Chapter 27 #2
Before I could say anything, I was hit with another vision. This one so quick I’d barely moved. When it vanished, I smiled at Shorty.
“I know what happened to Julian.” I forced out a laugh, drawing my audience. “You won’t believe it.”
Pink gun guy was frowning at me now. Which meant he was pointing his pink/dusty rose/shoots-like-any-other-gun at me. Shorty readjusted his aim as well.
There was only the nervy guy left, whose attention wavered between the workers and us. The wolves had already spread apart to make keeping track of them difficult.
Shorty sighed but asked, “What happened to Julian?”
“A giant ate him.” I smiled. The ceiling above us rumbled, making the ancient chandelier wobble.
“Who else is here?”
“Just Barry.” I shrugged. Regge moved another step. His hand was on the counter now.
“Tell him to get down here,” Shorty ordered.
“Oh, he’s coming. Don’t worry.” I braced.
With a terrifying roar, Barry thundered down the stairs in two giant leaps.
All three guns fired in his direction. The worker wolves went into action, taking down the nervous kid, ripping his gun out of his hand and his jugular out of his neck in seconds.
I dove around Shorty and army crawled my way to the front desk as shrieks and growls erupted in the room. Regge leaped over the counter, retrieved the sword, and attacked. Pink gun guy lost his gun and hand in one fell swoop. He screamed, holding the bloody stump to his chest.
Shorty was backhanded into the wall by a pissed-off giant. I ran for his dropped gun, scooping it up and holding it on him.
“Barry? You okay?” I asked, glancing over at the stairs where Barry had landed on his butt.
“I’s got these pesky pellets in me. I kinnae get them out.” The big man fussed over his bloody shirtfront.
“Hang on,” Regge said. “Stop this guy bleeding all over my hotel, please.” He nodded at the wolves who circled the handless man. Pery was up and moving by now and picked up the pink gun, tucking it into his waistband. Regge moved toward me, helping me up. He kept the sword at his side. “You okay?”
I nodded. “What are we going to do now?” We both looked at Shorty. “If they’re dead, they can’t bother us anymore.”
“The boss will just send more,” Shorty said, his eyes not leaving Barry.
His hands raised, he half rose to a sitting position.
“Is he for real? And the others?” He glanced across the lobby at the wolves, half of whom had fully shifted to their wolf form.
“Jesus God. Am I having a psychotic break?” He jerked his head at the giant. “Did he… ah… did he really eat Julian?”
Barry, who was not at all prone to cannibalism, frowned at him. “Och, everyone’s a bleedin’ critic.” He sat gingerly on the third step, holding a handkerchief the size of a dish towel to his chest.
“That was a few weeks ago, so he’s probably hungry again,” I snarked at Shorty. “Who’s after Julian?”
“The new boss. Castenada’s lieutenant. Wants to make an example,” Shorty said. “Look, can I help Jake?” He nodded at his wounded friend, holding a bar towel around his wrist.
Regge had one of the workers grab the detached hand and put it in a baggie on ice. Skylar, still sporting claws, went to check out Barry.
“So what are you going to tell this new boss?”
Shorty couldn’t do much for Jake, so he simply sat beside him as one of our workers duck-taped the towel to slow the bleeding.
“Julian was a good guy. Better than the boss most of the time. But I just do what I’m told.
It’s a clusterfuck up in Jersey. The old man’s dead, so’s Ramon.
The lieutenant in charge is an asshole at the best of times, and this ain’t the best of times.
If Julian’s dead, I need a body or something. I need proof.”
I thought for a moment. “What about blood? If you showed him a huge amount of blood and could prove it was Julian’s, would that work? We want nothing to do with you guys.”
Regge lowered the sword. “Take your guy and go. Get this one to a hospital. Make up some industrial accident story for his injury and we’ll see about getting proof.
Come back to the rear entrance in an hour.
Just you. I’m not partial to killing someone in cold blood, but you did threaten my partner. ”
Shorty raised his hands. “Yeah, I got ya. But I can’t hold off the boss for long.”
“What about Andrew?” Jake looked at the body of the third gunman.
“Were sorry about him,” I said. But I was also grateful we hadn’t installed the new carpeting.
