In the Blood (18 page)

The youth scowled. His challenge had been aimed at Palmer; he had not expected
the woman to know the tongue of his ancestors. "Li Lijing? The apothecary?"

"Yeah, Loo, maybe the geezer needs a fix of powdered rhino horn so he can get it
up!" A slender boy with bristling, raven black hair giggled.

"All we want is to speak with the
kitsune. "

"
Kitsune?
You're talking Japanese trash, white girl!" sneered the boy. "What's the
matter, can't you tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese?"

"Round-eyes can't tell the difference between shit and tuna fish!" The third Black
Dragon laughed, and yanked a
nunchaku
from the waistband of his jeans. "Only
way they learn the difference is if you beat it into them!"

Palmer couldn't tell what the trio said, but he didn't like the way they laughed or
the way the one with acne let his
nunchaku
drop to the length of their chain.

"Loo! Hong! Kenny! Is this how you greet people looking for my shop? No wonder
my business has been so poor!"

The youths jumped at the sound of the old man's voice, looking more like children
surprised at a naughty deed than dangerous street toughs. An ancient Chinese
gentleman stood at the top of the stair leading to a basement shop, leaning on an
ornately carved cane.

"Go play hoodlum somewhere else! I will not have you harassing paying customers!

Have I made myself clear?" The old man poked Loo in the ribs with the end of his
cane. The boy looked embarrassed but did not protest the treatment.

"Yes, Uncle."

"Go now before I change my mind about paying you for the work you did for me!"

The old man watched the leather-jacketed youths retreat and made a sour face.

"Youth today! No respect! You must forgive Loo, my friends. He works for me,
opening and sorting boxes of herbs from the old country. He is a good boy, but his
brain is too often filled with foolish Western nonsense-no offense."

"None taken. I assume I am speaking to the honorable Li Lijing?"

The old man nodded, smiling cryptically. "And you are the one they call the Blue
Woman. Malfeis told me I might expect a visit from you. That is why I was
eavesdropping. Loo is a silly boy, but I have a fondness for him. It would pain me to
dig a grave for one so young. Ah! It is rude of me to keep you chattering on my
doorstep! Please, come inside and make yourself comfortable."

The apothecary's basement workshop was dark and close, the ceiling a foot over
their heads. Various herbs hung from the rafters, filling the space with an exotic
aroma. Palmer noticed a stuffed Chinese crocodile suspended from the rafters and a
bewildering collection of subhuman skulls in an open cupboard-one of which
boasted a cyclopean eye socket and a large horn growing from its forehead.

"Permit me to light another lamp," Li Lijing said as he busied himself with an

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antique hurricane lamp. "You and I certainly do not need it, my dear, but your
companion might benefit from some additional illumination." Li Lijing turned to
face Palmer, a sharp smile on his long, black velvet snout. "Is that not so?"

Without meaning to, Palmer let out a startled yelp and stepped back from the
humanoid fox.

"You're a werewolf!"

Li Lijing looked pained and shook his pointed ears in disgust. "Hardly! I am

kitsune,
not
vargr!
Would you compare a panda to a grizzly bear? An Arabian
stallion to a Clydesdale? A samurai to a priest?"

"Forgive my companion, Li Lijing. He is new to the Real World and has yet to meet
a
kitsune,
much less a
vargr.
He meant no offense."

The
kitsune
snorted as he hobbled through the shop, the staff he carried helping to
balance him on his crooked legs. "I have come to expect such ignorance from
humans. Still, it is a sore spot with me. But I cannot find it in myself to dislike their
species. I have lived long among humankind. Why, I even took a couple as wives!"

He made a barking sound that Palmer recognized as laughter. "I will tell you a
secret! Loo is not my nephew, but actually my great-grandson! Not that he knows
this. As far as he is concerned, I am merely a good friend of the family who arranged
for his father to escape the mainland. He calls me uncle out of respect, but is
ignorant of his blood. I favor the boy, as he reminds me of his grandfather-my son-who was lost to me during the invasion of Manchuria. Ah, but I must be old and
foolish to succumb to such sentimentality, yes?"

Li Lijing sat down behind a low teak desk carved with scenes of
kei-lun,
the Chinese
unicorn, frolicking in the perfumed gardens of K'un Lun, the City of Heaven.

"Now, what is it I can do for you, my dear?"

"I need a countercharm."

"I see." The
kitsune
pushed aside a scroll of rice paper and his collection of bamboo
calligraphy brushes and picked up an abacus. "What kind of spell are you
interested in negating? Protection? Ensorcellment? Bedevilment? Containment?

There is a difference in the prices, you know-"

Sonja motioned for Palmer to hand the alchemist the book. "You tell me. I'm sure
I'm nowhere as adept at reading conjuration patterns as you are, Honorable One."

Li Lijing accepted the compliment by fluttering his pointed ears. "You do me great
honor. Now, as to this particular charm..." He pondered the drawing, scratching his
muzzle in contemplation. "This is a protective ward of immense potency. You were
wise to consult me. Anyone-Pretender or human-trying to violate these lines of
power would be risking their sanity, if not their very lives!"

"Can you do it?"

"Of course I can do it! Did I say otherwise? It's just that the preparation of the
proper countercharm will not be without some expense... or danger."

"I'm willing to pay what it's worth."

The
kitsune
smiled as if he'd just been handed the key to the henhouse. "Malfeis
didn't lie, for once. You are a class act!" The alchemist barked another laugh and
returned to his estimating, the abacus beads rattling like hailstones on a tin roof.

