Seized: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Thrice Cursed Mage Book 4) (6 page)

If I didn’t, I was going to have a hell of a time rescuing those kids. I wasn’t sure how the Sisters of the Black Flame had found us, but I was guessing the answer had to do with the van we’d stolen. I knew that had been a stupid play. We should have ditched it at the first opportunity, not brought it with us. Fucking Amateurs.

“You people suck,” I said throwing the bandolier over one shoulder. I looked like a cross between Rambo and Neo, but at least I wouldn’t run out of bullets.

I took a step toward the entrance and peered out. I didn’t see anyone, but that didn’t mean much since I could hear the sounds of automatic weapons in the distance. I tossed one last glance at the bartender and realized I couldn’t see her from where I was standing. Good, that meant the nuns wouldn’t see her either. No doubt the nuns were after me and my crew. Even if they found her, they hadn’t killed the hostess from the diner. Maybe they’d just leave her alone. I wasn’t sure if it was true or not, but at the moment, I knew me standing here would be more likely to get her killed.

The room outside the bar was just a hallway leading into different facets of the store. With any luck, I could make it outside without being spotted. Yeah, I know, luck and I weren’t the best of friends, but sometimes she’s less of a bitch about it.

As I stepped out into the hallway, another explosion rocked the building. I staggered into the far wall as a trio of nuns with AK47s came barging into the hallway. I fired the second I saw them, and it was likely the only thing that saved me.

My blast caught one in the chest and threw her backward in a spray of blood and buckshot. The other two, undeterred by their sister’s plight, opened fire on me with their AK47s. Bullets tore into the wall beside me, ripping erratic arcs in the drywall as I dove through the closest doorway. Even still, I wound up taking a couple bullets, but thankfully, my trench coat kept them from doing permanent damage. Even still, I knew I’d feel them come morning.

Three of the walls were covered in swaths of satin fabric and dresses that could only be worn at full on royal balls. Fortunately, the last wall had a dressing room. Jackpot!

I scrambled to my feet and had barely made it into the dressing room, when a burst of gunfire tore through the wall, reducing all the fancy dresses to twists of torn fabric. I didn’t think they’d seen me since it seemed like they’d fired through the wall, but that wouldn’t be the case for long. As soon as they came inside, it’d be really obvious where I was hiding. Well, I’d just have to make sure I gave them a warm welcome.

I dropped to my belly on the slate floor, scrunched myself backward into the dressing room, and closed the door. As I heard them move into the room, I pointed my shotgun at where it sounded like they were. Here goes nothing.

A quick pull of the trigger shattered what remained of my hearing along with the dressing room’s partially open door. Gunfire tore through the space above me, and I reoriented the shotgun and fired two more times in quick succession. This time, no gunfire returned. I hastily reloaded the weapon before nudging the door open. When I wasn’t immediately filled full of lead, I risked a look around.

The two still-twitching nuns were lying in pools of blood, which was good because they didn’t need their weapons anymore. I snagged one of their AK47s and threw the strap over my shoulder. Then I picked up the last AK47 and made my way back to the hallway with a shotgun in one hand and an assault rifle in the other. I had to give it to the nuns. They sure knew how to party.

I glanced around, wondering if I should call out for my allies, but that might give away my position. While the nuns more than likely had backup, the others might not think much of gunfire, and it wasn’t like they could talk since they’d had their tongues cut out. On the other hand, calling for anyone would be like pointing a giant “come kill me” beacon at my face. Pass.

The sound of gunshots broke out ahead, and as I sprinted toward the commotion instead of away from it because I was the world’s biggest dumbass, I heard the distinct sound of a double tap. I recognized the weapon. It was Jenna’s Baby Eagle. Sure enough, as I glanced into the lace room, I saw Jenna standing there dressed in a little black dress that made her look curvy enough to give even the most dazzling centerfold a run for her money.

A dead nun with what looked like a still-glowing broadsword, lay at her feet in a steadily expanding pool of blood. Jenna glanced up from the dead nun and looked me over.

“Nice of you to come save me, Mac,” she said, quirking a sculpted eyebrow in my direction.

