twice cursed mage 05 - claimed (20 page)

I wasn’t quite sure how Ricky had managed to pole vault through him with the lance, but judging by the raw wound in her torso slowly healing over, I was betting she’d torn herself free of the lance and used it to impale the bastard while he’d been distracted by my antics. See, I’d just been buying her time. That was my plan all along. Honest.

“If you’re done dicking around, I think it’s time to go,” Ricky said, holding her hand out to me. It felt good to see her standing there because not only had she saved me, but she wasn’t bloody and broken. Thank God. As I grabbed ahold of her hand and was hoisted to my feet, she pulled me close.

“What’s the plan?” I asked, glancing around to see several soldiers sighting us through their TARs. I wasn’t sure why they weren’t shooting, but something told me it was only a matter of time.

“We get the fuck out of here before they fill us full of silver.” She shot a look at the Harbinger. He was already starting to move. “They won’t shoot at us while the Harbinger is down here because if they do, he’ll fucking kill them for taking his kill, but as soon as we get out of the arena, they’ll unload so I hope you, the rescuer, have a plan because that lance won’t hold him for long.”

Already, I could see Harbinger’s body pulling itself back together. From the look of things we had a couple minutes at most. That was not enough time. Not by a fucking long shot.

“Oh, I’ve got a plan,” I said while frantically trying to think of one. I was low on magic and bullets, both things I constantly relied upon. Still, there had to be a way.

“You’re making your ‘lying about having a plan’ face,” Ricky said, shaking her big shaggy head at me. “And yes, it’s sort of sad that you even have that face, and even sadder I recognize it.”

“It appears we’re at an impasse,” Junkyard said, and his voice seemed to fill the arena. “The moment you exit the arena, we’ll shoot you, but as long as you’re down there, I can’t.” He stepped up on the hood of a burning jeep. I wasn’t sure how it was burning since it was mostly a rusted shell of a vehicle. He didn’t have so much as a hair out of place. “But waiting you out is dreadfully boring, so I have a new plan.” He whipped his hand out to the left. “Cue the music.”

“The End” by the Doors filled the air as Junkyard ripped his hand outward, slashing through the fabric of reality. Pink light pulsated from the gash in the air above us, and as I watched something dark and monstrous begin to come toward the opening, I realized I had a plan, albeit a very bad one.

“Do you trust me?” I asked, glancing at Ricky.

“Um… no,” she replied, but I ignored her as I grabbed her wrist. I mean, it wasn’t like I could make her come if she didn’t want to come. She did. Thankfully. I’d have looked really silly if she didn’t.

“Release the kraken!” Junkyard called, and as he did, I called upon my power and pointed at the dark shape clambering toward the pink rip in the sky.

“A fucking kraken?” Ricky said, her voice going high pitched. “No fucking way.”

“Necto!” I said, ignoring her words as a tentacle of flame exploded from my hand. It went straight through the portal and stuck to something inside with a wet thwip. A shrill snarl filled the air and reduced my courage to a drop of quivering jelly.

Ricky looked at me, and as she opened her mouth, probably to protest my crazy plan, whatever was on the other side jerked on the tentacle attached to my cursed hand, pulling us off our feet and through the tear in reality. Thankfully, I had enough sense to release the spell as we touched the surface of the portal, otherwise who knows what would have happened. While I had wanted to escape via the portal, the absolute last thing I wanted was to be dragged through God knows where by a fucking kraken.

As it was, hitting the portal sort of felt like getting a bucket of ice water dumped over your shoulders on a hot day. You know, if by ice water I meant liquid nitrogen and by hot day I meant taking a long walk on the sun.

Needless to say, when we emerged on the other side of the portal to find ourselves standing on a tiny island about twice the size of a large suitcase, it felt like my entire body had shattered under the stress of the journey. As I patted myself just to make sure all my bits were in place, the air howled around us and pink light pulsated in the sky like an aurora with a bubblegum fetish.

“So you rescue me from Junkyard to bring me into Hell?” Ricky asked, turning to look at me like all my bats had left my belfry. Man, she didn’t know the half of it.

“What’s the big deal?” I asked, and as I said the words, my cat screamed in my head loud enough for Ricky to raise her eyebrow at me.

“Did you hear that?” she asked, giving me a tentative sniff. She wrinkled her nose in displeasure. “You smell like cat.”

