The Curse Mandate (The Dark Choir Book 3)

by J. P. Sloan

  He unfolded his arms, and held out his hand to reveal a tiny packet of pink-beige powder.

  “So, that’s a no?” I prodded with a smirk.

  “I have nothing left. Suze. The kids.”

  “Yeah, I can see how it would look that way. I mean, I’m not a user, but my drug of choice is something a bit more insidious.”

  Ricky dropped his hand and straightened out his legs.

  I walked to his side and leaned against the building.

  “I’m in the weeds, too. You know? Just found out my soul is basically a day away from getting snatched up by some dark motherfuckers. And aforementioned motherfuckers aren’t convinced I’ll live long enough to see it happen. Then boom. Every eternal part of my being will become cat food for titanic demons of Creation. So, when you put things into perspective, a cold concrete wall ain’t so bad after all.”

  He coughed to shake his voice loose. “Guess we’re both fucked, huh?”

  “Well, yeah. We are. I keep trying to find some way out of it, too. Like you. Only, I can’t shoot up. That won’t work. Only makes it worse if I lose my wits, and I’ve got people counting on me. Like you.”

  “No one’s counting on me, boss.”

  “I got a student of mine riding around in a Volvo who’d beg to differ.”

  He shook his head. “She’s better off without me.”

  “Maybe she should be the judge of that?”

  “So, what happens when whatever’s gonna kill you kills you? What happens to all these people who are counting on you?”

  I lifted my chin and searched for a good answer for that question.

  “Hmm. Yeah. Well, I guess I can’t let that happen. Can I? There’s no way out, Ricky. Only way out is through. Nothing to do but get so pissed off you’re willing to make really stupid decisions in order to stay alive. And here’s a fun fact… I’m a prodigy at making stupid decisions.” I pushed off the wall and stepped around in front of him. “For example, I just made a deal with some powerful people who might just be able to help you out in court.”

  He lifted an eyebrow.

  “I know, you heard this before. But trust me on this… these people are several pay grades above me, and they happen to need me. So, I cut a deal. I do their thing, they pull some shady-ass shit in the Oregon Circuit Court.”

  “They can do that?”

  “It’s literally the least they could do, but it’s not nothing. Maybe we can’t break the curse, but we can do an end run on the Cosmos, here.” I crouched down. “It’s your kids, man. You can’t want to leave them behind.”

  A store of tears welled up in his eyes. He looked down to the ground, then up to me again, wiped his eyes on his sleeve, then reached for my hand.

  I stood up and helped him to his feet. He lingered, considering the packet of opiates in his free hand.

  “Got plans for that?” I asked.

  “Don’t suppose they do refunds out here?”

  “Don’t figure they do.” I winced. “I…I didn’t pay you yet. Where did you get the money for that?”

  He gave me a miserable look. “Cash drawer.”

  “Never mind. I’ll take it out of your check. Also, remind me to get on Ben’s ass for leaving you with the cash drawer.”

  drove Ricky back to the tavern, where I personally witnessed him flushing the heroin down the men’s room toilet. I then put him to work cleaning the bathroom. Ben had a row of evening customers at the bar, and I left him to keep them happy while I phoned Julian.

  “Dorian?”

  “Yeah. Hey, head on back. I got Ricky.”

  After a commotion, Ches’s voice railed through the speaker. “Where have you been? I’ve called like twenty―”

  “Sorry, chalk it up to hoojie magic interference.”

  “―been out here for two hours, and holy shit, this city!”

  “Look, hey. Hey.”

  She finally took a breath. “What?”

  “I got him.”

  “What?”

  I leaned back in Julian’s chair. “I found Ricky. He’s okay. He’s back here at the tavern scrubbing grout.”

  I heard a weird kind of fluttering noise, then a series of sniffles.

  “Can you put Julian back on, please?” I asked.

  After a space, Julian answered, “Good work, Dorian.”

  “Thanks. Come on back.”

  I tried Malosi next, but couldn’t get through.

