Poison Kissed (19 page)

Hot fairy fingers folded over my wrist.

I wriggled, water spilling, and only slowly did my strained eyes tell me the truth.

Yellow fingers. Broken blue claws. Brittle applegreen hair crinkling over skinny fae shoulders.

Violet fluttered, torn white wings wafting blessedly cool air over my face. Her breathy voice soothed my buzzing ears. “Hey, where’s the fire? S’okay.” And she actually scrunched up a handful of paper towel and blotted the blood from my chest.

I swallowed, my throat swollen. Her fingers felt smooth and comforting as she wiped me clean, dabbing the wet paper carefully around my cuts. Her reflection gave me a tired smile, her long yellow face gleaming, and my guts clenched at the fresh blue bruises around her eyes, the angry welt at her throat. She’d suffered for my selfishness last night, and no doubt those marks weren’t the worst of it.

When I was her, I’d despised people like me. Rich, cold, complacent, too self-important to pay me any attention. All she’d asked for was a little cash, and I hadn’t even blinked as I brushed her off.

Useless guilt prickled my heart with hot needles, and into the tiny holes seeped anger. I couldn’t change my callousness now, only make some pissweak apology. Sorry wouldn’t stop her hurting.

I covered her hand with mine, halting her, and prised the paper free. “Thanks. It’s all right.”

She hovered anxiously on quivering wings, slender feet trailing behind her. She wore the same smeared skirt and flimsy top, her skinny legs bare. “Who bled you? Them skanky Sunshine fangboys? You wanna be careful, they say no rabies in Melbourne, but ya never know with them ratty ones, right, they—”

“No, Vi. It’s okay. Just an accident. Really.” I tossed the paper at the overflowing bin and surveyed my masterpiece. Clotting, torn, Vincent’s telltale blunt teethmarks swollen, but clean. I glanced at her in the mirror. Still she hovered, touching my hair with hesitant fingers.

I swallowed again. “Look, sorry I brushed you off last night.”

Violet shrugged, her gaze slipping. “S’no problem.”

“No, listen. I . . . I got a lot on my mind, I didn’t realize . . .” I sighed, turning to face her. “Fuck. It’s no excuse, Vi. I was a bitch, and I’m sorry for . . . whatever he did to you.”

“It ain’t your cactus pie.” She forced a weak smile. “He ain’t so bad. Gets a little nippy, but his dick’s about as big as his brain, if ya know what I mean. I got him fooled real good. I’m like,
Ohmigod, that hurts!
but in truth, I can’t feel a fucking thing.” She snickered, pleased.

After a moment, I snickered, too. Gotta be glad for small mercies. No pun intended. “Hey, listen, if I can still help you out—”

“Nah. S’okay. He’s drinkin’ with the troll kids. On his scrawny black ass in five minutes. I got me the night off,” she announced proudly, and eyed me with shy admiration glimmering in her wide blue eyes. “So. That boss o’ yours. He treat you right?”

“Not so bad.” Inwardly, I winced. Now she asks me for a job, and I get to score a few more bitch points for telling her no.

“Bet he’s a real firecracker, huh? Edgy guy like him? Shit, I bet he’s got ya tied to the bed every night.”

Stupidly, I blushed. “It ain’t like that. Listen, can I ask a favor?” Okay, now I felt really shitty. But I needed any help I could get.

She beamed. “Oh, sure. Watermelons. For you, any time.”

“You ever hear of Ivy? Earthfae lady, runs sparkle outta someplace in town?”

She twiddled yellow fingers loftily. “Maybe.”

My heart thrummed faster. “You know her?”

“Hair like starlight? Knows all the cute boys? Kind of a white messy thing on her face, like a scar or something?” She tossed her hair over her cheek and did a perfect facsimile of Ivy’s haughty face-hiding maneuver.

My excitement ignited. “Yeah, that’s her.”

“Never heard of her.” A nervous glint surfaced in Violet’s grin.

Afraid? Unsure? Grasping for money? “Come on, Vi. I really need this.”

“You ain’t scratchin’ for a hit, are ya? ’Cause if I hadda heard of her, I’da heard her stuff is raw. It’ll fuck you up real good. Let me put you on to some propersweet glimmer—”

“I’m not scoring. I just need to find her. Come on, I’ll make it worth it.” Soon as the words left my lips, I was sorry. I squirmed, sure she’d give me the big old Violet middle finger.

