Don't Read After Dark: Keep the lights on while reading these! (A McCray Horror Collection) (18 page)

“Now,
that
is Starvin’ Marvin…”

The cop got that look on his face again, like he was going to puke or something. She’d think, being a detective, he’d be little bit more hardened.

“Yeah, um, I’m not sure if we really gained any ground.”

“Help me,” Evie said, pushing the cart forward until they were at the door of the weapons room. Beneath them, gas rose, chasing them down.

Fear drove her muscles.

“What are we doing?” the cop asked.

Evie decided not to tell him, fearful he would balk. Instead, she just pushed the cart as hard and as fast as she could. They rammed the cart, with Papa at the front, into the swirling weapons. Pikes, swords, and knives got lodged in Papa and the cart. The sound of metal hitting flesh filled the room.

The cop sat on his heels at the back of the cart with his fist to his lips, clearly trying not to hurl. Finally, enough blades got stuck that the mechanism stopped spinning.

“Now!” Evie yelled as she raced across the room. The cop, no matter how nauseated, was at her heels. Once to the other door, Evie pulled out her metal fragment and started working on the lock.

“Get out of the way,” Jake said, swinging an ax above his head. He and the ax made quick work of the door.

They were free. The warehouse glowed in the moonlight. The door was past several dozen stacked crates.

Evie realized that she shouldn’t have jinxed herself as the chime sounded again. Darion was having way too much fun taunting them.

“Impressive,” the chime voice said. As it went along, it changed into Darion ‘s voice. “You learned quickly, Evie,” Darion continued. “However, you really should have taken me up on that offer of protection…”

The cop stepped between her and the darkness, hefting his ax.

Darion seemed unimpressed, though. “Because, trust me, he isn’t going to last long.”

And Evie couldn’t disagree. The cop’s heart was in the right place—however, he just wasn’t devious enough. He would try to take Darion on head on, while Darion probably had backup plans to his backup plans.

The cop turned to her. “No matter what happens, you’ve got to run.”

She laid her hand on his arm. “Braut.”

* * *

“Jake,” he corrected, nearly choking up.

“Jake,” she responded, putting her hand on his cheek. Footsteps rang out from deeper in the warehouse.

“Okay, this may not be the best time,” Jake said. He had to come clean, “but in case I die or, better yet, if I make it…”

“I know,” Evie said, caressing his cheek

“No, you don’t,” Jake insisted. “I lost Herbie.”

“Who?” Evie asked, confused.

“Your hamster,” Jake explained. “I lost him. I was—”

Evie put a finger over his lips and chuckled. “Don’t worry. I can’t seem to keep one alive for more than three months, either.”

Jake leaned in. Her lips were so beautiful, even if they were smeared with blood. But she tilted her head away. He could understand. She wasn’t ready. Instead, he kissed her on the forehead.

“I’ll do everything I can,” he reassured her.

Darion stepped from the darkness carrying a speargun and a spiked mace on a chain. Jake really should have checked the inventory before he settled on the ax.

“I’ll give you the same offer I gave Papa,” Darion said, even though Jake had no idea what he was talking about. Evie, however, seemed to get it. “Don’t make me fight my way to her, and I’ll let you walk.”

Well, Jake wasn’t Papa. He stepped away from Evie, ready to do battle. “I hate to disappoint you, but the good guy doesn’t walk away.”

Darion’s lips turned up into cruel smile. He raised his speargun and fired. Jake turned to the side and used the flat of his ax blade to knock the spear out of the air. All those years in Little League weren’t for nothing.

Jake tried to use the move to his advantage, charging toward Darion. The creep dropped the speargun and pulled a sai out of his belt and knocked Jake’s ax to the side. He followed that up with a wicked left hook. Jake stumbled back a step.

“Evelyn is so far out of your league, detective,” Darion baited Jake.

“You psychopaths with your delusions of grandeur.”

Jake used the handle and shoved it into Darion’s crotch. Even serial killers had their vulnerable zones. Darion, though, spun away before Jake could press his advantage.

“Evelyn needs a firm hand. A confidence you just can’t bring to the table,” Darion explained as he swung the mace, barely missing Jake’s head.

“You know that outside your little ‘weird world,’ chicks don’t dig arrogance?”

