by Gary Jonas
“Anything I can help with?” I asked.
“No. What brings you to my humble abode?”
“I need a favor.”
“I have no further information about Jonathan Shade. He hasn’t been spotted since he left Florida.”
“Nothing to do with Jonathan.” I’d had Victor calling in favors to try and locate Jonathan Shade, an old friend who I’d held as he died of a gunshot wound, but was somehow alive again. I wanted to find him to verify it, but while I tried to get to Florida in time to see him, he was gone before I arrived. “I need your help here in town.”
“I’m listening,” he said and stepped out of the theater room. He gestured toward a bar stool.
“No thanks,” I said. “I brought a guest, and I’d like to bring him inside.”
“By all means.”
“I have to warn you that he’s a werewolf.”
“The moon isn’t up.”
“He’s not sprouting fur at the moment, but he will again tonight.”
“I see. How may I be of service?”
“Can you control a werewolf with your command thing?”
“Werewolves are supernatural. I can control the human, but not the beast.”
“Do you have any experience with werewolves?”
“Are you going to invite your friend inside or are we going to discuss ancient history for a few hours?”
“Right.” I went upstairs and let Ichiro inside. Victor followed me up and we adjourned to the family room. The room held a large screen television, a large sofa and several chairs. An ornate coffee table stood in the center of the room. The shades were drawn in here, too, but Victor still took a chair away from the window just in case.
I made introductions and Ichiro sat down on the sofa.
“I wish to see my wife and daughter,” Ichiro said.
“Later,” I said, and sat in a chair across from Victor.
“Fill me in,” Victor said, so I did.
When I got him caught up he nodded.
“So you’d like a safe place for Ichiro to transform this evening.”
“Someplace where he won’t kill anyone,” I said.
“I normally inject myself with a sedative to calm the beast,” Ichiro said.
“I don’t have any sedatives here, nor do I have any cages. I suspect your friend at Tally’s was wise to suggest the mountains. There’s plenty of time to get him up there.”
“Nobody has any friends at Tally’s,” I said. “They have their uses, but those uses are few and far between.”
“As you say. Regardless, I’m afraid I won’t be of any help to you in this matter.”
“I have to be honest here, Victor. You haven’t been much help to me in my search for Jonathan either. I spared your life, and you haven’t really earned it yet.”
“Finding someone who doesn’t exist is slightly more difficult than you’d think. Jonathan keeps in touch with a wizard at the Manhattan offices of DGI. Her name is Brenda Slaughter. Unfortunately, I got word that she passed away a week ago.”
I narrowed my gaze. He wasn’t telling me everything. “The truth is not your enemy,” I said.
“I disagree. If I were more honest, I’d have been killed centuries ago.”
“Are you lying to me about Jonathan?”
“No.”
“Are you leaving out pertinent information?”
Victor should never play poker. I rushed forward, grabbed him by the throat, lifted him out of his chair and slammed him against the wall next to the window. I yanked the cord for the shades with one hand and the blind shot to the top of the window. Unfortunately, Victor had sprayed black paint all over the glass so no light leaked through.
“I am not an idiot,” he said with a slight grin.
“Fine. I’ll throw you out the front door.”
I dragged him through the office and toward the front door.
“This is ridiculous,” he said. “We don’t want to tip our hand! The Men of Anubis could make a change in time from before we were here and wipe us all out!”
“I don’t give a shit,” I said.
He grabbed the rail beside the stairs.
“I can pull that rail right out of the floor,” I said.
He didn’t release it, so I kept walking and yanked hard on him. The rail broke off from the stairs and crashed to the hardwood floor as I kept going. Victor let go so the banister wouldn’t leave more scratches.
I dragged him to the front door.
“Be reasonable!” he said. “I don’t want to fight you.”
“You’ve seen me fight,” I said. “You know you’d lose.”
“There is that, but that’s no reason to kill me.”
“You’re a vampire,” I said. “That’s reason enough. But you also lied to me.”
“I lie to everyone,” Victor said. “I just got the news about Brenda Slaughter’s death. As that doesn’t get you any closer to Jonathan, I did not mention it.”
I opened the front door and a line of sunlight landed on the floor, dust motes floating in the beam. “Anything else you need to tell me?” I asked, dragging him close to the sunlight.
He struggled to keep himself safe. “Nothing important.”
I held him in place. “So tell me something that seems unimportant.”
“There’s blood on your boot,” he said.
“Who is Vera?” I asked.
“What?”
“I overheard you talking to TJ. Who is Vera? I thought TJ was Lenora’s companion.”
“Vera is Lenora’s twin sister.”
“Why does that matter?”
“It shouldn’t matter to you. It matters only to the Vampire Council.”
“Of which you’re no longer a member,” I said. “So why is TJ talking to you about it?”
“Because most of the Council believes Vera was destroyed nearly a hundred years ago. At the ball, the announcer said TJ was her companion. TJ was worried people noticed, but nobody ever pays attention to what the announcers say.”
“But Geoffrey noticed.”
“You heard a lot. None of that affects you, Kelly. It’s just vampire social nonsense.”
