The Devil Is a Gentleman (8 page)

I put my hand tight over my own mouth. I was sobbing. I still leaned against the barrels for support because I couldn’t stand on my own. My hearing was coming back and I faintly heard the sound of men laughing and talking. I looked to see two of the men patting on the back the man that had thrown up, all laughing. Blood, brains and gore splattered the cracked cement floor. Naz, my father’s friend, a man that I had loved to listen to as a little girl, who had just been talking to me a minute ago, was an empty body lying in his own blood. It didn’t seem possible. Naz was larger than life. How could it be that he was no longer in the world? I half expected the universe to begin to unravel without Uncle Naz in it. But nothing happened. He was just dead. And I was crying against a bunch of rusting drums.

The men were still laughing. One of them had gone outside and come back with a large white bottle. I realized it was bleach. They were going to make Naz disappear. I looked at them, and suddenly I wasn’t crying anymore. I took a step toward them, pushing myself away from the barrels, but they shifted again, and suddenly the front wall of fifty barrels came crashing down, rolling across the floor toward the men. Together they drew their guns, though not nearly as quickly as the craggy man had.

“Stop,” one of the men said. He had a tiny ponytail on the back of his head, I saw. I stopped and glared at him. He aimed his gun right at me from across the room.

“Can you make that shot?” I said.

“Yes,” he said, as if he were trying to convince himself. The gun was still moving and I realized he was shaking. He was the guy that had been vomiting. “Even if I can’t,” he said with a thick Russian accent, “you will die. You see my friends, yes?”

“You see these barrels?” I said, gesturing around. They were all looking at me, two of them were scared. “They’re filled with acetone. You know what that’s for, don’t you?”

The smallest man shrugged. “Maybe, what about it?”

“My father used it to make drugs,” I said. “You used it. Methamphetamines. That was before The Blood. It’s also highly flammable.”

The men looked at each other, confused. The biggest of the three stepped forward. He had a scar across his forehead and his hair was shiny and greased back. “Who is your father? Who are you?” he said boldly. “You shouldn’t be here.”

I made myself smile and took a step toward them. Then I took another step. “I’m Alexei Slobodian’s daughter,” I said. “Maybe you’ve heard about me.” The men looked at me uncertainly. I kept moving slowly toward them. “Are you afraid?”

The bigger man stepped forward. “We have no order for you,” he said. “You go away now. We will not hurt you.” I was ten feet away from him now. I stopped and looked over at Naz’s body, his chest opened up with his insides exposed. The blood was running in rivulets toward a drain a few feet to my right. I flinched, blinking the tears away.

“You could have saved him,” I said, and the voice that came from my mouth didn’t seem like my own. It was cold and hard. I remembered the cruel expression that had been on the craggy man’s face. Did I look like that?

The big man took a nervous step back, starting to look back at his friends, then seemed to force himself to stare at me. He narrowed his eyes and raised his gun. “You go now,” he said. “Or I will do to you what we did to Polzin.”

“We?” I said. “You watched while someone else did it. You can’t kill me. I’m Niki Slobodian. Didn’t your Blood tell you about me? I’m dangerous. So I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. You leave his body alone. He’s not going to disappear. He’s going to be found, and he’s going to be mourned. There will be no one that knew him that will always wonder what happened to him. Understand?”

The man smirked. “Or what?” he said. “You shoot me? I follow orders, but not yours. Now go, little girl. Before you get hurt.”

“Step away from the body,” I said, gesturing with my gun. “Leave him alone.” I took another step toward him.

“Stop,” said the big man. “I am not afraid of you.” He didn’t look like he meant it, though. I took another step.

His gun went off, surprising him so much that he jumped, looking down at the gun like it was alien to him. He looked back at me, his eyes wide. He was so young. And he would become just like the worst of them. Like the cruel man with the craggy face. What they did turned them into monsters. Naz had said he was worse than the men he worked for. I felt wetness spreading down my left arm. It was numb. I couldn’t move my fingers. Vaguely I recognized a dull ache that was slowly intensifying. I looked at the hole in the sleeve of my jacket.

