When we approached the desk, Ronan cleared his throat and smiled.
“Can I help you?” the nurse asked, eyeing both of us with her sharp rich chocolate eyes.
“We are here to take Mr. Quinton and Miss Carter to the another facility,” Ronan said, placing a blank piece of paper in front of her. “Here is the paperwork. Are the patients ready?”
Ronan was using his demonic abilities to reach out to the woman’s mind. He was telling her that she didn’t need to worry about the procedures or letting the doctor know that our ID’s were fake.
Her eyes flickered at the corners, and after a few moments of hesitation she smiled.
“Mr. Quinton had been causing some troubles this morning, so we had to lock him up in an isolation room,” she said. I glanced at Ronan who was staring intensely at the woman.
“We need to see them right away,” I demanded, raising my voice. The nurse shook her head, looking uncertain about what to do. Ronan was very good at shit like this, but she seemed a little resistant to his charms.
“Of course, follow me,” she finally said, scratching her head in confusion. The whole ward was silent as we walked through the empty white corridors. The nurse unlocked the door with a bunch of keys and then we followed through to another long hallway. The antiseptic smell wafted around, reminding me that not long ago I was stuck in a small cell myself. The psych ward couldn’t have been any better.
We stopped in front of a white metal door. There were some screams coming from the other set of doors.
“Just show us which key unlocks Mr. Quinton’s room and we will take care of that as well as Miss Carter,” Ronan said. She nodded, handed him a small blue key, and then she walked back the way she came.
I quickly opened the door and barged inside.
“Emma, Emma, are you all right?” I hissed, trying to wake her up. There was no response, so I walked up to her. She just lay there with her eyes closed, didn’t even move when I tried to shake her.
“There are too many drugs in her system. We might have to carry her out of here,” Ronan said.
It looked like our rescue mission wasn’t going to be as straightforward as we suspected.
Chapter 24
“Paired up, like oxen yoked to move as one, so onward with that burdened soul I went, as long as he—my dear, kind sir—allowed.” ― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
“They drugged her? But why? She wouldn’t have caused any trouble. This is Emma we are talking about,” I said to Ronan, afraid that we got here way too late.
“I have no idea, Maxine, but she has a lot of drugs in her system, more than she should. I don’t have the right potion with me. Maybe we should leave without—”
“No, we are not leaving her like that. Please go and check on Zach. Maybe he can help me with Emma. I hope he’s lucid enough to walk.” I tried to lift Emma off the bed. This was crazy. I wasn’t strong enough to carry her through the main ward. This would raise a lot of suspicion and there were probably more staff outside too. We really couldn’t do it without attracting attention right now. My great plan was falling to pieces.
“Wow, Flower, you look so different, and kind of hot too. Ronan told me that the whole city is after you, so you had to change your appearance. You have no idea how glad I am to see you,” the former detective said, walking into Emma’s room several minutes later. I was so relieved that he hadn’t been drugged up like her. “Let me take her. The poor girl has been through a lot lately.”
He winked at me and he lifted her like she didn’t weigh anything. Panic dropped like a stone down the pit of my stomach, because I had no idea if we were going to get out of here without getting caught.
My heart stuttered when he carried her outside and I realised that my weakness for Zach wasn’t just some random crush anymore. I was bloody in love with him. This wasn’t the right moment for that sort of contemplation, but he was truly amazing, willingly carrying Emma in his arms. He didn’t look great himself: he had dark circles under his eyes and he was pale, still wearing that white hospital gown.
“We have to get out of here as fast as we can. I’m sensing a demon on this floor, and a Watcher on the second,” Ronan said, standing outside the door.
“We need to put Emma in a wheelchair,” I said. Zachary didn’t have to say it, but he looked like he was going to struggle if he tried to carry her all the way to the car without attracting any attention.
The black nurse came back unexpectedly, blocking the exit.
“No, no, you are not supposed to be here. Doctor Reynolds doesn’t know anything about this transfer. I’ll call the security,” she started yelling, making a hell of a noise. I was ready to strangle her. We didn’t need this right now.
Seconds later, Ronan took something out of his pocket and started spreading golden dust around the nurse. She stopped yelling and then her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She spun around and then started walking towards the opposite direction, as if nothing happened.
“The Warlock’s dust. It makes them forget who they are for about an hour,” Ronan muttered and I sighed with relief.
We managed to get through the main corridor. I saw a few nurses doing rounds, so I signalled to wait until we could get to the lifts without being noticed.
“We need to find that damn wheelchair,” Zachary suggested, looking desperately around. He must have finally realised that he didn’t have to play a hero. He looked exhausted.
I went to a few rooms and found one that was standing by an elderly lady that was fast asleep. In any other circumstance I would have felt guilty, but Emma needed it more than she did.
When we finally put her down, I saw that she was still very much unconscious and she had marks from needles on her arms. I had no idea what kind of treatments she had been subjected to in the past two weeks, so it was crucial to get her home as soon as possible. I was sure Ronan could put her back on her feet in no time.
