Primacy of Darkness (21 page)

Hanging up on her is a dick thing to do, but there is nothing I can say or do to change what is going to happen. I don’t know if Trinh will kill Marvin to punish me or use him to draw me out if I don’t stick my head in her noose. If I were her, if she had done to me what I did to her, I know I would. I would kill everyone she cared about to make her suffer. Which is exactly what I did.

CHAPTER 25

“Sit here,” Carol said and pushed Marvin into a plush chair in the living area of her loft.

Her laptop chimed. She opened it up on the kitchen table and tapped some keys.

“Shit.” She pulled out her phone and made a call. “Trinh, Malone’s tracker came back on.”

“How could that happen?” Trinh asked.

“The concussion might have dislodged the battery and his riding probably jostled it back in place. He’s headed right for you. ETA twenty minutes.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Please be careful.”

“Please take your meds.”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

Marvin looked around as Carol busied herself in the kitchen, his hands still secured behind his back with zip ties. “You and Leo must have the same real estate agent.”

“I know, right? I keep telling Trinh that we could just as easily rent a suite at the Baccarat or something. I think she thinks room service will make us weak.” She washed down some pills with a drink of water. “Ah, that’s better.”

“What was that?”

“Like five different anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, and anti-something or others.”

“So you really are crazy.”

Carol sat on the couch across from him. “We don’t use that word here.”

“Sorry.”

“You’re adorable, so I forgive you.”

“Your friend doesn’t think I’m adorable.”

“She doesn’t like most people, and she hates vampires. And since you work with a vampire, she kind of hates you by association.”

“What’s her deal with Leo? She seems to be a special kind of pissed off at him.”

“Well, if you knew what he did, you would understand.”

“What did he do? I mean, I know he’s an asshole, but I’ve never seen anyone want to kill someone so bad.”

Carol cocked her head. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“Leo slaughtered Trinh’s entire village in Vietnam. Her parents, two brothers, grandmother, all gone. He almost killed her too, but he must have changed his mind and ran off. She’s been looking for him ever since—sort of. It’s been a bit of a roundabout journey. We finally picked up his trail after that thing in Pennsylvania.”

Marvin leaned back, his face doubtful. “Leo? Naw. I’ve only ever seen him kill vampires or someone who was trying to kill him. Are you sure you got the right guy?”

“She’s sure and Malone knows it too. He really hunts vampires?”

“Yeah. He says he takes out the ones who cause trouble. We were in a car, during that Penn thing, and he suddenly cuts through the park, runs this dude over, and cuts his head off. That’s when I found out what he was. He told me he was one of the bad ones he has to sometimes take out.”

“I don’t know. There are some things you just can’t take back.”

“Did something happen to you too? Is it why you take all those meds?”

Carol stared off into the distance. “Yeah. About seven years ago, a vampire broke in and killed my parents. My dad kept screaming at me to run. Even as this thing tore his arms off like he was a bug, he kept yelling for me to run. I ran and tried to hide, but he found me. He was going to kill me too, but Trinh showed up.

“She just kind of walked up behind him and shot him in the back of the head. She looked like a superhero with her getup and all her stuff. She looked me up when I got out of the psych ward. I was so afraid of everything. Trinh thought maybe it would help if I learned how to defend myself, reclaim my life and my identity. My identity sucked, so I made a new one. I learned how to shoot and rig explosives. I went to NYU and got dual masters in computer science and electrical engineering. Only took three years.”

“Hey, I went to NYU after MIT expelled me!”

“Did you graduate?”

“Naw, I became too good at defying authority.”

“Is that when Black Cyberlord became Mo’ Money?”

“Man, you know about that?”

“Yeah, you were into some pretty deep stuff back in the day. Hey, you want to see my cosplay outfit?”

Marvin’s eyes went wide and his face grew serious. “More than anything in the world.”

“Wait here!”

Carol leapt from her chair, bounded across the room, and disappeared behind a free-standing screen. She draped her clothes over the screen as she disrobed and changed into her costume. She emerged wearing a black leather and Lycra full body outfit with black, high-heeled boots and white, elbow-length gloves.

Marvin’s jaw nearly dropped into his lap as he sat open-mouthed and stared.

“I’m Bayonetta!”

Marvin’s head bobbed up and down. “Oh, I know.”

“What do you think?”

“I think my ding dong just went Super Saiyan.”

“You’re so funny!” she said and bent forward in an animated laugh.

Her laughter broke off when the window blew in and the black spectre of death burst into the room.

***

Two screams fill the air, shrill cries welcoming my entrance. I can’t differentiate which one comes from Marvin and which from the girl. Marvin is sitting in a chair with his hands behind his back. The young woman I saw after my first fight with my assassin is standing a few paces away wearing some kind of costume and holding a toy gun. Marvin bolts from his chair and places his body between me and the girl.

“Leo, wait, don’t kill her!”

I aim my pistol at the floor near their feet. “I’m not going to kill her—yet. Where’s your phone?”

The girl juts her chin toward the table with a computer sitting open on top of it. I sidestep across the room, never taking my eyes off her. She’s a normal human, but I’m not taking any chances.

“Marvin, step away from her before she uses you to do something stupid.”

“She’s not going to do anything to me, Leo. Just wait a minute and take a breath—or whatever you do.”

“Both of you, go sit down.”

Marvin and the girl sit next to each other on the couch. I pick up the phone and bring it over.

“Unlock it.”

She taps in her passcode. There is only a single contact and I press it.

“What’s up?” the voice on the other end asks.

“Your quest for vengeance.”

