Unholy Magic (13 page)

“N—Aye, aye. In the factory, aye? Makin them clocks, the ones with the—”

Terrible snapped Nestor’s leg with one heavy stomp. Nestor’s shriek echoed off the walls, burrowed into Chess’s brain.

Her heart pounded. She should leave. He wouldn’t like her seeing this, she knew. But something held her there, plastered her against the cold brick, watching his body outlined in the phosphorescent glow of the lone streetlight.

Terrible knelt down and flicked open his switchblade, held it where Nestor’s terror-wide eyes could focus on it. “Next time you ain’t so lucky, aye? Two weeks. Two weeks, an Bump have it all. Or you pay more than lashers, if you dig.”

Nestor nodded—Nestor’s entire body seemed to nod, but that could have been convulsions. “Please …”

He winced when Terrible’s beefy hand smacked him lightly on the cheek. “Naw, all done now. You get Bump’s money, we ain’t do this again. Real easy, dig? Ain’t personal.”

“How if I … how if I get some knowledge? Some knowledge Bump … might can use?”

“Like what?”

Nestor shook his head.

“Aw, shit. Don’t make me get mad, Nestor, aye? Give me the knowledge, maybe Bump give you another week. Ain’t give me the knowledge, you lose a week. This ain’t some game.”

Nestor whispered something, his sibilants harsh and whistling. Terrible nodded, stood up.

“You get it, we talk. No promisin, dig? Still got two weeks, I come find you.”

He stood up, turned. His eyes met hers.

Her first instinct was to back up farther, to slip around the corner. Too late for that, and honestly, what did it matter? It wasn’t like she didn’t know what he did for a living, hadn’t seen the results of that living before.

So she just waited for him to join her, leaving Nestor crying on the pavement without a second glance and heading back toward the Market.

“I forgot to tell you,” she said, her nervous voice loud in the silence. “Somebody left me a present today.”

“Aye? What—aw, shit. You must joke.”

“Nope.” She handed him the bag. The outside felt sticky, even though she knew it wasn’t. Like the eyeballs inside were trying to worm their way through the plastic and suck her fingers into their blind depths. “In my car, on the driver’s seat. Outside the Church.”

“And now we gots us another body outside your place. Damn, Chess. Why you ain’t gave me a ring up?”

She shrugged, hoped it looked casual. “I figured I’d see you later anyway. I had to work tonight, I needed to get home and sleep.”

“Ain’t you think them eyeballs might be important? Like maybe you oughta stay off your place, somebody comin after you?”

“What the fuck was I supposed to do? I’m not stupid. I got the message, okay? But I still live there, and I needed to go home and sleep. For my actual job, you know, the thing I do that doesn’t cause people to break in to my house or leave eyeballs in my car.”

“That thing you ain’t be able to do, you ignore shit like them eyeballs.”

They were back in the Market now, winding their way through the last clumps of stragglers. She didn’t bother to wonder why people got out of their way so fast; Terrible didn’t look happy, and she imagined she didn’t either.

“Look.” She grabbed his arm, made him stop and face her. “Yeah, I probably should have told you about it earlier. But it’s done now, right? I—I’m going to stay on the Church grounds tonight. I’ll be fine.”

She forced herself to meet his eyes when she gave him the lie, knowing he would believe her anyway. That he would trust her. Shit, she was a sleazeball. Bad enough that she lied about where she got her pills, how many she took. That was her business. But this …

He didn’t look entirely pleased, but he nodded. “You call me, aye? Anythin go on there. Church might be safe, but them have magic too, aye? Like them Lamaru got past yon spells, got in your place.”

“Yeah, but they had Randy to tell them how.”

“And you know them now ain’t got the same? Just keep me straight if aught happen.”

“Yeah, okay. Okay, don’t look at me like that.”

“Shit. Anybody try breakin in on you like to find themselves knifed up right, aye?”

She smiled. “Yep. Especially now I’ve got somebody teaching me how to fight.”

“Figure you good enough now? Only I ain’t want you takin my job.”

“Yeah, I thought about it, but I figured I’d let you have it. You know, give you something to keep busy.”

“Aye, thanks. Thanks for holdin me in yon thoughts.”

