Something Wanton (Mystics & Mayhem) (32 page)

And I knew without asking that Kim wasn’t fine.

“Where is she?” I whispered.  When none of them answered, when they wouldn’t even look at me, I screamed my question at them.  “Where the hell is she?”

Nathan and Tyler exchanged a quick look, and I saw the fear in their eyes.  I knew then.  I knew where she was.  And the knowledge nearly sent me clean over the edge.

There are ways to cripple even the strongest creatures
, those had been Hamilton’s final words to Tyler at the pond.  Taking Kim was how he planned to break
me.
When he hadn’t been able to get to Nathan, he had taken the person who meant the most to me. 

But he hadn’t broken me. 
He had only pissed me off.

Trey Hamilton had just made the biggest mistake of his life.

“I need my Nexus and some clothes,” I snapped, jerking out of Nathan’s grasp.  When they just stood there looking at each other, I thought I might tear my hair out in frustration.  “I kind of meant
now,
gentlemen.”

“The Nexus will be easy, but I’m afraid the clothes are going to be something of a problem,” Zan said with a shrug.  “We can’t just go shopping, Firecracker, and going back to Nate’s is out of the question.”

“And why is that?” I asked calmly. 

“Hamilton’s people are watching it, hoping for another chance to capture you,” Tyler said, watching me through narrowed eyes as I began to pace back and forth, my sheet sweeping out behind me with every turn.  “I’m afraid we’re stuck here for
the moment.  At least until they get tired of staking out an empty house and move on to their next plan.”

“And where exactly is
here
?” I asked, hissing the words through my teeth.  I swear, every time I turned around I seemed to be a prisoner ‘for my own good’.

“Skipper’s compound just outside Avery.  He offered his home as a hospital of sorts so that we could tend the injured,” Tyler answered, shooting a worried look toward Nathan who had remained strangely silent.  “Most of the witches in the area got out before Hamilton’s people could get to them, but
we brought in a few that were in no condition to be moved.”

His
home
?  I shivered in disgust.  What kind of weirdo built a fully operational morgue in their
basement
?  Figures the little munchkin would have such macabre tastes.

“And they can’t find us
here
?” I snorted, rolling my eyes.  “They can find us every-damn-where else, but not here?  That’s just unrealistic, boys.”

“I’m taking care of it,” Tyler promised.  “They won’t find us this time, I swear.  There are only four people who know where we are right now, and none of them are going to tell a soul.”

I hoped he was right.  I needed time, a safe place to think and plan.  I suppressed a wince when a vision of Kinsley, beaten and branded, flashed across my mind.  I wouldn’t let them do to Kim what they’d done to that poor girl.  I needed to find her, and I needed to do it fast.

I couldn’t help but think of all the times she’d been there for me.  I had felt alone most of my life, but I never really had been.  Kim had
always
been there with me.  She was my rock, my anchor.  She had saved me over and over again.  Now it was my turn to save her.

And if Hamilton had touched a single hair on her head…

I think it really hit me then, and I started to tremble both in fear and rage.  Hamilton had
Kim
.  That sicko had my best friend, my sister.  I couldn’t bear the thought of her being beaten the way Kinsley and Ainsley had been.  I couldn’t think of them burning her.  Not Kim. 

“Zan, do me a favor and go hunt down Skipper.  He should have a supply of Nexus here somewhere.  And see if he’s got some clothes that might fit her,” Nathan suggested softly, breaking into my thoughts.  “Take Jordan with you.  Em and I need a few minutes alone.”

“Sure thing,” Zan said, clapping a hand on Tyler’s shoulder and steering him toward the door.  Before I could blink, he shoved him into the hallway and slammed the door shut behind them.

I barely noticed them leaving.  I was too caught up in the confusing mix of emotions in Nathan’s mesmerizing eyes.  Though he was trying to hide it behind a calm mask, I could see the fear and the doubt and the determination in his eyes.  And sadness, so much sadness that it was heartbreaking to witness.

When he finally spoke, it was barely a whisper.  “No.”

