Cursed Moon (Prospero's War) (13 page)

October 21

First Quarter

T
he next afternoon I was sucking down the last of a soda from the late lunch we grabbed on our way to the park. Even though we were sitting on a tight deadline until all hell broke loose, I was trying to enjoy the abnormally sunny weather with the windows down. Morales looked at ease, too, with the wind ruffling his hair as he drove along the river.

“Yo,” he said over a mouthful of fries. “You ever wonder what it would have been like if you hadn’t left the life?”

I paused with the straw halfway to my mouth. “What? You mean the coven?”

He nodded and shot me a side glance.

I shrugged. “Probably be dead, most likely.”

“I don’t know. You’re pretty smart, Cupcake. Maybe you would have been running the whole show by now.”

“That had been the plan,” I muttered.

“Huh?”

I sighed and looked at him. “I said, that had been the plan. Abe was grooming me to take over the coven.”

Morales whistled low. “But you left anyway?”

I nodded. “Like I said, I doubt I would have survived long enough to put my management skills to the test.” I shook off the heavy feeling the conversation lowered over my skin. “Besides, if I hadn’t left I never would have had the pleasure of dealing with your annoying ass.”

He flashed me a sideways grin. “You love my ass.”

I glanced toward the ass in question. “It has certain charms. Too bad you insist on talking so much and ruining it all.”

He laughed then, crumpling up his trash and stashing it in the bag. With a jolt, I realized this hastily gobbled lunch was as close to a date as I’d had in months. The last official date I’d had was with a mortician named Barry Finkleman, whose idea of a good time was taking me to a funeral trade show to ogle embalming equipment. That thought was depressing enough to make me wish I had some whiskey to add to my soda.

“What’s wrong? You’ve got that frown that usually means you’re thinking too much.”

I gave him a dirty look and chugged the rest of my drink. “After that meeting with the mayor, I’m just hoping LM’s gonna have something to help us find this Dionysus guy.”

Morales pulled the car toward the side of the road and pushed the gear into P. “Only one way to find out.” With that he shut off the ignition and hopped out. As he jogged around the front of the SUV, I took a couple of seconds to admire the rear end we’d just discussed. It really was a world-class ass.

In the next instant Morales stopped and turned toward the
car, staring at me from the curb. He tapped his watch. “Tick-tock, Cupcake.”

I grabbed my bag and climbed out of the car. “You got cash?”

He frowned. “Remind me to introduce you to reimbursement forms when we get back.”

“Hey, you’re the higher pay grade here. It’s up to you to deal with that bullshit.”

He shook his head and turned away like he knew pushing the issue was a waste of time. Smart guy.

I jogged to catch up with him in time to walk through the gated entrance to the park. Well,
park
is a generous term for what was really just a dirt lot dotted with a few benches and bent metal structures that used to be swing sets and seesaws. Back in the day, it used to be the playground for the families of those who worked at Babylon Steel. Now it was a nighttime recreation area for potion junkies.

But we’d arrived during the day, so all the hex-heads were passed out in their rabbit warrens waiting for night to fall so they could get their next fix. The only people we found there that afternoon were the very ones we’d been looking for: Little Man and Mary.

While they technically were two people, the pair came as a single unit. Mary was a six-foot-tall tank of a woman with the intellect of a child, and Little Man was the size of a baby with the intellect of an adult. Their mother had been a fertility potion junky, but her dealer had fucked her over by giving her an experimental potion. Unfortunately, baby Mary had grown too large in utero and killed her mama on the way out.

About the time Mary hit puberty a large mole on her chest had grown into her brother, Little Man. He never grew larger than a baby so she could easily carry him around in a carrier
strapped to her chest. One time I asked if they ever thought about having surgery to separate. Mary’s reaction to the question was… violent, so I never brought it up again. But I knew from experience she was fiercely protective of LM, and there was no way he could survive on his own in this world, and Mary could never survive the mental rigors of living without his guidance, so in a way their relationship was symbiotic.

