CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Brand knocked. “You beating off in there?”
I opened the door, dressed for training now. “Sorry, I had a phone call.”
“Right.”
Kelly moved through a practice routine with a sword. She spun and jabbed. Her footwork was, as always, impressive. She was always balanced and graceful even as the blade whipped around with deadly accuracy. It was a thing of beauty to watch her move.
She stopped with the sword held ready. “It’s about time.”
“Sharon called. Evidently I need to find Persephone.”
“How are you going to get to Hades without Sharon’s help?”
“I think Persephone will come to see me again. Probably today.”
“And what leads you to believe that?”
I explained the hospital visit and how I thought it might be a dream. I finished up by telling her what Sharon said.
Kelly returned the sword to her weapons cabinet while I began stretching. “And you think she’ll give you extra time?”
“Why not? If it gets her what she wants, what’s a few days?”
I leaned over and touched the floor without bending my knees. I slowly pushed my palms to the mat. I felt the pull of my muscles stretching. I rose and worked my arms.
Esther popped into the dojo.
“Miranda’s dead!” she said.
I jumped back, startled. I just couldn’t get used to her just popping in like that. “What do you mean she’s dead?”
“I went to your place and she was lying on the couch, completely naked, and she wasn’t moving. I figured she was napping, but I noticed her chest wasn’t rising or falling. I pushed my hand through her, and her heart isn’t beating.”
“Shit. Kelly, call nine-one-one and have paramedics get over there.”
I ran to the men’s room, grabbed my keys and wallet, then rushed outside into the cold. I jumped into the rental, fired it up, and got the heater going. Was Persephone already killing my friends? Esther popped into the passenger seat.
“Sorry I got in a lather about you making time with that quiff, but I’m still mad.”
“Miranda isn’t a slut.”
“Says you.”
***
When we got to my place, the paramedics were leaving.
I bolted from the car and rushed to the first guy. I was about to ask him about Miranda when I heard him talking to his coworker.
“I think we should charge extra for prank calls.”
I dodged around him and hurried to the apartment. Miranda sat wearing a robe and talked to one of the paramedics.
“Sorry about wasting your time, Kent, I really am, but if I ever need rescuing, I hope you’re first through the door again.”
“See?” Esther said. “Quiff.”
Miranda saw me approaching and smiled. “You won’t believe what happened here when you left.”
“Try me.”
“I went to sleep on the couch. Didn’t bother to get dressed. And next thing I know, these guys broke in and scared the hell out of me. Kent here was kind enough to get me a robe so I could cover up.”
“But you’re OK?”
“Just a little embarrassed.”
“Nothing to be embarrassed about, ma’am,” Kent said. “We’re just glad it was a false alarm.”
“She was dead,” Esther said. “Kaput. A futzing corpse. I’m not making this up.”
“How’s your heart?”
“Still thundering.”
“Her pulse is fine,” Kent said. “You folks have a nice day.” He followed the other paramedics back to their truck.
“How did you hear about this?” Miranda asked. “I thought you were going to the dojo.”
“I . . . uh . . . just had a bad feeling,” I said and tossed a quick glare at Esther.
Miranda followed my gaze for a moment then shrugged. “You get feelings about things sometimes? I guess that’s not much of a stretch to ask me to believe after what I’ve seen the last several days.”
“Yeah, a premonition,” I said, rolling with it.
“It was wrong.”
“So it would seem.”
“You didn’t call the paramedics, did you?”
“Wasn’t me.”
She nodded. “If you throw on some real clothes, I’ll do the same and we can grab lunch. We might want to make sure we’re on the same page about things.”
“Same page. Right.”
“So. Lunch?”
“Yeah, OK.”
“Can I grab a shower first? I smell like sex.”
“Go for it.”
She kissed me then turned and headed for the bathroom. I closed the door, and when I heard the shower start, I turned to Esther.
“Are you playing with me?”
“She was dead. I swear!”
