Hell Bent bm-1

by Devon Monk

  Magic whipped out, caught them, heart and brain. And squeezed.

  The men screamed. I drank their lives, then consumed their bodies, flesh, muscle, and bone until there was nothing but dust left. Then I licked that up too.

  But I hadn’t touched Eli, who still carried his protective spell and the torture controller. Eli, the Breaker.

  I strode toward him. Lashed at him with so much magic the hill shook.

  Before the magic hit, before I could break that protective spell, the gate he’d been standing in slammed shut. The hole in space was gone.

  Taking Eli with it. Before I could hook him, before I could crush him, before I could kill him.

  Leaving nothing but the wall of the warehouse where he had just stood.

  I tore at the building, tore at the building with fury. Hatred. Rage.

  “Shame,” Terric called to me from a far, far distance.

  I wanted more to kill. I was not nearly done destroying. I wanted Eli.

  Then Terric staggered to stand in front of me. Blood on his face, bullets in his chest, where his hand was clamped, the glow of yellow-white healing unable to stop the bleeding. His other hand was extended to one side, holding a spell there.

  A bruise covered his temple to neck, but his blue eyes were so very, very sane.

  “It’s over,” he said quietly, his words resonating in my blood, in my bones, in the core of me where something more than death used to dwell. “Come back to me.”

  He put his hand against my heart. Where my heart should be.

  Unafraid. Touching me should be his death.

  But he was Terric.

  He was my brother.

  I would be his death someday.

  Today was not that day.

  “Let it go,” he said, still there, resonating deep inside me, coaxing out the shredded remains of me that was not death. “We will kill him. I swear. But I need you clear, Shamus. Come back to me. Please.” He swallowed, and I could taste his sorrow, his fear. “God, I can’t lose you.”

  It wasn’t magic that made me let go of the death I clung to.

  It was his words.

  It was Terric.

  I tipped my head down, fingers splayed to the floor. But I could not force myself to let go of magic.

  Terric wrapped his hand around my wrist. Life magic burned strong in that grip.

  I released the Death magic. It blasted into the metal floor, melting it, pouring out of me like a rush of blood and fire from my veins.

  It took time. A lot of time before I noticed the room had no magic raging through it.

  It took even more time before I noticed Davy was gone. The gate he had been dragged through was closed.

  We had failed to kill Eli.

  We had failed to save Davy.

  And Dessa. . . .

  I looked over at where she had been, hoping. That she was all right. That Terric had reached her soon enough to heal her. That her spirit had lingered behind for me.

  But she was gone. Not even the ghost of her remained.

  I was unable to move. Unable to think. The world took on soft edges and retreated so far away I couldn’t feel the floor beneath my feet, couldn’t feel my body, couldn’t feel my breath.

  “Are you all right?” Terric asked.

  “Yes,” I said, the words dust in my mouth. “I am fine.”

  “I need you to help me get Brandy to safety. Shame, are you listening to me?”

  He reached out this time and put his hand on my arm. It took me a minute, but I finally realized he was steadying himself with that grip. Leaning on me.

  Because he was very, very injured.

  The world came slamming back into me.

  Edges, pain, heat, odors, heartbeats crashed down.

  “There you are,” Terric said, his voice no longer soft and close, but rough and worn as if he’d been screaming this whole time. “We need to get out of here. I can’t. I can’t do this without you.”

  His left hand pressed tightly against his stomach. Holding back the bleeding there. He was also supporting a second spell. I had seen him cast it, but I didn’t know what it was.

  “You’re shot. Jesus, Terric, you’ve been shot.”

  He nodded. “I can keep my insides stable with magic. Think I have about half an hour left before I pass out, and that might be a problem. But hey—the hospital’s right up the hill. If it’s still standing.”

  He took a breath, a little too much rattle in it. Licked his lips. “Listen to me, Shame. Don’t drift off. We need to get back to the car. All of us. I need your help with her, because I can’t keep this up forever.”

  He turned his head. I looked that way.

