Part 15 (1/2)
I flexed my feet and wished I had something a little more deadly than webbing. Something like an eagle's talons would have been handy right now, because short of dropping down on top of her, I wasn't sure how I was going to force the sorceress to ground.
I was only several yards behind her when she suddenly looked around and spotted me. How she actually knew I was chasing her I have no idea-s.h.i.+fters could sense other s.h.i.+fters, but that shouldn't instantly tell her I was pursuing her.
With a harsh squawk, she twisted her wings and dove downward, the air almost screaming with the speed of her descent. I tipped my wings and followed, seeing sand and surf and a crowded foresh.o.r.e below us. St. Kilda, I thought, and wondered if she was going to try and lose me among the myriad of backstreets and trees.
She didn't sweep toward the streets as I'd half expected, but rather toward the beach. A second later I realized why. A flock of seagulls erupted from the sand, stirred to life by the swooping crow. It was all I could do to check my speed and not hit any of them, and as blinds went, it was pretty d.a.m.n effective. By the time I flew free of the tangle, she was gone.
I swore under my breath, the sound coming out as little more than a harsh squawk, then headed back to the warehouse. I landed outside the main door, and adjusted my torn s.h.i.+rt and bra before grabbing my phone from my back pocket and heading inside.
”Sal,” I said when she answered. ”I need a safe house for a street kid. Nothing fancy, because he may well end up stripping the joint of anything valuable.”
”Then why the h.e.l.l are we bothering to protect him?”
”That's what I like about you, Sal. You're such a sweetheart.” Although she probably would have been, if it had been a dog I'd been wanting to protect.
She snorted softly. ”And you are a b.i.t.c.h. I'll send an address to your onboard. You going to be there to meet the team?”
”Ta. And no.” I glanced at my watch. I was already ten minutes late for my meal with Ben and I still had to get the kid to the safe house. ”And I'll need a magi team at my current location. I had to laser a zombie to stop him getting the kid, but the witch may be able to revive him with magic.”
”Half a zombie isn't much good to anyone.”
”When there's magic involved, I'm not taking a chance.”
She grunted. ”I'll send Marg and her team.”
”Thanks, Sal.” I pocketed my phone and walked on through the warehouse. Joe was still hiding in the shadows of the large bin that seemed to be leaking an oily liquid everywhere. The zombie lay near his feet, lifeless but maybe not entirely dead. We wouldn't know for sure until the magi got here to take care of him.Joe rose as I approached, and his relief was evident.
”You got her?” he asked, wiping oil-stained hands across his already grubby jeans.
”No, she escaped.” I stopped and crossed my arms. ”You want to tell me why she was chasing you?”
”I don't know.” His gaze suddenly wouldn't meet mine as he brushed sweaty strands of hair away from his forehead.
”Fine,” I said, and turned on my heels and walked away.
”Hey,” he said, voice confused. ”Where you going?”
”If you can't be bothered telling me the truth, I can't be bothered helping you.”
”But she'll come after me again!”
”That's your problem, not mine.”
”Wait!”
I didn't. There was a pause, then footsteps as he ran after me. ”Okay, okay,” he said. ”I think I might have called her.”
I stopped and turned to look at him. Fear and defiance mingled in his eyes. ”You called her?”
”Yeah. The first woman gave Kaz a business card, just in case something happened and she wasn't able to do the job.”
”And you stole the card?”
He looked indignant, but the quick flick of guilt in his eyes suggested I wasn't far off the mark. It seemed the old adage of honor among thieves didn't always apply around street kids. ”No. Or at least, only once she'd done the job. Thought it might be handy to keep if the job turned out to be real and Kaz made a lot of money.”
Which she probably did, but she didn't live long enough to spend it. ”So, after our little chat, you decided to ring the woman and tell her what, exactly?”
Again defiance sparked in his eyes. ”That I'd seen her, like, and I wanted money or I'd go to the cops.”
”And did Mike know about this phone call?”
He snorted. ”No. He would have asked for his cut, wouldn't he?”
”He saved your life by calling me, Joe. Next time, take that into consideration when you're thinking about cheating him.”
”It ain't cheating-”
”It is when he's keeping you all fed and safe, isn't it?”
”I guess so,” he muttered.
I smiled at his sullen expression. ”So what did the woman say?”
”She agreed, like, and said she'd meet me at the cricket ground, near Vale street, at eleven. But that thing came after me before then.”And why would he not have expected that? Honestly, anyone intent on a little blackmail ought to be prepared for the fact that the recipient of said blackmail wasn't going to be happy about it, and just might be inclined to react. But then, I guess Joe was still a kid and somewhat green to the foibles of others, even if he had lived on the streets and learned his lessons the hard way.
”You said the first woman-does that mean the woman you talked to on the phone wasn't the same woman?”
He frowned. ”I don't think it was, but that sort of thing is easy to fake, isn't it?”
It was, but I very much suspected it meant we had two different women involved in these murders. Joe obviously thought the same, given his choice of words.
”How did she find you?”
”I don't know. I was scouting possible marks and heard footsteps behind me. I look around and saw that thing coming toward me.”
”How did you know it was after you?”
”Well, there was only me and the marks in the cafe, and when I ran, it followed. So I kept running.”
So how did the zombie find him? The sorceress couldn't have gotten into the hospital in crow form, and even if she had been there somewhere in human form, how had she pinned his position so accurately? The only possible answer was magic. ”Where's the card the first woman gave Kaz?”
”Here.” He reached down into his pocket and withdrew a business card.
The minute my fingers touched it, I felt the magic. It wasn't strong-more a faint residue that made my fingertips tingle than anything dark and nasty. Perhaps the magic was fading.
The card itself was black, with a single staked heart sitting in the middle of it. On the back was a phone number, and a set of times. Those times suggested-to me, at least-that it wasn't even a manned phone, but one that was simply checked remotely.
Whoever these woman were, they were playing a cautious game.
I wondered if the other murdered teenagers had held similar cards, although it would have been easy enough for the sorceress to direct her creature to destroy it. Maybe this one was still in one piece only because Joe had stolen it.