The Man Who Walked in Darkness (Miles Franco #2) (Miles Franco Urban Fantasy)

by Chris Strange

  One more thud, and cracks appeared. I touched the door knob, cast a glance back at Vivian, and nodded. Her hands didn’t shake. Mine did.

  I wrenched the door open and took a giant ball of fur right in the gut. Thought left me along with my air and my balance. I hit the ground ass-first, pain shooting up my tail bone. The bottle of Kemia I was clutching went rolling across the carpet, out of reach.

  “Shoot it!” I shouted, knowing damn well there was no way Vivian could get a clean shot with the spider-dog on top of me. Alien drool splattered my face, and in an instant my entire world consisted solely of the rows upon rows of teeth before my eyes. More eyes than any creature had a right to stared at me, blinking out of sync, and the creature let out another high-pitched whine.

  And that’s when I realized it wasn’t eating me.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Vivian maneuver to the side and level her weapon at the creature.

  I threw out my hand. “Wait.” With the weight of the spider-dog on my chest, it came out as a rasp, and I wasn’t sure she’d heard. But no gunshot came.

  It was only now I noticed the spider-dog was smaller than most of the others I’d seen, no bigger than most dogs. Its fur was soft, not coarse, and its eyes were milky.

  “Well, fuck me,” I said. “It’s a baby.”

  “What?” Vivian sounded a little on edge.

  The creature pranced happily on my chest and let out another hoot. I finally allowed myself to really feel the animal sensations pulsing through my head. It was like the Pin Hole I’d sensed when the bat-thing attacked me, but there was something much more familiar about it. It was my Pin Hole.

  I carefully sat up, pushing the creature down to my lap. It didn’t change its mind and try to bite me. That was promising.

  “Miles,” Vivian said, still aiming her gun at the creature, “what the hell is going on?”

  “I, uh, think it likes me.”

  “Miles…”

  “Remember that Pin Hole I told you about? The one I opened to take control of these things outside the Collective’s headquarters? This baby one must’ve been inside somewhere, close enough to be affected. It was a new Pin Hole I was trying. Powerful. Somehow, I think I…imprinted myself onto this thing.”

  “What are you saying?”

  I reached out a hand for the creature. It sniffed my hand, yipped a couple of times, and snuggled into me. “I’m saying I think I have a new pet.”

  For a moment, the only sound was the whistling coming from between the creature’s teeth as it breathed.

  “Can’t you go five minutes without something weird happening to you?” Vivian said.

  “Hey, I didn’t know this would happen. It’s just an unintended side effect.” I awkwardly put my hands under the creature and lifted it. It was heavy, and I was weak, but I managed. “What should we do with it?”

  She hadn’t put away her gun. “I’m still tempted to shoot it.”

  “Come on,” I said, aiming the teeth and eyes in her direction. “It’s kind of cute.”

  “Wait, I have a better idea. I’ll shoot you instead.”

  I returned the thing to the ground. It sniffed my leg, squealed, and started sprinting around the room. “I think I’ll call it Toto.”

  “You’re not seriously going to keep it,” she said. Then she cocked her head to the side. “Look who I’m talking to. Of course you’re going to. Don’t you think you’re a little busy right now to be dealing with—”

  My cell phone started ringing on the table.

  I raised my finger. “Rain check on the argument.” With one eye still on the spider-dog racing around Vivian’s apartment, I answered the phone.

  “Franco’s Weird Pets,” I said. “How may I direct your call?”

  The voice on the other end of the line was honey laced with hemlock. “Hello, Miles.”

  No. No no no no no. Not now. Not anytime, but especially not now. Put my balls in a vice, pour acid in my eyes, anything but this. Anyone but her. Anyone.

  “Caterina Andrews,” I said. I saw Vivian’s eyes widen. “How’s prison life treating you?”

  “It’s good to hear your voice, Miles.”

  “You know, I wish I could say the same, but ever since you got high on Chroma, executed your husband, and tried to shoot lightning at me last winter, I just have trouble summoning those warm fuzzies.”

