Not Even Bones

by Rebecca Schaeffer

  I’m going to kill him, Mirella’s voice whispered in Nita’s memory.

  Nita’s hand was steady on her weapon. Though she was sure it wouldn’t be when she fired, because she had terrible aim. When she got out of here, she was going to work on that. Maybe take a shooting class.

  They came out of the woods and into a clearing with a small house. This one was far more elaborate than Reyes’, and looked more lived in. There were decorations on the side, light shining through the windows, and laughter leaking through the cracks.

  Nita nodded to Kovit and they approached.

  Kovit paused, tilted his head and whispered, “There’s five people in the building.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “Pain. Everyone is always in pain. Whether it’s a loose hangnail, a sore joint, a cramped back muscle—something. No human is never not in at least a minute amount of pain.”

  That was interesting. Nita had never thought about it, but it did make sense that people always had some pain. She wondered if she was invisible to Kovit right now. “You can sense all that?”

  “Yes.”

  Nita nodded. “All right. How do we want to proceed?”

  Kovit flicked his switchblade out. “They’re separated. Three in one room, two in another. I suggest we go together into the room with three, take them out before they know what’s happening, and then when the other two come in, we’ll be ready.”

  “Three against two isn’t great odds. What if we make a noise to lure one away?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think they’re stupid enough to fall for that. They’d leave as a group. Surprise is our best strategy.”

  One minute you’re obsessing about having murdered Reyes, and the next you’re planning to “take out” people? How the mighty have fallen.

  Oh, do shut up.

  “Okay.” Nita held her gun up. “You lead.”

  “Try not to shoot Boulder, or we’ll have the same problem we had with Reyes. I’m sure she had cash squirreled away in her house somewhere, but damned if we can find it without her help.”

  Right. Killing Boulder was bad. Kovit needed to extract money from him.

  Once that was done, though, the man was dead. Mirella deserved at least that much.

  They circled around to the other side of the house, over to a screened window. Kovit used his switchblade to cut through the mosquito netting, and he crept inside. The room they’d chosen was dark, and Nita was glad she had Kovit here, aware of where everyone in the building was at all times.

  She hauled herself through the window and onto a plush carpet. The floorboards squeaked when she put weight on them.

  Kovit moved silently, and Nita wished she knew how he did it. She’d have to ask him to teach her. It seemed to be a useful skill.

  Kovit moved to the door of the room. She could hear muffled voices beyond, speaking in English. Kovit looked to Nita, pointed to the door, and held up three fingers. Nita raised her gun in response.

  He kicked the door open.

  There were three men in the next room, sitting at a table with liquor and cards. They all wore sweat-stained white tank tops and camo pants, and had multiple weapons hanging from their belts.

  None of them were Boulder.

  All of them were surprised, mouths open in little o’s. Nita wondered how long it had been since someone had the audacity to try to assassinate Boulder in his own home. Once you were feared enough, the fear itself acted as a deterrent. It had made Boulder cocky. He would regret that soon.

  Nita tightened her grip on her gun, aimed at the man reaching for his own weapon, and fired.

  And missed.

  Kovit, however, didn’t. Moving with the speed and grace of a martial arts film stuntman, he was across the room and stabbing within seconds. His knife was everywhere, moving from one man to the next, leaving only blood and fallen bodies in its wake.

  Kovit had two down on the ground in moments, but the third raised his gun. Nita pulled the trigger on hers first. Three times, this time, just to be sure.

  This time, all three shots hit.

  They didn’t hit the best places. One in the arm, one in the shoulder, and one in the thigh. But the man crumpled, screaming. Kovit’s foot snaked out and kicked the man’s fallen weapon away.

  Then the door on the other side of the room burst open, as the other two men ran toward the sound of shots. One man was like the other three, in tank top and camo pants. The other wore a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and slacks. Also, a really big gun. A bazooka? A machine gun?

  Of course Boulder had brought a massive gun. Just great.

