The door didn’t shatter dramatically, like in a movie. The first swing made it crack into a thousand spiderwebs, with a small chunk falling out of the middle. Quickly, I aimed one more shot at the worst of the spiderwebs, and the entire pane of glass collapsed.
Then I expanded my radius.
I felt them right away: two vampires, one much weaker than the other. Only one of them was moving around; that had to be Oskar. He was the weaker of the two, which explained why he’d arranged such an elaborate revenge against Molly: he wouldn’t be able to beat her in a straight-up fight.
I could have theoretically stood there and tracked his movements inside my expanded radius, but that would have required so much concentration that he could probably saunter up and kill me with my own rock. Instead, I ran inside.
The counter—fake counter, I reminded myself—was on my left, so I ducked low. The “restaurant seating” portion of the building was dark, with chairs sitting up on tables, but light glowed through the window and door from the “kitchen.” I edged along the counter, closer to the door with the light.
“I know you’re there, negator,” called a man’s voice from the kitchen. It had the perfectly flat, accent-free tone of professional actors and vampires. Unfortunately, I didn’t think this guy had a SAG card. “As I believe they say in American movies, come out with your hands up.”
Anytime now, Jesse, I thought, not responding. He was supposed to be crashing noisily through the back door, distracting Oskar so I could rush in and free Molly.
Then I heard the scream.
If anyone had asked me five minutes ago, I would have said you can’t recognize someone’s voice based on a scream alone, but the raw, ragged sound that tore out of the kitchen was so distinctly Molly that my heart stopped for a moment. I had to force myself not to run in there. Molly was human right now, which meant she was feeling every bit of the pain Oskar inflicted on her—and she wasn’t healing from it. I tried to retract my radius again, to make Oskar think I’d left, but I couldn’t focus.
“I’m going to kill her anyway, you know,” the same voice called, in a cool, unaffected tone. “So how about I count to three, and if you’re not in here, I’ll slit her throat and watch her bleed out right this minute.”
“Scarlett, get out of here! He’s got a gu—” Molly’s hoarse voice was silenced, and my guts twisted.
“One!” the man called.
Goddammit, Jesse.
“Two!”
“I’m coming!” I yelled over the counter. I jammed the knife in my right hand into my watch band, pocketed the other one, and stood slowly with my arms up, the knife hidden behind my hand.
There was a man now standing in the lit doorway, holding a handgun that was pointed at my chest. He appeared to be around thirty-five, with dirty blond hair and a lean, athletic build. His features were pleasant enough, but there was crazy in his eyes. He wore a bulletproof vest on the outside of a button-down shirt and jeans. Both were spattered with blood, but I doubted it was his.
He grinned as I slowly stood up, my hands still raised. “Come join the party,” he said. “Scarlett, was it? I’m Oskar.”
“I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but you seem like kind of a dick, so . . .” I shrugged.
“That’s no way to talk to your betters,” he said without heat. He used the gun to beckon me into the kitchen. “Come in here. Let’s get a look at you.”
I walked forward, and the guy took a few steps back, making space for me to come into the other room. There were shiny metal appliances everywhere—undoubtedly kept in peak condition for commercial shoots. The only thing in the room that wasn’t immaculate was the body tied to the long metal table in the center of the room. Molly. Just as I’d predicted.
Under ordinary circumstances, I might have been pleased about being right. But there was no satisfaction to be found here. She was . . . almost unrecognizable. Over a dozen leather belts were buckled around her body from her neck to her ankles, securing her to the table. I’d expected blood, but not so much that her black hair looked damply glued to the metal. More blood smeared the tattered remains of the dress she’d put on back at her apartment building. It was barely staying on her now, thanks to the long strips that had been cut into it with the carving knife that had been casually discarded on her legs. Most of the cuts from the knife had healed thanks to vampire abilities, but there was a new one, a deep stripe of blood running down her cheek. Both of her eyes had been blackened, which meant he must have hit her just before my arrival. He’d also stuffed a gag in her mouth—a bloody piece of cloth—and her nostrils were flaring as she struggled to breathe around it. Her eyes were wild. She’d lost a lot of blood, which meant that when she was a vampire, she was probably very thirsty.
