Death eBook 9.8.16 (22 page)

“What?” I demanded, rounding the table.

“It’s six hours away in Tonopah, Nevada.”

“There’s not much out there, where is he staying?” Falcone asked.

Warren clicked on the link, and all of us jerked back.

“Holy crap. That place is fucked-up.” Connor snorted. Leaning in closer, I couldn’t agree more. It was a goddamn clown hotel. Bloody clowns. They were creepy in person, but having a hotel with them on the sign, doors, and other shit was crazy. Snorting to myself, I couldn’t help but think it was appropriate for our loony brother.

“Suits Kayne,” Warren commented.

“I was thinking the same,” I admitted. “Six hours. That means we’d better think up a good fucking plan now.”

“What about what Connor said?” Falcone asked. We all looked at him and he shrugged. “It’s something at least.”

“I think—” Zander started, but I interrupted.

“We should just go there and fuck them up for taking my jewel.” I growled low.

“I have—” Zander tried.

Warren scooted back in his seat, and I moved out of the way. He stood and turned to me. “Do you want your mate and her friend out safe? We can’t go in there gung ho and risk them. You’re not thinking right.”

“Wait—” Zander started.

I threw my hands up in the air. “Of course I’m not thinking fucking right. My mate was taken. She’s with our brother, who’s not all there, and he’s doing God knows what to her. Fuck, he’s already admitted he’s done shit to Fallon. Julie,
my
Julie,
my
world,
my
mate is next if we don’t get our asses there and stop him.”

“Whatever we come up with, it won’t lead to Julie being harmed. We need to put our heads together and come up with something that will please our brother in a way he’ll just hand over the women,” Warren said.

“I—” Zander began.

“He wants the book and nothing else,” Connor said.

“There has to be something else,” Warren clipped and started pacing.

The room fell silent.

Zander cleared his throat. “I have an idea.”

Turning, I glared at him.

He blushed and shrank back. “I-I’m not the best or strongest warlock, but what I suggest is an easy spell.”

“Get on with it,” I demanded.

“We get a book the same size and weight as what Kayne wants. I can put a spell on it, which should last a few hours at least, to look the same as the one he’s looking for. Only, like I told Warren, I can only remember what some of it looks like.”

The room fell silent once again.

“Brilliant,” I burst out. “Bloody brilliant. If this works, I swear I won’t kill you,” I offered. Spinning to Falcone, I asked, “Do you remember what it looked like? We can’t take a chance Kayne remembers while we’re there and knows it’s not the one.”

Nodding, Falcone smiled. “I do. From what Zander told me, I remember well. It was a phone book of sorts, with the last known locations of the relocated final descendants of the Navah. I’ll sketch it up for him. Connor, go and grab my
Harry Potter
hardback. It’s the same size as that. We’ll use it.” Connor raced from the room while Falcone grabbed some paper and a pen, sitting down at the table with Zander beside him.

“Wait,” Zander called and looked up. “He just can’t open it. I can get the cover the same, but I can’t change the inside.”

“We’ll make the swap quick. Once the women are at our sides, Falcone will take them straight out of there,” Warren suggested.

Zander nodded and bent in to see what Falcone was drawing.

Warren came to my side, and I said, “We won’t be recapturing him this time.”

“Agreed. The women are a priority. We have a plan now.”

Nodding, I sighed. “We have a plan.”

It had better fucking work.

Chapter Twenty

JULIE

We waited for a whopping twenty minutes or so before Fallon and I were bored out of our minds. We had already exhausted every possible avenue of escape; in other words, we had walked to the door to find it locked and then to the window and seen we were on the second floor. My heart had sunk when I’d realized we were out of luck at rescuing ourselves.

Decay also had a minion posted every twenty feet or so, and had removed the room’s phone, so there was no chance to call for help. Without our cell phones or a decent non-clown-related book in sight, we climbed onto the king-size bed and started to flip through channels on the ancient box TV. It was the type with dial knobs to turn it on and a cable box on top that was almost equally as old, to change the channels. I welcomed the distraction. The less I thought about Dean losing his mind, poor Falcone, and the rest, the better. I wondered about how we were double-crossed and came to the conclusion Decay and his icky men had to have known about the boys’ plan at the warehouse. God, which could mean the boys may have also been attacked, possibly injured. The image of Dean scarred like Warren had floated through my head more than a few times since the nightmare started and it scared the heck out of me.

