by Monica Owens
*****
Colton felt the magic in the weapon as he picked it up.
The metal was heavy, but as he stood, he was able to lift the blade. He knew Levi had eyes on him and he knew Henry had his back.
Tears had dried on his cheeks. He saw Miss Trish collapse. He saw Levi fly backward when he touched the bars. That other man with them was evil and Colton could feel it. Now here in front of him was the man who’d shed his mother’s skin.
If Colton wanted a good life, he had to do this.
Levi and Miss Trish would be there to help him afterward.
Silently, he shot forward, the blade out. It skimmed through the man’s belly and beetles, slugs, and flies squirmed out.
“This isn’t real,” he murmured, and used both hands to slice to the left. The blade flew out of his hands then, too heavy for him to recover from the momentum.
But his job was done.
*****
Olivier was too startled to make a sound. He slid to the floor in two pieces, bugs and worms crawling out of him. Blood dribbled down his chin. Blood wasn’t good. The beetles, wasps, and insects tried to pull the two halves of his body back together.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the bars begin to shine and shake. With a brilliant flash of light, the metal combusted. Flashes of fire rained down around him.
He lay there, staring unblinking at the cabin’s ceiling, as the little boy ran to Levi. His fellow fallen angel gripped the little boy to him tightly, then moved out of his peripheral vision.
The dog came and stood over Olivier, growling.
Fuck. He wouldn’t be able to meet the lawyers in the morning.
*****
Trish snapped awake as she was jostled. She attempted to move, but the pain was intense. She barely could move her head, but when she did, her cheek rested against a soft T-shirt.
“Levi?” she croaked.
“Yeah, babe. It’s me.”
“Are we out?”
“Almost.”
She tried to look around her, but the light was too bright. Midday heat enveloped her and then heat from the closed in cab of Levi’s truck. The truck started and she thought she heard Colton talking and then maybe Henry barking. Just as she saw Levi get in the truck, she passed out again.
*****
Levi smothered Arnaud in the light blocking window coverings. He ordered Colton and Henry out, directing them to hold Arnaud’s arm to steer him to the truck.
With Trish safe, with Colton and Henry out of harm’s way, and with Arnaud firmly in his care, Levi approached the broken body of Olivier.
Even now he could see the insects binding Olivier back together.
Levi crouched down over him.
“I live in Vegas, fucker.”
Olivier laughed, the sound muffled through thick blood.
“Don’t ever show up there,” Levi continued.
“Not a problem,” Olivier sputtered.
Levi picked up the heavy metal blade, turning it over in his hands. “Forged from hellfire?”
Olivier tried to nod. “Arnaud brought it.”
“I see.” Levi slung the blade over his shoulder. With no warning, he raised a boot and slammed it down onto Olivier’s neck. He heard the satisfying crack of the hyoid bone, but he knew those little beasts would fix it.
Levi glanced around him, trying to see what else he could take. But Olivier had nothing of value. In the corner he saw a gas can. The heaviness of the sword over his shoulder caused inspiration to strike.
“Hellfire,” he murmured.
He moved quickly, sprinkling what little bit was left in the gas can over Olivier and the sticks of furniture.
His truck horn blared.
“Hey, Olivier, you think all those bugs can save you?”
Olivier grunted, his body twisted in two pieces, his neck a ravaged mess.
Levi ran two fingers down the edge of the blade, blood welling from the wounds. He snapped those fingers and a flame erupted, blue as the ocean. He admired the flicker, then glanced at the broken fallen angel at his feet.
“What will he do with you when you show back up?”
Olivier gurgled. His arms dragged his upper body further from Levi and his legs kicked out. But neither piece of his body moved far.
“To be a fly on that wall,” Levi murmured.
The truck horn blared again.
Despite himself, Levi grinned. His kid drove his truck away from danger out on the highway.
His kid.
So now he had a kid, a dog, a woman, and a vampire.
“Fuck me,” Levi muttered.
He turned and tossed the flame against the wall of the cabin. Olivier shrieked in anger but was no more mobile than he had been a second ago. Levi leaned down and put his face in Olivier’s.
“You might have thought you could win,” he growled. “But evil never wins.”
He stepped over the body of Olivier, crunching through the roaches and beasts, and went out toward his full truck. He had to get Trish to a hospital.
Behind him the cabin whooshed into flames, but Levi didn’t look back.
He had to take care of his family.
*****
The town of Magnolia was awash in flames. For years the little town had been troubled with secrets and rumors. Now it seemed those were all dying in the wave of fire.
All reporters were being kept far away from the town and only updated every couple of hours. The latest briefing had been just that: brief. And not very informational. Same old, same old. Several meth labs had exploded, catching the whole town on fire, including the sewers. No one was allowed in without Hazmat suits. There were several dead, but most had been evacuated. No, there was nothing new at this time.
Carmen Velasquez leaned against the news van, her photojournalist cleaning the lens of his camera. She narrowed her eyes at the gaggle of other reporters and the far away plumes of smoke that used to be the town of Magnolia.