Oskar let out a low, appreciative whistle. “Not bad, girl,” he said, and I realized he’d been ogling me. “God, I love the number of beautiful women in this town. I could rent you out easy. Too bad you’re so . . . breakable.” His lip curled up. “My clientele prefers their girls a little sturdier.”
I made a big show of yawning, because that’s what you do to men who traffic in power over women. “Misogynistsayswhat?”
His brow furrowed suspiciously. “What?”
“Exactly.” Guess they didn’t have that joke in . . . wherever the fuck this guy lived.
Oskar sighed, pressed the gun to the meat of Molly’s thigh, and pulled the trigger. She screamed into her gag. “No!” I yelped, starting forward, but Oskar shook his head at me to move back. Tears were running from Molly’s eyes.
“Any more funny jokes for me?” Oskar said brightly. I shook my head, mute. “Good. Now, I was just going to kill you, but you know, it’s kind of interesting, being around a negator. I can roll with change.” He beamed at me like I’d just handed him the keys to a new car. “So. New plan!” he announced.
Then he raised the gun and shot me in the stomach.
Chapter 41
The force shoved me backward, my shoulder blades hitting the wall behind me. I curled into myself, clutching my stomach. The knife I’d hidden in my watchband clattered to the ground, causing Oskar to snort with derision.
“Really? What is that, a fucking pocket knife?” He stomped close enough to kick it away from me, then returned to his spot next to Molly.
“Fuck,” I muttered, pressing my hands against my shirt. The bullet had hit the bottom of my own Kevlar vest, and I was pretty sure I had a broken rib or three. I didn’t have to fake the look of pain on my face, but I stayed curled up so I could hide the lack of blood.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Oskar sang. “While you bleed out, Molly and I are going to experiment with a few methods of torture that only work on humans. A little waterboarding, maybe some light strangulation. Then when you die, negator, I’ll wheel our girl Molly into the parking lot to wait for the sun.” He smiled broadly. “I’m hoping you live until sunrise, because then I can wheel her out and I can watch from the windows. How fun is that?”
“You and I have very different definitions of fun,” I mumbled. Where in the fuck was Jesse? I was starting to worry.
“That’s probably true,” Oskar said agreeably. He stepped back to Molly’s face. “What do you think, sweetheart? Are you having fun?”
I expected Molly to glare or give him the finger, but she shook her head at him, eyes desperate. I worked my fingers under the hem of my shirt, trying to access the knives belted around my stomach, right above the bullet. “What did she ever do to you?” I asked, to cover any sound. I tugged a knife free.
“You know,” Oskar said with pursed lips, “nobody has ever actually asked me that before. Thank you, sincerely.” He pointed the gun at me again, this time at my head. “But shut your fucking mouth, bitch. I’m already getting tired of you.”
“Wha-t-t-t,” I stuttered, my voice weak and frightened. “What if I want to scream?”
He grinned. “Oh, screaming’s just fine. I encourage screaming.”
&n
bsp; “Cool,” I said in my normal voice. I took a deep breath and screamed as loud as I could.
It took about seven seconds before the drive-through window behind Oskar shattered under the tremendous force of the bargest sailing through it.
“What the fu—” was all he managed to say before Shadow knocked him to the ground. I saw the flash of her teeth, but Oskar got his gun around and shot her several times in the chest. It wouldn’t penetrate her skin, of course, but she did have to fall back to recover. Sensing his opportunity, Oskar wobbled to his feet and started kicking my bargest in the stomach.
“Oh hell no,” I said out loud. The table that held Molly was in my way, so I inched my back up the wall, rising just far enough to send my first knife slamming into Oskar.
Fun fact about throwing knives: if they’re sharp and thrown hard, they can puncture Kevlar. I was aiming for his heart, but between his movement and my broken ribs, the knife buried itself in the back of his shoulder. He let out a surprised cry, trying to reach over his shoulder to feel the hilt. He turned toward me and raised the gun at my head, but I had finished standing up by then. I sent the next knife into his chest.