But she just shrugged, uneasy. “Got no time. Sorry.”

“Thought you had the night off.” Instinctively, I grabbed her shoulder, stopped her from turning away.

She tried to shake me off, and at last, hurt washed over into her eyes. “Don’t push me around. Thought you was better than that.”

I gritted my teeth and forced my grip to relax. She was right. Gangland had hardened me, made me jumpy. I overreacted a lot. Good thing I couldn’t sing, or she’d be on the floor. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m a little wound up.”

Her eyes shimmered, her bottom lip trembling like a little girl’s. “Fuck you, Mina. All fuckin’ superior on me ’cause some weird gang monster wants to screw you. You as bad as the rest of ’em.”

Embarrassment whipped my nerves to a tense pitch, and words spilled out before I could swallow them. “That so? News flash, sweetheart. Unlike you, I don’t have to screw anyone to get what I want anymore.”

Her face drained sallow, and her mouth quivered.

My face burned. “Shit. I didn’t mean that. Sorry, Vi.”

But airfae anger swirled cold around my legs, buffeting my hair tight, and Violet’s lips peeled back to bare jagged black teeth. “Piss on you, bitch. You was always too high and mighty. I even had to show ya how to suck cock without choking. Lucky some trick didn’t claw your stuck-up bloody face off.”

“Vi—”

“You know what? I’m done watchin’ out for you. You ain’t my problem no more.” She yanked back brittle green hair, angry tears shining golden on her cheeks. “There’s an empty train tunnel a couple blocks off the line near Flagstaff Station. Some old platform half-built. That’s where Ivy hangs.” Violet knuckled her eyes dry and fluttered haughtily toward the door. “You can keep your filthy money for her poison. Hope it burns your eyes out.”

I stuffed my hand into my pocket and flung the bundle of cash after her, limp plastic notes spilling orange and yellow on the sticky floor as the door slammed behind her.

I’d gotten what I wanted. But it didn’t feel good.

A wet blue fairy wriggled on her back from under the cubicle door, giggling drunkenly at me. Her soggy gray wings smeared brown in the muck, tangling with gritty blue hair, and her torn dress slid off one shoulder to reveal a small round breast with a hard dark blue nipple.

I scowled. “What the fuck you looking at?”

She tugged her nipple thoughtfully, sucking a finger between ripe inky lips before sliding it between her legs to touch herself. Her eyes glazed, sparklebright. “Nice bitchfight. Want me to eat your pussy, gorgeous? Make you feel g—”

“Piss off.” My stomach bubbled warm, and I nearly slammed the door off its hinges getting out of there.

18

Streetlights shone through silent tree branches, casting eerie yellow shapes onto the summerparched lawns of Flagstaff Gardens. The deathly still plane trees overhanging LaTrobe Street blanketed me in shadow as I walked, my heels clipping dusty asphalt and echoing in the empty street. No wind breathed; no leaves rustled. Somewhere, fighting cats yowled. Bats flapped and circled above, their rotten fruitstink souring the dense air. Across the street, beyond twin tram tracks, concrete office buildings loomed gray and forbidding.

On the corner, a snoring water fairy curled up on the lawn, wrapped up like a baby in dripping green wings with his thumb tucked safely in his mouth. I ducked beneath the blue Flagstaff Station sign—it also helpfully directed me to the tramstop across the street, presumably in case I had no change and wanted to bum a free ride, which, as every Melbournite knows, is what trams are for since they put those stupid ticket machines in—and hopped down the grimy stairs.

A steel concertina gate greeted me, locked fast. I peered through, the hinged steel bars cool on my fingers. The last train was long gone, the next not until at least 5
A.M
., and no one was around. But security lights still burned. Yellow corridor, low ceiling, more stairs around a sharp corner.

No rent-a-cop in evidence. No camera.

I flipped out my knife and jammed it into the lock with a twist of my wrist, and the tumblers split with a satisfying crunch. One side remained bolted to the floor, but the other sagged open an inch, inviting. I winced at the scratchmark on my blade as I slipped it away, but what choice did I have? I couldn’t sing a hole in a wet paper bag, let alone shatter a lock or sonicbend a steel bar.

