Saint City Sinners dv-4

by Lilith Saintcrow

  Helpless. Selene used that word too. "Great speech." My sword didn't dip, blueflame runes twisting and coursing along the sharp edge. The steel's heart flamed white, responding to my sudden pounding heartbeat. "Too bad I'm not convinced."

  My left hand dropped the scabbard and blurred toward a projectile gun. I eased the hammer back and leveled it at him. "I'll take all the cash you have, McKinley. You're probably carrying a fair bit. Cam, wake the healer up. Get her upnow."

  "You're an idiot." McKinley's eyes were deadly glittering black, sharp pieces of jet. "I'm on your side. We have to get you to a transport, get you to a safe place. If another faction catches you and threatens to harm you, he has to do as they say. With all the demons in the city, you're going to be tagged sooner rather than later." He didn't smell like fear anymore; he smelled faintly like demon and even more faintly like dust. Dry and inhuman. His shoulders hunched, he didn't shift his weight but I knew he was ready to move.

  I wondered just what exactly the Hellesvront agents were-not for the last time, I might add. I wondered if I was quick enough to take him.

  Let's find out, Danny. "You don't listen very well, do you. I have business to finish, and I'm not going anywh-" My shoulder crunched with pain again, the world went gray, and things got confused for a second as I crouched instinctively, my swordhilt jabbing forward as he came for me. A bullet whined and pinged before burying itself in the wall.

  If he hadn't leapt at me I might have negotiated with him. As it was, I was sick and fucking tired of being manhandled. The difference between Japh and McKinley was that the agent, while inhumanly fast, was just a shade slower than me; he couldn't easily overmatch me the way Japh could. It was a major tactical error on the agent's part to jump me. I happened to believe him about the danger I was in, but I was fed up to the back teeth with demon-smelling men pushing me around.

  I came back to myself on top of a struggling McKinley, who was in an armlock facedown on the floor. The cuff rang with fluid green light, squeezing until I thought I heard bones grinding again. Strength poured hot up my arm from the blazing metal, the cuff that had locked itself around my wrist no longer cold. Would I have to cut my hand off to get rid of it?

  Well, ain't that handy. Get it, Danny? Handy?

  I leaned down, my hair brushing his cheek. "Don't fuck with me right now, sunshine. I'm a woman on the edge." I barely recognized my own voice. My sword lay on the carpet, but I had the gun pressed to his temple. He surged, struggling, I pushed every erg of demon strength I possessed down. The floor groaned under cheap harsh red carpet. "I mean it, you demon-licking sonofabitch. Settle down!"

  Or I swear, by everything I hold holy, I will not be responsible for what happens.

  He finally quit thrashing. I was sweating, prickles of moisture under my arms and at the small of my back. He was a handful, and if the wristcuff hadn't squeezed again I would have lost him. "Cam?"

  "Here." She sounded grim but not panicked. Thank the gods for small favors.

  "Is Mercy up?" My voice made the holovid's base chatter on the clunky half-dresser.

  "I'm awake. What's going on?" The sedayeen, unfortunately, sounded a little less than calm. Her voice shook, and the fear mixing with the smell of violets taunted my fraying control. What was it with psions smelling of fear that pushed me over the edge so badly?

  Anubis, help me. Stay my hand, keep me calm.

  "Cam, get all the fiberoptic cord you can from the holovid. Slice down the goddamn curtain-strings too. Mercy, get my sword back into the sheath and come over here. I need you to pick his pocket."

  This was apparently open for discussion even though she'd awakened to find me holding down a strange man in our hotel room. "You're robbing him? Who is he?"

  I glanced up, my fingers digging into his flesh. "He's bad news, baby. Just trust me and do what I fucking tell you."

  Every item of furniture in the room that wasn't bolted down rattled. Gods help me, I sound like Japhrimel. I took a deep breath. Trust me, do as I say, I know best.

  Except that I did. These two had no idea what was going on, and the fact that I hardly knew more didn't erase the primary fact that I was in charge, goddammit. I was their best bet of getting out of this mess alive, and in order to get them out I needed them to do what I told them.

  Looks different from this side of the fence, doesn't it, Danny?

