The Nekropolis Archives (31 page)

  "Lyra?" I said hopefully. I was thinking of how I'd traded the soul jar containing Honani's spirit to Amon for our freedom. Had the Darklord used his powers to force out Lyra's essence and return Honani to his rightful body?

  The mixblood glared at us for a moment longer before dissolving into a fit of giggling. "Darn it! I knew I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face!"

  I started to sigh in relief, but Lyra scooped me up and gave me a vicious hug, squeezing the rest of the air out of my lungs. When she put me down, I half expected to collapse to the porch in a mass of dead flesh and shattered bone. But luckily my skeletal system had withstood Lyra's affectionate embrace, if only just.

  "What are you doing here, Matt? And who's your friend? She's cute!" Lyra turned to Devona and started to smile, but she frowned instead. "Hey, didn't I see you at
Skully's
when I walked out? I was kind of muzzy-headed from the transfer into this body, so maybe I'm wrong, but I could've sworn–"

  "I was there," Devona confirmed.

  "After you left
Skully's
, Devona asked me to help her out with a problem, Lyra. We're here because I think Bennie might be able to help us."

  "Sure – come on in!" Lyra stepped aside so we could enter. When we were inside, Lyra closed to the door and even I, without any mystical training whatsoever, could sense a battery of defensive spells activating.

  "So you decided to return to your old, uh, stomping grounds?" I asked Lyra.

  Lyra grinned with Honani's mixblood mouth, and though she displayed a truly intimidating array of teeth, she still somehow managed look cute.

  "More than that, I've got a new job! Bennie made me a bouncer!" Lyra flexed her right arm, and her new mixblood muscles bulged impressively.

  I couldn't help laughing. "Perfect!"

  "I know! Bennie's the best, aren't they? They also offered to get me an appointment with Dr. Moreau at the House of Pain to see if he might be able to give my new body a sex change, but I think I'm going to keep it as is for now. I always wanted to see how the other half lives, and now I've got my chance!"

  Devona looked at me. "They?"

  "It'll all make sense soon. Trust me."

  Lyra led us through the foyer and into the lounge which, as usual, was filled with customers waiting for appointments to begin, restocking on fluids between assignations, or bragging about their performance to their companions afterward. The lounge was decorated like a tasteful upscale neighborhood tavern back on Earth: black lacquer tables and chairs, a small kitchen which served appetizers and snacks, and – instead of flat-screen TV's – giant Mind's Eye devices were mounted on the walls, the orbs broadcasting news coverage of Descension Day activities throughout the city. But the heart of the lounge was undeniably the large circular bar in the middle of the room. The bartenders on duty could mix any type of drink you wanted, but every one of them was Arcane and their true specialty was potion-making. They could create any manner of aphrodisiac or performance-enhancing substance imaginable, and many that were beyond imagination, even in Nekropolis.

  Every table in the lounge was taken by men and women representing all the races the city has to offer – Bennie doesn't believe in discrimination when it comes to love, or the reasonable facsimile on the menu at the
House of Dark Delights
– and it looked like Devona and I were going to have to stand. But Lyra escorted us over to a table where two vampires I recognized were playing a holographic game of bloodshards.

  The male looked up as we approached, his holo-eye implants switching over to normal vision, and he groaned when he got a good look at us, or more specifically, at me.

  "Not you again! My sister and I just want to be left alone to play in peace!"

  "And that's all you've been doing for the last four hours" Lyra said. "This lounge is reserved for paying customers, Reshem. I let you slide because of the trouble Matt and I caused you at
Skully's
earlier, but now I have to ask you to take your game elsewhere."

  The female vampire switched her implants over to regular vision then too, and the holographic game pieces vanished. "But this is the only place we've able to find where a fight hasn't broken out within ten minutes of our arrival," she protested. "We figured it would be safe to play here because the customers aren't interested in fighting."

  Her brother grinned. "Because they have other activities on their mind."

  Lyra put her large clawed hands onto the table and went into her pissed-off mixblood routine, teeth bared, brow furrowed, growl rumbling deep in her throat.