  When Ches and Julian arrived, Ches swept directly past the office. I followed her down the hallway to the toilets, where she busted into the men’s room, opened every door until she found Ricky, and then kicked a man out of the bathroom so she could give him a reaming. I elected to leave them alone.

  Julian stood at the door to his office, arms crossed. “Every day isn’t going to be like this, is it?”

  I shook my head. “Better not be. I’ll need a pacemaker by fifty, at this rate.”

  I followed Julian back into his office. He reached for a stack of resumes. “Before he went Caspar on us, Ricky hired three kitchen staff and four servers. Really don’t think we’ll manage them though, without… well, a manager.” He lowered his voice. “What’s Ricky’s situation?”

  “Sketch. Very, very sketch. But I’m trying to improve on that.”

  “As a friend, I understand what you’re doing. As a business owner, though, you have to see how this comes across.”

  I shrugged. “Okay. You want to hire another manager, I’ll support that.”

  “Not necessarily. Let’s just see how this plays out, and maybe keep our eyes open. Just in case.”

  “Just in case. I’d usually say that sounds ominous, but right now you’d have to do way better than that. I mean, you’d need a pipe organ and Castle Thunder or something.”

  Julian grinned, but his smile faded as he wound around me to his side of the desk.

  “You still in trouble?” he muttered.

  “You know me.”

  “I do. Which is why I asked.” After I gave him a confused wince, he added, “You love to suffer in silence. Well, maybe not in silence. But you go it alone. All the time. I’m just saying, I’m here. I have experience. If this group you talked about is as Byzantine and political as you say it is, then hell, that’s my sandbox, Dorian. I could help.”

  I inched toward the door. “It’s not… not that I don’t think you can help.”

  “What, then?”

  With a sigh, I answered, “I just don’t want you to get hurt, is all. People get close to this, they end up floating in the Bay.”

  Julian shrugged. “Offer stands.”

  I nodded.

  Before I could step out, he added, “Cleve called, by the way.”

  My eyes shot open. “No shit? Is that… are you two?”

  “Too soon for anything like that. We talked stuff out, still have things to figure out. I don’t think we’re necessarily on the same wavelength.”

  “Well, your wavelength is a little intense.”

  He laughed. “It’s better than drinking wine alone at night.”

  “I guess so.”

  “What about you and Francesca?” he needled. “With everything that’s happened, is there anything between you two?”

  I stared up at the ceiling, then turned toward the open door.

  “It’s a bad idea,” I finally stated. “Always was.”

  I collected the Bakers, now huddled together on the bathroom floor. Ches mopped Ricky’s forehead with a wet paper towel as he clutched her hand. With a bit of effort, we got Ricky put together and into the back of my car. The drive home was unnervingly silent. I tried to start a conversation, but both of them simply stared forward. Ches, in particular, seemed engrossed in thought. I was glad the drive was only ten minutes.

  When we reached my house, they both bustled immediately upstairs. I tried Malosi one more time on his phone. Still no answer. After a while, a drum of activity overhead hinted that Ricky was very much active. I stared at the door to my bas
ement, eager to get to work on the Presidium’s assignment, but waited for Ches. I’d come to rely on her as a partner in this, and wanted her there to walk me through what she’d already found.

  I paced a little in the front room as the footsteps and shuffling overhead continued. For a moment, I considered checking on them, but decided that was precisely the kind of thing that got me into trouble.

  At last, steps creaked down the stairs, and I turned to find Ches facing me, arms stiff at her sides.

  “Hey, everything settled up there?” I asked.

  She nodded once, though her eyes seemed anything but settled.

  She mumbled, “Can we talk?”

  Uh oh.

  I nodded for the sofa. I took a seat, but she remained standing. So, instinctively, I stood back up, stuck my hands in my pockets, then pulled them out again.

  “What’s up?”

  She sucked in a breath, then pulled up her chin. “I’m taking Ricky back to Portland.”

  “Uh, wrong.”

  “It’s decided.”

