Circle of Enemies

As the door swung open, I threw the water into the gap. I felt like a monster as I did it, but that didn’t stop me. The steaming water passed through the open space where she should have been but struck the wall beyond. Summer was too smart to rush through a door face first; I’d missed. She became visible and glared at me, her teeth bared.

She lifted the gun.

“Stop!” someone shouted. Fidel stood in the doorway to the next room. He wore a green silk suit that I guessed was tailor-made. It looked sharp, but how could he stand it in this heat?

“Fuck that,” Summer said. “I owe him a bullet.”

Fidel put his finger into a hole in the cabinet. “You gave it, now knock it off. The boss wants to talk to him.”

Summer made a face when she heard the word boss, but she didn’t pull the trigger. Fidel waved at me and I followed him, wishing I could keep the bulletproof tattoos on my chest toward Summer.

We went into the dining room, where the statues and other antiques lined the walls. Ty was standing beside the window, and Bud entered from the front hall at the same time I did. The table was on its side against the wall, and Lino Vela was sitting in one of the chairs. He looked exposed and vulnerable, and he was sweating freely. His thermal coffee cup lay on the floor beside him, and I was absurdly glad it wasn’t leaking. Focus, focus.

“You brought these people here?” Lino blurted at me.

Wally King was standing in the corner. “Hi, Ray,” he said without looking at me. He stared at the little statue he’d tried to steal, running his fingers along the place where the little figure’s head was coming off. “I have to say I’m disappointed.”

Was he expecting me to sneak up in a ninja costume? Drive through the front wall in a half-track? I didn’t care; I wasn’t in the mood to play his games.

And damn if Annalise wasn’t just a few dozen yards away. He’d gotten here without her noticing, or before she’d set up her stakeout. I needed to get to the front door and shout for her—somehow—as soon as I found out where Wally’s summoning circle was, and whether he’d erased it.

I turned away from him toward the others. “You can’t be working with this guy,” I told them. “You don’t realize what he’s done.”

“I think we got a pretty good idea,” Bud drawled. He scratched at a spot on his leg.

“He’s killed you.”

“You’re the one who wants to kill us,” Ty said. “He explained it.”

Fidel cut in. “Why we gotta be your enemy? You remember the old times, don’t you, Ray? Shit, I feel like an old man just talking this way, but we have history.”

“I remember. It’s good stuff and bad, just like any family. That’s why I’m here.” Fidel scratched the back of his hand, and I couldn’t look away. “What he’s done to you is going to get bad soon. Very bad. And after it kills you, it’ll bring more of those things into L.A. I have the proof right outside—”

“Outside where your peer is?” Wally said. He looked at Fidel. “She’s the killer he works for, and she’d burn down this whole city block, killing all the kids and mothers and old people, to get to us. That’s what they do.”

“She’s here for him,” I told Fidel. “I want to help you.”

Wally laughed. “I don’t think they believe you, Ray.”

I looked at their faces and knew he was right. They’d seen through me, but I had to keep trying. “We can go outside without her seeing you. I have something to show you in the trunk of a Hummer. Guys, you don’t realize what he’s done.”

“Yes, we do,” Summer said. “We’re not stupid.”

Ty held out his arm as though he wanted to show it to me. “We know these things are like a poison. But he’s the only one who can offer an antidote.”

Fidel was still smiling. “We aren’t into euthanasia, baby.”

I reminded myself that none of them had seen a drape as it fed. “Lenard is dead,” I told them.

That hit them hard. There was silence for a moment, until Bud said: “How?”

“How do you think?” I snapped back, because I didn’t want to put the finger on Arne, not even now. “The creature that was wrapped around him opened a hole in our universe and carried him off. He’s gone.”

“Opened a hole …,” Summer said with contempt. “What bullshit.”

I spun on her. “How perfect is this: Vanishing Girl doesn’t believe in magic. Wake the fuck up. There’s more going on here than you understand, no matter what he’s told you.” I spoke to the group of them. “It killed Lenard and carried him back to its home, and more of them came through the opening. I have them, and the people they’re eating, in a car outside. All I need is for you to be willing to look at what’s going to happen when the symbols he put on you wear off.”

“Crazy,” Lino muttered. “You’re all crazy.” Wally laughed again.

The others thought about what I’d said. Summer’s face was closed and angry—she didn’t trust me, but she was willing to let the others think things through. Fidel smirked at me; he’d been trying to win me over, talking about old friendships, but that didn’t mean he was open to what I was saying. Just the opposite, really.

Before I could judge Ty and Bud’s responses, Wally broke in. “Why don’t you tell them why you’re here, Ray?”

I turned to him. He looked so grotesque that I wanted to look away, but I didn’t. “Because a friend came to my apartment in Seattle and told me that you’d killed her.”