“He’s bigger than I am. You know how it is. The bigger you are, the more the drugs have to spread out.”
“That’s called the body mass tolerance arc,” Pete supplied helpfully. “Also, I drink heavily so I may have some natural immunity to other depressants.”
The man came into the living room and crouched down, his yellow eyes as sharp as knives. He raised a hand full of claws to Pete’s face and snapped his fingers. “Human,” he said. “Pay attention.”
Pete focused with great effort on the tall man’s face. The fact that the man had just addressed him as ‘human’ did not entirely escape him, even in this pleasant fog. He looked down at the claws that tipped each of the man’s three fingers and then up again. There had been holes in the backs of the victims head at the theatre. Two little ones, and one big one, where the skull had actually been cracked open. The coroner thought it was some kind of levering pick, maybe something you could use to climb mountains, but now Pete really didn’t think so. “Was it you?” he asked politely.
“It was not. But I am seeking him, and I require your help.” The clawed hand slipped into the stranger’s jacket and came out with something infinitely familiar. A badge, with four stars and a broad loop connecting them, made of some faintly-greenish metal. “I am a man of law, like you. Tell me about the movie theater.”
Pete’s good mood didn’t break away, but with the memory of that horrible place, it did crack a little. “They were all dead,” he said. “Fifty-eight people. Fifty-eight. Someone broke their heads open. Someone took out pieces of their brains and…and squeezed it. They were everywhere, like…like…chewed up erasers off a whole pack of pencils.”
The big man nodded and put his badge away. “What do you know of the man who did it?” he asked.
“We think there were three of them,” Pete said.
The tall man frowned, his brows drawing together. “No,” he said. “There was only one.”
“No, there was three,” Pete argued mildly. “The ticket taker was upstairs playing Hide the Salami with the projectionist when it happened. She remembers selling tickets to three people just after eleven o’clock. She was able to describe them really well, so we’re sure they weren’t dead in the theater.”
The woman and the tall man exchanged glances. “Describe these people,” the man said at last.
“There was a man, a big man, she says,” Pete recalled. “In a long coat. She remembered because it was so hot outside. And there were two girls with him.”
That seemed to hit the tall man right between the eyes. He leaned back, staring. “Two?” he echoed.
“You’re not the only one getting hit by the weather,” the woman remarked.
The tall man cut his eyes at her, an arch twist to his smile. “And yet one should have sufficed, unless there is a extraordinary quality to E’Var that has been inexplicably omitted from his file.”
“What, obsessive girl-collecting?”
“I was thinking more of a physical abnormality.”
“Like what?” the girl asked.
In an effort to impress her with his savvy, Pete piped up, “He means like if the guy has two dicks,” and waggled his eyebrows at her.
There was a long pause while the two of them stared down at Pete. What the hell, he waggled his eyebrows at the man, too.
The man frowned.
“Well, maybe there was a two-fer sale when he picked them up.” The woman shrugged. “Or maybe there’s something wrong with one of them.”
“Then he would kill her before taking his second,” the tall man said reasonably. “The fact remains, he does not require both of them.” He looked back down at Pete. “Describe these females,” he said.
“Girl says they were both kind of punked out, but one of them in particular was easy to recognize. Purple hair. Pierced all over. Which was interesting to us,” he continued serenely, “because the boys found some purple hairs on a booth seat in Blue Ridge a couple days ago when that roadhouse got worked over.”
“I don’t suppose your witness saw which way they went or what kind of car they were driving,” the woman interjected.
Pete laughed. “I wish.”
“Well. So we know it was really him.” The woman glanced at the clock on Pete’s wall. “And that he’s had seven hours now to get away from us. I told you we should have kept going.”
“In what direction?” the man asked evenly, and while the woman was thinking that one over, he stood up and paced around Pete’s living room. “Let us return to your home,” he said finally.
“He’s getting away, Tagen!”
“No,” the man said. One talon on one foot tapped distractedly on the floor. “He is hunting. He is taking his time. And he is taking risks. I must think. I cannot believe he is moving aimlessly. There is something we have not seen…” The man rubbed at the bridge of his nose and growled, his brow furrowed with frustration. “And I cannot think what it could be. Take me home.”
