Sinners & Sorcerers: Four Urban Fantasy Thrillers Read online

  You should pop every zit that you want to turn into a permanent scar, he’d said. And he had punctuated that with, Dumbass.

  He hadn’t intended that advice for magicked boils, but it probably applied.

  Yeah, maybe I’ll just leave them alone. For now.

  On the bright side, Stonecrow had given me a great disguise. A disguise that made it feel like my entire face was peeling apart, with pus dripping down my neck. But I couldn’t manage to feel grateful for it. I swore right then and there that I was going to see that woman behind bars—even if it meant turning myself over to the OPA, too.

  I headed out of the bathroom, keeping my head down and trying to look like any other homeless bum making his way for the computer desks. I parked my ass in the first empty desk chair I came across. The old woman next to me didn’t even look up when I sat down. But Gramps across the table cringed at the sight of me, grabbed his jacket, and left.

  “Hey, ugly fuckers are people, too,” I muttered at his back. The corner of my mouth cracked.

  I pulled Stonecrow’s case file out of my coat, opened a map site on the computer, and started correlating the coordinates of her previous sightings to the website. The locations of the last families she had scammed—the ones I’d read about earlier that night—got little flags first, smack dab on the big population centers in the state. If I’d been at work, that would have been enough for the computers to do a quick sweep and figure out the connection. But I wasn’t at work. I’d have to do all the thinking for myself.

  As I added the rest of the sightings aggregated from the OPA’s network of security cameras, a pattern started to appear. I absently scratched my chin while I looked at them and felt something warm ooze down my jaw. Okay, no scratching, either.

  I focused on the Stonecrow sightings. And when I pulled out her raccoon bone bracelet for another look at the car key I’d grabbed, I realized it wasn’t a car key at all.

  It was a key for an RV.

  The old lady at the neighboring computer lumbered out of her chair and vanished. She left all of her crap on the desk, including an empty water bottle and a cell phone. It was scattered everywhere. Encroaching on my space. I didn’t care if she was going to look for another book or going to take a piss. No one was respectful of public space anymore.

  I picked up the phone and dialed Suzy.

  “Why the fuck are you calling me?” she said when I identified myself. “Tell me you’re out of town, Hawke.”

  “Nice to talk to you, too. Listen, I need you to pull files for me.”

  “What? Are you working right now?”

  She tore me a new one for a minute, and except for a quick look around to make sure Grandma Space Hogger wasn’t on her way back, I kicked back and let Suzy’s vitriol wash over me. It was soothing, in its own way. Familiar. The dulcet background sounds I was used to at the office.

  “Feel better?” I asked when she wound down.

  “Hmph. That’s what you get for taking off without leaving a note, asshole.” I heard the clatter of computer keys on the other end of the line. “Okay, what files am I pulling?”

  “Any RVs that have checked in at more than five of these California RV parks in the last three months.” I listed the locations off. Suzy typed furiously.

  “Huh,” she said. “One RV comes up. Registration for…Belle Stonecrow. You’re still after the necromancer?”

  “Actually, I think she’s necrocognitive, like Peter was before he—you know. She’s not raising zombies, that’s for sure.”

  “Stonecrow is my case, Hawke.”

  “I’m helping you find her. You can think of it as me paying you back for use of your couch last night.”

  “Whatever.” Suzy couldn’t conceal how excited she sounded. It was a breakthrough. A good breakthrough. This was the shit that fueled us.

  Isobel Stonecrow was living out of RV parks. It was so simple, and considering how much crap witches needed to lug around, practical as hell. Better than sleeping in the back of a car, too.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I’ll find her.”

  I was about to hang up when Suzy said, “You wouldn’t leave if I told you to again, would you?”

  “Not a chance.”

  + + +

  I was in good shape. Not like the guys in the Union, but I kept up with my cardio. So I managed to reach the first two RV parks by noon with the help of a couple of city buses. No Stonecrow. I took a break around noon, stopping in a burger joint to escape the rain and splurge on dollar cheeseburgers. Bargain menus had saved my bacon between paychecks before.

