by Steve McHugh
"They murdered my mum," Dani said from the doorway.
I turned to Dani, about to ask how she'd gotten to the hospital, but she continued talking before I could say anything.
"Nate saved my life, but destroyed his in the process. They're after me because I'm important to them. It's my fault that Holly got hurt." Dani began to cry and Lyn rushed to her, holding the young woman against her.
"You're safe here," Lyn said and looked back at Mark with daggers. "And you, Mark O'Hara, will threaten no one. Our daughter is fighting for her life, and you're in here threatening the man who tried to save her.
"Where's your son?" I asked.
"Lee was taken down to the fighters' locker rooms," Mark said. "We saw him outside talking to the police when we left the warehouse. He said he'd escaped and managed to get outside just as the police turned up. He's dealing with them back at the warehouse, now."
"Why don't you make yourself useful and go call him, see if he's finished," Lyn said.
Any remnants of Mark's anger evaporated instantly and he left the room to do as he was told.
"You've got to give his mind something to occupy itself," Lyn said when the three of us were alone. "Otherwise he'll go mad. You okay, Nate?"
I rubbed my throat. "I'll be fine." I looked over at Dani. "How'd you get here?"
"After Jerry got back and told Francis what had happened, Francis called a police friend of his to ask for an update," she said. "I begged Jerry to bring me here. I wanted to make sure you and Holly were okay. Jerry said to give him a call if we need anything."
Lyn was about to ask something else when a doctor entered the room. She was a brunette, probably no older than thirty, and appeared to have had a very long night.
"Your daughter is in surgery," she said to Lyn, without looking at the clipboard in her hands. "Someone will let you know her progress. But it's going to take awhile, you might want to go home and get some rest."
"Would you go home and rest if it were your child?" Lyn asked her.
The doctor's answer was immediate. "No, I'll get you some pillows and blankets."
Half a dozen pillows and three large pink blankets arrived a few minutes later, just as Lyn was leaving to find her husband. Dani settled in one of the chairs and switched on the TV. I took one of the pillows and tried to get comfortable in a chair that had never been designed for anything resembling comfort. The clock on the wall said it was just after three am, although with a constant tick every second, it soon became clear in my mind that the clock might not make it to four am before being thrown through a window.
Evidently, I fell asleep before then, because the next thing I knew, Dani was poking me in the shoulder. "You were asleep for a few hours," she said.
"You should have woken me," I told her.
"You needed your sleep," Lyn said from the doorway. Mark stood behind her, holding his wife around the waist. "The doctor has news about Holly. We wanted you to be there to hear it."
I pushed the thick blanket off and stood as the doctor from earlier arrived in the room. "Holly is out of surgery," she said.
"What are her chances?" Mark asked.
"There were a large amount of lacerations. Most of these are shallow, but a few were quite deep, especially those on the lower extremities. Whoever did this made a point of cutting muscle and tendons. If she recovers, Holly will need months of physical therapy and, no doubt, psychological counselling. She also has two further puncture wounds on her abdomen. One of these nicked a kidney and the other touched her spleen. The damage to the organs themselves is fortunately mild.
"We've controlled the bleeding for now and closed the wounds. We're replacing the blood she lost and have started her on a round of antibiotics. There's also what appears to be a claw mark on her spine, just at the base. It's quite deep and could have easily severed her spine, but on the face of it, it caused very little damage. But, we have another, greater concern."
"What is it?" Lyn asked as she sat on one of the chairs, looking up at the doctor with an expression of hope and expectance that science and medicine could save her daughter.
"Unfortunately, Holly appears to have been suffered a head injury and it's given her some swelling on the brain. We're going to keep her in an induced coma for the next few days. We need to find out what the damage is, and whether waking her up will cause more problems. We should have a much clearer picture soon, but until then we're taking it cautiously."
The doctor told us where Holly was and said that if there were any further developments, she'd let us know. She then asked to have a moment alone with Lyn and Mark.
