Only Ashes Remain

by Rebecca Schaeffer

  But it still made her shake, to imagine these random girls, alive one day, dead the next because of a conflict in a world they didn’t understand. She could almost hear their screams as the scalpel sank into their flesh, as their bodies were torn apart and put into glass jars.

  Nita shivered at the thought of a scalpel, body tingling with a hunger, the cool metal in her hand as she pressed down on flesh. How long had it been since she dissected something?

  She choked on her own disgust. Why did this happen every time? Why couldn’t she think of bad things without wanting to do them herself?

  She covered her face in her hands. She was so fucked up.

  She wanted to dissect someone. She wanted to carve them up, to take them apart piece by piece and see how they worked. She didn’t care who, she just wanted a body to fulfill her craving.

  It would be even better if she could dissect something new. Something no one else had ever dissected before.

  Like a kelpie.

  Nita stilled. Then licked her lips. If Adair tried to hurt her, if he cut his losses and tried to sell her to the black market . . . Well, if there was a body, it would be a shame to waste it.

  Her mouth curled up in a vicious smile.

  Below, there was a small crash, and Diana’s voice trickled up. “Damn chair! I know he’s doing it on purpose.”

  Nita blinked, and the image of dissecting Adair vanished. Diana would never forgive her—not that Nita really cared what Diana wanted or thought. But it made him more human, and it was less easy to think about taking him apart knowing there was someone who counted on him.

  Nita sighed. She didn’t have time for these musings. She needed to get that wanted-for-questioning ad down.

  She pulled the card from Quispe out of her pocket. Her phone number was printed on the back. Nita hesitated, looking down at her phone. She despised calling people on the phone. She didn’t like talking and interacting in general, but she especially hated it on the phone. She much preferred texting. But this wasn’t the kind of situation where she really wanted to wait around for Quispe to check her email.

  So Nita punched in the numbers and waited.

  The phone rang twice before Quispe picked up. “This is Special Agent Ximena Quispe.”

  Nita swallowed, and cleared her throat. “Hi, Agent Quispe, it’s Nita.”

  “Nita!” Her voice rose slightly. “It’s good to hear your voice.”

  “You too,” Nita lied. “Um, are you still in Toronto?”

  “No, I’m in New York at a conference right now.”

  “Oh.” Then she hadn’t seen the news. “Well, um, there was an issue here. A crazy black market hunter tried to kill me, and it was filmed, and now the police have my picture on a wanted-for-questioning poster.”

  Quispe was silent for a moment before she asked, “Are you okay?”

  Nita blinked, and startled herself when she touched her face. Tears trickled from her eyes, and she wiped them away. It was such a simple thing to ask, but no one else ever asked. Her mother hadn’t asked when she’d gotten out of the market. Diana hadn’t asked.

  Only Kovit had cared enough to ask.

  And now Quispe.

  Nita had tried so hard to be tough, to be confident, that she hadn’t realized just how uncertain, how scared, how shaken she was by everything.

  She’d been so sure the answer was killing the black market dealers. It had worked in Peru, it would work here too, right?

  But everything had just gotten more and more messy, and nothing was going the way that it should. Her reputation hadn’t been built with their deaths, the police were on her tail, Adair was going to kick them out or kill them, and Kovit’s Family was in town, which could ruin everything if they found out he was here.

  She choked back the tears and said, “No. I’m not okay.”

  Quispe’s voice was firm. “I’m coming back to Toronto. We’ll go to the police together and explain the situation. I’ll try and get the wanted pictures taken down for now, but I don’t know how much influence I can have on them. They’ll need to speak with you.”

  Nita shook her head, then realized Quispe couldn’t see it. “No. I’m not going in.”

  “Nita—”

  “No. I’m not going to the police.” Nita hesitated, the millions of reasons it was a bad idea running through her head, before settling on one Quispe would understand. “I’ve seen too much news. I’m scared of what they’d do to me.”

