Burned (5 page)

By the time I came up for air, both Ricky and Danton were standing outside, staring across the street at the theme park. The parking lot was filled with police cars and a whole lot of news vans. Evidently, we weren’t going to be sneaking up on anyone.

“Well, that seems like a problem,” I muttered, pulling on an old pair of Wolverine work boots that had been left on the floor next to me. They probably had belonged to Danton, but either way, I was happy to have them. As I climbed out of the car, a lapful of lettuce and trash spilled off my body and onto the pavement.

“Not so much,” Danton mused. “You’ll find I’m highly persuasive.” With those words, he strode straight into the street, right in front of a speeding car. Ricky grabbed him by the shoulder, jerking him out of the way as the car flew by so fast I could feel the breeze coming off of it.

“Well, maybe you should work at not getting splattered across the road before you do your ‘highly persuasive’ thing,” Ricky chastised. She released him but not before looking both ways. It was also then that I realized Ricky was dressed in normal clothing. She’d exchanged her Princess Jasmine ensemble for jeans and a black T-shirt listing three food groups: steak, beer, and pie.

“I was just seeing if you cared,” Danton replied, making his way quickly across the street with quick, purposeful strides.

As we followed him like lemmings, Ricky handed my trench coat back to me. I slung it on and tried to take comfort in the fact it hid the worst of the blood on my shirt. While I was a bit miffed Ricky hadn’t bothered to clothe me when she got her own set of clothes, for all I knew, those were spares from Danton’s trunk. It wouldn’t have surprised me, especially since they seemed a bit big on her lithe form.

Speaking of Danton, I had no idea how he expected to get us through the mass of police and news, but I was willing to let him try. For all I knew, he had some kind of weird angel power that made him the equivalent of Obi Wan Kenobi hypnotizing Stormtroopers.

Without even a pause, Danton weaved through the throng of reporters, parting them with ease. It was weird because they seemed not to notice him as he approached, they simply moved out of his way. We followed along behind him as quickly as we could. They didn’t notice us either, but the crowd was already closing behind Danton so we had to shove our way through.

When we reached the police tape, Danton ducked under it and without even looking around for cops, strode toward the park’s entrance. He made it about ten steps before a bulldog-faced guy wearing a cheap suit with a bedraggled, mustard-stained tie stepped pointedly in front of him.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he said, grabbing ahold of Danton’s arm and moving to forcibly eject him from the space. I clenched my fist, about ready to try knocking the guy out but thought better of it. Somehow, I was pretty sure if I slugged a cop at a crime scene, things would end badly. I wanted to get through here and back to the security room, but if I got myself shot or arrested I wouldn’t be saving anyone. Besides, Danton had to be prepared for this, right?

“Special Agent Butcher James,” Danton said, pulling his arm free of the cop’s grip and whipping out what looked like a bright orange Playskool version of a police badge out of his pocket. He pushed the badge into the cop’s face with one hand while turning toward Ricky and me. “Those are my partners, Harry and Karrin.”

The cop glanced at Ricky and me before turning back to Danton and glaring at him like the demon hunter was absolutely insane, which was probably the same look on my face too.

“Are you fucking with me?” the cop said, pushing the fake badge out of his face. “I mean seriously? That doesn’t even look close to a real badge, and Harry and Karrin? Just once, would it kill you to come up with a single shred of credible cover?” The cop let out a long sigh and looked at his shoes. “You know what, never mind. Just go do your thing and get out of here, preferably without causing something to explode.” He shot a sidelong glance at Ricky and snorted. “She’s not even blonde or pixie-like.”

“But he’s got a trench coat and is sort of gangly. It’s close enough,” Danton said, pocketing his ridiculous badge and moving toward the entrance. “Tell the wife I said ‘hi.’”

“Yeah, I won’t be doing that,” the cop replied, shaking his head in sullen resignation before fixing his gaze on me. “You two be careful.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder on Danton. “That guy’s fucking insane. People who hang around him always come out a little worse for wear if you catch my drift.”

“Yeah, I’d gathered that,” I muttered as Ricky pulled me along. I had no idea what had happened, but whatever it was had worked. Still, something told me, Danton’s method of getting through the police barricade wouldn’t stand up to heavy scrutiny.

“One last thing,” Danton said, spinning around and walking backward so he could stare at us while lighting a cigarette. “Give Harry your gun, will you?”

