Fun
I figured Lain’s detective friends didn’t mind too much that I broke their door, because they let us use their back office to talk. Might have helped that the vampire wrote a cheque to get it fixed immediately and called the police to ensure no one bothered looking into the “minor disturbance.”
The secretary—Ryann David—and her boyfriend—Elliot Rhys—stood to the side in the office for my meeting with the vamp. Rhys had consumed about two flasks of whiskey and was grinning like an idiot, passing off the girl’s concern with, “Baby, I’m fine,” said so slurred he was nearly incoherent. Lain sat back on the swiveling chair, feet up on the desk, and regarded me carefully. I took the chair opposite her. The office was sparse and simple, with white walls and chrome and black furniture that, while cold, seemed a whole lot warmer than Bravo Division’s bases were.
“So you’re kinda late for your sister’s funeral,” Lain said.
“I didn’t know about her until a few days ago.”
“I’m guessing you’re related on your pop’s side?” She cocked her head and waited for me to elabourate. Smart. Didn’t want to say anything specific because she didn’t yet know what I knew. Wouldn’t want to slip up around a potential enemy.
“Are you suggesting we don’t look alike?”
“You’re clearly of different backgrounds.”
Huh, so my Japanese heritage made me stick out. “Guess she was a white girl?”
“Yes, but I was speaking specifically of her being a witch and from a long line of them. You aren’t, I’m guessing.”
Fucking hell, so there were witches too? If Frankenstein showed up, I was checking myself into a mental hospital.
“I...don’t think so,” I said. “Hard to say, though. I think witches work a little more differently in Japan. My mother summoned this demon I presume, sure, but all I ever saw her do were a few Shinto rituals over the holidays when I was little before she embraced a Westerner life completely.”
“So you are Lo’s daughter.”
“Who the hell is Lo? That’s his name?”
“It is over here.”
“Hmm. Didn’t hear that.” Even after all that time, there had been no details about my father—not from my mother when she finally told me the truth, not from Delarosa or any of the scientists who poked at me for all those years before my field job at Bravo Division. O magatsuhi no kami—great god of evil things. That’s who my mother compared my demon grandmother to, but I never knew how true it was. I’d never found much info on a Shinto equivalent of the antichrist, so I figured she practiced sorcery from another source. Lain had initially asked me what type of demon I was—the fuck if I knew even that much.
Lain shrugged. “Apparently, no one likes to speak it.”
“Like Candyman or Bloody Mary?” Rhys spoke up.
“You’re lucky I’m more fun than the person who told me this story,” the vampire said to the boy. “I got in trouble for making jokes way back then. Anyway, his name is roughly translated into English as ‘Lord of Oblivion’ but because no one likes to say it, they call him Lo.”
Oblivion. At least I knew that part from Delarosa. “Shouldn’t that be ‘Loo’?”
Lain sighed. “Also exactly what I said. I guess prepositions don’t count.”
“And what do you know about him?”
“Not a whole lot. The people who do know anything about him are terrified to talk. Most don’t believe he exists.”
“What did Mishka know about him?”
“I have no idea. She never told me anything about her demon lineage. Her mom finally broke down and told me while we were in the midst of almost being killed. Because that’s when people like to have honest conversations apparently.” She rolled her eyes. “I fucking hate humans sometimes.”
The redheaded guy, Rhys, cleared his throat pointedly.
“Oh, whatever,” Lain said. “You two would still be making eyes at one another and not talking if it hadn’t been for a life or death situation.”
The secretary’s dark skin went a few shades of red.
“Fascinating,” I said dryly. “Can we move on?”
“Why come asking about this now?” Lain asked. “Nearly six years is a long time.”
I guess I had no reason not to tell them. It wasn’t like they’d keep bugging me like everyone at the company did to talk about it. “Mishka wasn’t the only one of Lo’s kids attacked. They came after me, too, only I wasn’t there at the time. My family was.”
“Your family?” Ryann spoke up, voice soft.
I nodded. Kept my face emotionless—didn’t let myself think about it a whole lot. I’d been made to repeat the story way too many times to let myself get emotionally involved in it yet again. “My husband and kids.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
Her boyfriend nodded. “Me too.”
I hated it when people acted all sad, like they cared somehow. Like they understood. But I brushed my annoyance back and ignored the two of them, focusing instead on Lain. To her credit, she didn’t get all sympathetic like the others, and I disliked her a little less because of it.
I drummed my fingers on the arm of the chair—all this exposition sucked when I could be off killing things. “I only vaguely knew what I was back then. My mother told me when I was a teenager, but I didn’t think much of it. Didn’t realize it was such a big deal. Then boom, a bomb goes off that was meant to kill me. They’re dead and I’m left to find whoever was responsible and kill them.”
“It’s kind of late for that,” Lain said. “He bit it a few months after the attack. Saw it happen myself.”
“Saw it...but I thought you did it?”
Lain pursed her lips and fought a grin. “Uh, yeah, about that...see, a whole lot of people died, including the person who was actually the one to kill the crazy-ass warlock responsible for everything. And technically I helped, so I figured I’d just take credit for it and collect all the bounties.”
This couldn’t be the end. Couldn’t. Delarosa said some shadow government was involved and I sure as fucking hell would find them. “So there’s nothing else you can tell me?”
