Heaven can Wait Read online

  "You think we need to sneak in here?" I was suddenly apprehensive. "You think there's going to be trouble?"

  Selene kept us moving along. "I don't know. But if there is, I'd rather not have any of it lead back to me."

  I couldn't fault her there. "Fair enough, we don't want to give them any excuse to revoke our privileges and dump us back in here permanently."

  "It wouldn't be back for me," Selene said. "They never got me here in the first place."

  I looked across at her. "Do I want to know how you managed that?"

  Selene shook her head, "I don't know. Nobody got killed or injured, if that's what's worrying you."

  "Bribery?"

  Selene nodded. "Of a sort."

  "Where'd you get that amount of cash before you were licensed?"

  "It wasn't money I bribed them with."

  "Okay, I don't want to know."

  Selene smirked wickedly at me. "Here we are."

  Here, was a downtrodden bar that was best described as a dive. Any place that could qualify for dive status in the Zone had to be a pretty low establishment. There was a faded, hand-painted, sign over the door that announced it as the Crossroads Inn. There were no crossroads anywhere near it and if it was a figurative name they would have been better off calling it the end of the road.

  The windows to either side of the entrance had been broken and roughly boarded up. There were scuff marks, scratches and dents on the doors themselves.

  "Hospitable looking place," I said hesitating outside. I had kept mostly to myself during my stint in the Zone; I had certainly never frequented the pubs, clubs, strip shows and brothels.

  Selene showed no such reluctance. The bounty hunter pushed both doors open and strode with a purpose and a swagger right through the middle. I was forced to hurry after her lest I lose the other woman and be forced to enter on my own and find her.

  Even after leaving the Zone I hadn't been one to frequent this kind of establishment. I could pass as human easily enough so getting into them wouldn't be the problem, especially looking like I did. I had just never felt the inclination to hang around people while they became drunk and stupid. That and the fact that apart from Selene who was I going to go out with, Braun was friendly enough when we worked together but he had never made a move to make our relationship any more friendly than that. We might like each other well enough but we weren't really friends. I didn't want to know what sorts of places Selene might try and take me to. So, all my relationships seemed to stick close to the professional end of the scale.

  I hadn't known what to expect inside the bar, but whatever I would have been expecting this wasn't it. The first thing to hit me was the smell. I am not a smoker or a drinker, but this place smelled of stale beer and cigarettes if anything did.

  It was a dimly lit place, the bare bulbs in the ceiling, those that were working, were too weak to properly light the place. They were struggling to cut through the haze of cigarette smoke curling around the ceiling so only a fraction of their light made it down to the rest of the room. The patrons at the bar were better illuminated by the bar lights that highlighted the meagre choice of beverage than those overhead. There was no music, the only noise being a constant low-level drone of conversation, there not because the people had anything to say to each other but just for something to do.

  I made my way after Selene, picking her way between tables to make her way up to the bar. The place might have all the atmosphere of a morgue but it was doing reasonable business. Most of the tables and booths were occupied, granted there were usually no more than two people at each and there were a lot of lone drinkers, but they were all drinking. If the number of empty bottles was anything to go by they were drinking a lot, and the managers could do with getting some more staff in to tidy the place up. Maybe if the wrinkled fellow behind the bar spent less time downing the contents of the glass in front of him some more work would get done.

  The lack of neatness didn't seem to bother the patrons any. From what I could make out in the dim light the state of the clientele seemed to fit in nicely with the overall decor. I was surprised to notice about as many women as men frequenting the place. By the way most people were hunching over and sticking to themselves I figured it wasn't the sort of place to go to pick up partners despite the convenient mix.

  Selene walked right up to the bar; in particular she walked right up to one of the slightly bedraggled patrons perched on a stool at the bar.

  "Michael, we want a word." Selene dumped a gloved hand on the man's shoulder.

  Michael tensed up; he craned his neck around left and right to get a look at the two women who suddenly stood around him. I stayed quiet and let Selene get on with it.

  "I hear you are the person to speak to if I want some information."

  Michael flared his nostrils and concentrated his attention on Selene, he seemed to evaluate her and not particularly like what he saw.

  "I don't give information out to freaks."

  I looked around to see if anyone in the bar had taken offence at his comment. The last thing we needed was to be jumped by some creature wanting to teach our snitch some manners. There were plenty of faces turned on the trio, and plenty of them wore hostile expressions, but the hostility wasn't aimed at Michael.

  I looked around again, this time using all of my senses instead of just my eyes. There were no demons, angels, demigods or anything otherworldly amongst the patrons. They weren't human otherwise they wouldn't have been confined to the Zone, and nobody stayed here by choice, but they weren't that far from it. Something Selene had mentioned jumped back into my mind. My suspicions were confirmed when the portly bartender waddled over to us.

  "This is a lycan bar; we don't serve your kind in here."

  Lycanthropes. I knew better than to try and pass myself and Selene off as anything other than what we were. We might pass as human amongst humans but we couldn't fool a werewolf’s nose.

  "What, now there is bigotry in the Zone too?" Selene scoffed.

