Chapter 32
Mitchell Airport Detention Room
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
“Long time no see, Lucas.” Shane stripped away his disguise, peeling off his wig and ripping off a dark moustache.
Lucas tugged at the ropes binding his arms. “Haven’t we been through this before, transitor?” Lucas was in no mood to play to Shane’s fantasies. When human airport security escorted him to a detention room to “ask him a few questions,” he’d followed. But the transitor had been lying in wait.
Shane circled him with a smile playing on the corners of his mouth. “Yes, but this time, I’m in control. I know Calise had your baby and still you decide to leave her alone, unprotected? You’re a fool. Did I really sound that much like your aunt?” Shane stopped in front of him and rested his hands on Lucas’s knees, looking down on him, like a parent chastising a child.
Inside, Lucas wavered. This was all a trick? Maybe by leaving Calise, he had left his family vulnerable just like he’d done with his father. He couldn’t show Shane his fear. He sniffed, “You’re so right, Shane. She does need to be protected from her stalker ex-boyfriend. But don’t worry, she’s in good hands.”
Shane pulled Lucas’s head up by the hair. “You think? Nara just abducted your newborn under everyone’s nose and is heading out of the country with it. Exactly whose ‘good hands’ do you think she’s in? Wait, her mom? She barely remembers what it’s like to be an angel. Ellen? She’s too goody-two-shoes to suspect anything. You left her. Alone. You are responsible for yet another family tragedy. Your mother, your father, your girlfriend and your baby. Now this baby is gone because of your mistakes, too.” Shane inhaled and raised a finger. “But there is one person who’s willing to help her. One person who’s never abandoned her. Me. You’re going to tell her good-bye and to trust only me, for help.”
Lucas bucked in his chair and gritted his teeth. “Never!”
“Well, whether you want to hear it or not, it’s time to pick sides for the big finale. The end is coming, and I need to get back on the good side, and Calise is going to help me. What do think of this? You dump her, I ‘try’ to save her baby from Nara, but don’t. I kill Nara, then with you and your bastard child gone, Calise helps me ascend, and we raise my child together. I have the girl, the baby, and wait for the other six archangels to be called up so I can fight, like the hero I am, in the apocalypse.”
Fucking lunatic. Lucas was powerless. Would Cali buy this asshole’s bullshit? His nails drew blood clenching his fists, picturing Nara wrenching his child from Cali’s arms. If this is true, and Nara abducted my baby… His mind reeled from the series of events transpiring since Michael’s birth a few hours ago. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to Michael, and Cali might never forgive him. It would destroy them. He swallowed the lump of rage that filled him with hatred.
“I’ll be back, seer, but I have some acquaintances who’d like to ask you a few questions. Be cooperative. I could really use those artifacts right now. Maybe if you play nice, I’ll let your child live.” With a smugness that made Lucas seethe, the transitor left the detention room.
Three demons entered the room, flashing their razor sharp teeth.
“Where are the artifacts hidden, seer?” one stocky, black-toothed demon asked.
“I’m sure I have no idea what you are talking about,” he answered.
The room was bitter cold, and Lucas saw his own breath when he exhaled. He shivered, being dressed in a t-shirt and shorts anticipating smothering heat upon his arrival in Costa Rica. The aura of the three demons together in the room dropped the temperature by forty-five degrees.
The second demon was a beast of a woman with cropped hair and multiple piercings. She stepped forward and landed a right cross to Lucas’s jaw.
After a flash of white light, his whole head rang.
“We have all the time in the world to beat answers out of you. Take your time. Now that we have you, our boss will be very patient.”
Cali and my newborn baby boy. He never should have gotten involved with her because now, more was on the line than his own worthless life.
He did the only thing he could think of to do—pray.
****
Calise struggled to wake up out of her nightmare. Something began rocking her gently, as if she was on a boat. She half-opened her eyes, feeling completely numb.
“Hey, baby sister. Wake up, sleepy head. It’s Dean. I came to catch a glimpse of the new addition to the family. Did they take him to the nursery?”
She snatched her brother’s arms to try to pull herself up while she wildly searched the room. It wasn’t a dream.
Nara kidnapped my baby.
Frantic, she screamed at the top of her lungs, “HELP!”
He stepped back.
“Dean get help, now! A woman came in here and took my baby! She has Michael and says your wife Liza works for her and tortures babies!”