  The cheeseburgers would’ve been so good with bacon.

  The third RV park took a longer, deeply unnerving bus ride to reach, and it was in the bad part of town. Know how they talk about “wrong side of the tracks?” Well, it looked like this park had been planted solidly in the middle of those tracks and then run over a few dozen times by trains hauling thousands of cattle, each of which took a giant dump on the park as it passed.

  It was inside a crumbling brick wall. The smell of rain failed to overpower the sewage stench of a couple dozen RVs dumping their shit all over the place. Every so-called “recreational” vehicle looked like it had survived a nuclear blast.

  If radioactive hillbillies ever vacationed in Los Angeles, this would have been the spot.

  “You okay, dude?” the man at the window of the third RV park asked as I stopped to catch my breath. “Don’t die on my sidewalk, man. I gotta clean this thing.”

  I knew I looked bad, but on-the-verge-of-death bad? And people said that no one cared in this town. “I’m fine.” I took a few deep breaths and regretted it. Man, that smell was terrible. Hard to tell if it was coming from the park or the guy operating the gates. He looked like a radioactive hillbilly himself, mostly bald with more hairy moles than teeth. “I’m actually looking for a friend.”

  I went through the whole deal, miming Stonecrow’s height against mine, tracing her more slender form and generous hips. The man’s eyes lit up for a second, but then his face went neutral.

  “Dunno,” he said, scratching the mole on the left side of his neck. His fingernail was yellow and cracked. “My memory’s terrible.”

  And me without money for a bribe.

  “Thanks anyway,” I said.

  The man looked disappointed. “Any time, bro.”

  I made like I was walking down the street, away from the entrance.

  As soon as I was out of sight of the office, I vaulted the brick wall and dropped down on the other side behind an RV.

  The look that guy had given me when I described Stonecrow was the look of a man that had seen ungodly perfection in a woman. The kind of woman with hips that could knock down walls, and her breasts—Lord, those breasts. No wonder clients had been paying thousands of dollars for her time.

  I slipped my hand into my pocket and clenched it around Stonecrow’s bracelet. The raccoon bones dug into my palm. The pain was enough of a reminder of what I was doing there, what I needed to do, and why.

  Last time I’d let my balls do the thinking, I’d ended up with an innocent woman dead in my bathtub. And this particular woman, this necrocognitive, was the only way I was going to get justice for Erin. That’s all she was. A tool to clear my name and find the real villain.

  A tool that was slinking around behind the RV three parking spots down.

  The sight of her lurking just a few yards away jolted me to my core. I hadn’t expected to be so quick to find her, especially when she was already on the run again. I’d hoped to catch her off-guard, cozy and unsuspecting in her mobile escape unit. Instead, she was crouched behind an old RV that was decorated with beaded curtains and electric teal paint.

  There were no animal skins in sight this afternoon. Stonecrow wore cutoff shorts and a baggy pullover. The only reason I could identify her at that distance was that she had feathers woven into her hair, like a faint echo of the elaborate headdress she had been wearing early that morning.

 
; For a second, I thought Stonecrow had been clued in to my presence and was trying to sneak away. But she wasn’t looking at me. She was leaning around the corner of the RV to peer at something else.

  I followed her gaze to see a black SUV parked on the other side of her vehicle. It had flashing lights set into the grille and dark-tinted windows.

  A pair of men in black suits stepped out. They were big guys, so much broader than me that they made me look like a skinny-assed nerd. Their necks were thick as tree trunks. Every move looked deliberate, choreographed. Only one type of person moved like that: kopides. Super-powered demon hunters.

  The Union had found Stonecrow.

  Wild thoughts whirled through my skull. Had Suzy reported our findings to her superiors, even knowing that I was going to the same place? Maybe she’d thought that they could get to Stonecrow first. Take away my primary incentive for remaining in town. No way she’d deliberately attempted to fuck up my day.

  Whether or not it was what she had planned, that was definitely the outcome.