  Nita shot the last guard, and Kovit moved in. Despite all the posturing and the giant gun, Kovit had a knife to Boulder’s throat in seconds, before he had enough time to even aim. Boulder’s hands clenched on the gun, but with a knife at his throat, all that firepower was useless.

  “Drop the weapon, please,” Kovit hissed, a crazy smile beginning to quirk the edge of his mouth, his face trying to hold in his barely contained excitement.

  On the ground, the guards groaned. All but one were still alive, though all were injured badly. Kovit was shivering with pleasure, making his knife hand shake a little on Boulder’s throat. A trickle of blood from a small cut slid down Boulder’s neck.

  Boulder dropped his weapon on the ground, eyes never leaving Kovit. Nita went around the room and picked up the guns, taking them from weapons belts and the floor. One man made a faint grab for her, but Kovit moved faster and crushed the man’s hand beneath his foot.

  Kovit sighed in pleasure, and used zip ties they’d taken from Reyes’ place to attach Boulder to the chair.

  “What do we do with the guards?” Nita asked.

  Kovit’s whole body spasmed, almost like the precursor to a seizure, and one of the men on the floor died. Nita saw the man’s body slump, seeming to shrink as his soul left him.

  Kovit let out a breath, a contented smile crossing his face. He looked at the remaining guards and tilted his head. “Leave them. They’re going to die soon without some serious medical intervention.” He closed his eyes. “I can always tell.”

  Nita watched him, then shrugged. If they were going to die anyway, why not let Kovit enjoy them for a few minutes?

  Kovit had a crazy, fucked-up, wrong smile on his face when he sat across from Boulder, twirling his switchblade in one hand.

  Boulder glared. “What is this?”

  Nita laughed. Boulder turned to stare at her, and Kovit’s expression briefly slipped into worry, before the crazy mask went back on.

  Nita wasn’t sure why she laughed. It wasn’t a normal laugh, it was a little high-pitched and hysterical. She was standing in a room full of dying people, asking someone to torture a crime lord so she could steal his money. When had this happened? How had her life ended up like this?

  When had she decided this situation was something she was okay with being in?

  When he took Mirella’s eye. When he didn’t even realize who he’d murdered.

  This man deserved everything he got.

  “Mr. Boulder.” Nita grinned at him, and she was sure it was an even crazier expression than Kovit’s. “My friend and I are looking for some capital.”

  “What?”

  “Money.” The humor drained out of Nita as fear flickered behind Boulder’s swamp green eyes and his shiny white smile vanished. “Where’s your money?”

  His voice was cold, arrogance leaching out of every word. “I’m not giving you a cent. You can’t do this to me. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

  Nita shrugged, gave one last edged smile to Boulder, and said, “Well then, if you don’t want to answer me, you can answer my friend.”

  Nita turned and left the room, leaving Kovit to do what he did best.

  Thirty

  THE SCREAMS DIDN’T last long. Thirty seconds was Nita’s guess.

  Then Kovit came out and rolled his eyes. “He caved.”

 
“That was fast. You think he’s lying?”

  “Nah.” He shrugged, “This one, he’s terrified of being hurt. He’ll do anything to avoid torture. Having him break this fast is a good sign he’s telling the truth.”

  “Ah.” Such interesting things Nita had been learning since she came here.

  “Can you check for the money? Upstairs bedroom, safe under the bed. Combo is 09-04-18.”

  “Under the bed?”

  Kovit just shook his head in amusement. “I know. So sad and cliché. We didn’t even need him.”

  Nita went upstairs, and sure enough, there was a safe right where it was supposed to be. She pulled it out and spun the dial. It clicked open, and Nita hauled on the heavy safe door. Inside were stacks of what must have been thousands of dollars. Nita pulled one stack out and took a bill out of the elastic band holding the roll together. She held it up to the overhead light so she could see the watermark. Looked real.

  She sat there for a moment, just letting herself take it in. She’d done it. She had the money.

  She could escape.

