A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1) (10 page)

Over
the smoking corpse of the vampire, I saw Mei Ling standing behind where the
vampire had stood, sword outstretched.  I have no idea how I didn't see her
there before.

“Fancy
meeting you here,” I quipped.  I was pretty drained of psychic energy, but
physically I was almost healed except for my finger.

“You
seemed busy, but I couldn't wait all night for you to finish,” she stated
solemnly.  That actually made me wonder how long she been there watching me
fight for my life.

“Yeah,
well thanks, that could have gone on for a while,” I said, nodding to the
smoking body.  Wait a minute.  Vampires don't turn into smoke when they die.  I
took a closer look at the corpse and found that it was twitching and slowly
changing into a mist like form.  I know this trick because I used to be able to
do it too, before my unfortunate encounter.

I
kicked the still-glowing dagger away from the assassin's hand and brought my
sword down to separate the head from the trisected body.  The smoking stopped,
but I still frowned.  He wasn't dead yet.  Vampires aren't that high on the
supernatural scale, but they were incredibly hard to kill.  I think burying the
body away from the head may do it or bathing the corpse in holy water.  Damn, I
would have to stop by a church and buy a few barrels.  Is that like asking your
neighbor for a cup of sugar?

Mei
Ling brought my attention back to her as she gestured and the huge swords in my
hands.  “Overcompensating a little?”

I
blushed a bit.  Those swords had seemed like an awesome idea when I was just
hatched, but had since become an embarrassment.  It is why I don't really use
swords, even though by all accounts I am pretty good with them.  I opened my
hand and let the energies flow away.  The swords faded into nothingness.

Back
in the house I told Mei Ling to make herself at home while I cleaned up.  I may
regenerate, but my clothes were about to give up the ghost.  They looked like I
had gone four rounds with angry shifters and another six with an ancient
vampire Kung Fu master.  I went to my room, casually tore the clothes off, and
tossed them in a garbage bin on the way.  Going into the connecting bathroom, I
thoroughly enjoyed a piping hot shower.  I had Jeremy modify the reservoir and
now the bright red button on the wall with “DANGER” labeled on it triggered
four faucets that shot out geysers of boiling water and steam.  I don’t think
it met any building code, but I am absurdly resistant to heat and cold and I
love it!

I
dried off, made sure the sinks were polished as I left, and went back to
dress.  Looking into my mirror as I finished pulling on fresh clothes, I noted
my finger looked like it was a few millimeters longer and the wound on my face
was just a faint red line.

I
stepped out of the room and headed into my living room to greet my guest.  As I
approached I heard two familiar voices in conversation.  It appeared that
Jeremy was visiting.  Hopefully, no one had shot him again.  Humans should be
more careful.

“...and
then he dropped this huge pile of books down in front of the clerk and asked if
this was adequate trade for the Necronomicon,” Jeremy finished with a chuckle.

Damn,
that was an embarrassing moment.  That was soon after I had arrived and since I
was short on funds and limited in my knowledge of the local culture, I had
mistaken a fictional book for a real occult artifact.

“I
was just kidding with the girl, she looked bored,” I defended myself.  I was
lying of course, but I had my pride and if that was what it took to defend it
so be it.  “I see you have already met Miss Mei Ling...”

“Call
me Mei,” she interjected.

Oh
right, humans here had two names.  It hadn't occurred to me to call Mei anything
but her full name.  Come to think of it, if she didn't offer to use her first
name, until now did that mean she hadn't liked me before?  Hmm, maybe I need to
work on my social interaction.

“Jeremy
is the one that heard of your plight and sent me your way,” I offered.  “He's
the best private eye in the city.  He's also been helping me in my research.”

“Not
that I would dream of contradicting you, but I am also one of the only ones in
the city,” Jeremy said.  At Mei's questioning look, he continued.  “Most of the
so called PI's in the city just offer droid surveillance and account hacking. 
They wouldn't know detective work if it bit them in the ass.”

“Well,
it is impressive that you found me,” the slim Asian said.  “I have been keeping
a low profile, hoping to get a jump on Jin.”

I
looked blankly at her.  “Who's Jin?”  Was there another player involved?

She
looked at me in surprise.  “The evil wizard.  The guy you agreed to help me
get... you know, the fellow we found out is going to summon demons from Hell
and take over the world.”