  Quispe understood. “You’re in Canada, not the States. Canadians have a different attitude toward Latin America. There’s fewer issues.”

  Nita had noticed that she hadn’t received many strange looks on the street. Her memories of the States were fuzzy, but she remembered people noticing her distinctly Chilean features. They rarely said anything, but she could see the judgment in their eyes as they made assumptions about her. No one here except Bronte had given her a second glance. Yet. Maybe because Toronto was a lot more diverse than her Chicago suburb.

  Though she was also with Kovit, and people might be too busy being distracted by their fear of him to notice her.

  Quispe was still talking. “The police there use tasers more often than guns. There’s less of a problem with police brutality too.”

  Nita noticed Quispe didn’t say there was no problem. Just less of one. Somehow, that didn’t comfort her.

  “Please.” Nita’s voice was soft. “Can you just explain what happened so they can go after the shooter?”

  Quispe sighed. “It’s not going to be that simple.”

  Nita’s jaw clenched.

  “Look, I have some good news.” Quispe’s voice lightened. “I wasn’t going to tell you until he’d arrived, but I think you could use the pick-me-up.”

  Nita swallowed. “He?”

  “We were all so touched by your and Fabricio’s sweet messages to each other that we decided to relocate him to Toronto for a bit so you two could reconnect. He requested that INHUP place him in the protection program and begged us to help him get as far away from everything that happened as possible. He has a new name and identity now, which means he can travel. While we set up the conditions of his protection program, we thought moving him to Toronto so you two could meet would be nice.”

  Nita’s mouth went dry. “Fabricio’s coming to Toronto?”

  “Yes. We surprised him with the news this morning. He’ll be there tomorrow.” Quispe’s voice was a smile. “Why don’t I come back to Toronto, and we’ll talk to the police together. Then you can spend some time with Fabricio?”

  Nita just stared blankly at the wall of her room before she smiled and lied, “Yes, of course, we’ll do that.”

  She made some excuse, then hung up, still staring at the wall.

  Fabricio was coming to Toronto. Her mind tried to process that information, failed, and tried again.

  Nita’s eyes narrowed.

  He’d been using other people, staying safe behind a computer screen on the other side of the world, but now, with this, he was within shooting distance.

  Nita’s mouth curled up in a smile.

  It was time to end this.

  Murdering the dealers hadn’t been the right move. Adair was right. Mass murder had worked in Death Market because it was isolated, and she eliminated everyone. That kind of strategy simply wasn’t possible here. The whole world was involved, there was no way she could kill everyone.

  Indiscriminate violence wasn’t the answer. Nita was trying to dig out the heart of her enemies with an axe, and all it did was spread gore and make a mess. She needed to be a scalpel, neat and precise.

  Adair’s point was well taken. You never go for the pawns when you can go for the king. And who was more of a king in this game than Fabricio right now? He’d set this whole mess up, he was the one paying people to kill her.

  She needed to end things with him, before he revealed her to INHUP and made everything worse.

  Finally, a stroke of luck had come her way. Because the top of her
murder list was coming right to her, gift-wrapped by INHUP.

  Fabricio wouldn’t leave Toronto alive.

  Twenty-Five

  NITA TOOK A DEEP BREATH and rose from the bed, her mind already full of plans for dealing with Fabricio. She stretched, letting them swirl around before looking down at her phone.

  There was one more thing she needed to check.

  Her conversation with Kovit earlier had left her with questions about her father’s death, and it was past time she started looking for answers.

  Her hands were sweaty as she went online and found INHUP’s Dangerous Unnaturals List.

  She felt a strange hesitation when she clicked on the link. She didn’t know why—it wasn’t like there was any chance she’d be on the list, and Kovit would have known very quickly if he’d been found out.

  The page opened with a list of the different dangerous unnaturals and how to recognize them. Kappa and their bald spots, vampires and their silvered hair. Zannies and their shivers.

  At the bottom of the page was the link to the current wanted list, where information about any confirmed but still free unnaturals was posted.

