Two minutes after Portman disappeared around a corner, the lights on the incoming car turned off as it stopped about a football field’s distance away.
The doors opened and closed.
I stared out at my ‘brothers.’
If I were to run into them on the street, I wouldn’t have considered them related to me by any stretch of the imagination. It was only because they had shown the ability to cast spells and produce fangs that made them suspicious. Well, that and the fact that they attacked my team while wearing nice clothes.
I had to admit that their outfits were nice.
Another indicator that we were possibly related was that they still wore those suits even while out in the desert looking for a fight. I was notorious for doing that.
They approached, staying just on the opposite side of Portman’s playground.
I didn’t know if they were able to spot his toys or if they were just being cautious because of me. I’d hoped for the latter considering I was unable to spot Portman’s toys. If they could see them, that would mean they were more advanced than I was, even in my current state.
That’d be bad.
Each face was different, meaning that they weren’t exact duplicates of me. My team had said that they weren’t doppelgängers, so I should have known that, but I just wasn’t sure what to expect.
They all had dark hair, chiseled jawlines, and nice suits. That’s where our similarities ended, though, at least in the realm of looks and fashion.
But there was something else about them that seemed…off.
It was like they were unfinished.
I know it sounded odd, but imagine a mannequin coming to life while retaining their exact look. It was like that with these guys. Not a wrinkle in the bunch. In fact, it was almost as if they were androids or something.
That made my blood freeze.
Were my ‘brothers’ actually androids?
I frowned at myself, pictured Rachel calling me an ‘idiot,’ and then refocused on reality.
“What’s up, guys?” I asked, giving them a small wave.
“You will come with us,” they replied as one.
No delay either. I’m talking a full-on chorus of voices saying the exact same thing at the exact same time.
“Damn,” I remarked. “Did you guys practice that or something?”
“You will come with us,” they repeated.
That time they all pointed at me simultaneously. There was one anomaly, though. While three of them used their right hands to point, the second one from the right used his left.
The rest of them glared at him accusingly.
He lowered his left arm and lifted his right.
The others sighed in unison and turned back to me.
Their looks of disdain definitely reminded me of…well, me.
“Where are we going exactly?” I asked.
“You will come with us,” was their only response.
“Not unless you answer some questions first,” I replied, crossing my arms in defiance. “Like, for example, are you guys Borg or something?”
They started with their, “You will…”, but they paused and said, “Huh?”
“You know what I’m talking about,” I answered. “Those dudes in Star Trek who are part of the collective.”
“We are amalgamites,” they chorused.
“That’s really creepy,” I grunted with a shudder. “I mean, I’m glad you said ‘amalgamites’ instead of ‘amalgamite.’ Otherwise, I’d have thought you were definitely part of a hive mind.”
They didn’t reply, but they did all squint at me at the same time.
“Right,” I continued, “so it’s clear that you’re not exactly smart.”
“I am,” said the guy who’d raised his left hand during the pointing fiasco earlier.
“Quiet, Kevin,” the rest of them warned.
Kevin was the one who went against the grain. That was good. If I played it right, maybe I could turn that to my advantage. With any luck, I might even be able to get him on my side.
It was a reach, but it was also definitely worth a shot.
“Kevin,” I said quickly, “you seem different than the rest of these guys.”
“We are all different,” he replied.
“Yeah, right, but I mean you appear to be the kind of guy who thinks for himself.” I wagged a finger at him. “I’d go as far as to say that you should be the leader of this band of four you’ve got here.”
“Bertram is the leader,” Kevin replied, pointing to the guy at the end.
“Is that right, Bertram?”
“You will come with us,” Bertram replied in perfect timing with the others, except for Kevin. He was a little behind them this time. Bertram dropped his chin to his chest with a groan. Then he turned to his brother. “Honestly, Kevin, you need to get with the program.”
“Sorry,” Kevin replied, looking sheepish. “I don’t care about the formalities, Bertram. You know I’m only here because I love to kill, maim, and torture.”
“Hopefully not in that order,” I said with a chuckle.
“What’s wrong with the order I listed those items?” Kevin asked, clearly confused.
I found that I was shaking my head along with the other three amalgamites.
So much for Kevin being the smart one.
“Forget it,” I said. “So you like hurting and killing?”
“No,” he replied in a serious tone. “I love hurting and killing. It’s the only thing that brings me joy in life.”
I jolted at that. “Well, you’re a sick fucker, then, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he hissed with a smile that a demon would envy. I hadn’t expected him to take that as a compliment. “The screams bring me pleasure.”
My eyebrows shot up at that admission.
“Oookay.” I studied the rest of the amalgamites. “Are the rest of you equally batshit crazy or is it just Kevin?”
“It’s just Kevin,” all four of them replied.
Yes, all four of them. Kevin spoke of himself in the third-person that time.
