Page 49 of Fangs & Freaks
Damon tilts his head slightly, his eyes narrowing. “As you wish,” he says in that emotionless tone, and then he disappears, vanishing into the hall like a shadow.
I walk over to the pinball machine and start fiddling with the buttons, watching the lights flash as I try to ignore the gnawing tension in my chest. It doesn’t help. Nothing does. I’m just waiting, waiting for the moment when Bellonna comes for me, or when I’ll finally get to do something that matters.
The clattering noise of the pinball machine fades into the background as my mind wanders.
Bellonna.
I can’t get her out of my head. Her eyes, that fiery look she gets when she’s pissed off, the way her lips curl when she smiles, like she knows exactly what’s going to happen next. That damned woman owns me, in ways I can’t even explain. And I’m not sure what’s worse; that I let her, or that I don’t mind one bit.
A soft noise draws my attention. I turn my head to see the food Damon left on the table by the couch. A lobster grilled cheese sandwich with a Pepsi sitting beside it. Just as I requested. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until now, the smell of the grilled cheese goodness teasing my senses. I sit down at the table and start to eat, shoveling the food in my mouth as I try to calm the chaos of thoughts inside my head.
After I finish the sandwich, I turn on a movie to pass the time. Something to distract me, if only for a little while. But even as the film plays, my mind keeps circling back to the mission, to Bellonna and Vienna. Then it hits me—sharp and sudden.What about Blackwell and Warrick?They’re just as important, just as deserving of my thoughts.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, focusing on the plan. They’ll get her. They’ll save her. I don’t care how long it takes, or how many obstacles stand in our way.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Bellonna
We materializeon the shadowy edge of the sprawling field, in a plume of swirling red and black smoke. The smell hits me immediately—a vile mix of brimstone and decay, sharp and acrid, like the aftertaste of a curse. Even after three hundred years, I still haven’t gotten used to it.
Warrick and Blackwell stumble forward, coughing, swatting at the dissipating tendrils of smoke, trying to move the vile obscenity as far from them as they can. Warrick inhales sharply, grimacing as he does. “Oh, for the love of—whatisthat smell?” he rasps, his hand covering his nose and mouth. “Did we just walk through the bowels of Hell?”
“Stop being a baby. You act as if you don’t smell like death and decay yourself.” I’d hate to ever see him with an actual kid. He’d probably puke the instant the kid shit its pants.
“I didn’t. You must have covered it up with some of your voodoo shit, or the stench of Hell was masking it.” He continues to cough, holding tightly to his stomach. If he keeps up with this act, he’s going to alert the guards to our presence.
Blackwell steps up next to him, smacking him on his back. I get ready for much of the same theatrics from him, but his reaction is more subdued. He blinks a few times, brushing an invisible fleck of ash from his shoulder as he sniffs the air. “It’s not the worst thing I’ve smelled.” His voice is dry, though his nose twitches involuntarily. “But it’s certainly in the top three. That whore with the open, oozing wound on her face that wanted me to lick it and then eat her pussy still has the top spot.”
Fuck me, now I’m going to be sick!
I put my hands on my hips, glaring at both of them, my dark eyes narrowing on them. “Oh, grow up, the both of you,” I snap. “You’d think after all the death and carnage you’ve dealt with, you’d be a little more tolerant of a slightly unsavory smell.”
“Slightly. Slightly!” Warrick barks. “Maybe after three hundred years it’s fried your sense of smell, because there’s nothing slight about it.” He scowls as he flashes his fangs at me. “I tolerate a lot, Bellonna. This? This is a personal attack on my senses.”
“Maybe you should stop breathing, then,” Blackwell interjects, smirking as he leans casually against the brick stones making up the outer wall of the two story church. “Problem solved.”
“I don’t breathe, you fucking moron. But I can permanently end you.” Warrick straightens his body to his full height and I shake my head at these two bickering like kids.
“Not until I find out about reincarnation. I told you I have plans to come back as a cock-pussy.”
“Can the two of you fucking cut it out? We have work to do. In that fucking building…” I wave my hands frantically at the two story brick building, my hands trailing all the way up to the steeple that seems to touch the moon as the light cascades down on it. “is my mate's sister, and she’s waiting for us to rescueher. So either you’re coming with me, or staying out here and bickering like an old married couple. Which is it?”
“That’s right, we’re here for a reason and it's not to risk our necks while smelling like burned demon farts, Warrick. Get over the smell. It’s not that bad, and you might as well get used to it. It’s part of Bloody and she ain’t going nowhere,” Blackwell pipes in and I give him a flirty wink.
Maybe I’ll treat him with a replay of that cock-pussy encounter tonight.
“Ass kisser,” Warrick mumbles under his breath. “So who’s going here?”
I roll my eyes at them and take a step forward, the soft crunch of the grass under my boots the only sound. My gaze fixes on the church, taking in the ostentatious structure, my thoughts drifting to the task at hand. Despite the banter about the smell of my smoke, I can feel the tension rolling off both of the fangbangers, flowing through the air in an almost palpable wave. They may not have liked the way I transported them, but they like the enemy waiting inside the church even less.
My eyes drift around the land, memories of happier times with my father, family, and at the time who I thought were my friends, flood my mind. But nothing that was before remains. I made sure of that. I was never going to let my family's home be tainted by such vile souls. Even for how briefly they were meant to live. I can’t help but smirk at the irony of the situation. The idiots built their precious church here on the very land that they signed their death warrants on. The time has come to call that debt in and pay the balance due. Too bad they don’t even know that tonight is the end of the line for them. There’s no shortcut around their deaths this time.
“Why aren’t we inside?” Warrick asks. “Why put us outside, when you could’ve easily landed us inside the church? Save us some time and work.”
“Because, my dim-witted one, it would draw attention to us,” I reply, my tone sharp enough to slice through his impatience. “We don’t know where Vienna is being held inside. Popping in blindly, not knowing who we’ll surprise in the process, puts us at a disadvantage. It limits our ability to attack and catch them off guard. It’s Military Tactics 101—you should take the course sometime.”
Blackwell bursts out laughing, the sound obnoxious, while Warrick just glares at me, his expression as stiff as ever. He obviously doesn’t get my sense of humor or my straightforwardness. His loss, not mine. Maybe one day he’ll get that stick out of his ass and come around.
