Part 21 (2/2)

”Not up to your usual standards of excitement?” Pete said through the keyhole.

”This isn't excitement,” said Jack. ”Never could fathom why sorcerers thought sitting about cutting your forearms and doing Victorian drugs was such a great laugh.” He rolled his neck from side to side. ”Unless there's magic, blood, or disgustingly attractive women involved, I couldn't care b.l.o.o.d.y less at this point in me life.”

”So the last week has been a complete loss, then,” Pete said.

Jack looked at her, and even through the small crack in the wardrobe Pete felt the snowy chill of his eyes on her skin. ”Not a complete one,” he said after a moment. ”Not in a few ways that matter&”

”Still yourself,” Pete hissed, though she was rue to interrupt him. ”Someone's coming.”

Footsteps creaked along the corridor and a hand tried the k.n.o.b, pausing in surprise when the owner found the door unlocked. Slowly, it swung wide and revealed a sallow-faced man and an olive-skinned woman dressed in plain black, witchfire burning plum-colored in their hands.

The man jerked his chin at Abby's body, and the woman clicked over on precise stiletto heels and felt for a pulse. She shook her head, and the man stepped over the threshold.

Faster than smoke, Jack stepped out from his hiding spot and banged the door shut. ”Evening, girls.”

”Winter,” the man hissed.

Jack gave a wide grin and a nod. ”Observant c.u.n.t, aren't you?” He picked up the cigarette he'd lit and had a drag on. ”Though I have to tell youand take this as constructive critique, by all meansthe poisoned absinthe? Tacky, mate. Look, you killed your own lapdog.”

The woman, still crouched with her back to Pete, worked a small curved blade out from the cuff of her jacket.

”Jack!” Pete shouted, banging open the wardrobe and grabbing the closest weapon, an ivory opium pipe. She jabbed the carved and pointed tip in between the woman's shoulder blades and the sorcerer arched back with a cry.

The man brought his hand up, the witchfire changing color into something sulfurous and corrosive, but Jack hit him before the magic could form into anything useful. Blood shot from the sorcerer's split lip, and he dropped after swaying for a moment.

Jack reached over and grabbed Pete's hand. ”Now we have to run, luv.”

”What about Hattie?”

”Hattie will be happier locked in the loo, trust me.”

Pete followed him down the hall, her heart jackhammer-ing like she were back outside the door of her first bust, sweating inside her stab vest. Jack kicked open a thin door leading to stairs upward.

”Stop!” The male sorcerer appeared in the door, a fan of blood and spittle on his chin and down the front of his s.h.i.+rt. He pressed his hands together and muttered a stream of guttural Latin, and black smoke boiled from around his feet to form two small lithe shadows, that in turn gave birth to a twin pair of their own.

”b.o.l.l.o.c.ks,” Jack hissed, taking the stairs two at a time.

”Are they ghosts?” Pete shouted as she pounded after him.

”Worse!” Jack shouted. ”Thought-forms! Shadowy bloodhounds!”

They crossed the attic, tumbling over trunks and bundles, and Jack used his elbow to smash a window that had been painted shut. ”You first,” he panted. ”Out.”

Pete looked at the street fifteen meters below, back at Jack. ”Are you quite mad quite mad?”

The smoke-shadows flowed under the door, through the cracks in the floor. They had grown steel claws and teeth, and darker hollows for eyes.

Jack opened his mouth to cajole, or yell, but Pete held up a hand. ”Never mind. I'm going.” She hoisted herself through the broken window and onto the slippery roof, but instead of letting go and plummeting for the street she gripped the gutter so hard she thought the skin on her knuckles would split and climbed toward the ridgeline.

She watched the shadows swipe at Jack, catching the leg he still had inside the window and leaving lines of crimson. ”b.u.g.g.e.r!” Jack yelped. He spread his ringers wide and exhaled, and a flock of smoke-crows blossomed from his palm. The crows cawed and swooped, catching the sorcerer's hounds with their talons and bills.

The shadows screamed and vanished, the crows with them. Jack grinned. ”Couldn't sustain his will when someone co-opted his trick. Probably has a small c.o.c.k, too.”

”Come on on,” Pete yelled, nearly losing her grip. She pulled herself up onto the flat square top of Mad Chen's turret roof and helped Jack, who flopped over with a wheeze.

His coughing turned to chuckles, then to laughter. ”b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. I'd forgotten how much fun this is.”

Pete c.o.c.ked her head. ”Fun? You've got a f.u.c.king strange idea of fun.”

The wood next to Jack's head exploded, driving splinters into Pete's arm. Another sorcerer appeared out of the shadows, the yellow clouds oozing corrosive fumes from his hands. ”How many of these w.a.n.kers are there?” Pete shouted. The sorcerer stopped just short of her feet and smiled in the manner of a small boy who likes to burn ants.

”Looks like I get your skin and your talent, Winter, and the chance to get over.” He grinned.

Jack rolled on his side and stood, ducking the sorcerer's reach. He grabbed the shorter man by the back of the neck. ”You'll get over something, that's sure.” He rotated his grip and tossed the sorcerer off the edge of the roof. The man screamed until a sound like a breaking tree trunk cut off the cry.

Pete peered over the edge, saw the broken doll shape and a dark stain spreading. ”Think he's dead?”

Jack lit a Parliament, drew once, and flicked the rest after the sorcerer. ”About to wish he was.”

The man was conscious, groaning, when Pete and Jack climbed down to the street. ”If more are coming after us,” said Pete, ”we're a bit exposed.”

Jack gripped the sorcerer under the arms, struggling against the stocky weight. ” 'S why we're getting the f.u.c.k out of here.” He attempted to pull the moaning sorcerer along the pavement. The man's leg was twisted, a lump of displaced bone under his skin, and he yelled. Jack wheezed and dropped him. ”You need to get on a diet, boyo.”

Pete rolled her eyes and banded her arm across the sorcerer's chest, a lifesaving carry on dry land. The door of Mad Chen's banged open and the male sorcerer appeared, trailed by his renewed thought-forms, which seemed to have grown a few dozen more steel teeth since Pete saw them last.

”b.o.l.l.o.c.ks,” she said, dragging the sorcerer along the pavement. ”What the h.e.l.l happens now, Jack? I don't think your little trick with the birds will be quite as scary out in the open.”

”Never fear, Pete. Our chariot awaits.” Jack stepped into the street and let out a piercing whistle. ”Taxi!”

One moment the street was empty and the next a gleaming black cab, smooth lines and lantern headlights, something from the black-and-white era, sat idling at the curb, stopped in a swirl of leaves and winter wind. The rear door swung open of its own accord.

Jack grabbed the sorcerer's legs. ”Get him in.”

Pete folded the quietly sobbing man into the back of the cab and scrambled inside, sliding on b.u.t.ter-colored leather seats. Jack knocked on the part.i.tion and told the shadowed driver, ”Sodding floor it!”

The cab lit out with a squeal of tires, taking the corner with a lurch that threw Pete against the door, the handle thudding into her gut.

”One thing about the Black,” Jack said as they roared through empty nighttime streets. ”You can always find a cab when you really need one.”

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