by Mel Odom
Another blast of cold air gusted over us from inside. The hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.
Gobbet shoved a hand out in front of her. “Where is that coming fro—”
A pale woman with a regal air stepped out of the darkness gathered in the rear of the room. Black hair framed a beautiful face with cherry lips and almond eyes that held an orange-red gleam.
Behind her, a group of men and women dressed in armored clothing spread out in a loose half-circle. None of them spoke, and their unblinking stares were unnatural.
“Ahh,” the woman said. “The little dog who’s been sniffing around Neville Ma’s affairs.” The arrogance in her words was as cold as the temperature, and as cutting as a shark’s tooth.
I centered the Ingram on her, but I kept my finger from the trigger. “No one fires until I say so,” I told the others. One of Shenyang’s stipulations had been that no blood be spilled in Neville Ma’s rooms. I wouldn’t do that unless I had to.
The woman smiled and held a hand up to her people.
“Ku Feng, I presume?” I said.
She nodded. “Just so. My servants have been watching you since you arrived.”
I thought I recognized one or two of her people, but none of them had shown too much interest in us as we’d mixed with the party.
Gobbet stepped close to me. “She’s not human. She’s undead. I can almost assense her.”
“I suspect that you are an evil man,” Ku Feng accused, “and that you are here to do harm to Neville. And so I came to stop you.”
“Vampire,” Gobbet whispered into my ear.
That caught my attention. I’d never dealt with vampires, but I’d heard stories about them. They weren’t metahumans to mess around with, and now we’d caught the attention of this one.
“I couldn’t be less interested in hurting Neville, lady,” I assured her. “I’m just here to finish a job.” Learning that Neville Ma was in league with a vampire would be something Shenyang could use. Of that, I was certain.
Getting out of here with that news, however, was going to be difficult.
“If that’s true,” Ku Feng said coolly, “then it is a shame. You have seen my face and you know what I am. Naturally, I cannot allow you to leave.” She smiled, showing sharp, white fangs. “And you can’t afford to fight me here for fear of police involvement.”
There was more on the table than that with Shenyang’s rules. I didn’t respond.
“Perhaps we can settle this in a more civilized manner.” Ku Feng shot me a withering glare. “A face-off in a neutral location. Will you accept my challenge?”
From the corner of my eye, I saw the sun sinking and the sprawl turning dark, lighting up with neon. I didn’t know if vampires were more powerful at night or not. It stood to reason, though.
“If you choose not to face me,” she stated in a cold voice, “I have your scents. I will track you down and kill you.”
“Where?” I asked.
“The rooftop,” Ku Feng stated. “You go first, and we will follow. If you try to return to the elevator or take the stairs, we will kill you there.”
“We’ll see you there, Ku Fang,” Duncan said.
Chapter 49
Vampire Dust-up
A few minutes later, we stood in the rooftop garden waiting for Ku Feng and her group to put in an appearance. Part of me hoped they’d run, and part of me thought maybe we could have run.
Gobbet spoke to herself and gestured. Shimmering waves coiled around her. Is0bel checked the loads in her pistol.
“We’re gonna make a lot of noise,” Duncan said.
The decker looked up at him. “A vampire’s about to try to slot us, Gun Show. I’m more concerned about getting exsanguinated than getting busted for a noise violation.” She was trying to be sarcastic and humorous, but the effort sounded false and brittle.
“The HKPF’s gonna be on us like a roaches on a soy bacon strip,” Duncan said.
“By the time they get here,” Is0bel insisted, “one way or another, this fight’s gonna be over. If you wanna worry about the cops, go ahead. Me? I’m planning on staying alive.”
Duncan cursed.
I looked at him. “You ever fought a vampire?”
“Couple times.”
“Win any of those fights?”
Duncan grimaced. “One. That was a bad night. A lot of guys got slotted.” He worked his jaw. “They can be killed.”
“That’s what I wanted to know,” I said.
“But it’s a bitch to do it.”
