The Burning Bush (29 page)

Kilo rubbed his chin. Crumbles of pink glow paint fell to his tight dress. “All of a sudden you want to suck me off?”

“Hey! Before we do anything,” I waved my hands, “can I ask you some questions?”

“For what?” Kilo asked.

“For the chance to not get burned.” I mentally doused the fireball in front of him.

“This fire ain’t real.” Kilo smirked and let out a cackling sound. “This is all basic spells you get from Witch Mart. I know real power, baby, and you don’t have it.”

Stupid Blue-Fi addict.

“Whatever, man.” I dug my hands in my pockets. “The questions will be short and quick. They’re just about a girl named Onyx.”

“You related to her or something?”

“I’m investigating her murder.”

His eyebrows furrowed, causing more of the glow paint to crack on the side of his face. “You think I did it?”

“Did you?”

Kilo lunged at me, but he wasn’t fast enough to scare me or make me flinch. Next to MeShack’s speed, he was a turtle. I had already filled my body with fire before he got near me. That chemical bleach scent surrounded me as he jerked to a stop, his nose an inch from mine.

“And if I did kill her?” Kilo laughed, exposing teeth that gleamed cobalt blue, a side effect of long-term Blue-Fi use. “What would you do about it, cunt muffin?”

“She would probably kill you,” Zulu said from behind me in a dark tone that made me shiver. “My lady has a low tolerance for murderers.”

Kilo froze. His bottom lip quivered. He maintained eye contact with me, but it seemed forced as his body shook erratically.

“I have no problem with you, Heart Ripper,” Kilo said in a low voice that cracked on the words “Heart Ripper.”

Outstanding. I show this idiot fireballs, and he laughs. But seeing Zulu sobers him right up.
Movement came from my left. Zulu strolled by me and sat down in Kilo’s seat. “I’m just observing.”

“So you’re cool if I end these three?” Kilo asked, looking from me to Angel to Cassie, still in tiger form.

Zulu’s jaw muscle twitched. He leaned back in the chair, lifting the front legs up from the floor. “Well, two out of the three, I would kill you over. The remaining one is growing on me. I would probably only tear off your balls and feed them to you.”

Angel smiled. “You’re growing on me too, Zulu.”

Kilo’s goons dropped their guns on the table and backed away. I guessed their time at playing big and scary was over.

Kilo cleared his throat and edged back a little. “Okay, I give. What questions do you have?”

“Did Onyx work for you?” I placed my hands on my hips.

“Yeah, for less than a year. She became my top money-maker. I caught her trying to turn tricks on her own down on Oshun Boulevard, so I took her under my wing and showed her the ropes,” Kilo said. Zulu casually tapped his fingers against the table. Swallowing, Kilo whispered to me with pleading eyes, “Tell your old man that I’m really sorry about earlier.”

I suppressed my grin. “Just answer my questions. Do you know who killed Onyx?”

“Naw.” Kilo adjusted his pink dress so it covered more of his thighs. “I didn’t even know she was dead until this habbie came around, roughing me up and asking a bunch of questions about Onyx and some Shifter. The only thing that saved me was I’d been in the Oya District Jail when that Shifter got killed.”

I was sure it was Rivera who had roughed him up. I didn’t think Kilo had murdered Onyx or Shelly. Kilo was a thug. Thugs killed, but they didn’t prop their victims up on bushes and create a complicated fire spell.

“So you didn’t wonder at all about what happened to her?” I asked.

“I figured one of her customers did it.” Kilo brushed flakes of glow paint off his shoulders.

“Why would you think that?” I raised my eyebrows and leaned my head to the side.

“Her last scheduled call was a top payer who called himself the Lord. I never saw her after that.”

“Who’s the Lord?” Angel asked.

“Don’t know. He always met Onyx at her house. He paid her three times the regular fee to keep his identity secret. Paid me twice as much not to show up.”

“Hold up,” Angel said through clenched teeth. “You had Onyx turning tricks out of her mom’s house?” Flames rushed to Angel’s hands. “You sick son of a Mixed bitch!”