We hit pay dirt with a
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
marathon. I think we were hoping to learn something that would help us out of our current situation. That didn’t happen over the hours we sat there, but it did give us something to keep our minds from dwelling on things that couldn’t be changed. We were debating over who was the better slayer, Buffy or Faith—it was starting to get a bit heated—when we heard the key in the… well, what sounded like a padlock on the outside of the door.

“Showtime,” Fallon announced as she shut off the TV and hopped off the bed and helped me to stand. Reality hit me like a cold slap. I was terrified of what would happen next. Yes, I’d be able to see Dean, but so much could go wrong once we left this room, and I found myself wishing I had the chance to watch just one more episode of
Buffy
to escape back into my bubble of denial.

Fallon squeezed the hand she was still holding. I squared my shoulders and steeled myself for whatever fate had planned next for us; she’d been hard, but fair on me so far.
Here’s hoping my luck holds out
. Fallon nodded in support and we both turned to greet whoever was on the other side of the door.

From outside we could hear someone struggling with the lock. “Lord, would you like some help with that?”

“No, no, I will get it. Just give me a second. This new, how do you say it again? Teak-nol-agy? It is all so damn fascinating. Everything is like a new puzzle box to solve. You have all made such grand progress.” We could hear the whack-a-doodle renew his efforts on the lock. “What is this thing named?” Decay asked as he continued to work.

“A padlock, my lord,” another minion eagerly answered.

“Yes, yes, we had those in my time, but it seems they are harder to manage now,” Decay declared, still fighting the lock.

“Um, my lord, you… have the wrong key.” We heard all work on the cease for a moment. “This one, my lord.” Then the lock clicked, finally being unlocked.

Fallon and I looked to each other. We should have
c
been petrified, but the whole scene had us smirking. If only Decay wasn’t trying to kill my mate, I think I could like him.

“Ah, thank you, my child. You will receive a second helping of gruel at supper for this brave deed, son,” Decay responded. Fallon, once again, looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. I hid a nervous giggle under my hand and turned my attention back to the door as the dread settled in my stomach.

“My lovely sister.” He smiled to me. “Sadly, it seems our time for this visit is over. The man I posted along the
high
way—” He glanced to the small man-boy with glasses, no older than nineteen, for confirmation that he was correct. Man-boy nodded hesitantly, and Decay continued, “Yes, he
tele
phoned that my brothers have just passed his watch point. They should be here momentarily, so we best be moving out to meet them.” Decay motioned over his shoulder and He-Man entered the room. “Leif, would you mind securing my sister and her friend.”

“As you wish, my lord.” Leif, or He-Man as I preferred to call him, took a ridiculous bow of loyalty that even had Decay rolling his eyes.
Hmm, look at that, he has two again.
He-Man, who had to be the eager-to-please voice we heard earlier, straightened and raised a roll of duct tape in front of us. “Hands,” he demanded. Silently, we stepped forward with our hands clasped together and out. He quickly bound them together.

Decay made an effort to smile encouragingly and gestured for us to follow the two minions, man-boy and He-Man, who had accompanied him to our room.

Fallon and I moved to follow, but as we tried to pass, Decay hooked his arm with mine, jerking me hard to him. Fallon turned, ready to rip him a new one
. Please, Fallon, for the love of my sanity, please, don’t do or say anything to piss him off. I can’t watch someone I love go through that again.
Thankfully, she looked to me first. My face must have echoed what my mind was screaming. She backed down, turned and walked ahead of us.

“She is learning. Good,” Kayne said approvingly. I could see her shoulders tighten. When she didn’t turn, he went on, “I am truly sorry for not being a better host. You must have the worst impression of me. Seems my brothers got all the charm in the family. I do hope next time to do better by you.”

“Not on your eternal life, jackass.” Fallon just could not help herself.

My body tightened as we walked, ignoring Decay and his strange admission of wanting my approval of his behavior. I leaned forward and hissed, “Seriously? Fallon, I am going to duct tape your goddamn mouth if you don’t learn when to shut it!” It was yet another cussworthy moment. If things kept as they were, I would be as mouthy as Fallon by the year’s end. Meanwhile, we had made it down the flight of steps and into the middle of a parking lot. Decay was chuckling with real mirth at our antics.

