Burned Read Free Page A

to find my family.
     

Chapter 3
    “And just who is the demon holding my family hostage?” I asked, not bothering to follow Danton toward the overpass. “He must be a pretty big deal if your buddies want you , the big bad demon hunter, to help me , the cursed by Hell assassin, take him down.”
    “Mac, trust me, you don’t want to know who he is.” Danton shook his head. “In this case, ignorance is bliss. In fact, I wish I didn’t know who it was. I’d be a whole lot more gung ho about the whole thing if I didn’t know. I’ve fought demons before and even killed a few, but this one… I’ll be honest. Our chance for survival is not high.”
    “You think he’s so scary, knowing who he is might make me rethink my decision to go after him?” I snorted. “Todd is going down no matter what. I don’t care if he is Lucifer himself. Besides, I didn’t know what Pierce was, and we all know how well that turned out for me.” I splayed my blackened fingers in front of his face. “If it comes to it, I’ll just go get a bigger fly swatter.”
    “He’s not Lucifer, right?” Ricky said, swallowing hard. The look on her face made me think it was almost possible for Lucifer to actually be behind this, but that was impossible. Demons were one thing, but Lucifer… there was just no way. At least, I really hoped not because if it was Satan himself, I was going to need a lot more bullets.
    Ricky took a step toward Danton and glanced between us like she wasn’t sure what to do. That was easy, she should follow me. I was the guy who jumped out of an airplane to save her. Surely, that meant she was on my side. Then again, Danton had saved us from the zombie helicopter. I could have done that too. Probably. Maybe not. I’d have tried though, and you know what, sometimes that’s enough. Screw Yoda and his “there is no try” bullshit.
    “No, but close, love.” Danton smiled a fragile, weak smile that made my gut clench. He was worried. Really worried. “Why won’t you just follow me to a safe place? We can talk there, not out in the open where we can get gunned down.” He gestured to the flaming wreck of a helicopter. “I may have been all thunder bolts and lightning, but until I recharge, I won’t be very frightening.”
    “I see what you did there,” I replied, turning my back and walking toward the amusement park even though it was several miles away. “But if you recall, the last time you helped me, you tried to cave in my skull with a steel chair. Thanks but no thanks.”
    “You can’t seriously be holding that against me, can you?” he replied, with a shrug of his shoulders. “I mean, seriously? I could have killed you like six times over and all I did was knock you out.”
    “Which was completely unnecessary, by the way. A simple, I’ll be on my way now, would have sufficed.” I wasn’t sure how late it was, but I wanted to get back to the park before the day crew showed up and decided to call the police due to the many dead bodies littering the place.
    I knew I should probably sleep, but I didn’t have time. I had no idea what had become of my family and every second I delayed was a second that put them closer to death, if they weren’t already dead. No, sleep wasn’t an option. Besides, I was so hopped up on adrenaline and caffeine, I didn’t think I could go somewhere quiet and relax. I needed to be doing something active, or I’d go crazy. Besides, what was that saying? No amount of planning could make up for poor execution but perfect execution could make up for poor planning? Something like that.
    Right now, I was ready to execute something perfectly and with gusto. Besides, maybe the walk would do me good. You know, assuming I could make it several miles with my swaying gait. Hopefully, no cops stopped me on the way. I could probably pass a sobriety test, but it might be a near thing.
    “You aren’t going to make it far like that, Mac,” Danton said as Ricky sidled up to me and put