by Angela Henry
“Follow me. Keep your eyes straight ahead and don’t say a word. No questions and no smart-ass remarks, got it?”
“That hardly sounds like fun . . .”
“Have I made myself perfectly clear, Mr. Knight?” she snapped, obviously in no mood for the game I was trying to make of this little excursion.
“Crystal.”
She turned and headed quickly out of the cell, and I followed, making sure to wink at the guard on the sly as I passed, earning me a scowl in return. The corridor outside the cell was narrow, with concrete walls and cell doors lining either side roughly twenty feet apart and recessed lighting in the low ceiling overhead.
Though she told me to keep my eyes straight ahead, I couldn’t help but glance at the other cell doors as we passed by out of the corners of my eyes and notice that my cell had been the only one that could be accessed with a regular key. The other cells were all equipped with complicated-looking keypads and places you could swipe a keycard. And a couple of cells had no locks or keypads. I couldn’t figure out what I wasn’t supposed to see until we’d walked about fifty feet. In the window of a cell door on my right, I could have sworn I saw a tentacle, with several rows of tiny suction cups pressed against the glass. But when I looked again, it was gone. A cell-door window to my left revealed a glimpse of a deathly pale face, with deep-set yellow eyes glowering out at me.
“Eyes forward, Mr. Knight,” she said, and quickened her step toward the large, heavy metal door at the end of the corridor, which was also equipped with a keypad.
I hurried after her, shooting covert glances to my left and right. I didn’t see anything else, but I heard plenty: squealing, grunting, growling, and howling. It had all become clear to me. I wasn’t among human company. And I wondered how Desiree West would feel if she knew about my former winged incarnation? Whoever had undressed me must have surely noticed the scars on my back. Now, more than ever, it was time I got out of here. I suddenly felt antsy and anxious to see the sun and feel the muggy New Orleans heat on my skin.
After she punched in a code and swiped her security keycard, I followed her through the door and found myself in a much larger corridor, with a bank of elevators directly in front of us. Desiree pressed the button for the center elevator, and we waited in silence, with her not even bothering to look at me.
“So, I guess you’re not going to tell me what the EA stands for?” I asked.
She opened her mouth to answer but closed it when the elevator doors slid open. We both got on, and I noticed there were no buttons on the inside. Instead, she pulled out a key and slid it into a slot just inside the door and turned it to the left. The elevator doors slid shut, and I could feel us rapidly ascending. Thirty seconds later, the elevator stopped, the doors slid open, and I could see that we were on the ground level of a parking garage. The orange glow of sunlight streaming in from the garage opening told me it was dawn. I’d been out all night and hadn’t had any fun to show for it.
“This way,” she commanded.
And I had no choice but to follow. For the first time, I noticed that gun holster underneath her blazer, and I was under no illusions that she wouldn’t shoot me if I ran. I followed her to the same black Camry she’d been driving the night I met her.
“Get in,” she said.
She got behind the wheel and started the car. I hopped in the passenger side and barely had time to close the door before she was pulling out of the parking spot.
“Now, Mr. Knight, about those pills. You were saying?”
“I don’t recall saying anything.”
She slammed on the brakes, and I went flying forward in my seat, almost cracking my forehead on the dashboard.
“Easy! Can’t you take a joke?”
“Now who’s wasting time?” she snapped at me. “Start talking now or you’ll be back in that jail cell so fast . . .”
“Zombies,” I said against my better judgment. But I figured sooner or later she had to know that we traveled in the same circles. And if what had been in those other cells was any indication, Desiree West made her living dealing with the dark side.
“So, you know what’s in those pills? How?”
The blast of a car horn from behind us made her jump, and she put her foot on the gas. I looked back, surprised to see the Superdome behind us. She didn’t stop driving until she got to Decatur Street. She parked at the French Quarter Visitor Center, and we got out and walked across the street to Jackson Square in front of St. Louis Cathedral and found a bench to sit on. I couldn’t help but think about Crystal Sneed. I wondered where she’d gone and how she was surviving. I hoped she was still alive but then thought better of it. Death had to be better than her condition.
“Okay. Now, what do you know about this drug?” she said, turning to me. In the bright early-morning sun, I could see how tired she was. Her eyes were drooping with fatigue. And she wasn’t likely to be getting any rest anytime soon.
I told her everything from the beginning, starting with my job tracking down Crystal Sneed for Alastair Duquesne, how he’d lied to me, and ending with me putting a bullet between the eyes of the abomination that attacked me in his living room. When I finished, I looked over at her and couldn’t tell if she believed a word I just said, especially when she finally spoke.
“Who are you? I mean, really, what’s your story, where do you come from?”
To say I was surprised by her question would be an understatement, especially accompanied by such a piercing stare. Her gaze almost made me flinch, like she was trying to gaze into my soul. And for a moment, a very fleeting moment, it almost seemed like she recognized me, if that were even possible.
“You first,” I said with a laugh, looking away from her. “What does the EA on that business card you gave me stand for?”
