Fire Night (Devil's Night 4.5)

I exhaled, looking back at the costumes and masks and fire pits glowing bright around the village as music played and people smiled.

Santa sat up in the gazebo, a line of a dozen kids waiting to meet with him.

“The treasure hunt,” I reminded him. That was why everyone was out. We couldn’t have planned this kidnapping better for Taylor and Ilia. Tons of activity to get lost in.

I glanced behind me, not seeing the others. Michael must’ve gone the long way, knowing what the village would be like.

“Head past the cathedral,” Emmy told him. “Take the lane down to Old Pointe.”

He hit the horn and flashed his lights as people took their sweet time getting out of the fucking way. Slowly, the snow-covered street cleared.

“Kai, go!” Banks yelled.

He swerved, past the gazebo, Sticks, and the White Crow Tavern, jerking the wheel and skidding around the corner.

Banks whimpered, holding the safety bar above her window, and I could tell she was losing her mind. Every moment those kids weren’t in our arms, the more chance we had of never finding them.

I had no idea what Taylor and Ilia were planning, but if they’d wanted them dead, they would’ve done it at the house. There was no way they were planning on returning them, though. It’d be suicide.

Thoughts of things so much worse invaded my head, and my stomach rolled, knowing what happened to kids all over the world. The horror that might await if we lost them tonight.

I rubbed my eyes, the sweat on my forehead coating my hand.

The headlights burned a hole in the darkness ahead, snowflakes fluttering to the ground as the gun dug into my back. I was tempted to use it.

God, I was tempted to take our family over that line tonight.

“Stop!” Banks yelled. She pointed ahead, and everyone looked, seeing taillights in the ditch off the side of the road. My heart hammered in my chest as Kai swung up behind the SUV and pulled to a stop, everyone knowing without a word that it was the same car.

What the hell happened? The kids…

We jumped out of the car, the cold nipping at our faces as we ran to the crashed, black SUV.

Relief and fear washed over me at the same time.

Taylor was collapsed with his head over the steering wheel, his window partially down, and I leapt down the ravine, grabbing hold of the door handle.

“You son of a bitch!” I yelled, reaching over the window and trying to grab him. He swayed, his face bloody, but the fucking car was crashed between two trees, and I couldn’t get the door open.

“Octavia!” Emmy shouted.

Followed by Banks. “Mads!”

I darted for the rear of the car and pulled open the hatch, crawling over the backseat to the motherfucker.

“They’re not here!” Banks yelled, crawling in after me.

Emmy broke the driver’s side window just as I reached Taylor. He swung around, pulling out a gun, but just then, she shot her hand out, knocking the weapon to the floor, and whipped the ridge of her palm right into his neck, crushing his throat.

Heh. Did Kai teach her that? Looked familiar.

Blood matted Taylor’s hair and dripped down his face. I grabbed him, gripping his jaw. “Where are they?” I bellowed. “What did you do?”

But just then, I saw it. My stomach rolled, and I winced, averting my eyes for a moment. Jesus fucking Christ. What the fuck?

His goddamn eyeball hung just outside its socket, blood spilling out of the other one, as well. How did that happen?

“That…that…” he gasped, trying to get the words out. “That kid is crazy. He killed Gibbons.”

Huh? “Who?” I barked.

You know what, I don’t care. “Where are they?” I fisted his collar, shaking him.

And where was Ilia?

Emmy moved out of the way, letting Kai in, Mads’s father grabbing hold of Taylor with me, both of us squeezing his skull.

I fitted my thumb just between his nose and eye, ready to dig in. “Now, or I take the other one!”

He closed his mouth, and I barely had time to realize what he was doing before he spit in my face.

Kai growled, grabbing him and burrowing his thumb into his eyes, threatening to blind him completely.

“Ahhhh!” he screamed.

“Where?” Kai yelled.

“The marina!” he cried. “The marina!”

I scrambled out of the car, grabbing Emmy’s hand as all of us raced back up to our SUV. Lev and David pulled up, climbing out of their car, having probably tracked Banks’s phone.

“The Pope,” Kai told them, but then he reached across Taylor and pulled out a white mask.

It wasn’t one of ours. More like a full phantom mask. Did he recognize it?

Or…

My stomach sank. They were at the party.

Jesus Christ.

Kai threw the mask back into the car, and then stalked to ours, yanking his door open. “The twelfth floor,” he instructed.

“Yes, sir,” David replied.