You Make Me Die in Pieces Page 2

  The tasks also helped him ignore the other crap going on in his life. Most of the vampire nation was up in arms over shit that didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Mainly they were upset because his chosen consort was male, and now with Doyle’s condition worsening they were calling for Doyle to be relieved of his position, and for Michael to get his act together, take a wife, and rule them as they felt he should have done all along. Michael let his thoughts drift back to Doyle.

  What a crock! Until Doyle himself asks to be freed from his position it isn’t going to happen. I’m keeping one small part of him in my life. If they think I’m going to change who I am just to appease them all, they have another thing coming. They chose me as their king, so they’re going to have to put up with me as-is—warts and all.

  Reality crashed over Michael as Benj and Gypsy continued yammering at him. All he wanted them to do was shut up so he could ask some questions of his own. He wanted to know about Doyle. Fuck, he missed the man more than he ever thought he would. Another part of him dreaded hearing how the relationship between Doyle and Heather had strengthened.

  Heather, and how he hated her fucking name, had wormed her way into Doyle’s life the minute they’d left England and returned home to Australia. The woman was like a blood sucking parasite the way she clung to Doyle. His consort had physically gotten stronger since coming back home, but his memories of Michael apparently still eluded him.

  If Michael didn’t know any better he’d swear Doyle was somehow getting top-ups of whatever spell had been used on him, but it couldn’t be possible. In any case, if it were true then there wasn’t a damn thing Michael could do about it. To make matters worse, Michael still felt guilty over the way he, Tyler, Aggie, and Clyde had left pack grounds in their first wave of scouting missions. Unlike them, the rest of the groups were tracking down any and all information on Venetia since lately she was showing herself less and less, and even though her lackeys were attacking, her personal absence was still kind of worrying.

  No wonder Doyle was turning away from him.

  Both sides in their conflict had been shown, or should it be, had learnt many things from the time Michael and his group had spent in England. Mainly, it had given Venetia the knowledge she needed to bring the battle to their doorstep since she believed she had a chance of taking them on and winning. Another reason the bitch probably had him at the top of her hate list was because Michael wasn’t afraid of her. He wasn’t scared of taking her head-on, but even worse for her was the fact he’d been there when Christian had so easily destroyed what was left of their childhood home. Michael glanced at the ring still adorning his finger. Maybe he should give it back to Christian, or maybe even Benj should be the one to wear it, yet the last time he had tried to return the piece of jewellery, Christian had gone off his nut and told him to keep it. The ring was somehow linked to the soul they shared, and whatever it entailed.

  “Are you even listening, Mikey?” Benj snapped inside his mind, and in doing so he brought Michael back to the here and now.

  “Say again?” Michael asked when he realised he must have missed something of importance.

  Benj gave him a mental bitch slap. “I said, if you want to re-stake your claim on Sweetness, you’d better get your arse home. Mind you, I do sense something off about his relationship with Heather. Sometimes, I swear Sweetness is trying to distance himself from her. Word is though, Heather has wedding bells in sight, and Doyle doesn’t seem to be fighting hard enough to deter her.”

  Anger and sadness flowed through Michael at the speed of light. Doyle getting engaged had always been a possibility. He just hadn’t believed it would come so soon. The thought was quickly followed by a sudden burst of pain as he calmly answered, “Sweetness isn’t mine anymore. I don’t have a say in what happens to him.”

  Michael sighed long and low. “We’re planning on coming home anyway. Tyler has more than convinced me it’s time for him to be converted.” With the silence on the other end of the link, he added, “We also have one small stop to make along the way. We’ve gotten a little side-tracked watching a coven we’ve come across. These guys are as evil as fuck. Clyde and I think they’re holding hostages of the paranormal kind. There’s one kid we’ve seen who’s always restrained whenever they let him outside. He’s a vampire, but he isn’t corporeal in sunlight. He hasn’t yet tasted the blood of a wolf. None of them have, not even the coven’s members themselves. They creep me the fuck out.”