  The list wasn’t actually that long, only five faces. She supposed it was easy for INHUP to get rid of their most wanted monsters when they had the whole world hunting for them.

  Nita looked at each face, eyes searching for Zebra-stripes. Quispe had confirmed that he was a vampire, which meant INHUP had confirmed it. Vampires were on the list. So it made sense, since Zebra-stripes was still alive, that he’d be on the public wanted list.

  He wasn’t.

  Nita blinked when she got to the bottom and went back to the top of the page and looked through it again, but with the same result. Zebra-stripes hadn’t been publicized as a monster and put on the kill list.

  Nita clicked off her phone and frowned. Why? She’d never heard of someone not being put on the list.

  Unless he was already dead?

  Possible, but she doubted it.

  Chewing her lip, she tucked her phone in her pocket. She was going to need a new plan to find information.

  She headed toward the stairs, hoping Kovit was back. She wanted to discuss options with him.

  She descended the stairs, but stopped when the bell on the front door jingled, announcing a customer. Did people still go to pawnshops? Nita had thought the whole thing was a money-laundering front and assumed they didn’t actually sell anything.

  Which, in hindsight, was silly. It had to at least look like it was a real business.

  Nita didn’t want to be seen by someone who might recognize her from the news, so she peered around the door to the shop to see who was there.

  Diana was at the front counter with the laptop, silently working. Nita couldn’t see if anyone else was in the store.

  A footstep in the silence, then a voice. “Is Adair in?”

  Nita blinked. She knew that voice.

  Gold stepped into view. One side of her face and neck was covered in bandages. A sharp grin crossed Nita’s face. Gold shouldn’t have messed with Nita if she didn’t want acid burns.

  “He’s just stepped out.” Diana looked up from her laptop. “I can call his cell? He just went for a walk, so he’s not far.”

  “Please.”

  Diana pulled out her cell phone and called. “Who shall I say is calling?”

  “Gold.”

  Diana repeated the message and hung up. Nita crouched in the silence, hidden behind the door, and realized Kovit was checking on Adair. If Adair returned, so would Kovit.

  Nita pulled out her phone and texted him. Gold is in Adair’s shop. DO NOT COME BACK.

  There was no response.

  She resisted the urge to swear. He probably wasn’t looking at his phone, but she didn’t dare risk calling because she didn’t want Gold to know anyone else was here.

  The door jingled again, and Adair walked in with a half-eaten ice cream cone. Nita hadn’t realized that when he said he needed to cool down, he literally meant he wanted to eat ice cream. But hey, to each their own.

  “Gold. You cut your hair.” Adair eyed her for a moment, then opened his mouth and put the entire ice cream cone in. He swallowed without chewing. His cheeks didn’t puff out, his face didn’t even change.

  Gold, Nita, and Diana all flinched when he ate it. There was something decidedly wrong about seeing it. He shouldn’t have been able to fit it in his mouth, and there was no evidence he had, except the swallow. It was the first time Nita had seen the flaws on the human part of his glamour—not the shifting, changing features, but the simple impossibility.

  Beneath that fake human face was something with a very large mouth.

  And teeth. Nita well remembered the teeth.

  Gold cleared her throat and stepped forward, wiping the fear off her face and replacing it with practiced disdain. “Adair. I’m here for an exchange.”

  “And what do you have to offer?” Adair swept past her to join Diana behind the counter. Diana grabbed her laptop and slipped away, through the door Nita was hiding behind. They nearly collided, and Diana overbalanced, avoiding Nita and thumping onto her butt on the floor of the stairwell.

  Nita peered around the corner, but neither Adair nor Gold seemed to have noticed. Diana rose and silently joined Nita in her eavesdropping.

  “I have new information.”

  “You’ve already sold me everything I could ever possibly want to know about your Family’s operations.”

  Gold ground her teeth. “You owe me, though. For the fuckup last time.”

  “I owe you nothing. I did exactly what I was paid for. It’s not my fault that Henry tracked your phone and found out about it. That’s on you and you alone.”