"Let's see, I can have the appropriate countercharm ready within the week-

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"Twenty-four hours."

Li Lijing looked down his long black nose at her. "That's extra, you know."

Sonja shrugged.

The abacus beads were flying now. "Very well. I'll have Loo deliver it to your hotel
once it's ready. However, I would advise that you, not your companion, be the one
to use it. Frankly, a charm of this magnitude has no business being handled by
humans. No offense. Now, as to the settling of my bill-"

Sonja produced a small envelope from inside her jacket and tossed it onto the desk.

Li Lijing lost no time in opening the packet and dumping its contents onto the
blotter. Palmer stared at the handful of human teeth.

"I trust this will prove satisfactory. They once belonged to Hitler. I have papers that
will verify it."

"That won't be necessary! Their power speaks for you. Yes, this is most satisfactory.

It is always a pleasure doing business with a client of such refined sensibilities as
yourself, Mistress Blue!"

11

"Sonja? You awake?"

Palmer glanced into the rearview mirror as Sonja sat up in the back seat of the
rental car. In the bright sunshine she looked pale and unhealthy, out of her element.

She grimaced and smacked her lips as if trying to rid her palate of an offensive
aftertaste.

"Daylight. Phooey."

"I thought you said you weren't allergic to sunlight."

"I'm not. But I am nocturnal. Being awake during the day is... unnatural. Believe
me, if I was allergic, you'd know it! Vampires exposed to direct sunlight develop a
speedy case of skin cancer bordering on leprosy-noses falling off every which way,
ears dropping like leaves. Hardly a sight for the weak of heart- or stomach."

"Sounds like it."

"What is it you wanted? Or did you disturb my beauty sleep just to see if I'd
dissolve a la Christopher Lee in
Horror of Dracula?"

Palmer blushed and returned his attention to the highway. "No, it's just- well, I
wanted to see the charm Li Lijing gave you."

Sonja sighed. "You heard what he said about humans handling it."

"Look, I'm not interested in
using
the damn thing, I just want to look at it. Is that
okay?"

"I can't see what harm it could do. Besides, it might do you good to realize what
kind of explosive we're playing with here."

"It's that powerful?"

"You'll see. Why don't you pull over at the next rest station? The last thing I need is
to have you plow the car into the back of a semi by mistake."

"I never slam into the back of trucks by
mistake!"

A few minutes later, Palmer pulled the car into a roadside rest area thoughtfully
provided by the California Highway Commission. He killed the engine and turned
around in the front seat, facing Sonja.

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"Okay, let's see this powerful juju."

Sonja pulled a package wrapped in blue tissue paper out from under the seat and
handed it to the detective. "Remember, you asked for it!"

Palmer wrinkled his nose at the strong spices. The tissue paper crackled under his
fingers. Frowning, he unwrapped the talisman.

When he saw what it was, he instinctively tossed the thing away from him as if it
was a poisonous spider. He felt a bitter surge of vomit scald the back of his throat,
but he could not look away from the withered, severed hand nestled in the blue
tissue paper like a perverse corsage.

"It's horrible!"

"It's a Hand of Glory. Lijing assures me that it is especially potent."

"It's got six fingers!"

"Yes, that's the secret of its power. It once belonged to one of the hereditary Mayan
priest-kings. There was one particular royal family that was so inbred they all had
six fingers and toes. They were known as
Chan Balam,
the Jaguar Lords. It was
considered a sign of divinity."

Palmer swallowed the burning knot in his throat and watched an elderly man in tan
slacks and a cream-colored windbreaker lead a miniature schnauzer toward a grassy
stretch marked "Pet Path." He suppressed the urge to get out of the car and sprint
for the nearest parked car. Unfortunately, he knew he was more likely to get another
hole in his chest from his fellow motorists than a free ride back to normalcy, so he
remained seated.

"For crying out loud, are you going to leave it lying out where everyone can see it?

Why don't you just mount it on the dashboard?"

The idea of touching the Hand of Glory was repugnant beyond belief, but she was
right. If anyone got a good look at what was on the front seat, they'd have every
CHIPS officer north of Los Angeles breathing down their necks. Grimacing in
distaste, Palmer picked up the severed hand.

He was somewhere warmer, where the screeching of macaws and the screams of

howler monkeys echoed from the lush green canopy outside his door. A naked brown

child sat framed in the doorway, playing with a baby spider monkey on a leash. The

child's forehead was oddly shaped, sloping backward. At first Palmer thought the boy

was retarded, then the child smiled and turned his face toward him. The child's eyes

were dark and sparkled with a natural wit. Confused, Palmer scanned the room he

found himself in, frowning at the detailed charcoal renderings of Mayan dignitaries

offering sacrifices to the gods decorating the whitewashed stone walls. Above his head

handwoven nets full of museum-quality Pre-Columbian pottery hung from brightly

painted, ornate wooden rafters.

The naked child laughed at his pet's antics, lifting a six-fingered hand to his mouth.

Palmer glanced down at his own nude body and saw he was seated, cross-legged, on a

stone bench carved in the likeness of a jaguar. His breath was
coming heavier now, bat

it had nothing to do with the oppressive humidity. Palmer stood up and walked to the

doorway.

He was wobbly on his feet and had to steady himself by placing one hand against the

wall. His hand had six fingers. He brought his other hand to his face and felt the