Circle of Enemies

“And her boyfriend, too, probably.” He looked at his watch. “Should have happened for him first. And the rest of them soon enough. But I’m sorry about that. Seriously. I know that drapes are painful, and I’m not looking to cause a lot of pain.”

I laughed at him. He shrugged and looked sheepish. I said: “They’re bringing more of their kind.”

Wally stabbed the stack of sausages with his fork, stuck them into his mouth, and swallowed them all without chewing. I wondered how his throat could squeeze them all down. “Good thing I brought you and your buddies down to take care of it, then.”

“I’m going to take care of you, too.”

The lumps on Wally’s face suddenly shifted position, as though something under his skin was moving around. His body hunched up, bulking around his neck and shoulders.

“Whoa,” he said. “Hold on, let me deal with something.” He closed his eyes and took deep breaths as though fighting the urge to puke. After a few seconds, he smiled again. “My passengers didn’t like that you said that. Don’t, okay? It’d be embarrassing to call you here under a white flag and break the truce myself.”

“Christ, Wally. You have predators inside you.”

“Oh, yeah, Ray. You’d be surprised by how many. I’m a different thing than you’re used to facing. Man, the whole world looks different to me now. Literally. Did you know that some outsiders don’t use light to see? Now I’m sharing that gift, too, and it’s wild.”

“You’re carrying predators for their abilities? Are you fucked in the head? What could be worth that?”

“Oh, well, they let me fly like Superman, and I can hork Chubby Hubby ice cream through my nostrils. Right? Dude. Come on. You expect me to just tell you? We’re not exactly pals—for now, anyway—so I’m not going to tell you everything I can, you know, do. That would be showing my hand.”

“Showing your … Have you looked in a mirror lately? You look like you’re dying right in front of me.”

“Looks bad, feels good; that’s what I say.”

“Christ. You’re so fucking stupid.”

“Hey now,” Wally said. He didn’t seem offended at all. “I have power, Ray. Not Ansel Zahn levels, but I don’t have to take the risks his type takes, either. All I had to do was put a protective spell on myself—a permanent one—and summon a couple something-somethings into myself. I keep them fed, and they share their little tricks with me.”

My hand twitched as I resisted the urge to grab my ghost knife and start cutting. It could destroy the mark that protected Wally from his predators—wherever it was—turning them loose on him.

Except that was absolutely forbidden. No one in the Twenty Palace Society was allowed to feed a predator, ever. When I killed Wally, I was going to have to do it some other way.

He kept talking, oblivious. “Ray, I’m sure you could find a way to kill me if you really tried, but it would not be easy. Then, if you survived, you’d have my little buddies to deal with. But you shouldn’t try. You want to know why?” He gestured toward his face and neck. “Because I’m making sacrifices to do some good here.”

“You’re trying to kill everybody.”

“Everybody dies anyway, Ray. I’ve seen it. If things keep going the way they are, what happened to Caramella will look like passing peacefully in your sleep. And you know what? Drapes and cousins and sapphire dogs—that shit is really painful and scary for people. But I’m not about that. Just because I plan to euthanize the world doesn’t mean I want to be a dick about it. My plan is supposed to make things easier. Make it, you know, quick and painless.”

“Don’t do me any favors,” I said.

“Too late. I already decided. Ray, do you want to know why the outsiders are so anxious to get here, to our world? Do you know why they’re desperate to escape the Deeps?”

“What outsiders are you talking about?”

Wally touched a lump on his face. “The society calls them predators, which is correct but doesn’t really describe everything they are, and calls their home the Empty Spaces, which is a pretty stupid name for a place that’s so full of weirdness. Ray, do you know why they want to get here so badly?”

I didn’t like being instructed by Wally, but no one else ever wanted to explain things to me. Certainly not Annalise. “Tell me.”

“Because there’s no death there. I’m serious. The Deeps are teeming with outsiders, but they can’t feed on each other because they can’t kill and eat each other, because nothing there can die. So they’re stuck out there, desperate and starving. You think what happened to your friend was bad? She probably had a couple days of pain before she died. Maybe less. The outsiders hurt for decades—centuries, maybe—waiting for a chance to feed again.”

“And you want to help them to a snack.”

He sagged and looked disappointed. “No, Ray. I’m trying to save everyone from …” He stopped and looked around the room. The woman with the book had left, and no one had taken her place. In fact, the diner was only half as full as it was when I entered.

Wally sighed again. “Never mind. I had to try, okay? I owed you that. I know the Twenty Palace Society has brainwashed you, but I still think of you as the guy who stood between me and Rocky Downing at the edge of the basketball court. I know you have your heart in the right place, you just need to get your head there, too. Keep your eyes open, Ray. That’s all I’m saying. You can’t trust those society people. And you may decide soon that you want to stand between me and the bullies again.”

Wally swallowed the remaining two eggs, again without peeling them. Then he folded his soggy bacon, speared it with his fork, and gulped it down, too.

“Don’t get up,” he said as he stood. “I’m serious. You’re a great guy, but the truce only lasts while we’re here.