It wasn’t a heart shot, unfortunately. I made a mental note to get more practice with moving targets. Oskar howled with pain and stumbled toward the back exit, away from me and my radius. I wanted to follow him—the last thing we needed was for him to heal and come back—but I wasn’t going anywhere until I freed Molly. I straightened up gingerly and went to her, yanking out the gag. She spat it out with more than a little blood, making a face at the taste.
“Hey, Molls,” I said, pulling another knife from my belt. “This place sucks even for a McDonald’s. Let’s find Jesse and get the fuck out of here.” I tried cutting through the leather, but quickly realized that it would be easier to undo the belts one at a time. I dropped the knife and started doing that.
“Scarlett,” she panted, “you need to get out of here.”
“No shit. I told you, we gotta find Jesse and—”
“No!” She thunked her head back against the table in frustration. “You’re not listening! Remember how I told you Alonzo had a gift for bloodcraft and it passed down his line?” she said all in a rush.
I had gotten the belt on her neck and the one below it loose, and was working on the third one down. “Yeah, I remember. So what?”
“He’s got a shitload of guns, the fucker, and because of the bloodcraft—”
I heard movement from the doorway that Oskar had just left. I looked up just in time to see a young woman in bloody clothes charging into the room, followed by more women. Their eyes were glazed with hatred, and they each held a handgun.
“My friends woke up early,” Molly finished wearily.
Chapter 42
Jesse and Shadow were circling the building to attack the guard at the south entrance when their luck ran out. There was no one standing next to the door. Instead, the guard was moving away from a nearby tree, zipping his fly. He was big, with a bushy beard that circled his whole head to blend in with his hair. He moved like an athlete, but his stomach was swollen to fat.
He saw Jesse in the same instant Jesse saw him, and both men raised their guns. “Police!” Jesse yelled instinctively. “Put it down!”
Jesse glanced down at Shadow, expecting her to attack, but the bargest swung her whole body sharply sideways, cocking her head to the side. Abruptly, she stalked off into the darkness.
“What the fuck?” Jesse mumbled to himself.
The guy ignored this. He slowly circled forward, studying Jesse. “You’re no cop,” he said in a gruff voice. “Not anymore, anyway. I seen your book.”
Jesse didn’t know where Shadow had disappeared to, but he needed to stall until the bargest could take this guy down. “You should walk away,” he told the biker. “Lee didn’t mean to send you guys here. He was forced.”
That made the other man pause. “I’m Lee,” he growled, and Jesse realized that the poor lighting had disguised the gray in the man’s hair. He was well past fifty. “And you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, son.”
Shit. Jesse couldn’t undo someone’s press, but he could poke holes in it. “Then why would you send men out here on Oskar’s orders?” Jesse demanded. “He already got two of your guys killed.”
There was the briefest hesitation, and then Lee Harrison said, “Money. A lot of it.”
“Have you seen any money?”
“Not your concern, boy,” he snapped.
“Okay, fine. Did anything seem off about Oskar?” Jesse pushed. “Like maybe he hasn’t aged since the last time you saw him?”
Lee shook his head like he was trying to clear mental spiderwebs. “I told you,” he growled, releasing the safety on his Beretta. “It’s not your concern.”
“Well, we’re kind of at an impasse here,” Jesse contended. “Do you really want to stand here pointing guns at each other until someone’s backup arrives?”
White teeth flashed dangerously in the light spilling through the window. “I got nowhere else to be, kid. And I got numbers on my side.”
“Not anymore,” Jesse informed him.
That made the other man frown. Keeping his gun pointed at Jesse, Lee pulled an iPhone out of his pocket. Jesse hoped he would stare at the screen long enough to ruin his night vision, giving Jesse an opportunity to attack, but the old MC president simply pressed down the button and said, “Call Jonesy.” He held the phone to his ear, listening, Jesse imagined, to a lot of ringing.
“Short, chubby guy, pretty young?” Jesse asked. Startled, Lee nodded.
“Dead.”
“Did you kill him?” Lee’s voice simmered with rage, but there was some confusion there, too. He could tell that the situation felt all wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on why, and he didn’t want to show weakness. Dammit, Jesse really wanted Scarlett to break this guy’s press.