They’d reached Bump’s place now, at the edge of the Market where the wind whistled around the corners. Chess caught a whiff of the pipes, the thick, sweet honey scent carried in the frigid clear air. Without thinking she sucked it down, wished for one miserable minute she were there instead of standing in the cold.

Waiting to see Bump and find out what illegal task he had for her to do next.

Chapter Thirteen

Dangerous magic exists; it will tempt you. This is why a Church employee must be honorable first and foremost.

—
Careers in the Church: A Guide for Teens
,
by Praxis Turpin

Terrible reached up and knocked on the plain black door of Bump’s house, while Chess steeled herself for the horror she knew awaited them within. Not Bump himself, but his dubious taste in interior design.

It had gotten worse. The first thing she saw, after following a nondescript little brunette down the vicious crimson hallway, was Bump seated on the scarlet velvet couch. Above his head floated a new painting she’d never seen before, of a nude woman—big surprise—with her legs spread obscenely wide and a happy smile on her garish face. Whether deliberately or not, Bump had positioned himself right below the center of the picture, so it appeared as though he’d fallen out of her and she was looking down, shocked and pleased to see what she’d birthed.

Even for Bump it seemed extreme. One quick glance was all Chess could stand, especially when her mind kept removing those cheerful eyes from the woman’s image, kept replacing her grin with the silent dead visages of the hookers on the street. With Vanita’s furious translucent face.

How many Cepts had she taken? Could she take a couple more? The jitters just weren’t going away, despite her put-on bravery and the brief moment of levity outside the door. The thought of that murder happening right outside her bedroom, the memory of the Crematorium, the eyes … She had her notebook. She could probably afford to take two more. It wouldn’t matter if her mind slowed down a bit, not when she could take careful notes to examine when she was better able to.

“Been awhile, Ladybird,” Bump said, motioning with one pajama-clad arm for her to sit on the other couch. The pajamas were fur, of all things, a horrid hot pink fur with black zebra stripes. His thin reddish frizz stood up from the back of his head like dander.

Pajama-clad and uncombed he may have been, but he was still Bump. Against his leg rested a shining black cane with a gold handle, and heavy rings glittered on his fingers, casting tiny sparks of light on the walls.

Chess sat, ignoring the desire to lay down a cloth of some kind first, and waited for him to speak.

“Whyn’t you take yon fuckin coat off, yay? Ain’t cold in here. Stay awhile with Bump. Bump gots some things to fuckin chatter on, if you dig.”

Fine. If he expected her to stick around, he could help her out. She shrugged the coat off and gave him a deliberate yawn.

“Always a fuckin deal with you, yay?” He stood up—the pajamas were even worse viewed full length—and oozed his way to the shiny black bar in the corner, returning with a little black lacquered box. “My private stash there, Ladybird. Hope you ‘preciate it.”

She certainly did. The box was ingeniously made, opening to reveal a mirrored bottom and slots to hold whatever accoutrements were necessary. Chess busied herself cutting a couple of lines while Bump talked.

“So what you got on for me? You got a find yet?”

“Not really. It’s a ghost, but not the Cryin Man like everyone thinks. It’s—he’s still in a spirit prison. I saw him today. Other than that … Didn’t Terrible tell you?”

Bump’s eyebrows practically disappeared into his hairline. “Yay, he give me what you see, ain’t give me what you fuckin know. You dig me?”

“Show him them eyes, Chess.”

Oh, right. For a half a second she’d actually managed to forget about them. She reached into her bag with tingling fingers while Terrible kept talking.

“Ain’t caught up with Two-Eye Lou, Bump. Nobody seen him or heard aught, aye? Checked his place, ain’t look like he been around.”

Bump made a face. “Sneakin off, yay. Knows he wanted.”

Terrible nodded. “Caught Nestor out there. Took this offen him.” She glanced up to see Terrible slap the limp bills into Bump’s outstretched hand. “He tryin to make a deal, dig, say he hear somethin about some warehouse up Ninetieth, but he ain’t sure. Ask if he get the knowledge, maybe you deal. Could be somethin, aye?”

Bump shrugged, inspected both the bills and the eyeballs with equal lack of interest. “Somebody gave these you, Ladybird?”

She nodded. A long silence followed, broken only by the sound of the little gold straw clicking against the mirror and Chess’s long, deep inhalation.