Once they'd left, I walked into the hallway and made a call. "Francis," I said when the phone was picked up.
"Sorry Nate, wrong vampire," Laurel said. "How's your friend?"
"Not good, I need to speak to Francis."
"Francis is sleeping, should be up soon though. Can I help?"
"There's very little I can do here. I need to know who Francis' employer was. I'll go crazy just waiting around."
"I'll tell him," she said. "I'm really sorry about your friend."
I thanked her and hung up.
Dani had followed the O'Hara’s after they'd finished talking to the doctor, and I caught up with them as they walked through the hospital toward Holly's room. The tension inside me ratcheted up with every step. My heart pounded in my ears and the lump in my throat grew until I thought I'd be unable to breathe.
We walked for what felt like an eternity, up flights of stairs, following brightly painted green lines on the floor. Different colours, red, blue, yellow, all led to other parts of the hospital, but I barely paid attention to the route we took. I just watched the never-ending green line as we passed through double doors after double doors, along identical hospital corridors.
Finally the green line vanished and I looked up to see the intensive care ward. Lyn and Mark had been told that Holly would have her own room and went to talk to one of the nurses, coming back soon after. "We can only go in one at a time," Mark said.
"We'll wait here," I told him.
"We want you to go in first," Mark said.
"Are you sure?" I asked, taken aback by the gesture.
Mark nodded. "You need to get going, to find the men responsible. Go see her before you leave."
"Go," Lyn said pointing to the room opposite a nurse's station, which was a sedate place, even as nurses and doctors alike tried to save the lives that had been brought to them. Not all of those patients would make it. It was a thought I forced aside as I took the short walk to Holly's room.
I stopped breathing as I opened the door, I didn't want to see this, didn't want it to be real. The blinds looking out into the corridor were half closed, as were the thick blue curtains. The only sound was the beep of the heart monitoring equipment.
I took a chair from the end of the bed and placed it next to Holly, but didn't sit down. I watched her for a moment, taking in the bandages wrapped around her head, the swollen shut left eye and split lip. Her right arm was in a plaster cast and she’s been intubated to help her breathe.
I sat beside Holly and took her good hand in mine. "You're strong, Holly. You need to be. You need to get better." A tear fell down my cheek. "You made it easier to not know who I was. It didn't matter who I used to be because I had people like you in my life." The tears began to flow freely. "I can't lose that, can't lose you. You need to fight, and when you wake up you'll see that I've brought down everyone responsible for what happened today."
The door behind me opened and I turned to see Lee, silhouetted in the doorframe. "This wasn't supposed to happen," he whispered and sprinted away.
Chapter 31
Within a fraction of a second I'd launched myself up from my chair and sprinted after Lee. We raced through the hospital corridors, drawing glares from nurses and patients alike, as glyphs blared along my arms. I had to shut them off before the temptation to use magic became too great, and I did serious damage to the hospital o
r an innocent bystander. Neither of which Lee cared about. He shoved his way past people, knocking some to the ground.
He reached an open lift, marked employees only, and darted inside just as I got to it. I slammed my fist on the metal and watched the green floor numbers above the lift as it made its way down. There was no point chasing Lee if I didn't know what floor he was getting off at.
Dani yelled something from down the corridor as she made her way toward me, with Lyn close behind. But I didn't respond. I just kept watching the green numbers get lower and lower until it finally stopped on GF, Ground Floor.
I didn't waste another second. I burst through the door into the stairwell and raced down the stairs, taking them three at a time. I flung open a set of double doors at the bottom of the stairwell and found a long corridor with shops and fast food outlets dotted all around, making this one of busiest parts of the hospital, where visitors bought their loved ones some comforts. I followed the corridor to the front exit of the hospital and spotted Lee outside, running toward the car park. I set off in pursuit, ignoring the passing cars and pedestrians as I hurried toward him.
