Publish and Perish Read online

  “Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. wears an eye patch,” I countered. John was neither impressed nor amused.

  “Are you done?” he snapped.

  “Yes.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  “You have to pay, remember? My purse is back at the office.” He gave me another irritated look. I hurried to add, “I’ll pay you back for the taxi and the food. I promise.”

  Eventually the credit card was carried away, and John had signed for my dinner. We got back in the car and drove through Central Park to the Dakota. Just before the entrance John took us into Fey. The press of automobiles was suddenly gone and there were far fewer buildings. There was one 1920s-style touring car with an Álfar couple passionately kissing, and a young Álfar woman dressed for hunting with a bow slung over her back riding through the trees of what was Central Park in our world. We turned through the gates and into the central courtyard. A guard drifted over, but there was no sense of urgency.

  “I need to see my brother,” John explained.

  Somehow the word had gone ahead and servants were roused. Parlan joined us in the living room wearing an elaborate brocade dressing gown.

  “What is wrong?” Parlan asked, looking very pointedly at me.

  “Why does everybody always go there?” I complained.

  “Because it is nearly the witching hour and you are here,” Parlan said. John gave a snort of agreement and I glared at them both.

  “Okay, yes, I’m in trouble.” I once again went through the story, only this time I went further back and added in more details. The break-in at my apartment. The break-in at the university. The break-in at Ken’s apartment. Exhaustion snuck up and hit me over the head. I swayed and had a man on either side of me offering support. “Sorry. I guess the day is catching up with me.”

  “A room has been prepared for you,” Parlan said. “Go and sleep.” He looked at his changeling brother. “Your old room is available.”

  “Thanks, but no thanks, I’ll go back to my apartment.” John turned that single eye on me. “I’ll be back in the morning with breakfast—”

  “Not necessary. I would not allow her to be ensorceled,” Parlan interrupted.

  “You might not, but it takes a lot of staff to run this joint and some of them may not be too happy about the change in leadership.”

  “That’s me, just making friends and influencing people wherever I go,” I quipped in a hollow attempt at humor.

  Parlan gave me a serious look. “Actually, that is quite true. My boon companions adore you.”

  “Oh, don’t go encouraging her,” John snapped.

  I waved at the two men. “’Night, guys. I’ll leave you two to argue about whether I’m a curse or a menace.” Parlan laughed and even John snorted. “Wait. That didn’t come out right.”

  “Go to bed,” John ordered.

  Parlan gestured and a servant stepped out of the shadows to lead me to a bedroom.

  * * *

  When I woke it took me a few minutes to remember where I was. Gauzy pale-peach-colored curtains surrounded me. They hung from an elaborate canopy frame like the branches of a tree, but made of crystal. The mattress felt like it was filled with feathers, but as I stirred it released the scent of roses and orange blossoms. I had vaguely noticed that feature when I’d climbed under the covers. It was nice, and I wished human mattresses could do the same thing.

  There was a silk dressing gown tossed across the back of a chair. I slipped it on and headed for the bathroom. A bath had already been drawn, steam etching patterns on the mirror and bubbles threatening to spill over the top of the marble tub. The bubble bath had the same scent as the mattress. I dropped the robe, climbed down the steps into the tub, and sank down to my chin. The hot water found the ache in my arms from when I clung to the fire escape’s ladder and stung the healing sword cut on my shoulder.

  While I soaked I laid out the plan of action. First: back to Ray and Gregory’s for a clean change of clothes. Next: to the office to recover my laptop (please let it still be there) and read this damn paper. Third: start drafting the complaint against NYU. Locking Ken out of his office sure seemed like termination without due process.

  An Álfar outfit had been laid out on the now-made bed. There was a lacy scrap that turned out to be underwear. I held it up, shook my head, and went back to my own clothes, stained and dirty though they were. I wasn’t going to go through New York dressed like a heroine in an operetta. John and Parlan were seated in the dining room. The yeasty smell of freshly baked bread had my stomach commenting. I stared longingly at the plump strawberries in a bowl and resolutely stuck my hands in the pockets of my jeans. John tossed over a McDonald’s bag with an Egg McMuffin inside.