  The “her” was Brandy Scott, surrounded by an Illusion spell. She stood just a few feet away from us, rocking softly back and forth. She still had her IV bag but didn’t seem to notice it in her hand.

  “What. The. Hell?” Too much had happened. I couldn’t put all the events in the right order in my head. “Jesus Christ, Terric. Did you save Brandy? Did you fucking do what Eli told you to do? You could have saved Davy. You could have killed Eli.”

  “I . . . wasn’t in my right mind.” The hurt from admitting that crossed his eyes. “All that mattered was calculating the correct outcome. Taking her was the correct outcome. I wanted to save Davy, but the magic . . . it took everything to hold it, manage it through the pain.”

  I knew what he was saying. The monster in him had taken over. Life magic had chosen who to save, no matter what he wanted. Heartless. Cruel. Inhuman. He had saved Brandy and not Davy. Not our friend.

  “How?” I asked.

  “I cast an Illusion to hide her. To replicate her where they expected her to be. They’ll know she’s missing in the next half hour too, if I pass out. Or when the spell fades. She’s our bargaining chip, Shame. She’s how we’re going to find Eli. She’s how we’re going to kill him.”

  I stood there. Couldn’t get my brain clear enough to know whether I should yell at him or hug him. That was a staggering amount of magical finesse and strength under any circumstance. But with Void stone bullets digging through his gut, and the rest of the magical bombardment, it had taken incomprehensible skill. I didn’t know anyone in the world other than Terric who could have pulled it off.

  “I can’t touch her,” I said flatly. “I’ll kill her between one heartbeat and the next.”

  “All right,” he said. “I’ll lead her, but if I pass out . . .”

  “No guarantees I’ll catch her, and not hurt her. I . . . can’t.”

  I waited as Terric said calm things to Brandy. He put his hand softly on her arm and took a step.

  She followed along without question.

  Chapter 30

  The room looked like a goddamn war zone. I crossed it. Out the blown hatch, and down the hall. I knew the way, but Eleanor was in front of me, making it very clear which way I should go, which was probably for the best.

  The warehouse was how we had left it. Except for the eight dead gunmen. They were gone. Krogher, or whoever was behind this operation, had done the work to erase their tracks.

  The car was also where we left it.

  There didn’t appear to be any traps set on it. Which meant either they didn’t care that we had escaped or they didn’t think that we would.

  Terric got Brandy into the backseat and eased in next to her. I stood there for a little too long, trying to decide if I could do this. If I could face living.

  “Shame. Please,” Terric said.

  I got into the driver’s seat, glanced in the rearview mirror. Terric’s eyes were closed. He was pale, bloody, burned, and sickly green around the edges. His head rested on the back of the seat, but he was in a lot of pain.

  “You still with me, Ter?” I asked.

  “Always,” he said. “Doctor might be nice, though.”

  I heard sirens. Fire trucks, I thought. Coming our way.

  So I drove up to the main complex that I had not destroyed. Parked in t
he garage. Got out of the car. I didn’t know how I was going to take him in there. Should I bring Brandy? She looked like she’d just escaped from the place. But I couldn’t leave her out here alone either.

  I opened Terric’s door. “Do you still have your phone?”

  “Inside coat pocket.”

  His voice was less than a whisper and he didn’t even open his eyes. I reached in his pocket and pulled out the phone.

  It still had a charge. I thumbed it on, called Dash.

  “Spade,” he said.

  “It’s Shame. I need someone here. Discreetly. And now.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Main parking garage at OHSU. Now,” I said again. “Terric’s hurt.”

  I hung up.

  “Hey,” Terric said quietly.

  I crouched down so I was on eye level with him. “What?”

  “We don’t have to go in.”

  “You have bullets in your gut. Void stone bullets. We go in.”

  “Void . . . ? No wonder if hurts like a fucker. Don’t think I’m gonna . . .” He moved his lips, but no words came out. “...dizzy.”

  No. He was not going to pass out.

