Sam looked hopeful. “Where can we find him—or, is it a her?”
“Oh, Doyle is a he, all right. You can find him in the War Zone most afternoons and evenings.”
“The war zone?” I asked, sure I didn’t love the sound of it.
Heckle’s bushy brows waggled as he poured himself another shot. “You never been in the War Zone? Well, you’re in for one hell of a treat.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sam
Heckle walked in front of us, whistling a vaguely familiar tune. I wasn’t the violent type, but if he didn’t stop, there was a chance I’d smack him in the back of the head. Obviously Jax had rubbed off on me.
He led us down a narrow, wooded path, looking back once to give the thumbs-up sign. Yeah. This was how horror movies started. The poor, stupid couple followed some weirdo into the woods only to be hacked to pieces and then eaten by sparsely toothed men wearing overalls and mismatched shoes.
“How much farther?” Jax asked coolly. We’d followed Heckle in Rick’s car, all the way to a sprawling estate on the outskirts of town. From the state of the property, no one had been out this way in a long time. The grass was past my knees, and as we finally approached the house, I could see several of the windows broken out.
“Just around the back of the house. There’s a cellar underneath.”
Jax paused. Grabbing my arm, he pulled me to a stop. “Tell us what we’re doing here.”
Heckle turned and sighed. “I’m going to introduce you to Havat Doyle. Remember?”
“What exactly is this War Zone thing?”
“Demons are a nasty, volatile bunch.” Heckle tapped Jax on the shoulder. “But like you, they have their limitations. They’re bound by the frailties and boundaries of a human body. Maybe not to the same extreme as you—full-blooded demons weren’t born into their humans, they were forced into them. They still retain some of what they were.”
“So what does this all have to do with the War Zone?”
“Like I said, volatile bunch. They need to let off steam. That’s what the War Zone is for.” Heckle glanced back at the house. “Are we done playing twenty questions?” he called over his shoulder, walking away.
We had no choice but to follow.
Around the house and past a set of rusty cellar doors, Heckle led us through a wine cellar that would have made Kelly drool all over herself. We snaked down the aisles, stepping over forgotten bottles that had fallen from collapsed shelves, and when we came out on the other side, there was a door that opened to a narrow, unlit staircase.
Once we arrived at the bottom, Heckle turned and prevented us from going any farther “A few things before we go in.” Gaze swiveling to Jax, he frowned. He cringed a little. “I can only take one of you in. It has to be Sam.”
“What?” we exclaimed in unison.
“You’re out of your fucking mind,” Jax raged. He tried to push past Heckle, but the smaller man, surprisingly strong, shoved him back with ease.
“I’m sorry,” Heckle said. “There’s no choice. It has to be her.”
I was terrified of slipping into the unknown darkness ahead with only this weird stranger as a guide, but if the answer to this whole mess was in there, I had to at least consider it. “Why? Why does it have to be me?”
“I know what he is,” Heckle said, sniffing the air in Jax’s direction once. He scrunched up his nose as though he’d just caught wind of something foul. “So will the others. You’re going to have to trust me when I tell you that this is not the place you want to be.”
Jax snorted. “I’m a demon,” he said with a grin that made the butterflies rage in my stomach. “I think I can take care of myself.”
“Technically you’re a human with a demon. That makes you, at best, half a demon.” If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn Jax actually was insulted. “You’re big and bad, sure, but there are too many to count down there. Unfed demons might be easy for you to take down, but with sheer numbers on their side, you’d be toast. There are demons beyond this hallway that would rip you to shreds at first whiff just for being what you are. “
“Why?” Jax asked.
Heckle shrugged. “Purists. You’re a human—something they consider nothing more than a means of sustenance. Yet you’ve been gifted with the great power of a demon.”
Jax’s eyes widened and I forcibly bit back a giggle. He looked like a cartoon character who’d just received the surprise of his life. “Gifted?”
This was getting us nowhere. Gently, I pushed Jax aside and focused on Heckle. “If I go in there with you, what’s to stop them from feeding on me like the other demon did?”
“You will be under my protection. They will have no claim to you,” he said solemnly. I didn’t know him from a hole in the wall. He could be an excellent liar. Still, something about the intensity in his voice made me believe him.
Jax, on the other hand, wasn’t convinced. “Your word?” He grabbed my hand and tried tugging me up the stairs. “Let’s go, Sammy. This is a waste of time. I don’t trust this guy as far as my demon could—”
“Fine,” I said, pulling away. “I’ll do it. I’ll go with you.”
“The fucking hell you will.”
“Sorry, but I’ve got a little news flash for you, Jax. You don’t own me. Last time I checked, I was free and clear to do whatever the hell I wanted. And right now, I want to go with Heckle.”
“Fine. Then I’m coming, too.” Jax turned to Heckle. “You can’t stop me.”
“No,” Heckle said. His voice got cold, and the look in his eyes, a spark of dominance mixed with anger, chilled the air. “But you can’t enter without me, and I simply won’t take you. Either of you. I take Sam. Alone. Or I take no one. I leave it up to you. It makes no difference to me either way.”
Jax wasn’t going to budge. That much was clear. I turned to him, and with one final plea, said, “It’s this or nothing. You said you didn’t think this thing would stop until I was dead. If that’s true, then we need to find it, and whatever connection it might have to you, and we can’t do that alone. We need to know what this Havat knows.”
He didn’t answer.
“Jax, think about it. You can’t watch over me every second of every day for the rest of my life. You don’t plan on sticking around, for one thing. We need to finish this.”
He was quiet for the longest moment, turning from me to Heckle with an angry scowl. “If anything happens to her, I won’t kill you.” His voice was low, dangerous. “I’ll leave you alive. I’ll torture you in ways you can’t possibly imagine.” He tapped the side of his head and gave the other man a wicked grin. “This demon is very creative.”
Heckle nodded and returned Jax’s smile with one of someone humoring a spoiled child. “No harm will come to her. I give you my word.” Turning to me, he held out a hand. “This is very important. Take my hand, and whatever you do, do not break contact. Not even for a second. Do you understand?”
I wound my fingers through his and nodded. His skin was cold. Not corpse-cold, but not normal body temperature, either. I fought back a shudder. “Yeah. I understand.”
And with that, we stepped into the darkness. I didn’t look back. Seeing Jax would only twist the knife. To be told he had to wait this round out was bad, because he felt responsible for the situation, and therefore, me. Having no control had to be killing him.
We reached the end of the hall and came to another door. Heckle wordlessly pushed it open and what waited on the other side stole my breath away. The War Zone was a perfectly accurate word for this place. A sea of bodies fanned around a sunken circle where two hulking men—demons, I guessed—fought in the middle. One brutal blow after another, the men slugged it out with vicious enthusiasm.