  "Nothing new," the bartender retorted. "Like sticks with like, always has always will."

  "But to start segregating like this, I don't understand it," I said.

  "It's good practice for when they let us out. Besides we're not freaks like the rest of you, we're just infected with a disease. One day they'll find a cure and we can go back to being normal again."

  There was a murmur of agreement from the others in the bar for the bartender’s words.

  "They don't give a shit about finding a cure for you," Selene retorted. "They just dump you in here and forget about you. You are just like the rest of us. You might get let out of the Zone on licence if there's a labour shortage or you've got specialised skills but otherwise it's a case of out of sight out of mind."

  "You're wrong," Michael put in. "Like the man said, we weren't born freaks and monsters we just got unlucky and got infected, but we're still human."

  "You weren't born monsters, you were just infected? Heard of vampires, they start their life cycles as human too and given time they can evolve into some pretty monstrous creatures. You are no different from us; the rest of humanity shuns and fears you because you are different."

  The hostility level in the bar was growing, I didn't need to look around to know that the lycan patrons were getting to their feet and nearing the point where they wouldn't take any more.

  "Selene, maybe we should just go."

  The bounty-hunter glared at me, but she was well aware of the mounting tension. Tangling with a bar full of pissed off lycans wasn't going to get either one of us the information we were after.

  "Fine, we'll be on our way. Michael, if you would step outside with us."

  Selene's tone made it clear it wasn't an invitation. She took her had off the lycan's shoulder and touched his hand. This time I spotted the folded bills he slipped into a pocket.

  "Fine, I can spare a couple of minutes," he said.

  No-one volunteered to join Michael and the two of us outside, bu
t all eyes watched us leave.

  As on our journey to the bar, there was nobody close on the streets as Selene led us around the corner and down an alley beside the bar. I caught a fleeting glimpse of a small shaggy shape scurrying into a building a few streets down and that was it.

  I stood by feeling pretty useless while Selene questioned Michael. It turned out that the lycan snitch didn't have a problem talking to half-demons if they could pay. It also turned out that Michael didn't have anything useful to tell them about Selene's mysterious Mr X.

  I was about to remind Selene to ask about my problem but the bounty-hunter was already on it.

  "I don't know anything about no murders," Michael said. "But if you ask me, I wouldn't put it past the other creatures they've got in here. Trouble is the freaks they've got here are stuck here for the most part. You need to check out the freaks who've managed to weasel their way out of here or who managed to keep out of here in the first place."

  "And who would be able to tell us about them?"

  Michael shrugged, "I try not to mix with too many of the other things that are in here, certainly not the kind of scum you're looking for."

  Michael walked off and Selene let him go. "I know just the people we should talk to."

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The deeper we journeyed into the Zone the more 'people' we saw on the streets. Outside the Zone there might be a curfew for our kind but in here they could wander about at will anytime of night or day. A trio of the short furry things I had spotted earlier cut across in front of us. I set them jabbering as I almost tripped over them. The three junior cousin its squawked at me again and shuffled on their way.

  Selene led me past a medical station where bags of blood were being handed out to neophyte vampires. A quartet of soldier/guards stood at the side of what was basically a refrigerated vending van staffed by volunteers. These guards held their weapons at the ready but not pointed at anything in particular. The way they kept looking around, just a little too much to be attributed purely to awareness, betrayed their nerves. The fact that their eyes kept coming back to the queue at the van indicated where most of those nerves originated.

  For the most part the individuals in the queue were young vampires who looked vaguely underfed. I can't really say I have ever had that much contact with vampires, we tend to mix in rather different circles, but I have been around enough to get a feel for them. Most of the older ones were cunning enough to realise what was happening and hid themselves away from the round-up. The younger ones and the raw recruits either didn't have the foresight or the skill to evade the hunter units and they were the ones who ended up in places like the Zone.

  Unlike the soldiers the gaunt vampires barely paid us any mind as we walked past. There were surreptitious glances from beady eyes looking out of sunken pits. The vampires had uniformly pale skin that looked like it had been stretched too thinly over their bodies. Thin blue lines traced patterns just under the surface.

  "It's pathetic isn't it," Selene commented. "Like keeping sharks in a tank and feeding them dead fish."

  My brow creased slightly at that analogy. "It's hardly the same. Sharks don't go out to intentionally hunt people."

  Selene just shrugged. "Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim and vamps gotta eat."

  "It's talk like that that gets people like us locked in places like this."

  "That sort of thing has been going on for millennia, now they get all riled up over vampires getting neck and a few demons munching on virgins."

  "They know about it now," I retorted. "And you can't seriously think its right to let stuff like that pass."

  "You just don't like it because you could be a treat on some demon's platter, makes you sympathise with the frigid humans who won't spread their legs and put out."

  "I'm against it because it is wrong, not because I am a virgin."

  I was trying to keep my voice down, arguing against the natural feeding habits of vampires and demons in the middle of the Zone probably isn't healthy. I also didn't really want to go shouting to the whole of the Zone that I was still a virgin. Although I wasn't sure why announcing my virtue should make me uncomfortable.

