Page 78 of Hell on Wheels
I blink. Good to know, but I don’t think that’s the case this time. “I think if he was weak and hurting, Sparkles, he wouldn’t be able to enchant the car that convincingly.”
My words give her pause and she sighs, “I saw the bullet holes, Damon. That’s not encouraging.”
Archie clears his throat as we approach the car. Our chatter stops until the door opens and our friend rolls himself out with a groan. He’s holding his side, but there doesn’t appear to be blood, so he must have gotten banged during some evasive bullshit. Before I can stop her, Rogue rushes over to him and throws her arms around the grumpy asshole.
“What the fuck happened out there?” Angelo says loudly, clearly hoping to distract people from their moment. “The damn car is a mess, man.”
Reb’s eyes swirl with color as he lifts his face from Rogue’s neck to pin us with an angry glare. “Fucking Oswald, man.”
My eyes widen as I realize what he’s implying. Someone not only put whatever obstacles in his way that he told our girl about, but they staged snipers on the course. That means they knew enough to figure out that the car would be ahead of the pack, zooming through alone, and have the skill to hit him at the speed he’d be going. They’re definitely not human, but using the gun takes a few species off the table.
“Demons wouldn’t bother with the bullets,” Angelo murmurs and I nod.
Our kind would use magic and creatures, not human weapons. They hate the meat bags and everything they’ve stolen from us over the centuries.
“Too fast for non-supes,” Reb grunts as Rogue and Archie wrap their arms around his waist for support.
Rogue rolls her eyes as she looks at him. “Fucking duh, bro.”
“Some shifters, maybe. There are mercenary groups and smaller gangs of them. Everyone knows the wolves are pretty unstable,” the hockey player says with a pleased smirk.
Javi groans and I’m inclined to side with him. Big cats and wolves are natural enemies and most large cities are split heavily on either in terms of territory. The only place I’ve ever been on this continent that’s big enough to support two equally huge factions of both without a civil war is New York. Bay City is weighted towards the felines, and they adore blaming every problem outside of the organized crime factions on wolves.
“Shut it, bird boy. I can hear you thinking,” the lion says with a smirk. “Yes, my kind like to blame them, butalsoa shit ton of the flea-bitten dickwaffles work for the Stuhlls. This istheirrace,theircourse, and our buddy got shot at by a supe with speed and precision.”
“Which means it’snota wolf,” Rogue says. She shakes her head and bites her lip, thinking as we follow them to the med tent to have Rebel checked out. “Wolves are fast, yes, but precise? Patient? Not even remotely, especially if they work for those dipshits. They take all the leftover nutters the packs won’t allow in.”
She has a point.
“Fae and mages wouldn’t bother with guns, either,” Rebel grits out as he lowers himself onto the table to wait for a healer. “There are far better ways of taking someone out without leaving evidence any fucking fool will see.”
“Then who the fuck did this?” I look at my twin, frustration radiating from my frame as I try to work it out. Puzzles are my thing and the brain work has always been my strong suit, but nothing about this shit makes any sense.
“Vampires.”
A chorus of groans rises from every single one of us as the pieces fall into place at Angelo’s suggestion. Vampires are fast, have no loyalty outside of their hordes, and live in the shadows everywhere. They’re easily one of the top three categories of supes in terms of numbers, more so even than the Fae, but they purposefully stay as separate from the rest of the Society factions as possible. They skirt the rules constantly and though they’re a branch of demons, even we aren’t fond of them.
“Our father will lose his goddamned shit,” I whisper. “You know how controversial the topic is in Hell.”
“Too close to humans for demons, too close to demons for magic wielders, too close to shifters for Fae… they have such a blend of all the supe powers that it makes everyone nervous,” Javier says with a frown. “It’s helped them self-isolate and grow their numbers with little oversight.”
“No one in the pits is happy with that development, as you know. They aren’t loyal to the powers down there or the ones up here, either. It makes sense clans would hire out as assassins and shit.” Archie runs his hand through his hair, then over his face.“But again, with all the supes in this city, who the fuck would spend the money to bring in some fangy ass professional?”
“And were they aiming at Rebel in the car, or did they gamble on our girl taking that race instead?”
“Fuck if I know,” Rebel sighs as he responds to me. “But she’s not racing the next card—the car is too fucked up and I want to call Abbott in.”
Rogue sucks in a breath, and her face turns bright red. “Abbott Remington?”
Uh-oh.
“Yeah, Abbott Remington, sis. How many fucking Abbotts do you think I know?” Reb’s eyes are closed, which is the only reason he has clued into the same thing the rest of us have.
Our girl fucked that nerdy criminologist from Virginia, and her non-bonded mate is getting ready to bring him in on a rush job.
This is definitely not good.
I voted to leave when the truck came to retrieve Rebel’s car, but Rogue and my old friend flat refused. They wanted to see the outcome of the last race to determine if the attack was race related. Angelo agreed with me—it wasn’t—and we both wheedled our girl as much as we could, but neither Fae would budge. Archie and Javi are too easygoing, so they got swayed to stay despite Rogue acting squirrely as shit since the mention of the Sphinx shifter from the Sibbies.