Shade City (20 page)

"No. He's taking me home." She batted her fake eyelashes at him. "Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him."

I was going to interject but I thought that would only complicate matters. Besides, it actually looked like the big man was listening to her. They exchanged glances and Eladio stopped following us as we resumed our way downhill. I turned around a couple of times, to make sure, and the strongman was just standing in place with a scowl. When we were out of earshot, Eva must have sensed I was unsure how to break the silence.

"What did you do?" she asked. "You don't want to piss him off. Trust me."

The short girl had her hand around my waist. I tried to ignore the second shadow inside her. "Me? How do you know those guys?"

She shrugged. "They work at Red Hat. Why?"

"And what about Marquis?"

She stopped. "You saw him?"

"Sure. He was inside. You know him too?"

She laughed. "You went inside the observatory? No wonder you're getting kicked out."

We arrived at my car and I pulled my keys out. "This is me."

I unlocked the dark gray Z and looked up the street. We weren't followed. Then I suddenly wondered if Eva was the kind of girl that cared how expensive my car was. I liked sporty cars but this one didn't exactly break the bank. Next thing I knew, she opened the passenger seat and sat down, without a mention of it.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"You're my ride," she said matter-of-factly.

"You weren't lying? Where's Liz?"

"She's with some friends. I came with her. Now I'm going with you."

I couldn't say I was bothered by the news. As I sat in the low bucket seat, the back of my skull hit the headrest hard. I rubbed the sore spot tenderly.

I eyed the petite girl in the tight yellow dress and marveled at my luck. Ten minutes ago I was just worried about staying alive. Now I had much more ambitious aspirations.

"Where do you live?"

* * *

I held the flame above the pipe and inhaled deeply as a skunky smoke filled my lungs. I usually don't like pot. Especially the overly strong medicinal variety. It makes me paranoid. Believe me, when you know ghosts are everywhere, the last thing you need is more paranoia. But the ecstasy I'd gotten from John was wearing off, and Eva still wanted to party.

We were sitting on the carpet of her studio apartment. The cheap Ikea coffee table was Eva's workspace. An open green pill bottle of weed rested next to a crumpled paper that once held K. She had music on, some hip hop or whatever that I wasn't really listening to. The only other noise was our occasional laughter.

The room was dark because she had duct-taped a sheet over the window to act as a blackout curtain. Despite her best efforts, I could see the sliver of light along the edge that meant the sun was coming up. The drugs had helped me forget about the pain from the brawl. Now I was just plain exhausted. I gave the pipe back to her and leaned my head against the seat cushion of the couch. I needed to tap out.

"I win," she said, taunting me. I studied her. She was so cute, even without any make-up on. She had dressed down to get comfortable, wearing only panties and a long white T-shirt.

"I should've gotten more X. Weed isn't my thing." Next time I came to this house, I thought, I needed to bring a six-pack. Alcohol had a way of keeping me level at times like this. I slid to my side and rested my head in her lap. She leaned down and gave me a kiss. Heaven. Until she blew some smoke into my mouth.

I pushed her away and exhaled. "Really," I said, "I'm done." It was a little unnerving. The joke was a bit too similar to the times I'd exsufflated shades. Shit,
she
was a shade. What was I doing here?

Her thighs were too comfortable for me to abandon, though.

Eva winked at me. No longer did her face sparkle with glitter. No longer were her eyelashes double-length. But she was still beautiful. It was hard to think of anything else when she smiled.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked.

Her. That I was fucking high. About Red Hat, and Soren, and how stupid I was for being here. I was thinking about her tits right above my head. And what I knew Violet would say if I had bothered to take the watch out of my pocket.

"I don't know," I answered. "Just wondering how much people really know each other. Why people do the things they do."

Her smile softened. "Why do you?"

I tensed up for a moment. She knew. Wait, did she? That was the pot talking. There was no way she saw what happened inside the observatory. No way she had time to talk to Marquis after I had gotten the boot.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Program. Make video games. Why do you do that?"

I relaxed again. "It's fun. Coding is like solving puzzles and finding the best ways to organize things. It's—" I laughed, and she followed suit. "It's hard to talk about when I'm high. But it's very ordered and logical. It makes sense."

Eva picked up the pipe again and gave it a short drag. It was barely lit, but she didn't need that much more. "You like order," she said.

I never really thought of myself in those terms. It was true, I guessed. Shades should stay with shades, the living with the living.

"Bullshit," she said, countering her own point. "You drink. You do drugs. You sneak around. You get in fights."

"Blame that on the Mexicans," I said.

"I saw you at Avalon too. What were you doing in the bathroom?"

"Oh." I had forgotten where we first saw each other. At Avalon, I didn't know if she noticed Soren, but she saw me going into the closed bathroom. It was only afterwards that we talked outside. It was probably obvious I had been fighting. "I guess you have a point. What about you, then? Do you like guys who get in fights and stay up all night and sleep in late? 'Cause I am not waking up tomorrow morning."

