by M. R. Forbes
The whimpering had been coming from somewhere in here. I reached up and put my hand to the girl's face. It was still warm. She had been dying when I had come in, which meant she hadn't been hung too long ago.
The floor creaked. The door on the right pushed open a little more, and a pale figure with dark hair burst through it. I turned and fired, but my attacker was too fast. The bullets chipped the wood around the doorframe, and a hand slashed across my wrist, opening the skin and trying to make me drop the weapon. I brought my other arm up and around, catching the vampire in the jaw. It was enough to get it off-balance, and I slipped back and away, gaining a couple of feet of space and setting myself for round two.
It turned and glowered at me with bloodshot brown eyes and a twisted scowl. Its fangs dripped the poison secretions that would paralyze me if they managed to break the skin, and its lithe muscles flexed with anticipation.
It had been sitting in the room, waiting. For me? For something else? Vampires didn't wait. They were either hunting, or sleeping. That was it. Like the creature that had done in the clerk, this one wasn't acting quite right.
That didn't make it less dangerous.
My left hand held the gun, but it could take a dozen rounds and still kill me before it would even register the damage. My right hand dove into my pocket to find the dice again. They were warm in my grip, which was good. The vamp wasn't going to wait for me to use them, which was bad.
It leaped towards me, a hissing screech preceding clawed fingers. I put three rounds into its chest as I backpedaled into the wall, and then rolled to the side while it scraped the plaster and turned to track me. I put my left side towards it and brought the dice to my mouth, whispering into them at the same time the claws raked my forearm, tearing through my coat and hoodie, but not quite getting the skin. I leaned in and shoved it back, and then dropped the dice at its feet.
Fire, and fire. The dark magic flowed out of them towards the vampire, and it screamed as its skin exploded in burns and blisters. I kicked it away from me and brought the gun up to shoot it a few more times.
I didn't need to. Six more pops sounded behind me, and six bullets made a nice cluster in the feral's skull. It tumbled backwards and didn't move.
I turned around and aimed at the interloper, only to find a similar weapon trained on me. Another young woman, her features close enough to those of the hanging corpse that I knew they were related. She was a little older, a little prettier, her thick black hair in chunks instead of a bob and elongated ears pushing out between dyed purple locks. She was wearing a flower-printed camisole and cotton sweatpants, her feet bare.
Her eyes were red from crying. They were narrowed with anger. She said something to me in Japanese, and then glanced at the girl.
"I'm not with them," I said. I lowered the gun.
She walked over to me in four quick steps, shouting something at me in Japanese and putting the barrel of the gun against my forehead. I didn't move to stop her. I didn't move at all.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I was trying to kill the vamp."
Her eyes shifted, looking at the mess of a feral behind me, showing me she understood English.
"I'm looking for Jin Mori."
She pushed the gun harder against my forehead.
"Whoa. Wait a second. I came to help. Mrs. Red sent me."
Her eyebrows creased and her head tilted slightly.
"Prove it," she said, with only the slight hint of an accent.
"I need to reach into my pocket."
"Slowly."
I did as she asked, dropping the gun to the floor and digging into my pocket. I found the necklace there, and lifted it out into the open. "She said to bring it with-"
There was a crash as the stairwell door slammed open. Her eyes widened, and she reached out with her free hand and grabbed my bleeding wrist. "This way."
I tugged against her, the blood making her grip weak. I broke free and swooped down to grab my dice. "Where?"
She ran ahead of me, across the living room to the room on the other side. I wasn't sure why she was going that way. We weren't going to be any safer staying boxed in, but I followed. She had come from somewhere.
We were in a bedroom. She went past the bed and vanished into the closet, reaching out and tugging me in, and then closing the door, even as I heard the growls and claws moving through the hallway.
"We're hiding in a closet?" I asked, keeping my voice low. "How is this going to help?"
She put her finger to her lips and knelt down, moving her hand to the wall below a row of blouses and dresses. A small, hidden door slid silently away.
"In here," she said.
I got down on my hands and knees and crawled through the opening, into a tiny room that was obviously only intended to hold one person. It had a couple of pillows, some bottles of water and a few cans of food stacked in a corner. I shoved my back against the wall.
The woman followed after me, climbing up into my lap, and then putting her hand to another part of the drywall. The secret door slid closed, leaving us in claustrophobic darkness.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Too close for comfort.
I could feel her breath on my neck. I could smell the sickly sweetness of her sweat mixed with the scent of fruit and spice that was so common with elves. The warmth of her body pressed down on mine, settling onto my lap as best she could. I couldn't see anything. In another place, another time, the whole thing might have been exciting.
We didn't speak. I could hear the ferals in the hallway, the creaking of the floor as they entered the apartment. They must have found the vampire, because they yapped at one another excitedly and the feet shifted around again. By the sounds, I was guessing there were three of them.
Two left the apartment.
The other moved into the bedroom.
Pounding heartbeats passed in silence.
The feet moved closer.
The door to the closet creaked open.
