The Jake Helman Files Personal Demons (38 page)

He felt strange carrying his luggage upstairs, and even stranger entering the apartment. Edgar had left a business card taped to the front door, with Sunday’s date on it. Setting his bags down, Jake looked around. CSU had taken care to leave everything as he had left it. Opening the living room blinds, he felt Sheryl’s presence all around him. He picked up a water bottle and sprayed her hanging plants. The petals had started falling from the roses he had given her.

The LED light on the answering machine flashed nonstop. He decided to listen to the messages later, and carried his bags to the bedroom, stopping in the doorway. The bed in the dark room seemed like a grave calling out to him, and he decided to sleep on the sofa.

He called Edgar two hours later.

“Where have you been?” Edgar said. “I left half a dozen messages.”

“I crashed at a hotel and turned my cell phone off. Thanks for cleaning up in here.”

“Don’t mention it. Vasquez helped. Did you read today’s papers?”

“Yeah, I saw them.”

“The evidence in Gorman’s apartment confirms he was the Cipher, and his DNA matches some skin samples we found under Sheryl’s fingernails. She must have put up a fight. Someone did the world a favor.” He paused. “Your supervisor already told us you were at the Tower all day on Saturday after you left the station, so you won’t have to come in for questioning.”

Jake’s heart skipped a beat. “My supervisor?”

“That Thorn woman. We called her first thing this morning, and she came in and gave us a statement. You’re not even a suspect.”

Did he detect a trace of sarcasm in Edgar’s voice? Jake felt his stomach tightening. It had not taken Kira long to recover from Cain’s kiss, and she had cleared Jake of Gorman’s murder, even though Tower had intended for him to take the fall for it all along.

“I won’t keep you,” Edgar said. “I just wanted you to know that you don’t have to worry about this. Let me know about the funeral arrangements, okay?”

“Yeah.” Dreading making the necessary calls, he hung up the phone and massaged his temples.
I should have finished her off with my bare hands
, he thought.
But then I wouldn’t have this alibi
.

He went over to the liquor cabinet and opened its door.

When the doorbell rang an hour later, he knew that Kira had come for him. Stepping out of the bathroom, he buzzed her into the building, then unlocked the door and stood in the hall. The sounds of Mozart filled the apartment, one of Sheryl’s CDs. Unarmed, he wished that he had held onto his Glock just a little longer. Footsteps rose from below and fear crawled up his spine.

It ends here
, he thought. A shadow stretched across the stairway wall and Kira came into view, wearing a long black leather coat belted at the waist. She had never looked more beautiful, and Jake felt sick to his stomach. She stepped before him, her hands deep in her pockets, the familiar half smile on her lips.

“Hello, Jake.”

Just like that
. “You look better than you did the last time I saw you.”

She tilted her head to one side. “You mean when you pressed your gun against my forehead and pulled the trigger?”

Stay cool
. “Yeah, that time.”

“I feel better, too. And I have a proposition for you.”

“I’m in mourning. Get yourself another private dick.”

She held her smile. “Nicholas named me as his sole beneficiary in case he died before completing his deal with the Reaper. I’m a multibillionaire now, and I’m officially the president of Tower International.”

Jake snorted. “Congratulations. You fucked hard for it.”

“Why don’t you let me in and hear me out?”

Staring into her crocodile eyes, he felt only loathing. “All right.”
Better here than in some dark alley
. He stepped back, and as she glided past him, he caught a whiff of her scent. Muscles tensing, he closed the door and locked it. He joined Kira in the living room, keeping a safe distance between them.

She surveyed the room without turning her head. “What a quaint apartment.”

“Make your pitch.” He disliked her judging Sheryl in any way.

She faced him. “I’d like you to come back to the Tower as my DS. With Graham and Pulaski in hiding, I’m short on qualified staff.”

“What about Russel? He was qualified enough to help you cover up everything that went down Saturday night.”

She seemed amused. “Bill left for the Philippines this morning. Besides, he despises office work.”

“I know the feeling.”

She stepped closer to him. “Come on, Jake. Everything will be legit this time. No demons, no ghosts, no witchcraft.”

“How about Biogens?”

“We have to honor our contract with President Seguera, and we’ll continue to develop different life forms for research purposes, but I plan to focus our resources on genetic medicines. I want to rid the world of the diseases that still plague us.”

“You and Miss America. What happens when your hair turns gray and those magnificent tits of yours start to sag? How legitimate will your goals be then? It’s in your genes to fear old age and death, and I doubt your libido will tolerate those DCL-21 side effects.”

Her smile cooled. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, darling.”

“You’ll cross it without me.”

She removed her hands from her pockets, the fingers of her hands extended like talons. “I hoped you’d say something like that.”

“That’s why you covered up for me with the police, isn’t it? If I went to prison for killing the Cipher, you couldn’t exact your revenge on me in person. You’re too ‘hands-on’ to let Russel cap me for you.”

“While I admit to being disappointed that you ruined Nicholas’s plan, I wouldn’t exactly say that I’m out for revenge. He knew the chances he was taking, and he lived longer than he should have. I was willing to betray him myself to be with Cain. You just know too much for my own good.” She unbuttoned her coat and allowed it to slip to the floor around her ankles. She stood naked before him, her nipples hard. “I came here to eat you.”

Stepping back, Jake drew a knife from beneath his sweater, flipped it into the air, and caught its blade, poised to throw it.

