Demonic Dreams

by Hadena James

  Serial killers that had never heard of Aislinn Cain suddenly started thinking twice about whether or not to cross paths with her. The carnage from inside the Fortress had only heightened her reputation as a boogeyman. She had walked out, covered in blood and gore, blood pouring out of her foot like Niagara Falls and when they interviewed one of the guards they had freed, he had said he watched Aislinn Cain kill a couple of them all by herself to protect other serial killers, killers that weren't involved in the riot, and the civilians and guards trapped inside. That had become her legacy. No matter how battered and bruised, she had killed to save lives, lots of them, good and bad and she had been just as brutal and vicious doing that as she had been in Texas. The rest of them were just window dressing for her most of the time. It didn't matter that Malachi and Caleb were psychopaths, sure they were scary, but not like Aislinn Cain, because Aislinn Cain was female and smaller and the preferred victim type of most serial killers, yet she was slaying them not just hunting them down. It made a scary cloak for her to wear. Of course, even inside the walls of the Fortress where Caleb and Malachi had both been ruthless, they hadn't been as ruthless as Aislinn. This was because Malachi and Caleb both knew if they made a mistake they would probably survive it. Aislinn knew if she made one, she probably wouldn't. Aislinn took surviving seriously, because she had figured out that with her leading the charge, Xavier and Lucas's life spans had both increased, probably Gabriel's too.

  Once they were on the ground, Malachi was going to have to call Apex and get an idea of what they were working with regarding booby traps around the bunker. He'd never had to deal with booby traps, those only existed in movies. At least he had thought that until Eric told him otherwise. There was a seriousness to both Apex and Eric that just made you believe them, made you believe in them. Apex was a little too mysterious for Malachi's liking, but that probably had something to do with who he was. The fact that he seemed to genuinely care about Eric and Aislinn and Myrna and Elle, spoke volumes about the man's character. Malachi still didn’t know who he was, but that was the least of Malachi's problems at the moment.

  As the only SCTU team leader to make decisions, Malachi could temporarily grant Apex some kind of amnesty from his crimes to help him out. It was a sketchy rule that was weirdly written and almost never used, except when Gabriel had declared him off limits during the FGN attacks and Бec showed up at the Daniels' house while Apex provided cover for Aislinn. Malachi could declare him off limits until the return of Aislinn and Gabriel since Apex seemed to be the only person to ever go in and exit alive, that might be a skill set they needed right this moment.

  He quietly discussed it with Caleb as the jet touched down. No need to freak everyone out. He had 3 newbies Vlad, Dominic, and Rachael. Fiona, Lucas, and Xavier would move heaven and Earth and walk through the fires of Hell to get Gabriel and Aislinn back. Caleb silently nodded allowing Malachi to feel he was justified if he brought in Apex. Of course, Caleb probably wanted some vengeance for what happened to Nathan, so maybe he wasn't as impartial as Malachi had hoped. Perhaps he should have discussed it with Lucas. Lucas wasn't impartial any more than Caleb, but Lucas was a psychologist, technically, he could have been a psychiatrist, but he hadn't enjoyed medical school nearly as much as Xavier. That put a degree of separation between Lucas and the situation. Malachi had found Lucas could separate his personal feelings from what was necessary almost as good as a psychopath, that was where the similarities began and ended, though. Lucas might be able to divorce his feelings from what was required of him, but nothing else about the man gave a hint of psychopathology. Not that Malachi would know for sure. He wasn't an expert in psychopaths, even though he was one. Even psychopaths had to deal with generalities and occasionally abnormalities, even among each other. He could never be Aislinn or Caleb, but that didn't mean they weren't psychopaths, it just meant they didn't display all the characteristics he did as a psychopath. To them, his need to be in charge and be flattered, or as Aislinn called it, have his ego propped up and pampered was probably beyond both of them.

  This was why Aislinn said introspection was a psychopath’s worst enemy. Malachi couldn't think too hard about himself or look too deeply within himself for answers. If he did, his ego puffed up and he would start thinking he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, which Aislinn frequently reminded him he wasn't.

