Sleeper_Google, page 16
part #3 of Hunter Series
Casey frowned my way. “Have you considered that she could be innocent in all of this?”
“She’s a hooker?” Lee asked. “Probably not so innocent.”
I was with Dad on this one. And I should have known Casey would take one look at the pretty hooker and think she was nothing more than an innocent demoness trying to work her way through college.
I pulled into the slot Casey indicated and started to get out. Lee moved behind me.
Casey stopped, putting a hand on my arm. “Uh, I don’t think the king’s baby boy should go and hang with hookers. Like, we could get blamed for corrupting him and stuff.”
“Do you have any idea how many hookers I’ve been around, son? Way more than you by the looks of it.” Lee jumped to the ground and took a look around. “Wonder if she’s got a beer.”
“No beer.” It didn’t matter that his soul was way older than me. His liver was nine and I was returning him to his mother in pristine condition. That was my vow.
“Uh, shouldn’t we be saying no hookers?” Casey asked, eyeing Lee.
I sighed. “If I try to leave him in the car, he’ll find another way in. Did the whole hopping-in-the-Jeep incident not teach you what he’s capable of? Besides, if he’s anything like his current self, he’s probably pretty good at the detecting thing.”
I started toward the townhouse section of the complex. It looked like our erstwhile prostitute had her own party space. It was a nice walk-up, with plants and flowers. It looked like a spot where families would picnic, but then I supposed if she had a neon sign hanging overhead that said get it here, her game would be up.
I rang the doorbell as Casey and Lee joined me on the doorstep.
The door came open and the scent of something super-flowery hit my nose. It was almost sickly sweet and I tried not to cough. Casey, on the other hand, was suddenly smiling like a loon.
Larissa Dymone stood in the doorway wearing a filmy white negligee and nothing else. Her lovely face was soft, her makeup done beautifully. Her hair was on the short side, dark with a single purple streak.
“Hello,” she began in a super-sexy come-hither voice. Until she truly caught sight of us. Then she frowned, her whole body language changing in an instant. “Seriously? I don’t do kids. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but he’s on the young side to be deflowered. Bring him back when he hits actual puberty. Also, my website says no girls allowed.”
She started to slam the door, but I was faster. “The good news is we’re not here for a session.”
I forced my way in, trying to wave off whatever smell was coming from inside.
Larissa huffed and finally stepped aside, letting Lee and Casey walk in.
Casey gave her a grin. “You look so pretty.”
She rolled her brown eyes and strode over to what looked like a humidifier. “I won’t need this now.”
“What is that?” I asked.
“It’s incense,” Lee said, taking a look around. “Think of it as hooker aromatherapy. It’s formulated for species. If she was doing a human, there would be a lot of pheromones and stuff.”
I didn’t want to think about what that would smell like. “Vamps like flowers?”
She shrugged as she reached for a crystal glass. “Go figure. I don’t know. I simply know it makes the vamp easier to deal with. If I were doing a demon, this place would smell like Starbucks. It’s weird. Caffeine smells do it for us. And the blood of the innocent, but I find that can get the cops called in. So a single mom, her kid, and a vamp walk into a brothel. Is this the beginning of a joke?”
“No joke, and we’ll be more than happy to pay you for your time,” I assured her.
Casey was still smiling. “I have a Visa.”
Maybe I needed one of those incense things. Might make the vamps in my life easier to deal with. “Like I said, we’ll pay you for your time, but I need you to answer a few questions about what happened two nights ago.”
Larissa went pale and I saw the moment she started to lose control of her form. Tiny demon horns formed, poking out from her forehead. They were dainty things, as were the claws forming on her hands. The glass she held shook and she took a long drink before setting it down. “You need to leave now.”
That wasn’t going to happen. “Do you deny that you spent the evening with a halfling named Lester, a member of the royal…” I had the name in my notes. It was of those crazy demon names that I’m pretty sure are the only reasons we have the letter x in our alphabet. I glanced down at the notepad I carried in my satchel at all times. Mostly it was doodles and reminders of shit I would still probably forget. I shuffled through it until I found the right page. “Lester, of the royal family Hixalnaxendallixxxba. Yeah, I probably got that wrong, but you get the point.”
Casey smiled and said it perfectly. “It means Bringers of Death and Pain.”
“I know what it means, but I have no idea why you would think I know some halfling.” Larissa seemed to have gotten her moxie back. Though the horns were still poking through and her eyes had gone more black than brown, her hands had stopped shaking.
Lee stared up at her. “Mostly because we have a photo of you leaving the halfling’s home shortly after he was murdered.”
I felt my jaw drop. “How the hell do you know that?”
His shoulders shrugged. “I told you, math is boring. I hate it. But I’m good at hacking into Casey’s system and getting all the files. Murder is way more interesting.”
“You are a menace,” I hissed his way because there were pictures of dead bodies in those files. What the hell was wrong with him?
Besides being a forty-plus lone wolf in a tiny human boy body.
Casey was showing our new hooker friend the picture. “You see, I had to use this software I developed to get rid of all the pixilation, but you look real pretty.”
