Angel's Ink (29 page)

When we had descended to the third floor of the basement, I followed one dog out of the elevator while the second dog walked behind me, nails clicking on the bare concrete floor. We weaved through one row after another of shelves and tables containing myriad items. If I paused for a second to look at an object, the dog behind me growled, which was quite successful in keeping me moving. I didn’t dare take my hands out of my jeans pockets.

We finally turned a corner deep in the enormous room and I found Chang sitting on a banged-up metal chair. A small transistor radio rested on the folding table beside him, playing some fuzzy jazz. I couldn’t begin to understand how he was getting a signal so deep underground, below all these layers of concrete, but I let the thought go as a smile split the old Chinese man’s wrinkled face. He clapped his skeletal hands together and the dogs darted to him.

Rubbing both dogs on the head as they sat before him, he looked up at me. “Patty is such a sweetheart.” His words were wrapped in a heavy accent that he had never lost despite all of his years in the U.S. I had heard him speak a couple of times in a dialect that was akin to Cantonese, but had an older feel to it, the same way in which modern English is different from old English.

“I thought Cake was the sweet one,” I said, looking from the dogs to Chang.

Chang looked up at me and his smile grew a little wider. “Does it matter?”

“No, it doesn’t,” I said, matching his smile. In truth, the dogs looked absolutely identical in every way. It didn’t matter which one Chang said was the sweet one because I couldn’t tell Patty apart from Cake. Of course, any man who would name his brutal dogs after a children’s rhyme had to have a sick, twisted streak to him. I knew better than to press my luck.

“You’re a smart boy, Gage Powell,” he said with a nod. Chang patted each dog on the side and they left, returning to where we had gotten off the elevator to wait for me to finish with their master. It always seemed strange that he didn’t keep his dogs with him when he discussed transactions with his clients. He appeared to be a weak old man who could be broken in half with just a thought, but then anyone who could actually use the items Chang possessed also knew that the easiest-looking targets were always some of the most dangerous. From what I could tell, Chang wasn’t a warlock, but that didn’t mean he was powerless. I just wasn’t stupid enough to try to test his abilities.

“How have you been, Chang?” I asked as the old man stubbed out the cigarette burning away to ash in the aluminum ashtray on the table. Grabbing his wooden cane, Chang pushed to his feet. His thin body was stiff, but he was steady as he started to walk beside me down the aisle.

“Good. Very good, thank you,” he replied. “My babies and I continue to expand my collection of unique items. I’m actually thinking of adding a new floor. I am close to making a very large acquisition.”

I smiled at my companion as he positively beamed with pride. “Can I ask what you’ve acquired?”

Chang paused and stared at me, weighing my trustworthiness, before his smile finally returned. “You’ve been good to me and I don’t think you would have any interest in stealing this item from me,” Chang said, mostly to himself. “I’m working on acquiring the Great Library of Alexandria.”

This time I stopped walking and stared, dumbfounded, at the old man. “I thought it had been lost or destroyed or something.”

“Popular myth has it that Julius Caesar burned it down by accident centuries ago,” Chang said with a derisive snort and a wave of his hand. “That library was the most important thing in existence to the Alexandrians. They would not have allowed it to burn. The building is long gone, but its contents have been hidden and protected these many years. I am close to completing a deal that will put the ancient scrolls into my hands.”

“You’re right that there’s nothing I would want from that collection, but I would love to just see it some time.”

Chang smiled up at me as we started walking again. “We shall see. If you have something interesting to trade, I might consider giving you the honor of looking at the library collection.”

“Thank you,” I murmured, respectfully bowing my head to him.

“Now, you do not visit me often and only when your need is very great.”

“You’re expensive, Chang.”

The little man giggled, tapping his cane on the ground once as we came to a halt in front of a large jar sitting on a shelf that nearly reached the ceiling. “But my items are extremely rare. They have to be expensive.” He reached inside the jar that held a human head, its dreadlocks hanging over the top, and pulled out an egg. “You want pickled egg?” he offered, holding the foul-smelling thing up to me.

