Page 90 of Devil Bound
The smith was crying quietly while pressing his body against the wall opposite the curtain.I heard a chain rattle.He was duct taped and shackled same as I was, magical peas in a heavily warded pod.
When Mitch looked at me with his bloodlust barely hidden behind his eyes, something odd happened.I had a sort of out-of-body experience.I left my body, and then I was looking down at myself, scrawny-assed me cowering on the bleached-clean yet filthy floor, being looked down on by the man who wanted to murder and do heavens knew what else to me.
Except…I did know what else he would do.He’d asked about magic.He’d been interested in the coin.He’d been so damn nice to me.That was because he’dwantedme, except not in the way I had thought.
Mitch had burned Lily, and Mitch had murdered all those people in the salt marshes.In my moment of preternatural clarity, I saw all of that.The parts of all the bodies I had examined came together into what and who they had been, and each of them pointed at Mitch.I saw Lily too, wreathed in fire, her accusing finger aimed at Mitch while her flame eyes met mine.They had all been magic users, and Mitch had killed them for that.I didn’t know how I knew all of that, but I did.
And he enjoyed it,I “heard,” and knew it was Joanne Frazer telling me this.It wasn’t my necromancy that showed me these truths, giving me these hallucinations.Maybe it was all in my head, my mind preparing me for what was to come.Maybe it was the aftereffects of whatever Mitch had dosed me with.
All I knew was that I would end up like them, like all the other magic users.Worse, maybe.After all, there were so many ways to kill a witch, according to cruel superstition, and I got the sense Mitch knew all of them, had researched them.Gotten off on them, maybe.
The out-of-body thing ended, leaving me lightheaded and sagging against the tiles.
“You can’t get away with this,” I told him.My voice sounded weak.
Mitch’s eyes twinkled.“Don’t try your magic on me, witch.That won’t work here.”Yeah, he was a crazy motherfucker all right.
I wiggled my arms.I was beginning to feel pins and needles in my hands.“Mitch, I work with you.You know me.Don’t do this.”
Mitch took two quick steps toward me, then he kicked me in the side.I gasped for air even as I rolled into a ball.The chain pulled against my ankle, the noise of it scraping over the tiles a promise of worse things to come.
“You’re not human, witch, and I will make you face your wicked ways and repent.”He crouched and grabbed a handful of my hair with his gloved hand.“In the end, your soul will thank me.”
“Souls…aren’t real,” I spat out, struggling to get breath into my lungs.I hoped my ribs would have time to bruise.
His eyes were lit with the unnatural fire of zealotry.“You will doubt no more once I have shown you.”He let go of me and walked over to the counter.“You’ll watch, Lionel.And then maybe you’ll understand.”I heard him pick something up with a scrape of metal against metal.Mitch turned, and the scalpel in his hand reflected the light.“If I could just cut all the wickedness out of you and be done with it, I would.If I could make you normal, I would.I’m doing this for you, for the good of everyone.”
He walked over to the smith, who let out a pitiable wail.
That got the adrenaline going finally.“Hey!Wait, stop that!Leave him alone.You were talking tome.”I was not going to let the smith join the dead, not without at least trying to save him.
Mitch’s hand was on the smith’s shoulder, but he was looking at me.“I cannot stop, Lionel.For the sake of everyone.You are wicked, and you don’t even know it.You need my help.You need to be saved.”
His scalpel descended.
“No!No, wait, Mitch!”I moved as much as I could and screamed my lungs out.
I got Mitch to stop before he cut the smith.“Behave, or I’ll dose you again.”
“You don’t understand.”I swallowed against the dryness in my throat.“I need this more than him.You areso, so right about the…wickedness.I’ve always felt it, ever since…”Please, please let this work.
Mitch let go of the smith’s head, and I saw interest spark in his eyes.“Ever since what, Lionel?”
“I’ll tell you, Mitch, just please, help me first.”
Maybe, if I could just buy the smith some time, Christine would find this place and save him.I had to believe she was looking for him already, had to believe he had someone who was already missing him and demanding that the police do something.And if Mitch killed me first, he’d have to deal with my body too, so that would give the smith even more time.It was the best I could do for him.
“I will help you,” Mitch said, sounding like he actually meant that.
The hiccupy breath I took wasn’t even acting.“Yes.Please, Mitch.I always knew I needed this.Meeting you wasn’t an accident.I knew when I saw you.”
Crazy Motherfucker Mitch perked right up at that, balm for the psychopathic soul.
“Since when, Lionel?”He took a step toward me, the blade a looming threat in his hand.
“Marc Deacon.”I was trying to make it sound as if I was forcing the words out.“He and I… I seduced him.I was thirteen, he was older, just a couple of months older.I wanted to know what it would be like.The sex, you know?”
Bless Marc Deacon for leaving me with this story that kept on giving.
