“I told you, we’re trapped.”
Trish shivered against the pain and the incessant arguing Levi and Arnaud were involved in. She pulled the ratty blanket Arnaud had given her tighter around her shoulders. It was barely all she could do to stay awake and to stay alert.
Levi paced. Arnaud sat on the floor over the trapdoor. Trish had the only chair.
They could still hear explosions. She imagined every home in Magnolia exploding in epic measures. Fire shooting out of windows. Furniture flung high into the air on waves of flames. Doors flying off their hinges. Her imagination couldn’t even begin to comprehend what Olivier was doing. Ultimately, she didn’t want to. She’d find out the truth soon enough.
Levi passed by her and put a hand on her head. She looked up at him and attempted a smile. Instead her teeth chattered.
Levi fell into a crouch before her and took her good hand. “Babe, we’ll figure this out. I promise.”
After coming to the conclusion that Magnolia was exploding right before their eyes, Trish had moved away from the window. She’d fallen into this chair and hadn’t moved since. Levi and Arnaud began their fight after that and, even though she hadn’t taken part, she’d followed their argument from start to finish.
“The bars…” she chattered.
“What’s with the bars again?” Levi spun to look at Arnaud.
“I told you. They’re electrified. If you don’t believe me, try for yourself.”
Levi got to his feet and approached the bars. “We can’t stay here.”
“This is where he kept me. When I found the trapdoor, I escaped as much as I could. But there’s still nowhere to go.”
Trish’s eyes moved to Levi, still standing in front of the bars, his hands fisted. He wanted to touch those bars, but didn’t want to be electrocuted. Trish didn’t believe Arnaud. Hell, she didn’t even know him.
Levi reached out and grabbed the metal.
The room sizzled and Levi flew backward, hitting the wall across the room.
“Fuck!”
Arnaud shook his head. “Told you.”
Trish slithered off her chair and crawled to Levi, who was sitting up looking at his hands. Well, looking at the black char his palms were.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He glared at the bars. Then he turned and glared at Arnaud. “Maybe you better tell us about Olivier.”
Arnaud hadn’t been able to look Trish in the eye since they’d been here in this cabin. Because that’s what it was. They might be in a big metal cage, but that big metal cage was in a cabin that Trish hadn’t even known existed. And Arnaud might be whole and sane right now, but he hadn’t been when he was trying to kill Trish.
She also was trying to overlook the dried blood on the floor and walls.
“You said he found you,” Levi prompted.
Arnaud nodded. “I got kicked out.”
“Kicked out?” Trish asked.
“Yeah. Look, I don’t want to get into it because it doesn’t matter anyway, but I got kicked out and I had a Hell Hound pull me to a portal.”
“A Hell Hound,” Trish murmured.
“Scary looking thing,” Arnaud said with a shiver. “Anyway, I got shoved through, and well, let’s just say, you don’t come to this plane of existence the way you want.”
Silence descended over the three of them. Arnaud contemplative, Levi considerate, and Trish confused. She hoped it was the pain, but she didn’t think so.
“So how do you come through?”
Levi put his arm around her and pulled her close. She didn’t think it was for her benefit. She had the distinct impression it was for Arnaud’s.
The man, now dressed in a pair of torn jeans, rolled to his feet and took up the pacing Levi had been doing earlier.
“I can’t explain it to her, Leviathan.”
“Yeah. You can.”
“Leviathan…”
“Tell her, Arnaud. She deserves to know. She’s only been searching for answers for weeks.”
Sluggish as her brain was, Trish felt a switch flip. Her broken arm still throbbed, but she ignored it and Levi, as she struggled to her feet. She advanced toward Arnaud, stopping him in his tracks.
“Trish…” he held his hands out, palms up. “I couldn’t control myself…”
“You killed those people,” she accused.
“I didn’t understand…”
“You killed those people!” she shouted.
Arnaud dropped his head in defeat.
Anger twisted inside of her. This-this thing was responsible for the death of Mrs. Feeney, that poor boy, and the two hikers. How many times had she wanted to be locked in a room with a murderer after the murderer was caught? How many times had she just wanted one minute with a murderer to give him what he deserved? Too many times to count.
Now she was here.
She might not be a leftie, but it was all she had.
With all her strength, she launched her fist in his direction. It hit his jaw dead on and he stumbled backward. Surprised, he tumbled into a wall and slid down the smooth surface. He cradled his jaw.
