“You set me up,” he said.
“You know the story,” I said. “‘I’m a snake, what did you expect me to do?’”
“It was a good scam, a good fight,” he said. “I put some of your Cambodian buddies in the hospital.”
“I’m only chummy with one of them. You never drew your guns with them, did you?”
“No,” he said, and I heard the pride in his voice. “Tempted, but no. Some of them may not heal up as good as they were. That bother you any?”
“Serves them right for trusting me,” I said, searching my body for bandages, still-healing wounds. I appeared to be whole.
“True,” Vigil said.
“Where am I?”
“The Hard Limit. Dragon insisted we bring you here.”
“When did you pick up my trail?”
“At that club. You put on a hell of a show, by the way, real low-key. The Carnifex had already made you, so I hung back and tailed him loose. So he followed your unobservant ass, and I very carefully followed his. Lost you two a few times, but I caught up.”
“How long was I out?” I asked as I rubbed my face and discovered an unkempt beard there.
“Two weeks,” he said. “They were pretty sure you were going to die. That death spell you did at the end, it did some serious damage inside of you, especially spiritually.”
“Yeah,” I said. I looked at Vigil, started to say something but held my tongue.
“Don’t get all teary,” Vigil said. “You’re the job, that’s why. You gave me the slip. If I let you get dead as well, I’ve failed my house.”
“Understandable,” I said. “You got hit. You okay?”
“Do us both a favor, and don’t act like you give a shit,” he said. “After a few days of you not getting better, I called in the best street doc Ankou’s money could buy. He took care of me, but you were still too far gone. Those rune bullets are a bitch if they have your number on them.”
“Even if they don’t,” I said. “I feel weird, like I should have drains and tubes running out of me. I feel strangely okay.”
“Dragon,” Vigil said. “When you didn’t get better after the doc, she called in some of her Nightwise contacts.”
“Shit,” I said. “The last fucking thing in the world I need are those jag-offs getting up in my business.” Vigil paused and looked at me; he rested his steepled fingers against his slightly smiling lips, and finally he shook his head.
“Yeah, I know how much it sucks to have all these people fighting to save your life,” he said. “Pain in the ass, man. Well, you’ll be happy to know the panaceas they tried didn’t take too well. You had too much spiritual damage for the healing magics to do you much good. As shocking as this might seem, they said inside you are pretty much a big empty.
“Anyway, Dragon sent everyone out, and she did … something, and you screamed. Never heard a man scream like that. We heard you all the way down the hall, but you started to get better after whatever she did.”
My mind was clear, clearer than it should be, and while I did have bullet scars, they were fully healed. I began to tumble in my mind what I thought Dragon had done to me, and it made no fucking sense at all.
“I can tell you’re gushing with appreciation,” Vigil said. He held up the USB drive Demir had given me just before the Carnifex showed up. “I had this looked over while you were getting your beauty sleep, and none of Ankou’s people could break the encryption. Even the best Emerald Tablet Hermetic Hackers in the Life came back with nothing. Perhaps your friend Grinner could take a crack at it.”
I sat up in the bed. “Excuse me? You and your creepy-ass boss stay the fuck away from him, or I will burn what little bit of a soul I got left dropping both of you! He’s no friend of mine. He’s business, and he’s a fucking asshole! Leave him out of this!”
Vigil cocked his head, like he heard a noise I couldn’t hear or had suddenly seen something that confused him. He raised a palm and shook his head. “He’s here. We didn’t reach out to him. He came about a week ago on his own. He refused to look at the drive until he talked to you. He said he was under contract. He was very insistent on that point.” I tried not to laugh.
“I kind of keep him on retainer. He’s the best … but he is an asshole.”
“You two must get along famously. He must be something to get that initial reaction out of you,” Vigil said. “For a second there, I thought you actually gave a damn about someone other than yourself.”
* * *
I was sitting on the edge of the bed when Dragon came to visit. She was dressed in an old flannel shirt and bell-bottom jeans. She wore no shoes, and she smelled of wood smoke and wildflowers. She sat down in a chair and folded her long legs up into the chair, close to her knees, and sat kind of sideways.
“You look like you’re feeling better,” she said, smiling, but I could tell it was her false smile. When she really smiled, she was like a happy kid, unaware and uncaring of how she came off. This was a practiced, polite smile. I liked it best when she smiled with her eyes, when genuine joy overcame her, surprised her. “The Maven wishes to see you. She said to come by her office when you were up and about.”
“Swell,” I said. “Did Her Majesty happen to say what about?”
“I’d hazard a guess that it’s the same reason she usually calls you in.”
“Hmm, well, that’s changed with time,” I said. “First, she thought I was her best cop, then she wanted to fuck me
