Joe shot me a dirty look over his shoulder. “I don’t hang out here. It’s convenient for storage. That’s all. Help me move those boxes.” He pointed to a stack of cardboard moving boxes against the far wall.
An arched entrance behind them had been bricked up at some point. The original brick arch was an elegant thing, but the bricks that had been used to fill the space were a more haphazard affair. Clearly, people don’t take the same pride in their work as they used to. I glanced around. All the walls were brick, and while some of the material was crumbling, it was easy to see the pattern that had been set and followed.
I started moving boxes. After the second one, I realized that Joe was just standing there, skinny arms crossed over pigeon breast. “Yo, I said I’d help, not do the whole thing.”
Joe grumbled something about lazy humans and put his slight bulk into shoving away one of the boxes I’d uncovered at the bottom of the pile.
It took us a few minutes, but we finally shifted all the boxes away from the wall, exposing a metal grate on the floor. Joe flicked out a talon and undid the screws on each of the grate’s corners. I’d have to rethink my position on having talons. They were handier than they seemed at first glance.
He reached inside and pulled out a cloth-covered bundle. He shoved it toward me and said, “Take it already.”
I squatted down to look him in the eye. “So tell the truth, Joe. Why’d you really take it?”
He sighed, ruffling his wings. “There’s this woman . . .”
I should have known. I glanced down at the flute. “Did it help?”
“I didn’t have the nerve to even try. I did all this for nothing.” He looked at the floor, scraping at the dirt with one of his nasty little toes.
I stood back up, thinking about what had actually reached through all my defenses to touch my heart recently. “If you want my advice, forget the magic and the sacred objects. Tell her your hopes and dreams. Put your heart out there on the table. If that doesn’t get to her, nothing will.”
He looked up, one eye screwed tight shut as if considering. “You are one strange human, Messenger.”
I sighed. “So I’ve been told. So I’ve been told.”
I SPOTTED BEN AND SOPHIE FROM HALF A BLOCK AWAY. THEY were sitting on the front stoop. Ben was leaned back on his elbows, more relaxed than I’d seen him in a long time. Sophie laughed at something he said and tossed her hair back over her shoulder. Ah, young love. A twinge of jealousy made me wince. It was followed rapidly by a stab of concern. It bugged me a little that it happened in that order, but as Popeye would say, I yam what I yam.
I checked to make sure Kokopelli’s flute was tucked safely in my backpack. I didn’t really have to look. I could feel its buzz against my backbone. But it was bad enough to have a budding Messenger hanging out on my front stoop with my charming ne’er-do-well downstairs neighbor. It was another thing entirely to contribute in any way to getting her knocked up by him.
Young love wasn’t exactly something I’d ever gotten to experience. I was having my doubts that I’d even get to have old love. Messengers weren’t the safest people to be around. It was hard enough to keep myself safe without having to worry about someone else. Most days, I didn’t feel like I had the energy for even one more thing.
Besides, how was I supposed to explain my job to someone? It certainly wasn’t first-date material. “Hi, my name’s Melina. I hang out with the arcane. Do you have a hobby?”
Sophie placed her hand on Ben’s arm, and he looked up at her with an expression I’d never seen before on his face. It damn near stopped my heart. Oh, crap. The two of them were actually falling in love.
Had Sophie told him what she was? How could she? She barely knew what she was herself.
The question that truly stopped me in my tracks, however, was, had Sophie told Ben what I was?
I had never told anyone what I was. Maybe it was becoming a Messenger at such a young age. By the time I knew that I was different from everybody else, it was too late to tell anyone. I’d spent years being told to keep my imagination under control and to not make up stories. When I finally had words to describe what my life had become, no one even wanted to hear about it. At least, no one I wanted to tell about it.
I’d had Mae. Although apparently, I didn’t even have her anymore.
Sophie would have some advantages that way. Sixteen was far from grown up, but it was a lot more mature than three. Her life in the normal world was much more established. Maybe she could find a way to integrate being a normal teenager with being a Messenger. I sure hadn’t been able to do it, though.