“You are not getting laid,” I said to Casey as I took over. I pointed to the woman in the picture. “This is you. I have footage from a security camera across the street as well. I’m here from the Council, under the king’s orders and direction, so it would help a lot if you would talk to me.”
She stiffened again. “Are you her?”
“Depends on who ‘her’ is.” Though I knew what she was asking. I softened my voice slightly. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here for some answers. Lester wasn’t the first halfling murdered lately.”
She poured herself another drink. “I know. Believe me, I know. Do you want to know the crazy thing? I was there that night to ask him to get out, to be anywhere but Dallas. I liked Les. He was a good guy.”
“Why did you think he should leave?” Now that I had her attention, I could slow things down. Especially since Lee was prowling around the room now. I was sure it looked like he was checking out the art on the walls, but I knew Lee. He was looking for something. Like I said before, he’s a damn fine detective. “Had you heard a rumor?”
Her head shook slightly. “No rumors, only the truth. The king is killing us. He’s tricking us and we all need to get as far from Dallas as possible.”
Shit. So it was about to get political. “Why do you think it was the king?”
“Do it already.” She faced me, her shoulders back. “You think I don’t know who you are? You’re the Nex Apparatus. You’re the death machine. If you showed up on my doorstep, it’s because you missed me when your team killed Les.”
There was no way to miss how she was breathing, how stiff her limbs were. This chick thought I was about to murder her and she was still standing in front of me, ready to give me hell.
Not all demons are bad. I get that more than most people. I’ve stood in front of the most evil ones and they don’t show a ton of bravery. “You’re a halfling, too, aren’t you?”
Her cheeks flushed, but she didn’t back down. “Yes. Not that it matters to most people. Lester and I grew up together. Needless to say his family is much more powerful than mine. We went to school together.”
“Is there like a Demon Degrassi?” Because that would be cool.
“Something like that,” she allowed. “I’m not royal but my mom has some connections. Les and I were close. He was more than some client. He was…he was a good man. He believed we could all get along. He wanted to avoid a war. That was why he was trying to meet with the king.”
I could hear the conviction in her voice. My only real thought while she was talking was that I could work with her. She might tell me the truth. “I don’t have a single problem with Les. I didn’t know him, but I know someone who thought highly enough of him that he wanted him to sway the king in favor of peace. So now my only job is to find who killed him.”
“And then what? You give him a medal?”
She was a demon with a one-track mind. “Then I bring whoever that person is to justice. And you need to understand that I’m talking about my justice. I’m an eye for an eye girl, and if I can put a little extra pain in there, I will.”
Lee had turned and was giving me the biggest smile. “I’m so proud of you, darlin’.”
Yeah, I wished that didn’t make me feel as good as it did. I tried not to think about it, tried to focus on the issue at hand. “What did you see that night?”
She looked at me, a stubborn tilt to her chin. “Why do you care about what happens to demons?”
I needed to make myself plain. “I don’t. Not to the full breeds. Look, I get you might love your momma and all that, but if she’s a full breed, she can take care of herself. My job on this plane is to deal with the evil demons and protect those who want to live here peaceably. I don’t give a crap about your horns. I don’t care about your profession. I only care about whether or not you’re here to cause trouble.”
“I like your horns.” Casey proved he didn’t need a steady stream of what was likely part vamp aphrodisiac/part sedative. “They’re cute. And she isn’t here to kill you. She’s pretty cool, except when it comes to acknowledging good work. Then she’s shitty. As long as you don’t expect a pat on the back from her when you save her ass, she’s okay. Her best friend, on the other hand… Liv is a beautiful soul.”
Nix the sedative. “What exactly is in that incense?”
“Liv would eat you alive, buddy,” Lee pointed out.
Casey smiled and nodded. “Yes. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Larissa sighed and finally seemed to relax a bit, as though our antics made her more comfortable. “Like I said, it’s formulated for vampires, though it won’t work on the strongest. He must be young as hell. It’s meant to protect me and enhance the experience for the client. It relaxes the vampire, makes him a bit more horny, and in some cases much more truthful.”
That could come in handy. I might need a stash of that.
Lee came to stand next to me. “Can you tell us what happened to Lester? How much did you see? Also, do you have any beer?”
“No beer,” I said under my breath. “You’re incorrigible.”
“I’m thirsty and all I’ve had for nine freaking years is water, milk, and some weird juice shit in a box,” Lee complained. “Zoey even took away my damn Dr Peppers. I need a beer, woman. Detecting is thirsty work.”
Larissa watched us like she was enjoying a tennis match. “I don’t drink beer. I do have some Scotch.”
“I’ll take…” Lee began.
I put my hand over his mouth, happy I was dealing with the miniature version of him and not the full-grown one. “I’m so going to tell your dads what a pain in the ass you are. How about we skip the refreshments and move on to the storytelling portion?”
“He’s really your dad, dude. He sounds exactly like you,” Casey was saying.
Lee put his hands up and I let him go. “I’ll be good, darlin’.”
“I am so confused,” Larissa said. “I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t a weird dream, so I’m going to go with it. Okay, I went over to Lester’s around nine that night. We spend time together whenever he’s in town.”