Lee kept running, past the car park and toward an empty, secluded road nearby. He opened the rear passenger door to a large black, four-wheel drive car, when I grabbed him, slammed his head into the roof of the car and shoved him to the ground. The driver's side door opened before I could continue the assault and a large bald man got out, ready to protect his paycheque.
I kicked the open rear door into the bodyguard forcing him to move aside, and then hit him in the jaw with my fist wrapped in compressed air. It was the same trick I'd used against Achilles when he'd attacked me and Jenny, and it had rocked the gargoyle. It lifted the human bodyguard off his feet, spinning him in the air and dumping him back on the ground, unconscious and no longer an issue.
I spun back on Lee who had watched the exchange. There was real fear in his eyes now, and it took a moment for me to realise that he was staring at the white glyphs on my arm. "What are you?" he managed.
I grabbed him by his jacket collar, lifted him off the ground and threw him at the car. He landed on the bonnet and almost skidded off, but I grabbed his leg and pulled him back toward me, punching him in the solar plexus as he got closer. Lee dropped to his knees on the concrete, sucking in a large amount of air. I grabbed his head in both hands and forced him to look at me. "What did you do?"
"It wasn't meant to be like that," he said to no one in particular.
I pulled him upright and punched him in the solar plexus again, allowing him to fall back to the ground. "What did you do?" I repeated.
Without warning a knife appeared in Lee's hand. He tried to stab at the top of my thighs, aiming for an artery. I kicked his arm away, grabbing it before he could swipe once more, locking the joint at the elbow. I was about to ask him again, but a rage, cold and calculating swept through me. Instead I smashed my forearm into his elbow.
I let Lee fall to the ground, screaming in pain, clutching his useless limb. I was about to rain down kicks on him when Lyn stepped in front of me.
"Don't do this," she pleaded.
"He's involved with what happened to Holly," I told her. "He will tell me what he did. Or I'll cripple him."
Lyn nodded and knelt next to her youngest son. "What did you do, Lee?"
"What I had to," he spat. "This cunt humiliated me." Lee pushed his mum away and forced himself back to his feet, his movements jerky. "After you beat me in that fight, I wanted to hurt you. I got my guys to show your picture around, see if there were any takers. And one person bit. Offered me half a mil for information on you. So I gave it.
"Then a few days ago he called again, asked where you might take someone you wanted to hide. So I gave them Holly's address. She needed to be taught a lesson not to go against her family. They said that they wouldn't hurt her, just scare her a little."
A red haze fell over me, but before I could get to Lee, Lyn had punched him in the jaw, snapping his head round. It was the punch of a professional boxer, and if she'd followed up with another, they probably would have given her a TKO, but she backed off and let Lee get to his feet once more. "How dare you," Lyn snapped, her face red with fury. "You endangered your own sister, for what? Petty vengeance?"
"He humiliated me. Beat me like a fucking dog. I couldn't let that slide. When that fucking monster, Achilles, arrived at the warehouse, he made it look good. Gave me a bit of a kicking, and then took me down to the lockers to wait until he left. The deal was that he'd not hurt Holly, but she fought them."
Lyn shook her head sadly. "Where are the men who did this?"
Lee shrugged, the tiny movement of his arm causing him to cry out in pain once again. "Don't know. I didn't know she was going to get all fucking heroic."
Lyn looked back at me, her eyes red and saddened. "My son is a thug and a bully. I look into his eyes and see nothing but violence and hate there. I'd hoped over time he would change. But he won't."
I tried to interrupt, but she raised a hand to silence me before continuing. "He knows where those people are." She looked back at Lee who was dabbing the split lip his mum had given him. "I beg you not to kill him. But get that information."
She stepped aside, giving me a clear path at Lee, whose eyes widened in terror as I stalked toward him.
"No, Mum, I didn't mean for her to get hurt," he pleaded.
"It's too late, Lee," Lyn said and she walked away.