Her voice goes silent, but I can hear her heart pounding over the phone. “If you hurt her…”

“What, you’ll kill me? It’s a bit late for that threat to hold any weight. She’s fine—for the moment, but her continued well-being is up to you.”

“What do you want?”

“It’s time to end what I started. You know where I’m at. Return here, no guns, no bombs, no tricks. Do anything other than walk through the front door and she dies first.”

“You better not hurt her, you bastard!”

“You should have left my friends out of this. It’s on your head.”

I crush the phone in my hand as easily as wadding up a piece of paper and toss it aside.

“Leo, you can’t hurt her. No matter what,” Marvin begs me.

“Relax, I’m not going to hurt her. Her friend just needs to think I will.”

“Wow, you and Trinh are exactly alike,” the girl says. “You should get married or something.”

“I wouldn’t start planning a wedding just yet. What’s your name?”

“Carol, or Circe when I’m online. Oh, and Kill Mode when I’m doing sniper duty.”

Marvin turns his head to face her. “Kill Mode? That is so cool! Leo, we need to get me a kick-ass secret identity too.”

“How about moron?”

“Hey, why I gotta be a moron?”

“How did she get to you?”

“Uh, masterful use of social engineering.”

“What?”

Marvin shifts uncomfortably and ducks his head. “She showed me her titties.”

I shake my head. “Moron.”

“At least she didn’t torture me and turn me into a vampire! But I guess you and that French vampire were just going to the library to study.”

I take in Carol’s costume. “What the hell is this?”

She blushes. “It’s not what it looks like.”

“It could have been what it looks like if you hadn’t come busting through the window.” Marvin looks at Carol. “Couldn’t it?”

She smiles at him. “It totally could have.”

“Dammit!”

Carol asks, “How did you know where we were, anyway?”

Marvin shifts uncomfortably. “Oh, when I told Leo to meet me in my bat cave, that’s the code word we set up for me to use if I’m ever in trouble.”

“Shut up! You used bat cave as a code word?” She gazes deep into Marvin’s eyes, her voice soft. “This is what destiny looks like.”

Marvin leans toward her, but I clear my throat and interrupt their little moment.

“Leo, she says you killed her friend’s family. Is that true?”

I look away as a wave of grief slams into me. “I did worse than that.”

“Why? I know you kill bad guys, but why would you do that? What did they do?”

“They didn’t do anything. I wasn’t in my right mind then.”

“That makes it kind of hard to blame her for wanting to kill you.”

“No, it makes it impossible. That’s why I’m here. That’s why we’re all here, so I can settle it.”

“Settle it how?”

“Probably the only way things like this ever get settled, with blood.”

***

I hear the high whine of a motorcycle approaching before it screeches to a stop just outside. The woman, Trinh, enters the room, her steps slow and measured. Her arms are held out wide, but she has something small in her left hand. She walks toward me until she is standing maybe fifteen feet away.

“I’m here,” she says. “Let her go.”

I shake my head. “That’s not how this is going to work.”

She reaches toward the front of her coat. I raise my pistol and point it at her chest. She opens her coat to reveal several pounds of plastic explosives strapped to her body.

“I’m holding a dead man’s switch. If you kill me, I’ll take you with me.”

“You might kill me. You will definitely kill your friend.”

“You’ll kill her anyway.”

“It’s not my plan. I told you, no tricks.”

“This isn’t a trick. It’s insurance.”

“Well, I definitely said no bombs, and that is a bomb!”

“Let Carol go, and I’ll disarm it.”

“If I let her go, you’ll blow us up.”

Marvin cuts in. “How about those of us who aren’t freaks of nature with a death wish leave and you two go on and do what you gotta do?”

“Shut up, Marvin,” Trinh and I both say at the same time.

“Hey, don’t tell my boyfriend to shut up!” Carol demands.

“I’m your boyfriend? When did that happen?”

“What, you think I show my boobs to every guy I meet? Who am I, Eva Longoria? These are crazy times and crazy times call for split-second decisions.”

“I thought we didn’t use that word?”

She kisses him on the cheek. “Shut up, Marvin.”

“Okay.”

I shrug my shoulders at Marvin and Carol. “Are you two kids done now? Can the grown-ups get back to deciding who dies and how?”

Carol crosses her arms and sulks. “Fine.”

I turn back to Trinh and holster my gun. “When I killed your family and almost everyone in your village, I had lost my mind. I was, in every sense of the word, insane.”

“So you get some therapy, say you’re sorry, and I should just forgive you?”

“No, but I do need you to listen so you can make an informed, rational decision.”

“I made my decision to kill you more than forty years ago.”

“That’s fine, but this is today, not forty years ago, and I’m not sure you understand the difference. Have you heard of Jack the Ripper?”

She nods. “Englishman, killed a bunch of women in London.”

“He is a vampire, and he is here killing more women. He will continue to kill women and a lot of other people unless I can stop him.”

“Just like you did,” Trinh snarls.

I nod. “Yes, just like I did. After I fled your village and regained my senses, I started killing vampires like him, the ones who kill for sport and enjoy inflicting pain and terror.”

“It doesn’t change what you did.”

“No, it doesn’t. I wish I could undo what I did. My death cannot bring them back, but if it eases the suffering I caused you, then you can have it.”

I step toward her, flip my sword around, and present her the hilt.

“What are you doing?”

“Turn off your bomb and take my sword. I’m not here to kill you or your friend. I’m here to give you closure. I’m here to give you the justice you deserve. I was chasing after him the last time you attacked me and he got away. You can kill me, as you deserve to, but the death he causes from this point on is on you. That’s the price of your vengeance.”

“Leo…” Marvin says.