The edges of Kilo’s lips trembled. “You have power?”

Sucking in the fire power with my hand, I grabbed Angel’s elbow. “Calm down.”

Cassie prowled over to Zulu and lay down by his feet.

“Okay, let’s get back to what we were talking about.” I sighed. “So Onyx slept with guys at her house?”

“Yeah. I would hang outside the door while she did the guys,” Kilo explained. “I always made sure her clients didn’t hurt her and that her mom didn’t come home too early.”

A real upstanding guy, that Kilo.
“But you didn’t do that for the Lord?”

Kilo rubbed his hands together. “This particular client didn’t want me to see him. Onyx met him and said it was cool. She told me she knew the guy.”

“You have no contact information or anything?” I asked.

“I’m a pimp who provides a discreet service.”

I forced myself not to light him on fire.
Provides a discreet service? You took advantage of a young girl.
I rubbed my face, attempting to calm my temper. “How did the Lord get in contact with Onyx?”

“He dropped a letter off in her school locker,” Kilo said. “After Onyx dropped out of school, she had him leave the letters in my mailbox. I’ve got a little pink metal lockbox in front of my room at the Aztec Hotel.”

“So he would drop the note, and it would say what?” Angel asked.

“Usually, it would have his name—“The Lord”—and then a time he wanted to meet Onyx,” Kilo replied.

“Have you gotten any notes from the Lord since Onyx was with him the last time?”

Kilo shook his head no.

The Lord is suspect number two.
I dug my hand into my jeans pocket and pulled out Onyx’s sketch of Jacobi. “Did this guy ever pay for Onyx’s services?”

Kilo stared at the sketch and shook his head again. “I ain’t never seen him in my life.”

“Anything else you can add?”

“Naw.” Kilo risked a glance at Zulu, who was scratching the back of Cassie’s furry ear.

“I don’t believe you.” I narrowed my eyes at Kilo. “You were Onyx’s pimp for almost a year, letting guys in and out of her place. She didn’t have any crazy clients or ask you to protect her from somebody? Not once?”

“I run a clean service.” Kilo shrugged his tiny shoulders.

Were-bullshit.

“I love those shoes.” I stared at them and directed fire at the tips of the pink shoes. The flames shot toward them in a stream of orange light. A fiery blaze consumed the shoes. Screaming, Kilo jumped on a chair, knocking over a table on his right. It crashed into the wall. A burnt rubber scent rose from Kilo as he alternately stomped his feet and waved them around. One goon grabbed a glass of liquor and splashed it on his feet. The flames spread up his legs in an explosive burst.

I extinguished all the fire. “So now that I’ve refreshed your memory, is there anything else that could help me find out who killed Onyx?”

“See?” Zulu said to Kilo. “Really low tolerance.”

Kilo’s lips shook, dripping drool. He stared behind me and jerked back. I glanced over my shoulder. Nothing was behind me. Everything was the same as before.

“Monster chickens!” Kilo screamed, pointing behind me. “Don’t let them all kill me!”

“Great, you just sped up his Blue-Fi hallucinations with fear,” Angel whispered.

“Gee, really? And to think I was actually looking for a gigantic chicken.” I formed a fireball and guided it in front of Kilo’s face. “Focus on the fire, Kilo.”

A focal point was the only way I could help my dad come back down from his crazy high delusions. I was hoping I could do the same with Kilo.

“Pretty.” Kilo flashed a goofy grin as he blinked at my fireball and tried to touch it.

Oooo-kay.

“Can you think of anybody that wanted to threaten Onyx or kill her?” I asked. “Clients? Other hookers or pimps?”

Kilo stuck his finger near the fireball. “The chicken is afraid of the fire.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Well, if you don’t tell me everything, I’ll take the fire away—”

“No!” Kilo shrieked and leapt onto the table.

“Then freaking tell me.”

“There was this guy in a limo that kept coming by some nights and yelling at Onyx,” he confessed.

