I could only hope the fact that she was up there, making customers happy, and I was down here was enough to keep her from acting on what she’d just learned about me.
I walked around the stage, looking for a break in the tinsel walls that looked like a door, or a curtain to somewhere else. When I found it, I headed straight for it, pushing the curtain aside like I had a purpose. I’d entered a backstage corridor, one which seemed to lead to a dressing room. Already I could hear the gaggle of girls getting ready for their next trip onto the pole.
Carefully I approached the open door, watching the shadows as they played out against the wall in front of me like a hand-puppet show. All of the women in the dressing room were gorgeous, and young, save for maybe one or two—the club’s more veteran dancers.
Slowly, I emerged from the shadows to cross in front of the door, hoping none of them would notice me. None of them did. That meant they were all humans, and I could let go of the breath I’d kept held inside my lungs.
From there it was only a short walk to the back corridor where Darkshard’s office was. I recognized the corridor straight away. The backdoor was at the other end of the corridor. Good to know in case things go south.
I reached for my dagger and pulled it out of its sheath. With my dagger in one hand, ready to strike if necessary, I opened the door to Darkshard’s office and pushed it open… to find it completely empty. The bed was made, but looked unused. In the air I sensed a faint lemony smell. The fish in the fish tank bobbed quietly inside.
No Darkshard, though.
Lightning flashed through the window behind Darkshard’s mahogany desk, stretching the shadows in the room and highlighting just how empty the space was. I waited, counting, but no thunder followed, no rain, either.
A door opened somewhere behind me. Acting on instinct, I spun around on the spot, grabbed the girl that had walked through the door, and pinned her up against a wall. With my forearm pressed against her throat and my knife’s edge touching her bare midsection, I stared at her. It was Kandi.
Instantly I understood this girl was way more dangerous than she looked.
“You scream and it’ll be the last thing you do,” I warned.
“I’m not gonna scream,” she said. Her composure was cool, calm, and collected. Ice cold. I guessed you had to have a great poker face if you stripped for a living. “But you’re wasting your time. He isn’t here.”
“I can see that. Where is he?”
“Hell if I know, but he hasn’t been here in a while. Maybe a few days.”
I shook my head. “What the hell is it with you mages going AWOL?”
She angled her head to the side, frowning. “What?”
“Forget about it. Dammit. I need to find him, and I need to find him right now.”
“Why? He in some kind of trouble?”
It was like she didn’t care I was holding a knife to her belly. I felt my conviction start to slip away, her lack of a reaction sapping my momentum. “I think he has my friend,” I finally said, “I don’t know where either of them are, but I need to find them, and I need to do it tonight.”
“Maybe if you pulled the knife away from my stomach, I’d be willing to help you.”
“Why would you help me? Don’t you work for him?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I love the guy. Anyway, the manager in charge while Darkshard is away wants us to fuck the customers, and I don’t wanna do that. Darkshard would never ask that of his dancers, so the sooner he’s back, the less likely it is I’ll have to sleep with anyone I don’t want to sleep with.”
I swallowed hard… and pulled the knife away from her stomach. I was well aware she could probably zap me with her eyes, or turn me into a chicken, or whatever the hell it was mages could do with their magic. I’d seen Bastet do some weird, powerful stuff, but I’d also heard her tell me mages needed to be able to concentrate if they wanted to use their magic.
Having a knife to your gut was probably wasn’t enough to break a mage’s concentration so much that they couldn’t do magic, but it wasn’t hurting me either. Now, with my instinct to fight surely squashed, and Kandi’s full concentration returned, I was opening myself up to a potential attack and trusting that she wouldn’t take the opportunity.
A moment passed, then another. Kandi took a deep breath and relaxed, but she didn’t rain fire on me, didn’t make me grow a penis on my forehead, didn’t make me think I was a lizard. I felt like, for the moment, I was safe. Of all the people who could’ve found me sneaking into this place, Kandi was probably the best.
“Thank you,” she said, “I knew you weren’t just going to murder me here.”
“I hope you’ll return the favor?”
“I will. Like I said, I want the same thing you want.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Darkshard may have just gained a point or two with what you just told me, but he’s sided with one of the biggest assholes in all the known worlds and he probably kidnapped my friend. When I find him, I’m going to wring him out.”
“That doesn’t work for me,” she said, opening the door to Darkshard’s office. Once inside, she headed over to his desk like she was letting herself into her own house, helped herself to a cigarette, and lit it. She offered one to me.
I shook my head. “I don’t smoke.”
“Suit yourself,” she said, taking a long, deep drag.
I narrowed my eyes. “You look way too smart to be working here… how old are you?”
“What does my age have to do with anything?”
“Probably nothing, I just figured you don’t look a day over twenty.”
“I choose to work here because I’m good at it, and I like the attention. I don’t love it, but do you have any idea how much those suckers are willing to throw at me if I show them a little skin? A few months working here, and I make more than most make in a year. If anyone tries to get a little too close, I make them suddenly see me as a withered old crone they wouldn’t want to touch with a dead man’s dick, and they leave me alone.”
“Can’t you do that to the guy who wants you to fuck the customers?”
