Circle of Enemies

by Harry Connolly

  These drapes couldn’t be left here; I had to take them with me. I would either have to find Annalise and hope that one of her spells—the green fire?—could kill the predators without opening a passage to let more in, or I was going to have to figure out where they’d been summoned.

  I didn’t have what you’d call encyclopedic knowledge of predators or magic, but I had seen a couple of summonings. They took place inside circles—usually—sometimes painted, sometimes made of a particular material. They were like the circle around Wally King’s cabin, only not usually so huge, and they could imprison the predator in our world.

  I needed to know where Wally had summoned the drapes for Arne and his crew. Maybe, if I was lucky, the circle would still be intact. If a guard died inside it, the next group of predators—more than five of them, I guessed—would be contained.

  I needed to catch up with Arne or one of the others. I needed a way to get that information out of them, and I needed to get them inside the circle, too.

  The first thing I did was search the invisible bodies. One of them had taken the cellphone Annalise had given me, and I couldn’t contact her without it. The drapes, strangely, seemed to be both under and over the guard’s clothes. I could touch and move the fabric freely, but it was completely hidden by the predator’s invisibility.

  I searched all five bodies and couldn’t find the phone. Damn. It was probably forgotten in the pocket of that meathead speeding toward Mexico.

  That meant I would have to find Annalise or the circle—not an easy thing to do with ten million people in L.A. County, but I had a couple of leads.

  There was a little shed out by the pool, but when I opened it I found nothing but towels and water toys. Apparently, Francois was too rich to own a wheelbarrow.

  I took an office chair from a back bedroom, laid the bodyguards into it one by one, and wheeled each of them into the garage. The cargo area of the H2 was huge, but so were the guards. I had to slide out the last row of seats to make room for them.

  Damn, they were heavy. At least they hadn’t gone limp—each man was still fighting the effect of the predator, and all their muscles were clenched. I wished the blond guard hadn’t run off. I could have used help getting the bodies up into the SUV.

  I stopped myself. They weren’t bodies. Not yet. They were still living men, and I wanted to treat them that way, not least of all because if one of them died in the back of this SUV, I was going to have drapes all over me.

  I tried to lay them side by side; if one of them was pinned at the bottom, the weight of the others might suffocate him. The last two went into the backseat, tipped at an angle to fit.

  By the time I was finished, I had slime all over my arms and on my neck. The burning and itching was intense. I skipped the sink and the shower and went straight out to the pool. After dropping my wallet and ghost knife on the grass, I toppled into the water.

  I climbed out dripping wet, feeling like a guest who’d overstayed his welcome. I made a last stop at the fridge to steal six finger sandwiches, then it was time to go. I opened the back of the H2 to tap around the interior with a broom handle, just to reassure myself that everyone was still there. Then I climbed dripping wet into the driver’s seat.

  A button above the rearview mirror opened both the garage door and the driveway gate. I pulled out into the street, threw the switch to close them both again, and drove away.

  There were more predators out there for me to find.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  There was only one place to start my search: Ty had been much too excited to hear about Lino Vela’s house. I didn’t like the idea of Ty—or anyone in Arne’s crew—finding a spell book. I didn’t even want them to hear the words “Book of Oceans.”

  I drove toward Hancock Park, trying to be careful on the highway. The Hummer felt as wide as a traffic lane, and I didn’t want to get into a fender bender in a stolen car. Luckily, other drivers assumed I was a jackass and gave me a lot of space.

  I pulled up outside Lino Vela’s address. Everything seemed quiet, but of course the greenery hid most of the property. I found a parking spot a block away and around the corner and pulled in.

  Annalise’s Dodge Sprinter sat parked across the street from Vela’s gate. I tapped on the window. Annalise was in the passenger seat. She opened the driver’s door and I climbed behind the wheel.

  I didn’t fit. The seat had been moved forward as far as it would go. Annalise had driven herself. “Talbot didn’t come with you?”

