Wizard of the Pigeons (16 page)

‘No,' he replied distractedly, sipping at his drink.

‘Oh, you!' Lynda gave him a friendly punch and took a healthy swallow of her drink. Her eyes flickered to Teddy, and then turned on her stool to face Wizard. Her knees were warm bumps against his thigh. She changed her face to a pout and her voice became childish as she complained, ‘I wish you'd talk to me more. Being out with you isn't much different from being out alone. You act like we're not even together. Is something wrong with me? Would you rather be alone?'

He looked at her very carefully. She sounded like a different woman than the Lynda who had fed him earlier. He wondered which question he was supposed to answer first. He had forgotten all about this kind of talking. It wasn't like talking to Cassie or Sylvester or Euripides or Rasputin. They had things to say, important things said
in deceptively simple words. Lynda had something to say, but she said everything except what she was trying to tell him. Her message to him was lost in her words, and he had no idea of how to reply.

He stared at her over the rim of his mug. The renewed warmth of the drink hit the walls of his body like waves against a breakwater. He tried for an instant to find power and focus his magic on her so he could understand what was Truth here. But even as he groped in his darkened soul, he remembered the magic was gone. A wave of misery washed over him and he took a sip of coffee to counteract it. No wonder he could not find the right thing to say to her. He fell back on his old instincts, and picked through the bewildering array of things he could say to her for the most truthful one. She had stared at him through his long silence. Teddy was smirking as he polished a glass. Lynda's face was pinker than Wizard had ever seen it.

‘I have the feeling,' he said carefully, ‘that this is not the best place for us to be.' That was better. Speaking his thoughts did focus them, and she had gone from angry to rapt, leaning closer to hear his soft voice. Teddy no longer looked so amused. ‘I can't say what it is that bothers me, but this is not a good place for us.' Teddy's words leaped into his mind and he mouthed them. ‘This is no place for a lady like yourself.'

Lynda was glowing in his words, her smile gone soft and gentle. Wizard felt very pleased with himself for an instant, and then the impact of his own words broke on him like a douse of cold water. This was no place for a lady. Not this bar. This was a man's bar, with a constant edge in the air. A certain type of man might bring his woman
here, but not his lady. It was not a place for quiet talking, for the sharing of thoughts or companionable silences. It was a place for displays and competitions, challenges and threats. It was a place where misplaced men came to prod balls around a table, to drink and mutter angrily and helplessly at one another, and then to fight short, ugly fights. Not a place to bring a friend one valued. So why had Lynda brought him here? And who had brought her here before?

No answers to those questions, but a solution. Leave. He rose from his stool, feeling a strange rubberiness in his knees. It passed and he took Lynda's arm firmly. He was certain now of the danger here. She had tempted it, but she had fed him. The least he could do was take her to a safer place.

‘What's wrong?' Her voice was a shade short of baby talk, her mouth a plump little pout. Charades for Teddy.

‘Nothing, yet. But if you want to sit and talk with me, we have to find a place to talk where I don't feel exposed. I like my back to a wall. When I'm with a lady, I like to concentrate on the lady, not worry about someone behind me with a pool cue.' He listened to himself in surprise. So he did know how to do that kind of talking. It came out of his mouth too smoothly, too glibly, for it to be new talent. Even the words seemed practised in their sentences. It poured out of him almost like a Knowing; almost.

‘Well – but – let me finish my drink first, then.' She pulled gently away from him, and he saw her eyes dart to Teddy. She wanted him to notice this exchange, to see how Wizard had taken control and wanted to be alone with her. She wanted the other men in the room to see
that she was desirable, that this man wanted her. He needed to follow that thought, but the sense of danger pressed against him, squeezing his mind to action. He coughed and, lifting the drink, drained it to clear his throat. The warmth spread through him anew.

‘I think we should go someplace quieter, more private.' These words came even more smoothly. Lynda turned in surprise and gave him a suddenly measuring look.

‘Oh. I see. Well, keep your shirt on. The night is young; there's no rush. Besides, I want to finish my drink.' She leaned to bump her shoulder gently against him, filling his nostrils with her scent. She was enjoying this. He wasn't.

