Once Broken (Dove Creek Chronicles) (15 page)

He licked my fingers once, then went to work as Gabriel had explained. I was grateful that they would help us with such a grizzly task, and hoped it was the only time we would have to ask such a thing of them.

They left us at a run, yipping and howling as they went. Once they were finished, every predatory animal within ten miles would be interested.

Gabe got into the truck and drove it into the spot where my jeep had been. He got back out quickly and told me to get ready to drive. I got behind the wheel and watched him stuff his ruined t-shirt into the gas tank opening like a wick. Striking a match, he lit the end of the shirt. He backed off and waited for it to catch, then ran to his car.

I followed him as fast as my sputtering engine would allow. Yellow and orange glowed harshly against the black backdrop of the country and I felt queasy.

If all worked according to plan, someone would see the blaze and call the fire department. By the time they would realize something was amiss, the scene would be doused with water and any tire tracks would be obscured by the onslaught of fire trucks and personnel. We didn’t doubt that missing persons reports would be filed, but those were all too common around this area.

I said a silent prayer as I drove, asking for forgiveness for the lives I’d taken and for protection from the potential fallout.

I’d never been so glad to see the old house that was our headquarters. I must’ve been looking pretty pitiful because Gabe met me as I got out of my jeep and placed a protective arm around me.

“I called Meredith to come take a look at you, just to be safe,” he said.

I didn’t even protest, I was so downtrodden by the whole situation. “Thanks.”

Jocelyn and Casey met us at the door, wide-eyed and full of concern. I felt Gabe’s arm slide away from me, and missed the reassurance it had given me.

Casey took me in his arms and kissed me. I kissed him back, though something felt off about it. We had been affectionate in front of other people before, but this seemed forced. Like he was showing off.

Meredith emerged from the back and shooed them all away. I saw a look pass between Casey and Gabe that any woman would recognize.

It was a silent pissing contest, and I was the territory Casey was marking.

I didn’t spend much time thinking about it because, real
ly, boys will be boys. But Meredith was poking and prodding me, taking my pulse and checking my blood pressure. I didn’t know what the heck that was for, since I was so wound up. Of course it would be high.

In the end, she declared me fit for duty.

“Get some rest today and take some pain medicine to keep the soreness at bay,” Meredith advised.

Casey offered to drive me home when we were all leaving headquarters that morning, since my jeep wasn’t in driving condition. I nearly cried when I saw the full extent of the damage in the morning light.

“Don’t worry, darlin’. I can take care of the mechanic work for you, and I know a good body shop. They’ll treat you real fair,” Casey said.

I nodded, too overwhelmed to think about how much it would cost me in the end. Something told me insurance didn’t cover crazed car chases.

Deciding that it was something better dealt with after some sleep, I climbed into Casey’s Bronco with his help and sat quietly during the short drive to my apartment. I was grateful for him being there, despite the exchange from earlier. Even if he had been trying to exert some sort of claim over me, I’d be a fool not to be flattered at least on some level. And when he handed me two aspirin and tucked me into bed next to him, I began to wonder if “no strings attached” still applied.

chapter eleven

I woke several hours later, feeling like I’d been trampled by a herd of stampeding longhorns. Casey was kind enough to bring me coffee in bed, along with a couple more aspirin and an ice pack for my nose.

I live alone and I like my space, but let me tell you, I don’t know what I would’ve done without the help. It didn’t hurt that the helping hand was attached to a gorgeous man but for once, I wouldn’t have turned down assistance no matter how it looked. Tired, bruised, and guilt-ridden, I needed an anchor to the rest of the world.

Moving around tentatively, I stretched and got out of bed as soon as the aspirin started to kick in. My head throbbed and my muscles ached, but I didn’t have any serious injuries so I did my best to suck it up and get going.

“Ya don’t hafta try so hard, darlin’. We’ve got all afternoon,” Casey said. He placed a tender kiss on my lips.

While I appreciated the sentiment, I didn’t want to stay down for long. I shook my head. “The longer I lie still, the worse I’m gonna feel.”

He tilted his head at me as if to say,
You’re the boss.

Though we’d planned for a romantic day, it ended up more chaste than either of us had hoped. My body and mind just weren’t up to hot and heavy passion. Casey was a perfect gentleman as he helped me to ease into and out of the bathtub, and he discretely left the bathroom as I got myself together. I looked into the mirror and scowled. If I would have known how terrible I looked, I might have been self-conscious before. I was struck again by how thoughtful Casey was, because he hadn’t said a word. If he thought I looked as horrible as I thought did, he had been considerate enough to keep that thought to himself.