I grabbed the door’s loose edge and shoved. The crisscrossed iron folded aside with a groan of rusted joints, and I turned sideways and squeezed in. The grimy metal scratched my leather, the zip between my breasts catching until I shook it free.

Down the stairs, around the corner, into the station proper. I vaulted over the yellow plastic entry gates, my heels echoing in dry silence. White lights sliced the ceiling and glared on the orange-tiled floor. A drink dispenser hummed, glowing with garish advertising. The light over the ticket machine flickered, and shadows flitted across the wall, long and sharp like knives. I jerked around, blood throbbing.

No one. Just my nerves, tricking me.

The downward escalators lay still, dead. It looked dark down there. I shivered. I didn’t like it underground. The hot darkness, the dank dusty smell. The feeling of being trapped, the loss of control. All those tons of rock teetering above my head, longing to crush me.

I took a calming breath and stepped onto the silent stairway.

Ribbed metal clicked under my boots as I descended. The black rubber handrail stuck clammy to my palm, and the ceiling loomed frighteningly close. Already that musty traintunnel odor dried my mouth.

The wide island platform lay deserted, the tracks empty. Yellow metal walls and bench seats gleamed under blank blue television screens. Along the far wall on each side, shiny letters spelling
FLAGSTAFF
repeated over and over, leading off into the gloom to die.

I peered up and down the tunnel, and walked over to do the same thing on the other side, straining my useless ears out of habit. Of course, I heard nothing, only wet cotton silence and my own pulse gurgling. I should have detected water dripping and rats chewing cables all the way down to Southern Cross.

Frustration nibbled my toes at my ineptitude. Flagstaff had four tracks on two levels. Which one did Violet mean? In which direction?

I hopped down into the ditch, careful not to trip on the tracks. If she’d tricked me, I deserved it. And if I’d been nicer to her, she might’ve given me more clues. No point wishing. I’d just have to go hunting.

I slipped out my phone and switched it to flashlight. The screen glowed white, casting cool light in a fading cone a few feet before me. I checked my knives and strode toward the black tunnel mouth.

Darkness loomed, the illuminated letters reaching only a few feet into the tunnel. My nose wrinkled in metal deathstink, and something wriggled and crunched flat under my boot. My nerves jerked, the old fear wriggling out like a black worm from deep in my soul.

Sweat trickled from my hair down the side of my neck. My ears rang, deaf. Already the walls shuddered and closed in on me.

Beyond my hallowed light, the train tracks disappeared into murky blackness. Somewhere, another rat—or something—scuttled, a dry sound like newspaper that could’ve come from any direction. I swallowed rising panic. I couldn’t hear a damn thing. Christ, it was like being blind.

I forced my fingers steady, and slipped out a knife. The warm hilt comforted me, smooth and curving in my palm, such a close fit. I adjusted my grip backhanded for swiftness, held the phone out like a glowing shield, and took another step.

“You’ll never find her like that.”

My heart hit the roof of my mouth. I whirled, blind and deaf, slashing uselessly at black air. My phone clattered to the ground, light lurching crazily.

But I knew it was him.

Even before he slinked like a serpentine shadow into the light, I knew it was him.

And even though I was half-deaf and straining to see, I hadn’t totally lost my situational awareness. I knew exactly where the wall was.

So I slammed my forearm across his throat and rammed him back into it.

19

My hips crunched into his as I fought for a hold, forcing my quivering knifeblade up under his chin.

His heartbeat matched mine, swift and steady. My nerves tingled. Was he following me? Stalking me? Maybe he’d figured out my plans and had come to kill me before I killed him.

Fury whetted my dulled reflexes. Good luck.

I fought the tremor from my voice with stubbornness. “What the fuck you doing here?”

“Same as you, I guess.” Joey didn’t flinch. His eyes glinted neongreen in my phone’s harsh glow. He lifted his hands carefully out of my reach, but his fingertips narrowed and blackened, and wicked green-tipped claws like thorns snicked out, a venombright threat.

I jammed the knife in tighter, cutting his flesh for the first time in my life.