“Guess no one ever told her not to bring a knife to a gunfight,” I said, tossing the AK47 to Jenna since I had two, and I figured she knew how to use the gun.

“The sisters were never known for being particularly smart.” She caught it in a smooth motion while kicking off the pair of black stilettos she’d been wearing. She slipped her feet into a sensible pair of black flats, which were likely way better for, you know, supernatural heists and dealing with homicidal nuns.

“That’s probably why they didn’t just set the building on fire and wait across the way with sniper rifles. It’s what I’d have done,” I said, running through a million more effective scenarios in my head.

Jenna shook her head. “No, instead they come in big and loud. All flash and bang.” She stepped in front of me and began making her way down the hallway, the AK47 gripped comfortably in her hands like she’d used the weapon a million times. Evidently, she didn’t need me to go first. Well, that was fine. I had no pressing desire to get myself shot. “It’s the kind of thing you’d do to distract your opponent while someone slipped behind them and slit their throats.”

She drew her thumb across her neck as she said the words. I took an unconscious step back. Only it wasn’t because of what she said or done. No, it was because of the thought that spiraled into my brain. Something was wrong with this scenario.

“Unless they are distracting us while Beleth does the ritual.” As soon as my words, left my mouth all the color drained from Jenna’s ebony face.

“That… is an excellent point,” she said, worry tingeing her voice as she glanced into the far room. She must have been satisfied because a heartbeat later she stepped through the threshold. “We need to hurry and pray you’re wrong. If not, this is going to get a lot worse.”

I sighed, noting how she’d neglected to finish her sentence with “before it gets better.” Something told me that wasn’t just an oversight on her part.

Chapter 6

While I was trying to get the demon who had given me my arm to help me escape, but like always she was too busy ignoring my cries we encountered more nuns. Before I could even blast them with my shotgun, Jenna had reduced them to piles of bloody meat with three quick bursts of her AK47. It was amazing because while I thought I was pretty damned awesome at shooting things in the face, she put me to shame in an awe-inspiring way. Yeah, she was that good.

As we crossed the room, heading back outside and hopefully toward the rest of our crew, a nun came flying bodily through the mirror to our left. It shattered in a spray of glass revealing a room on the other side of the broken mirror.

“Guess that’s seven years of bad luck,” I said as the nun collapsed to the ground next to us. Her body was a mass of cuts and bruises, and even though her throat had been torn out, and she was spraying blood from her carotid artery like a fountain, she still tried to bring her shotgun around to blast us.

Thankfully, the weapon slipped from her bloody fingers before she could pull the trigger. As it clattered lifelessly to the slate, Vitaly glanced at us from the other side of the hole in the mirror. He hadn’t shifted, but the big Russian looked angrier than a mama bear protecting her cubs.

“We need to leave,” Vitaly said, gesturing at the downed nun with one bloody hand, while pulling out his flask with the other. Sprays of blood marred his otherwise nice black shirt, but I was assuming it’d have looked ten times worse if he’d been wearing white. “I sent Wendy outside to start car. I came back to find you.”

He took a swig from the flask and pocketed it. Almost immediately the rage in his eyes faded, and I wondered for the first time if maybe his drinking was a way of mellowing him out so he didn’t rage kill us all. It was a sobering thought.

I nodded to him, and as I did, Vitaly yanked off his shirt, sending buttons flying in every direction. As he used it to wipe the blood off his face and hands, I stood there in awe of him. To say the Russian was ripped was the understatement of the year. He had so many muscles his muscles had muscles, and his muscles’ muscles were bigger than mine.

He grabbed another shirt off a rack and slung it on. He buttoned it with one hand while snatching a gold tie off the display next to it. Without a word, he pulled it around his neck and marched out of view.

“Let’s go,” Jenna said, leaping through the broken mirror like a ballet dancer. She landed lithely on the other side as I covered her with my AK47. Once she was through, she turned and covered me while I made my way through the razor-edged hole. I was way less athletic about it.

As I scrambled through the maw of broken, jagged glass, I somehow managed to make it to the other side without slicing myself to ribbons, which was good. I would have looked horrible sliced to ribbons. Jenna nodded to me as I emerged and made her way toward the broken front windows of the shop, hoping Wendy had our getaway van ready to go.

