visible behind stainless steel counters stacked high with pots and pans and bins piled high with fresh-cut veggies. They shouted at us in their mother tongue, but we were gone as quickly as we'd come, banging open the heavy metal door that led to the alley behind the place. It slammed shut behind us, and I leaned against it while I got my bearings.
But for a mangy cat asleep atop a dumpster, the alley was empty. The way my heart was pounding, I guess I was surprised. I half-expected the place to be crawling with demons, eager to tear us limb from limb. Guess the damned aren't much for optimism.
I slid the Glock from my waistband and popped out the clip. Empty. I pulled back the slide and checked the chamber, a wave of relief washing over me as I realized there was one round left. We weren't gonna have the option of shooting our way out, if it ever came to that, but at least I could stack the odds a bit, make that one shot count. I dredged the powdered remains of the catshard from my pocket and funneled them as best I could into the barrel of the gun. I had no idea if the damn thing would fire, full of dust like that, much less whether these last sad scraps of cat-shard still had enough juju left to kill a demon, but faint hope was better than no hope at all. I tore a scrap of fabric from my shirt and stuffed it into the barrel to keep the powder in, and then I tucked the gun back into my jeans.
Kate, who had watched the process without a word, gave a slight nod, and then spoke. 'All right, now where to?'
'Got me, kid. Seems to me, these are more your stomping grounds than mine. You got any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear 'em.'
'Well, there's one place I can think of,' she said.
'Yeah? Where?'
'Home.'
30.
'You sure you're ready to do this?'
Kate stood looking upward at the building across the street, her hands worrying at the hem of her shirt. 'Yeah,' she said, the faintest quaver casting doubt on her assertion. 'Yeah, I'm sure.'
I remember now, having peered into her eyes for any evidence of doubt, and finding none. Of course, now I know it wasn't her I should've worried about. Turns out, I'm the one who wasn't ready.
We stood hand in hand at the crosswalk, waiting for the signal to change, and when it did, we set out across Park Avenue. Kate's building was a stunning pre-war co-op, draped in an elegant limestone facade. Arched transoms framed windows near as tall as I was, and each floor was delineated by an elaborate garland-andwreath cornice. A limestone balustrade sat atop the building like a crown.
As we approached the massive Gothic arch that denoted the main entrance of the building, Kate stopped short, casting glances to either side.
'Something's not right here,' she said.
That seemed, to me, an understatement – standing on this block, by this building, covered as I was in blood and filth, I felt like a kid out of class without a hall pass. But I'm guessing that wasn't the something she was talking about. 'All right, I'll bite – what's wrong?'
'No Murray.'
'No Murray?'
'Murray's our doorman.'
'Your doorman,' I echoed.
'Yes.'
'And he's not here.'
'Yes.'
'If he were here, you think he'd be inclined to let us in?'
'Of course not. There's a service entrance around back, leads downstairs to the boiler room. It gets hot down there, so most days, the super leaves the door propped open. That's how I figured we'd get in.'
'I'm still not seeing the problem here. The doorman pops out to grab a bite, and instead of slinking around in the hot basement, we get to walk in through the front door. Seems win-win to me.'
'Sure, except Murray never leaves his post.'
'Maybe somebody upstairs needed something? Some luggage carried or whatever?'
She shook her head. 'They've all got staff for that.'
'What about the bathroom?'
'The man's a freaking camel.'
'So no Murray is bad.'
'Yeah,' Kate said, 'no Murray is bad.'
'Then we run,' I said. 'Find somewhere else to go to ground while we come up with a plan.'
'I'm tired of running, Sam. Tired of hiding. Besides, what's the use? If they're waiting in there for us, they knew that we would come here before we did. If that's true, then where the hell are we gonna go?'
'So what, then – we just waltz in there and surrender?'
'No. We go in there and face them.'
'Kate, that's suicide.'
'Is it? Sam, I just saw you throw yourself at the mercy of a
