by A. J. Mayall
“GHNNMMPPH?!” Phoenix called out, shaking in his chair a bit.
He was responded to with an aluminum bat to the abdomen. He retched, the acidic taste of vomit filling his mouth, mixing with the blood soaked into the rag.
It wasn’t supposed to go like this. It was supposed to end with him finally showing force, of standing up and being victorious over all those who opposed him. It’s what he was taught his whole life; stand up to the bullies and a quick punch to the nose makes them scatter. It wasn’t supposed to result in being kidnapped by an up-the-sleeve werewolf who got called in as a pinch hitter.
Blinded, bound, beaten and with no reference to what was around him, Phoenix knew it would take a miracle to escape this one. He also knew the only people who knew where he was would be occupied with their own tasks for a while. He focused, trying his best to hone his power. He knew it would give a telltale sign of the energy arcing off his body, but if he could just slow down time.
The next strike of the bat went to his sternum, nearly toppling the chair over from the force. The world went black for another few moments, consciousness flickering in and out between the jolts of pain that racked his body. He had to rely only on sound, and there was the clicking of dress shoes or boots all around him. If he could hazard a guess, the entirety of The Pack, save for Jack were in the room.
When the bag was abruptly taken off his head, the blinding light in his face made him almost scream. The pain in his temples flared like a burning jackhammer in his skull. MacKenzie leaned in and growled, in his fully shifted form. Even as a runt, he was impressive. The anger in his lupine eyes wasn’t bestial; there was cunning intellect mixed with sadism. Phoenix knew that look well, the look of the bullied kid getting revenge.
If you punch a bully in the nose, you win, and Phoenix had made a point of bullying MacKenzie. Damn karma. Damn stupid karma!
MacKenzie had seen firsthand what he could do, and likely did a fair amount of research into him. He had hours to plan, to arrange for one hell of an interrogation. Phoenix realized having spent so much time away from the Cloister was about to bite him in the ass.
“So, Mr. Detective…I’ve been asked by the guy in charge to get some information from you.” MacKenzie growled low and deep, a sickening sweet undertone that this was a pleasure to do in his mind. The inner sadist of the oppressed was getting an outlet. Phoenix cringed as that clawed hand came closer and pulled out the gag, making the detective flinch and spit on the ground, a foul mix of spit, blood, and bile landing between his feet.
“The hell do you expect me to know…? That it was the fucking Pack behind everything? Taking orders from Basseri? That Maxwell and Dorian are his lapdogs?” he groaned, words strained from his sore jaw.
MacKenzie knelt, rolling his shoulders. “I’m sure you’ve got more information in that head of yours; let’s just see about rattling it loose.” MacKenzie stood, grabbing the bat off a nearby shelf that Phoenix was able to see now that vision was clearing. He guessed they were still in the same building he had set up the meeting in.
“Just know, Phoenix, you even look like you’re going to use your powers, and I’ll split your skull open.”
Phoenix McGee nodded as he looked up at MacKenzie, and screamed when the bat came down on his shoulder.
CHAPTER 18
“I told you everything I know, bitch! If I’m the bad guy how come whoever is watching us is giving you handcuffs on request?!” Todd spat out his words, throwing a shoulder toward his accuser, who sidestepped him and let him fall.
Joel curled up on the far wall from the corpses, rocking back and forth. The Room of Light had broken him, his eyes darting between Emma and Caroline. He randomly called up to their captors, offering to kill the others if he’d be let free. The lack of any response only served to keep the others wary of him.
Caroline had been left to guess usernames and passwords for the terminal.
“You done acting up, Todd?” Emma said, leaning over the prone man. In the past two days she’d gone from nervous maternal friend to a no-nonsense de-facto leader.
“I ain’t even started,” he spat out, twisting his hips and straining against the hot wall to lean up. “I need a blindfold, Caroline.”
“Don’t, sweetie,” Emma said. “He needs to tell us what he knows before he gets one.”
The light never let up on its intensity. While they were more used to it, they knew prolonged exposure would lead to problems with their sight. Todd huffed and slammed against the wall, getting his legs under him and standing.
“Caroline, bring me a damn blindfold! I’m not going blind because this whore has a…”
Emma knocked him down with a left cross to the jaw.
“Call me that again, you son of a bitch.”
Caroline, squinting, felt around the fabric scraps. Her hands reached through the remnants of their clothes. Her hands found one of the doubled up strips, beginning to pull it back when she felt pressure around her wrist.
“Emma! Joel’s got me!” she screamed, legs and arms flailing as their remaining cellmate laughed.
“I got her got her got her got her!” Manic, he shook Caroline. “Let me go and I’ll do anything you want to her! I can kill her or anything!”
Caroline screamed. Emma dashed across the room to tackle Joel, kneeing him in the groin and slamming his face against one of the bright walls. Joel bellowed like an injured animal, fighting tooth and nail.
Emma put him into a choke hold, sobbing until he slumped into unconsciousness, dimming the lights.
“Sorry…” Emma muttered, petting his hair and stubble. “I’m so sorry…”
Caroline looked down, realizing she had not just run from the madman, but perched on the corpses.