The lift arrived and the door opened. There was a demon inside wearing a white uniform. He glanced at us for a long moment and then his eyes moved over to Ronan. I tried to act like we were meant to be here, just wheeling the sick patient away.
“Are you going down, mate?” Zachary asked and the demon nodded. We got inside, although I had a feeling that this was a bad idea. We should have waited for the next one. The lift started moving and my heart pounded between my ribcage way too fast.
The strange demon glanced down at the unconscious Emma and frowned. I couldn’t tell if he was concerned or simply curious. Either way, he was already suspicious. The silence had stretched for a long uncomfortable moment and it seemed that the lift was moving down at snail speed.
“There aren’t any demons on the psych ward that are part of hospital staff,” the stranger finally said, and glanced down at Emma. I shifted my weight to the side, ready to knock him out if he asked for it.
“Mind your own business, mate,” Zachary snapped out and then the demon moved his eyes to me. Seconds later his expression changed, growing with shock. His eyes started to gleam with pure demonic energy.
“Maxine, your appearance,” Ronan hissed, reminding me that I’d forgotten to drink my potion since he last brewed it. I touched my face and then realised that I was back to being my own self.
“You’re that mongrel girl that killed the prince,” the demon said, pointing down at me, and a second later Zachary slammed his hand over the emergency button, stopping the lift somewhere between the sixth and seventh floor.
These accusations were really beginning to piss me off, so I lifted my right leg and twisted my body around ninety degrees and a moment later I had him pinned down with my boot to the wall behind. He most likely had no idea that my magic was taken away from me, that I was just an ordinary human.
“Zip it, demon, or you won’t make it out of here alive,” I snarled. His eyes were even wider and he looked as if he wasn’t expecting that kind of strength from a woman. The phone that I found in Paul’s was now vibrating i
nside my pocket. “Zach, the phone in my jeans. Answer it. That might be important.”
His hand went down to the side of my jeans. The demon didn’t move, looking pretty freaked out. He must have realised that he didn’t stand a chance. There were three of us against one, even if we were only humans.
“Yeah, all right. Got it. Five minutes,” Zach said and then hung up and looked at me. “Rodriguez is on the way here. Someone had sold us out.”
I chewed on my bottom lip, pushing myself to figure a way out. Seconds rolled by and I knocked the demon stone cold with my fist, not even thinking about what I was doing. Ronan shook his head but didn’t say anything. I let him slide down on the floor, then started taking his hospital gown off.
“Put this on. That might buy us a few minutes,” I said, tossing the gown to Zach.
“We are wasting time, Maxine,” Ronan reminded me, so I pushed the emergency button, getting the lift moving down again.
By the time the door opened downstairs Zachary was already pushing unconscious Emma towards the exit.
I grabbed some random guy in a hospital uniform and put on my acting hat again.
“This patient fainted in the lift, he needs help,” I told him, and then followed the others, not looking behind. People were staring at me, but no one dared to stop me. I should have brought more of the potion with me, but now it was too late. We all had to get out undetected.
We barged outside and Ronan managed to get us a taxi. He tampered with the taxi driver’s mind when he was reluctant to transport unconscious Emma. The driver put his foot down and several seconds after we were finally moving. Behind us I saw Rodriguez running inside the hospital building. I leaned back in the seat, breathing hard and thinking that this was a close call.
The taxi driver was given the address of the pub and as we were moving through the streets of London Emma started coming around.
“Two weeks in the psych. God, I thought that I was going to be stuck there forever,” Zachary was saying, shaking his head.
“Nameless betrayed us all. Alexis had waited for me in her chamber. She and Rodriguez knew that we were coming,” I said, massaging the nape of my neck. There was so much tension in my back and my fist hurt like hell.
“That motherfucker. I should have shot him when I had a chance,” Zach said. “Emma and I left the van as soon as Ricky got caught. Someone must have swept us from the streets seconds later, because we were knocked out cold. Luckily my sister managed to escape beforehand. Next thing I remember, I was in the psych ward with some doctor that tried to convince me I needed to be isolated because I was a schizophrenic. Crazy, right?”
It was Alexis and Rodriguez’s doing. They wanted to make sure that Zach and Emma wouldn’t cause any more trouble. Nameless must have told them that I wasn’t working alone.
That bitch had kept me locked up for over two weeks, and she had stolen my magic. Now I was dreading to think what she did to Ricky and Paul. I hope they hadn’t been tortured, because that could really break me.
“I met with Cyril incognito. He told me that Ricky and Paul are being kept in an old steel factory on the outskirts of the city. My face is splattered all over London, and there is a warrant issued for my arrest,” I explained as quickly as I could. Emma had opened her eyes and was leaning on Zach’s shoulder.
Ronan had some mild boosting potions with him that could inject her with more energy. As soon as she drank some, the colour returned to her face.
“Max, is that you?” she asked, staring back at me. I gave her a smile, although I kept glancing behind us, worried that we were being followed. On top of that the taxi driver was driving way too slow.
“Yes, Emma, you’re safe now, just rest up,” I said, and then told them all that had been going on with me in the past two weeks. Zachary looked pretty distraught when I mentioned that Alexis had taken my magic away from me.
