THE DEVIL’S BRIDE

by April Lust

  “Jesus, Fiona, there’s a lot of liquor here,” he muttered, looking at all of the alcohol. “You want to make Molotov cocktails? Who the fuck are you?” Niko said.

  “I’m your big sister, and I’m gonna take care of you,” Fiona said with a small smile. “And stop swearing,” she added.

  Despite the fact that it had been almost five minutes since they had heard anything from the mob outside, Fiona slid onto her stomach once more and army-crawled to her bathroom. She grabbed a stack of towels and the lighter from behind her scented candles, again making sure to stay low on her way back to the living room. She sat up against the back of the couch with Niko.

  He picked up one of the towels and looked at the thick, fluffy, light pink fabric. “How are we supposed to fit these into the bottles? They’re huge!”

  Fiona sighed and gave her brother a look. “Could you at least try to be helpful?”

  “I’m sorry, Fiona,” Niko said, shaking his head. “But there’s no way we’re going to be able to tear these by hand. Couldn’t you have grabbed some scissors?”

  She stared at him, wondering if handing him over to the Russians wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. Fiona picked up a bottle of lime juice and poured out its contents into a nearby plant, wrapping it in one of the towels.

  Niko barely had time to ask, “What are you doing?” when she smashed the bottle on the corner of a wall, the towel muffling the sound of breaking glass.

  Gently opening the towel, Fiona carefully selected a sharp piece of glass and used it to shred the other towels into more manageable strips of fabric. Niko, taking her cue, emptied any non-alcoholic bottles and filled them with liquor, creating more missiles.

  “Good idea,” Fiona said.

  He gave her a small smile and began stuffing the pieces of towel Fiona had cut into the bottlenecks. “What do you think they’re doing out there?” he asked her.

  “Probably trying to decide how to get us out of here without being seen by the neighbors. One of them had to have called the cops by now; it’s been at least fifteen minutes since they stopped shooting.” Fiona frowned, realization falling across her face. “I just thought of something—I haven’t heard so much as a siren. Where are the cops?”

  “I told you,” Niko said as he finished putting the last towel strip into the last bottle, “they’ve got William. He probably told his captain he’d check it out and then reported it as fireworks. That’s the usual story they give,” he said bitterly.

  They arranged the bottles and took a look at their handiwork.

  “What now?” Niko asked, looking at his older sister expectantly.

  “Now, you get into my car and wait,” Fiona told him.

  “I wait…until you join me, right?” Niko said.

  Fiona looked at her brother with a sad smile. “Niko, the plan hasn’t changed. You have to go, and I have to stay so I can get the money—either from Dad, or that guy Ace. Don’t worry—they won’t hurt me if they want their money.”

  Niko very strongly doubted that. But he trusted his sister, and though he would never admit it, not even to himself, he was secretly grateful for the extra head start she was giving him, though she was probably going to suffer for it.

  Still, he was terrified for her. “Is it too late for me to tell you this is way too dangerous?” he asked, knowing it was futile.

  “About nineteen years too late,” she replied, kissing his cheek. “Now get going, before they decide to burst in and finish us off. Wait a few seconds after I throw the first one, all right?”

  Niko got into a crouch. “One last thing. If can figure out how to convince him, Ace hangs out at a bar downtown called The Crabtree. It’s a biker bar, so be careful.”

  “Crabtree. Downtown. Check,” Fiona repeated, smiling. “Now, I thought I told you to get going.”

  He took one last look at his sister, then half-walked, half-crawled to the garage door where Fiona’s car was, stretching up to grab the car keys from the key hook.

  “Niko!” Fiona suddenly hissed.

  He looked back at her, nearly falling over she startled him so badly. “What?” he whispered angrily.

  “Don’t open the garage door,” she told him. “You can’t give them any warning where you’re coming from. The security deposit is pretty much fucked at this point anyway.”

  He grinned and gave a thumbs-up. Sneaking into the garage, he quietly shut the door behind him. Fiona waited for a moment, then lit one of the rags hanging from the bottle. She rotated the flame until it had grown strong enough to remain lit even while soaring through the air.

  Slowly pushing one of the couch cushions aside, she tried to get a proper look at the group of men standing outside her home. Two were talking near the walkway to her house, and three or four others hung back, waiting by their cars. Going by Niko’s descriptions, Fiona correctly assumed the white-haired giant standing at the end of her drive with the obnoxiously large diamond earring studs was Alexei. That probably meant the tall, raven-haired man next to him was Vlad.

  Silently thanking her high school guidance counselor for encouraging her to join the tennis team, Fiona carefully took the flaming projectile and hurled it through the window. Since the large front window had been completely shot to shit, she had the perfect opening available to her.

  The bottle lazily flipped end over end, casting a sharp, orange arc against the night sky. It exploded on the ground, blazing shrapnel flying in every direction. One man screamed, and Fiona peeked through the pillows to see one of his pant legs had caught fire.

  So far, none of them had reacted. They were confused by what had just happened, staring at the man on fire. Fiona took this opportunity to light another and send it flying, aiming for the cars. She wanted to remove their ability to chase Niko once he escaped.

