The Devil Is a Gentleman (18 page)

“Why are you telling me this?” I said.

“Your father. Sasha. He gets me out. He got us all out. Brought us here for a second chance. This was the condition that he went to work for The Blood.”

“The money didn’t hurt either,” I said.

“The money, yes,” he said. “Many of us didn’t own shoes when we came. Men would buy expensive clothes, cars, women. They spend all their money, just so they could know what it felt like. They buy nice things because they had lived with nothing. We take turns sleeping in prison, on beds with lice and bugs. The rest of us stand, huddled in a cold room scratching the bites. Not enough beds, too many men. The stink was the worst part.”

“What’s your point?” I said.

“Your father was a good man,” he said.

“I know that now,” I said.

“You don’t, I think,” he said. “You met The Morrigan, yes?”

“Her name is Natalie,” I said. “If she’s still alive.”

“Yes, Natalie. Is horrible what they do to her.” He took a sip of coffee. “She was not the first, though.”

“What do you mean?”

He frowned. His eyebrows were bushy and graying at the tips. “They do this thing before. Not to a child. To your father. They want to see how much someone could build tolerance for angelwine, yeah? They tell him that they send us all back if he doesn’t do it. So he does it. He is crazy for a while. Scary. He went to see you one day. Dorrance did not want him to go, but Sasha told him that if he lost his family, he would lose himself. So Dorrance, he convinces Sasha to take his dose before he goes. He was burning up, he was so hot. It was the most I’ve ever seen a man take. Six drops. Is too much. But Sasha controlled it, he was strong. He went to see you. And when he came back, he said he didn’t care what they did to him, he wouldn’t take the angelwine anymore.”

“I remember,” I said. “He smelled like a fireplace that day. He hit me so hard I didn’t get up for a day. Then I didn’t see him again for a month.”

“Sasha is a good man,” he said. “His problem is that he goes into things without being prepared.” He raised a bushy eyebrow. “You are much like your father. You are like a man of action, that does not think before jumping into the tiger’s den.”

“Is this your way of trying to convince me not to go after Dorrance?” I said.

“You are Sasha Slobodian’s daughter,” he said. “Naz loved you like family. You killed the men that killed Naz. I have great respect for you.” He set his mug on the table. “I do not convince you
not
to do this thing. I convince you to let me help you.”

My surprise must have been priceless, because Yuri laughed again. “This thing you do last night in the vault building, no one has ever done. The men are afraid of you. That is good. They hate Dorrance. They do not like what he does with the child. With the angel. Very superstitious. Money is no longer enough for them. They are men of loyalty again. When Sasha went away, they were happy to follow Naz. Naz was family. But now both are gone. They would follow me, but I am no leader. If I tell them to follow you, they will do this. Dorrance told them they will not follow any other leaders, only him. The Blood.”

“I appreciate the offer,” I said, “but I’m not Sasha. I don’t work well with criminals.”

He smiled. “You do not see it,” he said. “You are a criminal. You are one of us.”

“No, I’m not,” I said.

“You killed those men. It was for a good and clean reason. You honor my family. That is not why. But of course we are all criminals now. It is all over the news. ”

“Thank you for coming,” I said, standing up. I suddenly wanted to be alone again.

He shrugged his big shoulders, and stood to go. “You will think about it, I know this. When you are ready, you will call me.” He placed a card onto the table. “Thank you for the coffee. You wear your gun next time.”

I knew he was right. I knew the instant he said it. I was one of them. I was a killer. I liked to think I was better, that there were good reasons for what I did, but the fact was that I’d killed ruthlessly on more than one occasion. I barely gave it a thought anymore. Just pulled the trigger. I’d become exactly what Sofi feared Sasha would make me. I was just like my father.

But Sasha and I, and Naz, had our own reasons for what we had done. We did these things for our families. I had become just like my father, and yet it turned out to be good and honorable. Clean, as Yuri said. The Blood was not. Whatever we had done, The Blood had done much worse. They needed to be stopped. They made people disappear. They bought babies to make into monsters. They stole the blood from an angel. And they now had a chokehold on the city. My city. How long would it be until Dorrance’s policies went worldwide?