“So we can’t get in at all?”
Her photojournalist didn’t even look at her. “I’m not even trying so don’t ask again.”
“Think of the footage you could get in there—”
“Nope. I’m not risking my job for a place like this.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Finally, the sixty-something Larry “I’ve-been-a-photojournalist-long-enough-to-know-this-isn’t-a-story” looked up at her. “Carmen. The only thing that you’ll find in that town are blown meth labs.”
Carmen pursed her lips. “Hmm. I wonder…”
“Well, wonder on your own.” He hefted himself to his feet and opened the sliding door of the van. With great care, he placed his camera in the back and slammed the door. “Look, you’re young so you think that there’s a big story everywhere.”
Carmen rolled her eyes.
“But this town is crazy. Always has been. Bunch of inbred fuckers, Carmen. Didn’t like outsiders. They blew themselves up by mixing drugs. You heard the cops.”
Yeah, Carmen heard the cops. All towed that same line. But Carmen wasn’t buying it.
“Hey, there’s a bunch of food trucks down past the crime scene tape on the other end of the highway,” Larry told her. “I’m going to head that way. We’ve got another couple hours until the next briefing and I’m starving. You want anything?”
Carmen shook her head. “No. But thanks.”
She watched Larry shamble off. The one thing he was right about was the next briefing wouldn’t be for another couple hours. She turned and moved off to where she’d parked her Jeep. Normally she and Larry were together, but today was her off day. She’d jumped at the chance to show up and run with this story. Turns out there was nowhere to run to.
Hard to get a break in the news business.
Carmen paused by her Jeep, staring off into the horizon. The late afternoon sun beat down on her head, but she didn’t care. Not right now. Right now she just wished that there was some sort of story she could sink her tee
th into. Something that could help her rise from the small fish in a small pond status she’d been stuck in.
Then she saw it.
“It” was a plume of smoke not coming from the town of Magnolia. She glanced back but all the other reporters and photographers were facing the huge fire that engulfed the crazy town. This arcing bit of gray was small, but bigger than a campfire.
She bit her lip. Chances were real good that someone was burning something, but it was probably just leaves or sticks or…a body?
Her reporter’s mind jumped up with glee.
She glanced back again to the gaggle of other reporters. She had a couple hours before she had to be back. If anyone asked, she was just running to the store. Going to the bathroom at the convenience store. Checking out the fire in the opposite direction of Magnolia.
No one asked.
Carmen drove across the sand, bouncing along, sand kicking into the Jeep. She didn’t care. The closer she got, the denser the smoke. All she had was a camera phone, but that wouldn’t give her a good enough picture. Maybe she should have waited for Larry…
Suddenly Carmen was upon the smoldering ruins of a cabin. She slammed on the brakes, skidding in the sand. She hopped out of the Jeep and double timed it closer to what used to be a structure.
Two walls still stood, but the roof collapsed. She could see the pier and beam foundation, the ruins of a porch, and the broken down floorboards of the front room. She ventured closer, her phone out, her finger ready to hit record.
But there was nothing of interest in the ruins.
Maybe Larry was right. She picked her way through the broken wood, kicking a charred table leg out of her way. Maybe she should just relax and not be so impatient. Her story would come along one day. Her sense of adventure and investigative instincts had led her here, after all. To a broken down cabin that probably burned down because it had been sizzled by lightning the day before.
How stupid was she?
Fingers closed over her ankle.
Carmen jumped and screamed. Her phone dropped from her hand and she toppled over into the detritus of the cabin.
She squealed as her hand plopped into something soft and squishy.
“Help.”
She shrieked this time and scuttled backward. A man lay in the debris, part of the roof pinning him to the floor. He let go of her leg, but kept his imploring eyes on her.
Seemed Carmen fell into a story after all.
*****
Olivier showed the beautiful young woman his most handsome face.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Trish slowly came awake. She was in a bed, a light glowing from behind her. Her head felt wooly and her mouth dry. She vaguely remembered entering an emergency room, being pumped with drugs, then wheeled off to surgery. There might have been a helicopter ride in there somewhere. Maybe?
Her entire right arm was encased in plaster. She bit her lip and lifted the appendage as high as she could. At her elbow and wrist were metal rods and she had no doubt they bisected her joints. Two of her fingers were bandaged and she saw the tell tale sign of stitches sticking out of the bandage. The other two fingers were black and blue and twice their normal size. She couldn’t even see her thumb.
She put her arm down and hissed in a breath, her eyes squeezed shut. Pain lanced up and down her arm and she breathed in and out through her nose to deal with it. When she could finally think straight, she opened her eyes and dragged them through the room.
To her left was a chair. Occupied.
She frowned.
Snoring softly was the form of a giant man. Giant and hairy. His arms were folded across his chest and his head kicked back against the chair. Through the gloom of the hospital room, Trish saw the tattoos swirling up and down his arms.
Levi.
She leaned her head back against the pillows as she looked at him. She wondered how long he’d be here. Surely he had to get back to Vegas and she had to get back to…
Where, exactly?
