“Anthony Bell.”
I glared at Anthony, who still stunk of the sweet cherry scent of blood magic and drugs, probably coke or speed. He sniffed and spit on the floor. Nice.
“Theresa Garcia.”
She stood slightly away from the wall and, from my vantage, studied me from just above Pike’s left shoulder. She wore a suit jacket and black slacks over her solid build. Her hair was pulled back in a braid. She couldn’t be over five feet tall but looked like she could wrestle a bull elephant to the ground. Her hazel eyes were sharp and inquisitive, and she did not break eye contact. I figured her for hard core exercise and maybe the occasional weekend bender.
“Tomi Nowlan.”
A girl who looked like she was twelve going on twenty-one leaned hip and shoulder against the wall, and chewed gum. Her dark hair was tucked behind her ears but a lot of bangs hung in a heavy curtain to edge her eyes. She had on a hoodie and low-waisted jeans that showed a thin glimpse of hipbone where three thin razor scars shone white against her white skin. Her belt was wide and black, anchored by a heavy silver buckle shaped like a doggy bone. She gave me a flat stare, blew a big pink bubble, and bit it with her back molars. A cutter.
“Beatrice Lufkin.”
Beatrice was also standing, wearing jeans and a nice beige sweater. Walnut colored hair stuck out in wild curls barely kept in check by her wide flower-pattern headband. Her eyes were too large in her round, freckled face, but she smiled, revealing dimples, and surprise, surprise, she seemed genuinely happy to see me. “I’ve hoped to meet you for some time now,” she said. “You’ve done some really great jobs in the city.”
“Thanks,” I said, feeling like I might have a chance at making friends with her. I guessed her drug of choice was probably weed, mushrooms, and wine coolers.
“Jamar Legare.”
Jamar was at least three inches taller than me and wore his mustache and beard in a circle around his mouth, his dark curls shaved close to his scalp, and a pair of thick-rimmed glasses that did nothing to hide his deep brown eyes. He had on a jean jacket with a hoodie under it and seemed comfortable surveying the room, one thumb tucked in his front pocket.
“Afternoon,” he said.
I nodded to him. Tough call, but I’d guess alcohol.
“Jack Quinn.”
Whiskey Guy, the closest person on my left, was in the middle of lighting a cigarette. He gave me a brief nod.
The prospects of me having my own bit of wall to lean against were pretty low, since the room wasn’t very large, something made worse by the low ceiling. Everyone was scattered to maximize the distance from each other. So I just stood to one side of the door, nearest Whiskey Guy-I mean Jack-and blond Sid on the other side of the door to my right.
“Davy,” Pike said, “is this it?”
Davy, the Hangover Kid, opened his eyes and looked around the room. “Yep. Everyone who said they’d come.”
I was right. He was the one who answered the phone.
Okay, so my theory that Hounds didn’t know one another had been seriously thrown out the window in the last minute or so. It looked like all these people knew one another and knew other Hounds working in the city. Maybe I was the only one disinclined to hang out. Maybe in my push to be free of my father and his expectations, I’d taken the concept of solitary into every other aspect of my life. Maybe Hounds hung out all the time at special Hound bars, had Hound parties, and, hells, did Hound job-share and babysat one another’s Hound kids.
“Anyone have any news?” Pike asked.
No one spoke. Not even me. I had no idea what they considered news. Did ghosts count? Being hunted by a blood and drug lord? Magic assassins?
“Anyone have any complaints about an employer?”
Silence.
“How about leads on jobs?” he asked.
Nothing.
At this rate, the meeting was going to be over in about thirty seconds.
Pike pulled a small notebook and pen out of his shirt pocket. “Who’s working where?”
Sid cleared his throat. “Gotta job with the cops. Don’t know where yet.”
Pike noted that in his book and then looked expectantly at motherly Dahlia next to Sid.
“Nothing that I know of,” she said.
“Davy?” Pike asked.
Davy didn’t even bother opening his eyes. “The college wants me to run the halls for a couple days. Probably do it this week.”
“Do it sober,” Pike said.
Davy shook his head like he’d heard that before and hadn’t listened last time either.
Anthony spoke up. “I’ll be wherever you are, old man.”
Pike noted something in his book. From the motion of the top of his pen, I was pretty sure he’d just written “ass.”
Theresa the elephant wrestler said, “I’m still on retainer with Nike.” She shrugged. “It’s been quiet.”
“Good,” Pike grunted. “Tomi?”
“Jesus, Pike,” the cutter girl said, “do we have to do this every week?”
“Every week you show up. Every week you want someone to know where the hell you are and who the hell you’re putting your life on the line for.”
She chewed, blew, popped. I noticed Davy’s body language changed, and Tomi glanced from beneath her heavy bangs over at him, at his still-closed eyes, at his just-a-little-too-shallow-to-be-relaxed breathing, at his hands that had clenched, probably unconsciously, into fists.
She bit her bottom lip and looked away.
“I have a private client,” she said in a dull tone. “In the West Hills. That’s all I’ll say.”
Davy’s fists went white at the knuckles.
“Bea?” Pike asked, shifting the tension in the room.
“Me?” Beatrice smiled, and those dimples nipped her cheeks. She nodded, her wild curls bouncing. “I’m still pulling morgue duty for at least the rest of the month. And if I get killed there, at least you’ll have plenty of witnesses on the slab. If you can get them to talk!” She giggled.
My eyebrows shot up. Okay, she wasn’t all freckles and sweet strawberries and cream like she looked. I made a mental note: never underestimate Beatrice. Or anyone else in the room for that matter.
Jamar just shook his head and smiled. “Damn, girl. You gotta get a different job. You sound like you’re starting to enjoy sniffing corpses.”
Bea, still giggling, gave him a huge smile and shrugged, her hands up, like who could blame her.
“I’m working a new section of MLK Boulevard for the police,” Jamar said. “Mostly day work, looking for trap and trigger spells, illegal Offloads. Gang crap. Nothing I can’t handle.”
“They going to open that up for another Hound to work it with you?” Pike asked.
Jamar pushed his glasses back up on his nose. “I asked maybe a month ago. Don’t think they have it in the budget.”
Pike noted that and then waved his pen at Whiskey Guy. “Jack?”
Jack exhaled smoke. “City called me in for some piddly things. Public nuisance illusions, screwing with the art in the parks, stink spells in public halls, that sort of shit.”
“Okay,” Pike said.
And that left me.
“Allie?” Pike looked over at me.
“I have a job for the police. Tonight. With Detective Stotts.”
At the mention of his name, the body language in the room changed. There wasn’t a person in that room who liked Stotts. Interesting. Apparently his cursed reputation had proceeded him.
“Has anyone ever worked for him?” I asked.
Sid, next to me, rubbed at the side of his nose. “I Hounded for him. Once. Spooky shit happens around him. People die.”
“So I’ve been told,” I said. “But since I’ve been out of the loop with all this”-I waved my hand to include them all-“Hound bonding stuff, I was hoping someone here could tell me what’s so dangerous about working for him. Maybe give me a couple examples of what happened to other Hounds.”