Oh …
damn
. Bump’s private stash was something to be appreciated indeed. Her nose went numb, her sinuses went numb, the entire right side of her face went numb, while her heart gave a cheery leap and started pattering away in her chest. Instantly the atmosphere in the room changed. The red walls were cozy, Bump’s furry jammies adorable, the vulgar picture on the wall—well, that was still vulgar, but it didn’t bother her as much as it had.

The little smile that crossed Bump’s face bothered her a lot more. He was planning something, oh yes, and she was already steeling herself. Not that she’d have much choice in the matter, but it made her feel a little better to pretend she would. To pretend she’d tell him to fuck off instead of agreeing to almost anything he wanted because she needed her drugs. And fuck, she didn’t just need
those
now. She needed protection. Needed this sleazy drug-dealing pimp with his pornographic decor and his appalling pajamas. If she’d thought she was worth a shit, she’d really hate herself right about then. As it was … just another day in the fucking sewer.

“Fuckin eyes from Bump’s girls?” He picked the bag up, inspecting it, poking at the eyeballs through the plastic. “What say? You think so?”

“I don’t know. But they were in my car, so …”

“So guessin we fuckin need to get movin up, yay? You the expert here, Ladybird. So you fuckin run it down for Bump. What this ghost want? Why the killin?”

She caught Terrible’s glance. No expression on his face gave her a clue, no hint to what he was thinking, but she wouldn’t have bothered telling Bump about their talk anyway, even if it had mattered. “Ghosts kill, Bump. It’s what they do.”

“And you stop em, yay? Ain’t that what you fuckin do? So why you ain’t done it yet.”

“It’s been three days.” Shit, now she was getting defensive. What a dickhead he was.

“Yay. Three days an awful long fuckin time. ‘Specially now you got somebody tailin you, Ladybird. What them eyeballs mean, yay? They fuckin watchin you?”

She shrugged. Obviously that’s what they meant; he wasn’t asking for an answer, just acknowledgment.

“Maybe you next, what you think? Maybe use you as bait, yay? Put you in a ass-grazer, on the fuckin street?”

He couldn’t possibly be serious. Trouble was, with Bump there was no way of knowing for sure.

“Naw. Ain’t work.” Terrible moved in his seat, his eyes shadowed. “They know she is, they know she ain’t a whore.”

“Put a fuckin wig on she, yay? Cover that ink she got. Bet they ain’t know she then. What you say, Ladybird? Maybe you bring in a few lash—”

“She ain’t do it, Bump.”

Bump wrinkled his nose like some fucking prissy schoolgirl. “Just askin, yay? Havin me a fuckin thought. Ain’t like puttin she in fuckin danger. You heard she just then. Beatin ghosts she fuckin job, dig. So why ain’t we put she out, let she do it?”

“Ain’t work,” Terrible said. Something in the way he leaned forward on the couch made him look bigger, like an animal with its back up.

“Terrible thinkin it ain’t,” Bump corrected without looking at him. “But Bump got a more … friendly image of you, dig. Seem to me you the kinda ladybird like to get herself a choice, make she own decision, yay? See what kind of things she could do for herself, if she only willin, an listen with an open fuckin mind.”

“Things I could do for myself?” She wasn’t considering it, not really … but he did have a point. It was her job. Save the cold, and the disgusting suggestion that she might actually turn a trick or two, it wasn’t a half-bad idea.

That was the problem with Bump. Despite the fact that he was practically a textbook melodrama villain—she expected him to grow a mustache to twirl any day—his ideas made sense.

Not to mention that if they did come after her, Vanita and her human … then Chess would be able to identify her. They would all be able to identify her. No more hiding knowledge because she couldn’t think of a good reason to have it, because it was knowledge she picked up on the wrong side of town.

Identify, hell. Maybe she could
catch
her.

“Yay, you know. Keepin Bump’s fuckin friendship. You know you my Churchwitch now, yay? Seems all everyone got that knowledge. Make life fuckin easier, yay? You ain’t wanna lose that, dig. Ain’t wanna be not Bump’s fuckin friend. And maybe you get ahead in line, you visit the pipes. Maybe get your needs held out the pile for you, supplies get low. Aught like that, yay? So you never run out. If you dig me.”

Oh, she dug all right. The threat couldn’t have been more clear if he’d sculpted it from ice.

