Part II CHAPTER 12
Ash had just stepped back into Tory's room when his phone rang again. Looking at the ID, he sighed. "Excuse me. I'm having to answer another round of 'Help me, Mr. Wizard' calls."
Tory shook her head at the poor man whose phone seemed to be a constant source of irritation for him.
Pam sat down in the chair where Ash had been eariler. "How many friends does he have?"
"I think they're work-related calls."
"Ah, so what does he do?"
"He's a wrangler."
"Uh-huh . . ." Pam's voice was filled with doubt.
"I know. He hasn't told me exactly what he does either, but apparently they're always calling him for it."
Pam's eyes sparked with interest. "Maybe he's an international assassin. Oooo wouldn't that be cool?"
"We have got to get you away from movies."
Ash paused mid-sentence as a unique fissure of power went down his spine. The sensation was unmistakable . . . there were demons in the hospital. And he would pretty much stake his life on who they were after.
Hanging up, he backed into Tory's room. "We have to go."
"Uh, hello?" Tory said sarcastically. "Hooked to an IV here. Not going anyplace in the near future."
He moved to the bed and pulled it out of her arm before she could even blink.
Tory was aghast at his actions and was stunned when her arm stopped bleeding. "What's going on?"
"People who want us dead are closing in. And if we don't get moving, it's going to get ugly."
Her heart hammered at the thought of someone coming after them. "There's only one other problem-clothes. I don't have any."
Pam stepped forward. "Yes, you do. Ash guard the door and give us a minute."
"You have twenty seconds." He hit the door and closed it tight.
"Can you move?" Pam asked.
"Surprisingly yes."
"Okay, switch clothes with me and let's be quick."
Tory was out of her gown in an instant. She was a little sore from the wreck, but not nearly as much as she should be for someone who'd just been operated on. It didn't make a bit of sense.
But before she could think anything else about that, Ash was in the doorway again.
"We're out of time." He held his hand out to her.
"I don't have any shoes."
"We'll cope. Come on."
She took his hand.
Without another word, he hauled her into the hallway, toward the elevators. When the doors opened, he pulled her into a room and motioned for her to be quiet. His actions terrified her. Who was out there?
"Wait here," he mouthed to her before he opened the door and vanished into the hallway.
Tory wasn't sure what was happening. She only hoped Ash knew what he was doing.
A few seconds later he came back and motioned for her to move quickly. He practically shoved her into the open elevator. But as the doors closed, she looked back toward her room where two very tall men were headed. Dressed all in black, they appeared sinister.
"What about Pam?"
Ash pulled her back so that the doors could close. "She'll be fine. They know who they're after."
"Who are they?"
Ash cringed at the question he couldn't really answer. Demons out to torture her just seemed a bit farfetched, especially since he wasn't sure how Stryker had known to send them here. "I don't know their names. But I for one don't want to introduce myself to them right now."
"Are you sure they won't hurt Pam?"
He handed his phone to her. "When we get in the car, you can call her."
"What car?"
He didn't answer since he was focusing all of his power on masking their presence from the demons and on locating the rest of their crew. There were at least ten of them crawling through the hospital. He could shield his powers from them and mask Tory's looks.
At least from everything except an archdemon. Born of a demon's union with a god, they were a unique and highly unpredictable breed. And one of them was in the hospital leading the others.
Ash led her to the parking lot and over to his silver metallic Porsche 911 GT2. He opened the passenger door while he scanned the lot.
She paused in the opening. "Please tell me we're not stealing this."
"It's mine." He dangled the fat Porsche key in front of her.
Tory was still suspicious. Having done the Porsche driving school a few years ago just for fun, she'd learned the various models and their price tags. This was the creme de la creme of Porsche-and it drove like a badass dream. She'd wanted one so badly she could taste it, but the price tag was way out of her reach. "You own a quarter-million-dollar car?"
"Give or take a few ten thousand, yeah. Now get in."
Tory wasn't completely convinced. How on earth could he afford a car like this? But as she looked over at the driver's seat and realized that it was definitely designed for a very tall human, she couldn't deny the obvious. It had to be his. She got in as he slid into the driver's side.
Yeah, the car fit him like a glove and the fact that he knew the key went in on the left hand side said he'd been in the car enough not to hesitate with it.
"Acheron!"
As Ash shut his door, she looked up at the shout to see a large brown-haired man running toward them.
"Buckle up." Ash slammed the gearshift into reverse.
The man ran up onto the back of Ash's car.
"Oh you fucker," Ash snarled angrily. "Getting paw prints on my car . . . I swear, you scratch it, you die." He slammed on the brakes and sent the man flying onto a parked blue sedan.
Ash turned the steering wheel sharply and headed straight for the man who had rolled to the ground.
Tory cringed as she expected them to plow straight into him. Just as they reached him, he jumped out of the way with an astounding agility.
"You're crazy, aren't you?"
Ash didn't answer her as he took a corner so fast, she swore she felt a 2G pull. There on the street was a white BMW that fell in behind them.
"We're being followed."