  I chuckled through my nose, then frowned. “You’re not going back to Oregon, Ches.”

  “Yes. Yes, I am.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  Her chin dropped, and she lifted a hand. “I knew you were going to fight me on this, and I’m ready to have this out. But I’m really fucking exhausted, right now. Think we can just skip to the part where you tell me Quinn’s going to have me killed?”

  “Suits me. She’s going to kill you. In fact, she was pretty goddamn specific about that.”

  “I know Quinn. I know how dangerous she can be. I also know her overblown sense of dignity. And it’s been almost a year, now. She’s probably moved on to other things, and is used to me not being a problem.”

  I turned for the front window, gesturing at nothing in particular. “Okay, assuming Gillette has mercy, what do you hope to accomplish?”

  “The curse is killing him, Dorian. We tried to break it, but we couldn’t. The only ones who can are the Dead Dragons.”

  “So, what? You’re just going to talk Gillette into a moment of uncharacteristic charity, then waltz directly back to her enemies and beg them to lift this curse? Do you see the circle of fucked-up decisions you’re outlining here?”

  “I have to do something, Dorian. Keeping Ricky here? It just isn’t working. He needs his family. He’s not like you and me. He can’t live without them. He doesn’t want to.”

  “Listen. I’ve already made a deal with the Presidium.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of deal?”

  “For Ricky. They’re going to pull some strings in the court, and make sure Ricky doesn’t lose his kids.”

  She took a step back. “What?”

  “Yeah. They have people, even on the West Coast. They can make sure he doesn’t get cut out of their lives.”

  “What’s the price?” she spat.

  “I have to find these Chaos magicians. And take them out.”

  Ches shook her head. “You really think you can do that?”

  I shrugged. “I have more options available to me, now.”

  She took another step back. “You mean Netherwork? They’re going to let you use Netherwork to solve their problem, aren’t they?”

  “Turns out, that’s kind of what they do. Hypocrisy is, like, the one constant in the history of Mankind.”

  She closed her eyes, folded her hands together at her mouth, then walked a tiny circle.

  “Okay,” she said with a slow unfurling of her fingers. “Let me walk you through your circle of fucked-up decisions. One: this is assuming you can both find and defeat users of a destructive, primal magic before they take you out first. Even using your curses, this is something the Presidium can’t seem to handle.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you that.”

  “Two: even if you do succeed, and the Presidium actually, through some miracle, decides they want to honor their agreement with you, Ricky will still have this curse on him. And so, he keeps his parental rights. With this curse, he’s going to continue spiraling into self-destruction. What kind of father is he going to be? What happens when he falls off the wagon? When he overdoses?” She stepped forward and whispered, “What if he does it on purpose?”

  I hung my head.

  “Think you can live with that? Because I’m not sure I can.” She took a breath and put her hand on my arm. “Dorian? You did what you could. And holy shit, you did a lot for us. But when it comes down to it, this is my problem to fix. I brought this to your doorstep, and now I’m going to take responsibility for it.”

  My insides became a slack bag of lead weights.

  “I don’t like this,” I grumbled. “Just feels wrong.”

  “Hey.” She reached for my chin and lifted it, forcing me to look her in the eye. “You taught me more than you probably realize. I mean, I don’t want you to know how grateful I actually am, because then you’ll get a big head about it and then I’ll have to find some fresh new insult to bring you back down to Earth.”

  My chest lifted in a silent snicker.

  She continued, “We had a weird, special thing here. And I hate to admit this, too… but I think this special thing is over.” A tear streamed down her cheek. “I have to go work out my own karma, now.”

  No.

  No, I couldn’t let her go like this.

  But did I have a choice? Those feathery, sun-kissed feelings I had for Ches were always poisoned by our circumstance. The dynamic was wrong, even if the emotions felt right. They filled me with guilt when I thought too long on it.

  I felt I’d failed Ches.

  I’d failed myself.

  She was right, after all. My chest twisted as I admitted to myself that my role in her life had ended.

