S.A. Price (28 page)

“Give me the status on what’s happening here? Where were the girls? How were they kept?

Casualties, anything that’s of use.”

“Girls were kept in the smaller building in dog cages, we didn’t find any there so we assumed that went well. We’ve had six casualties nothing life threatening, none dead. The outer buildings are secure. Looks like they have been used to store food and necessities. In the main building we found occult books, drawings and other strange paraphernalia. We’ve moved what we can and taken pictures of what we can’t.”

“Good. What about Cristof? Did you find him?”

“Found a body matching his description, shot himself in the head in his study.”

~114~

“Sounds familiar, keep the body out of the fire, I want someone to ID that fuck. You…” He pointed to the soldier who’d spoken out. “I want you to go to that body and guard it with your life, Seeing as how you reckon you’ve already done the hard part.” Merrick turned back to the man in front of him. “I want the bodies of the dogs in where the girls were kept, it’ll explain the cages. I want you personally to go through the out buildings check for everything, we’re leaving them as they are so I want you to make sure that they are as you report.” Aid grinned watching Merrick relay his orders to the men. He did it well.

Merrick cleared his throat continuing. “I want a team combing through the forests making sure we missed nobody. We have no margin for error here, I want all evidence of this erased. Leave six vehicles the rest I want driven to this scrap yard, the owner’s a friend and is used to dealing with us.”

He passed him a card for Gerry the auto-chop guy. Aiden waited for the guy to complain about the four-hour drive but he took it on the chin keeping his mouth shut. “Clean the hardware off the bodies and place them inside the main building. I don’t need them sitting at a table drinking tea but I do need them placed around the area and not in a pile. Lastly, there’s a car up on the road and in the trunk there’s six boxes, have them brought to me. Understood soldier?”

“Yes sir!” He saluted without a hint of sarcasm then about turned to follow orders.

“Wow Mer, you know if I was a girl I’d be all hot right now.” He grinned excitedly. Blowing something up was better than sex, the only thing that beat it was the sex straight after blowing something up and a missionary to boot, oh this was the best that it got.

Merrick growled. “Don’t push your luck. You have work to do…”

Aid nodded. “Yes sir, and the pipes?”

Merrick snatched the line map from him looking back over them. “I’ll see to them myself after the works done. How long will you need?”

“Twenty minutes give or take. I’ll need to circle round finding the best places to lay the bricks.”

Merrick nodded. “Good I’ll make sure we’re done down here by then.” Mer turned his back storming off after the men scrambling to follow his orders.

The absence of Merrick’s presence felt like a weight had been lifted off Aiden’s shoulders. Now he could get down to business. He took a walk around the buildings marking the structural points in his head and which would be easier to take down. They were faking a gas leak so the charges had to be just right. Merrick was going to take care of the hard parts all he had to do was produce the small sparks that would push things along.

To Aiden, everything was looking to explode it was just a matter of how to go about it. Looking at the building now gas leak wasn’t how he would have gone about it, the timber was old and set for a good decent burning but there was more than one way to skin a cat. He was planning on a good ole fire anyway; something hot enough to destroy everything inside leaving nothing but highly charred unidentifiable remains.

Thing about gas is that it’d take a system clean out if you allow it to go. The trick was manipulating the blast to where you wanted it. Today Aid needed it to take out both houses but it had to happen quickly enough to have taken the occupants by surprise. Pipes were old things that tended to crack, the story was believable enough but still sloppier than he liked his work to be. He hadn’t been lying to Myra when he’d told her that he turned down last minute jobs, anything less than three months then he didn’t want to know. It paid to be the best and he wasn’t going to start making stupid mistakes.

Today was the exception to the rule. They were just going to have to be careful and pull all their contacts. He moved inside the house locating the load bearing walls. They were the ones he had to bring down. Hit them with enough punch and it would bring the whole place crunching down.

He sat his pack on the wooden floor ignoring the men coming and going with the now stinking bodies. He took out a small claw hammer and one of his bricks moving to the wall. He tapped it with the hammer until he found just the right spot, the denser the better. Once found he hammered at it chipping the brick and mortar until he made a good enough space to place his own made brick.

~115~

The brick itself was a home made combination, something he’d whipped up a few years ago. It was a combination of several devices, both human and magical. As a kid he’d never been one for study but fire had consumed him, it was his passion. He’d immersed himself in literature and everything to do with the subject. That was back when he truly believed that he could develop fire powers. The mulch bricks had several fire wards on them, something far less traceable than modern chemicals.

The chemicals were there though, just a little harder to trace or test for. The mulch that held it together was soaked in a variety of liquids before going through another ten or twelve processes, depending on their intended use.

The theory behind the brick was that the chemicals held within the brick would expand igniting and pushing outward exploding and instantly consuming everything in its path. The wards gave the fire focus and intensity. There was also a containment ward on there that Merrick had insisted on after he’d accidentally blown up one of the wings on Trent’s French mansion. The detonator was more or less standard and worked by a remote in his pocket. He scraped the containment ward off and lifted the hammer and his bag. One down only nine left to go.

****

Merrick had known there was no reason for Evelyn to be present at tonight’s events. She’d been through enough already without a life threatening wound. That is if she was still alive. She was though, she had to be, and he’d never forgive himself if she was dead. Someone he was charged to protect, someone who trusted him to protect her. She needed him and he wasn’t there for her. Neither was that rat snake from Olivia’s nest. The big question was what exactly did he think he was doing?

Because he wasn’t protecting her or any of the others, letting her get herself shot. Merrick should have gone in with them, he should never have let the girls go in alone.

