Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic #1) (18 page)

My attendant was Jin's age, dark-skinned and lanky. He ran his fingers along the screens. "It looks like all the upper floors are booked." I guess karma had a different idea. "Room 618 is the best I can do. It doesn't have much of a view, but it's private."
 

His eyes tracked over to Jin. He probably thought the worst of both of us. I was way too sick and ugly to be with someone like her without money being involved.

"If that's what you've got, we'll take it." I handed him my card.
 

"If you'll just put your hand on the scanner, we can associate the door lock on your room to your palm-print."

Biometric security was pretty new to the hotel scene, and while the average Joe might have loved it for being both easy and secure, anyone who cared about their privacy would rather be robbed.

"You don't have keys?"

He smirked. "We have cards. They aren't as secure."

"I'll take the cards."

He hit a few more parts of the screen, and then reached down below the desk. He handed me the electronic room keys. "Here you go. Have a great stay. Do you have any bags you need brought up?"

"No, no bags." I almost winced as I said it, knowing it only made the whole situation look worse.
 

"Of course." His eyes flicked to Jin again, and I could see the smile creeping onto his face as he turned away.

I handed her one of the cards, and stuck mine in my pocket. We headed for the elevator.

"How are you holding up?" I asked. She hadn't said much since we'd left Reva's, and she'd been wearing the stoic expression almost the entire time. I was beginning to worry.

I hit the button for the elevator, and it opened right away.

"I will be fine. It's just... hard to accept that this is real. All of my life, I've had the freedom to live as I wished, and at the same time known what I might one day be expected to do. It isn't just Natsumi... I can't be the person I was anymore. For all of the money and power held by my House, all of my options are gone."

"You're talking about the racing?"

"Not just the racing. It is an example. Who I befriend, where I go, who I love... Not to mention, I have to convince everyone I'm a powerful wizard, and I'm not even sensitive."
 

The elevator stopped.
 

"This is our floor." Once we were off, I grabbed my phone and sent Dannie the room number. It was a tough gig, but I could think of worse. "You should try having one foot in the grave for a while."

She looked at me. I knew that one. Pity. Damn. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound ungrateful. I-"

I put up my hand to cut her off. "It isn't your place to be sorry. I'm the one being an asshole. It's been hard not to be angry at the world for where I've ended up. I hope you don't wind up feeling the same way, because it sucks most of the time."

"Not all of the time?"
 

Not after what Rayon said, but I wasn't going to tell her that.
 

The suite had a king-sized bed in a separate bedroom, a living room with a pull-out couch, and a large bathroom. It was all done up with the same modern decor as the lobby, only the walls were painted in diodes that gave off a soft glow, and allowed the guest to make it whatever color, or combination of colors, they wanted.

My phone buzzed. "My friend should be here in ten. As far as she's concerned, you're Red's niece, and nothing more. She doesn't need to know the whole truth."

Jin nodded and took a seat on the couch. She pushed her hair away from her eyes and stared at me for a few seconds, looking unsure.

"Why did you decide to become a ghost?" she asked at last. I guess she was trying to decide how much she wanted to know about me.
 

"I didn't really choose it. I just kind of... fell into it."

"What do you mean?"

I sat down next to her, leaning forward and putting my elbows on my knees. I coughed into my hands, and shifted against a small tightening in my gut. "My friend was a ghost. She saved my life. I wasn't a necromancer then. I wound up hearing the fields later, once I got more sick. A guy like me... career options are kind of limited."

"How long have you been sick?"

"A lot longer than I was supposed to be. If God had His way, I would have been dead years ago."

"Do you believe in God?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think about it much. Do you?"

She didn't hesitate. "No. God wouldn't have played such a cruel trick on man, letting us think we were His children, and then showing us the monsters that we truly are. For all the plots and schemes of the Houses, we aren't the ones intended to inherit this world. What happened to my aunt is proof of that."

"What do you mean?"

