I shrugged because he was right. Romano hadn’t allowed me to work for anyone but him, either. Then again, I wouldn’t have worked for anyone else at the time even if they’d had the balls to offer. Loyalty was something I understood. “Fair enough. Your allegiance is noted.”
“The Yakuza have been trying to worm their way into the market here in North America from around the time you left Romano’s employ. But this Ikimono myst drug . . . it’s got to be some bad shit if Mancini wants it taken down. Usually he just takes a cut of the profit and lets the other boys play whatever game they want.” Simon’s eyes were thoughtful.
“I doubt he’s being altruistic,” I said. “More likely they don’t want him in on it. They want the profit for themselves. Money lost, no cut on the profit.”
Simon shook his head and frowned. “But a drug that makes monsters? We don’t need any more of those. Even the Yaks must see the abnormal population is on the rise. Why the fuck would we want more?”
The kid driver pulled off one edge of his earphones. “Couldn’t help overhearing that last bit between songs. I’m a stats major at U-Dub, and your friend is right. Abnormal populations have been on the rise the last ten years steady.”
“As interesting as that is, put your fucking headphones back on,” I said.
The kid scrambled to put them back on and turned up the music again.
“Subtle.” Simon smirked at me. I shrugged.
“Whatever.” My head spun with the facts. A new drug that made monsters. An abnormal population on the rise. Mancini wanting the Yakuza booted out of North America along with their drugs.
And Bear’s life hanging on me making sense of the mess and getting rid of both the monsters and the monster makers.
The car slowed and I looked up. We were on the edge of the freeway. The kid slowly pulled his headphones off. “The Jungle is underneath us.”
My eyebrows shot up. “What?”
“Underneath the highway?” Simon clarified.
The kid nodded. “Yeah. Sorry, I don’t know any other way for you to get in. I don’t run in those kinds of circles.”
Simon handed him some cash that I had no doubt he’d taken from my stash. I didn’t care, it wasn’t really my money, anyway.
We stepped out of the car and the kid pulled into traffic. I leaned over the edge of the freeway and looked down into a goddamn big-ass forest. It wasn’t the trees that bothered me, or the fact that they were under a highway. It was the smell that the wind brought to me up and over the edge of the guardrail. Abnormal, but . . . different even for them. Like it had been taken and twisted even further, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand. I hated that I couldn’t quite place the scent as it tickled at the back of my nose and throat. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”
“Me, either.” Simon leaned over beside me. He shook his head. “I guess we’d better find a way down.”
We jogged along the highway, searching for an entrance point to the Jungle. “You sure you want to do this? I could probably find Talia in a day or two.” Simon glanced back at me.
I shook my head. “I’m sure. This will be faster.”
Some abnormals could have just leapt off the edge of the freeway and landed in the Jungle, no problem, no injuries. Humans, not so much. Which meant if human junkies knew about this place, then there had to be a way in that a human could handle.
“Keep looking,” I said.
About a quarter mile down the highway, a piece of thick rope was wrapped and knotted around the guardrail. Simon reached it first and shook his head. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”
I stopped next to him and ran a hand over the rope. The smell of salt water was imbued within it, and the fraying bits did nothing for my confidence in its ability to hold me, never mind me and Simon. But looks could be deceiving, something I knew all too well. “One at a time,” I said as I grabbed hold of the rope and flipped my ass over the guardrail.
Chapter Twelve
Bear
My grandfather took me and Abe to the veterinarian as he promised. Only it didn’t look anything like any vet hospital I’d ever been in before.
The door was set down in a stairwell in a building that had no signs on it about being a vet hospital. No signs at all about what the place was.
“This is the vet’s?” I still had a hand on Abe, holding him tightly to me.
“It is,” Grandfather said, his voice not giving me any hint as to how he might be feeling. Was he okay with me keeping Abe still or maybe he’d changed his mind? Did he know my parents were alive? I swallowed hard and Abe pressed against me as if he could tell I was upset. Mom always said Abe would know, and I believed her.
