by Jaye Wells
“Abe was the one who taught me how to make gu. It was years ago, but trust me, he knows who killed Krystal.” They laughed. “I’m afraid you were the only ones in the dark.” They made a mocking pouty face.
“All of this was because you were pissed at Abe for partnering with the Fangshi?” I demanded.
“Among other things,” they said coyly. “Anyway, that’s all water under the bridge. I’d hoped to do all of this with less of a mess, but if my meditation practice has taught me anything, it’s that you have to learn to let go of your need for control.”
I levered myself into a sitting position, which earned me the attention of a very big gun and an even bigger man holding that gun. “Easy, there,” I said. “My arm was just going to sleep.”
“Oh, by all means,” Aphrodite said, “you’ll be needing both of your arms in a minute.”
I didn’t like the sound of that at all, but I refused to let them see my fear. “You know that Volos and Hung are looking for Yü Nü and our team will find us. It’s only a matter of time.”
Overhead, the sounds of music filtered down from the stage. Apparently, Aphrodite had considered it might take time to make the potion and scheduled other entertainment to divert the guests’ attention.
“I had your partner send them a message that you were busy interrogating Leon and everything was hunky-dory, didn’t I?” She looked at Morales. He nodded solemnly.
My stomach churned. The cavalry wasn’t coming. Yet. Eventually, they’d get suspicious. Until then, we had to stay alive.
“They’re probably enjoying the show.” Aphrodite smiled up at the music and put on the sun mask again. Judging by the smugness of her tone, she’d orchestrated something shocking up there. “Fontina will keep the show going until it’s time for us to join.”
They snapped their fingers. In a sudden rush of motion, the guard with the gun had my hands untied and I was led over to the Hierophant.
“Oh, Kate, Kate, Kate. I’d lost hope of making the potion after Harry disappointed me. Then you literally fell into our laps when you chased poor Leon. It was divine providence that you showed up when you did.”
I didn’t ask where Leon was, but I wasn’t real optimistic he was among the living. “Forgive me if I don’t feel lucky.”
They smirked. “Anyway, now that you’re here, you can cook the recipe.”
I froze.
“Oh, don’t look so surprised. Immortality potions are an alchemist’s specialty.” They looked around wide-eyed. “Do you see any other alchemists here?”
“Yü Nü is way more powerful than I am.”
They threw back their head and laughed. “Dumb girl, I wouldn’t trust Yü Nü to make me dinner, much less a potion. She’d poison me in a heartbeat.”
“You think I won’t?”
“Of course not. Because if you fuck me, your boyfriend dies.”
Before I could register their intention, Gregor rounded on Morales, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger.
The gunshot screamed a split second before Morales doubled over. My skin went cold and my pulse pounded in my ears, drowning out the sound of my screams. Rough hands held me back as I struggled to break away and go help him.
His chair fell over and he curled up in a ball. Next to him, Duffy tipped his own chair over and tried to check him over despite both of their hands being bound behind them.
“Duffy!” I yelled.
“They got him in the shoulder. Can’t tell if it went through.”
“Ouch,” Aphrodite said. “I bet that hurts.”
“Let me help him!” Duffy demanded. Aphrodite nodded to let the guard untie the detective. Once he was loose, he ripped off his shirt, untied Morales, and got him sitting upright. I watched the process with my breath held. Morales was pale and sweating, and his torso had way more blood staining it than I wanted to see, but he managed to nod in my direction.
“Better get to work before he loses too much blood. Or I get bored and have Gregor put another bullet in him.”
I jerked out of my captor’s hold. “You will fucking die today,” I promised.
“Unless you want him to die, I suggest you make sure I don’t, bitch.” Those eyes flashed bright again, underscoring the promise. “The book is over there with the cooking supplies.”
I looked to where they were pointing. The “lab” they’d indicated was little more than a plastic folding table with a shitty Bunsen burner, a few test tubes, and a few bottles with labels I couldn’t read. “You’ve got to be kidding. There is no way I can cook with that shit.”