I needed to stop them. Then I’d be done. Just this last thing and I’d put my guns away. I’d finish this and then maybe Sofi and I could move to the country. Maybe go to Karen’s house. It was better than staying in the city. If I stayed, I would become worse than Sasha. At least he’d started for noble reasons. I would just become a pissed off Abby with a gun.

I tried to call Gage, but got voicemail. I started to dial Eli, before remembering. I put my phone back in my pocket. The world seemed a strange place. No Eli, no Sasha, no Naz. I took out my phone again and called Sofi at Karen’s house. No answer there either. I left a message to tell Sofi that I was all right and hung up. I holstered my guns and was out the door.

I stepped out into the midst of the gray cloud of spirits. I took a long breath and started wading my way through them. There were even more than the previous day. I couldn’t see a foot in front of my face. I made my way toward where I thought my car was parked, not looking at the dead eyes that passed around and through me. My stomach clenched when they touched me but I ignored it. When the firm hands grabbed my arms, I jumped. They were warm in the ocean of cold death.

“Hey!” I yelled. There were two men on either side of me. They wore dark suits and sunglasses, even though the day was dark and rainy. They were both a good foot taller than me. I tried to reach for my gun, but they held my arms tight. They were so much stronger than me. “Let me go!” I screamed. The ghosts, one by one, took notice of me. They began lurching towards me, their hands grasping at me, at the men, trying to clasp at something real. The men took no notice, but the sudden surge of hands inside me made me double over.

“Knock it off,” said one of the men. His grip tightened on me. “He just wants to talk to you.”

I fought the urge to vomit, then croaked, “Who?” But they were pushing me into a car and the door closed behind me. The clammy hands disappeared and I caught my breath. I was sitting in the backseat of a large car, the warm smell of leather strong. A thin woman with her hair pulled tight from her face sat across from me. She had a large leatherbound book in her lap. A casting book. She arched a penciled eyebrow at me. A man sat next to her. I recognized him.

“Dorrance,” I said. He smiled a charming, slimy smile. I could feel the weight of the Makarov on my hip, the little derringer cool against my calf. There was something weird about Dorrance’s face. “You going to magic me? I think I could kill you before you could even open your mouth.” I was acutely aware of the bulge sewn into my jacket, burning hot against my back.

“I don’t think you could,” he said, in a clipped British accent, and he lifted his hand. He was holding something that was almost like a gun. “Tranquilizer gun,” he said. “It’s quite strong stuff. I’m told they use it on lions. You didn’t think we’d kill you, did you? Of course we’d let you live.”

“Why?” I said. I looked at the woman who gazed back at me smugly.

“We are quite sure that you will be quite cooperative. You wouldn’t want that sweet godmother of yours to disappear,” he said. He smiled again, small white teeth gleaming. “And everyone else you’ve ever cared about.”

I looked at him. I couldn’t panic. I forced myself to stay cool. “You have Sofi?” I said.

“No, no,” he said smoothly. “Not yet. But we know where she is. It would be an easy thing.” I relaxed slightly. “But we do have someone you know. ”

I frowned. “Who?”

“Mr. Robert Gage,” he said. “He doesn’t put up much of a fight, does he?”

My hand moved involuntarily to my hip. There was a blur and suddenly Dorrance wasn’t across from me, he was beside me, with his arm around my shoulders. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Niki,” he said softly in my ear. His fingers dug into my shoulder like a vise. “Calm yourself or we’ll make you disappear as well. You don’t want Sofi to carry that burden, do you? It would surely kill her. Her health has been quite poor lately, hasn’t it?” He put his face near my neck and inhaled. “Oh, there is something about you. Like spiced wine, you are.” He laughed into my ear and I felt my stomach lurch. He literally made me sick. “Your father smelled of spice, too, though not nearly as strong.”

