“I’ve been calling. Where were you?”
“Paying a call on Mom dearest. She sends her best, but says you never visit. I think you ought to go see her and consider staying.”
“If you’ve seen my mother then you know I was telling the truth.”
“So what? You think that changes anything? I’m sorry you had a shitty childhood. Mine wasn’t Leave It to Beaver either. But I don’t go around shitting on the world. You want to feel better? Get yourself some pills and a shrink. Now let me speak to Janet.”
“You might want to modulate your tone while I have a gun to her head.”
He’s right. I’m letting my anger get the better of me.
“Okay. I’m calm. See? Don’t take this out on Janet. But if you want to make a deal or something, I have to know they’re still alive.”
“Sure. Sure,” he says. “But I want you to apologize first for being rude.”
The anger burns in my throat like bile, but I keep my voice calm.
“I’m so sorry. Please forgive my earlier rudeness.”
“That sounded pretty sarcastic. Try again.”
I have to take a few breaths and really get ahold of myself. Finally, I say, “I’m sorry.”
“What was that? A big, strapping lad like you shouldn’t sound so much like a mouse. Now apologize like you mean it or I’m going to hurt the bitch.”
“I’m sorry,” I shout. “Please don’t hurt them. I’m sorry.”
There’s a long pause.
I say, “Hello? Are you still there?”
“I’m here,” he says. “I’m just savoring the moment. How’s the hand, by the way? I have it if you want it back. Well, I don’t. Your little bunny has it. She doesn’t like holding it, but I told her that if she drops it, I’ll hurt her. That’s fair, don’t you think?”
Another breath before I speak. Because King Bullet isn’t the only one with an angle.
“I still have your mom’s charm bracelet and I know why you called. You want to make a trade.”
“Of course I do. But it’s not that simple.”
“What else do you want?”
“I told you earlier. I want you to make amends.”
“How?”
“I want you to come to the trade not as Sandman Slim, with your big balls and your Downtown magic. I want you to come to me as a penitent.”
I try to figure out what that means.
“I don’t get it. What is it you want?”
“Figure it out. You have twelve hours.”
“Not until I speak to Janet.”
I hear some noise on the other end of the line. Then breathing. Then Janet says, “Stark? Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry about me. Did he hurt you?”
“Not yet.”
“Hang on, baby. I’m on my way.”
But it’s King Bullet who answers.
“You cheap liar. You’re not on your way anywhere. You have work to do. Amends to make and twelve hours to do it in.”
“I still don’t understand what you want.”
But it’s no use. The line goes dead.
I stand by the side of the road as a line of armored vehicles speeds past, on their way to—or from—a skirmish or maybe it’s just lunchtime. Maybe they’ll even stand a chance tonight with King Bullet out of the picture. Good luck putting down whatever gaggle of Shoggots are still out there stealing candy from babies. I find a nice shadow and go into the Devil’s Door and then an office behind the concession stand. I knock on the door and Flicker opens it. She’s wearing a surgical mask and has a .38 in her hand. She relaxes when she sees it’s me.
“Fuck me, Stark. I thought you were one of the nutjobs running up and down Sunset. What are you doing here?” Then she looks at me closer. “Oh shit. What happened to your hand?”
“Can I come inside? I’ve been walking for hours and I’m a little worn out.”
She steps from the door and I go inside. She sets the gun down on her desk while I drop onto her battered sofa. Flicker looks sympathetic, but she gets a surgical mask from her desk and tosses it to me.
“Nothing personal, but put that on.”
I hold up my mangled hand.
“I can’t.”
She says, “Don’t breathe,” and comes over to loop the sides of the mask over my ears. “Okay. You can breathe again. Why don’t you start off by telling me what happened to your hand? I mean, I have some herbs and potions that can help if it hurts, but that’s about it.”
Flicker is a powerful magician. A geomancer. Her power is in the Earth. She can manipulate it and speak to it. She answers to the King Below, a powerful earth spirit who saved my ass in Little Cairo a few months ago.
“I’m okay,” I tell her. “I just need to rest a little.”
“At least tell me how you lost it and why you have a ladies’ scarf around the stump.”
“The scarf belongs to a friend. How I lost it is to the lunatic who’s been behind all the chaos in the city these past few weeks. He’s even responsible for the virus. And he has Janet. I have to stop him. I have to kill him.”
“How can I help?”
I get the necklace and toss it to her.
“What can you tell me about this?”
Flicker holds it up to the light and smiles at it.
“Wow,” she says. “It isn’t from this world.”
“I knew that much. What else can you tell me?”
She balls it up in her fist.
“It’s practically screaming with power. There’s a lot of potential magic in this baby.”
“Good hoodoo or bad?”
“It’s pure power. It’ll go wherever you want to take it.”
I think for a minute.
“King Bullet says there’s angel on it. He says it makes him more powerful than me.”
“So that’s what it is. I knew there was something special beyond the metal itself.”
I lean forward hopefully.
“It healed him when I took his hand. It grew back in a night.”
She looks at me and shakes her head.