Hot blood slicked. The sight of it, shining black in the dimness, made my body burn, and the vengeance-beast roared at me to finish it once and for all. My voice quaked. “I don’t think so. God, I should just kill you right here.”

He nodded slowly, just a tiny movement, and distant pain washed his eyes paler. “I don’t get it. I’ve never hurt you. What did I do?”

“You know!” Absurd guilt stung my lips. My skin still crawled with Diamond’s clinical caress. Could Joey smell it? Did he even care? Anger clenched my teeth until they hurt. “Stop playing with me. You’ve known from the st—Ow!”

My hipbone exploded in a brief but distracting burst of pain.

Blinding fast. Deadly accurate. Unyielding. Christ, he could move when he wanted to.

Rough concrete crunched my shoulder blades. Steely fingers wrapped my wrist and jammed it against the wall, twisting my elbow cruelly.

Pain speared. He’d shifted and snaked his arm backwards, an impossibly double-jointed move, and now it was me trapped between the wall and his body, his grip immovable.

Shit.

He stroked one venomswelled fingertip over my bottom lip, threat or promise. “Bad girl.”

Venom’s honey sweetness seeped between my lips, laced with something bitter and intriguing, and my skin shrank, in fear or anticipation, I couldn’t tell. Horrid truth gnawed once again at my nerves. I’d given myself away. Without my magic, I was just a girl. And Joey was a freak of nature, both faster and stronger than me. One swipe of poisoned claws, and I’d die frothing at the mouth.

No more pain, no more guilt. No more desperate nightmares. No more sick disgust at my own fear.

It’d almost be a relief.

I set my trembling mouth tight and tried not to close my eyes. Gangland was tough. I’d known it’d kill me, one way or another. Damned if I’d hide now. I wanted to see it coming.

But he just stared at me, confusion clouding his eyes. “What’s on your mind, Mina? You’re smarter than this. You’ve lied so beautifully, Christ, I’ve believed every word and invented a few more myself.”

“Dunno what you mean.” If he was faking his bewilderment, he was very, very good. My fingers numbed, and my knife slipped. I struggled against him, trying to twist my arm free.

He just pressed tighter, harder. “And the way you kissed me last night? That was brilliant. You had me. If you hadn’t pulled a switch, I’d have done whatever you wanted. But coming after me when your spells are shot? That’s just fucking sloppy.”

“I’m doing fine, thanks.”

Urgency thickened his voice. “I hate it when you lie to me. I can feel you’re weaker. You sound different. You don’t move right. You can’t hear anything, can you?”

I wriggled, and fought to control my knife. If he wouldn’t do it, I’d damn well make him. “So finish me off,” I taunted. “I’m useless to you now. What the fuck do you care? You’ll just find another gullible little girl to do your dirty jobs.”

He laughed, serpentine and bitter. “Yeah. You know what? I don’t give a shit.” He wrenched the blade easily from my hand, tossed it point first into the gravel at my feet.

And let me go.

I swept it up, dropping into a fighting crouch. I balanced the glinting blade before me, and my bruised forearm twitched.
Come on. Try it.

But he just looked at me. “You can’t go in there alone, Mina. Not like this. She’ll tear your heart out.”

My phone lit his face eerily from beneath, casting a compelling gleam into his eyes. It made me think of mint, and his fresh cool hair on my face while he was kissing me, and I swallowed, venom remnants cold on my lips.

Part of me longed for us to be like we were before. We’d worked well together, he and I. A good team. He always knew exactly what to do and how far to go, and I did it without question or hesitation. I wanted to take his hand, take comfort in his cool skin on mine, slink into the dark and fight off our enemies together.

My knife hand quivered. If he came an inch closer, I’d slice him up right here. “That’s my problem, not yours. I’m handling it.”

“Mina, for once don’t be rash.”

“You used to want me rash.”

That unnerving smile. “You think Ivy doesn’t know you’re coming? Think she’ll return your spells without a fight?”

My stomach prickled like a cactus. “How the hell do you know about Ivy?”

“What do you care? You gonna let me help you or not?”

“You know her, don’t you?” A hot splash of suspicion sickened me. “You and her. You knew she could do this. Did you put her up to it?”

Even as I spoke, I knew it was ridiculous, and Joey laughed darkly. “You wouldn’t say that if you knew.”