  “Mikey, what’s going on?” His sister’s voice was tinged with a sense of worry.

  “I don’t know. Something inside me says I need to rescue this kid. I get the sense he’s somehow important to our family. If we can’t get him out, I’ll need Chris to come and do the crazy-arsed, scary-as-fuck ashes thing he does so well. He may have to take out the whole coven of fuck-ups. They really don’t deserve to live.”

  “Are you sure he’s a captive?” Gypsy interrupted. “Maybe it’s some kind of kinky sex thing.”

  His irritation at her question poured through their mental link and he felt his sister tense. “Gyps, the kid I’m most worried about looks stoned out of his gourd. Besides energy drinks, what the hell would be strong enough to drug a vampire? The kid doesn’t look good at all. He’s gaunt, hell he looks anorexic. Did I mention the whole ‘he’s always tied up thing’?” Michael sighed again. “Look, I gotta go help Ty before Julian’s clean-up crew gets here. I’ll fill you in when I get home later today, or tomorrow at the latest.”

  After Gypsy and Benj faded from his mind, Michael ran a hand over his closely cropped hair, cursing as he spotted the demon corpse again. “Fuck! How the hell are we getting this piece of shit outta the hotel?”

  “Same way we always do. A small, well placed diversion, and a whole lot of luck.” Tyler knelt down beside him and began inspecting Michael from top to bottom. “Were you hurt? Did you get any cuts?”

  They’d learnt the hard way that demon blood when ingested either via the mouth or absorbed through wounds in a fight was as nasty as hell, and stung like a fricken bitch.

  Tyler kept talking. “I told Julian to make sure the bonfire was burning for us when we get home.”

  Michael knocked Tyler’s hands away as he reassured his bodyguard. “I’m cut-free, so quit worrying. All the damage was done to numbnuts over there.” In the last two months, he and Tyler Campbell had become as close as brothers. Michael liked knowing he had the man watching his back when shit got hinky. Their friendship had started out a little rocky due to Michael’s dismal attempt at flirting, but now it was stronger than ever. “Looks like you are gonna get your wish, Ty. We’re going home.” He waggled his eyebrows at Tyler. “I think you should spend some much needed time with Coby, and work out if you’re man enough to tell him how you feel about him.”

  Tyler flipped him the bird. “Since when did you turn into a bleeding teenage girl?” The smile on his face told Michael his friend was only teasing. “Why don’t you take your own advice and tell Doyle who he is to you? Take him to bed and fuck him like crazy, instead of ogling him quietly from afar?”

  “Not likely.” Michael winced as he recalled what Benj had told him. “Apparently he’s getting hitched. Benj tells me things are heating up between my Sweetness and the lovely Heather. So no matter what I want, he already has other plans.”

  “Damn!” Tyler squeezed Michael’s arm in comfort before changing the subject. “Remember back when you didn’t think he was gay and asked me out?” Tyler chuckled as he made his way around the room, double checking to make sure all their belongings were packed and ready to go. Michael didn’t answer, he kept staring at the floor as Aggie and Clyde left to gather their own gear. He didn’t want to see the sympathy in their eyes.

  Once they were out of the room, Michael joked, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why the hell would I ever want to hit on you?” He smirked, even though he’d had the same memory only moments before. Standing, he stripped and proceeded toward the bathroom to take a shower and clean himself up.

  On the way, he paused and freed his daggers from the demon corpse. The longer demon blood was left to dry the harder it was to get off. Still, it was going to be a bitch to remove the shit out of the room. Luckily for them, Clyde and Gareth had worked together and invented a solution that when sprayed on a stain erased the worst of the mess. Like all paranormal creatures, burning was the only sure fire way to completely get rid of the lifeless flesh left behind. When the others had relocated to the farm land, Jaffa had insisted they dig a deep, reinforced fire pit to take care of any and all corpses that might crop up, and lately there were more and more. The problem was the body count didn’t look to be stopping any time soon. In all honesty, Michael believed it was only going to get worse—much worse.

