Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic #1) (22 page)

I smiled. "It isn't your fault. You didn't know. Toss me my clothes and I'll get out of your life. No harm done."

She shook her head. "I'll tell you what, Conor. You can repay me by sleeping on it. If you still want to kill yourself in the morning, I'll drive you out to the woods and you can wait and see what gets you first. If you have second thoughts... We might be able to help one another."

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

That's amore.

I woke up in a round bed with red silk sheets and a mirror on the ceiling above it. The mirror showed me that I was half-covered by the sheets, and my arm had a huge wad of bandaging around it. I tried to move it, to test it out, and was greeted with enough pain that I questioned my sanity. Then I tried to move it again, gritting my teeth through the pain and forcing it to shift. A wounded ghost on a job was like a wounded gazelle on the savannah.
 

I turned my head to get the layout of the rest of the room. This wasn't the Arcadia hotel. The walls on either side of me were red and covered in luminescent, glittery hearts. The one in front had a large flatscreen hanging from it, thankfully turned off. There was a vending machine full of sex toys in the corner where a dresser should have been.
 

Where the hell was I?

I sat up and took a minute to cough up all the shit that had been settling in my lungs for however long I had been out of commission. It was only once I was through a full cycle of hacking that I thought maybe I should be more quiet. There was no guarantee I was somewhere safe. The only thing I knew for sure was that I was still alive.

I slipped out of the bed. I was in a pair of black silk boxers with red lips plastered all over them. They would have looked ridiculous on anyone. They looked even more insane on me.
 

There was only one door, so I went for it. I put my ear against it, and didn't hear anything. I slowly turned the handle to ease it open a crack. I looked out into a larger room with a red leather couch that had some kind of freaky, painful-looking contraption hanging next to it. Behind the couch was a massive black and white photograph of all kinds of flesh intertwined in all sorts of ways that should have been impossible and I was certain had to be illegal.
 

Maybe I was dead after all. Rayon had warned me about what was waiting. Eternity as the Devil's bitch?
 

A block of chunky black and purple hair fell into my view.

"You're up."

My heart started racing, and I stumbled backwards, startled. I hadn't even heard her coming.
 

She pushed the door open and came in, holding a stack of clothes in her arms and wearing a smile on her face. "How are you feeling?"

"Confused," I said, backing up until I could sit on the edge of the bed. "Where are we?"

"Brooklyn. The Greens."

"I don't know it."

"Really? I thought you were up on your history?"

"I guess I missed that class."

She put the clothes next to me. "These are for you. I got them at the Salvation Army on our way here."

I picked up the top piece, a dark green hoodie that smelled like mothballs. "Who died in this?"

"Beggars can't be choosers. Before the reversal, the Greens was a public housing block, a pretty rough neighborhood. Then came the leathers, the riots, the First House... Thanks to them, Governor Rojas moved the old residents to more gentrified areas and the property was given over to the new humans to do whatever they wanted with it. Kind of like a reservation, only for orcs and goblins and dwarves and any other homo nuevo that wanted to call the place home. They had to come up with some way to make a living, legal or not, and so they settled on vice. Gambling, prostitution, drugs, and other things."

The decor was starting to make sense. "Other things?"

"There are a lot of things in this world that get different people excited. The Greens tries to cater to as many of them as they can. It looks bad on the surface, but they keep a pretty tight control on it. Anyway, Danelle didn't feel comfortable with you at the Arcadia. They would have known you had been there, and she figured once they learned you'd killed the redhead they would come knocking. This is a good place for someone to disappear, because everyone here has something to hide."

She seemed to know a lot about it.

"You've been here before?"
 

"Motorcycle racing. They have a pretty hardcore course. That's all I ever came for." Her face turned red and she looked down. It was cute that she was embarrassed.

"You don't have any other vices?"

Her head shifted again, and her eyes caught mine. "I didn't say that."

