twice cursed mage 05 - claimed (12 page)

“Here’s the plan,” I said, glancing up at Jack. “While Swamp Thing,” I gestured toward Duane, “lays in a bog or whatever to recharge, we’re going to get Maya, and by we, I mean you’re going to drop me off at the Stalwart Hotel on Fifth Street. After that, I want you to go find Ricky and scout the perimeter. Give me an update on how she’s going, and hey, if you can save her, go for it. If not, come collect Duane and wait for me. I’ll be along shortly.”

As I said the words, guilt surged up inside me. I couldn’t believe I was leaving Ricky in the hands of Junkyard for a minute longer, but she’d just have to endure if we had any chance of winning this thing. If the council could really see the future, our only chance was to keep them off balance.

Chapter 15

Jack dropped me off about a block from the hotel just like I’d asked, and as I watched the taillights of his spare truck disappear into the distance, I took a deep breath and steeled myself. There was still time to call Jack up and go after Ricky. After all, I’d gotten a nifty burner cell before he’d dropped me off, and his number was in it, but well, I wasn’t going to do that. I’d come up with a course of action, and I’d have to live with it, no matter the consequences. After all, what would John Wayne do? Not turn back, that’s for damned sure.

I tore my gaze from the street and looked around, trying to find what I was looking for as I headed toward the hotel. If chaos threw off the seven, well, I’d give them chaos, Mac Brennan style.

It didn’t take long to spot a tooled out utility truck just a few feet away, and as I approached, I pulled a crisp one hundred-dollar bill out of my pocket. With practiced ease, I walked up alongside the passenger side, making sure only the driver was inside the cab, and stuck the hundred-dollar bill beneath the passenger’s side windshield wiper.

The driver had just started his truck, but as he saw me walking away, he turned his attention toward the hundred bucks on his window. I was already circling back as he hopped out and scrambled around the truck to collect his prize. As he snatched it free, I slid into the driver’s seat and pulled the door shut.

A cry of rage and confusion burst from the driver’s lips as I shifted the truck into drive and stomped on the gas. The front of the blue truck clipped the back end of a silver Camry and ripped its bumper off as I tore out of the parking lot and barreled toward the Stalwart Hotel. Soon the guy I’d jacked would be calling the cops and bringing them down on me. That was fine. I wanted them to come. More people meant more chaos. With any luck, there’d be a helicopter.

As I approached the hotel’s lobby, I ground my foot into the gas pedal, gripped the wheel with all my strength, and angled toward the big glass sliding doors in front. The doors shattered in a spray of glass as I drove the big truck up into the hotel’s lobby and jerked the wheel hard to the left. As I pressed the brakes to the floor, the tires skidded across the tile before slamming into the side wall. The truck came to a sudden halt that smacked me against the driver’s window and made my teeth snap together. Pain shot down the length of my body, but I pushed it away as I unfastened my seat belt and hopped out.

Alarm bells were going crazy in the hotel as I made my way across the debris strewn lobby. Thankfully, there were no rent-a-cops in the vicinity. Guess today was my lucky day. I’d have taken them out, but I didn’t want to if I could help it.

As I reached the stairwell, I called upon my power in an effort to locate Maya. Light flickered across the surface of my blackened arm as I reached out while focusing on her. It was partially successful. I didn’t find her exactly, but what I did sense several floors above were two signatures similar to the ones I’d felt from Ivy. I wasn’t sure if the cat was going to help me, but evidently today wishes were horses.

“Ignis!” I cried, and as I did, I hurled a fireball right at the truck’s gas tank before leaping though the door to the stairs. The explosion threw me from my feet anyway as the fire sprinklers went off, dousing me in cool water as I looked up the stairwell. I took a deep breath and tried to pull myself off the concrete floor. It didn’t work. I collapsed back to the floor and lay there as water poured over me.

The deafening boom of the explosion rang in my ears as I reached deep down and tried to summon a reservoir of strength, and as I did, I felt the cat in my head watching me curiously.

“What are you doing?” she asked, sidling up to me in my mind’s eye with her tail held high.

“Trying to man up and ignore the effects of being blown up,” I replied, gritting my teeth as I spoke the words into the empty hallway.

