Dangerous Things - Amy Blankenship 2 стр.

“I’m all ears,” Chad grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest to get Trevor’s attention back from wherever he was. He’d never thought of himself as psychic but he was doing a pretty good job of reading Trevor at the moment.

“We don’t know much about the demon, only that it had been trapped there for a number of centuries. Its existence predates anything we have on file at P.I.T. but we’re still searching for clues,” Zackary started and hoped Trevor would jump in.

“So you knew a demon was imprisoned under the cemetery for who knows how long and you didn’t do anything about it?” Chad demanded.

Trevor cocked an eyebrow at him, “What would you expect us to do about it? Help it get loose? It was trapped there and we don’t even know how the hell a fallen and a vampire were able to break the spell holding it.”

“Fallen?” Chad asked. “You mean one of the angels Envy told me about?”

Zachary nodded, “Yeah, we’ve known about them for a really long time. We know there are others, but we can’t locate them anywhere, and apparently the two fallen living within the city didn’t even know of the other’s existence trapped in the cavern until one went down there.”

“We also have someone that knows how to deal with demons,” Trevor offered. “With any luck, she’ll be able to figure it out once we call her in.”

“It’s not too late to back out,” Zachary said to Chad. “Just give the word and we’ll wipe your memory of everything that happened.”

Chad frowned and started to pour coffee for the three of them. He’d been a cop all his life because he wanted to make a difference. More than once though, he felt like he wasn’t doing enough. There was always one more drug dealer, one more murderer, one more traffic violation… it just didn’t seem worth it sometimes. But what Trevor and Zachary were doing did make a difference… the kind of difference Chad had always wanted to make.

Taking a long drink of his coffee, he set his cup down and nodded once. “I’m in.”

*****

Angelica decided that phones were worse than demons when hers started ringing at three in the morning. Looking at the caller ID, she narrowed her eyes and grabbed the receiver. Turning it on, she pushed her dark hair out of her way and placed it against her ear.

“Unless the world’s falling apart, the seas have turned red, the seven plagues of Egypt have returned, or you’re dying, there’d better be a damn good explanation for you waking me up,” she growled.

“Aw, come on Boo… is that any way to talk to your Zachy-bear?”

Angelica hung up and dropped her head back onto the pillow. She’d just gotten back to sleep when the phone rang again. Without looking at the phone, she turned it on and spoke again.

“I’m going to get you, Zachary,” she muttered. “You and your little dog too.”

“Oh my, Wizard of Oz flashbacks,” Zachary gasped and Angelica secretly smiled at his antics, glad he couldn’t see her.

“What do you want?” she sat up, pushing her hair out of her face.

“We got a really nasty one for you named Misery,” Zachary offered.

Angelica climbed out of bed and turned on the lamp. “How big?”

“Not sure, but I’m going to guess a level seven.” He smiled into the phone knowing that would get her attention… and he just loved getting Boo’s attention.

Angelica walked out into the living room and turned on her laptop. She typed in a few things and frowned.

“Level seven? Are you sure?” she asked. Anything over a level five was very dangerous and extremely rare.

“It’s just a guess,” Zachary answered. “It was able to trap one of our two fallen that we’ve been following and apparently another fallen had been down there with it for a long time. Since they are considered level seven then I’m assuming anything powerful enough to trap one is an equal.”

Angelica was searching her database. More than three quarters of it had been illegally obtained from the vaults of the Vatican, but no one could argue with her results. The fact that a level seven demon might have been discovered in Los Angeles was more than enough of a reason to wake up not only her, but the rest of the P.I.T. crew as well.

Each demon was placed in a class of one through ten, with level ten being the equivalent of Satan himself. She’d hate to run into anyone who possessed enough magic to seal away a level seven demon… you’d need the thunder of God to pull it off.

“I’m not finding anything on a demon named Misery in the Los Angeles area,” she said after a few minutes. “Let me hook up my external hard drive and take a look at those files.”

She heard Zachary talking to someone in the background and figured it was Trevor until she heard another voice join in the conversation.

“Who are you talking to?” she asked curiously.