  He gathered his two small bags before the jet had completely stopped. His team didn't have a jet, at least not yet. Maybe soon. The moment he turned on his phone, there were multiple missed calls and 17 voicemail messages. He didn't recognize the number for the missed calls and voicemails. He was debating calling it back when the same number popped up on the screen. He answered it and was meet with shouting, crying, basically someone on the verge of hysterics. He no longer wanted to check his voicemails.

  "Malachi Blake?" The woman's voice was shaking even over the phone.

  "This Marshal Blake," Malachi confirmed.

  "This is Mary Henders, Gabriel's sister. He called me about an hour ago. He told me to call you and give you a phone number. He has my brother Raphael's cell phone. He says him, and the woman are fine."

  "Marshal Cain?" Malachi asked.

  "Yes, they are both fine, but he wants you to call him at the phone number. Do you have a pen to write it down.”? Malachi had a perfect memory. He could remember every detail of everything he'd ever seen, read, heard, etc. Sometimes his memory was as good as a photo.

  Ready," Malachi told her. She was talking so fast, Malachi almost missed the last two digits, but he didn't. Mary, we are going to get Gabriel and Aislinn back."

  "Huh, he wouldn't even be in this mess if it weren't for that woman." Mary told him.

  "I'm sorry, he was kidnapped by his own brother, how is that Aislinn's fault?"

  "I don't believe Raphael intends to kill Gabriel. If that was his intent, he could have done it long before now. He only did it after that woman broke a prisoner out of jail and killed him in that park."

  "Actually, Raphael broke out the prisoner and killed him in the park. Do you know how long Raphael has been stalking Aislinn?" Malachi turned the tables on her accusative tone. "This seems to be less about Aislinn Cain and more about Gabriel and his job. Aislinn only went missing after she went looking for Gabriel."

  "Does that mean you're all in on it? You guys kill Gabriel and frame Raphael for it, I mean."

  "I have no idea what you are talking about. Maybe you should take a nap, I don't think you are thinking clearly. None of us could have attacked your sister and made anyone believe it was Raphael."

  "My sister says another man attacked her. My nieces, too. It wasn't Raphael and it wasn’t Gabriel. No doubt he was sent by that psychopath that works with Gabriel because Gabriel's found happiness and she never will."

  "I still have no idea what you are talking about." Malachi was growing impatient with the call. He thought maybe Mary needed Xanax or less alcohol or both. Malachi hung up on her. "So, does anyone want to tell me why Mary, Gabriel's sister thinks this is all Ace's fault?" Malachi asked loudly in the narrow little plane cabin as they walked towards the door.

  "Mary is a conspiracy whack job," Xavier answered. "She also believes that the US Marshals have Jimmy Hoffa in WitSec and that the FBI is putting radiation in the water to make psychopaths."

  "From what I can tell, Mary has some mental health issues and isn't medicated. When Gabriel's wife shot him, she took the wife's side and told Gabriel it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been trying to poison her with radiation lined condoms." Lucas answered. "I haven't spent much time talking to her, so I'm not entirely sure what she has, but I would start with paranoia."

  "Gabriel also said she suffered head trauma as a teenager from a car accident," Fiona added.

  "Great, well hopefully this is a real number for Raphael and she didn't hallucinate the phone call from Gabriel and Aislinn."

  "They called her? Why her and not us?" Vlad asked.

  "Beats me, I'll
ask them when and if I get them on the phone."

  The phone rang twice before he heard Aislinn and Gabriel both suddenly trying to talk to him at the same time. Aislinn was yelling at him for taking so long to call. Gabriel was thanking Malachi for taking Mary's call.

  "Why did you guys call Mary and not one of us directly?" He finally asked.

  "The phone is locked, and we couldn't guess the code and fingers don't unlock it." Aislinn told him. "So, we had to use the voice command thingy to make any call which meant we had to call someone in his phone book. We tried Gabriel's phone first, but it went to voicemail, so that left Mary."

  "The good news is Mary's convinced Raphael won't kill Gabriel." Malachi told her.

  "Huh," Aislinn responded and he heard her click her tongue.

