Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) (43 page)

***

Finding a place
to hide the McLaren proved more of a challenge in the empty parking
hospital lot when cameras hid in all corners. Logan tucked away
behind the boiler building toward the back of the hospital, where
Bob’s bike sat in plain view.

“Shithead
rides a bike in the winter?” Logan asked.

“Pretty
hardcore.”

Logan snorted.
“Sounds asinine if you ask me.”

“Weird, I
thought you’d be into bikes.”

“I am into
bikes. I’m just not stupid enough to ride them in the coldest
months of the year.”

“Ayden falls
in the stupid category, then?” Damn that ass-busting sensation that
washed through Kane at the thought of anyone calling her
stupid.

“Nah. Ayden
has a whole set of rules all her own. She’s a wild card. I like
that about her.”

Good
answer.
“So …” Kane glanced down at his hands, thoughts of
Ayden warming his insides. “… how long have you known her?”

“Three years,
give or take.”

Kane hesitated
then swiped at his nose. “She was with Gavin for a while, huh?”

“Look,
asshole,”—the apathy radiated from Logan’s eyes as he turned to
face him—“I didn’t come here to get cozy over coffee and talk about
my brother’s sex life.” When Kane didn’t respond, Logan huffed.
“She was with Gavin for over a year. He wanted her to be his
mate.”

“When you said
‘claiming’ earlier, is that the demon equivalent of a wedding?”

“No, not even
fucking close.” Logan’s face and tone suggested Kane’s question had
earned him the Ignorant Shithead Award. “When demons
choose
a mate, it’s for eternity. A real commitment. She becomes the
reason he exists—to protect her, love her and to pleasure
her—eternally. Not some fucking pastime until the two of you get
bored of one another and split up.”

“Wow.” An
uneasy feeling slowly brimmed in the depths of Kane’s stomach.
“That’s crazy. I mean, I guess I just never thought of demons as
lovers really. I can’t believe she’d turn that down.”

“Ayden is a
different breed of woman.”

“You seem to
like her quite a bit.” Kane cleared his throat then held his
breath. “Did the two of you—”

“No.” Logan’s
voice held warning. “And I wouldn’t. I respect my brother.”

Sitting up
straighter, Kane pointed to a portly guard in uniform making his
way toward the parked bike. “That’s him there.”

Logan’s eyes
burned red, his fingers curled around the steering wheel. “So …
many … punish him.”

“So many
what?”

“Sins.” Logan
tipped his head back and breathed deep through his nose. “He’s hurt
so many. Need to punish him now.”

Is this some
kind of messed up séance?

“Whoa.” Kane
shifted in his seat. The demon looked like he was about to bust out
of his birthday suit into a raging ball of kickass. “Wait. We take
him down now, we lose the opportunity to take more out. And that’s
what you want, right?”

Logan’s head
tipped forward again and his eyes slid open, glowing red.
“Yes.”

“Hey, you
might wanna turn that shit down a little. We’re like a marquee over
here with all that radiance.” Kane sank into his seat at Logan’s
glare.”What are you, like, some sort of psychic when it comes to
people’s bad sides?”

“I can sense
when they’ve done wrong.” Logan’s eyes faded back to brown. “It
gives me an urge to punish them.”

“Isn’t that,
like, half the population in this country? What keeps you from
killing everyone?”

“I have to be
summoned to kill them.” Logan sneered. “Why do you think I’m pissed
off all the time, lycan?”

“Can the
others sense it?”

Logan’s gaze
trailed back in the direction of the guard, who was slipping gloves
over his hands as he sat on his bike. “They’re not as in-tune to it
as I am. Guess that makes me the most sensitive fucker of the
bunch.”

The guard took
off slow through the parking lot, and Logan slipped the McLaren in
behind. Once on the main drag, the bike flew down darkened streets
and through neighborhoods that, had he not been sitting beside a
Wrath Demon, might’ve ordinarily forced Kane to lock the doors.

As they
followed the security guard, staying as far behind as possible,
darkness painted the sky a smoky gray.