  I told that voice to shut up and go away again.

  "You're not listening." McKinley's voice was muffled, because I had his face smashed into the carpet. "If they catch you, Japhrimel will have to do anything they demand. He can't risk any harm to you. He won't risk any harm to you, he-"

  I felt as if a great weight had fallen away from my shoulders. Life was about to get very fucking simple. "You tell Japhrimel this. I'm through being jerked around. This little holovid script won't work. I have had enough of manipulation, enough of games, and enough of demons. Consider this a datflash breakup."

  He spluttered, but Cam knelt down cautiously and gagged him with a pillowcase, tying it behind his head. His eyes rolled up and he struggled, but between my strength and the Shaman's nimble fingers we soon had him trussed nice and tight.

  Poor guy, he keeps getting tied up. I didn't really feel any sympathy at all, but the merry voice of unreason just kept going inside my head.

  The healer handed me my sword. "You're really going to rob him?" She sounded faintly disapproving. I guess when you didn't hunt down bounties and have demons messing with your life you could be awful moral.

  What are you doing, Danny?

  It was a stupid question. I knew what I was doing-the only thing I could do, now. I was taking off my protective gear and slicboarding through Suicide Alley.

  In other words, I had officially just gone over the edge. "I can't access any funds without getting a whole lot of heat on my tail," I said shortly. Since I don't think any bounty hunter after me will be stupid enough not to put a tag on my datband accessing any credits. I scooped the sapphire from McKinley's rigid fingers, found a thick roll of cash in his back pocket. Stuffed both in my bag. "And I don't have time to plan how to get in and out of a bank without being caught. We can't hide or hunt for long without money, and I've got both of you to shelter too. Come on, that's not going to hold him for more than a few minutes." If that. It's a pity, if I could trust him not to drag me off on a hover I could definitely use him as backup. I can't wait to hook back up with Lucas.

  His eyes rolled back in his head, showing the whites, and a low steamy hissing slid out from behind the gag. I felt a trickle of cold Power along my skin, like an ice-cube trailed in a lover's hand against fevered flesh. My rings roiled and spat in the charged air. "Time to go." Mercifully, they didn't argue after that. I had the Shaman bring up the rear, and led them out of the room. Rage boiled just under my ribs. Japhrimel hadn't wanted the necklace in the first place, he'd given it to McKinley, of all people.

  Of all the things that hurt, that was the one that seemed the sharpest pain. Maybe it was only because I was numb, confused, hungry, and hurt all at once.

  How many demons were looking for me? What would they do if they found me? It sounded like I wasn't just leverage to be used against Japhrimel, there was something going on with this treasure and the Key…

  Don't think about that. Focus on what you've got in front of you, Danny. Where can you hide these guys?

  Chapter 21

  Jado lived on a quiet tree-lined street in the University District, in an ancient house with an equally ancient retrofitted hot tub on the newly renovated deck. His garden was still immaculate, but the sand-raking around the rough black rocks in his meditation garden was newly redone. It was early in the day, and he had a class in session. I could tell by the thwock of stave against stave and his voice, cutting through the sharp noise with a general's battlefield authority.

  "No think!" I heard him yell. "No think! Move! One, two, kia!"

  A ragged chorus of kia filled the air. Beginners, I thought, wor
king my boots off. The sedayeen leaned against the Shaman, obviously drained and exhausted, her cheeks reactive-pale and her eyes glittering.

  The sharp bite of hunger under my ribs reminded me I had to get some rest and food soon myself. "This is a safe place. You should be okay here for a couple days. By then, this will probably be over one way or another. Wait here for a couple minutes." A pause, and I heard another solid barrage of wood meeting wood. It reminded me of a Nuevo Rio sparring-room, Eddie and Jace at staves while sunlight fell through windows onto tatami mats and Gabe stretched out, sweat gleaming on her pale skin.

  Back when I'd been human. In my mind's eye I saw Japhrimel leaning against the wall, his hair ink-black, his coat swallowing the light.