Her brother didn’t react. He pressed on her shoulders when she tried to get out of bed. “Relax. You must have that postmortem or postpartum thing. This place is secure. I could barely get in to see you. Sit tight; they probably took him to the nursery because you fell asleep and then had a bad dream. I’ll go out and get him and talk to the nurses.”
Her whole body was drained of energy. She couldn’t get enough air. Her mind was foggy, but she knew what had happened. The demon, Nara had kidnapped her baby. “Hurry!” Calise begged.
****
Although it hurt to take a deep breath, Lucas struggled anyway. Each inhalation produced a sharp pain in his chest. His head pounded and even footsteps and the drone of voices outside the room pierced his head like jagged rocks. Shane reappeared through the door, looking pleased by Lucas’s distress. He questioned his posse, “Any answers from the seer?”
They shook their heads, but Lucas figured they weren’t the type to be easily deterred. This could go on indefinitely even though he didn’t know how much more he could take.
“Well, seer, if you won’t help me, then I’m not very inclined to help you, either. Let’s see how Calise is doing without her first born son, shall we?” Shane dug Lucas’s cell phone out of his bag. “Ok, I need some of your saliva.” Shane grabbed Lucas’s mouth and forced it open by pushing on his adam’s apple. Lucas involuntarily choked and Shane wet two of his fingers with Lucas’s spit. Shane sucked his two fingers and cleared his throat. “How do I sound?” He cleared his throat again. “How do I sound?” he asked in Lucas’s voice. “Now, you need to be quiet, seer.” Shane punched him in the throat which doubled Lucas over coughing and gagging.
Shane dialed. “Hey, babe, it’s me. How are you doing? What? Nara? Calm down and listen…just listen! It’s not safe for me to come anywhere near you and the baby right now. Maybe not ever…” He lowered his voice. “But I’ve talked to Carmen about your ex-boyfriend Shane. Carmen trusts him; he’s been helping her for months. If he contacts you, I want you to trust him, too. Can you do that for me? Stop crying, babe, everything will be fine. Shane might be the only one who can really protect you and get the baby back. No…No I’ve no idea when I might return. I need to protect my family’s artifacts at all costs. I know you love me. Yeah, good-bye.”
Lucas was shattered. Didn’t Cali know that he would never talk to her like that? That he would never give his blessing to trust Shane?
Shane dropped the cell phone and smashed it with his heel. He waved the three demons closer. “Are you going to tell me where the artifacts are so Calise and I have a chance to defeat Nara?”
Lucas shook his head.
Shane shrugged. “I figured. You don’t love her half as much as I do. You three, do what you want with him, then dispose of the body. Got it?” Shane glanced over his shoulder at Lucas on his way out. “My family awaits.”
****
“Lucas! Lucas!” Calise stared at the phone in horror. This was his reaction to their baby being abducted? Trust Shane!
What’s going on?
The door opened as she was trying to get out of bed. Dean rushed in. “Whoa, whoa there, sis. Calm down. I saw your baby and everything is fine. I told the nurses to give you something to calm you down.”
“You saw Michael? Bring him here, right now! I need to see him.” She didn’t believe him. “Are you sure it was him? He has a birthmark between his eyebrows.”
“I don’t remember that. I’ll go get him. The nurse is outside.”
Dean left and returned a moment later holding a small bundle that he handed to her.
Maybe it’s all a bad dream…
She uncovered the infant and began to hyperventilate. “This isn’t my baby.”
Her door swung open, and a demon nurse with a hypodermic needle materialized at the bedside in the blink of an eye. She tapped Dean’s temple, and he crumpled to the ground. Calise scrambled to get out the other side of the bed with the imposter baby but got stabbed in the hip with the needle. Instant warmth tingled from the site, and she stumbled toward the chair in front of her, setting the baby down before her knees gave out. She couldn’t fight the drug any longer, and her eyelids grew heavy. Before she passed out on the floor, the last thing she saw was the nurse’s white orthopedic shoes.
The next time she awoke, she was back in bed. Bodies, including Dean’s littered the floor. So much for her guardians. Someone new stood in the doorway.
Shane.
“Help me,” she begged, tears fogging her vision. “I have to get out of here. Nara…stole my baby. Demon…nurses. Please help me. Lucas said I can trust you.” Even groggy, she ripped off the tape that held her IV in place.
Shane moved so fast to her bedside, that for a fraction of a second, he, like the nurse before him, was a blur. “Of course you can trust me. Are you sure it was Nara? What did she say?”
“She said Liza will enjoy torturing my baby, and if I came near you again, she’d kill Lucas, too.” She pulled the needle out and put pressure on it to stop the bleeding.
