Sex & Mayhem 02 The Devil's Ride (51 page)

It almost felt like they should be anticipating
hidden traps, arrows flying from the walls, but there was nothing
like it, just them and their boots stomping on the tiles. Tooth
didn’t even notice when his march turned into a jog. He needed to
find Luci so bad it hurt. He’d give a kidney to get him back.

He was happy to see the corridor narrow down, but
instead of ending at a door, or something logical like that, it
branched out into three smaller walkways, each with cables and
pipes taking much of the ceilings. Air left his lungs as he stared
ahead, trying to guess where they should go. There was nothing
about
any of those
corridors that seemed to make it a better option than the
others.

“What do you think?”

Priest was about to say something when they saw a
shadow of movement in the corridor to the right. Tooth’s feet acted
before he could even think, carrying him toward the male
silhouette. The guy’s first impulse was to get back behind the door
he
’d emerged from, but
the moment he spotted Tooth, he ran down the corridor at full
speed.

Thinking wasn’t even an option. Tooth shot forward,
each step carrying him farther than he ever thought possible. His
muscles ached, heavy and warm as he took yet another deep breath,
closer and closer to his goal. That broad set of the shoulders,
that ugly bald skull, the cheap leather jacket. It was Rick. The
bastard didn’t deserve a shot in the head. He would be tackled
down. His face would slap against the hard tiles of the floor.
Then, there would be a gun to his head.

Tooth couldn’t remember ever planning his movements
in such detail, but once he reached his target, everything happened
almost exactly like he imagined it to. Rick was wheezing under him,
still bucking a bit, but he had to know the battle was lost.

Despite a pained moan after the clash with the
floor, Rick remained silent. He had to know he was a dead man.

Only then the other men caught up with Tooth, who
gritted his
teeth.
“Milk, cuff him,” he muttered, pressing the barrel to the back of
Rick’s head. “Where’s Lucifer?”

“It’s that blue-haired junkie that brought him here
for cash, not me. She sold her kidney, so why not a boy?” groaned
Rick when Milk restrained him and pulled him up so hard Rick’s
joints cracked. He wouldn’t look Tooth in the eye.

Priest stepped up closer. “Where is Lucifer?” he
huffed into Rick’s face.

Tooth shook his head. So it was Suzy,
who
m they’d accepted
with open arms, who had lured Lucifer here. “Fuck.”

Rick spat out some blood and looked up, completely
stiff in the shoulders. “I can show you.”

It didn’t sound good at all. Tooth needed to make
sure he kept an eye on Rick in case the fucker wanted to weasel out
of this one. He did lead them down the corridor, but he was
stomping so loudly Tooth wanted to smack him.

“
If I break your legs, you won’t be making all that
noise, will you?” he hissed, but flinched when
his injured side made itself known. He
hadn’t felt it as he raced after Rick, but now that he wasn’t on
such an adrenaline rush, the pain was coming back. At least they
had Rick, the only person who could show them the way.

And like magic, the stomping stopped. Rick walked
through the labyrinth without hesitation, but his breathing was
practically a wheeze by the time they reached a small steel door.
He didn’t try to say anything, didn’t try to bargain like Harlow
did. It seemed he knew that killing Priest’s son was when any
business ended.

Tooth walked over and opened the door with his gun
raised, but what he saw made him feel like his legs became one with
the floor. In the eerily white, sterile light of an old surgical
lamp lay Luci, strapped to an operating table with cables that
connected him to a computer. His face was hidden by an oxygen mask,
but those were
his
beautiful
eyebrows and cheeks. Tooth would recognize them
anywhere.

Within a heartbeat, his eyes rose to a man and a
woman, both dressed in surgical protective gear, staring at him
over the unconscious boy. He squeezed his hand on the gun, ready to
blow their brains out. The edges of the room seemed to tremble with
each breath he took.

The surgical masks were down, and when it hit Tooth,
it was like a slap in the face - the male was the same doctor who
had him identify Tracy’s body. There were more wrinkles on that
face than twelve years ago, but it was the same guy, without a
doubt. There was not enough anger in the world to describe what
Tooth felt. Fire was consuming him from within, making his eyes
sting with its smoke.