‘I want to leave here now, and I want you to come with me,' he said bluntly. ‘I think you'd be stupid not to. You could get hurt.'

‘Are you threatening her?' Danger spoke from behind him. Wizard turned to it and found himself eye to eye with Booth. The final tumbler clicked into place. From the rosy flush on Lynda's face and the way she moistened her lips, he knew she had scored her hit. This was why she had brought him here, whether she knew it or not, to this place no man would bring a woman he cared about. Because this was Booth's place, and this was where he had brought her. She had come here to be seen with a new man. To lay a fresh little sting on Booth's pride in revenge for whatever he had done to her. Because she had known that Booth would come here, and the thought of their confrontation warmed her.

‘I'm not threatening her.' Wizard spoke the useless words. Lynda hitched closer to her barstool, and snugged
her arm through his, keeping him on point. Perhaps she sensed he wanted to flee.

‘Mind your own business, Booth,' she snapped.

‘I am. Just because we're not going together anymore doesn't mean I want to see you get hurt. Look at this guy, Lynda! Where the hell did you pick him up? I heard what he said to you. Don't do anything stupid like leaving with him.'

Booth's words were like lines in a play. Wizard knew this scene by heart, had watched it played out in a thousand settings, but never before had he been a principal in it. He tried to step clear, but Lynda clung to his arm.

‘Get lost, Booth. I'll go anywhere I want, with anyone I want.' Her voice was clear and carrying, filling the tavern and interrupting pool games. She had her audience. ‘You don't own me. Not anymore. Mind your own business. You didn't want to treat me nice when you had me, so leave me alone now. What could he do to me worse than what you did? Answer me that?' Lynda blazed at him gloriously, letting her lips go full and her breasts heave, letting him see all he had so carelessly thrown away. ‘Baby.' She had turned to Wizard now, changing her voice to intimacy, letting Booth see all he was shut away from. ‘Take me out of here. You were right. Let's go someplace more private.' She levelled her eyes at Booth once more and fired with deadly accuracy as she observed in a clear voice, ‘It's been a long time since I was with a man who knew how to treat a lady. I'd almost forgotten what it was like.'

Teddy the bartender had edged closer during the exchange. Wizard wondered if he was keeping himself handy to prevent trouble or just to witness it. His eyes
had a hard, dead glint in them, the look of a man who expects to watch a fight. He wouldn't stop it. Wizard stiffened.

‘If you are coming with me, we're leaving now,' he said to Lynda. His voice was cold, its edge cutting through all other sounds in the room. He kept his eyes on Booth as he stepped away from the bar and was amazed to find how easily Lynda came along with him, floating on his arm. Her purse and bag were on her other arm, and he knew that she had been ready for this move, had planned it just this way. As Wizard moved toward the door, she rode on his arm as regally as any queen. Wizard didn't need to look back to know that Teddy was smirking and Booth was glowering. He heard the impact of Booth's fist on the bar, saw heads turning to watch their exit. It's not over yet, warned a voice in the back of his skull, and he felt a quickening of excitement in his body, surging like pleasure. It frightened him.

The woman was short and dark, with tightly curled hair and a nose like a Jewish elf. She was leaning against the wall of the building as Wizard and Lynda came out into the cool dark streets.

‘Last chance to do anything smart tonight,' she announced as he came out the door. ‘Run like hell, buddy. If you don't, forget it. Forget everything, because you are a babe in these woods and you are going to lose it all. Last chance.' She hitched herself up off the wall and strode off into the darkness. Lynda was adjusting her coat. If she had heard or seen the other woman, she gave no sign of it.

She flashed a smile up to Wizard in the darkness. ‘Well, where do you want to go now?' There was a bit
of a challenge in her smile. Did she know what came next as clearly as he did?

‘You choose the place,' he said, giving her a wolf-hard smile. He wondered if his teeth gleamed in the darkness. This was the part he had always loved best. Preparation. The rubberiness in his legs had been replaced with an old familiar springiness. Alertness coursed through his veins, making him more alive than his body could stand. Just like old times, someone whispered greyly. His readiness radiated off him, sending sparks of aggression into the night. ‘Lead the way,' he commanded. To her puzzlement he let go of her arm and gave her a gentle push to set her going. She would be on point, but it didn't worry him, because he knew the attack would come from behind. He sauntered along, casual in the cold night. Waiting.

