The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) (116 page)

The maudlin mood was broken and everyone breathed out in relief.

Dec grinned crookedly and patted her leg. “When can you get out of here?”

She picked at the edge of the blanket and said, “As soon as the bleeding stops. I don’t know how long that’ll be. The doctor said they’re going to give me an injection of steroids to help the little Trips. I guess they’ll let me out in a day or two. I’m going to make you crazy if you have to babysit me again!”

Sean said, “We’ll take turns babysitting you. How about that?” He took her hand in his. Rubbing it playfully, he said, “I don’t know about these two idiots, but I wouldn’t mind a few days of kicking back and watching DVDs all day. We’ll nuke some popcorn and crack open some frosty beverages. It’ll be great.”

She smiled at the idea. “Sounds like a plan. Can you scrounge up some Spotted Dick?” She yawned and grimaced. Trying to hide it, she forced a smile on her face that none of them bought.

Dec and Sean took the hint and got up to leave. After giving her orders to rest, they both placed their palms over her stomach in a familiar gesture of love for her and the babies. She rolled her eyes but didn’t stop them. Not that they would if she tried. They were supernaturally bonded to their unborn godsons.

“Stay strong, little warriors,” Dec whispered. After kissing her cheek, he and Sean left.

Once they were alone, Killian perched on the side of her bed. Carefully wrapping his arms around her, he tucked her against him and held her close. He felt the trembling in her arms as she gave in to exhaustion and pain.

Whispering against her ear, he said, “Don’t be afraid. I won’t let anything happen to you or our babies. Other than killing the prick that did this to you, what can I do to help?”

She said hoarsely, “Anchor me?”

He stroked her cheek and kissed her eyelids softly. “Always. Close your eyes and let me in. I’ll guard you in your dreams.” She snuggled against him and closed her eyes with a sigh.

Anchor
her? Jesus, hadn’t she been through enough already? Now she was terrified to sleep again. It broke his heart and pissed him off. Her short life had been plagued with nightmares and they’d worked hard to get them out of her head this year. She was finally free of the demons that haunted her nights. He’d be damned if he’d let those horsemen anywhere near her subconscious now. They’d have to go through him.

And he was in a very bad mood.

A discreet tap on the door startled him upright early the next morning. Mica was sound asleep and didn’t twitch despite his nearly falling off the bed. Soledad, the day nurse, chuckled at the sight of him catching himself before hitting the floor. With a wink, she moved to Mica’s IV bag and began her morning care routine. Halfway through the blood pressure check, Mica’s eyes fluttered open and she blinked.

Soledad took off the cuff and patted her arm with a smile. “Good news. Your vitals look much better this morning. The doctor wants to do an ultrasound in a few minutes. Cross your fingers, love. You may get to go home later today.”

“That would be great. I hate hospitals.”

Soledad joked, “Everyone with any brains feels that way! You belong at home with your family. As long as you stay off your feet, you’ll be allowed to stay home. Your doctor will order you right back here if you have any more trouble though.”

Killian said, “We’ve got plenty of family around to help. She’ll be okay.”

After the nurse left, Mica looked up at him with a question in her eyes.

He shook his head and said, “No, you weren’t dreaming. She was there. I saw her too.”

“I don’t understand. How is that possible? Is she a ghost?”

Good question.

He had no idea. He studied her worried eyes and wished he had some answers. She was too pale and her eyes had dark circles under them this morning. He cracked his knuckles. He still had a prisoner to interrogate, didn’t he? That prick was going to wish he’d never been born.

Yeah, it was time to go.

Sean grabbed a fistful of the man’s hair and yanked his head back. His eyes were half closed as he tried to pass out again.

Dec snapped, “Wake up, asshole!” He dumped a bucket of water over the man’s face.

He sputtered and coughed, eyes going wide with fear. Blood ran from a cut over his left eye. It probably needed stitches, but he’d be dead before infection could set in.

In the shadows, Killian watched with arms folded across his chest and eyes cold. Sean and Declan had only begun to question the bastard. The bloody cut was his own damn fault. They’d left him tied to the chair overnight and the moron knocked himself out trying to escape. The cut above his eye was from smacking his head on the concrete floor when the chair fell over.

Now the broken nose? That was from yesterday.

In a voice thick with congestion, the man snarled, “You’ll have to kill me before I’ll give you anything.”

Killian cleared his throat and peeled away from the wall. “Let me tell you how this is gonna work. You’ll give me the information I want and then you’ll die. If you cooperate, I’ll kill you quickly. If you make me work for it, I’ll let my boys play with you awhile. Your choice.”

The man spit in Killian’s direction and clamped his mouth shut.

Sean laughed softly and slid his blade from its sheath with a sharp metallic hiss. “I love it when they argue.”