Levi was next to her, holding her shoulders.
Her body shook.
“Consider yourself under arrest.”
He nodded.
Trish wilted. This was too much. Just too much. Her hand searched blindly for Levi’s and she felt his strong warm fingers curl over her own. She leaned into him and began to sob.
“Levi, I can’t…”
“I know. I know.”
He picked her up and took her back to the chair. She felt numb. Her arm didn’t hurt so bad anymore. Her knuckles stung from hitting Arnaud, but the sting was going away. Her feet were cold. Levi’s face danced in front of her. She felt herself get light headed but she didn’t have the strength to fight it.
“No more,” she whispered. She wavered slightly, then allowed herself to sag forward into Levi’s chest.
“We have to get out of here,” she felt Levi’s rumble against her ear.
“Leviathan, there’s nothing I can do—”
“Figure it out!” Levi shouted. “She’s going into shock.”
Trish moaned and let the tears come. She couldn’t hold them back anymore. She’d been strong. So strong. But she couldn’t anymore. How much could she take? Why did she have to take it? She was so tired. So very, very tired.
Far, far away, she heard a door open and a voice call out.
“Honey, I’m home!”
As she slipped into unconsciousness, she heard Levi swear and whisper softly, “Olivier.”
*****
Olivier felt better than he had in years. He’d finish this mess with Magnolia and he’d move on to the next town. The next victims. He’d spent too much time here as it was with these people. Maybe he’d hunt down Semi again and do more jobs for him. Scaring those fallen angels in Germany had been fun.
He busted into the cabin and noticed the smell was almost gone. Dumping that old bitch had been a good idea. She’d gone bad faster than the others. He laughed to himself.
“Honey, I’m home!”
He paused.
Something was off.
The floor creaked under his boots. He moved quietly toward the bedroom, where the massive cage held Arnaud. He stopped in the doorway.
Arnaud was there, huddled on the floor.
But Leviathan also stood near him and that damn detective was passed out toward the back.
He chuckled, deep in his throat. “What have I caught in my little trap?”
Levi curled his lip at Olivier.
Olivier moved closer. Lack of a face had never bothered him, but emoting was sometimes a problem. So he fancied a mouth and spread it wide in a grin.
“Let us out,” Levi demanded.
“Surely you don’t think it’ll be that easy?”
Arnaud slid closer to the detective.
“Oh, it will be,” Levi answered.
Arnaud grabbed something from under the chair the detective sat on. Olivier couldn’t make out what it was, but if he had eyes, he’d narrow them.
Olivier heard a sound behind him. Just a slight movement of a broken piece of furniture.
He heard the scrape of metal against wood.
He swiveled his head back to see Arnaud spinning the blade across the floor to Levi.
“Yes, I’ll need that back,” he told them.
“Absolutely,” Levi answered.
Then Levi bent down to pick it up.
*****
Standing there waiting for Olivier to come closer, Levi saw Colton and Henry hiding in the shadows. Olivier hadn’t sensed them, probably because of the stench in the little cabin. Levi made a staying motion with his hand and Colton nodded. As Olivier moved closer, Levi motioned to Arnaud behind his back. The vampire knew immediately what Levi needed.
The blade he’d stolen from Olivier came scraping along the floor to him.
Levi wasn’t planning on giving it back.
When Olivier noticed the blade, Levi caught Colton’s eye. He didn’t know how the little boy got to be here, and didn’t really care. But he was going to get Colton to help them.
However Olivier had electrified the bars and that electricity would go down the moment Olivier went down. Levi couldn’t touch him. Colton would have to do that.
Levi bent to pick up the blade. With a flick of his head, he got Colton to come out of the shadows, Henry flanking him. The boy would be safe. Physically. Emotionally, yeah, Levi would have some work to do.
“This is what you want?” Levi asked Olivier.
“You fucker. Yes, of course. It’s mine.”
“Suit yourself.”
Levi lined the blade up between the bars and pulled together all the supernatural energy he could muster. He had to get this past Olivier. He had to get this into Colton’s hand or all would be lost.
Levi pulled back on the blade and sent it sailing through the bars, across the floor, picking up speed. At the last second, he used his mind to spin the blade so the handle would be available to Colton to grab.
Olivier’s hand reached out to the metal.
He missed.
The cold handle hit the palm of an eleven-year-old boy instead.
*****
Colton felt the magic in the weapon as he picked it up.