“Excuse me?” I asked, my eyebrows dipping into a frown.

“No,” he repeated, taking a step toward me.  “I don’t have to read your mind to know what you’re thinking, and the answer is
no
, baby.  We’ll find Kim, I swear, but you’re staying right here.”

My temper started to boil before he’d even finished speaking. 
He
had
to be kidding.  That was my best friend out there!  And she was in Hamilton’s clutches
because
she was my best friend!  And he wanted me to…what?  Sit on my hands and hope she didn’t come back in an urn?

Uh-huh.  Because
that
was going to happen.

“You’re crazy,” I scoffed scornfully, propping my hands on my hips and giving him a look so cold that it should have frozen him to the floor where he stood.  “You are absolutely certifiable.  I’m not staying
anywhere
!  That is
my
friend, and
I’m
going to find her!”

He was across the room
and right in my face before the last syllable passed my lips.  He loomed over me like a thundercloud before a storm, and the expression on his face should have been utterly terrifying.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t impressed.

“Do you know what I went through last night
?” he snarled, his face no more than an inch from mine.  “Do you have any
idea
what it was like, watching you bleed to death before my eyes, knowing I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it?”

“What do I have to do to make you understand?” he cried, throwing up his hands in frustration as he spun away from me.  “If you die, there’s nothing waiting for you!  You won’t go on.  You won’t come back.  Hell, they won’t even give you the option of hanging around and haunting me!  You’ll just vanish!”

Those words and the agony I heard in them penetrated through my anger like an arrow.  I shivered as I thought about what he’d said, because I knew he was right.  If I died, I was
literally
a goner.  I would be trapped in Oblivion.  And there I would stay, until I became part of the nothingness and disappeared.

Forever.

And that was a chance I was willing to take.

“I can’t trade Kim’s life for mine,” I told him softly.  “I won’t do that, Nathan.”

His jaw clenched with an audible click as his teeth met, and I saw a flash of outright fury in his eyes.  Without so much as another word, he turned on his heel and left the room, slamming the door behind him hard enough to split the wood from top to bottom.  I forced myself not to go after him.  My only hope was that he would calm down and be reasonable.  If he didn’t, I was in for a whole new variety of drama.

A curling pain in my stomach alerted me to the fact that I was really pushing my luck without the shot of Nexus Zan and Tyler had gone to find.  Deciding I’d waited long enough, I slowly walked over and tried the door.  I had to pull on it a few times, but I finally got it to open—and then squealed in surprise when I had to jump back out of the way as the wood came completely apart and almost hit me in the head.  Seriously, I was
really
going to have to talk to Nathan about that temper of his.

I stepped out and looked up and down the hallway warily.  There wasn’t much to see, to tell the truth.  It was a long, narrow hall with the double doors leading to the morgue at one end, three doors on either side, and what appeared to be an elevator at the opposite end from the morgue. 

Was the little monster so pampered that he couldn’t even make it up a flight of stairs? 

Since there was no way in
hell
I was going back to the morgue, and I wasn’t exactly thrilled by the thought of what I might find behind those mystery doors, I sighed and headed toward the elevator.  I came to a quick stop when the shiny silver doors opened when I was only a foot or so away.  I peered inside through narrowed eyes, not sure what I was looking for.  When I saw that there was nothing there, waiting to get me, I made myself step inside.  A course of action I immediately regretted when the doors slammed shut behind me like the jaws of a trap.

 
I braced myself against the rail that wrapped around the car as it shot up at what seemed like abnormal speed and stopped just as suddenly.  I saw the flashing LV 1 light just before the doors opened wide and I saw that someone was waiting for me.

The man standing there was
a little frightening.  Seriously, this guy was
huge
, even bigger than Nathan.  He looked like a mountain standing there in front of the door, blocking my escape. He had extremely pale skin that seemed even whiter against his dark, curly hair.  

