Chapter 25
Cyrus took a sudden turn and drew the car into a parking lot next to a burger drive-thru. Evie glanced out of the window in confusion and then looked back at Cyrus.
‘What are we doing here? Is this where the way through is?'
‘No,' he grinned back at her, ‘it's where the Double Cheese & Bacon burger and chocolate milkshake are. Want something?'
‘No, thank you,' she said, shooting him a look which she hoped conveyed both disdain and boredom.
‘You need to eat something,' he said.
‘That's not food. That's reclaimed cow testicles.'
Cyrus threw open his door, ‘Cows don't have testicles. Someone needs a biology lesson.' He got out and slammed the door shut. Vero jumped out after him, enclosing Evie in the gloom of the car with a silent, brooding Ash for company.
Evie cleared her throat, trying to break the silence that had descended. Cyrus had taken the keys, so she couldn't switch on the radio. ‘Is he always like this?' she asked.
‘Like what?' Ash answered, sounding uninterested.
‘So annoying.'
‘Most girls seem to like it.'
Evie undid her seat belt and twisted in her seat. The bright lights from inside the burger place were shining through onto the back seat, making Ash's face gleam. His expression was stony as a rock face.
‘How long have you known him?' Evie asked, determined to put a crack in it.
‘Two years,' Ash answered, staring out of the window.
Evie did a quick mental calculation. ‘How many do you need to kill before you've got your revenge?'
Ash's dark eyes flew to her, narrowing enough to make her shrink back against the dashboard. ‘Every single one of them,' he said without any emotion.
A few seconds passed. Evie tapped her fingers against the headrest. She thought about turning back in her seat and just sinking into uncomfortable silence but for some unfathomable reason she didn't want to turn her back on him. ‘You're a martial artist?' she asked instead.
‘Let Wei,' he answered, his focus still on something way more interesting outside the car. ‘Burmese kick-boxing.'
She studied his profile. His nose looked like it had been broken a few times and he had a jagged scar running across his forehead up into his hair, which was thick and dark and cut short. ‘Where'd you learn that?' she asked.
He turned to face her. ‘My father.'
‘Must come in useful.'
He didn't answer. He stared at her blankly for a few seconds and then went back to looking out of the window. Evie thought about getting out of the car and going to see about that burger. Eating reconstituted cow parts seemed preferable suddenly to trying to make conversation with the Dark Knight here.
She decided to give it one last shot. ‘So, have you thought about what you're going to do when this is all over?' she asked. She cringed even as she said it, realising that she sounded like a school guidance counsellor talking to the kid who's flunking out and has a snowball's chance in hell of getting a job cleaning toilets, let alone of getting into college.
‘I don't think that far ahead,' Ash answered. ‘The Buddha teaches right mindfulness. Staying alert to the present. If you miss the moment, you miss life.'
Evie choked on a laugh before quickly swallowing it down in the face of Ash's unamused expression and the sight of his biceps. ‘You're Buddhist?' she asked.
Ash's eyes narrowed to thin slits, his mouth pursing into a tight knot, as though daring her to say just one more word.
‘Didn't the Buddha teach non-violence?' Evie asked quickly. ‘I'm pretty certain he said something about killing equalling bad karma. You might come back in your next life as a snail or something.'
‘They're not people,' Ash fired back. ‘They're not human. They're not even animals. They're monsters. Killing them creates good karma.'
Evie fell back on her haunches, the small of her back banging against the dashboard. Ash stared at her through the square hole of the headrest. She eyed him warily, mulling over her response. She knew he was daring her to answer him back. The words were swirling and gathering in her head but before she could get them out he spoke again. ‘It wasn't humans who killed my friend,' he said. ‘It wasn't humans who killed Vero's sister.'
Evie pressed her lips together and clamped them shut. He was talking about Thirsters. But just because one type of unhuman happened to like murdering people that didn't make them all monsters. That was like saying because some humans committed murder everyone on the planet deserved to die. And, OK, she couldn't care less about wiping out all the Thirsters in the realms because it wasn't like any of the ones she'd met so far were the vegan, meditating kind, and maybe she wouldn't be shedding tears over any Mixen or Scorpio that got killed either. But what about Lucas? And Jamieson? They weren't monsters. She had a moment's pause as she considered which side of the divide she'd place Flic, before she shook her head. It wasn't so easy to just dump them all into the same category and pull a metaphorical switch.