With my hair still up in a towel, I brushed my teeth then went to work on fixing my face. The cut to my head was just below my hairline, so I placed a bandage over it and decided that I would part my hair so that it would fall forward and conceal it. My eyes were bruised dark purple and blue along the inside corners and underneath, and I used a little trick with concealer and sparkly eye shadow that Jocelyn had told me about. By the time I was finished, I didn’t look so much like something the cat dragged in.

Casey and Jocelyn were on watch and though I was due for a night off, I rode with him to headquarters. We were early, still a few hours prior to dusk. After some rest and an afternoon of recovery, the damage to my jeep didn’t look quite so bad as it had that morning. It
felt more like an inconvenience than an insurmountable obstacle.

Casey had already called his buddy with the body shop over in Summer Valley, so I arranged for a wrecker to tow the vehicle there. He would have to take a look at it and check out the frame before he could tell me one way or the other about repairs.

I thought about renting a car for the time being, but decided against it. I’d have an awfully hard time explaining to a rental company what happened to their car if I got it mangled one night.

It hit me that there was a perfectly good truck sitting in the garage at my former home. Dominic’s old Ford was left idle, and I knew he would have given me a stern lecture if he’d known it was going without use. Rather than let Dylan wonder what happened to the truck and cause him any worry, I gave him a call at the pawn shop to let him know I would be taking it.

He answered on the second ring. “Dove Creek Pawn, this is Dylan.”

“Hey, Dyl. It’s me.”

“Heya, Rem. What’s up?”

“Just wanted to let you know that I’m gonna stop by the house later tonight and pick up Dom’s truck. I got into a little accident last night and insurance won’t pay for the rental.” I was satisfied that my story wasn’t a lie, only a euphemistic version of events.

“Are you okay?”

Bless him for being more concerned about my welfare than the other details.

“Yeah, I’m fine. The airbag nearly broke my nose, but that’s the worst of it.” I attempted a chuckle, trying to sound like I was laughing off a regular accident – the kind of thing that could happen to anybody.

“Good,” he said. “Thanks for letting me know about the truck. I’d have called the cops if I got home and found it gone.”

“Thought you might have. I’ll be stopping by sometime tonight, if that’s okay?" Though it was my house, Dylan was living in it and I didn’t want to go barging in and invade his privacy.

“Yeah, fine by me. You gonna be up?”

“Casey and I are going out tonight. He’s gonna take me after.” Okay,
that
one was a lie.

“Oh, right. Casey . . . Do I need to have a man to brother talk with him?” Dylan asked, and I could hear the teasing in his question.

“How old am I? Sixteen again?”

“No, but you haven’t seen anybody since . . . Well, I have a right to be an overprotective brother, okay.”

I laughed. “Okay. But no, no talk. It’s not like that.”

“Not like
that
? Then what is it like?”

“None of your business, baby brother.” I said it with a smile, though Dylan couldn’t see it. “I’ll talk to you later, Dyl.” I hung up before he could protest.

The more I got accomplished and the more I moved around, the better I felt. Instead of returning home to sit around all alone, I stayed at headquarters. Hugo and Aric were on backup duty, and they arrived not long after Jocelyn. Hugo asked for a firsthand account of what had happened with the Triple Six the night before.

We sat in the kitchen and I told him about the truck following me, the collision on the ranch road, and how I defended myself. And, I finally admitted aloud how worried I was about taking two lives.

“They intended to kill you,
mija
, just like the Triple Six have threatened us all. You did what you had to, and there is no shame in that,” Hugo said.

“No, but it’s not guiltless like killing monsters.”

“No, it isn’t,” he agreed. “Nor should it be.”

I only nodded, afraid to speak.

“Are you staying here tonight? You shouldn’t be by yourself.”

“Yeah, I planned on it. I don’t wanna be alone.” I gave him a wan smile.

“Good. You can keep Aric and me company.” Hugo got up from his chair as we both saw Casey and Joss in the sitting area, getting ready to head out.

I rose, too, and helped myself to a bottle of water from the refrigerator. Everyone else was gathering in the great room, so I joined them. For the first time, I felt anxiety at any one of us walking out that front door and into the darkness. We had lost other Amasai to the vampires since I joined the ranks, but I hadn’t been as
close to them as I was to the small team we had now. Whether or not my relationship with Casey was anything definable, I worried for him.

Before he left,
he took my hand as he had made it a habit to do when one of us left for our watch. He gave me a kiss that was soft and sweet.

“Come back in one piece,” I told him.

“Yes ma’am,” he said with a little smile.

HUGO, ARIC, AND I WERE
in the sitting area, passing the time with lively conversation that flitted from one subject to another like a humming bird between blossoms. Hugo and I were just learning that Aric had a hidden talent for knot tying that he’d achieved while in Boy Scouts, when a call came in to Garrett. We could only hear his end of the conversation, but that was all that was needed to make us fall silent.