  "My sister is a little off," Gabriel said.

  "I noticed." Malachi told him. This entire thing is Aislinn's fault according to Mary." Malachi answered.

  "Well, she's not entirely wrong," Aislinn told Malachi.

  "I hate being on speaker phone." He told them.

  "Neither of us care. We are in a bunker somewhere, but the bunker seems to have some kind of cell phone signal booster in it. Raphael gets great service down here."

  "I know. We have the coordinates for your location, we just landed in Maine and are working on figuring out a way to get to the bunker. Eric says it is surrounded by traps, like booby traps," Malachi answered. "Apex is the only person to ever make it in alive and come out alive other than the guy that owned it. I was about to call him when I got Mary's call. She left me 17 voicemails just in the time it took us to fly from Missouri to Maine."

  "At least you tried calling and that explains what took so long, Ace was pretty sure you had hung up on her or sent a hit squad after her."

  "I'm still considering the hit squad." Malachi answered.

  "Well, finding Apex to escort you in and out is going to be a problem," Aislinn told Malachi.

  "Why?"

  "He's in Russia," Gabriel answered.

  "After the mob sent serial killers like ƃec after Nadine, Aislinn decided maybe they shouldn't go to Russia without some backup other than her family. So, she paid for Apex and another guy to go to Russia, too."

  "Well, maybe he can give us some pointers."

  "Maybe. If he does, call us back and share them, because as soon as we can figure out how to get out of this bunker, we are leaving Raphael trapped in one of the rooms and getting as far from him as possible," Aislinn said.

  "He's still alive?" Malachi asked.

  "Yes, despite being a killer, I didn't want to kill him, he's my brother." Gabriel said.

  "Fine, but why didn't Aislinn kill him?" Malachi asked.

  "Oh, I considered it, but I think he might be more useful alive. Plus, he tried to eat me, so I felt he should meet my brother."

  "What do you mean he tried to eat you?" Malachi asked.

  "You know the giant burn scar on my leg, the one that was nicely covering up the scar I got from the killer in Michigan when I went to the university there? He cut that scar and some of the muscle under it off and brought it to the bunker to cook and eat it. Gabriel knocked him out with morphine while he was distracted and then he took him to one of the rooms and locked him in it. Only problem is, he also cut some tendons in my calf. It doesn't seem to be anything major, but they hurt a little bit especially if I have to climb."

  "Then stay in the bunker until we come and get you," Malachi told both of them.

  "I hate waiting," Aislinn responded. "Ask Apex if there is a secret to getting the bottom hatch door of the bunker open when you call him or have him call us."

  Chapter Five

  RAPHAEL’S PHONE STILL showed a full charge, which was good. We could be down here a while waiting for a phone call from Apex. He was currently in Russia watching over Zeke and Nadine. Gabriel and I neither one had been comfortable with their decision to meet with the different heads of the Russian mob factions, especially after they had sent serial killers to Nadine’s house.

  We had asked Apex if he could do anything and he told us go to Russia and away he had gone. Which is how Raphael had managed to kidnap me in the first place. Apex wasn’t fond of putting a great deal of distance between us right now. The attack on the FGNs had left lots of law enforcement officers dead, including the Director of the FBI.

  “Since we have time to kill and you can’t run away, something has been bugging me a lot lately,” Gabriel started. Suddenly I felt like I needed a shower. I didn’t get up and go take one simply because I might miss Apex’s phone call and I had questions for him.

  “What?” I frowned at him.

  “Nyleena’s last name is Clachan, but she’s a cousin on your mom’s side. How is that possible?”

  “Nyleena and I are double cousins. My father and her father were brothers, our mothers were sisters. Albeit, her mother was significantly older than the other couple of siblings, think Isabelle and me. Only with my mom and Nyleena’s mom. It’s like living in a cult but without the incest and child marriages,” I told him.

  “Of all the ways I expected you to end that statement, that definitely wasn’t one of them.”

