Red didn’t lead me far, pulling me a few doors down before turning
to one and fumbling with a key ring from her pocket. Her movements
casual, only taking maybe five seconds to unlock the door, though the
rapid scraping from the lock and jerking of her wrist making it look
like anything but a woman using a key even as the door opened. The
woman stepping in without asking, me in short order as we stepped
into a near identical living room and-
It would be easy to kill her, a deep bite on the neck to cut the
vocal chords and no one would be any the wiser. I just needed to-
“Stop looking at me.”
Her words cutting through me like a knife, my eye immediately torn
from a body half-hidden in her cloak to focus on the barely furnished
room. Identical to layout to the apartment we were staying in,
nothing about it felt like it was even halfway lived in. A wooden
dining room table with chairs, nowhere else to rest or enjoy
yourself, half dry rot ridden cardboard boxes stacked along the
walls.
Red immediately moving in my peripheral vision to start dragging a
pair of chairs out, I walked to one box and threw it open to keep my
mind distracted. Any seal the box might have once had sliding open
without even a pop as I looked into a container filled with Vinyl
records wrapped in plastic. Curiosity driving me to pull at least one
out, the bag totally sealed with the cardboard slip inside signed in
a series of pen colors.
Red at least answering my question there as she told me, “business
of the immortal. The Lady got screwed pretty bad a couple decades
back, but stuff like this is why she can recover and keep growing.”
“Signed records?” I asked, gently sliding the square back and
closing the box back as best I could.
“Records, books, weapons, cards, bottles and jars; hell pretty sure
she has more than a few gold bars and lead lined boxes of uranium
downstairs,” Red laughed, two chairs set up in the middle of the
room with their back to each other, the woman gesturing me to sit
down in one. Not needing to be told twice as I moved over and she sat
with her own back to me, “Get every small time band on the east
coast to sign their records, buy a first edition of every book, get
one of every toy or game that looks like it’ll hold up in its
package, whatever you can afford and have confidence in. You can lose
a lot of money doing it, but you combine it with a lot of steady
investments and you only need one
to appreciate in a hundred years. Hell,
I still keep a couple things here and there just in case, and
I have the sort of job that doesn’t dry up.
I ever run low on money no one’s going to care about most of what I
have tucked away anymore,
but an antique rifle or some pieces of jewelry I
bought in the 1800s? Could
get myself out of a hole in an emergency.”
I let out a small noise of understanding, looking around the boxes
here and imagining how many more there must have been across the
different apartments just on this floor. The idea almost sounding
insane even as I told her, “I kinda just assumed she got all the
money from seeming to own one of everything. I mean, seems like she
buys places everywhere.”
Red laughed at that, a sweet laugh that made the wolf stand on edge
before I forced it back down and said, “The Lady was never
the money person for these sorts of things. She’s good at what she
does, don’t get me wrong, but her strength’s in influence.
She’s powerful because she knows how to get people what they need:
new identities, new jobs, dinner with the right people, bodies buried
and goods smuggled in or out. She’s richer than you’ll ever be,
and probably richer than I’ll get short of becoming a… well, a
warlord like her for a lack of a better word, but she’s not
wealthy. She’s never going to casually buy a yacht or throw away
millions buying corporations or social media platforms, but she can
help people start businesses, pay people enough they’ll do some
illegal work, um…”
“Run a candidate in a state election,” I finished for her, and
Red laughed at that one too.
“Fuck she really trying that? Woman’s asking for herself to get
killed there the wrong person finds out,” she muttered in almost
disbelief, “yeah, well, you’re pretty much getting it. The Lady’s
always been better at running people against each other or getting
them what they want. You give someone something no one else would, or
help them get their dream rolling, they’ll help you later on and
keep paying you a portion of what they get. Having to launder
hundreds of millions a year doesn’t mean much when most of that is
going into paying salaries and bribes and what’s left is getting
bet on new contacts or buying women to keep her from getting bored.”
She broke down laughing again, and only after several seconds told
me, “how I knew she didn’t hire these mercenaries, you ask me. A
few? Within her wheelhouse, but the prices getting put out and the
amount they’re posting? The Lady would have had to liquidate a good
portion her investments, and it’d be cheaper for her to just have
people who owe her do it over the course of a decade. A vampire
wouldn’t risk that much of her safety net, and wouldn’t be this
dedicated to doing it quickly.”
I nodded, letting the words set in even as I thought over all the
other things I’d come up with. Only as I sure she was getting
impatient asking, “what did you find out?”