“No, thanks. I’m good.” Taking a step away, I looked back down at the head and something about the way one of the dreadlocks moved made me jump. It wasn’t a dreadlock, but a withered snake. “Holy shit, Chang! That’s Medusa’s head!”

“Yeah, it’s great. You interested? It still works.”

“Be careful with that thing,” I said, taking another step away from it while shielding my eyes with a raised hand.

“No worries. The safety is on. Her eyes are closed.” He laughed maniacally at his own joke before patting me on the arm. “Open the eyes and bang! Instant lawn ornament. You need something like that?”

“No, something a little rarer,” I said, looking away as my stomach churned at the sight of Chang popping the egg into his mouth.

“Mmm . . . Gorgon pretty rare. Sounds interesting,” he murmured around a mouthful of rancid egg. We continued walking down the aisle and turned up another. My eyes slid over piles of dusty books, ancient scrolls, colored jars, and ornate boxes that held more secrets. I stopped as I felt the floor shift below me and looked down at an intricately woven Persian rug. Chang growled beside me and pounded the carpet with the end of his cane a couple of times. “Be still, stupid rug.” He then looked up at me with a somewhat hopeful expression. “You need flying carpet?”

It was then I noticed that the four corners of the rug were held down by massive piles of books. Apparently Chang had some problems keeping the rug in one place.

“No, I’m good.”

“It’s a fast way to travel,” Chang pressed.

“But I doubt it’s all that reliable. It seems to have a mind of its own.”

“You’re a strong enough warlock to keep it under control.”

I frowned down at the old man. “You know I gave that up.”

Chang snorted again and shook his head as he resumed walking. “You gave that up like I gave up breathing for Lent.”

I walked by him in silence. He was right, but I wasn’t going to admit it. I didn’t question how Chang knew I had studied to be a warlock because it was Chang’s business to know things that other people didn’t know. It was how he stayed ahead of the competition and acquired the true gems of this world.

“Okay, so no Gorgon head and no flying carpet,” Chang said, breaking the silence that had stretched between us. “What is it that you are looking for?”

I stopped walking and took a deep breath. I knew I could trust Chang not to breathe a word of this conversation to another soul, but I still didn’t like to say the words aloud. “I need water from the River Styx.”

For the first time since I had known him, Chang lost his temper. The little man stomped his feet and swung his cane around, showing more agility than I thought possible for someone his age.

“How you do that?” he shouted. “Out of the millions of items that I have collected over the centuries, how could you pick the one item I have never touched? Never seen with my own eyes!”

Hope deflated in my chest and I shoved one hand through my hair. Chang had everything, and I mean everything. Pots of leprechaun gold, Damocles’s sword, original handwritten manuscripts by Shakespeare, folded-up rainbows trapped in delicate crystals; Chang had it all and had never failed me.

“Are you sure?” I asked in desperation, dropping my hand back to my side.

“Sure? Of course I’m sure. Do you think I don’t know my own possessions?”

“I’m sorry, but I’m desperate.”

“You have to be to ask for such a thing,” Chang snapped back at me. “Why you need it?”

“I’m sure you can guess.” Death was the only thing that such an item could create, but I wasn’t about to voice those words.

“You’re right. You sure you can use nothing else as a substitute?”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry, but I can’t help you.”

I stood sideways in the aisle, gazing back the way we had come, but I didn’t see the towering shelves that surrounded us. I was left with only one other option and it was not going to be pretty or even easy. “I understand. Thanks for your time.”

Chang nodded and clapped his hands once. I looked up to see both the Doberman pinschers turn the corner and stare down the aisle at us. They were patiently waiting to escort me back to the elevator. I started down the aisle alone and then paused when a new thought hit me.

“If I did get my hands on some water from the Styx, what would it be worth to you?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at the old man.

Chang’s grin was positively sinister as his watery eyes narrowed on me. “I have a few truly rare prizes that I would be willing to consider trading for such an item.”

“And for water from all five underworld rivers?”