“Back off to the corridor, or I’ll cut the boy,”
said the doctor, but his voice wasn’t all that steady. The scalpel
in his hand hovered a fraction of an inch above Lucifer’s stomach.
The woman was slowly backing away, her eyes wide.

Tooth let out a low exhale, trying to focus. “You’re
outnumbered. Put that scalpel down and wake him up,” he growled,
trying very hard to keep his hand steady. He couldn’t bear that
piece of sharp steel so close to Luci’s bare stomach.

The doctor looked into Tooth’s eyes and a fraction
of a second later, pressed the scalpel to the pristine skin and
cut. Flesh parted like a hungry mouth through the entire length of
Lucifer’s stomach. The scalpel fell to the floor with a clatter
that seemed to break Tooth’s eardrums. With the screaming and chaos
that ensued like an avalanche, the doctor turned around and darted
to the other exit.

Tooth stumbled forward. “No!” His throat clenched,
preventing him from breathing properly. He stood in the middle of
the room, confused. The Nails charged after the doctors like a pack
of hungry mongrels. If they got to the bastard first, Tooth
wouldn’t get to pull his teeth. Tracy’s face on the pillow briefly
flashed through his mind, but it was only a fantasy he had chosen
not to bury and leave behind. It was over.

Luci was bleeding.

A shot resonated through the room like thunder, and
someone fell to the floor by Tooth’s feet. Rick. Shot through the
forehead like Bell. Priest ran past them, but Ghost was already on
the other side of the table. Each second was too slow as life
trickled out of Luci’s pale body all too quickly. Ghost pulled up
his sleeves and got a pair of latex gloves. It was all like a lucid
dream. Tooth couldn’t escape the sharp smell of blood and the way
Luci’s body opened in front of him, revealing parts that should
never be seen - dark and meaty. He put the gun on the table and
rushed to get his own gloves. This was more important than catching
the doctors. Everything became a blur of screams and pulsing. He
joined Ghost, mechanically doing all he was told. He was Ghost’s
two additional arms, but it wasn’t good enough. He had no idea what
he was doing. All he ever did to flesh was tear it apart, so how
could he put it back together?

“Luci, love, please don’t die,” he uttered shakily.
His vision was continuously blurring so he needed to blink all the
time to see what they were doing. And Ghost was pushing needles
into that lovely skin to sew it back together like a rag doll.

“He didn’t injure internal organs.” Ghost’s words
came like from behind a thick veil, just like the stampede of steps
down the corridor and a gunshot from where Priest followed the
doctor. If it could save Luci’s life, Tooth would let that stain on
humanity live. It didn’t matter anymore.

His mind was in a haze, but his moves remained
sharp and undisturbed, allowing him to follow instructions right
away. There were loud noises and shouting in the background, much
more than he’d expected from the
number of people who came with them, but he just
didn’t have the time to worry about them, completely focused on the
slim body in front of him. He needed to keep him alive.

Policemen surrounded them like black hyenas, some
pushing the brothers to the ground, including Priest, who wouldn’t
stop yelling.

“Better call a doctor. The boy got cut with a
scalpel!”

Police. Fuck. Tooth’s body covered in cold sweat but
he was like a statue, glued to the tiles, and he wouldn’t move away
from Luci until they finished patching him up

“We’re almost done,” Ghost whispered to him,
moisture beading on his forehead.

“Step aside, there’s medical staff coming,” yelled
someone all too close to Tooth and tried to push him aside. What
followed was a reflexive move. Tooth spun back and smashed the
officer straight in the face. All hell broke loose. After a short
struggle, Tooth was pushed to the floor with a discrete kick to his
injured side. It sparked a flash of light behind his eyelids, and
he hardly recognized the howl of pain as his own. His hands were
pulled back and cuffed in sharp, punishing movements.

“Fuck... Luci!”

