Chasing the Dragon Read Free Page A

same thing. His heart sank. "I know," he said,
opening the doors and wishing he'd brought a blanket to cover his
seats. "Get in."
    The car creaked on its suspension as Lila eased into the passenger
side, so smooth and graceful she might have been made of air. It didn't
feel lopsided like it used to however. Malachi squinted at her as he
reached for his handkerchief, "Did you lose weight?"
    "Apparently," she shrugged as she looked at him mopping his forehead delicately. Her fingertips ran over the upholstery. "At least you
went for a synthetic this time."
    "My wages don't stretch to the insurance required by transporting
freaks of nature anymore," he muttered. "Speaking of fakes, what
tipped you off?"
    Lila smiled a short-lived and wintry smile. "The body is butchered
almost into sludge. That's not Teazle's MO at all. He'd never waste the
energy." She hesitated and a flicker ran through her face, "Plus, if you
sum it all up, there just isn't enough of her to go around. They speculate he ate part of her, but that's classic necromancer-minion stuff or a
practice for an assassin who's on his way up the ladder, not at the top.
He'd never do that. Then, there's no sign of the Suitors and I don't
believe they'd stand around and watch her die."
    Malachi nodded-he'd thought the same but he hadn't had the
stomach to search the images thoroughly enough to be sure.
    Lila continued, "So, where are they? Plus, it makes no sense. Sure
he might have wanted her dead because I'm on her books as one of her
Eyes. He hates anyone having power over him. If she had a hold on me,
then tenuously she was getting a claw into him. But killing her serves
no other use. The demons might all fear her, but they want her alive
because she's number one in their defense systems against Who Knows What? But I keep coming back to the more basic fact that all the parts
look right but don't add up. They don't match. You put it together and
you get Frankenstein's monster, not Madame Des Loupes. I'd bet she
isn't even dead. So what is this about?" The chip had reappeared in her
fingers magician-style as she spoke. She turned it over and over like a
coin between her knuckles and then gave it back to him.

    He put it in his jacket pocket and started the car with the key.
"They're for you, honey. The Service knows you're back and it seems
they've lost patience waiting for you to come home."
    "Eh ... so they want to fit up my husband on some faked
murder?"
    "Them and some other people. This came to my hands in a
roundabout way. I know they think I see you. They're betting I'll
show you, and tell you that Teazle is wanted for this, in Demonia.
Their top Necromancer has fingered him for it. The forensics might
give the lie, but he was the coroner on the case so it's a done deal. It's
kind of a traditional demon way of getting rid of real trouble. The
sentence is passed."
    Lila stared through the windshield at a world that was flowing and
running and warped by the rain. "Kill on sight," she murmured,
almost to herself. It was the penalty for Illegitimate Murder in
Demonia. "What's the bounty?"
    "His house, his estates, and all he owns in perpetuity. And Lila,"
Malachi waited until she turned to face him and for an instant the
violet eyes of the dress's girl became the curved mirrors of her true self,
paying him full attention. The chameleon change showed how
uncomfortable she had become.
    "Yes?"
    "You have to know-Teazle has been on a spree the like of which
no one has seen in a literal age. They call it the Rain of Death. By the
time this came out, yesterday at noon, he'd slaughtered his way
through almost the entire crop of Bathsheban high society and made a good inroad into the Shalazad Dynasty. He currently owns eighteen
and a quarter percent of the total wealth of Demonia and has rule over
fifteen family houses and nine crime syndicates." He shared this, sure
in the knowledge that no other human without firsthand experience