Garrett looked at us and mouthed, “Solomon,” as he listened through his headset. The three of us left our seats and joined him as the call wrapped up.

“Guys, this one is bad,” he warned after he hung up. “The entire Jessop family, murdered like the others.”

He jotted something down and handed the slip of paper to Hugo.

“There’s the address. Solomon asked if you and Remi would come.”

Hugo looked down at address, then back up to me. His face was taut.

“What is it?” I asked.

Without a word, he handed me the note Garrett had scribbled. The blood drained from my face, and I nearly dropped the little piece of paper.

Garrett and Aric exchanged a look. “What’s wrong?” They both asked in unison.

“It’s the house I grew up in. My mom moved out of that place not even a year ago.”

Hugo looked at me as if to ask if I was up for it. I nodded once.

“Aric, you stay here in case Jocelyn and Casey need help,” Hugo instructed. “Garrett, call Alex and ask him if we can borrow his nose for a little while. Remi, you’re with me.”

We loaded up and Hugo sped the few miles it took to get there. The house was an older two story near the elementary school. Though the new owners had done some work to it, it still looked homey and lived in. A sprawling live oak stood to the right of the front porch and shaded most of the front yard. An old swing with peeling paint hung at one end of the porch – the same swing that had been there when my parents bought the place twenty-five years ago. A yellow toy dump truck had been left out on one of the steps.

My stomach turned and I put my hand to my lips as the bracing flavor of bile rose in the back of my throat. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hugo cross himself.

I did the same as I had with the two previous killings, and forced myself to take one step at a time until I reached the front door. Hugo’s quiet presence was reassuring, considering the circumstances.

We found Solomon in the living room, standing still as a statue. His features were drawn and tense. For once, he looked far older than his years. He looked at us with a pained expression.

“It’s the same as the previous two – the blood, the carving of the skin. I don’t know why I even called you, it’s just . . .” He stopped and looked down at his hands. “I’ve got nothing. No leads, no physical evidence. Nothing to go on.”

I felt for the detective, I really did. Though we had our arguments, I knew he did his job with everything he had. That these murders were happening in his jurisdiction was taking its toll.

I thought through what we had learned, and had a harrowing idea.

“When did this happen?” I asked.

Solomon looked back up. “Sometime last night, between midnight and four. Why do you ask?”

The blood drained from my face as he confirmed my fear. “I was nearly killed by two of the Triple Six at almost four in the morning yesterday,” I told him. “I wasn’t far from here. They must have been running interference because I got too close.”

“It’s not much, but it’s something,” Sol said. “Why wasn’t I told about this?”

“You’ve had your hands full. It didn’t seem right to burden you with it,” Hugo answered.

“Don’t you see?” I interrupted. “Now we know how they’re doing it. They aren’t coming after us just for the hell of it. They’ve been picking fights so that we’re distracted.”

“To what end?” Hugo asked. “Demon summoning merely requires animal blood. Taking humans is dangerous and unnecessary.”

“Possession,” I said.

“Wait. You must be joking,” Solomon interjected.

“Think about it. Single, middle-aged men who live alone – both easy targets. This family was probably a mistake, like the mother and children weren’t supposed to be here,” I said. “Or, they were trying to send me a message.”

“A message?” Sol asked.

“Remi grew up in this house,” Hugo answered.

I nodded. “This demon, if it’s Apollyon, he’s demanding a show of faith,” I posited. “Maybe manipulating them with the power he has given them.”

“I believe we’re on to something. The Destroyer is one of the few demons powerful enough to possess a living human,” Hugo said.

“We’ve never been up against something this
bad,” I said.

“Not us personally,” Hugo corrected. “The Amasai have – it’s why we were assembled in the beginning. The murders that were rampant here thirty years ago were during the months a Prince of Hell was let loose. Amon,
he is called . . . Demon of Wrath. He is Apollyon’s kinsman.”

“Let me make sure I understand,” Solomon held up a hand to pause us. “There are people, these Triple Six, working for a demon. They’re killing innocent people to prove themselves to this demon and to try to find him someone to possess. And this is the same reason Dove Creek was a bloodbath thirty years ago.”

“Basically, yeah,” I confirmed. “If we’re correct in our thinking.”

“Then I have one question. Who are these people and why would they knowingly help a demon?”

“Does that matter?” Hugo asked. “They have lost their way. Regardless of their motive, they have done irreparable damage. We cannot allow them to spill any more innocent blood.”

“It matters so that we can round them up and throw them behind bars,” Sol argued.

“By the time we’re through with them, there won’t be anything to put in jail,” I said.

Solomon shook his head. “Then I won’t be part of it. The law is the law. These people committed murder and they will see justice.”

“It’s our duty, Solomon. This is a different kind of justice,” I shot back.