“No. We’re not,” said Pery. “But you can have the body.” He turned to his guys. “Let’s wrap him up in some drop cloths.”
Regge looked at Shorty. “We done here?”
Shorty nodded, looking at the gun in my hand. I emptied the chamber and handed it back to him. Regge escorted them to the front door while I went to check on Barry.
“Barry, my man. You were awesome. You okay? I’ll call Ziggy, see if we can’t get you patched up.”
“I’m getting most of them.” Skylar pulled a bullet from Barry’s hairy chest and held it between her claws. “Barry’s hide is so tough the bullets are more like scatter shot, so just under the surface. I don’t think anything got through to do serious damage.”
“Am I ginna hae a scar, d’ye reckon?” He looked worried.
Skylar smiled up at him. “I think you’ll be just as handsome as ever.”
Barry blushed as he mumbled, “Och, I’m nae some braw lad, me.”
I’d found the first aid kit when Regge came back. He crouched in front of Barry and Skylar on the stairs.
“I’ve called Theo,” he said. “He’ll be here when Shorty gets back.
We still have the bloody sheets from when Ziggy worked on Julian.
I’ll have one of the guys dig them out of the dumpster.
Between that and a little psychic suggestion from Theo, Shorty should have a solid story for his boss. One that he’ll believe himself.”
“You think that will be the last of them?” Pery joined us.
Regge nodded. “Theo once convinced twelve men and a coroner that the man they were burying was Christopher Marlowe. Yet Marlowe is alive and living in the here and now. We really need to draw as little attention as possible.”
“Ah’m sorry,” Barry mumbled. “I’m too damned big, too clumsy.”
“Barry.” I patted him on the arm. “You saved us all. Thank you. And we need our electrician, so you’re sticking around, okay?”
The giant sniffed and nodded.
“Why did the guns work?” Pery asked. “I thought this place was warded.”
“It was,” I said. But they must have worn off. I’m not an expert. Theo can redo my sigil work. That should put things right.”
Regge smiled at me. “I’ll add it to our punch list. Everybody else okay?” At nods and smiles, he grinned. “Pery?”
“Yeah, Boss. I’m fine,” Pery answered. “I’ll have one of the guys keep a lookout from now on.”
Regge nodded. “Good. Thanks. Back to work, everyone.” He turned to me. “Now, where were we?”
We headed to the basement. This time we descended the stairs and hallway together.
“Kenny? You down here?” Regge called out. There was no answer.
“Yeah, only Nigel could get Kenny to show up, I think. Still, he keeps things running.”
“I think what we were looking for is here.” Regge stopped in front of an aluminum panel the size of a medicine cabinet. Painted the same dingy gray as the wall, it would be easily overlooked. He popped it with the side of his fist. The door sprang open.
Inside was a rock. The size of a softball, irregular-shaped, dark and rough.
“Wow, that is so underwhelming.” I squinted at it, hoping for more.
Regge snickered. “Touch it. I dare you.”
I recoiled. “No way. You touch it.”
He grinned as he extended a finger into the space. He got about an inch away from the rock when a tiny blue arc leaped out to zap his finger. Jerking back, he swore.
I laughed but grabbed his finger and kissed it better. “See? It’s never a dull minute around here, is it?”
“Nope.” Regge smiled at me.
“Thank you for trusting me with, well, everything.”
“Remember that conversation we had about normal? About people doing ordinary everyday things and it being fun. That it was great because they had someone to do all those mundane things with?”
I nodded. “Yes. Someone that made everything—even the shit things—better, just because they loved you.”
“You are that for me, Hunter. My person to do all the ordinary shit with. And the not-so-ordinary shit too. We’re getting better at that, I think.
There’s no one else I’d rather have by my side in dealing with wolves and giants and mobsters.
” Regge stepped into my arms. “And I love you.” Those last words were murmured into the fleece of my hoodie.
I leaned back so I could look at him. “I love you. More.”
“More? I doubt it.”
“Don’t even doubt it. So not only do I love you more but also for longer. Definitely, I’ve loved you for longer.”
“It’s not a competition.”
“It’s not?” I kissed those perfect lips.
“No. Because you’d lose. Because, HB, Hunter Bruce Hunter. You are my everything.”