“Shoot her,” said the big one, the one that had shot me. “We have to kill her now.” His voice was shaky, but he turned his head to look at the others. “Now!” he yelled. The others raised their guns like robots, eying the barrels. I saw their fingers begin to squeeze, but they were hesitating. It happened so fast I didn’t even know what was happening until it was over. The big man went down first. I felt my finger pulling the trigger, felt the gun lurching in my hand with every shot, saw each man falling, blood spraying out, away from their bodies, but it was like it was someone else. Like I was someone else, just for a minute. And it was over. It was suddenly so quiet it almost hurt. I was the only one standing. I let the gun fall to the ground and it echoed as it clattered on the cement. Blood from my left arm dripped down my fingers, sticky and thick. I looked at Naz’s body again.

I felt him before I saw him. Naz was suddenly standing beside me, paler, more translucent. He looked on at his body. “You didn’t have to do this, Nikita,” he said. “Not this. You could have left.”

“But I didn’t,” I said.

“No,” he said. “You are a Slobodian, Niki. Your father would be sad for you.”

“Sasha will never know,” I said. “I’m not like him.”

“If you say so.” He turned and began to walk away.

I turned woodenly and bumped into Gage. I hadn’t heard his footsteps, but he was panting, so he must have been running. Everything still sounded thick in my ears. “Bobby,” I said. “I
—
” The words wouldn’t come. I felt hollowed out inside. I reached down and picked up my gun and stood back up. I staggered, lightheaded. Gage caught me.

“Whoa, sis,” he said. “Are you hurt?”

“Just a little,” I said. I tried to smile but it wouldn’t stick. My face felt wet again, though I didn’t know if it was blood or tears. “They killed Naz, Bobby,” I said. I caught a movement and saw Naz’s ghost moving toward the door. The other four had materialized, hollow-eyed and pale. They walked slowly after Naz, shuffling past their own bodies, looking at themselves as they went. The craggy man no longer looked cruel. He looked lost.

“I love you, Nikita,” said Naz. “Like a daughter. I always have.” He turned and walked out the door, joining the other spirits and disappeared in their midst. I tried to raise my hand and found that I couldn’t.

“What is it?” said Gage. “Did you see him?”

“Yes,” I said. “I saw him.” I felt weak and my knees gave out. I hit the floor, but it didn’t hurt. I was vaguely aware of Gage talking to me, calling out. I looked right at Naz’s corpse, and Naz’s dead face looked right back, his eyes as empty as I felt.

I blinked, trying to figure out where I was. I was sitting at a table, and had a dim suspicion I’d been sitting there for a while. I could hear voices - male voices - talking heatedly somewhere nearby. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but one was lower than the other, and both sounded familiar. I looked down in front of me and saw a glass filled with amber liquid next to a tall glass of what looked like water.

My arm throbbed dully and I reached my other hand around to touch it, feeling hot skin broken by a hard smooth bump under my cold fingers. I looked down, my head swimming. The sleeve had been ripped off my shirt, and there was a ragged, red scar where my fingers were probing. It was oddly shaped, like something had exploded in my bicep. I looked at it for a moment, trying to remember. I shifted in my seat and something crunched next to me. I saw my coat lying in a stiff heap on the bench beside me. I pushed on it and it crackled with dried blood. Brown flakes were scattered around it where the blood had flaked off.

I could still hear the voices. The deeper one was getting louder. I turned towards the sound. A craggy face flashed in my memory. Blood and brains and bone exploded out of the back of his skull. I shut my eyes and rubbed my temples. I could hear the shots, feel my hand on the gun, squeezing the trigger so easily. Blood dripping off my arm, Naz’s dead eyes staring at me. I inhaled sharply, filling my lungs with air, breathed out slowly through my nose. Things were becoming sharper. The voices stopped arguing. I opened my eyes and looked at the glasses in front of me. I nudged the water out of the way and swallowed every drop of the amber. I set the glass back down gently. I was in the Deep Blue Sea.