My heart beat faster at the thought of my mom and dad out there, trying to get to me. I’d always wanted to be on an adventure but not like this. Not believing for months that both my parents were dead. Not wondering if my grandfather maybe wanted to hurt me, or worse, was trying to make me believe lies.
But my parents weren’t dead. I knew that now and that meant I could hope for a rescue.
Grandfather pushed the door open and there was no bell announcing our arrival into the small dark room. No chairs, no desk for a receptionist, no sounds of other animals. Whatever hope had filled me slowly bled out. This was no vet hospital. I bit my lower lip to keep it from shaking.
“Are you bringing him in?” Grandfather arched an eyebrow at me and I saw that he had that in common with my mom.
I was on the middle of the stairs. What would my dad do? To save Abe, I had to let him go.
I took my hand from his neck. “Hinaus.” Go. I told Abe to go. He looked at me and I yelled at him.
“Hinaus!”
With a yip, Abe took off, down an alley away from me, and more importantly away from my grandfather.
I stared at the man who was my mother’s father. “My hand slipped.”
The blatant lie was nothing I ever would have even thought of with my parents. But this man was not them, and I had learned fast how he was not what he seemed. He was not the loving grandfather he’d said he was when I’d first woken from the accident. I’d tried since then to be a good grandson, to be a good boy. But now . . . now, it seemed pointless. He was never going to love me.
A low laugh rolled from him. “Well, well. It seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree after all. How like your mother to lie straight to my face.”
A shiver of anger slipped down my back and I clenched my hands. “Don’t you talk about my mom. You don’t know her.”
He snaked a hand out, grabbed me by the collar of my school uniform and dragged me up until we were face to face. I clamped my teeth, and waited for him to shake me, or hit me. I wasn’t sure which, only I knew I was in for it now that I’d openly defied him.
“Your mother was a lying, thieving killer. Be glad you are free of her, Bear.” He let me go and I hit the ground hard, crumpling to the side.
“You don’t know her.” I stared up at him, hating that tears filled my eyes. “You don’t know her.” It was the only defense I had against his awful words.
Grandfather laughed. “I made her, Bear. I made her what she is.”
Is. The word reverberated between us, and I pushed to my feet staring at him. “She’s alive, isn’t she?”
He arched an eyebrow at me and leaned close. “And what if she is? Do you think you can get away with my guards watching your every move? You think you can escape the Shadow’s reach? He has minions everywhere, Bear. Everywhere.”
Cold, icy fear replaced the heat of my anger and I had to lock my knees to keep standing. “My mom will come for me. She won’t leave me here.”
He grinned down at me and that smile did nothing to ease the fear. Grandfather reached out and wrapped his fingers around my neck. Not squeezing, but just laying them there, reminding me that he could hurt me.
“That’s what I’m hoping for, Bear. That’s what I’m banking on. Then I will have you both.”
Behind us was a scuffle of feet and the yelp of a dog. I spun away from Grandfather. Rooster had Abe on the end of a long leash, a muzzle on his mouth. Abe’s eyes were narrowed and he thrashed against the leash, slamming his body side to side.
“Don’t hurt him.” I lunged for Rooster, and Grandfather caught me by my hair, yanking me back. I reached up and tried to pull his hands loose, but it was no use. He was too strong, and I couldn’t get free. The tears started to trickle down my cheeks. I couldn’t stop them.
“Your mother was a crier too when she was young. I fixed that, and I can fix it in you, too,” Grandfather said.
I bit my lower lip and struggled against the pain in both my heart and my head. “Let him go.”
“No.” Grandfather gave me a light shake. “Love is a tool to be used against people. This is a lesson you need to learn.”
“What you want me to do to him, boss?” Rooster gave Abe a hard yank, sending him sprawling across the ground, panting as he tried to breathe around the choke string on him.
