Silk Dragon Salsa

by Rhys Ford

  “Funny you should say home,” Cari teased, a sly smirk curling over her impish features. “Where exactly is that now? The warehouse or… the Court.”

  “Wherever my cat’s at, brat,” I snarked back. “Keep up, will you. That’s Spicy Kat right over there.”

  Working past the outer fringes of the Market brought us to the serious core of the place, where shouting and dealing happened at a furiously fast pace and where anything could be had for a bit of coin and some favors. We were shoulder to shoulder with chefs looking to bring something unique back to their restaurants, jostled about as they went from stall to stall, pinching bits of powder between their fingers and sniffing at the aromatics much like a Regency aristocrat pulled a bit of snuff from the mons of their hand.

  The scents were nearly as overpowering as the wash of colors, assailing us in waves from curries to teas with a bit of pungent unknowns folded in between. The worst part was keeping Cari focused on moving forward. As much as she loved to delve into the exotic spices from far-off cultures, the hibiki in her blood drew her to the mounds of vibrant powders and leaves, entranced by the potential power trapped within. Avarice gleamed in the depths of her dark, hooded eyes, and I could practically see her mouth watering at a stall specializing in different types of garlic.

  “Keep your head on you, Cari,” I scolded, hooking my hand under her elbow. “You can come back and play witch later. For right now, I need info.”

  Spicy Kat saw me before I could get Cari moving, and she glanced about, gauging the crowd. Round-faced and freckled, Kat was typical of the understreet dwellers—mixed race with pulls of Japanese and a few other things tossed in for good measure. A bit taller than the gaggle of Korean women gathered around her stall, she was able to get a clear line of sight on me, her chin raised up when I began to work around people. The swing of her leather jacket was heavy, a clear sign it was armored, but she’d left it open, displaying a worn gray T-shirt printed with the oak tree logo of her spice stall. A slash of pink lipstick was her only concession to makeup, but she’d already chewed off a bit of it, probably digging her teeth in when she bargained someone up from a low price. Every bargain with Kat was like pulling teeth, and she took pride in making each coin scream before she handed it over.

  “You wait until I’m done here,” Kat grumbled at me, measuring out a bit of saffron from a basket. “And don’t touch anything. I don’t want to have to watch your thieving fingers.”

  “I have never stolen anything from you in my entire life,” I scoffed. “Your spices are stale and weak. I’d be better off scraping up sawdust from the chair-carver in the third quarter.”

  “Pele’s fire, and you’re wearing a badge. Why not just bring a health inspector with you.” Her eyes narrowed even further, and she glanced quickly at the women clustered around a bin of orange-rind tea. “Do not lose this sale for me, Gracen.”

  “Then don’t accuse me of stealing,” I shot back, keeping my hand on Cari’s elbow, trying to make sure she stayed out of the way. “If you’re nice to me, I’ll let this one go, and she will shop until her fingers are bloody from testing things out. Probably pay your month’s stall rent.”

  “Stop that,” Cari hissed. “Let go. I’m going to go look. You can go do whatever it is you need to, but I’ve got my eye on those lime leaves.”

  I waited as Kat dickered and dealt. There were eyes on us, or at least me, but none of the people staring looked like they were either curious about an elfin in their midst or concerned about the badge markers plastered on my jacket and at my waist. The weight of my guns was a reassuring press against my back and hips. I was uneasy—more so after Gibbons—but it seemed like a typical day at the Market, people more concerned with getting in and out before the evening rolled in and things got dangerous than some Stalker slowing business down for a spice seller.

  “Lara, come ring these up,” Kat called out to her assistant, a pale wraith of a woman hovering near Cari. “Then sell that one everything under the sun. Don’t let her bargain you down.”

  “Good luck with that.” I nodded toward Cari. “She came out of her mother haggling for a deal.”

  “Come over here.” Kat motioned me to the back of the stall. “Let’s go talk in the bay.”