The metal was heavy, but as he stood, he was able to lift the blade. He knew Levi had eyes on him and he knew Henry had his back.
Tears had dried on his cheeks. He saw Miss Trish collapse. He saw Levi fly backward when he touched the bars. That other man with them was evil and Colton could feel it. Now here in front of him was the man who’d shed his mother’s skin.
If Colton wanted a good life, he had to do this.
Levi and Miss Trish would be there to help him afterward.
Silently, he shot forward, the blade out. It skimmed through the man’s belly and beetles, slugs, and flies squirmed out.
“This isn’t real,” he murmured, and used both hands to slice to the left. The blade flew out of his hands then, too heavy for him to recover from the momentum.
But his job was done.
*****
Olivier was too startled to make a sound. He slid to the floor in two pieces, bugs and worms crawling out of him. Blood dribbled down his chin. Blood wasn’t good. The beetles, wasps, and insects tried to pull the two halves of his body back together.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the bars begin to shine and shake. With a brilliant flash of light, the metal combusted. Flashes of fire rained down around him.
He lay there, staring unblinking at the cabin’s ceiling, as the little boy ran to Levi. His fellow fallen angel gripped the little boy to him tightly, then moved out of his peripheral vision.
The dog came and stood over Olivier, growling.
Fuck. He wouldn’t be able to meet the lawyers in the morning.
*****
Trish snapped awake as she was jostled. She attempted to move, but the pain was intense. She barely could move her head, but when she did, her cheek rested against a soft T-shirt.
“Levi?” she croaked.
“Yeah, babe. It’s me.”
“Are we out?”
“Almost.”
She tried to look around her, but the light was too bright. Midday heat enveloped her and then heat from the closed in cab of Levi’s truck. The truck started and she thought she heard Colton talking and then maybe Henry barking. Just as she saw Levi get in the truck, she passed out again.
*****
Levi smothered Arnaud in the light blocking window coverings. He ordered Colton and Henry out, directing them to hold Arnaud’s arm to steer him to the truck.
With Trish safe, with Colton and Henry out of harm’s way, and with Arnaud firmly in his care, Levi approached the broken body of Olivier.
Even now he could see the insects binding Olivier back together.
Levi crouched down over him.
“I live in Vegas, fucker.”
Olivier laughed, the sound muffled through thick blood.
“Don’t ever show up there,” Levi continued.
“Not a problem,” Olivier sputtered.
Levi picked up the heavy metal blade, turning it over in his hands. “Forged from hellfire?”
Olivier tried to nod. “Arnaud brought it.”
“I see.” Levi slung the blade over his shoulder. With no warning, he raised a boot and slammed it down onto Olivier’s neck. He heard the satisfying crack of the hyoid bone, but he knew those little beasts would fix it.
Levi glanced around him, trying to see what else he could take. But Olivier had nothing of value. In the corner he saw a gas can. The heaviness of the sword over his shoulder caused inspiration to strike.
“Hellfire,” he murmured.
He moved quickly, sprinkling what little bit was left in the gas can over Olivier and the sticks of furniture.
His truck horn blared.
“Hey, Olivier, you think all those bugs can save you?”
Olivier grunted, his body twisted in two pieces, his neck a ravaged mess.
Levi ran two fingers down the edge of the blade, blood welling from the wounds. He snapped those fingers and a flame erupted, blue as the ocean. He admired the flicker, then glanced at the broken fallen angel at his feet.
“What will he do with you when you show back up?”
Olivier gurgled. His arms dragged his upper body further from Levi and his legs kicked out. But neither piece of his body moved far.
“To be a fly on that wall,” Levi murmured.
The truck horn blared again.
Despite himself, Levi grinned. His kid drove his truck away from danger out on the highway.
His kid.
So now he had a kid, a dog, a woman, and a vampire.
“Fuck me,” Levi muttered.
He turned and tossed the flame against the wall of the cabin. Olivier shrieked in anger but was no more mobile than he had been a second ago. Levi leaned down and put his face in Olivier’s.
“You might have thought you could win,” he growled. “But evil never wins.”
He stepped over the body of Olivier, crunching through the roaches and beasts, and went out toward his full truck. He had to get Trish to a hospital.
Behind him the cabin whooshed into flames, but Levi didn’t look back.
He had to take care of his family.
*****
The town of Magnolia was awash in flames. For years the little town had been troubled with secrets and rumors. Now it seemed those were all dying in the wave of fire.