I didn’t even ask. I just looked at him.

He shrugged. “Let’s just say she and I have reason not to like each other. And it’ll be my pleasure to hunt her down with you.”

My belly warmed. Not such a dumb idea. Truth be told, I needed all the help I could get. And it’d be a fine joke, right? He helps me get my magic back, and then I use it to kill him.

I tossed my hair back haughtily. “Fine. Do what you want. I’m going this way.” And I bent to retrieve my still-glowing phone and strode away up the tunnel.

His hand warmed my shoulder.

I spun, shaking, and backed off in a hurry. “Don’t touch me, okay? Last night . . . That thing that happened? It was a mistake. I c—Just don’t touch me, all right?” My voice trembled, and I didn’t even believe myself.

But Joey just tasted the air, a light snakerattle vibrating his tongue, and exhaled with a snakeweird hiss that tingled my skin afresh. He jerked his head in the opposite direction. “Actually, it’s thisss way.”

God, that lisp still made me quiver. I nodded stiffly, warm with embarrassment and stupid gratitude. “If you say so. After you.”

He showered me with that disarming smile. “With you behind me? Not on your sweet life.”

And he gestured me ahead, and as always, I could do nothing but obey.

The tunnel enclosed us, dim and spooky, the train tracks gleaming like rust-flecked rivers for a only a few feet ahead before trickling away into the dark. The platforms on either side gave way to narrow maintenance walkways, only sparse inches across, and the walls loomed close and impenetrable.

I wristed cool sweat from my forehead, and the light bobbled and jerked. Joey stalked a few feet to my right, silent, his lean shadow slinking along the wall. I could smell him, fresh and warm, that minty taste a thornsharp threat amid the soft metal stink of concrete and rat dirt.

If he wanted to kill me, I’d be a corpse by now. Right?

The close heat clogged my throat like glue. I tried to breathe slowly, but I longed for light and space and fresh air, and my treacherous pulse tightened in my chest, cramping my lungs until I could force in only a tiny volume of air. I swallowed, trying to suck breath through my nose and calm down.

Joey touched my elbow, cautious. “There.”

“Where?” I shone my flashlight and squinted in the direction he pointed, but darkness formed a thick wall.

He melted into the blackness, and I followed, my boots crunching carefully on chunky gravel. Gradually, the wall emerged, rough concrete daubed in blue and yellow spraypaint. Joey grabbed the rail and swung himself up onto the walkway. Between two carbon-blackened bulkheads, a ragged crack gaped, only a few feet wide.

He offered me his hand. I ignored it and squirmed under the rail and up.

I stretched out my light and peered into the crack. Dark, musty, the faint telltale smell of burnt sugar. My tongue tingled. Fairies lived here.

But narrow. Cruelly, scarily narrow, the other end out of sight.

My skin rippled. “You smelled that from back there?”

“Like a chocolate shop.” Automatically he lowered his voice to a murmur, as I had. “Get rid of that light, or they’ll see. Want me to go first?”

“Nope. I’ll go.” I spoke before I could change my mind. With him behind me, no way could I chicken out and turn back.

Steeling myself, I switched the flashlight off.

Blackness closed in, complete. My eyes strained for one tiny mote of light, but there was nothing. I closed my eyes and opened them again. No change.

My skin shrank cold. My chest heaved, and my ragged breath ripped my ears, amplified. The air hung heavy like soaked wool. I couldn’t breathe. In my mind, massive rocks tumbled, crushing me. Cold sweat dribbled between my breasts, and I wanted to swat it away, but my muscles froze. I couldn’t move. I was helpless. I gasped. “Joey—”

“Peace. You’re okay.” His smooth hand took possession of mine, and soon I felt concrete under my palm, guiding me, repositioning me in a stifling black velvet world where up, down, left, right meant nothing.

Gratefully, I clutched the rift’s edge, my breath calming. I wasn’t crushed. He hadn’t slit my throat in the dark. My swimming head righted itself, and gradually, my straining eyes detected a faint greenish halo in the distance. Light, spilling in the other end.

I sheathed my knife and shoved my hip into the crack, squirming in past a concrete lump. The sooner I escaped this benighted hellcave, the better.

