twice cursed mage 05 - claimed (11 page)

“Let me sing you the song of Mac Brennan,” I said, calling more Hellfire into my palm. As her eyes flicked to it, I pulled the trigger. She moved, but she was a hair too slow. The bullet caught her in the right forearm as she tried to bat it away. She mostly succeeded in that my shot hadn’t blown her fucking head off, but the round still buried itself into her arm so I was counting it as a win.

She let out a howl of pain as though she couldn’t believe I’d shot her. I wasn’t sure how long I had left before she recovered or turned into mecha-Hitler or something, so I did what any grown man would do in this position. I popped the top on my pimp staff and prepared to go upside a bitch’s head.

“Stop,” she cried, and the urgency in her voice made tiny chills of pleasure I tried to ignore run down my spine.

“Why the hell would I do that?” I asked, and as she opened her mouth to reply, I brought the cane down on her skull. She tried to block it, but she couldn’t hold off the full force of my blow. The cane knocked her bleeding arm out of the way as the diamond head smashed into her face.

Pink light lit up the room like a flashbang as her skull exploded in a spray of blood and bone that totally wrecked my nice sandals as well as most of the stone around her. As she slumped headless to the ground, the distinct sound of frogs filled my ears. I smirked. See, the seven weren’t so tough. Two down, five to go.

“Good job, you killed a Nazi,” Jack said, and as I turned toward his voice, I saw him standing by Duane in the center of the room. Duane was free of the chains that had bound him. Well, sort of. He was still wearing the cuffs and manacles, but the chain looked like it had been torn in half. I wasn’t sure how Jack had done that since I hadn’t ever seen him use superhuman strength, but in the absence of other evidence, I decided to never arm wrestle the vampire.

“Well, you know me. I’m all about killing Nazis,” I said, looking Duane over. The old druid looked like he’d been on the wrong end of a pissed off Dominatrix. Welts and cuts covered his body, and already dark bruising covered most of his exposed flesh. His white button up was splotched over with blood and most of the buttons on the front were torn off to reveal deep gouges in his chest.

As he looked up at me with one blackened, swollen eye, he grinned. “Thanks, Mac.” His voice was a wheeze that made me feel bad in the “I’m human too and having a voice like that would totally suck” sort of way, but I decided to ignore it. I figured he wouldn’t want my pity.

“So what’s the plan now?” I asked as Jack bit his wrist with a sound like someone biting into an apple and offered it to the old man. Duane took one look at the blood and shook his head.

“That shit will play hell with my digestion. All I need is a couple hours of rest in a forest, which coincidentally is right outside.” He smirked. “Now carry me out.” He clapped his hands together. “Chop, chop.”

Jack dropped him as he rightly should have, but Duane managed to keep his balance. The old Druid shook his head. “This is the last time I let you rescue me,” he said, glancing at Jack before shuffling toward me, leaving the Indian standing there with a bemused look on his face. Then he fucking decked me in the mouth. I stumbled back in disbelief as Duane wrung out his hand.

“What the fuck?” I cried, grabbing my jaw as the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. “I just saved you.”

“From the jackasses you brought to town,” Duane said, kicking at the headless Nazi with one boot. “I mean, Jesus, Mac. You are like a walking talking bad fucking idea. Every time, you come around, my shit gets all fucked up.” He held out his hand, offering it to me. “Thanks for saving me, but I’ve got to get my happy ass to Alaska.”

“What the fuck is in Alaska?” I asked, eyeing his hand like it was a sack full of garbage.

“Not you,” Duane replied dropping his hand to his side. “Danton might be a lying, conniving, piece of shit, but at least he didn’t bring down an entire demonic fucking army on the city.”

“So you’re leaving?” I asked, and the surprise in my voice stunned me. “I thought you guys would help me…”

“I am going to help you,” Jack said, coming up and putting a hand on Duane’s shoulder. “Duane’s just got smacked around a bit. He’ll feel better once he frolics in the forest like the nymph he is.”

“Alright,” I said, turning away from the two of them so I could make my way out of this stupid cave. The sound of frogs was nearly overwhelming. Guess that was Ivy’s thing. A smirk crossed my lips. So she was a toad after all. “Because I’d hate to think you were going to renege on our deal.” I glanced over my shoulder and narrowed my eyes at Jack. “People tend to regret breaking their promises to me.”

