And then Tiber scooped up Holly, the mink and Claudia, and bolted.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Where are we?” Claudia whispered when she and Tiber landed on the roof of a flat-topped concrete building. She turned in a circle, trying to get her bearings. They’d outrun the demons, for now.
Korzha pointed to a dark area across from them. “That’s Athens Park.”
They were south of the city center. That was Highway 110 behind them, but the structure was eerily silent, and that just wasn’t right. From this height, which wasn’t even all that high, her stomach did a little flip-flop and her knees went watery when she glanced over the edge at West El Segundo Boulevard. South to Compton. North to the city proper. She had no head for heights whatsoever. She drew Holly several steps back, brushed her hair from her face and, when her fingers touched the thread Lath had woven into her hair, her anxiety grew.
To the west, toward the Pacific, the sky was pale charcoal, aglow with the lights from the city. To the northeast, past the portal, the city sparkled and danced, unaware of the menace. Claudia exchanged a long and silent look with Korzha. “I guess we hope like heck the Bak-Faru and the Elismal don’t decide to get along.”
A breeze blew through Korzha’s hair. The satchel containing Whiskers bulged and a low-pitched chatter came from inside. Far away and far overhead, Strata +1 glittered. Tiberiu Korzha’s world. The Upper. Her world was down below, in Strata 0, the streets. In the very heart of the chaos to come.
She slipped her hand into his, completely without thinking, and he didn’t pull away. In L.A. things were different. He could go anywhere he wanted and be with anyone he wanted. Did he want her? She stared at him, at the gorgeous face with the hint of stubble and a few coffee-bean-colored curls around his ears. Of course he’d go back to being the cold and perfect vamp she’d known before. He was Upper. She was Lower. Vamp and human. It couldn’t work. Could it?
With her free hand, she fished her cell phone out of her P.D. pack. He let go of her while she waited to see if the damn thing would explode or something. It didn’t. The cell phone screen informed her she’d missed one hundred and fifty-seven calls. “We have to warn them demons are here.”
“There you go again, Officer.” He crossed his arms over his chest while she punched numbers on the phone. His smile felt painfully familiar now and sent a pang of regret through her heart. She missed it already. The phone on the other end rang. “Thinking you have to save humanity.”
“Everyone,” she said. “I mean we have to warn everyone. Shit!” She disconnected from voice mail and dialed again. “The Bak-Faru won’t discriminate. They’re equal opportunity haters.”
“All by yourself?”
She sang, “Here she comes again to save the day…”
Korzha didn’t laugh.
“Doesn’t somebody have to?” She gave the phone a shake. “Come on. Pick up.” At last the sleepy voice of the P.D’s liaison to Internal Operations answered. “Parsons? That you? Donovan here. Yeah, I know. Fine. Listen. No—Don’t say a word until I’m finished.” When she was done, she slumped against a ventilation duct and got poked by a piece of bent flashing. The roof smelled like tar. Must have been hot in L.A. today. “Parsons is a good guy. Those were dark demons, Korzha. Save the day. Right.” She shoved her phone in her pants pocket. “Great job so far, huh? They’re here because of me. I let them in. Lath has a list of the people he intends to kill. What’s going to happen to the city with a hundred and seven Bak-Faru demons on the loose?”
“You mustn’t blame yourself. The Bak-Faru intended this all along.”
“Yeah, but I opened the door.” She laughed, but not convincingly. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life filling out the paperwork on this one.”
“Demons may be here.” He cocked his head. “But not for the first time. And they wont be, I feel compelled to point out, without opposition. Much as Aslet resents it, he and his Elismal are allied with me.” He laughed. “Who knows? Maybe they’ll fit right in.”
“Right.”
“Are demons so different from everyone else here?” he asked. “Really, Donovan. Vampires and werewolves live in Crimson City. Why not demons?”
“Because they can’t be trusted.”
