Page 125 of Your Coffin or Mine
“I knew that tracker I outfitted you with would come in handy. After Angelique buried you that one time, you’re lucky I thought of it,” he continues, talking as if I am not sitting in a fucking cat cage, waiting on him to let me out. “If you would have just waited, none of this would have happened.”
The clinic door opens, and I finally see freedom outside the walls of the veterinary hellhole that has been my prison. I was becoming afraid I would never get the pungent smells of disinfectant, bleach, and animal dander out of my nose.
When in the fuck is he going to open this thing? I know I can change forms one last time, but this prison cage feels like miles of solid rock to my weakened strength.
I fight revulsion as so many disgusting odors batter my senses at once and curse this city to hell. It took me an hour to fly to the closest Romanian airport in my bat form, where I wasforced to coerce no less than ten people to get on the plane, and from there, the humiliation has only continued.
“The cell towers and all other communications came back online the next morning, you know,” he says, placing my cage down on a park bench.
I look out at a street with tall buildings but few passersby.Finally. I expect him to open the latch, but the imbecilekeeps talking.
“Good thing I made it in time, not sure what they do to animals like you, what with you being a rodent and all.”
He isdeadto me.
The door to the contraption opens, and my fist surges to meet his smirking lips as I morph into my humanoid form. My fist cracks against his cheek loudly but he just guffaws, taking the hit, the blow barely registering to his overinflated head.
“That was hilarious,” he says around chuckles. The fuckwit holds his stomach, leaning over the side of the park bench, wearing one of his usual suits.
“You stupid fucking asshole. Why in the fuck didn’t you let me out immediately?” I yell into the night.
My neck cracks, popping loudly, as I stretch my limbs and sigh, releasing the crick that has been annoying me for what seems like ages.
He ignores the question but quietly hands me a cooler that I pray is full of blood, tears leaking from his eyes as he bends again, laughing uproariously. “Here, I brought the sunscreen too.”
Fangs rip into plastic, my hands gripping the bag roughly as I suck the contents, collapsing it while my vision crosses and my body begins the slow process of fully healing itself. A car horn sounds in the distance, and I slurp loudly.
“Mmm,” I moan, pulling the foul stuff into my mouth.
“As if you wouldn’t have done the same to me. You were picked up by animal control,” he sputters, laughing all over again. “You should have seen my face when I realized where you were.”
“Shut up and get me another,” I tell him, holding out a hand as I suck down the dregs of the first bag of O negative. He swiftly hands me one.
The last few days are by far the worst I have had, and that’s including my stay chained inside a coffin, all because I wouldn’t give a witch immortality. After an excruciating flight to the Americas and dealing with not one but two layovers, I assumed the worst was over.
“At least we are all in agreement: she’s your mate. I can’t see anything else getting your cantankerous ass to fly that far when I couldn’t get you out of bed for decades,” Doyle says, folding his arms over his chest, looking smug. “If you had just kept your phone on you, none of this would have happened.”
My lips purse together as I fight the want to hit him again. “Where are we?” I remove my fangs long enough to ask.
“Near Atlanta. Aubrey’s apartment isn’t far. How was your last week?”
I grunt in reply.
“I can just imagine you flying coach,” he says, closing the cooler and grinning. “And a fun vet stay? What an adventure that must have been!”
“Just be quiet.” I don’t need his pompous shit after so many days of being stuck in bat form, disgraced and degraded, and hand-fedbug gruel. I give him a look. “There werestrange bathing rituals, Doyle.” I shudder, covering my crotch as I recall the incident. “The ultimate indignity was when a young girl commented on the size of my balls while toying with me as if I were some exotic pet.”
He blinks, and his nose wrinkles in confusion. “All that and no charge?”
“Fuck you.”
His chuckles escalate until he’s laughing again as I glare. “That sounds like a pretty good welcome to me.”
My nostrils flare with annoyance. “Any news from Jekyll or Frank?”
His head shakes as he settles back against the park bench, crossing one leg and bouncing his designer shoes. “Nope, not a peep, but I expected as much. Jekyll will have holed himself away at his mansion, and Frank is busy fighting with other people, what with his new medical facility being under heavy scrutiny.”
“Hmmph.” Good. They will both get their comeuppance once I have Aubrey back.
