My Maddie (Hades Hangmen 8)

I tensed, baring my fucking teeth as Rider dropped to his knees on the other side of Maddie. “GET THE FUCK AWAY!” I ordered, holding her closer. “I will kill you. Touch her and I will kill you.”

“She’s breathing, Flame,” Rider said slowly. I stilled.

I shook my head. “She’s dead. The flames killed her. She’s dead. They’re both dead. Like Mama and Isaiah. They’re both gone.” The pain that cut through me made me curl forward and gasp for breath.

“Flame. She’s breathing. She’s alive. Let me look at her.” The sirens got louder. I saw blue lights coming along the road to the club. “She needs to go to the hospital. She needs immediate help.”

“Flame. Let him look. He can help her,” AK said. I choked on a cry that came from my throat. When I looked up, everyone was looking at me.

“Please, Flame,” Mae begged. Mae and Bella came forward to stand near Maddie. They were both crying. “Please, let him look at her,” Mae said. I looked down at Maddie. I didn’t want to let her go. I couldn’t fucking let her go.

Rider came closer. “I’m just gonna check her pulse.” I clenched my jaw as he put his fingers on her neck. His eyes lowered as he concentrated. “It’s weak, but it’s there.” Her leaned down and listened to her breathing. “She needs the hospital. Now.” Rider jumped up when the ambulance and fire truck pulled into the compound. I stared down at Maddie, keeping her close to my chest. I didn’t want to touch her, to make it worse. But I couldn’t let her go. I couldn’t ever let her go. She was mine. My Maddie. She couldn’t die. She couldn’t fucking die.

“Brother,” AK said. “We need to get her into the ambulance.” I saw the paramedics getting closer. I held on tighter. The flames ignited in my blood and I snarled at anyone who tried to come fucking near.

“I’ll kill them. I’ll fucking kill them,” I threatened. “If they touch her, I’ll rip out their spines.” I shook with rage, glaring at the paramedics coming closer. I knew what they were like. They’d tied me to a bed. I didn’t want Maddie being tied to a bed.

“Flame. For fuck sake. She needs to go to the hospital,” Ky said. “You have to let her go.”

“I’m not letting them take her. She can’t fucking go!” I hissed, clutching on to Maddie. I caught AK nodding at someone behind me. I went to look at who it was, when someone grabbed my throat from behind, cutting off my breathing.

“Get the fuck off him!” Ash’s voice cut sailed into my ears. I gripped onto Maddie, but I started seeing black spots, felt my arms getting weak.

“I’m so sorry, brother,” AK said and took Maddie out of my hands.

“NO!” I tried to scream as I fought against the arm around my throat.

“She needs help, brother. I’ll take you straight to her. You’ll be with her. But you gotta let them help.” The flames in my blood were so hot they were a fucking inferno. I fought and fought the arm around my neck as I watched Maddie be put into the back of the ambulance. Bella and Mae went in with her. The doors closed and I screamed. I screamed and screamed until the dark spots started clouding my vision. I felt something prick my arm. “MADDIE!” I yelled, but my voice was gradually cut off. “MADDIE! MADDIE! MADDIE…” Then the darkness took me down.

*****

I felt them before I opened my eyes. They were hotter and more scalding than ever before. I sank my nails into my skin, hissing when some of the flames escaped. But it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t fucking stand it. My veins had collapsed. The fire was everywhere in my body.

My head was a fog. But I knew I needed to remember something. There was a crack in my chest so deep that I couldn’t fucking breathe. A stabbing in my gut that told me that something was wrong. I slammed my fist into the side of my head, trying to make myself think. I froze when I remembered the flames. I felt the burns on my skin… my heart beating too fucking fast… Maddie… MADDIE…

I sat up, needing to fucking find her. I checked around me. My eyes were still stinging from the smoke. My pulse was too fast, my hot blood pumping through my body, setting every organ within me on fire. Fire. There was a fire… and Maddie… Maddie was…

I roared, remembering her laying limp in my arms. Her eyes were closed, her body wasn’t moving. She wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t looking at me. She wasn’t smiling at me or holding my hand. She was dead. My Maddie… she was dead. Someone had taken her from me. Someone had fucking touched me. My eyes blurred as I thought of Maddie. Agony twisted inside of me. Maddie was dead. She was gone… My Maddie was gone.

