Page 2

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MAX

S eeing Guillotina dropkick a man in the back had woken me right up, a jolt of caffeine to my system. Bitter coffee, angry and black. Poor bastard was lucky that she wasn’t aiming directly for his spine. But finding out that he was sent by one of my uncles? That was like having that same cup of coffee dumped over my head.

My ears were still hot, my skin blazing as I drove us from Unholy Grounds to a different destination. Roscoe finally accepted that we’d had way too much excitement for one night, staying behind with Johnny to close up shop and head home. But I needed something to settle my nerves. A little nightcap. Silk would have exactly what I needed.

No way I could fall asleep so soon after all that adrenaline. Leon clearly felt the same, mouth going a mile a minute as he sat in the back seat. I nodded along as he nattered away, waiting for the right moment to interject. I kept my focus on the road, trying not to get too unsettled now that I knew Tío Gustavo had his eye on me and my friends.

“That was beyond incredible, Tina. You took that guy down before he even knew what was happening.” Leon smacked his hands together. “Wham! Just like that.”

Sitting in the passenger seat, Tina shrugged and clucked her tongue. “What can I say? I was born to do this.”

I shot her a quick glare, lingering just long enough to convey my displeasure, refusing to be an irresponsible driver. “Don’t be so cocky, Hernandez. You could have killed him. And boots off the dashboard, how many times do I have to tell you?”

She scoffed, putting her legs down and complying. “As if. How many times do I get to ride in your car anymore, now that you’re spending all your waking hours with Witch Boy over here? All your non-waking hours too, apparently.”

Leon pulled himself forward, his smile like a bright crescent moon as he popped his head between the two of us. “Aww, Tina! Are you really jealous? You can hang out with Max any time you want, you know.”

She threw me a steely glare. “Don’t you think I know that? It doesn’t bother me, really. I just worry. Max is very, very happy right now, and when your world is tinted pink and rosy, it’s harder for you to notice when something dark and dangerous is creeping up on you.”

I could see the shit-eating grin spreading across Leon’s face. I squirmed in the driver’s seat, feeling my neck going hot. Even when Tina was just trying to express that she cared, she was so damn brutal about everything. The honesty, most of all.

“Tina, fucking — shut up, okay? I’m not that happy.”

Leon waggled his eyebrows, so confident I’d see him doing it in the rearview mirror. “You seemed pretty happy when I did that thing last night.”

My skin was on fire. Tina fiddled with her door. “How do I roll down these windows? I need to throw up real quick.”

“I keep the child safety on.” Perfect. Deflect with humor, toss in a random insult, and maybe he would let this go. “You never know with Leon, can’t control his limbs sometimes. Like a goddamn octopus.”

But it didn’t work. “A sexy octopus,” Leon said, as if that made any lick of sense. And yet I found it adorable anyway.

And sexy, in a stupid kind of way, because he really was irredeemably handsy, pawing and groping at me whenever we had a minute to ourselves. Unbelievably flattering, to be so wanted. Part of me was tempted to leave Tina out on the highway, find somewhere to park, bend Leon over the hood to pound him all through the night.

My hands crushing the steering wheel, I raised my voice, counting on the volume to drown out all the teasing I was receiving from two fronts.

“The point is that I am still perfectly capable of perceiving danger, especially when it’s right in front of me. Thank you very much, Tina.”

“Welcome,” she grunted.

“Tío Gustavo being the prime example. Good God. Can’t believe he’s getting in on the action, too. Business can’t be that bad.”

“Okay, I give up.” Weight dragged on the back of my seat as Leon shifted, adjusting his butt, getting comfortable. “Clearly there’s much more to this Gustavo Brillante I don’t know about. Shoot.”

“Antiquities dealer. That’s his bag. Likes to trade in relics, artifacts, anything rare and exotic. Doesn’t matter if it’s mundane or magical, which only complicates matters because he gets to hide dangerous and useful things among all the regular vases and sculptures and knickknacks.”

Leon gasped. “So he’s like a smuggler. A relic smuggler.”

“Worse,” Tina said. “The man loves the challenge of passing off worthless lumps of nothing as powerful artifacts. It’s a point of pride for him. That wand you bought might work the first couple of times, and that’s by design. If you bother coming back to complain, he’ll have his thugs scare you off.”

“That sounds sketchy as hell. Isn’t that illegal?”

“Does it matter?” Tina shook her head. “He’s a Brillante. He’s an accomplished enchanter, too, and that’s what makes him so infuriating to deal with. And sometimes, it’s not just a dud. He loves selling cursed objects, too. You buy something from one of Gustavo’s shops. Say it’s a jewelry box, tiny and pretty. Makes music when you open it.”

I barked with bitter laughter. “Except it also comes with an illusion. One of his favorite tricks. Maybe it triggers a headless woman to walk across your bedroom at night. By that point it doesn’t matter if you get rid of the box. The illusion has stuck. So you have to hire someone to get rid of your ‘ghost.’ And that someone also works for him, so he profits all the way down. ”

Leon frowned into the rearview mirror. “But that sounds like so much work for, well, not a lot of money. Depending on how much fake exorcisms go for these days, anyway.”

“That’s the thing,” I said. “Tío Gustavo doesn’t do it for the money. He has plenty to begin with. He does it for the thrill of getting away with the scam. The deception. He’ll steal your wallet with a smile, then make you pay to get it back.”

A briefest moment of silence, I noticed, Leon’s eyes flitting to either side as he tried to phrase his next question. “Wait a minute. Then those counterfeits he makes, they could totally end up muddling a finder’s work. Like, what if a finder went out and acquired a fake by accident, did more damage to their client in the end?”