“We’re not going to get this guy, are we?” Pete asked. The thought saddened him, in an off-hand sort of way.
“Anything is possible,” the man replied, and glanced at him. “But I think that you will not, and that is best. He is not of this world. Are you prepared to accept that?”
“Buddy,” Pete said sincerely, “no one is prepared to accept that.” He folded his hands complacently on his stomach and stared up at the ceiling. “Are you going to get him?” he asked.
“I mean to try.”
“That’s all anybody can ask for, pal. Good luck to you.” Pete closed his eyes. He heard footsteps receding from his house, but didn’t bother to watch them go. He drifted along towards an easy sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
S
ue-Eye lay on her side in the motel bed, watching the sun climb up behind the cheap curtains. Kane’s arm was around her waist, the only comfort Sue-Eye had left. She hurt too much to sleep. She could still taste the sweaty, bitter slick of the dead man’s cum. She could still feel the ache of them thrusting in her ass. She saw their blood splash out every time she closed her eyes. She’d fallen on top of one of them. Kane had pushed her down into the hot, dead meat of it and made her thank him, and she’d done it, fighting bile on every word.
Why did he
do
that? After everything she’d done to help him! Why didn’t he want her yet? Why was it still Raven that got his hand on her back and love bites on the chin when all she did was lie there and fucking bleed?
Sue-Eye rolled over, curling into Kane’s chest miserably. He raised his arm until she settled and then lowered it again, his deep breaths resuming almost at once. It had to mean something. He tortured her because he had to torture someone, some guys were just like that, but he always slept with her afterwards. Maybe it was even a good thing, like the way young boys will skin the knees of little girls on the playground because they know no other way to say they liked them. Maybe.
In the second bed, Raven quietly pushed back the covers and sat up. Kane turned towards her at once, his claws flexing on Sue-Eye’s hip. He watched Raven go into the bathroom and then rolled onto his back, taking his hand from Sue-Eye to scratch sleepily at his stomach. He gave her a nudge and not a gentle one.
“Turn on the cool air,” he said, and stretched hugely as she got up.
No Heat for him today, which meant no fucking. He’d probably spend the whole day playing with his little bottles and his computer and ignoring her.
Sue-Eye switched on the A/C and stood in front of it, hugging herself against the chill it pushed out and staring at the curtains. Another day, gone. Raven wasn’t cramping anymore. She’d probably be off the rag in another day or two, and then what? She might be killed, but that thought couldn’t really climb very high on Sue-Eye’s mental ladder. She was more afraid of being abandoned when Raven’s red tide washed out. She’d have nothing then. No Pack, no nothing. She’d always considered herself a solo, a survivor apart from the rest of humanity, but she realized now she’d never actually been alone in her whole life. There had always been other outcasts for her to hide among, beg from, feed on. Having to start all over from nothing, here in the middle of nowhere, seemed an insurmountable task.
“All right,” Kane said mildly. “I’ll ask. What are you doing?”
“Standing.” She couldn’t quite erase all the bitterness from her voice. She supposed if that pissed him off enough, he’d get up and sock her. That was fine. At least he’d be paying attention to her.
But he didn’t. He merely sat up and scooted himself back against the headboard of the bed, saying, “Bring me my pack,
ichuta’a
. I want a new look at you.”
She tried to ignore the uplifting swoop that tried to go through her at these words. Of course he’d want a look at her before he fucked her again. The man was damned careful when it came to dipping his wick. He’d probably even checked out that scrawny bitch in the woods.
Yeah, and don’t think she hadn’t noticed
that
little action. Just one more pony he’d ride instead of her. She’d more than half expected him to add the little bitch to the party. Kane’s Traveling Harem, come one, cum all.
Sue-Eye put the heavy pack in his waiting hands and he gestured for her to sit at his side. He drew blood from Sue-Eye’s arm and injected it into his computer, pressing his thumb over the slight incision he left and then licking at the smear it left on him while he waited for the results. It didn’t take long for the all-done chime, and Kane smiled.