  Caterina laughed, and ice dripped down my spine. “Don’t be like that. We had some good times too, remember?”

  “Sure. I’m hanging up now.”

  “Wait,” she said. And damn her, I did. “I want to see you. We have so many things to talk about.”

  “Yeah? Like what?”

  “Like your friend. What was her name again? Oh yes, Claudia.”

  The ice in my spine turned to acid.

  “Tell me,” Caterina purred, “has she been haunting your dreams? Or perhaps more than just your dreams? Can you see her right now?”

  And just like that, Claudia was there in the room with us. Vivian stared right through her, seeing nothing.

  “Come and see me, Miles,” Caterina said. “Alone. We have so much to talk about.”

  The line went dead. Claudia smiled. The screeching spider-dog nuzzled my leg. And some dead, forgotten part of my heart burned to life.

  “Vivian,” I said. “I need a favor.”

  TWENTY-TWO

  Prisons. I hate prisons. Give me death, give me splinters under my toenails, just don’t put me in a box. And here I was walking into one voluntarily, through the gates and the metal detector, past the guards that looked like they could chew gravel and compliment the chef, into a tiny room not much bigger than a toilet cubicle with a telephone handpiece and a glass divider and a metal stool bolted to the floor. They’d even taken my Kemia and coins for safekeeping. The guard ushered me inside, waited until I sat down, then pulled the door closed. I shivered as it clicked, even though it wasn’t locked.

  I wouldn’t have got in if it hadn’t been for Vivian. She called in some favors and got me a visit outside normal visiting hours. Deep down I was hoping she wouldn’t pull it off, but I got unlucky. She wanted to come in with me, but I convinced her not to. I knew Caterina Andrews wouldn’t talk with a cop in the room, except to screw with her. And if she knew something about Claudia and this whole goddamn mess, I needed to get it out of her. Besides, Vivian had her own investigations to conduct, and if she really wanted to figure out what was going on before I kicked off, we needed to use our time wisely. So I set up a makeshift litter box for Toto in Vivian’s apartment—I assumed spider-dogs must shit—then she dropped me off at the cemetery where my bike still sat. I rode north to Bluegate Women’s Correctional Facility alone.

  I had just enough time to get gut-wrenchingly nervous before the door on the opposite side of the glass divider opened and Caterina Andrews entered. Even in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit, she still looked fan-fucking-tastic. Her red hair fell down around her cheeks in waves, and her slim frame flowed into the room like expensive French wine. The last time I saw her she was unconscious, bloodied, and torn from the spider-dogs I’d unleashed on her. But now, not a scar marred her skin. Her eyes met mine. Her lips curled into an impish smile.

  My throat went as dry as a hangover in the Sahara.

  She sat down on the other side of the glass. It took me a moment to realize a female guard had accompanied her. The woman worked a key into Cat’s handcuffs, removed them, and stepped back. The lock on the door made a heavy sliding sound as the guard left.

  For a century or two we stared at each other through the divider. There was something in her eyes, something I couldn’t place. It made my skin crawl. I imagine I didn’t look half as confident as she did. Focus, Miles. Just get what you need and get gone. But my nerves were already throwing monkey wrenches into my plan. For one thing, her face kept shifting into that of Claudia. I’d come so close to killing Caterina last winter. Even after everything she’d done, that knowledge still got my gui
lt centers working. It would’ve been another woman dead by my hand. What kind of man was I?

  Caterina was the first one to make a move. She stretched out an arm and plucked the telephone handpiece off the wall as delicately as if she was picking strawberries. With her eyes, she pointed to the one on my side of the divider. I swallowed, trying to get some saliva flowing, and brought the phone to my ear.

  “You look terrible,” she said.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I was gonna shave before I came, but time got away from me. You know how it is.”

  She twirled the phone cord around her finger. “I’ve missed you.”

  “Look, I’m sure you’ve got lots of important prison stuff to be getting back to. So how about we skip all the femme fatale crap and cut to the chase.”