  Stonecrow jumped into the shadows behind the next SUV, which was rocking on its suspension, like there was a dance party inside. Or some other kind of party. Then she jumped behind the next. The same one that I was hiding behind.

  That was when she saw me. Horror flashed in her eyes.

  Yeah, she recognized the blisters.

  “You,” she hissed.

  I lifted her bracelet. “Got something for you.”

  She snatched it out of my hand then turned to bolt.

  I grabbed her by the upper arm. Stonecrow twisted and just about melted out of my grip again. I was ready for her this time. Seizing both of her wrists, I shoved her back against the brick wall, giving her no room to pull off ninja maneuvers.

  “Your bosses can’t have me,” Stonecrow spat. “I’d rather bury myself alive.”

  “I’m not taking you to anyone else. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Doubt flickered through her eyes. They were dark brown, the color of rain-moistened grave dirt. “You’re not with them?”

  “Yeah, right, glad we’re on the same page. We gotta get out of here before they see us,” I whispered. “Can you climb the fence?”

  “I could if I had use of my hands.” She wasn’t fighting me anymore. I relaxed my grip on her.

  Stonecrow kneed me between the legs.

  It was like having a hot poker shoved into the middle of my intestines and then twisted. Nausea spread over my skin, from the tips of my hair to my fingernails, and I momentarily entertained the mental image of vomiting in her face.

  My grunt of surprise was louder than I intended. By the time Stonecrow grabbed the brick wall and hefted her body halfway up, the Union suits were breaking past the line of RVs, searching for the source of the noise.

  Eyes fell on me.

  I realized that I recognized these guys. They weren’t just any random, anonymous Union apes; they were Joey and Eduardo, Suzy’s drinking buddies. Nice couple of young guys. Both of them had more muscles than brains and twice the strength of normal human men. Any doubts I’d had about Suzy tipping off her superiors were gone.

  They ran at me as fast as they could sprint, which was, unfortunately, way too fast. Super strength comes with super speed. Not like the Flash or Superman, but a hell of a lot faster than me.

  Eduardo grabbed for the back of the necrocognitive’s sweater and missed. He caught her hair instead, jerking her to the ground, pulling out a fistful of her glossy black locks as he did it. I didn’t think that was in the Union playbook.

  “Hey!” I protested, just as Joey punched me in the gut. It was a little too close to where Stonecrow had hit. I crumpled. Even a big tough guy starts crying for Mama when the juevos take a double tap. Low blow from another dude, especially one who’d been buying me shots of tequila the other night. Real low blow.

  “What do we do with this…thing?” Joey asked.

  Eduardo shrugged. “Tie him up, toss him somewhere dark? Wait.” He peered closely at my face then began to laugh. “Oh, that’s too fucking good. Joe, check him out. Suzy was right.”

  Now they were both laughing. After a second, I worked up a halfhearted smile, trying to chuckle along. I probably would have laughed at them if they got dusted in the face, too. “Yeah, it’s me. Suzy sent you this way to pick me up?”

  “No, just Stonecrow,” Eduardo said. “None of us thought you’d be dumb enough to show up too.”

  Guess I was that dumb. “You want to untie me now?”

  Joey punched me in the stomach again. I fell to my knees.

  “Guess not,” I gasped.

  “So?” Joey asked.

  After a moment of silent deliberation, Eduardo seemed to come to a decision. “We’ll just take care of both of them. Lucky day, Joey, lucky day.”

  I tried to feel satisfied at the sight of Stonecrow’s wrists zip tied and her petite form hauled toward the black SUVs, but even though it was her fault that I was in custody, I couldn’t work up the satisfaction. This was my necrocognitive. Not the Union’s. And I didn’t like it when any woman got treated like a piece of meat, even if she’d worked hard at deserving it.

  “Come on, guys,” I said. “You’re asking for about six different citations with this behavior.”

  “Shut up, Hawke,” Joey said. He pushed my wrists together and zip tied them.

  My heart climbed into my throat, thudding with panic, as Joey opened the back door of the SUV and I came face to face with the yawning maw of its interior.