  As a generational-legacy stall owner, Kat’s family secured a spot up against one of the buildings and used a docking bay as a lock-down area for her stall and inventory when the Market closed at night. The rectangular bay was empty, except for a few barrels of supplies and a pair of folding chairs set around an empty wire spool Kat and probably her mother before her used as a table. It was gouged out with pencil and pen marks with a few scorches of cigarette burns here and there. Kat sat, flopping down into one of the chairs with a heaving sigh, staring up at me as she rubbed her belly.

  “You going to sit?” she asked, nodding toward the other chair. “Or are you going to make my neck hurt looking up at you?”

  “Sitting doesn’t seem prudent. Someone’s got a price on my head.” I debated the chair, then decided leaning against the wall was the most relaxed I was going to go. “Maybe you’ve heard about that.”

  Kat crossed her arms over her chest and stared out into the Market. She chewed her lip for a moment, taking off more of the pink lipstick, then finally nodded. “Heard about it. Lot of people have. They don’t like it. But they’re also kind of wondering why you’re going after Kenny Dempsey when you don’t do bounties. That changed?”

  “Just for Kenny,” I replied, my attention drifting out toward the Market as well, wondering what Kat was looking at. “I just buried his brother… my mentor—”

  “Man was your father. Everyone knows that. Call it what it is,” Kat laid into me. “So you’re hunting his brother?”

  “Kenny’s got a bounty on him. I take him in, he’ll make it to jail. Someone else does? Who’s to say?” If Kat knew about the price on me, she probably knew the details on Kenny. I wasn’t going to show my hand on anything about Dempsey’s original contract, but she was right; I wasn’t known for bounties. “I owe him a fair shake. At least for Dempsey’s sake.”

  “Dempsey hated the bastard,” Kat spat. “But this is the kind of stupid thing you’d do. Sort of like biting off a guy’s face.”

  “He was trying to kill me,” I pointed out. “Almost killed Jonas. What did you expect me to do? Just let him?”

  “Nah, you don’t go after Stalkers, especially not ones as pretty and stupid as you are. You’re an easy touch. Hardly any of those around. Don’t got enough money to get rid of that banshee pack in your lake? Shoot Gracen a message and he’ll go out there and take care of it for a bag of peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.”

  “I’m not that bad,” I refuted. “Okay, if it’s guava jam, maybe. How about if we just cut to the quick of this so I can get out of your hair and you can go back to dealing reefer plugs tucked into your bay leaves.”

  “You going to bust me?” She gave me a hairy eyeball. “Because that’s just not cool.”

  “I just want info on where I can find Kenny. I’m not the only one out there looking for him, but I’m the only one who’ll guarantee he’ll still be breathing once I hand him over. Samms is on his trail.” I grinned at her derisive snort. “He’s probably got a fifty-fifty chance with Samms. Can’t say the same for anyone else. I read the docket. Kenny pissed off some pretty powerful people. You don’t go taking money from criminals, even if they’re legitimate businessmen.”

  “Those are sharks, that’s what those are.” She glanced up at me, then back out into the crowd. “Your girl is fleecing mine. I’ll be lucky to have the canvas roof left by the time she’s done.”

  “Warned you,” I reminded her. “Come on, Kat. I don’t have all day. Hell, Kenny doesn’t have all day. Where is he? Sooner I can put my hands on him, the better it is for him. How much do you want?”

  “Let me see.” Kat tapped at the spool, pretending she was doing some mental calculations, but it was a lie. There’s no way she hadn�
�t already figured out exactly how much Kenny would be worth to me. The price she named was ludicrous, but I wasn’t going to argue over it. I had the money. Hell, it wasn’t even close to the bounty on Kenny’s head, and information was as good as coin and sometimes even better.

  “That’s doable,” I conceded. “Half now, the other half when I find him. Assuming he doesn’t see me coming and bolt.”

  “Funny you should say that,” she snorted, pushing herself up out of the chair. “He’s holed up in the Diamond Kitty. Seems that’s something he and Dempsey have in common. Both of them have a thing for pointy-eared bastards. There’s no way he’s going to see you with all the skin jobs walking around in that place. Not unless someone tells him.”

  Fifteen

  “SO THIS place gives you the creeps?” Cari asked, shifting in her seat and ducking her head down to look up at the sunlight bulbs flickering above us. “The Diamond Kitty.”