“Oh.” She pursed her lips which was altogether weird looking on her face. “I can show you how to do that, but it will cost you.”

I glanced at her, and unlike usual, there was a look of concern on her face.

“What do you mean?” I asked, wondering what exactly she meant by costs. As she’d said before, she already owned me, what more could she offer me, and even more curious, was the concern on her face. She never seemed concerned about what happened to me.

“I can lend you some of my strength. You will be able to get up and do whatever you need to do. You can draw upon my power.” She took a deep breath. “But if you do, the bond between us will grow.” She squirmed, and I got the impression she was leaving out some important bits of information.

“Will it kill me?” I asked, and as she shook her head, I decided to do it. As I’d said earlier, she already owned me. What did it matter if the bond between us grew stronger? I’d have a sudden addiction to catnip? Besides, I needed to get up there, and I’d been dumb enough to blow myself up thinking it was a good idea.

“It will not kill you,” she affirmed out loud when I didn’t immediately respond.

“Then do it.” The moment I said the word, she vanished into a cyclone of scarlet flame that swirled around me. As it did, I felt her strength thrum through me, healing me, no that wasn’t quite the right word. It improved me in every possible way, but as it did, I felt her presence stronger than ever before. Instead, she’d been like a neighbor I could hear through the walls and see through the windows. Now, now she was in the same house as me, and the knowledge of that crawled through me like a stampede of slimy bugs.

“It is done,” she replied, and I caught the brief flicker of her sitting on the steps in front of me. I shook my head to clear my head and looked again. This time, I didn’t see her. Either way, this time I was able to push myself to my feet .

I wasn’t sure if I was just getting used to the whole always having to climb stairs thing, or if it was just the power boost I’d gotten from strengthening my bond with the cat, but either way, I was barely out of breath by the time I reached the top floor. I’d seen people pass by me in a mad dash for escape as I’d moved up the stairs, but since none had tried to shoot me, I’d ignored them.

As I leaned up against the wall next to the door into the hallway that led to the rooms where I sensed the power, I slid the Desert Eagle free from the waistband of my scrubs. I’d thought about using the pimp cane I had strapped to my back, but at the moment, I was inclined to leave that for when I ran out of bullets. No sense getting close if I didn’t have to.

I wasn’t sure if the police were here yet, or if they were still on their way because I couldn’t hear anything over the hotel’s own alarm bells. Either way, I was sure it wouldn’t be long. Then things would get real interesting. Still, I was glad for the blaring alarms. They’d cover any noise I made. With practiced ease, I cracked the door and glanced out into the hallway.

Two men wearing expensive “off the rack” suits bulging in places that made me think “concealed weapons” stood just outside a door in the middle of the hallway. Wariness and apprehension painted their features as their hands tensed, desperate to draw their weapons and confront an unseen threat. One was looking in my direction, scanning the hallway for attackers while the other was looking down the other way. As the guard made eye contact with me, I pulled the trigger on the Desert Eagle.

Before he could cry out in alarm, the .50 caliber round caught him in the forehead and sent him pitching backward into his friend, who stumbled forward. As he caught his balance and tried to turn toward me, I fired again. My shot removed the top of his head from the rest of his skull, and he fell lifelessly to the ground. I sprinted across the hallway, stopping just long enough to pull open the closest thugs’s suit jacket and grab the MP5 hidden beneath.

“Ho, Ho, Ho, now I have a machinegun,” I said in my best John McClane voice as I stood and glanced down the hallway for more attackers. Seeing no one, I emptied the Heckler & Koch submachinegun into the thin wooden door they’d been guarding. As it clicked empty, I kicked the door inward. It shattered, mostly because I’d turned it into Swiss cheese. Two more guards were slumped against the far wall, both in the process of ducking for cover and pulling out their weapons. Blood flowed from the multiple bullet wounds covering their bodies.

Ignoring them, I moved forward with my Desert Eagle at the ready. I could feel one of the signatures just ahead, but the other was moving away. I wasn’t sure which one Maya was with or if she was even with either, but I was going to check the closer one first. I grabbed the MP5 from the first of the fallen guards and peeked out into the main room. No one shot at me, so I ventured toward the closed bedroom door, careful to keep my head down.

