Razor Dreams: The Seventh Jonathan Shade Novel Read online

  Monica stood at the end of the hall. She hadn't even called up any magic. She simply stared at the carnage, her mouth hanging open, ready to catch flies.

  Martin pushed himself up to one elbow, his feet and legs scrambling for purchase on the tiled floor. Kelly stepped up and raised her sword.

  I caught Kelly's wrist. “Don't.”

  She glared at me. “He's with them.”

  “I don't think so.” I nodded to Brenda. “Can you check on Martin? Don't touch his flesh. I think he's just afraid.”

  “I ain't afraid of no one!”

  “That dust is messing with you, Martin,” I said. “Try and calm down.”

  “I ain't gonna attack no one.”

  “Double negative is a positive,” I said.

  “I'll shove that double negative right up your ass,” Martin said.

  “He seems both mad and afraid,” Brenda said. She kept an ungloved hand poised just in case.

  “Where the hell were you?” Martin asked. “We been getting jacked up all damn night. They won't stop coming at us!”

  “You were supposed to join us,” I said.

  “Couldn't get out of here. Where are Stuart and Dr. Anderson?”

  “Dead,” Kelly said. “Just like you'll be if—”

  “Dead?” Martin asked. “They didn't do nothing!”

  “Double negative,” Kelly said. “They attacked me so I killed them.”

  “They was just trying to get out of that room!”

  “They're out now,” Kelly said.

  Martin buried his face in his hands. “I failed them,” he said.

  “They were attacking,” Kelly said.

  “And I told you not to kill them,” I said. “They're regular people. They couldn't have hurt you.”

  “They were afraid,” Martin said. “The dust does that to people.”

  “They seemed like they were attacking,” Kelly said, “so I killed them.”

  “They was trying to get to safety.”

  “I don't care.”

  “They weren't enemies,” I said.

  Kelly met my gaze. “I don't care,” she said again and cocked a thumb toward her chest. “Assassin.”

  “Two lives taken unnecessarily,” I said. “They were not a threat.”

  “I don't like leaving potential enemies alive.” She spoke the words as if that justified everything.

  “My Kelly would have recognized their fear.”

  “That's right, bring up your Kelly again. Of course they were afraid,” Kelly said. “I was here.”

  “My Kelly would have taken them down without killing them. They were no match for you.”

  “They shouldn't have come at me.”

  “We was trying to get away,” Martin said. “That's all.”

  “That's not my problem.”

  “They were overcome with fear,” I said. I grabbed her chin and turned her face so I could hold her gaze. She didn't resist. “Our job is not to kill everyone. Our job is to protect people. People who are scared. People who are in danger. People who can't save themselves. Do you understand?”

  She stared into my eyes for a long moment then nodded and pulled my hand away from her chin. “I understand that you're weak and your way will get more people killed. In fact, you saw your version of me die twice. Did you ever stop to think that perhaps if she'd been more like me, she wouldn't have lost those battles?”

  I turned away from her because she was probably right about that and I didn't want to admit it.

  “Think on that,” Kelly said.

  That wasn't on my agenda. Instead, I moved to where Monica stood, hugging her arms. She looked toward the exit then back at me.

  “You all right?” I asked.

  “No,” she said. “Your friend killed two people. You fought monstrosities. So much blood. I may never get those images out of my head.”

  “You've seen people die before.”

  She shook her head. “I don't normally go on field missions.”

  At first I thought it was just the dust that brought the fear into my big sister, but now I realized she'd been afraid from the start and the dust only aggravated it. Some people talk well, but when push comes to shove, they run and hide.

  “Why did you come along?” I asked.

  “I didn't think it would be like this,” she said. “Kelly murdered that man and woman.”

  “Kelly acted from instinct, which told her they were attackers.”

  “Tell that to their families.” Monica shook her head. “How can you defend her?”

  “Your people created her.”

  “The Sekutar program was a Denver project,” Monica said. “Every other office in the world declined to participate. Creating assassins was far too dangerous. Kelly is the proof of that. She should have been destroyed with the rest of the Sekutar.”