  The male vampire sighed. "All right, we're going. Come, Halina, let's try the restaurant across the street. We should be able to get in at least a dozen games before the server arrives to take our drink orders."

  The vampire siblings left, and Lyra gestured to the now empty table. "If you'd like to take a seat, I'll go find Bennie and tell her you want to talk to her. I'll have someone come over and get you something to drink while you wait." Lyra gestured to one of the servers, gave us a last smile, and then turned to go.

  We sat and watched Lyra make her way back to the foyer, everyone in her path stumbling over one another to get out of her way. Lyra acted as if she didn't notice, but I knew she loved every minute of it.

  "I think that girl has a bright future ahead of her in the nuisance-deterrent business," Devona said.

  I couldn't help but agree.

  While waited for a server to come over, Devona glanced around the lounge, taking everything in. She frowned. "All these people… the place hardly seems large enough to accommodate them all. As big as the lounge is, I don't see how they have any space left over for rooms."

  "That's because only part of the
House of Dark Delights
is above ground," I said. "There are seven levels beneath us, each more, ah, intense than the last."

  Devona raised an eyebrow and I hastened to add, "Or so I've been told. I've never actually had the opportunity – or the desire – to explore beyond the lounge."

  Devona smiled, obviously enjoying my discomfort. "Sure, Matt. Whatever you say."

  A white-furred werecat server wearing an almost nonexistent black leather bikini came over and asked if we'd like anything to drink – on the house. I politely declined, but Devona ordered a glass of aqua sanguis. The server winked at me as she left, swishing her tail a bit more strictly than necessary as she headed toward the bar. I noticed Devona scowling.

  "Why Ms. Kanti, if I didn't know better, I might think you were actually jealous."

  Devona laughed just a little too loudly. "
Right
. As if I would be jealous of a cheap little thing like. Doesn't she realize that six breasts is just overkill?"

  "You're right: you don't sound a bit jealous."

  She smiled. "All right, I admit it, I am."

  "I don't think you have to worry about anyone snatching me away. I'm not exactly the best-looking guy in the place at the moment." Cuts on my face, burnt arm, missing ear and pinkie, chewed-up leg, tilted head, and skin getting grayer by the minute – not to mention the state of my suit. I'd never been a male model, but I'd definitely seen better days.

  Devona reached over and took my hand. "It's not the outside I see when I look at you. Especially after what happened in the glen."

  All I could feel of Devona's touch was the slight pressure of her fingers against my skin. But it was enough.

  "So you felt it too?"

  She nodded. "It was the most intense experience of any kind I've ever had."

  "I thought you said you'd linked with men before."

  "I have, but it was never like that. Those men were Shadows in more ways than one, Matt. Shallow, hollow men who just wanted me for my body, or because I was Bloodborn and exotic, or because they thought I could make them Bloodborn too. But you – you're special. I don't think you realize just how much."

  "Devona…" I didn't know what to say. We'd met each other less than a day ago, but after what had happened in the glen, after joining souls as we'd done, it was like we'd known each other for years. No, forever. But I couldn't let this go on, no matter how much I wanted it to, and believe me, I did.

  The werecat brought Devona's drink, and we were silent while she put it down on the table. She saw we were holding hands, so she kept her winks to herself this time when she departed.

  When the girl was out of earshot, I continued. "What kind of relationship can you have with a zombie? I'm not exactly fully functional, if you know what I mean."

  "I don't care about that, Matt. We don't need physical love, not when we can link."

  "Even so, I think it would be best for now if we just tried to concentrate our attention on the job at hand."

  Her eyes grew cold and hurt and she tried to pull away, but I held her hand tight.

  "I'm not rejecting you, Devona. I want to make that clear. I probably should reject you, to be honest, but I can't. But we shouldn't go forward with this until I know for certain that I'm going to… I guess 'live' isn't the right word. Survive, I guess. Unless your father can help me, I'll be gone soon."

  "Then we can have that time together, Matt."

  I shook my head. "I won't do that to you. I can't. We know how we feel about each other – know it in a way that two people who haven't been linked never could. Right now that has to be enough. If I'm lucky, in a couple days, I'll still be here, and then we can continue this conversation where it left off. I promise."

