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9472442
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It's not all sex work, of course. Any business of that size needs support and grounds staff--" "Gee, Mom." Melanie's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Can I get a summer job there? I'll be the best jizz-mopper ever!" "Melanie!" Emma snapped. I quickly shoved a forkful of prawn in my mouth, trying to keep myself from laughing, but I couldn't hold a straight face. Melanie grinned at me, sensing a kindred spirit at the table. "Language," Caitlin to..
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Craig Schaefer |
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f6caa54
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She doesn't dare come after us head-on, not now." "We did," Caitlin said with a faint murmur of pleasure, "slaughter most of her associates."
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Craig Schaefer |
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b8756cb
|
She arched one eyebrow, incredulous, and tilted her head. "Daniel? Did you forget who I work for?" In retrospect, it was a dumb question on my part."
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Craig Schaefer |
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ab9f239
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The problem with doing magic under pressure is that the pressure drowns out the flow, the rhythm. It's like trying to play jazz with a gun to your head.
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Craig Schaefer |
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cceed98
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If you want to be human, you'd better go buy a house in the suburbs, play golf, and cheat on your taxes, because that's the closest you're ever gonna get.
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Craig Schaefer |
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99eaca6
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The gun was an equalizer, but only when it came to the cambion. Sullivan would just swallow the bullets and spit them back out at me.
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Craig Schaefer |
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49d1161
|
Redemption Choir. Half-demons who want to be human," I said. "So they're the good guys." "No," I said. "They're nuts, and they just kidnapped a priest. They're the bad guys." "Who's AB?" "Special Agent Harmony Black. FBI agent, trying to bust Nicky Agnelli. Honest cop, as far as I know. Straight shooter." "So she's a good guy." "No, because she also wants to bust everyone who Nicky's ever done business with, including me, and Lauren Carmich..
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Craig Schaefer |
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5a7955d
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I nearly dropped my fork. "Say that again?" "Human servants, so we can go where--" "No, not that, the second part. The stupid part. You guys are actually Satanists? Like real, no-kidding, play your heavy metal album backward and bark at the moon Satanists?" Mack blinked. Zeke looked like he was fantasizing about killing me. "It's not stupid," Mack said. "We have a place of high honor awaiting us--" "Yeah, it is. It really is. So this is how..
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Craig Schaefer |
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710a74c
|
At this range, a gut shot from a .32 probably won't kill me. Oh, I won't be loving life, but I'll be alive and conscious enough to squeeze this trigger twice. Now, you take a blast from my piece? You'll be lucky if your spine's still intact." "He's bluffing," Zeke said, but it came out more like a question than a statement."
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Craig Schaefer |
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c17b9ea
|
Help me?" I shouldn't have looked, but I did. The silhouette of a bloated man cowered in the dark, extending a fat, trembling hand with half its fingers gnawed to stumps. "Please," he wheezed. "I can't stop eating, and they keep bringing me more--" "Sorry," I said, shaking my head and moving on."
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Craig Schaefer |
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0950ce8
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There are few things more dangerous than a zealot with discipline,
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Craig Schaefer |
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2027a38
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I'm taking my cash and going somewhere with sunny skies, frosty drinks, and no extradition treaty with the US.
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Craig Schaefer |
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403e4a4
|
I will try to contact Caine," he said, "but I can't guarantee--" "That's it, hanging up. See ya in hell, Alton." "Wait! Wait, wait, wait! I'll do it. I'll call Caine right now and give the order." He fell silent for a moment, and I listened to his ragged breath. "You son of a bitch. If those soldiers die because of this, it's on your head."
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Craig Schaefer |
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5a77bf7
|
You killed a buddy of mine, back at the shelter." "Yeah? What about the other three guys I killed? You didn't like them as much?" That shut him up, at least. The elevator door whispered open. Jennifer and I stepped into the cage, bathed in cherry light. The merc leaned in, swiped his keycard, and hit the button for the penthouse floor. "Bon voyage, asshole," he said"
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Craig Schaefer |
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f7310c4
|
I smiled. "Hey, 'Eve,'" I said. "Think you've got some uninvited guests." Now they were on three monitors. Teams of men in uniform black, huddled down behind riot shields, forcing their way into the Enclave lobby. A tear-gas grenade exploded on one camera, blanketing the lens in white smoke. On the parking lot view, a swarm of police cruisers ringed the building. "Oh, hey," I said. "Looks like the whole Vegas Metro SWAT division is here. Pl..