We didn’t have much choice, so we ended up going back to the pub. Paul’s wards were still pretty good and I didn’t think that anyone would look for us in there. We all managed to sneak back inside undetected and Ronan used his own complicated spells in case someone decided to snoop around. That area was often patrolled by Watchers, so we needed to be extra careful from now on.
Zachary pushed me to a room at the back as soon as he had a chance. Then he kissed me and I allowed myself to enjoy this moment for a bit.
“Fuck, I really thought that I was never going to get out. The doctors on the ward treated me like a mental head. I couldn’t even use the phone,” the detective said moving his hand over my body.
“Nameless had tricked all of us, even his own father. We started trusting him too soon. He must have been working with that bitch from the very beginning.”
“Oh, Flower, it’s so good to be back in the sane world.”
“I know exactly what you mean, but we still have to get Ricky and Paul out and I have a feeling that will be much more complicated,” I said, getting back upstairs. While I enjoyed a little time out with Zach, I knew Emma needed me. Too many drugs were coursing through her system and she needed to regain her strength. Paul’s place was small and with the additional two people it was a hell of a squeeze, but we weren’t going to be here forever.
Ronan was already brewing certain potions for Emma when we joined them upstairs.
We talked for a bit about everything that had been going on. I sat on the sofa, thinking about normality for a change. Right then I didn’t think that my life would ever be the same again.
A few hours later Zachary showed up with a few bottles of tequila, the one without magic.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I need a bloody drink,” he said and started looking through the cupboard for some glasses. I had a splitting headache, but nodded when he asked me if I wanted a drink. So far I had half of the crew back, but the most complicated rescue mission was still ahead of me. I had to get in touch with Dostojevsky. Zach wasn’t going to be keen with the fact that we were just about to team up with one of the most dangerous mobs in the city.
“Maxine, do you think we can get Ricky out?” Emma asked, holding a warm cup of tea in her hand.
“Yes, darling, we will get them out,” I assured her. “What about Suzi? I hope you had someone taking care of her?”
“I sent her away to my mother. I miss her so much and I want this whole thing to be over.”
I wanted to tell her that I was wishing for the same thing. My spirit had been broken way too many times, and I just wanted some reassurance that things were going to go my way from now on.
I wasn’t ready to discuss with them the rest of the details. Instead I encouraged them to drink, even Ronan took a few sips of tequila. That evening we all needed to cherish our freedom. My magic was gone, but I was going to get it back, even if this was the last thing I did.
Chapter 25
“A mighty flame follows a tiny spark.” ― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
When the morning came I didn’t really want to move, and I was a little bit hungover from last night. It felt surreal to remember that I used to drink until I would pass out in the pub or on my sofa. That old damaged Maxine was long gone.
Zach had his arm around me and his closeness felt comforting. I could see myself living with him, as a normal couple, but I had another little person that I had to consider too. Summer was part of me and at some point we were going to be reunited.
Ronan went out early and came back with newspapers and some fresh bread for breakfast. He was used to getting up early, and he liked his solitude. Two years ago when I lived with him, he had a tendency to disappear often enough to get me worried.
Later on in the afternoon I started breaking to Zach what was going to happen next, basically going over our plan. Emma was banned from leaving the pub, and she wasn’t too happy about that, although she agreed that she wasn’t on form.
I knew that Zach was too stubborn to even consider staying with her. His position as a detective had been compromised.
Alexis or Rodriguez must have tampered with his boss’s mind and ruined his career in the police force.
In the end he insisted on accompanying me to see Dostojevsky.
“Someone has to keep an eye on you, Flower,” he argued, staring at me intensely.
“He and his people are dangerous, but if you want to get yourself killed then be my guest,” I snapped, ready to lose it with him.
“Ronan will have to change my appearance. That way you can protect me,” he added, smiling. I didn’t like his humour and the fact that he was taking his safety so lightly.
After that argument Ronan prepared more potion for him, but when he was handed the black liquid, he didn’t seem too keen to drink it. He knew the score: he couldn’t go with me as Zachary Quinton.
I only drank a small amount that would allow me to walk through London undetected, then wear off. Andrej wouldn’t care about the fact that I was in trouble with the law and the whole city was after me. He would need to see the real me. He often sent his people to get me to play poker with him again, but most of the time I declined.
This whole operation today was going to be tricky, and I couldn’t forget that Andrej was a head of one of the most violent gangs in London. I had to convince him to help me. He had a few ex-Watchers in his ranks, and that could work to my advantage. Cyril mentioned that Rodriguez had made a deal with Berith, which could only mean that the whole place was riddled with security.
We took the tube and then we walked through London for about half an hour, getting to that part of the city anyone else would normally avoid.
“Zach, you have to let me do all the talking. Andrej doesn’t trust anyone, but he has a soft spot for me,” I told Zach when we got to the outskirts of the council estate in Stockwell. Homeless humans, obscure-looking teenagers, and mountains of rubbish welcomed us as we walked through the gloomy streets. We also passed a few burned down cars and abandoned houses. I didn’t like the fact that I had to do this, but this time around I needed to have a backup.