  “You’ve got a bunch of human kids—mostly kids—who spend money to sculpt their faces and… everything… to look elfin,” I replied, cursing the drips splattering the Scout’s windshield when we got caught under a faulty rain line. “Imagine going into the Court and seeing a bunch of them with cutoff ear tips and squared-off jaws. It’s… weird. Just saying, it’s not my kink.”

  “Still getting used to seeing an elfin in the mirror?” She tilted her head to look at me, digging down into one of my troubles.

  “Yeah, sometimes,” I admitted. “I’m not saying they’re the problem. Because people need to shape themselves sometimes. I get that. Maybe it’s because I look at them and I see… me. It bugs me, and I’m not good about dealing with it. There’s been other shit on my plate to eat.”

  We were deep into the understreets at this point, not to the depths but close enough to be skirting its edges. Above us the lights should have dimmed down to twilight, but only about half of them worked, and the ones that did seemed to be set either to full-summer blast or midmorning fog. The flashes of daylight over the Scout were disconcerting, and my eyes fought to maintain some kind of control over the wavering darkness as I drove. The tik-tiks here were a fast and furious dive in and out, tiny blue spiders skimming down across the waters to pluck up their prey or drop off corpses. The last time I’d been down to the Diamond Kitty, there’d been a scatter of industrial places around its old warehouse shell, but the neighborhood had changed, with small pop-up trailer homes and cargo-shipment containers turned into dwellings sprouting up where junkyards and mechanical yards used to be.

  With the influx of residential dwellings came other business, flocking to pick off the bones of people barely scraping by. Bodegas sat on every other corner, gouging and scalping people too tired and poor to head out to other districts to gather groceries, and tattoo studios shoved for space next to paycheck-advance kiosks, their doors shadowed by large, muscular men with mean eyes and a nose for trouble. The junkyards and repair places were still there, mostly doing their best to hold up the edges of the district, but it wouldn’t be long before they were pushed out. All it took was one lot being sold and cheap housing to go up for a district to shift for the better or worse, and easy maintenance of a property was a hell of a lot more profitable than working a trade and paying employees.

  The food truck parked at a curb between two lackluster clubs was doing a brisk business, and my stomach growled when the smell of grilling carne asada snuck into the Scout. It’d been a long time since breakfast, and the quick chew of a granola bar a few hours ago hadn’t quieted my belly. And even though Cari had been eating all day, I figured I’d give it about five minutes before she complained she was starving.

  Instead, she dug down again into my nerves.

  “So,” she murmured, not trying to hide the sly grin on her face. “You and Ryder? Actually doing the thing?”

  “What the hell?” I slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a tiny beep-beep car abruptly deciding a yellow light meant stopping instead of gunning it through the intersection. “Why… shit, I don’t even know what to say to you. Who the hell raised you?”

  “Well, technically, you had a hand in that,” Cari shot back. “Come on, it’s not like I haven’t known other people you sleep with, and everyone’s kind of noticed him coming out of your room in the morning, and his bed’s not slept in. We can do the math. It’s not that hard.”

  There were times when it was difficult to remember Cari was a full-fledged adult. Usually it wasn’t. Of course, normally we were standing shoulder to shoulder in situations where there was gunfire and lots of shit happening around us, so not exactly a place I’d think of her as a kid, but there was always this niggle in the back of my head—that scatter of memories of a tiny larva of a girl with big brown eyes and a toothless, drooling mouth holding my finger while trying to learn how to smile.

  This was definitely one of those times.

  I pulled over, taking the Scout out of the thin traffic before I got both of us killed, and let the engine idle, trying to wrap my head around talking to Cari about sex and Ryder.

  “Look, who else are you going to talk to? Jonas?” she pressed on. “I’m literally your best friend. Probably after that damned cat, but still, your best damned friend. I mean, hell, I’m practically your sister. Who else are you going to talk about this with?”