  John wiped his mouth and tossed the napkin onto the table. “Okay, I’ll get Linnet home, get her packed, and bring her back here.” He stood.

  “Uh, no,” I said. “I have to go to work. I’ve got a client whose home has been invaded and who may himself be in danger.” I looked at John. “Which means you’ve got work to do too. I need that information on other scientists and I needed it yesterday.” John opened his mouth, but I rode right over him. “All the chivalry is sweet, and I say this with love, guys, but go fuck yourselves. I’m not some damsel in distress, and I’m not going to be turned into the princess in the tower or—”

  I broke off abruptly as something that had been niggling at me all night finally came into focus. John put a hand under my chin and pushed my mouth closed.

  “You’ll catch flies.”

  I ignored the snark and instead asked, “Why does Jolly have the cell phone number for the female vampire?” I croaked.

  “Interesting question. I was wondering when it was going to occur to you,” John said.

  The superior tone ticked me off. “You could have said something,” I accused.

  Parlan patted the air with his hands. “Both of you behave.”

  John looked mulish and I had a feeling my face held a similar expression, which sort of just confirmed Parlan’s opinion. I smoothed out the frown. “Maybe I should try calling her again. From a secure location, of course, and with friends around. See what happens.”

  “You know poking things with a stick isn’t the best investigatory method,” John said.

  “It gets results,” I countered.

  “And nearly gets you killed,” John shot back.

  “I swear. You are worse than children,” Parlan complained. “I have a feeling you will get your way about luring this vampire,” he continued. “Call upon me at any time so I can help protect you.”

  * * *

  “Dr. Stan Mensch, boating accident. Dr. Gillian West, shot and killed during a mugging. Dr. Ibrahim Bahir, fired from his post at Cairo University; he later committed suicide. Dr. Daniel Fujasaki, heart failure. Dr. Gerhart Rohle, missing persons report filed ten years ago.” John frowned down at his notes. “Odd nobody’s moved to have him declared dead yet.”

  It was late afternoon and we were gathered in my office. The space felt too small with John, Ken, me, and another chair added for Syd. He had insisted on being included in the meeting since it was his office suite that had been invaded. I couldn’t argue with that. Ken looked queasy. “Bottom line, it’s not good for your health to research the Hunters and the predator.”

  “But … but one was a mugging, and there were natural causes, and that Egyptian guy was depressed, and Rohle could have…” We all stared at Ken and his voice trailed away.

  “If you’re that gullible I have got a great deal on a bridge for you,” Syd snorted.

  “Is it too late for me to take that deal that NYU offered?” Ken asked, his voice small.

  “I expect so,” John said. “And even if you took the deal I bet I’d be reading about your tragic bicycle accident in the not-too-distant future.”

  Ken turned a frightened gaze on me. I wished I could offer him comfort, but I couldn’t. Instead I said, “I think that John may be right that you’re in danger—”


  “He’s not the only one in danger,” John said.

  I waved him off impatiently. “As I was saying, we’re going to find a way to deal with this.”

  “How?” Ken asked.

  “We read your paper and figure out why this information is so dangerous. Then we use that for leverage.”

  “Dangerous game,” Syd said.

  “You have another idea?” I asked.

  “Nah, I think it’s the only play.” Syd stood. “I’ll have Belinda make three copies. Sure hope this paper isn’t like the tape in that movie The Ring. We read the fucker and we all die.” He left.

  “I’m scared,” the scientist said.

  “You should be,” John said. Ken clapped a hand over his mouth, leaped up, and bolted out the door. “Not what I should have said?” the Álfar asked.

  “Not even close. We’ve got to work on your people skills.” I wondered how we would do that with a man who didn’t really feel emotions any longer. Maybe the methods used to teach autistic people to read human expressions would help? I was still pondering the John problem when Syd returned with three copies of the paper.

  “Where’s the doc?” he asked as he handed out the paper.