“Oh,
yeah.” I chuckled uneasily.  I hadn't really thought about the wizard's name. 
I guess she may have mentioned it while I was concentrating on something else. 
I sometimes miss things like that.  Jeremy was giving me an obnoxious grin; he
always gets a kick out of seeing me at a loss for words.

“Mei
mentioned that you were attacked just outside the building.  You okay?” he
asked, eyeing my finger which had a bloody rag wrapped around it.

“Yeah,
I'll be okay by morning,” I muttered.  “I got jumped and managed to get one
good attack in before the guy went Bruce Lee on me.  I could barely touch him
after that.”

“How
did you hit him the first time?” Mei asked with professional curiosity.

I
was silent for a moment, looking at my covered shortened finger.  “Um, pressure
point.  I surprised him and you know...” I mimed hitting a person with my
wounded finger.

“Derek
is pretty good at medicine,” Jeremy volunteered.

“I
have a new respect for vampires,” I mentioned.  “I always thought they were
like trash supernaturals pests, but that one really knew his stuff.  He was way
more impressive than the first one that visited me.”

“You
had another vampire visitor?” Jeremy cautiously asked.  Mei listened silently.

“Yeah. 
I am pretty sure they aren't related though,” I offered.  “He was here to hire
me for some consulting.  Apparently some of... Jin's... apprentices are
summoning minor nuisances and the vampires want it stopped.”

“That's
very... noble of them,” Mei said reservedly.

“Right...
noble.   Vampires are maniacally territorial,” I snorted in amusement.  “I
still don't know how shifters and vampires share the same city without killing
each other off.”

“It
was tough when they first went public,” Mei said thoughtfully.  “But once
you’re citizens and in the public eye, you can't be seen to get into territory
fights with other citizens without looking like you're into wholesale gang warfare. 
The land was divided up and that’s how it's going stay.”

“Wait
a minute, how come the humans don't know about this?” Jeremy asked puzzled.

“Humans
don't really count as far as territory goes,” Mei said uneasily.  I nodded in
agreement.  Most supernaturals considered humans as part of the landscape. 
Technology, or in the case of my home, magic, had evened the playing field, but
mortals just don't set off the same instincts.  It's hardwired into most
supernaturals not to take humans seriously.  For my kind, it's even more
extreme; I can't even make myself consider the minor supernaturals a threat to
my territory.  Only another of my kind or a creature of similar magnitude will
raise my hackles and trigger a pissing contest.  It's hardwired arrogance.

“Hrmph,”
Jeremy grunted unhappily.  It's very much in their favor, but humans hate being
ignored.

“Anyway,
the mages in training are peeing on the vampire's territory, causing
distractions and mapping out the nodes for Jin.” I continued.  Mei snorted. I
guess she appreciated shifter humor.  “The master sent a young vampire to yours
truly and hired me to figure out what's going on.”

“Bah,
they are going to get in our way,” Mei scowled.

“Nonsense,”
I smiled.  “They just volunteered to be co-opted into the 'Lets track down Jin'
club.”  Noticing the others puzzled looks I elaborated.  “Vampires are all
natural psychics... well, all but the fresh ones.”

“Ah,
let them scour the city for the nodes, and either they monitor these points or
we have the shifters do it.”  Jeremy nodded in approval.  “Slick.”

“Thanks,”
I returned.  “It sort of fell into place.  Assuming Mei can work the shifter
angle.”  I looked over at her.  She seemed to be in deep thought.

“It
could work.  The shifters are every bit as territorial as the vampires.  To
even enter, the city I had to call ahead and arrange introductions with the
pack heads.” Mei slowly stated, gears visibly turning in her head.  “There are
a lot fewer psychic sensitives among shifters than vampires but it's not that
uncommon to be able to smell magic energy and ley line energy.”

“How
many packs did you have to meet with?” Jeremy asked.

“Too
many,” she grimaced.  “I still have several meetings in the next few days so I
have to be careful where I go unless I want to get into fights.  Fortunately, I
made contact with the city's arbitrator... he'll make organizing the packs
easier.”

“Great! 
When did that happen?” I asked.

She
looked at me flatly.  “Tonight.  Conrad's the arbitrator for the city.”

“Fantastic! 
I guess he has a good reason for looking like he has a stick up his butt.  I
thought he was just stressing over the future of the supernatural division.” 
Jeremy snickered. I guess he knew who Conrad was.  Not surprising; I swear he
knew everyone.  Mei looked annoyed at my lack of respect.  “One thing though...
what's an arbitrator?”