  Hell, she could pay for college with this much money. Her lips stretched in a giddy smile at the thought, and part of her wanted to laugh, but she felt like if she let the sound out, there would be something hysterical about it, so she kept it locked inside.

  Nita shook her head, stupid smile still covering her face, and pulled the other contents of the safe out. A folder with pictures of a man she didn’t know going into a building. She flipped through the pictures until she saw the man enter a bedroom with someone clearly far too young, and then stopped. Blackmail.

  There was a stack of similar folders, all pictures of people she didn’t know. There was also a hard drive, which Nita was willing to bet was password protected. More blackmail?

  She sat back.

  She looked at the pictures spread around her, the money stacked in the safe, and then down at Reyes’ phone. She patted her pocket, where she’d tucked the lists of corrupt police officials.

  She wondered how much they were worth to the right people.

  There were footsteps on the stairs, and Nita stiffened, turning around. She picked up her gun and stood at the ready, but lowered it when Kovit walked into the room.

  His eyes widened at the display of money. “Wow.”

  “Yeah.”

  Kovit grinned. “I don’t think there’s a guard in the world we couldn’t bribe with this.”

  Nita looked over at him. “Where’s Boulder?”

  “Still downstairs. He pissed himself waiting, and it was starting to stink. Also, you were taking a while. So I thought I’d come check on you.”

  “Sorry.” Nita brushed a strand of hair out of her face. On the floor, Reyes’ phone began to jingle. Nita glared and wished she could figure out how to change the ringtone to mute.

  She briefly considered answering, but didn’t really see the point of keeping up the ruse of being Reyes. With any luck, they were going to be on a boat leaving this horrid market in a few hours.

  “Anything interesting?”

  “Some blackmail. Money.”

  He laughed. “I see the money. It looks like freedom to me.”

  Nita had to smile at that, but her fingers lingered on the blackmail photos. Boulder was an unnatural, just like Nita. He could have been sold on the black market at any time, but because of who he was, no one tried. It was like celebrities could get away with murder when ordinary people couldn’t. If you were someone important, you were beyond the normal rules of society.

  “Nita, what are you thinking?” Kovit asked. He knelt down beside her, face concerned.

  Nita examined Kovit. She studied his dark eyes, the coiled grace with which he crouched. She thought of how quickly Boulder had caved to Kovit’s demands. Every dictator and mafia boss worth their salt had a zannie working for them. They were a symbol of power—and power was protection.

  She sighed, running her fingers across the money. “Just . . . seeing this made me remember that even if I get out, I’ll still be screwed. With the video.”

  Kovit frowned. “You wouldn’t consider living anonymously? Stay out of the limelight, maybe in a small town . . .”

  “That doesn’t guarantee safety.” She sighed. “And I don’t want to live my life terrified I could end up in the background of the wrong person’s selfie and be exposed.”

  “Good point.”

  Nita’s fists clenched. “And . . . there’s also . . .”

  She swallowed, searching for the words.

  He tilted his head to the side and rested his chin on his fist, waiting.

  Nita looked down. It felt weird to talk about her dreams with anyone. She’d only had her parents before, and her mother had been . . . critical . . . of Nita’s goals. Nita didn’t think Kovit would be. She didn’t have any justification for that, but she thought he’d listen and not mock.

  “I always wanted to be a scientist. Go to conferences, publish papers in Nature, study various unnatural biology.” She paused, trying to gauge his reaction, but she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “I want to be someone in my field. Someone recognized. I don’t want to have to hide my research, or let other people take the credit. I want to be able to choose my life, not hide it.”

  Kovit was quiet for a moment before he said, “I think you’d make a great researcher.”

  Nita’s eyes widened, and she ducked her head before he could see the trembling expression that had crossed her face. It was the first time anyone had ever said something nice about her dream.

  “Thanks,” she whispered.

  He half smiled. “You would.” His smile fell. “If you could find a way around the video.”

  She nodded and cleared her throat. “Exactly. I was just wondering if . . . if I had enough power, if I was someone as feared as Boulder, would I be safe?”

