she said.
The fire inside me flared and my smile sharpened. “I can honestly say I’ve never experienced anything like it,” I said.
“It was…inspiring,” said Adan.
La Calavera threw back her head and laughed. “It does have that effect, doesn’t it? I suspect the mortals will sleep uneasily tonight and they’ll suffer worse than nightmares if some of our players manage to break through to the other side.”
“When will you hold the next one?” I asked. “And is it always the same six dogs?” I tried to sound more eager than curious.
“Three nights hence,” said La Calavera. “And no, my kennels have become quite substantial. We have about a hundred beasts in all. The training is quite arduous, you understand, and attrition is high once the beasts are ready to campaign. Still, our stock should be sufficient for quite some time. And, after that, we shall simply have to think of something else.”
“Kennels for a hundred dogs? I didn’t see anything like that around here.”
“Not here, no, but rather close. The kennels are at my estate. You must come and visit sometime, it’s quite spectacular. It was Jayne Mansfield’s home in Beverly Hills.”
The Pink Palace had been torn down years ago in my world, but the Mocambo club was proof enough that didn’t mean much in the Between. I knew exactly where it would be. “I’d love to visit,” I said, “very soon.”
“Splendid! There’s no need for formalities-drop by anytime.”
“It’s a promise.”
“I’ll bid you good night, then,” she said, and kissed me on both cheeks. I was sure I felt the scrape of bone against my skin. She walked us to the door of the pit room, where two ghosts met us and escorted us from the empty club.
A Xolo’s howl filled the night as Adan and I walked across Sunset Boulevard into the mist. ten
“I’ve never wanted to kill anyone as bad as I want to kill her,” I said when we were back in my condo. “I mean, I’m willing to make it a cause. I’m ready to dedicate my life to doing that evil bitch.”
Adan went into the kitchen and came out taking a long pull from a bottle of tequila. He passed it to me and then looked at his hand. It was shaking. “I want in,” he said. “I was ready to give it a shot when she told us where the dogs were.”
“I’m glad I didn’t know what you were thinking. It would have been enough to push me over the edge. She had too much security and that fat, snaggletoothed creep Valafar was still hanging around. It’s better if we come up with a plan and make it count. We get the dogs out first, then we go back and make things personal with La Calavera.”
I called Lowell and Chavez and brought them up to speed. I told Chavez to brief Oberon, but to hold off with the other outfits. I was pretty sure La Calavera had informants on our side of the wall and I didn’t want anyone cluing her in that we weren’t going to be BFFs.
“What’s going on?” Honey said. She flew in from the Enchanted Forest with Jack at her side. “Did you find the dogs?”
I looked at Adan. We didn’t exchange any words, but I knew we’d never tell anyone about what we’d seen that night. What we’d done. “We found them, Honey. We’re going to need your help to get them out of there. You, too, Jack, if you’re up to it.”
“He’s up to it,” Honey said, and giggled. “He recovers fast.”
I smiled. “That’s good, Jack. You were the fucking man in that fight.”
He inclined his head. “A wee fighter takes a big beating,” he said. “You get used to it.”
We all shared a laugh at that. I brought shot glasses from the kitchen and Honey fetched weed from the balcony. We drank and smoked and talked about nothing in particular, and we forgot about the darkness outside our doors for a while. We made a racket and must have sounded like we were having a pretty good time, because some of Honey’s sisters even came out and joined us. I noticed Honey kept them well away from Jack. I didn’t blame her-you never want to share the good ones.
By the time we were finished we were all pretty well loaded. I was going to need Alka-Seltzer and a purification spell if I expected to kick any ass in the morning. The sisters had buzzed unsteadily back to the Enchanted Forest, and my friends and I sat quietly together on the sofa, lost in our private thoughts. “Let’s get some sleep,” I said finally. “We do this tomorrow. Honey, Jack, I can’t know all the battles you’ve fought. But for my part, this is going to be the most important thing I’ve ever done. It matters to me.”
Honey looked like she wanted to ask me something, but she just nodded. “Then it matters to us, Domino.” Jack touched his hand to his heart and nodded once. Then the piskies flew away and left me with Adan.
“I guess we’ve got the couch again,” I said. “Mrs. Dawson’s going to be camped out in my bedroom for a while.”
“I like your couch,” Adan said. He reached across the distance between us and brushed a lock of hair from my face. “Tomorrow will be a better day, Domino. Take hold of that and don’t let her into your dreams.” Then he smiled at me and stretched out on his end of the sofa, turning onto his side and tucking a throw pillow under his head.
I tried to do as he said. It didn’t work.
When I woke up the next morning, Honey and Jack had built a scale replica of the Pink Palace on the table in the dining nook. The Mediterranean villa sat on more than three acres of prime real estate in Beverly Hills. The house and the brick and stucco walls surrounding the estate had been painted a soft pink mixed with powdered sandstone. That had been Mansfield’s touch-she and her new husband had given it the nontraditional paint job when they bought the place in the late fifties. Long after it had been demolished in the real world, this seemed to be how the shadow world remembered it, and the Pink Palace it remained.
“You did some recon,” I said when Honey and Jack flitted into the room.
“Yeah,” said Honey, “we were bored. You and Adan were still sleeping, and we figured this would help us make a plan.”
“It’s great,” I said, circling the table and studying the model. “Nice work.”
“You should see the inside,” Honey said. “Her bathroom has wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling pink shag carpet!”
“Truly evil,” I said. “These are the kennels?” There was a kind of shantytown built of scrap wood and corrugated metal sheeting along the back wall of the estate.
“Yeah,” Honey said. “The place is a warren. They just kept adding on when the ghost-hunter brought in new dogs. There are at least a hundred of them there.”
“And you were able to get inside? No problems with wards or anything?”
“There are no wards,” Jack said. “The place doesn’t need wards. It’s evil. It hurts to be there, and not just because of all the pink.”
“We’ll need to do this fast, Domino,” Honey said. “We’ll be weak there. If we stay too long, it would probably kill us.”
“Let’s do it. Where’s Adan?”
“He went home to change clothes,” Honey said. “And anyway, we can’t go during the day.”
“Why not?”
“Vampires,” Jack said. “She uses them as security. We saw two of them on the grounds and one in the house. There are worse things there, too-La Calavera and her ilk. At night, the vampires will be gone and most of the spirits will be at the club.” Vampires were active in the real world at night and in the Between during the day. They were tougher in the shadow world and it would be best to avoid them if we could.
“So we’ll only have to deal with ghosts,” I said, nodding. “Okay, I guess it can wait a few more hours.”
The front door opened and Adan walked in wearing black military fatigues with a sword belted at his waist. “Did you run off and join a SWAT team while I was sleeping?” I asked.
He shrugged. “It’s practical. It would be easier if I could cross over like you, but I have to do it the sidhe way. Did they tell you about the vampires?” he said, nodding at the Pink Palace.
“Yeah, so we’re going tonight. There’s no dogfight, so all the Xolos should still be in the kennels.”
Adan nodded. “How do we get the dogs out?”
“I haven’t really thought about it. According to Caesar, the Xolos can cross to the Between and back at will. I