  After his shower, Michael quickly dried himself and his weapons off before dressing. He stepped out of the bathroom when a knock sounded on the bedroom door. Followed closely by Benj saying, “Open up, Mikey. We know you’re in there.”

  How the hell had Benj and the clean-up crew gotten there so fast? Maybe his team wasn’t the only one out on a recon mission. If so, why hadn’t they told him while inside his head? Then again, maybe they had and Michael hadn’t been listening.

  Tyler sheathed his dagger as he opened the door. He then stood to the side as six people entered the room. Among them were not only Benj, but Christian as well.

  “Benj? Babe? What are you doing here?” Michael asked as he pointed to the body the clean-up crew was here for. “You know a heads-up would have been kinda nice.”

  “Lucky for you we weren’t far away. Babe decided since we were already out with another crew, we’d jump ship and tag along with you so we can go and check out this kid you’re so worried abo
ut. He thought if we were already here and things went pear-shaped, we wouldn’t have to come back. We can take the kid and the others, and head home,” Benj said as Christian and the others went to get the demon’s remains ready to go.

  The reminder of home brought Doyle to mind. “Have they set a date?” Everyone would know without further explanation who he meant by they.

  Benj shrugged. “Heather seems to be becoming a permanent fixture at the house lately. I can tell you, it’s starting to piss more than a few people off. The more we’ve all tried to get to know her the more everyone thinks there’s something off about her. Hell, Jaffa even had her life investigated. It came back squeaky clean, but a few of us, okay maybe Gyps mostly, think she’s a little too clean. We need you at home where Doyle can see you. Heather won’t take no for an answer, and I don’t know how much longer Sweetness will last. I still get the feeling they haven’t exactly consummated their relationship, but Heather seems intent on getting them both past that hurdle in a hurry. I wouldn’t put it past her to slip something into his drink or maybe give him an energy drink to help speed things along. You know firsthand the effects those have on our kind.”

  Did he ever. Michael had long ago found out energy drinks of all kinds affected vampires the same as normal alcohol would a human.

  With an arch of his eyebrow, Michael studied Benj, who’d decided for all intents and purposes to tell people he was Gypsy and Michael’s brother because of how much alike the three Marsdens were in appearance. The Marsden twins had now become triplets. Most people naturally assumed they were siblings, and aside from having to explain Benj’s accent every once in a while, they found it easier to just go with it. There was something in Benj’s stance making Michael think there was more to the story about Doyle. “What aren’t you telling me?” If they were worrying about getting him home ASAP maybe things were worse than they were letting on.

  “The truth is,” Christian began as he walked over to join them while at the same time gesturing to Benj’s groin. “Gypsy said if we didn’t bring you home to take care of the situation at hand she’s going to feed Benj his balls. I for one like them right where they are, so you need to get your arse home and fix this problem with Doyle.” Christian frowned before adding, “Plus, now there’s this whole other problem at home. I tell you, Michael, there seem to be hangers-on galore arriving on the doorstep every day, and driving everyone to the breaking point. All these newcomers are demanding to talk to you, and I think the wolves are ready to eat them. Hell, I’m ready to let them have at it. Once or twice, I was seconds away from turning them all to dust.” Christian threw his hands in the air in apparent irritation.

  “Apparently the wolves don’t like strangers being on our lands, and neither does the rest of our family for that matter. Right now, we’re in total agreement with the wolves. These freeloaders need to go. And so you know how bad it is even Blake hates them, and the mutt usually loves everyone. He growls every time these people come anywhere near the house. Actually, Blake hates Heather most of all. The damn dog goes ballistic every time she gets anywhere near Sweetness lately. Sweetness says Heather wants us to get rid of Blake. Gyps put her foot down saying Heather could leave if she wanted but the damn dog was staying. The rest of us backed her all the way.”