“Flame.” I heard someone call my name. But I couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t focus. Maddie was dead. Maddie… Maddie… Maddie was gone… “Flame! Brother. Focus.” I blinked away the water from my eyes. My body had turned numb. I couldn’t feel a fucking thing. I looked down at my hands. They were red and blistered. And they were empty. Maddie was no longer in them.

She had gone. My Maddie… she had gone, left me… I’d killed her too… the evil in my veins had killed her too. I choked on something clogging my throat. The baby... I had killed our baby. Maddie loved it so much.

I felt my body shutting down. I felt my muscles weakening and my bones starting to ache. “Flame. Keep it together. I need to speak to you.” But the voice didn’t get through to my brain. Instead, I let my body start to die too. I wouldn’t live without Maddie. She would get heaven. I would get hell. I didn’t care, I didn’t care if I burned for eternity…

“Flame. She’s alive.” I rocked back and forth, seeing her pale face in my head, her eyes that were closed as I’d held her. Her arms had fallen to her side when I tried to wake her up. “Fuck!” the voice said. Then someone touched me. “Vike! Don’t—”

The minute I felt a hand on my shoulder, an inferno blazed in my gut and I turned and gripped whoever it was by the throat. No one could fucking touch me. I killed everyone who ever tried. I was evil. Devil-created. Demons ran in my blood. I couldn’t fucking be touched!

“Flame! Let him go. Fucking focus and let him the fuck go!” A hand ripped mine from the throat I was holding. AK and Viking were in the driver’s and passenger seats of a truck. I was in the back of the cabin. I breathed heavily, trying to calm down, but the flames held me captive. Anger. All I was in that moment was anger. Maddie had gone and I just didn’t fucking care. Then I remembered them taking her from me. Of an arm wrapping around my throat and pulling me from her.

They took her away. They fucking took her away!

I’m sorry, brother, a voice had said as I fought to keep consciousness. I don’t wanna touch you, but they need to fucking help her. We have to let them save her and your kid.

The rage that surged through my veins made me jump forward and wrap my hands around Viking’s throat again. “You fucking took her from me. You touched me and let them fucking take her.” Viking didn’t fight back. He didn’t fucking fight. I wanted him to fight. I pressed my hands tighter around his throat and squeezed. His eyes turned red, but he didn’t fucking fight back. He’d let them take Maddie from me. He’d let them take her away.

“Flame! Let him go!” AK pulled the truck to a stop. He moved his face in front of mine.

“She’s dead!” I roared. “He touched me, and they took her from me. They took her away. She wasn’t allowed to leave me. She wasn’t allowed to fucking die!”

“She didn’t,” AK said. “She isn’t dead.” He was lying. I knew he was lying. I saw her dead in my arms. Both of them were dead. “They’re in hospital.” I kept on squeezing Vike’s throat. “We are at the hospital, brother. We’ve brought you to her. To them both.” My hands slackened with shock on Viking’s neck. He gasped for breath, but he didn’t push me off. He didn’t touch me. His hands were held up at either side of his head.

“You’re lying,” I hissed, flicking my eyes to AK. I didn’t want to believe Maddie was alive if she wasn’t. But he wouldn’t do that to me. Not AK.

“I’ve never lied to you, brother. I wouldn’t ever lie to yo

u about Madds. You know it.” He leaned forward. My hands were trying to tighten on Viking’s neck again. The flames in my blood calling for someone’s death. For me to kill my brother. He had taken my Maddie away. They called for me to kill him in punishment. “I promise you, Flame. She’s fucking alive. And she’s up in that hospital in a bed waiting for you.”