  And his eyes glowing green under straight eyebrows. So he'd been trapped, and even McKinley admitted they couldn't hold him for very long. Talking about trapping Japhrimel was like talking about beating Vinnie Evarion at cards on the old Vinnie, Video Sharp holovid. It just didn't happen. He was just too old and smart. So he'd decided to go off on a solo expedition and leave me sleeping with McKinley, obviously expecting to be back before I woke up. And then what?

  When we have finished with your Necromance friend, I will tell you everything you are ready to hear.

  Maybe about the treasure, or would he tell me how helpless a demon felt after he Fell? That would have been nice, a little admission of need from him. A little human emotion.

  For crying out loud, Dante, keep your mind on business. Japh's not your problem right now. If you don't keep moving, you'll drown.

  Barefoot but still wearing my coat, rig, and bag, I padded into the main space. There was a narrow strip of wood flooring before the mats started, I carefully arranged myself at the edge between «space» and "sparring space." Bowed respectfully, my sheathed sword lifted in my left hand, my right hand a fist.

  Silence fell. Fifteen wide-eyed students in white gi and one nut-brown, leathery old man in orange robes looked up. The ikebana at the far end of the room under the kanji painted scroll was a different red orchid. In any case, the rest of the room looked blissfully the same.

  Helps to have a friend that doesn't age, doesn't it, Danny? This time it was Lucas Villalobos's whisper, painful in my ear. I was talking to myself in some awful strange voices lately. Occupational hazard of being a psion-sometimes the voices in your head are the people who matter most to you.

  Or who scare you most.

  Jado barked a command and his students went back to whacking at each other with more enthusiasm than skill. All normals, all probably rich kids. The fees their parents paid made it possible for Jado to combat-train psions with potential to become canny, deadly fighters almost for free. The last time I'd been here, there had been four empty spaces in the sword-racked room above, four of Jado's true students out in the world. There might have been more, he trained a lot of psions. But the four missing swords always made me feel good in a niggling sort of way.

  Four swords gone. Five, now. But still four students. I wondered who the others were. Jado had refused payment after the first few classes; the normals he taught had subsidized me. For him, that was the equivalent of adopting me. He had some funny ideas about the student-teacher relationship.

  So did I, as a matter of fact. If my social worker Lewis was the father of my childhood, Jado was the father of my adulthood, the only male I always felt like trusting. I could never have said that to him, of course… but it was still there, unspoken between us. He was my last resort-but also my best resort.

  "Danyo-chan." He stood at the edge of the tatami. "It must be serious, neh?"

  I didn't have time for politeness. All the same, I bowed correctly. "You're looking well, Jado-sensei."

  "How can you tell?" But the corners of his eyes crinkled. His ears came up to sharp points above the dome of his skull. He smelled of a dry, deep, crumbling, scaled hole; a hot exhalation of cinders and meat charred so thoroughly it smelled like woodsmoke. It was, thankfully, not a human smell. "Is good to see you, my student."

  "And you, sensei." I didn't have words to express how good it felt to see him. Jado didn't play games, he simply taught, directly and with the smack of a fist or the deadly whistle of a swordblade. Of all the men I knew, human or not, only Jado might have truly understood me. "I have two little things I need kept safe for me. And I want to ask you something."

  His nostrils flared as he sniffed. "A healer and a kamitalker." His tone was reflective, easy. Behind him, staves whirled; students darted curious glances at me. "There have been inquiries made of you."

  "I'm sorry." I didn't want to bring trouble to his doorbut my list of living friends was getting really short. I needed his help.

  He waved that away, tucked his hands in his robe. "Take them into kitchen and serve them tea, student. I will make certain you are undisturbed. My house is yours." A slight bow, only the briefest suggestion of a bending in his torso.

  I echoed it, my left shoulder throbbing as I moved. I realized the right leg of my jeans was still crusted and flopping from my encounter with the hellhound. I was hardly inconspicuous. "Jado-sensei?" There would never be a better time to ask.

  "Hai?" He still looked amused, his dark eyes lingering on my face. His bare feet were horny and callused, and barely seemed to move when he walked.

  I lifted the sword a little, watched his eyes come to rest on it. He looked pleased, and my heart swelled with probably-inappropriate pride. It mattered, that Jado was pleased with me. "Did you give me a blade that can kill the Devil?"