"The human beast desires power, and the thirst for power breeds chaos, however much we may try to pretend we control it. When the reversal first occurred, everyone was frightened, and when people are scared they are able to come together, to work towards a common goal. To form bonds to the familiar, and ostracize the unknown.
 

"Today, the new world is understood. We have adapted to this environment. We stay inside at night, we don't stray into the forests unarmed. The fear is eroded. Now those who know of the Houses are losing their fear of our power as well. It starts with House Red. Do you think it will end there? It is only fitting that they are using monsters."

I didn't completely agree with her, but I didn't completely disagree either. "There have always been tyrants, maniacs, outsiders. For every doctor working to save a life, there's an evil son of a bitch looking to take one. If it's us or them, let's make sure it's them."

She smiled and reached out, putting her hand on my arm. "I told you the Houses would be cautious. Like I said before, I don't want to be cautious, Phantom. Of all the Houses, Red is in the best position to be bold."

I put my hand on hers and turned towards her. "Then be bold, but not stupid. We're at a huge disadvantage right now, and we need to shore up our defense and work from the shadows until we know what we're up against."
 

She looked me in the eye, her expression thoughtful. I expected her to say something, but instead she excused herself and vanished into the bathroom.
 

I was left with the distinct feeling that there was something she wasn't telling me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I thought things were bad before.

"Woo! I mean I've seen some crazy digs before, but this shit is like freak central," Amos said, the moment I opened the door to let him and Dannie into our suite.

He was kind of what I expected. Overweight, a bit sloppy, with a multitude of scruffy chins and a massive face. His hair was all over the place, in a weird kind of wild afro, and he wore a heavy leather duster that I was sure covered a hidden armory.
 

"You must be Conor. Anybody told you that you look like shit?"

I glanced down at Danelle, and she mouthed the words 'I told you so'.
 

"I've heard it one or two times, yeah."
 

I moved aside so she could roll in. Jin was sitting on the couch, leaned back with her knees in her arms. A relaxed, defensive position. She must have heard Amos say my name. Oh well, it was out of the ordinary, but so was everything else about this job.

"You gonna invite me in?" Amos asked, following it up with a throaty guffaw. "Could use a nice soft cushion. My ass is killing me after riding in that piece of shit van of yours. And the smell... fucking thought something died in that rattle trap."

I wanted to get Danelle alone, to ask her what the hell she was thinking. I could picture her reaming me out, because it wasn't like she had a lot of choices. "So, Amos... You planning on sticking around? Dannie told me you owed her a favor."

"She told me you were working a job, a big-time job. Heh, I didn't even realize she'd found a boy-toy to run her jobs for her, and an ugly one at that. Look like you crawled out from under a rock, and then got hit by it." He paused to laugh. Nobody joined him. "Anyway, she said I'd get a share if I teamed up with you losers."
 

Dannie looked at me apologetically. I knew her well enough to know it was the only way she'd been able to get him to come along.
 

"So, yeah... about the job? What is it we're work-" His eyes landed on Jin. He stopped talking, his mouth closed, and his whole demeanor turned frigid. "What the fuck is this?"
 

Jin put her feet on the floor. "Do you have a problem?"
 

Empathic. I didn't need to be to recognize the charge between the two of them.
 

"Bad to worse. You brought a fucking racist?" I whispered to Dannie.

"You wanted me here, I'm here. Don't you dare question how."

 
I started moving to get between the two of them, but Jin put up her hand.
 

"I asked you if you have a problem?"

Amos was staring at her, his hand drifting towards the opening in his coat. "Dirty, filthy, pointy-eared, tree-hugging-"

It happened fast. His hand whipped under the coat, while Jin took a few quick steps forward, smacked it away from whatever it was he was reaching for, and slammed him in the kidneys with an elbow. He bent over in pain, and she kneed him in the face. He fell onto his ass and clutched at his nose.

"I think you broke it," he said, the anger drained.
 

