A devil’s mark. Just like mine.
Chapter Nine
Bob’s Your Neighbor
The mind of man has undergone, a truly hateful bent,
And our fair misses need to run, until the fighting’s spent.
I leaned over Darma and placed my hands on her chest. From everything I could tell she was okay, just exhausted from the unaccustomed effort of kicking dark world ass.
I injected a soothing cocktail of energy into her and watched the color return to her cheeks. Her eyelids were just starting to flutter when a large rock blasted through the window at the end of the hall and skittered across the carpet toward us.
Through the open window I could hear rioters in the streets.
“Shit!”
The flash elevator started dinging, which told me somebody was trying to come up but it had been locked and the office door down the hall banged open, spitting Bob, my cute and friendly neighbor out into the hall.
“Astra, come on. We need to get out of here!”
I looked down at my sister in frustration. “Why? What’s going on?”
He shook his head. “No time to explain. You’ll need to trust me on this.” His anxious brown eyes flew to the floor scale over the flash. Then he jerked his head toward Darma. “You need help with her?”
I shook my head. Reaching down I hefted Darma off the floor and flung her over my shoulder. Then I nodded at Bob.
He hurried ahead of me back into his office. He didn’t hesitate once inside but led me directly to the back of the office and through a door that appeared to be some kind of secret escape route. Not for the first time I wondered what kind of business he and Ralph were in.
The door opened up into a dark, wet hallway that was walled on both sides by old, red brick. It looked like the juncture between two buildings. He waited for me to clear the door, then he closed it behind me and pushed a bar into place.
I frowned. “Bob, what the hell’s going on?”
Bob glanced at me and his brown eyes were no longer warm and friendly. I felt my stomach drop.
Seeing the fear in my eyes he shook his head and grabbed my arm. “It’s okay, Astra. I’m on your side. I’m afraid the veil has taken on new properties, the human race is about to go berserk. We need to get out of here.”
As Bob jogged down the dark hallway my mind raced. What did Bob know about the veil? Why was he helping Darma and me? As far as I could tell Bob was human, which meant he should hate us for our magic. But he seemed to want to help.
I did a mental shrug and followed Bob around a corner, where there were stairs that led down into some kind of underground place.
The ground underneath my feet was soggy and my boots were already wet from slopping through puddles that smelled like sewer. I was feeling a bit cranky. I could deal with death and destruction, but it really pissed me off when my boots got ruined.
We descended for a good ten minutes and then the stairs ended in what looked like an old abandoned flash train tunnel.
The space was dark, with only the occasional slit of light that seemed to come from the street above. Probably some kind of ventilation system.
I didn’t even want to think about what might be living down there. I knew there were rats for sure.
Bleurgh!
Darma started to wriggle and finally lifted her head off my back.
“Put me down, Astra.”
I let her slide down until her feet hit the soggy ground of the tunnel. She grimaced and looked around. “It stinks. Where are we?”
I looked at Bob.
He held out a hand and smiled at Darma as if meeting her at a party. “Hi, I’m Bob Gleason. I work down the hall from your sister.”
Darma’s good manners held her sharp mouth in check. Just barely. “Bob. Are you responsible for our being down here?”
He dropped the hand and nodded. “It was the only way I knew of to get out without being torn to pieces.”
Much to my surprise Darma nodded. She looked at me. “The streets have exploded. It’s not safe out there anymore. That’s why I was coming back to get you. I was hoping you’d know how to get us out of there.”
I wondered why she didn’t just call Torre but decided this wasn’t the right time to ask that type of question.
I looked at Bob again. “Thanks for helping us.”
He shrugged. “It’s the least I could do after you helped Ralph. He’d be dead right now if you and your partner hadn’t intervened.”
I shrugged. “We were happy to help.” My mental drawers shifted and Emo called my name.
Hey partner.
Boss! Where are you?
I looked around with a sigh,
Hell if I know, Bob Gleason is helping Darma and me get out.
Describe it to me.
It looks like the old flash train tunnels. Bob took us out through a door at the back of his office but the door is barred now.