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Craig Schaefer |
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acd2f58
|
Buy up the land it's on and the twenty acres around it in every direction. Post a permanent guard." "Satellite scans show a small village within that radius." "Shame," the Smile said. "The drug cartels are just getting bolder and bolder these days, aren't they, Ms. Green? I hear they've been known to massacre entire villages as reprisal for some imagined slight." Green nodded sharply. "Understood,"
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Craig Schaefer |
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99def02
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All the danger, none of the reward.
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Craig Schaefer |
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32c9152
|
Problem there," I said, "is you didn't keep track of them. The name Lauren Carmichael mean anything to you?" He shook his head, brow furrowed. "No. Should it?" "There weren't two tunnels. There were three. She found the third on a dig in Nepal. Your boys showed up to save the day. See, first they pushed Lauren into slaughtering all the witnesses, except for one." Bob blinked. "I...didn't intend for them to hurt anyone. That wasn't the idea ..
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Craig Schaefer |
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5c8bd30
|
After a moment, she nodded to herself. "Oh, you little scamp," she murmured. "What is it?" She lowered her glasses, just enough to show me the burning molten-copper swirls of her eyes. Her real eyes. "He's marked by one of my kind," she said. "That's why he's so afraid to die. He literally sold his soul."
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Craig Schaefer |
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c141182
|
You either need to get some kind of guarantee of silence out of Nicky Agnelli--the kind that'll sew his lips shut for life--or start checking into countries that don't have extradition treaties.
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Craig Schaefer |
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4f789e9
|
I liked my old place, a rehabbed motel room in the shadow of the Vegas strip. Really felt like home--until a psycho half-demon pitched a Molotov cocktail through my window.
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Craig Schaefer |
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c9c006f
|
my list of requirements was hard to meet. Ideally, I needed quiet neighbors, a landlord who took rent payments in cash and wasn't picky about background checks, and hardwood floors for chalking down the occasional ritual circle.
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Craig Schaefer |
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a185e4d
|
I don't know what rock you crawled out from under, but I do know this: you came in here under false pretenses, then you scared my husband, and you hurt our boy. That puts you about two notches lower than dog shit on the list of things I'm scared of. You're gonna leave now, and if you ever set foot on my property again, I'll end you." Naavarasi's eyes widened. Her lips curled as she said, "You impudent little--" Corman swung up the shotgun, ..
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Craig Schaefer |
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1f09499
|
She slapped an envelope down on the table and loudly announced, "Fredrika Vinter, House of Vinter, champion of good taste. If you don't know what that is, I'll buy you a dictionary."
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Craig Schaefer |
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3d5d0a1
|
This was the real blues, down-home raw and ragged, drenched with sweat and sex and the bloodied edge of a switchblade.
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Craig Schaefer |
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3f2d5ee
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He was a rogue agent, acting without my prince's sanction. Also, we wrote a letter of apology. Don't know what else you want from us." "That's funny," I said. "I didn't get one. Did you send it to my old apartment? That must be why. See, it burned down while I was protecting that asshole from the Redemption Choir." "I'll see that you get a copy," Royce said."
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Craig Schaefer |
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67e59a6
|
So sorry," Calypso said, waving his cigarette in a slow circle. "I should have asked before I lit up. Does anyone mind if I smoke?" "Duh, yes," Josh snapped at him. "It's a filthy habit. And it's making my eyes water. I have very sensitive--" "But I don't like you," Calypso said. "Does anyone else mind, or are we all copacetic?"
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Craig Schaefer |
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62d6929
|
Not always true. In '08, that was the first and only year we played Monopoly. Four people died.
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Craig Schaefer |
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9bf197a
|
Jenna Rearden thinks you might be the Devil." "Yet here you are." I finished my drink. "Lucky for you, I only take payment in cash." I folded the envelope into my pocket, rose, and shook his hand. His grip was firm, with calluses like lunar rocks."I'll call you," I said and made my way out into the afternoon sun." --
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Craig Schaefer |
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430df94
|
It wasn't...it wasn't anything personal," he finally said. "Funny," I told him. "When somebody tries to screw somebody else over and fails hard? That's always the first thing out of their mouth. 'It was only business.' 'It wasn't personal.' Thing is, to the guy getting screwed? It's always personal."