“The newest member of our team, Chad,” Zachary answered. “He’s a local cop that knows a little too much, so we brought him on to protect the masses, and by the masses I mean the other idiots he works with.”

Angelica smirked, “They’re probably worse out there.”

“Not by much,” Zachary said.

“Okay,” Angelica said. “I got it hooked up, let’s take a look around and see what all I’ve got on here.”

“You mean you don’t know?” Zachary asked in surprise.

Angelica sighed, “You know how I am. I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached sometimes. I’ve only had a chance to explore a fraction of this thing.”

“Yeah, you did download it in a big hurry.” Zachary said and sighed himself. “Good times, good times.”

Angelica accessed the hard drive and typed a word into her search prompt and pressed enter.

“I take it you haven’t been behaving yourself.” Angelica asked leaning back on her sofa while the computer did its thing.

“Hell no,” Zachary laughed. “You can’t take me anywhere, remember?”

Angelica winced remembering only a couple months ago when they’d gone to a big gala while chasing a four year old werewolf who had gotten lost and wasn’t very happy about it. By the end of the night, Zachary had lost his pants because the werewolf had transformed during a child’s temper tantrum and ripped them to shreds.

The funniest part was that Zackary hadn’t said a thing, just took them off and walked around in his underwear and tuxedo jacket and shirt. Angelica couldn’t make up her mind whether to be embarrassed or laugh her ass off. Seeing his legs with the knee high socks and dress shoes had nearly killed her when several of the young ladies crowded around him wanting to dance.

Her laptop beeped and she sat forward to look at what the search had found.

“Find anything?” Zachary asked.

Angelica opened a few of the files that had the word Misery located in them and started reading. Her cigarette slipped from her fingers as she read and landed on her foot.

“Ouch, damn it!” she cursed and picked her cigarette back up, quickly putting it out.

“Everything okay?” Zackary frowned worriedly and held up a hand when Trevor wanted to know what was going on.

“Ouch, damn it!” she cursed and picked her cigarette back up, quickly putting it out.

“Everything okay?” Zackary frowned worriedly and held up a hand when Trevor wanted to know what was going on.

Angelica read over the information again just to be sure. “I’m catching the next flight out,” she informed him before pulling the phone away from her ear. She hung up on Zachary’s questions and looked back at the screen. It wasn’t what she had read that made her so sure this was dangerous… it was that the head man of PIT had somehow just locked her out of the file.

If Storm was keeping secrets… then she was wanted to know why.

Chapter 2

Anthony paced relentlessly across the marble floor of his study. He ran a hand through his dark hair in frustration and anger. He knew he’d lost his temper when he killed Arthur and now he’d also lost his leverage for binding Jewel to him as his mate… not that it would stop him.

He’d meant for the situation to remain calm… but when Arthur had brought up Anthony’s father, the werewolf part of him had lost it. Now he’d be forced to use coercion of a different kind on his runaway bride. The only problem was, he had to find her first.

Someone knocked on the door and Anthony stopped pacing long enough to straighten his hair and clothing. He was the alpha, and with that came a certain measure of decorum.

“Enter,” he called out in a cold voice.

The door opened and one of his wolves stepped in, closing the door behind him.

“What did you find?” Anthony asked.

The pack member looked very nervous and cleared his throat. “I stayed behind just like you ordered to see if the priest came back to the church. I wasn’t there long when all hell broke loose at the church and in the graveyard behind it. People were showing up right and left, most of them coming out of nowhere.” He paused and swallowed nervously before adding, “That’s when I noticed Jewel was with them.”

“Then where is she?” Anthony demanded as he closed the distance between them with rapid strides. “Why didn’t you bring her back with you?”

The wolf backed away with panic in his eyes knowing bringing bad news to their alpha was never a good thing. “I couldn’t,” he shuddered.

Anthony’s hand abruptly shot out and grabbed the subordinate by the throat, lifting him into the air. “You’re a werewolf. Why didn’t you just take her?”

“She was surrounded by weres… too many of them,” the wolf explained, lifting his hands to try and alleviate some of the pressure around his throat.

