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“Oh, that. It’s for Hunahpu. He’s really into Sister Ludi. He thinks saying she’s fake is some kind of Anglo conspiracy. Cale wore it to show respect and Hunahpu gave him a cut rate on product.”
She keeps looking at Cale’s body with no way to process what just happened. I feel a little sorry for her. But I feel sorrier for Hunter.
“Was it Hunahpu who gave you the special Akira for the Sentenza kid?”
“I don’t know who it was for, but yeah, Cale said there was a special batch for someone.”
“That’s all I needed to know.”
I take her by the arm and walk her to a cab that’s been waiting outside the club. Like everyone else, the driver is standing and gawking at the mess. I put Cale’s girl in the backseat and close the door.
“Listen to me,” I say, leaning in the window. “It’s hard and nasty what you saw tonight, but you’re lucky it happened now. Cale was never going to last doing what he does. There are people out there ten times harder and a hundred times meaner than Cale was ever going to be. He was always going to end up on his back with holes in him. The difference is if you’d stuck around much longer, you’d be lying in blood next to him, another dumb dead girl in a place that spews out more dumb dead girls than smog. Go home. Be sad for a while. When you’re over it, fall in love with someone who has better tattoos.”
I go around, give the driver some money, and tell him to take her home. Before he can get in the cab, I take out the .460 and pop a few rounds over the crowd’s head. The cut-down shotgun shells I’d loaded it with aren’t filled with pellets, but with one of Vidocq’s memory powders. It will scrub away the last hour from everyone’s brain. I might have a bad temper and be dating someone who eats people, but I’m not stupid enough to leave witnesses.
Someone’s dropped a coat on the ground. I pick it up, take Candy by the arm, and walk her around the corner. When we’re out of sight of the club, I use the coat to wipe Cale’s blood from her face and hands.
I say, “Thanks for saving me back there.”
Her eyes are a little vacant.
“Wow. I haven’t done that to a person for a long fan for a time.”
“How are you feeling?”
“A little spacey, but okay. Are you okay? We should get you to see Allegra to get the bullet out.”
“I’m fine. It barely grazed me and I’ve already stopped bleeding.”
She leans against the wall, a little out of breath.
“He shot you. I wouldn’t have done what I did if he hadn’t shot you.”
“I know.”
She stares at me, her eyes still a little unfocused, but she’s coming back to earth.
“Did I go too far?”
I shrug.
“Technically he did shoot me. And he did kill his friend, so we can assume he would have kept shooting until he killed me or I got him. So, yeah, you saved me, and from my point of view that’s a good thing.” I pause. “Next time, though, maybe you can just snack on the bad guys a little until we see just how much fight they have in them. We probably don’t need to kill all of them.”
“Don’t kill everyone. Got it. You sure you’re okay?”
“The arm’s fine. The coat took most of the damage. It was brand-new. Now it’s like all my damn clothes. Shot up and bled on.”
She cups my face in her hands and kisses me hard. I kiss her back.
“What happens now?” Candy says.
“We go see Hunahpu. I know where the address is. We can leave the bike.”
“How are we going to get there?”
I pull her away from the wall.
“Have you ever walked through a shadow?” I ask.
