Dead Red - M.R. Forbes Page 0,6

with my best weapon, too. I had felt vulnerable before. Now I felt like I was naked and bleeding in a shark tank.

At least I had the gun.

"Do you know Dr. Strange?" I asked, changing the subject.

She smiled. "Now that makes sense. You're a necromancer, aren't you?"

She surprised me again. "How do you know?"

"My name is Lila."

"I didn't ask for your name. I asked how you knew I was a necromancer."

"I know, but I'm giving it to you anyway, Prince Charming. I'm Dr. Strange's nurse. He asked me to come out and wait for you here. He thought you might need a little help."

"To walk across the street?"

"You're a user in the Playground. Yes, to walk across the street."

I considered her for a minute, and then put my hand out. "Conor. Nice to meet you."

She didn't make a motion to take my peace offering. Most people didn't want to touch a necro. "He didn't tell me I was meeting a necro. I was expecting another tough guy, like the one who stopped by yesterday."

"For the cancer treatment?"

"That's confidential."

"Right. Do you have a problem with necromancers?"

"Does anyone not have a problem with necromancers?"

While I was terrified of death and dying, most people were just uncomfortable with it. They didn't want to think about it, didn't want to look ahead to what they were going to be faced with one day. Necromancers were more than just a constant reminder of the dying condition. We were a hard slap in the face to the people who knew what we were and what we could do. Yes, there was something beyond death, and good or bad we could rip you out of it and make you dance to our tune.

Nobody liked the thought of that.

"So, are you going to lead me to Strange?" I asked.

She waved me ahead. "That's what he's paying me for."

We started walking down the street. I could feel the constant shifting of the fields swirling and bunching, a racket in my inner ear and a gnawing tickle in my gut. In some places the energy was stronger, and I began to feel weak-kneed and grateful Strange had the foresight to send someone to guide me. Other times the energy was weaker, and I got a relative breath of fresh air. It could flip-flop in an instant, even standing still, and the overall effect was that I started to become disoriented by the constant, sudden changes.

"I thought dying made me feel like shit," I said as we passed a pair of trolls who were clearly heading for someplace private.

"I didn't think it was possible, but you look worse than you did when I picked you up," Lila said.

An especially strong wave hit me, and I felt my legs buckling. Before I knew what was happening, she had her arm around my waist, propping me up against her with ease. It passed a moment later, and she let me go.

"You can feel the variations?" I asked.

"Yeah. Working in the zone takes a little getting used to."

"How so?"

"What they say about the effect on us new humans is true. It's tough to work somewhere when your body is reacting the entire time you're there. And the big spikes? Tourists love them. The hookers don't mind them. I hate them."

I noticed her ears were bright red and her face had flushed. She didn't need to say anything else.

"So why work in the zone?"

"I need to eat. Besides, Dr. Strange is in the zone, and where he goes, I go."

"Are you two-"

"That's personal."

"Right. Sorry."

"We aren't, though thanks to the fields half the time I wish we were. The other half, I want to rip his fucking head off for making me be here. He saved me from a bad situation once, gave me a job, so I feel indebted."

I didn't know anything about Dr. Strange, except that Prithi had found him in the Machine and learned that he had access to at least a dozen doses of the experimental meds that kept me alive. She'd arranged the meet, arranged the payment, given me the address, and now here I was.

"So why does he work out of the zone? It seems this isn't really his target market."

"The Houses, if that means anything to you."

She was asking me if I knew about the Houses without being direct. "It does," I replied. Now that she said it, the whole thing made perfect sense. What better place to escape the most powerful wizards in the world than one of