“Best try.” They waved their hand like sending me off to go pick out a puppy from a store window rather than forcing me to cook an immortality potion.
I went to the table and picked up the book. It was an old volume with a cracked leather spine and yellowed pages. The writing inside was done by hand, and it appeared to be some sort of grimoire kept by an old wizard who called himself The Bard.
The recipe’s ingredients were fairly straightforward. Most alchemical processes were. But the simplicity of the ingredients was misleading. The true complexity of any alchemical potion was found in the skill of the wizard to transmute intention into magic. It wasn’t just a matter of mixing a bunch of chemicals—it was about the right wizard mixing them in the right way and infusing them with the right energy.
I wasn’t the right wizard for this job. I had power, yeah, but I hadn’t had enough practice in the last decade to use it with the discipline needed for a powerful potion like this one.
“I’m going to need help,” I said.
“Who?” Aphrodite asked.
I looked around the room. Morales was out for obvious reasons, Duffy looked about as rattled as I’d ever seen him, and Yü Nü wanted Morales dead. That left Harry Bane, who was unconscious and a blood wizard.
Or I could call in a wild card.
I looked the Hierophant in the eye and said, “Volos.”
I felt Morales’s gaze shoot my direction, but I pretended to ignore it. Aphrodite didn’t laugh like I’d expected. “Why?” Their eyes narrowed.
“Because he’s a better cook than I am. I can read the potion to make sure it’ll work, but he’s always been the stronger cook.”
“You expect me to bring the mayor in here?”
“You want your fucking potion to work?” I lifted my chin. “Besides, he’ll be added insurance for you. No one’s going to risk shooting the mayor.”
They stepped away to go confer with Gregor. My heart slammed into my ribs like a Rottweiler trying to get out of a cage. Calling in Volos was a huge gamble. But I wasn’t lying. I wasn’t sure I had the chops to cook that potion. Plus, I didn’t know anyone more conniving than Volos. If anyone could fuck over Aphrodite and make sure we walked out alive, it was him.
I kept my expression neutral as they debated, because Aphrodite kept shooting suspicious glances my way. Finally, the Hierophant smiled like a snake. “He wouldn’t do anything to risk her. Actually, it should be fun to watch him help her while she’s trying to save her other man.”
I clenched my jaw. At some point soon, I’d be paying Aphrodite back for all of this. Until I had that opening, I needed to play it smart. “Are we doing this or what?”
Gregor brought my cell phone and made me give him my code. Before they hit send on Volos’s number, Aphrodite warned, “If you say one thing wrong, I will murder Duffy and put another bullet in Morales. Am I clear?”
I nodded and swallowed the bile in my throat. Aphrodite hit the number. The phone barely rang before Volos answered. “Kate, where the hell are you?”
“Shut up and listen to me. I need you to get away from the others and come help me.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t say. Just promise you’ll come alone.”
“Of course.”
Aphrodite covered the mouthpiece and said, “Tell him what happens if he tries to be a hero.”
“They’re going to kill us.”
Aphrodite smiled.
“Who?” His voice had the controlled tone of a man resigned to committing premeditated murder.
“Aphrodite.”
“I understand. Where?”
A wave of emotion rose up. If he came, it could mean his death, but he hadn’t hesitated. “Wait alone in the alcove to the left of the theater entrance.”
“On my way. Kate?”
“Yeah?”
“We’ll figure this out together.” Those simple words held complicated promises. I didn’t want to think too hard about what this would cost me, needing him. But I knew that I had no choice.
After the call, I went to the table to start prepping the cook. Keeping my hands busy kept me from looking toward Morales. I told myself this was for his own good. The more distracted I was by his injury, the longer it would take to make the potion.
But the real truth was, I avoided looking at him for my own good. Because I knew he’d have a couple of strong opinions about me calling in Volos to help me. It wouldn’t do any good to tell Morales I was only doing this to save him. But that wasn’t the whole truth, and we’d both know it.