A pair of what looked like storm shutters had been punched inward and lay in a pile of rubble on the floor. Had they descended to protect the building before they’d been blown away by a subsequent explosion?

It was a little weird because I didn’t think they needed storm shutters in New York, but then again, I wasn’t from here and had no memory so what did I know? Still, what had brought them down? Was there some kind of silent alarm? I wasn’t sure, but if there was, it meant one thing. Police would be on the way, and there was no way that would end well for us since the parking lot was filled with over a dozen bodies.

All of them looked like they’d been sliced open with a fire axe, but I’ll be honest, I mostly thought that because the one closest to our stolen van had a fire axe buried in her chest. I guess that was the quickest way to a nun’s heart.

Wendy sat perched behind the wheel of said van, but she was so tiny, it seemed like she could barely see over the steering wheel. It made the sight of Vitaly getting into the passenger seat next to her almost comical by comparison.

“Hurry!” Vitaly called as police sirens flashed in the distance and the telltale sound of a helicopter filled my ears. That wasn’t good. While I’d taken out a couple of helicopters in my past, it never seemed to end well.

Jenna and I sprinted toward the open back doors. I’m ashamed to say it, but even though my lungs were burning, and I’d given it all I had, Jenna was already inside the van and fastening her seatbelt by the time I’d reached the van. I’d barely shut the doors when Wendy took off in a squeal of burning rubber that sent me tumbling into the doors I’d just closed.

We bounced out of the parking lot and slammed into a passing Mercedes with enough force to tear the back end off of the luxury car. Our van, on the other hand, seemed perfectly fine, but that was probably because it was used by nuns with access to Special Forces vehicles. It sort of made me sad they weren’t on our side. If they were, I’d have loved to take a peek into their armory. Then again, I was sort of fond of my tongue.

“I think we need to stop wasting time and complete the job as soon as possible,” I said as I clambered over to the partition separating the cab from the back of the van instead of taking a seat.

“No, we need to ditch this heap so the sisters can’t track us,” Wendy said from the front seat. Her eyes were locked on the road as she moved us down side streets as fast as she could. No police seemed to be in view, but it wouldn’t take long for the Mercedes owner to give our description to the cops. Once that happened, the helicopter would find us in no time.

“Be that as it may,” I said, reaching forward and grabbing onto her chair for stability as she spun us into a tight right turn. “I think these nuns are a distraction. They’re making us waste our time dealing with them. Usually when someone tries to distract you, it’s because they want to do something else while you’re focused on said distraction.”

“Is excellent point,” Vitaly said, rubbing his chin with one blood-smeared hand. “Wendy, take us to the Empire State building. It will be quickest way inside.”

“You’re out of your goddamned mind if you think I’m driving this thing into Manhattan,” Wendy said as she made a right turn through a red light even though doing so was illegal in New York.

“You know you’re not supposed to do that here,” Marvin said, pointing at the no turn on red sign. “Can’t you read the sign?”

“What are they going to do? Mail me a ticket?” Wendy asked, not taking her eyes off the road. “News flash. I’m driving a stolen van that belongs to a bloodthirsty death cult.”

“This is why you can’t get a license,” Marvin said indignantly and crossed his wooden arms over his chest. “Or have nice things.”

“Head to Jamaica station,” Jenna called from behind me. “It’ll be faster to take the train anyway, and we can ditch this van too. It’s a twofer.”

“Wait, why are we going to the Empire State building?” I growled in frustration as I smacked the seat with my hand. “We’re supposed to be rescuing those kids and so far all we’ve done is shop. Now you want to go sightseeing?”

“Mac, to get to Beleth’s hideout, we have to enter through a thin place. There’s one at the Empire State Building,” Jenna said, and when I turned to look at her, she gave me a sly smile. It was the kind of smile that let me know she relished the idea of telling me more uncomfortable truths so she could see the look on my face. I wasn’t sure I wanted to give her the honor.

“What’s a thin place?” I asked, deciding I wanted to know more than I wanted to deny her the pleasure of fucking with me.

“Thin place is where border around Earth is thin. Easy to break,” Vitaly said from the front seat. “We break into evil lair from there. Will be easy because border is thin. Understand?”