Darion came at him with the sai. Jake turned and blocked with his ax just in time. He then lowered the handle, catching the sai’s handle. They were locked together.

“You have no idea what Evelyn quickens to.”

Jake snorted as he tried to get control of his ax again. “You stalked her, brutally kidnapped her, then threw her to the mercy of a bunch of serial killers.” Jake took an elbow to the nose, but didn’t lose his grip on the ax.

“So, yeah,” Jake continued to bait Darion. “I’m not too worried about who she’s going home with.”

Darion was a strong MFer though, twisting his sai, trying to disarm Jake. They seemed evenly matched until a shot rang out.

For a moment, Jake didn’t even realize it was him who was shot. Not until red blood spread on his shirt. He twisted around to find Evie holding the gun. She must have missed and accidentally hit him.

“Evie?”

She leveled the weapon and shot again, this time square in his chest. Guess it was intentional. Not understanding what in the hell was going on, Jake slumped to the ground.

* * *

“I
really
liked that hamster,” Evie said as she watched the cop fall to the floor. She wasn’t safe. Not yet. Darion had picked back up his speargun. They circled each other, wary predators.

“How many kills is that?” Darion asked her.

“Two,” Evie answered, then corrected. “Counting Back? Two and a half.”

“No,” Darion said. “I meant
total
.”

“Oh, eleven,” Evie said, with not just a little bit of pride. “And a half.”

Door and Back thought they were such hot stuff. They’d only killed ten between the two of them.

“I underestimated you,” Darion said, circling her, aiming the speargun at her belly.

“Obviously,” Evie said. That was the story of her life. Everyone thought she was such a sweetie. A wallflower. A pushover.

“I just took you as another man-hating psycho bitch,” Darion said.

“Why would you say that?” Evie said, more than a little surprised at his description.

“Um, you did track down your fleeing fiancée, then garrote him and put his body into a wood chipper, correct?”

“Okay,” Evie said to be fair. “
Him
I was mad at.”

The bastard had knocked her up, then tried to leave? The stress of trying to figure out how to pay the mortgage on the condo caused the miscarriage. And he expected to set up shop down in Michigan? The bastard already had another girlfriend by the time she’d caught up with him. The wood chipper was almost too kind.

“And the rest?” Darion asked. “The other nine?”

Evie shrugged. “For the challenge, just like you.”

“I don’t think so,” Darion snorted.

He fancied himself the ‘Zard, yet Darion was just such a
guy
.

“Oh, so if a man wants to kill for the challenge, it’s almost noble, but a woman wants the same thing and she’s a man-hating psycho bitch?”

Darion shrugged back, “That this society’s assumption.”

Evie aimed the gun, but Darion fired a spear at her. Her shot went wide. “At least I’m not acting out some strange, self-loathing murderous/suicidal game.”

“Oh, it was never about the death match. That just kind of evolved on its own. Killing those amateurs wasn’t gratifying. The dungeon was always meant to be a proving ground.”

“To prove?” Evie asked.

“Whether or not they were worthy of being my killing partner.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Evie snorted. That was the most ludicrous thing she’d ever heard. Serial killers were loners by nature. Sure, there were some partner teams. Usually brothers or lovers, but one serial killer looking for a partner? It was unheard of.

* * *

Darion hurled the sai at Evie. She ducked and fired. Darion danced out of the way and then took up circling again.

“Think about it. After a kill, don’t you want to talk about? Share it with someone?” Darion queried.

Evie frowned. Was her resolve wavering just a little bit?

“Your hamster wasn’t exactly filling that need, now was he?” Darion challenged.

Darion swept up an ice pick and threw it. Evie shot again. Missing. Again. The girl really needed to get out to a shooting range.

“Together, we would be our own force of nature.”

His ice pick hit her in the side. Evie fired again, and this time hit him in the leg. He was fresh out of weapons. He looked up to find Evie aiming at him. She pulled the trigger, but was out of bullets.

Darion rushed her, tackling her around the waist. They both hit the ground, knocking the wind out of them. She tried to grab Jake’s ax, but Darion knocked the weapon away, shoving it a few feet away. Evie tried to struggle, but Darion used leverage to keep her down. He smelled her hair. It was like a heady elixir of blood and confidence.

“What do you say? Darion asked. “Join me.”

