Cameron Haley - Mob rules

"It's possible. He couldn't have done the ritual, but he might have been involved. Either way, it wasn't your fault."

He nodded uncertainly.

"Jamal wasn't a random victim, Adan. Whether Fred was in on it or not, Jamal got squeezed. You don't set something like that up on a whim. Whoever did him had a reason for it, and that's what I'm trying to find out."

"I hope you do. Jamal was a cool guy. It's fucked up what they did to him."

"Whoever did it, I'll find him," I said, standing up. "I don't have the juice to bring Jamal back-no one does-but I can make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else." I sort of did have the juice to bring him back, as it turned out, just not in the way I meant.

"Be careful, Domino. Look, I know you can handle yourself, and it'd be pretty ridiculous for me to get protective. But be careful. Promise me."

"I promise," I said, and kissed him goodbye.

The promise was broken when it came out of my mouth. It was too late to be careful. I had to stick with reckless and try to finish the job before anyone noticed.

When I got home, Honey was waiting for me with an interrogation lamp and a rubber hose. We went through twenty questions and I ignored the ones I didn't want to answer. That was most of them. She was concerned or jealous or both, but she wasn't angry. I told her the potion seemed to have worked. I told her I was ready for training.

I went into my bedroom to change clothes and was momentarily defeated. What exactly is proper attire for shadow world training in kung-fu magic? Finally, I decided it didn't matter since my clothes wouldn't really exist in the Between anyway. I opted for running shorts, a sports halter and cross trainers. Honey said I looked like I was ready for yoga class.

If I'd have known where we were going, I'd have chosen a different outfit. Honey wouldn't say. After we crossed over and were ignored by Mrs. Dawson, Honey told me to follow her into the mist.

"How do I follow you? We don't actually go anywhere, as far as I can tell."

"If we both have the same destination in mind, we'll show up there together. Otherwise, we have to stay in physical contact and you have to focus on staying with me. Think of this as the first part of your training."

Honey zipped off down the street and I went after her. When we reached the mist, she grabbed my ear and pulled me in after her. I focused on staying with her.

The L.A. Coliseum didn't suffer much in the Between. It didn't seem to be missing too many colors, the way other buildings might. It was drab and ugly in both worlds.

"The Coliseum?"

"Sure. What better place to learn how to fight? It's kind of a neutral ground and there are real fights here sometimes, but usually at night. Let's go!"

Honey zipped through the north entrance of the sprawling stadium, down a couple of ramps and out onto the field. There wasn't much grass to it, just hard-packed dirt. There were certainly no yardlines or goalposts anymore.

The stands were filled with ghosts. I stood in the middle of the field and turned a full circle. They were different from the ghosts of the Goth kids I'd seen standing in line at the Cannibal Club. They were loud, belligerent and I saw more than one brawl rippling through the densely packed crowd.

"What's with the peanut gallery?" I asked.

Honey shrugged. "Raiders fans. They're always here. I guess they're waiting for the team to come back."

"The Raiders went back to Oakland in ninety-five."

"Yeah, I guess that's why they're so pissed."

Before long, the ghosts sitting nearest the field noticed me and the abuse started. Shouted hoots, whistles and catcalls rained down on me. When I gave them the finger, I was answered with intermittent showers of litter, beer bottles, batteries and generic debris that seemed to have been liberated from the stadium itself. A three-hundred-pound guy whose shaved head and naked torso were painted black-and-silver nailed me in the ear with a half-eaten hot dog.

"Real nice choice, Honey," I said, mining mustard from my ear canal with my pinkie.

"Yeah, like I said, it's a good place to fight. Nice energy. Plus, do you see the kind of distance they're getting on those throws? They're just ghosts, but they've learned how to use their juice."

"Well, they've had a lot of time to practice." I picked up a rough chunk of concrete that looked like it had come from the mezzanine facade. I hurled it at the fat guy, but it didn't make the stands.

"Let's get started," Honey said. "Do you remember when I knocked you down yesterday?"

"Yeah, both times."

"And the vampire basically did the same thing, only he hit you a lot harder."

"I guess."

"Well, I didn't really use any kung-fu magic. I just moved really fast and ran into you."

"So…"

"So that's really all there is to combat in the Between-speed and power."

"Isn't that all there is to kung-fu fighting in the real world?"

"Speed and power are good, sure, but the physical world is a lot more complicated."

"How so?"

"Well, for example, there are those pesky laws of physics and biology. You have to worry about things like mass, and momentum and conservation of energy, and if you want to hurt someone, you have to worry about things like anatomy."

"And here?"

"There aren't any such laws here. There are other laws, I guess, but they're very different. Anyway, in the Between, you don't have any mass, you don't have any anatomy, and neither does your opponent."

"I just have juice."

"Right. Juice and thought. Magic and mind. That's what you are."

"Okay, I'm made of juice. What do I do now?"

"Magic and mind, Domino. You have to learn to control the magic part with the mind part."

"So it's like a 'free your mind' thing."

"Yes, exactly like that," Honey said, and smiled.

"Are you saying I can dodge bullets?"

"It's just a movie, Domino."

"Sorry. How do I do it?"

"I'll try to hit you again, and you try to dodge out of the way."

"Don't you have any other training methods?"

"It won't hurt if you don't let me hit you."

"That's brilliant, Honey. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Okay, on the count of three. Ready?"

I shrugged.

"One…"

"Two…"

Honey blurred, I felt the now-familiar burst of pain in my chest, and then I was hurtling backward through the air. The packed earth of the Coliseum surface was nearly as rough as the pavement I'd spent so much time on the last couple days. I couldn't be sure with no lines on the field, but I must have been good for at least fifty yards. My chest felt like I'd taken a major-league fastball in the sternum. I lay on the ground and tried to find my breath.

Honey flew up to me. "Oh, stop that. You don't even really breathe here, remember?"

I stopped gasping for air and tried it out. Honey was right-despite what my brain was inclined to think, there didn't seem to be much point in breathing.

"You cheated," I wheezed. I sat up and rubbed my chest.

"Your bad guys probably will, too."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Anyway, it shouldn't matter. You should be able to move out of the way as quickly as you can trigger one of your spell talismans."

"Maybe I don't have enough juice for this."

"It's not your magic that's the problem, it's your mind. You're a little slow."

"Fuck you, Honey."

"I don't mean you're stupid. You just have to realize you can move as fast as you can think. The juice will do the rest."

"Okay, let's try again." We did, and on the last take-I'm not sure how many it was, but we were well into the teens-I managed to flinch before Honey hit me. By this time, the stadium was filled with the dull roar of the ghosts' laughter. The fat guy was rolling in the aisle.

"That was better, I suppose," said Honey when she flew over to me.