“Cole?” Paige said as she walked in from the kitchen. “When did you get here?”
Cole dropped his trash can lid and rushed to hold Paige at arm’s distance. “I thought you were in trouble,” he said while looking her over.
“That,” the man next to Cole said, “remains to be decided.”
Ignoring the other man, Paige asked, “What happened to you, Cole? Did Steph try to hurt you?”
“No, but…the cab driver! He’s right outside and he might have—”
“I told you I took care of him,” Steph replied as she stepped back inside.
“What did you do?” Cole snarled.
Her lower lip drooping in a mischievous pout, Steph replied, “I paid him. He said you promised triple the tip. You cost me everything I had on me, naughty boy.”
Cole pulled away from Paige and stood next to her so he was facing both Nymar with his back to the wall. “All right. Someone—and I don’t care who—just tell me what’s going on here.”
Paige patted his back to let him know she was nearby. “I invited Ace and Stephanie here. We were just about to talk business. Isn’t that right, Ace?”
Now that he was closer to the other man, Cole could see the symbol shaved into the buzzed half of the Nymar’s scalp. It was a single, three leaf clover straight off the ace of clubs.
“You bet your ass that’s right,” Ace said. “And I wouldn’t get too comfortable thinking this is a friendly visit. Considering how your boy treated Steph, I should start skinning some Skinners right here and now!”
Leaning over to whisper into Cole’s ear, Paige told him, “They represent some of Chicago’s finest working girls, including Racquel.”
Cole shook his head and let out a tired laugh. “You guys are undead and the best way to spend your time is running hookers?”
“Working girls, cutie,” Steph said. “And boys. Hookers are humans who give themselves up to strangers. We cater to your kind who pay us to be fed upon. They like the biting and all the rest, so we make sure it’s worth the price. Maybe you should try it.”
“Well, we saved your working girl’s life,” Cole said. “I don’t think we should be catching any grief for that. As for the other thing…I’ll pass.”
“Racquel told us what happened,” Steph said. “That’s why we haven’t killed you yet. Things ran a whole lot smoother when Gerald was here. When can we talk to him?”
“Never,” Paige said coldly. “You’ll talk to me.”
Keeping her sights set upon Paige, Steph walked across the room as if trying to kick holes into the floor. “Fine. I’ll say this to you. Chicago is under Nymar control! We’re the ones who tolerate Skinners being here, and that’s only because you’re good for keeping the assholes in line.”
“Which assholes are we talking about?” Paige asked with a grin.
“You’re new around here, girlie,” she shouted as she poked a garishly painted finger at Paige. “You don’t get to strut around like you own this place. Not even Gerald got to do that! If you want to strut in this town, you’re gonna have to pay your dues. Otherwise, I’ll gather up a few of my bitches and burn you out of here.” Steph’s eyes darted back and forth between Paige and Cole. Up close, those eyes looked green with a violet tint. “How many of us do you think you could get before we killed you?” Steph asked. “Two? Three?”
“Maybe I could just get one,” Paige said. “But it would be you. And when I got through, not even the kids at the goth store in the mall where you got those shitty clothes would recognize you.”
Before Steph could respond to that, Ace stepped in to pull her back.
“We took Racquel away from those lunatics and let her go safe and sound,” Paige continued. “As for your girl Wendy, she killed a man right out on the street for everyone to see. You know damn well that Gerald or any other Skinner on this planet would have killed her after that, but neither one of us even laid a finger on her. Some freak ripped her chest open and ate the spore attached to her heart. When the hell have you ever heard of a Skinner doing that?”
Although Steph needed a few seconds to simmer down, the anger in her eyes faded away. She nodded to Ace and ran her tongue along her lower lip before admitting, “You’re right. Still, you should’ve waited until we could introduce you around a bit before you started playing up the new sheriff in town thing. We have a certain standing in the Nymar community. Gerald must have told you.”
Paige nodded, but she didn’t look impressed. “Yeah, he told me some things. Can we move on?”
Steph and Ace looked at each other and then settled the matter with a silent nod.
“Wendy drifted over to Misonyk and lost touch with us,” Ace said. “The way she talked about him, it seemed the last thing he would do is hurt her. We heard about how she died, but lately just about every death’s been blamed on that freak. We wanted to look in your eyes when we asked about her just to be safe.” Glancing sideways at Steph, he added, “The ones who pointed the finger at you were in Misonyk’s pocket anyway.”
Rolling her eyes, Steph asked, “Have you heard of Misonyk?”
“Yeah,” Cole replied, so he could be something more than a casual amusement in the room. “We’ve heard of Henry too.”
“Good. What you need to know is that most Nymar don’t give a shit about what Misonyk has to say. He’s got the support of one coven at the very least, which comes to a dozen or so Nymar scattered through the city who buy into all of his bullshit about drinking souls. They’re the ones breaking the rules by killing humans and feeding in public. That sort of shit just cuts into our profits.”
“What’s he say about drinking souls?” Paige asked.
Ace leaned against a wall and ran his fingers along the symbol shaved into his scalp. “He says that if you drink someone to death, you get their soul. When you get enough souls, you get to tap into the Spirit World. When you tap into the Spirit World, you can project your own spirit into someone else and then tap it for even more power.”
“Nothing but a psychic pyramid scheme,” Steph said.
As bad as his first impression of the redhead had been, Cole couldn’t help but laugh at that one.
Paige wasn’t as amused. “Does any of this spirit drinking actually work?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Ace replied. “His followers have gotten into a few heads, but most of ’em have been human. He’s the only one that’s been gettin’ into Nymar brains. I wouldn’t have believed it until he pulled it on me. He tried getting me to tell all my employees to sign up with him. I almost did it too, if it hadn’t been for Steph.”
The redhead smiled proudly and stood up straight, as if she’d just gotten a perfect score on her report card. “He tried whispering into my brain when Ace kicked him out of his,” she announced. “I’d rather take my chances giving Henry a ride before I’d tell any of my girls to follow some infeeding asshole like Misonyk.”
“Nymar are feeding on each other?” Paige asked.
Both Ace and Steph nodded. “It always happens every now and then,” Ace said, “but Misonyk is really pushing it. Normally, the covens would do something about it themselves, but Henry’s torn apart anyone who’s made a move against him.”
“I know,” Cole replied. “We’ve seen it.”
“And that’s what I wanted to tell you,” Steph said as she stepped forward and slid her fingers down Cole’s chest. “If there’s one thing you Skinners can do, it’s kill freaks. You kill Henry, and there’s a reward in it for you. All the covens have pitched enough money into the kitty for you to set yourselves up somewhere nicer than this dump. You might even be able to buy a neat new stick and trash can lid.” Smirking at Cole’s glare, Steph turned away from him like he no longer existed. “Don’t look at me like that, stud. My kitty doesn’t have the money in it, but I could do a little somethin’ somethin’ if you take care of Henry.”
“You’ll owe us plenty,” Paige said. “But money’s not all we had in mind.”