The other main advantage to showing up early is a chance to scope out the scenery. To my immediate right, straddling the edge of the dance floor was a tall woman with long black hair. She wore a leather jacket that did nothing to conceal her fit midriff and she wore platform shoes so high she could barely move. The tank top she wore beneath had a stylized, bloody fanged shark printed on it, bulging near the top due to her heavy breasts. Large spiked rings fitted into the leather of her shoes as well as her ears and nose. After little more than a second of me looking, she noticed my gaze and returned it.
It was Lis of course. No doubt in my mind.
Here’s where things got scary though. Spiked rings girl saw me, licked her lips playfully, then tugged the sleeve of a woman that looked to be her identical twin. The two of them made their way towards me like hungry sharks.
“Hey there fancy pants. Want some company?” spiked rings girl asked.
“No,” I flatly replied.
She laughed. “Sorry, I phrased that in the form of a question. What I meant to say was: We’re sitting down next to you, and you’re going to like it.”
Spiked rings sat down dangerously close to me, shooting a cocky grin at me over her shoulder. Her twin curled a mischievous smirk of her own as she sensuously knelt down.
On all fours, she crawled under the table, and took her seat in the booth corner, effectively trapping me in the middle of a leather, steel and boob sandwich.
The things I do for Nine Towers.
“Everybody’s got sights set on us, so we notice it when a guy gives us the cold shoulder, name’s Lilith, by the by. Charmed,” said the spike ringed girl.
“No kidding,” her twin added, “They look like a pack of wolves. But we like cold and aloof guys. A well dressed man glaring daggers here in the corner? Yes please. I’m Hecate, just so you know.”
They reminded me of my time in Japan for some reason.
“Lily, Cate,” I began. “I hate to come off as rude, but I’m here for a meeting. I’d tell you more but…”
“Then you’d have to kill us?” Lilith suggested.
“The only thing I’m dying for is to know more about you. Do you work for some foreign company? You have an accent that’s hard to place. So mysterious,” Hecate chimed in.
The problem wasn’t figuring out that Lis was masterminding a plot here. The problem was that while she had the ability to take whatever shape she so desired, I’d never seen her become two people at once. That could only mean one thing.
One was Lis. The other was an everyday black coffee no sugar Mundane Human being. And for the life of me I could not tell the difference.
“Why don’t you start by telling us all about--” began Lilith, but was swiftly interrupted.
“One Mezzaluna, sir,” spoke up the waitress, placing a drink on the table, “On the rocks is fine, I hope?”
I smiled my thanks. Her cheeks grew red from my gesture.
“Perfect,” I said. “Thanks.”
“And thank you for the tip,” she replied, and quickly scurried away.
“Who the hell was that?” Hecate asked.
“Did you see the eyes she was making at you? You sure are popular,” Lilith quickly added.
“Lucky me,” I said.
“Not that lucky,” Hecate added, wrapping her hands around my arm. “We’ve got you right where we want you, and if that bitch thinks she’s got anything on us, she’s going to have a real rude awakening.”
I very nearly replied to her, but fortunately, I caught sight of my savior out of the corner of my eye.
“Alexander,” I called out.
The gaunt man stuck out like a sore thumb. Too clean cut to look a part of the scene. Too ragged to meet the high energy of the atmosphere. Making his way around the dance floor, Alexander Ashwell, with George in hand, took a seat across from me and offered a crooked smile.
“Mr. Locke. If I’d known it would be this lively, I’d have recommended a coffee shop,” he said.
I felt a grin curve my lips upward. “Apology accepted. Now then, let’s get down to business.”
Chapter 19
Alexander Ashwell had his tired eyes fixed on me, saying nothing. I wasn’t sure why he was hesitating until I realized the source of his discomfort. The twins.
“They’re not with Nine Towers,” I said to Alexander. “Which means there shouldn’t be a problem speaking freely.”