I was well aware of the possible ramifications of telling people what I was, and they were none too appealing. Spending time in a padded room wearing the special jacket with the extralong wrap-around sleeves was not my idea of a rockin’ time. Neither was a lifelong dependency on heavy-duty psychotropic drugs. I didn’t know what the ramifications might be for someone I told, especially if that person actually believed me.
If Sophie had told Ben what we were, would he believe her? What would happen if he did?
I hadn’t a clue.
I sauntered up to the steps.
“Hey, Melina, how’s it going?” Ben smiled up at me with an expression that could almost be thought of as sunny.
I held up my hand to quiet him. Something was coming. I wasn’t sure which I sensed first, the smell of the river or that all-too-familiar tingling in my flesh, but they were both followed rapidly by the sound of a bell. “Get inside,” I said.
“What?” Ben asked. “Why?”
“Just do it.” I turned to Sophie. She was frozen, a look of horror on her face. Whatever she’d already seen, she must not have felt evil before.
Her hands went to her face. “What is it? What is that?”
“I don’t know yet, for sure. Please go inside.” So I lied. I was pretty sure I knew exactly what was coming.
Sophie looked at me, confused and still not moving. I heard the bell ring again. “I’ll explain later. Please, both of you, go inside.”
Sophie’s look of confusion changed to one of horror. Ben’s eyes went round and he said, “What the hell . . .?”
I turned.
Kiang shi
at nine o’clock, hopping up my sidewalk. I grabbed both Ben and Sophie by the shoulders and manhandled them into the foyer of the apartment building. I pointed at Ben’s apartment door. “Get inside. Do it now and stay there until I tell you it’s safe to come out.”
For a second, I didn’t think Ben was going to be able to open his apartment door. His hands shook so hard he couldn’t get the key in the lock. It finally slid home and the two of them slipped inside.
They were safe, for the moment. At least I only had to worry about me.
The
kiang shi
were at the steps. They jumped them easily. Damn it all. They were becoming more powerful. According to what I’d read, they could only hop so high at first. The more they killed, the more powerful they became and the higher they could jump. I needed something to block the door, something higher than a step and I needed it fast.
I spotted Valerie’s herb planters. By themselves, they probably weren’t tall enough, but stacked? That might do it. The
kiang shi
were right there, though. Think, Melina, think. Okay. The
kiang shi
were blind. They found their victims by their breath. If I held my breath, I might as well be invisible.
I took a couple deep breaths, blowing them out of my lungs as completely as possible, sucked in a big one, held it and threw open the door to the building. The first
kiang shi
had cleared the steps. As horrible as they had looked from a distance as they ripped apart gangbangers, they were much worse close up.
Flesh hung off his face, green and rotting. The smell of the river was overpowered by the stench of decomposition. Arms held in front of him, his long nails were stained with blood.
I grabbed the planters, but they were heavier than they looked. A grunt escaped my lungs, and the
kiang shi
turned to look at me. The one in the lead reached for me, raking my arm with his long nails. I heaved and lifted the planters, but the effort caused me to expel another breath.
This time the lead
kiang shi
grabbed hold of my arm and tugged. I knew what was coming next and no way was I going to stand still for it. The last thing I wanted was for Alex to be looking to see what my hand might be holding when it was no longer attached to my body. I whirled and planted a side kick on the
kiang shi
’s chin. He tumbled backward, letting go of my arm, but not before he managed to sink his teeth into my forearm. He righted himself almost immediately.
I made the mistake of glancing at my arm. The
kiang shi
had taken a chunk of me with him when he had fallen. There was no time to do anything about it. If I didn’t stop them, it wouldn’t matter anyway. I’d be dead in minutes.
I gulped in another breath, stacked the planters at the threshold of the building and leaped over them inside. I stood, literally holding my breath, to see if they could clear the obstacle.
