Chapter 19 #2
He whimpered and flinched away from me. “I—I’ll report you to the Virtues.”
“For what?” I scoffed. “Stoppin’ you?”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” he insisted.
“Rigghhhtttt.” I smacked the back of his head. “Shut up.”
“Andreas?” Regan stepped through the door and her eyes went wide. “What the hell is this?”
Chanel was right beside her with her jaw dropped. Her eyes bounced from Darren to the plastic walls and the nearly dead human woman. “I—I, Kaso what is this?”
I gestured to the room. “Santa won’t be here for a few more hours but we got you an early gift.”
Bodhi walked in behind them and gagged. She pressed the back of her hand to her lips and shook her head. “No . . . just no. Move!” She shoved me and Kaso out of the way as she dove for the woman dying on the floor.
“We’re hoping she’s not beyond saving,” Kaso said softly. “He moved faster than usual.”
Regan narrowed her eyes into little blue slits. “Who is he?”
I pointed to Darren on his knees. “This is Darren. Darren here likes to use that human over there,” I motioned toward the unconscious apprentice, “to torture and kill women. Darren can’t do it himself, so he tells his little friend over there what to do every step of the way.”
Chanel marched up to Darren and put her sword under his throat. “And why would Darren do that?”
“Because Darren is a little bitch who is afraid to get caught by you.” I moved away from him to stand next to Regan.
A mask of fury covered her face. “Why are his arms hanging like that?”
“I dislocated ‘em,” I admitted easily. “He deserved it.”
She jerked her chin toward the unconscious apprentice. “And him? Did you kill him?”
“Nah, he’s just knocked out.” I paused. “Though he deserved to be killed for carving this poor girl up.”
“Bodhi?” Regan motioned toward him.
Bodhi’s eyes lifted from where she was pouring potions onto the girl. She focused for a second. “He’s alive.”
Regan turned and glared at me with her arms crossed over her chest, the tips of her dagger blades poking out from underneath. “What were you thinking?”
“Me?” I pressed my hand to my chest. “I was thinkin’ you might wanna take ol’ Darren here and send his ass straight to Clementine, or even better, Riven.”
Darren began to sob, and Chanel cracked him across the face. “Shut up.”
“Nicely done, love.” Kaso nodded his approval.
Chanel rounded on him. “How could you do this?”
“Oh, it was pretty easy.” He smirked. “And he needed to be stopped.”
“That’s right. He needed to be stopped.” Regan snapped at the two of us. “It’s our job to stop them and you just keep doing our job and then expecting us to come and pick up your leftovers. We’re not a clean-up service.”
“That’s not what’s happenin’ here.” This was not going according to plan at all. Panic started to settle into my gut.
“No, what's happening here is you’re both distracting us from doing our jobs. We don’t know who or what you’ll get into next. What if you get yourselves killed? Have you ever thought about that? That you are worrying the two of us?”
I fought not to smile. “You’re worried about me?”
“Shut up.” Regan jabbed the tip of her dagger into my chest. “You are not helping. You are not making this easier. All you’re doing is making us clean up your mess.”
“And now this!” Chanel motioned toward the room. “You could’ve been killed.”
“Nah, we had this,” Kaso said, but it was a little too cocky. “He was no match for us. We’re too good.”
“And now you need to go.” Regan motioned toward the door as if she was kicking a bad dog out of the room.
“Seriously?” I lowered my voice. “Regan, come on. Let us help you clean this up. Please? I can stay with you—”
“No.” Her cheeks heated, making her sapphire eyes look three shades brighter. “We will take it from here.”
“But—”
“I said no,” she growled.
Kaso turned toward Chanel. “Chanel, come on—”
“No.” She shook her head. “Regan is right. You need to leave.”
“But—”
“We aren’t here to clean up after you, and this job is dangerous. It’s not a game, Kaso.” She lowered her voice. “You’re not making this any easier when I have to worry about you too. Please just go so we can focus.”
“We just wanted to help—”
“Help by staying out of danger,” Chanel snapped, but her voice lacked intensity.
I cleared my throat and gestured toward the girl because Bodhi had just walked away from her to go to the apprentice. “Will she be okay?”
“Too soon to call yet,” Bodhi answered without looking toward me. “I have to give those potions a few seconds to kick in before I continue. But if her will is strong, then I should be able to save her.”
Relief was almost suffocating. “Good . . . that’s good.”
“He’s coming around.” Bodhi hovered over the apprentice. Just when he was about to peek his eyes open, she curled her hand into a fist and punched him in the nose, knocking him out once more. “Oops. I slipped.”
I snort-laughed, then tried to cover it with a cough. Kaso clapped and cackled.
“Come on, Kaso.” My eyes lingered on Regan. “They don’t want us here.”
We turned out into the hallway. Some of the neighbors had their heads peeked out. I narrowed my eyes at them. “You didn’t see nothin’. You didn’t hear nothin’.”
The doors slammed shut in unison, and we hurried from the building. By the time we were out on the street and walking away from the apartment, the sound of sirens were already wailing in the background.
Kaso sighed. “At least they’re worried about us getting hurt. That’s something. But we aren’t getting any closer.”
“I think they’re right, too. Pickin’ up our trash might not be super helpful. We need a different tactic.”
Regan was angry, and she had a point. But she was also worried, and they didn’t need to worry about us. We’d been in worse situations than that. Though, Kaso wasn’t the only one who liked that they were worried.
Kaso paused in the middle of the street and turned to face me. “Maybe we need to take something completely off their plate. Handle it start to finish?”
“Bag ‘em an’ tag ‘em?” I nodded. “I like it.”
Kaso smirked. “Exactly. . . Bag ‘em an’ tag ‘em.”