  The way Christian was talking, Michael knew there was still more to be said, and he needed to work out what it was. Moving over to the nightstand, he picked up his cell phone intending to go into the bathroom to call Charm to find out what the hell was really going on, but the reality was she would probably yell at him and only tell him to get his arse home before hanging up on him. He didn’t want to connect with his sister in his mind either; it would only trigger some sort of signal for Benj to join them.

  What no one seemed to understand was lately every time he and Doyle were in the same room, they always ended up in an argument. Hence the reason Michael willingly went on so many missions. Well that, and he didn’t want to see Doyle falling in love with someone who wasn’t him. The small scene he had witnessed was well and truly enough to scar him for life.

  “Mikey, we don’t have time for you to make calls. Let’s get this over and done with. The quicker it’s done, the sooner you can go home and be there in person,” Benj insisted.

  Michael was about to argue back when Gordon, one of Jaffa’s wolves interrupted, “We’re done here.” The clean-up crew had positioned the dead demon in the wheelchair Gordon himself had arrived in earlier. The plan was to take the body out the same way.

  “There’s our bleeding cue, Babe.” Benj grabbed Christian’s hand and hauled him out of the room.

  “I take it they’re the diversion?” Michael asked as he slipped his phone into the pocket of his jeans. He noticed then the clean-up crew had already grabbed his team’s belongings, and had followed behind Benj and Christian. Turning to Tyler, he asked, “Where’s Aggie and the others?”

  “She and Julian dumped their gear in the car downstairs and took off to check out the coven we’ve been watching. Aggie had one of her gut feelings again.”

  Damn! When Aggie’s gut was talking to her bad shit usually happened. Michael hoped she was wrong.

  By the time he made it downstairs to the check-out desk, the chick behind the counter was too busy ogling Benj and Christian making out in the middle of the foyer to even notice the guy in the wheelchair wasn’t the same one who had been in it before. As soon as Michael had signed them out, he headed to the van and waited as Gordon and Lyle lifted and strapped the corpse into one of the vehicle’s seats. The next time they stopped the vehicle the demon’s body would be transferred to the secret compartment beneath the floor in the cargo hold. Michael buckled himself in and chuckled as he realised he shouldn’t be so comfortable riding around with a dead guy sitting beside to him, yet strangely, in the last three months he had gotten used to a lot of situations he shouldn’t have. Weirder still was how easily his heart was able to disengage when it came to Christian and Benj being together. He thought it would have hurt for a lot longer than it had. Eventually, he’d figured out part of the reason he was so easygoing with it all was because Benj seemed to truly make Christian happy.

  “Benj, stop macking on Babe and get your arse in the car. We’ve got places to be,” Michael sent through their mental link.

  “Spoilsport,” was sent back as Christian and Benj joined them. Michael laughed at Benj’s reply. “Where to, Mikey?”

  Michael gave directions to the coven’s location. The closer they got the more his gut twisted in anguish. He prayed it wasn’t too late to save the kid they’d been watching. He truly hated not being able to rescue the kid before now. In the past week, the kid, mind you he probably wasn’t much younger than Michael himself, had been too well guarded. Hopefully, today would be worth it…He was going to take them all out if necessary.

  “Pull up behind the green Honda Civic up ahead. We’ll walk from here. I don’t want this fucked-up coven even knowing they have visitors until we’re on their fucking doorstep.”

  When everyone had gotten out of the vehicle and the body had been stowed away in the box in the cargo area, Michael pulled Christian to the side. He needed to fill him in further. First, he spoke to one of the clean-up crew. “Keep the chair out. I dare say we’ll need it for the kid,” Michael said to Lyle before he focused on Christian again. “I’m not sure how many in there are going to need our help. For the most part, we reckon the coven is made up of a group of sadistic bastards, and by that I mean pure evil. I truly believe they need to have their existence snuffed out. Once we get inside, we’ll have to work out which ones need rescuing and which ones need to die.”

  As they approached the house, Aggie and Julian were already waiting for them. “We need to get in there, Michael,” Julian said urgently as soon as they were within hearing distance. “Someone’s been screaming for over… hey? Where the hell’s he going?”