The bell rang. The
kiang shi
hopped. The lead
kiang shi
hit the planters and fell back, knocking into the
kiang shi
behind him.
I would have laughed except that I didn’t want them to be able to sense me and I knew how very unfunny it would be if this didn’t work.
The bell rang again. The
kiang shi
jumped again, in unison, like a horrid undead drill team. Again, the lead
kiang shi
knocked into the planters and fell back.
My lungs burned and my eyes watered. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold my breath. Would it empower them if they could sense me? If they knew their prey was just over the obstacle in front of them, would it provide the incentive they needed to clear the herb planters? I didn’t dare find out. I didn’t want to end up like a dismembered cholo on an emergency room gurney.
The bell rang. They hopped. Again, they knocked into the planters. The world began to turn a little gray around its edges.
I slid into a crouched position, ready to fight if they made it over the planters.
The bell rang, but in a different rhythm this time. The
kiang shi
turned. It rang again and they began to hop away from the apartment building. I still held my breath. I leaned against the wall to keep my balance. The world narrowed down to a pinpoint.
The bell rang again. The
kiang shi
were off the stoop. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I sucked in a deep breath. The bell rang yet again and the
kiang shi
began to hop away, but not before one of them turned his nasty, rotting head and hissed at me.
I felt his cold fetid breath even yards away and gagged. The bell rang and it continued to hop away. When they were finally out of sight, I knocked on Ben’s door.
Sophie flung the door open and caught me as I stumbled inside.
Ben stared at me. “What the hell were those things?”
I didn’t have a good lie ready. I didn’t even have a bad lie ready.
I’d been caught in plenty of situations that required explanations before. There was the lovesick Sasquatch who needed me to deliver a love letter on the Girl Scout camping trip. I had to explain away a lot of destruction after that episode, and while I’ve no doubt that my taking responsibility for all of it seemed highly suspect, Ms. Bernard already thought me a little bit odd and was happy to accept my mea culpa if it meant she didn’t have to deal with me anymore.
That was different, though. Ms. Bernard hadn’t actually seen Big Foot, although I now really wonder whether even that would have mussed her hair. I think she had one entire backpack dedicated to her supply of Aqua Net. Ben had seen the
kiang shi
. I don’t know whether I could have made a case for him having some kind of acid flashback, but I do know I couldn’t have looked him in the eye ever again if I’d tried. Lying was out this time. More’s the pity.
Then there was the matter of Sophie. She still hadn’t spoken. She looked shell-shocked. It’s one thing to have someone tell you that you’re going to be a supernatural errand girl, it’s a whole other thing altogether to have the supernatural hop up onto the stoop where you’re pitching woo with your boyfriend and try to eat your flesh.
This was the kind of situation that I usually hashed over with Mae. Just thinking about her made my eyes sting. I was still more than a little miffed at her. So I was supposed to step up and take some responsibility? Fine. I’d make my own decision about this.
“They were
kiang shi
,” I said.
Ben sat down on the couch and ran his hands through his already very messy hair. “What the hell are
kiang shi
?”
“Chinese vampires,
mas o menos
.” I followed him in and sat down in the chair across from him. Sophie still hovered by the door, glancing back and forth from Ben to me as if one of us might suddenly sprout fangs and jump at her.
Ben’s head shot up and he stared at me. “Are you kidding me?”
“Do I look like I’m laughing?” I stared right back at him.
“What the hell is going on?” he asked.
Now that was an excellent question.
IT TOOK ABOUT AN HOUR FOR SOPHIE TO FINALLY START TALKING. I was beginning to get worried. Once the dam broke, however, I sort of wished she’d revert to silent-shock mode.
“Those are the things you were telling Mae about?”
“Yep. Those would be the very things.” I’d brought Sophie up to my apartment and sent Ben off to replant his mother’s herb garden before she came home. I was hoping she wouldn’t notice. If she did, we’d have to come up with something clever. I might be able to get away with telling Ben the truth. I didn’t think Valerie would take it anywhere near as well.