Morales had met the pair before during our last big case a few months back. Still, his shoulders tensed once we spotted them on their normal bench. The last time he’d met them, Mary had had a negative reaction to an offhand comment my partner had made, so I couldn’t blame him for his caution. Especially since the last time we’d tried to talk to the pair, they’d run like frightened animals. Still, it was odd to see such a big guy get freaked out by an intellectual cripple and a homunculus who would have lost a wrestling match against a toddler. “Relax,” I said. “As long as you don’t do anything to make her think you’re a threat to Baby”—Mary’s pet name for Little Man—“it’ll be fine.”

“That’s the problem. That little fuck loves to stir the shit.”

“Then keep your mouth closed and let me do the talking.” It had taken me a while to trust Morales enough to introduce him to my snitches. But now that I had I didn’t want him doing anything else to jeopardize my relationship with them. As tricky as it was to deal with LM and Mary, they tended to give me good intel most of the time.

“Is that bacon I smell?” A bored voice floated back over the bench toward us. I wasn’t sure exactly how he knew we were there, since Mary’s back was to us and LM couldn’t see over her shoulder. Still, I’d learned not to underestimate LM because of his size.

Mary didn’t get up or turn to address me. Instead, she waited
for Morales and me to come around the bench. When we did, I stopped and gaped. “What the fuck happened?”

Little Man had a busted lip, and one of his wrists was swollen and purple. Mary had her left hand in a cast and a large bandage across her forehead that bore smears of blood that had seeped through the gauze. LM chuckled, but the noise morphed into a pitiful cough. “Had a little trouble.”

“No shit,” Morales said, coming forward. “Who did this to you two?”

The move earned him a menacing growl from Mary.

LM raised his uninjured right hand. “Careful, Macho. Sissy’s a little more protective than usual ever since the attack.”

Morales shot a worried look at the woman and backed away. “Sorry,” he said to Mary.

“Tell us,” I prompted. “Is this why you ran from us the other day?”

His gaze scooted left, as if he’d been hoping I’d have forgotten about that. “Had a misunderstanding with a business associate is all.” LM sighed and leaned back, like he was enjoying sharing his woes with an audience. “The fucking moon. Got people acting a fool.”

“Which people?” Morales asked.

LM shrugged, his eye skittering to the side. “Forgive me, Special Agent, but I’m not at liberty to share details about our confidential business with an officer of the MEA.”

Morales rolled his eyes. It’s not like we didn’t know that LM and Mary were tits-deep in the magic trade in the Cauldron. It’s just that by comparison they were relatively small fish in a filthy pond full of bottom feeders. Arresting them for their small-time potion deals would be like capturing a tadpole when there was a school of barracuda swimming past.

“If this business of yours has anything to do with the case
we’re working,” I said, “it’d be in your best interest to give us some names.”

LM shook his head. “This ain’t none of your business, Prospero.” His tone was so serious it gave me pause. Little Man wasn’t ever Mr. Happy Good Time, but he usually enjoyed busting my balls during our meetings. Something was up. He knew I’d go to bat for him if it was in my power to do so, but for some reason he believed I either wouldn’t or—more likely—couldn’t help him with this one.

I nodded. “I hear you. Just make sure you two watch your asses. I don’t have time to train new snitches.”

That finally earned me a chuckle. “Ah, shit, girl. You’re a trip, you know that?”

“That’s funny. I thought she was just a pain in the ass,” Morales added.

LM laughed again. “I hear that, Macho.” He held up his uninjured hand. Morales paused only a fraction of a second before he leaned in to slap the homunculus some skin. When he pulled back I held my breath, worried he might do some stupid thing like wipe his hands on his jeans, but he didn’t.

“Anyway, don’t worry about us,” LM said. “This busted lip is a fucking pussy magnet.”

