“Hell might not even accept them,” Jez pointed out.
“How can you be rejected from hell?” Jinx asked.
“I was.” Jez sniffed.
“You sure there’s no one innocent in purgatory?”
“There’s another place for the innocent who haven’t moved along yet. They’re not all walking the earth.”
“And you’ve seen this place?”
“I’ve had a rather extensive tour of all the areas except purgatory. And I can assure you that none of these monsters were in hell.” Jez sucked back the beer and then grabbed for the chips. Odd deadhead, this one was.
“In order for you to travel through hell, you can’t be innocent.”
“That I’m not innocent is news?”
He’d never asked exactly what the vamp had done, but he supposed, by the very nature of vampires, that killing was up there on their list of sins. “I’m going to have to get Rogue’s help on this.”
“I’m thinking it couldn’t hurt.”
The hellhounds listened to him for now and in turn, corralled the monsters. He couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take before the monsters actually ruled him. This kind of power was something you couldn’t wield for very long without losing a hell of a lot of yourself.
But he couldn’t deny that he’d allowed himself to think about how he could use the monsters for good.
“When are you going to tell your girlfriend that you run purgatory?” Jez asked.
“I will fucking stake you.”
“That’s a myth. And it was a simple question. You need to get laid.”
Jinx grabbed the phone and dialed Stray.
“I say get laid—you call a male wolf. Odd,” Jez moved and Jinx gave him the universal shut up signal in the form of the middle finger.
“Yeah, it’s me. When you go to the hospital, can you find the books that were in Gillian’s room? Yeah, there were some classics, a few romance.” He rattled off some titles. If Stray couldn’t find them, Jinx would replace them with new copies, because everyone deserved to have something that made them feel good when they were in a strange place.
Hell, even Jez had done that for him, had orchestrated moving Jinx’s old comforter and pillows from the Dire house to here, with Vice’s help. Brother Wolf greatly appreciated the comforts of home. It had only been a few weeks, but when they’d faced battles together, warriors tended to bond faster. He wasn’t sure what would’ve happened to him had he not approached Jez in the first place, and he didn’t want to think about it.
Chapter 11
Jinx carried a sleeping Gillian in from the roof around dawn, put her in his bedroom and resisted the urge to crawl in next to her. They had enough issues to deal with already and truth be told, the king of purgatory thing was going to be a nice wedge in their relationship.
On his way to the shower, he grumbled something at Jez while the vampire ate his Cocoa Pebbles, wondering if the deadhead needed any sleep. Superfuckingvampire, he was.
He contemplated the day ahead as he let the hot water sluice over his back. Brother was pissed about the no-running thing. Rogue was pissed. Rifter was pissed. Vice would be pissed soon enough.
Maybe the hellhound could be housebroken. The building obviously didn’t have a problem with pets.
Brother Wolf growled. “I wasn’t talking about you.”
He’d barely gotten out of the shower when Jez opened the door.
“I think we’re close enough that I don’t feel the need to shower together,” Jinx told him.
“Stray’s on the phone—said it’s an emergency. Asshole,” he added and Jinx dried himself as he walked into the living room to grab the phone.
Jez had put it on speaker. “Stray, what’s wrong?”
“Your girlfriend’s famous,” Stray said. Jez was already turning on the TV where a special news bulletin was splashed across the screen.
There was a picture of Gillian—and a drawing of a guy who he guessed was supposed to be him.
“Looks nothing like me,” he scoffed.
“You’re lucky I managed to destroy the video footage. Took all night—neither you or Jez was really slick. And Kate was the sketch artist—she helped make sure the sketch is just off enough.”
“I’m not supposed to show up on celluloid,” Jez mused.
“No one says celluloid anymore,” Jinx said as Stray continued, “You were all over it in black and white.”
Jez frowned but merely said, “They’re offering an obscene reward.”
“Her parents are the Blackwells. As in Blackwell Industries,” Stray told them and Jinx couldn’t tear his eyes away as the press conference with Gillian’s parents began.
They didn’t look anything like her, which of course made sense. In a way, he’d been hoping they were Dires, even Weres, but no way. He’d be able to tell.
“I’ve got a call in to Marley—she knows a couple of the camera guys at the conference. Parents are human,” Stray confirmed.
Mrs. Blackwell looked suitably teary, her husband, stoic and firm. They pleaded for their daughter’s safe return and offered five million dollars.
And now there was a bounty on Gillian’s head the size of fucking Earth.
It made sense that Gillian would’ve used the name Black. Using her real name would’ve attracted the media as well as making her a target for, well, kidnappers. Like him. “We’re screwed.”
This new world of wolves and humans living so close—mixing—was inherently dangerous. She wouldn’t be the first accidentally adopted wolf. But the fact that she’d been locked away and forgotten, and now they were trying so desperately to get her back, struck him as more than a little strange.
“. . . She’s a danger to others. She tried to kill several members of the hospital staff,” one of the doctors was saying now as the camera lights flashed and members of the press called out questions.
“That’s a lie,” Jinx said.
“Is it?” Jez asked.
“Wouldn’t the orderly have shared that with me?” Jinx demanded.
“None of this makes sense,” Jez agreed. “But this is going to get everyone’s attention—and Gillian is hard to miss.”
“Please call law enforcement to help bring Gillian in. Do not attempt to grab her yourself,” the New York City police chief was saying. “We are working with law enforcement in the areas around the hospital where Gillian disappeared. Yes, I’ll take a question.”
“Sir, does it appear that Gillian Blackwell left of her own accord?”
“According to reports, she was carried out by the man you see in the police sketch. We believe he has taken her against her will.”
“Sir, have there been any calls for ransom?”
“Not as of yet,” he confirmed.
Jez shook his head and Jinx stared at the floor.
“Does the Greenland pack have TV or Internet?” Jez asked finally, without a trace of irony.
“That’s a good fucking question,” Stray muttered across the line.
“We’ve got to get to the bottom of this—now,” Jinx said.
“Kill’s got a lead,” Stray assured him.
Jinx had forgotten how damned hard the memories of the Greenland pack were for the brothers—and it wasn’t like they could saunter in and say, “Hi, we’re the other Dires and we’ve got one of yours.”
“I’m sorry you and Killian have to deal with this, Stray,” Jinx told him.
