twice cursed mage 05 - claimed (21 page)

It took me a moment to understand what he meant because I was still reeling from the whole part demon thing. I mean, I think I knew he meant my Cursed arm, but what if he didn’t? What if I was actually becoming part demon? No, that was crazy.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

“Is he telling the truth?” I asked, reaching out to the cat in my head. I found her waiting patiently with a mischievous grin on her face. As she came into view, I got the distinct impression she was laughing at me.

“About them not being able to kill the seven because they’re not demon? Yes, but you can kill them, even though you’re not really a demon in the traditional sense. That makes it a lot more difficult. That’s probably why Mammon gave you that staff. Speaking of which…”

The cat sauntered up to me in my mind’s eye and rubbed her cheek against my leg. I felt the bond between us strengthen as she did it, and I realized that every time she did it, she was marking me, claiming me as hers. And she did it all the time. How many times had she rubbed up against me here? She didn’t seem like the type to do it on accident, and that almost made it worse because I wasn’t sure why she did it.

My arm reached into my pant leg and pulled the pimp staff free from the spot where I’d strapped it to my leg. Only, I hadn’t done it. The cat had done it, and I didn’t like it one bit.

I also didn’t like how the Harbinger called her the Matriarch. The title wasn’t exactly pleasing to hear, and not just because she’d referred to Asmodai as the Consort and Mammon as the Gambler. No, it was because Patriarch’s tended to rule the fucking roost, and near as I could tell, wasn’t Lucifer supposed to be the ruler of Hell?

As I had that thought, Harbinger caught my attention with a low whistle.

“That’ll work,” Harbinger said, admiring the pimp staff as I held it out. “How did you get that?”

“What the fuck is going on?” Ricky said, stepping between us. “Why do you have that?”

“I got it from Mammon. He gave it to me to deal with these guys,” I said, popping the top. As I did, pink light the same color as the uncharted lands exploded from its surface.

“Mac, don’t,” Junkyard said, still trying to squirm away. “You don’t realize who you’re working for.”

I heard him speak, but for some reason it didn’t register because I was filled with the sudden, inexplicable urge to kill him, to dash him from this world and the next. It was weird because I’d wanted him dead before for hurting Ricky, but this wasn’t caused by that. No, this was the cat’s bloodlust leaking into me, and even worse, I liked it. A lot. I was so fucked.

“Me not killing you isn’t in the cards,” I replied, stepping up to him and holding the cane like a croquet mallet. “Hope you’ve said your goodbyes.”

“If you let me go, I’ll tell you about the Matriarch.” I stopped in mid-swing and looked down at him. I had to kill him, and not just because I’d promised it to Mammon. No, I had to do it because of what he’d done to Ricky. That couldn’t stand. Still… I could spare a couple minutes, couldn’t I? I glanced at Ricky, wondering what she thought, and as I did, I felt her presence touch my mind through the imprint like a calming wave.

“Mac, wait,” Ricky said, holding a hand out. As she touched my shoulder, my hands moved of their own volition, slamming down on Junkyard’s skull and splattering his life across the pavement. Ricky grabbed me and shook me. “I said wait! What the fuck?”

“I didn’t…” I said as I stood there holding the bloody cane. My gaze looked to my blackened hand. I hadn’t meant to kill him.

Harbinger looked at me for a long moment. “Good luck,” he said, and then disappeared into a puff of white smoke. I stared at the spot, mouth agape as ice began to fall from the sky even though it was hot as fuck. It almost made me want to catch the news to see what sort of conspiracy they’d blame this on. After all, this was ice not frogs or bugs.

“Did he just vanish?” Ricky asked, and I glanced at her. She looked as shocked as I felt. I wasn’t sure what had just happened, but something was clearly fucked up. Still, we were basically in the clear. I guess some battles it’s good enough just to walk away from, and unlike Junkyard, we were walking away.

“Yeah… you supernaturals are getting too crazy for my liking,” I said, trying to ignore what had just happened. The cat had forced me to kill Junkyard because she didn’t want him to tell me who she really was. That was the second time she’d done it. What’s that saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

“It makes me feel really good about myself to hear you refer to us like you’re not one of us,” Ricky replied, moving past me toward the exit. As she did, she reverted to the red-haired athlete I knew and loved.