"I never said you could sleep here." She tilted her head close to mine. "And those guys are all right if they can hold a good job."

"I knew it. You want me for my programming skills." I laughed. "It's a common problem. It's difficult keeping all the chicks at bay."

Eva put her hand on top of my face to shut me up. "It must be so hard," she said, getting serious again, "to be so black or so white all the time, never realizing that most of the world is gray. Everything doesn't always fit into a neat little box. Sometimes you just need to go with it."

I sat up and put her hands in mine. "The only place I'm going is there." I pointed to her small bed in the corner of the room. The sheets were disheveled. We had messed around a little bit already but things had stayed pretty tame. This time my plan was just to pass out.

Lifting myself up was difficult. Remaining on my feet through the sudden rush of dizziness was even more so. I shuffled to the sink and filled a glass with tap water.

"Do you have any aspirin?"

"Second drawer," she said.

Good. She didn't object to my sleeping here.

I opened the drawer and saw a few small boxes of medicine. They were colorful and had bold Korean lettering on them. One of them had a picture of what I thought was ginseng. I sighed and closed the drawer. The water would have to do.

I laid my clothes on the floor beside the bed, not bothering to take anything out of my pockets. I made sure they were mostly folded so I didn't look like a slob. Eva turned the music off and disappeared into the bathroom. She must have been in there a while. I nodded off.

Next thing I knew, she was waking me up. I was so exhausted and my head hurt. But she smiled. She was naked, and I didn't feel like sleeping anymore. I kissed her. Her mouth was fresh with mint flavor. It helped cover the feeling that there was another girl possessing her. I pulled her small frame against my chest and then pushed her down on the bed. I wondered what to do as I looked at her pale breasts. What could I do?

I put the blacks and the whites of the world out of my mind and rolled on top of her.

* * *

I was jolted awake with a subtle urgency. Something was wrong. But I was relaxed. Eva was asleep next to me. Everything was peaceful. Then I felt it.

The bed was swaying gently. No. The whole room. An earthquake. It was as though we were on an ocean with miniscule waves, rocking us back and forth. There was a low rumbling sound. I think I felt it more than heard it.

I just lay on my back, staring at the ceiling, reveling in my awareness of it all.

I'd never really noticed Los Angeles earthquakes before. One time I was in a restaurant with big glass windows and everybody stood up and started looking outside. I'd thought there was a fight or a car accident or some other city drama. Afterward, somebody told me it was an earthquake. I just shrugged and finished my burger.

Before I could fully grasp the sensation, completely appreciate the scope of it, the bed lulled itself to sleep. The hint of movement was gone. I tried to close my eyes, but my comfort was empty now.

My phone said it was noon. I usually checked the watch but I didn't want to talk to Violet right now. I glanced around the room as I put my pants back on. It was still dark in here, but I knew the sun would be blinding outside.

I admired Eva's unconscious body on the bed. My hand brushed the box of cloves in my pocket. It would be so easy to do it right now, I thought. Instead, I pulled a strand of platinum hair away from her face. I wanted to kiss her on the forehead, but I was afraid that would wake her up.

I scrolled through my contacts. My head was still fuzzy. I thought I remembered everything about the night, but I wanted to be sure. Yes. I had Eva's number. That made me happy.

I scratched my head and tried to wake myself up. I had to go. I had to figure out what was going on with Soren. With Marquis. I had to get some real sleep tonight. At my own place.

 

 

 

Even though it was starting to get dark outside, it was still the morning for me. I had slept as long as I could, but that didn't stop me from feeling like a dried up sponge after it had been used to clean a sewer. The Advil was helping, as was the half-finished bottle of Gatorade that sat beside me on top of the kitchen counter. My feet hung over the floor in dirty socks. I wore old jeans and a ten-year-old T-shirt that I owned back in Miami. It said "Duffy's Tavern" on it and was issued to all employees. It was only supposed to be a month long gig, but I ended up wearing that shirt every day for twelve. Despite the grease stains and moth holes, it was probably still in better shape than my head.

I forced the last bite of my PB & J sandwich down. It was sad. I know. I just hadn't had a chance to go shopping this week. Right now what I needed was sustenance. The last thing I was prepared to do was to leave the apartment. Some more Gatorade, some TV, a shower, maybe another snack, and then it would be bedtime. Just like Saturday never happened.

I rolled my eyes. Violet knew not to talk when I was hung over. I didn't even know why I'd taken the watch with me.

"Great. Are you jealous that I've found another troubled spirit?"

"You're a hundred and twelve."

I kneaded my temples. "I admit she has some baggage."