“I don’t really want to do that.” The cop glanced from Danton to me and back again. “And you can’t smoke here.”

Danton took a long drag off his cigarette before dropping it to the ground and smooshing it with his work boot. “The church will pay for your gun. Just tell them to take it out of my bill for saving the whole world.” Danton cocked a cheesy grin, spun on his heel, and disappeared through the gate. He passed by the other cops like they weren’t there. It was a little weird because I wasn’t quite sure why some people seemed to notice him and others didn’t, but I sure wanted to find out. A trick like that seemed mighty handy.

“You know how to use one of these, Harry?” the cop asked, pulling a 9mm CZ 75 out of his holster and offering it to me. “I know it might not look like much, but after I shot this at a range a few years back, I grew rather fond of them, because unlike those sissified Glocks, they’re full metal.”

“Yeah, I’ve shot a gun or two,” I said, taking the pistol from the cop. I was surprised at how nice it felt in my grip but not as surprised as I was by a police officer giving me his gun because Danton had asked him to do it. What was next, telling them we weren’t the droids they were looking for?

I shoved that thought aside before Murphy could kick me in the balls with his law and hustled inside, pausing only to tuck the gun into my pants and pull my bloody T-shirt over it. I wasn’t quite sure why, but the idea of walking through a gaggle of police holding a gun seemed like a good way to get shot.

A moment later, we were inside the park and on our way back toward the underground catacombs that had housed the security room. I was really hoping we weren’t going to encounter any of the monsters I’d released earlier, but somehow I didn’t seem to have that kind of luck. Then again, I did have a gun, so things were starting to look up.

“I’m guessing that was the guy you called when we were waiting for Mac to wake up,” Ricky said, irritation tingeing her voice as she sidled up to Danton. “I’m sort of surprised you actually have friends.”

“I have lots of friends, but that cop wasn’t one of them. He just owes me a favor.” Danton gestured in an absent-minded sort of way. “I straightened out a sparkling vampire who was stalking his daughter. Those vampires might talk a good game about how they won’t feed on you and blah, blah, blah. Then you wake up to find them standing over you in the middle of the night watching you sleep.” He shuddered. “It’s goddamned creepy.”

“I think you’re making stuff up now,” Ricky said, sticking her tongue out at Danton. “I happened to enjoy Twilight a lot.” She blushed, glancing at me and daring me to make fun of her. I wisely said nothing.

“Hey, I’m a huge fan of Twilight. Well, the movies at least, and only the last one with the cool fight scene where everyone dies,” Danton replied, glancing at me over his shoulder as we approached the room where we’d found the zombies. “The whole love triangle was just sort of ridiculous though. They kept trying to make it seemed like there was hope for Jacob and Bella, but we all knew the truth. The werewolf never stood a chance.”

Ricky’s mouth twisted into a snarl, and as she started to say something, a furry claw grabbed Danton by the front of his shirt and jerked him through the doorway.

Chapter 7

“We should let him get eaten,” Ricky said as she dashed past me toward the doorway. I tried to keep up, but honestly, she was way quicker than me despite her short legs. It hardly seemed fair. I guess “never enter a footrace against a werewolf” was a new rule of thumb to put alongside “never match wits with a Sicilian.”

“I’m not super worried about it. He’s probably all gristle. I bet he gets spit out,” I replied, pulling my CZ 75 free of my belt and holding it in front of me. I wasn’t sure what was going to be on the other side of that doorway, but I was damned sure going to shoot the hell out of it.

Ricky didn’t respond as she bounded through the doorway, disappearing into the darkness within. I made it to the doorway a few breaths later, but near as I could tell, there was no one inside the hallway. How was speed like that even possible? I’d just seen Ricky step through the door.

Hoping I wasn’t about to enter Vassago’s stupid bar, I ventured inside and thankfully, found myself still in the bloody hallway. I wasn’t quite sure why no law enforcement had made it inside this place yet, but I wasn’t about to go ask them about it. If they had, there was no way I’d have been able to traipse through the dismembered corpses strewn across the floor.

Ignoring the pang of fear in my gut, I rushed across the hallway as quickly as my heaving chest would allow. Every breath tasted of blood and death, and I had to watch my step to keep from slipping on the entrails of a creature that sort of reminded me of the thing from the black lagoon.