“We could run.”
Duncan laughed without humor and shook his head. “I’d rather take something head-on than to have to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life.”
“Me too.” I slapped the magazine back into the pistol and readied a couple of micro-grenades I’d hidden on ankle straps. “I just wanted to make sure we were in sync.”
“We’re there, brother.” Duncan offered me a big fist, and I bumped knuckles with him.
Only a few minutes later, Ku Feng showed up with her minions. Her eyes widened a little, and I wondered then if she’d expected us to run. Maybe she wasn’t as confident as she’d acted.
But she also didn’t look like she was going to back down.
She stopped a short distance away. The wind ruffled the flowers and the grass, and shook the tree branches over our heads. The landscapers who cared for the garden were going to find a battlefield where their bright spot of serenity had been.
I held the pistol with my left hand, a micro-grenade in my right.
“Are you prepared to become my servant, human?” Her cold voice sliced through the chill air. “You must not resist, or I’ll be forced to kill you. Should it come to that, I’ll endeavor to make it swift and painless…but no promises.”
“Not gonna happen,” Duncan growled.
Ku Feng smiled. “This will be entertaining. Kill them!”
At our side, Gobbet yelled out and raised her hands. The wind halted momentarily around her and we felt the pause. Then a translucent figure materialized, made up of the air itself. As it moved, tornadic wind screamed around it.
I flicked the grenade’s pin, held it for a short count, and lobbed it into the center of her underlings. Ku Feng saw the grenade hit the ground and shouted a curse as she moved away with superhuman speed. I tracked her and unleashed a full magazine that chopped into her, toppled two small trees she ran behind, and spilled flower petals like multi-colored confetti.
The grenade blew up and tossed two of her henchmen back, reducing them to blood tatters despite their armor. Still, they tried to get back to their feet.
I swapped out magazines as Is0bel flipped a micro-grenade from her clutch into another group of Ku Feng’s followers. It was disguised as a compact. The explosive detonated and knocked three of them down, but they immediately tried to get back up as well. Even though the blasts were still ringing in my ears and I was partially deafened, I realized that none of the people were crying out in pain—or speaking at all. They were in thrall.
I lined up headshots and put three-round bursts into four of them while Duncan took out the others. Then we raced after Gobbet and the air spirit, who were hot after Ku Feng.
The vampiress ducked around a tree, vanished for just a moment, then took shape as a mist that mixed with the air spirit. Thunder and howling winds raged over the rooftop. Sirens sounded far off, but I knew they’d close on us quickly.
The wind spirit roared in pain and shredded to pieces as it left the physical plane and returned to the astral. In the next instant, Ku Feng resumed her corporal body and leaped at Gobbet, nails glistening like razors.
Gobbet threw a hand out. A shimmering barrier took shape between her and Ku Feng. Snarling, eyes wide, Ku Feng dodged and spun around the barrier with blinding speed.
“Incoming!” Is0bel shouted as she threw a grenade disguised as lip gloss.
Gobbet threw herself down and covered her head with her arms. The gren
ade detonated in the center of Ku Feng’s chest and blew her off her feet, slinging her several meters back.
Blood covered her face and matted her hair. Her armor cracked and fell away.
“Wait, wait!” Ku Feng held up her shaking, bloody arms. “I surrender! Don’t kill me!”
I aimed at a spot between her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Duncan challenged. “Not feeling so powerful now?”
Slowly, she got to her knees and held her open hands before her. “The whole ‘mistress of the night’ thing is just an act. I’m just an accountant that got infected.”
“Infected is infected,” Duncan said.
“Wait,” I told him. “Nobody shoot.”
“We can’t stay here,” Gobbet said. “Not counting HKPF, the hotel’s sec people are going to be on us in seconds.”
“I…I don’t really know how to fight,” Ku Feng admitted. “I was faking it. I just wanted to scare you into backing down.”
“You’re an…accountant?” Gobbet looked stunned.