Red sighed, her tone turning almost business as she explained, “well,
I took a trip to the hardware and pet stores, didn’t get around to
finish telling her what I named the rats before the girl was telling
me everything I wanted to know. You know The Lady’s little dinner
party she’s hosting tomorrow?”
“Hadn’t heard much, but knew it was happening,” I admitted with
a shrug.
“Well, whoever put out the contracts revoked a good portion of them
— paid a good amount of fees for it from what I heard — and put
out a final big one,” Red explained, and I heard her unfolding a
piece of paper as she explained, “I only took on your contract and
this new one’s not my wheelhouse, I don’t do big shows so I
didn’t get the job offer, but they’re calling for an attack on
the dinner party. Not a great price for it, but they included the
layout of the building and those sort of gigs never pay well. You do
this sort of thing because it’s relatively easy and fun for you.”
I frowned, a flash of white beside me and I took the massive paper,
looking over a diagram of several floors and marked points even as I
asked, “aren’t these supposed to be blue?”
“Stay focused,” Red muttered, maybe a little annoyed even as she
continued, “well, jobs like these usually call for bombs. You got
experience with that, right? Last name’s Jameson, I know what that
family’s about these days.”
I raised a brow, realizing precisely how many pipes and support beams
had their points laid out as I told her, “our bombs focused on
killing things, not demolition. Filling a room with as much shrapnel
as possible is a different skill set then bringing a place down,
especially one fill with supernaturals.”
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“Other reason I wouldn’t have taken this job in a hundred years,
it’s not likely to do a good job of it,” Red admitted with a low
chuckle, and I wanted to spin around and grab her even as she
continued, “you ask me, make sure no hunter you care about’s
there and just sit on this information, I won’t judge. I’m not
exactly jumping to help very many people here, long as you stay
alive.”
I couldn’t help but nod, my mouth going dry at the thought,
wondering if something like this would have actually killed The Lady.
The brief thought of her dying there, not able to threaten me again,
bringing a small smile to me even as I kept thinking about what that
meant about me.
What did it mean if I wanted that? What if Vergil or Elizabeth
fucking got hurt, did they not mean anything? And it was like Red
said, there would be humans there, normal people who probably barely
knew what The Lady was or were just trying to earn a living. Just
because one problem would get taken out didn’t mean their lives
didn’t mean anything, but at the same time…
My voice shook as I finally spoke, “Thanks for helping.”
“Don’t thank me, thank Misha,” Red said, and I could almost
hear the smile behind it, “I was about to jam you between the ribs
with a silver blade and leave you in a bathroom stall when he called,
maybe do it in the parking lot and keep walking while your friend
wondered why you dropped. Misha was the one who realized I was fully
going to take the job, though probably didn’t realize how fast
I’d get here and be set up, and decided to save your ass.”
“It still means something to me,” I admitted, and she didn’t
respond even as I continued, “my son’s visiting me, and well… I
wouldn’t have got to see him again if you’d killed me. It’d
been a while since I’d seen him, and I’m glad you didn’t kill
me for that at least.”
She didn’t answer that, the silence thick until she finally
announced, “I’ll stay here for the night, or at least until one
of The Lady’s men comes looking into me. If your contract gets
called off I’ll come tell you before I leave, meantime you should
go back to your party. You and your ghost girl look like you could
both do with a break.”
I froze at that, about to deny the fact even as Barbie stepped around
into my field of view and complained, “how do you know this many
people who can see me?”
Red the one to answer that as she chuckled, “trick I picked up back
in my early days, made it a lot harder for people to sneak up on me.
You weren’t trying to hide that hard were you though?”
Barbie crossed her arms, the girl leaning back against the nearby
table as she admitted, “I haven’t had to in a bit, seems like
Mary’s the only one who can see me most of the time. I’m still
not exactly sure what’s going on there, but a little afraid to tell
anyone about it — I just got back from the dead, or… well,
non-existent, don’t want to get sent back that fast.”
Red didn’t answer, and I couldn’t see her face to tell what she
was thinking, and I tried saving the moment by asking, “so no hard
feelings for earlier?”
“You turned down ghostly car sex, not like you broke up with me,”
Barbie admitted with a shrug, walking a slow circle around us even as
she continued, “nice to meet you though, name’s Barbie, don’t
think we’ve met.”
“Not sure we have,” Red admitted, and I saw them shake hands in
the corner of my vision, “Misha know you’re screwing a ghost?”