  “Okay,” I whispered.

  She reached out and pulled me into a hug.

  As I wrapped my arms around her, I added, “I never taught you how to make a pendulum.”

  “Email me, then.”

  “Still don’t own a computer.”

  “Fuck, Dorian.” She pulled away, wiping her cheek with her sleeve. “You really need to join this century at some point.”

  She withdrew to help Ricky pack up his things. I lingered downstairs in a daze. My eyes locked onto a pothole in the street I always had to steer around before pulling into the drive.

  Why hadn’t the city fixed that, yet? I’d complained.

  I was sure I complained, at some point.

  No one seemed to be listening.

  Stupid pothole.

  The Bakers thundered down the stairs, a pack over each of their shoulders. Ches stood by the door as Ricky held out a hand.

  “Thanks for putting up with me, boss. Sorry this didn’t work out. The Tavern, I mean. I feel bad about that.”

  “We’ll manage,” I replied. “You just get better. Okay?”

  He nodded, then stepped out the front door without further comment.

  Ches held the door open, and looked me over.

  I asked, “You want me to drive you to your car?”

  “I already called a cab.”

  I almost offered to pay for the cab, before I realized how stupid I was sounding.

  “So, keep in touch. All right?”

  She nodded, eyes reddening as she tucked her chin.

  “You too.”

  Ches stepped out and closed the door quietly behind her.

  The silence that flooded my house at that moment was oppressive.

  I just stood there, looking out the window. Even after the cab had come and taken them away, I remained at the window, frozen.

  At length, my legs got tired, and I walked to the sideboard. As I reached for the cabinet, I spotted the bottle of Grand Reserva that Clement had mailed me.

  Emil’s favorite sherry.

  I cracked open the bottle and sniffed it. Pungent, nutty, with notes of acetone. I poured myself a cordial, then settled in my chair. I drained the cordial quickly, and returned for a
bigger glass.

  Hours passed.

  The silence buried me like loam over a coffin.

  At some point a car door slammed out front. Footsteps hammered up the front walk, and the door opened under Malosi’s hand.

  “Hey,” he barked. “What the hell?”

  I swiveled my head in his direction. “What the hell what?”

  “I went to the bar. Julian said you found him.”

  I nodded.

  Malosi closed the door. “Didn’t think to give a damn call to let me know?”

  “I tried,” I mumbled. “Twice.”

  He fished his phone out of his jacket, then swore quietly.

  “Same thing happened to me,” I offered. “I think those wardings at the Ipsissimus property put a whammy on electronic devices.” I chuckled. “And she wonders why I don’t own a computer.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “He has muscular dystrophy, but he’s obviously managing pretty well.”

  Malosi grunted, “Ricky. I’m talking about Ricky.”

  With a sigh, I replied, “I caught him before he injured himself.”

  “Is he upstairs?”

  I shook my head. “They’re gone.”

  Malosi stepped around to the front of my chair, his brows high. “Gone? In what manner are they ‘gone’?”

  “I mean they went back to Oregon.”

  He looked left, then right, then back to me. “Huh. So, Ches left?”

  “Yep.”

  “Is this a permanent thing, or what?”

  “Well, considering her first order of business is to talk Quinn Gillette out of straight murdering her, I’d say the end result will be permanent. One way or another.”

  Malosi took a seat on the sofa.

  I waved my glass at him. “Want some sherry?”

  “You know this is a good thing, right?”

  “What is?”

  “You were taking her down with you, is what I mean.” He leaned forward. “And I hate to put it this way, but she was bringing you down, too. This whole Chaos thing? Whoever that creepy-ass gentleman outside the Tavern was? You haven’t done anything but think about that girl and her brother.”

  I looked up at the ceiling.

  “Sure you don’t want any sherry?”

  He stood up. “All right, I’ll give you this one. Punish your liver, if you have to. But get this out of your system. Tonight. Because tomorrow, you’re back on task.” He added after a beat, “I’ll, uh… stick around, if you want.”