Jin didn't respond, she just looked over at me and smirked.

"Okay, okay, enough of this. Amos... seriously? You want to be a racist asshole, try being a racist asshole to someone who can't kick the shit out of you. Danelle, meet Jin. Jin, Danelle. You already met the fat lump on the floor. Jin is Red's negotiator. You're lucky all she did was break your nose."

I had told Jin I was going to name her Red's niece, but between what she had done on the bike, and seeing her fight... I knew guys like Amos. He wouldn't back down and stay down without finding something about her to respect. It wasn't enough for her to beat him up once. He had to know she would beat him every single time he even thought about it. A House negotiator was part assassin, part fixer. She'd have enough autonomy to offer work on the House's behalf, and enough training to take care of the hard, delicate stuff herself.

By naming her a negotiator, I had solved that problem before it became one. I looked over at Jin. She was smiling.

"I'll get you a towel." Se walked past me to the bathroom.
 

"So, what the hell happened to you?" Dannie asked, trying to cut around the tension.

"You already know most of it. The parts you don't know... Remember when you told me control took out the ferals in Connecticut?"

"Yeah."

"They didn't. I mean, maybe they found some other sub-humans to shoot, but it wasn't the ones that went after me. They almost got to Jin before I did."

That was when she noticed the rips in my trench. "Oh shit, Conor. Does that hurt?" She reached up, careful not to touch the area.

"It's fine now. Jin got me some troll juice. We barely made it out alive."

"She's really Red's negotiator?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Red sent me to her because she was worried about a traitor, and she trusts her implicitly. We came to an agreement." I motioned my head over at Amos. "That was before you brought Tweedledum into the picture."

"I heard that," he said.
 

Jin came out of the bathroom with a damp towel. She knelt down and handed it to Amos, who glowered at her at the same time he accepted it.

"What is it you desire?" she asked the fat ghost.

He looked confused. "Huh?"

"Even ignorant fools who want to hate everything that isn't like them have desires. What is yours?"

"You don't want to know. And you don't need to. They say money can't buy happiness. I say enough money can buy as much of it as my libido can handle."

It was a disgusting thought.
 

"You want money? How much?"

He pulled the towel away and looked at the blood in it. Then he put his hands to his nose and pressed. I could hear it cracking, moving back into some relative semblance of place. It wasn't even close to the first time he had gotten his face busted.

"Four million. Sounds good."

She didn't hesitate. "Done. On the condition that you save your racist hate for the enemies of House Red. I don't care about you. I don't care what you think of me. Red does demand loyalty and good service. One wrong motion, one wrong word..."

"Yeah, yeah. No hard feelings. Money talks. Deal." He put out his hand.

Jin took it. Then she got to her feet and walked over to Danelle.

"Is Dannie your name, or your handle?"

"My name. My handle is Daaé."
 

Jin glared at me from the corner of her eye. "You must have valuable skills for Conor to have asked you to come here."

She laughed. "I think he wanted Evan and the guns more."

"Dannie..." I started to protest.

"I know, you were worried about me. I don't know if I'm any safer here, but at least I'm not twiddling my thumbs, waiting for a kill team to drop in and shoot me in the head."

"It's more than that. We need to go into the Machine."

"You do? For what?"

"You need to sign up for team Red before I can tell you."

She put her hand out to Jin. "Yeah, sure, whatever. I'm in. Conor might be a solemn asshole, but I want both of us to keep breathing. You may be our best shot."

"Our only shot," I said.

Jin took Dannie's hand. "Thank you, Miss Daaé."

"I guess you'll need your own handle for this one," Danelle said.

"We can worry about that later. Do you know anyone in this neck of the woods who can jack us in?"

"I could name half a dozen places in Chicago. I'll have to check around here. You still haven't told me what we need it for."

"Black's card. We need to know where it originated. Right now, it's our only lead to whoever arranged the job against Red. Jin is positive it wasn't Black."