  “You always were wound too tight,” she said with a wry smile. How the hell did she get her hands on lipstick in here? “I just wanted to catch up on old times. But you’re right. You don’t have time to waste, do you?”

  I licked my lips and adjusted my grip on the phone. My palms were sweaty. “What do you know?”

  “I know you’re dying.”

  “Congratulations,” I said. “You don’t need glasses after all. Be sure to settle the bill with our clinic receptionist on the way out.”

  “I know what’s killing you. Tartarus.” Her lips seemed to kiss the word as it left her.

  That shut me up. She smirked.

  “You’re so easy to impress, Miles,” she said. “Just because I’m in here doesn’t mean I’m gone for good.”

  “You had something to do with this?”

  She quirked an eyebrow. “No. Of course not. Does this seem like my style? But I have ways of finding things out, if I’m interested. And after that man came here to talk to me and offer me a way out of here in exchange for a special job, I got very interested.”

  “Wait, you’re saying someone involved in this came to talk to you? When? Who was it?”

  She shrugged. “Some man. Just a goon. A couple of weeks ago.”

  “What did he want?”

  “Not yet, Miles. This is important information I have. I can’t just give it away, can I? Not when you need it so desperately. Not when you need it to avenge your friend.”

  “Fuck yourself with a broken broomstick.”

  She was enjoying herself, I could tell. “I saw a picture of your friend, you know. Not much of a beauty, really. What do they say? Homely. I honestly don’t know what you’re so upset about.”

  I don’t remember getting to my feet, but my palm collided with the glass divider. I could feel my lips pulled back around my teeth. “Don’t,” I growled. “Don’t.”

  Her smile only infuriated me more. The guard banged on the door behind me. Don’t be an idiot. Calm. You’re calm. For once in your goddamn life, play it smart.

  The guard was yelling something at me, but I couldn’t hear.

  Sit down. Don’t take the bait. Sit down, be calm, get what you came for. Do it for her. Sit down.

  I sat down.

  The banging on the door stopped, and footsteps shuffled away. Blood still pounded in my ears, but I forced myself to take a deep breath. Then I brought the phone back to my ear.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “A promise, Miles. Just a promise.”

  Nothing would ever be just a promise with Caterina Andrews. But I kept my trap shut and listened.

  “I won’t be in here forever,” she said. “A year from now, two, three, maybe, I’ll be out.”

  “Not likely.”

  “And when I’m out,” she continued, “I’m going to give you a call. And you’ll fulfill your promise.”

  “And what promise is that?”

  “The promise of training.” Her eyelashes fluttered, and she glanced at the walls around her. “The world is changing, and it’s hard for a girl to keep up in a place like this. Heaven, Limbus, Tartarus. Who knows how many worlds will have been uncovered by the time I’m out? I want you to teach me how to Tunnel in this brave new universe.”

  “What makes you think I’ll even be up-to-date myself? What makes you think I’ll even be alive?”

  She smiled. “You still don’t understand how strong you are, do you? How many others could open a Tunnel to a whole new world with nothing but gut instinct and a bottle of Kemia? How many others could do it as close to death as you were?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “So you’ll know,” she said. “You were born to Tunnel, Miles, and no matter how hard you try to resist, you’ll get more powerful than you can imagine.” She leaned forward. “And you’ll teach me that power. If you want what I can tell you. If you promise.”

  I shouldn’t be here. I knew that damn well. Caterina was a viper with lasers for eyes and a machine gun duct-taped to her tail. Screw dealing with the devil. This would really be selling my soul.

  But look at me. I was so close to Death’s door I could see the rust on the door knob. There was no way I’d still be above ground when Caterina got out of here. By that time she’d be someone else’s problem. All of Bluegate would be someone else’s problem. But maybe, just maybe, I could nail Claudia’s killer before I went. If I just took what Caterina had to give me.

  Hell. I never had a choice.

  “I promise,” I said.

  “Good boy.” She tilted her head to the side and beamed. “Shall we get started then? Let’s see. The man who came to see me called himself Anthony.”

