The Man Who Walked in Darkness (Miles Franco #2) (Miles Franco Urban Fantasy) (25 page)

“Fuck yourself with a broken broomstick.”

She was enjoying herself, I could tell. “I saw a picture of your friend, you know. Not much of a beauty, really. What do they say?
Homely
. I honestly don’t know what you’re so upset about.”

I don’t remember getting to my feet, but my palm collided with the glass divider. I could feel my lips pulled back around my teeth. “Don’t,” I growled. “Don’t.”

Her smile only infuriated me more. The guard banged on the door behind me.
Don’t be an idiot. Calm. You’re calm. For once in your goddamn life, play it smart.

The guard was yelling something at me, but I couldn’t hear.

Sit down. Don’t take the bait. Sit down, be calm, get what you came for. Do it for her. Sit down.

I sat down.

The banging on the door stopped, and footsteps shuffled away. Blood still pounded in my ears, but I forced myself to take a deep breath. Then I brought the phone back to my ear.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“A promise, Miles. Just a promise.”

Nothing would ever be just a promise with Caterina Andrews. But I kept my trap shut and listened.

“I won’t be in here forever,” she said. “A year from now, two, three, maybe, I’ll be out.”

“Not likely.”

“And when I’m out,” she continued, “I’m going to give you a call. And you’ll fulfill your promise.”

“And what promise is that?”

“The promise of training.” Her eyelashes fluttered, and she glanced at the walls around her. “The world is changing, and it’s hard for a girl to keep up in a place like this. Heaven, Limbus, Tartarus. Who knows how many worlds will have been uncovered by the time I’m out? I want you to teach me how to Tunnel in this brave new universe.”

“What makes you think I’ll even be up-to-date myself? What makes you think I’ll even be alive?”

She smiled. “You still don’t understand how strong you are, do you? How many others could open a Tunnel to a whole new world with nothing but gut instinct and a bottle of Kemia? How many others could do it as close to death as you were?”

I didn’t answer.

“So you’ll know,” she said. “You were born to Tunnel, Miles, and no matter how hard you try to resist, you’ll get more powerful than you can imagine.” She leaned forward. “And you’ll teach me that power. If you want what I can tell you. If you promise.”

I shouldn’t be here. I knew that damn well. Caterina was a viper with lasers for eyes and a machine gun duct-taped to her tail. Screw dealing with the devil. This would really be selling my soul.

But look at me. I was so close to Death’s door I could see the rust on the door knob. There was no way I’d still be above ground when Caterina got out of here. By that time she’d be someone else’s problem. All of Bluegate would be someone else’s problem. But maybe, just maybe, I could nail Claudia’s killer before I went. If I just took what Caterina had to give me.

Hell. I never had a choice.

“I promise,” I said.

“Good boy.” She tilted her head to the side and beamed. “Shall we get started then? Let’s see. The man who came to see me called himself Anthony.”

“Pale guy, kinda nervous?” I asked.

She nodded. Anthony Gullet, my friend from the funeral, now reconsidering his life choices in a police cell. Caterina was right. It really was connected.

“What did he want?” I said.

“As I said, he had an offer for me. He wanted my help on something he called Tartarus. In exchange, he would arrange my release from prison.”

“Breakout or early parole?”

She shrugged. “He didn’t specify. I suspect either was possible.”

My thoughts went to Mayor White. Maybe she and the warden were batting for the same corrupt team. “But you’re still here. Why didn’t you take the offer?”

“Because I excel at reading people, Miles, and this Anthony was a terrible liar. Whatever they wanted my help with, they didn’t intend for me to survive giving it. I’m no idiot. And I intend to live a long, long time.”

This was all starting to sound familiar. Except I wasn’t as smart as Caterina, especially not when a pretty girl was involved. Had Zhi Lu taken me to her bed knowing that a few hours later she’d be leaving me to drown in a pool of poison? She had to have. My fist tightened around the phone. Why didn’t I learn? I couldn’t trust people like that.

At least it’d probably be the last time I got the chance to make that mistake.

“Do you know what they wanted you to do?” I asked, trying to keep my feelings from showing on my face.

“They were rather vague. They had their new world they wanted help accessing. But that obviously wasn’t their true purpose.” She gestured to the walls. “If that was all they wanted, they could have picked Tunnelers in more convenient locales. And they would have been a little less insistent. There would’ve been fewer threats.” She smirked. “It was cute, in a way.”