“Friendly time or work time?” I had to ask.
She smiled slightly. “Being with Les wasn’t work. I care about…cared about him. It’s so hard to think of him as being gone.”
She wouldn’t have thought of it because Lester should have lived a long life. “He would have been hard to kill.”
Larissa’s eyes glanced away, as though seeing something that wasn’t there. “No. Not at all. In the end, it was simple.”
“The crazy neighbor talked about a white light,” Lee said.
He really did read all my notes. Trent was right. He needed to be spanked more. Or put on the payroll. One of the two. “There were reports of some ground shaking as well as the light.”
“It was terrible. One minute we were happy in bed and the next… well, it was like the world was ending. That light. I don’t know how to describe it. It was more than light. It felt like I was being burned by it. I suppose I felt the ground shake a little, but I was much more concerned with that light. I wondered later on how no one talked about it. How it didn’t make the news.”
I had my theories. “I think it was highly localized. The police thought it was a random electrical event. It didn’t last more than a few seconds, so they’re explaining it away as meteorological.”
“Seconds?” Larissa asked. “It felt like hours. I burned for hours. When I came out of it, I couldn’t believe I was still alive.”
Shit. I knew what she was going to say next. “And when you came out of it, Lester was already dead?”
She shook her head and my hopes rose. “He was fighting something. The light receded and the world went back to normal except there was a man in the room and he had a sword.”
“A man? Not a lizard?” I was kind of hoping for lizard because I worried who that man would be.
“Eww, no lizard,” she affirmed. “But the man was kind of gross, too. He was holding a sword. It was so bright. It was like all the light in the world reflected off that sword. I couldn’t look at it, but I did see that the man holding the sword was injured.”
“His hands,” I prompted.
She nodded. “He was bleeding heavily. You know the funny thing is there was something vaguely reptilian about him. He had claws like a reptile and his eyes. His eyes were weird and old, and I could only think of one word when I saw them. Dragon.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. “Can you describe him?”
She shook her head, that purple piece getting tangled in her horns. “No. Not past that. I ran. I realized Lester was going to die when the man shoved the sword in his heart and I knew I was next so I ran. It was cowardly of me, but I couldn’t help him.”
Something about the way she said it made me wonder. I would have bet she was utterly truthful right up until that moment when she told me she couldn’t describe him.
Why would she be honest about everything except that? Unless this wasn’t a question of description and more one of complete recognition and fear.
I needed to figure out which one. “Why didn’t you call the Council that night? They owe you protection.”
She shook her head. “The king hates our kind. There’s no protection for us. He lumps us all in with the purebreds.”
“He doesn’t,” Lee replied. “Not really. The king talks a good game, but if you met him, you would see. My nanny is a halfling. He’s a treasured part of our family.”
“Well, perhaps if you knew the king before, he’ll let you in, but he doesn’t anymore,” Larissa explained. “We all know that if this comes to a fight, there will be no choosing sides. We’ll have to go in with our full-bred brethren even though no one likes what that will mean. We’ll be cannon fodder on one side or merely slaughtered on the other.”
This was what Donovan needed to hear. This was what Marcus and Gray were attempting to get him to understand.
“Don’t call the Council then.” I fished out my card, handing her several. “You or anyone else who needs help can call me.”
She huffed, but took the card. “You work for the Council.”
“They wish,” my dad said under his breath.
“I’m associated with the Council, but I assure you if a Council member was doing something wrong, I would deal with it and I wouldn’t let politics come into it, and I won’t allow politics to stop me from saving you from some supe who’s trying to kill you.” I had to make my play here and now. “No matter how close he is to the queen.”
Her eyes came up, catching on mine, and I had my answer.
Lee cursed in a way he was only supposed to if he was running from a dinosaur or being eaten by a shark. Maybe his mom would say that having his old soul reemerge was a third exception to the rule.
“What’s going on?” Casey scratched his head as though trying to figure something out. Maybe the aromatherapy was wearing off on him.
“I need you to say it.” I couldn’t take that look on her face as fact. I needed her willing to tell me the truth, willing to be a witness. “Why didn’t you call the Council that night? You know the rules of the plane. You know you were supposed to call.”
Her shoulders went back and her chin came up. “I didn’t call because the queen’s best friend split a hole in reality, somehow managed to imprison me in light, and when I came out of it, I watched as he pierced the heart of one of the best men I’ve ever known. I didn’t call because I figured the king himself had sent an assassin.”
We were in so much trouble if all the halflings were thinking this way. War was unthinkable, but a war where the lines were drawn simply by birth, with no thought to right or wrong, seemed unimaginable to me.
I know crime. I know people, and by people I mean anything living and breathing and making conscious choices. Halflings are considered to be of the Earth plane. Even if Mom was a demon or Daddy came straight from Hell. Do you know why they’re considered Earth planers? Because they won’t truly be accepted by Heaven or Hell. Because we are the plane that accepts the odd, the offbeat, the forbidden. We’re the last place these beings can truly call home.
And I realized that Devinshea Quinn was right.
I am their warrior.