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Craig Schaefer |
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c57bcf7
|
Watch your mouth," Emma said. "I can't...I can't even deal with you right now. Go to your room. We'll discuss this in the morning." "Mom, c'mon--" I could see Emma's eyes flash copper from across the room, glowing like orbs of pitch and fire as her voice went guttural, dropping too deep for any human throat. "To. Your. Room." Melanie didn't need to be told twice. She vanished up the hallway. Emma straightened her blouse, closed her eyes, an..
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Craig Schaefer |
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353d139
|
Problem there," I said, "is Lauren's a strategist. A damn good one. If she's not thinking about the long term..." Harmony finished my thought. "Then there isn't going to be a long term."
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Craig Schaefer |
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ca00543
|
Tonight, Lauren Carmichael and her followers are going to open the Etruscan Box. If she succeeds, it's pretty much game over for the entire planet. Not that we'll be around to worry about it, because Las Vegas will be a smoking crater.
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Craig Schaefer |
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337513d
|
I pretended to think, stalling for time. "Something you want, something you...oh, right! It just arrived. A big pile of 'fuck you' with your name on it." I gave him the finger. Sullivan frowned. "What?" I said. "Not your size? I'm sorry, all fuck yous are final."
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Craig Schaefer |
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25ba92e
|
From the looks on his follower's faces, I'd done a decent enough job of creeping them out. Two of them looked nervously at the duffel, as if they'd just found out I'd brought a pinata stuffed with anthrax to the party.
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Craig Schaefer |
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1feb2e6
|
Any suggestions?" "Boom-boom. Clump of C-4 the size of a butter stick," Jennifer said. "Loud," Bentley said, "but they'll almost certainly be alerted to your presence as soon as the assault begins, no matter how you go in. Loud and disorienting might be to our advantage." "Wait," I said, "plastic explosives? You can get that?" "Darlin', I deal in mass quantities of recreational substances for a living. Outlaw bikers are some of my best cust..
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Craig Schaefer |
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bb38e32
|
You know the Honeydew? It's a no-tell motel that rents by the hour, and the management has a permanent case of cash-induced amnesia.
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Craig Schaefer |
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df33fdb
|
I could see the smudge of a pistol in his reflection's grip, aimed right at my back. "I'm pretty good at reading people," I said calmly, not turning around. "Figuring out their motivations. What makes them tick." He didn't say anything. I could almost hear him breathe. "You're thinking, right about now," I said, "that I'm the straw that's breaking the camel's back. That if you took me out of the picture, your life would be a whole lot simpl..
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Craig Schaefer |
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b793da0
|
Was that...was that some kind of demon?" he said. I looked over at the bottle and shook my head. "No. No, that was just a major-league asshole."
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Craig Schaefer |
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b978908
|
Well, the only person I really have to impress is Sullivan, and from what I heard he wasn't keen on spending too much time having a deep conversation with the guy. Hopefully he'll overlook it." "And if he doesn't?" Harmony asked. "Then he tears me into itty-bitty pieces and scatters my body parts all over the desert. And this officially becomes the worst plan I've ever had."
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Craig Schaefer |
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4251c25
|
She arched an eyebrow. "You already know?" "I stole his soul, lost his soul, exorcised his soul from another person's body, stuffed him in a bottle, pulled a short con, and now the Choir thinks I'm Gilles de Rais." Pixie just stared at me. She rested her palms on the tabletop. "You have got," she said, "to do a better job of keeping me in the loop." "It's been a really busy couple of days."
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Craig Schaefer |
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70dd47e
|
If all goes well, I'll see you at the banquet. If I don't show, scrub the job and get out any way you can." "Why wouldn't you show?" Ben asked, nervous again. "Because," I told him, "that means I'm dead."
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Craig Schaefer |
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b91837b
|
Rule number four of magic, the one that any responsible teacher drums into their students' heads until it's as second nature as breathing, is you do not fuck with demons. Yes, I'm aware of the irony of a man named Faust arguing against trafficking with the powers of hell, but I've learned from hard experience.
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Craig Schaefer |
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7eb82d5
|
You were going to betray me!" Sullivan roared, slamming his fist on the table. Lauren bared her teeth. "You were going to betray me!" I jumped up onto my chair and climbed onto the dinner table, standing in the heart of the powder keg. "Ladies! Gentlemen! You're both right! You were all about to betray each other. Congratulations and welcome to Las Vegas. If I could have the floor for a moment?"
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Craig Schaefer |