Cherry Bomb_ A Siobhan Quinn Novel - Caitlin R. Kiernan Page 0,46

see, the ghouls didn’t junk their many gods for monotheism, but they did take to the idea of a savior. They remade the Virgin and the Christ Child to fit their needs. Ever since they’d lost the war with the Djinn and been banished to the Dream Lands they’d prayed for deliverance. For a messiah who’d lead them back to the World Above. And that’s where the Basalt Madonna comes in.”

I got to my feet. Unlike Selwyn, I didn’t need the pole for balance, but I sure as shit felt better hanging on to it with my good arm. I said, “Fascinating as all this is, you’re going to have to save the rest for later.”

She frowned and glanced up at me. She looked just the tiniest bit worried.

“Is something wrong?” she asked again, with a bit more oomph than before.

“I’m gonna err on the side of caution and say yes.”

“But you just said ‘probably not.’”

“I lied.”

I drew the Glock and checked the clip, which is when the doors separating the cars opened and four ghouls lumbered in, two from each end. They were big damn bastards, stinking of mold and shit and rotting meat, all four crusty with wicked cases of scabies. To my knowledge, no ghoul yet has ever been accused of good hygiene. Their hooves thumped loud against the floor, and they snarled and bared their yellowed fangs. That abbot in Byzantium shoulda spent his spare time proselytizing to the hounds about toothbrushes, not forgiveness and hellfire.

If anyone back then had toothbrushes.

Never mind.

Their manes bristled. Their rheumy yellow eyes were chock-full of a serious desire to dole out mutilation and death. Near as I could see, no one was holding their leashes. One of the sons of bitches jabbed a crooked finger at me.

“This does not concern you, Twice-Damned,” it snarled. “Step aside, Siobhan Quinn.”

“Make me,” I said.

“Step aside,” it repeated and took a step towards me.

“Selwyn, you might wanna cover your ears.”

Which she did.

I squeezed the trigger and put a bullet through the nut sack’s skull, right between the eyes, and it went down like a bag of rocks. I pulled back on the slide and chambered another round, wishing I could have covered my own ears.

“Who’s next?” I asked, hardly able to hear myself. None of them volunteered. All three were busy staring at their fallen comrade.

“She shot Bustard,” said a ghoul with a jagged scar across its short muzzle. It had been standing directly behind the one I’d killed, and now it was hunched over the bloody, lifeless body.

“Look at that. She shot him,” said the hound. It didn’t sound so much upset as surprised. “He’s dead.”

“What the fuck did you expect?” I asked, taking aim at Scar’s face. To Selwyn, I said, “You watch those two behind me. Watch them close. If one of them so much as fucking twitches an ear, you tell me.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Don’t worry.”

“He only wants the Throckmorton,” one of the ghouls behind me grunted. “Not you, vampire. We were not told to harm you. This is not your fight. You are not the one who has betrayed him.”

It sort of had a point.

“He,” I said. “That he would be Isaac Snow?”

“The Qqi d’Tashiva,” it replied.

“You wanna translate that for me, Annie Smithfield?”

“The God-King of Rags and Bones,” she answered. “Hand of the Fifty.”

“Filthy vampire scum does not utter the name of the Qqi d’Tashiva,” Scar said, looking up from the dead ghoul. Its eyes had gone more muddy orange than yellow. “Your foul phantom’s tongue is not fit to—”

I shot it. Two down. The odds were looking better. I turned my attention to the remaining pair; they were clearly dumbfounded.

“You shot Chester,” one of them said and scratched the tuft of coarse hair on its scabby chin.

“Guys, c’mon,” I said. “You are seriously starting to bore the shit out of me. Did you honestly believe you were gonna just waltz in here, pretty as you please, and take her without getting a fight?”

“Siobhan Quinn,” growled the ghoul who’d scratched its chin at the death of poor deceased Chester.

“Right. You know my name, but you obviously don’t have a clue what happens to weasely douche bag shitcicles without the good sense to stay out of my face.”

I was standing there talking smack like I was the baddest of the bad, but to tell you the truth, I was amazed through and through that I hadn’t yet found a way to fuck up and get me and Selwyn both