“We haven’t fucked,” I countered her, after a moment adding on,
“since she became a ghost,” and then correcting myself once more,
“this time.”
“I’m not getting paid to help you, let alone paid to be your
therapist,” Red cut that point short, nodding to Barbie from the
corner of my eye, “not my type but I respect the choice. You fuck
The Lady too?”
“She beat the shit out of me and threatened my son,” I countered,
quickly adding on, “and what the fuck does that have to do with
anything?”
“Eh, same reason I like guys with beards,” Red admitted like that
explained anything, almost purring as she asked, “come on, I’m
curious, and I don’t get to gossip often. I figured she grabbed
every pretty girl who worked for her.”
I shook my head, holding in my main reaction before telling her,
“look, Barbie makes me feel good about myself, can we focus on
important shit.”
“You know how much I get to meet new people?”
“Fine, you fucking Misha?”
Red actually made a disgusted noise at that and Barbie cackled as the
urban legend answered, “too young for me, and I’m not his type; I
look like I have red hair?”
I frowned, a few strands of my auburn hair finding themselves twirled
in my fingers, “he had a thing for red heads?”
“Oh my fucking God,” Red cackled, a flare of rage bursting
through me as I briefly dreamed of slamming an arm against her throat
before pushing the urge back, “yeah, that explains why he wanted me
saving you. You two long distance, or Aqua’s Greatest Hit here just
not know about it? Shouldn’t be surprised, you look-”
“We’re not a thing,” I muttered, turning halfway to look at her
and seeing a hand raised long enough to tell her, “never happened,
never going to happen, we’re happy as friends. Why do people
jumping to that? Him and Percy, I can have friends.”
Red made a small noise, almost sounding a little too proud as she
admitted, “Misha wasn’t bad at flirting when he wanted to, I gave
him some advice here and there. Come on never considered it?”
Barbie thankfully saved me, letting out a small hum as she admitted,
“think Mary has a thing for blondes. She spends enough time with
them.”
“Name three.”
“Mary you have like three in the apartment right now, and one
here,” Barbie countered, and I was about to argue before she told
Red, “she’s not the best at girl talk, I’m sorry about her.”
Any attempt I could have made to defend myself cut off by Red
admitting, “I’ve dealt with purists before, I’ve seen worse
attempts at small talk.”
“I’m right here.”
“You should go back to your party,” Red told me, and I didn’t
need to be told twice as I rose to my feet and started out. Only a
few steps towards the door when she added on, “not you.”
I turned back to look at Red, or at least cast my eye in her general
direction. Not sure what to say until I hesitantly asked her, “me?”
“Blondie here,” Red admitted, the confidence in her smile
triggering something in the wolf I barely held back, “you’re
apparently not telling your friends about her, let me indulge some
curiosity. You think I want to sit around watching episodes of
Leverage alone on my phone all night?”
I felt a pang of emotion at the thought of leaving Barbie alone, an
urge to drag her out of the room then and there. The wolf ready to
growl before Barbie told me, “I’ll either be walking around empty
halls or just sitting there silently the whole party, might as well.”
My mouth opened and closed a few times, looking for words I couldn’t
find, and eventually I nodded. Not saying anything as I turned on my
heels and stepped back into the hall, closing the door behind me and
starting back towards the apartment we stayed. The sound of the lock
closing behind me ringing in my ears until I stopped with my hand on
the door knob.
Fuck.
I was jealous.
I had to laugh at the though, shaking my head as I pushed through the
door and there was a call of excitement as I walked in from at least
a few people. Even Anna looking in better spirits, if just slightly,
as I told them, “nothing I can do right now, need to think about
some things first. I miss anything?”
“Anna punched Percy,” Sigyn answered, and I was about to ask if
she was joking when the man turned to me. His left eye slightly
swollen, a black ring around it as she added on, “he doubled down
on the fact he forgot you and her knew each other, because he forgot
you were trans. Which… okay, Anna, you shouldn’t just announce
that, it’s rude.”
Tara surprisingly defending the hunter, shrugging as she admitted, “I
think everyone knew, she has a trans flag in her room.”
Basil looking down at the ground, eyes closed as he admitted, “I
kinda just thought she was an ally, I never thought that hard about
it.”
I shook my head, not sure what I was supposed to say about that until
I finally decided to defend Percy, “I mean, I have a son, it’s
easy to forget like… well, you know.”
The groan of frustration Anna made worth it, and extracting a small
laugh from the room as I joined them while I could.
I had a decision to make, but at least I could think about it for a
little bit first.