Circling the prisoner, Killian gauged his emotions. Perfect. He was talking tough, but he was freaking out on the inside. This should be easy. Motioning Sean and Declan away, he stopped behind the chair and rested his hands on either side of the man’s skull.

“Who hired you?”

Three days later, Killian faded into the shadows behind a crumbling brick house. The blackened bricks reeked of the fire that had gutted the structure yesterday. The air was thick with the smell of burnt furniture and accelerant.

Well, well...

He used his sight to search for bodies in the rubble and found three. All were male; all were burned to a crisp. The acrid fumes of the gas couldn’t disguise the smell of cooked dumbasses. Some humans deserved to die just for being too damn stupid to live. These three crossed the wrong demon. Too stupid to know they’d been busted, they’d paid the ultimate price for it. Personally, he didn’t care that they’d kicked it--they were vicious predators who were marked for death already. The timing was inconvenient for him though. He’d come here looking for answers. One of these piles of ashes was his answer.

Fuck. He didn’t feel like starting over.

A movement drew his attention to the back of the property. A hooded man slouched slowly around the gate and paused, head cocked, listening. After a few seconds he straightened, nervously tugging sleeves down to cover pale wrists. Killian melted into shadow, waiting until the man passed by before going ghost to follow.

What do we have here? He watched as the man went straight to a pile of rubble and began moving it aside. After a few minutes, he dug out a dented metal box about the size of a shoebox.

Interesting. He hovered just to the side of the scumbag who was so fixated on prying off the lock that he didn’t notice he had company. The wind shifted and a whiff of jasmine drifted by. Killian’s head snapped up and he scanned for company. Nothing moved. He breathed deeply and the scent grew stronger; it was familiar but just outside of his memory. What the hell?

His prey’s irritated tone brought him back to the task in front of him. “Come on, come on, you bloody piece of shit! Open!” he grumbled under his breath.

The lock finally fell open and the scumbag let out an ‘ah’ of satisfaction as he pried open the bent lid. Killian peered over his shoulder as the lid came up.

“Well I’ll be damned,” he said aloud.

The man whirled, clutching the box against his chest. “Who the fuck are you?”

Killian plucked the box from the man and wrapped his fingers around a bony wrist. “Someone who has some questions for you.”

London, England:

“WHO’S THIS?” Sean asked as Killian materialized with his arm locked around some skinny punk in a hoodie. His other arm held a busted up metal box. Both were covered with a dusting of ash and reeked of fire. Sean’s nose twitched as he fought off a sneeze.

Killian shoved the skinny punk to his knees. The kid wheezed in pain and clutched at his elbow. The elbow stuck out at an odd angle.

Shit, that hadda hurt.

Eyeballing Killian, Sean asked pointedly, “Am I killing this one, too?”

Killian smirked and said, “Yeah, but let’s ask him a few questions first. Maybe he’ll be more reasonable than that other guy...what was his name?”

While they were talking, Killian had pulled over a rickety metal chair and shoved the guy into it. He sat stiffly with head lowered and arm cradled against his side.

“Paul. Paul Sellers.”

The hood popped up in surprise and quickly pointed to the floor again. Sean walked around to the back of the chair, close enough to hear his heartbeat bounding out of control. There you go, he thought. You’re in deep shit now, aren’t you? Time to have a heart attack, punk. The guy’s shoulders shook and the sour smell of sweat filled the room.

Fear sweat.

Sean tapped his fingers on the back of the chair and pulled out his blade. Not his prized Primani blade. No, that was too priceless for this job. Instead, he unsheathed the ten-inch military knife with the serrated edge.

Without warning, he yanked the hood back and hacked it off at the neck. The man pissed himself and passed out.

Killian’s chest shook with silent laughter as he watched from his vantage point by the wall. Disgusted, Sean slid the blade back into its sheath and pulled out the plastic cuffs. After cuffing their prisoner to the table, he and Killian stepped into the other room.

“Oh, shit. Can you believe that?”

Killian only scowled with annoyance. “Why am I not surprised? This whole week’s been a cluster fuck. Who would hire these idiots? They’re amateurs. It’d be funny if they weren’t trying to kill my entire family.”

Sean sympathized. It was his family too, and these attacks were pissing him off. Things used to be so simple. He had a second’s flashback to a century or two ago when their hardest op was traveling in and blowing up a nest of Anzu demons in Bulgaria. That was soooo much easier than life in this century. Too much technology for the bad guys; things were easier for them, which made it harder on the Primani.