“Oh, Fallon, how you vex me, but it reminds me so of my dear imprudent brother, Connor.” He seemed caught up in his own memories. Then something in the distance caught his attention. With an amused grin, he informed us. “Speak of the devil and he doth appear.”

We all looked in the same direction. It felt like forever before I heard the sound of motorcycles in the distance. Five minutes later and I was finally seeing why the horsemen were known so formidably throughout history. Four loud, beautiful motorcycles pulled into the lot. Their presence, powerful and consuming, demanded respect and allegiance. By the awed looks on some of Decay’s younger followers, I wasn’t the only one feeling it either. Dean looked magnificent in thigh-hugging jeans, white tee, leather jacket, and windblown, unruly hair. I wanted to run over and climb him like a tree. Having him close again made me aware of how much the distance had affected me. I needed, no, I
craved
his touch. I licked my lips, my eyes moving back to his; they shone with the same intense need as I was feeling. They also shone with barely restrained fury. He looked fit to kill, and as he turned his attention back to the task at hand, it looked like Decay was at the top of his hit list.

A pressure in my mind I hadn’t known was there suddenly lifted, and it nearly brought me to my knees. At first I thought it had been the distance keeping the link, our mate link, from working. But it wasn’t. I looked up to Kayne to see him smirk down at me. Somehow he’d managed to keep my mate’s feelings from me. I didn’t like it at all. However, Dean’s relief and anger was becoming overwhelming. I was sure, from the pained look on his face, that my emotions had suddenly hit him also.

I didn’t want to, but I had to. We needed to be strong and having our emotions crash into us, taking our senses away from the danger around us, wasn’t safe. After sending a wave of love through our link, I shut it down, building a wall between us to block him out. My eyes sought him. His nod of approval was all I needed for me to know I’d made the right decision. I stood tall.

“Who’s the goofy guy in Warren’s sidecar?” Fallon asked in a whisper to my right. I looked a bit closer and shrugged. I didn’t know who he was, but if we survived through the night, the highlight of it would be the sight of Warren on a monster of a motorcycle with a little sidecar attached.

My eyes moved to the right and took a moment to check over Falcone. I was overcome with relief. So much so, I was close to tears. He looked whole and strong. As my eyes moved back to his face, he threw me a smile and wink in reassurance. It helped, and I gave him a small nod and returned my attention to the task at hand.

“Oh, brothers, how I have missed you all. Thank you greatly for arriving so swiftly. Tell me, did you have any trouble finding us?”

Dean swung his leg over his motorcycle and stood beside it, glaring at his brother. “Shut the fuck up, Kayne. I am sick of your bullshit false pleasantries. You kidnapped my mate. I was done with you long ago, but now you are dead to me, or fate willing, will soon be. Just get to the point and release my mate,” Dean demanded. All brothers climbed off their rides to stand at my mate’s side in a show of support.

I felt Decay stiffen, and he tightened his grip on our still linked arms. “As you wish.”
Great job, Dean. Way to piss off the bad guy.
“Do you have my book?” The anger was clear in Decay’s hard voice.

“Yes, it’s here. Zander?” Warren answered and turned to the guy in the sidecar. Zander hopped out in one agile movement and retrieved a thick book from the satchel on his side. Warren took the book and turned his attention back to the fruitcake on my arm. “How do you wish to handle the exchange?”

“Falcone and I shall meet in the middle, since I do not trust the rest of you swine,” Decay answered.

“I’m hurt, and here I thought I was your favorite brother.” Connor gasped and threw a hand over his heart in feigned pain.

“Especially you! Last time I trusted you, I found myself in a bloody pine box being shipped off to the desert of an undiscovered part of the world,” Decay yelled back.

I imagined I’d be a little butthurt if someone locked me up to dry up into horseman jerky too.

I heard Warren sigh in the distance as he walked over to Falcone, and then said, “Can we just be done with this?” Falcone nodded and walked toward us as we moved to meet him in the middle. Once we stopped, about three feet apart, Decay finally unhooked his arm from my own. Relief swelled through me as I moved closer to Fallon. Maybe the whole event would go smoothly? All Falcone had to do was give him the book and he’d walk away, while I’d run to the safety of Dean’s arms.