City of Ghosts - Stacia Kane 4 стр.

Abrams, she said. Any relation to the Grand Elder?

Lauren gave a light, soft laugh. Hes my father.

If Chess hadnt already been sitting down she might have stumbled. No fucking way. They were sending her on a casethere had to be a case here, either that or they were busting her, and she somehow suspected that if thats what was going on they would have done it alreadywith the fucking Grand Elders daughter?

Oh, she said finally, since everyone was looking at her as if they expected her to respond. Okay.

Lauren sat down in Danas empty chair, crossed her legs with a whisper of nylon. I bet youre wondering whats going on.

Chess shrugged.

We have  an offer for you. An investigation we think you could really help us with. Interested?

What is it?

Lauren opened her mouth, but before she could speak Elder Thompson cleared his throat and leaned forward, his heavy brows drawn together in a solid line. His eyebrows fascinated Chess; they seemed to grow wilder and thicker every time she saw him, while the hair on his head grew lighter and thinner, like some sort of migration process. Someday she imagined the brows would simply fall over his eyes in a wiry curtain.

Lauren glanced at him, nodded, glanced back at Chess. Its a very  sensitive case.

All my cases are sensitive. What the hell was this? Why were they looking at her like they expected her to explode? I dont gossip, if thats what youre implying.

Oh, no, no, thats not it. Its justIm not explaining this very well. Lauren looked helplessly at Elder Griffin, biting her lipstick-coated lower lip.

Great. One of those women: tough and authoritative when it suited her, acting like a simpering poor-me baby when it didnt. So they wanted to bring her in on a case with the Grand Elders pampered little daughter, who would expect Chess to do all the work while she batted her eyelashes and took all the credit? Ugh. No, thank you.

But then  how much money was in it? She fully expected shed have to start paying for her own supplies again, once the bag she had ran out and she had to tell Lex she wasnt going to sleep with him anymore. So it wasnt like extra money wouldnt come in handy. The payout on her last case would have been huge, but shed been forced to give it up to save her own skin, so  she was broke. As usual.

Cesaria, the problem isnt that we do not trust you, Elder Griffin said. Its that the sensitivity of this case, the subject of it, makes explaining a little difficult.

Elder Thompson folded his arms. We cant tell you what its about. Not until you agree to take it.

What? I dont

And it will require a Binding Oath.

Her mouth fell open. A Binding Oath? They had to be kidding. No. No way. They wanted her to take a case so serious it required an oath of secrecya form of magical control over her actionsand they werent even going to tell her what it was about first? Not even a hint?

Lex would surely front her. If he was going to stop giving her what she needed for free, she knew he would at least front her until she got a real case, one where shed get a bonus. It wouldnt be long, it never

The case comes with a bonus before you begin, simply for agreeing and accepting the Bind, Elder Griffin said. Thirty thousand dollars. You will be given a thousand dollars a week on top of your salary for the duration of the casewe anticipate a resolution within two weeks, howeverand an additional fifty thousand when it ends.

Her protest died in her throat. Eighty-two thousand dollars. Eighty thousand dollars minimum. That was a fuck of a lot of money.

That would buy her a fuck of a lot of oblivion. And the way things were going these days, oblivion was even more important than usual.

And she still needed a new car.

I assume, she said, pushing the words out through a throat gone gummy, that its a dangerous case?

Lauren Abrams rearranged her legs with another nylon hiss; Elder Thompson and Elder Griffin both watched her like they thought she might get up and run screaming from the room. None of them replied.

Shed just watched two people die. Her hand throbbed where shed sliced it. Her thigh ached. She wanted a cigarette, and she wanted her pills. And she wanted eighty thousand dollars.

No matter what the case was.

Ill do it, she said, and hoped it would be worth it. 

Chapter Three

Elder Griffin stood up. Light from the candles on the floor spilled across his face, cast jutting shadows over one eye. For a moment he looked alien, almost scary; then he turned farther to his left and was himself again.

Chesss heart pounded in her chest. Its just a bit of magic, she told herself. Just an oath, no different from the ones shed taken when she started her training, certainly no different from the ones shed taken when she completed that training and became a full Church employee at the age of twenty-one.

It didnt work, though. This was different, and she knew it. And she didnt like it. Nor did she like the energy rising in the room, sly and intrusive, or the peculiar smile on Lauren Abramss face as she watched the Elders set up the altar.