"What? What is her motive?" I put my hands on the edge of the counter and slipped down to the linoleum floor. "Keep in mind that I hit on her at Avalon. I approached her at the observatory. And I have no idea what that Mexican freak show intended to do with me. Eva saved me from a beatdown at the very least."

Violet didn't say anything. She didn't have to. What I was doing might not have been wrong but it certainly wasn't right. I just needed time to figure it out. I put the empty plate in the sink and took a gulp of lemon-lime-glacier-ice (or whatever edgy name Bob from Marketing had come up with). Then I grabbed the watch and left the kitchen.

"I can't do everything at once," I said to her. "There's only so much time in the day and, I might add, this one's almost over already." I didn't want to worry about pocket watches or estranged fathers or Royals or even smoking hot Asian chicks. I just needed some Netflix and maybe some Cheetos. Some downtime, is what I'm saying.

I tossed the watch on the cushion of the sofa and collapsed next to it, then realized the TV remote was out of reach. I didn't move to recover it. It felt good to be motionless. Free of worry. Responsibility.

"You're a shade, Violet." I couldn't contain it anymore. My voice rose with my anger. "Are you gonna give me some more advice about how you're the only shade I can trust, then lie to me about the things you've done? Do you wanna go visit Catriona again to see your work?"

"
A
mistake? You've made plenty of mistakes, Violet. I don't know that you could have ever saved Aster, but you could at least have not been a part of it."

"He's a twisted fuck, Violet. If I could kill him I would!" I launched myself off the couch, no longer comfortable sitting. I don't think Violet disagreed with my words, but I said them to hurt her anyway. She needed to feel pain. As the others had. "This one man has probably done more harm in his life than all the shades I've expelled put together. And you helped him. You realize that? He needs to go down, one way or another. For Catriona. For Aster. For..." I trailed off when I realized I was going to say something nice. I was going to say that I needed to stop Ambrose for his daughter. For Violet. But I was too mad at her. I didn't know how to soften my hard edges now.

"You don't think I know that, Violet?
All
shades are my enemies. Every single one. They're all gonna be taken care of. But I need to work with some to get others. That's why I'm laying off Marquis."

"I joined up with you, didn't I?" My voice had reached a pitch that the neighbors could hear. I stopped myself and massaged my eyes. The headache had almost been gone. Riling myself up had forced it back.

Violet didn't say anything. I had just told her that her dad was Hitler and she had enabled him. I had just said that this world needed to be rid of all shades. We both knew that working with Marquis was like making a deal with the devil, and I had equated that to working with her. I was pissed, and those things sounded true enough at the time, but a part of me still felt I had gone too far.

I just heard crying again. Crying that reminded me of the girl in my dream, trembling under the scorn of her father. Terrified of him. Disappointed in him. Hating him. I stood silent, trembling myself, thinking I had said enough.

The front door of my apartment shook as something heavy pounded against it. The sudden commotion startled me because I was still on a short fuse.

"What now?" I screamed. I stormed over to the door when there was no answer. A quick peek through the peephole did not settle my nerves.

"What do you want?" I demanded through the closed door.

"Open up," said the man. It was one of the strongmen from last night.

"Are you the chandelier one?"

"I'm Emilio," he answered, as if that helped.

"Do you know how much I drank last night? Are you the chandelier one or not?"

"No, that's my brother, Eladio."

I leaned my elbow against the door and buried my head against it. Was a little TV too much to ask?

"Any large jungle knives on you?"

"Open up."

I answered with a heavy sigh. Looking to Soren's iron ring hanging above me on a nail, I decided it best to open the door before Emilio had a chance to break it down.

"How did you find me?" I asked, not hiding my annoyance.

"We scanned your ID, remember?"

I didn't remember that. But they did take a look at it. Was I going to need to move now?

"What does Marquis want?"

The man blinked plainly. "He wants to know if you've found Soren yet."

"What? That was like, a few hours ago."

"Seventeen."

I ignored his passive-aggressive correction. "Marquis asked me to bring him by the Hollywood office. I'm gonna need until tomorrow, at least."

The rotund man nodded. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't disappear."

"Don't worry. I'm here. When I find him, I'll call the office to make sure Marquis can meet us. If Soren wants to come, I'll bring him in." I started to close the door but Emilio jammed his foot in the way. As I pulled back, I looked up at the horseshoe ring skeptically.

"If he doesn't want to come, bring him anyway. My boss doesn't like when people don't keep their commitments to him."

I just stared at the ring, thinking I was an idiot for even trying it. "Yeah. It's his thing. I got it. Anything else?"

Emilio furrowed his brow, ducked his head down, and peeked up. "What do you keep looking at up there?"

"Uh, it's nothing."

"What is that?"

"This. Um. It's a horseshoe."

