"It shouldn't take us long to reach the church, but you can bet those creeps outside will be on our tail." Brian peered out of the kitchen window. "Ray's leaving Craig some instructions on how to break the barrier spell, but only if he's sure they're all gone."
"You need to tie me up," Gerard came back from the living room carrying the rope Bob had used to tie him before. "In case I go crazy and try to get out of the van or something."
Bob nodded. "Okay."
"You should probably gag me, too," Gerard added.
Bob looked less thrilled about that, but he said, "I'll find something we can use."
Frank wrapped another piece of tape around the broken arm of Mikey's glasses and wiggled them a little, testing. "I think that should hold," he said, and handed them over.
Mikey put them on. The arms were wonky and the taped part resting on his nose made him look like a kid in a cartoon, but he nodded. "Thanks."
"Frank's going to drive," Brian went on, "And - " he stopped, giving Frank and Mikey a worried look.
"What?" said Mikey.
"It's just - it's just this is a lot of pressure on you two," Brian said carefully. "With the rest of us all busted up like this. I wouldn't have planned it this way."
Mikey raised one eyebrow. "You would have planned this at all?"
Brian sighed. "Okay, maybe not."
"It is the way it is, Brian, there's nothing we can do about it now." Frank stood up as Ray came back into the room. "Are we ready?"
Ray nodded. "As we'll ever be, I guess."
Mikey hunched his shoulders. "We have to go," he said. He picked up Ray's kit bag. "The Cardinal's waiting."
In the van, Frank forced himself to keep his eyes away from the rearview, where Bob was asking Gerard to kneel, so Bob could tie his hands behind his back, and then his wrists to his ankles. Frank knew it was for the best, that it would stop Gerard from hurting himself, if nothing else, but that didn't mean Frank wasn't two seconds away from scratching Bob's eyes out. He started the van up and looked around for the button Craig had used to open the garage door.
"Wait," said Mikey. "The spell. How is Gerard going to get out of the house? Doesn't he need a symbol painted on?"
"I burned it into his flesh last night, Mikey," Frank said, getting the van rolling. "If that's not good enough then I don't know what the fuck is."
Frank didn't bother with the path Craig had taken before, instead deciding just to drive in a straight line towards the gates. In the rearview he could see Bob tying a piece of cloth in a knot at the back of Gerard's head, holding himself awkwardly so as not to put pressure on his wounded leg. He could see Brian, pale and sweating and trying to brace himself against the side of the van so the movement of the wheels didn't cause him too much pain, and he could see Ray staring down at his useless hands, frustration and hopeless rage written in the line of his shoulders and the set of his jaw. Mikey was in the passenger seat, looking like he had a date with the end of the world, and Frank just was not in the fucking mood to be polite to the assholes who had hurt them all so badly. He could see them now, milling around outside the gates.
"They might not move," Mikey said. He looked at Frank out the corner of his eye. Frank heard the you might hit them as clear as if Mikey had spoken it aloud, and it didn't sound like a warning, either.
"Good," he said, and put his fucking foot down.
The gates weren't closed this time so there wasn't the same impact; the human survival instinct was apparently still alive inside the Hoods because most of them got out of the way; the ones who didn't, though, tried to grab on and one of them clung to Mikey's door for almost half a block before Mikey managed to swing it open and send the guy flying to the sidewalk.