I could feel her muscles tensing on my lap, and I was sure my own were tensing as well. We waited for whatever was on the other side of the wall to react, to figure out we were right there, and start scraping away in an effort to reach us. Instead, the feet turned and moved away. The bed creaked as something heavy bounded onto it, and an impact sounded when it landed on the other side. Only then did I take a breath.
We stayed silent for another minute. I could feel her hair tickling my cheek, her breast pressed against my shoulder. I could feel the throbbing of my wounded wrist.
"We're lucky it didn't smell your blood," she said, breaking the silence. "We need to put pressure on it." Her hands gripped at the sleeve of my hoodie in the pitch, exploring until they found a tear. "This may hurt." She grabbed the ends and pulled, ripping it apart into a single strip of cloth. She wrapped it tight around my wrist and tied it off.
It hurt, but nowhere near enough to affect me. I was used to pain.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"I'm nobody."
"You came looking for Jin. Mrs. Red sent you. How did you know her?"
I could feel the heat rising to my face. There was no point being dodgy. "I was hired by a fixer who claimed he was working for Mr. Black. The job was to break into Red's house and steal something."
"The treasure? You were set up."
"To put it mildly. I feel like I'm the only one who didn't know what was going to happen."
Her breath waved against my neck, making the hairs stand on up end. It had a warm cinnamon smell to it, and we were so close I couldn't help but take it in with my own.
"We expected someone would make a move on the treasure. The house was guarded..."
"They took out the guards and replaced them with ringers. They killed Mrs. Red. I was there. She told me if I wanted to survive this, I needed to bring the necklace to Jin. The girl-"
"She was my sister, Natsumi. She was sleeping in the other bedroom. She didn't make it in time." Her voice trembled.
"You're J
in?" I hated myself for feeling relieved that she was still alive, when her sister was dangling from the ceiling fan in the living room.
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"They got here before you did. I never saw them, but I heard the fighting. Did they kill everyone?"
"Yes. They were trying to protect you."
"Only a few of them were users, and only a couple were armed. No one was supposed to know I was here. No one was even supposed to know I'm related to Mrs. Red."
I felt the weight of her head against my chest. She rested it there and sobbed, as though I had known her for more than five minutes. I was stiff, unsure how to react to her.
"They were my family, my friends. They didn't deserve this. Natsumi... we heard them coming. She tried to get to safety in time. They caught her. I could hear her screaming and crying. Someone asked her where I was. A woman's voice. They hung her there for me to find. They wanted me to see."
"They left the vampire for you, too."
"I didn't know it was out there. I could hear Natsumi crying... choking... dying. I was afraid to come out. It is my duty and place to survive, even though it meant letting her die. When I heard the gunshots, I thought my aunt had sent a team to save me. Now I know the truth."
She had been waiting for a whole team. All she had gotten was me.
"I'm sorry." The words were like trying to salve a wound with salt.
A few minutes passed while she cried into my chest. I was tentative as I moved my hand to her back and lightly held her. I couldn't have a woman crying in my lap and not try to at least be a little comforting.
Then, she just stopped. She lifted her head and I felt her arms moving while she wiped at her eyes.
"Do you have a name?"
Her face was right in front of mine, her breath washing against it. Her voice had changed. The sorrow was gone, replaced with cold anger.
When I didn't answer right away, she laughed. "The ghost who saved my life. You don't call yourself anything?"
"Daaé."
Her hair brushed my face when she shook her head.
"I don't like it. It's too feminine for you. You should have been the Phantom."
I should have been dead. Any name was better than that.
"I have a job for you, Phantom, if you're willing to consider it."
If I could have seen her face in the blackness, I'm sure her eyes would have been burning through me.
"The last job I took didn't go so well."
"Perhaps together we can change that. To murder my aunt in cold blood... The Houses don't move against one another like that, not without reason or purpose. Their power, their rule, is a delicate thread that holds civilization together. The treasure is valuable enough to steal, not to risk an all-out war over."
"What are you saying?"
"It was only a matter of time before a new major power was born outside of the Houses. We are still evolving, still changing. You're a ghost. You know what the Houses are, where they came from, what they do."
"Yes."
"It has been sixty years. Three generations since the reversal. Did you think those who first rose up would be the only ones to master the magic so fully? Did you believe that no others would rise?"
The idea of it made me shiver. The Houses were always working with and against one another, but they had rules, and they knew the consequences. "No, but the Houses control-"
"The Houses control the controllable." Her body shifted, and her forehead pressed against mine. It was warm and sweaty, full of life. The last time I had been this close to anyone had been that one night with Danelle, and it had been less than memorable. "Just as I could control you, right now."
Her voice softened, becoming sultry and charged. Her lips met my own for just a moment. In the absolute darkness, I was tempted, more by memories than reality. It had been so long since I had felt this kind of touch. I closed my eyes, remembering.
Then I put my hand to her face and gently turned it away. "You can't. Not like that."