“Why should I?” Evie challenged, not giving in one bit.

“How about a twenty-five million dollar inheritance that could fund the hunt of a lifetime?” Darion offered.

Evie snorted at his offer. “You don’t think that I could find a multi-billionaire to marry me, then tie him up in the study while I spent his money on torture and mayhem?”

She was right. Evie truly had turned out to be worthy of the dungeon. He was so proud of her. Of course, she could have found some guy to fund her pastime. Darion pushed off the ground and rose up. He offered Evie a hand.

* * *

She took it. “I’ll need a little more incentive than cash in hand.”

Darion noticed, though, that Evie didn’t release his hand. “So it’s still going to be quid pro quo.”

She ran a finger down his chest. “No quid…”

His finger kept on going. “And definitely no pro…”

Evie’s finger went past his belt. “But quo? Quo is negotiable.”

Darion smiled. “You know, I may learn to love Latin yet.”

He moved in to kiss her, but Evie’s little magical metal fragment was at his crotch. “You still haven’t gotten me out of here yet.”

Darion backed up a step and indicated to the open door.

Evie smiled. “You do realize that we’re now each other’s perfect prey?”

Ah, to find his ultimate partner. After all these years, it was so gratifying. Sirens in the distance said they should get a move on.

Darion put his arm over her shoulder. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

As they walked past, the cop whispered harshly, “Ungrateful bitch…”

Oh, how little the detective knew.

EPILOGUE

Jake could hear sirens. They rang in his head.

“Come on,” a voice said, shaking Jake’s shoulder. With difficulty, Jake opened his eyes to find Brad standing by his bed. “You
are
an evil genius.”

Jake’s chest hurt enough to let him know that he was alive and, thank goodness, heaven wasn’t a hospital room.

“Dude, come on, it was just seven hours’ worth of surgery,” Brad said. Jake grunted in response.

“Five bodies,” Brad said. “Count ‘em.
Five
.” Brad sounded like he was pretty damned impressed. “Serial killers all… well, except for the guy they are still trying to reassemble. We’re not sure so sure about him.”

“Six,” Jake croaked out.

“What?” Brad asked, giving Jake a glass of water.

“
Six
bodies,” Jake said.

“Come on,” Brad said, hitting Jake in the arm. “Don’t overreach here. It was
five
.”

“They just haven’t found the body yet. It was in the weapons room.”

“Dude,” Brad said. “They have bagged and tagged everything. There’re only
five
bodies.”

Jake was about to argue when a knock came at the door. Candace stood at the entrance.

“Well?” she asked.

“Please,” Jake said, trying to sit up, but not quite making it. “Come in.”

Candace’s heels clicked as she crossed the room. She held out a small “glad you are alive” present. Flinching, since his hand had two IVs in it, he opened the wrapping paper to find a Game Boy Madden NFL. He handed it back.

“Sorry, but I think I’m off video games for life.”

A frown flickered, but then she covered it with a smile. “Well, I’ll let you boys get back to cop stuff.”

He reached out, despite the pain, and caught her hand. “No, Brad was just leaving.”

“But what about—” Jake glared at Brad, who stopped mid-sentence. “Yeah, right. Later,” Brad said, then shook Candace’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Jake waited for Brad to leave the room. As he was exiting, Brad gave a double thumbs-up and mouthed, “evil genius.”

Once his friend was gone, an awkward silence descended. The only sound was the beeping of his monitors.

“I’m surprised,” Jake said to break the ice. “Thrilled, but surprised you came after… you know.”

She grinned. “Yeah, seeing you being wheeled out from a major crime scene put some perspective on a bad first date.” Candace tilted her head. “So was ‘she’ one of the killers?”

“No, no, no,” Jake said, shaking his head. “‘She’s was one of the killers.”

“Oh my,” Candace said.

Jake chuckled despite the pain. “Yeah,” he said. “And she’s the one who shot me. Twice.”

“I see,” Candace said as she sat down next to his bed. “And that makes you more or less interested in her?’

Jake paused for a moment. “One shot,” Jake said. “And I’d go for couple’s counseling. Two, that’s a deal breaker.”

Candace laughed, shaking her head. Jake extended his hand, and Candace took it.

“But you got her off the streets, right?” Candace asked.

“Well,” Jake said. “Not exactly.”