  “No,” she said. “Have you accomplished anything?”

  “I have five predators in the back of an SUV.” She seemed surprised. “They have victims. Want to destroy them?”

  She looked uncomfortable. She wanted to, always, but she didn’t want to leave her post. I told her the drapes take a long time to feed, and what happens when the victim finally dies.

  She asked how long we had until they actually killed their victims. I thought about the garbage stink in Melly’s house, and the big pile of mail, and I said it seemed to take time, maybe a day or two.

  Annalise nodded. “Normally I wouldn’t wait to take out a couple of predators, but this is an unusual circumstance. If Wally King thinks there’s a way to get a spell book from this house, he’ll be back. I have to be here when he shows up. I can’t let him get a lead on the Book of Motes or the Book of Oceans.”

  There was a note of desperation in her voice. Was she worried that Wally would become a primary? I was sure of it. But that wasn’t all. The original spell books were a tremendous source of power, and she wanted them for herself.

  But that was above me. I was just a guy with some invisible monsters in the back of his stolen Hummer. “Boss, these guys are dying slowly and badly. We need to … Wouldn’t Wally have needed a circle to summon these things? A barrier, like the one in Canada?”

  “Yes. Get one of your buddies to tell us where it is. If we can find that, we’ll kill them there. If we can’t, we’ll try to get our hands on his book; it would have instructions on making the circle ourselves. If that falls through, we’ll have to risk it. We won’t have a choice. And yeah, those guys are suffering, but we’re not here to make things easier for people.”

  She was looking away from me as she said it, and I was glad. She wouldn’t have been happy if she’d seen my reaction—and maybe that’s why she was looking away. Because in a sense, she was right; the most important thing was stopping the predators. Still, the suffering those men were going through had to count for something.

  “So you’re just going to sit here, waiting for Wally King?”

  She still didn’t look at me. “Looks that way.”

  “What if one of the invisibles turns up? How will you know?” She shrugged. “What if the guy who lives here is in danger?”

  She turned and looked me in the eye. Her pale face was serene and still. “We’re not here for him, either.”

  Before I had a chance to think about it, I was pushing the car door open and climbing out. I didn’t want to be near her right then. Annalise had the power to kill predators and help people. The only thing she lacked was the will to do it. She just didn’t give a shit.

  I jogged across the street and went through the gate. The grounds were as overgrown as they’d been before, and it was quiet. The sun was still burning hot, and my clothes were drying quickly. I jogged toward the door. It was closed.

  As I came closer, I saw a tall patch of natural wood on the painted green door. It had been repaired while I was in Canada, then broken open again. Someone had kicked the door in.

  I could have gone back for Annalise, but I didn’t. Ty might be in there, and who knows how many others from my old crew. They had predators on them, yes, and they would have to be killed, yes—and damn if that wasn’t a hard thought to take and hold—but I didn’t want Annalise anywhere near them. She didn’t care about making things easier for people. She didn’t care, period, and I didn’t want her anywhere near my people.

 
I laid my hand on the door but didn’t open it. Maybe there would be a better way. I went back down the steps to the narrow path between the bushes and went around the house.

  It was impossible to move without rustling bushes, and the noise made me feel incredibly exposed. The windows were as high as my shoulder, and the bushes had grown slightly higher than the sill. There was no way I was getting through a window, or even getting a good look inside.

  I went around a tall tree to the next set of windows when someone walked past the glass, moving away from me.

  I ducked low. It was Bud, and while his face was turned away, I could see his jaw moving. He was also scratching furiously at the back of his neck. Was he talking to Lino or to one of the guys in the crew?

  I crouched low, squeezing between some sort of thorny bush and the tall wooden fence that marked the edge of the property. I reached the backyard and the lush vegetable garden. It was empty. A rain barrel sat beneath a back window, with a PVC pipe leading out of the house and through the lid. I moved toward the back steps.

  “Good to see you, Ray.”

