“I know, but it would have been harder to carry this.” He pulled Mother’s Glock out of his back pocket. “I haven’t yet mastered the art of carrying something in my wolf mouth without slobbering all over it.”
“Give me that!” Mother cried as she reached for the weapon, but Josh held it out to Nero instead.
“Remember when I was trying to tell you about this thing?” He gestured at the demon. “About how it’s a local legend that started from a dime novel?”
Nero nodded, but he had his get-to-the-point face on.
“In the book, the thing keeps coming back. They stab it, burn it, even chop off its head, but it keeps coming back.”
Nero’s eyes widened, and he looked back at the demon. “But—”
“Then the hero shoots it between its eyes with a magic bullet he got from a fairy prince.”
Nero’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Fortunately we both know one.” He pulled out what looked like a normal bullet except that it had the image of a twisted tree imprinted on the casing. He’d gotten it from Bitterroot, the same time the guy had given him the book. “Care to do the honors?” Josh asked. He figured that out of all of them, Nero deserved the right to end this particular legend himself.
Apparently Nero agreed. He grabbed the bullet and the gun and quickly loaded the chamber. The demon wasn’t lying still for this. He tried to make a break for it, but given that he was mostly torn to pieces, it was easy for Coffee to restrain him. Cream helped by grabbing hold of the thing’s head and holding it still in an impressive display of strength.
“Don’t miss,” Cream growled.
“Not planning on it,” Nero said. Then he pulled the trigger.
A dead shot right between the eyes. Josh would have cheered, except he had his hands over his ears in pain. He really needed to get used to big bangs.
Then, best of all, the demon poofed into ash, just like in the book.
Hallelujah!
That was when another sound intruded. Someone was clapping. And since it took him a bit to hear the sound, the others had turned around by the time Josh managed to look behind him. There, grinning at them like a proud papa, was the diminutive Bitterroot.
“Well done, well done,” he was saying. From the looks on everyone’s faces, they all knew him and felt varying degrees of hatred toward him. However, no one looked as murderous as Mother.
“What do you want?” she snapped. That wasn’t exactly what she said. Josh wasn’t hearing well yet, but he could read the curse words off her lips and guessed at the rest. And then his ears cleared enough that he could hear Nero’s grim response.
“He’s here for me.”
“Actually, he’s not,” Josh said. Then he grinned at everyone. “Well, it was fun while it lasted.”
Nero’s face took on a horrified expression. “What did you do?”
“I convinced him that one geek was way better than one meathead, so I swapped in for you.” He gestured at Nero’s pack. “You’d die without them. You were dying every day that you were apart.”
“That’s not true. Not after….”
“Not after we connected. I know. But like you said, they came first. And since I’ve pretty much cut ties with my family, I’m free to choose where I want to go and what I want to do.” His expression hardened as he invested determination in his words. “I like who I am now. I will not have it all erased and go back to who I was. I won’t allow it.”
“We can recruit you again—” Nero argued, but Josh cut him off.
“It’s done. Besides, he said their Fairyland is way better than Disney’s version. It could be fun.” Josh was proud of himself for sounding so calm. In truth, the idea of going to Fairyland scared the shit out of him, but if it would give Nero back his pack, then it was worth it. The guy deserved some happiness, and Josh wanted to be the one to give it to him.
Plus, his lovelorn side got off on the drama of it. He got to act out his very own noble sacrifice, just like at the end of his favorite movies. Of course, with the reality of it staring him in the face, he could admit that he was weak-at-the-knees terrified, but right now he was determined to put on a brave face. Nero, however, had his stubborn one on.
“No,” Nero said. “No way are you taking my place—”
Bitterroot held up his hand. “Your debt is paid,” the fairy said calmly. “But if you’d like to negotiate—”
“No!” All four of Nero’s packmates said the word loud and clear, even though Nero had shaped his mouth into a yes.