  “Pale guy, kinda nervous?” I asked.

  She nodded. Anthony Gullet, my friend from the funeral, now reconsidering his life choices in a police cell. Caterina was right. It really was connected.

  “What did he want?” I said.

  “As I said, he had an offer for me. He wanted my help on something he called Tartarus. In exchange, he would arrange my release from prison.”

  “Breakout or early parole?”

  She shrugged. “He didn’t specify. I suspect either was possible.”

  My thoughts went to Mayor White. Maybe she and the warden were batting for the same corrupt team. “But you’re still here. Why didn’t you take the offer?”

  “Because I excel at reading people, Miles, and this Anthony was a terrible liar. Whatever they wanted my help with, they didn’t intend for me to survive giving it. I’m no idiot. And I intend to live a long, long time.”

  This was all starting to sound familiar. Except I wasn’t as smart as Caterina, especially not when a pretty girl was involved. Had Zhi Lu taken me to her bed knowing that a few hours later she’d be leaving me to drown in a pool of poison? She had to have. My fist tightened around the phone. Why didn’t I learn? I couldn’t trust people like that.

  At least it’d probably be the last time I got the chance to make that mistake.

  “Do you know what they wanted you to do?” I asked, trying to keep my feelings from showing on my face.

  “They were rather vague. They had their new world they wanted help accessing. But that obviously wasn’t their true purpose.” She gestured to the walls. “If that was all they wanted, they could have picked Tunnelers in more convenient locales. And they would have been a little less insistent. There would’ve been fewer threats.” She smirked. “It was cute, in a way.”

  “So, what then? Stop playing games. What did they really want?”

  She shook her head, eyes dancing. “You’re so impatient. You really do look awful. And I don’t think it’s just the poison, is it? I’m betting you haven’t slept well the last few months. Have the screams been waking you at night? Does the fear still grip you? The guilt? The knowledge of the lives—and deaths—you’re responsible for. You must have such terrible nightmares, I’m sure.”

  “Everyone has nightmares. If nothing scares you, you’re already dead.”

  Her eyes flashed. Shouldn’t she be blinking more? “Ah, but these aren’t ordinary nightmares, are they? Not when they pursue you into daytime. It’s not normal to hear the dead whispering to yo
u, Miles. It’s not normal to see them following you.”

  My chest tightened. The voices I’d been blocking out started hissing, talking, begging, screaming. And their images appeared, as clear and sharp as if they were lying all around me. The gangsters I’d killed. The people I’d let down. Oh, Jesus. Jesus H. Christ.

  “How?” I whispered into the phone. “How can you know that?”

  She grinned the grin of a madwoman. “You didn’t think you were special, did you?” She leaned forward. “I know because I see them too.”

  I looked into her eyes, and I knew she was telling the truth. There were certain kinds of crazy you just couldn’t fake. But why? Why were both of us losing it?

  And then I realized. “Chroma.”

  She nodded. “You didn’t think you could take something that powerful and get away clean, did you?” Her laugh crackled in my ear. “Just because the drug wore off, doesn’t mean it’s gone completely. It changed us, Miles. It made us stronger. And it broke us.”

  I licked my lips. She was right. My Tunneling was stronger now than it ever had been before. I figured these hallucinations were some kind of hardcore PTSD. But maybe…

  “No,” I said. “We weren’t the only ones to take it. Tania did. Dozens of other Tunnelers, too.”

  “And how many of them were as strong as us? Have you followed the news reports? A quarter of them are dead. A few of them, the younger ones, were barely affected. Others have been experiencing symptoms. Depression, mania, catatonia. But you and I, Miles, you and I were powerful enough to draw on the full strength of Chroma. And it left its mark.”

  I massaged my forehead with my palm. It didn’t matter why I was crazy. It didn’t change the fact that I was crazy. And it wouldn’t bother me much longer.

  “Why are you telling me this?” I asked. “What does this have to do with anything? Tell me what you know about Tartarus. Tell me what you know about the fluid.”