Alexander nodded, placed his leather bound tome on the table and folded his hands neatly. “Let me cut to the chase. My benefactors and I would very much like that book of scribbles you managed to lift off of Wimbleton.”
“Are those scribbles code or something?” I asked.
“They’re a language, but it might as well be in code,” he replied.
“And you want me to give it to you for free?”
Alexander shook his head, “Of course not. I’m willing to throw a finder’s fee at you for coughing it up. A sign of good faith.”
“What are you going to do with the book?” I asked.
“You’re not going to believe me if I tell you,” he said. “So where trust fails, lots American tax payer dollars will succeed. At least that’s how it works back home.”
“What does the book do, Ashwell?” I insisted.
“It’s not a book. It’s a sightseeing guide to the Mediterranean,” he said with a shrug and a weak chuckle.
“You want me to believe you guys are willing to start a body count over a glorified tourism pamphlet?”
“I told you you wouldn’t believe me. Is it with you?” Alexander asked.
“What kind of amateur do you take me for?” I retorted.
The girls on my arms giggled at that. “His face gets super interesting when he’s all angry,” Lilith declared.
“It’s the voice that does it for me,” added Hecate.
Alexander offered me a crooked smile. “Good that you didn’t bring it. I wouldn’t trust me either under the circumstances. Unfortunately, this also means that the deal isn’t going to work.”
“I could have told you that over the phone,” I shot back.
“Perhaps, but I think it’s important to leave violence as a last resort,” Alexander replied.
An elbow nudged into my flank. I turned to see the girls smiling at me, “You want anything, fancy pants?” Hecate asked.
“Waitress isn’t coming back around, so we’re going to go order our drinks in person,” Lilith added.
I dropped another twenty into Lilith’s hands. “Refill on the Mezzaluna. No. Scratch that. I need something harder. Whiskey, doesn’t matter what brand.”
Half dancing, half sauntering, the girls made off towards the bar as I turned my thoughts inwards. Something wasn’t adding up. I’d spoken with a great many beings that qualify as being irrevocably evil in my career. I’ve met men obsessed with immortality, idealogues willing to tear the world in half just to get their way. Some were convinced that they were doing the right thing, even as they cut the still beating hearts out of virgin chests.
Alexander Ashwell was being suspiciously nice. I was expecting some giant octopus to burst out through the basement and try to eat me alive at any moment. Or his fish men to flood the club with water or acid after sealing everyone in. Something. Anything!
But the longer I talked, the more I saw that Alexander was either being a master manipulator on the same level as a Devil like Lis, or he was being genuinely sincere. Hard to tell which possibility was scarier.
“Why are you being so friendly? Did I zone out during the briefing and mishear when I was told Nine Towers is bitter enemies with the Eldritch?” I bluntly broached the subject.
“Probably not, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re out of your depth.”
“Was that a nautical joke?” I asked.
“I have my moments. What I mean to say is you’re in quite a bit of danger, and the way I see it, the Sixth fleet and her ‘auxilliaries’ are the best chance you’ve got to make it
out alive.”
I burst out laughing.
“Spare me the fish shit,” I said. “How many times in the last twelve hours alone did you guys try to kill me? It’s a little late to try the velvet glove on me, don’t you think?”
“To be fair, Wimbleton was defending himse--”
“Tip of the damn ice berg,” I quickly cut him off. “The Biblioteca brawl was one thing, but there’s worse. The explosives you planned to plant on the building to cover your retreat after taking that damn book, Hybrid thugs sent to ambush me a stone’s throw away from where you entered the library, and I’m positive I’ve been spyied on since our first little backstage meeting.”
A change came over Alexander’s features. His eyebrows knitted together and his back stiffened. He resettled in his chair and even wrung his hands. I thought I saw George shudder out of the corner of my eye. Eldritch tentacles brooded just beneath the unassuming surface of the book he inhabited.
“Please explain,” Alexander said at length.