‘It wasn't far from here, you know,' Ash said, interrupting her internal rationalisations. ‘We'd been to a party. Got talking to these two girls. I thought they were some emo kids. Next thing my friend's making out with one, except he's not making out with her – she's eating him. You hear me?'
‘I'm sorry,' Evie whispered.
‘That night I found out that it takes a lot to kill a Thirster. I wasn't armed. Just had these.' He indicated his hands and his legs. ‘I got away but that was about it. The next night I went back with a handmade flamethrower and a stake. I found them. Found out stakes don't work, neither does garlic or holy water. But flames do. I killed them. It got easier after the first one. You know? I was stronger, faster. That was unexpected but useful. I kept going out every night. Discovered the acid skin ones and the ones with the tails. Killed a few of them too. One night I met Cyrus doing the same.'
And you've never looked back. Evie filled in the blank.
‘And you had no idea you were – um – one of us?' she asked instead. ‘A Hunter I mean? Before you met Cyrus?'
Ash laughed a bitter laugh. ‘No. Freaky co-incidence. right?'
She shook her head. ‘I don't believe in co-incidence anymore.'
The door on Evie's side suddenly flew open, making her jump. Cyrus thrust a greasy brown-paper bag in her face. ‘Here you are – one bacon double cheese and large fries. Got you full-fat Coke too, figured you're not one of those girls who needs to watch her weight.'
She took the bag gingerly between her fingers before it could spill in her lap and twisted back around so she was facing forwards.
Cyrus walked around the car and got in beside her. He paused to put his chocolate milkshake in the cup holder and to take a bite out of his burger, then he turned the key in the ignition and spun them out of the lot and back onto the street. They only drove a couple of blocks before he hung another right and pulled into a deserted lot opposite a fried-chicken joint.
‘Are we doing a fast-food crawl or something?' Evie asked.
‘Nope. We're staking out that building over there.' Cyrus nodded with his chin towards a building on the corner that looked vaguely familiar. It stood about five stories high and looked like it had been modelled on a Renaissance palazzo. It had a brown-brick fa?ade with lots of square windows, which were all dark at this time of night. The ground floor was a row of shop fronts and on the corner, beneath a high stone arch, stood the main door.
‘I know that building,' Evie said, squinting and trying to place it.
‘It's the Bradbury building,' Cyrus answered. ‘It's famous, not just to unhumans. They've used it in a lot of movies. It's also home to the internal affairs department of the LA Police Department. As well as to Subway, Kinko's and … ' he paused, noticing the takeaway bag sitting on her lap unopened. ‘Are you not eating that?'
She shook her head.
‘Such waste,' he tutted, finishing his burger and screwing up the wrapper before helping himself to hers.
‘The way through is in that building?' Evie asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of her voice.
‘Yeah, in the basement. They built right on top without even realising it was there. The unhumans were guarding it then, and are still guarding it now.'
‘But how do people come in and out? Unhumans I mean? Without being seen?'
‘There's a fancy-dress shop in the basement.'
‘Ha ha.'
‘No, I'm being serious. It's a cover. A pretty damn good one.'
‘Not that the virgins ever know how to dress.'
Evie twisted to look at Vero who was leaning forward, her hands gripping Cyrus's headrest as she stared out of the window, watching the building.
‘We should just blast in there,' Ash suddenly announced.
Vero spun around. ‘Don't be stupid, Ash.'
He shrugged and she huffed in response and turned back to the window. Evie thought about taking her knife and cutting the tension between them.
‘Have you ever?' Evie asked. ‘Been in and seen it, that is?'
‘No, of course we haven't,' Vero spat. ‘Not even an army of Hunters could get close.'
Evie paused to recover from the scorn she'd just been slapped with. ‘Why not?'