Page 5 of Empire of Carnage
“I’m gonna do more than kill them,” she rasped out, her teeth coated in crimson as she spoke her curse into the world. “I’m going to tear them apart until Death herself can’t recognize them. I’m going to ruin their souls, so la Flaquita refuses to take them into the comfort of her embrace and usher them into the afterlife.”
Her gaze hardened into a look I didn’t recognize from her.
This wasn’t the woman I knew.
But I had the feeling I wanted to get to know her as well.
3
Mateo
There was nothing that made you want to die more than that feeling between lucid and unconscious being disturbed by the frustrating sounds of hospital machinery. The beeping piled on top of the obnoxious nagging of a woman you didn’t love, trying to wake you up from a heavy dream was more than any person on the verge of crossing over could tolerate.
“Kane. Wake up, Kane. Mateo, Mateo.” She shook at my shoulders until I could no longer ignore her. “I really need you to come back to me buddy, you’re scaring me.”
“Ugh, let me fucking sleep Emory.” I pushed her hand off me only to feel a deep soreness pulling at my stomach. “Fuck,” I wheezed, opening my eyes to the sterile white walls and fluorescent bulbs of one of the rooms in Saint Murphy’s intensive care unit.
“Thank fuck,” she said in that subtle Irish accent. “I’ve been trying to wake you up all day, Mateo. I thought you weren’t coming back from that one.”
“From what one? What happened?” I groaned out, trying to sit myself up but she stopped me.
“Don’t move, you’re still recovering from surgery. I pulled a bullet out of your stomach. You’re lucky it didn’t hit any organs, but they found you bleeding out on the grass, and you needed a lot of blood. I can’t believe you’re actually alive right now.”
She couldn’t hold back her emotions, the tears streaming down her face as she clasped her hands together, almost in prayer.
“We lost so many of you.” She shook her head.
Then everything came back to me.
The party. Celia in that fucking sexy as hell dress, sandwiched between me and Ronan. Los fucking Muertos infiltrating the Black Crow headquarters and shooting down more than half our men.
“Fuck,” I groaned, trying to sit up once again, but the Doc placed her hands heavy on my shoulders to stop me.
“I mean it Mateo, I will sedate you again now that I know you’re not brain dead,” she warned me.
“Where is everyone?” I said, my voice hoarse and dry. “How long have I been out?”
“It’s been five days. Like I said, you lost a lot of blood. The Crows that are left made their way to the Diablos Locos compound.” She looked apologetic, like she was trying to empathize but with something of this magnitude it was too hard.
“Where are Ronan and Santos? Where’s Cecilia?”
“We didn’t find her body or Santos’.” She slipped a medical glove on her right hand before following suit with the left. “Ronan...” She wiped her eyes with the back of her forearms, trying to hide her tears from me.
“Where is he?” I asked her, panicking at the thought of our girl missing and the thought of Los Muertos having taken Santos home.
“Ronan is still sedated.” She reassured me at the sight of me visibly unraveling from the possibilities. “Taylor found him with two bullets in his stomach, bleeding out. You lost more blood, but he was worse off. With his temperament, I knew better than to wake the giant up before he was healed enough to go out destroying the villages,” she said.
She checked my vitals, running the cold stethoscope over my bare skin and jotting notes down onto her chart like she could so easily disregard my urgency.
“Unplug me Doc.”
“You need more fluids Mateo. What do you think you’re going to do if I let you out of here?”
“I’m gonna get my girl back.” I gripped her wrist in my hand, tugging her towards me to let her know this wasn’t negotiable.
“I thought she was Zerkos’ girl?” she asked, a frown forming on her face while her confusion challenged me.
“Then you better wake him the fuck up too,” I said, leaning close.