  "People get killed all the time all over the world. More people died because of insects than vamps or demons even before they started taking action against us and locking us away in places like this."

  I stopped walking. "So now it's us is it? Some demon solidarity coming into play. It doesn't really matter what happens to a few little humans."

  Selene turned on her heel and I fully expected a slap, or more aggressive physical assault. She stood there almost humming with aggression that I could feel even with my empathic talent closed down.

  "Don't start with that holier-than-thou attitude," she fumed. "Oh right, I forgot, even heaven wasn't good enough for you. Just remember that I'm only half a demon which makes me half human too. You, you're fully angel, whatever that means. I have more in common with those people you are so concerned about than you ever will."

  "You think so? I think you've done too good a job of closing your heart to make any claims at humanity."

  We stayed that way, just staring at each other, for several moments. There were probably people watching, probably a whole crowd of people watching, but right then for both of us we were the only two people in the world.

  I was just starting to think that I might have been a little harsh when; "Why don't you just go home, I don't need your help for this. Not that you've been any help at all tonight."

  "What about my case?"

  Selene huffed, "I'll still ask around, if I hear anything I'll let you know."

  "Maybe I should-"

  Selene cut me off. "I'll ask around and let you know. We both need space so leave. Unless you want to stick around and take in some of the entertainments."

  I glanced around and realised we had wandered down to the edge of the Zone's red light district. The nearby businesses were strip clubs and 'massage' parlours. A little further in a variety of 'ladies' stood around offering their services. Under one lamppost a Fyorall demoness, mainly human looking but with horns and a tail, stood over one of the furry creatures I had seen earlier but couldn't name, which seemed to be in the same line of work.

  "It figures your contacts would be down here."

  Selene didn't smile.

  I left.

  I had barely left the red light district when I sensed somebody coming up behind me. I hadn't expected Selene to back down and come after me, she is even more stubborn than I am. And as it turns out she hadn't.

  I turned around, ready to apologise to Selene if she was willing to make the effort as well. Instead of coming face to face with the half-demon bounty hunter I came crotch to face with a little annoyance.

  "Hey, Faith, long time noo see. You denae write and you denae call. What's up wi'dat?" Fluvius Thallassicus said.

  As much as I had kept to myself when I was in the Zone there were some people I had got to know. I bobbed down onto my knees so that I could look the Scottish gremlin in the eye. It was less to make it easier for us to have a conversation than it was to get his face away from my crotch. The gremlin made a sad face and then grinned at me since he was now more or less level with my cleavage instead.

  "Quit it, Fluvius, what would your wife say?"

  "Och, Chandra does nae mind when I look at a pretty woman."

  Fluvius seemed incapable of keeping his eyes from roaming. I grabbed the tip of a single long pointed ear, being sure to keep from touching the tufts of white hair sprouting from somewhere deep within the canal. Applying a twisting pressure to the ear I got his attention back on my face.

  "It really is good tae see you, lassie." He gave me a genuine smile.

  I had to smile back. "I wish you wouldn't call me that. You know lassie is a dog."

  Fluvius shrugged his diminutive shoulders and wiggled the tips of his ears. "Aye, well you do have a nice set of puppies."

  How Fluvius could get away with being so
lecherous I didn't know, but I also couldn't take offence at his comments.

  Maybe it was his size, I'm a touch taller than the average human woman but Fluvius still only measured up to my hip at best. His olive skin was wrinkled and spotted. He looked kind of like a liver-spotted Yoda with more evenly proportioned arms and legs, but just imagining that wouldn't do him justice. There was a gleam in his eyes and a life about him that no puppet could match. If it wasn't for the fact that talking to him was like chatting to a dirty old man he could have passed as cute.

  "Last I heard you, Chandra and the little ones had been granted licences to leave the Zone."

  Fluvius shook his head and shuffled his feet. "Um . . . er yes, they turned us loose."

  I just looked from him to our surroundings and arched an eyebrow. He got the point.

  "Well, you see, Chandra, she kinda . . ."

  Fluvius couldn't meet my eyes, more tellingly he was unable to look at any other part of my anatomy either.

  His ears drooped. "She kicked me out."

  "What did you do?"

  Fluvius had the gall to try and pull an innocent on me. He saw that I wasn't buying his act and gave a resigned sigh.

  "There was that one time with the girl next door," he gave a rueful shake of his head that set his fine wispy side-burns floating. "Or the woman that runs the shelter and the woman from the corner shop. Maybe she found out about that time with the child minder."

  "I get the picture."

  "She didn't like when I hit on her sisters," Fluvius went on tilting his head to the side. "I don't think she minded those girls I used to try and chat up down the shops, probably because they kept turnin' me down."

  "I said I get the picture."

  Fluvius winked at me, there was no remorse in him even as he listed the faults that had cost him his girl. And somehow the sly wink and grin he offered came out more charming than slime ball. Even though I was far from interested myself, I could see why he never had any shortage of partners to indulge his carnal impulses.