“What the hell do you mean, ‘explain’?” I demanded. “It’s simple. The second I set foot outside my villa and made my way towards a contact of mine in the Olympian camp, a seafood menu worth of your fish men show up to try and kill me. And don’t even try to deny the bombing you--”
“Did you call your contact before heading out? Did they know you were coming?” Alexander asked with uncharacteristic forcefulness in his voice.
As a matter of fact I did call ahead. But what did that have to do with anything?
“Irrelevant,” I replied sharply. “The facts are that you don’t have a tentacle to stand on with this pretending to be nice tactic. I’ve got no reason to believe you.”
“And if I gave you a reason to believe me?” Alexander asked.
“Hit me with your best shot, calamari.”
Alexander offered me another of his crooked smiles, leaned back in the booth and said, “The thugs that attacked you outside the Biblioteca weren’t ours. Someone tried to kill you, knowing that even if they failed they could at least fool you into thinking it was the Sixth fleet’s doing. And you fell for it hook, line, and sinker.”
Chapter 20
I told Alexander the first thing that came to my mind.
“Bullshit.”
It was obvious. The last desperate attempt by an enemy agent to try and sow doubt inside me. Especially when he knows he stood to lose everything if I so much as lit a match underneath that precious book.
No sooner had I told him what I thought of his attempt to convince me, than a nagging feeling tugged at my stomach. Was it possible that other Supernaturals had tried to kill me? That they’d try to slip under my radar by posing as flunkies from a known enemy? That after learning my tricks without me even detecting their existence they’d likely be more successful on the second or third attempt?
“Damn it.”
“Upgrade to a whiskey,” declared the waitress with heavily pierced ears.
She barely finished putting the glass of hard alcohol on the table before I’d downed it all in a single gulp. Throat burning, I banged the glass down on the table with more than a little force.
The waitress tried to hide a smile.
“Another one,” I said.
“You got it.”
Turning around, she headed back towards the bar with a skip in her step. I couldn’t help but notice her short skirt and shapely legs. Not to mention the glares Hecate and Lilith shot her as she passed by them on the dance floor. It made the twins dance all the more sensuously for my attention.
“Bomb,” I muttered, pointing a finger accusingly towards Ashwell.
Alexander looked surprised for a moment before shaking his head. “You mean the one in the Biblioteca, I take it.”
“Caught red handed with it. I shot the bomb myself. Even if the thugs weren’t yours, you were still willing to blow a building sky high to cover your tracks. Therefore, you are bad guys.”
“It’s not like the movies, you know,” Alexander said. “Most bombs these days are designed to go off if sufficient kinetic force is applied to them. Otherwise no one would waste time disarming them delicately when you can just smash them.”
“So I shot the bomb before it was activated. I rest my case.”
“The bomb didn’t blow up when you shot it because I’d just finished disarming it.”
My eyes narrowed and I gave the man a long hard look. Body language, eye contact, word choice all factor in and leaves hints as to whether a Human is fibbing or not. I detected no such tells in Alexander.
Could he possibly be telling the truth?
“I don’t believe you,” I flatly said.
I couldn’t. To consider this side of the story would essentially put me at odds with my mission, my Olympian allies, and even Nine Towers itself.
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Alexander replied without missing a beat. “Let me make a proposal instead. Tomorrow I need to go locate the other half of that… ‘tourism pamphlet’.”
In a smooth motion, he drew a business card out of his baroque suit’s pocket and slid it across the table towards me. It had a cell number, his name, and a strange symbol embossed into it. It smelled vaguely of seaweed.
“Call before midnight, and we’ll gladly let you tag along. Ca’ Foscari University is where we’ll be. You can decide for yourself if we’re lying or not.”
Picking up George, Alexander edged out of the booth, nodded at me, and walked out of the club. No threats. No discovery that my drink had been spiked. No mind magics used either. No magics at all in fact.