Chess stood in the center of the room with her hands clasped behind her. Dried blood had settled into the fabric of her plain ceremonial dress, making her stomach protest a little when she thought about it. She didnt worry about the executioner and Elder Murray; what few blood- or fluid-borne diseases had survived the Churchs strict quarantine and eradication policies, Church employees had been vaccinated against.

Chess stood in the center of the room with her hands clasped behind her. Dried blood had settled into the fabric of her plain ceremonial dress, making her stomach protest a little when she thought about it. She didnt worry about the executioner and Elder Murray; what few blood- or fluid-borne diseases had survived the Churchs strict quarantine and eradication policies, Church employees had been vaccinated against.

But Madame Lupita  disease aside, who the hell knew what sort of bacterial stew had simmered in her plaque-clotted veins? Realistically, Chess knew the risk was gone now that the blood had dried, but that didnt stop her from wanting to get the damned dress off as fast as she possibly could.

But of course she didnt have much choice. And the sooner she took the damned Oath, the sooner shed get a nice fat check. She could slip it in the night deposit on her way home.

Movement to her left brought her back into the room, back into the ceremony. The Elders had started laying out a salt line, murmuring words of power as they moved solemnly clockwise. Lauren stood against the wall, outside the circle, watching them with her arms folded and her ankles crossed. Irritation prickled Chesss skin.

It wasnt that it was so unusual for her to dislike people right off the bat. That was pretty much the way she felt about everyone. But she wasnt usually forced to work with people she disliked right off the bat. She felt  intruded upon.

But then, nobody was forcing her to take the case. No, not forcing. Bribing. And she was taking the bribe, because she needed the money.

Behind the Elders the salt line erupted into shining deep purple, hissing faintly as it rose in thick lines and cast colored light across everything. Their white stockings glowed, their faces glowed; Elder Griffins pale hair surrounded his head in a corona of blazing violet that made Chesss eyes sting.

Not just her eyes, either. The energy buzzed and twirled around her, battered her skin. She was caught in it, a vortex of power swirling around her, catching her in it and twisting her inside out. She didnt know where to look, what to focus on; she couldnt bear to close her eyes.

So she looked down, focused on the dusty, blood-specked toes of her once-shiny black heels. It wasnt a good compromise. Her head swam; her feet looked vertiginously far away. But it was better than watching the Elders movesetting up their bowls and setting fire to their herbsinside the sparkling, viciously bright dome.

The only good thing was that Lauren Abrams could no longer see her. The circle would block her view. It was some relief.

Smoke filled the circle, thick, choking smoke the same purple as the circle, the same color as the fire burning in a large firedish opposite her. She didnt want to breathe it in. Breathing it in was part of the Oath, part of the Binding. Even she didnt know what some of those herbs were, but when they entered her lungs they would enter her bloodstream, locking every cell of her body into the magical oath she was about to take.

Powerful binding herbs, too. The calamus herbs, vetiver, and sweet flag, combined with the deep, throbbing energy of licorice root. She could feel them spreading through her, finding every empty place, drawing her own magic and mixing with it. She was naked, open to them; they swept through her without caring, without feeling, winding from her feet to her head and forcing her to bend to their power.

This wasnt like the oaths shed taken when she was initiated, not like the ones when she began her training. This was  this was heavy, dark magic, trapping her, squeezing her with so much pressure that she thought she might implode. Like nothing shed ever experienced before. This wasnt right, it couldnt be right 

Dimly she heard the Elders speaking, saw vague movement as they added more herbs to the glowing purple fire in the north end of the circle. Myrrh and cedar, bergamot and dragons blood. Her vision blurred. Shapes formed in the smoke, open mouths, staring eyes. Someone moaned. She wasnt sure if it was her.

Elder Thompson started chanting, low and slow, his voice thick with smoke and power and the spine-tingling thrust of command. She moved without intending to, bound by him. Bound by his commands. Somewhere deep down she fought against it.

She didnt want to do this anymore. Shed changed her mind. Her heart slammed around in her chest like a pinball caught between the paddles, trying frantically to escape. Her mind fought against the Elder, against what he wanted her to do, but she was caught. Trapped. Her hands rose at his words, turned so her pale wrists, veins blue-purple beneath the thin skin, faced the top of the dome.