He smiled. “Since when does trust occur between species? Vampires exist. Werewolves exist. Humans exist. We all distrust each other. We even distrust members of our own species. Now demons exist here. Nothing is new if we distrust them, too.”
Claudia straightened. “You’ve seen what they can do, Korzha.”
The vampire’s eyes shuttered. “Why should humans decide who lives here and who, or what, does not?”
“They’re evil.” But Claudia remembered Siath and her lost son and Lath’s outrage that humans summoned demons and forced them to acts they abhorred. Even Aslet had been commanded against his will. She thought of all the demons who hadn’t bothered her in Orcus, and she couldn’t speak with conviction. The whole world was changed. Time was, she didn’t trust any vamps.
“So must the cat seem evil to the mouse,” Tiber said. He slipped an arm around her. “There isn’t anyplace where bad things don’t happen, and no species that does no evil from someone’s point of view. Perhaps humanity’s point of view isn’t the only one worth considering.”
“Humans are the underdog, Korzha. We don’t have any special powers.”
“Dear-heart, you underestimate your species.”
Her heart sped up. She felt a nice little thrill at the endearment, followed by a flash of guilty despair. He didn’t know. He didn’t know she wasn’t going to die. Maybe that’s why he was so matter of fact. “Do you think it’s possible for demons to fit in?” she asked, incredulous.
He pressed his mouth to the top of her head. “Instead of holding on to the past, let’s look forward.”
“Tiberiu Korzha, philosophe.”
He brushed his dangling curls behind an ear, but his attention, like hers, turned to the horizon. “The passing of an age requires a certain degree of philosophy,” was his response.
“Philosophy, shmilosophy. Can you get us off the roof?” She didn’t like the way Holly hadn’t spoken. She wanted desperately to sleep in her own bed and wear her own clothes. She wanted to take a long, hot shower and figure out what her life was going to look like from now on. “My car’s not far from here. I’d like to take my daughter home,” she said.
Tiber nodded and gathered her and Holly up. They landed at the corner of the park. Interesting how Holly pressed herself against Tiber. She trusted him, too. “Well,” Claudia said in the awkward silence that followed.
“Well.” Tiber continued to hold Holly’s hand. He still wore the satchel with the mink in it.
“Need a ride?” A vampire didn’t need a ride anywhere; they could fly. “Car’s that way.” She pointed. So, was this the end? Would they just shake hands and say good-bye? She wanted to cry, but no way would she let him see that. When she tried to swallow the lump in her throat, she couldn’t. Korzha took her elbow, and they started walking. Half a block from where she’d left her car, she stopped at a silver Lexus SUV.
“Nice car,” Tiber said.
“Sure is.” She sighed. “Too bad it isn’t mine.” She sighed again and dug in her pack for her keys. She pressed the button on the fob, but there wasn’t any responding beep from any of the other cars along the block. “Shoot.”
“Maybe further down the street?”
“Yeah. Maybe.” She cleared her throat. “Korzha,” she whispered with a quick look at Holly. “We have to talk.”
The vampire scanned the street. “What do you drive?” he asked.
“A green car.”
“Green.” The satchel bulged again, but Holly whispered to it and the movement stopped. Strange, how there was so little traffic. And nobody was on the street.
“Dark green,” she added.
“An immense help, thank you. No green cars here.”
“It’s a clu
nker, but it runs. Hardly anything goes wrong with it. Usually. I think I got towed.”
He tilted his head, and she wondered if he’d start cutting his hair again now that he was back in L.A. “Pity,” he said.
“I’m a cop. They’ll give it back. So, I guess we’ll walk home. It’s not that far.” She looked at Holly. “You okay with walking, sweetie? Not too tired?” The girl shook her head. Claudia glanced down the street, taking Holly’s other hand, aware that her daughter hadn’t let go of the vampire.
“You coming, Tiber?” she asked. Three words, not even the dangerous ones, and Claudia had just put her entire life on the line. “You can if you want.”
“I want,” he said.
