Devon Monk - Hell Bent

We knew who we were up against: Krogher. We didn’t know his position in the government yet, nor what his plan, his final plan was for the modified magic users he had controlled.

They had taken Davy, one of our own. And we all agreed that would not stand.

And Eli . . .

Well, no one talked to me about Eli. They didn’t have to. I had my own plans for him.

Because I had a promise to keep.

In the meantime, I tried to smile at the appropriate moments, nodded like I was listening, and dug deep to be the Shame they all needed me to be, not the monster they refused to believe I had become.

When Terric said he was tired, I got up, said my good-byes to my mum and Hayden, then Allie and Zay.

Allie suddenly went domestic on us—this baby business made her weird—and insisted she had to wrap up leftovers for us to take. I left her and Terric to their girl talk in the kitchen.

I needed silence. Rain. Darkness. I needed away from my mother, and all of my friends.

Zay walked with me out to the car.

The rain had let up, but everything was wet, cold. I lit a cigarette and leaned against the hood of Terric’s car.

“How you holding up?” I asked him.

Yes, he looked surprised.

“Victor was a father to you, Zay. I know that,” I said softly.

Zay nodded. There was a stiffness to his shoulders, like there was a pain he hadn’t quite figured out how to breathe around.

Welcome to the club.

“I’m dealing,” he said. He came over and leaned on the hood next to me.

I offered him a cigarette.

He took it. Now it was my turn to look surprised.

“Everything really okay with Allie?” I asked as I flicked my thumb over my lighter for him.

He sucked heat into the cigarette, held the smoke for a moment, exhaled with a nod. “We think so. Dr. Fisher is keeping a very close eye on her. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, not even after we broke magic.”

“Good,” I said, meaning it. “That’s good.”

We smoked for a while staring up at the house, the trees beyond it, listening to the river rushing by behind us.

“Did you love her?” he finally asked.

“I barely knew her.” It had become my stock answer. A parry Terric and Dash and most other people who had asked me that very same question would not engage with.

Zay wasn’t most people.

“So you loved her.”

“I thought I did.”

“Did she love you back?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Then, since he waited me out, “Yes.”

“You’re going to hunt him down, aren’t you, Shame?”

I inhaled smoke, exhaled. We both knew who he was talking about: Eli.

“Yes,” I said. “You won’t want to get in my way, Zay.”

He shook his head. “Wouldn’t dream of it. But if I can be there to hold him down while you pull his lungs out of his chest, I will be.”

Terric said no one knew me better than him. I thought he might be wrong about that. Zay understood. Understood pain. Understood love. Understood vengeance. Understood me.

“Call me if you need me,” he went on. “Any day, anytime. And I’ll be at your side.” The door opened and Zay finished his cig, tossing it to the ground.

“Thanks,” I said. “But you need to take care of Allie. Of both of them. Of your family.”

“I take care of all my family, Shame,” he said, pushing off the car and walking away with that alpha swagger of his. “My family includes you.”

Terric was walking down the steps. Allie waited for Zay just inside the doorway, the light of their home framing her.

“Zay,” Terric said.

“Don’t let him forget we hate the bastard too,” Zay said.

Terric gave me a quizzical look as Zay passed him.

I just shrugged. “Fatherhood makes him sentimental.”

I heard Zayvion chuckle as he walked up the steps.

I took Terric to the office because he wanted to talk to Clyde. For a guy who had been fired, he sure spent a lot of his time at his not-job. Dash promised to take him home.

We’d gotten a hit on that syringe Victor had been holding. Turns out there was only one pharmaceutical company that could manufacture the mix of chemicals it contained. And we had hopes that since Eli was using it, we could track the purchase to Eli, or the people keeping him.

More importantly, that we could track it back to where Davy was being held.

I hit a bar at noon, left before one. Ordered a beer, but only took a couple drinks off it. Eleanor sat across the table from me, still and patient, but I was restless. So I walked the streets for a while, wandering. Aimless. Then a while turned into hours, and I found myself at Victor’s place.

I stood there, hands in my pockets, staring at his front door. Imagined him opening it and telling me to come in. Walked up, pulled the key I’d had made years ago without him knowing about it, unlocked the door, and stepped in.

The late-afternoon light fell through windows. His home looked like his home, felt like his home. I walked through every room except the bedroom. Couldn’t bring myself to going back in there.

Thought about stealing one of his books, or knickknacks, or something to keep as my own before whoever was in charge of his estate vultured down on the place.

Found myself at his desk in the corner of the living room. Ran my fingers over the closed rolltop. Opened it. There were two files neatly stacked there, a fountain pen—so very Victor—and his computer.

I was surprised the police hadn’t confiscated all this. Figured Clyde had put the kibosh on that. After all, we didn’t need an investigation. We knew who killed Victor and why. The carvings on his body had been verified as Eli’s signature by several Hounds.

I flipped open the folder. Lost my breath at the picture. Blue eyes that knew you were watching her, looking at her. Red hair, pale skin. And that smile.

Dessa.

I waited until the knife stopped twisting in my heart. Blinked until the text on the page made English again.

He’d had a file on Dessa? Why hadn’t he given it to me? I took it, looked at the file beneath it. That one was on her on her brother, Thomas. I took that too.

Then I closed his desk. Eleanor hovered near a bookshelf.

“Do you want something?” I asked.

She turned to me, startled I’d spoken to her. Wow, how out of it had I been?

“Pick one. We can bring it back tomorrow.”

She nodded, chose a slim poetry volume. I pulled it out and pocketed it. And hell, since I was in a burglarizing mood, I picked up a small frame on his fireplace mantel. It was a picture of Zay, Terric, and me, back when we were lads, laughing, and a much younger Victor laughing right along with us.

Rare, that.

Mine now.

I left, locked the door behind me. Was not about to walk all the way home, so I caught the MAX to the bar where I’d left my car, removed the parking ticket from under my windshield wiper, threw it into the gutter, then drove home.

It was dark by the time I rolled up to the inn, but the place was open, busy. I tried to remember what day of the week it was. No luck. Went inside, ordered whatever the special of the day was, took it up to my room.

The ferret was sleeping in the little hammock strung at the top of the cage. I’d tried to take him down to the animal shelter, but at the last minute found myself setting up his cage in my room, doing research on what to feed him, and getting Eleanor’s promise she’d help me keep an eye on him. He was staying with me for now.

I spent some time eating and reading over the files. When I was done with that, I showered, then brought the book Eleanor had wanted to bed and turned pages for her while I smoked and thought.

I had set the picture of Victor, Terric, Zay, and me on the table by my bed and noticed something wasn’t right about the back of it.