“There’s not a whole lot more to say,” Lain said. “That’s about all I know. Yes, there’s some kind of secret society or government, and yes, the guy responsible for killing your sister—and apparently almost you—was trying to get in with them. But he’s dead and I’ve never met anyone from this organization before.”
“And if I want to find this secret organization?” I gestured around at the office. “You’re telling me some psychic detectives can’t find out who they are?”
“Uh, ‘can’ and ‘want to’ are two very different things,” Rhys said.
I levelled him with a glare and he swallowed hard.
His girlfriend wouldn’t be so easily daunted, however. “Why would we help you? From what both you and Zara have described, it would be suicide.”
“Then you don’t all have to jump on board,” I said. “If you’re looking to protect your boy, you could be the one to do the psychic detecting.”
“I’m not a detective,” she said.
I shrugged. “Fine—maybe we can use a psychic secretary.”
“I’m not a psychic either—I’m a Demon Hunter.”
Huh. Hadn’t heard of those either. “So that would be...someone who hunts down demons, I suppose?”
She nodded.
So that’s why she seemed so scrappy. I glanced at the vampire. “And you’re friends with her why, exactly?”
“She doesn’t run around killing demons indiscriminately,” Lain said. “Ryann’s right, though—why the hell do you think we’d help you? No offense, but I’m pretty sure we could take you.”
A threat of violence nearly rolled off my lips, but Lain didn’t seem to take me seriously in that department. I could show her, of course, that I was more than capable of killing them all in the blink of an eye, but they’d have trouble helping me if they were all dead.
“I could pay you,” I offered.
Lain smiled at me like you might when a child says something silly. “You couldn’t afford me, buttercup.”
Okay, onto the next tactic. “It’s the right thing to do?” I glanced at Ryann. She seemed like a bleeding heart do-gooder. “Stopping an evil secret organization that kills people would probably net you some good karma.”
“Wrong again,” Lain said. “The kid may want to help people, but she’s not stupid about it. And that’s not winning you any points with me.”
“And she’s the one you’d have to convince,” Rhys said. “’Cause without Zar, we’d be dead. And useless.”
Negotiating sucked. Or maybe this was bribery. Honestly, thinking and planning and stuff wasn’t my style and I had no idea what to say to them.
After a few minutes of pondering, I met Lain’s gaze. “It could be fun.”
She stared at me, expression unreadable, perhaps weighing her options—perhaps considering the easiest way to throw me out of the place.
“Okay,” she said at last. “Sounds like a deal.”
****
Ryann and Ellie didn’t seem too pleased with the direction of the discussion the vampire and I were having, but I guess I hardly blamed them. Mortals did tend to be a little hesitant about facing situations that could result in their deaths. Thankfully, Lain was game for just about anything I threw her way.
Unfortunately, what we didn’t have was a plan. I was flying blind, used to taking orders, and I couldn’t offer any suggestions. At least Rhys tried to get into the spirit of things, though his girlfriend was looking less impressed with him as time went by.
“Well, we could make it a game,” he said.
“Meaning what, exactly?” Lain tipped her head back and gazed at him.
“Um...play, ‘If I were a member of a secret evil government, where would I be?’”
“I wouldn’t be somewhere where the four of us could find me,” Ryann said stubbornly, still determined to ruin my night.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Lain said.
“Giving up?” was the secretary’s hopeful response.
“No, I think you hit that nail on the head, Buff.”
I hadn’t yet figured out why the vampire kept calling the Hunter that, but I didn’t want to interrupt.
“They’re all powerful and all rich, so why the fuck would they be hanging around this dimension? I mean, I’m not up on other dimensions and stuff, but demons put themselves there when they don’t want to be touched, right? Like your pops, Lo. That’s what your sister’s mom...god, this family tree is complicated.” She sighed. “That’s what Heaven Thiering had me thinking. Lo exists in another dimension ’cause he’s powerful and shit and wants to keep out of the reach of others. Ergo, if I were a member of a badass ultra-evil Illuminati group, I’d be in another dimension.”
I rubbed at my temples—the whole thing was giving me a fucking headache. Thank god Fraser had never dragged me into a meeting like this before.
“Dropping this case immediately still sounds like a better idea to me,” Ryann said.
“I object to the dimension hopping direction this conversation is going in as well,” Rhys said. “Especially when we don’t even know if it’ll work.”
Even Lain didn’t look too clear with how to do such a thing. I guess the problem was that the rest of them had something to live for. I could probably rectify that, but I’d try other strategies first.
“You gotta know people. Isn’t there someone who could help?”
Lain chewed on the possibility for a few moments before slowly nodding. “I do...but I feel kinda bad going to him with this. It’s always business when I make contact and I think he’s going to develop a complex.” Her gaze went to Rhys’s, and they exchanged a glance everyone seemed to understand except for me.
The Hunter/secretary pounced. “You can’t keep—”
“It’s okay, Ry,” he said, but she ignored him.
“You know what it does to him—”
“And that’s why I only go to Peter when it’s business,” Lain said. “So it’s your damn fault he’s getting a complex in the first place.”
“Uh, who’s Peter?” I asked.
“A demonologist,” Lain said.
“And what’s the problem with contacting him?”