Ku Feng nodded. “I was on a business trip to Shanwei last year. I went to a rave, got drunk, and passed out. When I woke up, I was in an alley and someone had done…this…to me.”
“I don’t need to hear your life story,” Duncan said. “Just tell me what you hoped to get out of all this.”
“I don’t know.” In spite of all the death she’d caused, Ku Feng looked very much like a scared young woman in that moment. “Money? Power? Both? Like I said, I don’t know the first thing about how to be a real vampire. I figured that if I was smart about it, I could maybe build my own little thing here…like a business. Become the Vampire Queen of Repulse Bay.”
“Wait,” Gobbet said. “So this whole thing has been just been you…what? Improvising?”
“Pretty much, yeah. Look, I don’t really know what the hell I’m doing. I’m just…doing my best.” Ku Feng looked at her bloody hands. Her voice turned small. “If I’m ever found out, I’ll be killed for bounty money. It was either this or get gunned down by a vampire hunter.”
“Shouldn’t your family or co-workers be looking for you?” Gobbet asked.
“Not if I can help it.” Ku Feng shivered. “You think I want them to see me like this? No thanks. As far as my friends and family are concerned, I’m missing. Have been for months. They probably think I’m dead by now.” Her breath caught for a moment before she continued. “I think that’s for the best. I mean, how could I explain what I’ve become? Can you imagine how ashamed my family would be to find that I’d become this…monster?” She shook her head. “No, it’s better that they think I’m dead.”
“Speaking of being dead,” Is0bel spoke up, “if we don’t clear out of here, we’re all gonna be dead.”
I’d been tracking the sirens too. “Security will be on high alert in the lobby. We need another way down.”
Ku Feng pointed back to the building. “There’s a private elevator there. I’ve got access.”
Duncan put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her in that direction. “Sounds good to me. Lead the way.”
Chapter 50
The Deal
We ducked around the cordon HKPF set up around the Repulse Bay Hotel and took a cab to a small diner the driver recommended. None of us wanted to trust any of Ku Feng’s suggestions.
The place we found was at the back of a shadowed alley. Low lights and a thin trickle of clientele told me it was a good place to talk, and that not all the profits were coming from what came off the flat grill. It was a place where law enforcement would hesitate to come.
We fit right in at a back table.
“You haven’t killed me,” Ku Feng said after we’d all ordered soykaf. Well, all but the vampire, of course.
“Not yet,” Duncan told her. He’d handcuffed her and covered her with a jacket he’d stolen from the hotel’s coat room on our way out.
“Can we call a truce or something?” She looked at me. “I scratch your back, you…let me live?” She smiled. “What do you say?”
“I think we can work something out,” I said. “Conditionally.”
“Yes, yes, anything.” The hopeful look in her eyes made her look young and innocent, but I didn’t fall for it. We’d left a lot of dead people behind that she’d sacrificed in her effort to kill us. “Just tell me what you need.”
“I want some answers. How are you and Neville Ma connected?”
She hesitated and looked around the table. No one offered her any mercy.
She shrugged. “I don’t like to drink blood from unwilling people,” she said, “so I go to hospitals at night looking for people who won’t mind if I take a sip. People in comas, patients with terminal illnesses, that kind of thing. It makes me feel better about what I have to do.”
“Neville Ma,” Duncan said.
She nodded. “I happened to be in the same hospital that he was, trolling for a meal. I wandered into his room, and I recognized him. I’d seen him on the news…seen photos of the accident.” She rocked in her seat, still bothered by the memory. “He was in really bad shape. A lot of broken bones and internal injuries. But somehow, he was still conscious.”
“You offered to help,” Gobbet said.
“I knew that if I gave uninfected people my blood, they’d be able to heal like I did, just not as fast. I’d figured that out early, and by mistake. But it can come in handy from time to time.” She shifted in the seat. “So when I saw that Neville was conscious, I decided to make my grand appearance. I materialized in the room and told him that I’d make him a trade. I’d fix him up, good as new, but he’d owe me some favors for it. I wasn’t specific as to how many favors, or what kind.”