Anthony’s hand tightened and his eyes changed to an eerie golden color. His brother had finally returned from Italy, he was sure of it. “Did I or did I not teach you how to fight another pack on your own? My brother should have been no match for you.” It was a lie. The wolf would have been lying in a ditch somewhere had he dared to fight Andreas Valachi.

“Wasssssn’t wooolvvesssss,” the wolf rasped out while trying to breathe.

Anthony snapped his attention back to the man he was strangling and jerked his hand away, seeing he’d almost killed him. “Who was it?” he demanded with barely suppressed fury lacing his voice.

The wolf lay prone on the floor trying to catch his breath. He scrambled up to his hands and knees before dropping his forehead to the cold marble floor. He bared the back of his neck showing submission to his leader and wishing he’d run when he’d had a chance.

“Cats… I smelled cats,” he said after a few seconds, “Cougars and jaguars... lots of them.” He lifted his head and saw Anthony’s eyes narrow threateningly. Quickly he added, “There was a cougar shadowing her every step. The place was crawling with vampires as well. Part of the church blew up, then a cop car showed up.”

Anthony stood there trying to reign in his growing anger. However, the longer he stood there, the more pissed off he became. His plan to retrieve his fugitive mate had been botched repeatedly by either his own actions or the actions of his ignorant subordinates.

He signaled his personal guards closer. “Take him down to the basement where he can simmer in his failure.”

The wolf sat up on his knees with a pleading expression on his face. He’d heard stories about the basement and what it contained. Some of the werewolves that survived the torture still had the scars on their bodies to show for it. He whined pitifully when his arms were taken up by the guards and he was pulled to his feet.

The guards didn’t look at his face nor did they say anything comforting or derogatory. If they had their way, they would have let him run. To them, Miss Jewel had every reason to run away from their Alpha. She was unhappy and, despite Anthony’s best attempts, would never love him. Living like this, thriving off the misfortune of others was not the true werewolf way… it was the Mob way.

At one time, they had protected mankind from the evil that threatened to overtake the world. Now, with the exception of a few tribes located in across the United States and overseas, they were the evil. It was no wonder humans made movies depicting them like rabid dogs bent on causing death and destruction.

Anthony followed his guards down to the basement and smirked when the young werewolf whimpered quietly. The mansion basement had been converted into a large, underground torture chamber that covered several thousand square feet. Chains hung from the opposite wall with manacles attached to hold a person upright against the cold stone.

Off to the right was a table covered with whips and riding crops of various sizes. A cauldron where a fire was burning had a few irons sticking out of it used for branding purposes, which Anthony had rarely used. Finally, on the wall directly across from that was a row of cells that housed a few occupants.

A few werewolves moved among the shadows readying more devices for a special guest who Anthony had been fortunate enough to obtain a couple weeks ago. They stopped and watched with curiosity when their alpha entered the chamber with his guards and a new wolf to discipline.

Anthony stood back as his guards shackled the wolf to the wall and waved them out of the way when they were done.

“What would you have us do, Lord Anthony?” the oldest werewolf asked.

“I want you to make sure to teach this one a lesson, Boris,” Anthony answered. “He failed to bring back my bride and he must learn that failure is not tolerated.”

Boris looked over at the boy and inwardly sighed. “He is only a boy.”

“Then he will learn early,” Anthony’s voice lacked emotion.

Boris lifted a scarred hand and waved two of the other werewolves over. They approached and ripped the back of the young wolf’s shirt open. Boris lifted one of the whips, a cat o’ nine tails, and cracked it in the air. The shackled wolf flinched making Anthony smirk.

Boris positioned himself about five feet behind the young one and snapped the whip forward. The young wolf screamed at the bite of the whip across his back. The screaming continued as Boris continued to strike the once unmarred skin. Finally, he stopped and another werewolf stepped forward with a large bowl of salt. More agonizing cries followed when the salt was thrown on the bleeding wounds.

The young wolf slumped against the wall believing the torture was over, only to scream again when the beating began anew… only this time two more whips joined it.