Dead Streets (41 page)

  "Maybe someone didn't want him to sell."

  "Is that really enough motive to kill someone?"

  We reached the fourth door. None of them had any names on them, but this was nicer than the others, made of sturdy black oak that I imagined had once held a highly polished sheen. I had no doubt this was Crosswise's office.

  "Back when I was homicide detective on Earth, I once arrested a man who killed his brother for changing the channel during his favorite sitcom. And it was a rerun."

  "Point taken," Devona said as she waved her hands in the air over the door. I figured she'd find nothing and proceed to visually examining the lock, but instead she stopped her hand waving and frowned. "Something's strange here."

   I can't get cold chills anymore, but if I could've, I would've then.

  "What?"

  "I'm getting that feeling again, like I did outside. As if there's something alive in the office, only… not. Something that's almost there but not quite."

  "You know, you still haven't told me why people believe this building is haunted." Although right at that moment, standing in a dark hallway before an ominous black door, I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

   "People have tried to enter the building since Leander's death. Some report a force like a strong wind shoving them back outside. Others…"

  "Go on," I urged.

  "Others have died in some particularly horrible ways. Bodies turned inside out, blood boiled in their veins, that sort of thing."

  "Lovely. And what distinguished those poor unfortu nates from the lucky ones who were simply evicted?"

  "The ones who died…" Devona paused, and time seemed to slow to a crawl while I waited for her to finish her sentence. "Were those who intended to purchase the building."

  "Once again, we
so
have to work on our communication skills! When were you planning on telling me this?"

  "I don't know," she said. "I was still trying to figure out the best way to tell you I'd already gone ahead and bought the damned building."

  The instant the words left her mouth, the door burst open and a roaring wind filled the hallway. The force slammed Devona into the opposite wall and held her there. The wind – or whatever it was – grabbed hold of me with insubstantial hands and started dragging me away from her. I fought it, tried to tear myself free of its grip, but there was nothing I could do. I could feel the force holding me, but when I tried to touch it, to grab hold and dislodge myself, I couldn't feel anything. I dropped the flashlight. It hit the floor, luckily without breaking, and rolled into a position where its beam illuminated Devona. Her face was contorted with agony and bright dots of red covered her skin. Whatever this unknown force was, it looked as if it was drawing the blood out of her body through her skin. Vampires – even half ones like Devona – can take a hell of a lot of punishment and heal, but one thing they can't recover from is the loss of their blood supply. Their power is in their blood, and if they're drained, they have no magic to draw upon in order to heal themselves. I knew if I didn't do something fast, Devona would die, and she wouldn't be coming back.

  I'd brought some other toys with me, various spells and such, but none of them would prove effective against the strange force attacking us. And with each passing second, the wind was pulling me farther from Devona. I had only seconds in which to act, and I had no weapons that I could use. Except the one weapon which has always served me best, whether I was alive or dead. My mind.

  I thought fast. What did I know about the Midnight Watch, Leander Crosswise, and how he died? Devona had told me he specialized in creating new and powerful wardspells, that he also developed new breeds of strong, intelligent guard animals, and he was killed on the eve of his retirement, after which he planned to close his business and sell the building. And he was killed by a Dire Blade that had apparently wielded itself. Or been wielded by something that didn't need a physical hand to hold it.

  That's when it came to me.

  I shouted to be heard over the roar of the wind. "She did buy the building, it's true, but she did so in order to resurrect the Midnight Watch!"

  It might have been my imagination, but I thought I felt the wind's grip on me lessen, and it seemed I was no longer traveling so swiftly down the hallway away from Devona. Encouraged, I continued.

  "Her name's Devona Kanti, and she hopes to start her own security business right here, in this very building, and she plans to use the name Midnight Watch! It's a proud, noble name, one she's honored to be associated with!"

  Blood had begun trickling in rivulets from Devona's pores, and while she was obviously in pain, she still possessed enough presence of mind to pick up on what I was doing.

  "It's true! I love the history associated with this place, and all I want to do is make the name Midnight Watch mean something in the city again!"