  “Puking,” John said.

  “Okay.”

  Ken returned. He had a paper cup of water from the now-replaced dispenser in the lobby and clammy sweat still beaded his forehead. “You guys mind if I stay here while you read? I kinda don’t want to be alone.”

  “You’re not going to be,” John said. “Though I’m not sure how much help an old short guy with a fake arm and an even shorter girl are going to be to me.”

  “Yeah, really have to work on the not-being-a-rude-asshole thing,” I snapped.

  “What did I say that wasn’t true?” John asked, and he seemed honestly baffled. I sighed. “Oh, never mind.”

  “Of course if Ken is attacked by one of the Powers while Linnet’s around he’ll probably be fine,” Syd said.

  “Not really,” I countered. “It didn’t help Chip or that old lawyer or all those folks on the movie set. They all got killed.” Ken bolted again.

  “Maybe we need to work on your people skills too,” John said.

  * * *

  It was as if the gods themselves had interceded to defend her.

  She stood among the ravening beasts but none could touch her. In the face of such faith and purity God’s very angels enfolded her and the walls did fall to crush them ere they harmed so much as a hair of her head.

  I set aside Ken’s treatise, spun my chair, and gazed out the office window. Despite the midday sun a chill bit into my bones. I was glad Syd had made hard copies of the paper. Often the rub of paper against skin helped me concentrate on dull legal pleadings, and I had expected this scientific paper to be equally dry and boring. Most of the paper was exactly what I expected, with diagrams of Hunter physiology and discussions of genetic drift. It was the appendices that had me shivering. These were original sources from Ptolemaic Egypt, Rome, medieval Germany, and Moorish Spain. All of them detailed women who had improbably survived attacks by what were clearly werewolves and vampires.

  Women just like me.

  “You’re a very strange human, Linnet.”

  I set aside the paper with such care that it could have been made of glass. I carefully walked to the door of my office, opened it, and stepped out. John was slouched on the couch reading. Ken was seated at the other end of the battered sofa, head in his hands. Syd’s office door was closed. Belinda was busy inputting billable hours into the computer. Everything seemed so normal. Everything except me.

  “Belinda, would you go pick up some coffees for us?” I asked.

  She glanced over toward the fridge and the now-missing coffeemaker. “Yeah, sure. Guess I better buy a new coffeemaker, huh?”

  “Yeah, why don’t you do that while you’re out too.”

  “If I do that I could just wait and make coffee when I come back”—she broke off and her frown cleared. “Ah, right, you want me out of here for a while.”

  “Uh, yeah, please,” I said.

  “Gotcha.” She grabbed her purse and left.

  John was looking at me with a speculative expression. I went over and knocked on Syd’s door. “Yeah, what?” he called.

  “I need to talk to you.” I turned back to John and Ken. “To all of you.”

  Syd emerged. He’d abandoned his suit coat and was in shirtsleeves. The prosthetic hand was flexing over and over. I wondered if he was aware of what he was doing.

  “Yeah, what?” Syd demanded.

  I took a deep breath, my gaze flicking between the three men. “I think I’m the predator.”

  14

  The first reaction was stunned silence. Then Syd gave a guffaw. Ken lifted his head and said, “Are you high? That’s … insane.”

  I met John’s single eye. “I was arriving at that conclusion myself,” he said.

  There was a duet of “What?” out of Syd and Ken.

  “I watched her duel the Álfar queen. She has no training in fencing, but she won. She survived an attack by five werewolves. Attacks by Álfar.”

  “And I got away from a vampire last night.”

  The scientist was staring at me like he’d just found the source of the Nile or the Holy Grail. “Really? ’Cause that would be so awesome.”

  “No, no, it wouldn’t,” I said firmly. “Hunters. Certain death. Remember? I’ve got a question,” I said. “So if I’ve got this thing, how did I get it? Is it in the water or something? On toilet seats? How the hell do you catch it?” I directed the question to Ken.

  “I don’t know. That’s the one real gap in my research.”