  Fiona heard that strong voice ring out once more. Alexei was shouting for his men to hide behind the cars. They scrambled to obey, all except for the man who had caught fire. He was lying in the grass, motionless. If Niko was going to run, now was his best opportunity.

  As though on cue, she heard her car start in the garage, and barely a second later, tires screeching. There was a loud crunching noise, and Fiona watched, amazed, as Niko shot out into the street, the garage door covering the windshield of the car. He struck the front corner of one of the cars and it spun, knocking Vlad to the ground, hard.

  The large metal sheet obstructing Niko’s view slid off, and he cranked the wheel to peel out, speeding down the neighborhood road. Fiona hoped he knew where he was headed.

  Alexei raised his gun, having finally collected himself. Before he could fire, Fiona sent her fourth missile out. A piece of glass flew by, slicing Alexei’s arm, and he shot his gun high into the air. Snarling, he whirled around to face the house and pulled the trigger rapidly.

  Fiona ducked back behind the couch, covering her head with her hands and praying her cover would hold. Lighting another bottle, Fiona waited until there was a pause in the shooting, then quickly popped up to hurl the projectile out the window, immediately ducking back down afterwards.

  This time, no bullets came back at her. Instead, she heard another set of tires squealing. One of the men had jumped into the undamaged car and was racing after Niko. Fiona peered through a space in the cushions. She couldn’t see any of Alexei’s other men, which she thought was probably a bad sign.

  Fiona decided it was probably time for her to make her own exit. She began to make her way to the door, bringing a bottle and the lighter with her for insurance. As she crawled towards the back door of her townhome, Fiona saw that it had been jimmied and was slightly open.

  An enormous shadow fell across her, and she heard a deep voice from behind say, “Move, and I kill you.”

  ***

  Fiona froze, one hand poised in the air. If she weren’t very, very careful, Niko would end up an only child.

  “Hello, Fiona,” the voice said.

  It took every ounce of Fiona’s self-control not to
turn her head in shock.

  “Yes, I know who you are, Fiona Camilla Brown,” he continued in that cold, hard tone. “Do you know who I am?”

  Fiona didn’t move, terrified to disobey his earlier instructions.

  “Nod if you know who I am,” he told her.

  She nodded.

  “Do you want to live?” he asked her.

  Fiona nodded again. Her throat was dry with fear, and she knew if she tried to speak, her voice would crack.

  “Then put your hands up slowly and turn to face me,” he ordered.

  Fiona did as he said, wobbling from one knee to the other as she turned around.

  If he had seemed like a giant outside, up close, on her knees, he was colossal. His massive, hulking shoulders loomed over her, and Fiona instinctively cowered a little, frightened by his emotionless expression. His gun, which was only a few inches away from Fiona’s face, took up the rest of her view. Suddenly, Fiona felt disastrously foolish in thinking she would be able to talk her way out of this without suffering dire consequences.

  “Wh-what do you want?” she finally managed to stammer out.

  “You know what I fucking want,” he said brusquely. “Where’s your brother going?”

  “I don’t know,” Fiona said, far too quickly.

  “What do you think, Vlad? Do you believe her?” Alexei said, speaking to the man who had appeared in the doorway behind Fiona.

  Vlad stepped forward to stand next to Alexei. Fiona noticed he had a bad patch of road rash on his cheekbone, marring his porcelain skin. She mentally cringed, knowing she was probably going to pay for that, despite the fact that it was technically Niko who had knocked him down. Fiona doubted the man would see the difference.

  Vlad turned his black eyes to Fiona. He seemed to delight in seeing her on her knees. “I think she’s a lying little bitch. Tell us where he is,” he commanded her.

  Fiona said nothing.

  Vlad let out an impatient sigh, softly tapping his shoes on the tile floor. Alexei reached one arm forward and, holding the gun in the other, grabbed Fiona by the wrist, physically dragging her to the living room as she vainly struggled against him. He dropped her, and Fiona pulled up her shirt to see several angry-looking scratches. Vlad may have had road rash, but Fiona’s midsection was covered in carpet burns, which, to be fair, could also sting pretty badly.

  Fiona started to sit up, but Alexei kicked her arm out from under her, and she landed hard on her elbow, bruising the bone. “Tell me where Niko is going,” he repeated.

  “I told you: I don’t know,” Fiona said through gritted teeth, cradling her arm.

  The boot came out of nowhere, hitting Fiona squarely in the stomach. All of the air rushed out of her lungs, and she lay on her back on the floor, her breath hitching in small gasps. Tears welled in her eyes and slipped down her cheek to pool in her ears.

  Alexei squatted down on his heels next to her. “Do you want to tell me now?” he asked, his cold voice settling on her chest, squeezing out what little breath she had. Even if she could speak, she would have said nothing.

  Alexei waited a minute for her to catch her breath, but he quickly realized she wasn’t going to talk no matter how much time he gave her. He stood up, circled around and kicked Fiona twice in the back.