Another day
gone
. Damn, to think it hadn’t been that long before he’d been
lying in bed next to Ayden.
Ayden.
Images of her reaching
back to him surfaced in Kane’s mind. How badly he’d wanted to haul
her from Gavin’s grip and hold her forever.

The bike
pulled into a decent-looking ranch-style home toward a back
fencerow of pines.

An adjacent
driveway, on the other side, sat empty. Another abandoned house,
evident in the battered front door and tall weeds on either side of
the gravel drive. A gap in the fencerow provided the perfect spot
for the McLaren to creep into, where they could watch from the
car.

Deep inside
the trees sat a log-cabin home, out of place in the suburbs, and
the light on inside revealed everything through a series of large
picture windows. The guard jumped off his bike, pausing to sniff
the air before taking quick strides toward the front door and
entering the home. From the dining room table, he picked up a plate
of dinner, lifted it to his nose, then threw it on the floor. Food
and broken shards of the plate scattered across the wood. A short,
ragged-looking blonde, presumably his wife, shuffled into the room,
and he cracked his hand across her face.

As she fell
back onto the mess, Kane’s stomach twisted, and he sensed Logan
tensing beside him, caught the fisting of the demon’s hands in his
periphery.

The guard
thrust his boot into the woman’s gut, and she curled in on herself.
He knelt beside her and grabbed the back of her head, slapping her
across the face as he held tight to her scalp.

When he lifted
her face into view, both men heaved. Kane had never felt such an
urge to beat the shit out of someone. As if every cell in his body
was suddenly begging for violence. He could only guess Logan felt
the same by the disturbing expression on the demon’s face—the same
look that a serial killer might have had when the decision to stalk
a particular victim had been made.

Determination.

“Damn, the guy
seemed okay. Who would’ve thought he was such an evil prick?” Kane
shook his head.

After grabbing
some food from the refrigerator, the guard stalked back through the
house, out the door and out onto his bike. He paused again. Perhaps
he’d picked up on the fumes from the McLaren. A chicken drumstick
hung from his teeth as he continued on, strapping his skull helmet
around his chin.

“He’s my kill.
You don’t fucking touch him, understand?” Logan’s eyes had turned
black and soulless, seeming to promise a long, slow death and
plenty of pain.

Something told
Kane Logan had a knack for it.

The bike idled
down the long drive as the guard devoured his chicken. Logan kept
the headlights of the McLaren switched off, and Kane craned his
neck to watch the guard through the back window.

When the bike
reached the end of the driveway, the guard tossed the skinny bone
into the ditch beside him, and fled down the road.

Logan backed
the car into the abandoned yard to turn around, flipped on the
lights, gunned the pedal and tore out of the drive, stones pinging
against the underside. He kept their distance as he followed
behind.

Kane took in
the surroundings as they sped through the city: lit streetcans,
bums standing around them, some children.
Jesus.
The very
thought of a child growing up on those streets. They passed
buildings that scarcely clung to their foundations, caving in on
themselves, as if giving up the fight to stand.

“I never drove
through this part of town before,” Kane said quietly. “Creepy
place.”

Logan smirked.
“I grew up here.”

“What?” The
surprise in Kane’s voice was damn near palpable. “You guys live in
a mansion. Lap of luxury. What, was that a lottery winning or some
shit?”

“For me, you
could say it was, sort of.”

“What
happened?”

“None of your
fucking business. That’s what.” Logan gave him a hard stare before
turning back to the road.

“Hey,”—Kane
raised his hand in the air—“no problem man, you brought it up. Just
asked.”

Logan glanced
over. “Well, now I’m dropping it. I suggest you follow suit.”

Moody
motherfucker.

Their
surroundings couldn’t have been much worse as they came to a stop.
The brick compound before them resembled a fortress in the thick of
hell. Adjacent buildings were in various states of decay. The side
streets carried puddles of polluted water, runoff from the river,
so potent-looking it probably could’ve been bottled and sold as
poison. The fencing with barbed wire was what drew Kane’s
attention. Out of place. Like a prison.

What the hell
kind of prison would be open in this part of town?

Logan parked
between two buildings, out of sight. He pulled his cell out of his
pocket and stuffed it in the glove compartment next to a
sleek-looking Glock.