  “No one,” I growled, still staring out the windshield, looking anywhere but at Cari’s face. It wasn’t like I was known for long-term relationships. I avoided them like they were diseased, hungry dragons, but I didn’t drag any of the people I slept with through my life. They were as disposable as the paper wrappers from the taco truck, balled up and tossed when we were done. “Look, Ryder and I—”

  “They’ve got bets going on in the Court about the two of you,” she interjected. “About if you’re moving in. What you two are doing. When you’re finally going to be together. They’re very long-sighted, those people. Like, they think fifteen years is a short dating span. I told Alexa it’ll be faster than that. Ryder’s fallen hard for you, and, well, you think like you’re human. I need an inside track. You could seriously score me enough money to buy me something solid from Sparky.”

  I gave her what I hoped was my hardest look, and she shrugged at me.

  “Look,” she said. “At least I’m honest. And it’s not like I don’t care about you. If anyone needs someone in their life, it sure as hell is you. It’ll be nice to see you happy for once. Or even just less growly.”

  “I am not… growly,” I muttered, pulling the Scout slowly back into traffic. “I haven’t… shit… why do you care?”

  “Because I love you,” she replied, her voice turning deep and soft. “And I want to see you happy. You deserve to be happy, Kai. Even if you don’t think you do.”

  I chewed on what she said. My life had a big hole in it where Dempsey once stood. While we didn’t talk about intimate things, he’d always been the one to tell me I didn’t have to settle for anyone who’d just have me. To take my time, and if I didn’t want anyone, it was okay—this coming from a man who married a harridan who took off when she found out she wasn’t getting anything when he died. But I figured he’d had his reasons for marrying her. He made bad choices in his life, and I counted myself as one of them. Cari wasn’t wrong. She was the closest thing to a sister I had, and despite the fact I sometimes had a hard time remembering she wasn’t a little girl anymore, she could hold her own. I knew that. I’d helped teach her to be that strong woman, and I was proud of her.

  Talking to her about sex was… definitely going to be a challenge.

  Thank Gods the traffic was a still life or I’d get us both killed. Without anyone shooting at us.

  “Look, this thing with Ryder is complicated. There’s this pull we have, like this gut punch of a want, and it’s not something emotional or mental. It’s something the elfin have, some reaction or crap like that,” I started. “It’s strong and it’s always there. Like my blood telling me that’s who I have to have in my life. And it’s th
e same for him.”

  “Yeah, I can’t see that going over well with you,” she said. “Alexa told me about that. She says she feels a bit of it with you.”

  “A little bit. Not like with Ryder,” I continued. “And not like it was with the Unsidhe Lord we saw down in Mexico. It was a bit there with her too. But Ryder, it’s… a hum. Always there. Singing through me. And yeah, I’m not… good with any kind of blood stuff. It’s too much like being forced into something. I don’t want to be led into anything. I’m not anyone’s property and no one’s mine. So right now, no. We’re not… together. He sleeps with me. We talk. We sleep. But it’s got to be more than just this blood-want thing. There’s a lot of stuff between us, like the Court and me being a Stalker. It’s complicated, Cari. And I’m not sure how to uncomplicate it.”

  “Does it have to be?” She cocked her head and pursed her mouth. “Complicated, I mean? Can’t you just be with him and see where it goes?”

  “I’m not good with relationships. Last one I had… the last real one didn’t end so well.” I thought back to all the fights and shoving, the strain being away from each other had on both of us, and then the wondering if it was all worth it. “He comes with a lot of entanglements, and, well, I come with a lot of baggage. Thing is, Ryder isn’t someone you can try stuff out with. I step into that pond, it’s deep, and it’s either going to be I drown or swim. There’s no climbing out.”

  “And you hate water.” She sniffed. “Should have used a different example.”

  “Only one I could come up with. And I don’t really hate water. I just don’t like swimming in deep water. Never know what’s going to come up and eat you,” I countered. “I’ve just got to figure out if I want to, and, well, Ryder’s got to figure out if I’m worth it.”

  “I think he already has.” Cari’s attention went back to the street, watching a thin stream of people crossing it. “Ryder’s just waiting for you. And yeah, he’s Sidhe, probably going to wait forever. But you’re not. You’re not elfin. Not in your head. You’re as human as I am, and that part of you needs someone, Kai. Someone who knows who you are and accepts that. And I’m telling you, that guy is Ryder.”