  She cried out, pain racing down every nerve in her body. He pulled out his gun and shoved it in her face, but Fiona refused to flinch. She forced herself to raise her blue eyes to match his and stare him down.

  “This is foolish,” Vlad suddenly said, his oily voice sliding over Fiona. Alexei stepped back to allow Vlad to glide over to her, his long limbs making it appear as though he was almost floating. “Why are you protecting your brother?” Vlad asked her. “He abandoned you here, all alone. He took your car and destroyed your home,” he said, gesturing imperiously to the garage door that lay in the street. “You’ve been cleaning up after him your whole life; don’t let him drag you down with him,” Vlad said pleadingly.

  Fiona saw his black eyes gleam with something she very seriously doubted was concern for her well-being. Sizing him up, she pursed her lips, took aim, and spit square in his face.

  Vlad immediately transformed from a “caring, nurturing friend” to a rabid animal. He snarled and savagely backhanded her across the face, splitting her lip.

  Fiona spit again, this time spraying blood as well as spit.

  “Look out there,” Alexei said, grabbing her by her bicep and pointing out the window. Fiona saw the man who had been in the grass earlier—the man she had inadvertently set aflame—still lay there. He hadn’t moved. “You killed one of my men today. You don’t know where your brother is, or you’re not going to tell me. Either way, you have proven yourself to be completely useless. Give me a reason not to kill you now.”

  Fiona expected to feel sick when Alexei told her she had killed a man. She had envisioned herself throwing up in shock over the news, irreparably traumatized by what she had done. But what she felt now could be likened to perhaps a small glimmer of pride in having been able to protect her family.

  “Did you hear what I said?” Alexei asked, prodding her sharply in the side of the head with the muzzle of his gun.

  Fiona snapped out of her reverie. She took a deep, calming breath. She had practiced for this question. Doing her best to ignore the gun, which was still warm from all the recent firings, she answered. “Because right now you’re out at least thirteen thousand dollars, and I can get that for you.”

  Alexei watched her, his face unreadable. Vlad was looking at her with a greasy smile that made Fiona want to shower.

  “If you had thirteen grand, you would’ve given it to your brother and he would’ve handed it over to me,” Alexei said finally.

  “No, no, I have it,” Fiona insisted fervently, “I just need a couple of days to get it.”

  Alexei gave her a long look. His eyes flicked to Vlad and he arched an eyebrow at him, flicking his gun in Fiona’s direction.

  Vlad stepped forward. “Either women truly are the weaker sex when it comes to the sciences, or your brother failed to properly explain things to you. His debt has a daily interest charge of ten percent, a generous offer,” he explained condescendingly. “If, and that is a very hypothetical if, we were to allow you this extra time to get your money, your brother’s debt would be seventeen thousand dollars, not thirteen thousand.”

  “I can get it,” Fiona said without hesitation, trying her hardest to overlook Vlad’s patronizing air and misogynistic undertones.

  “Why should we give you this extension? What makes you special?” Alexei said skeptically.

  “Well, it’s not really an extension if you told him he had a week to get the money together in the first place,” Fiona shot back, her temper getting the better of her. She was rewarded with a swift kick to the upper thigh. Fiona felt her leg go dead and she toppled onto her side, literally biting her tongue to keep herself from screaming out.

  “She’s a spicy little pepper, isn’t she?” Vlad said, grinning wildly. He seemed excited by Fiona’s outburst. His constant mood shifts confused and terrified Fiona, but she supposed perhaps that was the aim.

  “You had better watch that attitude. At this point I’m nearly ready to shoot you dead and leave you here for your brother to come back to.” Alexei raised his gun to Fiona’s face once more.

  “I’m sorry,” Fiona immediately replied, panting as she tried to push her thick hair out of her eyes. “I’m sorry, okay?”

  Alexei gave her a long, hard look. “Not sorry enough,” he decided.

  As his fist flew towards her, his huge, platinum, diamond-encrusted watch filling her vision, Fiona wondered if she truly was going to die tonight. Alexei hit her in the side, and she thought she heard something crack. This time, there was no stifling her cries; she screamed in pain, and her vision instantly began to tunnel and darken. She was going to pass out.

  Alexei squatted down next to her again, Vlad standing just behind him. “Bring Niko back
in four days’ time with the seventeen thousand he owes. You do that, and maybe I don’t bring you back to the club as a new toy for the boys,” Alexei said before standing up to leave. He stopped abruptly and turned back to her. “The money that you supposedly say you can get? I hope it’s not far. Because you’re not allowed to leave town, understand?”

  Vlad bent down and gently brushed a lock of Fiona’s hair out of her face. She was fading fast. He leaned in close, whispering in her ear, “You’ve got a lot of fight in you, Fiona. It almost makes me hope Niko doesn’t return.” He smiled, and his black eyes were the last thing Fiona saw before she finally fell unconscious.

  ***

  Fiona woke up with a gasp, letting out a soft cry. Her side was screaming in agony. She looked around the house. It was a little hard to tell, since the place had already suffered major damage, but it looked as though someone had trashed the place while she was passed out. The coffee table was smashed, and they had thrown all of the food from the kitchen onto the floor.