No doubt her home was destroyed. The town was probably gone. Her case wasn’t even a case anymore.
Suddenly she was exhausted. She didn’t even want to worry about any of this. Not now. Not with her arm, wrist, hand, and fingers destroyed. Her life destroyed.
Trish wasn’t a crier. She really wasn’t. But now? Sitting in this hospital? The tears rolled down her cheeks. She closed her eyes against the little bit of light that reverberated through her head.
She’d tried to start over.
Now she’d have to try again.
*****
The second time Trish woke up she was alone in the room. There was a soft glow from beyond the blinds over the windows, but she didn’t know if it was day or night. Her head still felt wrapped in cotton. She attempted to reach the cup of water on the table before her, but all she managed to do was push the table further away.
Her door opened and a nurse came humming in.
“Oh, you’re awake!”
The nurse left the door open and came closer. She saw the table pushed away and the cup of water sitting there and immediately knew what Trish needed.
“Here, sweetie, let me hold that for you.”
Trish let the nurse hold the cup and she sucked down as much water as she could. Blessed, blessed coolness. The nurse pulled the straw away before Trish was done, but she didn’t argue. She didn’t have it in her.
“I had surgery?” she croaked.
“You did,” the nurse agreed.
“Where am I?”
“You were airlifted to Bakersfield,” the nurse explained. “Your arm injury was extensive. We’ve got some pretty amazing doctors here. You’ll more than likely need a couple more surgeries, but I’ll let them talk to you about that.” The nurse smiled at her. “How are you feeling? Still a little woozy from the anesthesia?”
Trish nodded. Suddenly the air seemed to be sucked out of the room. A dark shape darkened her door and she turned her head.
Levi.
“You’re awake,” he said unnecessarily.
Trish nodded.
He came in the room and went around the nurse. He eased onto the side of the bed next to her and took her left hand. “You were in a lot of pain. You need more morphine?”
“Not now.” She shook her head.
“Well, I’ll let you two alone,” the nurse said with a pat on the bed rail. “Call me if you need anything.”
Trish watched the nurse leave, this time shutting the door behind her.
“More water?” Levi asked.
“Please.”
Levi held the cup for her this time. Trish drank as much as he let her then fell back against the pillows, exhausted. He didn’t say anything as he replaced the cup on the table.
“Is Colton okay?”
“Yeah. Some of my guys came to get him and take him back to Vegas.”
Levi turned back to her and she couldn’t bear to look him in the eye. Instead she studied the plaster on her arm.
“Arnaud? And Henry?”
“They all went to Vegas.”
“When will you go?” she asked softly.
She felt rather than saw Levi shake his head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She flicked her eyes up to him. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll leave here when you do.”
“You know that isn’t necessary—”
“I’m aware.”
Trish fell quiet again. Her head began to spin from too much water and too many drugs. She let out a breath.
“Did you call my parents?”
“No. I don’t have their number.”
“It’s in my phone.”
“You went through some water. Your phone died an ugly death,” he reminded her.
She closed her eyes. “Shit.”
“Not a problem. If you give me their number I’ll call them.”
“If I could just use your phone, I’ll do it. They’ll need to fly out here to get me—”
“To get
you?”
Trish opened her eyes slowly. “Well, yeah. To take me home.”
Levi stared at her, until finally he looked away and ran a hand through his hair. “Funny, I thought you were going home with me.”
Trish’s heart skipped a beat. “What, um, what made you think that?”
He shrugged. “Just what I thought.”
Silence stretched between them until finally Trish cleared her throat. “You don’t want me, Levi. I’m a huge failure. All the way around. We can just agree that we had a good fuck and move on…”
“It wasn’t a fuck,” he muttered.
“What?”
“I said, it wasn’t just a fuck,” he said again, louder. He faced her. “I didn’t fuck you.”
“I distinctly remember—”
“I made love to you,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “I fucking made love to you and I’ll do it every night if you’ll let me. I fucking adopted a kid and a dog and bought a goddamn house back in Vegas. And I want to take you home to them all. If you’ll have me.”
Trish blinked. “I…You…”
“Yeah. Me. You.”
“I’m a failure,” Trish whispered brokenly.
“At what?” he whispered back. “You’re a damn good cop, although, I have to say, this case was over your head a little bit. Colton loves you like you’re his mom because you take good care of him. Hell, Henry even likes you. And Arnaud feels guilty for trying to kill you and wants nothing more than to make it up to you. The second you feel well enough, you and me are hitting the road to Vegas.”
“Levi,” she whispered.
He hooked a hand around her neck and pulled her closer. Forehead to forehead, he held her left hand loosely. “Trish, I’ve been around a long time. I’ve never met anyone like you. No one has ever not needed me as much as you do.”
She chuckled. “And that’s what you’ve been looking for all these years?”
“I didn’t know it, but yeah, I guess so.” He sighed. “What do you say? Do you want to come home with me?”
“Is my house gone? For sure?”
“Trish…”
“No really. I just need to know.”