  I couldn't explain the truth about Kelly being a different version of herself, so I just shrugged. “It is what it is.” I turned to see everyone else moving down the hall toward me. “Let's regroup outside,” I said. “First order of business will be to find a hotel so everyone can grab a shower. We'll deal with Gustav once we're all clean.”

  “The dust doesn't affect me,” Kelly said.

  “So use the time to polish your sword.”

  She nodded. “It does need to be cleaned.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Brenda walked into my hotel room wearing a robe.

  “Is the ghost here?” she asked, looking around.

  “Esther is with Kelly at the moment. Did you have any idea how to deal with Gustav?”

  “No,” she said. “But I have an idea about how to deal with you.”

  She undid the sash and shrugged out of the robe to stand naked before me.

  My eyes widened in appreciation. A few other things happened, but a gentleman doesn't speak of such things.

  “All that adrenaline made me need you more than I can believe,” she said.

  “Danger is a turn-on,” I said.

  She moved into my arms, and what happened next is not for public consumption.

  Here's what I'll tell you.

  I was Brenda's first and only.

  My every touch electrified her.

  By her very nature, she couldn't make skin-to-skin contact with another living thing without turning them to stone. Think about that for a moment. I might be the only living person capable of holding her flesh to flesh. The only man who could kiss and caress her skin without gloves.

  I like to think I'm a good lover.

  Making love with Brenda did not require any skill on my part. A fumbled kiss on her hand was enough to make her melt.

  Be that as it may, I did my level best to give her the best experience of her life. It was my responsibility and my unique pleasure. By the way she quivered and gasped and purred, I knew I was the best lover she'd ever had. Granted, I was also the worst, but when she fell asleep in my arms, she was smiling.

  ***

  Brenda was still smiling later that afternoon when the others joined us in my room. Her eyes practically glowed. Monica noticed and glared at me. I gave her an innocent shrug, but Brenda stayed close to me. Esther noticed too, but she didn't give me a jealous look. Instead, she gave me a smile and a nod.

  Martin, on the other hand, didn't notice. He was too busy staring daggers at Kelly. For her part, Kelly looked subdued.

  “We need to deal with Gustav,” I said.

  “We need to deal with this murdering bitch,” Martin said, pointing at Kelly.

  “So deal with me,” Kelly said, opening her arms.

  Martin hesitated. He'd seen her in action. “I ain't saying I need to deal with you. I'm saying as a motherfucking group, we need to deal with you. Put your ass in jail for murder.”

  “Calm down, Martin,” I said.

  “You calm down. She murdered Dr. Anderson and Stuart, and she needs to pay!”

  “They were collateral damage,” Kelly said. “I'm sorry I killed your friends,
but you should actually be thanking me for not killing you.”

  “For not killing me? Bitch, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

  “Call me ‘bitch’ one more time,” Kelly said, her eyes narrowed.

  I stepped between them. “That's enough, guys.”

  Martin swelled up and postured now that he knew I was in the way, but he didn't mouth off again because I shot him a look.

  “Martin,” I said. “You sit in the chair by the window.”

  He huffed but walked over to the chair and sat down. He folded his arms and glared at Kelly.

  Kelly moved over and leaned against the dresser next to the television set. She stood as far from Martin as she could without being in the hallway leading past the bathroom to the door. “It's all right, Jonathan,” she said. “I won't kill him unless he calls me ‘bitch’ a third time.”

  “You're not going to kill him even if he calls you a ‘bitch’ a hundred times.”

  “My allegiance is not to you,” she said.

  It was clearly a warning. Nobody told Kelly Chan what to do. Especially not some human who didn't appreciate killing everyone in a fight who might even remotely be considered a potential enemy.

  “I don't want your allegiance,” I said.

  “I thought you two worked together,” Monica said.

  “Stay out of this, Monica.” I remained focused on Kelly. “Thank you for apologizing to Martin.”

  “That's it?” Martin asked. “That's all you got for her?”