On the other hand, he got to play bad cop a lot more now. And he was exceptional at playing the asshole. He’d never admit it out loud, but he got off on the theatrics of it all. The drama was fun. He and his boys settled into a familiar rhythm whenever they had interrogations to do. Dec went in first; played all nice-nice, softened them up, got them to relax. Once they were all comfy and feeling safe, Sean stalked in and put the fuckers against the wall, sometimes literally. But mostly he crawled into their heads and twisted their thoughts till they cried like babies. Pulling out the hardware worked the magic faster; the sight of those long-bladed Primani knives freaked out even the hardest badass. He rarely had to use them, but didn’t hesitate when he did. They were damn good at getting information without having to hack up the tools tied to the chair.

Yeah, it was good to play with their heads...less messy that way and they cracked almost immediately, especially when Killian moved in. There was no hiding your head from him. He was one scary dude. Once he put his hands on them, they spilled their guts.

Cleaner and faster. It was a win-win for everyone except for the tool in the chair...just because it was cleaner didn’t make it painless. Sean did a mental shrug.

You want to play with the big boys, well sometimes you got your ass handed to you.

Just the way it was.

“It smells like piss in here.”

Rivin poked his head inside the room. He was dressed for riding, decked out in full leather from head to toe. Minus an earring today, he sported fresh ink. The elaborate rune danced gracefully across the top of his left wrist. The rune spoke of unrelenting sorrow. Appropriate for the moody angel.

“Nice tat. You bored? You got time to hit the ink shops?” Killian was less than amused.

Rivin grimaced, his face hard with hostility. One of these days he was going to knock the bloody bastard out.

Killian spread his arms in an invite and smiled nice and slow. “You want a shot at me? I’m standin’ right here.”

Rivin took a step towards him, but Sean moved between them and snapped, “Don’t be a dumbass. Killian’s lookin’ to rip someone’s throat out. Don’t tempt him.”

With combat boots planted, Killian stayed where he was, arms open, big frame tensed for a fight. His eyes burned on low as he calmly considered Rivin and snorted with derision. Rivin scowled and fingered the clasp on his holster. The sound of the snap lingered in the quiet room.

No one moved as they all stared at each other.

Oh, hell. They didn’t have time for this bullshit. As if he was just thinking the same thing, Killian looked pointedly at the holster and it vanished from Rivin’s side and landed in Killian’s outstretched palm. Rivin’s mouth dropped in surprise. Sean barked a hard laugh.

Bouncing it from palm to palm, Killian warned, “Don’t fuck with me, biker boy. You’re only alive because I saved your ass. You play the game, you keep your wings.”

Taking a deep breath, Rivin hissed, “You bastard! You better watch your back. One day I’m gonna kick the shit out of you.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ll try. Bring Band-Aids when you do. Now let’s get to work. The clock’s ticking.” Killian dismissed the seething Primani and peered into the two-way mirror.

The tool was twitching again. Almost time to get back in there.

Sean moved over to Rivin and said out of the corner of his mouth, “Dude, you need therapy. Seriously. Get some help.”

Rivin bared his teeth in a snarl, but then broke into a broad grin. “You’re such an asshole. How are you still alive?”

“I’m just that good. So seriously, do you have news? What’s up?”

Killian was focused intently on the prisoner and not listening to them at all. Rivin lowered his voice anyhow. He didn’t have good news. With a sideways glance at Killian, he said, “Rumor on the street is Irku directed the hit.”

“How good is the intel?”

“High level. I trust it.” Rivin pointed his chin towards the prisoner and asked, “He talk yet?”

Killian had slipped into the room and loomed over the guy in chair. He was wide awake now and sat with his bony chin raised in defiance. Looked like he was ready to be all brave and shit. That wouldn’t last long. Killian said something to him and his eyes bugged hard. With his face draining of color, he clamped thin lips together and looked at the wall. As Rivin and Sean watched, Killian whispered in the man’s ear and the man’s body jackknifed sideways, crashing hard. He hollered as his broken arm hit the floor. His feet churned at the concrete as he tried to scramble away. He only succeeded in turning himself in a circle that ended up with his nose pressed to the toe of Killian’s boot. Killian held up a hand in disgust.

Rivin chuckled, “It never gets old. He might be the biggest wanker on the planet, but he’s got flare. I’ll give him that.”

“Yeah, I love that guy.”

Killian waited until the skinny dude settled down and reached out with his boot. Lifting the guy’s face with the toe, he let it rest against his throat. Sean flipped on the speakers to listen in.

Killian’s tone was low and threatening. “What did he look like? Describe him for me.”

The man’s voice quavered and cracked as he tried to talk through half-frozen vocal chords. “He...he was big, huge...and dark. Weird eyes...uh, creepy eyes.”

“You didn’t think that was strange? Some guy with weird eyes wants you to set up a hit on a pregnant woman and no fucking alarm bells go off in your head? How many pregnant women have you killed?”

Killian jerked the chair upright and stuck his face up close for a little eye-to-eye contact. “You’re an amateur, dumbass. Your partners are dead. You’re next. This freak pay you?”