“The Equinox Agency. It’s a specialized branch of law enforcement. We deal with . . .” Her voice trailed off as she struggled with how to tell me what she did, as well as just how much to tell me.
“The dark side?” I said, finishing what she apparently couldn’t say. She actually smiled, catching me off guard. And that old pang of longing hit me again. Damn. She was beautiful, even with no makeup on and dark smudgy circles of fatigue under her eyes.
“It’s more of a balancing act actually,” she continued. “The EA exists in secret to maintain the balance between the dark and the light.”
“Sounds like one damned hard job to me. One person’s dark is another person’s light. It’s all subjective.”
“Not really.” She sounded a little defensive. “My job is to keep one world from infringing upon the other in any kind of harmful way.”
“How do you know where to draw the line when one world’s idea of harm is different from the other’s? What gives you the right to make that decision?”
“That’s easy. My first consideration is to protect. After that, I usually wing it.” She gave me a sheepish look. “And as for what right I have, well . . . someone has to do it.”
“How in the world did you get involved in this line of work?” Her face immediately closed, and I knew I’d asked the wrong thing. Whatever had brought Desiree West to the Equinox Agency, clearly she had no intention of sharing it with me.
“Your turn, Mr. Knight. Who are you?”
“Me?” I said, shrugging. “I’m just the new guy in town, trying to keep my head down and earn a living helping people. I don’t bother anybody, and if I’m lucky, nobody bothers me. And that’s the way I like it.”
“Why New Orleans?”
“Why not?” I found I couldn’t look at her, and my discomfort surprised me.
“Something had to have brought you here,” she persisted. “A woman?”
My head snapped up. I saw the mocking look on her face and figured what the hell.
“Yeah,” I said casually. “Her name was Ava, Ava Duval. She was an artist.” I watched her closely for a reaction, any reaction. Nothing. She just stared at me expectantly.
“Well?�
�� she said when I didn’t continue. “What happened to her? Are you still together?”
“No. We were never really together. It didn’t work out the way I’d hoped. She’s long gone now, and I’m still here.”
“And can I assume that in the course of earning your living, you’ve encountered the same kinds of things you saw in those cells? I know you looked,” she said, giving me an accusing look.
“Agent West, I’ve been aware of that world for as long as I’ve been alive. But as you can imagine, I keep what I know to myself. That kind of knowledge is dangerous and will either get you killed or labeled a nut job, neither of which I find appealing.”
“Smart man.” She stood up and held out her hand. “Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Knight. You’re free to go.”
“Hey,” I said, standing up, too. “You need my help.”
“You have helped me. Now it’s time for me to do my job and track down the maker of this drug before we’re all screwed.”
“And how do you intend on doing that? I can help you track down whoever Duquesne was working with.”
“Stay out of it, Mr. Knight. You’re free and clear. Go home and forget all about this before you get even more hurt than you’ve already been.” She nodded toward the bandage on my left arm, which was covering the love bite I’d gotten from the scarab demon. I laughed, and she looked annoyed and impatient to be gone.
“Too late. I’m already in it.”
“I don’t need a partner. I work alone.”
“You’re a loner. Okay, I get it. So am I. But you get this. I’m the one who’s going to find Crystal Sneed. Don’t try and stop me. She knows me, and she probably trusts me a hell of a lot more than she would you. She’s in bad shape, and it’s only a matter of time before she ends up like that poor woman who killed Duquesne.”
“So she’s yet to develop a hunger for human flesh?”
“Not so far as I know. But like I said, it’s only a matter of time before either the drug gets her or whoever Duquesne was working for does.”
She fished in her pocket and pulled out another business card and held it out to me. “Don’t worry,” she said, noticing my hesitation. “There’s no protection spell on this one. Please call me if you find Ms. Sneed.”
“Why, so you can lock her up in one of your cells?” I tucked the card in the back pocket of my jeans.
“No. So we can help her. We’re not the monsters, Mr. Knight. Our only intent is to protect.”
I watched her walk away and realized that despite her noble intentions, I still didn’t know if I trusted her or the Equinox Agency, and I couldn’t help but think that the definition of a monster was only a matter of perception.
****
David Granger was exhausted, scared, and more than a little angry. Sure he’d lied. Yes, he’d used some else’s identity to get into the agency. But he couldn’t believe they were treating him like one of the things they kept in the lower-level holding cells. And it wasn’t fair when all he’d ever wanted to do was help and be a part of the team. He couldn’t stand having Agent West disappointed in him. But now they’d sicced Rena Kale on him, and he’d almost rather be in a holding cell than have to deal with her.
When she first walked into the interrogation room, she didn’t even bother speaking to him. She just sat down in Agent West’s recently vacated chair and stared at him, trying to read him. He purposefully attempted to make his mind go blank, but it was easier said than done, especially as nervous as he was. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally spoke.
“How are you holding up? Is there anything I can get you, some coffee or a soft drink?”
David shook his head no.
“Where’s Agent West?”
“I know you smoke. How about a cigarette?” She pulled out a pack of filtered Benson and Hedges from her beaded evening bag, ignoring his question.