Chang’s hands spasmed and tightly clenched the handle of his cane. His watery brown eyes turned to vertical yellow slits as he lost his hold on his human form for only a split second at the thought of such a prize. His smile widened, and I could have sworn that I saw a thin curl of smoke drift from the corner of his mouth.

“Bring me such a prize and I will give you the pick of anything from my collection. And if I don’t have what you want then I will acquire it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, suppressing a grin as I resumed walking toward the dogs.

“You won’t give it to anyone else, will you?”

I turned around and walked backward a couple of steps so I could look at him. “You’re the only one I would trust with such things.”

“Good. Good. I will contact you in a couple of days to see how you have done,” Chang said.

I turned back around to face the dogs and waved at Chang one last time, smiling to myself. I really didn’t want water from the underworld rivers in anyone’s hands, but if it could get me something of extreme value that would help Trixie with the elves or myself with the warlocks, then I would make the trade. I just had to figure out what the item would be. Besides, something as rare as water from the underworld rivers would never leave Chang’s possession, and I believed he was the only one who could keep such a dangerous item safe and protected from the world.

My only problem now was figuring out how to get safely to and from the underworld. Getting there wasn’t much of a problem. Getting out with my soul intact was.

Chapter 24

D
rywall chunks and dust covered my living room floor and furniture. I stared up at the bare wooden beams exposed by the hole in my ceiling, wondering for the twentieth time in the past ten minutes if I had lost my mind. Actually, I knew that I had lost my mind. I was planning to kill myself in an attempt to save myself from an early death. My only hope was to escape this death so that I didn’t have to face a death I couldn’t get out of.

Dragging over a folding metal chair, I picked up the heavy orange extension cord I had purchased at the hardware store before arriving at my apartment. I looked down at the noose I had tied in the cord and felt like I was going to be sick. My stomach churned and bubbled with anxiety, making me grateful that I hadn’t stopped for anything besides coffee that morning. The world was closing in, narrowing to a dark tunnel that left me with only this noose and the bare wooden beams in the ceiling of my apartment. I didn’t have a choice.

Reaching up, I threaded the cord around the beam above my head, wrapping it around the wood several times before tying it off. I yanked on it twice, making sure that it would hold my weight. The stoppered glass jars in the pockets of the trench coat I was wearing clinked together like wind chimes in the summer breeze as I moved. Gazing across the room, I looked at the clock in the kitchen. It was a quarter till three. I was out of time. I had already called Trixie, asking her to come to my apartment at exactly three o’clock because I desperately needed her help. I didn’t tell her what I was doing for fear that she would come early and stop me.

My hands were shaking and sweaty when I finally lifted the noose over my head and wrapped it around my neck. I closed my eyes as I tightened it and dropped my hands back down to my sides, brushing against the note taped to my chest that read
REVIVE ME!!!
It was a struggle to slow my breathing down to a steady, even rate while my heart was pounding in my chest so hard that I thought I would have a heart attack before I could hang myself. Balancing one foot on the back of the chair, I tilted the chair so that it stood on only two legs. I had to be careful that I dropped myself slowly. I was attempting to strangle to death rather than snap my neck. While the drop was technically too short for a broken neck, I wasn’t willing to take any chances.

I looked back up at the clock one last time. From what twisted notes I could find on the Internet, it took approximately ten to twenty minutes for a person to strangle to death. I was praying that it would take closer to the low end of that time frame as it would give me just enough time to wander around the underworld before Trixie was scheduled to appear at my apartment to save me. If it took longer, Trixie would appear before I was dead and I didn’t think she would let me give this another try, even if my life
was
on the line.

Muttering one last prayer in my head to whatever gods there might be, I tilted the chair over until it fell away from me. My hands immediately surged up to the noose that tightened around my throat as I dangled from the ceiling. I couldn’t get my fingers under the cord, it had tightened so much around my neck, sinking into my flesh. Air ceased to pour down to my lungs and I could feel the pulse pounding in my neck as blood fought to reach my brain. Panic filled my frame and crowded around my thoughts, coating everything in thick layers of fear.