I turned with a smile. “Hi, Cassie.”
THIRTY-THREE
“It’s not like I attract evil. I carry
it with me; an eye for an eye…”
—Caine Deathwalker
We were inside the flame-sided truck. It was a rolling forensic lab and communication center. There was a holographic table capable of projecting aerial images that could actually be touched due to ultrasound augmentation. Back in my clan house, we used magic for that kind of thing. Humans were going to raise technology to the point that—one of these days—magic would become a meaningless term. I noticed that one wall section had an armory with body armor and military grade ordinance. The toys of death called to me like a lover.
“Touch those,” Virgil said, and I’ll have you fragged the hard way.”
“The hard way?” Grace echoed.
“You’re too innocent for the graphic details,” Virgil said, hiding his eyes behind shades though they weren’t actually needed. “Just take my word; it’s horrific.”
“Fragmentation grenade up the ass,” I told her, turning to face the big boss.
Virgil scowled at me.
I smiled back. “Cat’s out of the bag. Now tell me why the hell you haven’t abused your government authority to close down this show. You can always claim a gas leak or some suspected terrorist act.”
“That was my original decision.” Virgil sat in a high stool, behind the holo table, his arms crossed, his hands sheathed in black leather gloves—the kind favored by those who frequently punch bad guys. “I got talked out of it by my advisors.” He shot a glance at Cassie who was in a corner consulting with a hot blond in pink and purple camouflage.
In what jungle of what world is she planning to hide in?
Grace leaned over when she saw where I was looking. “That’s Janet d’Arc, Virgil’s liaison with the North American Council of Mages. You should date her.”
I’d heard of NACOM. They were humans first, and magic users second. Not a lot of preternaturals trusted them. One thing I’d give her, she had a body meant for marathon bouts of wild, heart-pounding sex. Honey blond, hair piled high, she was Amazon tall, with a trim figure. Yeah, I’d do her anytime, anyplace. As if sensing my gaze, she turned and glanced my way. So did Cassie. Cassie whispered something to the mage, and she laughed, a throaty, sex sound. Her crimson lipstick played off of a golden tan.
A beach bunny
. Hanging around her neck was a silver pendant: a quartered circle with a couple feathers dangling at the sides.
Make that a shaman beach bunny.
“I know why
I’d
want to date her, why do
you
want me to?” I asked Grace.
“She pisses the hell out of me,” Grace growled. “Always hanging around Shaun, breathing on him.”
I gave grace my most sympathetic look. “That’s just terrible. Anything I can do to help.”
Virgil said, “Out of phase with what we loosely call reality, the theater entity is not easily assessable to non kitsune.”
“Mom and I can take just so many people across to the ghost realm to chase it down,” Grace said.
“Whereas,” Virgil pushed his sunglass up the bridge of his nose, “the big scary
it
can come across and attack whenever it wants. A ticking bomb.”
“A headset wearing techno-geek off to the side muttered, “A WSD, a weapon of supernatural destruction.”
I grabbed an empty stool and settled at the table myself. It was glass topped, shimmering with a soft blue, projecting a transparent, three-dimensional plan of the Music hall. I studied it carefully, knowing this would be my next battlefield. I’d let Paul Hastings wait for a time of greater leisure when I could give him the benefit of my full attention.
“Why are you smiling like that,” Grace asked.
I wiped the smile away. “Like what?”
“Kinda scary. Never mind.”
I shrugged and returned my attention to Virgil. “Normally I don’t care about collateral damage; people die, but aren’t you “protect and serve” types supposed to stop that, not use an audience as bait?”
“We can’t just walk off and ignore this,” Virgil said. “And people are going to be at risk one way or another; either tonight’s audience, or volunteers we’d bring in to lure the entity out.”
I nodded. “And it occurred to your boss that if the property owner doesn’t let you shut things down on “mere suspicion something bad might happen”, that you can dump all the responsibility on him, and be the heroes by getting most of the people out of danger when hell comes calling.”
Virgil sighed. “In today’s political climate, the most important thing is to be seen caring about people, not actually helping them, or accepting responsibility for anything.”
The liberal way.
“Besides,” Virgil said, “the Supreme Court has ruled that law enforcement agencies actually
don’t
have a legal obligation to protect people, just to do their job—all slogans aside.”
Grace caught my stare, “Mom and I will take you over to the ghost realm, to distract the thing as it starts to manifest. Onyx and Tukka will help us. The magic-users will raise barriers and try to spellbind the entity. Virgil’s men, the marshals, and some SWAT guys on loan from the city will clear the hall as fast as possible, and set up an armed entrenchment.”
“The Ghost Busters were busy and couldn’t loan you any proton packs,” I asked.
“No, such luck,” Virgil said. “We do have medical corpsmen and combat surgeons on standby, and helicopters for medevac. Unfortunately, our presence is beginning to draw attention. I had to come up with a cover story.”
I looked at him expectantly.
He said, “I brought in a documentary crew to set up cameras. Local media’s been informed that a science fiction movie is being shot here bout the end of the world.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Grace said.
I was impressed with her poise and calm. She might chaff under her mom’s over-protection, but everyone here seemed to treat her as just another government asset, and a respected one at that. Seeing her in this environment, I was sure she’d found her calling. Not that she couldn’t do a lot better for herself in my demon clan.
I’ll have to win Cassie over first, though
.
Techno-geek said, “Forty-five minutes to Doomsday.”
“Has the sun set yet?” I asked.
“Doing so now,” Virgil said, “Why?”
