Demons LLC (Damned and Cursed Book 7) (34 page)

He slid into Lisa's unmarked car.
 
She closed the door behind him and climbed behind the wheel.
 
In another minute they were on the streets of Stewardtown.

Perhaps Alex should have been more apprehensive, but he wasn't.
 
His nerves had calmed down.
 
With everything he'd dealt with in his life, a police officer's scare tactics were minor in comparison.
 
He knew, even if their internal security footage captured everything, that all they saw was him disappearing and reappearing throughout the station.
 
It was something completely unbelievable, which was why he wasn't wearing handcuffs.

If things did escalate, and he found himself in a jail cell, a single call to Victoria, Jack Kursed, even Meagan Sinclair would solve the problem.
 
Victoria would have him out in an hour.
 
With Jack, there was no telling what he would do.
 
Possibly burn Stewardtown to the ground.

Alex caught Lisa staring at him through the rear-view mirror.

"I'm trying to figure you out, Alex.
 
How did you do it?"

He said nothing.
 
He wouldn't step into any trap Lisa prepared.

"I figured out the
why
.
 
The IT guys tell me the file on Kylie Sinclair was printed from my workstation last night.
 
The thing is I never print anything.
 
I'm a modern gal.
 
I like everything on computer screens and tablets."

He smiled.
 
"You and my wife would get along."

"Oh, really?
 
What's her name?"

Alex was quiet, and Lisa scoffed.

"C'mon, Alex, not everything I ask is to get you in trouble.
 
You've already done that.
 
We've got it all recorded.
 
Now I'm just trying to get where you're coming from.
 
I don't think you're a bad person.
 
You're looking for Kylie's murderer.
 
I'm sure her mother hired you.
 
I believe that.
 
What I'm having a problem with is…why you?
 
We have a few guys across town who love digging up dirt for money.
 
Half of them would do it for free if it meant just standing in Meagan's living room.
 
You came all the way from Maryland?
 
That's some trip."

Lisa had been checking up on him.
 
They were only a morning removed from his adventure at the station.
 
Did she ever sleep?

"This is going to be a very long car ride, Alex, if you don't want to talk—"

The world exploded around them.
 
The truck ran the red light from the right, tee-boning Lisa's car from the passenger's side.
 
Alex's head slammed into the window next to him, shattering it and sending glass onto the street.
 
The car skidded several feet in a direction they meant to go.

"Ah, shit," Lisa said, checking herself for injuries.
 
"You okay back there?"

Alex didn't answer.
 
He didn't hear her.
 
He didn't hear anything at all happening around him.
 
His head throbbed.
 
He reached a hand to his temple and pulled it back to reveal a palm full of crimson.

The doors to the truck that ran the light opened.
 
Two men stepped out.
 
As confused and disoriented as he was, he realized something was off about them.
 
Their faces were stone, and they walked with purpose.

"Get down!"

He met Lisa's terrified gaze in the rear-view mirror briefly before she disappeared across the seat.
 
Alex did as he was told.
 
He unbuckled the seatbelt and crouched behind the driver's seat just before the shots rang out.

He didn't hear the guns blasting.
 
His hearing kept fading in and out.
 
He did feel the glass.
 
Tiny pebbles of glass and plastic rained on his head as the car was shot to pieces.

Alex placed his hand on the back of the seat and tried to will himself to vanish.
 
He waited for his fingers to push through the vinyl and dip into metal and foam.
 
His thoughts weren't clear.
 
What was happening?
 
Why weren't his powers working?
 
Was it because of the pain in his head?
 
The ringing in his ears?
 
Was he already dead?

His stomach heaved as he suddenly fell backwards.
 
He thought his powers had returned, and he was sliding through the car.
 
It took him a moment to realize he was wrong as the nausea washed over him and he stared up at the sky.
 
Ghosts didn't feel nausea.

Lisa had already pushed the driver's side door open and slid out under the barrage of gunfire.
 
She opened the rear door and hooked Alex under the arms.
 
With one strong pull, he fell on top of her in the middle of the street.

"Are you alright?" she asked.
 
"Get off me!"

Alex only heard half her words.
 
He rolled over to his hands and knees, ready to vomit at any moment.
 
Lisa held a gun with both hands while staying as low as she could.

"Shit, you're bleeding," Lisa said, gingerly touching his head.

"Yeah, wow."
 
Alex's words slurred.
 
"Too bad Victoria isn't here.
 
She likes blood."

A new voice shouted from the other side of the car.

"Hey, Nash!
 
You still alive over there?
 
Chuck says hello!"

A woman left a corner shop to see what was happening in the street.
 
Lisa shouted at her to get back inside.
 
She heard the sounds of an engine and tires squealing behind her.
 
Looking over her shoulder, a car rounded the corner from the block behind them.

"We've got to move."
 
She grabbed Alex's shoulder.
 
"Can you run?"

"I can't even vanish."

She ignored him and grabbed his arm.

"I'll shoot, and we'll head for the alley."

Alex didn't know what alley she was referring to, or even what direction she wanted him to run.
 
Before he could ask or clarify she was peering over the trunk and firing.
 
The two men dropped to the ground.
 
Lisa jumped to her feet and pulled him by the arm.
 
She led the way.
 
