Burned (21 page)

“I do not need to move to condemn your family to a long, miserable death,” Baal snarled, fixing me with a glare that felt like the mental equivalent of getting hit in the face with a branding iron.

“See,” I said, breaking eye contact before I cried out like a sissy. “That’s exactly my problem, Baal. You already have my family, and if you don’t tell me exactly where they are, I’m going to leave you with her.” I gestured toward Maya, and she waved. “She’ll chop you up into little pieces and serve you up in tea.”

“I will,” she said, holding up her Sawzall. It glowed with golden light. “Recognize these symbols?” Baal’s eyes got huge as he stared at the weapon. “Back when I was one of the good guys, I learned a few things about killing demons.” She patted the saw against her thigh. “I never actually got the opportunity to try this saw out on a guy like you, but I’ve just been itching for the chance. The way I see it, you have two options. You can be alive when I start cutting or dead.” With that, she grabbed a rain coat off a nearby table and slung it on over her clothes. “Personally, I’d choose dead.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Baal croaked. “I’m a Lord of Hell. If you kill me, Hell will make examples out of you both. They will never stand for this sort of insolence from the likes of you. Your torment will be exquisite and everlasting.”

“That’s where you’re one hundred percent wrong,” I said and smiled at him as Maya handed me a sheet of paper off the table that smelled vaguely of rotten eggs. I scanned it over before reading aloud. “Baal, your territory has formally been claimed by me, Mac Brennan, in the name of my steward.” As the words left my mouth, the sound of booming thunder filled the room. “As undersigned by Vassago, Prince of twenty-four realms of Hell in exchange for a territory claim to be taken from the claimed lands in the amount of ten percent.”

I continued on like that, reciting more legal mumbo jumbo than I cared to admit, all while watching Baal grow paler by the second. Basically, we’d lawyered up, and done a hostile takeover of his lands. It was even signed off by Hell itself. Sure, we’d had to give Vassago ten percent of the claim in order to get the demonic prince to push it through, but that was fine because now no one would come to help Baal.

“What do you want?” Baal asked when I was done reading, and the quiver in his voice was strangely satisfying. It isn’t often you have a lord of Hell willing to give you whatever you want in exchange for not killing him.

“Where is my family?” I asked, kneeling down next to the immobile demon.

“I do not have them. Nor do any of my people have them,” Baal replied, and as he did, I gestured to Maya to come forward. “Your plan was flawed before you started.”

“You can start cutting,” I said, standing up. “He doesn’t want to play ball.”

I had to hand it to Baal. Maya cut off nearly an entire leg a few inches at a time before he finally screamed for us to stop. It was a good thing too because from the way she was sweating, I bet she’d have had to take a nap and get lunch before she’d be able to do much more. Sawing through demonic flesh, even with an angelic Sawzall, was hard work.

“Your family is at St. Peter’s hospital,” Baal croaked. His voice hoarse and ragged. “Now, please… let me go.”

“Don’t kill him until I check it out, but be warned, if I don’t check back in a half hour or so, things will get really bad for you.” I shrugged and turned toward Maya. “You good?”

“Oh, I’m fantastic,” she said, eyeing her sack of demon parts, and not just any sack, but a sack of super demon parts. I’d basically just made her rich and powerful. Hopefully, that didn’t backfire on me. She shooed me away. “Now go. I have a buyer in the Ukraine who will pay double if he gets to watch me cut the heart out. Triple if I do it in my underwear.”

Trying to shake away that disturbing mental image, I made my way to the door accompanied by the sound of demonic screaming. It almost made me feel bad. Okay, it didn’t, and yes, maybe that was fucked up, but he was a demon who had kidnapped my family and used them as a bargaining chip. As far as I was concerned, he was still getting off easy.

“Hello, Mac,” Ricky said as I pushed open the door. She was standing just beyond the threshold with her hands balled into white-knuckled fists. “We need to talk,” she added, narrowing her amber eyes at me. I’ll be honest, I had the sudden urge to shut the door and run away. The only reason I didn’t was because the wave of fear that washed over me rendered me unable to do more than stand there hoping she wasn’t going to disembowel me with her teeth. Sadly, I didn’t think that was going to be an option.

Chapter 31

“Ricky!” I cried, reaching out to envelop her in a hug even though I could tell she was pissed off. “I know where my family is.”

