Chapter 4
With every step he took through the streets, a little hope returned to Talon’s heart that everything would end well after all. Technically, Sharita wasn’t a contact of his. Instead, she was a kind of news gatherer. He had dealt with her a few times in the past but had never met her personally. The only currency she accepted was information, so he would need to play his cards well if he wanted her cooperation.
She lived somewhere in the heart of the city, in the pleasure district. He had wanted to tell Cat that, but her expression had warned him that she definitely would have accompanied him, had she known. That just wasn’t an option, and not just because he wanted her to stay out of sight. No, from his previous dealings with Sharita, he knew how fickle she was. Until now, he had always been able to get her on his side with a mix of charm and specific information, but how was he supposed to beguile her if Cat was watching his efforts with eagle eyes? The thought made him smile in spite of himself, even though there really was no reason to. If there was one thing her rush of jealousy had shown him, then it was this: Cat had not understood what it meant to be his companion. Talon wasn’t blaming her, but this had showed him how much work still lay ahead of them. A woman from his people would not have hesitated to send him to another woman. A Kantharian was forever. Without limits. And even if he had been tempted, which was hard to imagine, but was definitely possible, then she would have known about it anyway through the intimate bond they shared.
Talon could tell that he was nearing his destination by the red lights above the doors. Sharita’s establishment was called “The Red Feather”, and she alone knew the reason for the stupid name. There had to be a story behind it, but the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to hear it. He walked past three doors that spoke all too clearly to the wealth of their owners. They offered a stark contrast to what he had seen on the way into the city. The Big Catastrophe could be blamed on humanity’s arrogance and delusions of grandeur, but not all of them deserved to have to live on the fringe of society now. He wondered what would have happened to Cat if she hadn’t had her abilities. She had told him about her adoptive parents, and it sounded like they had been fairly wealthy. If someone still had any material wealth so soon after a disastrous war – and this war had literally affected the entire world – then the likelihood that they had played dirty was around one hundred percent.
Talon was so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed the red, blinking feather that lured pleasure addicts of both genders together. There was no bouncer outside, which was unusual. He approached the door, and after searching for a while, he found the camera that was so small that it could easily have been overlooked. No doorbell, no door handle, no scanner. Fine. He balled his fist and was just about to bang it against the smooth metal surface, when the door opened. A delicate blonde smiled at him.
“No reason to get impatient,” she purred and motioned for him to enter with a curtsy that made her décolleté jiggle. “The mistress is waiting for you, my strong warrior.”
Damn. He should have known. It was likely that nothing in the entire city happened without her knowledge. Talon cursed softly to himself, weighing his options. The information dealer knew that he was in the city, and probably also that he wasn’t alone. He had hoped to appease her with superficial news, but it looked like he would have to play poker – or pay the price Sharita demanded. That could be as harmless as a kiss, but it could also be a favor he owed her, and one that he would have to make good on whenever she so chose.
Talon followed the blonde down a narrow hallway. All of the doors were shut, except for one at the very end. The only thing he could hear was a strangely muted lullaby floating through the eerie silence in the entire house. The voice was untrained but had great potential. The singing was coming from the open door, and when he went in, he stopped dead in his tracks in shock. A handful of men were standing around a huge chest filled with water. They were in various states of arousal, as Talon could see. One of them wiped the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief that had once been clean. Another was fingering around in his fly with an empty look. Nobody seemed to take offense. The third – no, this was too much. There were things that Talon did not want seared into his memory. He quickly turned his gaze from the men to the creature in the water tank. It was a woman, or at least, Talon suspected that it was of a female gender. Long hair that floated in the water like seaweed, a delicate, heart-shaped face, and full breasts at least pointed in that direction. The one thing that irritated him more than the long fishtail that started where a human woman’s legs would have begun, was her mouth. When she opened it to sing another verse underwater, she revealed razor-sharp teeth. A sharp intelligence was lurking in her sweet ocean-blue eyes, and when she looked at him, an ice-cold shiver ran down his back. Talon took a step closer to the glass tank, and then another.
This creature was not as scary as he had thought at first. When she opened her mouth to sing, he noticed that her voice wasn’t that bad, either. Quite the opposite. The longer he listened to her, the lovelier she sounded. The words flowing from her mouth were sweet, so sweet. She was singing only for him. The other men were nothing more than idiots. She just needed admirers, but he, Talon was the one for whom she sang a song about love and death, of blood and joy.
Cat.
He blinked, as Cat suddenly appeared behind his eyes. Delicate and vulnerable. Strong, angry, and more passionate than any other. Cat. What in the world had just happened to him? He looked at the woman again, as she floated weightlessly in the water, flexible and graceful like a leaf in the wind. He shook his head, and the last of the illusion fell away. He thought he heard a satisfied giggle in his head, but it was so soft that he must have been mistaken.
Talon turned around and grabbed the blonde, who was watching him intently, by the arm. “Take me to your mistress, right now. No games, or else…” He looked down at her threateningly, but his harsh words only elicited a smile. She, too, had lost the majority of her charm. Her features looked tough, but not unfriendly, as she wriggled out of his grasp with a jerking and highly effective move.
“As previously stated, you are expected.” With her chin, she pointed to a door that blended in perfectly with the wallpaper around it. He hadn’t noticed it until now. Without another word, he went to the door. It was slightly open already. Before he entered Sharita’s domain, he turned around one last time. That was a mistake, because he saw a man holding a razor to his own throat. His first impulse was to turn around and to rip the razor from the man’s hands, but it was already too late. The water woman sang while the red pearls turned into a necklace around the pale skin. The song reached its climax, and as the last note died away, life came back into the man’s eyes. He reached for his throat with a terrible wheezing, held his blood-splattered hands up in front of his eyes, and opened his eyes so wide that only the whites were visible. It was too late to help the man.
Talon’s mouth went dry as he finally sat down across from the woman whose help he so desperately needed. He thought of Cat, and that he might have made a mistake in coming here, but what he had just witnessed was nothing compared to the new shock that awaited him. Sitting next to Sharita, who looked harmless and human, sat a figure that he would have recognized among thousands, even if it was hiding its face under a hood. The snout alone, gray and flexible, would have given him away.
The Sethari had lured him into a trap.