His eyes blurred with yet another stab of pain when
several new pairs of legs passed through, all clad in the thin
loose pants hospital personnel wore. It was the medical staff this
time, and all that Tooth had left was to watch the boy be gently
transferred to stretchers. At least the rhythm of the heart monitor
was a calming presence in his mind.

Ghost got cuffed behind the table, so now they could
look at each other underneath it, across the old, tiled floor.

“He’s gonna be fine, Tooth. He’s safe.”

Tooth hit his head against the floor with a low
growl but watched the medics, in their clean scrubs, carry
out the stretcher while one of
them stayed with the injured policeman, stopping his
nosebleed.

Tooth looked around, at all the brothers flat on
the floor, and then back at Luci, whose pale hand slid off the
stretcher, waving from the motion, as if saying
good
-bye.

But it was more like ‘see you later’.

Luci stood among all the Coffin Nails in front of
the prison gates. His heart was thudding in his chest like crazy.
It had been eighteen long months since he’d seen Tooth other than
on the rare occasions he’d get to visit him in prison. The red scar
on his stomach was now properly healed, but when he’d first learned
what had happened to him, how Tooth helped Ghost sew him up, Luci’s
love for Tooth grew despite him thinking that it couldn’t be any
deeper. They filled the time between visits by writing letters and
e-mails, but now they would finally get to properly touch again.
Not to mention Luci
couldn’t wait to show Tooth his barber’s license. He now
had friends he’d met at the barbering school, all the Nails had
gotten completely accustomed to him, but every time he wanted to go
to a concert or watch a horror movie, his longing for Tooth became
stronger. And every time he had to turn down a guy hitting on him,
the longing to have Tooth in his bed was even more
painful.

All they
’d had for those long, long months was holding hands, brief
touches, and a total of three chaste kisses in the visiting room.
The only way they could connect sexually was in their fantasies.
During each visit, Tooth would give him a detailed instruction of
what he wanted Luci to do the following night, how to jerk off,
what to slip into his hole. They would masturbate at the same
hours, but it wasn’t enough. He couldn’t wait to actually feel
Tooth all over. His body was
so
ready. The big brown gates couldn’t open soon
enough.

Each time he’d come
here, the tall fences topped with barbed wire
intimidated him whenever he thought Tooth was locked up somewhere
in there. Even at home, he never knew what was gonna happen. One
time, he got such a scare when he found out Tooth had been stabbed
during a fight, but thankfully everything turned out all right. He
didn’t even want to think what could have happened if Tooth and
Ghost hadn’t patched him up. The guys who shot the doctors both got
long sentences. Tooth only got eighteen months for assaulting an
officer and some other bullshit. The police couldn’t prove who
killed Rick, so at least Priest was free to go. Everyone was
seriously pissed off about Suzy, who vanished without a trace, but
after eighteen months, even Luci’s memory of her had started
blurring. Though the fact that someone he had considered a friend
betrayed him like this would make him think twice before trusting
anyone in the future.

“You all right?” Dad’s voice came through to him
like from behind a wall.

“
Yeah, I just can’t wait for him to be back home.”
Luci ran his fingers through his hair. He
’s even gotten himself a new shirt for this
occasion. A fitted black button-down. He was squeaky clean and
fresh, ready to fall into Tooth’s arms.

Milk snorted. “All dolled up for your hubby.”

Luci groaned. “Shut up.” It was an ongoing joke
since Luci
had mentioned
he’d been looking into getting married so they could have a
conjugal visit. No such luck. Fucking Michigan.

He tried not to get too jumpy with the wait and
calmed himself down, but when the gate moved, his heart stopped
before starting to beat so hard it hurt.

After a long, frightening silence, Tooth emerged
from behind the wall in jeans so tight they barely left anything
to
the imagination, and
a shirt that showed off all his muscles. Luci hadn’t noticed it
that much seeing him in baggy prison clothes, but now that Tooth
was back in his own outfit, there was no denying he’d grown during
the last eighteen months. With his hair long and a beard that
definitely needed some proper grooming, he looked just like the
handsome pirate Luci had first imagined him as. Tooth’s mouth
spread into a wide smile, and the skin at the side of his eyes
wrinkled as he opened his arms.