Sin City Goddess (20 page)

“I take it that’s not the number you just wrote down.”

Sam shook his head. “That’s my ex-girlfriend’s number.”

“Charming,” I said.

“What does he look like?” asked Archer.

“My height. Average build. Shaves his head bald but wears a hat a lot. Light skin.”

Archer frowned. “Any distinguishing features? Tattoos? Birthmarks?”

Sam thought a moment. “The only thing I noticed was his eyebrow. He has one eyebrow—the left, I think—that’s slashed through with a scar. Almost like he has three of them.”

Archer jotted something down. “Call him.”

Sam looked from me to the lawman. “Now?”

“Right now,” said Archer.

Sam pulled out a portable phone. He stopped. “There’s one more thing.”

“What?” asked Archer.

Sam wiped a trail of sweat from his brow. “He came in last night.” He looked at me. “He asked about you. You’re his type.”

“What did you tell him?” I asked.

“Just your name. I didn’t say you were a cop or anything.”

A thought occurred to me. “Sam, did you slip me that loose juice when you served me martinis?”

“No way. You acted like you were on it, though.”

I looked at Archer. Clyde? Had he put it in my cocktail? Or was it just vodka that affected me so poorly?

Archer said, “Call him. Tell him you got a girl for his client. Tell him to come to the bar tonight.”

Sam picked up the phone.

Chapter 33

After Sam left, Archer sat back in his chair, deep in thought.

“What are you thinking?” I asked him.

“I’m thinking we’re finally getting somewhere. I’m thinking that whoever took the girls might have murdered me.”

I met his gaze.

“Think about it,” he said. “If he was there at the Shadow Bar, maybe he heard something, maybe my questions spooked him.”

I considered that. “Then that means you can’t be there tonight. I have to do it alone.”

Archer shook his head. “No—no way.”

“Archer, I can handle a mere mortal,” I said. “Besides, I’ve got backup.” I reached for Indigo, and she woke up. She batted her long lashes at Archer and cooed.

Archer leaped from his chair. “What the?” He looked at me. “I knew it looked different, but I didn’t know it was…
alive
.”

I waved my finger at him. “Never underestimate a goddess.”

Archer stared at Indigo. She yawned and stretched her wings.

“Speaking of goddesses, did you make contact before the portal was toasted? Did you tell anyone about the gate?”

“Yes and no.” I told him about that wine-soaked moron, Dionysus. “I’ll try again with the Graces statue.”

Cerberus scratched at the door then. I let him in. He ran up to take a nap on Archer’s bed.

Archer said, “I was able to manipulate a video of that archeological expedition.” He walked over to the large screen and touched a few images. Up popped a video of the ancient ruins I had seen earlier at the site of Hades’s gate.

“Please turn off the sound if you are able,” I said.

Archer hit another button, and the video played. Then he manipulated his fingers and the screen zoomed in on the entrance of the gate I had seen earlier on the newscast.

He said, “Do you see that? Right there. What is that?” He paused the video and pointed to something in the lower-right-hand corner. Something just outside the entrance.

Something with yellow eyes.

“Son of a snake charmer,” I whispered. “It’s Lamia.”

So that’s what the vision meant. When I consecrated the sword, those were the yellow eyes I had seen.

So then what was the inky blackness? The tar-like blob?

“Lamia?”

I grabbed a Gatorade—purple this time—and started pacing, thinking, and playing with the cap from my drink. This was bad. This was horrible, in fact. How in Hades’s name could they possibly have let her escape?

Archer was waiting for an explanation.

I took a deep breath. “Lamia is one of the worst monsters I, or anyone, has ever known. But she didn’t start out that way, as I’ve said before. It is a process to become a demon. She was once a regal queen, quite beautiful, an enchantress who caught the eye of Zeus. They had a brief affair, and when Hera found out, she was furious. She said it was the last time he would make a fool of her. Said either he could break things off with Lamia or she would leave him and take half the kingdom for herself.” I took a swig of the drink. “Zeus begged Hera’s forgiveness. Despite his roving eye, he really does love her. He vowed fidelity forever
from that moment forward. When he told Lamia that it was over, she cried, she wailed, she begged him to choose her over Hera, all to no avail. Then one night, steeped in a depression so deep she couldn’t crawl her way out of it, she drowned her five children. That heinous act blackened her soul, devoured the beautiful woman she was, and transformed the once-regal queen into a twisted creature with the torso of a serpent and the upper body of a woman. The monster took over, and she went on a rampage, feeding on the blood of the young, until I banished her to the bowels of the Underworld.”

Archer had the look of a man who had just folded pocket aces. “And now she’s here, in this world.”

I glanced at the screen. “It appears so.”

“Can she—it, whatever—be killed?”

“Now that she’s left her only sanction, yes. Let’s just hope she doesn’t feed in the meantime. She isn’t large in stature, but her tongue has the power to lift a bull and her tail can flatten a stone wall with one whack.”