“Not exactly,” Jesse said. “One of my companions. Do you know what Oskar has hidden in the basement?” he added quickly, before the older man could blame him for the death.
Lee didn’t respond, which probably meant he didn’t know. “Four girls,” Jesse continued. “College kids, from USC. Oskar wants to whore them out, but not exactly in a consenting way, if you get my drift.”
The other man’s face went stony. “Let me guess,” Jesse went on. “Our pal Oskar told you he would set you up with a whole new brothel, somewhere in the valley. Oskar will even provide most of the capital. You run the business by day, he takes over at night. Am I close?”
Lee was silent, but Jesse could see that his gun arm was starting to tremble. “Movies too?” Jesse prodded. “I heard you run a little light porn. He promised you exotic stuff, didn’t he?”
Instinctively, the MC president lifted the phone again, probably to call his other backup, but he fumbled it, sending it clattering onto the sidewalk. He stepped away from Jesse with a grunt, eyes flicking downward.
“You’re calling down too much heat, Lee,” Jesse said in a soft, dangerous voice. “Someone kidnaps a bunch of rich white girls and torches their house? It was all over the news. What do you think’s gonna happen when you and Oskar try to whore them out?”
“He told me they were into it,” Lee said at last, giving up on the phone for the moment. “They came to him after the accidental fire. The publicity will die down in a few days—”
Jesse snorted. “You’re smarter than that, Lee. Too smart to get into bed with a guy who kidnaps four girls and kills eight more. A guy who hasn’t gotten any older in twenty years. I don’t know what Oskar did for you before, and I don’t care. He’s bad news, and if you let him drag you into this brothel venture, he’ll feed you to the cops the first chance he gets.”
For the first time, Lee looked unsure of himself. “I . . . I don’t know. Something about this is fucked up, but how do I know you’re telling me the truth any more than he is?”
“You’ve seen my book,” Jesse said. “You must
know people with the cops. You can call them and check—”
A gunshot came from inside the Mock-Donald’s, and both Jesse and Lee automatically turned toward the building. A second later, there was a bloodcurdling scream, and then Jesse caught a blur of speed out of the corner of his eye. Too high to be Shadow. Too fast to be Scarlett. “Look out!” he yelled to Lee, but it was too late. A vampire had appeared between them, seizing each man’s gun arm. He used the arms to wrench Jesse and the MC president violently toward each other, causing their heads to smack together.
This was why Shadow had disappeared: she’d been hunting the vampire.
Jesse staggered backward, his hand involuntarily releasing the gun. Fireworks of pain bounced around the inside of his skull at the point of impact, and Jesse barely kept his feet. He gathered his wits enough to crouch and feel around for the Glock.
“Must you?” the vampire said in exasperation. He kicked the gun away, and then delivered a vicious kick to Jesse’s abdomen. Jesse collapsed. “What. The. Fuck,” he groaned. “You must be Oskar.”
“Hardly,” the vampire sniffed. He was Asian, good-looking, appearing to be around thirty. “We haven’t officially met,” the vampire added. “I’m Frederic.”
Chapter 43
The girl in the lead hit my radius and skidded to a stop, looking bewildered. I’d never actually had a just-turned vampire in my radius before, but I imagined it had to be confusing. “Kill her!” roared Oskar’s voice from the back. Though she was currently a human again, something in the girl’s overloaded brain told her she was supposed to listen to Oskar. She raised her handgun and shot me again. Luckily her aim was shitty, and the bullet just grazed my arm. Unluckily, it was pretty much exactly where I’d already been fucking shot.
I screeched with pain and dropped low, pulling Molly’s table over sideways. Feeling the pain in my ribs, trying to ignore it. The table landed with a crash. Inspired, I pushed it as fast as I could toward the attacking vampires. It was a small room, and the legs of the table hit the lead girl in the ankle, sending her stumbling back into the girl behind her. It must have caused a chain effect, because I heard Oskar shouting obscenities.
Midnight Curse (Disrupted Magic Book 1) Page 26