“I’m calling someone to the party.” I took out my phone and headed for the truck’s side door.
“A friend who’ll die for you?” Virgil said.
“A friend who wants to kill me. I have a lot of those.” I stepped down to the ground and moved away from the forces swarming the area, wanting a little privacy for a phone call. I punched a number I’d recently added to my speed dial function. On the fifth ring, Raspy picked up. “How did you get this number, you cretin?”
“You’re not still mad at me for shooting you in the back,” I asked.
“I will get you for that.”
“Really? I thought you might be willing to forgive me because of the awesome big favor I’m about to do for you.”
“There is an evil smile on your face, Caine.”
I paused and checked with my free hand. Yep, he was right. “How did you know?”
“I could hear it in your voice. What is this awesomeness you have in mind?”
I am prepared to give you—free of charge or obligation—a brand new super power that will put you one up on Vlad. What do you think of that?”
I walked out past the eighteen-wheelers to where I could see
the blue-tinted glass and steel school building. A string of students were leaving it, taking the path that would bend around to the front of the music hall. They looked in our direction, but made no effort to come over. I think they’d been warned not to get underfoot with the “movie” people. Off to my left there were some prop cameras, lighting arrays, and a boom mic crane as well. Tukka lay out in the open, on his side. A gentle snore drifted up from him. What the student’s made of him, I didn’t know.
“That’s a long time to be thinking it over,” I said. “What’s the problem?”
“With you, there is always the catch. I am waiting to hear the catch.”
“Okay, you got me. Your city is threatened by a monstrous entity. By morning, all that you love may be gone—if I can’t stop it. I just thought I’d make amends in case I don’t survive. That’s all. But if you’re not interested in an attack that lets you hit a target unaware, never seen or sensed by anyone looking for you, well, I guess I’m just wasting my time. So long, Raspy…”
“Wait, wait. I did not say I was uninterested. You are talking about the method you used to shoot me in my own vault and steal my little angel?”
“Yeah, but it will have to be fast because I’ll be going into battle soon against something powerful beyond belief.”
“What is this threat to my city?”
I gave him my current location, describing the three main buildings, and which one I was in back of. “The sun’s down now,” I said. “Of course, I don’t know if there’s a limit on how far you can fold space.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“Good. Don’t be alarmed by the SWAT, federal marshals, or the PRT personnel hanging around.
We’ve all joined force to fight this thing.”
“You have yet to say what this
thing
is.”
“Better you don’t know. You might be enticed to fight it too, and I can’t have your second death on my hands when I die a glorious martyr’s death.”
He roared at me over the phone. “Do not tell me who I can and cannot fight. I am Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin.” His voice vanished off the phone. A lens of distorted air appeared in front of me. Its heart went dark with an elongated, flat shadow. Rasputin stepped out of that shadow, glaring at me, just out of reach—except for someone with his level of vampiric speed. The distortion behind him went away. “You are a most infuriating fellow,” he said.
“And I actually like you.”
Feet pounded inside the box made by the trucks. Cassie and Janet appeared first. Grace followed a few a steps behind. She was just ahead of Virgil and a group of soldiers in camouflage and body armor. An awful lot of assault rifles were trained on Rasputin. The aversion spell hadn’t kept him out, but breaking it had alerted everyone to his presence.
I’d say everyone broke even on that.
I held up my hands, calling out, “Whoa, everyone, a little restraint, please. You’re threatening an invited guest. I asked him here to help.”
“I must have missed that part.” A mild tick was back in Rasputin’s cheek. He glared at me some more. “No obligations, eh?”
I shrugged. “Who am I to try to keep you out of an interesting fight?”
Janet d’Arc was doing some glaring of her own, her fists on her hips. “Caine, who is this, and how did he shatter my spell like it was nothing?”
I watched Raspy’s eyes light up as he took in the tall, beautiful blond. A slow smile stretched his lips. I knew at that moment we’d added him to the team. I said, “Everyone, allow me introduce
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, the Doom of Russia, and currently the acting Master of the City of Santa Fe, vampire extraordinaire.”
He took a bow like he was having a curtain call on stage.
“The Rasputin?” Virgil shook his head in disbelief. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
“I am, and ready to be of service,” he glared at me, always the glare, “provided my price is met. Caine, you will do as you promised?”
Virgil waved the soldiers back. “It’s fine, stand down.”
“I will do as I promised, with a little help from one of my friends.” I looked over to Grace and waved her closer. “Help me with something, please.”
She didn’t budge, staring at Rasputin with unease. “He’s not still mad, is he?”
“Mad as a bedbug in bedlam,” Rasputin said, “but I will not harm you. You have my word.”
“Well, okay,” she eased closer, turning her eyes my way. “What do you want me to do?”
“I need you to take me and Rasputin across the threshold to the ghost realm. Once he’s done it a few times, he ought to be able to work out the special bend of space he needs to reach that place and stay there on his own.”
“Ghost realm?” Rasputin said.
“A place of spirits, sort of like Limbo. Kitsune like Grace and her mom can access it fairly easily. I think you will too.” I explained to him what he’d feel, about the electric tingle, the loss of weight, and about how auras become visible, while other colors are lost. “You’ll be able to see this world from there, just not here any of our sounds.” I went on to explain about how he’d need to leak some of his vampire magic into the ghost world to make things solid, otherwise, he’d pass through everything like a ghost himself.
He’d turned quite enthusiastic by this time. “It is marvelous. Let us do this right now.”
I looked at Grace. “You heard the man.”