Magpie raised his hands. “I will find out what went wrong. Let’s coordinate better next time.”
Makar shook his head. “Coordinate? Two of theirs are injured, but I’ve got two men dead here. Will you pay their families to make this right?”
“I guess I will.” Magpie sneered, and when something caught light on his face, Gray noticed that he’d gotten an emerald nose stud. When all of them were scrambling to find his cargo and risking their lives in the process, he’d gotten his nose pierced. Unbelievable.
Makar stared at Gray again. “Fine then. Cost of the business.”
Gray swallowed, massaging his fingers into Shadow’s black flesh more intensely, because the urge to tighten them around this fucker’s throat rose with every passing second. “Go to your body now,” he said, looking back at the way it lay face down on the dirty floor.
Shadow held on to Gray for a few more seconds, but in the end he liquefied and rolled toward his human skin in the form of a slug-like mass.
Makar stepped out of his way, his hand twitching on his gun, but he said nothing. Silence stretched until the black goo sank into Shadow’s body, which suddenly twitched to life.
“I’m out!” one of the men yelled and put his weapon on the nearest table. “This is some Satanic shit!”
Makar’s lip pulled up, revealing his gums. “Sit the fuck down.”
The man hesitated, but followed his boss’s instruction, likely reminded of his value to the organization by the sight of dead bodies on the floor. He would undoubtedly join them if he disobeyed at a tense moment like this.
Gray wouldn’t stop watching Shadow, his heart beating faster when he tried counting the time since the body had been abandoned. Then he realized that it could have gotten injured when they’d both rolled to the floor. “Shadow? Are you fine?”
Magpie sighed and gestured at his bodyguard to get him a chair.
Shadow gave a weak nod and crawled Gray’s way at the speed of a snail. “My ribs hurt,” he complained from behind the curtain of dark hair that now was a matted tangle.
Gray reached out to grab his hand and pulled him forward so fiercely the contraction of abdominal muscles sent yet another wave of pain all over his flesh. He ignored it and surveyed Shadow for any signs of unseen injury. There were none.
“What is this freak show?” Makar asked Magpie, his lips tight.
Magpie rubbed his forehead with his cane once he sat down in an armchair his bodyguard had dragged to the entrance. “It’s complicated but doesn’t concern you. I will reimburse you for your men, and pay for the jewels. That’s all you need to know.”
Makar stayed silent for a while, but nodded. “The doctor is on his way.”
Gray lay still, holding on to his lover’s hand. He was glad when the neons were replaced by normal lights, allowing his eyes some rest. Shadow stretched right next to him, pushing one arm under Gray’s head and resting the other across his chest with the gentleness of a kitten.
Makar gestured at his remaining men. “Come on, people, let’s clean this up! We’ll have customers tomorrow. Call in Valentina. We need those bloodstains out of the carpet as soon as possible. Nikita, make sure those who were here tonight know to keep their mouths shut.”
Magpie cocked his head and pulled his chair closer to Gray while Makar’s men got to work. “Do you think you will live?”
Shadow hissed in fury, hugging Gray’s head. “Of course he will!”
Gray frowned, gently stroking Shadow’s messy hair. It was an extremely insensitive question, but then again, Magpie wasn’t human and didn’t fully grasp the concept of fearing death. “I think I will, as long as I get someone to patch me up and eat enough antibiotics.”
Magpie nodded. “You know… I’d considered killing you, or getting rid of Knight—”
“I would find you at the edges of the world and rip you apart,” Shadow growled but Magpie waved it off.
“The thing is, I do like you all, but if worse came to worst, those were some options I thought about. The problem is, it wouldn’t change anything in the long run. Baal would just get someone else to do his bidding, and the cycle would start all over again. We need to close the entrance to the Other Side once and for all. Maybe I don’t have everything under control as much as I would wish to, but since the Pigeon Heart is out of reach, getting more rubies is of the essence.”
Gray looked back at the Russians, not wanting to be overheard, but Makar was too busy barking orders, and the few men he had in house tonight were dragging the dead bodies backstage. He took a deep breath and entwined his fingers with Shadow’s, sensing the pain rise in his stomach again. It was insistent, like a burn that would not go numb. “I’ve worked for you for a long time, and I always delivered.”