  "The sword kills nothing, Danyo-chan. It is will, kills your enemy." He made a small clucking sound, shaking his gleaming brown head. "Young, too young. Older, you would not ask silly question." He bowed again, waited for my answering bow, then whirled and bellowed at his class. "No! Thousand curses on your eyes, no! Fight! No curiosity, fight!"

  I took two careful steps back, bowed to the sparring space, and exited into the hall. The Shaman and the healer looked at me strangely, and I found I was grinning like a holovid comic.

  All things considered it was the best I could do. It was already afternoon, and I had a date with Lucas at dusk. I left Cam and Mercy with Jado, and had the relieved sensation that I could just forget about them for a while. If they weren't safe there, nowhere in Saint City would shelter them. And now that the Chill cure was circulating among the West Coast clinics, the Mob interest in killing a simple Shaman and sedayeen would hopefully lose some plascharge.

  But not the business between me and the Tanner Family. That was just starting.

  I plunged back into the dense urban wilderness of the city, just one face among many. It says something for city life nowadays that even a part-demon Necromance with a holovid face can pass unremarked on the streets.

  I bought two six-packs of synthprotein shakes meant to keep heavily augmented bouncers up to weight and drank them all while I sat on a park bench in the lower city. The park had a nice view of the bay, a hard glitter under the afternoon sun breaking through gray clouds. Each empty can I chucked into a nearby botbin, hearing the whoosh of the crumpler as it swallowed.

  When I was finished, I shook myself, got to my feet, and headed for the streets again.

  Saint City pulsed under my feet, ringing with every step. I had about four hours to twilight, so I moved a little faster than a human would, slipping between normals. I passed a Shaman at the corner of Marx and Ninth, a thin blonde woman with sodaflo can-tabs tied to her staff. They tinkled and chittered as I passed, but she merely set her back against a wall and regarded the street, wide-eyed, her feet in a stance I recognized. Another combat-trained Shaman with no sword. Who knew there were so many of them around? Her eyes, dark as her hair was golden, narrowed as she watched me go by. Maybe she would recognize me from the hunt for Lourdes, when my face had been plastered all over the holovids.

  Maybe not. That had been a long time ago, and my hair was down, tangling over my eyes.

  That made me think of Cam, who was a
puzzle. I was almost sure I'd caught her reaching for a hilt. But why would she leave any weapon at home while she was squiring a sedayeen around?

  I made it to the Saint City South precinct house in half an hour. There I had my first stroke of luck in a long time. The man I wanted stood in the usual smoking-alcove near a botbin, curls of synth-hash smoke rising thinly around his gleaming bald head. He hunched his turtle shoulders and shook his head, his hands shaking a little. I judged it about half-past a desperately needed drink. His knee-length tan synthwool coat flapped desultorily in the faint breeze; the clouds scudded in earnest over the sun.

  Thank you, Anubis, I prayed silently. Thank you. I'm about due for something good.

  Detective Lew Horman worked Vice. He and I went way back. I'd done Necromance work off and on for the Saint City police, he'd been my liaison to the normal cops more than once. I'd also dropped several useful pieces of information about Chill dealers to him in the past. Whenever I'd come across any distributors in my journeys through the shadow world of the quasi-legal, I'd turned them over to Horman. Sometimes he couldn't do a damn thing, being hamstrung by procedure, but more often than not he acted on my tips. We'd had a grudging almost-partnership for a long time, despite his disdain for psions and his general slobbishness.

  He was also one of the few cops Gabe had ever paid the high compliment of calling "incorruptible."

  I started casting around for an inconspicuous way to approach him hugging the shadows on the opposite side of the street and crossing in a blind spot, scanning the roofs and alleys. No nosy little eyes that I could see. Nothing out of the ordinary. The hair rose on the back of my neck.

  You're getting paranoid, Danny. You need a safe place to rest for a few hours. Even if your body's demonic, your mind is still human and you're blurring with fatigue. This one thing, then hole up and rest so you're fresh for tonight. You've got a couple visits to make, and a few hours of rest will help you go over the file again. You can also take a look at the book Selene gave you.