“No, thanks.” He eyed her warily as she lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.
He thought she would blow the smoke right in his face, but to his surprise, she blew it off to the side and then smiled at him. It was a predatory smile, all white teeth and menace framed in blood-red lipstick. She wasn’t a bad-looking woman if you liked barracudas.
“So, how’d you do it?”
“I already told Agent West. I didn’t steal that social security number . . .”
“I’m not talking about that.” Kale leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. “How did you get past me?”
He gaped at her, but her unnerving laserlike stare made him look away. Of course, he knew what she was talking about. All new recruits to the Equinox Agency had to undergo a series of tests as part of the application process to be accepted into the training program. One of these, the PPT: Psych/Psychic Test, Rena Kale conducted; it gauged one’s psychological makeup and tested for latent psychic abilities. Many an applicant had blown their chance at entering the training program because of this test. All the recruits dreaded it because it stripped you bare and revealed your true nature. Any deviant behavior, no matter how well-suppressed, would come to the surface and make itself known. And Rena Kale knew how to draw it out like pus from an infected wound.
But David had passed the test with flying colors, and there had been no smoke and mirrors involved on his part. Like he told Agent West, the only thing he lied about was his identity. Everything else was the truth. But he knew Kale wasn’t going to buy it. He could tell by the smoldering anger in her eyes that she’d taken his deception very personally, like he’d purposefully made a fool of her. And he didn’t have time for her issues. Somehow he had to get out of there and find the real Vic Buchard. Maybe then they’d believe him and maybe even let him stay.
“It must have been really hard for you growing up.” She folded her hands neatly on the table and leaned back in her chair.
“What are you talking about?”
“Growing up in a little shack near the bayou with no one but your grandparents. Being different from all the other boys, with your nose always in a book. Always picked on. Always teased. Beaten up every week. Your grandfather pushing you to become a fisherman like himself when all you wanted to do was go to college. Then him up and dying suddenly of a heart attack and you being left to take care of your old grandmother. When did you turn to crime, David?”
“Get out of my head, you bitch!” He clamped his hands over his ears and shook his head. Kale laughed.
“How did you feel when you stole for the first time? Did it make you feel good? Did it make you feel like a man?”
“Shut up!”
“It’s okay, David,” she said softly, leaning slightly forward in her chair. “No one would hire you, would they? You were only a kid. You had to do something to support the two of you, didn’t you?”
“I said, shut up!” He could feel the anger building. His body tensed and pressure started to build behind his eyes. It was happening again, just like it had all those years ago. He hadn’t felt this angry in a very long time, and he couldn’t let it happen again. Not when he was already in so much trouble. It would just make him look even guiltier.
“Then it all went wrong, didn’t it? You stole from the wrong person, and he pulled out a gun, didn’t he, David?” Kale was enjoying herself. She still couldn’t figure out how she hadn’t seen all this before, but she’d make David Granger regret pulling the wool over her eyes. No one made a fool out of Rena Kale and got away with it.
“Please, stop,” he said, pleading. It had been so long ago, and he hadn’t meant to do it.
“But he never got to use that gun, did he? You took it from him, and you pistol-whipped him. You almost killed him, right?”
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” David jumped out of his seat. His breathing quickened, his face had turned beet-red, and it was happening again, just like it had when he was fifteen and the boys in his neighborhood had cornered him in that barn, planning to put lit firecrackers down his pants for talking to one of their girlfriends. He felt then ju
st like he felt now, trapped and angry. He could feel his body getting lighter . . . slipping away. “Not now,” he whispered through gritted teeth. “Nooo!” he screamed, squeezing his eyes shut. God! Please, help me!
“David! Calm down!” Kale jumped up from the table. But to her surprise she was alone. David Granger had vanished.
TEN
When I got home I had a message from Minx, letting me know she’d gotten a last-minute job for a fashion spread in British Cosmo and would be home the middle of next week. She also asked after her Range Rover, making me flinch since I still didn’t know where it was, and reminded me to take my elixir, like I’d ever forget. As I downed a cold vial, I spied the small corked bottle of angel blood I’d gotten from Leticia Moody sitting on the kitchen counter.
With all that had happened, I’d forgotten about the blood and Leticia’s assertion that looking into Mona Dial’s death would lead me to the reason I’d been set up. But I didn’t have time for that now. Instead, I stripped out of the reeking clothing Desiree had given me and took a long hot shower. Even though I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed, I was way too wired to sleep. I figured daytime would be the best time to look for Crystal, as I knew she wouldn’t be out in the open where people would see her. And in her condition there couldn’t be too many places for her to hide. Plus, I knew just the person who could help me track her down.
****
The closed sign on Madame LuLu’s House of Voodoo had barely been flipped to open when I walked through the door. Madame LuLu’s daughter, Loreen, looked up when I walked in, and her bright smile of greeting turned into a wary frown. A pretty girl of about sixteen, she had glowing mocha skin and curly hair that framed a heart-shaped face and fell to her shoulders.