“If I find out it matters, I’ll kill you. Got it?”
“Testy little minx, aren’t you?” Victor said pulling away from me. He shut the door then straightened his shirt collar and brushed imaginary wrinkles from his sleeves.
“Do you have a computer here?”
“I don’t like them,” Victor said.
“It was a yes or no question.”
“Yes, there is a computer upstairs, but I haven’t set it up.”
“Forget it, I’ll use my phone.”
“What are you doing?”
“Getting the number for the Manhattan office of DGI.”
“What about that Ichiro person?”
“The moon won’t rise for six hours. He’s fine for now.”
I signed into my phone and right as I was about to press the internet icon, Amanda called.
“Shit,” I said, and answered. My call to DGI would have to wait. “Hello, Amanda.”
“Damn, girl, did you have the phone in your hand?”
“Yes.”
“To whom are you speaking now?” Victor asked.
“Who’s with you?” Amanda asked.
“I’m at Victor’s,” I said, turning away from him.
“Oh, baby. Do him once for me. Oh shit, can he hear me?”
“You’re not on speaker.”
She laughed. “Good, I’d have been embarrassed. I need to think before I speak.”
“What do you need, Amanda?”
“I just wanted to update you on Wakumi. She’s stable and they’ve moved her to another room. Jennifer and Cho are there now.”
“All right,” I said. “Thanks.”
“One more thing you might want to know.”
“What’s that?”
“The doctor had another patient with scratches and bites shortly after
Wakumi.”
“Is the other patient still there?”
“No. He was a walk-in at the emergency room. Paid in cash. I overheard the doctors talking about it because he also had some animal hair in his wounds.”
“Did you get his name?”
“I’m lucky I overheard what I did. As soon as they spotted me, they shut the hell up.”
“Damn. I have Ichiro with me now. He bit the guy, but he’s not sure when the victim will turn into a werewolf. There’s a full moon tonight.”
“You think it would happen that fast?”
“Hell if I know,” I said. “Call me if you have another update.”
“You know I will.”
“Any ideas about where to put Ichiro tonight so he doesn’t hurt anyone?”
“What?” Amanda said. “You’re not opting for the morgue?”
“It crossed my mind.”
“Probably the first thing you thought.”
“Guilty,” I said. “But Cho needs a father, so I think we should search for a cure instead.”
“Right. Like there are werewolf cures just lying around waiting to be used.”
“Tally’s has one, but souls are required in payment.”
“Of course they are.”
“Did you research a cure?”
“I haven’t found anything viable. Ask Victor. Talk soon.”
She hung up.
I turned to Victor. “Do you know of a cure for werewolves?”
“You mean lycanthropy, of course.”
“Of course.”
He looked down his nose at me. “So you threaten me with the final death one second, and the next you’re asking me for help?”
“I haven’t threatened your life in at least a minute,” I said.
“It puts a damper on my desire to assist you, and it makes me consider relocating to a more secret domicile.”
“Whatever. You wouldn’t be helping me. You’d be helping Ichiro.”
“I don’t know him.”
“Do I need to threaten your life again?”
“I don’t know of a cure.”
“That wasn’t difficult, was it?”
He grinned.
“Are you telling me the truth?”
His smile widened. “What makes you think I’d lie about such a thing?”
“Because you’re an asshole.”
“Coming from you, that’s a compliment. Now take your wolf friend and vacate the premises.” He leaned forward. “Please.”
“If you know of a cure and you’re withholding it, anyone he kills is on you.”
“I couldn’t care less.”
“Aren’t you a charmer,” I said. I walked to the office and called through. “Ichiro, we’re leaving now.”
Ichiro joined us by the door. “Nice to meet you,” Ichiro said.
“Watch out for this one,” Victor said to him. “She’s as likely to kill you as help you.”
“Ha ha,” I said and led Ichiro outside.
When I opened the door, sunlight streamed toward the stairs and Victor jumped three feet to the side. I grinned.
Outside, Ichiro pointed back to the door. “Is that man a real vampire?”
“A real pain in the ass vampire,” I said.
“I did not know they existed.”
“You learn something new every day. And all of them are pains in the ass,” I said.
“I would have expected them to be a pain in the neck,” Ichiro said.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t quit your day job.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
I arranged for a student to cover my afternoon classes, then we dropped by the hospital because Ichiro wouldn’t shut up about it. I wanted to find a safe place for him to change, but it seemed heartless to keep him away from his family. I also wanted to get a feel for how he acted around them. I knew he’d be on his best behavior with people around, but I could usually get a sense for how dangerous someone might be. So far, Ichiro hadn’t tripped many triggers for me beyond a lingering anger, but that seemed to be under control, so I suspected Jennifer felt he was dangerous simply because his wife and daughter left the house every month for the three days of the full moon.
If they were leaving only due to his lycanthropic issues, it wasn’t a big deal. As I’d seen nothing to suggest Yakuza, I was leaning toward Ichiro being an okay guy caught in an untenable position.