  Briefly, I pitied everyone we’d ever made disappear into one of these black cars.

  Then I was inside and the door slammed behind me.

  11

  Note to self: Being arrested by the Union sucks.

  As it turned out, our guys were crazy fucking drivers. When Eduardo wasn’t hitting the brakes so hard that my head nearly snapped off my neck, he seemed to be veering around to catch every pothole under his tires.

  “Hope you’re not too fond of the suspension,” I called to the front. I got one sunglassed glare over Eduardo’s shoulder.

  Neither of them seemed interested in anything I had to say. Joey was talking into a cell phone too quietly for me to hear, and Eduardo was keeping up with his shitty driving.

  It was guys like him that made my morning commute a joy.

  “What are you doing talking back?” Stonecrow asked in a low whisper. “You want to make this worse?”

  Worse? My face looked like ground fucking beef, I was under arrest by my own employer, and the necrocognitive I’d hoped would exonerate me was about to get tossed into a detention center far beyond my reach. And she thought a little snark was going to make it worse?

  “You don’t get to talk. You got me into this.” My pissed-off face was much better than these punks could muster, but Stonecrow didn’t seem fazed.

  “You got yourself into…whatever this is.” She was looking pale.

  “Either way, we’re both being taken to an OPA field office for questioning.” I glared at her. “Have you been interrogated before? I’ve been on the other side of it, so I can give some pointers.”

  “I can handle myself.”

  “Sure, whatever.” I rolled my shoulders to keep them from getting tense and raised my voice again. “We getting to the office soon? I’ve got to piss like a racehorse.”

  No one answered me.

  Fuck all this bullshit. I wasn’t letting Suzy’s mix-up land me in prison.

  We were going to get out of this.

  “Don’t suppose you got any of that dust left over?” I asked Stonecrow quietly. I didn’t think boils were going to do much to slow down Eduardo and Joey, hardened kopides that they were, but enchanted dust could be useful for other reasons. I could try to change it, use its power.

  “They patted me down, asshole. They took all the supplies I had.” She pulled a face. “And copped a feel while they were at it.”

  They hadn’t fondled me, but they’d taken all of my no
tebooks, too. And the gun that had been bouncing uselessly against my hip. And the Stonecrow file. I’d thought I had nothing when I had to flee my apartment, but now I really had nothing. At least Stonecrow would still have her hideous teal RV if she escaped.

  Stonecrow gave me a scrutinizing look. “If you’re not with them, then why did you assault me during my job last night?”

  “You mean the creepy death ritual.”

  “That’s my job,” she said.

  “First of all, I wasn’t assaulting you. I was taking you into custody. Big difference. Second of all, I’ve been looking for you to ask for help. I wanted you to use the creepy death ritual to talk to someone.”

  Stonecrow sniffed at me. “You’ve been near death recently.”

  Yeah, because that was hard to guess.

  “I was just in a cemetery. Remember?”

  “No, not that.” Her eyes trailed over me, intense and focused. Under different circumstances, it would have been a nice look to get. “Who was killed?”

  “That’s what I was going to have you help me with before…” I jerked my chin at the dashboard of the car, indicating Eduardo and Joey.

  That was when I realized that we weren’t in the city anymore.

  The freeway had turned into a highway outside the city at some point, and there wasn’t any stop-and-go traffic left. The buildings had thinned out, and sandy hills decorated with brush surrounded the road.

  “What’s wrong now?” Stonecrow asked.

  “We’re not going to the office.” I looked out the back window like that would change what I was seeing. It didn’t. Los Angeles was a quickly vanishing memory behind us. The closest field office to the RV park was in the complete opposite direction. We were headed into the deep desert instead.

  “You got anything in your bag of tricks?” I muttered as the SUV pulled off onto a dirt road away from traffic entirely. Not that dropping my voice meant anything at that point. We didn’t have much time. “Something distracting? Flash powder? Poison ivy?”

  “Why would I—what’s going on?”

  “I just need something magical!”