  I turned to look at him. “She's a warrior,” I said. “I don't need to have anything else for her. She knows she shouldn't have killed them.”

  “No I don't,” Kelly said. “I've given this a lot of thought today, and I stand by my decision. If I had it to do over, I'd do it exactly the same except that I'd kill Martin too.”

  “You'd what?” Martin yelled.

  “You're not helping,” I said to Kelly.

  “The dust made them afraid, which made them lash out. If I hadn't killed them, who's to say they wouldn't have hurt or killed other people?”

  “Who's to say they would have?”

  She tilted her head. “Me.” She looked over my shoulder at Martin. “Part of him has lived in our world, right?”

  “The same is true for Stuart and Dr. Anderson, and probably everyone else in that pocket dimension.”

  “And who was in charge in that ward?” Kelly asked. “It wasn't Gustav. His energy was there, and that fear dust was there, but he didn't have any serious power until he was able to hook up with the rest of his energy from Ellis Island.”

  “Dr. Anderson was administering to Juanita when I first got there,” I said. “At least, she was exiting Juanita's room.”

  “Plus crazy patients like Stuart,” Esther said.

  “Who told you to leave?” Kelly asked.

  “Martin.”

  “Did he seem scared?”

  “No.”

  “Does he seem afraid right now?” Kelly asked.

  “Don't you let her go psycho on me,” Martin said.

  I looked over at him. His eyes were wide, but he looked more angry than afraid.

  “I ask again,” Kelly said. “Who was in charge at Kings Park when you went there?”

  Martin had overridden Dr. Anderson. He'd ordered Stuart back to his room.

  “What's your point, Kelly?”

  “If Gustav wasn't powerful there and was locked up, then who ordered the lacerations and torture of Pedro and Juanita?”

  “They were dead,” Martin said.

  “But their spirits were still in their bodies because that ward was pulled into that pocket dimension that very night. Isn't that right?”

  Martin shifted uneasily in his seat for a moment then rose and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I don't gotta listen to her bullshit.”

  “You were the janitor,” I said. “You should have kept that place clean.”

  “I did.”

  “So how did the dust get on everyone?”

  “Outside the dimension, of course. The dust probably fell from the ceiling. The hallways share space, after all.”

  “And how would you know that?” Kelly asked.

  “Oh, fuck it,” Martin said. He pulled his hands from his pockets. His hands were filled with fistfuls of dust. He flung them at us. Dust fell on Monica and Brenda first. Then it fell on me and finally on Kelly. It passed through Esther without effect.

  Brenda and Monica trembled and tried to push through me to get to the door. I stood next to Kelly, so the dust didn't bother me so much. I shoved Monica and Brenda onto the bed and stepped toward Martin, shaking my head.

  “Oh, Martin,” I said and grabbed him by the throat. “I'm disappointed in you.” I drove him backward into the desk that stood before the window. The chair he'd been sitting in skidded off to the side.

  “It wasn't me!” Martin said.

  Kelly drew her sword and smiled. “Yes it was.”

  “No!” Martin said, gripping my forearms. “It was part of me but not all of me! Don't let her kill me!”

  “Hold on, Kelly,” I said. “Part of you?”

  Kelly pushed her sword point against Martin's chest. “He asked you a question, Martin,” Kelly said.

  “The part of me that stayed in the ward. The rest of me lived my life all normal.”

  “Be honest,” I said. “How much did you know?”

  Martin smiled and threw himself onto Kelly's sword. He slipped out of my grasp. The blade plunged into his chest, and dark smoke pumped out the exit wound. As he pushed forward, he grabbed Kelly's wrists. He threw himself backward toward the window.

  Kelly flew forward but planted one foot on the desk and the other on the wall beside the window. Martin slammed into the glass, and the sword cracked the pane, but Kelly didn't let him go any farther.

  “Nice try, asshole,” she said and hurled him back into the room.

  Monica raced for the door, but Brenda put out her hands to stop Martin from falling. As soon as he fell against her, one of her fingers touched his neck, and he turned to stone.