“He’s a mage, too, and a lot more experienced than I am.”
“Why don’t you quit?”
She took another drag of her cigarette, the red light from the tip blazing brilliantly. “And do what?” she asked, after exhaling. “Go work at a deli, or waiting tables?”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
“Yeah, except I’ve gotten used to a certain standard of living, and waiting tables won’t cut it. It’s not like I want to work here forever, just until I can save up enough money to get out of the projects.”
“Pretty sure that’s what some of the older strippers back there said to themselves ten years ago.”
Kandi shook her head. “You should be offering to help me if you want my help finding Darkshard, not trying to talk me out of working here. Like I said, it’s fine most of the time, but with the boss gone, things are changing and I don’t like it.”
I shook my head. “I hate to break it to you, but your boss isn’t coming back. When I find him, he’s going to want to kill me. I’ll have to kill him first.”
She narrowed her eyes, considering what I’d just said. “Those guys you walked in with…”
“What about them?”
“Get them to rough the manager up a little, make it so he changes his mind about us sleeping with the customers, and I’ll tell you how to find him.”
I angled my head to the side. “I thought you didn’t know where he was.”
She shrugged. “I don’t, but I know how I can find him. Anyway, you were holding a knife to my belly. I panicked.”
“It sure didn’t look like you were panicking.”
Kandi pointed at her eyes. “It’s the dead stare trick. All the dancers know it.” She stubbed what was left of the cigarette out. “Get your friends to change his mind, and I’ll tell you how to find him.”
“If you kn
ow how to get to him, why haven’t you gone to see him?”
“Because I know my place. If Darkshard has skipped off somewhere and hasn’t even bothered to come back to his club, to his people, then there must be a reason for it. And me showing up unannounced to talk to him about a workplace grievance won’t go down well.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to worry about currying favor with this guy.”
“You know, you might have your opinions about him, but it’s really easy to look in through the window and make sense out of what you’re seeing in your own head even if the truth is far from it. You aren’t like us. You aren’t from here. You don’t understand our culture anymore than I understand yours. To you, he’s an enemy—someone you’d rather see dead. To me, he’s stability and protection; someone who’s made sure I don’t get exploited while I work here. There’s no good and evil, no black and white. Only grey. The best you can do is hope you have the gift of perspective and context.”
Who the hell is this girl? I was being schooled by someone who looked barely out of her teens. By someone wearing a bra and a thong, and nothing else. By Kandi. “That’s probably one of the wisest things anyone’s ever said to me.”
She grinned. “They don’t call us mages wise guys for nothing. So, will you help me?”
I took a deep breath. “Show me how you can find him…”
Kandi surveyed the room, then walked over to Darkshard’s chair and sat down. Delicately she ran her fingertips along the length of the armrests on the chair, along the sleek mahogany table surface, along the keys of his keyboard. She shut her eyes, took another series of deep breaths, and… I could’ve sworn I felt a presence enter the room.
It was the strangest feeling. A kind of keen, unseen awareness, like suddenly there were three of us in the office instead of two. I’d felt this around Bastet before, only with her I could never know if what I was feeling was the presence of some kind of horrifying ghost with misshapen, terrifying features and a whole lot of pent-up anger.
Bastet did often talk to this presence, though Kandi, not so much. She was completely still, now, her body stiff and tight save for her fingertips and her hands gliding delicately along the surfaces nearest to her. When she opened her eyes, they were glowing with deep, purple light. A light that faded after less than a second.
“I know where he is,” she said.
“Just like that?” I asked.
“It’s up to you to decide whether you trust me or not,” she said, reaching for a pen and a set of yellow post-it notes sitting on the table. She started scribbling something on it. “But if you do, I can promise you, you’ll find Darkshard here. Only problem is he probably knows I’ve reached for him, so… I kinda want you to kill him, too. Otherwise he’ll probably not be too happy with me, and I really don’t wanna deal with that.”
I nodded. “Fair enough… who’s the manager I’ve gotta beat up for you?”
“You’ll find him outside. He’s a tall guy, well-built but he wears cheap suits and even cheaper cologne. Careful with him, he’s no punk in the magic department.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m gonna let my friends do the hurting while I figure out where you’re sending me.”
She brought the post-it note over to me. “I’ve never been to this place, so I don’t know where I’m sending you. But it looks like it’s near the East River. Probably one of the poorer parts of town. I’d be careful over there… he’s not alone.”
“You know that for a fact?”
Kandi shrugged. “I felt other presences around him, other mages… but also other beings, too.”
“Beings? Like me?”
“Maybe, but maybe also vampires… Darkshard has business with some. I see them come in sometimes looking to feed on the girls. Darkshard doesn’t let them… not always, anyway.”
Vampires. A shudder pulsed through me like a cold chill had caused it. I could only hope I wouldn’t find any, where I was going. Everything I’d heard about vampires painted them as sophisticated murderers that were notoriously difficult to be killed. Their weaknesses, however, were fire and sunlight, and the latter, at least, I knew I could call if I needed.
“Thank you,” I said, “I wasn’t expecting this when I walked in here.”
