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I follow close on his heels, one hand near the baton clipped to my belt in case someone gets any bright ideas about mugging us along the way.
A bell over the door tinkles when we enter, and a cheery voice calls out from deeper within. “I’ll be right with you!”
Drawn by the familiar cadence, I head toward the voice where a glass display case holds jars of body parts next to shriveled heads, hands, and feet.
A short cash register sits on a counter next to the case, and the man behind it bags up his customer’s purchase in a discreet black bag before passing it over. “Safe travels to the exit.”
The woman darts a nervous glance at us before scurrying toward the exit, and I take her place.
The shopkeeper smiles, his wizened face folding like origami around his mouth and eyes. “How may I be of service?”
“Philip?” I reach out to grab his cheek and tug it out like taffy. “What the hell are you doing running a shop in the Bone Yard? Does Julian know you’re doing this?”
Philip is an imp we hire for odd jobs when we need a shapeshifter. But after he got squashed between buildings during a fight that had broken out, he’s made himself scarce.
I assumed that Julian, the previous owner of HelloHell Delivery and now the Ambassador for the Others, had stashed him away somewhere far from danger. But this isworsethan a clutch full of harpies out for blood.
Philip slaps my hand away, and his wrinkles smooth out to reveal a bland-looking, brown-haired man in his early twenties with a baby face. "Of course, he knows I’m here. Half this shit is his.”
My gaze sweeps over the items on display. “And the other half?”
“Things people bring in for trade, or that Adie and the demons of destruction find during their travels.” He grabs a spiky, purple rock off the counter and an upside-down flower pot. “Check this out.”
He places the rock on the mat in front of him, then covers it with the pot.
Grinning, he says, “It will be fast, so don’t blink.”
He whips the pot away, and for a heartbeat, an alien-looking creature stares up at us, like amethyst come to life, before it curls in on itself and turns back into a rock.
“I have to keep it under a lamp when I close shop, or it scurries away and takes forever to find. Apparently, a bigger version of this got into their house and little Storm tried to befriend it.” Philip sets the pot aside. “So, what can I do for you?”
I pull out the picture of Jimmy Lewis and hold it up for Philip to see. “We’re looking for this guy, presumably dead. He came to the Bone Yard with a pocket full of angel feathers.”
“Oh, yeah, I remember him.” Philip reaches under the counter and pulls out a steel box. Using a key attached to his belt, he unlocks it and flips it around to reveal four white feathers tipped in vibrant red. “Guy had no idea what they were worth. I gave him twenty thousand for all four and sent him on his way.”
Darius reaches out to touch one. “They’re real.”
Philip snaps the lid closed. “Damn straight, and I already have a buyer, so don’t get your fingerprints on them.”
Philip can selleachfeather for fifty thousand, so it’s no wonder he’s protective.
His eyes narrow on us with suspicion. “You weren’t hired by the incubus these came from, were you?”
“No, we were hired by the wife of the guy you ripped off.” I flick the picture in my hand. “Any idea where he went to after he left here?”
“Man was pretty hard up. Looked like he was coming down off something.” The bell at the door jingles to announce a new arrival. “He asked where he could get a little puff. I directed him to the Poison Frog.”
Puff is the street name forgenicaein vapor form. The drug had hit the streets as soon as Others came out in the open, selling a magical experience to regular humans.
It fell out of use fast, though, because of the terrible side effects. But it keeps popping up every so often, and it’s not surprising that it can be found here, where nothing is off limits.
“The Cellar is under the Poison Frog,” Darius murmurs. “If we go there without greeting Nickodemus first, he’ll take it as a slight.”
“Well, we can’t have that.” I turn toward the exit. “Let’s go speak to the Terror from Beneath.”
lost zombies
- Flint -