“Send him to Genzo. Make him a gift for my wayward daughter when she shows up at the facility.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but I had no doubt it was bad. I had to get Abe away from here now.
With a yell, I yanked away from Grandfather, losing a good chunk of hair in the process. I flung myself at Rooster, kicking and screaming. The big man dropped the leash and I screamed at Abe.
“Hinaus! Hinaus!”
Abe, though, was my dog, through and through, and no command would send him from me when I was fighting someone ten times my size. He scrabbled at the poorly attached muzzle and had it off in a flash. With a snarl, he launched at Rooster just as the big man picked me up by the scruff.
Rooster screamed as Abe bit into his arm, hanging from his flesh as he twisted and bit deeper, and deeper.
“Get him off. Get him off!” Rooster screamed like a little girl. I kicked out hard, catching Rooster in the gut, and he dropped me. I bolted down the alley. “Abe!”
In a flash, Abe was next to me and we were running for our lives, dodging down the alleys, avoiding the streets, until I found a doorway recessed into a building. I hurried into it and crouched. Abe tucked in beside me as he licked me all over my face. I clung to him, shaking as I tried to make sense of what had just happened.
We had escaped, but I didn’t doubt Grandfather would send someone to look for me. He wanted to use me. He wanted to use me as bait to catch Mom.
“We’ve got to find Mom,” I said. I knew for sure now she was alive, any doubts I had erased by Grandfather’s own words. I rubbed a hand over my face. I knew Uncle Zee’s number by heart, did I dare call him? A breath slid from me and I bit my lower lip. I needed a phone for that, and I had no money, and no friends here in New York.
“We can’t stay here, Abe. We have to keep moving.” I rubbed the top of his head and behind his ears. He gave me a soft woof and a wag of his tail.
I stood and peered down the alley both ways before stepping out. Time to get to the road and the rush of people that would help protect me from my grandfather.
The beep and honk of horns, the rumble of so many cars and the constant press of people called to me at the end of the alley, and I jogged toward it.
“There he is, the little shit!”
I spun around to see Rooster and two of my father’s other men running toward us.
I bolted for the end of the alley, fear and adrenaline driving me hard. Abe raced along with me, and in only seconds, we were sucked into the crush of people that were the streets of New York City.
I pushed my way between the commuters until only a few yells followed me. I didn’t dare slow down. I needed space between me and Rooster and his thugs. At the first crosswalk, I made my way to the front of the crowd of people, and stared, waiting for the light to turn, knowing that Rooster was close. I turned in time to see a hand swing toward me.
I bolted into traffic before I thought better of it.
People screamed, a woman yelled for me to look out as I raced between the cars. Abe stuck with me the whole way, even as I rolled against one car, using its momentum to spin me farther across the dangerous divide. Like I’d been doing it my whole life, like I knew where to put my feet and when to dodge.
And then we were across and the screeching of cars and people faded as I ran down the next street, blood pounding in my ears.
A thought trickled through me. Grandfather had introduced me to one of his friends.
Mr. Mancini.
I could see when I’d met him that Mr. Mancini hadn’t liked Grandfather. He had weird eyes, but the fact that he didn’t like Grandfather might make him my only chance.
He might be the only person I could go to.
I dared a moment to stop and look around to get my bearings.
“What you looking for, kid?”
I spun toward a homeless man crouched against the building to my right. He was dirty, dressed in rags and held up a sign that said, “Blind. Homeless. Please help.”
“How can you see me if you’re blind?”
“How can you see me if you ain’t an abnormal?” he fired back, which made no sense to me.
I shook my head. “I’m looking for Mr. Mancini. He’s . . .”
“I know who Mancini is. You don’t want to go to him, kid. He’s dangerous.” The homeless man gestured me closer and I went, somewhat fascinated by the grunge-covered man. Something about him reminded me of my Uncle Zee.
“I need to find him,” I said. “Which building is his?”