Hold on, I’ll be right there.
After a moment the air changed and Bob grabbed a laser pistol from somewhere under his clothing. I hadn’t known he had it.
“Whoa boy,” I said as I grabbed the end of the pistol. “It’s just Emo.”
Bob’s face reddened with embarrassment. “Sorry.”
I shrugged. “My fault. I should have told you he was coming.”
Emo appeared beside us. His dark eyes swept over Darma and me. “Are you okay?”
We nodded.
He looked at Bob. “Thanks for getting them out of there. The building’s on fire.”
That woke me up. “What? They’re burning down our office? Shit!”
Bob swore and jammed the pistol back under his coat.
“There’s been some kind of change in this thing that’s blanketing the city and the humans have gone crazy. They’re murdering anyone who tries to stop them, crashing air vehicles into everything and setting things on fire. The ones who can’t bring themselves to violence are jumping off bridges and buildings. It’s a frunkin’ mess.”
He turned to Bob. “The planned and unplanned care units are overrun with casualties and they’ve had to deal with their own violence. They brought in rogue magic protection because the police are overwhelmed. The PC have had to take over because many of the human cops have joined with the mobs.”
I gave a brief thought to PC Cheets and wondered how she was doing. “We need to help.”
Emo nodded. “Let’s start with unplanned injury, we can get Ralph out.”
Bob smiled gratefully. “Thank you. He and I can help once we get him.”
Emo nodded and looked at me. “If you and I join power I think I can shift all four of us there.”
I nodded and grabbed his hand. “Let’s do it.”
* * * * *
The unplanned injury unit was, as expected, in total chaos. We shifted into a full waiting room filled with people in all stages of injury and illness. People were sitting in chairs, lying on cots on the floor and even draped along the filthy floor. Medi-care personnel hustled around them, triaging the mess and performing whatever care they could on the spot.
I assumed all the beds were taken.
Before we could move we were surrounded by several large men in ugly brown uniforms. The men stood over seven feet tall, had pale, triangular eyes and were covered nearly from head to toe with knives of all sizes on criss-crossing straps.
Venusians. Apparently Dr. Lee had called some friends.
“What’s your business here?” one of them asked us. His triangular, light-colored eyes fixed on Emo as being the most dangerous of the four of us.
Big mistake on his part.
I reached out and poked him and four knives were suddenly pressing against my body. I rolled my eyes. “We’re here to help. Have your men stand down.”
The Venetian cocked his head, which was covered with thick, white hair. “You look like trouble.”
I grinned. “Smart man. Ask Dr. Lee about Astra Q Phelps. She’ll tell you I’m okay.”
He stared at me for a few beats and then his wide lips slid into a smile. “She told me to watch for you. I pictured you bigger somehow.”
I snorted. “Join the club. I’m surprised every time I look in the mirror.”
He jerked his head at his men and they slid back to their assigned posts. I watched them and wished we had a few thousand more just like them. Nobody beats a Venusian soldier for pure steel-headed meanness on the battlefield. And they’re smart too. A combination that guaranteed success.
“What can we do to help?” I asked the apparent leader.
He jerked his head toward the back hallway. “Follow me, Dr. Lee is expecting you.”
I frowned. And how exactly did she know I was coming when I hadn’t even known it myself until a few moments earlier?
She was bending over a gurney with a wild-eyed human male strapped to it. The man’s face was cut and bleeding from several places and his clothing looked like it had been shredded by a gargoyle.
Dr. Lee looked up when we approached and her face registered relief when she saw us. “Mx. Phelps. I’m so glad you’re here. I really need your help.” Her triangular yellow eyes slid to Darma. She grinned. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.” She motioned toward the hallway behind her, which was filled with gurneys and cots and in some cases, blankets and pillows on the floor. Each of which was filled with a bleeding and/or broken body. “Start to work on those. Use your healing magics, I don’t care. Just see how many of them you can shove back out the door over the next couple of hours.”