“Don’t you
think you’ll need that?” Kane asked.

“This is my
fifth phone this year. Pieces of shit get broken every time these
things go down.”

“Not the
phone. The gun.”

Logan grinned.
“A gun kills too fast.”

He exited the
car, prompting Kane to do the same. Logan touched the hood and
spoke in a low voice—a language that sounded almost
Russian
.

A blast of
cold air rushed past Kane, inciting a chill down his spine.
Laughter echoed in his ear.

“What the hell
was that?” Kane brushed his hand past his ear, hoping to wipe away
the eerie sensation.

“Security
system.” Logan turned and walked toward the compound.

Kane followed
behind him, and the two crouched in snow-covered brush, as the
biker arrived at the side of the compound and disappeared behind
the building, out of sight.

Logan
straightened and placed his hands on the fence. A golden spark lit
the night sky, and his body spasmed against the metal. When he
released his grip, his palms revealed blackened skin with the
orange cinder of burn.

It began
healing before Kane’s eyes.

“Lycan. You
try.”

Kane’s eyes
widened. “Are you fucking insane? What is this, another test? I’m
not some torture toy.”

“Do it,” Logan
said, eyes glowing red.

Kane blew out
a breath and stepped up inches from the fence. He wiped his palms
against his pants, as if the sweat on them would exacerbate the
electric shock. After clearing his throat, he rolled his neck and
held his palms up in the air.

“Quit the
goddamn dramatics and touch the fucking fence.” Logan’s words
carried a deep growl.

Kane placed
his hands on the fence.

Nothing.

He turned back
to Logan, his raised eyebrow a request for explanation.

“Demon hex. I
can’t pass the threshold unless I want to burst into flames and
spend the rest of the century in Obsidius.”

Still
clutching the fence, Kane turned his head toward the building and
frowned. “Obsidius? Is that, like, demon speak for hell?”

“It’s a
torture prison reserved in hell for assholes that don’t heed the
laws.”

“Ah. So, this
is where we call it a night?” Kane let go of the fence.

A force from
behind smashed his cheek into the metal. “No. This is where you get
your ass in there and find out what’s going on.”

Kane shoved
away from the fence. “You want me to go into some hellhole in the
middle of nowhere, chasing after some lunatic werewolf that
probably bit me?”

“Yeah.”

Kane braced
himself to climb. “How the hell do you plan for me to get over the
barbed stuff at the top?”

Logan linked
his fingers together, nodding Kane forward. “Do it. Now.”

Kane placed
his boot into Logan’s palm. “So, you’re just going to give me a
boo—”

He shot into
the air, clearing the fence and barbed wire, until only yards of
snowy grass were below him. Hollering, he flailed his limbs as he
came back down, landing with a thud against the lawn on the other
side.

Kane flexed
his arms, pushing his buried face up from a patch of icy snow.
Ou-fucking-ch
.

“Go,” Logan
said behind him, and Kane twisted back. “See what he’s doing in
there and get the fuck back out. No dicking around. Don’t forget, I
still have to kill you tonight. You try to run from me, or stay in
the building, know that I will hunt you down for the rest of your
fucking existence.” Logan pointed at him. “I highly recommend that
you don’t provoke me, dog.”

Kane brushed
snow off his clothes. “No worries. I’ll be back before the clock
strikes midnight and the horses turn back into mice.” He glanced up
with a fake smile. “Then, you’ll have free reign to take the
carving knife to my ass.”

~

“I don’t like
this.” Gavin nabbed Ayden’s arm as she took the first step toward
scaling the fence. “You’re not going in alone.”

“I
am
going in alone. And you’re not going to stop me.”

He gently
tugged her back. “Ayden, there’s a book in my library. I’ll have
Zayne bring it to me. We’ll break the hex and go inside
together.”

“I can’t risk
it, Gavin,” she said, shaking her head. “Kane doesn’t have much
time before his change begins. And depending on how far it
progresses tonight, Logan might just kill him before I can save
him.”

“I’ll call
Logan right now. I’ll tell him to keep Kane alive.” He held tight
to her arm as he dialed the phone with his free hand. His face
pleaded with her to wait.