Her heart went pit-a-pat. “That’s good,” she replied. Until he found out she wasn’t going to die, right? That would change everything. Then he would stop feeling sorry for her and leave her. “Really good,” she added.
They walked without speaking, Holly between them, holding both their hands. It was full dark now. Somewhere in the distance a siren blared. An IRAS chopper hummed through the air to the southwest, toward the Lower. The streets were empty, and that seemed strange. There weren’t any people out and the only vehicle trolling the streets was a tow truck. Traffic lights changed colors for no good reason since there weren’t any cars at the intersections. At the corner store where she shopped between big grocery trips, she stopped to read a photocopied notice taped to the window.
Curfew
Closing 9:00 PM nightly until further notice
by order of Crimson City Internal Operations
No exceptions.
Executive Order 1995 §3045(b)
A cop car turned the corner as they were reading the sign. Lights flashed and the prowler headed toward them. “What time do you figure it is?” Claudia asked.
“Eleven-seventeen,” Tiber answered.
“We’d better get off the street.”
“It might be safer if we went to Strata +1.”
The Upper. Claudia let out a breath.
Korzha put his arms around her and said right into her head as the cop car came closer, “Come home with me.”
She nodded, they went up, right in front of the patrol car. She and Holly were shivering with cold by the time he stopped at an exterior landing platform. They went in a window, not a door. Or maybe it was just that the door looked like a window.
“No way,” she said, when her knees stopped shaking from her one unfortunate glimpse outward from the platform. The street was a hell of a long way down.
“Way,” he replied, and walked in. He pressed a button on the wall and light suffused the room.
This was no stinky-carpeted hallway of triple-deadlocked doors that would have made her feel right at home, but a single expanse of room that belonged on the cover of Architectural Digest. He had a hardwood floor, the real deal there, a rug of indigo and olive and in a pattern that looked like something from a book on Nepalese temple art. The place was full was antique furniture. Gilt-framed paintings on the walls. She was lost in Paris without a map and not a word of French at her command. And the natives knew she didn’t belong.
Tiber faced her. “Welcome to my home, Officer Donovan. Holly.”
“Wow,” Holly said.
At the far end of the room another arched doorway with stairs led upward. To Claudia’s right there was an elevator. “Now this,” she said, “this is life in the Upper.”
Tiber leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Dear-heart. I haven’t lived this long without picking up a few things along the way.”
“I should have expected.” But the truth was, there was no way she could have been prepared for the reality of Tiberiu Korzha’s life. “I don’t know why I’m surprised,” she said.
Tiber handed the satchel to Holly and leaned one hip against a carved rosewood table. “I’m a Korzha,” he said. “Most would agree that I am the Korzha.
“Right,” she whispered.
“You can stay here as long as…” He lifted an eyebrow. “Holly, keep the satchel closed, please.”
Holly took one look at Korzha and froze, her hands on the buckled strap. Claudia heard the noise, too. A creak in the hallway from a door about a thousand miles past his shoulder. Well, okay, it was about two of her apartments away and someone was knocking on the other side of what looked like a conventional door. Except there were no deadbolts. Well, why bother, right?
“Tiberiu?” a voice called.
Korzha said nothing.
“It’s Jon, Tiber. Open the door. I know you’re in there.”
When Korzha opened the door, a man with walnut skin and black hair slipped inside. His eyes darted to Claudia, who stood near the window with her arm around Holly. “Fleur wants a word with you, Tiber. About Laura Masters, among other things.” His eyes darted to Claudia. “Like the cop you hit.” He looked at Claudia again. “And,” he added, shifting his attention to Holly. “Her missing daughter. The babysitter was reduced to gibbering nonsense about monsters and fire. Where the hell have you been, Tiber?”
Korzha walked back to Claudia. “I went after a rogue.”
In the blink of an eye, Jon was at Korzha’s side. Kind of unnerving, that ability to move in between the space of a breath. Claudia watched the new vampire’s dark eyes travel up and down her, pausing at her neck. “And?” he prompted Tiber.