  Kovit shook his head. “Boulder may not have been targeted because he was an aur. But his power made him a different type of target.”

  Nita picked up a wad of money. “I suppose you’re right. It didn’t help him in the end, did it?”

  “No, it didn’t.” A sad smile crossed Kovit’s face.

  But it might help you, a small voice in the back of Nita’s mind whispered, unwilling to let the idea go. If you were more feared than Boulder, more feared than Reyes, even more feared than Kovit, more feared than anyone else . . .

  Nita opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, she heard a click outside the door. Then a creak of floorboards. She spun around, and Kovit’s head snapped up.

  Nita’s mind raced. If there was someone here, shouldn’t Kovit have been able to tell? He said he could sense pain and everyone was in pain. No one should have been able to sneak up on them, right? Unless Kovit was in on it and had betrayed her. A quick glance at him told her that wasn’t the case; he looked just as confused and wary as she did.

  She reached for her gun on instinct and pulled it up in time to see Lorenzo and Jorge enter the room. Both of them were grinning.

  “Sorry to interrupt the heart-to-heart,” Lorenzo sneered.

  Nita began to squeeze the trigger, but not fast enough.

  The sound of the gunshot echoed through Nita’s skull. Her gun dropped from her suddenly limp fingers and her body fell backwards, head cracking on the floor.

  It took a moment to register what had happened, because she still had her pain circuits off.

  Nita had been shot.

  Thirty-One

  NITA HALF EXPECTED Kovit to leap up and slaughter everyone. He was fast and well-trained, and he had no compunctions about killing. But he wasn’t stupid, and there were at least two guns Nita could see trained on him. There was nothing he could do that wouldn’t involve him getting shot.

  Like Nita.

  I can’t believe I’ve been shot.

  There was something unreal about the whole experience. Partly because getting shot just seemed like a thing that would never happen to Nita—it happened in movies. To
action heroes. Nita was no action hero.

  But the lack of pain made everything more surreal, like she was watching a movie where someone was shot. Unreal. Fake.

  Nita’s eyes were heavy, and she let them drift shut. She couldn’t focus on what was going on. She needed to start healing now, before she lost concentration or blood or something and couldn’t use her ability. Thank God her pain circuits were off—she’d never have been able to focus on healing herself with that much pain running through her.

  The bullet had entered through her shoulder, cracking and shattering bone as it went. It hadn’t nicked the artery, so that was good, but it had crushed a lot of blood vessels and torn through muscles. Nita was bleeding. A lot.

  Too much.

  She needed to stop it. She increased her blood-clotting factor, threw platelets at it, and cut off circulation to the area. She tried to repair veins, just temporarily, quick fixes to keep the blood in until she could get something more done. She needed to focus.

  She felt dizzy. Bad sign.

  There was pressure on her shoulder. Someone was trying to stem the bleeding. Nita cracked her eyes open and saw Kovit kneeling above her. He’d taken a bedspread and had wrapped it tightly around her shoulder. His face was tense, mouth a tight line.

  Nita let her eyes drift closed again, turning her focus inward to her body. This was going to take time, and she didn’t know how much she had.

  “Get her up.” That was Lorenzo’s voice.

  “Let her lie here for a minute or two to stop the bleeding. She’ll be easier to move if she’s not dripping everywhere.” Kovit’s voice was chilly.

  Lorenzo laughed. “You really expect me to believe you care? You’re just stalling for time.”

  Kovit’s fingers tightened around Nita’s shoulder. “Perhaps.”

  “Pick her up. You can carry her.”

  There was a long silence, and then Kovit shifted position beside her. She could hear the rustle of his clothes, the creak of his feet on the floorboards. He tucked one arm under her shoulders and the other under her knees. Nita hoped the movement wouldn’t make things too much harder to heal. She’d already managed to stem a lot of blood, and she was working double time on putting things back where they were supposed to be so they could heal right.