'Smoke out the innocents downstairs, then meet you upstairs. I think that's his most likely location. Remember, they believe you're dead. Use it to your advantage.'
'I always do.' He pulled up to the curb; I got out and waved him off. He'd park in the alley and make his way to the club's upper story from there. I unbuttoned my jacket, walked to the line in front of the club, wiggled my butt right up to the new bouncer and gave him a smile so sweet, if they put me on t.v. I could've sold chocolate covered cherries to an audience of diabetics.
'Do you know what I smell?' I asked the bouncer.
'Nope.' He looked interested though.
'I smell freshly turned vamp.' I reached into the special pocket reserved for Grief and it came to my hand smooth and deadly as a cobra strike. A flick of the magic button, and two seconds later all that remained of the bouncer was a puff of smoke rising from a tiny rain of debris.
The girls at the front of the line screamed and shoved their way to the street. A few others went with them. Somebody yelled, 'Gun!' an understandable mistake considering the crappy lighting, and a mini-stampede ensued during which I let myself into Club Undead. It stood empty—dark and silent as a freshly dug grave.
'Vayl,' I whispered, 'nobody's here.'
'Not even a mouse?'
'Hardy har. Where are you?'
'Approaching the fire escape. But there is time, if you wish to abort this plan.'
'No, no, let's keep going. I'm taking the spiral staircase now.' I crept up each step, expecting to hear the thunderous roar of gunfire despite the fact that my newly amplified senses told me the second floor was empty as the first. The silence held. So did my nerves, but just barely. If some joker jumped out of the shadows and yelled Boo! I'd blow his head off without even thinking.
The cavernous room's only light emanated from the red and white exit sign stationed above a dark door on the back wall. I walked past the dance floor and a steady succession of tables dressed in white cloths. Each held a black vase with a black rose in it. Matching black candles flanked the roses, each held by expensive looking crystal.
I eyed the door. No telling what lay behind it, and any surprises promised to be nasty. I looked around, hoping to find another way up. What I saw suspended from the ceiling reminded me of a university theater. Lights tilted at every possible angle covered the entire expanse, except for the section taken up by the catwalk. It started at a glass-walled booth, perched nearly ten feet above my current position, and wandered across the ceiling in a pattern that allowed access to all the lights. A black metal ladder, nearly invisible against the darker black wall, allowed access from my level. I told Vayl what I'd found.
'I'm going to check it out,' I said. 'Maybe the booth has a back door.'
'Good idea. I am headed up to the third level now. Looks like the windows are boarded up, so you will have to be my eyes.'
'Okay.'
I climbed the ladder, which hugged the wall from floor to ceiling, intersecting the catwalk on its way. From there just a couple of steps took me to the door of the overlook. It was open.
I kept expecting a gang of goons to jump out from behind a curtain and start shooting. 'But nobody's here,' I whispered. 'What are they planning?' I stepped into the booth. To my left, a bank of unlit controls stretched from one edge of the window to the next. Two black chairs on rollers parked in front of it. The only other contents of the room were an empty trashcan and a full ashtray. There was, however, another door. I eased it open, expecting a sound, a click maybe, that would signal the closing of a trap. I need not have bothered. The trap Aidyn and Assan had set for me was too big for a click. A gong, maybe, but not a click.
This time my senses told me the room wasn't empty, was actually inhabited by someone feeling deep, repeated waves of misery, and once again they were right. I pulled a long-handled dental mirror out of the kit I'd packed at Bergman's, and slipped it through the crack I'd made in the door. I couldn't see any guards, not one. I did see Cole.
He sat in a chair in the middle of a room that reminded me strongly of Granny May's attic. Boxes, old trunks and abandoned chairs took up every bit of wall space. From the scuff marks in the dust, it looked like they'd been shoved to the sides to make room for the chair. And Cole.
He sat perfectly still, looking straight ahead, breathing through his mouth because his nose had been broken. The only way I managed to contain the fury I felt at seeing him hurt like that was to promise myself that I would damage Assan badly before I finally wiped him off the face of the earth.
After another look around the room, I decided Cole was its sole occupant.
'Jaz?' Vayl's voice in my ear held the slightest trace of worry.
'I'm here. So's Cole. But it looks like everybody else has taken a coffee break.'
'These boards are flimsy. I can break through them anytime you need me.'
'But you'd rather keep a low profile?'
'For now. We are only going to get one chance at this surprise. But be careful. This is weird stuff.'
'I'm getting good at weird,' I said grimly, nudging the door wider with my foot while I trained Grief on various sections of the room, both of us primed for attack. The only thing that happened was Cole turned his head and saw me.
He looked like a spring break boozer who's somehow survived a tumble off the balcony. Black and blue bruises covered his entire face, except for where it was red from dried blood. Blood-crusted gashes showed through his torn clothes. His hands, laying limp in his lap, were swollen, the knuckles scraped and cut. He could've gotten up at any time, nothing bound him to the chair, or even to the room, but he stayed put, looking at me with wordless regret.