  “Oops,” Brenda said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Behind me, the crack in the window splintered.

  I spun around and saw smoke seeping between the starred glass.

  “Houston, we have a problem,” I said.

  Monica and Brenda screamed when they noticed the smoke. They bolted toward the door.

  “Too bad Rayna's not here,” Esther said. Then she smiled and popped over to block Monica's exit from the room. She made herself fully visible, and Monica skidded to a stop. With the dust on her, everything was frightening.

  “Move, ghost!” Monica said, and her hands started glowing.

  “Hey, wizard lady!” Esther said. “Can you shoot fire at the smoke detector?” She pointed at the ceiling.

  The smoke kept pouring through the window and started taking shape.

  Monica looked confused.

  “Esther's right,” I said. “Just send smoke into the detector. Magic or even the smoke Gustav is using.”

  Monica pointed a finger at the smoke detector and shot a line of smoke into it. The smoke alarm went off, and the overhead sprinklers followed suit, showering us with water and washing the dust away.

  The smoke took on a humanoid shape.

  “I've got this,” Brenda said, wiping water from her eyes. She pushed the stone Martin over. He thudded on his side, and she stepped over him to stand before the desk. “As soon as the smoke solidifies, I'll turn it to stone.”

  The smoke swirled around her.

  “Not such a good idea,” I said, raising my voice to be heard over the alarm and the gushing sprinklers. “If it solidifies on you, and you turn it to stone, you're dead. Same problem if it solidifies on one of us.”

  “Even you?”

  “Indirect magic,” I said.

  She backed out of the smoke. “So what do we do?”

  Kelly grinned. “Don't let it solidif
y.” She whipped her hands through the smoke, scattering it.

  Brenda nodded, grabbed a pillow, and tried to help by waving it around.

  “That might work for a few moments,” I said.

  My sister pointed at the ceiling, and the alarm shut off. The sprinkler kept spraying water. We needed to make sure all the dust was gone.

  “Any ideas?” Kelly asked.

  “Not good ones,” I said. “I wish we had a vacuum cleaner. Suck this bad boy up and keep him trapped in a bag.”

  Smoke solidified into clawed hands.

  “Whoa!” I said, dodging a slash.

  Kelly smiled and when one of the claws came her way, she grabbed it. “Touch it, Brenda!”

  Brenda reached for it, but the hand puffed into smoke and wafted away.

  “Damn it!” Brenda said.

  Claws scratched my back and I winced. When I spun, the claws wafted away in smoke. A hand formed behind Brenda and slashed at her leg.

  “Ow!” she yelled, and a stone claw hit the carpet behind her.

  I grabbed the stone claw. “It works. We just need it to be formed long enough for you to touch it.”

  Multiple clawed hands appeared, slashing. Kelly whirled, knocking Brenda into the bed and me against the wall. Fortunately Kelly connected with only Brenda's shirt. Well, technically my shirt, but there you go.

  Brenda rolled off the bed, exposing more flesh, and tried to grab one of the claws. One of them stabbed her hand and she cried out, but the claw turned to stone and remained lodged through her palm.

  She dropped to her knees in pain.

  “Kelly!” I yelled and she knew what I meant.

  She flipped and spun sideways across the bed right over Brenda's head to take four more clawed hands. Two scratched her, one avoided her, and one slammed into her stomach. Kelly hit the wall, dropped to the floor, and vaulted right back into the fray as though she'd landed on a trampoline. She whipped around, shoving me aside to save me.

  The smoke wouldn't form one being. It kept going to small, clawed hands.

  Monica pressed herself against the wall, and at first I thought she was still afraid, but then she stepped forward.

  “Get down, Kelly!” she yelled.

  Monica's hands glowed and she cast a spell that sent light flaring through my room. Kelly dropped to the floor and let the light sail over her. I didn't move but the light couldn't hurt me. The smoky shadows retreated toward the window, but the light reached the glass first and tightened around the now humanoid shadow.