by Gary Jonas
“Impertinent piece of...” He took a deep breath and sat down.
Kelly threw me a look, but I pretended not to notice. I kept my attention on Zeus, and Kelly wisely kept her mouth shut. I made a note to ask her to teach me how to do that, too.
The people at the bar tossed surreptitious glances in our direction, but nobody outright stared. Zeus turned to look at them and they all made sure to be studying their drinks. He waved a hand and a curtain of dancing lightning bolts shot up around us.
“No one will see or hear us now,” he said. “I'm not going to hurt you if you don't piss me off. From the looks of you, someone else has done an admirable job on your face.”
I didn't say anything, so maybe I was capable of learning.
Zeus stroked his beard and regarded us. He took a pull from his cigarette then crushed it out in the ashtray. Tendrils of smoke drifted up to join the haze near the ceiling.
My second thought was that I'd need to wash my clothes and take a shower to get rid of the nasty smoke smell. But my first thought was that he was trying to get a read on me.
“Give me a reason not to kill you both,” he said.
“Because we want to live?” I said. I didn't mean for it to come out as a question.
Kelly kicked my foot.
“How about because we can destroy the Men of Anubis?”
“No!” he shouted. He leaned forward and bellowed the word and the wind that shot from his mouth blew my hair back. His breath was foul, but I knew better than to offer him a Tic Tac, though the thought did cross my mind.
The god seemed unstable, and as likely to destroy us as to light another cigarette.
He calmed down, and the lightning curtain shimmered and dropped to a mere net. Everyone in the bar stared openly at us now because Zeus sat shaking his head. The one word clearly made it beyond his silent lightning zone. And now everyone could hear us.
“I'll make this simple,” Zeus said. He turned to Damon. “You, Myron Messerstein, are hereby banished from Club Eternity for selling information beyond your station. As you were forced to share that information, I won't kill you. However, should you ever try to share another secret that goes beyond the realm of humans, your mouth will seal up again. Your pass to Club Eternity is hereby revoked, and no you may not have your soul back. That belongs to us.”
He reached out and, with a small line of lightning, severed the ropes that bound Damon ... or Myron. He then placed a hand on Myron's wrist and a silver bracelet shimmered up through Myron's flesh. It unsnapped into Zeus's hand. Zeus made a small dismissal gesture and Myron popped out of the club to reappear wherever Zeus sent him.
“And that brings us to the two of you,” Zeus said staring intently at Kelly and then at me. “What have you learned so far?”
“That Damon Nomad was actually an improvement over Myron Messerstein?” And there I went with the question problem again. I needed to control my fear if I was going to mouth off to a god.
Kelly kicked me again. “We learned that you disapprove of our actions,” she said. “We understand, and we meant no disrespect, but you need to know that we would do it again even knowing what we know.”
“You dare to disrespect me?” He stood again.
“The fact that I respect you is the reason I'm telling you the truth. We'd still come in here and force Myron to tell us about Indra even knowing you wouldn't like it.”
I picked up on her cue. “Kelly is right. We would. And that's because we don't have a choice. The Men of Anubis will destroy the lives of millions of people to get to us, so that means we need to take the battle to them.”
“They'll squash you as easily as I can.”
“So let them squash us. It has nothing to do with you.” I clutched the arm rests on my chair. My left hand erupted in agony so I stopped squeezing and held my bandaged hand gently in my right palm.
Zeus shook his head. “It has everything to do with us, you moron! You got the information at Club Eternity. Gods do not oppose gods, and we do not allow others to take anything from us that can potentially endanger another god whether that's information or a weapon or anything else. You will drop your foolish mission this instant or I'll destroy you both right here, right now.”
“Fine,” I said holding up both hands. “Consider it dropped.”
“And you?” Zeus said to Kelly.
“I follow his lead. He says we drop it, we drop it.”
“That's good enough for me.”
“So we can go now?”
“Have you ever been to Switzerland?”
“Uh, no,” I said wondering what that had to do with anything.
“Beautiful women there. Men, too. Finish your drinks. I'll tell you about Fiona from Leukerbad and all the wonderfully naughty things she can do. Leukerbad is a village where they have these amazing hot springs, and...”
As he spoke, the lightning curtain intensified.
“No one can hear us now,” he said.
“We don't really need any details about Fiona,” I said.
“When I drop the curtain, I want you to look shocked and disgusted. If I told you what all Fiona and I did, you'd have that look.” He grinned at the memory. “She was amazing. But I don't have time to go into that. Indra is an idiot, and if you can get Vajra from him, we're down with that. Don't tell anyone, but we're rooting for you. The Men of Anubis have been a pain in our asses for too long. You're thinking Indra's hiding on the highest peak in Tajikistan.”
“Ismoil Somoni Peak.”
“Next mountain over. Your guide will want you to climb it to get acclimated to the altitude. When you reach the summit of Korzhenevskaya, crack this open.”
He slid what looked like a York peppermint patty across the table.
“It will reveal the entrance to Mount Meru.”
“So it's not the highest?”
“It's, how might you say it, crouching to avoid detection.”
