He nods and puts his arm around her shoulders.
Pain is pain and even the rich and powerful get shafted sometimes. I want to hate Blackburn but I can’t. He’s too pathetic and his wife is too fucked up for that. But a part of me still wants to take his head. He let all those people die. He let Patty die. The Sandman Slim part of me that killed dozens of high families wants to cut a piece of revenge out of his hide. But this isn’t Hell and I’m not Sandman Slim full-time any more than I’m full-time Lucifer. I’ll stick to the Teddys of the world. The sure-thing monsters. That’s a judgment call I can make. A monster knows another monster and a real monster knows which ones need to die.
Candy gets out of the car when she sees me. I’m breathing better but walking slow.
“What happened in there?”
“I forgot to tip the maid and she short-sheeted the bed.”
“You realize you’re covered in blood?”
I look down at my shirt and armor. I’m a mess. If I wasn’t me, I’d probably be alarmed.
“Don’t worry. It’s mostly Cairo’s.”
“You’re holding your side.”
“I got nipped a couple of times but I’m fine. Just sore.”
She opens the Metro’s door.
“Get in the damn car. We’re going to the clinic.”
I shake my head.
“I’m going to Teddy Osterberg’s. I’m not letting that corpse fucker kill one more person. If you’re going to be part of what I do, you have to understand this is how things are sometimes. I’m used to bleeding and being hurt and they don’t have a damn thing to do with finishing the job.”
She stalks away, spins, and walks back again.
“You’re such a fucking guy. I bet you never stop and ask for directions.”
“If I stopped and asked for directions, I wouldn’t end up in Hell so much and where’s the fun in that?”
Candy gets in the car, which is a good thing because the ground trembles and opens where she was standing. I go to the edge of the hole.
“Not now, Cherry.”
“The girl is on a rampage. You have to save us.”
“Up here too. She’s not going to stop until I get Teddy, so crawl back into your box and hide.”
“If you don’t kill her, I’ll never leave you alone. I’ll pull the floor out from under you and drop you so low you’ll be a cripple . . .”
I get in the Metro while Cherry is still talking. Traven looks a little alarmed.
“You were talking to a hole. Why?”
“Sometimes you need to remind the dead to stay dead. Maybe I hurt her feelings. She’ll get over it.”
“Who?”
“After we deal with Teddy, I’ll tell you all about it. Now please, can we just fucking go?”
Traven starts the car and pulls away from Blackburn’s, aiming us at Malibu.
“Why do we hate Teddy so much that we have to go there now instead of patching you up?”
“Teddy kills people and eats them and I don’t know if he does it in that order. And if he keeps killing dreamers, the world is over.”