"Someday I want to hear your stories, too."
Mal smiled and ducked his head a little, as ifembarrassed. "Sure. Sometime. Though it might be far less interesting thanyou're expecting. I've spent a lot of time with my nose buried in books."
"Fair enough."
The door chimed and Mal glanced over toward thecustomer who had just come in.
"Hey, you got anything interesting to read whileI wait?" I glanced around and noticed a few comfortable looking chairs bythe window.
Mal nodded and handed back the book he'd shown me. Itook it and curled up in one of the chairs, wondering if maybe I should unburythe past. Literally. There were a lot of things in that stash that would havebeen very handy to have at the moment. It was probably time to get into a deepoccult discussion with Mal, too. Pick his brain and all. Maybe he had some ofthe things I was missing.
Of course, if I could finish this task, maybe I couldget out again.
The hellhound jumped up on my lap and made himselfcomfortable.
Point taken. There was no way I was going to get out again.Oddly enough, the thought did not make me sad. My heart picked up its pace alittle, and I felt truly excited for the first time in years. Of course, I'dmade some fairly epic mistakes right after feeling like this, so maybe it wasn'tso good. Still...it would be better to be prepared moving forward, than tocontinue hiding. First things first, see what kind of book Mal had given me toread, and then head home and ask Aaron about his tattoos. After that, well, wehad a really messed up occultist to stop. Then Mal and I would have arelationship talk. I was way more stressed out about that talk then any of therest. How messed up was that?
∞ ∞∞
"You come back when you have a minute to talk, Chris.Mal is so quite about his personal life. I want details." Olivia waved aswe left the shop.
I didn't promise to blab anything, but I also wanted herto not hate me, so I did agree to return as soon as I could.
Mal chuckled.
"She know anything?"
"Some. I'll fill you in later."
"Fair enough."
He put his hand on the small of my back, and stayedclose while we threaded our way around a handful of tourists.
"Fuck," Mal hissed.
I glanced over from the window I'd been shoppingthrough just in time to see the thug from Aaron's house point something at me.
Mal shoved me out of the way, jerked, and crumpled tothe ground.
"Mal!"
He didn't answer and I tried to ignore the risingpanic tightening my chest.
The thug lowered a fucking crossbow of all things.
I looked around, but no one else noticed our struggle.The street was full of people, but we were completely ignored. Mal and I hadboth been blindsided.
When I glanced back at the thug, he now had a gunpointed at my chest.
There was nothing I could do. I held up my hands andhoped that the hellhound, who had vanished, could get help somehow.
"So nice to see you again," a familiarfemale voice said behind me.
"Naw, it's shite."
She laughed. "Oh, I think I'd like you if youwere going to be around long enough for me to get to know you. Tell me, how didyou get out of my wards. They shouldn't have been breakable. Even for yourfriend here." She kicked Mal, hard. The vampire didn't react.
I really hoped he wasn't dead, and not just because Iwanted him to rescue me. The thought of losing Mal made my heart clench, thoughI tried not to show my reaction.
Something must have come through because she sniffed.
"Don't worry, you'll be gone before we wake himup."
Well, that answered one question. Two really. Apparently,they were going to kill me. Great. At least Mal wasn't dead. I was only slightlyrelieved.
"Still, since you apparently are something of anescape artist, and we can't have that, I'll have to knock you out, too. Nicebody wards, by the way. You do know how dangerous those are, don't you?"She said the last in a bit of a sing-song voice before she touched my back.
Whatever she did, the wards deflected. Normally, thatwould have been enough to give me time to get away, but with the demonpossessed thug over there pointing a gun at my head, I couldn't do anything buttake it as she blasted me again, and again, until my vision blackened as myprotections sapped my strength. I staggered, trying to keep my feet as long asI could. Not wanting to give them any satisfaction.
I thought I heard her snap orders at the thug, but Icouldn't make out what she said. I really hoped they caught me before I crackedmy head on the cement as my legs gave way and I passed out.
∞ ∞∞
Slowly, ever so slowly, I fought my way back toconsciousness. As soon as I made it, I wished I hadn't bothered. Pain moreextreme than the worst hangover I'd ever had–and I'd sported some doozies–blastedthrough my head. I cracked my eyes open to slits and all I could see was flashinglights, and I was fairly certain it had nothing to do with what was actually inthe room with me.
Slowly my vision returned, followed by sound.
Chanting.
Yeah, should have expected that. Fuck. I took awaytheir first sacrifice, guess they were going to use me. Wondered if whatevermagic ran through my blood was enough to summon a demon prince. Hopefully, Iwouldn't find out.
I was laying on my back. I could tell that now, too.
As my energy slowly returned, the urgency of mysituation hit, and a jolt of adrenalin surged through me. Better than drugs,that stuff. The headache fled to the background, my vision cleared, and I got enoughjuice back to lift my head.
Just in time to see a flash of silver descendingtoward me.
I didn't even have time to flinch before the knifeplunged into my stomach.
Yep, this hurt worse than waking up had.
I screamed as white hot fire radiated out from myabdomen.
She jerked the knife back out, twisting a little onthe way.
Help was probably too distant to save