“And you think we can beat the Men of Anubis with Vajra?”
He laughed. “I don't think you can beat Indra, let alone the Men of Anubis, but I don't care if you try as long as it doesn't come back on me. After all, it would be a shame to have to kill you. Drink up.”
The threat hung in the air in spite of the casual way he tossed it out there. We drank the rest of our Soma in a few swallows. The curtain fizzled down.
“And she licked it all up right off the penises of the twin Saanen Dairy goats from her father's farm,” Zeus said and roared with laughter.
We didn't need the full story to act disgusted and dismayed. The line came out of nowhere, and both Kelly and I reared back from him in revulsion.
“What?” Zeus asked. “Was it something I said?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Kelly and I reappeared in the taxi, and Esther about jumped out of her spirit. So did the cab driver. He swerved into oncoming traffic, nearly having a head-on collision before cussing in Tajik and getting back on his side of the road.
“Whoa!” Esther said.
I leaned over the seat to talk to the driver. “Sorry, man. Can you take us back to the hotel?”
He spoke very little English, but he nodded. “Hotel, yes, hotel.”
I patted him on the shoulder and he kept checking us in his rearview mirror.
“I thought the Men of Anubis bumped you off,” Esther said. “Is everything jake?”
“We're alive and kicking,” I said.
“Where did you go?”
“Club Eternity,” I said.
“Again? How?”
“Evidently, the bracelets keep a connection open to it.” I held up my wrist to show the silver band. “Not sure how we can get there on our own, but the gods there can pull us in whenever they want.”
“Makes me want to get rid of it,” Kelly said. “But it's under my skin.”
“I think we should keep them.”
Kelly frowned. “And if they pull you through at an inopportune moment?”
“Like when?” I asked
.
“Maybe when you're in a struggle buggy with Brenda,” Esther said. “You'll go to cash that check and pop in naked at the bar in front of everyone.”
“What are the odds of that happening?”
“You want to tempt the odds?” Kelly asked.
“Point taken, but I'm not going to cut off your hand to get rid of a bracelet.”
“That would be a bit extreme.”
“If you could regenerate the hand, maybe.” I studied the bracelet.
“It hasn't changed,” Kelly said. “It’s still beneath the skin.”
“I know that, but I'm wondering how it works.”
“Magic?”
“Would it have pulled me through with it or would it have just gone to the club without me?”
“I don't know.”
“I think if it were magic, it would have gone by itself without having any effect on me.”
“So you think it's technological.”
I nodded. “The Men of Anubis have advanced technological gizmos. Their crooks and flails affected me, so they're not magical. I think the club's bracelets are the same way.”
“But yours stayed outside your flesh.”
“True. Maybe a combination of magic and technology?”
Kelly spread her hands. “You're the detective. Figure it out.”
“I'll think on it.”
I studied the bracelet as we rode toward the hotel. It looked like a normal thin silver metal strip that wrapped around my wrist, but I noted two slight indentations on either side and another on top that I could only see when I turned my arm at an angle to the light.
“Hmm,” I said. I pressed in on the sides with my thumb and ring finger, then pressed the top with my forefinger.
I popped out of the car and fell on my ass at the door in front of Club Eternity.
“Holy shit,” I said. When I made the jump on my own, it didn't bring on a wave of nausea. Interesting.
I wondered if I should go inside, but decided not to put in another appearance so soon. It was nice to know I could bounce back and forth as needed, but I felt it was better to get back to Kelly and Esther.
I pressed the buttons again, expecting to reappear in the taxi. Instead, while I did return to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, I popped into the middle of the street. A delivery truck barreled toward me. The driver slammed on his brakes as I hit the pavement. I flattened myself on the street and the truck skidded to a stop right over me. Heat from the engine settled onto my face, and a drop of hot oil landed on my leg.
More screeching tires and the crunch of metal on metal. The driver bolted from his truck and rushed to the back, cursing in Tajik. I didn't need to know the language to know he was letting loose with a stream of invective. His tone of voice told me that.
Stupid me. I should have known I'd reappear exactly where I'd been when I disappeared. I was lucky the guy didn't hit me with the truck. A few seconds either way and I'd have been road jelly.
I crawled out from under the truck to see the driver yelling at another man, who had his hands on top of his head looking dismayed at the damage done to the front of his car. The truck appeared undamaged.
One of them pointed at me and yelled, but as no one was injured, I raced across the street thanks to the traffic slowing to rubberneck. I ran down the sidewalk toward the hotel.
I didn't want to go all that way on foot, but I didn't have a choice. As soon as I was sure nobody was following me, I slowed to a walk. I had a few miles to go.
***
As the window to my room was broken, I didn't go there. Instead, I went to Kelly's room, ready to knock, but Esther stuck her head through the door. She was translucent, so only I could see or hear her.
“Scram, Jonathan!” she said. “The vampire is back and he's got Kelly and Brenda.”
She sailed past me down the hall, beckoning for me to follow her.
“Don't talk yet,” she said. “Come with me!”