"I get why we came here to hide out. How did we end up in the love shack?" I stood up again and started getting dressed. I did okay with my pants, but my shoulder really didn't want to go up high enough to pull on a shirt.

"People ask fewer questions when sex is involved. Let me help you with that."
 

She took the shirt from my hands and repositioned it so I could push my left arm in below my chest. Then she lifted it up and over my head while I lowered myself closer to her. By the time she pulled it down to my waist, our faces were only inches apart.

"Thanks." The last time we had been this close I hadn't been able to see her eyes. They were dark, with flecks of maroon scattered throughout.
 

She nodded and reached around me to grab the hoodie. "It's the least I can do. You already saved my life twice, and you got shot for me. Put your arms out."

I repeated the motion, and she helped me finish dressing.
 

"I lost the stone, and I almost got you killed. Amos saved your life, not me."

She put her hand to my face. It was soft and cool. Such a simple act of kindness, but I appreciated it more than I was going to say. "We'll get the artifact back. Danelle and Amos are out right now, trying to raise enough money to book time in the Machine."

That must have been the other reason she had chosen the Greens. I knew it wasn't for the unique vending machines. "What do you mean raising money? The payment I got for this job was guaranteed."

"Danelle said you haven't received it yet. They were going to pawn some of the guns."

Mr. Clean told me it would take a couple of days. I was hoping information traveling at the speed of light might have moved things along a little faster.
 

"Ouch. It's a small price to pay, I guess." I reached out with my good hand and put it on her shoulder. "Back in the alley... did you really think I was going to renege on our deal?"

"To save your own life? You told me you were afraid of death."

"I am, and I've done a lot of things to keep myself alive... some of which I'm not proud of. I do have a few morals left in me, though."

She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. "My apologies, Baron. I won't doubt you again."

"Is my trench around here somewhere?" It hadn't been in the pile with everything else.

"Unlike you, that thing was beyond repair. Torn, bloody, dirty, and it smelled worse than you look. We tossed it over the bridge on the way across."

Damn. I liked that coat. "What about my stuff?"

"There's a safe in the bathroom. The combination is 3223."

It could stay there for now. "Okay."

There was an awkward moment of silence, like we had both just realized where we were standing.
 

"Believe it or not, this is one of the tame rooms."

I laughed. "How many of the others have you seen?"

Her face turned red again, and she looked away. "I'm not like that."

Shit. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I was just joking. Trying to ease some of the tension."

She turned back towards me and nodded. "Are you hungry?"

"Starving." I hadn't realized until she mentioned it. "Do they have room service in this dive?"

"They do, but the menu isn't quite what you would expect."

I bit my lip. I should have known. "I can wait."

She reached out and took my hand in hers. "No, you can't. You haven't eaten a decent meal in days. There's a sushi place right across the street. It's a hole in the wall, but the food is fantastic."

I let her pull me towards the door.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Good fish.

I didn't get to see much of the Greens on the way from the 'More-a than Amore' hotel to 'Secret Sushi'. It literally was across the street, a wide thoroughfare that was closed to cars, and open to every kind of freak and thrill-seeker I could have imagined. It was loud and bright and colorful, like a carnival, and packed with every sort of human both old and new. It appeared to be a melting pot of culture, where every bias could be put aside and everyone was free to enjoy whatever they had come to enjoy.

Plenty of armed guards made sure it stayed that way.

They didn't stand out, but I spotted them right away, leaning against the buildings, hidden in black body armor and shadows. They held heavy automatic rifles, and seemed to be immune to the chaotic energy of the place. Jin had said they kept a tight control. She hadn't been kidding.

The food at Secret Sushi was as good as she had claimed. The atmosphere was even better. Each table was cordoned off by soundproof walls, completely enclosed save for a small opening against the back where a thin conveyor belt carried food and drink along. You took what you wanted and scanned it on the table to have it added to your bill, and you didn't have to interact with anyone. You could pay with cash or bitcoin, or credit if you really wanted to. No annoying neighbors, no waitresses, nothing. We'd had to pay the hostess at the front to send Dannie and Amos our way if we were still here when they got back.
 