My hands shook as I fired up the Bunsen burner. With nothing left to do until my sous-chef arrived, I lifted the book and began to read. According to The Bard, a shortcut to the Philosopher’s Stone, also known as the Panacea—or universal cure and key to immortality—was to use someone else’s stone and combine it with the “Hand of the Philosophers.”
Even though I’d studied dirty magic on the streets, I had passing familiarity with the idea behind the Hand. The term referred to five mineral salts that could be used to unlock the mineral or metallic essences. If I was reading the instructions right, The Bard was claiming that if you could steal someone’s stone or get part of it and mix the with the five salts, you could unlock immortality. In this case, the Philosopher’s Stone would be Yü Nü’s horn.
The music upstairs reached a crescendo. The next moment, pounding came from the door. I turned in time to see the guards open it for Gregor and Volos.
The instant Volos stepped across the threshold, the air in the room instantly ignited with a new electrical charge. It wasn’t just me, either. Aphrodite shivered and Morales moaned, as if Volos’s arrival brought him new physical pain.
Volos quickly scanned the room, but I knew he hadn’t missed a single detail. When his eyes found me, they flared, as if he’d zeroed in on his target. He looked me up and down. When the gaze reached my battered face, his eyes narrowed dangerously. I shook my head to let him know I was fine. He seemed to relax a fraction, but not much.
“Welcome to the party,” Aphrodite said, coming forward. “Kate will fill you in on the particulars. I’d advise you not to try to be the hero, John. It won’t go well for any of you.”
He didn’t deign to speak to them. He simply nodded and marched toward me, a man with total focus.
When he reached me, he simply said, “What are we cooking?”
“You ever make an immortality potion?”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Would it surprise you if I said yes?”
“Not at all. Any of them work?”
“Not a damned one.”
“This one needs to or we’re all dead.”
He took the book from my hands. “Then we better get busy.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Thirty minutes later, we weren’t smiling anymore. The chemicals we were working with normally required a secure lab, plenty of protective gear, and lots of luck. Not only were they extremely flammable, they were also caustic. But instead of thick gloves and goggles, we had our bare hands and lots of cursing and praying.
The cocktail of chemicals was so pungent that all of the guards had retreated to the other end of the room to escape the noxious odors. Even Aphrodite gave us a wide berth. Though they still managed to shout intermittent threats to remind us that one wrong move and they’d shoot someone.
We’d already created the Aqua Regia by mixing the Philosopher’s Hand. The recipe called for four parts vitriol, one part alum, and six parts niter. Once those were mixed, we added sal ammoniac to the distillate. The resulting “King’s Water” was strong enough to dissolve gold—or, we hoped, an immortal sorceress’s horn.
I wiped sweat from my forehead and glanced toward Morales. He was dangerously pale and growing more so by the minute.
“All right,” Volos said, “we need to get the horn.”
He looked at me expectantly, as if somehow, I’d been elected horn harvester without my knowledge or consent.
“I’m not doing it!” I whispered.
We both glanced over to where Yü Nü sat in a half-lotus watching us cook. The serene expression on her face bordered on amused, which did nothing to help my confidence. If we’d done something wrong, she sure as hell wouldn’t tell us.
“I’m not doing it,” Volos said. “She scares the shit out of me. Besides, I already did my big heroic act of the day by coming down here to save your ass.”
“What’s the holdup?” Aphrodite yelled. “The sex acts are almost complete.”
I rolled my eyes and tried to ignore the grunting and moaning coming from upstairs. Apparently, Aphrodite had recruited some of her employees to put on a sex magic ritual in preparation for the wedding. The sounds didn’t do much for my concentration. Especially when I could feel Morales glaring at my back as I had my head down working with Volos on the potion to the dulcet sounds of a woman having multiple orgasms overhead.
“We’re working on it,” I snapped.
“Tut-tut,” Aphrodite called. “No need to get snippy.”