Wakumi was alone in a private room with a drawn curtain giving her a bit of privacy as the door stood open. She slept in a rolling bed with tubes and wires attached, and machines beeping around her, fluid being pumped into her veins. As we entered the room, her blood pressure cuff tightened with a buzzing sound and a machine calculated her numbers with little hisses as the band loosened. Her pressure looked a bit high.
I was surprised not to see Jennifer and Cho.
Ichiro rushed to Wakumi’s bedside, took her hand in his, and spoke to her in Japanese. Her face was bandaged where he’d slashed her, and he reached toward it for a moment, then lowered his hand and his head at the same time. He held her right hand, and kept whispering words I couldn’t understand, but I didn’t need to know. His body shook with sobs and he wiped at his eyes when he looked at the ceiling.
A nurse entered the room.
“Oh, I didn’t realize she had visitors.”
Ichiro turned toward the nurse. “I am her husband.”
“I’m Rebecca, your wife’s nurse today.”
“How is she?”
“She’s stable. She lost a lot of blood, but she’s strong.”
“Is my daughter here?”
“Jennifer and Amanda took her to get a late lunch. They might be in the cafeteria.”
“Thank you,” he said giving her a slight bow. He stepped back to give her access, and she checked the pumps then listened to Wakumi’s heart through a stethoscope.
When she finished she pointed at the dry erase board hanging on the wall. “If you need me, my number is on the board.”
“Thank you very much.”
She stepped out.
“We can check the cafeteria, see if Cho is there,” I said.
“I would very much like to see her.”
When we exited the room, a Japanese man with his left arm in a sling nearly ran into us. I spotted the dagger in his hand at the last moment, and shoved Ichiro out of the way. The man drove the dagger into my gut.
“Dammit,” I said. “I like this shirt.”
I chopped his arm with the side of my hand to break his grip. He tried to spin and elbow me with his injured arm, but I swept his feet and planted him on the ground. I dropped a knee into his chest.
“Help!” Ichiro yelled.
“It’s all right, Ichiro,” I said. “I’ve got this.”
A voice on the intercom said, “Code Gray on the fourth floor. Code Gray, fourth floor.”
A security guard raced down the hall toward us, and Rebecca hurried back to us as well.
“You got lucky,” I whispered to the man while committing his face to memory.
He grinned at me, but said nothing.
I let the security guard take him away because I didn’t want to cause a scene. Rebecca rushed to me. “You’ve been stabbed.”
I pulled the dagger from my gut. “It’s nothing,” I said.
But that didn’t work.
Rebecca and several nurses from the nearby station herded me to an open room. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, so I tried to tuck the bloody blade into my inside jacket pocket, but another security guard reached for it. I let him take it.
“I’ll call the RRT,” one nurse said, hurrying to an intercom. Great, I’d have to deal with a rapid response team, too.
“I’m fine,” I said.
“You were stabbed. The damage could be severe!”
“It’s barely a scratch.”
“The blade went in to the hilt.”
“Don’t touch me,” I said. “Where’s Ichiro?”
I tried to push the nurses as
ide gently, but they weren’t having any of that. “Let us see,” Rebecca said. “We need to get you to the ER.”
“I’m fine, I tell you.”
“That’s not for you to say."
“Ichiro!” I yelled.
He didn’t reply.
“I need to check on him,” I said.
“Not until we check on you,” Rebecca said.
Four nurses blocked my path.
“Fine.” I lifted my shirt to reveal my stomach. There was blood, but not much. I reached over, grabbed a tissue from a bedside table and wiped the blood away to reveal a small scratch that would be completely healed in a minute. “See? I’m fine.”
The nurses prodded my belly.
“I saw it go in.”
“It just caught my shirt,” I said. “It scratched me, but not bad. Doesn’t even hurt. Now may I go?”
Rebecca shook her head. “Not a chance. I have to file an incident report, and here comes the RRT.”
Next thing I knew, a team of clinicians surrounded me with CNAs hovering on the periphery. I didn’t see any actual doctors, though.
“No injuries,” one clinician said.
“She’d been stabbed. I saw the knife go in.”
“There’s no injury,” the man said. He glared at Rebecca, and while he said, “But we’re happy to respond anytime,” he might as well have said, “Why the fuck did you call us?”
They stared in disbelief, but they couldn’t say anything because if there wasn’t a wound, they had nothing to dress.
“Let me pass,” I said, and squeezed through them. By the time I reached the hall, Ichiro was gone.
The nurses followed me out and moved around me to get back to their stations. Some of them pulled out cellphones to answer texts, probably about the Code Gray, but maybe asking to meet in a supply closet for a quickie if you believe what you see on Grey’s Anatomy. Others went to their portable computers lining the walls. Security hovered, but there was nothing for them to do. I double checked on Wakumi—she was sleeping the day away—then started to move down the hall to the elevators, and that’s when the security guards blocked my path.
“Police will be here in no time, ma’am. They’ll have lots of questions.”
“You’ve got the bad guy in custody,” I said. “I have better things to do.”
“Sorry, ma’am. You’re not going anywhere.”
I grinned. Like they were going to be able to stop me. I pushed through them, and when they tried to grab me, I grabbed one of them, spun him into the other, and planted them on the floor.
