Downpour

NINETEEN

I was pretty sure I could have fought out if the zombies—or whatever the appropriate word was—had caught me, but I was just as glad not to have had to. On the other hand, now I was in debt to a demon; not the brightest or pickiest demon, but still . . .

I watched Jin while I caught my breath, thinking about how I was going to slip out of this problem. Jin had helped me out twice, but it wasn’t from altruism. He would always want a quid pro quo; that seemed to be how he worked, though I wasn’t completely sure. He could think for himself, so it was possible he might play a longer game if he had a reason to. There was no doubt in my mind that he was working with or for Willow Leung—I’d seen them together on the highway and he definitely took orders from her—but the purpose was what made no sense to me yet. How could I get him on my side?

First I needed to know why he’d come along just now, though I thought I knew. “Thanks,” I said, turning and starting up the narrow road in the general direction of East Beach.

Jin caught up to me in a single easy bound that almost looked like teleportation. He waved a clawed hand in front of my face and spoke in an urgent, low voice. “No, no. You owe me some information and I shan’t let you walk off without giving it this time.”

My feet felt unusually heavy as he said it and I glanced down, seeing green tendrils of magic wiggling out of the earth to hold me in place. I glared back at Jin. “Do you really think this is the best location for an exchange?”

He shushed me and scowled, making a gesture like a conductor cutting off the end of a song. All noise seemed to drop away.

“What are you doing?” I snapped. “We’re apparently only a quarter mile or so from the zombie keeper,” I said. Pointing upward, I added, “And it’s probably going to start raining again as soon as the sun’s all the way down. I’d like to be inside and dry before that happens.”

“He won’t come for us. And rain doesn’t bother me, but we need some quiet or others may overhear. I’ve just made it much harder.”

“Harder? Marvelous. Then we can stand out here and chat in the storm, since you no longer care how pretty you look in that nice silk suit.”

He frowned. One gambit shot down, he tried another. “You have a truck.”

“Not right here and it’s a long walk to get back to it, so unless you want to turn yourself into a unicorn and let me ride you all the way to Sol Duc—”

Jin looked startled. “Sol Duc? What were you doing down there?”

“Looking for Ridenour and that’s where I found him.”

Jin looked thoughtful. “Interesting . . . I didn’t know he had business—down there.”

I wondered what he’d meant to say, but I was pretty sure I’d get it out of him later. For now, I wanted to get moving before the clouds opened up and poured water on us. I tried moving my feet, but they seemed to be well-stuck to the ground.

“Why did you leave your truck there?” he asked.

“Because it was easier to take one truck than two, though right now I wish I’d stuck with my own ride.”

“This is inconvenient.”

“Damned right it is. Next time Willow wants to do me a favor, tell her to send a cab.”

Jin started to object, but I waved him down and bent over to snap off the viney tendrils that held me in place. They stung a bit, but they were not as painful as holding on to Willow’s energy globe had been, and I figured it was about time these two got the idea I wasn’t just a flunky trotting at Jewel’s heel. “Let’s not play this game, Jin. I know you work for Willow—I saw you with her. Not saying you couldn’t work for yourself as well, since you don’t seem to want her to hear this conversation, but it seems an unlikely coincidence that she’s around this area and so are you, just when I need some help. So you’re in a bit of a tight spot here if you want to negotiate.”

Jin sniffed to hide his surprise at what I was doing. “You think too much of yourself.”

I laughed at the irony of such a claim coming out of Jin’s mouth. “I think that your . . . friend is a more honorable woman than the local authorities have given her credit for. She probably is a thief, a trespasser, and a troublemaker. She might even be a murderer, but like you, she knows about paying debts. Ridenour and Strother would have trapped her in that greenhouse if I hadn’t said anything, and at least one of them wants her dead, even if they say they don’t. Because they weren’t shooting at me.”

Jin looked annoyed, pursing his human lips and furrowing both brows. “They might have been.”

“Why? What sort of threat do I hold for them? Neither one’s a mage of any kind, so they don’t have any interest in the energetic properties of Lake Crescent, unless you think one of them killed Steven Leung. . . .”

“Ridiculous. Neither of them could have moved the car.”

“So . . . whoever killed Leung is the same person who moved the car.”

“Of course.”

“And you’re sure of this . . . how?”

Jin looked smug. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

I nodded and started walking again. Jin strolled along beside me. “Yes, I’d like to know, and it would be easier if you told me, but I can find out on my own.”

He stopped and narrowed his eyes at me. They gleamed amber like hot coals. “It won’t be as easy as you think, Harper Blaine. These aren’t the soft, power-dead humans you chase down in Seattle. You could do it without my help, but you’ll never do it if you make me your enemy. You owe me information. I do not like to be robbed. . . .”

I turned on my heel, letting down my guard against the Grey and allowing it to flow around me, free and raging with ghosts. I felt fury spark and set fire to the nearest seeping threads and pools of energy as I reached for him, a sudden blaze of incorporeal strength flowing through me. I closed my hands on his white demon form, pushing my fingertips into him, past the shell of seeming flesh. I knew I couldn’t hold on to him for long or push much deeper, but I shook him and held tight for the moment. “Listen to me, yaoguai,” I roared, spitting the word out. “I will keep my bargain, but never, never threaten me. Do you understand?”

I let go and shoved him backward. He slipped on a patch of ice and fell, just as the clouds chose to open up and let loose the rain.

Lightning burned the sky and thunder cracked over our heads. I could hear a sound like a rush of wings, and the ghosts along the shore screamed in unison. In the Grey, the fallen night was lit with flashes of color that leapt from the ground and the water of the lake, then subsided back into the ground and the mist. The ghosts fell back to whispering and muttering. Jin landed hard on his ass and stared at me as I stepped back.

I felt burned out and soaked through, but I refused to sag or stagger with the sudden draining of whatever power I’d momentarily held. Jin might want to consume me for whatever powerful creature he now thought I was, but he wasn’t going to do it just yet. I wanted to huddle into a tired little ball and go to sleep, but I wasn’t going to let him know that.

“Now,” I said, “enough of this. Let’s get the hell out of the rain. Then I’ll tell you about the asetem. And you will tell me about the hot springs.”

Jin picked himself up, brushing mournfully at his ruined suit. “I saved you from the shambling dead. You owe me more.”

“You did what you were instructed to do. Don’t pretend you did it for me. But, I can be gracious: I’ll tell you more once we’re someplace dry. With a functioning phone.”