  She flinched, and her hard-planed face dissolved into grief for a moment before resettling into a cold mask. “I have new information.”

  “Oh?”

  “About Fabricio Tácunan. Heard of him?”

  A small smile flicked across Adair’s face. “Some.”

  “I’ll sell information on him.”

  “I’m not convinced you have any information on him I don’t already know.”

  Gold frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “You’re planning to sell me his location, no? Or what will be his location tomorrow. I know that.” Adair considered. “Or perhaps you’re planning to sell me information about why he hired Henry and what he wants you to do, but I also already know that.”

  Nita blinked. How could Adair know that? Nita had only just found out that Fabricio was coming to Toronto and—

  Oh.

  The bedroom was bugged.

  Of course it was.

  Asshole.

  Anything Nita knew, now Adair knew too. The whole shop was probably bugged, now that Nita was thinking about it. She should have been angry at the invasion of privacy, but she couldn’t help but feel a grudging respect for him. It was clever. And that information was probably worth money to the right people, so he was getting extra from her and Kovit’s stay.

  It was a trick she thought she might use too someday, if she ever got the chance.

  Gold hesitated. “I have other information. Things I haven’t disclosed yet.”

  “Sure you do.” Adair’s smile was condescending. “And for these vague promises of information, what is it you actually want me to do?”

  She met his eyes. “I want you to get the wanted posters from the police down.”

  Adair snorted. “Perhaps you should have thought of that before you went shooting up a building.”

  “I got a little carried away,” Gold agreed easily.

  “Trying to prove yourself after everything, hmm?”

  She gritted her teeth. “None of your fucking business.”

  “Well, it is, because you’re asking me to fix it.” Adair shrugged and grinned. “But the answer is no.”

  “But—”

  “No. What you want is close to impossible at the moment. I might be able to get you off—might—
but it would require using up a lot of favors, making a lot of bribes, and owing people things. And given that, the price would have to be . . . Well, let’s just say it’s well out of your price range.”

  Gold clenched her fists. “What do you want from me?”

  “Nothing.” Adair’s lips curled into a warped grin, showing a hint of too-white smile. “I’ve already taken everything you have.”

  Gold rocked backwards slightly, but her face stayed exactly the same. A trained poker face. It reminded Nita a little of Kovit. Whenever someone said something to hurt him, his face would do that same thing. Go into a perfect prepared mask. For Kovit, the mask was cruelty and derision. For Gold, the mask was icy calm with a hint of a sneer.

  “Fine.” Her voice was as frosty as her face. “I should have known better than to try and hire an unnatural anyway. You’re all monsters.”

  Adair just raised an eyebrow and calmly said, “I never said I wouldn’t do business with you in the future, but I would prefer you keep your prejudice under wrap. Rudeness will win you no friends.”

  She sneered. “Are you denying you’re a monster?”

  “Of course not.” Adair’s voice was mild. “But the same can’t be said for every individual person of all four thousand and seventeen documented unnatural species you just derided.”

  Gold rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

  Nita willed that to be the end, for Gold to just leave. She didn’t want Kovit to come back and see her. If he’d received her text, he hadn’t responded, and her heart raced in her chest, begging him to stay away.

  Gold walked toward the door, but stopped when Adair called her name.

  She turned back to him. “What?”

  “A piece of advice.” Adair gave her a mild smile. “No one likes to be wrong. So sometimes, when something proves us wrong, it just makes us more fervent in our belief of it. But it’s okay to be wrong.”

  Gold stilled. “What are you talking about?”

  Adair watched her for a long moment, and she fidgeted under his gaze. Finally, he looked away and shrugged. “Simply an observation.”

  She glared at him, her jaw tightening. “You don’t understand anything.”

  Then she spun away, slamming the door behind her as she left. The frame rattled, and a ceramic statue of a ballerina tumbled off a nearby shelf from the force. It landed on the floor and cracked in half.