All reporters were being kept far away from the town and only updated every couple of hours. The latest briefing had been just that: brief. And not very informational. Same old, same old. Several meth labs had exploded, catching the whole town on fire, including the sewers. No one was allowed in without Hazmat suits. There were several dead, but most had been evacuated. No, there was nothing new at this time.
Carmen Velasquez leaned against the news van, her photojournalist cleaning the lens of his camera. She narrowed her eyes at the gaggle of other reporters and the far away plumes of smoke that used to be the town of Magnolia.
“So we can’t get in at all?”
Her photojournalist didn’t even look at her. “I’m not even trying so don’t ask again.”
“Think of the footage you could get in there—”
“Nope. I’m not risking my job for a place like this.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Finally, the sixty-something Larry “I’ve-been-a-photojournalist-long-enough-to-know-this-isn’t-a-story” looked up at her. “Carmen. The only thing that you’ll find in that town are blown meth labs.”
Carmen pursed her lips. “Hmm. I wonder…”
“Well, wonder on your own.” He hefted himself to his feet and opened the sliding door of the van. With great care, he placed his camera in the back and slammed the door. “Look, you’re young so you think that there’s a big story everywhere.”
Carmen rolled her eyes.
“But this town is crazy. Always has been. Bunch of inbred fuckers, Carmen. Didn’t like outsiders. They blew themselves up by mixing drugs. You heard the cops.”
Yeah, Carmen heard the cops. All towed that same line. But Carmen wasn’t buying it.
“Hey, there’s a bunch of food trucks down past the crime scene tape on the other end of the highway,” Larry told her. “I’m going to head that way. We’ve got another couple hours until the next briefing and I’m starving. You want anything?”
Carmen shook her head. “No. But thanks.”
She watched Larry shamble off. The one thing he was right about was the next briefing wouldn’t be for another couple hours. She turned and moved off to where she’d parked her Jeep. Normally she and Larry were together, but today was her off day. She’d jumped at the chance to show up and run with this story. Turns out there was nowhere to run to.
Hard to get a break in the news business.
Carmen paused by her Jeep, staring off into the horizon. The late afternoon sun beat down on her head, but she didn’t care. Not right now. Right now she just wished that there was some sort of story she could sink her teeth into. Something that could help her rise from the small fish in a small pond status she’d been stuck in.
Then she saw it.
“It” was a plume of smoke not coming from the town of Magnolia. She glanced back but all the other reporters and photographers were facing the huge fire that engulfed the crazy town. This arcing bit of gray was small, but bigger than a campfire.
She bit her lip. Chances were real good that someone was burning something, but it was probably just leaves or sticks or…a body?
Her reporter’s mind jumped up with glee.
She glanced back again to the gaggle of other reporters. She had a couple hours before she had to be back. If anyone asked, she was just running to the store. Going to the bathroom at the convenience store. Checking out the fire in the opposite direction of Magnolia.
No one asked.
Carmen drove across the sand, bouncing along, sand kicking into the Jeep. She didn’t care. The closer she got, the denser the smoke. All she had was a camera phone, but that wouldn’t give her a good enough picture. Maybe she should have waited for Larry…
Suddenly Carmen was upon the smoldering ruins of a cabin. She slammed on the brakes, skidding in the sand. She hopped out of the Jeep and double timed it closer to what used to be a structure.
Two walls still stood, but the roof collapsed. She could see the pier and beam foundation, the ruins of a porch, and the broken down floorboards of the front room. She ventured closer, her phone out, her finger ready to hit record.
But there was nothing of interest in the ruins.
Maybe Larry was right. She picked her way through the broken wood, kicking a charred table leg out of her way. Maybe she should just relax and not be so impatient. Her story would come along one day. Her sense of adventure and investigative instincts had led her here, after all. To a broken down cabin that probably burned down because it had been sizzled by lightning the day before.
How stupid was she?
Fingers closed over her ankle.
Carmen jumped and screamed. Her phone dropped from her hand and she toppled over into the detritus of the cabin.
She squealed as her hand plopped into something soft and squishy.
“Help.”
She shrieked this time and scuttled backward. A man lay in the debris, part of the roof pinning him to the floor. He let go of her leg, but kept his imploring eyes on her.
Seemed Carmen fell into a story after all.
*****
Olivier showed the beautiful young woman his most handsome face.