“So, what then? Stop playing games. What did they really want?”

She shook her head, eyes dancing. “You’re so impatient. You really do look awful. And I don’t think it’s just the poison, is it? I’m betting you haven’t slept well the last few months. Have the screams been waking you at night? Does the fear still grip you? The guilt? The knowledge of the lives—and deaths—you’re responsible for. You must have such terrible nightmares, I’m sure.”

“Everyone has nightmares. If nothing scares you, you’re already dead.”

Her eyes flashed. Shouldn’t she be blinking more? “Ah, but these aren’t ordinary nightmares, are they? Not when they pursue you into daytime. It’s not normal to hear the dead whispering to you, Miles. It’s not normal to see them following you.”

My chest tightened. The voices I’d been blocking out started hissing, talking, begging, screaming. And their images appeared, as clear and sharp as if they were lying all around me. The gangsters I’d killed. The people I’d let down. Oh, Jesus. Jesus H. Christ.

“How?” I whispered into the phone. “How can you know that?”

She grinned the grin of a madwoman. “You didn’t think you were special, did you?” She leaned forward. “I know because I see them too.”

I looked into her eyes, and I knew she was telling the truth. There were certain kinds of crazy you just couldn’t fake. But why? Why were both of us losing it?

And then I realized. “Chroma.”

She nodded. “You didn’t think you could take something that powerful and get away clean, did you?” Her laugh crackled in my ear. “Just because the drug wore off, doesn’t mean it’s gone completely. It changed us, Miles. It made us stronger. And it broke us.”

I licked my lips. She was right. My Tunneling was stronger now than it ever had been before. I figured these hallucinations were some kind of hardcore PTSD. But maybe…

“No,” I said. “We weren’t the only ones to take it. Tania did. Dozens of other Tunnelers, too.”

“And how many of them were as strong as us? Have you followed the news reports? A quarter of them are dead. A few of them, the younger ones, were barely affected. Others have been experiencing symptoms. Depression, mania, catatonia. But you and I, Miles, you and I were powerful enough to draw on the full strength of Chroma. And it left its mark.”

I massaged my forehead with my palm. It didn’t matter why I was crazy. It didn’t change the fact that I
was
crazy. And it wouldn’t bother me much longer.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked. “What does this have to do with anything? Tell me what you know about Tartarus. Tell me what you know about the fluid.”

“Don’t you get it yet?” She crossed her legs. “The fluid is nothing. A poison, sure, but a slow one, and easily detectable. Pointless. On its own.”

“What do you…?” The penny dropped. It was a big penny. “Oh.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Do you understand now?”

“The fluid needs a host,” I said. “That’s why they were poisoning people with it.” The realizations tumbled in one after another. “The pathologist who did Claudia’s autopsy said he found crystals in her blood vessels. That’s it, isn’t it? The fluid is nothing, but when someone’s poisoned with it, it crystallizes, changes somehow. And it’s the crystals they want.”

I touched my bleeding gums again, and pictured the blood in my vomit, the red spiderwebs on my face. Blood vessels being shredded by the same damn crystals.

“So it’s the crystals that are useful,” I said. “But why? What are they used for?”

“How should I know?” Caterina said.

I chewed my lip and tasted blood. “But if it’s just crystals they want…” I tapped my head with my palm, willing my brain to work faster. “…then why would they come to you?”

“To poison me with the fluid, of course,” she said. “To make the crystals in my veins.”

“Yeah, but why you, specifically? They were happy doing it to homeless people and prostitutes before.”

And how come they didn’t take the crystals before the cops got their hands on the bodies? Maybe they did, maybe there were dozens of deaths, and the few Vivian and Wade had found were just ones who slipped through the cracks. Or maybe….

“Maybe it didn’t work in those people,” I said. “The crystals were flawed somehow. They thought it would work, but it didn’t. So they didn’t harvest the crystals. Which meant they needed someone different. They came to you.” I met Caterina’s eyes. “But why you? Why are you different?”

“Do I really need to spell it out for you?” she said, head cocked to the side. Once more, the madness flashed behind her eyes.

And then I caught up. “Goddamn it. Chroma again. It’s always fucking Chroma, isn’t it?”