  I reached for him. Put my hand over his hand, my fingers between his fingers, his blood welling slick and hot as he relaxed his hand, letting me keep the pressure on the wound.

  “Damn, I’m tired,” he sighed.

  I didn’t know what would happen if he passed out. I didn’t know if something was already permanently damaged in him. And I couldn’t heal him, couldn’t sustain him like he could sustain himself.

  I was death. The very thing we were trying to avoid here.

  But we were tied, he and I. Maybe by more than magic.

  “You’re going to be fine,” I said, giving him my words as he had given me his—a lifeline. “I called Dash. He sounded worried. Probably about you. You know he has a massive crush on you, right?”

  Terric opened his eyes. Bloodshot, glassy. Not tracking all that well. He’d probably be shocked if he had the energy for it. “The hell.”

  “It’s true,” I said, glad something had made him stir. “You move between boyfriends so fast he hasn’t even had a chance to ask you out.”

  “I.” He blinked. “Huh.”

  And that was all he had time to say. Because a car pulled into a parking spot near us.

  I twisted on the toe of my boot, keeping the pressure on his gut, and looked over my shoulder to see who Dash had sent.

  Zayvion and Allie got out of the car, both looking unscathed, ready to kick ass, and worried as hell.

  They shouldn’t be here. Shouldn’t be outside the protections we’d left on their house.

  But I had never in my whole damn life been so glad to see them.

  “Shame,” Zay said, taking in the scene with one glance. “You need to go in with Terric. I’ll stay out here with her.”

  “Brandy,” I said. “Scott.”

  Zay nodded. “I know.”

  Of course he knew. He had been a Closer, Victor’s star pupil. He had probably been there when Victor Closed Eli.

  I wondered if he knew Victor was dead. Gone.

  “Is Terric conscious?” Allie asked.

  “He is,” Terric whispered.

  So I helped Terric out of the car, got his arm over my shoulder. Allie made a move to put her arm around him too to help him walk.

  “You shouldn’t,” I warned. “I’m not safe.”

  “You’re a mess,” she agreed. “But I’ll be fine.”

  I didn’t have it in me to argue with her, so I just did my best to keep from touching her. I focused on getting Terric into the building and down the hall. We found an empty wheelchair and navigated him into that, and then I wheeled him to admittance, Eleanor somewhere at the edge of my vision.

  I was glad Allie came along. When they asked me what had happened to us, I came up blank. What should I say? We’d been in the middle of a magical firefight and had had our asses handed to us?

  Allie decided on an easier story: shooting in the park, didn’t see the guy. Didn’t see the car he drove off in. I didn’t know how she was going to explain our other burns and contusions since I was slowly realizing a good share of the blood and pain was also mine. But she had that covered too. Car accident on the way over here.

  Apparently I’d called her in shock after I’d driven the car into a ditch trying to get Terric to the hospital and she’d shown up to help me get Terric and me treated.

  They bought the story, probably because she put a little of her family’s natural Influence behind it to make it stick.

  Terric was immediately taken away for surgery. I snarled about it. I think I told them I would be in the room with him while they cut him open whether they liked it or not. And if they harmed him I’d do unspeakable things.

  Allie took care of that too.

  In the form of flagging down a burly nurse who looked like he could break me with one hand.

  Turned out, he was very good at giving fast and painless shots.

  Turned out, those shots were even better at taking the world away.

  * * *

  I woke up to an annoying alarm clock beeping. Which was weird since I never used an alarm clock. Opened my eyes.

  This was so not my room.

  “You’re in the hospital,” Zayvion said from beside me.

  I rolled my head, which hurt, and squinted at him. “Why am I in bed? Terric was the one who was hurt.”

  “You were both hurt,” he said, switching off the screen he’d been working on and leaning all that muscle of his forward in the chair. “You have six fractures, soft tissue damage, and some organ bruising. He was shot.”

  “Where is he?”

  He twisted a bit, pointed. There was another bed in the room. Terric lay in it, hooked up to tubes and wires. He was breathing evenly and on his own, though he had an oxygen tube taped below his nose. I could tell he was sleeping, and currently not in pain.