“You said before that you weren’t sure if something was trying to get out through the gate or if someone wanted to banish something into the Underworld through the gate. What do you think now?”

I looked at the image of Lamia. All I could see were those piss-colored eyes, but I knew there was a ragged mop of hair above them and fangs below them. I knew that her thick torso had slid out through the poisonous vapors unharmed, as only cockroaches and snakes could do. I stared at the screen, remembering the day I had imprisoned her. The day I had warned the gods that if she ever got out, she would kill relentlessly, ruthlessly, and without remorse. The Fates had given me carte blanche to track her to the ends of the earth if need be. “Do not hesitate to destroy her,” Atropos had said.

Lamia had been bound, strictly. She had no tasks in Tartarus, as others had. She was sentenced only to listen to the cries of her drowning children over and over again. She was given no leverage. No mercy.

Which meant she was hungry.

And it meant one other thing. “Someone summoned her here. Someone who knows who she is. And someone aided her escape.”

Archer said, “Sounds like a good time to call in the cavalry.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Archer reached for the notepad. He tapped the pen. “You said she had five children?”

“Yes,” I said, catching his meaning. “Oh. You don’t suppose…”

“I don’t believe in coincidences. Do you?”

I shook my head. “Five women. Five moons. Five months. It has to tie together, but what is it? What could it be?”

“I don’t know. I can do some research here while you try to contact headquarters. Maybe I could find more on the spell Hecate warned us about.”

I agreed to that arrangement and ran upstairs to change into a halter top. When I came back down, I grabbed some tape from the desk. Archer splinted my broken feather for me, and I locked my wings away, the cloaking spell functional again. I grabbed a granola bar.

Archer asked, “She’s never escaped before? Are you sure about that?”

I slipped Indigo through my belt loop. “Yes. Why?”

He shrugged. “I just wondered. She feeds on the young, you said. If she was able to escape now and then, it would explain a lot of mysteries to me.” He looked at me. “Horrors, really.”

I met his eyes. “I told you, Archer. Evil exists within us. Don’t seek answers elsewhere. Look no further than gods and men.”

I called to Cerberus, and after he met me in the hallway, I shut the door behind us.

My words echoed in my head as I walked down the hallway.

Gods and men.

Was there a god working with a mortal? Was that how Lamia had escaped?

I was about to find out.

Chapter 34

His partner was not pleased. Despite all he had done, all he had sacrificed for their plan, his partner wanted only to point out that now they were one girl short.

“The party can’t go on without the last girl,” said his partner.

He explained about the call from Sam, explained that he needed just a little bit more time, that tonight there would be a new girl waiting for them at the Shadow Bar.

This seemed to appease his partner. He showed his partner the girls he did have, showed him everything he had already set in motion.

His partner smiled.

Redemption!
he thought.

They could work together forever. They made a great team. He knew he was worthy. He was in the presence of a mastermind—better than all of them combined. His partner made Jeffrey Dahmer look like a choirboy, and he wanted to work with
him
. He was over the moon.

Soon, it would all fall into place. Soon, he would make his mark on the world. He would become a legend. He would become immortal.

He was fixing a snack for them. A couple of beers, a plate of cheese and crackers. He worried—just for a moment—that the girl might not show tonight. What would he do then? Would his partner leave him? Abandon the whole plan?

He put the thought right out of his mind. Of course not. Loyalty still meant something to some folks. He was certain of it.

He wasn’t sure what the surprise was yet, but he felt a bit better about it. He decided that some surprises could be a good thing. Life should include those unexpected moments. That was what made it so much fun.

Except when he turned around—when he saw his partner standing there with that look on his face, something hiding behind him—he thought maybe surprises weren’t so good after all.

One of the girls screamed.

The plate of cheese and crackers crashed to the floor.

His partner raised his hand, pointed at the center of his forehead. “I had hopes for you. For us. I thought you would serve me well, but, alas, you have failed me.”

He couldn’t even scream as his partner peeled the skin right off his body.

Chapter 35

I stood before the statue of the three Graces in the center of the lobby at Caesars Palace. Cerberus was stone-still next to me, and little Indigo was sleeping. Her tail flicked every so often as if she were dreaming.

I opened the moonstone ring and beamed a ray of light into the eyes of the Grace closest to me. Slowly, I made my way around the statues, signaling to all three of them. Then I pulled out my portable telephone, stuck it to my ear, and waited for someone to arrive.

After a while, I heard the voice of Thalia. “Tisiphone, lovely to see you.” Her voice was all bubbles and sunshine.

Odd—the statue hadn’t moved, hadn’t transformed at all, as the replica of Dionysus had.

“Thalia, thank Hades. Listen, I have an urgent message for the lords.”

“Why are you talking to the statue, Tisi?”

I paused, looked at the phone in my hand. Had she somehow come through the electronic device? I studied it a moment. Someone tapped my shoulder, and I spun around.