  The gale's roar subsided to a mere whisper, and I was no longer being dragged away from Devona. I started toward her just as she slumped to the floor. By the time I reached her, the wind had died away completely and the hallway was silent again, save for the sound of her pained breathing.

  I knelt beside her and took her hand. "Are you going to be all right?"

  "I… I think so. It hurt like hell, but I didn't lose too much blood." She managed a weak smile. "You're going to have to take me out for a big meal tonight, though."

  "You've got it."

  She tried to stand, but I encouraged her to sit for a few more moments to give her metabolism time to counter her blood loss.

  "So, are you going to tell me what you figured out," she asked, "or are you going to make me guess?"

  "Once the wind – or whatever it was – attacked us, it seemed obvious to me that it must've wielded the Dire Blade that killed Crosswise. And that it was the force responsible for killing anyone who tried to purchase the building in all the years following. This force was clearly here before Crosswise was killed, and since it's remained here, that means it's part of the structure. And if Crosswise was such a skilled warlock, I can't believe there was any mystical force attached to the Midnight Watch that he didn't know about. So the force was something he was aware of but thought he had no reason to fear. And evidently he didn't: until he decided to retire and sell the building. When you told me what his

specialties were–"

  Devona's face lit up with sudden understanding. "It's a wardspell, isn't it? A supremely sophisticated one that Leander created!"

  I nodded. "But more than that. You said he also bred guard animals – highly intelligent ones. I think the force is both a wardspell and a guardian, and it's smarter than Crosswise gave it credit for. When he planned to retire and sell the building–"

  "The ward creature would be sold to, for it's tied to the structure. In a way, it's the lifeforce of the building."

  "Crosswise was going to sell the building, and it's my guess any new owners wouldn't want such a powerful being as part of their new property."

  "So Leander planned to remove the spell, which meant the ward creature would cease to exist. So it was defending itself when it killed Leander."

  "Yes, just as it believed it was doing every time a potential new owner entered the building. That's why it only evicted others. The creature didn't perceive them as threats. I hoped that if I could make it realize you weren't a threat, it would break off its attack. Luckily, I was right."

  Devona smiled. While streaks of blood remained on her face, neck, and hands, her color was less pale, and she seemed stronger. I stood, reached down, and helped her to her feet.

  "My hero."

  She gave me another hard kiss on the lips, and though there was still a bit blood on her mouth, I didn't mind at all. You come to expect that sort of thing when you're in love with a vampire. She has it worse; she has to worry about whether one of my lips might fall off when we kiss.

  She took my hand and we started down the hallway back toward the front door.

  "So," I said, "does this uh, revelation alter your plans any?" I was trying to be careful with my words. I didn't want to rouse the ward creature's ire again.

  Devona thought about it for a moment. "Well, I still want to run my business out of this building, and I think that with a little work, I'll be able to make friends with the ward creature, and it'll make a wonderful guardian for the place." She paused, long enough for it to be a Meaningful Pause. "I'm not sure you're aware of it, Matt, but we've taken an important step forward in our relationship today."

  Like a lot of men, I'm not always as aware of relationship milestones as my partner, and I wracked my undead brain, trying to figure out what Devona was referring to.

  "Uh, you mean because you've officially established your independence?"

  She grinned and punched me on the arm.

  "No, silly. Because now we have a pet together."

  We continued on down the hallway, hand in hand.

 
 

ANGRY ROBOT A member of the Osprey Group

Lace Market House,
54-56 High Pavement,
Nottingham
NG1 1HW, UK

 

www.angryrobotbooks.com
 

Dying for it

 

Originally published in the UK by Angry Robot 2010 First American paperback printing 2011

 

Copyright © 2010 by Tim Waggoner Cover by Vincent Chong

 

Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York.

 

All rights reserved.

 

Angry Robot is a registered trademark and the Angry Robot icon is a trademark of Angry Robot Ltd.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

 

Sales of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as "unsold and destroyed" and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.

 

ISBN 978-0-85766-046-6

EBook ISBN 978-0-85766-047-3

 

Printed in the United States of America

 

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1