“What promise?” Duane asked, and he had a strange, angry lilt to his voice as he shuffled along behind me.

“I promised to help him save Ricky from old Junkyard if he helped me rescue you from Ivy,” Jack said, and as he did, I heard a hard intake of breath.

“Well, ain’t that some shit,” Duane replied, and even though I couldn’t see him, I was inclined to agree. Yeah, it was some shit, and I was done fucking around. No, it was time to start crossing names off my list. Junkyard was next, then Bruce and Sargent would follow. If I found Jenna on the way, so much the better. I wasn’t sure what the two of us had really had, but I no longer cared, and not just because she’d joined this council of seven. She’d shot me in the stomach and left me for dead. As far as I was concerned that was a deal breaker in the relationship department.

Chapter 14

We’d barely made it out of the cave when Jack’s phone started to ring. He fished it out of his pocket as I turned to glance at the old vampire. Why hadn’t he put it on silent? Did he want us to get shot full of holes? While that tended not to be a problem unless they were etched with runes, it most certainly was for me.

He stared at the phone’s screen with a bewildered look on his face for way too long for it to be good. Then, just as I was sure he was going to miss the call, he hit the green button and lifted the phone to his ear.

“Maya?” he asked, puzzlement evident in his voice. While I couldn’t hear what was said because I didn’t have vampire super hearing, I could tell by Jack’s face that it was not Maya on the other end. Fuck. “Fine.” He held the phone out to me with an angry expression marring his features. “It’s for you.”

I took the phone from him, and as I did, I glanced at the screen. Maya’s name along with a grainy selfie of the two of them filled the screen. Obviously, whoever had called had done it from her phone. That wasn’t even slightly good. I lifted it to my ear and prepared for the worst.

“Mac’s all day cleaner. If you’ve got a mess, we’ve got a way to clean it up. How may we help you?” I asked because if I didn’t try to joke this off I was going to get pissed and that wouldn’t help anyone right now. When I found who had Maya and killed them, I could let my rage loose.

“Cute, Mac,” Jenna said, and her voice struck me like a dagger to the heart. Before I could stop myself, I actually staggered backward a couple steps. It had been one thing to say I’d kill her for what she’d done, but at the same time, hearing her voice conjured up the memory of our trip to Afghanistan, and a sudden surge of guilt welled up inside me. I’d failed to save her, and because of that, she’d sold her soul to Asmodai. Sure, she’d made the decision, but I
should
have saved her. She’d been my partner, and now she had Maya. Double fuck.

“What do you want, Jenna?” I asked, gripping the phone tight enough for my knuckles to turn white from the effort. As I realized what I was doing, I eased off because I didn’t want to accidentally break it. While I didn’t care so much about the phone, and there was no way I was going to buy Jack a new one even if it did break, I wanted to hear what Jenna had to say. I may not have remembered much, but it wasn’t like her to call me, especially since, you know, she was trying to kill me.

“We don’t have a lot of time, Mac. If Asmodai finds out I’m calling you, things will get worse.” She heaved a breath into the phone that made me wonder what was going on. “And not in a ‘before they get better’ sort of way.”

Well that was certainly interesting. Was she going against Asmodai? For me? No, it had to be a trick. After all, she’d shot me… only, only she hadn’t killed me. How hard would it have been to put that bullet into my heart or my skull? Not very. No, if Jenna had wanted to kill me, I’d be dead. Goddammit. I hated when things got complicated, and thirty seconds before this phone call things had been simple. I would kill the fuck out of all of them, now I had to reevaluate.

“Jenna, what’s going on?” I asked, and the urgency in my voice surprised me, especially since I’d been about to go save Ricky. I mean, to be fair, Ricky was pretty fucking capable, and given enough time I’d sure she’d wreck Junkyard’s shit, but at the same time, I didn’t want to leave her in the guy’s hands if I could help it.

Unfortunately, whatever Jenna had in store was really going to derail that plan. The best thing I could do was hang up on her and go after my girlfriend, but then again, she was calling from Maya’s phone, which obviously meant she had Maya’s phone. If she had Maya’s phone, then the girl was in trouble. Still, Maya wasn’t Ricky, and if it came down to a choice between the two of them, well, that wasn’t even a choice.