“You were mistaken. She seems fine.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“I believe you believe it.”
Esther made a face at me and popped out of sight. I went into the bedroom and changed clothes. A few minutes later, Miranda left the bathroom in a cloud of steam with a towel wrapped around her. She approached me and gave me a quick kiss then grabbed her clothes and went back into the bathroom, where the mirror remained fogged over.
I pulled out my phone and called DGI. It was time to start making preparations for Wednesday. Phil answered.
“Jonathan Shade here. I didn’t know you worked Sundays.”
“Bills to pay. What do you want, Shade?”
“Got any summoners on staff, Phil?”
“Summoners?”
“Wizards who summon people, beasties, demi-gods, what have you?”
“You can’t afford them.”
“I suspect we can work something out.”
“Then call Mike and leave me out of it.”
“But I like you, Phil. You’re fun.”
He told me to do something that was physically impossible and hung up on me. I scrolled through the contacts on my phone and called Mike Endar.
He didn’t answer, of course, which is why I hadn’t called him first. I waited for the beep then said, “Mike, it’s Jonathan Shade. I understand you have a few wizards who are trying to become summoners and will work for free if the summoning sounds cool. I have someone very cool for them to summon, so give me a holler.”
I hung up and glanced toward the restroom. The door was closed, and I heard the hair dryer blasting away. I knew Miranda would be a while. I stepped outside and leaned against the wall. The phone rang and I checked: Mike.
“Long time, no chat, Mike.”
“What are you up to?”
“Six feet.”
“Seriously, Shade. I thought we were finished with Miranda’s business.”
“Oh, we are. This is something else I’m working on. It has nothing to do with Miranda, though she did get mixed up in part of it through no fault of her own.”
“Is this about the dead people rising?”
“In a way.”
“There are no dead people rising at the moment.”
“Not at the moment, but I know who started it, and I want to summon someone so we can have a little chat about that.”
“I’m guessing this is dangerous.”
“Crossing the street is dangerous, Mike.”
“Why should I help you?”
“For bragging rights, of course. If people know you and your team summoned this individual, the entire wizarding world would be monumentally impressed.”
“We prefer to keep a low profile.”
“It could be fun.”
“Racquetball is fun and less likely to get you killed.”
“Answer me this: Can you or anyone at DGI manage a summoning of a powerful, possibly immortal being?”
“I don’t have that sort of power, but we do have a few people who could probably manage it.”
“Can I at least run it by them? They might like the challenge.”
“You’re a real pain in the ass, Shade.”
“I keep things interesting, though.”
“In the old Chinese curse way. Fine. Stop by my office tomorrow morning, and I’ll let you talk to someone.”
“Thanks, Mike.”
“I have a condition.”
“I suspected as much.”
“If I let you talk to someone, whether or not they agree, you will owe me a favor of your own.”
“What’s going on, Mike?”
“At the moment, nothing. But if a job does come up where I can use someone as resourceful and annoying as yourself, you have to say yes.”
“I don’t sign on for suicide runs.”
“The job might be dangerous, but it won’t be suicide. And we’ll pay your normal rates too.”
“I feel like I’m being set up.”
“You’re setting up my people right now, Jonathan. Your schemes are always dangerous at best.”
“Tell you what. You set a meeting, and I promise to listen to any job offer you might have for me.”
“You’d listen anyway.”
“I’m not done. And if one of your people helps me with this summoning, I’ll do a job for you provided it’s not out-and-out suicide. Fair enough?”
“Let me think about it.”
“You don’t need to think about it, Mike. You already know you’re going to say yes.”
“Be here at nine a.m.”
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“I survived,” Mike said and hung up.
A feeling nibbled at the back of my brain that Mike was definitely setting me up. Something was probably already in motion that he suspected he’d need help with, and I’d just walked right into it. Then again, Wednesday’s meetings could get me killed. So if Mike was trying to set me up, I’d have to survive to pay up anyway.