Darma didn’t hesitate, she gave a brisk nod and headed for the battered multitude behind Dr. Lee. She had a smile on her face as she passed me.
I guessed I’d lost her to medi-care again.
Sighing, I turned back to Dr. Lee. “What can we do?”
She worked as she talked to us, moving efficiently down the line of sick and injured, calling out orders to the medi-care assistants standing around her.
“I need my people here to keep the patients from killing each other.” She smiled at the tall man beside me. “But I need someone out there who can find the injured and bring them in.”
I nodded. “We can do that.”
She looked again at the Venusian standing beside me. “Captain Lee will accompany you.”
Captain Lee? Brother? Husband?
“Soul mate.” Dr. Lee favored the tall man with a smile. She’d pulled the question right out of my mind. Damn I hated that.
“Sorry.” She didn’t even look at me. “I have no time for niceties I’m afraid.”
I nodded. “I’d tell you that I forgive you but you’d already know that too wouldn’t you?”
She grinned at me. “Be careful out there, Astra. You basically have no friends other than those you go with. It’s a world of enemies now. For everybody.”
I sighed and muttered, “I’m pretty much used to that.”
Bob reached to touch my arm. “Ralph?”
“Oh yeah, Dr. Lee, would you happen to know where Ralph Peters is? We need to spring him to help us.”
She frowned for a moment. “The werewolf?” She shook her head. Sorry, I’ve lost track of him. “Have Captain Lee take you to records, someone there will help you find him. Although,” she glanced around meaningfully, “it will be a miracle if he’s where he’s supposed to be. Things, as you can see, are in chaos.” She nodded to Captain Lee and turned. As she made her way down the hallway she ducked the flailing arms of irate patients and called out orders to overworked medi-care personnel.
I arched an eyebrow at Bob and he grinned, shrugging. “We would have told you if we thought it mattered. As it is we’re kind of stuck in this form. There’s apparently something in the mist that’s interfering with our ability to shift.”
I shook my head, marveling that I’d had two werewolves working just down the hall from me for months and I hadn’t known. “That explains why your business is called ‘Werever…Whatever’. I always just figured you couldn’t spell. So what do you guys do?”
Captain Lee reached a huge hand toward the much smaller man. “Hired muscle, shapeshifter justice.” He shook Bob’s hand. “I admire your work.”
Bob looked taken back for a moment, probably wondering how Captain Lee knew that. But I said, “Venusian. They read minds.”
Bob frowned and nodded. “We work for the Were Council. When a Were commits one of the capital offenses they send us after him…or her.”
“Hey!” I said. “You and I kind of do the same thing.”
Bob nodded. “Ralph and I have discussed that. We’ve even considered trying to work with you. Occasionally we could use some backup.”
Which of course reminded us all why we were there.
I looked at Captain Lee and he jerked his head back down the hallway in the direction we’d just come. “Records is that way.”
Glancing around, I shouted, “Darma!”
Her voice came back to me in my head.
There’s no need to shout, Astra!
It was her most superior and cranky voice. I grinned. She’d figured out how to communicate telepathically with me.
Frunkin’ cool!
She glanced up at me from the patient she was tending and I gave her a thumbs up.
She smiled.
Be careful out there, Astra. I don’t want to be tending you in here later.
I figured that answered my unspoken question. She was where she wanted to be. And I was about to be where I would much rather be. Fighting the bad guys.
I’d leave the business of dealing with death and dismemberment to her. She was built for that.
I was pretty much just built for
causing
death and dismemberment.
* * * * *
Records was a mess and nobody there wanted to listen to us. Until Captain Lee lifted one of the harried records clerks up by the neck and slammed him against the wall.
Then we learned that Ralph was on the second floor.
Tout suite.
Captain Lee led the way, shoving non-injured walking and talking obstacles out of the way if they didn’t make room for him in the halls fast enough. At one point I saw him jerk and look around and Dr. Lee fixed him with a hostile yellow gaze.
Then he gave a slight nod and continued on, clearing our path a little less brutally.
I grinned at Emo and he grinned back.
Busted!
he thought at me.