  A crimson tear pooled at the corner of her right eye. "And if you aren't lucky?"

  I grinned. "Would you smack me if I said we'll always have the glen?"

  She squeezed my hand and I squeezed right back.

  "Well, look who we have here! If it isn't Matthew Richter, the man who helped supply me with the best bouncer I've ever had!"

  We looked up to see a tall, striking woman in a tuxedo striding confidently toward us. She wore her bright orange hair in a buzz cut, and her cherry-red lipstick contrasted with her ice-blue eyes. She stopped when she reached our table. There were only two chairs, and we were currently occupying them. I offered mine, but Bennie declined.

  "Thank you, Matt, but there's no need." In a louder voice, Bennie said, "The first person who offers their chair gets two minutes alone with me in the Correctionary."

  A near-riot ensued as men, women, and creatures of indeterminate species and gender fought to be the first to get a chair to Bennie, but in the end, a man with iron spikes jutting forth from his flesh like he was some sort of industrial porcupine won. He held the chair as Bennie sat.

  "Thank you, love," Bennie said then added, with a dark twinkle in her eye, "Let's make it two and a half minutes, shall we? Don't go far; I'll come for you later. Or vice versa."

  Spike-man looked so overwhelmed, I thought he might pass out, but he managed to hold onto consciousness long enough to thank Bennie before heading straight for the bar, no doubt intending to get some heavy-duty pharmacological assistance to prepare for his 180 seconds in the Correctionary with Bennie. If even a tenth of what I've heard about her skills is true, I figured he'd need it. Everyone else in the lounge was glaring jealously at Spike-man, and he was lucky no one present possessed the evil eye, or he would've been dead before he got two steps away from our table.

  "Thanks for the floor show, Bennie," I said. "Do you take requests?"

  She let out a hearty laugh. "You wish!"

  I turned to Devona. "Devona Kanti, may I present the owner of the
House of Dark Delights
, Madame Benedetta."

  Bennie reached out to take Devona's hand in the way some women will, intending to clasp it gently from underneath and give it a gentle squeeze. But halfway across the table, Bennie's slender fingers swelled and the slight reddish hair on the back of her hand became more pronounced. Bennie took Devona's hand in a masculine grip and gave it a good shake.

  "Pleased to meet you," Bennie said in a voice that had suddenly grown deeper. "You're far too lovely to be keeping company with such a rough customer as Matt. However did the two of you meet?"

  Devona stared at Bennie. His shoulders were broader, neck thicker, the lipstick was gone, and he sported a mustache and goatee the same bright orange shade as his hair. Bennie was still just as striking as before, but he most definitely was–

  "A man?" Devona said.

  "Occasionally," Bennie said. "There are so many pleasures to be had from life. Why limit yourself to experiencing them from only one perspective?"

  "And now, Devona, you've also met Master Benedict," I said.

  "But you can call me Bennie," our host said. "It makes things so much simpler."

  Devona gave me an amused glance. "So I've heard."

  "An ancestor of mine was a chemist who once tried to use specialized drugs to distill the good in man's nature and separate it from the evil," Bennie said. "My goals are somewhat less lofty. I use his formulae – along with some of my own devising – to make a buck or two." He gestured toward his body. "And, as you've seen, to enjoy myself. I also helped developed most of the aphrodisiacs and performance-enhancers we serve at the bar, although I must admit, my Arcane employees have helped a great deal with those formulae which require magic. And speaking of formulae…"

  Bennie sat back and lifted his hand, and the werecat was instantly there, with a glass of scotch to put in it. Or at least, it looked like scotch. I wondered if it wasn't the special libation that allowed him and/or her to switch back and forth between genders.

  "Thank you, Lourdes. That will be all…" Bennie gave her a smoldering look. "For now."

  "Promises, promises." The werecat purred as she slinked off to see to other customers.

  Bennie took a sip of his drink. "Lyra told me you needed my help with something. After what you did for that sweet child, Matt – not to mention what you did to the bastard who killed her – I'm forever in your debt. Whatever you need, just name it."