“Niki,” said a voice. It was deep and kind. Bobby Gage. I looked at him. “How you doin’, sis?” He sat down across from me. He nodded at the water. “You should drink that. You lost some blood.”

“Not thirsty,” I said. “What happened? Why are we here?”

“I brought you here,” he said. “After you…Nik, what the hell happened back there?”

I shrugged, then winced. My arm didn’t so much hurt as ached. Shrugging made it worse. “Naz wanted to talk to me, to tell me something.” I said. “They killed Naz. They just killed him.” My voice sounded flat to me. “I watched them. I was goddamn hiding.” I laughed a humorless laugh. “I was hiding,” I said again.

“So then they found you?” said Gage.

“No,” I said. “I found them. And then I killed them. I don’t remember it really. It just happened.” I looked at my empty glass, wishing it was full again. “You should go, Bobby,” I said without looking at him. “I’m not a good person to be around. I’m just another Slobodian,” I said.

“Bullshit,” he said. His voice was like a slap. “I did things, back when my family died. Stuff I can’t remember. And even worse, the stuff I don’t want to remember. But I got through it. And you’ll get through this. It won’t be easy, but we’re going to find out what’s going on and take care of it. Because that’s what you do. You make things right. What you did today, I don’t know, but those boys were killers. They would have killed you.”

“They told me to walk away,” I said. “They were going to let me go. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t just leave him like that.”

Gage frowned. “When did you become so attached to Naz?” he said. “I thought you didn’t even like the guy.”

I met his eyes. “I didn’t,” I said. “But he told me the truth. And he was decent in his own twisted way. I couldn’t let them make him disappear. Just scrub his entire existence away like it never happened. It would be like-”

“Your dad,” said Gage.

“Damn, you had to get all psychological on me,” I said.

“It’s the truth,” said Gage. “You’re a goddamn open wound sometimes, sis. I’d do anything for you, you know that. But you need to get it together, Niki.” He wasn’t angry, his eyes went soft when he spoke, like it hurt him to say it, too. “What did Naz tell you?”

I told him everything. I cried a little, but Gage pretended not to notice. When I finished he nodded. “We’re going to have some pretty bad people wanting to do some pretty bad things to us, aren’t we?”

“We are,” I said. “After today, they’ll want to do them even more.”

Gage shrugged. “It is what it is. We’ve got to be prepared. We’re not backing down from this.”

“I should do it on my own,” I said. “They don’t even know about you, Gage. And I have no idea what these guys are capable of. I made the mess. I’ll clean it up.”

“Your father made the mess,” he said. “But that don’t mean you gotta clean up after him. Just stop arguing with me. I’m going with you all the way, and ain’t no way to stop me. ‘Sides, you might need me.”

“A Caster might come in handy,” I said.

“So what’s the problem?”

“No problem.”

“Good,” he said.

“Well, isn’t this cozy,” Sam said, and I looked over as he sat down next to me. He slid another drink in front of me. “Thought you might need this, given the events of the morning.”

“Thanks,” I said. I took a small sip. “Is it still morning?” I said.

“Only just,” said Sam. “You have been busy, though, haven’t you?”

“You weren’t here earlier,” I said. “I looked. Deep Blue Sea wasn’t here.”

“Yes, well, I’m here now. I’m very busy, though, so I may have to pop out soon.”

“Of course you do,” I said.

“Robert,” said Sam. “Would you be so kind as to give us a moment alone?”

“Course,” said Gage. He lumbered across the room over to the bar and sat down.

“Niki,” said Sam.

“Look, I know what you’re going to say,” I said.

“Do you?” he said. It was disconcerting being this close to him. He was giving off heat like a radiator and I had a hard time meeting his eyes. For a moment it felt like I had helium in my belly. I frowned and shook my head. It was just the hold Sam had on me. Some kind of trick.

“You’re going to say that I shouldn’t have killed those men. It was stupid. I should have walked away and let them live.”

“You’re wrong,” said Sam.

“What?”

“It wasn’t stupidity that led you to kill those men,” he said. “You were right to kill them. They would have tried to kill you later.”