Free Burned by J.A. Cipriano Page B

inside my head.”
    “But she’s imprinted on you. That means there’s a mental link. Who knows how much of your feelings and thoughts are bleeding together.” He rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt and held out his hands to us palms up. “But if you’re willing to try, I bet I can bridge it so she can look at what you’re remembering if you call up the memory.”
    To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that since I had no idea what Ricky would find when she reached into my mind. What if she saw something that sent her running in the other direction? Still, if it would really help me save my family, I was willing to try. I’d just have to trust in what we had, whatever that was.
    “Will that work?” Ricky asked, looking at him dubiously. “That seems super dangerous.”
    “It isn’t without risk—” Danton started to say before I interrupted him.
    “Okay, better Ricky than Jack. Let’s do it,” I said, holding my hand out to him. He took it and looked at Ricky.
    “You too, doll,” he smirked. “And be patient. I haven’t done this in a while. So if it hurts, just wait. Eventually, it will start to feel good.”
    “Why do I think you’re mixing things up,” Ricky said, taking his other hand so the three of us were standing in a circle facing each other.
    “Hush,” Danton said, shutting his eyes. “I need to concentrate.” Then he began to hum the melody to Funky Town.
    I was about to make a snide remark when everything in front of me vanished, leaving me standing in my living room. The Cursed from before stood there, cigar in one hand while the Frankenstein-looking motherfucker who had taken my nephew was on the lawn, dragging the kid toward the open door of the car. Ricky’s hand tensed in mine, and I turned to see her standing there next to me.
    “I know who that is,” she whispered, and as she was about to say more, the entire scene burst into scarlet flames.
    “No!” the word exploded across my brain with such force I was flung backward, losing my grip on both Danton and Ricky. I smacked into a bench, and as my reality struggled to reorient itself back to the laundromat, the cat’s voice was very clear in my brain.
    “If you allow the demon hunter into your mind one more time, not only will I melt your brain into slag, but I’ll kill your girlfriend too. Are we clear?” Gnashing teeth appeared in my mind’s eye. “You may think he’s trying to help, but while you and the wolf were searching for answers, he was trying to delve deeper. He cannot be trusted, Mac.”
    “What the hell happened?” Ricky cried, turning away from Danton and coming toward me.
    “Jackass pissed off the demon who gave me my arm,” I said through gritted teeth. “She says he was looking for things he wasn’t supposed to look for.”
    “Ah, hell, Mac. You can’t be serious,” Danton said, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes which seemed like answer enough. It wasn’t like he was the most trustworthy source to begin with, but then again, he hadn’t actually killed me yet either.
    “It doesn’t matter. I know who that guy is. He’s Big Sal.” Ricky shook her head as I stared at her blank faced because the name meant nothing to me. “He’s a gangster who lives in the Upper East Side. Bad dude. Lots of supernatural minions but mostly keeps to himself. He actually keeps his area pretty safe for the normal people who live within his territory since most people don’t want to piss him off.”
    “Well, that’s about to change because Sal is about to have a very bad day,” I said, getting to my feet. Part of me felt a little bad because taking out Sal might allow an even worse guy to take his place, but somehow I doubted it. I’d heard the whole “better the devil you know” spiel before, and you know what, if you’re getting screwed, you always have to try for a better outcome. Sure, you might wind up in a worse situation, but sometimes the only way out of a hole was to keep digging