NFL said.

  “Ooh, I’ve been upgraded to urgent?” I asked. “I feel so special.”

  The other goon jabbed me in the mouth with his elbow and I winced, tasting blood.

  “You’ve got an attractive mouth,” the goon said. “Don’t make us ruin it.”

  The man reappeared at the top of the staircase. “Vito says bring her up.”

  I couldn’t wait to see the look of surprise when he saw me. Ours was a mutual hatred and I had no doubt he’d take great joy in punishing me for my foolishness in returning here.

  They marched me up the steps and down a long corridor. It was a different route than the one I’d taken last time I was here. I heard a lot of voices and people in white lab coats rushed from room to room. This was where the magic happened. Or the horror, depending on your point of view.

  I tried to peer into each room as we passed by. Anything for a glimpse of the residents and possibly Mikaela. I saw an elderly man perched on the edge of a bed, wearing only a hospital gown. He was vomiting into a bowl held by an orderly.

  In the adjacent room, I noticed two single beds occupied by children. Twins. They couldn’t have been more than six. Nausea swelled. I hated Vito with every fiber of my being, down to the deepest pit of soulfire within me—the soulfire that nearly had been snuffed out when the copper cuffs were secured to my wrists.

  We reached a room at the end of the hallway and they pushed me inside and shut the door.

  Vito was alone. Whatever patient he’d had was now gone. Dead or recuperating from torture, it was impossible to know. I tried not to think about it. He turned and caught the flicker of shock when he realized it was his old pal, Alyse.

  “So we meet again, Miss Winters,” he said, quickly masking his surprise. “You’ve been quite the busy lady since we last saw each other.”

  “I like to stay active,” I said. “Keeps me young.”

  “Young, yes.” He stared at me and it felt like being licked by the forked tongue of the devil. My skin crawled. “I suppose you do have aging to worry about in your current condition.”

  “This, too, shall pass,” I said. And when it did I’d be back to make him pay for the awful things he’d done to scores of innocent people.

  “Why are you here?” he asked, leaning casually against a table full of medical instruments. “You have to know it’s foolish to come back here.” He paused. “And you are many things, but foolish isn’t one of them.”

  I did my best to radiate power and confidence. “I’m looking for someone. A teenaged girl.”

  “Don’t keep me in suspense. What’s her name?”

  “Mikaela Boyd. Fifteen. She disappeared from her home recently.”

  He gave me a sly smile that sickened me. “And what makes you think Miss Boyd has found her way to our fine establishment?”

  “Her cell phone was found in the field outside.”

  “So?” He folded his arms and fixed his gaze on me. His expression remained blank. “This is a rough neighborhood. Lots of stolen items end up ditched in the vacant land around the hospital.”

  “I think her mother may have brought her here,” I said. “She has a history of drug abuse and I suspect you might have met her somewhere along the way, or one of your people may have directed her here.” Mikaela’s mom was desperate for money and her daughter wanted to help her get it. Selling healthy organs was one way to do it. The hard way, of course, but Mikaela was young and naive.

  Vito shrugged. “The name doesn’t ring a bell, but I can tell you that we wouldn’t accept organ donations from a known drug user. It’s bad for the product.”

  My gut twisted. The product?

  “The mother is the known the drug user,” I said. “Not the daughter.” Which was exactly why she needed Mikaela. There was also the possibility that Mikaela hadn’t come here of her own free will. That her mother forced her here. Vito wasn’t exactly known for his ethics.

  “I’m not telling you anything,” Vito said. “You have no authority here. In fact, you have no authority anywhere.”

  “Where’s Mikaela?” I demanded.

  Vito clucked his tongue and I wanted to grab the nearest instrument and jab it through his eye and drive it right into his twisted brain.

  “I don’t think you’re in a position to make demands, Miss Winters. Do you?” His gaze traveled over me. “Still cuffed, I see. Your weapons removed. No friends within screaming distance.” He hesitated. “It seems I have you right where I want you.” He picked up a scalpel from the table and advanced toward me. “Why don’t you have a seat on the bed?”

  “I don’t think now is the best time to play doctor, Vito.”

  Vito snapped his fingers. “Gentlemen, secure her to the bed.”

  I tried to run for the open door. One of the goons intercepted me, slamming me hard against the wall. He grabbed me by the throat and held me firmly. His sausage fingers dug into my throat, blocking my airway. I struggled to breathe. He held me aloft so that my feet dangled
above the ground. If I didn't do something quickly, I was going to lose consciousness. I had to fight back or I was as good as dead. I gathered my strength and launched my feet into his chest, pushing hard. The goon staggered backward. The move gave me just enough time to bolt for the door. A second goon ran interference, so I dropped to the floor and slid between his legs. The top of my head skimmed his crotch. Although it wasn't a pleasant view, it was quick and painless and it allowed me to escape the room. I raced down the corridor, trying to figure out the best root to take. Knowing Vito, all of the relevant exits would be guarded. He was a smart man, one of the reasons he'd made it so far up the food chain in the crime syndicate. The doors were no good to me. I was going to have to find a window, preferably on the first floor. Without my powers, jumping from the top floor of the hospital didn't seem like a smart move.

  “Going so soon?” Vito called from the other end of the corridor.

  “Wait until you see the rating I give you on TripAdvisor,” I yelled.

  I didn’t see the syringe coming. I wasn’t even certain who threw it. The tip plunged into my chest and my legs crumpled beneath me.

  “No,” I cried, but no sound came out of my mouth. My last thought was of Farah, running off toward home. Toward hope.

  9

  I awoke in a hospital bed attached to a bevy of tubes and wires. I felt woozy, like I was coming out of a drunken stupor. There were even wires attached to my head.

  Where was I? Then I remembered.

  I was in Vito’s hospital.

  A man came into the room pushing a tray of food. He smiled when he realized my eyes were open. “Oh good, you’re awake. I've been checking periodically."

  I quickly surveyed the room for security cameras. I had no doubt they were monitoring me from another room. The open door was an illusion of freedom. Of course, the straps on my wrists and ankles contradicted any sense of freedom.

  “Would you mind loosening the straps?" I asked. "I'm really uncomfortable."

  The man gave me a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry, young lady, but I’m under strict orders not to touch anything in this room. That includes you.”