the shapeshifters could change his mind.
From now on Amon would have to add a corollary to his rule about the Hunt: sometimes victory doesn’t go to the strongest or swiftest. Sometimes it goes to a desperate dead man with deep pockets.
NINETEEN
“So that’s the infamous House of Dark Delights,” Devona said, sounding less than impressed.
The Sprawl’s best-known brothel was located on the southeast end of Sybarite Street, and the Descension Day celebrating was a bit more subdued here, mostly because by this time a majority of partiers lay on the sidewalks, in the gutters, and in the alleys, unconscious or worse, robbed of whatever darkgems they’d had in their pockets, and more than likely missing several pints of bodily fluids and an organ or two. At least it was easier to get around in this neighborhood for those us who remained ambulatory-if you didn’t mind stepping over all the bodies, that is.
The House sat between a casino called, ominously enough, Bet Your Life, and a soul-modification parlor (slogan: When you’ve done everything to your body that you possibly can) called Spiritus Mutatio. The House of Dark Delights was a pleasant-looking three-story building painted white, with green shutters and matching shingles. There, the dark is all on the inside.
The facial lacerations Amon had given Devona were almost completely healed by now, after snacking on a couple blood-ices she’d purchased from a street vendor along the way.
“It doesn’t seem very well protected-especially for this part of town,” she said. “No fence surrounding the place, no bars on the windows…”
“You’re good with wardspells, right?” I said. “Try checking out its magical defenses.”
Devona closed her eyes and concentrated. A few seconds later her eyes snapped open, and she looked at me with an expression of shock. “The spells protecting the building are almost as strong and complex as those warding my father’s Collection!”
I smiled. “Bennie doesn’t like to take any chances.”
“Bennie?”
“The owner and operator,” I said. “I just use Bennie. It’s makes things easier.”
Devona gave me a puzzled look, and I told her she’d understand soon enough. As Devona had pointed out, there’s no fence around the House of Dark Delights, and we strolled up the front walk, onto the porch, and I knocked on the door. The first time I’d come here, no one had warned me to knock first. I made the mistake of reaching for the doorknob, and as soon as my undead flesh came in contact with the metal, I found myself blasted across the street and through the front window of Les Escargot, a gourmet restaurant run by giant snails. The food’s supposed to be great, but you wouldn’t believe how slow the service is.
The door opened, and an extremely large and muscular mixblood lyke was glaring down at us-one that I knew well. After all, I’d seen him, or at least his body, walking out of Skully’s only several hours ago.
“Lyra?” I said hopefully. I was thinking of how I’d traded the soul jar containing Honani’s spirit to Amon for our freedom. Had the Darklord used his powers to force out Lyra’s essence and return Honani to his rightful body?
The mixblood glared at us for a moment longer before dissolving into a fit of giggling. “Darn it! I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face!”
I started to sigh in relief, but Lyra scooped me up and gave me a vicious hug, squeezing the rest of the air out of my lungs. When she put me down, I half expected to collapse to the porch in a mass of dead flesh and shattered bone. But luckily my skeletal system had withstood Lyra’s affectionate embrace, if only just.
“What are you doing here, Matt? And who’s your friend? She’s cute!” Lyra turned to Devona and started to smile, but she frowned instead. “Hey, didn’t I see you at Skully’s when I walked out? I was kind of muzzyheaded from the transfer into this body, so maybe I’m wrong, but I could’ve sworn-”
“I was there,” Devona confirmed.
“After you left Skully’s, Devona asked me to help her out with a problem, Lyra. We’re here because I think Bennie might be able to help us.”
“Sure-come on in!” Lyra stepped aside so we could enter. When we were inside, Lyra closed to the door and even I, without any mystical training whatsoever, could sense a battery of defensive spells activating.
“So you decided to return to your old, uh, stomping grounds?” I asked Lyra.
Lyra grinned with Honani’s mixblood mouth, and though she displayed a truly intimidating array of teeth, she still somehow managed look cute.
“More than that, I’ve got a new job! Bennie made me a bouncer!” Lyra flexed her right arm, and her new mixblood muscles bulged impressively.
I couldn’t help laughing. “Perfect!”
“I know! Bennie’s the best, aren’t they? They also offered to get me an appointment with Dr. Moreau at the House of Pain to see if he might be able to give my new body a sex change, but I think I’m going to keep it as is for now. I always wanted to see how the other half lives, and I now I’ve got my chance!”
Devona looked at me. “They?”
“It’ll all make sense soon. Trust me.”
Lyra led us through the foyer and into the lounge which, as usual, was filled with customers waiting for appointments to begin, restocking on fluids between assignations, or bragging about their performance to their companions afterward. The lounge was decorated like a tasteful upscale neighborhood tavern back on Earth: black lacquer tables and chairs, a small kitchen which served appetizers and snacks, and-instead of flat-screen TV’s-giant Mind’s Eye devices were mounted on the walls, the orbs broadcasting news coverage of Descension Day activities throughout the city. But the heart of the lounge was undeniably the large circular bar in the middle of the room. The bartenders on duty could mix any type of drink you wanted, but every one of them was Arcane and their true specialty was potion-making. They could create any manner of aphrodisiac or performance-enhancing substance imaginable, and many that were beyond imagination, even in Nekropolis.
Every table in the lounge was taken by men and women representing all the races the city has to offer- Bennie doesn’t believe in discrimination when it comes to love, or the reasonable facsimile on the menu at the House of Dark Delights-and it looked like Devona and I were going to have to stand. But Lyra escorted us over to a table where two vampires I recognized were playing a holographic game of bloodshards.
The male looked up as we approached, his holo-eye implants switching over to normal vision, and he groaned when he got a good look at us, or more specifically, at me.
“Not you again! My sister and I just want to be left alone to play in peace!”
“And that’s all you’ve been doing for the last four hours” Lyra said. “This lounge is reserved for paying customers, Reshem. I let you slide because of the trouble Matt and I caused you at Skully’s earlier, but now I have to ask you to take your game elsewhere.”
The female vampire switched her implants over to regular vision then too, and the holographic game pieces vanished. “But this is the only place we’ve able to find where a fight hasn’t broken out within ten minutes of our arrival,” she protested. “We figured it would be safe to play here because the customers aren’t interested in fighting.”
Her brother grinned. “Because they have other activities on their mind.”
Lyra put her large clawed hands onto the table and went into her pissed-off mixblood routine, teeth bared, brow furrowed, growl rumbling deep in her throat.
The male vampire sighed. “All right, we’re going. Come, Halina, let’s try the restaurant across the street. We should be able to get in at least a dozen games before the server arrives to take our drink orders.”
The vampire siblings left, and Lyra gestured to the now empty table. “If you’d like to take a seat, I’ll go find Bennie and tell her you want to talk to her. I’ll have someone come over and get you something to drink while you wait.” Lyra gestured to one of the servers, gave us a last smile, and then turned to go.
We sat and watched Lyra make her way back to the foyer, everyone in her path stumbling over one another to get out of her way. Lyra acted as if she didn’t notice, but I knew she loved every minute of it.
“I think that girl has a bright future ahead of her in the nuisance-deterrent business,” Devona said.
