love with someone who has better tattoos.”
I go around, give the driver some money, and tell him to take her home. Before he can get in the cab, I take out the .460 and pop a few rounds over the crowd’s head. The cut-down shotgun shells I’d loaded it with aren’t filled with pellets, but with one of Vidocq’s memory powders. It will scrub away the last hour from everyone’s brain. I might have a bad temper and be dating someone who eats people, but I’m not stupid enough to leave witnesses.
Someone’s dropped a coat on the ground. I pick it up, take Candy by the arm, and walk her around the corner. When we’re out of sight of the club, I use the coat to wipe Cale’s blood from her face and hands.
I say, “Thanks for saving me back there.”
Her eyes are a little vacant.
“Wow. I haven’t done that to a person for a long fan for a time.”
“How are you feeling?”
“A little spacey, but okay. Are you okay? We should get you to see Allegra to get the bullet out.”
“I’m fine. It barely grazed me and I’ve already stopped bleeding.”
She leans against the wall, a little out of breath.
“He shot you. I wouldn’t have done what I did if he hadn’t shot you.”
“I know.”
She stares at me, her eyes still a little unfocused, but she’s coming back to earth.
“Did I go too far?”
I shrug.
“Technically he did shoot me. And he did kill his friend, so we can assume he would have kept shooting until he killed me or I got him. So, yeah, you saved me, and from my point of view that’s a good thing.” I pause. “Next time, though, maybe you can just snack on the bad guys a little until we see just how much fight they have in them. We probably don’t need to kill all of them.”
“Don’t kill everyone. Got it. You sure you’re okay?”
“The arm’s fine. The coat took most of the damage. It was brand-new. Now it’s like all my damn clothes. Shot up and bled on.”
She cups my face in her hands and kisses me hard. I kiss her back.
“What happens now?” Candy says.
“We go see Hunahpu. I know where the address is. We can leave the bike.”
“How are we going to get there?”
I pull her away from the wall.
“Have you ever walked through a shadow?” I ask.
“Uh, no.”
“Want to?”
“Sure.”
“Don’t let go of my hand.”
I step into the ripe black darkness in the recess by a loading-bay door, pulling Candy with me into the Room of Thirteen Doors.
I take her out again near the address the kid gignss the ave me. It’s on Fairfax a little north of Beverly Boulevard.
As we step from the shadow, Candy says, “Holy fucking goddamn fuck, that’s cool. What was that room we went through?”
“It’s called the Room of Thirteen Doors. I can go anywhere in the universe through those doors, even to Heaven and Hell.”
“Why did we drive to the club? If I had something that cool, I’d be running in and out of it all day and night just to mess with people.”
I believe her. I’m glad I have the key and she doesn’t.
“It feels weird using it in the city when I’m going somewhere the first time. Like the club tonight. I didn’t know where it was or what was going to be there when we arrived. I like to drive because I like to get a look at a place the first time I go there.”
“Why don’t you just get your own car?”
“Are you kidding? People steal them.”
UP THE STREET is a white two-story office building plastered together to look vaguely colonial. It’s as bland and forgetful as any real-estate office.
The first floor is dark, but there are lights behind the windows on the second. It’s almost three and there’s barely any traffic in either direction. Candy and I walk across the street to the glass-and-aluminum front doors. BIO-SPECIALTIES GROUP is painted on the door in a reassuringly scientific-looking serif font.
In theory, I could step into a shadow here and come out on the second floor near the lights, but I don’t want to do that. Drug cookers tend to be on the jumpy side and I’ve already been shot at once tonight. I take Candy around