“Fuck!” she screamed as she leaped off them, swiping a hand down and grabbing the blindfold. She forced it on Todd’s face. “There! Happy?!” she yelled, kicking him in the knee. “He was going to kill me because you needed your fucking blindfold.”
Todd winced and strained to stand. “We need to work together to survive this, you shits!”
Emma shook her head and leaned over the prone man. “We tried working together, look where it got us! You’re a fucking menace and Joel’s lost his goddamn mind! The only two people working together are Caroline and me, and fuck knows she’s terrified of me!”
Todd spat a bloody smear on the floor, rolling his jaw a bit, running his tongue along his teeth to make sure none had been knocked loose.
“Listen, I caught you messing with that panel. You were spooked. You gotta know something.”
“I told you, I don’t know shit. I told you all everything I know. What about you?! Huh? You’re so damn tight-lipped about everything. Who the fuck are you to say you get to make the calls?!”
“I’m the one who’s not getting listened to by whoever is holding us.”
“I don’t know why they gave me those damn handcuffs.” She threw up her hands, then rubbed her eyes so hard she saw spots.
“You were happy enough to cuff me, knowing your bitch ass doesn’t have keys!”
Caroline moved between them. “If you two can’t get along, I’ll make the calls!”
Emma snorted, angering the young girl who’d had enough. Caroline slapped the older woman. “I’m talking! I’ve let you two tear this group apart. If you can’t choose which of you should lead, neither of you deserve to.”
Todd chuckled, “Kid, if you think I’m taking orders from you…”
“Shut the fuck up or I’ll never feed you again,” she retorted, making him blink. He could tell she was serious. He could see a hint of her father in her gaze. She had been pushed too far and was willing to be the bad guy.
“Now. Todd needs to be tied up. Emma, get some fabric strips and secure him.” She turned to look at the three dead bodies in the corner, the stench was starting to become too much, even with their being accustomed to it.
“Just wish we could get these bodies out of here.”
&nb
sp; The room flared brighter, making Todd cry out, unable to shield his eyes. There was another metallic clang, and a low rumble. It took about ten seconds to see what had happened. A large panel of wall, previously unknown to have any use, opened, revealing a trash basket with a rubber liner.
In the middle of the room lay their new tool. A meat cleaver.
The room slowly brightened as Joel came to. Before the light was unbearable, he saw the reflective metal and smiled.
“They listened to me…” he hissed.
Suzette sat across from her grandmother in the palatial suite, sipping tea and munching on butter cookies.
“Is Jack going to be back soon, dear?” Francesca said between sips.
“I think so,” she said, opening the drapes to the ebon void beyond. “So, your old flame; tell me about him. All I’ve heard is what Phoenix has told me, and he sounds like a jackass.”
“Sebastian Gerard? The Jackest of Asses,” she sighed, a faint smile on her lips. “We weren’t terribly unlike you and Phoenix. It’s why I’m not happy about your arrangement. A DiMarco and a GearWitch; one go-around was enough.”
“I thought when one died that everything about them went, you know…” She made a hand gesture of an explosion. “Poof.”
“As I understand it, as long as something important remains, it keeps it on. It’s why this suite is still here.”
She closed the empty tin of butter cookies, reopening them to find it refilled. “He built a room in a hotel on a floor that doesn’t exist. Trapped in a moment of time.”
“In a shadow of a moment of time.”
Suzette looked out the window again; a purplish aurora flickered across the windows, lighting up the city of Rouge Mal, or rather, an afterimage of the city.
“Skyline looks wrong. I swear the buildings change every time one of those flashes passes by.”
“Time has moved on, the ripples of all those years are hitting the suite. You’re seeing the city when I was young, when you were young, now.”
She stepped back, turning to see the mournful expression on Francesca’s face.
“I promise you, we won’t end up like you and Gerard.”
“It’s already started. I chased that man for years. I got pulled in by the gravity of it all. You’ve been pulled into the orbit. I just hoped I could save you from it.”
Suzette hugged her elder, kissing her on the forehead. “Grandma, we’ll be fine.”
“You don’t know what’s out there. This gets bigger until it burns you. It’ll burn you from the inside out, consume you…” She paused. “It’ll damn you. I should have choked the life out of Phoenix when I saw him in the graveyard all those years ago.”
“Listen, can we change the subject? I think there’s a rule about when women get together, it’s a bad thing if all they talk about is men.”
“Avoiding the topic of Jack. I understand.”
“Seriously, listen to us. Grandma, are you doing okay?” Suzette poured more tea into her cup. “It never runs out; how Mad Hatter.”
“I know, one of my favorite blends, as well. They haven’t made it for decades. When I go, I take it with me, so enjoy it.”
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m not going to be here forever to help you and Phoenix out of these binds.” Francesca sipped at her tea, inhaling the steam off the cup. “It really is good tea, you know. So, how is life going with you?”
“Bills are paid, I’m getting a raise and Angelique is crashing at my place.”
“A raise? Well at least one of us is being paid!” She looked up from her cup and took a butter cookie. “You know, I should make sure all the dangerous items I keep here get moved. Heaven knows what will happen to them when…”
“Stop that! You have plenty of years left in you. God needs to prepare the angels for the storm you’ll bring with you.”