“Why have you ventured into Hell?” my cat said, and the displeasure in her voice was unmistakable. As I opened my mouth to respond, she appeared in front of me in the flesh. Thankfully, she was in cat form. If she’d shown up as the corpse bride, I’m not sure what Ricky would have done. I mean, I’d seen her that way a few times, and it still freaked me out.

“Mac, who is that?” Ricky asked, glancing from the cat to me and back again.

“Ricky, meet my demon.” I glanced at the cat, unsure of what to call her. “Demon, this is Ricky.”

“I know who she is,” my demon snapped, and the wind whipped around of us and lightning crackled across the pink sky, which was altogether weird given it came from a tiny calico. “That does not answer my question as to why you have come to the unclaimed regions.”

“I, um, needed a way out?” I offered because it was the truth. To be fair, I’d thought the portal might bring me to the forest of mirrors, but evidently, whatever Junkyard had tried to call had come from the unclaimed region, whatever that was. Either way, I was guessing it was bad if guys like Vassago and his ilk couldn’t hold it long enough to lay claim to it. I mean, those guys didn’t seem like the type to just let stuff go.

“This is unwise even for you, Mac Brennan,” the cat said before leaping up onto my shoulder and perching there like an unwanted parrot. “I shall lead you out. If we are caught here, it will spell disaster.” She turned her cat gaze on me and pushed her face close to mine. “I will not bother to threaten you if we fail. Doing so here will be far worse than anything I could do.” The way she said it scared me on a visceral level. If even my demon couldn’t protect me, I really didn’t want to hang around.

“What’s so bad about this place in particular? I mean, we’re in Hell, isn’t it all bad?” Ricky asked, moving closer to me. She seemed surprisingly good with the cat, which struck me as odd, but what can I say, my girlfriend was adaptable.

“Even angels fear to tread here.” The cat shook her head. “This is where the exiles too dangerous to be kept in chains are sent. Not just because they are powerful, but because they are crazy.” She shook her head.

“Awesome,” Ricky replied, glancing at me. “You officially take me on the worst dates ever.”

“Wait until you hear what happened to his last girlfriend,” my cat said before pointing one black and white paw at a nearby floating island. “Leap over there.”

“Last girlfriend?” Ricky asked, arching her eyebrow at me, but I ignored her because I was too busy leaping to said island because the possibility of falling to my death in Hell’s wasteland suddenly didn’t seem quite so bad.

The gravity was a lot less than I expected, and despite it being several feet away, I made it with ease. Well, that was good, I guess.

“Yeah, the girl who shot me in the hospital.” I thought about elaborating, honest, but before I could, the sky in front of me tore itself open and Harbinger came flying through the opening, looking angrier than a Texas Rattlesnake who had run out of beer.

“Miss me?” he asked, reaching out and grabbing me around the throat with one clawed hand. “You thought you could run.” He shook his head. “No one escapes me.”

“Put him down,” the cat on my shoulder said, and the sound of her voice whipped out of her like a tornado. He staggered backward like he’d taken a kick in the teeth, his hand releasing me like fucking magic. He shook his head for a second before turning his gaze upon the cat. His jaw fell open in shock. It was weird.

“You’re alive,” he said, and the awe in his voice surprised me. He seemed almost reverent.

“Yes,” she said, but before she’d completed the word, he’d supplicated himself before us. “Why are you accosting my chosen?”

“Forgive me, Matriarch,” he said as something inside the cat seemed to shift as she spoke. “I did not know. We thought they had succeeded…”

“Enough,” she said, her tail flicking behind her in annoyance. “My enemies cannot know I have returned.”

“As you say, mistress.” Harbinger lowered himself further to the ground, and I shot a look at Ricky who looked like she had no idea what was going on. “What can your humble servant do for you?”

“Go back through and destroy them all, drop the dome, and vanish until I call for you.” The cat grinned, and a chill scampered down my back. The prospect of violence and bloodshed caused her pleasure in a way that let me know she wouldn’t hesitate to sunder the entirety of the planet for her enjoyment. I could feel the glee coming off of her like a tongue licking the back of my neck as she envisioned every single person I’d seen ripped limb from limb by Harbinger. I wasn’t sure who I had made a deal with, but she was getting scarier and scarier by the minute. So why the fuck had I done it? There had to be a reason, but I was starting to think I’d been one hell of a fool.