“Liza, huh? Then I know where Nara took your baby. If I help you, you have to do something for me in return.”
“Anything,” she blurted, on the brink of hysterics.
“No more Lucas. No more Wisconsin. You have to stay with me, and I’ll love you and take care of you both. You have to promise me.”
She was shocked. How could he ask this of her? Yet, she knew. She always knew he would find a way to force himself back into her life. But to leave Lucas, her family, and everything she knew behind? She could still feel the weight of Michael when she held him in her arms. Something inside her snapped. Being a mother became easy and the path crystal clear. You would do anything, anything, for your child, even if it meant sacrificing everything you hold dear.
Lucas will find me, or I will find a way to get away from Shane. My precious angel baby is the most important thing to me right now. If this is the only way…
“Yes,” her promise sounded hollow even to her own ears.
“One sec, babe.” He blurred out of the room and reappeared outside with an empty wheelchair, two blankets, a small backpack, a hat in the seat, and balloons tied to the back.
He lifted her out of bed, stepping over her lifeless angelic guardians.
Dean moved. He isn’t dead.
She winced still fresh from the pain of giving birth. He kissed her hair and murmured, “You’ll never have to worry again. I’m here now.” He wrapped her in one blanket and the small backpack in another, like a swaddled child. He placed the hat on her head, and she belatedly realized that he was dressed as a hospital worker in scrubs.
They left the unit, littered with unconscious employees. The ward’s entrance was locked, and people were banging on the door. She heard her mother and Ellen screaming her name. Shane headed for a service elevator. “I can take you to them, but they can’t help you. I’m the only one who knows where your baby is.”
Shane spoke the truth. Ellen and her mother had no idea of Nara’s whereabouts. She needed Shane right now. Her head swam with images of what Nara would do to Michael and a wave of nausea rolled over her. “I want to be with you; I trust you.”
“Good girl,” he said, hitting the button on the elevator. The human staff began to stir from their various positions around the nurses’ station. In the basement of the hospital, Shane wheeled her outside and helped her into a waiting chauffeured car which drove them straight to Mitchell airport. They drove in via a back entrance by the private hangers and parked in a garage by the runway.
A private jet? Where is Shane getting the money for this luxury?
Of course: Nara.
Something nagged at her about Lucas’s phone call; she knew better than to trust Shane even though desperation had made her promise the unthinkable to the transitor.
He had new clothes for her to change into on the airplane. When she got out of the bathroom dressed, he patted the seat next to him. If he could help her get Michael back, then she would let him down easy. Again. Either way, a miserable situation.
She gingerly lowered herself down on the white leather upholstery of the wraparound sofa of the jet. He had a warmed blanket ready to cover her. He shifted her legs over his lap after he adjusted his arousal.
Hold in the vomit…
He rubbed her leg under the blanket and ran a finger up her inner thigh, repulsing her.
She winced and edged backwards. “Shane, I just had a baby.”
“I know. I’m sorry. There will be plenty of time for us to be together again—soon.” He reminded her of a cobra desperate to hypnotize its prey.
Time to play along. She was terrified that if he suspected she didn’t want him back, he wouldn’t take her to Nara. Reaching under the blanket, she removed the offending hand, instead holding and kissing it. “Looks like we found our way back to each other. You can be my hero again.”
He settled back in his seat relishing her attention. “I always knew, too. We are soul mates.”
Do transitors even have a soul?
The captain came on overhead. “We are cleared for takeoff to Moscow via Madrid, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you right now?”
Russia? Nara took my baby to Russia?
“No, Captain. We are good. Have the flight attendant bring us something to eat,” Shane replied.
A demon in a tight navy blue uniform with cleavage galore rolled out a cart. Her smile showcased her jagged teeth. She peeled and deveined fresh steaming shrimp in front of them with the claw of her right pointer finger. “Champagne?”
“Of course, two glasses, please.” Shane looked like a puppy trying to impress its owner.
She knew better than to refuse him.
The cork popped under the stewardess’ practiced hand and the bubbles fizzed in the glasses she set down on the cart.
He dipped a shrimp in sauce and fed it to her before handing her a glass of champagne. “I always knew you’d come back to me. Let’s toast. To us: now and forever.”
“To us.” She nodded and donned a phony smile. They clinked glasses. Demons flew the plane; demons drove his car; it was all Nara’s money.
What will happen when she finds out he betrayed her—for me?
And how will Lucas find me? I’m walking into the lion’s den.