Kira stepped out of her high heels. “I’ve wanted to do this ever since we fucked.” Closing her hands into fists, she gritted her teeth until her face turned scarlet. “Nicholas’s DNA wasn’t the only genetic material used to create me.” She raised her fists to her face, her elbows level with her shoulders. Concentrating, she clenched her teeth. Her face turned red and her upper body shook. Then a milky substance squirted out of her sides, two inches beneath her armpits. Ribs snapped inside her body and one slimy appendage burst through her flesh on each side of her torso.

Jake watched the appendages unfold into fully developed arms with articulated hands. More pseudo-milk squirted out of her sides, and two more arms escaped from the confines of her torso, below the second pair. She interlaced the fingers on her four new hands, their nails unpainted, and cracked twenty fresh knuckles. With little mass remaining between her breasts and her hips, her midsection appeared insect-like, and Jake shuddered to imagine her skeletal structure.

“If Nicholas was my father,” she said, “then my mother was a black widow. It’s in my nature to devour my mate.” All six of her arms stretched their muscles, readying for action. “That’s why Daddy destroyed my sisters. He wanted the ultimate bodyguard and the ultimate lay in one perfect body, but the combination presented certain complications.”

Jake stood gaping.
I can’t believe I fucked that!
He recalled the spider tattoo on her back. It must have been some kind of identification tag. Cocking his right arm and aiming for her heart, he threw the knife. Kira twisted her body to one side and the blade sank into her left shoulder. She pulled it out with one hand and ran her tongue over the blade, which she then tossed aside. Her breasts rose and fell, her face slick with perspiration.

“I mailed copies of your files to the Justice Department,” Jake said. “I’m afraid you’re president of a sinking Tower.”

Kira’s breathing turned ragged with anger. “You … little …
amoeba!”

Jake spun on one heel and ran, certain that if he managed to escape through the front door she would catch him on the stairs. He wanted to duck into the bathroom, but his instincts told him that she would seize him as he made the turn. Sprinting straight into the bedroom, he gripped the door with both hands. Kira charged at him in a perfect cartwheel, her six hands and two feet rotating her body head over heels in his direction. He waited until she rolled through the doorway, then slammed the door on her and stepped back. The door burst open and she came out of the cartwheel on top of him. She wrapped her legs around his neck and her momentum drove them onto the bed. Jake lay on his back with Kira’s pubis in his face. Straddling him, she reached back with two hands, pinning his ankles to the bed. Two more hands held his wrists down, and two remained free.

Jake gritted his teeth as she cut off his oxygen. He strained against her arms, her strength too great for him. He tried to bridge up on his neck, and she laughed at him. Her scent penetrated his flesh, her pheromones overpowering his senses, and he felt himself turning hard despite the intense fear that he felt. She reached back with one of her free hands and rubbed his crotch.

“Come on, Jake. Fuck me again. I want to taste your fear when I swallow you.”

Jake laced the fingers of his hands together and pounded his doubled fists between her breasts, directly over her heart. The blow sent a shock wave of pain through his left hand. Kira grunted in surprise, pain distorting her face, and fell off him. Rolling off the bed, she toppled to the floor, all six of her hands landing palms down on the rug. She shook her head as Jake leapt off the bed. His footsteps hammered the floor, sending vibrations through the wood to her.

Turning in the doorway, out of breath and heart racing, Jake was unprepared for what he saw next. Kira crawled across the floor at an incredible speed, her arms raising her body above the floor and her legs pumping behind her for velocity. Her face a mask of rage, she gnashed her teeth.

Jake pulled the bedroom door shut behind him and ran into the bathroom. Slamming the door shut and pressing his body against it, he pushed the doorknob’s feeble lock. Facing the drawn shower curtain, he wondered if he could escape through the small, translucent window behind it. He heard the bedroom door crash open, followed by what sounded like several children running over the carpet. Kira’s body thudded against the lower part of the bathroom door. Her fists pounded on the wood behind his knees and rose to a point behind his head as she stood up. He scanned the bathroom for anything he could use as a weapon.

One of Kira’s fists burst through the door on his right and clawed at his face. He twisted his head away and shoved her hand to one side. Another fist smashed through the wood on the opposite side of his head and seized him in a choke hold. Biting her forearm, he tasted blood, and she released him with a strangled cry. When a third fist smashed through the wood, he knew that he was fighting a losing battle. Reaching down, he grasped the wooden handle of the toilet plunger, twisted it free of its rubber cup, and stepped away from the door, facing it with his back to the shower curtain.

Using all of her hands, Kira tore the door apart, then charged through its jagged frame at Jake, who swung the handle at her like a baseball bat. The handle struck her face and she cried out as blood flew from her nostrils. Snaring his wrist with one hand, she wrenched the handle from his grasp with another. She backhanded him and he retaliated with a punch that dislodged her jaw.

Kira threw the wooden handle on the floor like a gauntlet and pummeled Jake with all six of her fists. He tried to box her, which felt like fighting three people at the same time with only one good hand. Her fists rained down on him, striking his head, his chest, his arms, and his stomach. He saw a blur of motion, with Kira’s leering face the eye of the storm. He collapsed and two of her hands seized his upper arms, holding him upright. Then he felt himself being lifted off the floor. Two hands grabbed him beneath his armpits, and two more clutched his waist.