“You know what I mean,” I said, grabbing her shoulder and spinning her so she was facing me. Her green eyes sparkled as I stared into them and my heart suddenly went haywire in my chest.

“Do I?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at me. “I mean, for all I know, all your feelings are a result of the imprint.”

“They’re not,” I said, and I’d never been more sure of anything in my life. “All I’ve wanted to do since the moment Vassago grabbed me was get back to you. I couldn’t feel you when I was in New York, Hell, I couldn’t feel you until I stepped foot in the city. If my feelings weren’t real, I wouldn’t have felt them when I didn’t feel the imprint.”

“Maybe,” Ricky said reluctantly, but I could tell from the look in her green sea-glass-colored eyes, she wasn’t buying it. “I’m not sure how it works across distances exactly, but it doesn’t make sense for the affects to fade. If it did, a simple road trip to Vegas would cause the imprint to stop working. If that was the cause and you were suddenly free, wouldn’t you run? I know I would, but that’s
never
happened.” She took a deep breath. “As far as I know, the only way to break an imprint is through death, and even that doesn’t always work. I’ve heard stories where an imprinted mate died. They… they don’t end well.”

“Well then everything is going to be fine,” I said, moving closer to her and resting my forehead against hers. “Because I don’t plan on dying, and I’m sure as hell not going to let anyone kill you.”

“I believe you when you say that, Mac.” She took a deep breath and stepped backward. Her eyes dropped to her blood-spattered white tennis shoes like they were the most interesting thing she’d ever seen. “What concerns me is your demon. She’s scary.” She huffed another deep breath. “I mean, Harbinger is scared of her, Mac. Don’t tell me you didn’t see that. It was plain as day, and while you’re dumb, you aren’t that fucking dumb.”

“So what?” I said, and as I did, I tried to ignore her point. My demon, like the imprint, was the elephant in the room. She’d been able to take hold of me several times now, and what’s more, she’d killed people who seemed like they would get in her way without a second thought. What if she felt Ricky was getting in the way? What would happen then?

“This is where you tell me, I should leave so I don’t get hurt, huh?” she asked, looking up at me and her eyes were filled with unshed tears. “I’d like to say ‘no,’ to say I wouldn’t do it, but truth be told, I know that’s the smart play. Staying with you is going to hurt in a way I don’t think I can survive, but even knowing that, I’m willing to try.” She shut her eyes. “If you tell me to go, I’ll go. I’ll hate you until time ends, but I’ll go because we’re doomed. I know that.” A tear spilled down her cheek. “Only, I still want to try. Knowing all of that, I still want to be with you, Mac. Imprint or not. Demon or not. Does that make me a fool?”

Instead of responding, I kissed her, pulling her body into me. It was kind of weird given that we were surrounded by the wreckage of the junkyard, but then again, I hadn’t seen her in what felt like forever.

Her fingers dug into my back as our lips mashed together. I was just glad to have her back, and if that meant we had to make out while our enemies were strewn around us in bloody heaps, well, weirder shit had happened. I mean, it wasn’t like we were fucking on top of their corpses or anything.

As her nails raked down my back, her phone started ringing. It was a little odd since I hadn’t really expected her to have it, and well, mood.

She broke off and stared down at the blood-smeared pocket of her blue jeans in disbelief. “I haven’t had signal since I came to this godforsaken hellhole.” She fished it out of her pocket, and a picture of her brother Bobby blazed on the screen. Man, I was really starting to hate that guy.

“Yeah, so why did you come here?” I asked as she hit the answer button and put the phone to her ear. Admittedly, it sort of pissed me off. After all, the last time she’d gotten a phone call following a harrowing escape from demonic forces she’d fucking ditched me for shifter business. Guess I wasn’t as over that as I thought.

“Bobby?” she asked the phone, while completely ignoring me. Someone on the other end of the phone spoke, and Ricky’s face drew into a tight knot of agitation. Then she held the phone out in front of her and punched the speaker button with one finger.

“Hey, Mac. How are things?” Sargent asked through the phone’s tiny speaker.

“Sargent?” I asked like a complete dumbass.

“I’m good. Thanks for asking.” He paused for a moment as if to build suspense before continuing on. “So, while I have you on the phone, I feel like you could help me out with a pickle I’m in. See, I have this shifter, and I keep shooting him, but he doesn’t die. What do you suggest I do?” The way he asked made my blood run cold because I knew Sargent wouldn’t hesitate to kill Bobby. No, if he was calling than this was a trap plain and simple, and the sad thing was, there was no way we wouldn’t walk right into it.