My lips curled. “Why do you think I hate the bastard so much? It’s how Guillotina and I knew instantly from that key in the thug’s pocket. It’s a skeleton key. Lets his crooks slip into almost any door they find. But it only works in a Brillante thug’s hands. Gustavo’s specialty.”

“They used to be close,” Tina said. “Close enough that Gustavo believed he could make Maximo his protege some day.”

Leon’s mouth fell open, a perfect circle. Cute, but story hour was over, and we’d arrived at our destination, anyway. I parallel parked not a block away from Silk, wanting to get a few last words in.

“And believe it or not, there was a time when I thought I wanted to be his protege, too. But you spend enough time being a Brillante, and eventually you realize being a Brillante isn’t what you want to spend your time on. Not if you have a conscience, at least.”

No trouble at the entrance, considering Leon’s outfit, and mine. We threw our jackets on in the car, but I did have concerns that the sweatpants would get me stopped at the doorway. Maybe it was because we knew Silk’s rotation of bouncers well enough, coming to the bar for work all the time. Haruko was nice enough to let the sweatpants slide.

I couldn’t say the same for Vera Loong. The Jade Spider shrieked at the sight of me, as if I’d walked in wearing a mud-stained potato sack from the waist down.

“Maximilian Drake! What have you done to yourself? What on earth are you wearing?”

I grumbled under my breath as I kissed her hello on the cheek. Trust the woman who lived out a Hollywood boudoir fantasy to be horrified by the sight of a cotton-polyester blend.

Vera wore a flowing sapphire garment that was sheer and gauzy in places, silken and fitted in others, part nightgown and part dress, like something a movie star might wear to sleep. The Jade Spider held a hand to her chest, taking a deep breath.

“Is Auntie Vera not paying you boys enough? It hurts my heart to see you living in such squalor.”

Leon chuckled as he bussed her on the cheek. “Come on, Vera. The jogging pants aren’t so bad. At least you get to see all the goodies.”

She looked down, gasped, and shrieked again. I felt myself blush, my hands flying to cover my front. Fucking Leon. He was going to pay for that one.

Guillotina groaned as she drifted by, making a beeline for the bar. “Spare us the dramatics, Vera. It’s just a dick and balls.”

I gulped, struggling to make myself look modest, especially as I hobbled over to the bar to order. After I collected our drinks — two white Russians, because Leon had a sweet tooth — I hurriedly slid into one of the booths with the others.

Vera steepled her fingers, eyes wet and sparkling as she smiled. “What a rare and wondrous treat this is, seeing you visit Auntie Vera for something beyond the mundane drudgery of finder work.”

Leon took a sip of his cocktail, then set it down, tongue quickly sweeping at his milk mustache. “Oh. Did you have another job for us?”

“Oh, I knew it. Your fondness for Auntie Vera is only transactional.” She held a hand to her forehead and choked out a fake sob. “Why would you even come to me if not for money?”

Tina groaned, the ball of ice in her whiskey clinking as she lifted the glass to her lips.

Leon flashed one of his sunny smiles as he patted the back of Vera’s hand. “There, there, Vera. We love you, and we love your money.”

I sighed, nursing my own drink. “Job or no job, I’m just happy we haven’t heard from the Quartz Spider again.”

“Or is that such a good thing?” Tina asked. “No news is good news, except it could also mean he’s planning something awful.”

Vera shook her head. “No news, indeed. Last I heard of him was when I hurled the lot of you into the spider dimension, when he followed you into that place of silks and cobwebs.”

Ah, yes. That ghastly, greenish place, where strands of silk fell from an unseen ceiling, where the distant corners of the dark dimensions bristled with the skittering of a million spiders.

“Couldn’t sense you at all,” Tina said, looking me dead in the eye. “I usually have a vague idea of where you are, but that night? You just sort of — disappeared. I would have come to help otherwise.”

I squeezed her hand. “I know you would have. Thank you.”

“But it’s precisely as I explained it.” Vera framed her face with her hands, her fingers splayed out to vaguely resemble a spiderweb. “Some of us spiders dedicate ourselves to the Mother. Hearing her whispers is merely one of the perks. Access to this little dimension is another.”

“That’s why she knows so much,” Leon muttered to Tina. “All the whispers. Her hair is full of secrets.”

Vera fluffed her hair, throwing him a disapproving look. “I wonder if you boys can see where I’m going with this. The Quartz Spider is extremely talented at covering his tracks. How he followed you into the spider dimension, then left safely again of his own accord? Why, it can only mean that he has dedicated himself to the Mother Spider as well.”

I could feel the corners of my eyes crinkle as I studied her face. “So what you’re saying is that we should speak to this Mother Spider of yours, see if she would throw one of her own children under the bus.”

“Arachne may not be so pleased to learn that one among her brood is dabbling in strange magics far beyond her sphere. The Mother approves when we dabble in secrets, in stealth, in the use of poisons.”

Vera dipped the end of one fingernail in her drink, dropped it onto her tongue. The liquid hissed on contact.

“With the right offerings, the right cajoling? She may well be convinced to betray Brendan Shum. Listen to me, selling out one of my own brother spiders. But again, these are the very things that Arachne would approve of. Quick tip: she also approves of fortune cookies.”

Leon cocked an eyebrow. “Huh? Fortune cookies?”

The phone by Vera’s hand lit up, its wallpaper a ghostly jade green. She held it up to her face, eyes scanning the message. When she smiled, her teeth were tinted in the same venomous shade.

“Gentlemen. It appears I have a job for the two of you, after all.”