Rock scraped my breasts, squishing them tight.
Don’t panic. Stay calm.
I thrust my hips forward to get my bum out of the way and forced myself in farther. Damn skinny fairies. My nipples protested, smarting against my leather. Good thing I was so slim, but no amount of sucking in your breath makes your boobs smaller. I tried to breathe shallowly and shuffled along, heels catching on broken shards. The floor wasn’t even, and more than once I had to twist my ankles painfully to get through.

Light flared closer, a dim green haze in the corner of my eye. I heard Joey ease in beside me, swift, silent but for a tiny scrape or two. I was about to force a laugh, tell him he was crazy, he’d never fit, but the soft squelch of shifting flesh stopped my throat.

My imagination scuttled, wild like a trapped fly. How much had he shifted? Just enough to compress his bones, or . . . My mouth dried. What did he look like? How did it feel, that warm rough rock sliding against smooth snakeskin? . . .

Concrete smacked into the side of my head, and I dragged my concentration back.

Shuffle, stretch, wriggle. Nasty sugarplum stink thickened already heavy air, my sweat tweaking bitter with anxiety. The light shone brighter, if I wrenched my eyeballs as far as I could to the right. I detected faint shadows, lumpy rockshapes inches from my nose.

I jerked a quick glance at Joey, my curiosity burning. Still couldn’t see. He’d never shown me. Too cautious, too in control. Me trying to kill him wasn’t likely to change his mind. But some prickly part of me still longed to see, touch, taste, caress that smooth reptile skin with my cheek. . . .

I squeezed my hip past one last rocky lump, and popped out.

I sucked in a deep, grateful breath. My lungs inflated sweetly, and ripe oxygen relief cooled my muscles, soothing my heartbeat to a rapid thrum. I blinked, straining my vision in dim green glow.

Another stifling hot tunnel, rough and unfinished. A few feet to my left, work had ceased, leaving a ragged rock wall slashed with drillmarks and broken chalky slate. To my right, the tunnel stretched into darkness. Rubble littered the empty floor, no tracks, no wires, nothing.

Behind me, Joey squirmed out, and the wet fleshsound told me he’d reshifted. I sneaked a look, trying to keep it casual. No change. Neat, unruffled, breathing only slightly hard. Glowing faintly green with neon sweat, pale hair plastered to his cheek, shirt wet like my own clothes and sticking to his perfect skin.

Dark curiosity warmed me again. What happened when he bugged out? His creature was an accident of faebirth, not a magic trick. Nothing so convenient. He’d have to slither out of his clothes, and . . .

“Okay now?” His smooth hand touched mine, and I jumped. Damn it.

“Uh-huh.” I dragged dusty wet locks from my face and turned away.

The cavern’s ceiling faded into darkness. Opposite, they’d installed a few platform sections, and on the flat concrete, creatures snored and wriggled, a somnolent pile of warm wet wings, entangled limbs, dusty colored hair. I wrinkled my nose at rotten food and stale fairy sweat. This place needed one big shower.

On the platform’s tiled edge, a skinny waterfairy gurgled and muttered, his insensible limbs thrashing in some nightmare’s greedy grip. His translucent wings flopped over the edge like wet plastic, and his eyeballs rolled, glazed bloody with bad drugs. In the corner, a hunchbacked green troll with rotted black horns gnashed his teeth and rocked on his heels, slamming his forehead into the wall over and over.

I shivered, and Joey and I shared a glance. If this was where Ivy sourced her ingredients, no wonder her sparkle was lethal. It made sense of Diamond’s containerload of fairies, though I didn’t get why he needed to import any when we had enough broken, hopeless fae in this town already to stock a hundred nasty underground pharmacies. Maybe they were special orders. And as for why she wanted my song . . .

My stomach clenched hard, and I gritted my teeth to stop the bile leaking out. If she’d already put me in some cheap-and-dirty pick-me-up, I’d kill the murdering hellbitch right here.

Joey tasted the air, tonguepoints flickering, and touched a finger to his ear.
Listen.

I strained, but heard nothing bar snoring fae and my own gluggy heartbeat. Frustration spiked me raw. If the boss, who didn’t even have ears half the time, could hear better than me, it really was time to shoot myself.