“If that’s what you’re hoping for, don’t waste your time. This wasn’t made for mortals.”
“I’m not mortal.”
“This wasn’t made for anything you are. I’m sorry.”
I drop back against the sofa.
“Fuck.”
Flicker turns the necklace over in her hands. Sniffs it. Listens to it, smiling often. But when she looks at me, her smile is gone.
“You are one tulled son of a bitch, Stark.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“You’re caught between two worlds and you’re not at home in either.”
Now I smile.
“I’m just another black lane walker.”
“Yeah. But a good one. You’re not exactly lost. You just lack direction.”
I sit up again.
“Not anymore. King Bullet has Janet.”
Flicker frowns.
“I’m sorry, but if you think this is going to get them back for you, you’re wrong.”
“That’s okay,” I say, thinking things through. “He said it made him stronger than me and that I couldn’t kill him as long as he had it. Well, I have it now and that makes us equal.”
Flicker hands the necklace back and I put it in my pocket.
“Then what’s the problem? Why don’t you go out and bam?”
She holds up her fists like a boxer and throws a right cross.
“The problem is he wants something else, and I don’t know what it is. I should know. He wouldn’t have told me to do it if I couldn’t. But, for the life of me, I can’t figure it out and I only have twelve hours to do what he wants.”
“What did he say?”
“He wants me to make amends. He wants me to come to him as a penitent.”
She thinks for a minute and shakes her head.
“Yeah. That is a puzzler. But I have something that might help.”
&
nbsp; From a filing cabinet she takes out a pint bottle of something with a cork on top sealed in wax. She brings it back to me.
“Try this. It’s a wine I brew from honeysuckle flowers growing on a killer’s grave. It’s potent stuff. It brings you visions. It can help answer your deepest questions.”
I take it from her and put it in my pocket.
“Can I drink it here?”
“Oh no. You have to go to your power spot to do it. And it probably wouldn’t hurt to have the King Below on your side anyway. He misses you.”
I hold up my good hand.
“I don’t have any offerings.”
Flicker opens a bag on her desk and takes out an avocado sandwich and a cup of tea.
“It’s a small offering, but I don’t think you have time to scrounge up anything better.”
She gives me the bag.
“Now take this to your power spot. Do you know where that is?”
I laugh a little.
“Yeah. There’s only one place in L.A. that qualifies for that.”
“Then go there fast. The wine can take some time to work. Hurry.”
Flicker takes my head in her hands and kisses me on the forehead.
“Good luck, Stark.”
“What was the kiss for?”
“I don’t know if we’re going to see each other again.”
“What do you mean? Are you going somewhere?”
She opens her office door.
“Go to your power spot. Drink the wine. And good luck.”
I head out and she closes the door behind me.
I don’t know if we’re going to see each other again.
I don’t like the sound of that. If Flicker is in trouble too, I’ll come back to help her right after I rescue Janet.
I step through a shadow to my power spot. The one place in the world that’s called me back time and time again.
Hollywood Forever cemetery.
At this hour, the place is deserted. I sit by the lake, put Flicker’s bag and bottle on the ground beside me, and take out a Malediction. I spark it up and just sit there for a minute wondering where I might go that I won’t see Flicker again. But I can’t figure it out. But why should I? I can’t figure anything out these days. That’s why I’m here. I take a few more deadly puffs of the Malediction before flicking it end over end into the lake.
Another moment and I start digging with my good hand. I pull up grass and clods of earth until I get down a good six inches into the graveyard dirt. Then I put in the avocado sandwich. Bread and vegetables. Products of the earth. I pour in the tea, more earth produce. After that, I shovel the dirt back over the hole and pack it down, feeling slightly foolish.
“Hi, King Below. You helped me once. If you can still hear me, I could use a little help again. I’m fighting another king and I don’t know what to do. I’m lost. If you’re there, help me see the way.”
I lean back against a marble grave marker—a tall angel holding a sword to the sky. A moment later, the ground rumbles. An earthquake. But a mild one. Still, it’s enough to unsettle the grave I’m leaning on. The angel topples and shatters. The sword flips once in the air and buries itself in the ground beside me.
I guess someone heard me. The sword didn’t skewer my leg or cut off my head, so I’m taking it as a sign that King Below approved of the offering and is maybe on my side. I’m glad someone is.
There’s only one thing left to do now. I get the wine bottle and rip the cork out with my teeth. Down the whole bottle in a few gulps. Then I lie down on the warm grass to see what’s going to happen.
The wine hits me like a freight train. Quickly, I’m dizzy enough to be glad I’m already on the ground. There’s no way I could stand with this brew in my belly. I fight the feeling of losing control for a few seconds, then let go. This is what I’m here for. Let the flower from a killer’s grave show me what I’m meant to see.
I close my eyes and just drift.