I was still thinking it might be a good move to get Kevin on my side, even if he was nuts. I just needed to convince him that killing his brothers would be the ultimate in fun. If that didn’t work, maybe I could turn them against Kevin. Getting them to kill each other was better than me having to fight all four of them at once.
But right now I wanted to get some more answers. These were the only people in the world who were like me. That meant they had access to information I could never find on my own.
“How old are you all?”
“We are forty-one,” three of them answered.
“Thirty-nine,” came the final response.
Again, Kevin was the outlier.
I just want to point out that the admission of their ages was another indication that these guys were too perfect. If you were to look at them on the street, you would have assumed they weren’t a day over twenty-one. They were that flawless.
“Do you all have the last name ‘Dex,’ too?”
“Yes.”
Another tick in the ‘Yep, we’re actually brothers’ column.
“Where are your parents?” I asked.
“Irrelevant question,” they replied, including Kevin.
“It’s not irrelevant to me,” I argued.
“Don’t care,” they countered as one.
I chewed my lip for a moment.
“Did you all grow up together?”
“Yes.”
“Did your father teach you how to play catch?” I asked, trying to be tricky.
“Irrelevant question,” said three of them.
“Yes,” said Kevin. Then, “Sorry.”
“So that means you did have a father.”
They all stared at Kevin. He looked at his fingernails.
“It must have been nice having a family,” I sighed. “Do you guys get together for holidays and such?”
“Irrelevant question,�
� said three of them, and then they quickly added, “Quiet, Kevin.”
He just rolled his eyes.
Translation: They did get together for holidays.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” I said after a moment. “You don’t want to share with me because you guys are just a basket of dicks.”
Kevin nodded his agreement.
The implication of his nod suggested that it may be better for me to get him on my side to fight his brothers. Yes, he’d be difficult to defeat one on one, but it’d still be easier than if I were to fight him and the other three at the same time.
The problem was how to get him to my side?
“Kevin,” I said, rubbing my hands together, “how would you like to kill, maim, and torture your shitty brothers?”
“What?” everyone but Kevin chorused.
His face fell.
“I’m not allowed to do that,” he sulked, “but I sure would love to.”
“Idiot,” said the brothers, this time not quite in unison.
“Are you going to let them talk to you like that, Kevin?” I pressed. “They’ve done nothing but push you around since you got here, and do you know why?”
He shook his head at me.
“I’ll tell you why, Kevin,” I said as someone who was an authority on the topic. “It’s because they’re all jealous and afraid of you. They know you’re better than them. You’re smarter, younger, stronger, and you’re willing to kill, maim, and torture in any order that you damn well please.”
The area went completely silent for a moment.
Everyone was clearly weighing my words. The three brothers looked more than worried and Kevin appeared conflicted.
Perfect.
“You will do as you are told, Kevin,” Bertram stated, speaking on his own this time. “If you do not, I will kill you myself.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
You see, there are just some people that you don’t say stuff like that to. They don’t respond well to it. Take Portman, for example. If I hadn’t used compelling magic on him when I told him to scoot along, I’d be eating my meals from a straw for a month. It was just the nature of things.
“Do not speak to me like that,” Kevin growled at his brother, which made Bertram take a concerned step backward. “Never speak to me like that.”
“Did you see that, Kevin?” I jumped in quickly. “Bertram is afraid. His fear is so strong it’s almost glowing. You like…” I paused. “No, you love seeing that, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Kevin replied, his eyes glistening in the moonlight. “I do love it.”
“Stop,” the other two brothers warned Kevin. “We will be forced to destroy you if you attack Bertram.”
Kevin’s venomous face changed so fast to one of pure terror that I’d be surprised if he hadn’t pulled a muscle. He backed down, turning forward again while swallowing hard.
“I apologize, Bertram,” Kevin breathed. “Our brother tricked me.”
Was I the ‘brother’ in that comment? I had to be, right?
Shit.
These warped fuckers were indeed my family.
Too bad I was going to have to kill them.
Before the fun could begin, though, I had one more question.
“Do we have any other brothers?” I asked.
“No.”
“Sisters?”
“One.”
I had a sister! Cool!
“What’s her name?”
“Wynn.”
“Wynn Dex?” I laughed. “Does she do windows?”
“What?” they asked.
“Forget it.” I was going through a mix of emotions at the moment. “Where is she?”
“Irrelevant question.”
Chapter 33
I was standing at a crossroad and genuinely had no idea how to proceed.
On the one hand, these guys were my family. Unfinished, sure, and more than a bit odd…especially Kevin. But didn’t all families have that one freak who stood out among the rest? And if you think your family doesn’t have one of those freaks, it’s you.
Conversely, it was abundantly clear that my brothers—note that I’m not using the air quotes anymore because it’d become pretty damn clear that we were related—were not good people.
That, in turn, suggested that our father hadn’t been such a great guy either.