"My aunt used to meet me here after races," Jin said. "It was the only place outside of our holdings that she trusted to be private, and it was convenient for both of us to be here at the same time, for different reasons."

"Why would she be here? The Greens doesn't seem like the kind of place the head of a House would frequent."

"You know who my aunt was?"

I nodded.
 

"There's a hospital here. It's where Parity tests a lot of the new technology, because the laws are more... lenient, here. They can move to human trials a lot faster, bring the new tech to market faster, and save more lives."

"And make more money."

"That is part of it."

"Okay, but here's what I don't get. Your aunt was married. What about your uncle, Kai? Doesn't he own Parity Limited?"

She popped a slice of tuna roll in her mouth, closing her eyes and appreciating the flavor. I took a drink of water while she chewed and swallowed.
 

"Poor Kai. He was married to Auntie when the reversal happened. She became Mrs. Red, but he wasn't even sensitive. He's ninety-three years old, and he has a team of technicians working around the clock to keep him alive."

"What does that mean for you, and for Parity?"

"It doesn't mean anything for Parity. They have a CEO, Matsuhiro Liu. He knows there is an heir, but he doesn't know who, and won't until I confirm myself. Like I said, nobody was supposed to know about me. Outside of that... the employees don't know or care who cuts their paychecks."

She had answered the second part, and tried to dodge the first. "What does it mean for you?"

She looked down at her roll. "With Auntie and Natsumi gone, Uncle Kai is all the blood family I have left. It means I will be left to manage the entire House alone."

"Sounds like a tough situation. What happened to your parents?"

"Killed in a plane crash, ten years ago."

"Intentional?"

She looked at me. "The official report says it was pilot error."

"You don't believe that."

"Do you?"

No, I didn't. I shook my head. "You said nobody was supposed to know about you, but someone obviously does. Can you think of who, or how? I mean, if someone killed your parents, they must have known there was a connection there."

She looked down and speared another piece of her roll, chewed and swallowed, and then poured a new cup of green tea. She looked over at the new items rolling by on the conveyor belt. She looked everywhere but at me.

She was still looking away when she spoke.

"I was fourteen when they died. Natsumi was only ten. We would spend a month each year with them, on a private island owned by my aunt. The steps she went through to get us there without anyone knowing... to have us there with our parents. They loved us, I know, even though we barely knew each other. Natsumi should have been with them, but they insisted that I not grow up alone. They sent her to live in New York with me."

I used the chopsticks to pick up a piece of salmon. I couldn't imagine the childhood Jin had experienced. It was anything but normal, yet she seemed strong, and sensitive, and that her head was in the right place. "So you're saying it would have been impossible for anyone to know about you?"

"It should have been. It is clear that someone does. I wish I knew how."

She still wasn't looking at me. It made me wonder again if there was something she wasn't saying.

"If there are answers, we'll find them. Dannie is a total bad-ass in the Machine."

We spent a few more minutes eating and drinking in silence.
 

"What about you, Conor?" she asked, sounding a little timid. "Tell me about your family."

I looked at her, surprised. "No offense, Miss Red, but I'm a ghost. An employee. You aren't supposed to even know my name, and anything I tell you... you could use that against me."

She looked hurt, and I felt like an asshole for causing it. "I wouldn't do that."

"Not today you wouldn't. Maybe not tomorrow. Give it time. I've been a ghost for five years now. I've stolen, I've killed, I've hurt people and left their lives in ruin. They've all been involved with the Houses, so I don't consider them innocents... Still, most of the time, I don't even know why. It's nobody I ever thought I would be. It's nobody I ever wanted to be. It's the life I found myself in, when my other one fell to shit. When I got sick. It's the only way I found to live with myself when I wasn't sure I wanted to live at all, but I knew for certain that I didn't want to die."