"Then you know what I'm saying. Most have a price, but there are some that do not. The Houses don't dare risk a confrontation with an equal power without discussion. The consequences of initiating an open battle between such wizards would be disastrous."
"What if that other power confronted you first?"
"Then the others would say that we should be even more cautious. An aggressive enemy is the worst kind. I agree with them to a point. That is why I need your help."
"Me? You don't need me. You need a whole team. Or at least someone anonymous. They know who I am. They've seen me. Hell, the only reason I had the job is because I stole it. I thought it would be my big payday, my ticket to living to see next year." I banged the back of my head softly against the wall, feeling stupid again.
"My sister is hanging from the ceiling in my living room, Phantom. This enemy... They are using ferals to do their dirty work. No one was supposed to know I exist at all, and yet I was attacked. I can't sit here and wait for them to kill me, and I can't afford to be cautious while they dismantle my House. I need to find out who is behind this and put a stop to it, and I can't do it alone. You're the only person I can trust."
She surprised me. From her crying, I had mistaken her for a weak, scared victim. I didn't feel any of that now. What I sensed was what I had expected Mrs. Red to be.
"You don't know you can trust me."
"I have to take my chances. There is no one else."
"I don't even know if I can get you out of this closet alive."
"But you'll try, for a price."
"I'll try because I can't shake a kill team on my own. Your House has resources, contacts..."
"What is your price, Phantom?
"I want to survive. I want to take care of my ex-wife and our daughter. That's all."
"A necromancer who's afraid of death?"
I considered making a comment on what I'd learned about the other side, but the image of her sister stopped me. "I have other responsibilities. I have a friend to take care of, too. She's on her way to New York to help with this mess. I owe her my life."
I felt her lips again, this time on my cheek. "I will do what I can. I know we just met, but I sense you are an honorable man. Whether we live or die, remember that."
Honorable? There was nothing honorable about abandoning my family. It was an old wound, and I felt it spread open.
"You're sure this is the work of a new House?" I asked, shifting the subject.
"I'm not sure of anything. What I can tell you is that I was raised to inherit House Red at the time of my aunt's passing. Since I turned eighteen, I have been apprised of every action we have taken with and against the other Houses. They may discourage hiring necromancers. They would never use ferals."
"The payment I received was from Black."
"It was counterfeit."
Neither Dannie or Mr. Clean had noticed anything strange about the payment, and Gucci had been authentic enough. "I don't think so."
Silence.
"It wasn't Black," she said at last.
"The payment card was real."
"It wasn't Black." Her steel tone told me she was sure of it. Mrs. Red had made the same claim, so I didn't keep arguing. "Either the card was a very, very good fake, it was stolen, or it was exchanged."
"Exchanged?"
"A ghost took a payment from Black for a job. He then traded that payment card for another of higher value from a different House. It isn't unheard of."
"The ghost would have to be in on it."
"Yes, which means there's a trail that leads back to the source, however faint it may be. If the card was fake, we need to know who made it. If it was stolen, who took it. If it was exchanged, who traded it."
"First we need to get out of this closet."
We fell into an alert silence, listening for the werewolves. Jin had said there was a human with them, a woman, most likely a user. With them, or controlling them?
The build
ing was silent around us, and in the claustrophobic darkness it felt like a tomb. We were safe for now, but we'd need to leave the panic room at some point. What would happen then? Was I only delaying the inevitable? If we were lucky, they believed Jin wasn't home, and had left the apartment to keep watch near the entrance. If we were lucky, we would be able to sneak past them.
Considering my recent misfortune, I wasn't holding my breath.
I closed my eyes and listened for any hint of the ferals. At first I didn't hear anything. Then the silence was filled with a soft snore, a light whistle that would have been adorable anywhere else.
With nothing else to do but wait, I relaxed as much as I could and let my own fatigue take me.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The girl with the dragon tattoo.
I opened my eyes, but I still couldn't see anything. My feet were tingling, the circulation cut off by the weight of Jin on my lap. It was an odd first waking thought, but I wondered what the word for elf was in Japanese?
"Jin?" I put my hand on her shoulder and gave her a light shake.
She moved against me with a soft moan. I felt the weight of her head leave my chest, and she sucked in some drool that must have spilled over onto my hoodie.
"I'm sorry."
"A little spit never killed anyone." I shifted around until I could reach my watch. The light from the face bathed us in a blueish tinge. We'd been asleep for two hours. "There you are."
Her eyes were swollen from crying. "Do you think it's safe now?"
I let the light fade away. There was no point wasting the battery just to look at one another. "It better be. My feet are asleep."
She shifted again. "Listen."
We sat in silence. A few minutes passed. There was nothing. It was time.
"We have to take our chances."
"Your dice-" she started to say. I hadn't realized she'd even noticed them.
"Magic, yeah."
"They're old."
"Very."
"They don't use the fields."
I didn't like to talk about them. It made me feel... I don't know... dirty. "No. There's something... in them. A soul, a dark soul. It's trapped, I think."