  “What did the doctors say?”

  “It was a . . . difficult surgery. Void stones.” He shook his head. “Dr. Fisher was called in. He made it through fine. Better than the doctors expected. He’s recovering faster than they expected too. You’ve been here for twenty-four hours. And we’re calling that barren mess you left behind down the hill a bit a gas explosion. Triggered a landslide. Half the hospital’s been evacuated.”

  But I wasn’t thinking about the damage I’d done to the land. “Zay, Brandy. Terric had an Illusion on her.”

  “We know. We took care of everything.” He put his wide hand on my arm and squeezed it, his expression sympathetic. “Dash filled us in on a few things, but we don’t know what happened up there.”

  So I told him. It took me some time to get it all out. I couldn’t seem to say Dessa’s name without being swallowed by pain.

  The nurse came in before I’d finished—same guy who looked like he should have gone into pro wrestling instead of health care. Turned out, his name was Carlos. He gave us both a cheerful greeting and went about checking the machines, meds, and everything else, while singing softly. Had a hell of a voice.

  When he was gone, I went over the last of the events.

  Zay rubbed at the back of his neck. “Fuck,” he said.

  “Yeah.”

  That was pretty much how I’d sum up the situation. Some government jackwad named Krogher had control of both Eli and Davy and a crew of magic-wielding people modified by Eli so that they were magic-holding drones that had kicked our Breaker asses.

  “We know what Eli wanted,” Zay said quietly, “and we know he lured you into a trap. But our information said they wanted to use Breakers, to capture them, not to kill them.” He paused a second, staring at the wall like there was a window there.

  “They were testing you. First the electrical barrier, then guns, fire, magic. They wanted to see what Breakers could do. They wanted to see what the modified magic users could do against you.”

  Zayvion is a man
who can hold his own in a fight, and he’s got that don’t-fuck-with-me presence that makes people avoid him in dark alleys. In light alleys too, come to think of it. But he is also a very smart man.

  “We played into their hands,” I said. “Fuck. Me.”

  “I’ll talk to Clyde,” he said, “call a meeting to get everyone up to speed. We’ll turn this to our advantage. We learned a hell of a lot about their strengths and weaknesses too. Plus, we made other . . . gains.”

  He meant Brandy. Eli’s Soul Complement.

  Zay stood, stretched like a big cat that had been cooped up in a cage too long. “I’ll be back later. You should get some sleep, okay?”

  “Zay?” I said.

  “Mmm?”

  “He could have died. He almost died.”

  He knew I was talking about Terric. Zay walked up to the side of my bed, paused, looked over at Terric, then back at me.

  “He could have died,” Zay said. “But you wouldn’t let him, Shame. You’re Death magic. You have a lot of say over the matters of his soul.”

  “Dessa died.” It came out hard, flat, angry.

  “Terric’s your soul, Shame. Soul.” Zay was quiet a minute. “You’ll never lose him like that.”

  I stared up at him, wondering if that was true. And in his eyes was absolute confidence in me. “I think you might overestimate my abilities, Z.”

  He gave me half a grin. “I never have. But you, despite your big mouth, have always underestimated yourself.”

  “Morning,” Dash said quietly from the doorway. “How are they today?”

  “Awake,” Zay said. “At least Shame is.”

  “Is he talking?” Dash asked with a lot of worry in his tone.

  “Yes,” Zay said, giving me a look. “Mostly bullshit.”

  “So, normal, is what you’re saying,” Dash said.

  “Fuck you both,” I said as Zay left and Dash settled in to take a stint of watching over us.

  It was nice to be loved.

  Chapter 31

  I walked down the street with two coffees in my hand. Sunglasses, beanie, fingerless gloves, and heavy coat. November had arrived with ice in the wind. Not that I felt it.

  I hadn’t slept much in over a week since we’d fought Eli and Krogher’s blank-eyed, magic-wielding drones. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Dessa. Every silence was filled with her voice.