“And he agreed?” Gobbet asked.
“Actually, he leaped at the chance to become my pawn. I guess that when you’re all broken up like that, you’ll do just about anything to get better. The deal was done. And…we got along. I think he’s charming, he thinks I’m funny, and he doesn’t care that I’m a vampire. He told me that he gives me nice things because he likes me, and not because he owes me his life.” Ku Feng almost looked embarrassed. “It’s all very sweet.”
“Is there a cure for your condition?” Gobbet peered into the vampire’s eyes.
“I wish…but no.” Ku Feng shook her head. “The only cure is being tossed in a bonfire or having your head cut off. And almost every nation in the world will pay a bounty for a dead vampire.” She paused. “It’s not like I had much of a choice, you know? Be a vampire or get killed for some quick cash. It’s a pretty raw deal for me either way.”
“What’s it like?” Is0bel asked.
Ku Feng looked at the decker and shrugged. “About the same as being a person. The Human-Metahuman Vampiric Virus is like any other disease, except instead of a coffin, I can’t go out during the day. It’s not all bad, though. I can turn into mist, and I’m a lot stronger than I used to be. I still have to wash my hair and pay for parking, though.”
She looked around the diner, then back at us. “You know what I miss the most? Steamed buns. I can’t eat or drink anything except blood, and I loved street food before I got infected. Sometimes I’ll walk by food carts just to smell the things they’re frying up. But if I buy something, ten minutes later it’s coming back up in a mess.”
Some of the harshness in Duncan’s face left. He knew about going hungry for things you couldn’t have.
“Now…what can I do for you?” she asked.
“You’re going to get Neville to fire Penelope Wong,” I said.
“Wait.” A look of surprise twisted her face. “All of this is about that stupid soap opera?”
‘That’s about the size of it, yeah.” Looking back on it, things sounded kind of lousy to me, too.
“I can’t believe it.” Ku Feng leaned back in the booth. “Of all the idiotic reasons to blow my cover…” She hissed angrily. “Fine. I’ll make Neville get rid of her.”
“You’re sure you can convince him?” Duncan asked.
“Neville can’t say no to me. I mean that quite literally. He’ll do it, no question.” Ku Feng paused to take a breath. “What about Neville and me?”
“I don’t care who Neville Ma associates with,” I said.
“Thank you. He knows what I am, and doesn’t care because I saved his life. I won’t trouble you again.”
“Then we have a deal.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear it.” Ku Feng shimmered for a moment, became as see-through as glass, then she returned to a physical form and dangled Duncan’s handcuffs off her fingertips. “I guess we won’t be needing these anymore.” She dropped them in his lap as he stared at her.
Turning to mist again, she stepped through the table out into the aisle, the solidified once more. She tossed us a wave and walked away. Nearly every eye in the room followed her through the door.
My commlink buzzed for attention, the ID showing it was Kindly Cheng. I answered. “Yes, Auntie?”
“Come to the mahjong parlor, my darling,” she ordered. “I have something I want to show you.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Something I can’t show you over the comm.” Her voice turned hard as steel. “Now hang up and get your ass over here.”
Chapter 51
Wiretap
By the time we reached Heoi, the screamsheets were full of the news about Penelope Wong’s dismissal from Neville Ma’s studio and Promises in Moonlight. I felt a little bad about that, but I knew Shenyang was waiting to snap her up. So she’d still be employed.
Kindly Cheng sat at a table at the back of her little kingdom, her head wreathed in noxious smoke from one of those slim black cigars. She waved us over, and we settled in around her.
“I assume from the news reports your work for Shenyang went well?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. He should be happy.”
“I’ll broker the credits he owes you, but he wants a final interview with you in the morning.”
“For what?” Duncan asked.
Kindly Cheng shrugged. “So someone can hear him gloat. That’s what men like him enjoy doing.”