Before I could properly work a Julie Adams reference into an awesome one-liner, a hard impact in the room ahead caught my attention. I took off running, leaving bloody footprints in my wake. As I cleared the door, gun held out in front of me, I saw Danton lying on the floor, his face covered in blood.

Just beside him, an entire pack of werewolves lay strewn about in various states of horrible injury. I was sure they’d be fine eventually since they could heal pretty much anything, but I was also sure having your chest cavity exposed to the open air probably didn’t feel exceptionally awesome.

Standing among the bodies was another werewolf with white, blood-spattered fur. His pink eyes were fixed upon Ricky as she shuffled from side to side in a strange mix of anger and wariness. It sort of reminded me of the moment before an MMA match started, with both fighters waiting for the bell to sound.

“What the fuck is that?” I cried, pointing at the abominable werewolf with my gun.

“Bad news,” Ricky said. Her words were low and guttural, and if I had to guess, she was seriously considering changing into her werewolf form because her normally green eyes were entirely amber. If she felt the need to change, this thing was definitely bad news.

“Put your gun down, or I shall tear out your tongue and use it to wipe my ass.” The white as snow werewolf smiled, revealing a set of fangs the size of my forearm. I wasn’t sure how they fit in his mouth, but something about his grin made me think of a snake with retractable fangs.

“I’d say the only way you’ll get my gun is to pry it out of my cold dead hands, but you’ll respond with something stupid like, ‘that’s acceptable,’ huh?” I asked, punctuating the question by pulling the trigger on the CZ. The 9mm bullet caught the werewolf in the center of the forehead, rocking his backward in a way that reminded me more of a boxer taking a sucker punch than someone getting shot in the face.

Before I could shoot him again, Ricky took the opportunity to leap through the air, landing with both her feet on the monstrous white wolf’s chest and sending him crashing to the floor. Her fist lashed out, smashing into his face hard enough to cause the building the shudder. Crimson sprayed across the wall as she hit him again and again.

Leaving her to handle the werewolf, I raced over to Danton, careful to keep my gun pointed at the creature just in case. I knew the bullets wouldn’t hurt him much given that they didn’t seem to be silver, but I was hoping Ricky could buy me enough time to help Danton. If not, there was always plan B. Kill it with Hellfire.

“You okay?” I asked, squatting down next to the demon hunter.

“I’ve been better,” Danton replied, peeking open one eye for a split second before shutting it completely and slumping against the wall. “As soon as the room stops spinning, I’ll open my eyes again.”

“Yeah, I don’t think we have time for that,” I said as a monstrous roar shook the corridor to our left. Ricky turned her head toward it, face going pale.

“Mac, we need to get out of here now,” she said, hopping to her feet and moving back toward where we’d come.

“Why? What was that?” I asked, grabbing a hold of Danton’s left arm and hoisting him to his feet. It was way harder than I expected, mostly because he barely was able to help me.

“I don’t want to know, but if a harbinger is here,” she gestured at the white werewolf, “I’m guessing it’s something way worse.” She grabbed Danton from me and hoisted the man up into a fireman’s carry like he weighed less than nothing. “I know you want to check for Baal, but I don’t think it’s wise. Who knows what else is in there?”

“What about all these werewolves. Aren’t they part of your pack?” I asked, trying to think of a way to get her to help me proceed.

“No. They’re not mine,” she said. She looked like she was about to say more when a thought struck her. She turned her head toward the room that had contained all the monsters I had released and inhaled sharply. Her nostrils flared, and her eyes went wide.

“Where are you going?” I cried as she took a hesitant step toward the chamber. Even from here, I could hear things scratching inside. Going in there might not be suicide, but it was way closer than I’d like.

“I can smell my brother. He was definitely in there.” Ricky glanced at me, obviously trying to decide what she should do. “I don’t think he’s still there, but maybe I can pick up his trail.”

“Bobby is fine. I let him go on my way to rescue you. He’s probably back at his house sipping margaritas.” I shrugged, neglecting to tell her how I’d left him suspended over a shark tank by a zombie. Instead, I pointed my gun at the corridor leading toward the security room. “Let’s just go check out the security room before things get worse.” I left the sudden desire to make sure Bobby wasn’t still suspended over the shark tank unsaid. For all I knew, Baal had dropped Bobby into the waters the moment I’d left, but I somehow doubted it. That could have blown his cover before I’d taken out Pierce.