What I’m ready for is a psychedelic acid trip, but I get the opposite. Instead of expanding out in a million directions, the wine anchors me to the ground, digs deep into the soil, and holds me there. My consciousness doesn’t expand. It narrows to a single point of flickering light, a fire of greens and blues. I feel the grass roots around me. Hear the insects in the grass and under the soil and moving around me. I might as well be a goddamn tree. A hippie earth child worshipping at the altar of the ancient thing I’ve become. Hundreds of years old, I’ve seen generations come and go. My wisdom is slow, but it’s deep. Humans come and go like mayflies around me. Over time I’ve come to understand the desires and fears of the lost souls flitting around me. And my vison becomes even tighter until I’m a pinpoint. Maybe an atom. A mote of light. But something bright and focused.
My stomach convulses and I roll over, vomiting up the honeysuckle flower wine into the grass. When I’m done, I wipe my mouth with my hand and splash lake water onto my face. I’m back. Not in the earth, but on it. When I look up, I can see stars above the half-lit city.
I grab the stone sword and pull myself onto my feet.
Thanks, King Below. Thanks, whatever nameless killer whose grave the flowers came from. I’m back. Not a mote of light, but me again. And I know exactly what I have to do.
First, I take out my phone and dial Abbot. It rings a few times before he picks it up.
“Hello?” he says, like maybe he’s talking to a ghost. “Stark?”
“You missed, motherfucker. I’m still alive. And I’m coming to see you.”
“Stark. No. You don’t understand. I didn’t know—”
I thumb the phone off. Let him call the Council. Let him call the troops. There’s nothing he can do to me now. I know who he is. But that reckoning is for later.
Everyone is asleep when I get back to the apartment. They’re sacked out on chairs and squeezed together on the sofa. Fuck Hollywood is curled up like a small animal on the floor. I shrug off the coat I borrowed and cover her with it, returning it to its rightful owner.
Allegra is in a chair by the bedroom. I put my hand over her mouth. When she startles awake, I put a finger to my lips and she nods in understanding.
I lean in close and whisper, “I need you to come with me to your clinic.”
“Are you hurt?”
“We can talk about it there.”
She gets her medical bag and we go out through a shadow. The last things I see as we leave are Fuck Hollywood’s wide, bright eyes watching us from the floor. I give her a small wave and she waves back.
Allegra turns on all the clinic lights and we go into the exam room. I’ve kept my mangled arm behind my back up until now, but let it drop to my side. She takes a step back when she sees it.
“Goddammit, Stark. Why didn’t you tell me? Get on the exam table.”
“It’s fine. The hand isn’t why we’re here.”
She pushes me back to the table.
“I don’t care why you’re here. I’m here for this, so shut up and lie down.”
I do what Allegra says, and she carefully unwraps Mustang Sally’s scarf. When she starts to throw it away, I say, “No. I want that.”
Allegra frowns as I take it from her, but then her attention goes right back to examining my left arm.
“What happened here?” she says.
“King Bullet took it.”
“How long ago?”
“I don’t know. A few hours.”
Allegra stands back and shakes her head.
“It’s healed. The wrist is completely healed. The skin is perfect. No signs of infection at all.”
Thank you, Sally. You always were too good to me.
“Great. Now that we have that out of the way, can we talk about why I brought you here?”
“Of course,” she says lightly, but she crosses her arms, suspicious of why I wanted to talk here of all places.
I sit up on the table.
“King Bullet has Janet.”
“Oh shit. That’s why we’
re here? How can I help?”
I want to blurt it out, but I don’t. I understand Allegra enough to know I need to bring her with me on this. Slow, but wise.
“I’m sorry that I’m always asking you for help and favors. But I promise. This is the last one ever.”
“Don’t be silly. We’re friends. It’s what we do. Now tell me. What do you need?”
“King Bullet is going to call back in a few hours and I have to be ready for him.”
“Ready how?”
“I want Janet from him, but he wants something from me. I didn’t know what until a little while ago. But now I do and I need your help getting ready.”
“Do you have any other wounds you want me to look at?”
“No. It’s nothing like that. You’re not going to like the favor I want.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
“If there was any other way, I wouldn’t have come to you.”
“Stark,” Allegra shouts. “Just tell me.”
I look at her, hating myself for what I’m going to say.
“I want you to make me into a Shoggot.”
Allegra tightens her arms across her chest. She looks away. Frowns. When she turns back to me, she says, “You can’t ask me to do something like that. It’s disgusting. I won’t.”
I get up from the table.
“I understand. I thought you might say that. And it’s all right. But it still has to be done.”
She takes a couple of steps back and leans on a counter.
“Why?” she says.
“He wants me to humble myself. Come as a penitent for my sins, my father’s, and even my grandfather’s.”
“Stark. No.”
“It’s the only way to get Janet.”
She looks around the room.
“I’ve seen your magic,” she says. “I’ve seen you work miracles. You came back from the dead. There has to be something else you can do.”
“There isn’t.”
“What about a glamour? You’re always making yourself handsome. Make yourself ugly.”
I gently move her away from the counter and start taking her surgical tools from a drawer.
“He can see right through my glamours. If I’m going to save Janet, I’m going to have to do this for real.”
She watches as I pile the bright metal blades on the counter.
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