But as big and intimidating as he was, his dark chocolate eyes weren’t cold.  In fact, they seemed to sparkle with warmth and amusement.
I won’t deny I was a little surprised when he grinned at me, flashing fang in the process.   He gave me an amused once-over, taking in my very unfashionable sheet, and his grin got a little wider. 

My chin shot up stubbornly.  “Take a picture,
jerk off.  It’ll last longer.”

“So, you’re the Redheaded Hellion of Moonlight.”

“Excuse me?” I hissed.  I’d always hated that nickname.  Honestly, I didn’t think I deserved it.  I had been a good kid before all the supernatural crap started, you know!  “What did you just call me, you cretin?”

He chuckled.  “Down, Mighty Mouth.
  I’m just the messenger.  My name is Damien.  I’m the head of security for this circus.  The boss would like a word with you, so he sent me to escort you to his office.”

“And what makes him think I
want
to have a word with him?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and arching one eyebrow.  “You can tell Skippy I’d rather eat my sheet than have a heart to heart with him, but thanks for the invite.”

“You
do
know that’s an autopsy sheet, right?” Damien asked with a smile.

If Damien’s gleeful expression was any indication, I turned as green as I
suddenly felt.  An
autopsy
sheet.  I was wearing a frigging
autopsy sheet
! Oh,
sure
!  Because the morgue
hadn’t been bad enough!  It was like the Bad Karma Fairy was just
trying
to find new and unusual ways to traumatize me!

“You know,” Damien said thoughtfully, tapping his chin
, “I believe the boss has some clothes around here that might fit you.  I bet if you were
nice
to him, he might be persuaded to part with them.”

“I’d rather run around stark naked,” I muttered with a grimace.  “Fine, take me to the little brat.  But don’t expect me to be nice.  I’m not sure I’m capable of it anymore.”

With a superior little smirk that set my teeth grinding, he stepped aside and indicated that I should go first.  After giving him a ‘Don’t try anything funny’ look, I lifted my chin a little higher and swept past him like a queen headed for her coronation. Unfortunately, I lost a little of the dignity I was trying for when I tripped on my sheet. 

“Pride goeth before the fall,” Damien quipped, reaching out to steady me. 

I glared at him and yanked my arm away.  With a soft chuckle, Damien led me to the end of the hall where there was an ornately carved pair of doors.  I studied the carved panels on the doors while Damien tapped on them lightly, awed by the craftsmanship that had gone into them.  From what I could tell, it was supposed to represent the trials of Homer’s legendary hero, Odysseus.  They were absolutely
amazing
. Whoever had carved them was more than skilled, they were
gifted
.

“Enter,” Skippy barked from the other side of the wood, ruining the beautiful artwork for me. 

Holding the door open, Damien waved an airy hand in a signal for me to go ahead.  The second I was inside, he closed the door behind me, leaving me alone with the miniature Godfather. Skippy was seated behind an elaborately carved desk with his feet up.  There was a glass of something too red and thick to be wine propped loosely on his knee, and he was giving me the strangest look, like he was trying to figure me out.

“Shouldn’t you be having graham crackers and milk right about now?” I asked, unable to resist.  He narrowed his eyes at me and I smiled before leaning against the door
s and crossing my arms over my chest, the very picture of relaxed.

He studied me for another moment, blatant curiosity shining in his eyes, before he shook his head like he was disappointed in what he was seeing.  “You are a most unpleasant young woman, Miss Blaylock.”

“Not really,” I told him, shrugging.  “I just give as good as I get, Skippy.  I’m actually pretty nice to most people.”

He studied me again, this time long enough and thoroughly enough to be uncomfortable, and then started to laugh softly.  Not sure if I was being insulted again—and not wanting to use up all the jabs I was saving up if I wasn’t—I just waited.  When he finally stopped laughing, he actually looked a little impressed.

“I don’t intimidate you in the least, do I?” he asked, sounding surprised by that fact.  “I know Nathaniel told you who and what I am, and yet you dare to challenge me still.  Why is that, do you suppose?”

“No offense, but you're just a little too cute to be scary, Skippy.”