I tucked his card into my shirt pocket and almost had enough time to give it a thought before I was cornered by Cate and Lily.
“Can you believe that bitch?” Hecate asked.
“That’s no way to talk about Lilith,” I replied.
Lilith giggled before smacking my shoulder. “Not me. We’re talking about that fugly waitress. She’s taking her sweet time on purpose. Ah, speak of the devil.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the same waitress with the heavily pierced ears reach the table with a tray of bright colored drinks. It seems the twins liked girly drinks.
“Sorry about the wait,” the woman spoke, handing the glasses to Lilith and Hecate.
The apology did nothing to lessen their anger.
“Next time we’re going to take it up with your manager,” Lilith said.
“Seriously,” Hecate added. “You served fancy pants here fast enough. What, you think you’re going to steal him from us with a bit of faster service? Fat chance.”
“No. That’s uh, a misunderstanding, I didn’t--”
“Look how red she’s turning. I think you hit the nail on the head,” Hecate said.
“Nailed is right. These scantless girls,” Lilith continued. “Man’s occupied with a real woman on each hand and you’ve got the gall to try and take him from us?”
The waitress looked one step removed from crying. She stuttered out another apology, then ran off as quick as she could. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
“You didn’t need to crucify her, you know,” I said.
“With all the nailing we did we might as well have,” Lilith said.
“Too true,” Hecate agreed. “You have to make an example of these ones.”
I shook my head. Lis was going too far this time. Trying to seduce me was one thing, but turning into harpies over a waitress handing me drinks?
It rang all the wrong bells. It pissed me right the hell off.
“So, where’s your hotel, fancy pants?” Hecate asked.
“Yeah,” Lilith said. “Aren’t you going to invite us over for some private drinks? If you catch my drift.”
The twins exchanged matching giggles, but I’d been doused cold.
I caught sight of the waitress, puffy eyed, removing her apron at the edge of the bar. Shift over. That gave me an idea. What better way to get out of Lis’ seduction attempt than by snubbing her in favor of someone else?<
br />
A wicked grin spread across my lips. Perfect.
“My patience with you two has gone straight to Hell,” I told Hecate and Lilith. “Join it.”
Standing up amid protests from the twins, I left them in my dust, ambled over to the bar, and grabbed the waitress by the hand.
“Hey. Come with me.”
Chapter 21
The waitress’ eyes grew wider than an owl’s. She stuttered out a few ‘buts’ and ‘waits’, but made no attempt to resist. Taking the first door on the right, we found ourselves in the alley outside the bar as the heavy metal door clanged shut behind us.
“Uh, where are we going?” the waitress asked.
“Wherever you want. I just wanted to stick it to those twins. I thought you’d be game for a little pay back so I pretended to throw you over my shoulder like a cave man and make off towards my hotel room.”
I knelt beside the dumpster and picked up Alexander’s precious book from where I’d hidden it. Stuffing it in my back pocket, I turned around to see the waitress trying hard not to stare at me.
“Charles. A pleasure,” I said.
“Just call me Judy,” she replied. “Can I come with you?”
“That’s an awfully brave thing to ask considering I’m a stranger. Haven’t you seen those crime dramas on television?” I asked.
Judy chuckled. “Nah, you’re not a bad guy. I can tell. Just take me somewhere other than here. Please?”
What a bad judge of character. I made a living violently settling Supernatural scuffles. My past wasn’t exactly rainbows and unicorns either. Of course, I wasn’t heartless enough to say no to Judy though. She looked tired. Overworked.
“If you insist.”
Her grin was infectious. Her hair shone in the moonlight.
“Thank you. Thank you tons,” she sighed.
“You sound exhausted,” I said.
A tired smile crept onto her face. “You have no idea how long these shifts are. So much work, and you never get a break. Well, I mean, there’s nothing stopping me from taking a break technically, but if I do I can’t help but feel the world would collapse in the mean time. You know?”
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