Not that it was necessary. They both knew all it took was one phone call to the Church and she’d be busted. No job. No home. Nothing. Nothing, or a long stint in some dryout prison and a lifetime of suspicion and misery. A lifetime without her pills, without the pipes, without … without everything.

Bump’s eyes gleamed like a cheap gold watch hanging inside a fence’s jacket. “Now she see,” he said. “And long as we havin a chatter, we fuckin friends … Gotta meet set up, Bump do, with Slobag. You be there, yay? Maybe bring some fuckin magic with you on the night, yay, an help Bump out. Maybe get what you need, make Bump some fuckin magic. Hear a good witch even can make a man dead, got strong enough magic. That true, Ladybird?”

Terrible jerked in his seat. “Bump, she ain’t—”

“No.”

“What’s that?”

Chess shoved her arms back into the sleeves of her coat. “I said no. No. I’m not building a death curse for you, I’m not—”

“Who say make a death curse? That ain’t what Bump say, is it? Nay. Bump just ask a fuckin question, seem to me you might be fuckin polite and answer, ‘specially now Bump gave you somethin, yay? Just wantin some knowledge. Maybe what goes in them fuckin curse bags, yay? Maybe wheres Bump can find out. Iffen you think you ain’t fuckin good enough do the job you own self.”

Was he
daring
her? She forced herself to focus through the dizzy Cept-and-speed haze in her brain, through the tiny part of her that wanted to take that dare. Not good enough? She was fucking good enough, she was
damn
good. If she wanted to she could—

No. She was
not
falling for that. “Death curses are unreliable, they can backfire, you don’t want—”

“Aw, now, ain’t down yourself so hard, Ladybird. Bettin shit backfire, it causen them what made it ain’t know what they doin, yay? Ain’t got the fuckin skills like you got. Ain’t sayin you gotta do aught, dig. Just askin. Say maybe Bump gets, what, some hair offen Slobag head. Maybe it like insurance for Bump. For Bump and Terrible, yay. And all. Bump keep everyone fuckin safe, yay? What happen here iffen Bump ain’t around? What if aught happen to Terrible? You ain’t like that, Bump ain’t think. So ain’t so much of an ask, when you give it some fuckin thinkin. See? Open your mind, an see if Bump ain’t right in he thinks.”

She shot a glance at Terrible, still sitting on the couch staring at his feet. His hands were clasped together, dangling between his knees, so tight his damaged, oversized knuckles were white. Had he known about this? He might be mad, but he wasn’t exactly pounding Bump into silence. He did owe Bump a lot more loyalty than he owed her. All she was to him was a friend, maybe. Bump was his boss. Bump had taken him off the streets when he was a child, given him a home, a job.

He could have warned her, though. She would have thought he’d at least do that. He should have at least done that. She’d just stood outside with him and felt like the world’s biggest jerk for telling him a little nothing lie, and here he was letting Bump suggest she turn tricks and do murder, and he hadn’t even let her in on what to expect. Didn’t he even—whatever. Fine.

He wanted her to do this. He’d brought her here, and he was keeping his mouth shut. Obviously he’d made his choice about what was more important here. He’d argue about her wearing a short skirt on the street corner, but thought she’d be just fine to whip up a death curse. Did he even know her at all?

She caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the mirror at the bottom of the box; the remaining line broke her image like a pure white scar down the side of her face. Fuck that. She leaned down, sucked it up. The movement felt written in blood. “Yeah, okay.”

Bump grinned, and in the tigerlike tooth display she saw he’d known all along she would do it. Known he had her.

“There’s lots of spells you can do with someone’s hair or nails or whatever,” she said, in the probably vain hope of setting some sort of boundaries. “Minor stuff. If it’s even any good, I mean. Some people don’t really imprint themselves, if you know what I mean, and their hair isn’t really useful. So I can’t guarantee anything.”

“Well that’s real good, yay, real fuckin good indeed. Got belief in you, Ladybird, know you try an help your friend Bump. Give you payment, too. Whyn’t you take the rest of that fuckin bag, for starts. And then Bump see what he can fix up for you. You come back on the morrow, maybe Bump have somethin for you. In the means, you start fuckin workin up what you can do, yay? We gonna get aught from both of em, so you do the thinkin.”

“Both?”

“Yay, dig me. Slobag an that fuckin cunthound son he got, what he name?”

“Lex,” Terrible said.