Mei
jerked in place.  “The arbitrator is the most powerful shifter in the city,
usually acting as the peacekeeper and peacemaker between the various packs of
the city.”

“Politically
powerful or....” Jeremy asked, in the pause after her description.

“Physically
powerful.  When things break down he may have to put a pack leader in his
place.  He's a were-bear.  A powerful one too,” Mei reluctantly added.

Jeremy
and I looked at each other.  I am pretty sure neither one of us knew that were-bears
even existed.  I looked at Mei again, trying to figure out what kind she was. 
I was betting on panther or jaguar but if there were bears then who knew what
others there were.

“Oh. 
Hey, how did that raid thing go,” I asked cheerfully.  So far I knew Conrad
survived, but a were-bear could probably live through a lot.  Especially in
that veritable mobile tank he wore.  It seemed even more overkill now I knew what
he was.

“It
was a disaster, but only a few were injured,” she offered grudgingly.  “Conrad
gathered some shifters and only a few humans went with us.  They stayed in the
rear and provided cover while we took out the zombies.  The zombies were the
easy part.” She grimaced at unpleasant memories. “We followed the one zombie we
allowed to reanimate through the sewers.  Apparently, the mage cleared out an
abandoned subway station.  It wasn’t on the map.  He probably turned the
homeless that were there previously.  We were almost overrun by forty or so
dead.  After we put them down, we moved up and encountered the traps.”  

“Ah,
I thought there may be.  Did Conrad...” I prompted.

“Yes,
your advice was good,” she said slowly.  “A few shifters were caught in an
explosion but in general, we were able to sniff out the magic and avoid most of
it.  At least until we got to the center.”  She stopped.

“And
then...”  I once more coaxed. Geez, it was like pulling teeth.

“And
then we found the mage.  He set up an entire underground complex with circles. 
They were under a big glowing barrier that stopped everything.”

“And
what happened then?” I asked after she was silent for a bit.

“There
is no 'after that'.  What part of impenetrable don't you get?  All they could
do was place a guard down there.  If they figure out how to get through or it
goes down on its own then we'll get to the 'after that' part.”

I
thought about that.  What a letdown.  That meant no books from that source. 
That was some pretty high powered magic though.  What was a guy like that doing
raising zombies to front for a gang?

“Unless
the mage is powering that with an artifact, it’s going to come down eventually,” 
I said into the silence.  I wouldn't want to be one of those officers on duty
when it did.

“So
if the vampires didn't send the assassin, who did?” Mei asked, in a rather
obvious attempt to change the subject.  I shrugged.  Jeremy coughed.

“It
could be a complete coincidence but...” Jeremy paused.  He thinks he has a
flare for dramatics.  “They are saying there's a new gang lord setting up
shop.  His name is still not public domain, but his operations modus operandi
is very similar to Kingston's.”

Well,
what do you know?  That would explain a few things.  I had used Kingston's own
knowledge to hide my traces and his memory of the events should have been
almost nothing.  If he had hired an outside agency to track down the money
trail he may have been able to eek some information out of the net.  It must
have taken him most of the year he'd been missing, and I really doubt he'd found
more than a couple accounts.  I would have to check on them when it was safer. 
In the meantime, he had found enough about me to hire people to take me out. 
The missiles and the assassin now started to make sense.  Wow, maybe that karma
thing has something to it.

“Okay,
I'll bite,” Mei spoke into the silence.  “Who's Kingston?”

“He
is... or was high up mob boss that disappeared almost a year ago,” I said
thoughtfully.

“And
he thinks you did him wrong,” Mei said this as a statement.

I
flashed a smile.  “How about that?”

“And
did you?” Mei asked.

I
shrugged.  Jeremy grimaced.  He takes these things too seriously.

“Do
you need any help with this?” the little Asian woman asked.  I looked at her in
surprise.  I wouldn't expect an offer like that from someone I just met earlier
today.  I guess she took our alliance seriously.

“Um,
no,” I muttered, still thinking on the angles.  “Now that I know who's behind
this, I can deal with this one way or another.”  I don't remember any details
from my time in his mind, but I do remember he was a very evil man.  I would
try to reason with him but if that failed, well mortals are pretty fragile.

Jeremy
looked ambivalent about my statement.  He really is a hopeless optimist.  He
would be upset if I took drastic action, so I would try to keep my methods
death free.  You don't keep friends around by doing things they consider
morally wrong.  Especially someone as sharp as Jeremy.