She led me around the corner to the elevators and had me stand where Victor wouldn't be able to see me if he stepped into the hallway. Esther stood where she could look back to the room or at me.
“What do you mean, he's got them?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
“He did something to them. A command thing, and they instantly did what he told them to do.”
A wooden table stood with a mirror across from the elevators. I pulled the table out and started to turn it over.
“What are you doing?” Esther asked.
“I thought I'd break off a table leg to use as a stake so I can go kill the son of a bitch.”
“I'm all balled up. He says he's not going to hurt them, but he's a lying palooka, and I don't trust him.”
“Welcome to the club,” I said. I kicked one of the table legs and the wood splintered and broke. I clutched the makeshift stake in my right hand and started down the hall. “It's time to end this.”
“Wait! He gave Kelly and Brenda orders to stop you!”
“They won't have a chance.”
“They're waiting for you!”
I didn't care. I strode up to the hotel room, braced myself and kicked the door right beside the handle. The jamb splintered and the door thudded against the deadbolt.
“Shit.”
I kicked the door again, harder and knocked the latch off the wall, broke the chain and sent the door flying open. Before I could step inside, Kelly kicked me in the chest.
I flew backward, crashed against the door across the hall.
Kelly was on me before I could react. She took the table leg away and tossed it down the hall, then she easily pinned me to the floor. Brenda stepped out and knelt beside me.
“Sorry, baby,” she said.
“Bring him inside, but don't let him go.”
I recognized Victor's voice.
Kelly used a few simple pressure points and a wrist lock to get me up and walked me into the hotel room. Brenda closed the door as Esther fazed through it, remaining translucent.
Victor sat in a chair beside the wall looking as if he'd just stepped out of a fashion magazine. You'd never guess he'd been tossed from a window a few hours earlier.
“I understand you met Zeus,” Victor said.
“He and I are best buds now,” I said. “And I'm going to have him ram a lightning bolt right up your ass.”
“Of course you are.”
“What did you do to Kelly and Brenda?” I asked.
“They're still themselves, dear boy. They simply can't say no to my commands.”
“Magic.”
He shrugged. “As Kelly tossed me out a window, it seemed prudent that I should ensure my safety before we had another little chat.”
“I’m not in the chatting mood,” I said.
“My commands don't work on you, but if I tell Kelly to snap your neck, she'll do so without blinking.”
“Don't do that,” Kelly said. “Sorry, Jonathan, I'm trying to fight it, but his magic is strong.”
“That famous vampire hypnosis I've seen in movies and TV shows.”
“They got a few things right. Brenda, I heard the elevator ding. That's probably hotel security. If you can't talk them into believing there's nothing going on, I want you to turn them into statues.”
“That will effectively kill them,” Brenda said. “There's no way to free them once they've been turned to stone.”
“All the more reason for you to be convincing, my dear.”
She stopped at the open door. “But they might not speak English.”
“This is me not caring,” Victor said. “Go.”
She headed toward the elevators.
Victor shook his head. “She's a fighter. So is Kelly.”
“What do you want, Victor?” I asked.
“I may have underestimated you. It seems you have a few things going for you I didn't take into account. Being impervious to direct magic is beneficial, and explains how you're still alive considering some of the things I've heard about you. The other y
ou was shot and killed, but that was with a regular gun.”
I tried to shrug, but Kelly's grip prevented that. She tried not to hurt me too much, but when you struggle in a submission hold, you can't help but feel pain.
“Stay still, Jonathan,” Kelly said. Her voice sounded strained, and I knew she was actively fighting the vampire’s commands.
Victor rose from his chair and walked over to stare into my eyes. “So Zeus is willing to let you slide on the off chance you get lucky. You have Kelly and Brenda, and I know that ghost is around here somewhere.”
“Are you going to talk me to death here?” I asked.
“I want to call a truce. I want back on the team.”
“Why should I trust you?”
He laughed. “You shouldn't. If things get out of control, I may have to kill you, but if your luck holds out, we can get the weapon and hunt down the Men of Anubis. Either way, I'm offering my assistance to get the weapon, and I promise not to kill you, Kelly, Brenda, or any other friends you may have unless it's them or me.”
Brenda returned to the room. “It was security, and one of them did speak English. I told them we had a fight, and that we were sorry for the noise, but all was well now. They agreed to let us off with a warning.”
“Congratulations,” Victor said. “Sit down and be quiet now.”
Brenda sat down and didn't make a sound.
“I’ll take this for safe keeping,” Victor said, and took the little disk Zeus had given me from my pocket. He tucked it into his own.
Kelly shot me an apologetic look, but I knew it wasn’t her fault she’d told him about it. Victor’s commands were strong.
“Do we have an accord?” he asked.
“I don't like you,” I said.
“I don't like you either,” Victor said. “But this is bigger than us.”
“You come at me again, I'll kill you,” I said.
“Likewise.”
“And you have to set Kelly and Brenda free. If I let you back in, you agree to not use your command magic on them ever again.”
“No deal. I'll make you a counter offer. I will set them free to a point.”
“What does that mean?”
“I'll issue the command, and you tell me if it's acceptable to you.”