“Mac, if you touch me, I will
literally
rip off your arms.” She narrowed her eyes at me as I pulled up short. “I
also
know where your family is. One of my contacts found them a few minutes after I hung up. Apparently, a hiker saw some glinting metal in the distance, went to investigate, and called the paramedics in. I tried to call back and tell you, but do you know what I was told when my darling brother answered the phone? That you jumped out of a moving vehicle and fled.” She shook her head in barely contained rage. “Who does that?”

“Wait, you knew where they were this whole time?” I asked, my eyes going wide. If she was telling the truth, I’d wasted a huge amount of time. I could have been with my family this entire time, but instead I’d gone off on a wild goose chase and killed a demon. I swallowed hard as the realization hit me like a kick in the teeth. “Is that why you’re here?”

“Yes, I’m here to take you to your sister and your nephew before you do something else stupid,” she said, glaring at me with her amber eyes. “It’s not like I can send my brother to get you since you have a penchant for parking cars on top of him.” She spun on her heel and began stomping toward a black Mercedes remarkably similar to the one Bobby had driven earlier. Did she have a whole fleet of bulletproof cars? “And don’t think I don’t know what you did at the shark tank. I let it go because it was sort of funny, but be warned, I do not always find your antics humorous.”

“How did you know I was here?” I asked, trying to decide if it was safe to get in an enclosed space with her. I mean, she was my girlfriend, albeit she was very new to the job, but at the same time, she was also a pissed off werewolf. Something told me that in this particular situation that might not be a winning combination for me.

“Maya called me and told me you’d shown up.” She turned slowly and fixed me with a soul-crushing stare. “So here I am even though I’m trying to run an entire state’s worth of shifters, while simultaneously fending off attacks from every Tom, Dick, and Harry.”

“That traitor,” I replied, glancing over my shoulder toward the sound of Baal’s screams. “We had a deal.”

“Seriously? That’s what you’re going with?” Ricky waved her hand in dismissal and bit back a response. I could almost see her trying to count to ten in her head. Judging by the look of things, I’d say she made it to four. “Why didn’t you call me, Mac? If you’d have just called me, I could have helped. Hell, if you’d trusted me and come to my place like I’d asked, you’d be with your family now.” The anger fled her eyes only to be replaced by something worse. Pain. “If this is going to work, you have to trust me.” She looked up at me, tears tugging at the edge of her eyes. “And you don’t.” She shook her head. “Maybe it’s because of the imprint, and maybe it’s just because you can’t trust anyone, but either way, you just don’t trust me.”

“I do trust you, Ricky,” I said, moving up to her and pulling her into my arms. She didn’t tear off my arms so things seemed to be looking up. That was good. I’m not sure what I’d have done if touching her made her freak her out. “But, it’s my family. Can you blame me?”

“Yes, a lot, actually, but this one time I’m going to chock it up to a new relationship hiccup. You get to do this exactly once,” she said into my shirt before pulling back. “Jesus Christ, you smell.” She wrinkled her nose. “You smell like sweat, blood, and sewer. I can deal with two of those things but not all three.” She pushed me back and sighed. “Let’s go see your family and then you can take a shower or three.”

I smiled. “That sounds great, Ricky.” I kissed her. “Thanks for not killing me.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she said, moving around the car and sliding behind the driver’s seat. “The night is still young.”

I didn’t bother to reply as I got into the car. She took off before I was even buckled in, zooming through the nearly empty streets so quickly it made my life flash across my eyes at least three times. To be fair, I had virtually no memory, so it was more a flashback of the last three days, but still.

By the time we reached the hospital, I was so frazzled I could barely breathe. Part of it was from my heart hammering in my chest and my adrenaline rushing in my veins, but most of it was apprehension. I was about to go see my family. What would they think of me? Would they remember me? Was I a good brother and uncle, or some guy who never showed up when it mattered? I had no way of knowing.

“What if they don’t like me?” I murmured as Ricky parked the car. “I mean, they knew me from before, and as far as I can tell, I wasn’t exactly a nice guy then.”

“Deadpool isn’t a nice guy either, but people still like him.” Ricky shot me a grin. “But if you don’t want to see them, I’ll understand. By which I mean, I’ll call you a pussy and pretend to understand, but I’m going to count that anyway.”