Kandi stared at me from behind cold, grey eyes. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” She eyed me up and down, then ran her fingertips along my shoulder as she walked past. “And if you ever want a dance… drop on by.”
I watched her leave, one eyebrow cocked, then I looked at the address she’d given me. She’d been right about the location. I’d lived near the area when I was on the streets with Fate. It was all criminals and thugs, and no cops. On the back of the note, Kandi had written her name along with a phone number, with hearts instead of zeroes.
I grinned at it, pocketed the note, and headed out to find Draven and Mercutio, hoping neither of them had abandoned their posts for a lap dance.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Draven shoved the bar manager through the backdoor and out into the cold alley. I followed the two men with Mercutio behind me, watching from across Draven’s shoulder as the mage prepared himself for a fight. He’d told the girls working at the club, and just about everyone else, to call him Daddy, but I decided I was going to call him Dick instead.
Dick, who wasn’t exactly a tiny guy, pulled his suit jacket off and tossed it onto the wet ground at his feet. “You wanna fight, you son-of-a-bitch?” he asked Draven. It had started to rain, and his hair was sticking to his face the same way his shirt stuck to his skin. “C’mon, I’ll fucking fight you. You have no idea who you’re messing with.”
“And neither do you,” Draven said. He produced a short-sword out from under his jacket and readied it in front of him.
Mercutio took position beside Draven, leaving a gap wide enough for me to fit between them. There were three of us and one of him, but Dick wasn’t going to let a little thing like maths hurt his ego. His eyes flared up bright orange. From inside his shirt, an amulet started to glow to mimic his eyes. Around him the wind kicked up, causing the rain falling near him to swirl like he was in the middle of a vortex.
Draven prepared a defense, crossing his arms in front of himself in an X gesture at the same time I did. We looked at each other for a brief instant, then focused our attentions on Dick again who looked about ready to launch balls of flaming orange magic at us.
He never got the chance. Mercutio jumped out in front of us, waved his hands around, and all of the light and power surrounding Dick died out like a candle fighting against a strong wind. Magic symbols drew themselves into the air at Mercutio’s command. They then hurtled toward Dick and wrapped themselves around him like they were strung together with ropes.
“What the hell is this?” Dick said, clearly not understanding what had just happened to him. I didn’t either, but then this kind of magic wasn’t my wheelhouse.
“Pretty simple binding spell you’re taught at Dark Willow,” Mercutio said, “Let me guess, you never went to the Academy?”
“Fuck you, Academy brat. What the hell do you want? Why are you in my club? Is it money you want?”
“I think you should stop asking questions and listen,” Draven said, his voice a low purr. “We could end you right now if we wanted to, but we don’t want to because that would disrupt the lives of the people in your employ. That’s why we’re here.”
He stared at Draven like he was from another planet; and not just an alien, either, but a horrible green thing covered in tentacles and antenna. He was half right about Draven, but I wasn’t sure if he even knew that. I was starting to wonder if Dick knew anything about, well, anything. Or, at least, anything that didn’t involve bullying people beneath him.
“You’re… what? Why do you care about the people that work for me?”
“Because you’ve been asking the girls to sleep with the some of the jerkoffs that come to this place,” Mercutio said, “And that shit doesn’t fly with us.”<
br />
He shook his head like he couldn’t believe what we were saying. “Wait a second… you’re here because you heard some of the girls were fucking the guests and you want that to… stop? Oh wait, I get it… you want discounts, right? Or maybe you want in on the action? I can cut you in if you can find a couple more girls to…”
His eyes fell on me.
Oh, hell no.
“You burn that thought out of your mind right now,” Draven said, jumping to my defense before I could even mount one of my own. I wasn’t sure whether to accept the gesture or be upset by the fact that he hadn’t let me defend myself. Given the situation we were in, I wasn’t about to stop this whole moment to say anything about it.
“We don’t want anything to do with this place,” Mercutio said, “You’re gonna run it, and you’re gonna run it well. You’re gonna pay your employees what’s theirs, you aren’t gonna cheat them out of their money, and you aren’t gonna force them to sleep with the clients. You’re gonna take that off the table right now, and make sure everyone who walks into that place knows that kind of shit will get their teeth realigned.”
Dick scowled. “If you knew who I worked for, you wouldn’t be talking to me like that.”
“Darkshard,” Draven said, “We know him well. After tonight, you’ll never be seeing him again, so this place is yours. Consider it a promotion, but remember what we’ve told you.”
The mage watched us all, trying to figure us out. I could see his mind at work, the cogs in his brain turning and turning. He had been presented with a decision to make; take our threat seriously, or don’t. It was a tough one for Dick. On the one hand, he had his hard, inflated ego. On the other hand, we could beat him the hell up and leave him lying limp and flaccid on the ground.
“What if I don’t?” he asked, “What if I just do what I want anyway? You gonna kill me?”
I took two decisive steps toward him, forcing him to back into a wall. With a quick flick of my wrist, I spun my dagger around and tossed it at him. Dick put his hands up to shield his face, but I hadn’t aimed the dagger at his face—I’d aimed it just between his prized jewels. The dagger slid between his legs and struck a wooden crate stacked against the wall.
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