  “So how do we prove this one way or the other?” Syd asked, bringing us back to the most pressing issue.

  “We check Linnet into the hospital. We’ll start with blood tests.” Ken was getting very excited. “Then an MRI and a CAT scan. Maybe a bone scan too—”

  “There’s an easier way,” John interrupted. “Show her to a Hunter.”

  “Yeah, and when it kills me that would be definitive proof. I hate this plan,” I said.

  “We’ll put it in a cage. Or put you in a cage and have it on a leash. Like they do on Shark Week,” Ken said enthusiastically.

  “Okay, really, really hating this plan. Just sayin’.”

  “How would we even get ahold of a Hunter?” Syd asked. “The doc here only had a few minutes with a corpse before the vamps took it away.”

  “What do we know?” John asked. “There’s a class of vampire that breed and care for these things. They have to keep them somewhere. We find out where. We go steal one.”

  Syd looked over at me. “Assuming for the moment we do this crazy thing, we don’t take Linnet along.”

  “Agreed,” John said.

  “I’m not letting you guys go into danger and not helping,” I stated.

  John frowned at me. “I thought you hated this plan?”

  “I do, but … What am I supposed to do? Sit at home twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the menfolk to come back?”

  “Yes.”

  I wasn’t giving up yet. I marshaled another argument in favor of my going even though I totally didn’t want to go. “There will be vampires there. You’ll need me to keep them off you.”

  “And how the hell would you do that?” Syd asked skeptically.

  “If she were to come it would probably involve banana peels, falling pianos, and random flying anvils,” John said. “But she’s not coming,” the Álfar concluded. He tugged thoughtfully at his lower lip. “We need somebody to drive the police van.”

  “We’re going to have a police van?” I asked faintly.

  “We want this thing in a cage.” The good eye swiveled over to Syd. “How about you? You’re too old and fat to be part of the snatch team.”

  “Running up against that people-skills thing again,” I muttered.

  “Oh. Sorry if I was rude,” John said to Syd.
r />   “You were, but I take your point. How are you boys going to get in? We have to assume this place is guarded.”

  “We’ll park nearby and go in through Fey. That should get us past any security.” Ken held up a hand as if he were a student. “What?” John snapped.

  “If we’re going through Fey why do we need a car … van … can’t we just … I don’t know … blip between places?”

  “You watch too much TV,” John said. “Geography is geography. We have to assume these facilities are in isolated locations and not in Soho. We still have to cover the same number of miles in or out of Fey.”

  “Weird,” Ken muttered. He turned away, muttering to himself, then broke off and turned back abruptly. “Wait a minute! They’ll know who we are and I’m already on their radar.”

  “Good God, we’re not going to go in wearing jerseys with our names on them,” John said impatiently. “There’s a reason criminals love balaclavas.”

  “You know they stink really bad,” I offered. “Not balaclavas, Hunters, I mean. Well, that’s what I’ve been told. Read, actually.”

  Ken chimed in. “Boy is that ever true. The one I examined was disgusting. I thought some of that was because the body was decaying. So they smell like that all the time?”

  “I guess. That’s what the books say.”

  “So do we add a breathing mask to our balaclavas?” Syd asked in a wry tone.

  “Vicks under the nose. I used it when I watched autopsies back when I was a cop. Not perfect, but it helps. Cigarettes help too,” John added.

  “And how are we going to subdue and control this critter?” the ever-practical Syd asked.

  “I’ll figure that out,” John said.

  “Not what I wanted to hear,” Syd replied.

  John’s single eye scanned us all again. “So are we agreed?”

  Everyone nodded, even though I was the last and the most reluctant. “Okay, I don’t like it, but I’ll wait by the phone to bail you all out if this goes pear shaped.”

  “Wait,” Ken said. “How do we know they even have these things near here? Or even in the U.S.? They could be breeding them in … in Siberia or Mongolia, someplace remote.”

  “When Chip got killed my dad was afraid they’d bring in a Hunter,” I replied. “Which implies they’re somewhere close.”