When we were alone I whispered in Lee's ear, "I'm going to make you tell me what I want to know. And it's going to hurt." I grabbed his broken arm and twisted, increasing my grip on it, causing him to scream out. "Where are they? How did they contact you?" I squeezed a little harder, drawing a concerned look from a young woman as she got out of her car nearby and hurried off to the hospital. Orange glyphs came to life and I soon smelled burning flesh as I began to cook Lee's arm.
Lee screamed, raw and guttural. "They gave me an address to go to so I could get the money," he managed. "The card's in my pocket."
I fished it out of his jeans, the Mars Warfare logo blazed at me. I pushed Lee back against the car and left him there, whimpering.
I looked over and found that Dani had joined Lyn. They caught my eye and I wandered over to them. "I know where they are," I told Lyn as Dani glared at Lee.
"Will you do this alone?" Lyn asked.
I nodded. "I have to. This needs to be finished." I turned back to Lee. "If I ever see you again, I'll kill you."
Lyn moved to kneel beside her son and kissed him tenderly on the cheek. "You have twenty four hours to leave the country. That's as long as I can give you before I tell your father about your involvement. After that you're a dead man." Lyn walked off and Dani launched her foot between Lee's legs, as if trying to kick him into space.
Lee screamed and crumpled to the ground, holding himself as best he could, and Dani followed up with a second kick. A third would have followed if I hadn't grabbed her, dragging her away. "You bastard," she screamed at Lee, trying to get away from me and finish her assault.
"Come on, Dani, we've got a lot to do," I said as we followed Lyn back to the hospital, Lee's cries following behind us, lost on a sudden gale of wind.
Chapter 32
My mobile rang before I'd even made it back to the hospital.
"I got you a meeting with the people who hired me to steal the Iliad for them," Francis said.
"Excellent, so where and when?"
"Jerry will pick you up in twenty minutes to take you there. Dani will be coming back here, and when you're finished you'll come back here too. We need to discuss the next step."
Part of me wanted to say no, to say that I was going after Mars Warfare, gun in hand, ready for a final showdown. But in truth that was both stupid and suicidal. Going anywhere near their building would get me either shot or taken, probably both. As much as I wanted revenge, as much as my heart and soul demanded it, doing anything without the facts and without some serious planning woul
d lead to my death. And then Holly would have been hurt for nothing. And Dani would still be in danger.
"Nate," Francis said after I'd been silent for some time. "I'm very sorry about your friend, and we will get these people, but in a way that leaves them unable to get back at us. Running in there full of righteous emotion will mean either a very quick death or a very long one, after they've dragged out whatever information they need."
"Tell Jerry I'll meet him out front in twenty."
"Are you going to say bye to Holly?" Dani asked once I'd ended the call and put my phone back in my pocket.
I nodded and explained what was happening.
"I want to come with you," she said.
"You're going to stay with Francis. I just need to talk to some people. Who, based on the past few days, will probably want me dead."
"Don't joke about that," Dani said.
I folded my arms around Dani, holding her against me. "I'll be fine. It's you I need to keep safe. And there's not much safer than Francis'."
Dani nodded, her head striking my chest. "Can I come with you? To see Holly, I mean."
We walked toward the lift without a word. I had no intention of running up the stairs again, so we waited in silence as the lift slowly made its way down to us.
"By the way, nice kick," I said once we were inside the steel box and moving upward at a snail's pace.
Dani's smile was easy to see in the reflection of the polished metal. "I was hoping they'd come out his mouth."
"At least he won't be able to sit down for a few weeks. And he won't forget you in a hurry."
"If I see him again, I've got a whole other foot just waiting for a shot."
"He'll run abroad," I said. "You'll never see him again. And if you do, take a run up next time, and twist with your hips as you catch him."
Dani's smile broke into a giggle, which died down the second the lift doors opened. It was as if someone had hit the stop button on a song, one second there was sound, and the next – nothing.