Since the blackout curtains were drawn, I didn’t see the need to stay out of sight. No one would be seeing me through them, especially since most of the lights were either broken or off. As my feet crunched across the debris strewn white carpet, I almost felt bad for the cleaning lady who’d eventually come up here. The suite had been nice before I’d wrecked it with dead bodies and gunfire, but part of me wished they’d have avoided the white carpet. The blood was going to be hell to get out. Oh well. That’s what insurance was for, right?

I had half a mind to empty the Heckler & Koch into the bedroom door, but if Maya was in there, I couldn’t risk perforating her on accident. Instead, I kicked in the door, aiming my sandaled foot so it struck just beside the jam. The thin wood splintered as the door swung inward to reveal a lavishly appointed bedroom complete with imitation Van Gogh’s and fake marble tile.

Maya was not inside. Instead, an Asian woman with raven-colored hair that fell to her waist sat at a tiny table. She was wearing a white kimono covered in crimson storm clouds and was in the process of bringing a porcelain teacup to her lips. Evidently, all the gunfire and sirens didn’t concern her.

“Who, pray tell, are you?” she asked, raising one perfectly shaped eyebrow at me.

“Mac Brennan,” I said and unloaded the full power of the MP5 at her. Even though the weapon was capable of firing eight hundred rounds per minute, it only held thirty rounds. Those thirty 9mm rounds crossed the distance between us near instantly, and faster than I could blink, the woman knocked them out of the air as she stood, one hand still clasping her teacup. She didn’t spill a single drop. Holy fuck. Okay, this was going to be a touch tougher than I’d expected, but that was fine. I was up for a challenge.

“Predictable,” she said before sipping her tea. “If you’re here for my daughter, you will not get her. We are taking her home.” Her eyes narrowed into slits. “You will not stop this from happening. I am her mother, and I know what is best.”

Her revelation shocked me. I mean, I knew Maya had a mother because biology, but I hadn’t realized the whole demon serving thing was a family business. No wonder they were desperate to get her back. Even knowing that, the idea that they would give their daughter to a fucking demon was absolutely crazy. What kind of mom did that?

“Whatever you say, Mommie Dearest,” I replied, taking an angry step toward her.

Her eyes narrowed and before I managed a second step, she flung her teacup at my face. As I dodged by the cup, and it shattered against the wall directly behind where my head had been, she came flying at me like someone straight out of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. A kick snapped out at me, and as I tried to dodge, she twisted in midair. Her other foot caught me in the side, driving the wind from my lungs.

I fell forward to my knees, gasping for breath as she grabbed me by my hair and hauled my head up so I was looking up at her.

“You do not seem terribly formidable. I do not know why Asmodai wants you.” Her face twisted into a sneer as she brought her fist toward me. I let my body start to move like I was going to try to dodge, and then, just as she was reorienting herself to hit me as I moved away, I dropped my forehead down. Her middle knuckles struck the hard bone of my skull with a horrific crack.

Red blossomed across my vision as pain exploded through my head. She let out an earsplitting screech and staggered backward, releasing me. Confusion filled her features as she stared at her hand. Evidently, she hadn’t expected me to do that, which was sort of the whole idea.

Before she could recover, I came to my feet, swinging the empty Desert Eagle around. I pulled the trigger while calling upon my newfound bond with the cat to boost my speed. My tattoos went nuclear as gunfire exploded from the barrel of the gun. My speed boost surprised the fuck out of her, and for the moment, I was glad I’d increased the bond between us. I’m sure I wouldn’t be so thankful later, but at the moment, I just wanted to kill the fuck out of this bitch.

The .50 caliber bullets struck the woman as she tried to knock them away, but unlike the 9mm rounds of the MP5, these bullets were weighty motherfuckers. She staggered backward under the onslaught as the sound of metal slapping flesh filled my ears.

A snarl erupted from her throat as she lunged at me, mouth open and teeth bared. The full force of her shoulder caught me in the chest, driving me backward. As I fell and my back slammed into the tile, I rolled while kicking at her stomach, throwing her off of me. She went flying across the room and slammed into the curtained window. She surged up while pushing off the window and wound up tangling herself in the curtains. While she struggled, I brought around the Desert Eagle and aimed at her still bound right shoulder.