After a hesitant glance back, Lynda led off. Wizard followed her, smelling her perfume as it drifted back to him, listening for the inevitable.

Booth was good. Wizard gave him that. Anyone else would have been surprised when the hard hand fell on his shoulder and spun him around. Anyone else would have hit the wall and been off-balance, would have been struggling to come back to his feet as Booth's fist pinned him to the wall and the mocking words began. That was the scene Booth had planned. But when the hand spun Wizard, he went with it, not falling to one side but turning in a tight circle, using the momentum Booth had given him to plant his fist squarely in Booth's belly. Booth doubled over, pushing his face into Wizard's knee as it rose smartly to meet his nose. Wizard seized him by the ears and propelled him with vicious force into the side of the building. As Booth started to slide down the bricks,
Wizard delivered a kick to the side of his knee. He was out of practice; no clean snap of joint followed it. There had been remarkably little sound since it had begun. Wizard's first blow had knocked the wind out of Booth, and his responses to what followed had been limited to piggish grunts, with the hint of a high squeal on each intake.

Only instants had passed. Now he lay on the ground and Wizard stood over him, waiting for a movement or a sound. The sound came; the harsh noise of a man unused to tears but weeping with pain. Booth had not expected pain, had not been prepared to pay for his amusement. Wizard had felt him assessing him in the bar. Booth had not looked beyond the gaunt frame and cautious manner; he had read Wizard as a skinny and fearful target. He should have looked in my eyes, Wizard thought with satisfaction. Next time, he'll know better.

A disturbing thought. Far better to make sure there wasn't a next time. He knew of no more stupid mistake than to injure an enemy and leave him to brood and heal. When he came after Wizard the next time, he would be better prepared, with a knife or a small calibre pistol for luck. Better to eliminate next time now. Wizard glanced about as he considered quick, quiet ways. Lynda was standing like a stag at bay, her eyes huge but not disapproving. And if I had lost? he asked her silently. He could smell her excitement and the edges of her fear. It was happening so swiftly for them, and so slowly for him. He took a deep breath and tightened his guts for the finale.

‘Didi mau!' A small slender shadow, blacker than the night, raced between him and Booth, shrieking the old warning. The urgency of it hit Wizard, moving him
automatically. He gripped Lynda by the upper arm and rushed her off, almost lifting her off her feet to match his long-legged stride. She trotted beside him, not questioning him. They fled two blocks and then he abruptly jerked her to a walk. He put his arm hastily around her and they sauntered along, not speaking. Her eyes darted, their whites visible all around the edges. The patrol car rounded the corner as they waited to cross the intersection. It turned left, back the way they had come. Wizard watched it from the corner of his vision, saw it pass the crumpled man on the sidewalk, then back up. They'd cheated him of his prey this time, but the next time…

‘Let's go in here.' Lynda's voice shook. Fear? No. Suppressed glee. They were scarcely in the door of Maudie's Corner before she began to shake. A titter of high laughter escaped her. She stilled it with her hand over her mouth, but her eyes were dancing as she looked up to Wizard. He met her look unsmiling and pushed his way into the bar.

It was a very narrow entryway. On his left were tiny two-person tables up against the windows. There was room for one person to walk between them and the row of barstools at the long red bar. It was noisy in here, and male. A TV was blasting in the corner, accompanied by the pinging of an Eight Ball pinball machine. A cigarette machine was crowded up beside that. The wall behind the bar was decorated with framed photos of teams, mostly baseball. Wizard had no doubt that this was another of Booth's hangouts. Well, he wouldn't be in tonight. It was as safe a place as any to hole up until the cops had finished with their assault victim.

He found a wall table with a cribbage board on it. He
seated Lynda with a gesture and then sat down across from her. Even in the darkened atmosphere of the tavern, she shone with excitement. Men looked at her, at him, and then looked away. She shook off a shiver and leaned forward to cover his hands with hers.