I felt my nostrils flare. I tried to stay calm. I wanted to drive an elbow right into those white teeth, to drive a fist into that pasty face. I thought of Bobby, though and I forced myself to be still. “Why are you doing this?” I said.

“You’ve made things difficult for me, Niki. And I don’t just mean recently. No matter what I do, it seems you’re just around the corner.”

“I didn’t even know about you until a few days ago,” I said.

“Yes, well, my organization is very exclusive,” he said. “I had a perfect subject with Sasha, until he went to see you. He was never the same after that. Stopped taking his doses, started asking questions. Though I suppose I should thank you for stopping him before he came for me.”

“He would have killed you,” I said. “He’s much more powerful than you know.”

“Yes, until you killed him. And now he can’t hurt me.”

I laughed, unable to stop myself. “Sasha’s not dead,” I said.

He hesitated. “Of course he is, don’t be stupid.”

“You think someone like me can kill Sasha Slobodian?” I said. “He lived through Hell. He’s coming back for you.” I didn’t know if it was true, but it felt good to say. I could feel Dorrance’s breath quicken for a second. His fingers tightened even more on my shoulder. I gasped. It felt as though he could crush my shoulder if he wanted to. The angelwine made him strong.

“Enough of your lies, girl,” he said, but I could tell he was shaken. “You took my angel from me.” He squeezed my shoulder again and I felt bones grind together. Any harder and they would break. I ground my jaw so I wouldn’t cry out.

“I didn’t do anything,” I said, my voice weak. “You drained him too much. He was dying.”

“You had no right to be there,” he said.

“She’s my sister,” I said, the anger rising.

“The Morrigan is not a person,” he hissed. “She has no family. She is a goddess because we made her one. She is ours.”

“Does she know that?” I said. I suddenly realized we were talking about Natalie in the present tense. Like she was still alive.

He scowled, and for a moment I thought I saw something shift in his mouth, but he gained control in an instant. “Which brings me to why I wanted to speak to you,” he said. “You will tell her that this game is over. She belongs to us, not to you.”

“So she
is
alive,” I said.

“Why wouldn’t she be?” he said. He began to laugh. “Oh, dear God,” he said. “You thought she died? You are even more naive than I thought.”

I gritted my teeth. “She told me if the angel died, she would too.”

“You think we have only the one angel?” he said. “Although your little intervention did cause a drop in our production. Some of my friends are dying for a drop. Literally.” He recovered his composure and cleared his throat. “So, you will talk to her?”

“You’ll leave Sofi alone?” I said.

“Of course,” he said.

“And you’ll let Bobby go.”

He breathed deeply again, as if trying to catch another whiff of me. He bit the inside of his cheek. It was his eyes that were strange. They were angel eyes. Same as Frank Bradley’s had been. “I’ll let Mr. Gage go,” he said finally. “And you’ll stay out of my affairs.”

“If you stay out of mine,” I said.

“Ah, yes, my new political career, ” he said. He sounded pleased with himself. It would be worth it to kill him. But it wouldn’t be fair to Bobby and Natalie.

“Why
are
you arresting the Abbies?” I said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Oh my dear, it makes perfect sense.
Oldest trick in the book:
Divide et impera.
Divide and conquer. There are more of them than there are of us. If they were to become organized, they could dismantle everything we have built. So we must make sure that can never even
start
to happen. And so, voila, they are all criminals. I like being the biggest shark, you see. It gives me pleasure.”

“I bet it does,” I said. “You make me sick.”

“And you make me hungry,” he said. “But I’ll refrain from my urges if you refrain from yours. I just had my car reupholstered.”

“One last question,” I said. “Why did you kill Frank Bradley? He wasn’t an Abby. He was one of you, The Blood.”

His mouth twitched, like he was trying not to smile. “Bradley was a rat and a thief,” he said. “We gave him a taste of angelwine and he kept coming back for more. Begging sometimes. He was pathetic. He took a vial I had in my safe so I gave him what he wanted. Twelve drops down his lying throat. Most men can only stand three. He lasted much longer than I thought he would.”