Cat said it herself. Those doses of Chroma had changed us. Claudia’s killers must think that Chroma would affect the crystals.

Maybe they were wrong. Maybe the crystals had failed inside me just as they’d failed inside Claudia and all the others.

No. The Collective took a blood sample from me. They said I was positive. And then they tried to put me through their grinder. They tried to extract the crystals. Damn them all. It had worked. I’d become their goddamn lab experiment. I’d become their host.

My blood
. The Collective used my blood to test if it had truly worked. My mind went to my trashed apartment. I’d thought they were looking for the fluid in the container. But that was worthless. Hell, maybe it wasn’t even active once it was back on Earth. But the fluid hadn’t been the only thing I’d swiped when I ran from AISOR. I’d also taken my blood samples. The blood samples I’d given to the cops to test. That’s what they’d been looking for when they tossed my apartment. Maybe they sent that goon to kidnap me from the funeral to get more blood, and when that failed, they went looking for the blood samples that had already been taken. And only AISOR knew about those blood samples.

“Kowalski,” I said to myself. “It has to be him.”
I’m coming for you, pal.

Caterina was smirking loudly by the time I dug myself out of the avalanche of thoughts. “It’s a rush, isn’t it? Discovery, I mean.”

She was right, but I wasn’t going to get in the habit of agreeing with her. I stood up and started to put the phone down. I had what I came for.
I have a promise to keep, and so many fucking miles to go before I sleep.

“Wait,” she said. “I can tell there’s one thing you haven’t worked out yet.”

I stopped, the phone a few inches from my ear. “What?”

“Your friend, Claudia. They killed her, never intending to harvest her crystals.” She leaned forward. “You’re so predictable, Miles. They knew you’d come snooping, they knew if someone told you to drop it you’d only come on harder. It was the easiest way for them to get you to Tartarus so they could poison you. Claudia’s a corpse so they could get to you. Isn’t that funny?”

The world swayed like a couple dancing a slow waltz to no music. Something wrapped around my shoulders, took hold of my skin. And it began to pull. I staggered. The weight was too much. Too goddamn much. I looked to my feet and saw the bodies scattered there. They clutched at my shoes, my trousers, my legs, tugging me down into my own personal hell.
Too much. It’s too much.

No.

I steadied myself against the divider. There was only one thing I could do. It wouldn’t make the guilt go away. Nothing would. This didn’t change anything. I already knew Claudia’s death was on me. I’d be dragging these bodies behind me for the remainder of my short, miserable life. But those bastards wouldn’t get away with it.
I’m coming, Kowalski. You’re mine. Bohr, too. You’re all as bad as each other. You can all go to hell.

“One last thing,” Caterina said. I met her gaze, and the hallucinations faded. “Don’t forget your promise. I won’t be in here forever. And don’t worry, Miles. You’ll survive this. You’re a hard man to kill.” She stood, her freckled nose an inch from the glass. “And when I get out, after you’ve fulfilled your promise, we’ll finish what we started last winter.”

“Great,” I said. “I’ll pencil you in. Have your people call my people. We’ll make it a fucking date.”

I dropped the phone handset, letting it dangle, and turned my back on the smartest, scariest maniac I’d ever known.

Claudia walked beside me and the guard on our way back through the prison. She wasn’t haunting me anymore. Now, she was the only thing that kept me putting one foot in front of the other. My stomach was squirming again. My legs felt like sacks of cement. A cold sweat coated my skin.
Just a little longer
, she seemed to be saying to me.
You’re nearly there.

I needed to call Vivian and tell her everything. If I died before we got a chance to put Kowalski away, I didn’t want AISOR or the Collective getting their paws on my body. I didn’t know what the crystals did, but if those bastards wanted them, I wasn’t going to let them have them.

There were other things I should put in order as well. Even if Desmond hated my guts, I figured he’d still be willing to take over Tania’s Tunneling training. God knows I’d done a shitty job of it so far. And then there was the question of what to do with the baby spider-dog terrorizing Vivian’s apartment. As stupid as it was, I wasn’t willing to let Toto get put down or stuck in a research facility. I just wanted to preserve one damn thing before I croaked. My whole life had been self-destruction. My family destroyed itself. I destroyed myself. I was willing to pay for the way I’d lived my life. But I just wanted this, this one last, stupid chance to keep something alive.