Limo?
Shelly’s friends mentioned that she got into a limo the last night they saw her. She’d been heading to Jacobi’s art showing. The habbies had questioned Jacobi, and he’d told them that he never sent a limo to get Shelly. Distracted, I almost lost control over the fireball. “Do you know what the guy in the limo looked like?”

“No,” Kilo said as I slowly shrank the fireball. “I swear I don’t! Onyx just told me not to hurt him.”

I kept the fire in place. “So she knew him?”

“Yeah. I would wait for Onyx’s mom to leave the house at night, and sometimes this black limo would show up. Onyx always begged me to stay inside the apartment. Then she would run out to the limo and argue with the guy for a few minutes.”

“Was it the Lord?”

“No way.” Kilo waved his hands around. “Onyx had control of the Lord. She told me he liked to be chained up and whipped. She cracked me up telling me that he entered her room on his knees, crawling in and licking her toes.”

I cringed at the thought of how much Onyx had changed since the diary orb’s first entries. She’d gone from a young girl dreaming up baby names to a hooker and dominatrix.

“You ever hear what Onyx and the limo guy were arguing about?” I asked.

“One of the times, I heard the guy say something like, ‘Stay away from him. He’s dangerous.’” Kilo leaned closer to the fireball and gazed behind me. “The monster chicken left. You can put the fire away.”

“Good.” I tried to think of anything else I needed to ask him as I extinguished the ball. “You ever hear the names Jacobi or Shelly when Onyx and the limo guy were arguing?”

“Maybe that Jacobi name but not the other one.” Kilo gestured for one of his goons to come and help him get down from the table. Mixies began to trickle back in, filling the room with conversation as if they were sure no more fighting would happen.

“Who do you think the limo guy was telling Onyx to stay away from?” I asked.

“Me, of course. Look at me.” Kilo posed, sticking out his right hip. He slid his hands over his tight dress. “I’m most people’s nightmare.”

“You’re definitely mine.” Zulu stood up and Cassie crept behind him. Her jaws expanded into a yawn that made a few of the Mixies near her jerk back. Zulu frowned at his sister. “Cassie, you smell like booze. I’m taking you home.”

“No, Zulu. Me think we should take her back to your condo,” Nona offered, stepping into the Air room and scanning the area. “Your mama be real mad if she smell that liquor on her breath.”

I knew the Rebels were around here. How long has Nona been lingering about?

“Good idea, Nona,” Zulu said. “Cassie, stay at my condo. I don’t want to hear Mom’s mouth.”

The tiger whimpered.

“Are we done?” Kilo asked, sitting back in his chair. His goons gathered back around him.

I nodded. “We’re done.”

Zulu headed in my direction and halted next to me, brushing his lips against my ear. “Is it possible to spend some time alone with you tonight?”

“Yes,” I whispered. My entire body burst with anticipation at the memory of the episode on my desk. He nipped at my ear. I forced myself not to lick my lips. “You’re messing up my hardcore persona right now.”

“Meet me in my office,” Zulu said. “Naked.”

I continued to focus on Kilo as he talked with his goons, trying desperately not to laugh at Zulu being ridiculous. Whispers came from the Mixies on the other side of the room. A few pointed at us.

“Miss Vesta?” Zulu said in that smooth voice. “Will you be naked?”

“Okay. I’ll be naked.”

“Bring one of those cans of paint at the door. The glow stuff.” He kissed my shoulder and then my neck.

I cleared my throat. “Goodnight, Zulu.”

“And a couple of drinking straws, if you can.” He made a low growl.

“You’re insane.” I bit my lip, trying to look stern so he wouldn’t be encouraged to say more crazy things.

“I love you.” He kissed my injured cheek. I flinched from the pain. And then the fun was over as Zulu’s rage seeped through the cords on my arm.

“You’re hurt?” Zulu spat out the words with disgust.

“I’m fine. My cheek is a little sore.”

“You’ve asked me not to fight your battles, and so I behaved accordingly.” Zulu’s eyes turned black. “I came in, my sister had shifted, and you seemed distressed. But no one was injured, so I stayed in the back.”