  Damn. I turned toward the sound of that voice and saw Summer sitting on a little bench by the tomato vines. She held a gun on me. For a moment, I thought it was a toy ray gun, then I realized it had a silencer on it.

  With her empty hand, she rubbed at her nose. My ghost knife was in my pocket, but could I reach for it without being shot?

  “Don’t,” she said. “I can see your spongy little brain working—it’s right there on your face—and if you try something stupid, I’ll kill you and make my excuses to the new boss.”

  “Who’s the new boss?” I asked. I already knew the answer.

  “He can introduce himself.”

  She nodded toward the back door and stood. I went up the steps with her behind me. I pulled the door open, thinking I might spin around and snatch the gun from her, but when I looked back she’d gone invisible again.

  I couldn’t steal what I couldn’t see. I wondered whether the predator would feel pain when the bullet left the barrel, or if the gun became very hot. I went inside.

  The house was stuffy; Lino needed to turn on his air-conditioning. There was a small entryway with a long room off to the side—it held gardening equipment, piles of sports gear, and the laundry machines. The door behind me didn’t swing shut right away; Summer was staying close enough to catch the door, but not too close. I went up the next step into the kitchen.

  As I entered the room, I let my hand fall on the door and slammed it shut behind me. I twisted to the side, bumping against the stove and the handle of a bubbling pot of water as a single gunshot punched through the door. My ghost knife was in my hand, but I couldn’t use it. Not unless I wanted the drape to kill Summer and bring more of its kind.

  I took the handle of the pot—there were three eggs bubbling in about a quart of water—and lifted it off the stove.

  As the door swung open, I threw the water into the gap. I felt like a monster as I did it, but that didn’t stop me. The steaming water passed through the open space where she should have been but struck the wall beyond. Summer was too smart to rush through a door face first; I’d missed. She became visible and glared at me, her teeth bared.

  She lifted the gun.

  “Stop!” someone shouted. Fidel stood in the doorway to the next room. He wore a green silk suit that I guessed was tailor-made. It looked sharp, but how could he stand it in this heat?

  “Fuck that,” Summer said. “I owe him a bullet.”

  Fidel put his finger into a hole in the cabinet. “You gave it, now knock it off. The boss wants to talk to him.”

  Summer made a face when she heard the word boss, but she didn’t pull the trigger. Fidel waved at me and I followed him, wishing I could keep the bulletproof tattoos on my chest toward Summer.

  We went into the dining room, where the statues and other antiques lined the walls. Ty was standing beside the window, and Bud entered from the front hall at the same time I did. The table was on its side against the wall, and Lino Vela was sitting in one of the chairs. He looked exposed and vulnerable, and he was sweating freely. His thermal coffee cup lay on the floor beside him, and I was absurdly glad it wasn’t leaking. Focus, focus.

  “You brought these people here?” Lino blurted at me.

  Wally King was standing in the corner. “Hi, Ray,” he said without looking at me. He stared at the little statue he’d tried to steal, running his fingers along the place where the little figure’s head was coming off. “I have to say I’m disappointed.”

  Was he expecting me to sneak up in a ninja costume? Drive through the front wall in a half-track? I didn’t care; I wasn’t in the mood to play his games.

  And damn if Annalise wasn’t just a few dozen yards away. He’d gotten here without her noticing, or before she’d set up her stakeout. I needed to get to the front door and shout for her—somehow—as soon as I found out where Wally’s summoning circle was, and whether he’d erased it.

  I turned away from him toward the others. “You can’t be working with this guy,” I told them. “You don’t realize what he’s done.”

  “I think we got a pretty good idea,” Bud drawled. He scratched at a spot on his leg.

  “He’s killed you.”

  “You’re the one who wants to kill us,” Ty said. “He explained it.”

  Fidel cut in. “Why we gotta be your enemy? You remember the old times, don’t you, Ray? Shit, I feel like an old man just talking this way, but we have history.”