I blew out a deep breath, shot John one last glare, and marched over to face Yü Nü. As I approached, she watched me, unmoving. Up top, the woman peaked for the seventh time in a row.
“Hey, Aphrodite?” I called.
“What?”
“I need a knife.”
“I don’t think so.”
I rounded on her. “How in the hell am I supposed to put that horn”—I pointed at the green horn—“into that potion”—I pointed toward the table—“without a Goddamned knife?”
Aphrodite stormed over and pulled a ceremonial dagger from a garter on their right thigh. “I’ll do it.”
They leapt forward and brandished the knife, like they meant to sever the entire horn from Yü Nü’s head. But the second she touched the sorceress, Aphrodite wailed like they’d been burned. The knife went skittering across the floor.
I walked over and calmly picked it up. By the time I got back, Aphrodite was lobbing threats at a serene Yü Nü. “I swear to Cybele, if you don’t give me that horn, I’m going to disembowel you with a spoon.”
“Big talk for a glorified pimp,” Yü Nü taunted. “You don’t deserve immortality.”
“Shoot them!” Aphrodite shrieked. “All of them.”
The room filled with the sound of several guns priming for the kill. I held up my hands. “Hold on,” I said. “If you shoot us, you’re done for. This room will be full of cops so fast, your head will spin. Aphrodite, please. Let me talk to her.”
Aphrodite crossed their arms and said, “You have one minute.”
I nodded and stepped around her to face the sorceress. “Hey, Yü Nü,” I said. “Look, the recipe doesn’t say I need the whole horn.”
She didn’t speak.
“Yeah, so anyway, I just need to, like, chip off a piece or scrape off some shavings or whatever.”
Those unblinking eyes watched me.
“I know you’re pissed, and honestly, I’m not so thrilled to be here, either. But all I need is some of that horn and all of us have a chance of walking away.”
“I am immortal, girlie. They can shoot all their bullets at me and I will survive.” Yü Nü crossed her arms. “I won’t let you use my magic to save a man who put my family in prison.”
“Well, not to split hairs here, but your family did do a lot of illegal shit. If they weren’t smart enough to cover their tr
acks, it’s not his fault.”
The sounds of male rumbling came from across the room. Apparently, Morales had some opinions about my handling of the situation. But at that point, I wasn’t real receptive to his advice on matters concerning the Fangshi.
“Look, Yü Nü, I know you hate him. I’m not too thrilled with him right now either. But he doesn’t deserve to die because Aphrodite’s lost their damned mind.” I turned and looked over my shoulder. “No offense.”
Aphrodite’s lips pursed so hard, they resembled a prolapsed anus.
“I promise I’ll only take a little. And once we’re all out of here, I promise you can go back to wanting Morales dead.”
She let out a big sigh. “Okay, fine. But only a little. And don’t tell anyone I gave it to you, or every wizard will be knocking down my door wanting to shave my horn.”
I held my hand over my heart. “You have my word.”
She placed her hands in her lap and lifted her chin to give me access. The jade horn jutted up at me like a tiny middle finger. “Volos, I need a clean dish.”
Rustling sounded behind me. I smelled his cologne before I saw the clear dish appear. “Thanks,” I said, refusing to look at him. “Hold it steady.
I leaned in and brought the knife up horizontally. The entire room was quiet. Even the sex performers upstairs seemed to have fallen silent. I gently placed the edge of the knife along the bottom of the horn. “Ready?”
“Just do it,” Yü Nü snapped.
And just like that, I scraped the horn. A screeching sound cut through the air, like nails on a chalkboard. I winced but kept scraping until several green shavings rested on the dish.
“I think that’s enough,” Volos murmured behind me.
I let out the breath I’d been holding. “Thanks.”
I was close enough that only I heard the words she whispered. When they hit my ears, I froze, but as their meaning registered, I forced myself to act casual and walk away.
When I reached the table, I watched Volos lift the shavings to the light. I leaned in and repeated the words Yü Nü had said. “Once they drink it, run like hell.”