James Baldwin - Stained Glass

“Fuck off,” Vanya replied.

“Sergei must know, but it’s not our Pakhun’s way to serve anyone, not even the NO,” I continued, keeping my voice down. “So he sanctioned you and Lev as long as he got his due.”

“Fuck off!” Vanya roared, rattling his cuffs. He nearly lost his balance on the footstool, unable to find purchase with his gun-shot leg. From the back, the flesh of that leg was purpling… not something that put me at ease.

“He sanctioned you because Jana knew that the Gift Horse Mare was here.” I drew around beside him, and began to pry and poke at him with the point of the knife, digging it in without drawing blood on his waist and groin, which made his flesh flinch and further destabilized him. Pain was a terrible way to get information, and beyond sadistic vindication, I had no desire to beat him. “And that’s what Sergei wants. The Mare. As long as he gets her, he didn’t care if you wore a purple dress and let Lev fuck your ass under the full moon.”

Already furious and getting angrier, Vanya spat like an angry camel as he twisted and thrashed. “I’ll fuck YOU in the ass, you stupid piece of shit!”

I came around enough that he could see my face again. I never liked looking at other people’s faces for too long, but I was a master at using my own for effect. My eyes are nearly white, and one of the advantages of being short is that I can put them in shadow under my brow and wield them like flashlights, a predatory focus that never fail to make bound men jump. When I angled my head and flicked my eyes from floor to face, Vanya flinched.

“Lev knew where to find me after that first meeting with Sergei, Vanya. He knew I’d rescue Vassily and choose him over the Organizatsiya and the Fruit. He knew I’d do anything for Vassily, whatever it took to save him, because he and Sergei had raised me to do that exact thing.” Almost idly, I pressed the muzzle of the pistol against the swell of Vanya’s tiny, flaccid cock. He flinched again, trying to put his bad foot up onto the stool, and his gathering confusion and fear were enough to steady my tongue for the next words. “You arranged to have Vassily raped and infected in prison, didn’t you?”

He didn’t say anything until the trigger clicked into position.

“Little fuck deserved everything he got,” Vanya hissed. It wasn’t hot in the room, but sweat trickled down his body.

“It was easy to hook him after that,” I said. And I couldn’t keep the bitter sorrow from my voice. “But it couldn’t have been you who thought it up. You’re not creative enough. It must have been Nicolai.”

“It was Lev, you dumbfuck. Same with Rodion. Same with everything.” Vanya said. His voice radiated a perverse smugness, his pride in justifying the intelligence of the little man in the course of the grand game. It was exactly what I’d hoped he’d do. The Reid Technique depended on pride. “The Deacon bought Jana in, she bought Lev in, and he bought me in. Neither of you little faggots ever saw it coming, haha.”

“And Carmine nearly ruined everything, didn’t he?” The insults rolled off me like beaded water. Everything he said was a loan, a mark on the tally. I’d be able to claim soon enough. “Jana tried to get him to join, but she couldn’t control him. Not like how she controlled you.”

“Bitch didn’t control me, ” he sneered. “Women don’t have no place in the Organization, and—”

“So it was Lev who dealt with Wolf Grove?” I cut him off, withdrawing the pistol. Now that he was talking, I didn’t want him thinking about his body. “Lily and Dru Ross? Was it spur of the moment, killing them and taking the kids? Or did he plan it out?”

“Lev couldn’t fucking organize shit,” Vanya said, bitterly. “Soft-handed little fuckup was too busy sucking Sergei’s cock. He forgot his duty to the All-Father, and so did they.”

“They got soft-hearted after their initiation, didn’t they?” I locked my feelings down behind the mask. “They got rid of their infection, somehow. Who tried to bring them back into the fold, Vanya?”

“None of your fucking business.”

“It had to be someone from your kiddy porn ring who they still had regard for. Who was it? Michael? Aaron? Ayashe? You’re not the kind of man who could pull that off yourself.”

Vanya looked down his beaky nose at me. He was sweating so much that it dripped from his chin, and turned my stomach more than any words he could have expressed. “You fucking implying something, faggot?”

“That you’re too stupid to murder two shapeshifters and leave cute coded messages on the walls?” I had to restrain myself from putting the gun to his crotch and blowing it off like a crushed snail, and the effort made the parasite churn and twist deep in my guts. “Absolutely.”

“You don’t fuckin’ know nothin’, Alexi, and you ain’t never gonna find those little fucks. Even if I told you, Sergei’s coming for you. All-Father’s coming for you, and you’re never gonna even see it.”

Vanya’s eyes flicked up for a moment, glancing up over my head in a flash so brief I almost didn’t see it. I heard a single heartbeat thump against my eardrums as I spun and twisted back into his bulk, away from the hatchet coming down at my head.

Vanya snapped at me like a dog as I fell to the side, orientating on my attacker. It was Duke. He was purple in the face, eyes wild, a fireman’s ax in both hands.

“Duke!” I barked out, dodging as he brought the ax around and lunged for me a second time. Vanya began laughing hysterically, a sound cut off into a squeal of pain as I dove around him and Duke slammed him aside, knocking him off his stool in his eagerness to get to me.

The man who’d fought alongside Jenner and Zane and taken a blade for them was no longer there. He charged me heedlessly, driving me back into the basement. I barely dodged the swipes in the darkness, trying to get the gun between us. I stumbled, and Duke swung the ax, as fast and strong as only a Weeder could be. There was just enough time to roll my head out of the way, and then kick him squarely in the balls. It sent him staggering back, but it didn’t put him to the floor. I, on the other hand, put too much weight on my injured leg and went down as my thigh shuddered and buckled.

“My hands!” Vanya was screaming. “My fucking hands! Cut me down!”

Duke eyed me like a furious bull: the whites of his eyes showing, erection raging, body pouring sweat. He turned back and sprinted to Vanya’s side, too fast to be human, and swung the ax into the chain of the cuffs. Vanya dropped to the floor like a plate of blancmange. I was only just getting to my feet, too dizzy to run, by the time that Duke was chasing ahead of Vanya and out the door.

I swore and fired after them. One bullet caught Duke in the shoulder, but it didn’t even slow him. Vanya was pumped with adrenalin and Duke was… whatever he was. He’d caught the same infection as Mason, Lily and Dru. It hadn’t even been five hours since he was stabbed.

I floundered up the stairs as quickly as I could, but not in time. There was a high-pitched scream from inside the parlor. It was too high to be Jenner’s smoke-and-whiskey voice. Talya was still here.

The raw cry of pain spurred me on to greater speed. I staggered up the stairs, jamming the pistol into my belt and pulling the knife. If Duke was infected with Morphorde, the last thing I wanted to do was shoot him somewhere vital. I turned the blade as I rounded the corner to see…. Blood. A lot of blood, spattered and oozing across the floor from the two dead bikers and Talya. The men had been hacked to death. Tayla was sprawled against the cash counter in her sundress and cardigan, panting with an awful wet rasp. Her fingers hovered and twitched around the ax handle buried in her chest.