The homeless man shook his head. “Ah, you think you can get away from your parents? Think they’re hard on you? Stay in school, kid. Life will kick you in the balls soon enough. You don’t need to hurry things up.”
He dropped a hand on my shoulder with amazing accuracy for a blind man. He slowly lifted his head, and his eyes were like a snake’s I’d seen once, all wild looking and brilliantly green.
“Blood of a Phoenix,” he said softly.
I wanted to pull away but I was caught in the snare of his words. “I have to go.”
“Mancini . . . he’d use you up and spit you out,” Snake Eyes said with a shake of his head.
“You got any coins, then? So I can make a phone call?” Uncle Zee was still my best bet, but I knew there was no way he’d make it to me before Rooster.
He snorted and shook his head. “You know you can call collect?”
I slapped a hand against my forehead and backed away. “A phone then?”
“Two streets down, take a right and should be one on the corner.” He slumped back into his rags. “Be careful, Blood of a Phoenix. You’re going to have a lot of people gunning for you as you grow up.”
“Already do,” I mumbled as I ran down the way he pointed. It was only then I realized that the flow of people had seemed to disappear while I’d talked to Snake Eyes, and now that I was away from him, the flow reappeared and sucked me into it.
Abe stuck to me and I kept a hand on him. Not that he needed that to stay close, but I took some courage from having him there. I never would have run from Grandfather if he hadn’t threatened Abe. Abe had given me the strength to do the impossible.
I swallowed hard at the thought of losing my dog again, of losing my mom and dad again. I wasn’t letting that happen. I took a left and there was a phone just waiting for me, stuck into the wall.
“Abe, achtung.”
He sat beside me, facing outward, his ears perked right up, watching like I’d asked.
I grabbed the phone and picked it up, then dialed the operator.
“I’d like to make a collect call please.”
“Number.”
I leaned my head against the phone and gave her Uncle Zee’s number.
“Who is the call from?”
“Bear.”
“One moment please.”
The phone clicked and then I could hear her speaking. “Would you take a collect call from Bear?”
The
re was a pause and my heart may have stopped with it. And then Uncle Zee was on the phone, agreeing quickly with the operator’s question.
“Bear, is that you?”
“Yes! I’m in New York City, my grandfather said you didn’t want me and that Mom and Dad were dead. But Abe’s with me and I know my mom’s alive at least, and Rooster and his men are chasing me and I can’t get away.” The words poured from me.
“Where, where in New York are you? Look around, describe it for me if you can’t see street names.” The calm in his voice helped slow me down.
“I can see some tall skyscrapers, one is covered in glass from top to bottom. I spoke to an abnormal with snake eyes. He told me not to go to Mancini.”
“What made you think of Mancini?” Uncle Zee’s voice was carefully flat.
“Grandfather took me to meet him. I got the impression Mr. Mancini didn’t like him.”
“You aren’t far from his offices. I’m on my way, Bear, and you are safer with Mancini than with your grandfather, much as I hate to admit it.”
A low growl rumbled through Abe, and he stood up. I slowly turned.
Rooster and his men circled around us. “Uncle Zee, I’m not going to make it there. Rooster found me.”
“Fight him, little Bear.” His voice choked on the words. “Fight for all you’re worth. Your mother taught you to fight for a reason. They won’t kill you, I promise.”
I dropped the phone so he could hear me fight. Because I wasn’t going to just let them take me and Abe.
“Fass!” I yelled the command to Abe and he shot forward, straight toward Rooster and his already mauled arm.
Only it wasn’t just Rooster this time. The thug on his left swung a noose out and caught it around Abe’s neck before he could catch Rooster’s leg.
“Come on, kid. You’ve pissed the old man off enough for today.” Rooster made a gesture for me to come with him.
I held up my fists and let my body sink into a fighting stance. “No.”
Blood of a Phoenix (The Nix Series Book 2) Page 13