“That’s my girl.”
“What about you?”
“Life is going good, I have to keep busy. Want some food brought up?”
“I’m fine; I can’t eat anything beyond tea and cookies as nervous as I am,” Suzette said, checking her watch. “Come on, where is he?”
“I’m certain he’s fine. I mean after everything you’ve told me, I doubt he could be in danger.”
Suzette looked askance, set down her cup, and paced around the room. All around her were powerful treasures Francesca had gathered and kept safe for longer than she had been alive. She wasn’t even told of this until her involvement with Phoenix.
“What are these? I mean, I’m assuming I’ll be taking over looking after this stuff.”
“Oh no, you won’t. Over my dead body.”
“Grandma, that’s kinda what I’m talking about.”
Francesca ran her fingers over her face. “Point taken. Tell you what; I’ll set aside some time to go over what they do. Don’t tell McGee though.”
“Lips sealed.”
“Seriously, that idiot would open a gate to places best left untouched.”
“I understand.”
“I mean, he’s a complete imbecile when it comes to using his powers.”
“Grandma.”
“Utterly useless, I swear.”
“Grandma….”
“Seriously, Suzette. You’ve got your head on better than your sisters and yet you work for him. You know you could get a better job. Sweet mercies, I’d pay you more than he would.”
“I need to do things my way, Grandma. I’m not going to be dependent on the family, you know that.”
Francesca gritted her teeth and slammed her fist into the stuffed arm of the chair she sat in. “You know who you sound like?”
“You?”
Francesca paused and looked at her granddaughter, standing and holding her right hip a moment before walking over, white locks framing the sides of her face. “Damn right, you do.”
There was a chime and Francesca said, “That would be Jack.”
She walked over to the elevator and slid the brass key in the hole near the sliding door. Old mechanisms clinked and sputtered, and the antique iron pointer, not unlike a clock hand, descended from a twelve o’clock position, swinging to six o’clock, only to ascend moments later.
Jack emerged, laden with various bags, once the door opened with a chime. He took a few steps and dropped a good portion of them unceremoniously on the well-maintained floor. Francesca gave him a disapproving look, tilting her chin up to enhance how far down her nose she looked at him.
“Young man, you could have taken multiple trips,” she muttered, walking to a sleeping area.
Jack hung his head and looked to Suzette. “She hates me.”
“That would be accurate,” she quipped back, picking up a few bags and hefting them with little effort. “You get everything?”
“I also made a small side trip for you.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a clamshell cases. “She did say you looked good in the silver, so I thought I’d try something to make the both of you happy.”
Suzette’s cheeks flushed, graciously taking the cases and putting the contents on. “Thank you, Jack.”
“Hey, anything for you. Go show your grandmother,” he chuckled, tipping his head back over his shoulder, gesturing in the Francesca’s direction.
Suzette playfully slugged him in the arm. “I’m going to make you regret this one day, you know that right?”
“I’d like to see that happen, Suze.”
She narrowed her eyes and walked over to show her grandmother the gifts. Jack looked out the window, shivering. He grabbed for his cellphone and, once again, noticed the lack of service.
“Explain this to me again; where are we?”
Francesca walked out, smiling curtly. “This is the tea room. If you need the restroom, it is on your right.”
“Yes ma’am. I meant…” He thumbed out the window.
“I know what you meant. You haven’t earned that explanation yet. You’re away from where the trouble is; that’s all you
need to know,” she said, patting the man on the shoulder. “You have good taste, though.”
“Thank you. I’ll be honest, I’ve never met a woman like her before.”
“I’m going to be honest with you, young man. I’ve met men like you before. You’ve got a choice ahead of you; make the right one. With Suzette, you have one shot; miss it, and you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“You’re more than welcome. Go have some tea and cookies, I insist.”
Jack smiled, pocketing his phone and sat in the tea area, reaching to pour himself a cup.
“After you put all that stuff away.” Suzette yelled from the other room.
Jack sighed and stood. This would be one of those days. He put away the items Suzette and Phoenix had told him about, content that everything was at least going according to plan.
Pain. Pain and Stillness. It only made the seconds drag. MacKenzie had been working him over for the better part of two hours. He knew every bone in his hands and feet had been broken at least once. His shoulder ached and he tasted blood on his lips. MacKenzie would kill him, of this he was sure. The bag over his head was at least a respite from showing his fear to the lycanthrope.
He heard footsteps from outside, the sound of a door opening and closing. He was alone. The pain prevented him from having enough focus to use his powers. Even if he managed to break his bindings, his broken feet and swollen ankles would prevent him from going anywhere. Going to the Cloister would be impossible in his current condition.
The Cloister. He couldn’t go there, but he still had his ties to it. In training, he remembered how he could call his predecessors to advise him. He closed his eyes, using his pain as a signal. He extended his senses out, throughout the room.
Please let one of them heed the call.
Voices came closer.
Please. Please come.
Footsteps approaching the door.
There’s no escape.
“Phoenix,” said a voice behind him, feminine, but with an edge.
“I’m here…” he groaned. “Please, I need help.”