“Still clean,
ichuta’a
.” He gave her arm a pat, his gaze going to the little bottles still in his pack, already distracted. “Ease your mind.”
“I couldn’t care less,” she said. She faced the wall ahead of her instead of him, feigning indifference but her emotional antennae tuned to the slightest shift of his mood. Sulking was a risky move, but at least she could do it with sincerity. “I wasn’t clean when you met me and it didn’t keep me up at nights.”
Kane grunted and settled back to tap at the keys of his computer. “You claimed to be grateful at the time,” he remarked. His voice was silk.
“I was. Fat lot of good it did me.”
He raised his eyes from the screen and stared at her for a long time without expression. Finally, a faint smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “Poor
ichuta’a
,” he said softly. “Are you angry because Kane whored you out?”
Here were the first cracks in the ice under her feet. Sue-Eye walked with caution.
“No,” she said. “You can do whatever the hell you want with me.” She got up and reseated herself on Raven’s bed, now facing him but still looking away.
He watched her go, nothing but his eyes moving. “True.”
She wanted to go on from there, maybe point out that it had been her plan that netted him all the brain juice he was so damn pleased about, but the ice was too damned thin for that. She lay down and curled on her side, turning her back to him, and said nothing.
The A/C ground and rattled. The shower in the next room spattered on the tiles. Kane’s computer was perfectly silent. There was no other sound. Sue-Eye could feel the itch of his gaze between her shoulderblades.
Raven stepped naked and wet around the corner and called Kane’s name. “Are we leaving today?” she asked, presumably once she had his attention.
“I hadn’t planned to. Why?”
“Thought I’d wash my clothes if we were going to stay long enough to dry them.”
Kane’s answer was to stand up, shuck out of his pants, and toss them at her. “
Ichuta’a
,” he said, lying back down. “Yours, too.”
Scowling, Sue-Eye crawled out of her t-shirt and skirt and threw them at Raven. “No starch,” she said sullenly.
Raven snickered. “I’ll see what I can do.” She went back into the bathroom and closed the door.
God, she hated that bitch. Easy for the pony to be Little Miss Sunshine this morning.
She
hadn’t been the meat in a Drunken Bastard sandwich the night before. And yeah, sure, Kane had passed Raven out at Charlie’s, but just her mouth. Big fucking deal. Sue-Eye still felt like she had a piano leg up her ass.
Kane finally started typing again. “I should warn you that you’re starting to piss me off,
ichuta’a
,” he said evenly.
“I’m so sorry to hear that. What do you want me to do?” she asked, her tone just as cool as his.
“Go to sleep. Watch TV. Take a shower. Anything but what you’re doing, which is aiming your ugly mood right at me.” He took the sleeve out of the side of his computer, replaced it with a fresh one from his pack, and started emptying brain juice into it. “You seem to think you can do that and make me feel bad. Why in hell you’d want me in a bad mood, I couldn’t begin to guess, but I don’t think it’ll work, and even if it does, I’ll probably express that bad mood by carving an eye out of you.”
Sue-Eye stiffened and curled up a little tighter.
Raven reappeared wrapped in a towel, but only took a step toward the bed before Kane said, “Practice your letters, Raven.” Sue-Eye was left alone.
In all this time (and it felt like forever, even though Sue-Eye knew it had only been a few days), Kane had never once said that he would let her go when he was done using her. He’d said it to Cammy, and he’d done good by his promise, but he hadn’t said it to Sue-Eye. The most he’d done was tell her how temporary her place at his side really was, that he’d only need her for as long as he couldn’t have Raven. After that…
She really thought she’d have him by now. He was a killer, and while it was not necessarily true that killers have no loyalty, what loyalty they had was damned little. And Raven, well, Raven was a lousy bitch, pure and simple. She was mouthy and she got freaked out too easy. Sure, she was cute, but cute didn’t last. It should be Sue-Eye who had the man’s mark on her arm, damn it!
These thoughts had a way of circling, and anger (always the easiest emotion for Sue-Eye to nurture) was soothing to her heart. She’d actually started to doze off when Kane suddenly said, “All right, come over here.”