Emilio pulled back. "Humph." He stood there, looking at me with a quizzical expression. His bushy eyebrows and mustache made him look like a cartoon. And then I noticed the band of metal around Emilio's neck. It was a single bar without a clasp that had been bent around in a circle, almost like a nearly closed horseshoe.

"What do you know of cold iron?" I asked.

The strongman reached to his neck but didn't complete the action. He backed out of the doorway and turned to go. "Tomorrow then."

"Yup," I said. "Or Monday."

"Wha—"

I slammed the door shut. Then waited until I saw the shadow disappear from the peephole. Once I considered him gone, I locked the door and retreated to the couch.

"Great, now I have two goons showing up at my door." I buried my face in my hands. This was awful. Especially when I realized I had forgotten to grab the remote again.

I shook my head slowly and spoke softly. "We used to be a lot of things..."

Again silence. And it was welcome. I listened to my breaths. I let the oxygen revive me. I wondered what it felt like to be a shade, taking in the sage. Realizing that their bond to the living was slipping away. It was cleansing. Almost beautiful.

Five minutes must have passed without a single word. It was peaceful, for a time. Then I imagined Eva's face. Her naked body close to mine. Then I recalled her second shadow. Another girl about her age. I didn't know anything about her or who she was. Or actually, she was the only one I
did
know. Everything Eva said and did was a result of her shade. It was the little Korean girl with bleached hair I didn't know.

It was an unsettling thing to imagine. I tried to think of anything else to keep my mind off it. Of all the things, I came up with Emilio's goofy face in my hallway. He had a funny look. He was puzzled by something I'd said about the cold iron. He reached for the bar on his neck, then stopped himself short, as if he didn't want to expose a secret. What was it?

I pulled my laptop close and did some image searches for the jewelry. They were called torcs. I couldn't believe they were actually a thing. From the Iron Age, primarily, but still. Stiff rings of metal worn around the neck. Usually permanent fixtures.

I didn't get it. What did Eladio and Emilio need the theatrics for? I had joked about them being circus performers but they were really just bodyguards. Like Bedros.

I thought of Soren's horseshoe ring. Cold iron. A metal ring that repelled spirits. And then it hit me. Soren had been difficult to expel. He was wearing the iron during the fight. He'd resisted the sage. Until the end, when I was choking him out. That's when the large ring fell off his finger. Maybe it wasn't that the cigarettes were weak. Or that he was strong. If spirits couldn't cross a loop of iron, then wouldn't it be a two-way street? Maybe the horseshoe wasn't meant to keep shades
away
, but to keep them
in
. It was a form of armor.

It suddenly made sense and I knew I was right. Ten more minutes of silence allowed me to do some research, sparking ideas for how this information could help me. But the momentary satisfaction didn't last. I had figured out the puzzle of the ring, but there were much larger forces to unravel. Only now, I was on a roll, and couldn't think of ignoring the problem. Marquis. Alexander Ambrose. Soren. They were all involved in an intricate dance. Only I didn't know the moves.

"None of this makes sense," I complained. I'd gone through the thought in my head already but I wanted Violet to chime in. I wanted to invite her into the conversation without saying I was sorry. "Marquis is a man of resources. He doesn't need me to find Soren. What do they want from me?" I shoved my laptop aside with my feet as I placed them on the coffee table and slid down the leather sofa into a more relaxed position.

"Sure, but Red Hat can pick up the phone just as easily."

"Avoiding his calls. Not going home. Sure, that's a possibility. Or..."

"I..."

"He'll get to know me better than that."

I frowned. Violet was a little girl who'd fallen victim to the temptation of immortality before. She knew the pull it had. Perhaps she was afraid I would be drawn to it. But I wasn't a helpless kid, dependent on somebody else's twisted morals. I was good. They were evil. It was that simple, even if others wanted to muddy the distinction.

"Listen," I said, taking a neutral tone. "Right now we need to think about Soren. We can't deliver him to Red Hat. I'm not gonna do that just to save my skin. But if we want to protect him, we need to find him. There's another possibility besides him simply avoiding Red Hat. And that's that he's in trouble. I still think he would've made that party if he could."

I tilted my head in concession. "Girls
are
hard to get away from." I looked down as the obvious came to me. I chuckled and picked up my cell phone. "Maybe I was selling myself short. It seems I do have a contact that Marquis doesn't." I scrolled through my contacts and made a call.

"The girl," I answered. "They're hard to get away from."

She picked up, surprisingly, on the second ring.

"Hi Pam."

"Good to hear from you, Dante! I can guess why you're calling."

"Really?"

"Sure. It's Saturday night. Almost six. Time to start doing the rounds and finding the right crowd to go drinking with."

The thought of alcohol almost caused me to throw up in my mouth. Pam was wrong. Besides, I never put out feelers until ten. That didn't stop me from playing along though. "You got me. What are you two up to tonight?"