They ran past the front of the ruined unmarked car, and he finally saw the alley.
 
He felt as if they were running in slow motion, and thought any moment the men would fire once again, shooting him in the back.
 
The ringing was still terrible in his ears, but he heard another car grinding to a halt behind them.
 
He risked a look over his shoulder to see more men jumping out, guns drawn.

The two men from the first car fired once again.
 
A piece of brick splintered from the wall at the mouth of the alley near Alex's head.
 
He nearly stumbled over an overturned trashcan, but Lisa held him up.

"My goddamn phone's in the car," she said, feeling at her belt.

"And mine's at the motel.
 
Where are we going?"

"Anywhere but back there."

They were halfway down the alley when another truck stopped at the opposite end.
 
Alex thought nothing of it, and nearly kept running until Lisa pulled him back.

"Get down!"

She shoved him to the ground behind a small dumpster.
 
Grabbing two small cans of trash, she set them up side by side, creating a quick, and rather useless, barricade for their blind side.
 
The smell touched Alex's nose for the first time as Lisa squatted next to him, their shoulders touching.

"Sorry for dragging you into this.
 
Didn't think they'd try something like this in the day."

"Who?"

"Nash!" someone called.
 
"Don't be like this.
 
Toss your gun down, and I promise we'll make it quick.
 
For your little friend, too."

Lisa took a deep breath.
 
"Just stay down.
 
Don't get up until I tell you."

Alex realized, as Lisa set two clips on the ground for easy access, that he heard every word she said.
 
He also heard her attackers, threatening to kill the both of them.

His ears were no longer ringing.
 
The throbbing in his skull, at least for the moment, was gone.

He touched his head and pulled back another three fingers full of blood.
 
The sight brought uneasiness, but more than that, an overwhelming sense of anger.

"Those little bastards…."

Lisa didn't hear him.
 
She peered around the dumpster just enough to take aim.
 
Four men were approaching from one side of the alley, while the lone man from the truck approached from the opposite end.
 
Their best chance was to try to fight through the lone man.

She nearly fired when she heard the growling next to her.

Alex's wings were already out.
 
His face was twisting into something that wasn't human when he lunged for Lisa.
 
She screamed in terror, having already forgotten about the armed men trying to kill her.
 
Alex wrapped his arms around her and looked up at the blue afternoon sky.

"What the—?"

That was all she had time to say before Alex flew upward.

He cleared the tops of the buildings into the open air.
 
The gentle breeze ripped through his clothes, bringing a chill.
 
He wanted to climb higher, but his head started to throb once again.
 
His stomach began to dance, and he didn't know how long it would be before he got sick.

He didn't have a direction in mind.
 
He simply flew, oblivious to who might be watching below.
 
In the back of his mind he imagined people snapping pictures and video with their cell phones, but he shoved those thoughts aside.

Lisa was shouting something unintelligible.
 
Or perhaps his brain was too scrambled to interpret.
 
She hung onto Alex with every limb she had.
 
Her back facing the ground, she glimpsed behind her only once and saw the moving earth beneath her.
 
Her legs, which were wrapped around his waist, slipped once, and she hung on with her arms.
 
Alex's own grip was solid, however, and she managed to entwine her legs around him again.

He had his pick of rooftops to land on.
 
Slowly, he settled onto the roof of an office building.
 
As soon as there was a solid surface under them, Lisa released her hold and rolled nimbly away.
 
She rested on one knee and pointed her gun at Alex with trembling hands.
 
There was a roar in his ears, and it took a moment to realize it was a helicopter, slowly passing overhead, and not his brain bouncing around in his skull.

Alex gasped for breath.
 
His knees buckled from under him, and he reached out with his wings.
 
Bracing them on the roof was the only thing keeping him up.
 
His stomach finally won the battle between them, and he leaned over and vomited.
 
His wings weakened along with the rest of him.
 
He dropped to his knees, two feet away from his own fluids.

"What are you?" Lisa asked.

He placed a palm to the side of his head.

"Was I shot?"

"I don't think so.
 
But you're banged up pretty good."

"Good."
 
Either the world shivered, or Alex did.
 
He wasn't sure which.
 
"Cindy would
kill
me if I got shot."

He was completely unconscious before hitting the ground.

Alex opened his eyes in yet another unfamiliar bedroom.
 
Memories of the gunfight rushed back to him.
 
Men shouting at Lisa, trying to kill the both of them.
 
He sat up quickly, throwing the thin sheet off him.
 
The motion brought vertigo, and a sharp ache in his head.
 
Clenching his eyes shut, he brought a hand to his face and let out a loud
ow
.

"Are you awake in there?
 
I put some clothes out on the dresser."

It was those words that made him take stock of himself and wherever he was.
 
He was shirtless, only wearing his jeans.
 
The wound on his head seemed to be fine, just a cut under the hair.
 
He'd been scrubbed clean.
 
He didn't know what time it was.
 
There was no clock in the room, but he could see the setting sun through the window.
 
There were no pictures, no personality.
 
The walls and ceiling were plain white, with matching white curtains.

His wings were still out.

He willed them to flow into his body as he peeked out the window.
 
A half empty parking lot was all he could see.
 
He had no idea where he was, if he was even still in Stewardtown.
 
He was in a third floor apartment.
 
That was all he knew.