“Uh, no, not yet, uh, the job wasn’t done. He said the bitch would pay us when we were done.” His voice was harsh and breathless with pain and shock.

“Bitch? Who’s the female?”

“I don’t know, man!” He wheezed desperately, “She never let us see her face.”

Sean eased into the room and caught his brother’s eye.

Rumor says it’s Irku. You want to get a picture?

Give me a minute.

Turning back to the man, he put his hand on the side of his face, letting his fingertips dig into the flat bones of the skull. “Open up.”

That afternoon, Sean headed back to the safe house to talk to Mica. He wanted to pick her brain about a few things while Killian finished his interrogation. Mica and Dani were sitting under a tree in the little garden with Domino standing guard. Dani had moved in when Aisling and Sean Michael moved out last week. Sean’s gut tightened at the thought of Aisling and his son out there unprotected, but she wasn’t willing to stay with them another second. She’d stomped out of their lives the minute Gabriel released her from her Primani duties. He hadn’t seen her in days. She was avoiding him, but it wasn’t done between them. Not by a long shot...he’d try to work something out with her once this op was over and done with. Their son had to be protected and trained. They had no idea what kind of power he might have. Raphael had already talked to Sean about testing the boy. They wanted him to settle in and learn to trust them first. He was just a little kid; they didn’t want to freak him out.

Time for that when he grew up a little more.

Sean hurried out to the back yard, eyes zooming in on Mica. She was wearing a tent disguised as a purple tank top and a pair of denim shorts. He tried not to stare, but it was damn near impossible. Her breasts were climbing out of the top of her shirt--literally,
climbing
out. The damn things were massive. When had that happened?

It was a miracle she could still breathe.

Stop gawking, you idiot. They’re just breasts. You’ve seen them before.

Yeah, but damn!

Well aware he was being disrespectful to the one woman he gave a shit about, he dragged his eyes away and shoved the image out of his mind.

“Are you sure it’s safe for you out here?” he asked, eyes scanning the fence line.

He squatted to pet Domino and looked up at the two women.

Mica rolled her eyes and said, “Probably not, but I can’t breathe in the house. It’s too hot. Why can’t you scrounge up an air conditioner?”

Not bothering to answer, he smiled at Dani and said, “It’s really good to see you. You look great!”

She was completely corporeal and looked exactly as she had in life; pre-dead-demon-baby, of course. Her blond hair was plaited in random skinny braids tipped with turquoise beads, and her grey eyes sparkled in the late afternoon sunlight. Rosy lips and flawless skin completed her face. She always was a cute one. Her new halo just added to her appeal. He wondered if Dec had seen her yet. He’d lose his everlasting mind.

Dani flashed a dimple and said, “Thanks to you. I take back all the snotty things I’ve ever said about you. Raphael told me how you found me. I owe you for that.”

Sean waved away her gratitude. “You don’t owe me a thing. Forget about it. Just don’t waste your second chance; not many people get them.”

“I don’t plan to. Guess my stars have finally aligned, huh? Too bad I have to be dead to enjoy it.” She started to get up to give them some privacy. “Here, let me give you some room. You’re a man on a mission.”

“Don’t leave. You should hear this too. You picked a dangerous time to come back from the dead, girl.” He patted Mica’s leg and added, “This one’s a magnet for killers. You sure you want to hang with her?”

“Oh, ha, ha! Thanks, Sean! What do you want? The Trips are rebelling and I’m not in a good mood.” To emphasize this, she smashed his palm against the squirming mound of flesh that housed his godsons.

He jerked his hand away. “Jesus! Doesn’t that hurt? What are they doing in there?”

She laughed and said, “Krav Maga.”

Her smile was radiant and he couldn’t help grinning at her. He wondered vaguely how she could possibly be comfortable. Her belly was writhing like a net full of tuna.

Biting his tongue to keep from saying that out loud, he said, “I need to talk to you, seriously. Is now a good time?”

She nodded and shifted position with a frown. He reached over and helped her adjust the pillow behind her back. She smiled gratefully and leaned back again with a sigh.

“Have you seen any strangers around here? Anyone stop to talk to you? Anyone watching the house? Anything like that?”

Mica shook her head but Dani spoke up. “Wait. What about that guy who was talking to Aisling? Remember? You told me about him the other day.”

With a thunk on her forehead, she exclaimed, “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. It was before I went to the hospital. It was hot, so Aisling and I took mini-you to the park to play. I parked my butt by the sandbox and watched Sean Michael build things. Aisling said she wanted to stretch her legs and went for a walk around the park. I hadn’t seen her for a while and stood up to look for her. She was on the other side of the park standing in the shade by some trees. She was talking to a man, but she didn’t seem happy to see him. They were arguing.”