  “Well, we have all the same cousins, all the same aunts and uncles, the same grandparents, seriously it’s cult like. Especially when you add in that my parents gave birth to Nyleena and then gave her to her parents. If we liked our fathers’ family it would be better, but from what I remember, Nyleena’s father didn’t get along with them anymore than my father did.”

  “But you don’t talk to your mom’s side either.” He told me.

  “I think they are all dead or Mom wishes they were. Nyleena’s parents died in a car accident when I was young, it was before Callow took me. I have a few memories of them, but not many. With Nyleena being twelve years older than me, it wasn’t like she came and hung out with me when I was a kid. It wasn’t until Isabelle was murdered that Nyleena and I became close.”

  “What about your mom’s other siblings?”

  “She had two brothers. The one between her and Nyleena’s mom is the one that started the fire that killed her parents and, I think, her baby brother. She doesn’t talk about it much and I don’t pry for obvious reasons. Her middle brother did a lot of damage to the family unit as a whole. I think that’s why mom is so protective of all of us.”

  “Why didn’t you become close earlier?”

  “I was a freak of nature child and possibly a danger to myself and others. Besides, I was significantly younger than her, it would have been like dragging your little sister around everywhere. Then suddenly, after I killed Callow and proved I was a danger to myself and others, my dad decided I needed another good female influence, Nyleena was in college, so he paid her to babysit me. Because while I love Eric, he was not a good babysitter. About a year and a half before my dad and Isabelle died, Eric was also in college but living at home with us, my parents went out to dinner with some colleges and my parents came home to a pretty raging house party and me sitting on the roof with Malachi. Eric was not the most responsible male even at 18, or whatever he was. He and Nyleena are actually close in age, but I never remember how close.”

  “Why was Malachi there?”

  “Because Malachi was always there.” I told Gabriel. Malachi didn’t have a great childhood. His parents divorced when he was five, his mom remarried two years later. His stepfather never bonded with him. Only time I have ever seen my father be violent was against Malachi’s stepfather. Malachi had been over for dinner that night, I think I was about ten or so. His mother had gone into labor and Malachi had come to sleepover at our house while they did baby delivery stuff. Anyway, well before the crack of dawn, I heard shouting downstairs. Malachi’s mom had given birth to a stillborn and Malachi’s stepfather had come to pick him up. He was shouting at Malachi telling him what a little bastard he was and how it was his fault. Suddenly, my dad punched Malachi’s stepfather in the face. Hard. Broke his nose, busted his lip, split
his cheekbone, and my dad told him if he ever heard him speak to Malachi that way again, he’d arrest him and that the only reason he was getting off so light this time was for Abigail’s sake, she didn’t need the stress of trying to bail him out after what she had just gone through.” I looked at Gabriel. “It’s oddly one of my favorite memories of my dad. Malachi didn’t leave with him that morning. When we got out of school, my dad was waiting to pick us up in his patrol car. He had a duffle bag full of clothing in the back seat and told Malachi he’d be staying with us for a few weeks while his mom recovered from the delivery. He stayed a little over a month. Abigail kept coming by to check on him and see how he was doing and bring him things he needed, but she didn’t try to take him home immediately. I found out later from my mom that Abigail had been afraid to take Malachi home because sure enough her husband blamed Malachi for the dead baby. He kept trying to convince her that Malachi had poisoned her, so it would die because he didn’t want siblings. Then one day, no more stepdad. Abigail showed up at our house towards the end of that month. She had a black eye and a chipped tooth and told my parents she had slipped in the shower. My mom insisted she spend the night with us just in case she felt woozy again. When she went home the next day, all of her husband’s stuff was just gone. He’d cleaned out their accounts and remortgaged the house without her signature, left her in near ruin. Malachi was allowed to go home after that. Less than a year later, Abigail got a huge check from her disgraceful husband. All the money plus money to pay off the house. The following year she got a huge life insurance policy when he overdosed on cocaine and died. I guess it worked out. However, the hooker that was with him the night he died said that he was forced to overdose by a little old man. Her story wasn’t taken very seriously, after all she was blitzed out of her mind on cocaine too. However, even in the early 1990s, Patterson would have been a little old man. He’s never been tall, and he would have been in his fifties or something back then.”