  “I remember. It’s good stuff and bad, just like any family. That’s why I’m here.” Fidel scratched the back of his hand, and I couldn’t look away. “What he’s done to you is going to get bad soon. Very bad. And after it kills you, it’ll bring more of those things into L.A. I have the proof right outside—”

  “Outside where your peer is?” Wally said. He looked at Fidel. “She’s the killer he works for, and she’d burn down this whole city block, killing all the kids and mothers and old people, to get to us. That’s what they do.”

  “She’s here for him,” I told Fidel. “I want to help you.”

  Wally laughed. “I don’t think they believe you, Ray.”

  I looked at their faces and knew he was right. They’d seen through me, but I had to keep trying. “We can go outside without her seeing you. I have something to show you in the trunk of a Hummer. Guys, you don’t realize what he’s done.”

  “Yes, we do,” Summer said. “We’re not stupid.”

  Ty held out his arm as though he wanted to show it to me. “We know these things are like a poison. But he’s the only one who can offer an antidote.”

  Fidel was still smiling. “We aren’t into euthanasia, baby.”

  I reminded myself that none of them had seen a drape as it fed. “Lenard is dead,” I told them.

  That hit them hard. There was silence for a moment, until Bud said: “How?”

  “How do you think?” I snapped back, because I didn’t want to put the finger on Arne, not even now. “The creature that was wrapped around him opened a hole in our universe and carried him off. He’s gone.”

  “Opened a hole …,” Summer said with contempt. “What bullshit.”

  I spun on her. “How perfect is this: Vanishing Girl doesn’t believe in magic. Wake the fuck up. There’s more going on here than you understand, no matter what he’s told you.” I spoke to the group of them. “It killed Lenard and carried him back to its home, and more of them came through the opening. I have them, and the people they’re eating, in a car outside. All I need is for you to be willing to look at what’s going to happen when the symbols he put on you wear off.”

  “Crazy,” Lino muttered. “You’re all crazy.” Wally laughed again.

  The others thought about what I’d said. Summer’s face was closed and angry—she didn’t trust me, but she was willing to let the others think things through. Fidel smirked at me; he’d been trying to win me over, talking about old friendships, but
that didn’t mean he was open to what I was saying. Just the opposite, really.

  Before I could judge Ty and Bud’s responses, Wally broke in. “Why don’t you tell them why you’re here, Ray?”

  I turned to him. He looked so grotesque that I wanted to look away, but I didn’t. “Because a friend came to my apartment in Seattle and told me that you’d killed her.”

  “I don’t mean why you’re in Los Angeles.” Wally sounded annoyed. “I mean why you’re here in this house. Surrounded by all this crap.”

  “Because I knew Ty was coming here, and I needed to find these guys.”

  “You’re a liar and you’re not even good at it.” He reached out to the head-chopping statue, wrapped his hand around it as though he was going to pick it up, then let it go. “You’re here for the same reason I am, for the same reason your boss is. For the same reason your own secret society pays the people across the street to keep video security cameras pointed at this house at all times.”

  Lino glanced up at that. “What?”

  Wally liked being the focus of attention. He kept talking. “Georges Francois, the owner’s great-great-something-grandfather, had a real spell book. One of the three originals. And when he vanished, he left behind this collection.”

  If he was talking, he wasn’t killing me. I gave him a prompt. “A collection that can’t be broken up.”

  “Nobody can break apart this collection. I have some wild and weird outsiders in here with me, but not even they can resist the compulsion to leave it all alone. You think the sapphire dog sold for a high price? This stuff would bring treasure beyond imagining at auction. At least five of the richest men in the world would literally give everything they own for it.”

  “Beyond imagining?” Ty asked. He looked around the room.

  “Try to steal something,” Wally said. “See how far you get. Anyway, the real point is that Francois—the original—had one of the three most powerful magical items in the world, and it’s been missing and presumed lost for over two hundred years.