“If you hurt my brother, I will fucking kill you!” Ricky snarled into the phone, her green eyes filling with amber as she spoke.

“Patience love. There’s plenty of time for that, and by plenty of time, I mean not a lot because once I run out of these bullets I’m going to be forced to move to the silver ones, and if I reckon right, those won’t heal up quite so easily.”

“How do I know you actually have Bobby?” I asked even though I was pretty sure Sargent wasn’t the type of guy who would bluff. Guys like him tended to follow through on what they said. It’s what made them so fucking scary.

“That is an excellent point.” The phone grew quiet for a moment. “Say something, boy. Your sister and her beau are waiting.”

“Ricky, don’t come for me. There’s like fifty guys here and most of the pack is down. I’m not sure what kind of ammo they’re using, but it dropped almost everyone in a shot,” Bobby cried into the phone as quickly as possible as though he expected to get cut off at any moment.

“See, does that sound like dear old, Brother Bobby?” Sargent asked when he was done, and I heard the smirk in his voice. “Go on, son. Tell ‘em we’re at the corner of Madison and Sixth in the abandoned cold storage building. Oops, did I do that? Oh well.”

“If you hurt even a hair on my brother’s head—”

Ricky’s threat was cut off by a gunshot.

“Hmm, how quickly do head wounds heal?” Sargent asked. “Anyone?”

“I’ll be there,” I said as Ricky gasped so hard the sound made my heart twist into a painful ball of agony. I knew Bobby would be more or less fine because Sargent wanted me to come to him. If he was dead, I wouldn’t. Still, his terms were fine because I wanted to find him. Hey, sometimes everyone gets what they want.

“Good. We’ll be waiting, Mac.” Sargent clicked off the phone and the silence of it stretched between Ricky and I like a living, breathing thing. Still, something about the way he’d said we bugged me. I got the distinct impression he wasn’t referring to the guards with him. No, I definitely felt like he meant someone in particular. Someone like Jenna. Fuck.

“We’ll get him back,” I said, and as I reached out to comfort my girlfriend, she pushed my arm away and took a step backward.

“Mac, did you bring these fuckers here?” she asked, staring at me so hard I tried to squirm away. “That girl who shot you said something about the council of seven, and I’m guessing these jackasses are them. I’m not quite positive because I made it about a block from the hospital when a bunch of dick hats rammed my car off the road. I woke up here, but I’m guessing it’s all connected to the girl who shot you. Mac, who is she?”

“My ex-girlfriend,” I said, and because I didn’t want to get into it with Ricky right now, I stepped past her and made my way toward the exit. I wasn’t sure how Jack was doing, but I wanted to check on him before I went after Bobby.

“Your ex-girlfriend is one of the seven?” Ricky asked, and the edge in her voice would have scared me if I was a lesser man. “And she’s here to kill you?”

As her words filled my ears, worry and guilt threatened to drown me. Why? Because I didn’t want to give her cause for jealousy even though I knew she might have a good reason for it. I mean, I wanted to kill Jenna for what she’d done, but at the same time, everything that had happened to me was my fault for failing to protect her, and it would be a lie to say I didn’t want to avenge what had happened to her, but I couldn’t tell Ricky that.

Sure, she’d understand, but given my relationship with the demon bound to me, I wasn’t sure pushing her away wouldn’t be the best thing for her. I was damaged in a way beyond reckoning and when I went down, well, let’s just say I was going to take a lot of people with me. I really didn’t want Ricky to be one of those people.

“What can I say, breakups are a bitch.”

Chapter 26

“What do we do about Jack?” I asked as I shoved the desiccated vampire into the back of the extended cab.

“Man, fuck Jack,” Ricky said, thumping her hand on the steering wheel impatiently.

“I’m not sure how that will help unless there’s some kind of Cursed sexual healing thing I’m unaware of,” I replied, glancing at her as I shut the back door. “Besides, I don’t really swing that way.”

She shot me a sidelong glare that let me know her patience was dangerously close to the limit. “He’s a vampire. Once he gets some blood, he’ll be fit as a fiddle and twice as fucking annoying.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Although not as annoying as you currently are.”