I wasn’t sure what my cat’s relationship was with Harbinger, but something told me if she could order him around like he was a fucking slave, she was really fucking powerful. Still, I wasn’t exactly excited about the possibility of venturing through Hell’s uncharted lands looking for an exit sign. If Harbinger was going to do the heavy lifting, I was all for it.

“Your will shall be done,” Harbinger replied, and I suddenly felt bad for the special ops guys on the other side of the tear. Silver or not, I was pretty sure Harbinger would go through them like condoms at a whore house.

“Excellent. Be sure to leave the council member alive. My servant will take him,” my cat ordered, turning her eyes upon the white werewolf. “Rise and go forth, my pet.”

“Wait three minutes and come through,” Harbinger said, glancing at Ricky and I as he rose. The look on his face was a mixture of fear and excitement, but I couldn’t quite figure out the reason for either since he didn’t seem to fear anything and my demon obviously didn’t want him dead. Then again, she didn’t want me dead and she scared the shit out of me.

Before I could ask him about it, Harbinger leapt through the tear in a flash of bubblegum light. A moment later, Ricky landed on the platform beside me, and looked at me in confusion.

“How the fuck did you order Harbinger around?” Ricky gulped, staring at the portal. I couldn’t hear anything from the other side, but that didn’t stop the growing sense of unease settling around my shoulders. “He’s like a god among werewolves.”

“Because he is mine to do with as I wish.” The cat eyed her coolly. “Just as Mac Brennan is mine to do with as I wish.” She gave me an amused grin that revealed way too many pointy teeth for it to be good. It was the grin a great white shark would give you before it bit you in half. “I make good on my promises. It is why only those who wish to become the
most
powerful come to me.”

“Which explains why you’ve probably been locked up since time began,” Ricky said, staring at me as she spoke.

“It is not an unwise idea to entertain,” my cat said as she faded from sight until just her smiling face remained. “But it is a dangerous one to try. The villain always escapes.”

“Well, that’s fucking creepy,” Ricky said, looking me up and down.

“Rick, you don’t know the half of it,” I said, reaching out and taking her hand. It was a little awkward because she was still a hulking werewolf and her hand was like a catcher’s mitt. “Ready to see a bloodbath?”

“Yeah,” she said, rubbing her arm with her free hand. “Everything about this place gives me the creeps.”

Chapter 25

Bloodbath probably wasn’t a strong enough word to describe the strewn mishmash of bodies littering the junkyard. As I kicked a dismembered arm out of the way, I wondered if the soldiers had gotten some good hits in on Harbinger. Not that I cared that much. The vast majority of them had stood by while Ricky had fought for her life. In my book, they were all dirt bags.

As we approached the exit as quickly as possible, we found the big white werewolf standing in front of the gate, and from the look of things, he’d been waiting a while. Guess three minutes had been too long. He had one clawed foot on Junkyard’s chest and held him pinned down on the ground. It made me smile too because he looked like he’d spilled his drink all over the crotch of his pants. At least, I hoped it was his drink.

“Took you long enough,” he said, glancing at us. “What do you want me to do with this one?”

“Remember what I said about the ketchup?” Ricky said, walking up to the pinned council member before I could say anything.

“No can do, chickadee,” Harbinger replied, his gaze sliding off Ricky and fixing on me. “The Matriarch was very clear on having him finish the guy off.” He pointed one clawed finger at me. “Besides, only a demon can kill the council members.”

“Is that so?” I asked, somewhat surprised. I hadn’t thought about it, but maybe that was why they were so fucking hard to kill, and why, I’d had to use Mammon’s staff. Only, hadn’t I killed one by shooting her a whole bunch of times in the head?

“Well, angels could do it too, but that’s because they’re sort of the same thing.” He shrugged.

“I shot one to death,” I replied, dismissing his angel comment because it was unhelpful.

“Newsflash, hotshot,” Harbinger replied, pointing at my blackened arm with one hand. “You are part demon, or at least close enough for it to count. Any weapon you use will react accordingly.”

“Part demon?” I asked, and he waved off my question.

“Back to my original question. What do you want me to do with him?” Harbinger tapped his wrist with one finger. “Ask the Matriarch. I have shit to do. Saudi Oil fields don’t run themselves.”