Vomit rose in the back of my throat at the mental image conjured by his words. I felt rather than saw Morales shudder next to me. LM cackled and raised his hand for another high five, this time in my direction, but I sidestepped it verbally. “Anyway, we were wondering if you two heard anything about this asshole calls himself Dionysus.”

Mary, who’d been staring off into the middle distance, as was her habit, suddenly became very alert. Her massive melon head jerked up and she stared at me like I was her enemy. LM
felt her go tense and started patting her arm. “Shh, Sissy,” he whispered. To me he narrowed his eyes. “Who told you?”

I froze. “Wait. He did this to you?”

The small face scrunched up with confusion. “You mean you didn’t bring him up like that to see how we’d react?”

I frowned and shook my head. “No, we’re investigating him for real. I had no idea you were connected to him.”

LM crossed his arms over his tiny chest. “Well, fuck. I knew we shoulda skipped out of town before this fucking moon got its claws in the city.”

“Why didn’t you?” Morales asked.

LM’s posture changed. His movements hesitant, as if he was worried about giving away too much. “That’s the thing. This business I mentioned, it came up last minute right before we was gonna leave.”

“Wait,” I said, “Dionysus approached you?”

Mary stiffened again at the mention of the name. LM shushed her and then reluctantly looked at us again. I raised a brow. “Fuck,” he said. “Fine. What’s-his-name came to me couple weeks back—just after the last full moon. Said he heard I was the man to talk to for information.”

I nodded because that much was true. No sense asking how Dionysus figured out LM was the guy. It was common knowledge in the Cauldron that the homunculus knew everything. The only thing keeping the little shit alive was his sister’s reputation for violent overprotection and that most people were just plain freaked out by the pair. “What kind of information?” I asked.

“Said he wanted to know who the key players in town were. Paid real well for a list of the top wizes and their specialties.”

“Was he after something particular?” Morales asked.

LM shrugged. “At first no. He just took the list and paid me. But last week he comes back demanding to know why I didn’t list all the Cauldron’s wizes.”

I frowned. “Who’d you leave off?”

The homunculus looked me in the eye. “Aphrodite and Volos.”

“Goddamn it.” I felt Morales shoot me a look but ignored him. “What about them?”

“I left the Hierophant off the list because I was afraid it’d get back to her/m and s/he’d poison our asses.” Little Man crossed his arms with a huff. “And I didn’t put Volos on the list ’cause he’s all legit and shit.”

I raised my brows to indicate I didn’t believe Little Man was naive enough to think Volos was really out of the game completely.

He shrugged. “Leastwise, ain’t nobody knows of any new potions he’s produced in a few years.” He waited for me to acknowledge that.

Truth was Volos had put a potion out in the last few months, but it was the legit antipotion he’d created with my help to battle the dirty potion Ramses Bane put on the streets. Still, LM’s point held up because all that aside, Volos still hadn’t been a player in the Votary Coven in years—not since he betrayed Uncle Abe and testified against him in court in exchange for a clean slate.

“So Dio”—Morales shot a worried glance in Mary’s direction—“err, the asshole came back demanding to know why Volos wasn’t on the list specifically?”

LM shook his head. “No, he came back saying I had to have left someone off. Got the impression he’d checked out all the other alchemists on the list and didn’t find whatever it was he was looking for. So he figured I musta left someone off.”

“Did you figure out what he was looking for?” I asked.

“Said he knew a wizard in Babylon had ordered a large shipment of calamus root recently. That’s what he was after, see? When he checked out the others and didn’t find those barrels, he knew I’d left someone off.”

“Calamus root?” Morales asked.

“It’s used in some Hoodoo traditions to gain control over someone’s will,” I explained quickly. “I didn’t see it listed as an ingredient for Aphrodite’s potions.”

“So it was Volos.” Morales didn’t sound surprised, and frankly neither was I. He was developing a bad habit of getting himself tangled in my cases. A bad habit I was going to have to cure him of ASAP before it got more people hurt—or worse, cost me my job.