The pair rushed toward the front door, both coughing. They paused for a moment to search for live enemies, but seeing only bodies, they stepped outside. It took them a moment to separate the people they’d killed from the mercenaries Nicole had destroyed.
“I pity the cops who have to investigate this shit,” Brownstone remarked.
Shay was liking what she was seeing. Fire and weird magic. No one would ever link any of this shit to her. The real assholes got what was coming, and she’d get away.
She shrugged. “They’ll play it off as some sort of gang war gone bad, or maybe even a gang summit gone bad. When it’s scumbags killing scumbags, it’s not like the cops try that hard. I think they think that every dead gangster means the world’s a safer place.”
“What the fuck?” Brownstone said, looking at half a body. He shook his head. “Can’t say I’ve seen that before.”
Shay leaned down and poked her gun through a hole in a dead mercenary. “If this is what she does when she’s weak, I’d hate to see what she’s like when she’s at the top of her game.”
Those Harriken bastards got real lucky to find whatever they used to knock out her magic. Otherwise, she would have made Brownstone’s shit look like kindergarten.
Both turned at the sound of a soft moan. They rushed to the source and found Nicole kneeling on the ground, blood covering the front of her hospital gown.
Shay shook her head, awed by the level of destruction the Drow on death’s door visited upon the mercenaries. If a woman was going to go out, taking dozens of bastards with her was an epic way to do it.
“You okay?” Brownstone asked, reaching down.
Nicole put out a hand and let him help her stand as she stared at the burning Belmont House. The fire had engulfed the entire structure now, the conflagration sending a thick plume of smoke into the sky.
Part of the roof collapsed with a loud groan.
“Glad we’re not in there anymore,” Shay muttered. “Be pretty weak to die in a fire after going through all that.”
Nicole smiled at Brownstone and spoke softly. “I wish I’d married a man like you.”
Brownstone grunted. “Trust me, you wouldn’t wish that if you knew me that well. I don’t think I’m marriage material for you or anyone else on this planet or Oriceran.”
“I know that my daughter’s own father was prepared to sell her to criminals for power, and you, a man who didn’t even know her, protected her.”
Shay thought that over and nodded to herself. Nicole was right. Brownstone tried to act like he didn’t give a shit about anything but bounty money, but everything he’d done was straight-up heroic.
Even her jaded heart threatened to open.
Shit. So much for keeping my distance.
Brownstone shook his head. “I’m paying my debts. She helped me find my dog when he was missing. There’s nothing more here. I pay my debts so I don’t owe anyone. I like my life simple.”
Keep telling yourself that, Brownstone, and you might eventually believe it.
“You told me about all the men you’ve killed.” Nicole waved a hand around, “You’re trying to tell me this is just about paying a debt concerning your dog?”
He looked at the carnage around them and turned back to her, running a hand through his hair. “Like I said, things got complicated. I was trying to simplify them.”
Nicole weakly laughed. “Most men do everything they can to declare their honor and glory to the world. Are you so afraid of admitting you’re a good man, James Brownstone?”
Shay chuckled under her breath.
Brownstone snorted. “I killed a lot of people this week. ‘Good man’ would be stretching it. Some might say I’m okay or useful, but I don’t think anyone would say I’m a good man.”
“James, I’ve lived on Earth for decades, and I still find human morality strange. You worry over the strangest things, while letting the meaningless and trivial things distract you.”
“Probably shouldn’t have moved to L.A. if you wanted a place with people who aren’t easily distracted by meaningless trivia.”
Brownstone shot her a harsh look.
She shrugged, putting up her hands. “Just sayin’.”
Nicole sighed. “It’s taking all my control to keep my power from consuming the last of me, but I will die satisfied, knowing that at least I saved you from these fake soldiers.”
Brownstone glanced at the dead mercenary company commander. Grayson had access to some heavy weaponry, and unlike the Harriken, they had hardcore battlefield experience. He wasn’t so sure he could have escaped unscathed from an encounter with them, let alone brought Shay through.
“We can still take you somewhere,” he whispered. “It doesn’t have to end this way.”
She shook her head. “No, it ended the second Walt betrayed me. There’s nothing anyone could do, even back on Oriceran.” Nicole wrapped her arms around herself and took a shuddering breath. “I need you to take care of my daughter, the new Princess of the Shadow Forged. I’ve harmed her by keeping her heritage from her, and I just hope she’ll forgive me.”
“I… shit.” Brownstone rubbed the back of his neck. “All she wants is for you to come back.”
Tears ran down Nicole’s face as she shook her head. “I know, but there’s nothing I can do. My time is done, and I must see to her future. And that’s why I need you.”
Shay sighed and looked away. It was a terrible way to go out, and she couldn’t begin to imagine the pain of dying knowing she was leaving a daughter behind.
Brownstone sighed. “I’ll make sure she’s taken care of,” he finally said. “You have my word.”
“Oh, I know that she’ll be taken care of, James Brownstone. I can see it in you.”
“Is there anything we can do? I could call a priest to give you last