He’d named his daughter Wynn Dex, after all.
Oh, shit, could that mean my father was the owner of the Wynn? It would explain why I had been given all this money. It would also explain my fashion sense. But I didn’t look anything like the guy, and neither did my brothers. It would also mean my father was still alive!
“One more thing,” I said anxiously, holding up a finger, “our father isn’t Steve Wynn, right?”
“No!”
Their response was given in such a way that you’d have thought I’d insulted them. Or maybe they were covering up?
“Kevin?” I pushed.
“He’s not our father,” Kevin replied, even though his brothers seemed displeased by him speaking alone. Obviously, Kevin was feeling somewhat empowered at the moment. “My brothers and I have answered honestly.”
“Is he still alive, at least?” I pleaded.
They went back to their old standard.
“You will come with us.”
Damn it.
While it was becoming more and more clear that my father wasn’t a nice person, I’d at least hoped to have met the guy. As it stood, I had a feeling that wasn’t going to be an option.
“All right, then,” I declared, “if you want me to join you, I’ll comply, but only on one condition.”
“What is your condition?” they asked.
“That Kevin be allowed to come over here and shake my hand.”
They all looked at each other in confusion.
“Why?”
“Because that’s my rule,” I replied firmly. I then waved at Kevin. “Come on over.”
He looked unsure, but his brothers shrugged at him, so he began walking.
I had been careful to stand in the perfect spot for what happened next.
Kevin stepped on the platform that was hidden under the magical covering, signaling that they could not see Portman’s toys. An almost imperceptible click sounded a split second later, and Kevin flew off into the night while yelling in horror.
That was going to leave a mark.
The other brothers watched him fly away, giving me the opportunity to take off toward the next bit of fun.
Chapter 34
By the time I got to the tarpit, the brothers were hot on my tail. They were launching energy balls at me, but I had a shield in place to deflect them. Besides, I had a feeling that they weren’t looking to kill me anyway. At least not yet. They were adamant that I join them, and they never specified that with an ultimatum.
I scrambled past the pit and tapped a code into the rock on the other side, just as Portman had taught me. There was a gentle hiss and then a slight shimmering, signaling that the ground cover had slid away and the magical facade now camouflaged the deadly trap that lay beneath.
The first brother to the scene went face first into the pit, causing the illusion to disappear.
The other two backed off, staring down.
I lit up a couple of fireballs in my hand and looked at the pit.
“I’d hate to have to kill him,” I pointed out, “but unless you tell me where we’re going, I will do it.”
“You have already killed Kevin,” Bertram stated, speaking on his own. “For this, we thank you. However, we will not be pleased if you kill Leo.”
“I don’t want to kill, uh, Leo either,” I admitted, and it was true. This was my family, for goodness sake. “But I have a feeling that you guys are not good people, and if your intention is to turn me into a bad guy…well, no.”
“The world will submit to us or they will die,” the three brothers roared like wild beasts, though Leo was clearly struggling. “They ne
ed our might and our power, and we will rule with an iron fist, crushing any who dare stand in our way. Order will break through and chaos will fade. We will become the law. Blood will flood the streets. Souls will cry in pain. Death will take both young and old, male and female…and transgenders, too.”
I just stood there blinking when they’d finished. My mouth was hanging open.
They will become the law? Did that mean the Directors were behind them…us? What the fuck?
“Nice speech,” I rasped. “I especially enjoyed how you added the transgender bit at the end of it.”
“We are not prejudiced,” Bertram explained. “We shall kill any and all who stand in the way of order and justice, and we shall do so with fairness and equality.”
“Right, I got that.”
Okay, so that pretty much stuck a nail in the coffin of my having a family. Blood relatives or not, I wasn’t like these guys, and I had no intention of becoming like them either…even if my current magical capabilities pleaded for me to be.
And I was damn sure going to be having words with the Directors about this shit as it was becoming clearer by the second why they’d been so close-lipped with me over the last year.
They wanted this to happen!
At least that was my running hypothesis, which was admittedly based on some loose suppositions at the moment.
Regardless, if it was them, then they clearly hadn’t counted on me being who I was.
Or maybe they had?
Fuck!
“I don’t suppose I can change your minds on this?” I asked hopefully. “I really don’t want to have to kill you guys.”
“Agony and death come to all who oppose us,” they chimed, “including you.”
“I had a feeling you’d say something like that,” I groaned with a sad shrug. “Ah well, I guess this has to happen, then.”
I launched a fireball at the pit. It shot up in flames as Leo screamed his last. Amalgamite or not, burning to death in a tarpit was not something your super healing was going to fix.
That left only Betram and…
Actually, I didn’t know the other guy’s name.
“Hey,” I said as the eyes on my two final brothers smoldered, “what’s your name?”
Clash of Flames: An Ian Dex Supernatural Thriller Book 7 (Las Vegas Paranormal Police Department) Page 13