“Do forgive my lack of manners,” Korzha said. He slipped an arm around her shoulders. “Claudia, may I present Jon Dumont of Family Dumont? Jon, this is Officer Claudia Donovan of our city’s finest, and this is her daughter Holly. Both, you will notice, are very much alive.”
Jon didn’t take his eyes off Korzha. Unlike Korzha, Jon filed his teeth. Passing as human, then. “And the rogue?”
“Is not.”
Jon rounded on Claudia, looked like he meant to say something but thought better of it. He whirled back to Tiber, “I don’t know what’s going on, Tiber, but my advice is get the hell out of here. Now. The Strata’s not safe. Not for you. They’ve sent the Vendix after you.”
Korzha laughed. “I appreciate the warning, but Fleur’s about to find out she has bigger fish to fry.”
“Hardly,” Dumont said with a snarl. “I’m taking a risk just coming here. You’re believed to be a triple murderer. The cop and her daughter. And you are in a world of trouble over Laura Masters.”
“Councilwoman Masters?” Korzha’s eyes went wide and innocent. “Has something happened to her?”
“Don’t play innocent with me, Tiber.”
Korzha shrugged.
“Right now, Tiber, my friend, you’re a flounder stinking up Fleur’s house. She’s out for Spring Cleaning and the rest of Family Korzha isn’t objecting.” Jon shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “I’ll visit you at Lompoc. When are visiting hours do you suppose?”
Korzha laughed. “The portal’s open, and there are demons in Crimson City.”
Dumont scrubbed his hands through his dark hair. “I hope to hell you don’t mean that.”
“Believe me as you like, Dumont. You’ll know the truth soon enough. The whole city will.”
“Oh, shit,” the vamp whispered.
“Tell Fleur I’ll explain everything as soon as she calls off the Vendix and not a minute before.”
Dumont nodded. “In the meantime, if you want to live to make your explanations, you better get the hell out of Dodge.”
“I’ll be in touch.” Korzha snatched up Holly and then Claudia and crossed the room faster than she could take a breath. He ducked onto the exterior landing. In the back of her head, like it was really far away, pressure built. Demons.
“My place,” she said.
Korzha nodded. He gathered himself and leapt into the air with Claudia burying her head against his chest and hanging on to Holly for dear life. It took a long time to get to the ground, and his shoes made a soft ka-thuck when he landed on the pavement across the street from her apartment.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Korzha did something and the gate in the arched doorway clicked open. Never mind fishing out her keys again. The trio climbed the cracked cement steps to the front landing. The glass cover over the exterior light was broken. Moths beat themselves against the exposed bulb. Winged bodies littered the peeling surface of the entrance step. The metal-flashed entry door looked like someone had kicked it pretty hard about a dozen times. About fifty years ago there’d been a pane of glass in the now-boarded over porthole.
With a bit more of his voodoo, Tiber opened the main door and headed for the elevator, the kind with a creaky iron-gated door. The foyer was about ten feet square and littered with junk mail and cigarette butts. On the opposite wall both the bank of silver mailboxes and the door to the stairwell had dents the size of jackboots. Claudia found a bent nail on the floor and used it to jimmy her mailbox. She tugged on her accumulated snail mail.
“What floor are you on?” Tiber asked from the elevator.
She stuffed most of her mail in overflowing trash. Holly yawned and that made Claudia yawn too. Jeez, she was tired. Exhausted. And hungry. And Tiber had no business still looking so beautiful. She kicked aside the newspapers piled on the floor. You’d think someone would steal them just to keep things tidy. “Fourth floor, but it’s safer to take the stairs.”
“As you like,” Korzha agreed. He went ahead of them in the stairwell, and held open the door when they got to the appropriate level. At her door, apartment #413, she stuffed her mail into her pack and sighed. Keys. While she rummaged for them, the door opposite hers opened.
A Darker Crimson Page 27