“Jun has Maya at the Stalwart Hotel on Fourth Street. If you don’t hurry, Jun will probably bring her into the Council and you’ll be well and truly fucked.” Before I could say anything in reply, the phone clicked off, and I stood there listening to it like a dumbass for longer than I cared to admit. To be fair though, I didn’t say “Hello” several times. I mean, who does that?

“What’d your ex want?” Duane asked, but as he did, Jack turned toward the old Druid and shook his head.

“Jun has Maya and is trying to get her to join the council.” A ghost of a smile passed across his lips. “Seems they’ve got a couple of vacancies.”

“We can’t let that happen,” Duane replied, and the look on his face made me feel pretty horrible. Hell, I already felt horrible. Everything in me knew I needed to go after Maya, to save her from Jun and keep her out of the council, even if I only did so to save myself from having to kill her myself. Still, could I really go after her while Ricky was in the care of Junkyard? It didn’t seem like the right call…

I’d already delayed so long from helping Ricky, and I had no idea what she was going through. One thing I did know though was that if Ricky could endure, she’d want me to go after Maya first, and knowing her as I did, I was pretty sure she would be okay. Pissed off, sure. Hurt no doubt. But she’d live, of that I was certain. Still, the need to go after her was almost overwhelming, and for a second, I considered leaving Maya to die.

Unfortunately, I knew one thing to be fact, and not just because she’d imprinted on me or whatever. No, it was because of who Ricky was. If I saved her at the expense of Maya, she’d be right pissed. Why? Because of what had happened outside the laundromat. Ricky had left to fulfill her duty to her pack instead of helping me even though I had needed her.

Sure, things had worked out, but I’ll be honest, I was still kind of pissed about that along with how she hadn’t told me about my family after I’d gone through so much to save them, but still. Still. Could I really leave her in the hands of a madman so I could go save Maya? I mean the girl had tried to fillet me to sell my flesh on the black market. It wasn’t like she was my bestie or anything. Still, I knew what Ricky would want me to do.

“What do you want to do, Mac?” Jack asked, moving close to me and throwing one arm around my shoulder. “If you want to split up, we can do that. If you want us to all go after Ricky or Maya, we will. You helped me get Duane back, so it’s your call. Whatever it is, we’ll help.”

“If we split up, can you save Maya or Ricky by yourself?” I asked, looking at the cowboy, and the look in his dark eyes told me the answer long before he shook his head.

“Unlikely. At least, not with Duane as he is.” Jack smirked. “I mean, I’m ready to rough and tumble, but him. Well, I could knock him over with a feather.” Well, that was just great. Duane was useless. Damn, why couldn’t things just work out for once. Why did I have to handle business for everyone?

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Duane asked, glancing from Jack to me and back again. “Of course we’re not splitting up. We have to go after Maya.”

“It means you’re too hurt to do any good, and you couldn’t take Jun even if you were up to speed.” Jack sighed. “I’m not even sure we can save Ricky as it is. I was counting on having Maya with us when we took Junkyard on. Without her, there’s no one to stop his freaky mojo from pulling our entrails out our mouths.”

I took a deep breath, and as I did, it felt like the weight of the world was settling on my shoulders. If what Jack said was true, we’d need Maya to save Ricky, although I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t just put a silver sniper round into Junkyard from a thousand yards. Sargent had been tough, but the more I thought about him and Jun, the more I had begun to suspect something. The fight with Ivy had cemented that.

They weren’t actually much faster than me. No, as I replayed every single time I’d dealt with a council member, I realized something. They were predictable. Not in the way you’d expect but more in the way that they seemed to know what you were going to do before you did it and reacted accordingly. All I had to do was switch my moves at the last second. Easier said than done, sure, but I was sure I was onto something because that had been what allowed me to take down Ivy so easily. By switching from an attack with Hellfire to an attack with my elbow, I’d caught her off guard. Surely I could do that to all of them.

I wasn’t sure if Jenna’s call was part of Asmodai’s plan or not, but there was no doubt in my mind that they’d expect me to go after Ricky despite Maya’s predicament. So what was I going to do? I was going to go after Maya, and I was going to rain destruction down upon those motherfuckers. After all, I didn’t have a particular order to kill them in. Besides, it sounded like we’d need Maya’s help because as fun as it sounded, I most certainly did not want my entrails pulled out my mouth.