Sweat dripped from his forehead as he pounded his aggression out on the last floor board to get to the damn pipes practicing for when he got Olivia’s nephew alone. He had to give it to Aiden he knew his stuff, even when called to perform at the last minute. Something that Merrick knew for a fact ruffled his feathers. Aiden sure did know how to bring a house down. It was sad to think what the boy could have become if he’d only put as much practice and studying into more admirable goals instead of destruction. His cards had been dealt before Merrick had found him and after that he hadn’t exactly given the boy the stable upbringing that he needed.

The pipes were old and ready to crack just as the boy had said. The area had been cleared and the bodies prepared. He reached in snapping the pipe careful not to cause any sparks. Fire was not his specialty. He sat up lifting his tools and moving back out to the porch. According to his watch Aiden would be out in a few seconds, he barely had enough time to do a quick whip around to check everything was in place before Aid’s voice shouted from inside.

“Hey coming out, don’t shoot.” His voice was soon followed by his head and the rest of his body.

“You chilled out any? Or are you still snappy, cuz I don’t want you ruining my moment.”

“I’m fine, beating the hell out of floorboards works for my aggression.” He managed a weak smile.

“I thought it might.” He smiled as they both walked away towards their car. “Everything’s set then, I’ll let it air a few seconds. All the good boys out of the way?”

“Yeah. Let’s get this over with so we can check on the girls.” Merrick carefully left Evelyn’s name out. He couldn’t bear to think about what he’d do if she were dead.

“They’ll be fine, I’m sure they all are in the best possible place for them.”

Merrick nodded not looking at him. Aiden was right he really hoped he was right. Right now he needed to be in the best possible place for him and that was in Elise’s arms. They walked in a comfortable silence for a while then turned to the buildings.

“You wanna push the button?” Aiden asked cheerfully.

“Nah I don’t want to steal your moment.”

“Suit yourself.” Grinning like the Cheshire cat Aiden pulled the remote from his pocket and began a cheerful countdown.

~116~

He pushed the button on three, as always, and the buildings exploded in a controlled fireball.

Aiden shuddered next to him watching the blaze intensely. It burned brightly for a minute or so before dieing down.

“Well that was fun.” Aiden grinned turning to him. “Let’s go back now. You have someone watching the blaze?”

“Yeah I do.” Merrick nodded to the men still left as Aiden and him walked away with the heat at their backs.

He let out a sigh of relief as they made it back to the car. It was over, his thoughts filtered to the girls and Elise, at least almost over. They wouldn’t be getting any more trouble from Cristof or his goddess anymore. The cult was long dead and if there was any lucky enough to have escaped…He got behind the wheel starting the car up. Now all he had to do was pray that Evelyn was still alive.

~117~

TWENTY-SEVEN

Homer scrubbed his face with his hand for the third time in the past hour, determined to keep his eyes open. Evelyn lay in the bed beside him, her shoulder taped up to hide the stitches. He had stayed with her throughout, keeping her conscious, and was there through the entire operation, Geraldine’s niece Laura thankfully was able to stitch her up cleanly, and for that Homer would be grateful. The scar was going to be small, but it would still be a scar, and he knew Evelyn was not going to enjoy it at all.

Olivia had been trying to get at him, but there was not a chance in hell he was leaving Evelyn’s side, not until she woke and he could talk to her. Myra had been right, he had a hell of a lot to explain to her, and he knew he was going to catch hell for keeping his nature from her, but it couldn’t be helped. They were out of there, she was safe for now, and he was going to make sure she stayed that way. Everything else was going to have to wait. Olivia’s incessant bitching, Evelyn’s Archon’s hunger for his blood, the call from the rest of the Archon’s for his intel, it was all secondary to Evelyn and his need to make sure she didn’t hate him.

He knew what it was, the feelings and the compulsion, and he agreed with it, the need for Evelyn to be his mate. His snake claimed her the second he saw her in danger, the second he took that chance and propelled Homer through the air at Jax. Homer usually wouldn’t have been that rash, but his snake raged at seeing his intended mate, and acted. It wasn’t how he wanted to break his nature to her, let alone tell her he was venomous, but now it was done.

He had been assured that she would be fine, but sore, and the blood loss, even though the wound was a major one, was superficial. Still, until she opened her eyes he wasn’t leaving her side. He groaned, and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and hung his head, trying to calm down. Who knew what state she was going to wake up in, all he did know for sure was that the chances that she was going to be quite cross with him were quite high. He heard her groan and looked up to see her reaching for her shoulder with her good arm and blinking sleepily.

“Easy Evie, You have stitches, try not to agitate them.”

She looked dumbly at him for a second. "Stitches?"

He winced. “The gunshot. It was a clean shot but you have stitches on either side of your shoulder, and it was dislocated. Your right side isn’t going to be up to much for a while, and it’s my fault. Gods Evie I’m so sorry.”

Realization filtered through her features. She jerked away from him crying out as the pain stabbed though her. "He shot me." Her voice was high and pained.

“Yeah he did. Don’t think we don’t have people looking for him.”

"I... Is he dead? You bit him..." She looked up into his eyes then away staring intently at her good hand. "I saw the venom, he should be dead...right?"

“If he were human, yeah. Unfortunately he’s not and he wasn’t among the dead.” He frowned.

"Wasn't human? Guess that happens a lot... you know?"

“What? The bad guy gets away? Or the non human thing?”

"Can't exactly comment on the first so it’s the not human part I'm getting at..."

~118~

“Well it was a surprise to me, both on him and you. I’ll admit I thought you were human.”

"Seems like the world is just full of us now. Last week I'd barely even talked to another of my kind and now here I am, smack in the middle of... this. Apparently we come in all different shapes and sizes."