“Give me ten minutes. I may not have my ability, but I can still take this guy.”
“Even if you could go Berserk, I still wouldn’t want you to go in there alone, it’s not about that,” I snap angrily. “I thought Grim was going to blink in, drop the amulet, and get away so you could kill him.” I look around.
“That was when we thought we had the element of surprise. He knew we were coming, expected us,” Calix counters.
“I don’t like it.” Everything in me is telling me not to let him go inside, especially not alone, but I feel like I don’t really have a choice. I expect them to trust me, so I need to trust them too.
“Ten minutes,” Gunnar pleads, sensing my indecisiveness. “He won’t expect that,” he whispers, turning his back to the house. “I’ll head into the woods, backtracking until I can get around to the other side of the house. You guys do something to distract him, call his attention to your group, he won’t even realize I’m not with you.”
“We can do that.” Calix balls his hands into fists, accepting the challenge.
“Here, take this.” Gunnar hands over a small square to Calix. The silver metal glints as he turns it over then looks up at Gunnar.
“If I’m not out in ten minutes, make sure he has to come out, plus it should break the wards.”
“You want him to light the fucking house on fire?” I hiss.
Gunnar shrugs. “I should survive it, and we don’t have an accelerant. It will take a while to get going.”
“This place is a hundred years old and entirely made of wood. It’ll go up like a fucking bonfire!”
“We’re wasting time,” Grim states, ignoring my comment.
“You better figure something else out, because we are not burning that building if you’re inside it.” I will not budge on this.
“Then I guess I better just kill him quickly.” Gunnar smiles then reaches for me, planting a bruising kiss on my lips. When he tears his mouth from mine, he’s still smiling. He gets off on this shit. If I didn’t feel like he was in danger, I probably would too, but I’m too worried about him.
“Why don’t we just light it up now? He would still have to come out, right?” Gunnar tilts his head to the side. His face is still close enough to mine so I can see when his eyes go a little unfocused.
“I guess I’m just used to running into trouble, not waiting for it to come to me,” he admits without shame.
“Maybe there is something else we can do.” Calix looks down at the Zippo lighter in his hand.
* * *
Not knowingif Antonio has eyes on us or not, we emerge into the clearing where the house sits. We don’t try to hide our presence at all, but Gunnar stays back in the woods, moving slowly around to the other side of the house. A black car comes into view, parked near the small front porch.
It’s sleek, and while not anything as special as Betty, it still pains me to know what we’re about to do to it. Calix’s shirt has already been ripped into shreds, and he has the fabric fisted in his hand. With one quick jab, he breaks the driver’s side window. Holding up the ribbons of material, he ignites the ends and tosses them quickly into the car.
Calix jogs backward, watching as black smoke starts billowing out of the vehicle. The smell is wretched, but I don’t see any flames, just heavy smoke. “Fucking leather seats. I got some on the floor, so it’s going to take a minute to get going,” he mutters, sliding the lighter into his front pocket.
Movement from the house catches my attention. Did that curtain just move or was it my imagination? That’s right, dumbass, watch what we’re doing.
Within moments, the area around the back of the house lightens as the flames Gunnar took with him catch fire. I was right, the place goes up like a match while the car fire is still struggling to smolder.
I hate that Gunnar is away from us, but we needed eyes on the other side of the structure in case Antonio tries to escape that way.
My body feels tense, poised for a fight, even though the only way things will get physical for me is if shit goes really bad, and I’m not planning on that happening. I scan the house inch by inch, waiting for the asswipe to manifest like a fucking magician, but nothing happens for several long minutes. I start to shift from left to right. “Where is he?” Fuck, maybe lighting the place up was a bad idea. “He couldn’t have gotten away, right?”
“Give it time,” Calix says calmly.
The roof of the house starts to billow black smoke. I lift my forearm to shield my face from the heat. It’s hot as hell, and we’re standing back several feet. The noise of the fire grows to a roar, until it sounds like a freight train bearing down on us as the flames engulf the building.
Finally, the front door crashes open, and at that exact moment, I hear a scream echo from Gunnar. The figure coming from the house is much too small to be him, so I search the area, wondering where it could have originated from.
He lets out another howl, this one filled with pain, but the noise cuts off all too quickly as if something took his voice.
The figure at the door walks out slowly, as if fire isn’t chasing him. Every inch of my skin crawls when I see him. “Boogey?” I mutter hesitantly. I’m so completely confused as to why he would be here.