“Deadpool didn’t get them kidnapped. I did,” I said, ignoring her jab and holding out my demonic arm. “I can’t say for certain why I got this. The type of person I was doesn’t seem like someone who would sell his soul to a demon to save his family. It just doesn’t.”

I pulled myself out of the car. The moonlight was bright enough to light up the parking lot, but at the same time, it still felt too dark. I glanced around, watching the shadows and listening for strange noises, but nothing happened. It was probably just residual adrenaline, but either way, something felt off.

“Why don’t we agree to give you the benefit of the doubt?” Ricky said, coming around and taking my hand. She gave it a squeeze. “Besides, even if you
were
a horrible person, you’re not now.”

“Thanks,” I said, staring at my feet. I really hoped they wouldn’t hate me. If they did, I’d understand, but well, I didn’t want them to hate me.

“You ready, Mac?” Ricky asked, looking at me with her sea glass green eyes. “If you want, I can go in and talk to them first, or I can wait here, or go in with you. Whatever you want me to do, I will.”

“You’re being awfully nice considering I parked a car on top of your brother,” I said as a way of buying time and sidestepping her question. The truth was, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. All I knew was they were in there, and they might hate me. I was such a pussy.

“I’ll be mad at you for that later.” She started pulling me toward the entrance. “Right now, I am being here for you.” She stopped in front of the automatic doors and waited for them to open. “Besides, Bobby is fine. The bill the ‘all you can eat’ restaurant gave us after he pushed the car off of his body and jogged into town isn’t, but he is.”

“Good to know,” I said not caring even one iota about Bobby’s current state as I stepped through the automatic doors and glanced at Ricky. I swallowed hard. “Do you know what room they’re in?”

“Room two-twenty-four,” she said, squeezing my hand.

“Alright,” I said, trying to ignore the sense of nervousness and dread sloshing around in my gut. This was my family, and I’d been through Hell to save them. Surely, they’d want to see me. Surely.

“It’s going to be okay,” Ricky said as we approached the elevator. “And if it isn’t, well, I know a place that has great chocolate cookie dough ice cream.”

“Well, at least there’s that,” I said, punching the up button and waiting. It dinged and opened.

“I’d stop being so down on yourself, Mac. After all, you are dating the most powerful shifter in the state.” She shot me a grin and pulled me into the elevator. “Some might say that makes you pretty lucky.”

“Or, you know, that I have a death wish,” I replied, and she socked me on the shoulder. It hurt. A lot. I tanked it.

The door opened what felt like a heartbeat later, and I found myself staring into a lobby. I glanced at the sign on the wall in front of me. Room two-twenty-four was to my left. I moved toward it woodenly, wishing I could feel anything but anxiety in the pit of my stomach. As I approached the closed door to their room, I hesitated. Should I knock? What was the proper protocol?

“Mac, it will be okay,” Ricky said, releasing my hand and giving me a light shove toward the door. “Go on, I’ll wait here. It will probably be too much if I go with you, but I will if you want.”

“No,” I said. “I’m a big boy.” I turned the knob and opened the door. My sister and nephew were laying in twin hospital beds watching the television. As I swung the door open, they both turned to look at me.

“Mac!” my sister said, relief flooding her voice. “Thank God, you’re okay! The hospital has been trying to reach you all day!”

“Uncle Mac!” my nephew called before I could respond to my sister. He sat up in his bed and grinned at me, revealing a smile that was sans a few important teeth. “A guy in an ATV found us in the desert. I got to wear his helmet!”

“A guy on an ATV?” I asked, hardly able to believe that they seemed happy to see me. It was too good to be true. I glanced at Ricky, partially to reassure myself that I wasn’t dreaming, and partially waiting for the other shoe to drop. She nodded reassuringly.

“Get in there,” Ricky whispered and smacked me on the ass. “Seems like they like you after all.”

“Yeah, he was really nice,” my nephew said, drawing my attention back toward him. He grinned at me from the bed and started to move, but before he could do more than pull the blanket off his legs, he winced and glanced at the IV in his arm. “Ow!”

“That’s great! I’m glad you’re okay. I was really worried,” I said, stepping through the door. Only, as I did so, I found myself staring at Vassago as he mopped blood off the painted cement floor of his game room.